Grocery Haul for Two and Pumpin Pie Coffee Creamer

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Good morning! It's Friday and time for my weekly grocery haul. With Christmas approaching quickly I'm working on multiple projects. I like to make a few gift baskets for friends and have a few extra gift items on hand to give friends when they visit (or when I visit them). Food type gifts are easy to make and always appreciated by those who receive them. So this week I purchased items to make a couple of things. So, where to budget that in? Is it under 'gifts' or 'grocery'. I'll give the totals with this included, but break it down for the gift items. I'll figure out later where I want to budget that in.

The first stop was Winco. This is a picture of the basic food items purchased for the week..


Fruit, veggies, half n half, chips, some yummy Butter Toffee coffee creamer an 18 count of eggs and 2lbs hamburger. 
 



I know I said I wasn't going to buy anymore for the freezer, but, it was $1.76 a pound. A very good deal around here. I usually am not a big fan of these types of hamburger packages. The quality, in my past experience, wasn't that good. Since it's been so many years since I have bought it this way, I figured I'd give it another chance and bought 2 of them. If it's better than my memory of it is I'll get some more next week. I'll just have to wait and see.

Now for the Christmas gift items from the bulk bins..


I'm planning on making a big batch of granola. I use to make all the time for my family when the kids were at home. Tobin and I eat it occasionally but it's been forever since I've made some. I thought this would be a great gift to put in quart size canning jars. Put a cute label on it and tie some ribbon around it and it would be a perfect addition to a gift basket (with a homemade potholder :). 

So I bought old fashioned oats, black and golden raisins, dried bananas, coconut flakes, and mixed nuts. 

The other 2 items are for making a batch of cocoa mix. I still need to get a couple more things for the mix, but for now I purchased the powdered milk and cocoa powder.

The cost of groceries only was: $35.00
The cost of the dried ingredients that I'll be using for gifts was: $26.00
Total of all Winco items: $61



The next stop was Costco...



My husbands favorite chips were on sale and he had to have some Fritos :). I picked up a big bag of frozen stir fry veggies because I was completely out. I also got 5#'s of grated cheddar cheese, ranch dressing, cheese slices, tortillas, a 4 pack of crescent rolls, mixed nuts, and honey. The honey will be used in making the granola but not all of it and I do use honey so I'm including it in the grocery total.

The total for Costco was: $85.00
The grand total (including gift items) for this week was: $146.00


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Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer

A few weeks ago I purchased some pumpkin spice coffee creamer (non dairy) from the grocery store and I did not like it at all.  After buying it I thought, I should have just made my own. So much better tasting!  I wanted to share my recipe with you this week.





Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer
 
1 cup half-n-half
½ cup sugar
3T canned pumpkin
½ t vanilla
½ t cinnamon
¼ t ginger
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t cloves

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat until cane juice crystals dissolved and ingredients are well combined. Enjoy in a hot cup of coffee. Store in refrigerator.

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