What should I make for dinner?...: Waste not, want not

Kay, I think I've got a few pretty sweet tips here....or maybe everyone already does these and I just think I'm something special? I'm hoping for lots of comments on what you do to save your pennies. I love a deal. I love feeling like I got something for free or cheap. I love using scraps or what could have been tossed in the trash, to make something new and awesome.

I'm new at this and still looking for super great ideas. (Apparently I only realized recently that...well, um...I'm broke!) Haha! Not really, but I do need to tighten the reigns and be careful. There are a lot of mouths to feed around here!

Tip #1: CRUSTS!!

My kids won't eat 'em. I've tried to force it. It's not worth the battle. My Papa always used to say that it'd put hair on my chest. Not sure how that was supposed to make me actually want to eat them. Anyway, I hate throwing them out and the thought of me having a plate of crusts for lunch isn't too appealing. Yes, you could save them for bread pudding (ew) or croutons, that's good idea....but what if they already have PB&J on them!? I found these totally awesome sandwich cutters. We have dinos and a train one. They cut the sandwich in half, cut the crusts off and make fun shapes which is always helpful for the actual consumption of lunch.

So after preparing 2 or 3 PB&J's, I have a pile of crusts. I chop 'em up into cubes and throw them into a bowl with 2 beaten eggs and a bit of milk.

Mix it up, let it sit for a couple of minutes....

....plomp it into a hot pan, fry it up...flip...Mmmmmm

Peanut Butter and Jam french toast!!

Or, you could just throw all the crusts in the garbage...whatever...But my idea's better, just sayin'.

Tip #2: CEREAL DUST!!

You know what I'm talking about. All the crumbs and dust at the bottom of the cereal bag - or the bottom of the Tupperware modular mate at our house. All that dust used to be perfect little pieces of crunchy cereal! Poor little Cheerios aren't so cheery anymore...helpless little Mini Wheat squares are square no more - or are they rectangle. Anyway, don't throw them out! Give them new life!!

Here's what I do:

Muffins are a daily thing in our house. Seriously, I make a tray of mini muffins almost every afternoon and they're gone by bed time.

My basic recipe is:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups slow cooking oats

4 tsp baking powder (Um..costco!! 2 for the price of 1 at the grocery store)

1 1/4 cups milk (I use powdered milk [to save $!] in most of my baking)

1 egg

1/2 cup not firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

unmeasured amount of cereal dust

If I feel like adding something extra I add:

Chocolate chips or

mushed banana or

cinnamon or

frozen berries or?...

I don't really have much of a method....just throw everything in the mixer and turn it on. (My Grandma is gasping in horror.)

Then I bake at 375F for about 15 mins or till golden and beautiful.

Sometimes, when the kids say, "Mom, can you make a cake?", I throw this same recipe into a 9x13 instead of muffin tins and just bake a little longer.

Tip #3: FREEZE IT

Kay so I guess this one isn't about not wasting...it's about saving.
To save a few bucks (doesn't take long to add up) I buy huge cans at Costco instead of a bunch of little cans from the grocery store and freeze. I can usually get a case of 12 small cans for about $13...or I can get a giant can for $3.49...that works out to be about 6-ish cans. When the tomatoes are frozen, I pop them out of my containers and store in a Ziploc freezer bag. I do this with diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and pineapple.