What to do with all that food!

So there you are staring at pounds of tomatoes, piles of apples, a plethora of papaya and thinking, 'Okay, Mindy Likes to Coupon promised me a post guiding me what to do with all this, so where is she?'

I'm HERE! I'm HERE!

Sorry about that. This has been a wonderful week for couponers - tons of FREEBIES and just in time for the holiday and I've been clipping and hitting the stores.

Let deal with the papaya first, shall we? I like papaya. It's kind of like cantaloupe in consistency and calorie density, so great if you're watching your calories. Also, it's a wonderful tenderizer for meat. Want to tenderize a cheap steak? Cook it with papaya . Lentils are always cheap. I picked some up at the 99c Only Store today.

Or how about making a Papaya Jam. (Yes, this is where the pectin comes in) Jam is really easy to make and once you start making your own, the store bought stuff just won't do. If you make smaller quantities you can just keep it in your fridge and not have to worry about the canning part of it.

As long as we're talking jam, how about strawberry-kiwi? This is a freezer jam. Yes, you pop it in your freezer when you're done. Cool, huh? (Pun intended)

How do you like them apples? They're as versatile as your imagination. I make this Apple-Barley Pudding often except I add more barley and skip the water because otherwise, it's kind of like a glorified applesauce. And I put milk or half-and-half over it, or leave it off altogether. My kids love this.

And remember the rolled oats I had you buy? Try this Apple Crisp-like Apple-Oat Pudding. You don't have to use quick oats, regular oats take like one minute longer to cook than quick oats and contain more fiber. Use whole wheat flour instead of white flour and halve the sugar (leave out the white sugar) and go ahead and use those Galas instead of a tart apple. You'll feel more virtuous so you can have a second helping without guilt.

If you don't eat up all the apples or cook 'em up before they start getting old, just cook down the rest into applesauce:

Core the apples (don't peel them, lots of fiber and good stuff in the skin), toss in a saucepan, add cinnamon and nutmeg, maybe a tiny bit of water and cook it down to whatever consistency makes you happy. Put in fridge, use in box cake mixes in place of the vegetable oil to save lots of fat and calories.

By the way, I also think the imitation crab meat at Fry's (Crab Classics, $1) is a good deal. If you were a couponer, it'd be an even better deal because it'd be free with coupons. I use this stuff with non-fat mayonnaise in mock crab salad. I also put it over bagged salads which are on sale for $1 at Fry's and Basha's this week.

Another item worth stockpile consideration are the Bone-in, Rib eye steaks at Bashas for $3.67/lb. They are being sold in the family packs. That's a good price for rib eyes and those are great on the grill. I also picked up the Kroger-brand canned pasta (like the Chef Boyardee) at Fry's. They were 78c/can. I'm doing a road trip this summer with the kids and items like this and the Van Camps I mentioned yesterday make great lunches while on the road. Leave on the dashboard to heat while you're off site-seeing, then take a can opener to them and chow down. A real money and time saver when on the road.

That's it for this week. I'll be back tomorrow or the next day to list all the items that couponers rarely shell out any of their own money for. Have a great evening!