Shaw's Bargain Meal week of 11/6-11/12

This week at Shaw's, I'm mainly excited about yet another Catalina sale that will allow me to replenish my dwindling supplies of Progresso Soup, Chex Mix, and Fiber One Bars. Definitely all processed and packaged, but my kids and hubby eat it up like there's no tomorrow, and all those Box Tops for Education should ensure that every kid at my daughters' school gets a new laptop or something.

Apart from that, there really isn't anything too exciting in terms of meat or produce sales, at least to me. For this week's bargain meal, I came across a recipe for Cheesy Spinach Lasagna which calls for cream cheese and bacon, of all things. Shaw's Cream Cheese is .99 for an 8 oz. brick, and Butterball Turkey Bacon is $2 for a 6 oz. package (you might be able to do better than that with Shaw's brand bacon.) Shaw's boxed vegetables are .89 a package, if you need spinach, and Barilla lasagna noodles are 1.67 a package. The recipe calls for provolone cheese and a little cottage cheese, but I think you can substitute and improvise there if you don't have those.

To be honest, I really don't plan my meals around sales. I have enough food stored in my cupboards and freezer to last a long time. For my weekly shopping, I buy things that are very cheap with coupons to replenish my pantry, and I buy milk and fruits and vegetables. If the sales aren't good at Shaw's, I get my milk at the gas station and my produce and eggs at a local farm stand. So, the bargain meal is definitely a nifty idea and all, but if all I had to go on was what was on sale at the local grocery stores, it would be really tough to come up with 7 different frugal dinners each week!

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal 11/6-11/12- Turkey Day!

I know it's not actually Thanksgiving. I just feel a little silly because I've been roasting a turkey today. Stop and Shop has Shady Brook Farms frozen turkeys on sale for .47 a pound which, if I'm not mistaken, is an amazing price. I don't think meat can be much cheaper than that unless they're giving it away. So I bought a little 10 lb. turkey for less than $5 last night- I left it in a cooler in my car because it was 29 degrees overnight- and started roasting it early this morning.

• Directions on how to cook a turkey from its frozen state without thawing it first are here. I have to say, it was very easy to do and much less messy than dealing with a nonfrozen, slimy bird. The only tricky part is making sure that you remove the giblets and neck partway through cooking, because you can't get them out when it's frozen solid. My 10 lb. bird took about 6 hours to cook and the turkey was very, very moist and tasty.
• When the turkey was roasted, I let it rest for a while and then cut off all the useable meat. I'm not a fan of dark meat but my husband will eat it, so I saved all those parts separately. The white meat will be frozen to use in recipes (I'm thinking I will make Turkey Tetrazzini and Turkey and Rice Casserole.) Then I cut up the carcass and used it to make stock, which is still cooking right now. Once it's done, I'll freeze that in containers as well.
• Between the meat and stock it looks like this turkey will provide at least 5-6 meals. Not bad!

I'm glad I ended up doing this because we're having Thanksgiving at my parents' this year, so we won't have our own turkey to get leftovers from. Of course, this wouldn't be a bad time to buy your Thanksgiving turkey, if you have the freezer space (I sure don't). I wasn't sure how I would like the Shady Brook Farms turkey, but it was very tasty (they do season it with brine or something because it's a tad salty, but not bad.)