Homemade Potato Chips! A family favorite!

Frugal snacks with little to no preservatives are a BIG goal of mine

Homemade potato chips have 3 ingredients:

Oil

Potatoes

Salt

1. Soak thin slices of potatoes in cold, salted water for 10 minutes

2.  Pat Dry

3.  Add to hot oil

4.  Remove when turning brown and place on paper towel to drain

5.  Salt lightly

Frugal

Yummy

Snacking

(Happy Sigh)

Whole chicken in the crock pot = Frugal meals

Yesterday I bought a 5lb whole chicken at Aldi for $5.32

It slow-cooked all night in the crock pot with water, salt and pepper and 3 garlic cloves....  

Oh my the heavenly smells in our home this morning!!!

Then I took it apart to yield almost 4 cups of chicken and 3 cups of broth!

We will be having

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken and Noodles

and 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

We MIGHT be able to squeeze another meal in there if the tall guy stays out of the chicken, 

I will have to hide it in the back of the fridge

SIMPLE

FRUGAL

MEALS

{Happy Sigh}

Frugal Summer Fun

One of our FAVORITE activities is visiting our local zoo.

We currently live in Indianapolis, about 8 minutes from our zoo, and often will run over 2 or 3 times a week to hang out even for just an hour.  (But even when we lived in South Bend, we visited the zoo often on a yearly membership)

The Indy Zoo yearly pass will set you back $136 per year, but if we annualize our visits, conservatively figuring we visit about once a week over the entire 52 weeks, it comes out to $2.62 per visit.

I love math that works out like that.

In the cooler months, we bundle up and rush from indoor exhibit to the next indoor exhibit

In the summer months, we pack swimsuits and finish our visit in the splash park.

Simple

Frugal

Summer Fun

Joy

Not even sure what is happening here, 

but

The look of joy on her face 

makes my heart so happy.

{sigh}

Eating Out(side)

While we don't eat out very often, there are times it sounds so appealing.

But I have often found, in the warmer seasons, that preparing lunch and simply taking it outside (by the garden is my favorite) and having a simple picnic is a way to feel like we've had a special lunch, outside of our kitchen.

Frugal

Simple

Happy Sigh 

Hugs and happy picnics this summer!

Instagram

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joyful_simplicity

Happy Summer!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

A dear friend shared her Tortilla Soup Recipe and it was AMAZING!!  

Super Easy

Super Healthy

and frugal 

2 Chicken breasts

1 cup onion, sauteed

1 cup corn, added to onion saute

I added 1/2 packet of taco seasoning to the saute mix to wake up the flavors (originally calls for a few diff spices, but I did taco mix because we had it on hand)

1 box chicken broth

1 jar salsa

Add all to crock pot

THAT IS IT!!!

We topped ours with sour cream, freshly grated cheddar cheese (I grate mine because the already grated kind in the bag from the store tastes like plastic to me, PLUS its cheaper to buy it in the block...)

and tortilla strips which I was able to find at Aldi!

I was hoping for leftovers, but it was not to be... (sigh)

But that meant the family loved it!

Simple, frugal, filling and healthy!!!