Housing Works BUY THE BAG sale haul

So its really been a while since I've gone, and this time I took friends and people always ask me what I get so I thought I'd acutally do a post.  I will say this was probably my most disappointing trip, apparently because of snow storm, they haven't been able to get new shipments.  I still found some great things but mainly I got my bag so I could gift the friends I bought along something.  And even though I sent them videos and told them what to expect, I feel like the girls I took along didn't get it.  They barely digged and just wanted to leave because they felt sick.  Because of that I barely got to go through even half of the bins and was such a rush packing! I forgot things.  SO future tip, don't take people along that you think will be extremely weird about the sale and digging.  ON  the other end of that spectrum, I took some regular retail shopper friends in the past with very higher end tastes and they went LOCO ! I could barely get them to leave lol.

Here is what I ended up taking home on this trip  ONE BAG $25

SILK one piece JUMPSUIT from Banana Republic , Extra Long Zara Turtle Neck, Helmut Lang Cardigan (very unique cut), another super excellent quality unique cardigan, perfect fit H&M work blazer with flower silk inside

From this pile along the SILK JUMPSUIT form BR made my trip! I mean Jumpsuits are all the rage and this is 100% silk!  Second comes the Helmut Lang Cardigan its a really amazing cut .  Then its a tie between unique cardy and H&M blazer

I got this Slim Fit dress shirt for a friend.  Reason I picked it up is because it was in excellent condition and it was SLIM fit.

I don't usually pick up beanies but this was one of those extra well constructed super perfect fit beanies that retail for alot and are super hard to find a great slouchy fit.  And a plain gray work out shirt from Forever 21.

NIKE shorts had tag plastic still on it and looked new and in my size exactly!  The shirt too, I have this feeling that NIKE donates because this stuff I could tell was in great shape and I really was looking for more sports bras and this shirt has it built in so perfect for me!  

Saved myself $15 by not having to buy a low quality sports bra from Forever 21 :)

H&M skirt picture doesn't do this skirt justice! Its also one of my favorite finds because the way its made its made to hide your belly! One of the reason's I hate wearing pencil skirts.

Express Wrap Dresss

Another random dress

Truly my favorite find this quilted puffy kind of skirt from CLub Monaco, perfect fit and best part is the fabric helps hide my muffin top so sleek! Again super great condition

Ties = Gant pals favorite brand, Brooks Brothers, MOMA and GAP (they take no space in bag so if I see great quality one I pack it)

To the accessories!  Real Calf letter belt, Super long Silk Scarf, Sun Hat, Fitness Head band and wallet

OK I really needed a fitness head band , this one is made from really great material and has really good elastic.  The Wallet is angry lil asian girl brand! love it really great compartments!  Hat is gift for mom so totally worth it, and I really love extra long silk scarfs

And tada ! Ski pants, I really needed these this year but will be great for next year again in store would have cost me way more than my bag itself

Not pictured is perfect gray cable knit sweater (one of my fav finds), the J Crew gray tights I got, the 100% silk tights sport tights I got, the extra long knitted Michael Kors Scarf, and DKNY slacks.  And then my friends finds a 2 dresses, belt, 3 scarfs.

Burrito vs Burrito Bowl

I can't believe I didn't know this but its more cost effective to just order a burrito bowl vs a burrito. You get lots lots more filling!  At Chipotle you can even ask for the tortilla on the side!  Either way for me I have lots of freegan tortillas so basically ordered my Burrito Bowl, and used fresh ingredients first to make my burritos.  This is a great way to stretch your meals and not overeat as well because typically I can't finish a bowl in even two sittings.

I'll even stretch meals further by adding potatoes, egggs for a morning burrito !

More HOliday party left over meals

So to stretch the cost of my meals, you may have noticed that I typically make a huge batch of carbs.  In this case since most of my holiday leftovers had italian theme, I made huge batch of spagetti.

I took that spagetti, added cheap tomato sauce and home made white beans.  Then took the chicken from party, and freegan Kale salad and tossed all together to make this awesome KALE veggie, Spagetti Chicken dish.   Super healthy and cheap meal for my work day :)

Xian Famous Foods: Spicy Lamb Noodle Remix

I love spicy food and one of the most tragic things I find is when people just throw away the sauce.  That chilli oil is so darn delicious and a labor of love.  So early this year I had opportunity to get free dish from Xian Famous Foods grand opening, it was awesome.  Everyone loves free stuff but they were so generous in their offerings, I got their hand pulled noodle with spicy lamb dish to go.

I literally made spicy dishes for a week off this one meal.  Meal #1 was 3/4 of the noodles with sauce and some of the meat.  Meals 2-4 , was taking leftovers especially the sauce and adding it to bowl of rice and my favorite veggie Bak Choy.   Because of the spicy sauce I really was able to stretch this meal into 3 additionally cheap meals!

Lesson, never ever throw away the remainder of your ASian Spicy dish, a little chilli oil goes a long way!  It really makes a plain bowl of rice, a meal on its own almost.  In this case $1 worth of rice and $1veggie, total cost $2 for total of 4 delicious meals!   Or if u didn't get this free, $10 bux for 4 meals.
I do this with all my Spicy Takeways.

Christmas Leftovers Recipe REmix

I just had to post on this RECIPE remix/extender.   So been getting crazy amounts of leftovers from group parties and stuff, yes this is why I always have emergency Tupperware at my desk.  You never know when some group is going to have a party and just a ton of leftovers.  Case in point, I had huge pan of leftover CHICKEN Parmesan, EGGplant Parmesan, Pasta stuff basically.  

After eating so many meals of this you do get sick of it alil so this is why I make remix recipes. 

And of course I freeze things till I'm ready to return to my leftovers.  

This holiday my

PASTA Lima Bean Chicken Parmesan 

was born!

So when I cook at home, I'm really sparse with the cheese and meat.  My leftovers were literally huge chunks of chicken and cheese, way too rich/ gluttonous for me after a few meals.  So I basically extended this recipe to include cheap and healthy fillers.

In this case, I had dried Lima Beans (originally thought they were white beans) and my free veggie pasta from couponing.  Way healthy and grease free by themselves.  I put 1/2 bag of beans in crockpot and cooked the pasta.  And of course put them in tupperware.   All in all very little work.

Then when I was ready to eat the meal, I just put my pasta, white beans, cheap Ragu sauce in microwave ( you can do oven)  and let it cook for 90 seconds.  Then added in the party leftovers cheese and chicken for another 60 seconds.

And magically I have a more healthy meal than the chicken parm I had taken home.

Beauty of this meal for me is all I paid for was the tomato sauce and I'm going to get a lot of meals out of this one original tupperware full of pasta leftovers.  What would have been 2 meals alone now I can easily stretch into 6 meals by adding cheap healthy food staples.   Not to mention I'm going to have left over beans and pasta and pasta sauce.

I'm sharing this idea because realistically everyone can usually get pasta/beans/pasta sauce for about $1 each on a regular supermarket sale.  And this is a really really recipe, you can technically make all in one pot if your lazy like me.  And for me to save money on food, key principle is to add as much cheap fillers as possible. 

Lesson: Laziness costs money

So a couple days ago, I was starving for a hearty hangover breakfast.  I was so desperate I actually went and bought breakfast, I went to a cheap place close to work but it cost me $4!!!! Ok $4 is not a lot of money but let me tell u what I got for that 4 dollars.  One egg on a roll, with 2 slices of bacon and a slice of cheap american cheese.  And one frozen hash brown patty.  All pretty bad and my bread was STALE!!!!!!! I paid $4 and my freegan food was way way better!  So that is my lesson and I am now obsessed with prepping my meals for emergency hangover breakfasts!

And to top it off, I know better.  I know my food is better and with prep and thought I could of made a weeks worth of that same breakfast for the same price.  And this stop for breakfast which was suppose to be quick and easy, made me 10 min late for work.  Which only adds to the cost of this meal.

Quinoa Omlette

My awesome super healthy breakfast!

So I had leftover, mushroom quinoa from this fancy organic place and spicy cold avocado soup.  I just stir fried the quinoa with oyster mushroom, then cracked an egg scrambled it a little , drizzled with some freegan cheese and bam! For the final touch since I usually put hot sauce on my eggs, I opened my spicy avocado soup and healthy breakfast was made.  Really surprised at how quick it was and cheap! Compared to going out for brunch.  My cost was just 10 cents for the eggs!

Yoga Summer Solstice

What I love about NYC, is the effort they make in offering FREE events in the city. Its one of the reasons I hesitate to move somewhere MUCH MUCH cheaper to live because all the extra stuff you get from being a NY'er .  We have free concerts, free plays, fitness events, product give aways etc.

The best one this summer has been the Free YOGA on summer solstice event in Times Square.

Definately an AMAZING event, I know its passed since but definately marking it in my calendar for next year!  SO FREE and SOO SOO fun.  On top of it being just so cool doing open Yoga in Times Square and being broadcast world wide, it was just nice to be around a these YOGI's in NYC.  Ok best reason to motivate your non yogi friends to go is the awesome GOODIE bags and the sponsor village. Free healthy drinks, snacks and Yoga mat.

Deluxe Sandwich

Awesome rescue, Grilled chicken,  Tomato, Avocado,  Cheese, and fancy Sprouts dang NYC is even fancy with its sandwiches! 

Cauliflower Fried Rice

BEST BEST DIET discovery ever! Why did no one tell me about this before?  And best part, is its so easy and while more expensive than most my meals cause Cauliflower is expensive, amazing meal for super low carbs and calories.  Just grate or food process Cauliflower.  Then wok cook everything peas, egg, and cauliflower for 5 min max under high heat and you done!

Falafel Cabbage Ramen

I'm always trying to find creative ways to make use of my leftovers.  And this one was because I had some OA Falafeels left over.  Basically, I just cooked my ramen as usual and then dumped in my leftovers.  It came out great the Falafel non fried of course, gave the soup an extra texture and spice level.  Of course since Ramen is so high in sodium I never add more salt, this makes me feel less guilty when eating ramen.

Since my ramen cost $.16 and the OA was a freegan find, my entire meal cost me $.16!

Homemade Kombucha : Yeast Strands

Don't be alarmed when you see Reddish Brown edges on your SCOBY.  It's natural yeast strands.  When your viewing blogs or buying a SCOBY, typically the have cut and shaped it into perfect visually pleasing circle.  And its typically solid white. Nature is not prefect and things rarely form the way products are packaged.  The above picture is how my KOMBUCHA developed, you can see thin layer off the BABY SCOBY and yeast strands below it.  This is not mold or out of the norm.

New Brewers or people who don't understand KOMBUCHA may get freaked out by it like my coworkers but don't be alarmed.  If it bothers you can you trim it.  Also sometimes it will be a slimy looking loose strand in your brew, you can strain it out as well.

Kombucha : CAN I CUT MY SCOBY?

When you first start brewing, your SCOBY's are precious and scarce so it really becomes a priority to create multiple baby Scoby's so that you can store for emergencies ( like mold or vinegar eels ) or just to pass on to friends.  So after my Second BATCH of KOMBUCHA, I wanted to experiment and see if I could cut up a large baby SCOBY into smaller pieces to brew.  I took a big SCOBY that I got from my Gallon jar and cut it into 1/3 pieces.  And just brewed with one of the smaller SCOBYs and YES!!!!! You can totally cut up your SCOBY's and they will grow baby SCOBY's!

As pictured above , you can't even see the mother SCOBY because the baby SCOBY becomes even larger than the Mother.

FYI, in all my brews so far the baby SCOBY will develop to the size of the exposed surface of your brew jar.

Note on cutting your SCOBY, avoid using metal.  The brewer in my class was very casual and just cut it quickly with metal sissors.  But he does this for a living and has tons of back up SCOBYs so I just used a plastic knife.

Sterilize everything your SCOBY will come in contact with.  Sterilize with Vinegar or plain KOMBUCHA, or hot boiling water.  DO NOT clean with ANTIBACTERIAL soap (if you do make sure to rinse alot) your SCOBY will not like it.

Panera Bread work lunches

Lentil Soup in Bread Bowl

So amazing! I was lucky to randomly stumble upon a haul from Panera and it was awesome they put still warm bread in bags just filled with breads and wrapped in parchment paper.  I took a couple and froze them.  This way they wouldn't go stale. And just popped them in microwave to heat up and it worked bread was chewy and crispy!  All my coworkers were so jealous.  I mean their soup in a bowl is super expensive!  And what some people don't know is they sell the bowls individually too.  Either way, I had some freebie gourmet soups I got from an event.  

To make this super easy work lunch, all I did was microwave soup in my glass tupperware bowl so it was hot.  And microwaved the bread for a quick bit till toasty. Then put the soup in the bread bowl!  So easy!

The best was I had some curry soup and left over Kale Salad ( always try to sneak in Kale).. this had people  seriously hungry :)

Awesome combo leftover meal KungPao chicken with rice, steamed veggies and quinoa

I just had to take a picture of this cause the meal was so that awesome!  On a dive some bystander left a full chinese take out meal of Kung Pao Chicken and yellow rice with broccoli.  I had a bowl of steam veggies and quinoa from another dive.  So at work I mixed the two, and bam awesome healthier meal was created!  I also added more white rice to stretch the meat further!  So far I've had two full lunches from this and I think I have at least 3 more to go!

Taco Fried Rice

So I've been so busy lately, I just wanted to update on my meals.  I almost never pay for any food food any more except when I go out.  I've pretty much allocated my budget that used to be for groceries for entertainment/ eating out / socializing.  It's truly amazing how much better I eat and to top it off how little I need to cook.  Just because I'm getting all my groceries for free these days, doesn't mean that I don't occasionally cook to spice things up and stretch those meals even further.  

So I had some left over sale hamburger meat in freezer and onions so I added it to my pre made brown rice bean packaged meal from this super high end food place.  Basically they have no meat in theres and the spinach is raw, theres squash, corn, black bean and peppers in their dish. I decided to use up some my my left overs to make this more savory and fatty.  

So I basically stir fried everything to make a brown fried rice.  I added too much salt and there was so much non rice stuff, I decided to stretch the meal further with left over white rice.

Turning my original freegan find into an additional meal.  Or 4 diet sized servings.

Candy Candy Awesome Dive Haul

 

I just had to take picture all the candies were not expired, wrapped and in super clean separate bags.  We left so much it was such a shame!  I will not be needed to buy breath mint and gum for a long time!

Bitter Melon Tea recipe

 Why I get this bitter tasting veggie? Its known to be great for clearing up impurities, acne, anti tumor and anti cancer and good for suppressing appetites.  

To Prep, just cut off ends. 

Cut length wise.

  Scoop out pulp and seeds in the middle.  And just cut and put in pot of boiling water.

When you done, the liquid is the tea.  And you can do whatever you wish with the bittermelon. Make it to smoothie.  Add to popular pork and bittermelon stir fry.

Warning it is potent stuff so don't have to much and if your prego you can't have it or when you on your period.  It induces abortive effects.

Dollar Veggie bag from Chinese Supermarket

Some potatoes, Zucchinni, 2 bitter melons all for $1

This is why I love chinese supermarkets, the Bitter mellon was especially good deal cause their like $2/lb normally.  I made a huge stir fry dish from zuchhini, Bittermelon tea and added bittermelon to pork dish as a meat filler.  And the potatoes I used for mashed kale potatoes.  So many dishes all for $1.

Left Over Cooking Ideas: BBQ Burger Lunch Combo

HOW I save money on eating out and food

I love leftovers.  It becomes almost a game to me.. I ask myself ways to extend a meal especially when I'm eating out.  Or getting treated by work.  Like this day I got a lunch order of a BBQ Burger with Bacon and french fries.  I made it my goal to start with the Fries since those get cold and soggy and are not good for left overs.  Then I ate the small coleslaw side.  Once I ate that I barely could finish the Burger ! Hint hint that was the point.  But I made an effort eat half of it and save the rest for another meal.  There is a method to my madness lol I always get bacon if its FREE aka company is treating or same priced to another menu item.  I never eat it and just save it for BREAKFASTS!  So this ONE lunch order I was able to stretch out into 3 meals.

Meal two above, all I did was take out the bacon.  Fry it with an egg, and toasted leftover bread I had from another meal and topped with cheap american cheese.  To make a cheap next day breakfast sandwich.  ($.10 for the egg, $.10 for cheap cheese) so $.20 extra cents!

AND MEAL THREE, was just half the burger with the bacon taken out, the meat portions were huge on this so all there meals were filling.  And to jazz it up, I added some lettuce and tomato after reheating the burger.