I am not a fantastic cook, but I do have a talent for making tasty meals on very little money for 2 people. If you wanna make meals on the cheap, my first suggestion is to go to the grocery store right when you get paid and get a bunch of meat to store in the freezer so you can pull it out when you need to eat! I spend 20-40 bucks a month on meat on average. I get a big bag of frozen chicken breasts (10 or so pieces) for 8 or 9 dollars, about 6 lbs of ground beef (I spend a little extra on the lean beef) for 20 or so dollars, but if that is not important to you, you can get it much cheaper.

Every few trips, I pick up a bag of frozen pre-formed hamburgers. It helps to have these on hand for hamburgers, so you can use the ground beef that you bought on other dishes as you feel like it. I also pick up at least one top round roast (London Broil cut) for 5 bucks or so.

With that in the freezer you will need a few more supplies on hand, you will need to buy these items but do so when they are on sale only. It can be hard to spend more than you want to but you will be happy when you have cupboards full of what you need, reducing your store trips.

• Cream of Mushroom soup or Cream of Mushroom w/ Roasted Garlic soup (I recommend only Campbells, which is why it is important that you buy a bunch when they are on sale. I hoped the generic would taste close to the real thing, it was very disappointing and bland.)
• Macaroni and cheese (If you have a bulk club membership, Mac and cheese is a better deal, take advantage of it)
• Canned tuna (any kind is fine but get white albacore when it is on sale, it tastes much better)
• Ritz Crackers
• Hamburger Helper goes on sale every other week at my local grocery store, Safeway. The generic Safeway brand Hamburger Helper is very good, and is even cheaper. I find the safeway brand on sale for $1 a box regularly.
• Spaghetti can be used for many things besides the old fashioned italian favorite. This goes on sale for 80 cents a box regularly, and that box can feed a small army.
• Stock up on spices. It took me a while to realize this as an amateur ghetto fabulous chick but spices make food taste better. It's true! I never wanted to waste my money on them but I started buying one bottle of spice every other shopping trip, now I have a nice supply to experiment with.
• Frozen vegetables have a long shelf life, and generic on sale is your best bet for saving money, stock up on your favorites.
• Sloppy Joe Sauce when on sale (Generic is fine)
  

The one thing I never stock up on is fresh veggies and fruits. With the two of us we just see them get rotten before we get around to eating them. However, I make a small trip to the store when a recipe calls for them and it really helps save there as well.

I have lots of recipes I plan to share in the future. They will make moms and people that actually cook regularly laugh about how simple (& ghetto) they are, but if you are low on money, don't think that you can cook and you find you never have food, you will appreciate them I am sure. This one came out well recently so I will post it first.

Ritz Fried Chicken (Recommended side dish: Mac & Cheese and cooked vegetables)
1-2 Eggs
3-4 bonesless chicken breasts thawed
1/2 cup of butter of margarine melted
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees
2. Crush crackers until fine. One good way to do this is to put the crackers into a ziplock bag. 3. Then use a potato masher or the flat end of a big spoon and bash! It will take some elbow grease to get them all fine, or 2-4 minutes of bashing.
4. Pour crumbs into a shallow dish
5. Crack egg into large bowl and wisk until beaten
6. Dip chicken breasts into egg, and swirl them around into the crumbs until covered.
7. lace on a greased cookie sheet
8. Pour melted butter or margarine over breasts until covered. This will make them golden brown!
9. Into the oven they go!

Bake 30-40 minutes

Labels: Ghetto Fabulous Living

So today was my last day at the place I have called my job for about 3 and a half years. It is sooo sad. It feels a lot like moving away from home. Maybe a better analogy is graduating from High School. It is like you spent the last 4 years seeing or hanging out with the same people 5 days a week then it is time to move on and find something else to do. Only difference is the choice was mine to leave, cause a great opportunity came along. I know it's the right thing to do. It's totally hard though. What made it worse was how they all came by to say good bye and I even got a Hello Kitty cake. Oh, the clencher was this card I was given, everyone had their comments and wishing me luck. See? Just like High School yearbook. All over again!

Well it was a great day. I got to pawn off all of my work on Malcolm which was awesome. Thanks Mal, I know that you are reading this! So I played a lot of Pogo and had fun and smoked a lot of cigarettes cause people wanted to do last cigarettes with me. What a ritual. I got to play a last game of Lottso Deluxe against Aaron and yes he kicked my ass again. I talk shit but he always kicked my ass and today was no exception. I believe he was #1 and I #2 only like 10 points behind.

I am going out with a friend of mine to Red Robin and have a burger and drink some beers and it is kind of like a celebration, at least in my mind. Well, I added some new pictures today that have been on my phone forever that I forgot about. The ones of me are from the day I went out for my birthday. I love dressing up but I don't often, so I had to take pics of my perfect makeup, how vain of me. Actually I am quite vain, but that is another story altogether. I am rambling! Lost focus! Here is a picture of my cake. It really made me smile when I saw it, I think I choked up :)

I love Boy Bands. I am probably the biggest N*SYNC fan and of course nowadays in my ripe old age I am the biggest Justin Timberlake fan. I went to 2 N*SYNC concerts (very small amount compared to most fans but too bad!), I also was there at the midnight released of their final CD at Tower Records in Mountain View. AND I AM PROUD OF IT! Someone got a bunch of Ex-Boy Banders form diff bands and formed SureShot with the
help of a little channel called VH1.

It is called Mission:Man Band. This show was made for me and girls like me. Woot!! Too bad the show is over. :(

Good music though :D

Kanye definitely wins the battle in more ways than one. I actually like gangsta rap, yes I know I am the whitest girl that likes gangsta rap, and that's not news if you know me, which you surely do if you are reading this. Now that we have moved past that, 'Fitty'"s CD "Curtis" is so old school to me. I used to think of his older stuff as cool, 'updated' gangsta rap... Curtis is full of gun shots and how much harder he is than everyone else. Weren't we over that in like 1997? Biggie, hello, can I get a witness? Anyway- if you are actually trying to choose one or the other, Kanye West's Graduation is where it's at. It's full of unique, melodic tunes and interesting lyrics to go with. Sure-- he is also totally full of himself. But he isnt the one that made this stupid bet in the first place. Free and accurate publicity for him, at least on this one little situation.

It would be cool if they come out in 3 months and say it was all a hoax to sell both CDs or something, lol

I wanted to post about this latest adventure, but I found another blogger that went through the exact same hell. Only difference is my repair should be covered by warranty this time, so I will let them do it. (Hopefully I won't regret this). Click to read the blog entry. Thanks, Cindy, at least I know I am not alone!

http://www.cindyli.com/index.php/site/comments/my_vw_bug_has_a_bug_automatic_stuck_in_park/

I heard from my friend Lisa today. She went into surgery to have a cyst on her ovary looked at. I do not think she knew that when she woke up she would have lost her right ovary. It is possible that they told her beforehand but she was super groggy and tired when I heard form her. I feel sorry for her and I hope that she is ok. I know having a baby is her one goal in the whole world and I really hope that she has one someday. She is only 27 and I am so sad.

Wow! Hard to believe I am leaving my job. 3 and a half years at a place is actually a good amount of time at a company but the problem is I LOVE the company! It will be hard to say goodbye. However, I think this will be a very good thing for me. I need to start a new chapter of my life. I have always been bad with change. Change is hard. I can start fresh and really work my ass off for the new company. Saying goodbye to my friends at work will be really hard, but luckily I have made close with a few of them and I plan to still see them on a regular basis. My first day at the new company is September 17th. Wish me luck!