Calzone Dough Recipe

A family favorite dinner is Calzones! My kids and husband loves my easy calzone dough recipe and requests it often. You can stuff these yummy dough pockets with everything from pizza toppings to shredded roast beef, vegetable or even just cheese.

The only thing you have to remember is to give yourself a couple hours ahead of time to mix the dough and then let it rise before rolling out. Plus, making your own homemade pizza is not full of preservatives or additives. You can actually read all the ingredients.

Calzone Dough Recipe:

Two hours before baking, mix dough and set aside in a warm place to rise. If you kitchen is really cold you can let it rise covered, in the oven turned OFF.

• 2 tbl. yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tbl. olive oil (you can use canola or veg. oil too)
• 2 tsp salt (I use 1 1/2 to cut the sodium a bit)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 5 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in you mixing bowl. I use my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook. Let this sit for five minutes then add everything else but the flour and stir well. Now add the flour one cup at a time mixing in well. I let my dough hook knead the dough for a couple minutes then I place the ball of dough in a well greased large bowl and flip once so the top of the dough is oiled as well. Cover with plastic wrap and set to rise. This makes two very large calzones or four smaller ones. This dough is great for making pizza crust as well as you can see below.

Please feel free to visit our recipe page with over a 100 family friendly recipes. I am a pretty frugal cook so if you are looking for frugal meals that are mostly made from scratch this is a great list to get some ideas from cakes, salads, appetizers and main dishes and more.

Our Favorite Ground Beef, Ground Turkey and Chicken Recipes

Ground meats are a frugal way to cook and stretch the ever increasing grocery prices. Save money and follow some of these yummy family friendly ground beef, turkey and chicken recipes. Our Favorite Ground Beef, Ground Turkey and Chicken Recipes will save you money but more importantly your family will be happy when you serve up these scrumptious family friendly recipes.

Ground Meat Recipes:

1. One Pot Slow Cooker Supper

2. Crockpot Turkey Meatballs

3. Freezer Breakfast Burritos
4. Easy Notsagna
5. Greek Chicken Burgers
6. Homemade Meatballs
7. Cheeseburger Quesadillas
8. Taco Salad
9. Mexican Meatball Soup

And here is a great tip on lowering the fat content in your ground beef and pork: Tip to lower fat in ground beef.
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November Grocery Pantry Stock Up Prices

In this day of rising food prices, I am always looking to save. Every month I try to stock my deep pantry when I find rock bottom grocery prices. I like to keep a stockpile sale price list so I know when to stock up.

November grocery stock up shopping is the time to save on:

1. Baking supplies. From butter to flour and sugar, stock up now. Butter freezes well.

2. Snacks and party foods. Holiday gatherings spur the stores to use these foods as loss leaders.

3. Canned goods. If you live in a state that has case lot sales you may find better deals then but for the rest of us, November is the month to stockpile canned goods.

3. Soda and adult beverage ingredients. Again party season.



Check out our entire page of Frugal Tips.

Processing And Freezing Bulk Ground Beef

About every 6-8 months I order 40 pounds of grass fed 93/7 ground beef from a bulk order.

Here are my tips for processing and freezing ground beef.

Stock Up Alert - Wheat And Beef Prices Rising

Stock Up Alert - Wheat and Beef Prices Rising

Recent late season snow and flooding have damaged wheat fields and will affect harvests this year. Experts are expecting prices to rise.

Beef prices will be rising as well with damage to feed crops and even loss of some cattle from recent storms.

Flour and products made with flour like pasta and baking mixes may rise as well so I will be stocking up.
I have picked up 20 pounds of flour today and I will get some more in the large sealed plastic bags from Walmart. These are great for my long term storage and I keep them in large plastic bins and rotate.

Watch the video for a stock up alert and what I am buying.

Stock Up Alert - Vanilla Bean Shortage

Stock Up Alert - Vanilla Bean Shortage!! Get ready to start paying a whole lot more for vanilla. 

Due to a vanilla bean shortage in Madagascar, vanilla prices have been skyrocketing.  According to CBS News:

Seventy-nine percent of the world’s vanilla fields are in Madagascar. A shortage there has helped drive up the cost of vanilla beans from about $11 per pound in 2011 to $193 by the end of 2016.

via CBS

So if you bake or use vanilla stock up now before prices rise even more. Vanilla lasts a long time to I always keep an extra bottle or too in my deep pantry. How to stock the pantry on a budget.

Stock Up Tip To Save Money On Vanilla!!

But here is a tip on how I just bought two bottles at the old price. Be on the look out at your grocery store in the vanilla section. It looks like the newer shipments reflected the new high price for vanilla, but their were older stock of the organic vanilla, even better, at 3.99 a bottle. I bought two.

The newer shipments of vanilla the same price were triple that and already $22 for a large bottle. So keep your eyes peeled and stock up on vanilla now. This is why I really believe in food storage. You are not panicked because you already have stocked up at the lower prices.

Check out my 50 Best Frugal Tips for Saving Money

Friday Vlog 1/13/17 What's In Store For 2017

Personal goals, Food Saver and more for Friday 1/13.

Growing Sweet Potatoes, Dehydrating Tomatoes & New Soft Inexpensive Sheets - Frugal Friday

Now that summer is over we are back on a regular blogging schedule and it is time to bring back Frugal Fridays. I love saving money and sharing our frugal tips with you and a little bit of daily life in our home.

I checked the sweet potatoes we grow in the old wheel barrow this week. I have more out in a front planter but they need at least another month. I think the sweet potatoes out back can be dug up in another couple of weeks. I want to have them cured by Thanksgiving. Here is the post on how we grow sweet potatoes in an old wheel barrow.

Last Christmas I asked for a Nesco dehydrator so I could try dehydrating some of our garden surplus to save for our pantry and long term food storage. First, I did a bunch of herbs and when I had a bumper crop of tomatoes one week, I did tomatoes. Four trays dehydrated down to a quart sized mason jar of dehydrated tomatoes.

Aren't they gorgeous? I used some the other day in a pot of pasta and they tasted so good. I just soaked them in some hot water and put them in water and all.

I needed new sheets for our bed and I picked up these from Walmart. I had bought them in blue for my girls and when they were so soft and cozy, I snagged some for us. I think they were around $30 for a queen set and they are so soft so if you need a set of sheets and don't want to spend a lot of money, I recommend these. I don't have the package still but they are their mid priced sheets.

Stocking The Pantry On A Budget

Whether you live alone or have a large family, stocking a pantry on a budget is one of the biggest money saving moves you can make. Food and paper goods as well as hygiene products are a huge part of every home's budget. Why not save where you can. Here is how I stock the pantry on a budget.

I am going to break down in a series all of the ways we stock our pantry and how we use it and keep it organized and used because there is no point stocking the pantry if you are not going to use it and cook it up before it spoils.

You know how I feel about grocery shopping and stocking my pantry. I can care less about clothes or purses but give me a stocked pantry and I get so excited. It means security and plenty for my family. You will want to use some of my tips cause see that basket above? It was jammed full and had steak and chicken breasts as well as craft beers and it was all just over $100. I think $107 to be exact. 82 items for that price is amazing to me.

On average when I coupon and shop the sale cycles I save anywhere from $50 to $70 off of my usual grocery bill. That is at least $200 a month and one benefit of a fully stocked pantry is that if money is tight one week and I don't want to spend money on groceries, I can skip to the following week and cook from what I have.

Budget Friendly Tips For Stocking The Pantry

1. Stock what you will use. Make a list for a couple weeks of what you are cooking with and actually using. That fancy bottle of olives may have looked good but at $8 you could have bought pounds flour.

2. Use coupons. I have started spending time each week planning my shopping list. I stopped couponing for a couple of years but deciding to really get our food storage accomplished as part of our emergency preps made me decide to get back at it so I could save money on groceries and have extra in the budget for long term food. Now when I see how much I am saving, I am so mad at myself for ever stopping.

3. If you don't want to use coupons, then make sure to check out your grocery sale papers when they come and then shop the loss leaders. Loss leaders are the items on special that week that they are selling at great low prices to lure you in and hoping you spend way more. Sometimes I will pop in a store just for those stock up items.

4. Here is the main way you will save big bucks. BUY way more than you need when the price is low. Here is an example. I was in Target, the hand soap I like was marked way low at .69, with a 20% off deal, that made each hand soap .55. Almost half of the usual $1 price. So I bought 20. Stock up on the sale cycles and then wait until they are on sale again before you have to buy them.

Shop at discount grocers or local markets. Our local produce market is such a good bargain and they sell bulk bags of beans and grains as well. You can watch my youtube video of my latest haul here.

5. Consider using subscribe and save from Amazon. We have been ordering groceries and paper goods from Amazon for years now. Once a month my box comes and it has a few regular items like our coffee and toilet paper and then I switch up other items that come every few months and you can't beat the prices if know your price points. I will do a whole post on what I feel is worth order from Amazon to stock your pantry or emergency food storage. And I always make sure I order five items because then you get an extra 15% off the prices. 

Amazon Prime Day is coming up in a few days too, so I am hoping to snag some really good deals. You can find details below.

6. Now cook up what you have and save money eating at home. I am experimenting with good shelf stable pantry foods so I always have what I need beyond just canned soup and beans.

We are now on youtube and am really loving that medium. A new video will be posted tomorrow on how to clean your vacuum and get rid of any smells and make it clean well again. Come subscribe and say hi.

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Free Emergency Water Storage Ideas

How to store water for the long term and without spending any money. Free ways to store water for emergencies using containers you already have.

This last month I have been focusing on emergency water storage because in the case of a natural or man-made disaster, you absolutely cannot live without WATER!