SAVE MONEY! Learn how to find low food prices, prep, and preserve food for the upcoming months! Autumn is almost here and now is the time to asses what you need and prep! Prepping now allows you to fight inflation and avoid panic buying! Learn the changes we need to make to adjust to price increases!
*** We made a half a batch of the candied jalapeños and only used 15 peppers in the video!
Candied Jalepenos-https://www.thechunkychef.com/candied-jalapenos/
How To Dry Rosemary- https://www.stetted.com/how-to-dry-rosemary/
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[Music] Welcome sweet friends to the channel Frugal Moneys Saver. My name is Emmy. My husband’s Paul. We’re so happy you have joined us today. Today’s video is chalk full of information, tips, hints, tutorials on how to save money on food. Food is expensive. We need to figure out ways to preserve the food coming into our homes, how to shop for less, how to dry food, freeze food, and this video is going to show you all that and more. Sit back, relax, and let’s get right to it. Fruits and vegetables in the food store right now are going to be the lowest price that we are going to see probably for the rest of the year. And I’m talking about seasonal fruits and vegetables. And those of you who garden like we do, you know that this is harvest season and we have to take care and preserve what we grew over the summer because it’s usually a lot more than we can use right now. First segment of our video, we’re going to jump right into the kitchen. We have a plethora of jalapeno peppers and we showed you a jalapeno popper recipe a couple videos back and you all seem to love that. Well, we’re trying a recipe today that we have never ever made in our entire lives. And let’s just say I’m already on my second batch because a certain someone keeps eating them right out of the jar. Shame on you, Dixie. It’s Dixie, right? We are going to be making cowboy candy, another name for candied jalapenos. Let’s turn this camera around, get into the kitchen. Well, we’re going to start preparing these peppers. And of course, I’m going to wear my gloves. We’re going to cut these peppers into 1/4 in rings. And we’re going to take the seeds and the stems out. So, let’s try to get that done. [Music] And then we’re just going to core out the uh seed white membrane inside these fizz seeds are hot. While Paul is cutting up the jalapenos, I am going to take a half a cup of apple cider vinegar. Put it in the pan. Going to turn my heat to medium high. And then I’m going to take a cup and a half of sugar. Put that in the pot. And we’re going to just give this a mix right now. Also add a/4 teaspoon of garlic powder. And we want to bring this to a boil. Our mixture came to a boil. Now I’m taking our jalapenos, putting them in. We did remove most of the seeds and the membrane. We don’t want them too high. We are using 1 and 12 lbs of jalapenos. Wear gloves. There are a couple seeds here I’m seeing. I’m trying not to get too many in. We’re going to lower the heat and we’re going to let it simmer for about 4 minutes or so. I’m going to put the timer on. I kept stirring them just every once in a while. We’re almost at the 4minut mark. So, these are almost done. Now you’re going to take a clean glass jar and we’re going to take the peppers out with a slotted spoon and put them into the jar, leaving the liquid behind for right now. And once you put them in the glass jar, the glass becomes hot. Be careful. These are not shelf stable. Just please remember that these are going into the refrigerator. And you have to leave at least a/2 in of head space. We have way more than that. And now I’m just going to set these aside for a minute. Now I’m going to turn the heat back on to medium high and I’m going to let this liquid boil about 6 minutes or so so it thickens up. It’s boiled for about 7 minutes. I let it go a little longer. And now we’re just going to pour this over the top. You want to leave about a half an inch. Perfect amount of liquid. Almost candied. Now look at that. Now it says, “Take a clean spoon and just make sure you push all the peppers under the liquid.” I am so excited to try these. After reading the original recipe, it says that you have to wait like a week or two before you eat them. I can’t even imagine we’ll wait that long. These are still really spicy even though they are candied. Before you cover the jar, make sure you wipe the rim with a wet clean cloth. Original recipe will be linked below. So, we’re going to cover this now. It cooled a little bit. Put the lid on and it’s going right into the refrigerator. You can use them in salads, on burgers, in omelets, over nachos, or when you make tacos. I can’t tell you how good they are. Super easy and just a great way again to use up those jalapenos. Now, let’s do a food haul. We went into the store the other day and we did a normal food haul. a lot of loss leaders, a lot of seasonal food, and also some clearance items. That is the way you need to shop. You need to shop the front of your store’s flyer for those lowcost items that pull you in. And you’re going to see a bunch of them in this video. And the good news is these are really good items. They’re whole food items, fruits and veggies, and that’s always a plus. Let’s see what we bought and how much the items cost. We haven’t showed you a food haul in a while and I thought we would show you one. This is all from ShopRite. So, these all came out of our garden. We have been picking them constantly and freezing them. As you’re going to see in a little bit, the jalapenos are abundant this year. We let some of them turn red. The jalapeno just takes on a whole another flavor when you let them get red like that. So, all these peppers are completely free from our garden. I forgot to put these tomatoes in our haul, but these are all from our garden as well. I did buy a large 38 oz bottle of ketchup. It was on sale for $2.88, which is a good price for Hines ketchup. Now, this is a weird item for us. We never buy items like this, but I’m going to tell you why. It was on sale for $1.99 for squeeze mayo. We are headed to the little house in September. We can stick this in our cooler and we just squeeze it on our sandwiches on the beach. This is just a great deal. $1.99. Couldn’t pass that up. We did get organic celery hearts. I wanted regular organic celery. How bad was that celery, Paul? Yeah, it turned in the store. It was wilted. I I was hoping they’d give it to me for free for my compost. That’s how bad it was. So, I did have to pay more for this. I think I paid $3.99 for the two hearts, but it was worth it for me. We did get some baby arugula. I am on a total arugula kick right now. That’s like the only green I want to eat. That’s so good. I believe this was about $3 for this container. The bowl and basket cream cheese, the two packs of 8 oz, which is a pound, was $4. So, I got that. It was cheaper because the regular 8 oz package was $250. So, and we always use cream cheese, so that was a great deal. The fier sour cream was $1.99. Bowl and basket hummus was $1.49. A lot of these you’re going to see are loss leaders. The English cucumber was 1.50. Now, they had the regular cucumbers on sale for06, but they don’t last. They just don’t. If we don’t use them immediately, they’re gone. We got one yellow squash, one green zucchini. You know what we’re making? Our California grilled sandwiches. And then we have the big pack. The 18oz blueberries were $249. We got that. A beautiful head of Roma was 1.49 for the whole head. Cantaloupes were $1.25. I got one of those. I got some nectarines at $1.99 a pound. And the bananas, I don’t even know what they were. Maybe I don’t even know 55 cents a pound. And then our Jimmy Dean bacon. I froze it as soon as we got home. And I just pulled it out of the freezer to do the little haul. $2.99 for 12 oz package. So, we got four of those. So, that was a great deal. And we got two dozen of the organic eggs. Two dozen was $8. $4 a dozen for organic eggs. We thought that was a pretty good price. Now, we’re going to head over to Stop and Shop. They had three ears of corn for a dollar. We got 12 ears and I had a $2 off digital coupon on any produce. Look at how beautiful this is. It’s the yellow and white corn. So, I got 12 ears of corn for $2. We’re going to be preserving this. Here’s another item we scored off the clearance racks, and we tell you all the time to check them. This is Baker’s German sweet chocolate. Always think holiday baking. At Acne, these bars, I think, were marked down to 134. You can see the original price was $17.37. I paid $4.35 for the three bars, saving 1302. And if you have ever tasted baker’s chocolate, it is so good. So, these are going to go right into my pantry and we’re going to save them for the holidays. And the date is December of 2026. What a score. Buy these things on sale and put them away. I’ve also started including our homemade items because instead of buying bagels, we made homemade sourdough bagel and that saved us money right there. We had all the ingredients in the home and they are so delicious. Better than any store bought you could buy. All in all, simple little haul. Free food, low price food. Watch those loss leaders. They are still out there. Grab them when you see them and make your dollar stretch. As you saw, some good food. And what we have started doing now is looking at our food haul and realizing that a lot of the food we create at home, now I’m not talking dinners and things like that, but staples that you would normally buy, like the Cubanell peppers, like tomatoes that we have grown ourselves, that is part of our food hall. We have not had to buy those items. The sourdough discard bagels we made. I didn’t have to buy bread products because we have made them at home with things we already have. So when you factor in your food bill, don’t negate things like that. Things that you make from scratch, that’s all part of the food you eat for the week. Cooking from scratch and making staples are a great way to save money. Just some hints and tips on how to save at the food store and on your weekly grocery bill. You all remember our little container garden. I’m going to show you a before picture of when we first started and what it looks like now. Those of you who think that you don’t get a huge yield from container gardening, sorry, wrong. We have gotten so much this year. It has just been wonderful. And no, we don’t use any kind of sprays, no pesticides. Everything we grow is organic. And people ask, well, how? I don’t know. We just don’t have a problem with bugs eating our plants. Not sure why. Um, but we’re very blessed that way. And we do keep a chicken wire fence around them so that the groundhogs don’t get in. But yeah, it just works. Now, what do we do with all the wonderful vegetables that we grow and fruits we grow and herbs we grow? In this next segment, we’re going to show you quick, easy ways to preserve what you grew. Please understand, we didn’t grow corn, but corn right now is so inexpensive. I know Shopright is going to have corn on sale next week. Five ears for a dollar. buy the locally grown from your store vegetables from the farmers market and preserve them yourself. Even though we didn’t grow corn, we’re still buying it now that it is the lowest price we’re going to see for the year and we’re putting it away. Here are some quick tutorials on how to preserve those fresh fruits and vegetables that are at their lowest prices and in abundance this time of year. Here is our little baby garden. When we first started back at the beginning of June, look at it now. Container gardening is the way to go. Our plants got so big, we even had to move some onto our walkway. And look, I even have a rogue gourd that grew out of a pepper plant. So, as we start to harvest our delicious peppers that we grew and our jalapenos, our tomatoes, I’m going to start with the peppers. And what I’m going to do is these peppers are going to be set up for stuffed peppers baked in the oven. And these are going to be cut up into strips and then frozen in our food saver. So, now I’m going to remove the stem. I’m just going to kind of like put my finger in there and free it up. core. There it goes. There’s the seeds. Perfect. So, what I’m going to do now is I’m just going to slice these into strips. I like to trim off the membrane once in a while if it gets too big. They’re kind of uh I don’t know, woody and chewy. So, this is all I’m going to do. So, I’m doing all the peppers just like this. What I did now was I just took the peppers, Paul cut. I have a cookie sheet. I laid a piece of wax paper on the bottom. Now, we’re going to just flash freeze these just like this. Stick it right in the freezer. What this does is it allows them to freeze separately. So, when you want a handful of peppers, you just cut open the bag that Paul’s going to food saver. Take out what you need, reseal it, and they stay beautiful and fresh. So, these were in the freezer about 2 hours, and they are nice and hard. You can see they’re all separate and that’s how we’re going to freeze them. So, also, we don’t buy pre-made bags. We buy the rolls. They’re cheaper and you make your own. So, what you do is just measure out what you think you’re going to need. There’s a cutter built into the machine and all you do is seal one end. So, here’s the bag. And what’s great about these is as long as there is no raw meat in these bags, we wash them, dry them thoroughly, and we reuse them so there’s no waste. So, now that I got the peppers in the bag, the peppers are already frozen. And there you go. And no, this is not a sponsored video, though. I wish Food Saver would reach out to me. That is one product I would sponsor. We love it. No freezer burn. None. I just picked some of my rosemary and I have a lot of it. But we cut these. They’re absolutely beautiful. I am going to dry them. When I ran out of rosemary, I kept this bottle. And it’s just a glass bottle with the lid and shaker. And it just so happened to be a rosemary bottle. So, I’m going to wash and dry that thoroughly. And I’m going to wash and dry the rosemary to start, leaving it on the stem. I washed it, placed it on a clean cloth. Just going to roll it up to dry. Just like this. We’re going to let it sit for a little while before we put it in the oven just to get a lot of that moisture off cuz it will take longer to dry if it is wet. My rosemary is nice and dry now. And what I’m going to do, lay it right on this cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper underneath it. What we want for these leaves when we touch them, they’re going to just fall off and be brittle. Right now, they are beautiful, bright green, and after they dry, they’re going to just kind of fall off when we touch them. I’m going to set my oven for 180°, that’s Fahrenheit. Put these in and we’ll check back in about 2 hours. Our rosemary just came out of the oven. It was done for me. And how do I know? I just pick it up. And it’s just crumbling right off. Now, I don’t want to crumble it too much. I want to keep them as whole as possible because that preserves even more flavor. And I’m just taking my hand going right down the stalk. And they’re coming right off. Look at this. So, I’m going to do this with all of them. Once this cools completely, I’m going to put it in that clean glass jar that I showed you earlier and store it in a cool, dry place. Look how much this made. I’ve got a full jar. This is so exciting. I’m going to put my little lid that I washed. So funny that I ran out of rosemary and I have the jar simply organic from Emmy and Paul’s little container garden. Here we have our corn on the cob. We shocked the corn. And what we’re going to do now is just blanch it for about 5 to 7 minutes depending on the size of your corn. And then we’re going to put it in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Then we’ll freeze it. but we’ll take you step by step. It is so delicious and fresh tasting when you freeze it like this and it’s cheaper than a can of corn. It’s a little bit of work, but not mine. So, let’s get right to this. Into a pot of boiling water, you’re going to carefully place your corn. You don’t want to overcrowd it. Use tongs or something. I’m going to put, I think, five ears in here. And I’m going to set the timer for about 7 minutes. Why should we blanch the corn before we freeze it? It’s to stop the natural enzymes from degrading its color, its flavor, its texture, and nutrients. And if you don’t do it, it can lead to mushy or chewy corn. And we don’t want that. And it also kills some microbes, ultimately improving the quality and longevity of the corn. That’s why we take this extra step. The timer went off. What I did is right next to the stove, I prepared a ice water bath. And I’m going to take the corn very carefully. You’re dealing with boiling water. Let it drip off a little bit. And remember, the water is going to get displaced, so you don’t want to fill it all the way up. We can add a little bit more water if we need to. And what this does now, it’s going to stop that cooking process because we don’t want to over cook them. Now, we’re going to let these sit in here for about 6 minutes. We’re going to go on to our next batch. Now, now that the corn has dried and cooled down, I am now going to get it ready to be cut off the cob and sealed up for the winter. And this is what I’m going to use to help take the corn off the cob. This is a bunt pan, and this is perfect for what I have to do. Now, I know there’s lots of ways to take corn off the cob. They have little tools that do it and all kinds of neat gadgets. But this is in the house. It’s free. It’s been here. Let’s use it. So, I’m going to take this corn. I’m just going to set the point into the top of this bowl. Use a sharp knife and carefully cut along the cob and cut the kernels off. [Music] Just rotate it and do it again. [Music] And this is what it looks like. So, watch what happens. You just gently touch it and it all falls apart. What we’re going to do is crumble these up. And then we’re going to package them. So, here’s the end result. All the kernels are separated. It’s ready to go into the bags. We’re going to probably package these up. Two cups a bag. [Music] Now, into the freezer they go. Now, what do we do with these cobs? Well, there’s a lot you can do with them. You can boil them up in water and make a corn broth. And the corn broth could be used in soups or chowters, anything that you want to have naturally sweetened with that little bit of a corn taste. So, this is a great way to reuse the cobs. We hope that proved helpful. It was quick. It was easy. We streamlined everything. We worked as a team and we got a lot put away. I’m so proud of my rosemary. I have to say out of everything, I’m like, I grew rosemary and actually dried it. Please make sure you dry something like that thoroughly because you don’t want it to mold in a jar. If it does, toss it. Do not use it. And what are the advantages of these container gardens? There’s no weeding, barely any weeding at all. It’s not backbreaking. They produce an abundance of fruits and veggies. They’re super easy to water. It’s just a great way to grow some food and keep it manageable. I know we gave you a lot of information, but we hope it was helpful. It’s all about the little things adding up for big savings. Preserving food, buying those loss leaders, searching those clearance racks, making staple items at home better for you and cheaper. So, we really hope it was encouraging and helpful. Today’s question of the day, what’s been going on in your kitchen? Please share with us. Are you starting to put away things that you grew? Have you gotten some great sales at the grocery store that you can share with us? Have you found things on the clearance rack? Have you started making something from scratch that you never made before? Have you tried a new recipe and it was awesome? Please share that down below with us. It not only encourages us, but you all encourage each other and we are so appreciative of that. We thank you so much for sharing this time with us. We ask that you would please take a minute and give this video a big thumbs up. It really helps us so much here on YouTube. Subscribe if you haven’t. We would love to have you be part of this wonderful frugal community. We ask you to be well. We ask you to be safe. And above all, we wish you blessings. And until our next video, may God greatly bless you.
33 Comments
I bet the squirrels would love those leftover corn cobs.
😊
Emmy and Paul this was a wonderful post. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 👍❤️
My Swiss chard leaves are huge this year. I’ve used them in beans and greens, salad, in calzones and I’ll blanch and freeze some for soups during the winter. Just picked elderberries this morning and started the tedious process of processing them for jelly. They get frozen until the weather cools off so I’m not heating up the kitchen during the summer heat. I’m definitely being more consistent with meal planning and then any leftovers get frozen for my bachelor son. Any chicken safe food scraps from preparing the meals are saved for my granddaughter’s chickens.
You do an awesome job you two. You are so thorough and safe doing your preserving. God bless you for sharing your knowledge.
Love ❤️ and Hugs. 💙💙💙
Happy end of summer. Can’t wait till fall
Good Morning to you both from sunny Scotland . My little boy is growing pumpkins from seed for his summer Cub Scout challenge, they are growing well but not flowered yet. We hope they will be ready for Halloween! I’ve been baking a lot , my boys favourite is homemade pop tarts with my homemade strawberry jam in the middle. My dad gave me a glut of apples from his trees yesterday . I will make apple and bramble ( foraged for free) crumble. I’m not sure what else to make with them?
I was born, 6th of 11 children, with a regular Joe dad.
I tell butchers, that I changed my middle name to vulture, Because I'm always swooping in the moment the store opens, to buy the meat that's on the verge of rotting. (Reduced for final sale)
I tell cashiers that my favorite color used to be maroon, but now it's red or orange, because that's the color of reduced tags on food.
I have a chest freezer and a vacuum sealer, and by golly, I use it all the time… Even reusing the vacuum seal bags, four or five times.
I choose my meals, based on what's on sale and what's already in the fridge….and I love it..
I was able to put 10's of thousands in savings over 10 years. Just by the way I choose NOT to eat and NOT to drink convenience. …water filtered at home, coffee made at home.
I owe no one anything and can now pay cash.
I LOVE being frugal!!
My husband has been sanding our oak cabinets and painting them white. Way cheaper than buying new cabinets. I know you ment food prep but that is what is happening in our kitchen. 😂
Emmy and Paul, if you want to change things up a bit try cowgirl candy. You add a few pineapple chunks, it's even better especially over some cream cheese, so delicious. AND if you wanted some that is shelf stable it is so so easy to waterbath can just always use a safe tested recipe from ncfhp, Ball or any extensions. 😊
For shame, Dixie😁Sweet girl knows good food🐕🫑
Oh Emmy, save your electricity and just hang your herbs to dry! It doesn't take too long and they look really cute too if done like a swag. I have an antique herb drying piece of wood with hooks. I have other decorations hanging on it as well and just tie up a bunch of herbs and hang! 😊
You've inspired me to save some of the abundance of produce in season right now. I get overwhelmed thinking I need to save everything, but I think I'll focus on one thing that I know I can manage. Thanks for the inspo!
I have dehydrated cayenne peppers for the first time. Going to make powder and some salve.
I think I would try an old-style "stick" potato peeler to get the seeds and white matter out of the jalapenos. It just seems like it would be a lot handier. 🙂
This recipe intrigues me! Might have to give it a try.
Cowboy candy jalepenos in deviled eggs instead of pickle relish… yum! They are so good!! Not a lot of mustard and add chopped fried bacon…. Oh dear they are soooooooo good!
Thanks for sharing. Have a blessed day!
Corn cob jelly is awesome. You should try it sometime.
Always enjoy your videos. This past week I canned small batches of basic tomato sauce (tomatoes, peppers, squash & herbs either grown by me or friend), chicken, veggie broth from scraps and fruit scrap jelly. I found Post cereal at Discount Drugmart (sorry, not sure what states they are in. I'm in Ohio) for $1.99. I don't buy cereal that often but could not pass it up. My family was asking for it so it worked out perfect.
its just me~ so most of my garden is a planting of single different veggies… this year I planted hard squashes~ first time for this. I've planted onions as a pest deterrent, and since Im still using last years dried onions, this year I am making onion powder.. possible xmas presents. When I was younger, and worked in a grocery store~ I had a produce manager give me a box of peaches, dirt priced. I took the time to can them. Come xmas time, $$ was tight, and I will never forget, using a jar of summer ripe peaches to make a pie~ like eating summer with a fork!
Thank you for sharing your tips…..you & Paul are a great team!
We are also pensioners in England but are rentals but have to move soon but with a higher rental rate so will be hard your tips are a great help to us as we have to cut down on things ,but as we live in beautiful Cornwall there are many things we can do cheaply ,the only thing we have is a yearly national trust so can enjoy many garden walks not sure if it’s what you have in America ,look forward to your next video ❤
Thankyou so much for all the wonderful tips you give us on your videos. Live in Oxfordshire in England, and this year has been a good year for our fruit trees. I have had an abundance of Apricots which I have used in baking and frozen. Now we are harvesting our Victoria plums. I have ave given a lot away but I have also made jam, which I have stored and also given away. I’m looking forward to harvesting our pears later in the year. We only have these three trees but they have given us so much fruit. We are truly blessed. ❤
Funny, I've always used a Bundt pan also to slice my corn off the cob when freezing corn 😊 My project lately has been making chokecherry syrup. It's so yummy on french toast.
Some suggestions from a Texan….. Use them with cream cheese on crackers or a toasted plain bagel. Also get a plain jar of bread and butter pickles and put some in there to spice up those pickles. I call them Kickles–they're good in egg salad, imo.
What food saver do you all have? I'm looking into getting one. Not sure to look at Sam's Club or Walmart or somewhere else.
I😊m currently gathering together the ingredients and researching recipes in order to try to bake sour dough bread. You have often shared your beautiful loafs with us which has inspired me to finally try!😊
Emmy, a quick food related question: do have an index of the many recipes you share on the videos? I made the grilled sandwiches with sliced squash and other garden goodies from what I recalled of the video, but would love to check back on your recipe
I keep finding 50% off stickers on meat at Aldi's😊 So, I have portioned breakfast sausage and froze it. I found beef burgers, chicken wings, and chicken for cutlets. All were half off and all went into the storage freezer❤
We love watching your videos!! We are growing tomatoes and jalapeños. We are planning on making jams for Christmas gifts. Thank you for all that you do! ❤
You can store chocolate in your freezer. So if you happen to buy more of the Baker’s chocolate, you could put in the freezer for another time.
I find shoprite cucumbers go bad fairly quickly as well. Idk if you have a wegmans near you, but I find their produce across the board lasts longer.
Amazing videoooo….love u 💓 💗 💛 💖 ♥ 😘 💓 💗 I will save my corns ❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉thank you
Yes, freezing garden produce, and making lots of quick breads and freezing them, as well as putting up broth from chicken bones I save, making bread crumbs and croutons from bread heels, nothing goes to waste! Last night I made a delicious bread pudding from bread heels I have frozen. And it is fun to do. I have also been saving the bananas that have gone past ripe, put them in the freezer and when I have 5 or 6, make up batches of banana bread. If we have a handful of leftover veggies from dinner, they go in a freezer bag and are incorporated into soups at a later date. You have been inspiring me for years to “waste not, want not” and it saves money at the grocery store!