Equipment Guide: Cellfire

Hey folks! I found a new way to save money through the Southern Savers site we discusssed yesterday. The product is called Cellfire and it lets you send coupons to your cell phone, which can then be displayed on the screen for the clerk when you check out. Of course, it only works with their partner stores, but since they include Kroger, Gamestop, Sears and a bunch of fast food restaurants, you're certain to get some use out of it. Go to their website here to check it out.

One more thing: you can also load coupons onto your Kroger Plus discount card, if you don't have a cellphone that works with Cellfire. All you have to do is hand over the card like normal, and the coupons work automatically.

Equipment Guide: Southern Savers

Hey folks! Sorry about the lack of updates recently. Life gets in the way sometimes, but it should be smooth sailing from here on out!

Today's Equipment Guide covers a site a recently discovered called Southern Savers. Every day these good folks post sale items, coupon codes, and deal summaries for a variety of grocery stores. From the name you can probably guess that they focus on southern grocery stores, but one of the main foci (plural of focus!) is Kroger, which is a nationwide company.

Check it out!

Tomorrow: More Recipes!

Equipment Guide: Breadmaker

Note: Sorry guys, your humble chef has been stricken with the flu for the past several days. I apologize for the interruption in service.

So, you want to make pizza, but are discouraged by the time and effort it takes to make dough? You like hot, warm bread but are far too lazy to go through all the steps yourself? Good news! Man has invented a solution: the bread maker!

Man, I never new how useful one of these bad boys was until i got one for myself. I mean, sure, I liked homemade pizza and all that jazz, but making dough is just so much darned work! Now, with the bread maker, you just throw all the ingredients in the bread pan, hit a few buttons, and you're done!

Personally, I love hot, homemade bread, so that's what I use it for most often, but as I mentioned above, its perfect for homemade pizza dough, calzones, banana bread, rolls, buns or any number of recipes that require you to make dough first. You can even use it to mix dough for chicken pot pies!

Cost: I got my bread maker for about $40. You can probably get one cheaper if you shop around at consignment shops or the Goodwill. Once you have yeast and flour, you can make all kinds of dough and bread for literally pennies!

Equipment Guide: George Foreman Grill

If you're a bachelor of any sort, odds are you probably live in an apartment. One major problem with apartments (cooking wise) is that in most areas it is illegal to use a gas or charcoal grill on the premises.

The solution?

This bad boy:


The George Foreman Grill is a life saver to bachelor's everywhere. Since you can't use a real grill, this will help fill the void.

Burgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts, even whole steaks can be cooked on one of these grills, inside, and perfectly legally. The inside part is especially handy for the geeky among us, who are known to burst into the flame upon contact with bright sunlight.

Clean up is pretty easy too. Since all the cooking surfaces are non stick, you just use the little plastic doohickey in the box to scrape the surfaces clean, wipe down with whatever kitchen cleanser you have laying around.

The George Foreman has one final advantage, especially important in these uncertain financial times: its cheap. You can get a grill big enough to cook a small steak or a couple burger at once for about $20 bucks.

One warning: The Teflon on the cooking surfaces eventually wear out. I had to replace my grill after about 2 years, but at $20 a pop, that's not terribly taxing.

Equipment Guide: Supercook.com

Hey everyone! Welcome to the first installment of "Equipment Guide" where I'll be talking about appliances and resources that have made feeding myself easier.


I found Supercook.com through another blog I read called The Simple Dollar. Trent, the blogger over there, recommended it as a way to save money. However, I use it as a way to be lazy!

Here's how it works:

First, you tell Supercook all the ingredients you have in the house. Then, it searches online recipe databases for recipes that you can make using only what you have at home. It will also make suggestions if you only need 1 or 2 more ingredients. For instance, if you were trying to make yesterday's salmon recipe and you put in salmon, olive oil, parsley, and basil, it would tell you that all you needed to buy was lemon juice to finish the recipe (Supercook assumes you have salt, pepper, water, and sugar laying around).

Since the program eliminated all recipes that you lack ingredients for, you're guaranteed to be able to cook dinner without going to the grocery store. In fact, sometimes I use the suggestions as a shopping list, knowing that I only need to buy corn starch or Italian dressing to cook dinner, rather than buying a whole new meal.

Cost: Free!