While this post is not a recipe per se it can help in future cooking, recipe planning and food security.  I say food security because I having been hearing a great deal about food shortages. Now that I am a retired widow and a Senior Citizen on a fixed income (wow, how did that happen? I was just 40 a couple years ago!) I do have to keep a tight hold on my budget.

My once a week trek into town occurred on Tuesday. It was a marathon session because first  I went to the closest small town. It is normally my grocery buying destination, but  then I drove an hour to Atwoods in  McAlester. I needed a certain brand of dog food for my Irish Wolfhound and a certain type of Senior Horse feed for my one of my mares.

 Well, I scored big time in the grocery store in the small town. I found 4 pint containers of white button mushrooms for 39 cent each. These were actually very fresh because  I saw the green grocer put them on the quick sale shelf. I swooped in like an eagle on a fish even before he had them out of his hands!  I just removed them from my dehydrator.  

My next score was six baggies of green onions for 39 cents each. Each bag had 3 to 5 bunches of onions in it. Nice! After I cleaned and sliced them, they filled a gallon freezer bag and a recycled large mayonnaise jar. Those are in my deep freeze.  

Another great find was the reduced bananas. Five pounds for $1.30. I sliced the individual bananas, put each one in a small snack baggie, then put the snack baggies in a quart freezer bag for more protection. Now I will have ripe bananas for quick breads or smoothies.

But wait, there’s more! Three bags of pre-sliced creamy coleslaw. They are dehydrated now and added to my cabbage and coleslaw container. It can be rehydrated in soups or stews. Yum. I also bought numerous flats of reduced beef and pork. These are usually 50% percent cheaper when reduced for quick sale.  I have a grinder for my kitchen mixer so I do grind the cuts into hamburger and freeze them. No pink sludge for me! I usually freeze the pork in the store packaging but I do put that in a freezer bag to protect the taste.  And last but not least, four bags of mixed apples, about three pounds per bag, for $1.00 each. Some of these will be dehydrated and a portion will be used fresh for an apple galette.

In fact, the only item I paid full price for was a two pound bag of carrots. A whopping $1.89. I think I did pretty good.