Shaw's Bargain Meal week of 9/4-9/10

One of the tricks of stockpiling is taking advantage of seasonal sales. Right before Thanksgiving, you can stock up on stuffing, gravy mix, boxed mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a lot of different baking supplies. If you want a box of stuffing in, say, February, you're probably going to pay full price for it. After a while, you start to realize what you need to stock up on throughout the year to avoid running out of the things you want.

Sometimes the sales reflect the customs of particular religious groups. I'm Catholic, and I don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent; fish is okay though, and sales on fish are definitely a big deal in most grocery stores in my area throughout Lent. There are many traditional kosher foods on sale for Rosh Hashanah, coming up in a couple of weeks. Even if you aren't Jewish, anyone can eat kosher foods (and actually, many of the things we eat every day are kosher, but if you aren't aware of it, you might not notice.)

Streit's Matzo Ball mix is 10 for $10, and there are Kedem Tube Soup Mixes for 2/$1. For something different and inexpensive, you could make some matzo ball soup and serve it with a side salad or sandwiches. Kedem apple and grape juice are both good prices (1.50 and 2.50 a bottle, respectively) and the Kedem tea biscuits are 3/$1, which would be worth trying. I've never had any of these foods before, but part of the fun of bargain shopping is trying new things and expanding your horizons!

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal week of 9/4-9/10

I haven't been posting as much because I'm back to work and getting back into the routine of the school year. I'm actually kind of excited about going to Stop and Shop this week... even though 3.99 is way over my normal per-pound cost for meat, my hubby loves steak tips soooo much I will have to splurge and get some of those. Corn on the cob is a great price (12 for 1.99) and it won't be long before corn season is but a distant memory... There are other good prices on meat and produce this week, so check your flyer to see what you need to stock up on.

Obviously, some late-summer grilling will be a part of most people's weekend plans, but for something a little different later in the week, try cooking up some greens. Collards, kale and turnip greens are .69/lb- a "Real Deal" that will last for a while. ( I have found kale to be a very versatile vegetable- I use it in place of spinach. It has an interesting flavor and a little more texture than spinach.) Jones Naturally Hickory Smoked Ham Steak is 1.99- a recipe to try is Delicious Greens and Ham with some nice crusty bread. Also, Countryfine Italian Sausage is 1.99/lb- you could cook it up with the greens as well- it makes a surprisingly tasty dish. And it's amazing how a big pile of greens shrinks when you cook them.

Happy Labor Day!

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal, week of 8/28- 9/3

Stop and Shop has redesigned its flyer in such a manner that I find completely distracting... all over the place there's a tacky little logo that says "Weekly Specials!" and in other places there's another logo that says "Real Deal!" And there's green highlighting in random places, and the whole effect is just very busy and confusing and unpleasant. And the deals at Stop and Shop are no better than usual (I much prefer Shaw's, if you haven't noticed...)

I was almost going to throw up my hands about the Bargain Meal of the Week because there didn't seem to be much of anything on sale, but when I looked at the flyer again I got inspired. Avocados are .99/lb, corn is 8/1.99, and plum tomatoes are also .99/lb. These ingredients are what you need to make Swan's Summer Soup, a cold, gazpacho-like soup. I love having soup for dinner because that means I also get to have bread for dinner- and I (and my whole entire family) just really love bread.

Shaw's Bargain Meal, week of 8/28-9/3

This week at Shaw's, there are several kinds of meat on sale, so if you haven't stocked up on meat lately, it might be a good week to do that. Chicken is 1.79/lb, and through Sunday only, shoulder steak is 1.79/lb and ground beef is 1.99/lb.

I feel like I've been coming up with these kooky "meat and fruit" combos lately, but the only interesting produce that's a good buy this week are the peaches, plums and nectarines that are .99/lb. A recipe that sounds absolutely divine is Baked Chicken with Peaches - the ingredients are simple and it doesn't sound difficult to make at all.

Serve it with some nice fluffy white rice and a veggie for a very special meal!

Stop and Shop Bargain Meal, week of 8/21-8/27

I apologize for my lateness in getting my bargain meals up. My kids are out of the house for a few days and I spontaneously decided to purge all the clutter, trinkets, trash, and Barbie shoes from their bedrooms. It ended up being a monumental task... I am basically done, but I have a mountain of perfectly good useless stuff to donate to Goodwill. Anyway...

Hrm, guess what's on sale at Stop and Shop? Pork chops again, 1.99/lb (and grapes again, .99 lb.) What on earth can we do with that? Well, I am learning not to be surprised when I find recipes that involve odd combinations of ingredients. When I typed "pork" and "grapes" into Allrecipes.com, I got a list of possible recipes (some involved grape juice, some involved grape tomatoes, but some involved actual grapes! Imagine that.)

One recipe that sounded good, and do-able, with some substitutions, is Pork Tenderloin with Honey Grape Sauce. The recipe calls for a 2 lb. pork roast that you grill, and then you make a sauce with the grapes that you pour over it. Obviously, you can just cook the pork chops any way you like, and then make the sauce. The recipe calls for red grapes rather than green grapes, but it's certainly worth giving a try with green grapes. Most of the other ingredients are common pantry staples, and if you don't have something you can always substitute (chop up a little onion in place of shallots, or use ground ginger instead of fresh.)

To serve with it, you can make a box of Rice-A-Roni, $1/box this week, and whatever vegetables you have on hand. I bet the grape sauce would be very nice poured over rice!

What To Do With Stockpiled Veggie Burgers: Shaw's Bargain Meal week of 8/21-8/27

This week there is another catalina deal going on at Shaw's- this time, it's ConAgra food products (so Hunt's ketchup & tomatoes, Wesson Oil, things like that) and Kellogg's products- buy $25 and get $10 for your next purchase. I was holding out for a good Kellogg's sale so I could do the $10 Fuel for School rebate- so that's what I did during my first shopping trip today. Basically, I got my 8 boxes of cereal (though I need more cereal like I need a hole in my head) and 2 boxes of Morningstar Farms black bean burgers for less than free! With my coupons, I spent about $17 out of pocket; then I got $10 back, and I sent in for the $10 rebate.

Can I just interrupt this blog posting to say that manufacturer's rebates are such a huge pain?? I mean, they ask you to buy 10 products, and not only do you send in the receipt, but you have to cut the UPC code off of every box? Do they realize that I'm stockpiling here, and these boxes will be in my basement for months- I don't want a whole bunch of mutilated cardboard boxes in long-term storage. And of course all that cardboard in the envelope makes it impossible to send in the rebate with a single stamp. Ok, complaining time over. Obviously, they make it difficult so that most consumers won't even bother with the rebate.

So, with sales like this going on, it's been easy for me to stock up on veggie burgers lately. Now, almost everybody in my family will eat veggie burgers without complaining. I really don't mind them at all. But they're not the kind of meal that you really look forward to. I generally serve them when I'm not feeling imaginative and I want something on the table fast. I think my mom used to serve us hot dogs (blech) when we were kids, when she was in the same situation. So I was curious- is there anything more interesting you can do with veggie burgers? Once or twice I've cut them up and used them in a pasta sauce or something, but I want more ideas now, because I have so many!

Some possible ideas:

• slice them up in strips and grill them; use them to top a salad
• slice them in strips for use in a stir-fry
• crumble up and use either alone or combined with ground meat in chili, shepherd's pie, pasta bakes
• add to ground meat in making meat loaf
  
• chop them up and mix with salsa and cheese- serve as a dip for chips.
• slice them up, cover in bread crumbs, and fry them
• mix them up with beans as part of a burrito or taco filling
• make Sloppy Joes
• use them as part of a stuffed peppers recipe

This week at Shaw's, there is a pretty sweet deal on potatoes- a 5lb bag of red potatoes is only .99 after you use a Shaw's coupon. Based on that, and our surplus of vegetarian fake meat, I think an attempt at Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie is in order. Most recipes online feature some form of curried lentils as the "meat"- I've seen a few with just chopped veggies and some with tofu, crumbled mushrooms, things like that. But this one involves actual veggie burgers. It has a lot of ingredients, but anything you're lacking you can probably substitute or leave out.

I prefer my shepherd's pie to be on the simple side. I usually just season my ground meat with pepper and salt, stir in whatever vegetables I have (corn is nice), top with homemade mashed potatoes, and bake (a few minutes under the broiler gives a nice crispy crust.) It's one of my family's favorite foods so I don't feel the need to try a fancier version anytime soon. I plan on trying out my own version of Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie in the near future, and I'll keep you posted as to the results!

On Vacation...

No bargain meal this week- I'm on vacation. Be back next week!