I don't know if any of you have thought of this or not, but if you do end up with bananas turned brown and are too far gone to eat fresh, stick them in your freezer, until you have enough to make a couple of loaves of banana nut bread...

Cathie

This is one we use when we have forgotten to plan dinner. We steam mixed vegetables in the microwave and then stir them into eggs as they are cooking and it winds up being scrambled eggs with veggies in them. Then I either open a chilled can of tomatoes or slice fresh ones if I have them. Toast some bread and voila' a meal in minutes. This is one that is so easy my hubbie can do them too.

Billye

Wow i'm still tuck at the 5 dollars for the box of muffins,is it like
a very,very big box. Wow again and again,no wonder your tired.
good gosh Sue

I was so excited I had to come to tell Aussie that there are avocados here 8 for $1 today. LOL

I just went to a supermarket yesterday and paid $2 each and today they're so cheap elsewhere. They're local ones too. That's something I was going to suggest to you too, Aussie. Try to buy local products when you can. I'm not sure if you have any markets near where you live. I'm pretty fortunate where I am for that.

Also try to buy what's in season although I notice that here we're able to grow a lot of fruit and vegies all year around now.

I use that supermarket that I think Noong mentioned earlier on the thread. Aldi. They're great for getting certain things, but I can't do all my shopping there is the problem. Great for pasta and pasata (sp?) sauces and Italian ingredients like cheap canned tomatoes. They also have a really good and cheap organic range of foods which I like.

I grow some of my own herbs too. Sometimes a simple dish can be made special with the right condiments.

If you live in a unit rather than a house with a yard, you can still grow tomatoes and lettuce easily in pots in the right postion on a verandah. Strawberries too. Depends on your climate I suppose. I used to grow my own sweet potatoes and cabbage and beans and tomatoes and all sorts of things. I'd use the crop of beans when they were finished to dig into the ground to make it more fertile for the next lot of vegies. I always had a lemon tree and other citrus. These days we can't really legally water anything so I've taken to growing my things like herbs in pots again.

If you like mushrooms, buy a kit and grow them at home. Same with things like sprouts. We eat a lot of them.

My biggest problem is that I love cooking so much but tend to make too much of everything and I end up eating it. lol

What part of Australia are you from? You are right Aldis is good for pasta sauce and pasta, maybe a carton of milk and frozen peas, but it's hard to be running back and forth to do shopping at different places. I like the one stop shopping, but it's hard to find bargains. I know of a farmer's market, maybe I'll go there.

Just north of the border. NSW/QLD. I know you said you make a great chili, well yesterday I'd made some chili con carne. Didn't want to use it all in the one meal / dish, so I saved half for the freezer and used the rest to make pretend enchiladas. Just used really thin 'wraps'. Rectangular ones. These ones are called Mountain Bread and I like them a lot. So I wrapped the chili in them, rolled them up and just topped with some cheese and baked in the oven for a short time. Served it with a very basic and small amount of salad and I used the avocados to make some guacomole and a dollop of sour cream. It was really good and even though it wasn't the same as regular enchiladas, it still had that same feel to it.
We eat a lot of rice here. I know some people don't like rice, but I cook so much rice I eventually gave in and bought a rice cooker. If you're busy it's a really great appliance to have.

anyway, have a good day there. I'm up way too early this morning. The moon is so bright it's like daylight.

Yeah, Rice, that's a really good meal stretcher. (That is if you're not a diabetic, then... you can do it with Brown Rice).

Do some chicken stir fry- add some snow peas, some fresh garlic, some diced carrots, some diced celery, some sliced mushrooms, add a little reduced sodium teriyaki sauce. Service this over a plate of rice.

They'll be kissing you all night!!!

lol