Deep Cuts

Well, after cutting my food stamps out entirely, the next step was to cut my MediCal entirely. Those things hurt.

I thought it was kind of a drastic measure since it was based on my income increasing by a huge $200 a month.

Oh, did I mention the $50 a month increase in the space rent at my mobile home park. That's a hundred dollars in the past year.

My old pellet stove crapped out on me. Have a guy coming to look at it this afternoon. Say a prayer for me. There is no way I can buy a new one to the tune of 3-4000 dollars.

Other Stops

Grocery Outlet is a chain that has some pretty good deals on food. You never know what is going to be there, but it's is certainly worth a stop.

Also, the 99 Cent stores have food with some real good food deals. Don't forget them.

Don't forget the monthly USDA distribution of free food for people. Check the internet to find out where and when it is in you area.

Tea and Me

Well, I didn't drink any tea today, but that is nothing new. I don't drink tea anyway.

Yep, it was tax day and some folks thought they would have a tea party. I have never been to a tea party in my life. Just not the type.

I think, to be frank, we need to remember poor people, be kind and help them. If we did that, maybe there would be something to celebrate, rather than something to protest.

Mexican Chicken and RIce

Such things are not left overs; they are planned overs. We make more than enough, freeze it and use it instead of retail frozen dinners.

Here's what you do with those drumsticks.

You thaw them out.

Boil some rice

Put the drumsticks with plenty of the salsa that you saved with them in the microwave and warm them up.

You will notice that the meat is very loose on the drumsticks. Use a fork to take it off.

When the rice is done, put the meat frum the drumsticks on the rice along with the salsa.

There's your Mexican chicken and rice.

AIG's Greed

Seventy-three employees at American International Group received bonuses of $1 million or more, with one receiving more than $6 million.

Am I outraged? No.

For me, it's depressing and sad; the depth of greed that some people can sink to.

Among the questions I get about Thailand, because I lived there so long, relates to corruption. While the AIG shame is not corruption per se, it shares a common source, viz, unbridled greed.

Just for the record, here are a couple of definitions of greed:

1. Excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves

2. Reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

I will continue to live on my Social Security at a level below the poverty line. I wouldn't trade places for anything.

Hot Chicks

OK, I am risking the wrath of the politically correct and all for a joke or, yeah, I admit it, a little attention.

Hopefully, most blog readers have outgrown political correctness and will accuse me only of being a shameless attention seeker with an obvious and substandard chicken recipe.

But beat the drums if you will. It's appropriate because this is a recipe for hot and spicy drumsticks.

Like all my recipes, I believe in keeping it as simple as it comes. Anything beyond three readily available ingredients in a language most yanks understand (we do know words like spaghetti, salsa, burrito and even a couple of French words if we think hard).

So here is the recipe.

Get a bunch of cheap chicken drumsticks. No need to take the skin off.

Put them into a crock pot. Add one thinly sliced onion. Dump a jar of salsa on them.

Cook in the crock pot on high for about 4 hours. Baste every once in awhile.

There ya have it. And, oh by the way, unless you are an army, you will have left overs.

Changes

On February 12, the day my son turned 10 years old, I gave him a birthday present. I told him I would not smoke cigarettes that day.

I made no promises about tomorrow. I took each day as it came. I have not smoked since then, but I make no promise about tomorrow.

Yesterday, I did not drink alcohol. So far today, I have not had any alcohol. I make no promise about tomorrow.

Life Goes On

Somehow, we tend to move on. Learn to live with our grief and eventually it is reduced, but never leaves us entirely.

We learn to live with being poor. Our friends help us. We march on for those we love. In my case I am lucky to have a wonderful 10 year old son. He truly keeps me going.

Thanks so much to those who wrote and send their thoughts when my Mom died. Thanks for the recipes.

Thanks for being great folks.

"For I was hungry and you gave Me food..." Matthew 25v35.

I visited the nearest food bank to me today. It is 35 miles away. They treated my son and I with dignity and friendship.. They gave us some great food, including homemade bread and fresh produce. They gave my son a few toys.

Please help people in need. They did not chose their plight. They have hearts and souls. They are children of God too.

Please visit:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2195875/redding_california_loaves_and_fishes_food_bank_charity/

In so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.
Matthew 25

Mom's Death

Today I am trying to deal with the death of my Mom. I thought I was ready. Now I realize that that isn't possible.

Suddenly, at the age of 62 I feel like a child who can't find his mother.

No matter how old she was, the fact remains that she was my Mom.

More Stuff for Chickens

With the remaining three pieces of bones chicken breast, I made a very, very simple but delicious recipe my friend gave to me.

This is so simple that absolutely ANYONE can do it.

Take the boneless chicken breast and put it is a pot that you can cover and put in the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Pour in a can of cream of mushroom soup (cream of chicken would be ok too). Do not add the water that you would normally add to the soup. Just use the concentrate.

Cover the the chicken and bake for one hour.

It's great.

I assume this could be done in in crock pot. Since I wasn't totally sure about this, I didn't do it that way. I await input from my crock pot friends.

The Chicken Crossed the Road

Thanks to your suggestions, talking with friends and engaging my mind, I cooked my first chicken. Well, chicken breast anyway.

So, here is my easy to cook, even old dumb guys can do it, chicken recipe.

Take some boneless chicken breast. Cover it with flour on both sides. (I just put the flour on a plate and did it there).

Put oil in a frying pan. Fry the chicken on medium low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. You can brown it at the end by turning the heat up for just a bit.

That's it. I am told this works with any portion of chicken and boneless chicken breast is kinda beyond my means. Going to do drum sticks next time.

Oh yeah, don't forget the veggies. We had boiled potatoes and broccoli.

Beans III

Well, actually, there may be another bit on beans at some time, but we will wrap it up for now by saying that they were a great success. Didn't do much beyond what I said I said yesterday, but will try some of your great suggestions next time.

One thing I did do, near the end, because the beans seemed a bit bland, was to add a half a dozen shots of Tabasco sauce. That did the trick.

Now, I have a load of left over beans and need ideas beyond the beans and hot dogs we are having tonight.

Beans II

OK, the beans are cooking. I put in four strips of bacon, three cloves of garlic and seasoned salt. I will check in a bit re the salt. I will report back tomorrow in the final episode of the bean trilogy.

Meanwhile, I just got a crock pot (slow cooker). It's an old one. Has three settings, off, low and high. I know absolutely nothing about these things. A new friend from Thailand said some good things about them.

A bit of crock pot 101 would be very much appreciated.

Frugal Electricity

My electric bill last month was $20. That is the highest it has been for ages. Normally, it is around 13 to 15 dollars.

People ask me how I do that. I get jokes about living by candle light.

I don't.

It's easy. If you want to be frugal or use less electricity for whatever reason, here is what I do. Most of these are common sense, but I will list them anyway.

1. Turn stuff off, even if it is for 1 minute. Yes, florescent lights too. That stuff about it being cheaper to leave them on than to turn them off briefly, is an urban myth. Also, turn lights on when it's dark. Not before.

2. You normally do not need more than one light on in your house. sometimes two.l

3. Use those curly cue bulbs. They save a LOT!

4. Make sure kids are taught, nicely of course, to turn stuff off.

5. Check to see if you qualify for a low income discount on your bill. What is regarded as low income is a pretty darn high income by standards. Check it out.

6. If you actually are low income, like me, see if there is a program that helps you get things that are more efficient. From a local self help program, I got ten free curly cue light bulbs and a new refrigerator. FREE. (I also got $400 in free wood pellets to heat my home, which is almost, but not quite, enough to heat the entire winter.)

Using this method compulsively just might lead you to break my record for an electric bill.

What is my record low bill?

OK, I will tell you, even if you don't believe me.

This is TRUE.

My record low electric bill (summer time) is

.....

Eight (yes 8) dollars.

And it entailed absolutely NO suffering whatsoever.

Good luck :)

Beans: The Beginning

I bought some pinto beans at the super market the other day. I am going to soak them over night and cook them tomorrow. As always, suggestions are welcome. How to cook them, what to put in them, what to eat them with. Anything you can think of.

For now I was just going to put a couple of slices of bacon in as well as some garlic and salt.

I found some chicken breasts and other chicken at the store up here in the mountains. Wow, it was expensive; 5 dollars or more for a package that wasn't that big. Is it always so expensive? I am hoping it is cheap in the flatland.

To the Flatland

I drove the 35 miles one way down the mountain to the supermarket today. I had a doctor’s appointment at the VA so I did that first. Then it was off to the market.

Being extremely careful, armed with some of your suggestions and a good shopping list, I got a lot of food for 31 dollars. Enough to last at least ten days, with somethings that will last much longer.

It was a big supermarket but I couldn’t find boneless chicken breast for some reason. I know I saw it there before. It was disappointing because a friend had given me a great recipe I wanted to try.

Instead I did a guy food - quick food meal. Here it is:

Boiled rice
Brown gravy made from mix
Chicken hot dog sliced and put in the gravy
Pour gravy with dogs over rice
Vegetables (fresh). We had broccoli topped with butter and salt

That’s it. Easy and (I think) nutritious.

Going to the Market

Tomorrow I am going to the grocery store for the first time since the recent problem developed.

I am going to be very careful. Look for bargains, give some stuff up and get some new things.

Some of you were nice enough to send recipes and make suggestions. Thank you so much for that. That will help a lot tomorrow. Still time to give me more if you are so moved.

Among for the things I am going to buy are dried beans to cook myself. Suggestions in that regard are welcome too, since I haven't done it in a very long time.

Also, is it cheaper to buy bulk rice rather than Uncle Ben's?

Thank so much. I will get you feedback (pun intended)

Frugal by Necissity: The Beginning

OK, I have something going here. Not sure it will be any more successful than the other stuff, but here goes.

Here’s the deal. I am a 62 year old single dad of a soon to be ten year old. I recently went on social security and make a tad ove 1000 dollars a month. I was on 275 dollars in food stamps before, but that was cut to 60 dollars a month.

So, I have to cut corners while doing everything as well as I can. The 1000 barely covers basic house and utilities expenses.

I expect, but am not sure, the focus here will be on food. In particular, cheap but nutritious food. (No, I am not a health nut.)

I was a vegetarian for well over 35 years and am not now. I am a good vegetarian cook, but cannot cook some basic meat dishes like chicken, pork chops and the like.

Suggestions for cheap food would be appreciated. Recipes, if you are so moved, would be great. WHERE to go to get cheap food would be awesome.

I live in a very rural area and it is 35 miles to the nearest town of consequence. I go once a week, maximum.