"frugal" news and stories

American Inventor Spot did a taste test of several types of non-name brand sodas, not comparing them to the major brand equivalents, but just to see how they stood on their own. After all, you can get quite a deal when you buy the store-brand soda instead of a national brand. With brands from Albertsons and Wal-Mart, they rated each soda on flavor, aftertaste, scent, consistency and design before giving it an overall score. Their favorite was Dr. Bold, a Dr. Pepper facsimile from Albertsons.

The problem with generic sodas is that because they vary from place to place, it's hard to know when you're going to get a good one. Fortunately, they're usually inexpensive enough that even if the soda isn't that great, you're only out about a quarter, but I still like to know where I can get a good one. For example, Safeway Select sodas are always on sale and are very good, not to mention that they seem to come in an almost endless number of flavors (though you might want to think twice before buying the diet orange). It's worth picking up a six pack or four when you have a chance.

Do you buy store brand sodas, and if so, tell us where in the comments.

Health magazine put together their list of what they considered to be the "best foods for busy women." What they clearly meant to say was the "best pre-packaged meals/snacks for busy women". There isn't anything necessarily wrong with this sort of meal, but I would hardly go so far as to say it is the "best," since my definition of "best" does not generally include a lot of shelf-stable pre-packaged meals. Nevertheless, here are their picks:

Breakfast
South Beach Diet Denver-Style Breakfast Wrap
Post Raisin Bran Cereal Bars

Lunch
Starkist Albacore Lemon & Cracked Pepper Tuna Fillet
Thai Kitchen Thai Peanut Noodle Car

Dinner
Lean Cuisine Dinnertime Selections Chicken Portobello
Uncle Ben's Ready Rice Whole Grain Brown

Snack
Kettle Brand Bakes Hickory Honey BBQ

Dessert
Edy's/Dreyer's Slow Churned Light Ice Cream French Silk
100 Percent Whole Grain Chips Ahoy! Cookies

Source

Do you have a couple of hard-boiled eggs sitting around? Instead of throwing them out, assuming that you kept them refrigerated or, at least did not cook them more than a day or two ago, peel the eggs and put them to good use. Hard boiled eggs do not keep as long as their uncooked counterparts, so don't try cooking with the ones you used in an Easter egg hunt that might have been in the sun.  A large egg has about 70 calories and is an excellent source of protein, with about 6 grams per egg. There are approximately 5 grams of fat in an egg, with 3.5 of them unsaturated, and they are all contained in the yolk. For more information on eggs, look here, but if you're just looking for a recipe or two, food blogs are a great place to look.

• Deviled Eggs 
• Egg Salad Sandwich 
• Hard Cooked Egg Cookies 
• Vegetarian Scotch Eggs 
• Son-in-law Eggs

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Perusing the latest issue of Cook's Country, a publication I quite enjoy, I was astounded when I came to the "When Things Go Wrong in the Kitchen" section at the back of the magazine. It is intended to be funny, but what it really shows is that people need to learn when to throw things away. No matter how thrifty you are or how closely you need to watch your wallet, sometimes it is simply best to throw away your mistake and start over from scratch. A good time to consider this action is when food is burnt, bad or if you have been eating leftovers for more than a couple of days.

Witness the following incidents, all harvested from the kitchen disaster stories in Cook's Country:

• A woman wanted to make homemade noodles the way her grandmother did. The recipe looked like it would not make enough, so she added to it until it was several times the original size. She and her husband ate noodles for more than two weeks and it was years before they wanted to eat them again.