Dotsie, you could give your dog the scraps that are going into your garbage disposal. Just a thought.

Lil, you are a professional!!!!

I spend $130. on average for a family of three (4 yr old) each week and about $250-$300 every two months at Sam's Club. This is not anyhting to brag about but we are average people eating average food spending average time preparing it. Right now I would rather watch paint dry than spend a lot of time cooking meals. This phase will pass-my grandmother said so and she lived to be 102!

Lynn, I know what you mean. Few things are more exhausting than a meal with a whole bunch of procedures and steps and techniques. I only go all-out with anything even remotely complicated for the holidays. I just can't deal with elaborate meals very often.

I'm very much a barbarian at heart when it comes to how I cook. I do a lot of chopping and shredding because I like to use a lot of potatoes and veggies, but if I had me a food processor, my prep time would usually be about 5 minutes for the veggies, which are the bulk of my concoctions. A bunch of chopped stuff, a pound of lowfat sausage or other meat, maybe a couple of crumbled bouillion cubes and /or a can of stewed tomatoes... some appropriate herbs and spices... voila! It's all good. And it all does its thing in the microwave or the oven, while I put my feet up for 20-30 minutes.

You can do the same thing with chicken parts or turkey parts, too.

You can vary the stuff you cook this way according to what you have on hand. No two meals ever have to be exactly alike. And you don't have to be a culinary master to do stuff like this. Just a practical, smart person <patting self on the back>.

Anyway, I hope I haven't bored y'all with all this food and cooking talk. I swear I don't spend all my free time trading recipes... although I found out something really peculiar tonight. Y'all know about numerology? Heh heh.... I found out from this website that my life path number is 6... which is the path of the nurturer, the caregiver, regarded as the most highly domestic of all the life path numbers. I never would have thought that, not before I actually wrote the cookbook and sort of distilled together all my domestic experiences. It's a pretty weird thing to see in myself. Guerilla Tactics... life path 6... who'd uh thunk?

Anyway, I guess I'm rambling again. Sorry to stray so off topic!

Hugs & Blessings,
Lil

My husband does 90% of the grocery shopping and he "thinks" we spend about $150 a month for the two of us. We are mostly (but not totally vegetarian) and don't eat much of anything processed. He's also very good with coupons.

You girls are really funny, I read all of the responses to my question and was laughing outloud to the monitor. Some real good suggestions came through and I appreciate every one of them. I love the line about kicking and screaming all the way to becoming a born domestic godess. If it were not for my wonderful mother in law I would have been throwing that fit as well. How Funny!!! By the bye, Oysterears came from this: When our most precious dog(she is a white lab) has something she shouldn't or if she is really happy she turns her ears inside out so you can see the pink inside and it looks like an oyster. So we call her oyster-ears sometimes.Her real name is Gretchen Louise. Thanks for asking. And thanks for all of the responses. Oysterears!!

Well and thank you OE for the explanation. It about drove me nuts trying to figure it out...I had this mental picture of someone in your family have ears that stuck out really, really far and were pink...anyhoo....glad to know it was just the dog Louise...geezzz Louise!

I mean anybody using the name Oyster Ears has to have a sense of humor, am I right? teehee....

I really do hate putting time and effort into a post and having it rejected <g>. Had a lovely response about gifts in a jar and the server rejected it because of html...whatever *that* is.

So, if you would like my web listings for recipes for gifts in a jar...please e-mail me and I'll send them to you.

TCF, we have to figure out what the deal is with your HTML coments. I've never had that complaint before. I'll email you.

And...please send me your list of gifts/recipes in a jar. I'm game.

Thistle Cove,
I've been enjoying your posts and loved your site. Welcome. I too would like your gifts/recipes in a jar.
My email is crafterscoop@oregoncoast.com
Thanks,
Maggie

I would also love your recipes for gifts in a jar. I love that kind of stuff. Send me a private message through the Forums.