This is my only “regular” weekly post, and it revolves around stores in my area, and food that we eat. We practice “Eat what you store, store what you eat”. Since I try to eat “Paleo”, this means very little food that includes any grains, legumes, or refined sugars.

This week, a little change, I will pick a single item from my local stores, then outline uses, recipes, etc. Not everyone can buy $100 of “extra” groceries each week. This will be a “Baby steps” method of getting you started.

I will also be buying in bulk, typically 20 or so of the items highlighted, in order to save over a longer period. I saved over 20% of my food bill last year buy buying in bulk, and eating food purchased at the previous year’s prices. Some items may require processing of some sort, canning, dehydrating, etc.

• Stores I will be choosing from will include Publix, Winn Dixie, SaveaLot, and WalMart. With most sale information being pulled from SouthernSavers.com.
• I will also include some version of this intro every Wednesday.
• Let’s get started!

This week’s item is:

Winn Dixie’s Juicy Juice Drinks, 64 oz or 8 pk., at $3.84 ($1.92)
Coupons:
-$1/3 Juicy Juice products printable
-$1/2 Nestle Juicy Juice printable
-$1/2 Nestle Juicy Juice items printable
(use $1/2, makes it $1.42)

USE #1: Wine

I chose Juicy Juice this week because it offers something for everyone in my household. The kids drink it all the time. I use it to make young wines, and the wife drinks it to put up with me. In my post, Hurricane Prep, Day 4 – Happy Wife, Happy Life!, I mentioned using this to make wine, with a kit from OzTops.

I thought about the whole “I gotta buy a kit, too?” thing, and was annoyed at myself for not coming up with a better do it yourself answer. Here’s my fist option for a DIY Wine making kit:

• A 2 liter bottle + cap.
• a drill with a 1/4 inch bit
• A sheet of craft foam, costs about $80 cents at Michaels, Walmart, or some other craft store. These sheets are roughly the shape and size of a piece of paper, only a little thicker and made of closed cell foam. Kids use them for crafts all the time. Once sheet will make dozens of gaskets.
• scissors
• a razor blade or very sharp knife

The process:

1. Drill a hole in the center of the cap.
2. Using the cap as a guide, cut out a circle (using the scissors) that JUST fits inside the cap at the very top, being sure to have the foam edges flush with the inside of the cap.
3. Cut a slit in the center of the cap half the width of the hole.
4. Test by installing the gasket into the cap, and then the cap onto the bottle. Squeeze the bottle. If the only air escapes if from the slit in the gasket, you are one. If not, restart at step 2.

To use:

1. Wash & sanitize the bottle and the cap
2. Pour a 64 oz bottle of room temperature Juicy Juice into the 2 liter bottle.
3. Add some live yeast. Brewing yeast works best, but bread yeast will work fine. We aren’t trying to win any awards here.
4. Cap snugly with your gasketed cap.
5. Gently shake to mix yeast
6. Place the bottle on top of your fridge for 3 days. The gasket should start pushing outwards, venting one-way through the slit. This is what its supposed to do.
7. On day 2,3,or 4, taste the liquid. When it reaches a flavor/strength/dryness that you like, pour the liquid into a second sterilized 2 liter bottle, trying to keep all of the sediment out of the second bottle. It won’t hurt you but can have an aftertaste.
8. Chill and serve.

An alternative is to get a heavy, uninflated kids balloon, and a thin pin. At the farthest end of the balloon away from the opening you will find a thicker section of rubber. Gently push the pin through this, then remove, leaving a tiny hole behind. Use this in step #4 above in place of the cap. The balloon will expand, but will allow some gases to escape through the tiny hole you made, but will keep anything from entering your bottle.

Simple.

Use #2: Jelly

The Purchase and Yeild:

$14.20 for 10 bottles of Juicy Juice, if you can get all the coupons, otherwise $19.20, still a fair deal.

or

$28.40 for 20 bottles Juicy Juice, if you can get all the coupons, otherwise $38.40, still a fair deal.

Wine yield: 10 bottles would yield about 20 – 750ml equivalent bottles of wine, after pouring off the dregs, 40 – 750ml equivalent bottles  for 20 bottles. Cost per bottle is then $0.71, not counting in yeast, or sugar if you boost the alcohol (add up to a cup per batch when you add the yeast, hold back some of the juice though, it WILL overflow!) Try different flavors, some work MUCH better than others! And the good ones are a superb value at less than $1 per bottle, and usually taste better than wines TWICE that price! (Honestly, they tend to taste like wine coolers.)

Jelly Yield:

1 -64oz bottle of juice yields 14 8 ounce jars. Therefore, 10 bottles of juice would yield 140 – 8ounce jars, or 70 pints…. double for 20 bottles of juice. that’s a LOT of jelly!

Not counting jars, sugar, or pectin, the juice costs 0.10 per 8 ounce jar, or .20 cents per pint, based on the coupon price. Not bad at ALL!

And for what it’s worth…you can always drink it….it IS fruit juice!

Let me know what you think of the new format….this is a journey, not a destination….

Peace,
db