This week's grocery shopping is rather sparse, but I'll (hopefully) be heading to Costco early next week to make up for that. ;)

Pictured above is what I bought at QFC this week:

Darigold lactose-free milk  $2.99 (x2)
Sweet potatoes ($0.99/lb)   $2.32
Bananas ($0.59/lb)       $3.60
Red onion ($1.49/lb)     $0.98
Cucumber                $0.99
Leaf lettuce                $1.99
Cilantro                    $0.99

Total: $16.85

The lactose-free milk is a regular purchase for us at that price. Everything else is pricey BUT I didn't want a Costco-sized portion and/or it was just to hold us over until I do go to Costco (like the bananas and lettuce). I can walk to QFC so I often go there between Costco trips to re-stock our bananas or get specialty food items (like when I just need 1 lemon, or 1 tomato... that sort of thing!). :)

Not all of the bananas are pictured, since right outside the store we peeled and ate 3 bananas as we walked home! It isn't uncommon for us to eat a whole bunch of bananas by the time we get home from the grocery store. I don't mind, though, since they're healthy and we're outside getting fresh air and exercise! :)

I also went to Rite Aid, and we got some fish in bulk. Read more for photo and prices, including this week's total:

I grew up in a home where beans were rarely served (and then, it was either baked beans or my mom's chili).

Joshua grew up eating lots of beans and rice, and when we got married he told me that beans really weren't his favorite... especially not beans and rice.

We've been married 7 years now and I've really expanded my recipe collection when it comes to beans! I've been able to find lots of yummy meals that include beans and satisfy my husband's taste buds! :)

One such recipe from the past year has been the dreaded... beans and rice. The first night I served beans and rice, I didn't even tell Joshua what I had made for dinner! I just served it up. ;) And as I had hoped... my version of beans and rice was acceptable to him! He actually said it was good!! I was so delighted, since the children and I all love it! :)

I don't have a "real" recipe, but here is how I make my beans and rice:

I cook pinto beans following this recipe. We like our beans nice and tender! :) Adding the salt and Tapatio hot sauce called for in that recipe makes for some fabulous tasting beans!

I cook some rice. Our favorite is basmati rice, which I get in bulk at Costco. But any rice will work! For some extra color in the rice, I sometimes add chives or paprika.

Then I layer the cooked rice, cooked beans, and shredded cheeses. If I'm taking the dish to a potluck, I can easily re-warm this part in the oven.

When serving, I add some sour cream to the top and serve with tortilla chips on the side.

We all love this way of making beans and rice, and I've taken it to our church potlucks many times, since it is affordable and everyone loves it! :)

Here's my price breakdown when making beans and rice for a crowd. And these amounts really will make about 16 servings. :) Prices are from Costco.

2.5 pounds C+F pinto beans      $1.29
Salt and Tapatio hot sauce       $0.05
2.5 cups dry (7.5 cups cooked) Basmati rice      $1.10
4 cups (1 pound) Tillamook shredded cheddar cheese    $2.20
2 cups (16 ounces) Darigold sour cream       $0.90
16 ounces Mission tortilla strips        $1.11

Total cost for 16 servings: $6.65

Reasons we love this beans and rice:

It's easy.
It's affordable.
It's yummy! :)

I don't take this to every potluck though... I still make my cheesy bread for potlucks, and have recently taken homemade pizza (re-warmed in the oven) which was eaten in a flash!! :) I like variety, so it's fun making various things to take. :)

Be sure to visit Jessica's blog for more Frugal Fridays tips and ideas! :)

One day last month, Joshua called from work to see how my day was going at home. While nothing was drastically wrong, I wasn't feeling well at all and was spending the afternoon lying on the couch while the kids played nearby.

I mentioned that I needed to pull some strength together to start pizza for dinner that evening. To my surprise, Joshua suggested that we just order pizza that night! We rarely eat out and I was feeling poorly enough that I didn't even give much thought to the expense and just said "That would be GREAT." :) (Later I realised that I was out of mozzarella cheese... so I would have had to find something else to make for dinner anyway!)

We ended up getting pizza from Papa Murphy's, a take-and-bake place. We tried their Herb Mediterranean Chicken deLITE pizza for a change... and we loved it!

And of course... our first thought was, "Hey! We could make this ourselves!" ;)

We've made our own Mediterranean Herb Chicken Pizza several times now, and it's so delicious! I love all the garlic, and the blend of tomatoes, chicken, spinach, and feta cheese... YUM!! :)

This week's in-season recipe swap theme is Fall/Winter squash! (See this previous edition for summer squash recipes.)

I was excited to try Spaghetti Squash for the first time just last year! It's yummy and FUN and one of the first recipes I created with it was this Creamy Spaghetti Squash Casserole.

Just as delicious as it looks, this casserole is the total comfort food! :)

I just added another spaghetti squash recipe: Italian Baked Spaghetti Squash.

This recipe was given to me from my friend Marie S. in Ohio. She made it for dinner for us last Fall and then kindly sent me home with some garden-grown spaghetti squash and the recipe (at my request)! :)

To participate in this week's In-Season Recipe Swap:

Post your on-theme recipe, including your own photo of the food. Link to this post, and then come over here and let us know where to find YOU! Just leave your link in a comment and I will manually add them to this post throughout the day. :) Next week's recipe theme (November 25, 2009) is sweet potatoes!

1. Butternut Squash Soup (Sabrina)
2. Winter Squash and Apple Soup (Sara)
3. Butternut Squash Ravioli with Creamy Basil Sauce (Heidi)
4.

I have lots of tips for homemade pizza! Joshua and I both love pizza, and have done a lot of experimenting with homemade pizza in the 7 years we've been married.

My mom makes pizza, and her recipe has a pre-baked crust to avoid the burned-top, raw-crust dilemma. ;) My mom's pizza is yummy, and growing up I tasted restaurant-pizza only a few times, so I couldn't quite understand why Joshua insisted that we needed to master the "bake the dough and toppings all together, one time" trick! :)

But, experiment we did... and now I make what we consider to be excellent homemade pizza... rivaling anything we've tasted anywhere else!

Here is the recipe I use: Tammy's Easy Pizza. (See the recipe for additional notes and tips!)

A few quick tips:

• Homemade pizza dough is easy to make; it's okay if it's a little sticky. I butter the pan (and my clean hands!) and press the soft sticky dough into the pan.

• Resist the temptation to overload the pizza with toppings, especially if you're putting quite a few different things on top! A cup of sauce is plenty to cover a 16-inch round pizza without making it too wet. Vegetables like peppers, onions, and tomatoes have a tendency to become watery as they bake, so unless you don't mind pools of water on top, use them more sparingly.

• If I'm using a heavier pizza pan (like stainless steel), I bake it on the bottom oven rack, so the crust gets sufficiently browned. Baking a heavy pan of pizza on the top rack can result in browned toppings and under-cooked dough.

• If I'm using a thin pizza pan, I bake the pizza on the top oven rack, so the crust doesn't get too dark on the bottom. Darker pans (a pan with a non-stick coating vs. a stainless steel pan) will make a darker crust. (Read more about pizza pans here.)

• Leaving hot pizza to cool on the pan can cause condensation to form between the crust and the pan. To avoid this, we often put slices of pizza on a wire rack to cool before refrigerating the leftovers.

• To warm leftover pizza, I place pizza slices on a cookie sheet in the oven. I turn the oven to 375 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly. YUM! :) And a quick, warm winter lunch. :)

I did a price breakdown of my homemade pizza recipe here... concluding that my 16-inch turkey pepperoni extra-cheese pizza costs just $3.25 in ingredients!

I've also shared my tips for making homemade pizza to serve to guests. I especially like serving pizza to families with children, since it's always a hit! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Fats/oils and substitutions (Katie)
2. Thanksgiving turkey tips (Stephanie)
3. Instant yeast (Toni)
4. Thanksgiving turkey prep tips (Amy)
5. Apple peeler (Liz)
6. Spaghetti sauce cans/jars (Kolfinna)
7. Measuring cups/spoons (Linda)
8. Homemade pizza tips and cost of ingredients (Trixie)
9. Storing quick breads w/out getting soggy tops
10. Roasting butternut squash (Kristia)
11. Remembering aprons (Cindy)
12. Cleaning cutting boards w/out chemicals
13. Buttermilk in mashed potatoes (Susan)
14. Storing pot lids (Lenetta)

We've been eating lots of sweet crisp Washington apples this Fall, and my favorite way to dress up a plate of simple apple wedges is with Cream Cheese Apple Dip!

This apple dip only has 4 ingredients, so it comes together in a flash! The dark brown sugar and ground cinnamon give it a caramel flavor, while the cream cheese base keeps things rich and creamy. :)

I've taken Cream Cheese Apple Dip and apple slices to our church potlucks, and it never lasts long! :) Here at home, we serve it as a dessert when we want something sweet, juicy, crisp, and creamy! :)

Grilled fish is quick, easy, and tasty, but sometimes it's nice to serve fish without asking Joshua to grill. Grilling on our Weber Q is easy enough for me to do, too -- but trickier when there are other foods to stir/watch and children underfoot!

This Baked Cod with Lemon and Dill is one of the simplest ways to prepare cod, and yet is full of flavor and looks like something from a gourmet restaurant! We like to serve it over rice, as the tangy lemony dilly juices give the rice a unique flavor. :)

I know after a long day at work, Joshua appreciates dinner being in the oven and almost ready for the table when he walks in the door! I don't always succeed in a timely dinner, but that is the goal anyway, since we find that eating an earlier dinner gives us more time to play together as a family before getting ready for bed. :)

I've been making a concentrated effort to remember to drink my herbal pregnancy tea daily, and it really does help me feel better! I've been more relaxed, less tired, and just felt better overall. Whether it's the extra fluids, the iron-rich alfalfa, the swelling-reducing nettles, the relaxing peppermint, or the uterus-toning red raspberry leaf -- I don't know, but I'm not complaining! ;)

I still have plenty of herbs left from when I ordered a couple years ago. I mix up the (dry) tea and then brew it using an IngenuiTEA tea pot.

I really love the IngenuiTEA pot for brewing loose leaf teas! It is so SO easy and in the 3 years I've had it, I've used it hundreds of times. Loose leaf teas almost always taste a lot better than the packaged pre-bagged teas, in my opinion. :)

Kathryn asked:

I am getting conflicting reports about whether raspberry leaf tea is safe for pregnant women to consume. Some say only during the 3rd trimester, some say all throughout the pregnancy. Any comments would be appreciated!

I have most commonly heard that red raspberry leaf tea is safe to consume in these quantities:

First trimester -- 1 cup per day
Second trimester -- 2 cups per day
Third trimester -- 3 cups per day

If you have a history of miscarriage, you may want to avoid red raspberry leaf in early pregnancy.

Herbs (like most things!) affect people in different ways so what worked for me may not be best for everyone. This is why I hesitate to get too specific! ;)

One of my favorite features of Crystal's blog is when she photographs and shares about her weekly grocery shopping trips! :) I love the great deals she finds, but mostly I just like seeing the yummy food she got. ;)

I thought it would be a fun experiment to document all of our family's grocery/household purchases for a while. Those of you who have asked about how I shop, or what my grocery budget is, this will give you a firsthand look! :)

Some of these things will last much longer than a week, so as I share our grocery trips in future weeks, hopefully it will give more of a complete picture of what we buy and use! :)

This week's groceries, from Costco: Read more for prices and total!

Betsy asked:

Seeing your grain mill reminds me of a question I have been meaning to ask. Have you ground anything besides wheat in your mill? I am newly gluten free and so I have to use different flours such as rice, corn, bean and sorgum. They are so expensive so I have debated on buying that same grain mill. You do still like yours, correct?

Yes! We purchased the WonderMill grain mill and have been completely satisfied with it. :)

I have ground several things aside from wheat:

I have made brown rice flour, oat flour (using oat groats), corn flour (using "field corn" -- the affordable big dry kernels -- rather than popcorn which is more expensive), and rye flour. I think that may be all I've ground thus far, but everything went through just fine.

The corn flour is finer than corn meal, though I have substituted it in some recipes with success -- and I'd much rather use my fresh corn flour than to purchase corn meal at the grocery store! :)

Those of you who own grain mills, what kind of mill do you have? What are your favorite grains to grind?

By far, my top grains are hard white wheat (makes "bread flour" for our wheat bread) and soft white wheat (makes "pastry flour" for quick breads)!