ALDI - Pumpkins $1.99 and 99 Cents for Canned Pumpkin

Fall is my favoritest season of all. Now my favoritest store of all has pumpkins for $1.99 and canned pumpkin for $0.99.  Yay ALDI!!!!

Shopping with Julie - Dollar Tree

Sorry for the sideways picture.  Just tilt your head to the left and you should be fine!

Anyways, this is my trip to the wonderful store known as Dollar Tree.  I'm on a very tight $50 budget for the groceries this week.

  DD is a wonderful little cook. helper, crafter, etc.  I honestly think she will be the next Martha Stewart. I've been checking out all kinds of recipe books from the library for sloe cookers, less fat - blah, blah, blah.  I have been a Hungry Girl fan forever. She has these yummy, but diet friendly, recipes (check her out!) I found some recipes that I want DD and me to try out.  Hence, the not quite so normal ingredients.

Here's my totals:

A box of Oat & Honey Granola Bars (for my hunny)
Garlic Bread (for tonight's dinner)
Chocolate Syrup(actually chocolate flavored it says)
2 Boxes of Dark Chocolate Raisinets (for recipes)
Bag of Honey Smack type cereal (also for a recipe)

Total: $6.60 with tax.  Sounds good to me!

My Many Attempts to Create Surplus Chili

All I wanted was to create enough chili to eat for one meal and then freeze the rest in convenient, single serve containers. But alas, it has not been easy and, at this moment, I'm still not sure how this story will turn out.

Friday, I decided I was going to make chili for the weekend (perfect football food) and I was going to make a lot of it. I bought all the necessary ingredients and washed the crockpot.

Saturday morning, I forgot to soak the beans so I put them in the crockpot with plenty of water, turned them on high, and left for the day. Upon my return at 6:30 PM, the smell of burnt beans assaulted my sense of smell as soon as I hit the door. No chili that night but I told DH I would salvage the beans, cook the chili, and have it the next day after church so we wouldn't have to go out.

Sunday, there was no chili cooked so we ate out - twice.

Today, I went to our neighborhood Piggly Wiggle to buy beans because I had all the other ingredients. Walking down the bean aisle, I noticed the scrawny cans of beans and decided to buy this bad boy...

That's right.  A ginormous can of beans.  More beans, less meat.  Right??

111 ounces; 6 pounds, 15 ounces.  A size of a newborn baby.  I was going to have leftover chili.

However, my moody electric can opener would not work for me nor the manual one.  Apparently, you need a giant can opener to open a giant can.  Finally, an idea came to me.  I ran out to DH's tool box and came back in with these....

Metal cutting scissor type things.  I washed them really good and started cutting where my DD was able to make a hole with the manual can opener (she is quite strong).  Cutting away, I ended with this...

and a sliced thumb.  I am now awaiting the results of this three day long attempt at chili.  It better be worth it!



My highest hopes are that it is edible. We will see about that...






P.S. Tried to color my home at home at it is now purple.  It has been a very bad day :(