Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello, all... I'm going to skip the bargain meal post this week because I'm away for the weekend, and we all know what bargain meal every sale is pointing to this week... our Thanksgiving Feast! I don't plan on doing much other cooking this week- I'm going to haul a couple of pre-cooked meals out of the freezer and keep things easy while I get ready for the big day. And of course, there will be leftovers galore after that. I hope everyone has a happy, safe, blessed and TASTY Thanksgiving!

(scared turkey picture by Scott Bauer source ARS license Public Domain)

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 11/13-11/19

This week at Stop and Shop, there are still frozen Shady Brook Farms turkeys for .47/lb! I have to tell you, I am so glad I went ahead and roasted a turkey last weekend. It ended up making enough white meat for 6 meals, enough dark meat for my husband to snack on all week, and a whole gallon of delicious broth- for less than five dollars. I will share with you a recipe I tried this week-- I wanted to use up potatoes because I had 2 big bags of potatoes in my cupboard. I made Turkey Potato Tetrazzini, following this recipe here, but with some changes. I made my own "cream of turkey" soup using this recipe here. I didn't end up using all the cheese that the recipe calls for- I just mixed a little parmesan into my cream of turkey soup and put a little shake of parmesan between each layer of potatoes. Finally, I used carrots instead of broccoli. I served it with a side of vegetables and some cranberry sauce (hey, it's on sale left and right so why not eat it?)

At the same time, I made a whole batch of more traditional turkey tetrazzini with spaghetti and froze it up for later. I am finding that it's almost as easy to make 2 dinners at a time than only one, and it saves me so much time later! The only downside is, I hope that we aren't all sick of turkey leftovers before Thanksgiving even happens. I'll definitely do my best to try to space out our meals throughout the winter, without forgetting about all that turkey that I froze!

Shaw's Bargain Meal of the week, 11/13- 11/19

This week at Shaw's, boneless chicken breast chicken is 1.99 a pound, asparagus is 1.77/lb (until Sunday only!) and Rice-a-Roni is $1/ box. You can make a nice casserole with all of the above; try a variation on Asparagus, Chicken, Wild Rice Casserole.

If you need some "cream of" soups in the pantry, Shaw's has its own brand on sale for .89 a can.
However, I am trying to break my own personal recipe addiction to Cream of Chicken soup. There isn't much going for it nutritionally and it can be kind of expensive. But I just love how it tastes even though my inner whole foods snob is screaming. Last week, after I made turkey broth, I experimented with making "cream of turkey soup" that I could use in the dinners I planned to make from all that leftover turkey. I used this recipe here- I didn't have all the seasonings listed, but it still came out tasting really good. I'm sure once we get used to using homemade cream-of-whatever soup, we won't even notice the difference.

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.)

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 10/30-11-5

This week, Stop and Shop has White Gem Homestyle Roasting Chickens on sale for .99/lb. I've seen better, but it isn't a bad price. A 5 lb bag of All Purpose Potatoes are 1.77- again, not great, but not awful. (If you live near Shaw's, they have 5 lb. bags of russet potatoes for .99 this week!) Try a roast chicken and potatoes recipe- here's a suggestion that sounds good.

Asparagus is on sale for 1.77/lb, which is a great price for asparagus. I have tried to like asparagus because my husband really likes it, and I found that the skinnier, more delicate asparagus is tastier to me. I found directions here on cooking asparagus in the microwave, which was really easy and they came out tasting very good.

Shaw's Bargain Meal week of 10/30-11/5- Quesadillas!

Did I really just type an "11" for the month? I can't believe how fast 2009 is flying by.

When I stopped in at my Shaw's yesterday, there was a big box of Chi-Chi's Tortillas (fajita size, flour) marked down to .30 a package. I bought 5 packages because I really can't fit much more in my freezer! Then, when I got home, I made one of the quickest, easiest and cheapest dinners in my repertoire- quesadillas. This is how you do it:

• Arrange tortillas on a cookie sheet you've sprayed with nonstick spray
• Top with literally anything- diced tomatoes, leftover veggies, meat or chicken. I topped mine with leftover taco filling from the other night, and Mozzarella cheese (I know, not exactly Mexican, but Mozzarella always tastes good to me.)
• Put another tortilla on top.
• Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is bubbly and tortillas are browned on the edges.
• Slice with a pizza cutter and serve with a side salad or veggie.

Everyone loves them, which is surprising because my kids don't really like tacos that much or other Mexican-style foods. And they are just so easy. I tried to figure out how much dinner cost us last night- since everything was leftover except for a little bit of cheese and the tortillas, I don't know, maybe a dollar?

This week at Shaw's, you may not be able to find any tortillas on clearance, but the same Chi-Chi's Tortillas are on sale for 1.99, and Sargento shredded cheese is Buy 1 Get 1 Free. Ro-Tel tomatoes are .88 a can (even cheaper with the coupon that you can find here) and Shaw's mild green chiles are 2/ $1.

Anything but Fried Green Tomatoes

So, last week, we had a little Severe Weather Alert popping up on the computer (I love the Forcastfox plug-in- since I never watch the weather on TV it tells me everything I need to know.) telling us there was a possibility of frost during the night. I panicked a little and quickly Googled what I should do about my poor tomatoes- my tomato plants were loaded with green fruit that had yet to ripen!

Some sources suggested elaborate heating and/or insulating methods to try to buy the tomatoes some time. But plenty of other people had recipes for what to do with all those green tomatoes. Many of the recipes were for fried green tomatoes- something I've never had, but that I'm not especially interested in. Some of the more interesting ideas were:

• faux berry jelly, using raspberry gelatin to trick you into thinking you're eating... raspberries. I was kind of intrigued by this idea.
• green tomato salsa
• green tomato soup

What I ended up making was a couple loaves of green tomato bread, using this recipe. All the recipes I saw had a lot more sugar than I am accustomed to using in baked goods- 2 whole cups of white sugar!?! (The recipe I used called for a cup of Splenda in place of one cup of sugar-- but don't even get me started on Splenda.) But it definitely tasted really, really good, and my husband and kids were asking where it went when it was all gone, after like, a day. (To be fair, I only let them eat one loaf- the other one is in the freezer for later.) But if I make it again, I will definitely be scaling back on the sugar content.

I also made a rice and chickpeas dish with the Roma tomatoes that ended up being red, and my cherry tomatoes that were still green. My husband really loved it and I did too.

Chickpea and Green Tomato Rice

• In a large pot, saute an onion and a little garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil until clear.
• Add about 4-5 Roma tomatoes (or equivalent amount of other tomatoes) sliced into quarters.
• Pour in 2 cups chicken broth and a can of chickpeas (drain liquid.)
  
• Add 1 cup green cherry tomatoes, cut in half, and a cup of corn kernels (frozen or canned).
• Heat mixture until boiling, then add a package of rice pilaf or 1 cup other form of rice.
  
• Simmer until rice is tender. Add pepper, oregano, basil to taste and serve.

The point is, not to be afraid of those unripe tomatoes in the garden. As long as they don't freeze while they're outside, all they need is some cooking to become part of a tasty meal.

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 10/23-10/29

Since we're all completely sick of pork chops on sale, yet again (I'm sure you've stocked up plenty and you have enough pork in the freezer to last until Valentine's Day, at least) why not breakfast for dinner? My kids love "egg pie" and it's their favorite dinner request these days. They don't even mind when I throw in some veggies- even spinach (eek!) and kale (gasp!) have passed muster. A dozen eggs at Stop and Shop are $1 this week, and Stop and Shop Bacon is $1.77 for a 12-16 oz. package.

• "Egg pie" a.k.a. my version of quiche is pretty easy.
• I often make it without a crust, but if I do use a crust it's something improvised (I've used stale crackers or a thin layer of Bisquick mixed with milk pressed on the bottom of a greased pan and baked a few minutes ahead of time-- and you can also use leftover rice or slices of bread.)
  
• Then I chop up veggies, ham, bacon, whatever, and sprinkle it over the crust (If I'm not using a crust, I will pour in the eggs and then add the veggies or whatever).
  
• I often make my quiche in a 9x 9 glass dish but it goes pretty fast- 13 x 9 would be better for more than 4 people. (Make sure to spray with nonstick cooking spray)
  
• I whisk my eggs together with just a little milk (I use 5 eggs for the 9x9 pan- you could probably use a whole dozen for the larger pan.)
  
• Then I pour the eggs in the pan, add any extras if I haven't already, and sprinkle cheese over the top. I have used all kinds of cheese, even American cheese from the deli broken into bits, and they have been fine.
  
• I bake it at 350 for approximately 25-35 minutes (the deeper the eggs are in the pan, the longer the baking time.) When a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, it's good to go!

With a slice of homemade bread and some salad, this is a very satisfying- and frugal- meal!

Shaw's Bargain Meal of the Week

During the fall and winter months (and really, anytime at all,) making a nice pot of homemade soup is a great budget-stretcher. Usually a few cans of relatively inexpensive ingredients will make you a nice soup, and you can throw in almost any random leftover meat, bean, grain or vegetable that you happen to have languishing in the refrigerator.

This week's Bargain Meal from Shaw's is especially budget-friendly- I think the total cost might be around three dollars, plus whatever you decide to serve with it. With avocados on sale for $1 each and Shaw's canned corn on sale for .60/can (and even less if you use the printable coupon,) Avocado Corn Soup
would be a great recipe to try sometime this week. You could serve it with tortilla chips (Tostitos are 2.29 this week) or Ritz crackers (1.88/ box)- or to be more healthy, some whole-wheat bread.

Move over, Netflix

We've been using Netflix for our DVD rentals for several years. We always sort of hem and haw about canceling the service, because we don't have tons of time to watch movies and my husband and I are both kind of clueless about pop culture so I don't have any idea which movies might be good. We end up filling our queue with movies that we think we might want to watch, but since we have the bare-bones 1 DVD at a time plan, when the DVD arrives we find that we don't actually feel like watching it, and so we avoid watching it, sometimes for weeks and weeks at a time. Recently, it got really bad- I think we received a movie in early August, and I just sent it back last week because I had absolutely no desire to watch it. So essentially we paid 2 month's worth of rental fees to allow this movie to gather dust. Pretty much a big waste of money.

If the above information has left you with the impression that my husband and I are major dorks, I'll do nothing to disabuse you of that notion. In the same time period, I think I probably read about 12 books. So... yeah.

Last week I was at the library with the kids and we took out a bunch of DVD's. We are heavy library users, as I have mentioned before, but never once has it occurred to me to use the library for anything but books. To my surprise, the local library does have a decent selection of movies- they may not have 40 copies of the latest new releases, like Blockbuster, but they probably do have one copy. So you might have to put a really popular movie on hold, and wait a few weeks to be able to watch it (so it's definitely not "on demand")- but you will eventually watch it, and it will be free, and you can take it out for a week and maybe even renew it for another week.

I'm continually amazed by the reources available from my local library. And my kids are thrilled to be able to rent DVD's on a semi-regular basis now. I may just finally cancel that Netflix service.

Shaw's Bargain Meal week of 10/16-10/22

Lately, the only thing I've gotten excited about at Shaw's has been some interesting Catalina sales. Unfortunately, I'm almost maxed out on shelf and freezer space so I don't know how much more stockpiling it's humanly possible to do. This week has a General Mills deal where you buy $25 worth of products (based on shelf price) and you get $10 back. So that's worked out well. However, there isn't much to speak of as far as meat and produce sales are concerned.

I find that, more and more, my family has been eating vegetarian meals without anyone really noticing or complaining. One way I can get away with serving a vegetarian meal is by cooking a pasta dish with really chunky veggies, or substantial amounts of cheese, or both. This week, to stretch out the meat budget, you can serve a vegetarian pasta meal along the lines of Stringy Macaroni. I would personally reduce the amounts of cheese (for health and budget reasons), and you can substitute premade sauce like Prego (1.49 this week, and there are various coupons available.) Hood cottage cheese is 2.49 a container which isn't a wonderful price, but with the 1.00/2 coupons out there it isn't too bad. (It never occurred to me to use cottage cheese in pasta recipes before, instead of ricotta, but so many people swear by it-- I tried it in manicotti the other night and it was really good!)

Again, I apologize for missing last week's bargain meal- things have been crazy!

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 10/16-10/22

I apologize for my MIA-ness this past week... we had a death in the family and things have been a little chaotic... plus I really did not find anything particularly inspiring to write about last week. So I just didn't. But I feel like the crummy friend who doesn't show up for the 3 p.m. coffee date and then makes lame excuses afterwards. So, I am sorry.

You know how nutrition people recommend shopping the perimeter of the grocery store, where all the fresh foods are, and staying out of the middle aisles? With Stop and Shop, I have come to find that to save money, I only need to look at the front and back page of the flyer. Deals are hard to come by in the middle pages- I find that lately I just skim the middle pages quickly because I never expect to find anything good!

This week, on the front page of course, boneless pork sirloin chops are 1.99/lb. I know, I know... pork, again? But I found a recipe for a Pork and Beans Skillet Supper that sounds quick, easy, and it uses a lot of ingredients most people have in their pantry all the time. If you need canned veggies, S&S has Green Giant canned veggies on sale for 1.99 for a 4-pack, and Bush's Best Baked Beans are $1 a can. This recipe sounds like it could lend itself well to crockpot experimentation- throw all the ingredients in the crockpot, put it on low all day and see what happens. I'm a heavy crockpot user once the weather turns really cold- nothing's better than coming home to a warm and comforting meal that's been cooking all day.

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal, week of 10/2-10/8

This week at Stop and Shop, roasting chickens are .99/lb, strawberries are $2 per container, and Romaine lettuce hearts are 2.50 for a package of 3. If you roast a chicken, you can use some leftover meat as part of a strawberry chicken salad; add some red bell peppers at .99/lb for additional flavor and crunch. It won't be long before fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables are a distant memory, and most people probably won't feel like eating salads anymore. I know I go for months in the winter without touching salad (of course, we eat cooked vegetables as a side.)

Shaw's Bargain Meal, Week of 10/2-10/8

This week at Shaw's, pork loin is 1.69/lb, which is a really good deal... check here for some suggestions on what to do with pork loin.

For this week's Bargain Meal, take advantage of the "can-tastic" sale this week and the Shaw's Boneless Chicken Breast that's 1.99/lb- Southwest Chicken uses chicken, a can of corn, a can of tomatoes, and a can of beans. The recipe calls for making it with a skillet, but some reviewers made it in the slow cooker and it sounds like it would be perfect made that way. Serve it with hot rice or rolled up in some tortillas. Yum.

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal of the week 9/25-10/1

This week at Stop and Shop, both Perdue Ground Turkey and 80% Lean Ground Beef are on sale for 1.99/lb. I was trying to think of something interesting to do with ground meat, and nothing really jumped out at me because the produce sales aren't anything too exciting this week. But I noticed that Dannon yogurt is on sale for .40 a container, and wondered if there wasn't something you could do with ground meat and yogurt.

Lo and behold! We have Middle Eastern Pasta with Yogurt and Pine Nuts. The recipe suggests subbing slivered almonds for the pine nuts- you could probably substitute any nut, and I have read that sunflower seeds are a good substitution as well. The recipe looks very simple and easy! If you are out of pasta, Stop and Shop brand pasta is .80/ box this week. Serve with some veggies on the side and you have a nice frugal meal.

Shaw's Bargain Meal week of 9/25-10/1

Wow, is it really almost October? Time flies crazy fast.

When I checked out my Shaw's flyer, I was most excited about the 2.77 New England Coffee (I have some coupons that made it 1.77- boo-yeah!)- not because I am a coffee drinker, but my husband is, and he works the night shift, and he becomes grumpy and sad when all there is to drink in the house is generic coffee-in-a-can. (I'm sorry, baby!) So I stocked up on Cinnamon Hazelnut aplenty and he'll be all happy and wishing he married me all over again when he comes home tomorrow morning to find it. Fifty nine cents a pound for apples is good, too, and I picked up some spinach for .99 .

But what I didn't really pay attention to, is the .99 "Fresh Pork Picnic Shoulder." Now, the un-frugal part of my brain reads that and thinks, "Ugh, random cheap cut of meat. No thanks." But on my frugal journey I've learned all sorts of worthwhile things about random cheap cuts of meat, mostly involving the crock pot. So I did a little research and found some ideas on cooking a pork shoulder here and here. Basically, the shoulder roast does have a bone in it because it's part of the pig's foreleg, but it's supposed to be one of the most flavorful cuts of pork, and is really popular for making BBQ pulled pork. You can check out more details here.

The other thing about this, is that this week there is a coupon for free onions, carrots, and potatoes when you buy any pork or beef roast of 3 lbs or more. The ones that are featured in the ad are 2.99/lb- not that great of a deal if you ask me. But the pork shoulder is also considered a roast and therefore should be part of this deal... which would be a pretty great deal if you ask me. If you try it out before I do, let me know if it works.

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 9/18-9/24

My family loves lasagna but it isn't often that I have all of the necessary ingredients all together at one time. Lasagna noodles are hard to find on sale, so I've never had the chance to really stockpile them. Once in a while I find ricotta cheese on sale and when I do, I buy several and freeze them. For me, it is usually better/easier/cheaper to make some form of Pasta Lasagna to get my baked pasta and ricotta cheese fix.

This week, ricotta cheese is 2.99 at Stop and Shop- which isn't a fantastic price exactly, but with .99 pasta sauce (Francesco Rinaldi- I like their "Sweet and Tasty Tomato" sauce) and .75 pasta (Prince pasta, all varieties- except baking and flavored) it can make an affordable meal. You can stretch the ricotta using my grated zucchini method that I alluded to here, and that would make the cost per meal a little cheaper. This recipe calls for meat and some additional cheese- I wouldn't make a special trip to buy additional ingredients but use whatever cheese and meat I might happen to have around the house- another reason why lasagna dishes tend to be pricey is because people end up buying 3 different kinds of cheese and different meats and everything else. Just baking some pasta with layers of sauce and ricotta, with maybe a little bit of grated parmesan sprinkled on top, is going to be very tasty with a nice little salad or side of vegetables.

And I'm glad we're getting into cooler weather again, because I don't need to feel bad about making "comfort food" all the time. This is the season for it!

Shaw's Bargain Meal Week of 9/18-9/24

I can tell it's almost fall, because squash (butternut, acorn, or buttercup) is on sale for .59/lb at Shaw's! Unfortunately, I am not able to cook squash as much as I would like to- although my family tolerates spaghetti squash and summer squash varieties, they are not a fan of winter squashes. I don't know why, because they all love pumpkin, and I can't really tell the difference between pumpkin and butternut squash when it's cooked up and mashed (actually, pumpkin is a squash, but don't tell my kids- or my husband. Maybe I should get some acorn squash and call it mini green pumpkins?)

With ground beef on sale for 1.88/lb, some stuffed squash would be delicious and frugal. Try this Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe- it calls for zucchini but you could really use any vegetable or grain to stuff your squash.

Happy fall!

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 9/11-9/17

This week at Stop and Shop, broccoli is a great deal at .88/pound. Boneless Center-Cut Pork Chops are 1.99/lb, and Success Rice is 2 for $4 for both white and brown rice. I totally heart Success brown rice- regular brown rice takes 45 minutes to cook, and it is really nice to be able to cook up nice healthy whole grains in a matter of a few minutes. There were $1 off coupons for Success Rice a couple weeks ago, making the rice only $1 a box- there are also printable coupons here.

With these ingredients you could try this recipe for pork-fried rice. I also might make a pork stir-fry. I always have the ingredients on hand to mix up a stir fry. Using a little vinegar is a trick I learned from Erin at $5 dinners... it keeps you from having to use a ton of soy sauce and having really high sodium in your recipe as a result.

Easy Pork Stir Fry

3/4 lb. pork loin, sliced into thin strips
3-4 cups cut-up vegetables of your choice (broccoli, peppers, onions, carrot strips... anything)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp flour
pepper to taste
2 cups cooked brown rice

1. Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the pork until the outsides are no longer pink.
2. Put the vegetables in with the meat and turn the heat to medium-low. While veggies are cooking, mix up the sauce. Add all liquid ingredients together. Stir in the ginger and then stir in the flour gradually, breaking up any lumps. Pour sauce over the stir-fry and keep stirring.
3. When pork is cooked through and veggies are tender, remove from heat and add pepper to taste. Serve over rice.

One thing about my cooking is that I never make dinner with measuring cups- I've been mixing up my own tasty stir-fry sauce for eons but I have only a rough idea of how much I use of each ingredient. So please feel free to adjust amounts- if your sauce seems too sweet, add a little more teriyaki; too salty, add more orange juice.

I was very flattered last night at my daughter's open house at school- she had a poster taped to her desk with all of her "favorites." Under "Favorite Smell?" She wrote "My mom's cooking." Which is too funny, because she's a very picky eater! She says she loves the smell, even if she doesn't want to eat what I'm serving. Oh well.