Wednesday Dinner

Tonight's dinner was also about using up leftovers - in this case, the rest of the Tequila-Lime turkey tenderloin that I cooked last week. I didn't want it again "plain," so I knew I'd have to find a way to use it as an ingredient in something else. I fiddled around in the kitchen and came up with a soup recipe so good I'd make it on its own merits, leftovers or no. It was rich and spicy and tasted like it had simmered all day - but it took me less than 30 minutes to put on the table.

I topped each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of Texas Toast Southwest Tortilla Strips - these are sold next to the croutons and I bought them because they were only about .40 after tripled coupon. (I would have preferred them if they'd been made from flour tortillas. Since they were made from corn tortillas, they were really just Doritos in thin strips. I wouldn't buy again unless they were free or almost free after coupon.) I also made cheese quesadillas (just cheddar/jack blend grilled between flour tortillas) to round out the meal.

Southwest Turkey-Corn Chowder

3 T. butter or margarine
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp. minced garlic
3 T. flour
32 oz. chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained (Ro-Tel)
1 14 oz. can corn, drained
leftover diced, cooked turkey tenderloin (about 1 cup meat)

In large saucepan or soup pot, saute onions in butter over medium-high heat until soft and lightly browned. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add flour and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, for 3 - 4 minutes. Add chicken broth and stir with a wisk to break up lumps. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, add tomatoes, corn and turkey and heat through. Serve in bowls topped with sour cream and crushed tortilla chips (optional).

Totals:

free - turkey tenderloin (accounted for the first night it was cooked)
$1.33 - 32 oz. carton chicken broth
.33 - corn (HT 3/$1 the other week)
.50 - Ro-tel tomatoes w/ green chiles (purchased on sale + coupon)
$1.50 - cheese & tortillas for quesadillas

$3.66 for dinner for 3 (with more soup leftover for lunches)

Tuesday Dinner

Tonight's dinner was all about using up leftovers. I'll always remember an interview I saw with a successful chef & restaurateur. He said, "If you want to last in this business, you have to find a way to use your leftovers." I took that advice to heart as a frugal home cook, too. Throwing away leftovers is throwing away money - if a restaurant can't do it and expect to stay in business, I can't do it and expect to stay on budget. So I make a concerted effort to use up all our leftovers - if not down to the last bite, then at least down the the last meal-sized portion.

We had lots of leftover beef roast from the other night. Since this is a tough cut (and it was a bit overcooked to begin with, making it tougher), I chopped it as finely as I could. I heated it with the leftover gravy, and served beef & gravy over toast. On the side I served steam-in-the-bag broccoli in cheese sauce.

Total cost for tonight's dinner: FREE

The beef & gravy were accounted for on the night they were cooked. The broccoli in cheese sauce was free after sale + triple coupon. OK, I suppose I could calculate the cost for 3 slices of bread but that seems a little obsessive - besides, I'd buy bread for toast and sandwiches even if we never ate dinner at home.

Monday Dinner

The Kid had a function + lots of homework tonight, so dinner was on the fly. We had a Food Lion brand frozen pizza (thin crust, triple meat) - part of their big weekend sale I posted about a few weeks back. (Pizzas were 5/$10.) I didn't have high hopes but ended up being very pleasantly surprised. It was at least as good as similar national brands and I'd definitely buy it again. Along with the pizza, I tossed a quick Caesar salad; just romaine, parmesan, croutons and dressing.

Totals:

$2 - pizza
.33 - romaine lettuce (1 "heart of romaine" - bag of 3/$2)
free - dressing & croutons after triple coupons

$2.33 f0r dinner for 3

Saturday & Sunday Dinner

It was so wet and nasty yesterday (and unfortunately, I had to be out and about in it for much of the day). Hot soup and sandwiches was the perfect dinner to warm us up, with minimal effort. Harris Teeter has their pre-packaged deli meats and cheeses on sale this week buy 2, get 3 free. They also have Progresso soup b2g3, plus there are several coupons floating around out there. The combination of sale + coupon brought it to about $1/can. Large croissants are BOGO at Lowes Foods this week, bringing them to $1.90/4.

This meal came to $1.65 per person for 1 sandwich (croissant, 2 slices roast beef, 1 slice cheese), and 1 cup (1/2 can) of soup.

_______

Sunday dinner was unconventional. I realized that I had all the ingredients in the house to make one of my favorite party dishes - Buffalo Chicken Dip. So I made that and let everybody snack - The Kid will get pizza at youth group tonight, and there's plenty of assorted odds & ends in the fridge if anyone gets hungry later.

This isn't an exact-measurement kind of recipe - just "wing it." (Ha. Wing it. Buffalo Chicken Dip. I'm such a wit.)

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 8 oz. packages cream cheese
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup cooked shredded chicken breast
3/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce or other hot sauce of your choice
1/2 - 3/4 cup shredded cheddar, monterey jack, or blend
2 - 3 T. blue cheese crumbles - optional

Combine cream cheese and ranch dressing, mix well and spread into 8" baking pan. Combine shredded chicken and hot sauce, spread ove chicken. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar, and blue cheese (if using). Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve with crackers, chips, and vegetable dippers.

NOTE 1: Today I used Sweet Sue chicken breast in a foil pouch. It worked very well although I had to "mash" with a fork to break up large chunks. In the past I've used canned chicken breast (2 small cans or 1 large), and I've also poached and shredded fresh chicken breast (2). It all works fine, so just use whatever is most convenient for you.

NOTE 2: For a party I serve this with celery sticks, baby carrots, and broccoli florets, plus either Triscuits or Frito Scoops. Today we had celery sticks, baby carrots and saltine crackers because that's what was on hand. Still awesome.

Totals for the dip look like this:

.75 - chicken breast in pouch (after triple coupons)
$1 - cream cheese (after super double coupons)
free - ranch dressing (after sale + triple coupon)
.50 - shredded cheese (1/2 package purchased B2G3)
.50 - blue cheese

$2.75 for about large pan (served 3 for dinner w/ dippers)

Friday Dinner

I picked up 2 Eye of Round roasts the last time Lowes Foods had them on sale for $2/lb and decided to cook one tonight.

I used a method I've used before - High Temperature Eye of Round Roast. It came out very nice - medium and reasonably tender (this is a very tough cut of meat) with a lovely brown flavorful crust. But I still need to do some tweaking because I'd like mine to be more on the rare side.

With the roast we had homemade mashed potatoes (courtesy of this week's Harris Teeter eVic special - 5 lb bag/.97). I also made homemade gravy with the pan drippings and some beef broth that's been open in my fridge for awhile. For a green vegetable I steamed some fresh brussels sprouts (also on sale this week at HT), because they're a favorite with the rest of my family. I thought I might like the fresh variety better than frozen, and it would be a special treat for the sprouts-lovers. Nope. Turns out they preferred the frozen variety. So that's the last time I'll spend extra time & money on the fresh ones. (And I've decided to stop trying to like them. I hate them and that's that.)

Lots of beef leftover (I'm thinking open-faced sandwiches w/ gravy in a few days), and I purposely made a double batch of mashed potatoes so I'd have leftovers to use in a recipe (also planned for the next few days.).

Totals:

$5.08 - beef roast
$1.50 - brussels sprouts
.50 - potatoes

$7.08 for dinner for 4 (sister joined us)

Keeping Track

Just for fun, I went back through all the dinners for August and made some calculations. We cooked at home 22 out of the 31 nights. I think that's reasonable, given that 4 nights were devoted to the yard sale (1 to set up, 2 days of selling, and 1 celebration dinner), and The Kid and I were out of town visiting friends for 2 nights.

Those 22 dinners cost me $100.30, which averages out to $4.56 per meal. That's well under my goal of a $5-per-dinner average, so I'm very pleased. Even more so when I see how many nights I fed 4 or 5 instead of 3. (My sister is a teacher, so she's around a lot more often in the summer months.)

Thank you to my friends and readers. Even though I'm a self-proclaimed "Foodie" and a bargain-shopper, too, writing this blog has really helped tie both of those things together into one goal. Knowing that you are out there, reading about my meals, has really given me a sense of "accountability." It's not only sparked my creativity in planning and cooking meals, but it's also made me examine and curb my eating out habit. More than once I've thought to myself, "I can't eat out again tonight...I need to write the Foodie blog!"

Thanks again and keep reading!

Thursday Dinner

Dinner tonight wasn't at all what I'd originally planned to cook. I know I said awhile back that I'd never come across any good meat markdowns at Food Lion. Well, I now have to amend that because I found a GREAT deal on marked down meat at Food Lion today. The store on W. Market St. had short-dated (expire tomorrow) Jennie-O Tequila Lime marinated turkey tenderloins marked down to only $1.25 apiece! These are regularly in the $7 - $8 range, and are actually on sale BOGO this week (but they've raised the price so it works out to $5 apiece). I purchased all they had (4), cooked 1 and stuck the rest in the freezer.

After roasting it in the oven, I served it with corn (3/$1 sale at HT the other week), and a Knorr/Lipton side of Pasta in Butter sauce (BOGO + triple coupons = nearly free).

This may well be my cheapest meal yet! Even though I got all of the marked-down tenderloins at this particular store, you should keep an eye out for similar deals if you shop at Food Lion.

Totals:

$1.25 - turkey tenderloin
.33 - corn
.5 - Lipton pasta mix
free - the last tomatoes from the garden

$1.66 for dinner for 4 (us + sister), with quite a bit of turkey left over. (There are actually 2 tenderloins to a package, and we only ate one.)

Weekly Deals - Lowes Foods

An OK week at Lowes Foods - a few deals I might pick up. Here is a link to Lowes Foods Circular:

eOffers/InstaSave:
Suave Shampoo, .38/e (Limit 4)
$1 off Contessa 12 oz bag frozen shrimp (combine with BOGO below)
$2 off Contessa 24 oz bag frozen shrimp (combine with BOGO below)


Other Deals:
LF Milk - $1.99/gallon
LF Sugar - $1.79/5lb bag
LF Paper Towels - $1/single roll
Extra Large Gulf shrimp - $3.99/lb
Sanderson Farms fresh boneless chicken breast - $1.88/lb
Pictsweet Steamers 2/$3 (includes shelled edamame, which is hard to find)
Cabbage - .39/lb
Buy 5 32oz Gatorade, receive 2 Propel free

Buy 2, Get 3 free:
LF canned mandarin oranges (11 oz)

BOGO:
LF Frozen bagged vegetables
Breyers Ice Cream
Marie Callenders Frozen Dinners
Select Keebler Cookies
Cheez-It Crackers
Fresh Step Cat Litter
Cap'n Crunch cereals
Contessa frozen bagged shrimp (both cooked and raw)
Beacon Light Tilapia Fillets
Carolina Pride Sliced Ham or Oven Roasted Turkey
Luigi's Italian Ice
Budget Saver ice pops
Wishbone 8 oz. salad dressings
Sun Crystals sweetener
Lays Stax Potato Chips
Croissants (in bakery)
Rondele Garlic Herb or Garden Vegetable spread cheese
President's Feta cheese

Weekly Deals - Food Lion

Here's the link to the Food Lion Circular (if you're outside of Greensboro, yours may be different). A pretty BLAH week, but there's a good deal or two I might pick up for myself.

Buy 1, Get 2 Free:
Great American Catfish Fillets, 12 oz.

BOGO:
Purex Laundry Detergent
Quilted Northern Tissue, 6 Double Roll package
Ken's Salad Dressing (16 oz)
Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce
Select Varieties Hershey bagged candy
Pop Secret popcorn
Planter's Cashew Halves & Mixed Nuts
Deer Park bottled water .5 liter 6-pack
Scotties Tissue
Minute Maid refrigerated carton drinks (punch, lemonade, etc.)
Aunt Jemima frozen pancakes or french toast
Simply Potatoes
Smart Balance butter blends
Bird's Eye Steamfresh lightly sauced vegetables
Jennie O Turkey Tenderloins
Pepito Corn Tortillas
FL frozen bagged boneless chicken breasts
Frozen cooked bagged shrimp
Nathan's Beef Franks

Other Deals:
FL brand Mac & Cheese - .10/box (limit 10)
Ground Chuck - $1.68/lb when purchased in value-pack
Chicken Thighs - .77/lb when purchased in value-pack
Whole Turkeys - .79/lb
Jimmy Dean Sausage - $2/ea

Purchase a 13 - 18lb bag of Kingsford or Matchlight charcoal, get a Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage free.

Weekly Deals - Harris Teeter

I think I'm going to start calling these weekly deals because I almost never get around to posting them on Wednesday. Ha!

First, here's a link to the online Harris Teeter Circular (if you're outside of Greensboro, yours might be a little different). All in all, a pretty good sale week - definitely some good deals I plan to take advantage of myself.

Buy 2, Get 3 Free (all limit 10):
Fresh Foods Market Meats and Cheeses
Blue Bunny Ice Cream
Ken's Salad Dressings (8 oz) (good deal but I'm overloaded on salad dressings as it is)
Progresso Soup
Crystal Springs 6 pack Water

E-VIC Special:
5 lb. bag Farmer's Market White Potatoes 0.97, limit 1

Meal of the Week:
2 lb. HT Marinated Pork Loin Fillet
2 lb. HT Whole Carrots
24 oz. HT Mashed Potatoes
2 lb. HT Salad
$10.99

BOGO:
Fresh Foods Market "Take & Bake" pizza (14 in)
Fresh Foods Market Pasta and Sauces
1 lb. Strawberries
London Broil or Top Round Roast
Purex, 50 oz.
Kellogg's Raisin Bran, Raisin Bran Crunch, Raisin Bran Extra
Sargento Shredded Cheese
Fresh Boneless Chicken Breast
HT Fresh Turkey Burgers
HT Pork Sausage
Ocean Spray 46 oz. Cranberry or 64 oz. Grapefruit Juice
Purina Dog Chow or Puppy Chow, 17.6-20 lb.
Finish Dishwasher Detergent 25 ct.
Spot Shot
Tidy Cat Cat Litter, 20 lb.
Allens Italian Green Beans (canned)
Allens Steam Supreme Corn or Peas
Veg All (canned)
Valley Fresh Chicken
Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bars
DeeAmore Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes
Smart Vegetable Fed Ground Chicken
HT Ice Cream Sandwiches
Mama Lucia Meatballs
Mrs. T's Pierogies
Born Free Cage Free Eggs
Sorrento Cheeses (includes string cheese, mozzarella and ricotta)
2 lb. bag White Shrimp, all sizes, raw
Arnold Whole Grain Classics Bread
Breakfast Cookies (bakery)

Other Deals:
Smithfield Pork Shoulder roast - .79/lb
Smithfield Pork Sirloin roast - $1.99/lb
Minute Maid Lemonade - $1
Philly Cream Cheese - $1.25
Ragu & Ragu Organic - 2/$3
Fresh Brussels Sprouts - $1.50/lb
Bok Choy - .99/lb

Purchase 10 32 oz. Gatorade in a single transaction, get 5 Propel free. (Gatorade is 10/$11)

Kraft "One Bag, 5 Dinners" Promotion:

*Savings are automatic when you purchase participating Kraft products in a single transaction using your VIC card, through 9/29.

#1 Buy 12 in. DiGigiorno Pizza and 7-8 oz. Kraft parmesan cheese, and receive a 2 liter Coke Product free.

#2 Buy 6 oz. Oscar Mayer Chicken Strips or Cuts and 16 oz. Kraft Dressing, and receive a 7-8 oz. Kraft Shredded Cheese free.

#3 BUy 14 oz. Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese or Velveeta Shells and Cheese and 14-16 oz. Oscar Mayer beef Franks, and receive a 12 oz. Nature's Own 100% wheat hot dog buns free.

#4 Buy 16 oz. Polly-O Mozzarella Cheese and 2 lb. Polly-O Ricotta Cheese and 16 oz. Colavita Pasta Sauce, and receive 16 oz. Mueller's Lasagna free.

#5 Buy 7-9 oz. Oscar Mayer Deli Shaved Lunch Meat and 12 oz. Kraft Singles, and receive a 20 oz. Nature's Own 100% wheat bread free.

Wednesday Dinner

Tonight was an exact repeat of dinner I served last month - Citrus Shrimp with rice and Sesame Broccoli.

I've made this for family, friends, even a bunch of picky little kids and I've never met anyone who didn't love it.

Totals:

$3 - shrimp (used 1 lb for 3 of us instead of 1.5 lbs in my recipe)
.20 - rice
$1 - orange & lemon
.25 - additional sauce ingredients
$1.50 - broccoli

$6.05 for dinner for 3

Tuesday Dinner

The Kid has the flu this week, so last night's and tonight's dinner were "by request." (Seriously, I have a kid who requests things like spinach salads with gorgonzola. That tickles me to no end.)

So, to please my sick kid tonight, I made breakfast - Bacon, Egg & Cheese biscuits, hash browns, mixed fruit, and OJ. Under normal circumstances, this is a very economical meal. With all the deals lately, it was downright thrifty. The bacon, eggs and OJ came from Lowes Foods latest eSavings offer - .99 for the bacon, .39 for a dozen eggs and .99 for the juice. The cheese was left over from a Harris Teeter meal deal, so I'll just consider it free. The Grands biscuits and Simply Potatoes hash browns were both purchased BOGO with a $1 coupon that doubled. And the jar of Dole mixed fruit was a fraction of its original price after triple coupons.

Totals:

.20 - 6 eggs
.50 - 1/2 package bacon
.33 - biscuits
free - cheese
.40 - hash browns
.33 - 1/3 carton OJ
.50 - mixed fruit

$2.26 for dinner for 3, with 2 Bacon, Egg & Cheese biscuits left over

Monday Dinner

Tonight's dinner was marinated chicken breasts grilled on the George Foreman, sliced and served whole on spinach salads with dried cranberries, walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese crumbles. Everybody had their dressing of choice and French bread rounded out the meal.

The chicken was Italian marinated Perdue Perfect Portions. I've blogged about these before - they're generally overpriced (as most overly-packaged, pre-portioned food is), but they can be a reasonable deal if you can find them on markdown and/or have coupons. They're regularly $8.99/package of 5 at Harris Teeter, but I found some this week with a $2 markdown sticker. (I frequently find markdown stickers on this product at Harris Teeter, so keep an eye out.) I also had a .75 coupon that tripled, so the package only cost me $4.74. At a little under $1 per breast that I don't have to marinate, pound, strip of gristle, fat or membrane, I think it's a good deal. As a bonus, they're uniform thickness and cook very quickly.

The dried cranberries (Ocean Spray Craisins) were on sale buy 2, get 3 free earlier in the summer, which brought them to about $1 per bag. We really like these on salads and The Kid just likes them for snacking, so I stocked up. The gorgonzola is $1.99/tub at Aldi - a fantastic price for this. The spinach also came from Aldi - at $2/bag, it's the best price in town unless you can use up those huge bags from Costco before they go bad. (We've tried and failed many times.)

Totals:

$2.84 - chicken (3 of 5 chicken breasts)
$1 - spinach (1/2 a bag)
.75 - cranberries, gorgonzola, walnuts
.75 - 1/2 loaf French bread

$5.34 for dinner for 3

Sunday Dinner

I've been lax about writing the nightly dinner posts on the night I actually serve the dinner. Sorry about that; I'm going to try to be more timely.

Last night was homemade lasagna, bread, and fresh fruit. I'm afraid I can't give any meaningful totals for the meal because half of the ingredients were free to me.

My brother-in-law works for a local grocery chain. As an employment perk, they have weekly specials on various grocery items for their employees. Last week's associates deal was most of the makings of a lasagna dinner for free - box of lasagna noodles, jar of pasta sauce, loaf of garlic bread, canister of grated parmesan, and $$ off a tub of ricotta cheese.

Since my sister's oven is broken, I suggested he get all the ingredients and bring them to me, and I'd add what was needed to make a big pan of lasagna for everybody.

So I cooked up a pound of Italian sausage I'd had in the freezer (meat markdown + BOGO special), added eggs and seasonings to the ricotta, and threw in 1.5 bags of shredded mozzarella (purchased B2G3 free). (My lasagna recipe is pretty much like everyone else's, which is why I'm not posting specifics. But I'll certainly share it if anyone wants it - just email me.) The result was a yummy lasagna that served 5 of us with plenty of leftovers. We also had bread, and finally finished off the last of the watermelon from our garden. (I'm so glad that's gone because I was tired of seeing it in the fridge.)

Saturday Dinner

It might have been a lack of ideas/creativity, or maybe it's an on-going craving for Asian food, but tonight's dinner was almost an exact repeat of the Orange chicken dinner we had earlier this week. Tonight we had Teriyaki Chicken with white rice and steamed edamame. It was so good I could eat this every day.

Totals:

$4.99 - Teriyaki chicken (frozen, bagged, from Trader Joe's)
.20 - rice
$1.69 - edamame

$6.88 for dinner for 3

Thursday Dinner

Last night's dinner was another "new to us" dish - steamed mussels in garlic butter sauce. We've had mussels in restaurants, and enjoyed them, but never made them at home before. But Lowes Foods had Pier 33 Mussels on sale BOGO last week, plus put out an InstaSave coupon on them besides. At that price, I couldn't resist.

The verdict - DELICIOUS! And they couldn't have been easier - just cut open the vacumn-packed bag containing mussels-in-shell with sauce, dump it in a large skillet, cover and heat through. I'll definitely be buying these again when they're on sale. (Still not sure I'd be willing to buy them raw and steam them myself, but this is a start.)

I served them with a loaf of crusty bread from the bread machine to sop up all the yummy broth, and a Caesar salad.

Totals:

$3.99 - mussels ($4.99 BOGO - $1 InstaSave coupon)
.50 - ingredients for bread
$1.33 - hearts of romaine (bag of 3/$2 at Aldi - best price in town)
.25 - Caesar dressing, parmesan cheese, croutons (all free or nearly free after triple coupons)

$6.07 for dinner for 3

Wednesday Deals - Lowes Foods

Lots of BOGO and B2G3 deals this week, but nothing I particularly need. I may head over for this week's InstaSave/e-offers, but I don't see much else that interests me. Maybe you'll see something.

B2G3
Old Orchard Apple Juice
LF Laundry Detergent
Pop Secret popcorn
Newman's Own coffee
PictSweet seasoned vegetables
Navel Oranges

BOGO
Cantaloupes
Palermo's Pizza
select varieties Kellogg's Cereal
Ruffle's Potato Chips
Town House crackers
Thomas' Bagels
LF American cheese singles
bakery Kaiser rolls
Edy's Ice Cream
LF paper towls
Fresh Step cat litter
Carolina Pride smoked sausage
Shady Brook Farms ground turkey
Star's Brunswick Stew
LF bacon
Star's chicken salad
Star's chicken and dumplings

InstaSave/e-offers:
LF dozen large eggs - .39 (limit 2)
LF 64 oz. OJ - .99 (limit 2)
LF Butter-me-not canned biscuits - .19 (limit 2)
LF bacon - .99 (limit 2)

Wednesday Deals - Food Lion

Food Lion is supposedly having a big meat sale this week, but I'm not seeing enough deals to lure me into their stores.

BOGO
Ball Park Franks
Raw Jumbo Shrimp
Baked Ham (lunch meat)
Zesta Saltines
Cap'n Crunch
Chips Ahoy
Pillsbury Brownie Mix
Mrs. Paul's Seafood
Eggo Muffin Tops & Bake Shop Swirlz
Ore Ida frozen potatoes
FL frozen bagged boneless skinless chicken breasts
Mama Lucia meatballs

Wednesday Deals - Harris Teeter

Triple Coupons are the only noteworthy deal of the week. Nothing else impresses me, although I'll probably pick up the frozen chicken breasts and a few boxes of cake mix because I'm low on both.

eVIC weekly special: Eggo Waffles .97/limit 1

Meal of the Week: $5.99
16 oz. John Morrell Bistro Natural Beef Franks
8 ct. HT hot dog buns
1 lb. Fresh Foods Market deli potato salad
14 oz. HT Kosher Dill spears
1 liter HT soda

Buy 2, Get 3 Free:
Green Giant canned corn, peas or green beans
Totinos Pizza Rolls

BOGO
Smithfield Baby Back Ribs
HT 2.5 lb bag frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
Hormel Bacon
Doritios
Hershey single candy bars
Amy's pizza
Cole's garlic bread
Buitoni pasta
Oikos Greek yogurt
HT ice cream
Kibbles & Bits dog food
Kashi frozen handheld sandwiches
Grands biscuits (canned)
Thomas' English Muffins
Pepperidge Farm farmhouse breads

10 for $10
Pop Secret popcorn
Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mix
2-liter Pepsi products

Triple Coupons!

I'll be back on later to post about this week's deals, but I wanted to verify for you that Harris Teeter is indeed having triple coupons this week.

Remember, this means that all coupons with a face value up to 99 cents will be tripled, up to the value of the item. For example: You have a coupon for .75 off an item. Tripled, you'll get $2.25 off. But if the item only costs $2, you'll only get $2 off - you won't get that extra .25 in change. Coupons of $1 or more will be redeemed at their face value.

Harris Teeter now limits you to 20 tripled coupons per day, per VIC card household. Lucky for me, my sister doesn't coupon herself, so she lets me use her VIC card during triple coupons.

I made 2 trips early this morning. On the first trip, my total before coupons & VIC savings was $45.57. After VIC savings and triple coupons, I paid $6.74!

My second trip was much more extensive, and contained items not purchased with triple coupons, such as a fabulous meat markdown - over $30 worth of ribeye steaks for $11.22!

Total before VIC savings & coupons, $111 and change. Total after VIC savings (meat markdowns, etc.), $72 and change. After coupons were tripled, I paid $37.85.

From the Bakery

Last week, Harris Teeter had both blueberries and Martha White muffin mix on sale. I picked up both, then found a recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake on the back of the package. I made a few changes (don't I always?) and here is what I came up with. It's delicious!

Blueberry Crumb Cake

1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 packages Martha White Pound Cake muffin mix
1 cup milk
finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 6-oz. package fresh blueberries

With a fork or pastry blender, combine cold butter with flour and sugar until well blended and mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans.

Combine both packages muffin mix with milk and lemon zest - stir just until moistened. Do not over mix. Pour into greased 9" square baking pan. Sprinkle blueberries evenly on top. Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over berries. Bake at 350 for 50 - 60 minutes, or until done. (Toothpick inserted in center will come out clean, and topping will be lightly browned.)

Tuesday Dinner

Dinner Tuesday was Orange Chicken, made with a Wanchai Ferry dinner kit. These kits all contain rice, seasoned cornstarch (to toss the chicken in before cooking), and sauce. Some add a packet of hot chilis, nuts, canned pineapple, etc., depending on the flavor. I'd be happy enough to just purchase the sauce in a bottle and do without the kit altogether (especially because they never contain enough rice), but I'd miss the seasoned cornstarch, too - it really gives the chicken a nice flavor. The Orange Chicken is our favorite variety, although we've liked every other kind we've tried, too. The kits are a bit pricey at the regular grocery stores, but WalMart has them in the $3 range. Combine that with the frequent coupons for $1 off, and it's a decent deal.

On the side we had steamed edamame from Trader Joe's. I could have made a meal on these alone - they were so good!

Totals:

$2 - Wanchai Ferry dinner kit
$2 - boneless chicken (purchased BOGO from HT)
$1.69 - edamame

$5.69 for dinner for 3 (we had another complete serving left over that I was hoping to save for lunch, but The Kid polished it off before bedtime.)

Monday Dinner

No dinner post last night - I was too sick to cook so it was every man for himself.

I'm still too sick to cook tonight but I managed anyway. I made all my favorite comfort foods and looked forward to eating dinner all afternoon. Then I couldn't taste a darn thing because of this stupid cold/flu. Oh well, I'm sure it was delicious.

We had smoked sausage (grilled last week), individual potato gratins, and butter-crumb cabbage. For the gratins, I use a bag of Simply Potatoes Homestyle Slices (purchased BOGO + double coupon), so I have to increase all the other ingredients to accommodate 12 muffin-cups worth instead of 8. This isn't an exact-measurement sort of recipe, though, so it's very simple. For the butter-crumb cabbage, I use a lot more than 1/2 cup crumbs called for. I crush up 1/2 a bag of Texas Toast Garlic Butter croutons, so it probably comes out to more like 1 cup.

Totals:

.50 - smoked sausage (BOGO + double coupon)
.40 - Simply Potatoes
$1 - cheese & cream for potatoes
.40 - 1/2 large head cabbage
.25 - croutons (double coupons)
.25 - butter

$2.80 for dinner for 3, with 1 serving sausage and several servings cabbage & potatoes left over

Saturday Dinner

I'm still sick (head cold) and still not up for cooking, but I really wanted something warm and rich and comforting for dinner tonight, so I solicited some help from my family to make Mexican Rice. Mainly I sat at the kitchen table and "directed traffic" - chop that, add this, stir, etc.

Mexican Rice

1 lb. ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
3 slices bacon, diced
1.5 cups uncooked rice
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 packet taco seasoning mix
2 cups chicken broth or water (I used chicken broth)
shredded cheese (I used cheddar/jack blend)

Brown ground turkey in large nonstick skillet; remove and drain. In same skillet, saute diced bacon with onion until bacon is cooked. Add turkey back to the pan along with remaining ingredients except cheese. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 - 25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Add a little more chicken broth or water if it starts to get too dry. Top with shredded cheese and replace cover for a minute or two until cheese melts. This dish feeds 6 - 8 generously.

Options: I had both leftover corn and leftover black beans in the fridge -about 1 cup of each - so I threw them in.

My head is too fuzzy to do all the calculations, but I estimate this dish cost about $4 based on $1.29 chub of turkey, bacon & cheese bought on sale, taco seasoning free after triple coupons, etc. But even if you paid full price for every ingredient, this would still be a pretty economical dish to make given how many people it feeds.

Friday Dinner

I'm sick and wasn't feeling up to cooking last night, so my family took over and got dinner on the table. We had hot dogs (grilled earlier in the week), canned chili, and crinkle-cut oven fries. It was extra-tasty because I didn't have to do anything but sit down and be served.

Totals:

$1 - hot dogs (Oscar Mayer all beef - BOGO + coupon)
$1 - hot dog buns
.13 - canned chili (BOGO + triple coupon)
free - fries (leftover 1/2 bag already totaled in another meal - purchased in a HT meal deal)

$2.13 for dinner for 3

Thursday Dinner

Dinner tonight was very tasty but I can't take a lick of credit - it was all "heat n' eat." After all the shopping and deal-finding I did today, I got home rather late and out of energy. So I pan-fried the Turkey Mignons I'd gotten earlier today at Lowes Foods, microwaved a container of Bob Evans Sour Cream & Chive mashed potatoes (also from LF), and microwaved a steamable bag of sweet corn. The only thing the dinner was missing was cranberry sauce, and that's going on the shopping list to serve with the turkey next time.

Totals:

$3.75- Butterball Turkey Mignons ($4.99/package of 4)
$2 - mashed potatoes
$1.25 - corn

$7 for dinner for 3

Wednesday Deals - Lowes Foods

I'm editing this post because I just got back from Lowes Foods and there are some good deals that are even better than I thought! Several items already on sale this week have additional money off at the register when you add the e-offer to your Lowes Foods Rewards Card.

If you haven't signed up yet for e-offers, it's the easiest thing in the world. Just click on the link at the LowesFoods.com homepage. Enter in your information and your rewards card number, and then start clicking on the offers you want added to your card. That's it! You'll automatically get extra savings at the register when your Rewards card is scanned and you purchase those items. You can even print out a page of all your offers so you won't forget them at the store. Think of these offers like coupons you don't have to clip!

Lowes Foods is my favorite store for deals this week.

e-offers/instasave
LF brand half gallon ice cream .99/ea, limit 2
$1 off 2 Pier 33 Mussels (on sale this week)
$2 off Hormel Lemon-Garlic marinated pork tenderloin (unadvertised special - $5.99 this week)
$2 off Butterball Turkey Mignons (on sale this week)
$1 off Bob Evans side dishes (on sale this week)


Buy 2, Get 3 Free
LF shredded cheese
No Fear or Amp energy drinks

BOGO:
Breyer's Ice Cream
LF foam plates
Pier 33 Mussels
Carolina Pride bacon
Hebrew National franks
Star pimento cheese
LF spices
LF tall kitchen trash bags
Tidy Cats cat litter (standard, non-clumping)
Rondele cheese spread
President feta cheese
Bakery artisan whole wheat bread
Bakery cinnamon rolls


Other Good Deals:

Boneless eye of round roast $1.99/lb
Hormel 3 lb Black Label canned ham $3.99/ea
Perdue Value Pack fresh chicken thighs or drumsticks .89/lb
10 lb. bag Better Valu potatoes $2.99

There are also 2 pages of Lowes Foods in-store coupons in their circular this week. These coupons are good for the next 3 weeks. You may find some good deals - one that jumped out at me was Progresso Soups 2/$3. Remember, you can combine manufacturer coupons with store coupons for even greater savings!

Wednesday Deals - Food Lion

Food Lion is having a 3-day Sale this weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) that looks pretty good. Other than that, enough good deals that I'll probably have to make a FL trip this weekend.

3-Day Sale:
FL Self Rising or Thin Crust Frozen Pizza 5/$10.00
FL Ice Cream Bars, Sandwiches, or Cones 2/$3
FL Apple Juice $0.99
FL Chunk Light Tuna 3/$1

BOGO:
Edy's Ice Cream
FL frozen boneless chicken breasts
select General Mills cereals
Betty Crocker Fruit Shapes
Green Giant canned veggies
Hamburger Helper
Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad
FL Jumbo Cooked Shrimp (bagged, frozen)
16 oz. Sail Sea Scallops

Other Good Deals:

Toaster Strudel 3/$5
Wisk laundry detergent $2.99
Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers 3/$5
Seedless Red Grapes .99/lb
Food Lion Cooking Oil $2.29
Del Monte Sloppy Joe Sauce $1
Stouffer's Family Size entrees 2/$10
Smithfield Smoked Sausage $1.99

Wednesday Deals - Harris Teeter

I know, it's Thursday - sorry about the late posting. Harris Teeter has some OK deals this week - a few things I might pick up but nothing I'm overly excited about. A little bird tells me they'll be having triple coupons next week, so get your organizing done now!

E-Vic Special:
12-18 oz. HT brand cereals, .99 each/limit 2

Weekly Spotlight:
Porterhouse, T-Bone or Bone-In Ribeye Steak $3.99/lb, limit 4 packages

Meal Deal:
HT brand Marinated Pork Tenderloin
1 loaf La Brea Rosemary Olive Oil Bread
20-24 oz. Bob Evans Side Dish
Frozen HT cut or french style green beans
$9.99 (must buy all items to qualify for special price)

BOGO:
Cottonelle 12 rolls
All Detergent
Breyers Ice Cream
Coke 6 pack bottles
Smithfield whole boneless pork tenderloin
Damp Rid
HT White Rawhide Chips
Tostitos
Cookie Crisp or Fruity Cheerios cereals (Look for recent coupons on these)
Tidy Cats 14 lb. Litter
Spray n'Wash
Clorox Wipes
Glass Plus
Hefty 40 ct. and selected varieties trash bags
Martha White muffin mix (Look for recent coupons on these)
Sun Maid Raisins, 6 pack
Foster Farms Chicken strips or nuggets
Kozy Shack pudding
Wholly Wholesome pie crust
Quaker Quakes
Sara Lee honey wheat bread
Nature's Own English muffins
HT 4 pack light bulbs

Other Good Deals:

18 oz. JIF peanut butter .99 limit 3

House of Raeford Turkey Breast .97/lb

HT milk $1.97/gallon

Marie Callendars or Healthy Choice entrees 4/$10 (recent coupons on MC brand)

HT brand canned peaches, pears or fruit cocktail 2/$1

HT brand canned peas, corn or green beans 3/$1

HT brand canned tomato sauce 5/$1

Blueberries and Raspberries - $1.25/ea

Save $3 at checkout when you buy 7 participating Quaker products in one purchase (list is in weekly circular).

Wednesday Dinner

Tonight I made Curried Coconut Chicken and served it with white rice. This is the second time I've made this dish and the family loved it just as much as the first time - maybe more. My only changes to the recipe are that I cut the chicken to 1 lb. and only used about 3/4 can of coconut milk (used 1/2 cup in my now-famous Banana Tres Leches Cake.)

Even if you're unfamiliar with the flavors of Indian food (as my family is), I highly recommend this dish. The Kid practically jumped for joy when I mentioned what I was cooking tonight. It's THAT good.

Totals:

$2 - chicken (purchased BOGO at Harris Teeter)
$1.29 - coconut milk
.80 - canned tomatoes
.50 - onion, rice

$4.59 for dinner for 3 (with leftovers for another serving)

Tuesday Dinner

As is my habit, I threw a lot of extra meats on the grill last night to serve for the rest of the week. Tonight we had bratwurst on buns with sauerkraut, au gratin potatoes, and sliced tomatoes from the garden. The bratwurst and buns were part of this weeks Harris Teeter meal deal - package of brats, package of buns, can of baked beans, and 1 lb deli potato salad for $5.99. I have no idea how to portion out the cost for tonight's meal since we didn't serve the potato salad & beans (it also seems like a completely obsessive thing to calculate), but I estimate tonight's dinner cost about $5.

Monday Dinner

I broke out the grill tonight for what may be the last time this summer. Awhile back, I splurged on a boneless marinated lamb shoulder and decided it was finally time to cook it. (This particular roast was originally $14 and change but I got it for about $7 after meat markdown + coupon.) So I grilled it to medium-rare, sliced it thin and served it with yellow cherry tomatoes from my garden (these need no embellishment) and my Fake-Out Lemon Broccoli Risotto.

Totals:

$7 - lamb
$1.25 - broccoli
$2 - other risotto ingredients
free - cherry tomatoes

$10.25 for dinner for 3 (with lamb and risotto left over)

NOTE: The wine department can be a great source for coupons, and they are often for unbranded items that never have coupons (fresh meat, produce, gourmet cheeses, etc). For this lamb roast, I used a coupon for $4 off any fresh meat that came off a wine bottle.

Sunday Dinner

The Kid and I were out of town visiting friends Friday & Saturday and didn't return until late this afternoon. I had purchased a Tyson Fajita kit awhile back (from WalMart, with coupon) for just this sort of night when I'm tired and uninspired. It turned out pretty good - better than many frozen "bag to skillet" meals, with the bonus of being portioned to serve 3, not 2. On the side I served a can of Glory Foods "Sensibly Seasoned" pinto beans, whole grain tortilla chips and a brand of guacamole that's sold vacumn-packed in the produce section. All of these were free or nearly free after super-double or triple coupons at Harris Teeter. All in all, a very nice (and inexpensive) dinner for a "I'm too tired to cook" night.

Totals:

$4.39 - fajita kit
.15 - pinto beans
free - guacamole
.10 - tortilla chips

$4.64 for dinner for 3

Thursday Dinner

Tonight was sort of a "garden dinner." We had sliced tomatoes, the last of the pole beans, collards (from a can, not from the garden), and homemade mac & cheese.

Totals:

$3.50 - ingredients for mac & cheese
$1 - collards
free - tomatoes
free - beans

$4.50 for dinner for 3, with leftovers for several more meals

Wednesday Dinner

I had another short-on-ideas night tonight. (Everything I could think of - that needed no extra ingredients to buy - was based on either beef or rice. I'm currently a bit tired of both.) So I made our old standby - breakfast for dinner. With all the deals I've gotten lately with sales, triple coupons, etc., it was incredibly cheap. I made bacon, egg & cheese biscuits and hash browns, with fresh fruit (watermelon from the garden) on the side. Yum! As a bonus, The Kid made extra breakfast sandwiches with the leftovers, which are now ready for microwaving before school.

Totals:

.75 - bacon (1/2 package, purchased when HT had buy 2, get 3 free deal)
.33 - Grands biscuits (sale + triple coupon)
.40 - eggs
.50 - cheese
.40 - Simply Potatoes hash browns (BOGO sale + super double coupons)
Free - watermelon from garden

Totals: $2.38 for dinner for 3 (plus 2 leftover sandwiches for breakfast)

Tuesday Dinner

Tonight was a new-to-us recipe - I made Korean-style braised short ribs in the crock pot. I served them with rice and they were delicious - very easy, too. I came across a fantastic price on marked down short ribs not long ago. After a quick conversation with the butcher on how to best cook them, I browsed through lots of short-rib crockpot recipes. I took what I thought were the best elements from several Korean-style recipes, and this is what I came up with:

Dredge 2 - 3 lbs. beef short ribs in flour seasoned with salt & pepper, and brown on all sides in a little oil. (Do about 3 - 4 ribs at a time to keep from overcrowding pan.) Place ribs in crock pot. Pour over 1 can pineapple chunks (reserve juice) and 1 sliced onion. For braising liquid, mix together reserved pineapple juice, about 1 cup soy sauce, about 1/4 cup each brown and white sugar, 1 tsp. minced garlic, and 2 tsp. sesame oil. Pour over ribs and cook on high setting for about 5 hours, or until meat is tender. Skim as much fat as you can from the surface. Serve with rice.

NOTE # 1: All the recipes I found called for ginger. I thought I had some, but couldn't find it when I went to look. Recipe was delicious without it, but I definitely would have used it if I could.

NOTE # 2: Cooking on low for 8 - 10 hours would have worked just as well, I just didn't have time to cook that long.

NOTE # 3: If you can make this an entire day ahead of time, even better. The fat will rise to the surface and harden, then you can just peel it off. (Which is what I intend to do with leftovers tomorrow.)


Totals:

$4.02 - short ribs
$1.09 - pineapple
.20 - rice
.50 - onion, soy sauce, sugar

$5.81 for dinner for 4 (sister joined us), with plenty of beef left over