The $50 Stockpile

Is it over yet?

2011-12-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

Been doing a lot of traveling this month and doing some more traveling tomorrow, meaning I haven't been into stockpiling or shopping at all. Finally made it to Pros Ranch yesterday to pick up produce, mostly fruit because our home garden provides plenty of veggie type choices. I spent less than $28 total for 3 giant pork roasts, apples, oranges, kiwis, avocados, bananas, tomatoes, and sour cream.

Not exciting, but there's a stockpile item there, the pork roasts. The roasts are bone-in for 98c/lb, sold only in mega-packages of 3 roasts. I cooked a roast yesterday for dinner. There are plenty of leftovers. The other two roasts I froze.

Tonight I'm making spaghetti and meatballs. The ground beef is from the freezer, part of a an entire grass-fed steer I purchased a year and half ago and we're still working our way through. The spaghetti was a coupon freebie still in my pantry along with several other coupon freebie boxes. The sauce will be tweeked Hunt's diced tomatoes in a can because my son ate every single one of the tomatoes I purchased yesterday pretty much as soon as I got home.

Here's how I make meatballs, with egg and Italian-style breadcrumbs, and whatever bits of leftovers might be lurking in the fridge, broccoli, sweet potato, beans... Brown them in a little olive oil, then bake them until cooked through. Or let them simmer in the tomatoes until they're done cooking.

The salad to accompany is compliments of my garden.

Good eating is cheap. It just requires a few basic cooking skills and an eye for the price. Fifty dollars would purchase 50 pounds of the bone-in pork roasts (bones are minimal, by the way. Barely there). That's good for 50 dinners. I didn't purchase more because, despite my best efforts to empty it, my freezer is always full. It's like magic in there. I keep the items rotating, but about the point I put a dent in the contents, another great price comes along. With a 50 dinner cushion, I've plenty of time to wait for that really good price.

By the way - Pros Ranch sells really nice pork. I'm pretty careful about where I purchase my meats and I think pork looks best at Pros Ranch. Nice flavor, also. The 98c/lb price is good until 1/3/12.

And Maple Syrup for All!

2011-12-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

Deal Chicken has an amazing deal today on Vermont Maple Syrup. Six pints for $36. You may buy multiples. That's $6/pint or 37.5 cents/ounce. I just paid $20.21 for a quart of maple syrup at the grocery store.

We don't use the fake maple syrup products typically available at the grocery. For us, it's a matter of taste. Maple syrup tastes real, everything else tastes like corn syrup and so many of those fake syrups contain the high fructose kind of corn syrup. We spend so little on groceries, I'm willing to pay the money where it matters. I won't say how many of these six pint deals I purchased. Let's just say I took full advantage of the amazing price.

No affiliate links in this post. No advantage to me if you order. Since this is a Vermont company, I assume this is a national deal. By the way THE SHIPPING IS FREE!

You read that right.

Only another 13 hours to go as of this posting, so get over there.

Ladies, start your griddles and waffle irons.

Good Stockup Items this week

2011-12-07T13:07:00.001-08:00

Been sick. Been busy. Been away.

Have not been into grocery shopping. Did my turkey/ham thing before Thanksgiving, then...nothing. Not even Pro's Ranch for the produce. The garden is still giving eggplants and peppers, kale and chard and lettuce, even tomatoes, and there's plenty of fruit either canned or in the freezer.

The ads were looking kind of blah this week, until I got to Albertson's. Then I got into my car and drove the few blocks to my nearest store where I picked up 29 boxes of cereal (no significance to the number, just that it filled the cart) 5 dozen eggs, 12 8-oz packages of Albertson's Brand butter, three packs of dental floss, seven tubes of toothpaste, five toothbrushes, and a bag of marshmellows for $62.

I'm embarrassed to admit I pulled out my calculator to do that simple math. The items were $1 each and there are 62 items...

I'm equally embarrassed to admit to buying cereal after my tirade about its sugary evilness a few months ago. Most of it is Raisin Bran and Shredded Wheat. Also got Corn Flakes, Cheerios and Apple Cinnamon and Honey Nut Cheerios.

All the items in the haul were Albertson's Store brand. Yes, it all tastes just like the name brands. The non-sweetened cereal were all big boxes, too, not these puny little things the name brand manufacturers are passing off as a proper box of cereal.

Other items: any time butter works out to $2/lb or less is a good time to stock up. Butter freezes beautifully. Eggs are expensive lately, so I'm happy to pick up 5 dozen for 5 bucks. For myself and my family, I don't worry about expiration dates, but for everybody else, and to keep the lawyers happy, I recommend buying only what you can eat before the expiration date.

Seven tubes of toothpaste is a year's supply for us. I mean, seriously, only a tiny dab is required for toothbrushing. Pinching Your Pennies let me know there weren't any coupons available for the sale brands. We're getting a little low, so I bit the bullet and purchased. Same goes for the floss and toothbrushes. I've typically purchased these items for free with coupons, but haven't seen them free for a long time.

And the marshmallows? Hot chocoate, anyone? Maybe toast a few over the barbecue? Everybody else must be thinking like me because I got the last bag of normal-sized marshmallows in the store.

I'll be doing a lot more traveling this month, so the blog will be pretty quiet. If I don't post beforehand, have fun this holiday season!

The winner is Fresh and Easy with 39c/lb turkeys

2011-11-16T15:53:00.001-08:00

It's not in the ad this week. You have to go to the Fresh and Easy homepage to see the listed price. This is for Jennie-O turkeys. Since it's not in the ad, I suppose there's a chance Fresh and Easy will yank the price. The Fresh and Easy ad in today's paper has coupons for $3 off $30 and $10 off $50. There is nothing in the ad about whether the Fresh and Easy Friends program is still offering 500 points on the turkeys which I mentioned in my previous post. If so, the net cost of the turkeys would be almost free. Even if they aren't, go purchase your limit of two turkeys. A 15-pound turkey would be $5.85, little more than the typical whole chicken.

The Farmer John hams are still 97c/lb and we're still eating and enjoying the one I made on Sunday. It was $10 well spent. Tonight, I heated slices and served with mashed yams from Pro's Ranch (7 lbs/99c) and fresh green beans from the same store (99c/lb, I served 54c worth).

If you don't have a Fresh and Easy near you, Basha's is selling their Norbest turkeys for 59c/lb. I've purchased those turkeys before and found them delicious. Albertson's advertises that they will price match, but I don't know that they sell Norbest or if they will substitute another brand. Call before you shop.

What did shopping day look like here at the stockpile?

$7.06

You read that right. I did it all at Pro's Ranch and purchased 14 pounds of bananas, over 8 pounds of yams, a half-pound of green beans and 3.5 pounds of pinto beans. I don't need the pintos, but at 50c/lb, I figured a few more pounds in the pantry wouldn't hurt.

We still have oranges and pears and apples, as well as some avocados and limes. The garden is still providing bunches of greens. There's plenty of meat in the freezer and grains in the pantry. Beyond milk and eggs, we just don't need much. If I had the freezer space, I'd be buying up those turkeys. Even if all I did was cook them up for pet food, it's cheaper than buying cans for the cats and dogs.

If your freezer is not full, now is the time to stock up those turkeys. Those prices will be history on Black Friday. They have not made a Christmas return in the past few years. Autumn is past and with it go the wonderful harvest prices. Perhaps not so much here in Phoenix, blessed as we are with a year-round growing season.

With Christmas approaching, the sales will turn to baking. Keep an eye for grains, nuts, sugar and dried fruits.

Year-Long Ham and Turkey Buffet

2011-11-13T14:56:00.001-08:00

I decided to take advantage of the 59c/lb turkeys (limit 2)available at Fresh and Easy that I mentioned in my last post. The shopping tripyielded unexpected savings. Since I was going anyway, I decided to find outsomething about the Friends Program Fresh and Easy recently launched.Basically, buy stuff at Fresh and Easy and get points. The basic reward is 1point for every dollar spent. Spend 50 bucks, get 50 points. Every hundredpoints is worth $1. So every 100 bucks spent equals a reward of $1.

Yes, I understand if you’re not hopping up and down for joy.Let me make it happier for you.

1) The points accumulate.

2) Fresh and Easy is offering double reward pointsnow through Thanksgiving

3) Every turkey you buy is worth 500 points. (Yes,that equals $5)

Here’s how to do it:

1) You join online and get 250 points just forsigning up ($2.50).

2) Go to Fresh and Easy and get a Friends Card.

3) Make your purchases.

4) When you get home, sign in with your emailaddress and attach the card to your account.

5) Check out your new rewards balance.

6) You can convert the reward points to cashwhenever you want. The site says something about the conversion being ‘roundeddown’ to the nearest 100 points. I don’t know if that means you forfeit pointswhen you cash out. Call customer service (1-877-338-6546) to find out.

Here’s what I purchased:

1) Two turkeys, approx. 17 lbs each for 20.39total.

2) Two Farmer John Hams approx. 12 lbs each for$23.75

3) 2 lbs of Whole Bean Fair Trade Coffee for $13.98

I found an online coupon for $10 off $50. I looked for thebiggest turkeys and hams I could find, but still needed $7 worth of stuff toget to $50. The coffee was a good price for whole bean Fair Trade. If I’d hadmore time, I’d have gotten smaller turkeys and hams to get as close to justover $50 as possible, but I was in a hurry, so I spent about $59, used the $10off coupon and paid $49.08 for the above. I also received 1116 points for thetransaction, or a little over $11 BACK. With the 250 points I received forsigning up, I now have almost $14 in cash rewards I can use for my next trip.

I wish I had more freezer room, I truly do, but we had to dosome major rearranging to find space for the two turkeys and a single ham. Goodpart of having to do that is my freezers and my fridge are all cleaned out andorganized. Second good part is I had an excuse to cook the second ham fordinner and use some of it to make a homemade split pea soup with split peasfrom my pantry. The family is happy. The ham will provide the makings for a hamcasserole, ham croquettes, more soup, pasta salad and ham sandwiches all week. I’m lucky in thatmy family will eat food for days in a row, so long as it tastes good and theydon’t actually have to cook anything themselves!

If you’ve some extra cash, stocking up on turkeys and hamsand using the coupon, plus accumulating cash rewards would be worthwhile. Gofor twelve turkeys and twelve hams. Figure cooking one turkey and one ham permonth to provide two weeks of meal fixings per month. It’s plenty for even thebiggest meat eaters.

The above should cost $240 total and will include otheritems you may need to get the grocery bill to $50 so you can use the $10 offcoupon. That will be six shopping trips over the next couple of days (6 times$40). You’ll also get other items you need (the fill out items to get to $50)and will accumulate a lot of points for a future shopping trip.

Have fun!

This and That

2011-11-10T13:42:00.001-08:00

I'll be away for Thanksgiving, but I'm still going to Fresh and Easy to pick up my 59c/lb turkeys from Jennie-0. Limit is 2 per visit. Fresh and Easy has some kind of new points earning program which may be worth investigating if you shop there a lot. I don't think their prices are particularly low, but they do have good specials sometimes. Like these turkeys. Unfortunately, they don't issue rain checks.

In Albertson's last week, I saw a sign promising a price match on the 59c/lb turkeys. Hopefully, that continues into this week and up thru Thanksgiving.

The easiest way to prepare turkey during the year is to boil it. That's why I prefer smaller turkeys, or to have the butcher saw it in half for me when I purchase it. Add onion, sage, thyme and rosemary and let it simmer for a long time. Lift it onto a plate and let the cooking liquid, aka broth, cool. Skim any obvious scum off the top of the broth. When cool, strain it through a clean tea towel, then freeze or can in smaller quantities to use as needed.

Pull the meat from the turkey. The white meat can be sliced as needed for sandwiches and the dark meat frozen or canned for use in pot pies.

Does making pot pie sound scary? It's not. It's easy and requires very little from you beyond keeping an eye the pot doesn't boil over and you have enough freezer containers or canning supplies. Pot pies are a cinch to make. If pastry dough frightens you, use Pillsbury tube biscuits as an easy substitute. Roll them flat, lay them in the pie plate, add the meat, sprinkle some seasonings, spoon it over with some bechamel sauce and lay another flattened tube biscuit on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until it browns.

Does Bechamel Sauce sound fancy? It's not. Bechamel is a fancy name for a basic white sauce. Mush softened butter into some flour with a fork. Heat on a low (I mean LOW) saucepan until the butter melts. keep it moving with a wooden spatula. Drizzle in some milk. That means a little at a time. Keep on stirring for about 20 minutes. That's the time needed for the flour to lose the 'raw' flavor. This is a great task to put a tween or teen on, especially if you tell them you don't care if they talk to their friends on the cellphone while they do it. As the flour cooks, it will thicken. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If it's too thin, add the teeniest amount of flour. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Voila! Bechamel Sauce.

I like pot pies because they are good vehicles for using leftovers. Broccoli and carrots are great choices. As are carrots and potatoes. They'll feed a lot of hungry people and look impressive when placed on the table.

Like Boston Market. Only cheaper.

(BTW, I think the 97c/lb Farmer John Hams are a pretty good at Fresh and Easy. They contain a fair amount of water weight, but freeze well and will make good dinners and sandwiches in the months to come. These are also limit 2. If Fresh and Easy has a new coupon out, you can save a few dollars on the total sale. Check at Pinching Your Pennies, or the store site for a coupon.)

Correction: Or why lately I avoid Fry's markets

2011-10-26T14:05:00.001-07:00

59c/lb for Jenni-O turkey is an amazing price. With great pride, Fry's advertised this price in the upper left corner of this week's ad in Great Big Print and declaring:

SAVE on Your Thanksgiving TurkeyCount on Fry's Famous Low Prices for your Thanksgiving Day feast. From now through Thanksgiving, Jennie-O grade A frozen turkeys are only 59c per pound. That means you can plan a mouthwatering holiday meal that's easier on your budget.

Then in even bigger type (and bolded), Fry's prints:

Jennie-O Grade A Frozen Turkeys 10-20 lb Average 59c lb with Card.

Okay, so you see this with a picture of a beautifully roasted turkey on the front of Fry's ad, how much do you think this turkey costs?

You'd be wrong.

This turkey is actually $1.39/lb. There is no discount because underneath all of that in fine print even finer than the fine print at the bottom of the ad informing us that Fry's reserves the right to correct all printed errors, Fry's states 'Limit 1 per customer with additional $25.00 purchase.'

Go ahead. Look. Bring a magnifying glass.

I found out this morning. I zipped into Fry's on my way to Pro's Ranch Market to pick up a single turkey which I hoped to defrost and make for dinner tonight. There was nothing on the turkey display case indicating special pricing on the turkey, so I asked the guy in the meat shop. He pointed to the Jennie-O's and told me those were the sale turkeys. The discount did not come off at the register. The cashier couldn't figure it out, it was her first turkey of the day.

Was it the wrong turkey? No.
Was it the wrong-sized turkey? No.
Had I swiped my shopper's card? Yes.

She called the meat guy down and together they checked the ad, checked the turkey, checked the ad, checked the turkey...until the cashier spotted the 'Limit 1' fine print nonsense.

Yeah, the disclaimer is there, albeit in the micro-print, but this situation illustrates the reason I haven't purchased anything at Fry's in months. They tell me a price in Really Big Print, then tell me in much smaller print I can't get that price unless I buy six things I don't want, turn two cartwheels down the cereal aisle, then serenade the customers in Starbucks with 'America the Beautiful' in falsetto.

It may not be false advertising exactly, but it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

My deepest apologies. My eyes are not what they used to be, but even now, knowing that micro-print is there, I can barely see it.

I'll get a turkey tomorrow, when the honeycrisps are 88c/lb. I'll purchase enough to get the turkey and shake the dust from my sandals as I exit their doorway.

And I suppose I should change the title of the previous post from 'How to Read a Grocery Ad' to 'How to Read Every Grocery Ad EXCEPT Fry's'.

This is why I like Food City and Basha's and Pro's Ranch Market. when their ad says 59c/lb, they actually mean that I'm paying 59c/lb.

How to Read a Grocery Ad

2011-10-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Grocery ads are not like really good novels. You don’t haveto read the whole thing. A glance at the first and last pages is enough to getthe goods on the best real food deals a store has to offer. For the innerpages, there are plenty of websites such as Pinching Your Pennies that detailthe really good coupon matchups (as well as the not-so-good ones. Bediscriminating.), usually in the day or two before the ad actually comes out.

Grocery store owners want you to come into their store. Theyknow you are busy and they know you have choices, so, like a headline in anewspaper, they lead with their best story. They want to grab your attention,lure you into the store even though those First Page Items represent afinancial loss to them. That is why those front page items are referred to as ‘LossLeaders’.

Loss Leaders are the hook,the items you find on the perimeter of a store in the fresh food areas. Once the store hooks you, they’ll lure youinto the inner pages of the ad, or the inner aisles of the store, promising youcheap, processed calories at prices that often aren’t all that much lower thanthe regular price for the item.

Resist. Be savvy. Don’t be embarrassed to walk into everyone of those stores, purchase only their loss leaders and depart. Getting agood deal on one item does not require you purchase all your groceries there. There’s no law that states you have to purchaseone item more than the absolute very best deals when you do your weeklyshopping.

That’s the essence of stockpiling. Buy low and in bulk,enjoy the savings for months to come.

~~Fry's turkeys at 59c/lb is the best loss leader in all thisweeks ads.~~ (EDITED TO ADD: Grrrr...see correction post above re: this price at Fry's.) Best part about this loss leader is that the price is good untilThanksgiving. That means, if you want to hedge your bets that turkey will golower somewhere before the holiday, you have time to make your decisions. Or,if you’re like me and you find yourself with an unexpected free day and alittle bit of freezer room, ~~you may want to head to Fry’s and get all yourturkeys now.~~ That's my plan. I find that it’s easier to find turkeys inthe early part of a sale. Here’s my reasoning:

1. Smaller turkeys are usually more tender and havebetter flavor

2. Smaller turkeys are more likely to be cookedlike big chickens, rather than reserved for once a year holidays

3. Smaller turkeys are easier to freeze and takemuch less time to defrost.

4. I can debone and process a smaller turkey moreeasily than I can a larger turkey

Here’sa fun tidbit I learned least year. The store butcher will saw a frozen turkeyin half for you. Take advantage of this service. It makes cooking, deboning, processingand freezing that much easier. Remember the blog post I did on DeboningChicken? The process for a turkey is much the same, but instead of yieldingsmall filets, will yield entire boneless turkey roasts, such as demonstrated inthis video:

http://youtu.be/ieJevxe9DNg

andin this series of videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjoTlVoEPdA

Thebones, of course, will yield gallons and gallons of turkey stock. At 59c/lb, a15 pound turkey costs $8.85 and, with a little ingenuity, will feed your familyfor days. Fill your freezer.

Andfor those of you who just aren’t all that ‘into’ turkey. Your dogs and cats are. Boil them whole, pull the meat from the bone, give the stock to yourneighbor and freeze the meat inreasonably sized portions.

Otheritems worth purchasing this week:

Pro’sRanch Wednesday Produce deals:

Oranges5 lbs – 99c. Think cheap, fresh juice, and lots of good snacking. Or maybe evenTurkey l’orange.

Limes4 lbs – 99c. These would be great cooking with turkey also.

Bananas25c/lb – always a staple. Banana/orange smoothie anyone?

The produce ad for the Glendale Ave store is here.Note the cheap apples and watermelon.

FoodCity Wednesday/and week produce deals:

4lbs tomatoes 99c. – Think cheap and fresh tomato gravy, which is a no effortitem to make yourself. Here's how: Cut up the tomatoes and cook in a pot with a little bitof water. Add herbs to taste. Stir on occasion. Ladle over pasta.

Cucumbersare 11c/each. Along with the tomatoes, sounds like chopped salad to me. Today only,zucchini is 20c/lb.

Apples and Onions are also cheap cheap today. Celery is Cheap all week. This all sounds delicious chopped into a roast turkey salad.

Produce ad for Food City is here.

Of note: Fry’s has their Halloween Deals tomorrow evening(10/27) from 3pm to 9pm. The only item which sent my heart a-flutter were theHoneycrisp apples at 88c/lb. Honeycrisp are scrumptious and make amazingapplesauce. I’ll be in the produce aisle at 3 pm bagging up and carting outpounds and pounds of them with a bigsmile on my face.

What $50 looks like at The Stockpile

2011-10-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Food City had a good-looking ad this week. I pick up the super-specials:

8 avocados, $1.98
6 lbs Bartlett pears $1.98 (Wednesday only)
6 lbs dried pinto beans $2.94

Total Food City: $7

at Pro's Ranch, I purchased

15 lbs bananas
1 lb lunchmeat ham
1.25 lbs guava candy - this is a jellied guava. I don't know if they add sugar or not. It's pretty sweet and a refreshing dessert. I like it with a glass of milk.
3 lbs regular-sized limes
3 paks 40ct yellow corn tortillas still warm from the press
1 lb fresh crema con sal
3 pumpkins - small, but not tiny. I'm hoping they're meaty for cooking.
1.25 lbs monterrey jack cheese
2-24 rolls of toilet paper

Total at Pro's Ranch - $33

Total grocery today - $40

Aside from the lunchmeat ham, there's no meat in this order. I have plenty in the deep freeze and no place to store more. To take this to $50, I'd buy two 10 lb bags of chicken legs at Food City for $5.90 each.

I'm annoyed at myself because I meant to purchase yams for 33c/lb at Pro's Ranch and I forgot. How good would mashed yams be this week? If I'm near a Pro's Ranch on another day, I'll duck in and pick some up.

Looking at that list, tortillas piled high with pintos, avocado and crema or monterrey jack and avocado is a no-brainer. But how about fried banana and a thinly sliced pear on a tortilla? The beans are the stock up item. They're 49c/lb at Food City this week, limit 6 lbs. If you pass by a Food City in your travels, it is worth ducking in a few times to purchase your limit. One pound of dried beans provides 10 regular servings and five really big servings. With the added chicken, there's plenty of food here to feed a family of good eaters for a week. If you don't think there's enough produce, switch out on of the packs of toilet paper - $3.99, for an equivalent amount in fruit and veggies at either grocery store.

Happy eating!

Instant Breakfast

2011-10-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

My very first Extreme Couponing score was about 4 years ago, in my early weeks of couponing. Fry's was running a sale that made cereal $1.00/box when you purchased four. After purchase, a coupon spit out of the catalina machine offering $4 off 4 boxes of cereal. Not sure the details are exact, but that's pretty close. The store limited me to one transaction per shopping trip. I had coupons clipped from the paper which made the first four boxes about $2 total. After that, the cereal was free.

I passed a lot of Fry's stores in my daily commutes, and I ducked into every single one of them every single time I passed them. I did that all week, squirreling the boxes in my pantry, certain every time I walked out of the store, buzzers would sound, lights would flash and I'd find Phoenix's Finest waiting in the parking lot with handcuffs and a copy of my Miranda rights. They didn't. It was legal and legit and it yielded me something close to 200 boxes of cereal.

I was hooked. Sometimes, in the years that followed, boxed cereal would end up free, but never as free as it was in those heady weeks when I first discovered the power of coupon clipping. I got lots of other stuff free over those years - Toaster Strudels and granola bars, sweet rolls in a tube and Pop Tarts.

Fast forward to present day. Those 200 boxes of cereal are long-ago eaten or donated, and cereal hasn't been free with coupons for a very long time. Weird thing about clipping coupons, having purchased an item for free, I find it difficult to shell out cold hard cash for it in the future. The kids ate their way through the Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch, their expressions becoming more forlorn as they worked their way down through the Honey Bunches of Oats and Frosted Mini-Wheats until all that remained were Plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat and Grape-Nuts.

The kids turned up their noses and ate leftovers for breakfast. They grabbed bananas, ate the occasional poached egg, begged off their friends and complained they were HUNGRY.

I didn't care. I'd read the ingredients list on all those boxes of free cereal, those free rolls of sweet biscuits, those free sugared fruit-filled pies and came to a conclusion: I'd overpaid. The kids weren't hungry, they were jonesing. In my desire to take the grocery receipt to zero, I was feeding my kids a daily sugar fix sprinkled with rice powder.

Time to go all old-fashioned on their backsides. I broke out the oatmeal. I jazzed it with fruit and nuts and plenty of honey. Most days, my husband and I were the only ones eating it, but in time, the kids came around. The Battle of Breakfast was over.

Today, I buy our oat groats in bulk at the Honeyville Grain store in Chandler. The non-sale price on a 50 pound bag is $32.39. Given a 1-oz serving, the bag provides 800 servings, or enough for 200 days of breakfast for my family of four.

I cook the groats once a week in my slow cooker. I use my slap-chop to cut the apples and walnuts and almonds into bite-sized pieces. I add raisins and cranberries, sometimes a dollop of vanilla. Non-fat powdered milk powder provides additional protein, as well as a rich creaminess and enough natural sweetness, when coupled with the fruit, that added honey or agave nectar isn't always necessary. Prep time is about five minutes.

I store the concoction in mason jars in the fridge and every morning the kids scoop what they want into a bowl, add a little regular milk and eat happy.

Aside from the money, here's what I save by doing breakfast the old-fashioned way:

1) Hours spent clipping coupons and analyzing store ads to find the deals.
2) Time and gas expended ducking in and out of stores to purchase the deals.
3) Guilt over feeding my kids bowls of sugar instead of bowls of nutrition.
4) Pounds of cardboard cereal boxes clogging my recycling bin - the groats come in a single recyclable paper bag.
5) Acres of shelf space in my pantry on which I can store more nutritious options for my family.

Honeyville Grains sells online, but the prices in their retail locations are far cheaper. Retail stores are located in Utah and California. The Arizona location is in Chandler, an easy trip from both Phoenix and Tucson, and one well-worth making. Honeyville in Chandler does sales twice a month. Get on their mailing list. You won't regret it.

Yes - I Can

2011-10-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

In the United States of America, those who home can use either Ball or Kerr jars. Those jars are sold by the dozen. They come in standard imperial sizes, quart, pint and 1/2 pint. Aside from a few decorative options, the jars are either regular-mouth or wide-mouth. Most of us store the filled jars in the same carton they are shipped in. When we empty the jar, we store the cleaned jars in those same cartons until needed again.

Given those facts - why does my standard, no frills Presto pressure canner only do 7 quarts or 22 pints at a time? I'd like to can 12 quarts or 24 pints at a time.

Meats require 75 minutes to 90 minutes processing time. Add the time it takes to get the canner to pressure and another 20 minutes or more minimum for the pressure canner to cool down so I can switch out the batches...the bizarre capacity of my pressure canner means I'm expending a lot of extra time and fuel energy to do the odd-sized lots required.

I see an entrepreneurial opportunity here.

But not for me, for some other entrepreneur. I just want to can my Zaycon chicken. All 2 boxes or 80 pounds of it.

And can it, I have, 7 quarts at a time. Another batch is processing now.

This is first time I've used my pressure canner. I've owned it a year, but I was scared of it. The idea of putting food-filled glass in a metal pressurized bucket made me nervous. It didn't matter home canners have been doing that since 1910 without too much incidence. I was certain that when MY food-filled glass entered it's metal chamber, the whole shebang would implode, like a steel-framed souffle.

It didn't. And it won't happen to you, either. So long as you follow the instructions.

Prep time for the chicken was minimal. I used scissors to slice strips off the breasts so they'd slide easily into the jar. I added garlic, lime, onion, sometimes nothing, to the jars. Since I couldn't bring the canner to pressure and walk away - adjustments are needed during the process - I used the processing time to rearrange my pantry, check my email, catch up on back episodes of The Colbert Report and write this blog post.

Eighty pounds of these beautiful chicken breasts yielded 28 quarts and 24 pints of Already Cooked Goodness for my pantry. That's enough to use 1 jar a week for the next 52 weeks, a reasonable rate of use for my family. It took me one day of work.

Yeah. I'm proud of myself.

The Zaycon chicken deal is still available. Zaycon is taking orders in Arizona until Oct 12. This company is doing the chicken event nationwide, so readers outside of Arizona should check the site to search for a convenient pickup location.

At $1.49/lb, boneless, skinless chicken breast is a steal. As breasts go, these are about the most beautiful I've seen (sorry - couldn't resist). They are fresh, never frozen, all-natural, and taste delicious, so plan your time and schedule accordingly if you plan to can.

Delayed Gratification

2011-10-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

Been away a few days in a place without internet. Did manage to hit the produce sales at Pro's Ranch Market and Food City before I left though. I spent $38 total and came away with an overflowing milk crate of oranges, and another of gala apples. the oranges are going into smoothies, or will be juiced. I'll probably can the apples, which come out like very chunky applesauce and don't need added sugar.

I don't deal in food mills and I don't peel my fruit. I use one of those push down contraptions that core the apple and divide it into 8 wedges. Then I toss the wedges into the pot, add some cinnamon and allspice and nutmeg and cook them down a little before doing a hot pack water bath processing.

At least, I think that's what I'm doing. These apples are really sweet. The family has been chowing down on them and I may not get a chance to can them.

I also picked up onions and a couple of Sanderson Farms whole chickens (67c./lb). I roasted the chickens with limes, ginger and garlic, and packed them up to take with us on our trip.

There were other items in the cart, such as bananas and roma tomatoes and garlic and cantaloupe and three pinapples, but I can't remember what all I purchased! Here's what I do know. We came home from our trip to a refrigerator bursting with avocados and tomato, which we chopped into guacamole with chips (remember the yellow corn tortillas I purchased?). There's still plenty of the french onion soup as well as chicken stock I made last week.

I'm thinking a banana/orange/kale/lime smoothie for breakfast in the morning, and the soup for lunch. Then I'll be looking up canning directions for chicken breasts because I'm purchasing from the Zaycon Foods chicken event. The boxes are 40 pounds each. Today (10/3) is the last day to order and the pickup place in Arizona is Mesa. At $1.49/lb, these boneless, skinless breasts are an excellent buy. Word on the street is that they are truly delicious. Zaycon claims they are fresh and never frozen. I ordered two boxes, which should make 40 quart cans (2 lbs in each can), which is about 1 can/week over the next year to be used for several meals. I'll let you know how the canning goes or if I chicken out and simply pack it all into the freezer.

The gals at Food Storage Made Easy have me inspired, and I'm thinking meal preparation would be so much faster and easier with chicken in a can.

Wish me cluck.

Get Yer Cluck On!

2011-09-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

It's chicken week here at the $50 Stockpile. I visited two stores today and walked away with 26 pounds of the stuff for under $17.00.

First stop, Pro's Ranch Market where I picked up chicken leg quarters in a 10-lb bag for 57c/lb. Pro's Ranch chicken is high quality, all-natural chicken with a very nice flavor. As soon as I returned from the store, I deboned the chicken pieces, herbed and marinated the meat to bake for dinner, then put the bones into the stock pot to simmer. There's enough chicken for three dinners for my family of four. Baking it all at once, I save time and energy for cooking later in the week. I'll serve the chicken again on Friday, then on Sunday. As for the stock, I have visions of chicken rice in my head. Maybe because my allergies are acting up and I'm feeling sneezy.

I know deboning sounds kind of scary, but it's not. It took me less than 10 minutes to debone the entire bag. It's a big savings over buying boneless chicken thighs, and I get the extra savings in the homemade chicken stock from the bones. I found this video on YouTube, which explains the process. I'm nowhere near as neat as this cook is with the work (the word 'carnage' comes to mind), and you don't have to be as neat, either. Nobody's watching. Go to town.

Also at Pro's Ranch, I picked up 6 rolls of paper towel (39c each), 5 pounds of bananas, a packet of whole wheat tortillas, 2 boxes of strawberries, 6 pounds of roma tomatoes, 6 pounds bartlett pears, 4 pounds nectarines and a pound of dried hibiscus (for iced aqua frescas), and 3 40-count bags of yellow corn tortillas for a total of $26.

Second stop was Food City, which was catacorner from the Pro's Ranch. There, I picked up 3 cantaloupe, 8 red bell peppers and the rest of the chicken. I picked up the advertised bone-in chicken breast for 97c/lb. I deboned the chicken breast, an easy task with the help of YouTube, and added the bones to my already happily simmering chicken stock. The limit was two packages of chicken breasts, so about $5 total. I also found frozen chicken thighs, nicely packaged in a bag so they could be used individually for 59c/lb. the bag I purchased was about 7 lbs. Not certain. The Food City chicken awaits it chance at culinary excellence in my freezer.

I spent $12 at Food City which brought my grand total for everything to $38.

This is a small produce haul for me. I still have the avocados from last week which are still ripening. Also, I have two boxes of Utah peaches I purchased in a group buy available for eating. I'm freezing most of them because it's still too hot for me to think about canning. The peaches are exquisitely sweet. My husband ate six yesterday, my kids are keeping pace with him. I get all my leafy greens from my garden and we have at least a dozen melons ripening. I took it easy on the bananas because my son didn't eat as many this last week, forcing me to freeze half of them in a banana, plum, kiwi, grape mush.

It may not sound appetizing, but believe me, it's sinfully delicious, and pretty to boot.

If the kids need more bananas, they're on sale 33c/lb at Food City all week. Also, Basha's will have eggs 88c/dozen Friday-Sunday this week, so I plan to pick up the limits on those. I don't pay a lot of attention to milk prices since we purchase raw, organic milk from a dairy in Gilbert, but many of the stores have milk for well under $2/gallon this week.

I told the kids to make themselves bean burritos for breakfast this week with the crema from last week and this week's tomatoes. They can make themselves peanut butter and jelly burritos for lunch. Entrees this week will be the aforementioned chicken, something with ground beef from the freezer, chicken stir-fry and an eggplant parmigiana courtesy of the frantically producing plants in the garden.

Not sure about desserts, but I've had requests for peach ice cream and carmelized bananas.

Which means my plan to force my family to eat cheap, whole unprocessed foods by only offering them cheap, whole, unprocessed foods to eat is working perfectly.

The 7 Day Challenge - Contemplate Death

2011-09-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

The Food Storage Made Easy ladies pulled out all the stops for Sunday. I must pretend I'm dead and get all the documents in place so my spouse and children, in the event of my demise, can find where I stash the clean socks.

Rather, I'm supposed to get my affairs in order, then pretend I'm dead, not be dead and direct affairs from beyond the grave.

Here's what I'm supposed to do:

1) Draft a will - already done, but woefully out of date. Pretty sure all the guardians we designated for our kids have either died or been kidnapped by natives in the many years since we saw to this task.

2) Make a list of assets for those I leave behind - This one is easy. The ladies let fire and flood destroy my house during yesterday's evacuation challenge, so I guess I'm divvying up what's left - two pup tents and the contents of the change container I keep in my car.

3) Make lists of all the other things you would need/want surviving family to know...

Seriously? ALL the other things I want surviving family to know? Even my criminal brother and his no-good wife who locked Mama in the basement while they spent down her bank accounts after Daddy died?

I'm going to need extra paper and another pencil.

The ladies also want my husband to take a questionaire since I'm the one who handles all the finances, to see if he has a clue what we have, what we owe and where the checkbooks are.

Hoo boy.

The 7 Day Challenge - Day 3 - evacuate

2011-09-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

After embarrassed acknowledgment that I've failed miserably at the Day 2 challenge, I decide that I will actually DO the Day 3 challenge.

I'm cheered. For Day 3, the Food Storage Made Easy Ladies tell me I'm off the hook and have the rest of the day free as soon as I perform the challenge! YAY! Plus, the challenge is only 30 minutes! SUPER-YAY! I can do anything for thirty minutes! Except maybe listen to Barry Manilow CDs.

Day 3 the ladies tell me a hurricane, fire or flood is heading towards my house and I have to evacuate. We have 30 minutes to do so and when we come back our house will not be there.

I was good right up to the house not being there part. All I can think is that we've just finished renovating the bathroom.

All righty, then. Evacuate. Thirty minutes. Gather the dogs, the cats, the laptops and other electronics, the photographs, get in the car and...find a decent hotel, I guess. Hmmm...maybe I better grab some camping supplies and a couple of crates of food. And a can opener.

The spouse has long departed for work, having made good his escape before I opened the Day 3 email. Besides, he's in the kind of work that in the event of an evacuation catastrophe he'd probably get called into work, not be allowed to leave and get out. This is all on me. But, hey! I'm a capable, intelligent, and resourceful woman of a certain age. I can do this.

Thirty minutes later, I'm still trying to rouse the teenagers.

"Fine!" I shout up the stairs, "Drown! Burn! Get carried off like Dorothy and Toto! See if I care!"

I don't actually shout that, but I want to.

Here's what I learned:

1) putting two dogs on leashes is no big deal. Suddenly remembering that they'll need something to eat and something to drink out of is a big deal. Precious minutes lost.

2) Uh...cats are hard to find when they don't want to be found. Don't bring out the cat carriers until the very last moment. Also, the cats will want to eat and drink, also.

3) Get those 72 hour kits pulled together, or something I can pass off as a 72-hour kit.

4) I deserve kudos for grabbing the photographs. However, they should all be in one place and not squirreled away in 5 different and disparate places.

5) Keep the gas tank at least half full. While it's fun to see how far a tank will take me in my beloved Prius, it's not wise to be sucking fumes on the day the world collapses.

And the teenagers? Sorry, no wisdom there. All I can say is that if we ever have to really, TRULY evacuate, it better not be on a Saturday before 9 am.

7 Day Challenge - Days 2 - Powerless Cooking.

2011-09-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

The Day 2 challenge from the Food Storage Ladies was a barrel of laughs. For Day 2, the ladies gave me back the indoor plumbing they'd taken away on Day 1 and took away my power instead. No big deal. Power outages happen. The ladies wanted me to provide three meals without power. No problem, there's a reason God invented peanut butter and jelly. Then the ladies tell me the power has been out for days, everything in the freezer and fridge has gone bad, it's somebody's birthday and I have to provide a birthday celebration meal to lift everybody's spirits.

What about my spirits? Even the thought of cleaning out the rotting contents of the fridge and freezer makes me want to wander off into the desert. Add to that the challenge of two teenagers whose iPods and cell phones are long depleted (Note to Self: put solar powered chargers for ALL electronics on the preparedness list), days of pottying by candlelight, and the realization that with my aging eyes, flashlight reading is an exercise in futility, why would anybody think me capable of preparing a celebratory meal?

Here's what I learned even contemplating the Day 2 challenge: I'm a really crabby survivalist.

So I mentally figure I'll make chili on the grill in a dutch oven. I'll use dried beans, water, TVP, canned tomatoes, herbs from the garden. We'll eat al fresco and I'll even crack a bottle of wine.

There. Survival. Accomplished.

Oh wait. The ladies want me to bake a cake, too.

Who needs cake? We have the wine. I mentally toss the teenagers a box of Ding-Dong's and decide to catch up with the ladies by doing the Day 3 challenge, instead.

Survival Slam Dance - The 7 day challenge

2011-09-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

The ladies at Food Storage Made Easy are doing a reprise of their ever-popular ~~A Week Without Toilet Paper~~...er..The 7 Day Survival Challenge. Everyday, they assault your inbox with a new scenario, then leave you to thrash out your survival scenario in near real-life situations using nothing more than your multi-tool and a stale box of saltines.

There are rules - no spending money, no sneaking out to beg, borrow or steal survival supplies, no hiring the neighbor's kid to play out the scenario for you. You're supposed to pretend whatever they say happened really happened and deal with it as best you and your most likely woefully inadequate survival preparations can. Then you can comment on their blog, or their Facebook page and share with everybody how you're doing.

I signed up for the challenge in my usual Day Late and A Dollar Short manner, which means that I didn't open the email for the first day (yesterday) until this morning. So I'll post every day and let y'all know how I did with the challenge.

Day 1: No Water

In this scenario something's happened that has knocked out power and water. The power has come back on but the water taps still aren't flowing. You guessed it - you have to use your stored water, or a nearby stream, to provide all your water and cooking needs for the day. You have to dispose of, hmmm...how to put this delicately, your daily waste, and it's been 4 days - you really need a shower.

Whew! This one is easy for me. Not that I'm actually spending a day without water. My family won't agree on what movie to rent without a fistfight, no way I'll convince them to pee in a bucket. My participation is all theoretical. But still useful.

I live in a desert and I grow an edible landscape. I'm acutely aware that Phoenix gets 7 inches of rainfall a year. I've watched enough Survivorman to know the end result of being stuck in the desert sans hydration. So I bought a bunch of ten dollar 55-gallon water drums off a guy on Craigslist, then force my family out at every rainfall to gather it by the bucketful. I hope someday to make the process a little more automated. Use of the rainwater in the garden requires I handpump it into a bucket and carry it to the beds.

Here's the point: Today, I have at least 10 55 gallon drums of stored water out there AND the means to gather more with the next rainfall. I'm not worried. Were I doing this challenge, I'd ration a couple of buckets for cooking and washing up duties and a bucket per person for personal hygiene duties. A solar shower is nice, but not required for bathing. I'd have everybody use the soapnut bar soap (Yes...soapnuts) so the wastewater could be dumped onto our little patch of grass for watering. We also use soapnut products for dishes and laundry. I purchase mine online from Naturoli which is a local company here in Phoenix. (Yay! Phoenix!!) Graywater from cooking and clotheswashing could go into the food beds - soapnuts are 100 percent compostible and biodegradable since they are a nut...from a tree.

I have a Nikken water filter for the drinking water, but could also filter larger yuckies out using coffee filters. Considering how long the rainwater has been out there, I'd purify with a few drops of bleach and let it stand before running it through the Nikken and drinking or cooking with it. The, um, bodily waste part I'd bury in the backyard.

Here's are some items I'm missing, a Rapid Washer to make handwashing of clothes a breeze. I don't know why I put off purchasing one.Also a metal tub for bathing and clothes washing.

Notes: Cooking isn't a problem because we have power. YAY! Not having a garbage disposal isn't a problem because the veggie waste goes into the compost. Meat waste into the regular garbage. The ladies didn't say anything about everyday services being cut off. Otherwise, I'd store it in the freezer until full services are restored.

I'm a wimp for not actually doing the challenge, but I've learned a lot from going through the motions and thinking about everything throughout the day. I also need a LOT more buckets.

Lifecycle of a Produce Purchase

2011-09-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here's what I purchased on Wednesday at Pros Ranch Market:

28 avocados, 2 pounds of Red grapes, a 40-ct package of yellow corn tortillas, 7 pounds of brown onions, 20 pounds of bananas, 22 pounds of oranges (so large they looked like grapefruit) and a pound of sour cream for about $25.

This looks like a lot, but it's not all the produce I'll use for the week. The rest I pick out of the raised beds in my backyard.

What do we do with it all? We eat it.

Those of you who followed this blog during its first inception know I used to be an avid couponer. While I still use coupons on occasion, most purchases made with coupons end up in food storage, or the donate bin. That's because most coupon purchases are processed foods and I'm trying to get my family off processed foods.

Don't get me wrong - there's a place for Hamburger Helper - in the food storage, among the camping staples, if the only other option is fast food, or a take-out pizza run - but there's no way I'll work that stuff into my weekly menu plan. At least, not until the bombs are falling. Or financial catastrophe makes it the only option.

The purpose of this blog is to show that we can feed our families well, very well, using real food and with just a little bit of imagination and effort. So here's my thinking on this recent produce purchase:

28 avocados: That's 1 avocado per day per person for my family of four. I've been pulling them out of the fridge to ripen 4 at a time, in hopes they will ripen on a similar schedule. Besides guacamole, avocados make great sandwiches. Spread them on bread right out of their skin. Add a little salt and a squeeze of lemon and enjoy. Seven dollars for 28 avocados provides a great lunchbox meal for under 30c/sandwich (I'm adding in the cost of the bread). Top a salad with them. You won't need the oil part of the dressing, just the vinegar because avocados already provide a healthy dose of those 'good fats' we keep hearing about. If we don't eat them all before they get overripe, I'll mush up the rest, put it in a ziploc bag and freeze it for future guacamole.

2 pounds of red grapes: The kids are eating these. They'll be gone by tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago, I purchased about 20 pounds of black seedless grapes at Sprouts. I froze most of them and add them to smoothies. Frozen fruit is great to make low calorie and healthy 'ice cream'.

40 count package of yellow tortillas, also the sour cream: Once a week I pressure cook a pot of beans and store it in the fridge. I also keep some kind of crema or sour cream in the fridge, as well as some kind of cheese. Coupled with the tortillas ($1.49 for the pack of 40), these frugal fixings are the basis for any number of breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack tacos. Pros Ranch makes these fresh, without preservatives. The packages are still hot when you purchase them. Before week's end, they will start getting stale. When that happens, let them finish their lives as tortilla chips. Simply slice into wedges and fry like potato chips, or eschew the oil and bake them in a medium oven. The whole family loves these with salsa.

7 pounds of brown onions: I use onions all the time. I love them. This bunch is destined for a pot of French onion soup I plan to make this weekend. I have a box of beef bones in the freezer. I'll roast them, then use them to make stock. Once the stock is clarified and the bones gone to the dogs, I'll slice these beautiful onions and add it to the stock. I'll serve piping hot with a generous sprinkle of parmesan. The onions were 20c/lb, the beef bones gathered over time from meat purchases. I've plenty of herbs in my garden. The pot of soup will provide lunches and dinner starters for at least a week. Unused soup can be frozen. I'll cook it this weekend during the cheap electricity time.

20 pounds of bananas: these are tucked into lunch boxes, grabbed by teenagers too frantic to eat breakfast, churned into smoothies, added to banana bread, cooked down with sweet spices and used as a filling for blintzes, or a topping for pancakes and waffles. We go through a lot of bananas in this household so I go nuts when I find them at 33c. Any that are getting overripe are peeled and frozen. I have a big bag in the freezer and regularly chip away at them to add to those frozen 'ice cream-like' concoctions mentioned above.

22 pounds of oranges: These are already half gone. My son has been juicing them. At 4 lbs/$1, this is cheaper and better tasting than any bottled orange juice. And a good stopgap measure until my own citrus starts producing.

There you have it. My $25 investment pays me back many times over - in smoothies, frozen desserts, puddings, toppings, soup, tacos, chips, and burritos. Too bad I can't list it on the New York Stock Exchange.

Embrace your Inner Ethnic

2011-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, I became friends with a gal who lived on produce and dried beans. When she dropped by my house for coffee, I served Chinese almond cookies. When I went by to see her, she put out beautifully sliced fruit. I thought she was a health nut. Turned out she and her husband were poor, even poorer than my husband and me. While I scrimped from our miniscule grocery budget to purchase the cookies, she scrimped from an even smaller budget to purchase extra fruit.

Here's my point, we both went with what was out there. And what was out there were ethnic groceries, lovely ethnic groceries filled with fresh fruits and veggies and slightly exotic treats like the almond cookies at a fraction of the prices demanded by the mainstream grocery stores.

Nothing's changed from those early days when I counted the food to ensure there would enough for the week. In an economy which has pushed 1 in 6 Americans below the poverty line, ethnic grocery stores still rule for anybody looking for good, cheap eats.

The Phoenix area is fortunate. We have three Hispanic markets - Pro's Ranch, El Rancho and Food City - and several large Asian markets - including Lee Lee's and Asiana (two locations, Glendale and Mesa).

On Wednesdays, the Hispanic markets rule with produce specials so good, you'll be in juicing and smoothie heaven. Today at Pro's Ranch I scored 28 avocados, 2 pounds of Red grapes, a 40-ct package of yellow corn tortillas, 7 pounds of brown onions, 20 pounds of bananas, 22 pounds of oranges (so large they looked like grapefruit) and a pound of sour cream for about $25.

I also picked up pork chops at $1.48/lb and 8 24-count packages of toilet paper at $3.99 each (because I have a recurring nightmare that Armageddon will come and we'll be down to our last roll.)

Check their website for a location near you. Most of the specials are good for the whole week, but on Wednesdays, the produce is always piled high and plentiful.

Go to The Coupon Girl for a listing of specials at Pros Ranch and the other Hispanic markets, as well as not to be missed local and national deals.

Have fun.

No more double coupons at Fry's

2011-09-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

At least in Tucson. Thank you sooooo much TLC's Extreme Couponing.

Time to dust off this old blog and start blathering again about all the delicious things we can make from real food. You know, stuff like breakfast, lunch and dinner. It won't be Yakisoba, but it will be good.

Promise.

3-Day ads, just in time for Easter

2010-03-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 28, 2010

3 coupon inserts today

SmartSource – Eyemasters: (3/28)

SmartSource – Souper!Salad!: (3/28)

Redplum – JC Penney Optical: (3/28)

Other Coupons You Shouldn't Miss:

Kmart: FREE $10 gift card with NEW Rx.

Kmart: FREE $100 gift when you TRANSFER FOUR (4) Rx.

Basha's 3-day sale
thru Tuesday
(back of Sports Section)

Spiral Cut Ham - 97c/lb. Limit 1.

Even if you're not serving ham, spiral cut is easily separated and stored in 1-lb packages for lunch meat. Makes GREAT sandwiches.

Whole Beef Tenderloin - $4.97/lb. Limit 1.

This is boneless. Excellent price. Have butcher slice into Filet Mignon steaks and roasts

Strawberries, 99c/lb. Limit 4.

Make preserves.

Potatoes, 79c/5 lb bag. - cheaper at Fry's.

In-Ad shocker coupons to use with above purchases. $15 minimum purchase required:

Dreyers Ice Cream, $1.88, limit 1
18 ct, Extra Large Eggs, $1.29. Limit 1
Food Club Butter, 1 lb., $1.29. Limit 1

Albertson's 3-day sale
thru Tuesday
(back of Business Section)

Spiral Cut Ham - $1.17/lb. Bone In.

See notes above. Cheaper at Basha's. No limit on quantity, though.

Albertson's Milk, gallon, $1.88. Limit 2.

Betty Crocker Potatoes, $1. Use coupon from TODAY's Smartsource (Eyemasters) - 25c/1. Final FREE
Green Giant Steamers, $1. Use coupon from TODAY's Smartsource (Eyemasters) - 40c/1. Final FREE

Fry's 3-day sale
thru Tuesday
(Wrap Around Front Section)

Spiral Slice Ham, $1.27/lb
Potatoes, 5-lb bag, 58c
Fry's Potato Chips, 11-11.5 oz. $1
Kroger Valu Bread, 88c/loaf
Sockeye Salmon, WILD CAUGHT. Aqua Star, Frozen. $4.97/lb.

I'm still eating these from the last time they wet on sale. They are WONDERFUL, nicely packaged, vacuum-sealed. Beautiful fish. Do not miss this.

Retraction

2010-03-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

Remember the Maruchan Ramen Lunch Cups I told you to buy a month ago?

I take it back. Don't buy it. My son made some for a midnight snack, dropped it on the carpet, tried to shampoo it out and called me into his room.

"This stuff will kill you, Mom," he says and points to the carpet where a bright yellow patch remained. "It won't come out."

Just imagine what it's doing to our insides.

Spring Break - Am away

2010-03-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

We're in a place with a kitchen. We brought some non-perishables from home - pantry items, but I'm pretty much shopping like the rest of the world...

which means I'm $135 poorer. That's even with using a $10 catalina from the Safeway Frozen Food Promo.

Yowza.

Cheap Lunch

2010-02-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

I'm embarrassed about this week's stockpile post because I'm going to recommend getting a bunch of something that really isn't good for you.

Okay, it's horrible for you.

But if your kids love it and they're bugging you about an afterschool snack, or you're grabbing a lunch for them as you're running out the door...

El Rancho Market at 19th Ave and Dunlap, and also in Chandler, is selling the Maruchan Instant Ramen CUPS for 20c/each. I think there's a limit on these of 10. If not, I'd stockpile a pallet. Or send each of your kids through another line with 10 cups and 2 bucks.

There, I did it. And during Lent. Yikes.

Which is why you should balance that karma with a nice can of tuna. Or three. Everybody has it on sale this week. It's cheapest at Fry's for 44c/can.

Hmmm...I wonder what a Ramen-Tuna Casserole would taste like?

Gosh. Tuna and Ramen. Is that all I have for you this week?

No. I also have Long Grain Brown Rice for 59c/lb in the bulk bins at Sprouts. Think Tuna/Rice casserole.

Also, Aim or Pepsodent toothpaste, 50c/tube at Albertsons. But not in the casserole.

Remember, my stockpiling mind thinks different. I look for basics (like the Maruchan Lunch Cups...) to buy at rock bottom so I can forget about them otherwise. I should be surprised to find myself running low on items like this. Who wants to be dashing to the store at 10 p.m. to pay four bucks for a tube of toothpaste so everybody can brush their teeth in the morning?

EDITED TO ADD: And for the coupon-minded among you...FREE PAPER TOWELS AT ALBERTSONS!!

The Marcal Small Steps Paper Towels are $1 for the single roll. Use the $1 off 1 (try if for free) coupon from the Smartsource 1/31 insert to get it for FREE.

(This is an unadvertised sale, but I've taken advantage of it at several Albertsons, so have fun. One coupon per person per transactions. Send your kids through their own checkouts if you have extra coupons.)

Think Different

2010-02-11T12:17:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while, my son will open the refrigerator, open the freezers, open the pantry and announce, 'We have no food.'

Is he kidding? Most of the time I can't fit one more box of anything into my walk-in pantry without a shoehorn. Often we eat what I bought that day because there's no way I'll wedge it into the freezer. Leftovers become a race against time, a game to see if we can eat them before they become science projects.

My son doesn't actually mean we have no food. He means nothing obvious comes to mind to do with what's there. It's the same old cereal and bread and potatoes and fruit and crackers - edible, but not new.

So do something different. Anything. Scoop yesterday's homemade rice pudding (preferably brown rice) into a bowl. Slice a banana over it, add some milk. Poof! Breakfast.

Slice an avocado between two slices of homemade whole-wheat bread. Top with some leftover salsa. Voila! Lunch.

Mash up those chickpeas you pressure cooked over the weekend. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Top with a sliced up hardboiled egg. Serve over a bed of spinach, sprinkle with garlic salt...and...you guessed it! Dinner!

Couple of things to note with this menu - There's no meat, yet it's high in protein (the milk in the rice pudding, the egg, the chickpeas, and even the whole-wheat bread). Plenty of whole grains. Good fats (avocado, egg, olive oil), vegetables and fruit. Total fat and calorie count is low and it's cheap. Dirt cheap. Yet tasty.

Very tasty.

So tasty I don't care that there aren't any super-screaming sale deals this week. Fry's has a Daytona promo, buy 10 get $3 off. The Purex laundry detergent and softener is a good price ($2.19 WYB10). If you have coupons, it's even sweeter and I've heard rumors that it also spits out catalinas for money off your next order. (I never count on the catalinas. I never seem to get any). Also, Basha's has toothpaste, deodorant and shampoo for $1 or less this week and milk is $1.88/gallon at Fry's and Albertson's. Food City has avocados 3/$1.

It's a good week to check out El Rancho Market, or stop by Pro's Ranch and see what's doing in the produce department. It's a good week to shake out the pantry, burrow through the freezer, or get creative with all the plastic containers clogging your fridge with a cup of broccoli, two slices of roast, those 3 uneaten biscuits. Clean out the vegetable drawer. Do something with the fruit and produce. Feed it to your family before you feed it to the garbage disposal.

It's easy to eat cheap. You just have to buy it at rock bottom, then eat what you have.

What I did yesterday

2010-02-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

I went to Fresh and Easy. They had 18-packs of eggs for $1.57.

Don't go looking for your car keys, the sale ended yesterday. (HEY! It was in my newsletter. See previous post.) I TAKE IT BACK!!! THOSE EGGS ARE STILL ON SALE AT FRESH AND EASY!!!! Don't have a $5 off $20? There's a $3 off $30 in the Wednesday ad for Fresh and Easy.

And I bought 13 cartons of them.

I already did the math for you. That's 234 large eggs for a total of $20.41.

Fresh and Easy had mailed me a $5 off $20 coupon, so I actually paid $15.41 for the lot.

That works out to about $1.20 for 18 or 79c/dozen. (I'll finish the math. 13 18-packs is equal to 19.5 dozen eggs.)

How come I did that?

Um...I like egg nog?

No, because eggs haven't been super cheap in a pretty long time and I expect they won't be super cheap until Easter and eggs last a really, really long time. Seriously, I've eaten eggs four, five, six weeks past their 'sell by' date and haven't died yet. (Sell-by on these eggs is 2/22).

I'll deny that if ever pressed by the media, by the way.

Besides, I couldn't use the 5 off 20 until I'd spent 20 and I'm not a Fresh and Easy shopper because I'm a better cook than they are.

So say these eggs are good until the end of March, or 8 wks from now. 234 divided by 8 is about 29, or almost 2.5 dozen eggs/week.

Ha! Not so overwhelming anymore, is it? Don't worry, I'll probably freeze a lot of them.

Now that I'm into the numbers, 29 eggs a week works out to a little more than one egg per day for each of my four family members. Those numbers look a lot less overwhelming. So let's call it a 4-week supply, give everybody in my family two eggs a day at breakfast, and serve it to them over fresh homemade whole wheat bread.

(use the search box on the side of my blog here to find out about the bread)

I just provided my family a healthy

(I poached the eggs)

high protein breakfast for the entire month for under 20 bucks.

I'm allowing for electricity and ingredients for the bread baking.

See, now I'm not a nut-case with 234 eggs in my garage refrigerator. I'm a provident provider ensuring frugal brain-enhancing choline and eye-protecting lutein for my family.

Mama always said, 'It's all a matter of how you look at things, honey.'

Since that sale is over, I'll catch ya back tomorrow on what to stockpile this week. Mama also told me, 'Best you get all the beauty rest you can, baby.'

g'night.

EDITED TO ADD:

If you have to use a $3 off $30 coupon, you will have to buy 20 18-packs. That will give you 360 eggs or 30 dozen at 94.6c/dozen. That makes you only 126 eggs nuttier than me. I say...

Maybe you could go in on them with a friend?

So what's good this week?

2010-01-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

This is a portion of the typical newsletter I end my CouponSense subscribers when the new ads come out. My recommendations for stockpiling follows, but the information is pretty much the same as what I include in my newsletter.

Fry's

Fry's is having their Mega-Event. Buy 10 of the participating items, get $5 off. Much of the following is part of the deal. With coupons, you can save even more on these items and there are items I included in the list for my subscribers, which are only good deals when combined with coupons.

Hunt's or Rotel Tomatoes	*49¢ ea.
Purina Cat Chow	*3.99 ea.	Cellfire.com coupon for $1 on Purina Cat Chow makes this a good deal.
Electrasol Dishwasher Detergent	*2.99 ea.
Mustard Potato Salad	10 for $10	My kids take one of these for lunch.
Bill Johnson's BBQ Sauce	10 for $10

Notable at Safeway

Product Description & Size		Qty @ Price
	Rancher's Reserve® Boneless Beef Round Steak	1.57 lb	Grind some for hamburger
	O Organics(TM) Salads 5 to 9-oz. Selected varieties. Low Prices on Fresh Produce	1.98 ea
	Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent 55 to 68.75-oz. 2x Liquid. Selected varieties. (ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY ONLY)	2.99 final $2.49	Go HERE for $1 off 2 coupon
	3-lb. Bag California Clementines Low Prices on Fresh Produce	2.47 ea
	Lucerne® Creamery Fresh or Safeway SELECT® Ice Cream 1.5 to 1.75-qt. Selected varieties.	2.49
	Lucerne® Shredded or Chunk Cheese 32-oz. Selected varieties.	4.49
	Post Honey Bunches of Oats 14.5-oz. or General Mills Lucky Charms 11.5-oz. Cereal.	1.88	Cellfire.com coupons for the Lucky Charms
	Pepsi® and Tostitos Tortilla Chips Buy 3 participating Pepsi® (12-pk., 12-oz. cans. 6-pk., 16.9-oz. or 24-oz. bottles. Selected varieties.) and 1 bag of Tostitos Tortilla Chips (9 to 13-oz. Selected varieties.)	$7.99
	Signature Cafe® Pizza 16" Family Size Authentic self-rising crust. Your choice of Five Cheese blend or Pepperoni. Serves 4 to 5.	$5
	Anthony's Pasta 12 to 16-oz. Selected varieties.	75¢
	5-lb. Bag Idaho Russet Potatoes 5-lb. Bag	68¢ ea

Doritos 99c with In-Ad coupon and add'l $10 purchase.

At Albertson's

Mix or Match- Check Ad. I have my eye on the Sun Dishwashing Liquid. I can't tell on the computer, so I'm hoping it's a larger size.

10 FOR $10

Jan 27 - Feb 2

Select Varieties & Sizes

Albertsons Cereal

10 FOR $10

Good price. Good cereal.

12.25-18 oz. or Fruit Snacks 5.4 oz., Select Varieties

Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter

10 FOR $10

Whenever you can get butter for less than $2/lb, it's a good day.

8 oz., Select Varieties

Albertsons Half & Half

$1.99

Good price. Buy it.

32 oz., Select Varieties

Flock & Feast Bird Seed

$4.99

In honor of Bird Feeding Month. Or week. Or whatever.

20 lb.

Albertsons Pasta and Pasta Sauce

10 FOR $10

Never pay more than a buck for pasta nor more than a buck for jarred sauce. NEVER.

16 oz., Pasta Sauce 24 oz. or Garlic Bread 10 oz., Select Varieties

Chicken Breast

$1.57 lb.

If you didn't go to El Rancho Market a few weeks ago and snag them at $1.37/lb, now you gotta shell out 20c/lb more.

Boneless, Skinless

Hershey’s Single Bars

2 for $1

1.3-2.25 oz.

SAVE 10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE ALBERTSONS PURCHASE WHEN YOU WEAR YOUR ARIZONA CARDINALS JERSEY EVERY SUNDAY DURING FOOTBALL SEASON.

Basha's

Beverages

Lipton Tea Bags

$2.49

The stuff's not fancy, but if you need tea...

Selected varieties, 22 to 100 ct

Breakfast & Cereal

Kellogg's Cereals

$1.88 ea.

Figure it this way, the FREE MILK is worth 50c/box ($1.99/4).

FREE Gallon of Bashas’ MILK Whole, 2%, 1% or fat free ($1.99 value with Thank You Card) Limit 2 free milks per customer, Selected varieties and sizes as shown, When you purchase four Kellogg's Cereals at $1.88 ea. in a single transaction

Condiments

Ketchup or Bill Johnson BBQ Sauce

99¢

Selected varieties, vegetables 13.5 to 15.25 oz, ketchup 24 oz, bbq sauce 18 oz

General Merchandise

Sun Laundry Products

2 for $5

Does not come in HE that I know of, but I've used this brand before and it's pretty good. No real deals on fabric softener, so this is what I'll be buying because I'm almost out.

Selected varieties, Sun Burst 2X liquid 62.5 oz, Sun Ultra 49 oz, Sun Classic powder 77 oz, Sun Cuddle Softener liquid 65 load, sheets 100 c t

Meat & Poultry

Original Rotisserie Chicken

$4.99 ea

In case you don't feel like cooking...

Family size chipotle, savory or malibu $6.99 ea, Original Size Guaranteed In-Stock & Fresh Between 4pm –7pm or IT’S FREE!

Sanderson Farms Fryer Leg Quarters

First 1 please

39¢ lb

You have to buy these one bag at a time, but at this price, it's worth the extra trips.

Sold in a 10 lb bag

Produce

Green Asparagus

$1.49 lb

Spring is coming!

New crop

Soups & Canned Goods

Bumblebee Tuna

48¢

This is an excellent price for tuna. Stock up price.

Selected varieties, tuna in water or oil 5 oz, beans 15 to 15.5 oz

Phoenix Ranch Market

Website for Pros Ranch Market:

Wednesday is Produce Special Day
Thursday is Meat Special Day
Friday is a grab bag of deals

Extras

Best price on eggs - $1.59, 18 ct at Fresh and Easy
Best price on sandwich loaf bread - 99c for Food City Sandwich Loaf, 24 oz at Food City

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Okay, Great. Very pretty newsletter, Mindy. Beautiful columns. So what are you stockpiling?

The bags of chicken at Basha's. For 50 bucks, you can buy 120 pounds - enough to feed a big chicken dinner to a family of four once a week for the next year.

Pretty good, huh?

Take a can of tube biscuits...

2010-01-24T11:19:00.000-08:00

Roll out on a cookie sheet.

Top with the last of the Ragu (tomato-based or the cheesy stuff or both, it doesn't matter), the last shreds of cheese, those last pieces of lunchmeat and those few pieces of leftover steamed broccoli.

Fold over like you're wrapping a present. Or roll it up a little.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Slice and serve to family (tell them you slaved for hours and it's a homemade pseudo-quiche, pizza, calzone, pot pie. Whatever works.)

Be a hero.

Here's what I'm stocking up on this week

2010-01-20T13:18:00.000-08:00

The sales have not been as exciting as in months past. To be expected, this stuff goes in cycles. So I look for one item that'd I think is worth buying in bulk. Last week, it was peanut butter. This week, it would have to be the boneless, skinless chicken breasts at Basha's ($1.37/lb) and the 7-bone chuck roasts at Safeway.

(P.S. It's Wednesday and brown onions are 7 lbs/99c at Pro's Ranch Market today only.)

I thought of the onions because I was thinking about the roasts, mostly about the bones in the roasts which can be, well...roasted. For beef stock.

(roast bones in oven with some onions and carrots and celery and whatnot, deglaze pan when finished, put in stockpot and simmer for a really long time.)

Beef Stock and onions sound like soup to me. Sound like French onion soup, and with the stock basically for free and the onions near free and all that cold, rainy weather coming in...

/end free association

If you can't get to Pro's Ranch today and you don't mind braving the rain tomorrow, Food City has onions 5 lbs/99c Thursday only. And Roma tomatoes for 50c/lb. Mmmm...I picked up some Avocados and cilantro at Pros Ranch. Now I'm thinking about arranging it on a plate and topping with a poached egg...

/end second free association

Kroger brand OJ is $1.99/gallon at Fry's this week. Milk is cheapest at Fry's, $1.59/gallon and Albertson's has some generics on sale, check their ad, that are worth a stop-in.

Peanut Butter

2010-01-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

The Kroger brand is $1 for an 18 ounce jar (EDITED TO ADD: AT FRY'S!!! sheesh). I just bought 20 jars, about a year's supply for our family. Sometimes, with coupons, peanut butter is cheaper, but that's rare, like last week and I hadn't seen it cheap with or without coupons for quite a while before that. Think of all those cheap lunches for the kids...And PB and J on homemade whole wheat bread (see several posts ago) is a pretty healthy lunch.

Orange Juice is 88c/half gallon at Fry's (so long as you are there).

Basha's has value packs of chuck steak (bone-in) for $1.27/lb. We had this the other night for dinner. It was good. My son made it. He tenderizes with lemon juice first. Makes all the difference. Otherwise, I've been picking up toilet paper from Marcal, 1 4-pack at a time. It's free with coupons, but you have to already have the coupon to take advantage. If you want lots of free toilet paper, check out CouponSense, put my name in as your instructor (Mindy C*****) and I'll show you how.

The GINORMOUS shopping trip

2010-01-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I spent $120 at Fry's.

I'll let that sink in a moment.

My kids eyes grew wide to see the total climb and climb. "Gosh, Mom," my daughter said, "I can't remember when you've spent that much."

Neither can I. So I went to the handy dandy savings spreadsheet on the CouponSense website, sorted by out-of-pocket amounts on my list of savings and...

Since joining CouponSense, the most I spent on groceries in a single trip was about $81. On March 31 of last year and again on October 11.

Most of my shopping trips are in the $0 to $40 range. Cool.

Yesterday, I went hog wild, so to speak, on salmon. Fry's has Wild Caught Sockeye for $4.88/lb. I get a senior discount (no, it's not mine, it's the husband's), so I took advantage of an additional 10% savings on everything.

The Sockeye is well worth it. The fillets are boneless, flash frozen (as in, frozen on the boat shortly after being caught) and are shrinkwrapped in about 2 to 2.5 lb packages. I purchased 8 packages or about 19 pounds total. That's good for 8 to 15 meals with plenty of leftovers. We're having some tonight, in a maple/orange/soy glaze. Super easy.

If you're going to eat fish, eat wild-caught. Farm raised is fed corn and doesn't have near the nutrients, nor those healthy Omega-3s as wild. Wild-caught has a lot more flavor, also.

Here's what else I bought at Fry's:

Tuna - 50c/can
Whole peeled Italian style canned tomatoes - 59c/can
Ice Cream, Kroger Deluxe - $1.99 (I'd have bought more, but there just isn't room is any of my freezers...just as well, I suppose) and...

...other stuff.

I need that salmon. My memory is going. Anyway 74 items, including those 8 salmons for $120 total. All good stockpile items.

I also bought 7 4-roll packs of toilet paper for free. Plus tax.

I had a coupon. I have a bunch more of the same coupon. I'm going to buy more today.

Off to google salmon recipes.

Leftovers

2010-01-02T17:26:00.000-08:00

Make soup.

Yeah, this is kindergarten stuff. I'm one of those people who'd be better off remembering more of what I learned in kindergarten. Soup is good food. Mmm...mmmm...good.

And all that stuff.

My family are not big eaters. That means lots of leftovers. However, they also don't like leftovers. So I have to disguise 'em.

That's where soup comes in. I tend to pressure or slow cook. That means everytime I cook, I make broth. Chicken, beef, vegetable. It always ends up in a plastic container in the fridge along with whatever onion or garlic and spices I used for seasonings.

Do you know what this stuff is? It's gold. Along with the leftover steamed corn, lima beans, boiled potatoes and that little bit of pasta. Here's how you make homemade soup:

1) Put a big pot on the stove.
2) Pull all the little plastic containers from the fridge - veggie, bits of meat, juices for the meats you made last week.
3) empty them into the pot.
4) heat, stir, serve.

Top with cubes of day old bread. Yum.

Bread and Babble

2009-12-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Today I made THIS. It's my second time making it because the first time worked out so well. Isn't it funny how when something works out well we want to do it over and over? I have the same kitchen tools as my friend, Jeri - a Bosch Mixer and a Nutrimill. I made one change to her recipe. I ground up a couple of cups of cornmeal from some ancient popcorn I had in the pantry and added it to the mix. This is what I love about breadbaking, you can pretty much do what you want with it and the very least you'll finish with is something edible.

But this recipe that Jeri recommended is wonderful. Actually, it's her friend's recipe, and if I ever meet her friend face to face, I'm going to thank her. The loaves come out looking like 'real' loaves of bread from the supermarket. They are soft and nice and have the right amount of loft, but do not have the uniform styrofoam stuffed with cotton taste of mass-produced supermarket bread.

Hmmm...were my feelings showing?

Here's something else I changed from Jeri's recipe. I'm not baking all five loaves at once. Here's the reason:

I only have 3 loaf pans. What I did last time was make a great big round loaf with the extra dough.

Not a good idea. The stuff was good. Really good. So good I ate it. Not all of it, but most of it.

I have a hard time saying 'no' to bread.

See, my kids only like 'real' bread that looks like bread from the supermarket. They got this 'has to look like store-bought' thing going on with their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They don't eat round bread except with spaghetti or to soak up a little gravy, but in general, oddly shaped bread bamboozles them.

To forestall a situation where it's just me, the husband and a mound of oddly-shaped bread, I have the other two loaves worth of bread rising in plastic containers. Depending on how my time goes this afternoon, I'm going to rise it a second time and bake it, or pop it into the fridge and bake it tomorrow or the next day. Or maybe the day after that.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Moving on to stockpiling...

Now that the holidays are upon us, the sales don't warrant any major squirreling away. Pros Ranch Market, Food City and El Rancho Market (I'm sorry, they still don't have a website) have good produce prices. You can get a free range turkey for 87c/pound at Sprouts. Also, dried cranberries for $2.99/lb in the bulk section. I love dried cranberries but I wish the people who make it wouldn't sweeten them first. Check out the Sunflower Market ad for fresh produce also.

Most of the grocery stores are closed on Christmas and the current ads are pretty much good through Thursday, Dec 24. If you're in the mood, it might be worth it to hit up the stores on the 26th. There may be some really good sales and the grocery stores will likely be empty because everybody will be at the malls exchanging gifts. Otherwise, with the holidays ongoing now, I'd get to the store early, get what you need and get out.

Egg nog is $2.99 a half-gallon at Fry's. I mean, what's in the stuff? Milk, nutmeg, allspice, cream and rum for those who imbibe? Gotta be a recipe out there I can make without all the sugar and fat...

off to fire up the search engine.

Ho ho ho.

The Mindy/Julia Project

2009-12-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I watched Julie/Julia. The food was divine, Meryl Streep as Julia Child was divine, Amy Adams did a good job with a character, who, considering her blog which I am only today discovering, sounds nothing like her inspiration.

Leaving me to wonder if Julie Powell got rewritten for the book.

I don't know. I have the blog and the movie, I'm good.

By the way, The Julie/Julia Project blog is here. It's funny. It's worth reading:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/09/05.html

(first posting is in August of 2002, use calendar to navigate around)

So far in the blog, it's a lot of cream, butter and roast chicken. In honor of the movie and the blog, I decided to toss 4 whole chicken legs in the slow cooker with onion, garlic, thyme and potatoes and set my house to smelling good.

(This is why I don't understand scented candles that smell like cinnamon oatmeal. So much nicer to make real cinnamon oatmeal and save the cost of the candle.)

I just finished reading a blog post in which Julie Powell mentions that people don't eat cooked carrots much anymore. Ain't that the truth? I rediscovered them recently, which seems ridiculous, considering how much I cook. I stopped eating them because somewhere along the way carrots became 'bad' as in 'too much sugar' for weight-conscious people.

Carrots.

Leaving me to wonder why, after years of avoiding carrots, I failed to achieve the slim, svelte contours to which surely G*d wants me to become accustomed.

Could it be the cake? The ice cream? The donuts? The bread? Could it be crazy-a$$ diets that leave out whole food groups, demonize ingredients historically considered healthy and involve pre-made shakes?

Which is not to say that I've mended my ways and now eat only well-balanced, calorie-counted meals. But maybe, someday...

This is one of those week's when having a stockpile is good...

2009-12-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

Because the sales are...lackluster.

(See the Stockpile Post Amendment at the end!! Not a total loss!)

Fresh and Easy has Farmer John or Smithfield hams for 77c/lb. I think that's a good price because even hams that have water added are useful to cook and use for lunchmeat.

Basha's has Value Pack pork chops for 99c/lb. That's a pretty good price.

And all other kinds of meat - you shoulda bought it already.

Pros Ranch has good produce prices this week, some extra good deals today, but nothing I'd run out of my way for. Food City tomorrow has some good produce prices and if you have one near you, it's worth stopping in.

For my part, I'm glad I have a lot of veggies and fruits packed into my freezer. Ditto on chicken, beef, and those wonderful strip steaks I got at Basha's last week. That same cut is $3.97/lb at Fry's this week.

Eggs are 99c/dz at Walgreens and milk $1.99/gallon. At Bashas, half-gallons of milk are 97c.

BUTTER is $1.47/lb at Albertsons, limit 2.

Yes, the week is boring, the prices aren't bad, but they aren't all that good. The time to buy was last week or the week before or the week before that. The holidays are here, the stores know you have to have the food, so the sales have moderated. Things will improve after the holidays. After the holidays, they figure you have a lot of leftovers in the fridge, it's cold and gray and you don't want to leave your house and you're buried under a blizzard of credit card bills. They need something to get you out to the store and the sales will be back.

THIS is why we stockpile. So when you come here and read a downer blog post like this, you can defrost a roast, steam a package of frozen veggies and make muffins from the fruit compote you put up last fall and be happy to give your grocery budget a week off.

Hunt's pasta sauce is 88c/26 oz can this week at Fry's. Fry's. Basha's and Albertson's has cheap pasta this week. Good to know if you're down to your last noodle.

STOCKPILE POST AMENDMENT! (Many thanks to Miss Deborah!):

Safeway has London broil for $1.77/lb. This makes an excellent ground beef. Have the butcher grind it for you and freeze. Very lean ground beefs are often well over $2/lb and they won't be this lean.

Whoo! I feel better. Buy butter at Albertson's and London broil at Safeway. Make hamburgers, meatloaf, meatballs. Better yet, shape it into tiny reindeer, use rosemary sprigs for antlers and sprinkle with white bread crumbs.

Put it on your kitchen table for a centerpiece.

New York, New York! It's a Heckuva Steak!

2009-12-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

Gotta keep things family friendly, more or less, around here. :)

Basha's has New York Strip Steak, bone-in (by definition), for $2.99/lb sold whole. They are about 10 lbs each. I purchased one today for just over $30. The butcher at Basha's cut them into 1 inch steaks, cleaned and trimmed them for me. This is a complimentary service at Basha's and well worth it, considering that the already cut-up and packaged New York Strips sitting right next to the whole ones are $3.99/lb.

I'm happy when I can get New York strips for $4.99/lb, so don't miss out on this. I've had them from Basha's before an they're delicious. Add homemade garlic-mashed potatoes and a bag salad for an easy, special homemade meal.

Packages are limit 1, but I won't tell, if you stop back again for a second one. You know I'll be doing so.

EDITED TO ADD (In case you go today...):

Friday's are Donut Days at Basha's. Buy a dozen for $5.99 get 6 more free.

Just sayin'

Why I'd stop at Food City this week preferably on Thursday (produce special day)

2009-12-02T18:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's THURSDAY, as in TOMORROW.

Sorry, I've been gone. Been overcome with paint fumes and overstuffed with turkey. All I can manage tonight is a list, but I put it up so you can take advantage tomorrow.

Banquet Pot Pies - 2 FOR $1
Fiesta! Crema Mexicana - 99¢ lb. (At Meat Service Counter - Wednesday Only Price. Worth the trip. Have you ever had this stuff? It's GOOD. Like less sour sour cream, if that makes any sense.)
Banquet Value Dinners - 88¢ (Does NOT include Classic Chicken or Select Dinners)
Boneless Chicken Breasts - $1.49lb. (best price in town. Time to stockpile.)
Boneless Beef Chuck Steak $1.99lb. (Have the butcher grind it into hamburger)
Green Cabbage 4 lbs $1
Cilantro 4 FOR $1
Italian or Mexican Grey Squash - 33¢ lb.
Cucumbers - 6 FOR 96¢
White Onion 5 LBS $1 THURSDAY ONLY
Avocados 3 FOR 99¢ THURSDAY ONLY
Bananas 3 LBS 99¢ THURSDAY ONLY (think adding it to the mangos below)
Mangos 3 FOR 99¢ (think smoothies) THURSDAY ONLY
Red Delicious Apples 3 LBS 99¢

Also, head over to Sunflower Market where the blackberries are 77c a container and the kiwis a mere 19c each.

Each.

Interesting tidbit: I just found out that kiwis are supposed to be eaten whole, hairy skin and all. We're not supposed to peel them. Remember when peaches had fuzzy skin? It grossed everybody out, but the peaches tasted so good. That's what kiwis are like. Here's my prediction: Somewhere somebody is working on a hairless kiwi. It will be more acceptable to us finicky civilized types, but won't taste near as good as the fuzzy, itchy kiwis we buy today.

I'll be back with more tomorrow.

What I bought today at Kmart

2009-11-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

Cheap towels.

In bright colors.

I mean REALLY bright.

Lime, purple, red, yellow. They match the new Fiestaware. They match the new wall colors. They are quirky, and useful and they

make
.
me
.
smile

When they wear out, rip, get used to wash the car

I'll
.
go
.
buy
.
new
.
ones

(The bath size are $2.50 each. Hand towels are $2.39. I use Hand towels in the kitchen. They're sturdier and more absorbent than typical kitchen textiles. Check this week's Kmart ad. I think the price is good through tomorrow at least. Maybe all week.)

WHERE'S the STOCKPILE post?

2009-11-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

It's overwhelmed, buried under a sea of painters and ladders, plastic wrap, tarps and burly guys clunking heavy boots across the floors. Also, it's been an amazing time for couponing, so I've been busy chasing down the deals for my subs and clipping my own coupons.

In a nutshell. If you're buying a lot of groceries, you can get a turkey for free from Basha's. (spend $100, get a free turkey). I never spend that much in one trip. Otherwise, their turkeys are 39c/lb, which is still an awesome price.

Fry's has them for 37c/lb. Albertson's and Safeway are also comparably priced. So is Pros Ranch Market.

Check out the Pros Ranch ad. They're Wednesday special is good again next Wednesday because of the holiday. As are the Thursday meat specials. Most of the stores do not print out a new ad on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I presume because they figure people have so much food in the house and are so preoccupied with the holiday that they won't be out shopping the day after. But here's a tip:

Keep an eye for in-store specials (probably listed in a newspaper ad) at the major grocery stores. Last year I picked up orange juice, bacon, eggs, fruit, a few other staples for super-cheap the few days after Thanksgiving from a store flyer posted at the store.

I just looked at Pros Ranch...they have the HONEYSUCKLE turkey for 37c/lb. It's 79c/lb at most of the other stores, so if you like that brand, Pros Ranch is the place to get it.

Gotta go. I'm hoping my equilibrium returns when the smell of paint departs.

The lowdown on produce

2009-11-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

Winter is coming and prices aren't as awesome as they were when the harvest first came in a month or so ago. That doesn't mean that prices aren't still pretty awesome. El Rancho Market's produce specials run Wednesday and Thursday. So you can still take advantage today.

This week they have fresh broccoli 33c/lb, Fuji apples 2 lbs/99c, roma tomatoes 33c/lb, potatoes - 10 lb bag for 89c.

All week, they're offering cabbage 20c/lb and cantaloupe 20c/lb.

Food City has bananas 33c/lb, cilantro and green onions 25c/bunch and mangos 33c each. As mentioned on Monday's post - chayote squashes are 20c today.

El Rancho Market wins the chicken wars this week with bonless, skinless chicken breast for $1.39/lb. Next up is Fry's at $1.57/lb. Both are good prices and worth the stockup.

Fresh and Easy has Jennie-Os basted frozen turkeys for 37c/lb. Safeway has boneless round for $1.47/lb. Cube it and slow-cook it for stew. Also, it's a good bet for grinding into hamburger.

Fry's has Kroger sugar 97c/4 lbs. I doubt it's going to get any cheaper without a coupon, so now is the time to stock up for the year. It's limit 4.

Gotta go. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post later!

The problem with frozen produce is...

2009-11-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

...I never seem to get to it because there are so many great deals out there on the fresh stuff.

Hello, my name is Mindy.Likes.To.Coupon and I'm a produce junkie.

Food City has chayote squash 5 for $1 on Thursday. That makes my heart go pitter-pat. How many people get happy over squash?

They also have mangos 33c each all week. Good. Been looking for something new to put in my smoothies. And shhhh...(don't tell anybody) I'm going to swing by on Wednesday to pick up fresh crema in the deli for 99c/lb. That stuff is so good, it should be illegal. I should pair it with the bacon-grease laced potatoes I fed my family yesterday. That way I can get all the guilt over at once.

I'm heading to El Rancho Market today to pick up Donald Duck Orange Juice for 99c (limit 1), Value time Paper Towels for 3/$1 (limit6) and Gamesa Marias Cookies, 4.9 oz roll, 5/$1, first 10.

Don't tell anybody about those cookies, either. They aren't for me. They're for the kids. They like to dunk them in their milk. I figure the milk balances out the empty calories from those delectable dunkable cookies.

I'm also going to get the Abuelita Chocolate tabs I told you about a few posts ago. And something called Klass Atole (4/$1). I bought a few of them last week and my family loved it. It's kind of like blancmange and you sweeten to taste, instead of that oversugared pudding you get in the box. It's great with cooked fruit.

No extra gas will be used in my pursuit of these items. It's on my way. Pretty much. And I drive a Prius, okay?

I know I'm flagged from shopping, but my family makes exceptions for cookies. And pudding.

Oh - and what's cooking at the Stockpile Lady's kitchen?

LEFTOVERS! My son made us pasta last night topped with the tomato sauce I made a week or so ago. The pasta was free with coupons and the tomatoes very cheap at Pros Ranch market. The parmesan cheese wedge that we grated fresh was not cheap, but hey! when coupons make everything else free, why not go for a little luxury?

Speaking of coupons...CouponSense is running a great promo right now. Sign up for a $4 trial month, subscribe to the Arizona Republic through CouponSense (we have great rates and several options for subscriptions) and be refunded for your trial month! So you get to see CouponSense in action for free, get the paper to read, as well as have your weekly coupons delivered right to your door, and get ME, Mindy Likes to Coupon as your very own instructor.

Kinda makes you tingly just thinking about it, huh?

Email me at Mindy.likes.to.coupon at gmail dot com for details and to get signed up. C'mon, you definitely want to get signed up. Yesterday, I purchased frozen vegetables, tissues and fresh pineapples for free.

You heard me. Free.

Well, 6c. I had to pay tax on the tissues.

It was a $10 savings off the already low sale prices. That alone pays for a trial month and then some. And you know, $10 today, $30 tomorrow, $40 the next day, pretty soon, you're talking about a college fund.

And if you're already a subscriber and YOU DO NOT HAVE AN INSTRUCTOR, email me. You can also take advantage of this offer. What a deal!

Don't make this because it's truly horrible for you...

2009-11-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

...although it is a great way to get rid of leftover mashed potatoes.

Here's the first part of the problem:

I have at least 20 25 pounds of potatoes in my pantry from various recent sales. They're holding up pretty well because they're in a cool, dry place, but they aren't going to last forever.

Here's the second part of the problem:

My family are not big eaters. I'm the biggest eater here and I'm always on a diet. That's because I'm also the biggest person here. Because I'm always on a diet, I rarely eat potatoes.

Potatoes are great fillers for meals, but my family doesn't really need fillers because they don't eat that much. They like potatoes, but the potatoes fill them up and they can't eat more.

Hence, my problem.

So I made up a bunch of mashed potatoes earlier in the week and have been looking for ways to get rid of them ever since. I made a casserole with them and the family LOVES the casserole, but there's still some left!

Because they aren't big eaters.

This morning, everybody has a hankering for eggs, or, to be more correct, bacon. I mushed up the mashed potatoes and cooked them in the grease left from the bacon and fed them to my family.

You heard me.

I didn't make much of it because with the picky eaters around here, I was afraid they wouldn't like it.

I was wrong.

So I'm making up the rest of the mashed potatoes tomorrow morning in more bacon grease and I'm going to serve it to my family.

Fortunately, it's Saturday. I can go to confession and get pre-forgiven for this impending heart-unhealthy sin.

A little more stockpiling and what I'm cooking for dinner tonight

2009-11-05T10:12:00.001-08:00

Check out Albertson's ad.

They have a 5 for $5 sale going on through Tuesday.

Pineapples - $1
5 lbs Pillsbury flour - $1 (please get unbleached, whole wheat if it's offered!)
Albertson's cereal - $1 - good variety.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soooo, what's cooking at the Stockpile Lady's Kitchen tonight?

That whole turkey breast I got for free at Fry's yesterday. Yes, I said free. There's a coupon for a free turkey if you spend $100 in the Albertson's circular this week. Fry's is taking competitor coupons. Hence, free turkey.

But, Mindy, we thought you said you spent under $60.

That's AFTER coupons. The cool thing is Fry's will honor a promo price BEFORE coupons. Since I saved over $300 yesterday, making $100 BEFORE coupons wasn't difficult.

Back to the turkey breast:

My freezers are packed. There just isn't anymore room. That's why I have to cook the turkey breast. When it's defrosted, I'll split it and pressure cook it with onion, garlic and whatever else looks good.

I have leftover mashed potatoes. I'm going to 'remake' them with some free Garlic and Herb Marie Callender's croutons I picked up a while back (soften with balsamic vinegar, mix into thinned down potatoes.) I'll put the potatoes in individual casseroles, place thin slices of turkey breast over that, top the whole thing with chedder and broil for a few minutes.

I think I'll add a layer of frozen broccoli from one of the many free or near-free bags of frozen veggies populating my freezers. I'll put that under the turkey.

It'll be kind of like a turkey, chedder, broccoli sandwich over herbed bread. It'll look great and I'm making it for pennies.

The rest of the turkey I'll refrigerate in the coldest part of my fridge, in the gellee left from the pressure cooking, sit back and try to think of other inventive things to do with it in the days to come. It's almost 9 pounds. The family will be turkey'd out by Thanksgiving.

The good news is, if I can clear some of those frozen veggies, I may be able to finagle some room to foodsaver and freeze some of the turkey before my family is tired of it.

Which is to say...

My family has flagged me from food shopping for a while. They say to eat what we have. I'm forced to agree or put an addition on our house for all the extra food. Therefore, aside from my stockpiling posts, you'll be subjected to running litanies of my daily attempts to eat a dent into our stockpile.

Preferably without me getting fat.

El Rancho Market - a stockpiler's haven

2009-11-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

I meant to put this up earlier, but I lost my ad. Then I found it. Then I lost it. Then I found it. Lost it. Found it. Lost it. And finally...

finally...

found it.

(Oh please great corporate people who run El Rancho Market, take pity on me, your lowly, forgetful novitiate and put up a WEBSITE.)

Until then, I must be satisfied with a single ad, mailed to arrive on Tuesday.

Here goes:

T-bone steak, 3.77/lb, limit 2
Milk is $1.50/gallon
18 ct. Hickman's Large Eggs, $1.50
Betty Crocker Cake Mix - 77c
Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta - 99c

(savvy couponers among you know there are coupons out there for the Ronzoni.)

But the real reason, El Rancho Market holds a place in my stockpiling soul this week? Or at least tomorrow, Thursday? The following specials!

Bananas 4/99c
tomatoes 4/99c
Cilantro 5 bunches/99c
Radishes 6 bunches/99c
Red Globe Grapes 69c/lb
Mexican Squash 3 lb/99c
and...
10 lb bags of chicken leg quarters, 39c/lb or $3.90 for the bag

And piloncillo. That stuff I was so happy to get on sale at Pros Ranch a few weeks ago? Only 33c/lb.

Cool.

Abuelita Chocolate, the 19 oz size is $1.99. Go to the website, here, and register and you can print two coupons worth 75 cents each. That makes the chocolate $1.24. As lovely as Abuelita chocolate is, it's even lovelier at over 1/3 off the sale price.

If you haven't an El Rancho near you, stop in at Food City for their Thursday produce specials:

cukes 20c each
cabbage 25c/lb
FUYU Persimmons!!! - 25c each
Mexican squash - 33c/lb

1 lb bags of carrots are 33c all week.
Brown Onion are 25c/lb all week
Chayote are 25c/lb all week
******
Wanted to point out that hats, gloves and fleece throws are cheap at Walgreen's this week. They also have a bunch of small appliances on sale for $7.99 each. I own and use a few of them regularly, so I'll attest that you'll get your $7.99 worth and beyond out of them.

And always, ALWAYS check out the clearance bin. You never know what will pop up there. The other day I picked up a ton of storage containers for a few dollars.

Pros Ranch had good deals this week, just not good enough for me to drive the distance. Be sure to check out the ad. Also, Fry's Mega-Event, even if you don't coupon, has some great prices. Of course, if you couponed, you might have done like I did today and walked out of the store with two carts full of food for under $60.

You know the drill. Sign up for CouponSense, use my referral number, choose Mindy C****** from the instructor list and you too can hold up a line of disbelieving shoppers while they watch your total drop, drop, drop.

Fry's is taking competitor coupons this week.

I'll be back.

Oh My Goodness! HALLOWEEN!!

2009-10-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

When did my kids become such social butterflies? Seems all I'm doing is dealing in costumes and parties and errands. This is a great week for those who coupon. The deals are amazing. Here's a way to take advantage if you're just thinking about couponing:

Check the ads from yesterday's paper. There's a $3 off $30 coupon in there on the Fresh and Easy ad. Fry's is accepting competitor coupons this week, so if you take advantage of their Mega Event, even if you aren't using coupons, you can get $3 off your purchase of $30 worth of food. Also, Albertson's has a $10 off $100 coupon. Same deal.

This is a quick post:

Other deals at Fry's:

1. Pork Spareribs - 97c/lb
2. New York Strip Steaks, bone-in - $3.77/lb
3. Milk is $1.47/gallon

Moonlight Madness at Fry's today. 3 pm to 9 pm. If you're not there early, the deals will be GONE. I learned this last year. No rainchecks will be given. Good deals on apples and candy. Check the Fry's Ad.

Reasons to go to Safeway:

1. London Broil is $1.77/lb. Have the butcher grind some of it for very lean ground beef.
2. Shop before 10/31, you can buy Lucerne Ice Cream for $1.99 1.75 quarts with their 'Spooky Savings' Promo
3. Spend at least $20, you can use Safeway In-Ad coupons to purchase:

Safeway Apple Juice - 88c
Fritos - 88c

Good deals at Albertsons:

1. Whole chickens - 48c/lb - limit4
2. Bananas - 39c/lb
3. John Morrell Weiners 49c (use in-ad coupon)
4. and a $10 off $100 purchase.

Reasons to check out Bashas:

1. Bashas Sour Cream or Cottage Cheese, 16 oz - 99c (first 4)
2. Honeycrisp apples - 87c/lb - AWESOME price for honeycrisps

Heh. I see apples and cottage cheese together and I'm happy. I had it for breakfast this morning.

3. The Sunsations brand dish liquid is 99c/25 oz - that's a really good price. I use dish liquid for all kind of cleaning - floors, bathrooms, kitchen...even spot cleaning on the rug. I add a little vinegar to the water. It does a great job and is a lot cheaper than most commercial cleaners. If you're not sure about a surface, test an inconspicuous spot first.

Halloween Party at Basha's on Saturday!!

They have a 'Decorate Your Own' Jack-O-Lantern Cake for $5. Looks like fun. Also free cookies and cider. Another chance for the kids to wear their costumes. Go and support our hometown grocer!

Sunflower has pears 25c/lb! Doesn't a softly cooked pear over rice pudding sound good?

Also, they have Fuyu Persimmons for 50c/each. If you've never had a persimmon, now is the time to try them. They're good. Let them ripen to soft and eat like an apple, or slice to serve.

Gotta go! Hopefully next week will be less hectic!

Why you should stop reading this and...

2009-10-22T13:36:00.001-07:00

...go to El Rancho Market immediately:

See previous post for addresses for the two locations. Sorry, no website yet, I asked at the store, but boy are they serious about customer service!! I filled out a card with my name and address so they can mail me their ad every week.

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts are $1.47/lb
Bananas are 4 lbs/99c
tomatoes are 3 lbs/99c (if you missed the screaming deal at Pro's Ranch yesterday)
Carrots are 25c for 1-lb bag
Onions are 5 lbs/99c
Iceberg lettuce is 33c/head.

Also, on the side of the ad are coupons good for today only:

64 oz Sunland Orange Juice - 99c - first 1
Food Club MaC and Cheese 33c - first 6
8 oz Food Club Shredded Cheese - 88c first 4
24 oz loaf IGA white or wheat sandwich bread - 69c first 4
Farmland Link Sausage - 50c, first 4
Tyson Bacon - $1.88, first 2

(MINIMUM $10 Purchase REQUIRED)

I was interested in the OJ, shredded cheese, bread and sausage. They were out of sausages, but cheerfully handed me a raincheck and advised me to keep it with the receipt and show that when I redeemed it.

I did not buy the chicken (though it is a terrific price) because I have so much chicken already, my freezer is clucking. Instead, I purchased $10 worth of goat meat ($1.79/lb) to make my own version of Birria.

The link isn't my own version of Birria, it's a recipe for authentic Birria. I'm marinating the meat in lemon juice and pico de gallo for a day or two, then will slow cook until the meat is mouth-watering tender.

I digress.

El Rancho Market, like Food City and Pro's Ranch Market, has special sales on different days of the week - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The Thursday coupon specifically states the $10 purchase does not include the coupon items. The checkers are on top of that and will cheerfully offer to set your coupon purchases to the side until you find another 10 bucks worth to get the coupon prices. There were a couple of young guys who had me chuckling. Their basket contained only the coupon specials and a case of beer.

I'll post again with regular stockpiling.

BTW, if you're still on the 'Should I Coupon?' Fence - today I picked up 20 cans of Campbell's soup - tomato and chicken noodle and 2 jars of Ragu (the cheesy alfredo white ones). Without coupons, the sale price would have been $12.34, still good, but not near as good as the $5.34 which I paid. Took me a minute to check the CouponSense database. Another to cut the coupons. I hit the store on my way while doing other commuting. Seven bucks for 2 minutes of my time. Pretty good return on my investment.

I mean - who doesn't need to keep a few cans of soup and a couple of jars of pasta sauce on hand?

If you sign up, please use my referral code 1707971 and ask for Mindy C****** as your instructor.

Here's what I bought at Pro Ranch Market Today!!

2009-10-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

I'll be back later for a better stockpile post, but I don't want anybody to miss out on these deals if they are anywhere near a Pro Ranch Market.

3 1 lb bags carrot
14 large onions - 7.16 lbs
2 enormous cabbages
8 kiwis (the fruit, not the people)
8 piloncillo (I have to look up what they are again, but I remembered when I saw them that I'd looked them up before and decided I'd buy them when they were on sale again. Well, they're on sale again. Look like a brown sugar thing.)
2 pretty large pumpkins, about 15 pounds each - 16c/lb. So well under 5 bucks for the two. This is the cheapest I've seen anywhere so far.
2.76 lbs Red Yams - The color on these was extraordinary. Simply extraordinary.
5 cucumbers
10 lb bag of russet potatoes - 89c/bag
9.61 lbs tomatoes
7.77 lbs bananas

Grand Total - $16.82

I LOVE THAT STORE.

I found the carrots cheaper at El Rancho Market at 8901 N. 19th Avenue - 4 1-lb bags/99c and the kiwis are cheaper at Food City if you go there for the Thursday special (1o/$1) but overall, I feel like I got away with robbing a produce bank.

And my cart looked soooo beautiful, all yellow and red and orange and green (light and dark) and brown. I wish I knew how to use the camera on my phone because I wanted to take a picture.

Can't give you a welsite for El Rancho Market, though I looked long and hard. (well for a couple of minutes, anyway) It's an IGA market I just found. It opened in July. There's a second location at 1076 N. Arizona Avenue in Chandler. I didn't have time to check it out, beyond buying some beautifully fresh garlic bulbs (nice and firm, not all dried out and nasty) for 79c total. If you live near either location, I think they're worth a look see. Produce prices are much cheaper than the mainstream stores, although not as good as Pro Ranch from what I could see.

I did other shopping today, using COUPONS. I purchased

16 boxes/bags of granola bars and Nature Valley Nut Clusters
8 12-packs of coke
3 Thai Kitchen Noodles
2 big bags and 2 smaller bags of Nestle Crunches for the Trick-or-Treaters
4 boxes of Cheezits
2 candy bars (for the kiddies)

Grand total of those purchases? $26.11.

No, I'm not lying to you. No, I'm not some super-duper genius who spends all day surfing the web for deals. I'm just an everyday mom who found a Coupon Sense. Give it a try. Seriously

Give. It. A. Try.

It's 4 bucks for the 1st month, about $14 for every month thereafter. Just in the list I made above I saved enough to pay for several months worth. I do that week after week.

When you sign up, please use my referral code 1707971 and ask for Mindy C****** as your instructor (it's in the drop-down menu, you'll see it). I'll help you save big bucks for the kids' college fund, or maybe just to make the mortgage payment.

If you are already with CouponSense and you DO NOT have an instructor, please contact them and ask for me. Reference this blog, they'll put us together.

Instructors are FREE, so...take advantage of me. ;)

What I'm cooking tonight

2009-10-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

THIS!

More or less. I had some leftover steamed carrots from the weekend, and some sweet potatoes I made last night so I went to All Recipes, plugged in the ingredients and got the mash. I have plenty of cooked apples. I'm still cooking down the honeycrisps I picked up from Bountiful Baskets a week ago. I'm pressure cooking a small pork roast I picked up for 4 bucks at Fry's a few months ago to go with it. From start to finish, this is a half-hour meal.

Good eating is as easy as having yummy ingredients in your stockpile. Leftovers aren't leftovers, they're another chance to make something that will keep your family at the table and under budget.

Pro Ranch is the best deal on produce this week!

2009-10-14T10:22:00.001-07:00

This is just a nudge. I'm away and not able to do a full stockpile post. Check out Pro Ranch Market this week for great produce deals and some pretty good meat deals. Today's Wednesday produce deals are awesome pears 6 lbs/$1 for example and potatoes 10 lb/79c. Tomatoes are 4 lb/$1 all week. Pick up a bunch, make and freeze your own tomato sauce.

If Pro Ranch isn't possible for you, Food City has some pretty good produce deals on Thursday - Cukes are 5 for $1, for example. IF you've no Food City near you, check out Sunflower Markets, or Sprouts. Bashas has 5 lb of potatoes for 69c - excellent price. Bashas also has a great deal on Shamrock Farms milk - $2.99/2 gallons. It's a Buy One, Get One that works out to $1.50/gallon.

Also, Safeway has their Lucerne milk, $1.37/gallon, first 2.

If you're looking for Halloween Candy, the 99c Only stores have some pretty good deals this week.

Frys has whole chickens, 49c/lb, limit 4. Buy 4.
Safeway has Ribeyes and T-bones, bone-in, $3.77/lb. That's a good price for those cuts.
Basha's has b1g1 on it's Value pack Boneless Cross-rib or bottom-round roast. I think that will work out to $1.50/lb because the cross-rib and bottom round is $2.99 pound elsewhere in the ad. Basically, buy the big pack, get one free.

And Frys has Kroger PB, 99c/18 oz jar, which is a decent price. They are having their 'Anniversary Case-lot' sale. The prices are so-so.

If you need regular pasta, Sunflower Market has Luigi Vitelli for 77c/1 lb package.

Sorry this is so truncated. I'll post up something better when I'm back in a few days and can spend more time with the ads.

Can we talk? - baby food

2009-10-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

When I was a new mom, I thought babies were some strange species requiring food different from the rest of us. When mine moved to solids (I had twins, I always refer to kids in twos!) I only fed them properly sealed 'Baby Food' in tiny jars and boxes lest I poison them. If there was a sale, I loaded up, but if there wasn't a sale, I loaded up anyway because the kids ate all the time and they had to have the special Baby Food or they would starve.

Right?

So one day, I'm wondering what babies ate before special Baby Food was invented. How did those pioneer ladies keep their babies alive? What did moms in third world countries do? How did Roman babies live to become Roman citizens? And how did early man ever evolve to walk on two feet without Beech-nut?

Answer?

They ate food. They ate the same food their parents ate just mushed up smooth and devoid of spicing.

Duh. I knew all those degrees I got would come in handy one day. Also, I saw on Discovery Channel that in a lot of primitive cultures, moms pre-chew the food, then squirt it into baby's mouth.

You don't have to do that. This is America. We have food processors. We have blenders. We have Magic Bullets.

Do you know what's in baby oatmeal? Oatmeal. Also wheat and it looks like they spray it with vitamins or something but basically it's very fine oatmeal.

What's in baby applesauce? Apples and water

Baby peach and bananas? Peach, bananas and water

Baby chicken? Pureed chicken.

Conclusion? You can make baby food at home for pennies rather than blowing dollars on it at the grocery store. Just cook whatever you want to feed baby. Leave out the salt and the sugar. Baby doesn't need it. Pop it into the processor of your choice with a little water and whirl it until the consistency is smooth.

Feed the baby.

I just saw Basha's Ad

2009-10-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

And I feel like an idiot.

The good news? These prices are good until Tuesday, the 13th.

The bad news? If you qualify for a senior discount - you need to get there before the store closes to take advantage.

Here goes:

Large eggs are 88c, 80c with senior discount (s.d.)
Food Club Butter, $1.50/lb - $1.35/lb with s.d.
Simply Orange or Minute Maid orange, 59 to 64 oz - $1.99, $1.79 - s.d.
Bumble Bee Chunk Light Tuna - 48c, 43c s.d.
Chicken Leg Quarter, sold in 10 lb bag - $4.70, $4.33 s.d. (that's 47c/lb or 43c/lb)
Food Club frozen vegetables - 16 oz, $1, .90 s.d. (Yes, it's cheaper to blanch and freeze your own, but if you know you won't do that, get these, it's a pretty good price for frozen veggies.)

So sorry I didn't put this up earlier today. I hadn't seen the ad yet. I receive them on Wednesdays usually and Bashas hadn't yet put theirs online when I went to bed.

If you're a couponer, you can get your fabric softener for free at Basha's. I picked up 3 today, enough for 3 months or more of laundry. Total cost - 50c or so in tax.

Wanna learn more? Give CouponSense a try. Four bucks. Less than the cost of a Starbucks. Please enter my referral code (1707971) and ask for Mindy C****** as your instructor.

Can we talk? - Tomato Sauce

2009-10-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this!

That's my Pro Ranch ad for this week. If you've a store anywhere near you, go visit. The produce prices are amazing. The pears I bought last week were sweet and nice when ripe. I cooked them in the slow cooker along with the bananas, and cloves and cinnamon, some peaches. We've been putting them on pancakes, on ice cream, in smoothies, with oatmeal. It's just so good!

Remember, there are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday specials. Wednesday is produce, Thursday are meats, Fridays are a variety of items. Wednesday is totally worth it this week. Check the ad for your location because there is some variance in prices.

So yesterday I took the 5+ lbs of tomatoes I purchased at Pro Ranch last week (at 4 lb/99c, same price as this week) and turned it into Tomato Sauce. I'm going to teach you the Italian way of making tomato sauce. You have to pay attention because you don't want to miss any of this.

Are you ready?

Sure?

Here goes:

1) Cut tomatoes in half
2) put in large saucepan with just a hint of water (waterless is best, but use anything you have)
3) turn on heat to high
4) sprinkle with a generous amount of Italian seasoning or basil or oregano or marjoram or all three or whatever you have.
5) Chop onion and garlic together, put in saucepan.
6) Cover saucepan with lid.
7) turn heat to low, simmer for 20 minutes, stirring and smooshing occasionally to keep it from burning on the bottom and make it look more liked gravy.

That's all there is to it. Cook your pasta, pour the sauce over the pasta and you have a beautiful chunky homemade sauce.

No, you do not have to blanch the tomatoes and peel them first.

It does not matter what order the ingredients enter the saucepan.

It does not matter when the ingredients enter the saucepan. If you forget the garlic, add it while it cooks.

You can't over simmer it.

You almost can't undersimmer it, except you may not like your onions and garlic underdone.

It's okay to cheat by adding onion powder and/or garlic powder instead. I won't tell anybody and you're the one eating it, not me.

If you have fresh basil in your garden, by all means, add it.

If you have capers in a jar that you haven't known what to do with, by all means, add it.

If you have any combo of roasted veggie in jars (probably picked up at the dollar store), including, but not limited to artichoke hearts, by all means, add it.

You can add that zucchini that's been sitting in your vegetable bin.

You can add those bell peppers you keep forgetting to add to salad.

You can even add ground beef, although truthfully, it will make the sauce greasy and wouldn't you really rather make Italian meatballs?

Cooking is easy.

Repeat after me:

Cooking. Is. EASY.

Go ye, and do it.
*******
EDITED TO ADD:

Albertsons has Pork Chops for 88c/lb this week. If you qualify for senior savings (55+, I think) take 10% or 9c off that price. Senior Savings are today only. Other than the whole chickens at Food City, nothing else of a protein nature is talking to me this week.

Early Ads Stockpile Post

2009-10-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Most of the ads turn around tomorrow, but Food City already has its ad out for the week and Sunflower Market puts their 'Double Ad Wednesday' up on Tuesday. Also, Bountiful Baskets has some good deals this week and spaces go fast. I'll update tomorrow for Pro Ranch Market because their ad doesn't go up until midnight and also for the major grocery stores and Sprouts. I got a peek at the ads for one of those majors and I about died of boredom, so I don't want you to miss Bountiful Baskets if you decide to go that route, or you might want to plan a trip to a Pro Ranch Market if you have one within 15 or 20 minutes.

Soooo...here goes:

First, Bountiful Baskets:

They have honeycrisp apples - $22.50 for 30 pounds. That's 75c/lb.

My mouth waters just saying the name. These apples are sooooo good and sooooo expensive. This is a screaming price. Bountiful Baskets also has local raw citrus-mesquite honey - an 11 lb jar for $26.50 or $2.40/lb. Frankly, I don't buy enough honey to know if that's a good price, but it seems pretty good for the product being offered. I have a weak spot for really good honey, though I don't eat it much, so, yeah, I'll buy this.

In addition, you have to buy the regular basket for $15 ($18 if it's your first basket) Also, there's a $1.50 processing fee. Sooooo...$65.50 for a ton of honey, all those apples and produce for at least a week.

But gosh, can't you just imagine slicing those apples into a pie, sprinkling with clove and cinnamon, drizzling with that honey?

My big debate? Have I enough fridge space for everything because I'll be gone most of next week and won't have time to deal with the basket and apples until I get back. On the other hand, I won't be around to pick up a basket the week after and the honeycrisps may not be available anymore in three weeks. On the other hand, I could probably get those apples cooked down in one of my big pots and into freezer bags before I go. Then the produce can go in the coldest part of the fridge and will probably be fine when we get back.

On the other hand, do I have enough freezer space for all those apples?... (do I sound like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof?)

I'm still debating for myself, but be sure to grab a spot while it's still available if you decide to go this route.

Otherwise, Sunflower Market will have Jonathan apples 47c/lb starting tomorrow and canteloupes 3/$1. Yes, 3 melons for $1. Pretty good deal.

Food City has whole chickens this week 49c/lb. Unless one of the majors has something fantabulous planned for this week, stock up on chickens. Check the ad, they've got other good prices on some of their basics I've been talking about the last few weeks.

If you're a CouponSense member and do not have an instructor, I'd be happy to help you. Contact CouponSense from their homepage and give them my referral number (listed in profile) or reference this blog and tell them you'd like me for an instructor. For those of you who have not tried CouponSense, remember, if the meat and produce ads aren't exciting, the coupon deals often are. It's only $4 to try CouponSense for a month. Please use my referral number and ask for Mindy C**** under the 'choose an instructor' drop-down menu.

What a CVS addict does in her spare time...

2009-10-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Check out my friend and fellow CouponSense Instructor, Tracy's blog. She's posting a preview of CVS deals right from the store starting Sunday, thanks to her Blackberry and a friendly assistant manager!

Start clipping those coupons early, kids!

More Stockpiling Fun

2009-09-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's kind of hard to get excited about the other ads after my wonderful shop at Pro Ranch Market today (see previous post). So I say go to Food City and get a 20-oz bottle of Food Club Mustard (I like mustard and if you need it and don't coupon, this is a good price).

Also get 6 of the FUD brand Queso Freso. My kids have fallen in love with this stuff. I don't know why. It's really bland...

Hey! Maybe that's the reason!

Pick up 3 pounds of apples, 3 bags of carrots, 4 pounds of white onions, 3 pounds of Bartlett pears and 4 Chayote Squash - These are all pretty well priced for tomorrow's Thursday Only specials. Add 3 rolls of toilet paper to the mix and you've spent less than 16 bucks total at Food City.

Safeway has Lucerne milk $1.39/gallon, first 2 only. Sprouts has cantaloupe for 50c each. Sunflower Market has Short Grain Brown Rice in the bulk bin for 69c/lb.

Albertsons has Half and Half for 99c and 25 sq ft of aluminum foil for 99c. Also strawberries for a buck a pint.

I think the 99c/can for Evaporated milk at Fry's is pretty good. I'm debating whether it will go cheaper. I think it will. Back in my pre-children days, I kept a few cans of these around for my coffee in case I ran out of milk and didn't want to run to the store. And if you're desperate for corn flakes, the Kroger value brand is on sale for 99c.

Which brings me to Basha's and my most recent obsession - dehydration. Broccoli and cauliflower are 69c/lb at basha's. I'm wondering if I cook and dehydrate the broccoli if I could then Magic Bullet it in a coarse powder and use that to make 'instant' broccoli soup at a later date.

I'm thinking I could toss it into a watered down chicken broth, maybe add some half and half or milk, a little salt and onion...

I'll let you know. I googled for homemade dehydrated broccoli soup, but all I could find were companies that sell already dehydrated stuff for camping or preparedness or bachelors who do their cooking over a bunsen burner.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Pro Ranch market again for the chicken meat mentioned in the previous post. I'm also going to check the store out a little more closely.

Oh! Challenge Butter is 88c for 1/2 pound at basha's this week. Go to the Challenge Dairy Website and sign up for a printable coupon. Once it doubles, the butter will be free. You should be able to print it twice. That makes for a pound of butter for free.

Free is good.
Couponing is fun.

Coupons can make a kinda blah week like this into a more interesting week. CouponSense makes it easy. If you'd like to give it a try, go for a trial month at CouponSense for $4.00. Please use my referral number noted in my profile and asked for Mindy C***** as your instructor.

If you're already with CouponSense and do not have an instructor, I'd be happy to work with you. Just email admin@couponsense.com and let them know you'd like me for an instructor. They'll put us together.

Doing the Stockpile-Part 1, at Pro Ranch Market

2009-09-30T10:38:00.001-07:00

Everybody should check this place out at least once.

Here is what I bought there this morning because I wanted to take advantage of their Wednesday specials. I'll do a better stockpile tonight, but I don't want you to miss out on these great prices.

Here ya go:

7.34 lbs Bartlett Pears (99c/6 lbs!)
3.87 lb Black Beans (99c/2 lbs)
3 8 oz packages of mushrooms (99c each and they were GORGEOUS)
6.23 lbs peaches - (99c/2 lbs) I know I bought from Bountful Baskets a couple of weeks in a row, but they're all cooked down and frozen already!
5.45 lb Tomatoes - 99c/4 lbs
6 Avocadoes - 99c/4
9.06 Seedless Watermelon - 99c/7 lbs
8.17 lb bananas 99c/4 lbs
2 half gallons of OJ - $1.99/each
Two enormous bottles Downy Fabric softener (1.99/first 2)
48 rolls of toilet tissues. (24 paks - $3.99 each)

Total, including tax was 32.25!!

This store may be out of your way, and they don't put up their ad until midnight on the day the sale begins, but I think planning a run for their Wednesday special is probably wise. I'll be dehydrating and cooking down and freezing most of the bounty. The kids are going to love seeing that watermelon.

Pull out the cost of the toilet paper, the OJ and the fabric softener, it was about 16 bucks for almost 42 pounds of produce and 6 avocados. That's about 34c/lb on average.

There are other great Wednesday specials going on like Yams 33c/lb and Kiwi 7 for 99c. Also there are Strawberries for 99c/pint, but they hadn't arrived yet when I was there. I know the 99c Only Store has them for the same price this week, so I didn't wait.

Tomorrow, I plan a return for boneless, skinless chicken leg meat for 88c/lb. I was so happy to get it for $1.29/lb at Food City a week or so ago, now I'm REALLY excited.

By the way, Food City has the leg meat again for $1.29/lb today, as part of THEIR Wednesday special. They also have liver for 69c/lb. If you liked the liver a few weeks ago, now is your chance to try your hand at it again.

Tomorrow, Food City has some pretty good produce specials - Chayote 4 for $1, for example. It's a good alternative if it's not practical for you to find a Pro Ranch Market.

I'll be back tonight with a little more info on stockpiling. I have to unpack the groceries!

Find me on Facebook!

2009-09-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, $50 Stockpile People! Find me on Facebook. I'm:

Mindy Likestocoupon

Clever, huh?

If you're already on Facebook, friend me. I'm lonely over there. If you're not already on Facebook, join and friend me. If you do, you'll see my lame profile pic. I even give you permission to point and laugh.

Pick and Choose Week - Stockpile Post

2009-09-23T10:49:00.001-07:00

There's some really good stockpiling out there this week, but it requires a little planning. Here's what I'm buying:

Today, I head to Pro Ranch Market (Location #5) for their Wednesday Specials:

tomatoes - 25c/lb
Bananas - 33c/lb
grapes - 69c/lb
zucchini (Italian Squash) - 33c/lb
brown onions - 6 lb/$1

Also, here are items on sale thru Tuesday that I'll pick up today:

dried pinto beans - 50c/lb
The Jamaica Hibiscus tea I wanted last week - $2.39/lb
Verdolagas (aka Purslane) 33c/lb - I found this YouTube video that tells you about Verdolagas and how to cook them. They're very good for you.

By the way, here's the ad page for the Thomas St. Store for what is catching my eye at Pro Ranch Market. Different stores have different prices, so go right to the ad to figure out what you want to buy, or if the prices warrant a visit.

Also cheap this week at Pro Ranch are Golden Delicious apples at 33c/lb and pears for 33c/lb, but I'm putting the pears in the Food City list because that store may be more convenient for most people.

Food City has some great deals this week in produce. Check out their Thursday specials:

Chayote Squash and Cucumbers are 5 for $1. Remember way back when I talked about making a cooling drink with the cucumbers? You'll have to look it up, no time to look for links right now. Also, for those who didn't purchase from Bountiful Baskets, peaches are 50c/lb and as I mentioned previously pears are 33c/lb.

Pork chops are 88c/lb at Fry's this week, limit 2 and pineapples are $1/each, limit 4. I'll also head to Safeway on Friday, Saturday or Sunday for 99c raspberries, limit 4.

That's it for me this week. What am I doing with all that produce? The tomatoes will be dehydrated and also turned into an al fresco tomato sauce, which I'll freeze because I'm too lazy to can. (Yes, al fresco and freezing is a controdiction in terms, but you get the idea. Just cook the stuff down and put it in freezer bags.)

I'm cooking down what fruit we don't eat, or dehydrating it. My kids are lately into smoothies, so all the bananas and fruits are making healthy snacks for them. Also, I put anything overripening into muffins and pancakes, or cook it down. Produce never goes to waste in my house.

Do I seem like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter? That's because I am. I prefer my family eat fresh food, minimally processed. I try to keep sugar and bad fats out of their diet. This is autumn, the time of bounty and a great time to put it all away because in winter, it's apples and bananas until you want to scream. Not so much here in Phoenix, but prices do go up in winter. Stockpiling now, while prices are low, ensure you won't be spending that cash as the holidays close in. And wouldn't it be nice to have plenty of food on hand in January, when all the holiday bills come due and it's time to pay taxes?

Other good prices - cantaloupes 50c/each at Sprouts. Walnuts are $2.99/lb in the bulk bin at Sunflower markets.

Have a great week, everybody!

EDITED TO ADD: How to cook a porkchop!

This is an old Italian method of doing it and very fast.

Put a couple of cups of water in a skillet.
Add Pork Chops
Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning, salt, pepper.
Cover and cook for 20 minutes, simmering and adding more water if the water boils away.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs
Turn off heat, let finish in the dry pan. The bread crumbs absorb most of what moisture is left. Since there is fat on the pork chops, that boils off with the water and provides enough coating on the pan to keep the chops from sticking.

Adventures in Cooking

2009-09-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Dottie's Kitchen Store out in Sun City for a lesson in pressure cooking. It was almost my first time there. Greg demonstrated how to pressure cook a hamburger rice medley, chicken and dumplings, and a bread pudding I might well be tempted to commit a crime to get.

Of course, I had to buy the pressure cooker, if, for no other reason than to keep me out of jail. And it's a nice pressure cooker, a wonderful pressure cooker, a cadillac of pressure cookers.

Or at least I presume, it won't arrive in stock for a week or so. In the meantime, I decided to pressure cook a chicken in my old pressure cooker, an ancient presto that was ancient when I picked it up for a few bucks at a flea market 20 years ago.

Here's what I learned:

It is indeed true that one can pressure cook a chicken from the frozen state. It's equally true that if one pressure cooks a chicken for longer than the recommended time, one will have high-calcium chicken because the bones will melt.

I'm eager to make that bread pudding, but it has to wait until my new baby arrives. Don't worry, my old pressure cooker is finding a good home with a friend who does not have one.

Whole chickens are 49c/lb at Basha's thru Tuesday. Limit per store visit is 3. Buy the limit. Go back and buy more. If you have a pressure cooker, you can get that chicken from frozen to done in under an hour.

How to Handle the Great Ho-Hum - This week's stockpile post

2009-09-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Blech. Nothing excites me this week. Even the coupon deals aren't making my heart go pitter-pat. I'm sticking with my Food City list I gave in my previous post, but I'm adding a few things:

Bashas has whole chickens for 49c/lb, limit 3. Buy 3. Go back and buy 3 more. I don't know how big the chickens are. I'll guess 4 or 5 pounds, so that's about 4 chickens for 10 bucks. That equals 8 dinners:

Slow cook the chicken whole the first day. Add a little water, onion, celery, etc. Save the resulting broth. On the second day, or maybe the third (have something else the evening in between) cook rice in the chicken broth. Add whatever leftover chicken meat there is to the dish. If you didn't season it heavily when you first made it, toss the chicken/rice mixture with a little Italian salad dressing.

I'm checking out a new store this week - The Pro Ranch Market. There are six locations in Phoenix. The stores on Thomas, Indian School and Camelback have better prices than the others. I'm hitting the Indian School store tomorrow to pick up tomatoes at 25c/lb and avocados 6 for $1. Also probably some bananas, because bananas taste good. I'm also intrigued by the Jamaica Hibiscus tea, sold as loose flowers by the pound. I'm on a diet, so I'm interested in making it iced with stevia as a treat.

OOPS! My bad. Pro Ranch Market runs it's ads from Wednesday to Tuesday as do most of the grocery stores. I was looking at an expiring ad last night. It's still worth a trip if you are somewhat nearby one in your travels because the really good Wednesday specials are bananas 3 lb/99c, carrots, 4 lb/99c and 10 lb bag of potatoes for 99c.

Otherwise, I'm going with Bountiful Baskets again this week. I'm getting more of the peaches and more of the gala apples. My dehydrator and slow cooker were my best friends this week. The apples came out so sweet, just like candy. I'm dehydrating some peaches overnight. I'll let you know how they came out. Otherwise, I used my slow cooker to make compote with allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon and just a little honey. So simple. Toss as many peaches as you can into the slow-cooker, stir it up, leave it alone for a few hours.

And no, I didn't peel the peaches. Or any apples. Believe me, if I have to start peeling stuff, I won't make it. I think everything came out just fine.

This year, I've decided not to buy fruit out of season, especially peaches. Peaches out of season are nasty. They rot instead of ripening and mostly taste like plastic.

I'm going to dehydrate some of the pears from Food City, also.

And here's a recipe to go with everything, courtesy of my friend, Tracy. This is from the Crockpot 365 blog. I think it looks really good, but I had to laugh at the end when the blog author said she wouldn't be making it again. If you try it, let me know how it came out. Chicken and apples and chicken and peaches would be good search terms for recipes this week.

Here's the recipe:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-chicken-with-gingered-peaches.html

Well, there ya go. Maybe not so ho-hum as I was thinking, just required a little more searching to find good deals. Those of you out in the Chandler/Mesa area should check out Superstition Ranch Market. My fellow couponers at CouponSense say it's a great place for produce out that way.

Mmmm...good eating on a budget and a giveaway!

2009-09-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Calling all stockpilers! Head over to my friend, Jeri's blog (Budget Menu, link in sidebar or right here) and check out her ideas and menus for the week. She has a recipe for celery bread pudding/stuffing that actually had me salivating just to read it. That's a good thing because celery is only 50c a bunch at Sunflower Market this week. Jeri's pairing it with pork.

Also, it's the last day for her Fry's gift certificate giveaway, so get on over and put a comment on the post she references.

Also, for anybody looking ahead, I've been checking out the Food City ad. Food City runs their ads from Monday to Sunday. On Wednesdays, they have extra terrific prices on meat/cheese/fish items and on Thursdays, you'll find really great deals on selected produce.

This week, on Wednesday, they have boneless chicken leg meat for $1.29/lb and crema for 99c/lb. On Thursday, white onions are 20c/lb, pears are 33c/lb and peaches are 50c/lb.

Additionally, Fud brand Queso Fresco is 99c for 9 ounces and 7 oz bags of Pagasa Pasta is only 17c/bag.

Now I like whole wheat pasta, but do see uses for regular pasta, like making homemade chicken helper you can freeze for a cook-ahead meal. I'll be back on Wednesday with a recipe for it. I want to try it out first, but I'm thinking 2 lbs chicken meat, queso fresco, onion, garlic chopped up, maybe some coriander, put in a freezer bag and frozen. When ready to cook, defrost ahead of time, put in skillet, cook a minute just to give the chicken a little bit of go ahead, then add 2 cups of water plus the noodles and cook for 12 to 15 minutes. A little cornstarch should help to thicken things up. Add more water if the noodles aren't cooking quite right.

Gotta go. Also, the chayote squash are 3 lbs for $1 at Food City this week. I love that stuff.

Bountiful Stockpiling

2009-09-08T21:22:00.001-07:00

Food City is my choice this week for general stockpiling. They have boneless chicken breasts for $1.39/lb. I don't know if the chicken breasts are also skinless. Even if they are not, it's still a great price.

Also, on Thursday, Food City has some great prices on produce. This week it's

White Onions - 20c/lb
Barlett Pears - 33c/lb
Granny Smith Apples - 25c/lb
Peaches- 50c/lb

Bananas are 33c/lb, limit 10 lbs, until Sunday

Also, the Bar-S Bologna is still 49c/package, limit 4 packages and sandwich bread is 79c/loaf if you're looking for something cheap to make school lunches.

Here's what I'm doing this week - I'm purchasing from Bountiful Baskets. This is a local co-op that offers high-quality produce at good prices. This is only my second time purchasing from them and I enjoyed my first basket so much, I decided to give them another try. In addition to their normal 'basket' ($15.00 for repeat customers, $18.00 if it's your first purcahse) I'm purchasing a 38 lb box of Gala Apples for $16.50 (that works out to about 43c/lb) and a 32 lb box of Utah peaches for $20 (that's 62.5c/lb).

If you want to give Bountiful Baskets a try, you have to order by 10 pm tomorrow night. The pickup date is Saturday and they have a variety of pickup spots around the city and the state as well as sites in other states. Check them out. Be sure to read all their terms and conditions before you purchase. There are no refunds and if you miss your pick up, your order will be donated.

Yes, apples and peaches are cheaper at Food City, but the apples aren't galas and I don't know if the peaches are from Utah, so I'm giving this a shot. Since I'm a repeat customer, I'll pay $53.00 total for a big basket of fruits and vegetables and the Galas and the Peaches. Were I a new customer, it would cost me $56. By the way, the produce from my first basket with them lasted my produce loving family more than a week. Pretty good deal for 15 bucks.

And yes, it's a lot of fruit and no, I'm not canning it. I'm not even freezing most of it.

I'm dehydrating it.

You read right - I'm drying it out.

About 15 years ago I picked up a Mr. Coffee Food Dehydrator, used it a couple of times and packed it away. I pulled it out the other day because I had some produce getting ready to go bad. I dried banana slices, apple slices, and tomato slices. I got the idea for the tomato slices from a fellow couponer at CouponSense. She suggested drying them down to chips, so I did.

Wow.

I mean, WOW!

So sweet and nice. Next time I get tomatoes for cheap I'm going to salt the slices before dehydrating and enjoy the crisp, sweet, salty flavor. I'll also dry some to a more pliable state for sun-dried tomatoes.

Here's the deal - I like dried fruits, but I don't like the price tag. I also don't like the added sugar and preservatives often added to them. My dried apples contained apples, nothing else. The bananas were made of banana. In the future, I plan to try my hand at fruit leather and I'd like to try pureeing cooked vegetables, salting them and making dehydrated veggie chips - no oil.

Do some googling on dehydrating food. See if it's something you'd like to try. Before you purchase one, try out a friend or neighbor's unit. When you do purchase one, go cheap and see what you can find at Salvation Army, or St. Vincent dePaul or Goodwill for a few dollars. Run it during the cheap electricity hours to cut down those costs. My understanding is that more expensive units use less power because they work faster, so it's a trade-off, but best to be sure you like this kind of cooking before making a big investment.

Dried fruits and veggies keeps beautifully and are great for a stockpile. You can reconstitute them in water, add them to soups, use them in baked goods, endless possibilities. Because the fruits are so sweet, they make great snacking for the kids. Also great for backpacking because they're so much lighter.

Other great deals for this week:

Milk is $1.43/gallon at Basha's, $1.39/gallon at Albertson's and $1.37/gallon at Fry's. All are for the first 2.

Fry's is running it's Case Lot sale. You can buy by the unit. Tuna is 47c/can and the Value Brand sugar is $1.69/4 pounds. Fry's tomato sauce is 15c/can. Check the ads, lots of good prices. If you'd like to get a lot of the sale items for way cheaper than the ad, check out CouponSense. It's only 4 dollars for the first month. Please use my referral number 1707971 when you join and choose me, Mindy C*** as your instructor. I'll show you how to get the most for your money.

EDITED TO ADD: Raspberries are $1 for 6 oz at Fry's. Y'all know how much I love raspberries, so enjoy!

And what if all you have to spend is 50 bucks?

2009-09-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

I'm doing something a little different this week. I want to show how you can spend 50 bucks and get enough food to feed your family dinner, some breakfasts and some snacks and still have items to stockpile. No cakes and cookies on this list – if you've been stockpiling with me you probably have baking supplies stockpiled, cooked down fruit frozen in the freezer, possibly even frozen cream and half and half for making ice cream. No frills, this is a list of mostly fresh food that will give you a pretty varied diet without making you feel as if you are on a budget.

Basha

ribs – 88c/lb – limit 2 packs. I don't know how many pound are in a pack, so I'll presume 7 pounds each for a total of 14 pounds at $12.32

chicken leg quarters sold in 10 pound bags at 38c/lb or $3.80 for one, total $7.60 for 20 pounds.

10 of bags of russet potatoes – limit 2 – for 99c/each – buy 2 for $1.98

Stop right there – That's $21.98 for 44 pounds of food. Pretty good deal. Take the potatoes out of their bags and store in a basket in a cool, dark, dry place – like your pantry. Use to make side dishes. 20 pounds should last you 2 weeks or more.

Also get a seedless watermelon for $1.99 – there's 12 to 16 pounds in size. Who needs dessert when you've got watermelon?

An aside: Have you noticed that watermelons never have seeds? I prefer the taste of the seeded variety. I also like to spit the seeds into the grass, or speculate if a vine would grow in my stomach should I swallow one.

By the way - with the coupon on the front page of the Basha's ad, you can pick up Bar S hot dogs for 28c with an additional $20 purchase, so you just make it with the items purchased above. Go here and print out a coupon for the hot dogs, stack it with the store coupon (don't worry, that's allowed) and you get those hot dogs for FREE. (Isn't couponing fun?)

Sunflower Market

eggs – 99c/dozen

avocados – 3 for $1

raw almonds - $2.99/lb (this is a SMOKING price)

Avocado makes a wonderful sandwich mashed with a little salt and balsamic vinegar on toast. If the toast is whole wheat (preferably homemade), it's a very healthy and filling lunch.

Eggs would be great for breakfast a few mornings a week with some of the leftover potatoes from a previous night's dinner.

Almonds are great in cooking, in cereal, with fruit and yogurt and alone for snacking.

Sprouts

Vine ripened tomatoes for 77c/lb

Corn on the cob - 20c/each

Toss some sliced tomato on that avocado sandwich, or in the eggs, or grill them with the ribs or chicken. One of my latest things is to saute tomato cut side down in a flat pan with white wine vinegar and chopped garlic. No oil. Very tasty, very low calorie.

And corn goes with bbq. At 20c/ear, eat a lot of it.

Fresh and Easy

Strawberries – 98c/lb

red bell pepper – 2 for 98c

Bell pepper is great in eggs, cooked with chicken, chopped with avocado. Put the strawberries in oatmeal I hope you purchased a few months back when it was 50c/lb and eat for breakfast on the days you aren't eating eggs. Or you can pick up some cheap cornflakes for 98c/box instead.

Food City

Campbells Pork and Beans are 25c/can – pick up a dozen. These are great for quick lunches, as a side dish for dinner or breakfast and even make good snacks. Great to have around when you don't have a plastic container full of pressure-cooked pintos on hand.

Cucumbers – 25c/each – salads, snacking, in sandwiches

broccoli or cauliflower – 69c/lb – I like both and both are so full of vitamins and fiber.

Cantaloupe – 33c/lb

It's a melon kind of week – most other fruits are a lot more expensive. I meant to get this list up earlier and tell you to run to Food City for their Thursday specials – today is was cheap apples, oranges and pears, also onions. I'll do better next week. Definitely check out the Food City ads when they come out on Monday. They often have wonderful deals on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Also, pick up a couple of pounds of Tilapia fillets at $1.99 pound

Fry's

chunk of shredded Kroger cheese for 97c/8 oz. Pick up 6

Albertsons

Pasta at 99c/box – pick up 2

Milk is cheapest at Fry's and Basha's for $1.99/gallon this week and if you MUST pick up store bought bread – Fresh and Easy has it for 88c/loaf.

There ya go. You'll spend at most 50 bucks on the above – and that's with stuffing your fridge. You'll have enough to make 2 rib dinners, 2 chicken dinners, 2 pasta dinners (al fresco sauce and shred some cheddar over it, if you like) and a fish dinner. You'll have at least a rack of ribs to stockpile in the freezer and probably 15 pounds of chickens to store there also as well as a couple of pounds of cheese. Breakfast is taken care of and so are a lot of lunches. And there's plenty of healthy snacking. Remember all that rice I had you buy last week. Shred cheese over it, slice some red pepper rings on it, or some tomato and cook until bubbly. That's a great lunch or dinner. Makes a good side with eggs the next day.

That's it for this week. If you'd like to learn more about eating good on the cheap and getting lots of groceries for free, log into CouponSense, sign up for a trial month, list me as your referral (number 1707971) and choose me for your instructor (Mindy C****). It's only 4 bucks for the first month and I promise you you'll get that investment back many times over in the first week.

Have a great holiday!

When is more than enough too much?

2009-08-31T14:50:00.001-07:00

Anybody who has been stockpiling with me here for a while, and previously on the CouponSense message board may be noticing that their freezer is stuffed, their pantry cabinets overfloweth and their refrigerator is on the verge of harboring science projects.

Good.

Stop buying for a while and eat what you have.

The beauty of the stockpile is to save money. If every week you're spending $50 to stockpile and you never eat it, you're just spending an extra $50, not saving any money. Try 'shopping' out of your stockpile for a while. Turn that extra $50/week into the total $50/week you spend on groceries. Now take the extra $50/week and put it in a savings account, start a college fund, make extra principal payments on your mortgage.

Here's another challenge to look forward to, take that $50 a week you're going to limit yourself to for groceries and get your stockpile out of it also. It's not hard, it's really not hard. It just requires a change of focus.

To wit:

Can what I want to eat be made better and cheaper from scratch?

That's a trick question, the answer is almost always 'Yes'.

Couponing is a great way to stockpile all those other items that eat at the grocery budget, such as cleaning supplies, paper products, shampoo, soap, deodorant, shaving cream, and yes, convenience foods. CouponSense is a system for matching up coupons with weekly sales to make sure these items cost pennies on the dollars you're probably used to using. The investment will pay you back the very first time you use it.

If you decide to give it a try, please use my referral code, 1707971, and choose me, 'Mindy C*****', as your instructor from the dropdown list when you sign up.

The Stockpile Post - Liver and Onions

2009-08-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

In a fit of synchronicity, the universe responded to a recent conversation between my husband and I regarding, 'How comes nobody eats liver and onions, anymore?' with a screaming deal on liver.

And onions.

The liver is at Food City until Sunday for 59c/lb and the onions are at Albertsons 3 lbs/$1.

I'm willing to bet that liver and onions has fallen so out of favor that there are entire generations of you reading who've never eaten it. Perhaps you didn't know that it was something you COULD eat.

I don't know what the real reasons are for why people don't eat liver, so I'll make something up:

Liver was supposed to be really good for you because it contained a lot of iron. Cod Liver was something kids who lived in the days of Beaver Cleaver and before had to muscle down by the tablespoonful every time they caught a sniffle. I don't know why that was, but it probably had something to do with the fact liver meat is high in iron, so good for the blood, and good blood keeps the sniffles away.

How am I doing on my made up history?

People ate liver because it was good for them. Once a week to keep their blood up. Early Weight Watchers programs required that you eat liver once a week and people choked it down even though they didn't like liver and they really didn't like Cod Liver Oil.

Then nutrition science and medical science collided. Liver contained a lot of cholesterol which made it very bad for you instead of very good for you and nobody had to eat liver anymore and liver was consigned to the pet food factories and manufacturers of paté.

YAY!!!!!!

Hold it. Not YAYYYYY!!!!

Not even 'yay'. Because liver tastes good when it's cooked good. That means not cooking it until the leftovers can be used to resole a worn heel. Cook it gently, with plenty of liquid, and a deft hand and liver is a treat.

Now the onions? Cook those for a really long time, preferably in a little bacon fat. Yes, this is probably horrible for your arteries, but I'm not saying to eat it once a week, I'm saying to eat it once in a while.

When the onions are soft and carmelized and whatever, put the thinly sliced liver in the pan with some chicken broth. Give it a minute, flip it, give it another minute, lay it over the bed of onions, serve with fava beans and a good chianti.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that last independent clause.

Look, at less than a buck for a pound of liver and and a pound of onions, give it a go. If you don't like it, toss it down the disposer. (Don't give it to your dog because somewhere in my travels I heard that onions are bad for them, although they never seemed to bother my dog any).

If you like it, you can always buy more liver for 59c/lb and freeze it for another time. If you don't, at least you followed the advice you give your kids to 'give it a try'.

By the way, it generally take 3 to 10 tries to develop a taste for something, so don't sell your first attempt short.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah! Stockpiling.

Here's what else I'd buy at Food City:

4 dozen medium eggs at 79c/dozen
4 packages of Bar-S bologna at 49c/lb
bananas at 33c/lb (remember the muffin mix mentioned in the last post?)
chayote squash at 33c/each (I'm a newly-minted fan of this stuff, having tried it for the first time recently.)
AND
Blue Ribbon Long Grain White Rice - 49c for a 2-lb bag, 4 bag limit.

I know I advocate brown rice, but this is such a good price and rice is a great base for so many recipes, that I'd be remiss in my duty not to recommend 8 pounds of it for 2 bucks.

At Albertsons, I'd get:

a 2 lb bag of carrots for $1
6 ears of corn for $1
And those yellow onions I mentioned earlier.
I'd also buy about 10 pounds of the boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.57/lb because that's about a low as I've seen them in the last year.

Then go to Bashas to get:

16 oz containers of Bashas cottage cheese for 88c each. - That's a really good price. I whirl different fruits into smoothies with my Magic Bullet and pour it over my cottage cheese for a low-fat, high protein, high fiber treat. This morning I made a peach/blueberry mix. Yum.

half gallons of milk are 88c/each - best price in the area this week.

London Broil for $1.67 pound. I'd marinate some and have the butcher grind some up for very lean hamburger. These are value packed at 2 steaks to a pack and you're limited to buying 2 packs at a time.

Baby portabella mushrooms - 8 oz for 99c (for the steak)

Frys

grapes - 67c/lb

I'm thinking a chicken salad kind of thing with those chicken breasts, some of the walnuts I hope you purchased a few weeks back and the grapes. Grapes and chicken taste SO GOOD together.

Sprouts has

Raspberries - 99c - grab and eat as many of these as you can.
Broccoli crowns - 77c/lb - I really like broccoli, you may have guessed
Cauliflower - 99c/head - I also really like cauliflower

Have a good week!

Why stockpile?

2009-08-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

Does this seem like a 'duh' kind of question? If so, you probably already stockpile and can go back to eating your five-minute muffins with freezer jam.

I didn't mention the five-minute muffins? I did, I just didn't call them that. It's when you make up a bunch of muffin mix on a lazy Sunday and use it to make muffins whenever you feel like it, or whenever you have a lot of fruit threatening to overripen. This afternoon I made banana five-minute muffins for my twins to snack on during the after school chauffeur chase. Here's my mix:

5 cups corn meal
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups non-fat dry milk
7 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp salt

To make the muffins, I use 2 1/2 cups of muffin mix, 1 egg, 1/4 cup oil, 1 cup water and whatever additions I want to make like applesauce or bananas or blueberries or cinnamon or nutmeg or cloves. Whatever makes me happy.

I bake at 425 for 15 to 20 minutes.

The five minute part is the stirring it in the bowl and dropping into the non-stick muffin tin once the mix is made. All the heavy measuring is done. I use a 1/4 cup measure to measure everything, so there's not much to stick in the dishwasher when I'm done. This makes a dozen normal-sized muffins, but you might want to keep the bowl at the ready because I've seen a dozen disappear in 10 minutes on a Sunday morning.

Which I guess means I could call them Ten Minute Muffins, huh?

Which is pretty much the truth since making the actual homemade mix only takes five minutes.

I'm babbling, aren't I?

Sorry.

The point is, the reason this is so effortless is because I stockpile. I pick up the flours and other supplies when they are on sale and cheap - generally around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter - and use it all year. Squeamish about bugs getting into the flour? Store it in the freezer for a few days first to kill anything that's germinating.

Stockpiling is like having a savings account. It's security. It's 'sticking it to the man' so you're not at the mercy of the manufacturers or grocery stores or restaurants when you have a craving for barbecued ribs. Or pie ala mode. Or ratatouille. You don't have to go shopping when the weather is bad, or when the kids are sick, or when you've wrenched your back. That's 'cause you already got what you need. In your pantry, in your freezer, and in your slow-cooker.

Stockpiling is POWER, baby.

It's also an enormous moneysaver. It's SUCH a moneysaver that if you don't have a savings account, the money you save because you stockpile can be used to grow one.

But it's the most IMPORTANT meal of the day...

2009-08-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

I don't suggest stocking up on breakfast foods much, do I? There's a reason. I generally get them for free, or close to free with coupons. That makes it difficult for me to suggest a non-couponer blow that extra $50 bucks on items I'd never pay more than 50c for. A few posts back, I gave a commercial for CouponSense, so I won't give another, I'll just mention that if you want to give it a try, I'd appreciate if you'd use my referral code, listed in my profile, when you join. It's $4 for the first month, $14 plus tax (for Arizona residents) for subsequent months.

It's worth every penny.

Last week I paid less than $4 for 10 boxes of cereal because of the information I got at CouponSense, both on the message board and in the interactive shopping list. Those savings alone paid for a month of the service.

I find deals like that every week. I'm so used to it that many items don't even register when I search the ads every week. If you're not a couponer and you see catsup for 99c, go buy it, because it's unlikely to go cheaper. If you want to get that for free and put that 99c towards some of the filet mignon mentioned in the previous post, then consider learning to shop a different way.

Okay, that sounded like a commercial. Sorry. As you may have guessed, I spend a fair amount of time in grocery stores. You may have met me there. I may have handed you a coupon to make that catsup free because I already have 10 bottles in my pantry and one more or less won't make a difference to me.

I'll post later in the week about stockpiling philosophy, or 'Why We do This.' Otherwise, check out my fellow couponer, Jeri's, blog in which she gives ideas for feeding the family from this week's specials. There's also a link in my sidebar. Lots of good stuff there and I drop by every week to see what Jeri's cooking up. She has a suggestion for ramen noodles (10/$1 at Albertson's this week) that makes even a noodle snob think, 'Hmmmm, THAT's a good idea...'

Some things are just convenient

2009-08-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

This is an easy stockpile post because there isn't a whole lot out there this week that's making me froth at the store savings card. I hate weeks like this because if you're just starting out with me on the stockpile blog, you may be thinking, 'I don't get it, what's the big deal?'

But those of you who have been with me since the beginning may have so much stocked and are spending so little on groceries that you're looking at the $4.99/lb whole tenderloin (limit 1) at Basha's and thinking, 'Yes! Filet Mignon! Fire up the grill!'

That's because as the stockpile builds and the shopping savvy sharpens, there's money to spend on the luxury items (i.e., items that cost more than $1.75/lb!) like the sundried tomatoes and pine nuts of last week. Think about that tenderloin in these terms - 'A lackluster steak dinner at Outback will cost me at least $12.00 (just for me) and probably put me over my fat grams for the week. I can grill filet mignon at home and feed the entire family a quick gourmet meal for that same $12.'

Actually, it will probably cost you less because you're handing out 4 to 6 oz steaks with scratch mashed potatoes (remember that 10 pound bag you bought a couple of weeks ago?) and grilled tomatoes (67c/lb and 77c/lb at Sunflower this week).

I'm not certain how big those tenderloins are, I haven't purchased mine yet, but I'll presume about 10 pounds, so there's your $50 for the week.

Now then, if you have a bit extra this week, Albertson's is having a stock-up sale that's worth looking at. You can buy the max number of items and spend about $21. Most of these are staples except the except the banquet frozen items, and all make for easy lunches for the kids. These items are on the very last page, the back of the skinny page in this week's Albertsons ad.

4 can tuna
4 cans sardines
6 Banquet pot pies
4 Banquet value meals
12 Albertson's mac and cheese
10 8-ounce packages of Albertsons chunk cheese

Also, if you have another 2 bucks, hit up Food City for 4 packages of Bar-S bologna at 49c package. (Don't forget to get some bananas, they're only 33c/lb this week)

Okay, that's it. It's a little bit different from my typical stockpile posts, but you work with what you got, y'know?

EEK!!!!!!! I forgot to tell you what to have that butcher do with the whole tenderloin!!! Have him cut it into 3/4 inch to 1 inch steaks. I prefer the 3/4 inch steaks because they cook faster and just a little more evenly. Those who like a really red center should go with 1 inch steaks. I like warm red, not cool red, so I go with 3/4 inch.

Also, if you're expecting a crowd, having the butcher cut a portion of the tenderloin into a roast will make for a really special meal, although you'll get fewer steaks. Repackage, foodsaver and freeze the steaks when you get home.

EDITED TO ADD: Seriously? I have to tell you how to make mashed potatoes? Don't feel bad, it was a mystery to me for a long time. It was years before I realized they grew in the ground and didn't come flaked from a box. Here it is, easy mashed potatoes:

1) wash potatoes. DO NOT PEEL, lots of great vitamins just under the skin! Also lots of good flavor there.

2) put in pot

3) cover with COLD water a couple of inches about the potatoes.

4) turn stovetop to HIGH, and bring to a boil

5) lower heat to whatever you have to so you maintain a rolling boil (in other words, you don't want hot water baptizing everything within 2 feet of your stovetop.)

6) after about 20 or 30 minutes, stick a fork in a potato. If it goes in easily, the potatoes are done. If not, cook another 10 minutes. You'll get a feel for it.

7) when done, turn off heat, dump water off, get out your potato masher (it's that utensil with the round, flat bottom you inherited from your grandmother that you've been wondering what to do with.) If you don't have a potato masher, use a can of soup or vegetable to do the mashing. (wash the mashing end of it with soap and water first, please)

8) Mash potatoes directly in pot. Mash as in smoosh. Add some butter, add some milk, smoosh some more. Stop at whatever point you think they're smooshed enough. If your potatoes HAVE to be smooth just like the ones out of the box, either resign yourself to a lot more time messing with an electric mixer, bag this 'from scratch' idea and add water to that stuff in the box, OR, give yourself a chance to enjoy minimally processed, mostly smooshed potatoes.

9) during step number 8, add what you want to the mix that will make you happy - garlic powder, onion powder, actual cooked garlic cloves and onion slices, leftover veggies you got hanging around, parmesan cheese, shredded other kinds of cheese, leftover bacon, whatever strikes your fancy. Potatoes are endlessly versatile.

10) eat.

S-t-t-r-e-t-C-H, Stretch, Stretch

2009-08-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

The nicest thing about cooking is leftovers. The nicest thing about leftovers is remaking them into 'not-leftovers'.

To wit:

Dinner One: Slow-cook a chicken (skin chicken, put breast side down in slowcooker with a little water, sprinkle with chopped onion and garlic, or onion powder and garlic powder, and tarragon, or Italian seasoning...whatever you like. Add sliced carrots for cooking. When tender, scoop the chicken onto a plate and pour off the chicken broth and store for cooking on another night.)

Serve with biscuits (you got crescents cheap with coupons a while back, didn't you?)

Dinner Two: Slow-cook potatoes au gratin (thinly slice 4 to 6 potatoes, layer in crockpot, layer in some onions and garlic, pour 1/2 cup to 1 cup of half and half, top with a few ounces of shredded cheese, salt and pepper to taste, cook for 4 to 5 hours on low, maybe longer, I'm no good on timing, I just check the stuff)

Quick cook swiss steak that's been marinating in the freezer and as it defrosts. Put it in a skillet (you don't need butter) add whatever extra seasoning you want, cover, cook a few minutes, turn, cook another minute or so.

Service with potatoes and maybe some steamed broccoli.

Breakfast One: Scramble up some eggs with some leftover potatoes, steak and broccoli. If you have any leftover biscuits from dinner one, douse them quickly under the faucet and chop them right into the eggs. You can feed an army with a few eggs and a bunch of leftovers.

Dinner three: Remember the chicken broth you saved? Use it to cook rice, add the leftover chicken from Dinner One. Add whatever leftover broccoli you've got also. If you're sick of broccoli, serve with a salad and whirl the broccoli in your blender the next day with some more chicken broth, a little milk or half and half and some cheese. Heat in the microwave and voila! Broccoli/cheese soup.

Dinner Four, or breakfast Two: Any leftovers left? whichever you have, make two quiches - the swiss steak one and the chicken one. Add broccoli to either. Or mix them all together, just be cautious if you used tarragon. It's a great herb, but would do better in a quiche by itself

Hmmm...I'm losing count. From a whole chicken and a pound of swiss steak, you've got three/four dinners and one/two breakfasts. Remember the chicken cost you about 2 bucks, the swiss steak was under $3. The broccoli was 77c/lb, so may 2 pounds max, you picked up the cheese a few months ago for $1.25/8 ounces and the rice was about 60 cents a pound, or about 20 cents max for the amount you made for the family.

I don't feel like doing all the math, but I'm figuring less than 10 bucks for 5 really good meals. And soup.

Don't think you have to eat the meals in the orders listed. You can refrigerate leftovers for a few days, or even freeze them for a week or so before using. The addition of a little broth and a little pureeing can do wonder for anything getting a little dried out. Eggs are great ways to make leftovers look like you meant to use them in the first place.

Other good uses - bread pudding to use up stale bread or leftover biscuits and make use of some of those stockpiled dried apricots and raisins. Or grind the biscuits in the blender and call them bread crumbs. You can use them to bulk out any leftover swiss steak which you've doused with a little bbq sauce you picked up free with coupons to be served on day-old rolls you picked up in Albie's bakery section for make-shift sloppy joe's. The sauce softens out the bread.

Use your imagination. Put the leftovers away in the freezer or the fridge. Pull them out before they go bad and think of them in a new way. Since they're already cooked, remaking them can be done in a jiffy. When all else fails, puree with mayo, mustard or relish and call it 'sandwich spread'.

EDITED TO ADD: If you're wondering where you got the swiss steak - it's disguised as 'bottom round' for $1.37/lb at Basha's this week. Or you have it sitting in your freezer from having gotten the butcher to run something like it through the cubing machine in weeks past.

How to inspire confidence

2009-08-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Put up a post saying that the sundried tomatoes and pine nuts at Sunflower Market are a great deal, then backpedal and say they are not, then put up a brand new blog post saying 'I WAS WRONG!!!'

I just checked the price on some pine nuts I picked up at Sunflower a few months ago at full price - $18/lb, so $5 for a 6-oz package is a really good price. Go immediately and buy 2 packages and also get those sundried tomatoes and anticipate some lovely gourmet eating in the coming weeks.

sorry.

Stockpile Surfeit of Riches

2009-08-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

This is one of those weeks when I have to make hard choices about what to stockpile, mostly because there's a great chicken deal at Albertson's, a great meat deal at Basha's and some great bulk bin buys at Sunflower Market.

I'll start with the bulk bin buys. Take $29 and buy two pounds each of the following:

Dates at $1.99/lb
Dried Cranberries at $2.99/lb
~~Pine Nuts, raw at $4.99/~~4 oz package
~~Sundried Tomatoes at $3.99/~~6 oz package
Jasmine Rice at 79c/lb

mmmmm...I can already see terrific stuffing for chicken in that list. Also, some wonderful rice mixtures as well as pasta toppings. ~~Pine nuts usually go for upwards of $11/lb, Sundried tomatoes are often the same.~~ Jasmine Rice tends to be a little more expensive, as are dates.

EDITED TO ADD: I'm beyond bummed out. I read the ad wrong! As you can see above the prices are for a 4 ounce and a 6 ounce package. Soooo...I can't justify $20/lb for Pine Nuts or about $10/lb for sundried tomatoes! That's expensive, so I'm pulling both off the list!

I'm going to do a little thinking about what might be good to replace. The dates are a good deal because often the bulk bin raisins go for $1.99/lb and I think that's a pretty good price.

Albertson's has whole chicken for 57c a pound, limit 4 to purchase at a time. Purchase 4, that will cost you $10 to $11.

Then go to Basha's and pick up the boneless bottom round roast for $1.37 pound. The limit on that is 2 'value' packs (if you buy a smaller package, it's more expensive per pound.) Ask the butcher to grind up one package for cheap, lean ground beef and if the roast is cut into steaks, to run that through the cubing machine once for swiss steak that's really tender. I haven't purchased my meat yet, so I'm guessing 2 packages is about 10 pounds.

That brings you total to about $54 dollars or so.

If you're willing to make some of this for your food this week instead of stockpiling, you've plenty of chicken and meat dinners in the lot, as well as gourmet toppers for salad and pasta in the dried items. You might consider purchasing more for cooking this week and put the rest into stockpile.

If you have extra funds, and even if you don't - cantaloupes are 3 for $1 at Sprouts this week, corn 6 for $1 at Albertsons (think slow-cooked chicken and fresh corn for dinner tomorrow night - total cost, under $4.00 for the meal. Add some sliced and steamed with a little salt choyote squash to that mix (3 fresh squashes for $1 at Food City) and you've a nicely balanced meal. I googled this recipe and started salivating.

Oh, and grapes are 77c pound at Albertson's. Great snacking for kids and adults alike.

If I come up with anymore brilliant ideas, I'll post some more.

How to make popcorn

2009-08-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all. I'll have a stockpile post up tomorrow, or later today. There's a lot of good stockpile buys out there and I'm putting the list together.

Somewhere in my recent Google travels, I came across some article that said microwave popcorn is bad for you because it has transfat, or maybe because it emits fumes, or possibly because it contains phalates. I checked out Snopes on the question and I'm no more enlightened on the matter than I was before checking it out. So here's the short version of why Mindy Likes to Coupon won't eat microwave popcorn herself and why she recently informed the progeny that she'll no longer be buying it:

It's expensive and it tastes nasty.

The butter in the popcorn isn't butter at all, it's some kind of chemical and the slick stuff that sticks to the side reminds me of an petroleum spill. Popcorn is so easy to make anyway, I don't get why anybody would settle for the oil-slicked styrofoam stuff in a bag when you can make your own in less time and without any tongue-twisting ingredients.

Ready? Here's the recipe:

1) put a few tablespoons of vegetable or corn oil into the bottom of a 2 or 3 qt sauce pan. You want enough to cover the bottom of the pot.

2) pour a layer of popcorn kernals into the pot, enough to cover the bottom.

3) cover, turn heat to high.

4) shake the pot, just like on those old Jiffy Pop commercials - this is your chance to burn a few calories in anticipation of this luscious, fluffy treat.

5) when popping slows, or pot lid starts to lift, remove from heat and empty immediately into a bowl big enough to hold the stuff, which you should have gotten out and had waiting on the counter in anticipation of this step. Otherwise, the popcorn will burn and be gross.

6) turn off burner, put pot back on stove, melt a tablespoon or two of butter in the bottom. Let it melt while you sprinkle a LITTLE salt over the popcorn.

7) Drizzle popcorn with the melted butter, toss it around with the knife you used to slice the butter pat to melt and you are DONE.

8) eat.

"But the dishes!" I hear you whining!

What dishes? A bowl and a pot and a butter knife? Get a grip. Eating involves crockery, that's why appliance manufacturers invented dishwashers. How much better than the box that needs to be recycled and that chemical-smelling bag that's destined for the landfill. I mean, you run your dishwasher anyway, right? May as well make it a full load.

And yes, it actually does take less time to make it on a cooktop than to microwave a bag of the stuff.

Happy Netflixing, tonight!

Rice is twice as nice

2009-08-10T13:19:00.001-07:00

Sorry - you're all waiting patiently for what to do with this week's stockpile food, aside from eating it fresh of course, but I got caught up in getting the kids off to school. Today, I have my kitchen back and the first thing I did, besides defrosting cube steak for dinner and put potatoes on to boil for mashed potatoes, was make rice pudding.

My kids love rice pudding. It's sweet and filling and they don't know that it's full of protein and calcium (from the milk), as well as fiber (because I use brown rice). They just know that I don't care how much of it that they eat.

Rice pudding is versatile. You can add anything to it, like fresh blueberries or strawberries or peaches after it's made, or cook it with raisins or dried cranberries or dried apricots or with nuts or whatever you have lying around in your dried fruits and nuts supply. Homemade rice pudding can be plopped into a small plastic container and sent to school for dessert for a cheap and nutritious alternative to those Jello Pudding cups.

Here's how I make my rice pudding:

In a slow cooker put:

1 cup brown rice
3 cups milk
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar
couple of dashes of nutmeg
a few more sprinkles of cinnamon
whatever dried fruit listed above I feel like adding
1 tsp vanilla (that's edited to add. Sorry about that. Don't know where my mind was. vanilla makes lots of recipes better.)

Stir it up and cook on medium to high for about 4 hours. You'll know when it's done. It will be creamy and nice and the rice kernals will explode. If it seems a little dry, add more milk (or cream or half-and-half). If it's too wet, let it simmer a little more. If your family is full of big eaters and rice pudding addicts, double the recipe, if this is for you and you're on a diet, use stevia or splenda and skim milk and skip the added butter.

Serve for breakfast or as a side to lunch or dessert for dinner.

When it runs out, slow cook some more.

Good stuff.

Yummy things to do with this week's food

2009-08-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the chicken leg quarters and potatoes from Food City:

1) Remove the skin - yes, it's gross, but the fat on the skin is grosser. Okay, personal preference here, but seriously, if you make chicken broth/soup without taking the skin off the chicken you end up skimming a 2 inch layer of fat off the chilled soup. Trust me - skinning is far less gross than skimming.

2) put the chicken legs in a big pot of water. Add onion, carrot and celery. You don't have to peel the onion or the carrots and chop the celery into big pieces. You have to sieve it out later and leaving the stuff whole makes that easier. I like to add garlic also, but that's me. I add garlic to everything.

3) heat the water to a boil, then let it simmer until the chicken meat is falling off the bones. When that happens scoop out the chicken legs and meat as best you can with a ladle or big slotted spoon. Let the legs cool, then pull the meat off the bone, return the bones to the broth and put the meat aside.

4) simmer the broth down to about half it's volume, use a strainer to scoop out the onion, carrot and celery and the bones and whatnot. Remove from heat and let it cool. When it's pretty cool, put the whole pot into the fridge.

5) The next morning, remove the pot from the fridge and skim off any chicken crud (you'll know what I mean when you see it) and fat from the top of the broth, then freeze in whatever quantities make sense for your family and cooking habits. You can freeze in plastic bags, or freezer containers. Lots of people like to measure it out in 1 cup portions for use in recipes, or freeze it in ice cube trays to add to a veggie saute for some flavor. I freeze a 4-5 cup portion and the rest in 1 cup portions. The larger amount is for making a big pot of soup from leftover meats and veggies.

That's an old frugal trick - save dinner scraps in a freezer container. Every once in a while empty the contents into a pot with some frozen chicken broth to make a yummy lunchtime soup. Serve with a nice crusty bread.

I digress.

Okay, now what do you do with all that chicken meat. Remember, I suggested buying 20 pounds of those legs, so you probably have about 10 pounds of meat after getting rid of the skin and bones. Well, you can freeze that also, in 1/2 to 1 pound portions. I use it to make chicken salad, as a topper for green salads, to use in rice dishes (remember the bulk bin brown rice you just picked up?), barley dishes, pasta dishes, potato dishes (remember the 10 pound bag you just bought?) and...to make soup!

There's a lot of mileage to be had in those chicken and potatoes.

And the apples - think applesauce, apple/barley pudding, apple/potato gratin (remember, Google is your friend), apple brown betty...

And speaking of rice (Yes, I was, two paragraphs ago), make rice pudding with dried apricots, nuts and some of those dirt-cheap raisins I hope you picked up last week at Sunflower Market.

You can also make chicken and rice (make the rice in some of that chicken broth - 1 cup rice, 1 cup broth, 1 cup water, Italian seasoning, or whatever you like, bring to boil, reduce heat to very low, cover, let cook for 20 minutes. Eat.

I'm tired of typing, so I'll be back tomorrow with more ideas for what to do with all that food I suggested buying yesterday.

Addendum to Stockpile Post

2009-08-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

Some of the Food City stores have got some screaming sales going. The Food City at 32nd St and Greenway in North Phoenix has 10 pound bags of chicken leg quarters for $2.90 total, or 29c/lb. You're limited to 2 bags or 20 pounds. Chicken will never go lower than that. The same store has the 10-lb bag of russets for 99c and 3 lb bags of golden delicious applees for 99c.

$8 for 33 pounds of food. That's a really good deal.

Here's what I plan to do - remove the skin from the chicken legs and boil them in a great big pot of water with onion, carrot and celery (all on sale this week also). I'll simmer until the meat falls from the bones.

I have to eat dinner with the family. I'll talk more about what to do in my next post.

Stockpile post – Bulk Bin Bonanza

2009-08-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Took me a little while to get enthused about this week's grocery ads. At first glance, they looked like a lot of ho-hum, then I logged into CouponSense and powered up their hand-dandy 'Create Shopping List' application, searched out items under broad categories such as PRODUCE, MEAT, SEAFOOD, BAKING SUPPLIES, etc. and saw that there's a goldmine in the bulk bins at Sunflower Market and Sprouts this week.

I'm in Sedona, the last stop of my cross-country and back road trip with the kids. I've been eating out of grocery stores, have had a couple of really good restaurant meals and a few diner type meals. Despite best efforts, this kind of eating has been off my usual game of healthy home-cooking, and what with the change of schedule, blah blah...well, you know how the story goes:

My name is Mindy Likes to Coupon and I'm fat.

Here's what I've noticed – pretty much all restaurants, expensive or cheap, haute cuisine to cheap eats use vegetables as an accent, mostly to make the plate look pretty in haute cuisine and mostly as an overcooked, limp imitation of life at cheap eats.

I tried to compensate with fresh fruit and salads, yogurt and cottage cheese, but, in the end, the over-oiled fare available at most U.S. eateries won out.

Time to pull myself up by my over-stuffed bootstraps and get it together. And I'm starting in the bulk bins.

Here's the list:

Sunflower Market

Fresh -

Beefsteak tomato – 99c/lb
Bartlett Pear – 34c/lb
Grapes, black, red, green – 77c/lb
Peaches, 49c/lb

Bulk-

Long Grain Brown Rice – 69c/lb
dried apricots, turkish and regular - $2.99/lb

Sprouts

Fresh -

Watermelon, seedless, 15c/lb
Plums or Pluots – 77c/lb
Lettuce, red leaf and green leaf – 99c each (buy big bunches, wash, dry and chop up the suckers with a big kitchen knife. It only takes a minute and you get way more than you do in those bags. Put the chopped lettuce in an airtight container with a paper towel or two to absorb extra moisture and voila! Bagged salad even cheaper than the $1/bag stuff and filled with way more nutrients than iceberg.
Celery – 77c/bunch
Cauliflower – 99c/lb
Broccoli Crown – 77c/lb (this is smoking deal)
Apples, Fuji or Braeburn – 77c/lb
Blueberries - 99c/pint

Bulk -
Walnut halves - $2.99/lb
Brazil nuts - $3.99/lb
Oats, steelcut and rolled, 50c/lb (I'm pretty sure about steelcut being included, but check the price before purchasing)

Food City

Fresh

Cucumbers – 25c/each – (Buy a bunch and make Cucumber Water – sooooo refreshing on a hot summer day and soooo much cheaper and better for you than soda.)
Bananas – 33c/lb
Mexican Grey Squash – 59c/lb
Potatoes Russet – 10 lb bag/$1.00 (This is only available at a few stores. Go to the Food City website, plug in your zip code and see if you got lucky.)

Albertson's

Strawberries - $1/pint /lb– maximum of 5 containers.

Yes – there are some meat items worthy of mention, such as London broil at $1.67/lb at Albertson's. You know the drill, have the butcher grind some of it up for very lean hamburger, marinate the rest in salad dressing or lemon juice with pepper and foodsaver it.

Also, whole Sanderson farms chickens are 69c/lb at Safeway, pick some up and freeze them.

T-bone steaks are $3.88/lb at Bashas, great for grilling on a Saturday night.

Speaking of grilling, consider Wild-Caught Sockeye salmon ($6.99/lb at Fry's) or Xtra-Jump WILD-CAUGHT Shrimp ($6.99/lb at Safeway). Though more expensive, the taste and nutrition of wild-caught versus the farm-raised stuff is worth it.

Wow. That's a lot of food. Now I have to tell you what to do with it all.

I'll do that in the next post, which I'll hopefully have up by tomorrow morning! Meanwhile, make yourself a banana, peach, blueberry smoothie, or maybe a strawberry/banana smoothie (see previous post) put your feet up and remind yourself that next week the kids are BACK IN SCHOOL!!!!

EDITED TO ADD: Yikes! I almost forgot dairy.

Eggs - Food City - 79c/dozen grade AA Large
Orange Juice - Frys - Kroger brand 64 oz - 99c
Butter - Frys - Kroger, 16 oz $1.99
Milk - Basha's or Albertsons - $1.39/gallon. 99c/gallon at Basha's with a $40 purchase.

Kinda, sorta a stockpile post.

2009-07-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Sprouts has fresh pineapples for 97c each. Buy a lot of them, prep them, then freeze them.

Know what I like about pineapples? The juice is as good as the flesh and it tastes so soooo good with pork. Pork chops are 97c/lb at Albertsons this week.

I feel a recipe coming on. Here's one. I love Google.

Peaches are 49c/lb at Sunflower Markets. They are 39c/lb at the 3rd St. and Bell Ave. location. You know what that means, don't you? SMOOTHIES!!!

Here's how to make a peach smoothie:

1) Buy unbelievably cheap milk ($1.37/gallon at Fry's, 99c/gallon with a $50 purchase).

2) Put a cup of the unbelievably cheap milk into the blender.

3) Cut peach away from pit and slice...no, don't peel it first, lots of fiber and vitamins in the peel.

4) Put peach slices in blender.

5) Add a little honey, or sweetener of your choice.

6) Sprinkle in a little powdered cloves and a little powder cinnamon.

7) Pulse, pulse, pulse, blend, blend, blend.

8) drink.

Some people add ice to their smoothies. I don't because I'm too lazy to get the ice out of the trays and I think the ice makes it kind of watered down.

Buy 10 or 20 pounds of peaches for $8 to $10 total. The ones you don't put in smoothies this week can be frozen once they ripen (that's when they indent with finger pressure). Instructions on how to freeze them can be found here. You could cook them down a little as I suggested a few blog posts ago. And there's always freezer jam.

And muffins.

And pie. (Be kind to yourself, skip the homemade dough. Use store bought frozen. Layer in peaches, cloves, cinnamon, honey, dot with butter, bake according to pie crust instructions. Add almonds - $3.49/lb at Sunflower bulk bin - if you like)

And blintzes. (Make a thin pancake batter for the crepe part. Cook the peaches down some with brown sugar and spice ahead of time, then put some in the crepe, roll it up and serve with sour cream - $1.39/16 oz at Bashas - and good maple syrup.)

Don't miss the bulk bin raisins at Sunflower for 99c/lb. They never go on sale that cheap. Now is the time to get them. Keep them in an air tight container. If they get dried out, you can rehydrate them by heating them in water on the stovetop, so go ahead and buy LOTS of them.

Not actually a stockpile post...

2009-07-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm in Kansas hanging out with a chick named Dorothy and her annoying little doggie - TuTu or Toe-Toe or Ta-Ta or something like that. Aside from all the yip-yapping going on, having a really nice time. Kansas is a really pretty state. Today I ate the best pastry I have ever eaten. It was a peach turnover made by a lady named Rose of Rose's Pastries and purchased at a place called Yoder Meats in beautiful downtown Yoder, KS.

If you ever get to Kansas check this place out. It's a central site for the surrounding Amish community to sell some of their wares. I picked up some sausage, some cheese and some dried beef (not beef jerky, dried beef, it's different) and those wonderful turnovers - not overly sweet, full of the luscious peaches, light crust...

I've decided something.

I'm going to learn to make a good turnover because life is too short to waste on bad pastry.

Considering I'm on a diet that supposed to avoid bread, this should be interesting.

P.S. - In keeping with my previous post about eating out of grocery stores when on a road trip - we ate the meats and cheeses for lunch and dinner. And the pastry for dessert. Sort of. The pastry was mostly gone by the time dessert rolled around.

Eating cheap while on a roadtrip

2009-07-24T19:55:00.001-07:00

Toured a candy factory and a distillery today. On my way to Branson tomorrow for a few days. Have decided that even if you throw away half the food you buy, the cheapest way to eat on vacation is out of grocery stores. Go ahead and buy the fancy deli trays even though you could do it cheaper with packaged lunch meats. Don't compare it to making the food at home, compare it to eating out at a restaurant, or even comparing the quality to the dollar menu at fast food places. Grocery stores are way ahead of both in both price and quality.

We've been eating tons of fruit, grape tomatoes, orange juice, some soft drinks, milk, and deli stuff like cheese and meat trays, baked chicken, meatloaf, potato salad etc. I don't keep leftovers of the deli stuff, even if I have a fridge and a microwave. I just toss the leftover chicken or whatever and buy fresh the next day.

Special bonus - no waiting around for wait staff and no worries about leaving tips. All the hotels we've stayed at have offered some kind of free breakfast with the room, from continental to full breakfasts. If I'm staying several days, I book places with kitchens so I can cook. I'm been trucking around a box of salt, some pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning and cinnamon (for my coffee). That takes care of most of our seasoning needs.

Personally, I prefer grocery store food, or cooking my own. I like knowing what's in my food.

Stockpile post is next.

Canned Tuna and Pitting Cherries

2009-07-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know where my head was when I was looking at the ads and the CouponSense database the other day, but I forgot to mention canned tuna:

At Fresh and Easy - 5 oz cans, packed in water for 50c each.

This is about as low as tuna goes and it's so versatile that every pantry should have about 20 cans on hand. School starts in a month, time to start stockpiling supplies for brown bag lunches (preferably sent to school in reusable containers). Depending on what you add to your tuna salad, you can get 2 to 4 sandwiches out of a single can.

I add relish, celery and fat-free mayo to my tuna salad, BTW. I pick up the mayo and relish for free with my coupons. I've a ton of it in my pantry.

That brings me to another topic - Fry's Mega 10 deal. Even without coupons a lot of the prices offered are good deals, but did you know that if you use coupons many of the items are free, or close to free? Here's my commercial:

CouponSense is a database for matching up the coupons you get online and also in the Sunday paper with the sales being offered by the local grocery stores week to week. I've tried several of the local and national systems including several freebies and another to pay for (which cost waaaayyyy more than CouponSense for far less service and close to unintelligible listings) and I can honestly say that CouponSense, at $4/first month and $15 (including tax) for subsequent months is the easiest and most comprehensive system to use. It's all there, the filing system (as in it takes NO TIME to do that), the database, personal instructors to explain to you how to do it and use it most efficiently, an accurate database and a message forum that will give further tips for making best use of the deals, as well as informing of other local deals. That message forum is an unbelievable source. People will even list what they find in clearance bins at what locations, clothing sales, local freebies, vacation planning, hotel deals, stockpiling ideas, recipes, etc.

Disclosure: I'm an instructor. If you want to give CouponSense a try, tell them Mindy Likes to Coupon of this blog sent you and they will assign you to me.

Soooo...what all this means is this - though Kraft dressings are only 99c/each with the Fry's Mega 10 deal, with coupons, the dressing is free as are Glaceau Smartwaters and Sunny D Smoothies. Electrasol dishwasher soap is free at Target with coupons. McCormick Marinades are free at Basha's with coupons.

Don't want any of that stuff? How about mustard, catsup, Red Hot sauce, the above mentioned mayo and relish? Lawry marinades? A-1 sauce? Do you wash your hair? How does free shampoo sound? Do you like to keep boxed side dishes around for dinner for the days you're really rushed? Yep. Free.

Cookie mix?
Granola bars?
Cereal?
Body wash?
Deodorant?
Toothpaste?
Tooth brushes?
Mouthwash?
Bandaids?

Free. Free. Free. Free. Free. Free. Free. Free. And Free.

Maybe not this week, maybe not all at the same time, but has been free in the last year and some are free repeatedly.

[/end of commercial]

Oh yeah, PITTING CHERRIES:

I went googling and look what I found!

A Cherry Pitter!!!!

At $6.99 this is a deal. I liked it over others because there's an actually rounded cup the cherry sits in and I feel like that will keep the cherry from squishing up. I'm ordering this and will pay for it with my free Amazon gift certificates from Swagbucks. Swagbucks is where I do all my googling and believe me, I google a lot. Check it out.

Enough of that. There's a carton of blueberries and a seagull calling my name.

Promises, Promises - The Stockpile Post

2009-07-16T08:37:00.001-07:00

Have y'all noticed that I keep promising to post about something, then I don't? That's because I'm roadtripping and vacationing and when I have to watch the tide come in, then watch it go out again, there just isn't a lot of time for hanging out on the internet.

So while I've been watching the birds fly over the marshes, it seems the price of blueberries has gone cheap in Phoenix at $1.00/pint at Fry's and .99/pint at Sprouts. Good. Get a whole lot of them and eat them in smoothies, cook them down with a little honey to put on pancakes, bake into muffins and breads (you can freeze those!!) make freezer jam, dump on cereal, eat straight from the container, and make blueberry pie (you can freeze those, too!). Don't forget to stir the syrupy topping into your homemade yogurt. When you run out of blueberries, buy more.

Cherries are also insanely cheap at 99c/lb at Sunflower and Sprouts. I'll be honest, I haven't the foggiest how to put up cherries, or cook them down or make pie or anything. That's because I'm lazy and I don't deal in pits. I'll bet if I googled, I'd find out there's a really easy way to deal with cherry pits and make all the good things I mention above. However, if all else fails, my best recommendation for cherries is to EAT THEM.

Are you a fish lover? Tilapia and Swai are both $2.99/lb at Albertson's. I have a confession - I have NO IDEA what Swai is, but if I were in town I'd go buy a pound and check it out. Flounder is a steal at Basha's for $3.74 a pound and what's not to like about Flounder? Also, WILD-caught Keta salmon is a mere $3.88/lb at Fry's.

In Phoenix, $3.88/lb for wild-caught salmon is a price worthy of knocking over little old ladies at the fish counter to get to it before it runs out. I just spent $4.99/lb for some at Shoprite here on the Jersey shore and felt like that lady in the Ikea commercial who can't believe how low the price is and tells her husband to keep the car running.

And DO NOT buy farm-raised salmon. That stuff tastes anemic and they dye the flesh to make it pink and lots of people react to the dye they use. I learned a lot about salmon while I was in Alaska, where farm-raising is illegal. Trust me, buy the wild-caught.

Milk continues unbelievably cheap at $1.39/gallon at Basha's. Did you know that you can make yogurt cheese? It's very easy. Dump your homemade yogurt into a clean linen or cotten dishtowel and hang it over a bowl. Let all the whey drip out. After a few hours you've got a really thick concoction which has SUCH a lovely taste, especially when combined with black olives and pimento. You can use it in place of cream cheese with lox for low-fat alternative. It's sour and tangy and may be an acquired taste, but give it a try.

By the way, if you wonder what I'm nattering about regarding homemade yogurt and whatnot, just check earlier posts where I prattle on about those subjects - the seagulls are arguing on the dock and I don't have time for a lot of hyperlinks right now.

What else would I buy this week?

CHICKEN. Whole ones are 67c/lb at Fry's. That's a stock up price. I'll check back at some point and see if I've already posted my litany about what you can do with a whole chicken. If I haven't, I'll post here. I PROMISE.

Also, MANGOS are only 33c each at Food City. Why are you still reading this? Go immediately and buy a bunch! Have you any idea how good Mangos and blueberries taste together? No? Well go find out!

While you're at Food City, pick up broccoli and cauliflower also. Both are 69c/pound and freeze well. Also good for quiche and with eggs so cheap at Fresh and Easy ($1.47/18 ct) and Sunflower (99c/dozen) you should make some. Quiche bases are very easy to make (just google for more recipes than you know what to do with) and make good use of leftovers.

And be absolutely certain you head to Basha's to pick up boneless round roast at $1.49/lb. Have the butcher grind it into ground beef for you. It's lean and makes very nice ground beef at a fraction of the typical pricing for lean ground beef. Also, you can ask the butcher to run the steaks through the cubing machine to help make it extra tender for marinades and slow-cooking.

Gotta go! A turtle just swam past and I have to watch it!

I have a confession...

2009-07-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

...I like warm salad. Pile a plate with chopped lettuce, tomato, mushroom, sprouts, radicchio, arugula, shredded carrot, olive and pimento and some feta cheese, top it with homemade dressing made of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a little crushed garlic and that $1/bottle Italian seasoning I'm always talking about, pop it into the microwave for fifteen seconds and serve with some nice crusty bread to clean the plate after eating and I'm a happy woman.

Something about the heat that brings out all the flavor of the vegetables. It's a nuance unlike the typical cold salad. Give it a try. Get the vinegar at Albertson's for $3.29, the Olive Oil at Basha's for $3.99, the lettuce at Fry's or Albertson's for a buck a head, tomatoes at Albertson's, mushrooms at Sprouts.

I'm down the Jersey shore for this leg of my road trip and cackling over all the blueberries. Hammonton, NJ is the blueberry capital of the world, or so their sign says, and the blueberries here are fresh and plentiful and cheap, cheap, cheap.

Good, because we're eating a lot of them.

Strawberries aren't cheap, though. They aren't in season. I don't know if it's a matter of location, travel distance or what. Though nearby Philadelphia is a major port, this area does not enjoy the almost year round influx of cheap typically seasonal berries as Phoenix does. So enjoy, Phoenix! While I'm munching on .60/pint pick your own blueberries still warm from the field, you can still pick up strawberries for $1.00/pint at Fry's.

Cherries are $1.18/lb at Basha's. If you haven't bought any yet, stop reading this post and get them now.

What else is catching my eye? The $1.58/lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts at Safeway and the 97c/lb pork chops at Albertsons and the insanely cheap $1.39/gallon milk at Basha's.

(You're all making your own yogurt, correct? If not, read the previous post.)

Aside from being abysmally late, this stockpile post is abysmally disjointed. That's because I have to depend on the kindness of neighbors for my internet.

I'll be back with tales of the lovely wild-caught colassal shrimp I'm barbecuing tomorrow night. The seafood is soooo good here and generally reasonably price, often downright cheap. We even catch our own crab.

Gotta go. I need a snack.

A time to stockpile, a time to wait...

2009-07-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

This week is a time to wait. There's NOTHING in this week's ads that makes my heart go pitter-pat. There are kinda good prices on a lot of items, but for any of you who've been stockpiling with me here, and earlier at CouponSense, you already know that the chicken has been cheaper and you've had the butcher grind london broil into ground beef for you for way less. If you coupon, you know that you've gotten the condiments and cereal for free and even if you don't coupon and will spend real cash money for things like fruit loops that the store brand at Albertson's will be on sale for a buck a box soon enough.

So I say now's a good week to eat out of your freezer. Round out the dinner plate with fresh produce from Sprouts or Sunflower and a pineapple-upside down cake made with the $1 pineapples on sale at Basha's this week and the yellow cake mix you stockpiled a few week's back when I was on the sausage and cake mix kick. Put the $50 towards a freezer. Or in a savings bond. Or as an extra payment towards a credit card instead.

To keep me occupied until next week, tomorrow or the next night, I'll post up something about eating cheap while on vacation. I'm on a road trip with the kids and have mostly eschewed eating out in favor of buying souveniors and I have a few tips to share.

P.S. Be sure to binge on the big bag of Bing cherries at Sunflower Market this week. They're 99c/lb at the 3rd St and Bell Ave. store.

Let's get sauced - 4th (or is it the 5th?) stockpile post

2009-06-23T23:15:00.001-07:00

Peaches, nectarines, apricots, also blueberries and raspberries.

Summer's here and she brought all her luscious fruits with her. Eat them until the juice runs down your chin, then take what you can't eat and turn it into sauce for pancakes, or blintzes, or to stir into your very own homemade yogurt.

First off, check the ads. Sunflower Market has peaches, nectarines and apricots for .67/lb at most stores and .59/lb at the North Phoenix store at 3rd St. and Bell. Raspberries are .99 at most stores, .88 at 3rd and Bell. Sprouts has blueberries for $1.49/pint. Blueberries are full of antioxidants. Antioxidants fight wrinkles. Gorging on summer fruit will keep you young.

I digress.

Second off, stop thinking there's anything mysterious to putting up fruit. There isn't. You slice it up, put it in a saucepan over low to medium heat, add a tiny, little bit of water, a little brown sugar, some cinnamon or allspice or cloves, or maybe all three, whatever suits your fancy and you cook the stuff down until it mushes out into what looks like a topping. Adding a little lemon juice prior to cooking down helps the fruit to keep it's color.

That's it. You're done.

Now put the fruit in ziploc bags or FoodSaver it, pop it in the freezer, pull out and thaw when needed for ice cream toppings and pancake topping or for making Dump Cake (see previous posts) or putting into yogurt or cottage cheese or oatmeal or whatever else you desire. Use it to fill a pie shell, top with whipped cream, call it cobbler and serve to guests. We're talking good stuff here. Really, really good stuff.

And don't forget your recently acquired freezer jam skills.

Aside from all the lovely fruit, I'd scoop up milk at Fry's for $1.39/gallon. You have to buy them 2 at a time. If you have the freezer space, go ahead and freeze some, but I've a challenge for you this week. Ready? Here it comes...

Make yogurt.

It's easy. In fact, in this climate, it's almost impossible to avoid. Here's a really basic recipe, all you'll probably need to buy is a thermometer - about 8 bucks:

Heat yogurt in a large saucepan to just below boiling. If you have a thermometer, heat it to 185 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, heat it to just below the point just below when you start seeing a lot of bubbles. Stir it to keep the milk from burning.

Remove milk from heat and let it cool some, then ad some 'yogurt starter'. A yogurt starter is a few tablespoons of whatever live culture yogurt you have lying around. You're supposed to keep it at a constant temperature of 110 to 115 degrees. That's easier than you think. You can make a hot water bath in a larger pot and put your saucepan of milk into it to stay warm. Set the sauce pan over the pilot light on your stovetop. Slide it into the warming drawer of your oven. Wrap it up in a blanket and put it out in your unairconditioned garage, or set it in the sun on your back porch. I say that because it's summer and in Phoenix, 110 degrees is about right.

Now walk away from it for 8 to 12 hours. Don't stir it, don't peek at it. When the time has passed, check it. It should have firmed up. You now have yogurt. Put it in the fridge and use in place of sour cream.

There's a really cool non-electric yogurt maker called Easiyo, available at Amazon. As it's name implies - it's easy. It doesn't draw any power and at about 25 bucks, it's earth and budget-friendly. If you use the Easiyo, you don't need the thermometer.

With milk prices as low as they've been in recent months, you can't buy yogurt cheaper than you can make it at home. Also, it won't have any added ingredients with long names they haven't anything to do with milk. You can ferment it with vanilla extract and get vanilla yogurt, add splenda or sugar or honey or stevia as you like. Put it in a blender with some of those sauces you just made and a little bit of milk and make drinkable yogurt. Put it in an ice cream maker and make frozen yogurt.

Ah, bliss on a hot summer day!

Monday Ramblings

2009-06-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Milk, butter, eggs, flour, sugar, nuts, beans, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, herbs, spices, yeast, grains, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, honey, molasses, coffee, tea, potatoes, lemon juice, onions, apples...

Hmmmm....what else?

Meats, fish, poultry, fresh seasonal produce...

Not a big list, right? But with that list you can feed yourself and your family forever. These are the basics everything else in the grocery store is made from.

Everything.

Like Suddenly Salad from Betty Crocker.

Don't get me wrong. I love the stuff. But did you know it's basically spiral pasta dosed up with salad dressing? Chop some ham into your own freshly made noodles (thinly rolled out dough made from flour, water and salt, then cut into strips and boiled a few minutes), steam some frozen peas, and toss both with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some dried basil - Voila! A wonderful meal. And no preservatives.

How long does that take?

Which part?

Dough takes a little practice, but once you have it, it only takes a few minutes and it's virtually free, especially if you pick up the flour near the Baking Holidays (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah). I know people who make their own fresh pasta all the time. They don't even think about it.

No, I'm not one of them, but I'd like to be. I settle for the dried whole-wheat pasta I pick up for free or near free with coupons. Point is, if I didn't have the coupons, I'd have the means to make the meal so long as I had some whole wheat flour and the other ingredients listed above.

Cooking is easy. It just requires DOING. Forget recipes with 15 ingredients and 16 steps. Life is short, dinner is daily. Stock the basics, get a cookbook filled with simple recipes and GO MAKE IT.

P.S. If you're desperate to get something, anything on the table, so desperate you don't even care about the preservatives, you can often get the Suddenly Salad for free with coupons, also. In fact, this week (until tomorrow, anyway) you can get it for about 30c. You still have to add your own oil and it's only about half the pasta in a the free box of pasta you can get with coupons, but it's still cheap and tastes good and certainly beats a big mac with fries.

If you want to know about the 'free or almost-free with coupons' thing, sign up for CouponSense and tell 'em Mindy Likes to Coupon sent you. It's only 4 bucks for the first month. Don't worry, you'll get back the investment many times over.

In the land of ice, bear and expensive produce

2009-06-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

otherwise known as ALASKA! So no stockpile post until next week.

Sorry.

Produce costs a fortune here. I mean a fortune. I mean like 90 cents for a single BANANA. It's not too bad in the cities, like Anchorage and Wasilla (Hi Sarah!!!) although way higher than what we enjoy in Phoenix. Once you get to the boonies which is pretty much anywhere else - YIKES.

So my recommendation is to buy lots of wonderful, healthy, good-for-you and good-tasting produce this week and next week. Eat it up, freeze it up and store it up against the day that you visit a beautiful, wild, untamed and breathtaking state like Alaska and can't get any without mortgaging the children and the family silver.

Be back in a week!

How to know when Mindy is dieting

2009-06-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

Whenever her stockpile posts involve lots of 'no so good for you' food.

I just read my post from yesterday, something I forgot to do while writing it, and realized that after going on and on about healthy fruits and tomatoes and whole wheat pasta for so long, I told y'all to go out and buy cake mix and sausage.

Here's my caveat - it's good to treat yourself once in a while.

I know cake mix can be made from scratch and one of these days I'll find a good one to post, but I like mixes because there are lots of different flavors and most of the work is done. You add water, egg and oil/applesauce, stir, pour in pan and bake and you have a cake just as good as those $30 sheet cakes people keep buying at the grocery stores. Cakes are pretty scientific and measurements have to be correct or they don't always come out right, so I'm all about the mixes.

Now muffins are a different story. Muffins are forgiving and a basic muffin mix is easily adjusted to circumstance. Also, I find that the commercial muffin mixes I've tried, besides being stupidly expensive, even with coupons, are way too sweet.

I don't have time at the moment to go into the magnificence of homemade muffin mixes, but here's one to get you started (it starts about halfway down the page). As usual, I substituted half wheat flour to my basic recipe.

There are several mix recipes on that page. I've tried most of them and really like them.

The Third Stockpile post - bake a cake

2009-06-03T17:16:00.001-07:00

Safeway is having a promo this week - buy 10 (mix or match) of participating items get 5 bucks back. The prices in the flyer reflect the price if you buy 10.

Okay - so buy 10 of the Betty Crocker cake mixes for 79c each. In fact, if you have a major sweet tooth, buy 10 more.

What to do with a all those cake mixes? Make cake, of course! And cookies and other goodies, including that Dump Cake I told you about in a previous post. I found this site which has plenty of ideas of what to cook starting with cake mix. This is a pretty close to rock bottom price for cake mix. Sometimes it goes lower, but not often and Pillsbury and Betty Crocker don't often put out coupons for them. Coupons are generally for specialty items like the fancy brownie mixes, or low-sugar mixes, or those awful Warm Delights thingies. (blech. Personal opinion. I guess if the bombs were dropping and I had no other choice, I'd eat them.)

If you have a lot of cake mixes, you need oil to bake them (or applesauce as mentioned in a previous post, to save fat and calories). Basha's has various Food Club brand oils on sale - $1.50 for 24 oz. That's a pretty good price. Oil can go rancid, so don't buy a lot of it. Buy two and keep both in your refrigerator. If you bought those eggs as I suggested last week, you're ready to rock and roll on the creative goodie-baking.

Fry's has Kroger brand butter for $1.88/lb and the 48 oz container of Kroger Deluxe ice cream also for $1.88/48 oz. Anytime butter falls under $2.00/lb is a good time to stock up. It goes right in the freezer and will keep indefinitely. And ice cream. Well...y'know...it's ICE CREAM. Enjoy. Buy 4 ice creams and 4 butters, mostly because I have to give you a number to do this post - you know best how much to put away - figure 2 weeks worth on the ice cream and two months worth on the butter.

How much are we at? About $16 for the cake mixes, $3 for the oil and $15 for the ice cream and butter. That's $34 total.

If you've been stockpiling and cooking with me here for the last couple of weeks and with me on the Coupon Sense message board for the few weeks before that, your pantry and freezer and probably getting full. You can start being picky about where to spend the extra $50 bucks.

This week's ads were not very exciting to me. Most items, I know I can get cheaper, sometimes with coupons, sometimes just because they'll go lower. 88c/lb for the split chicken breasts at Safeway and $1.67/lb for boneless, skinless chicken breasts at Fry's are stock up prices. Also, Banquet Brand Brown 'n Serve sausages are 49c each as part of the Safeway Buy 10 Mix and Match promo. Cook 'em up with those eggs I hope you stockpiled last week. Also, Albertson's has 32oz bricks of cheese for $4.99/lb. It sometimes goes about 20% cheaper at Fry's, but not often, so this is a stock up price.

I've suggested chicken and cheese on this blog and previous on the Coupon Sense message board, so I say don't miss the brown and serve sausages. If you buy 30 packages that's about $15 worth and takes you pretty close to $50. It will also provide a nice weekend breakfast accompaniment to your eggs once a week for the next half year.

This week, I'd also recommend the 77c/lb peaches at Sunflower Market this week and the 99c raspberries at Safeway. Peaches will go lower as the summer progresses, but this price is worth enjoying them now. Raspberries are a seasonal treat that go cheap for only a few short weeks about this time of year. Anytime you see them at this price, stock up and eat with careless abandon. Remember your jam making skills from previous posts and make raspberry freezer jam for the months to come.

The raw shrimp at $2.99/lb is a good price at Sprouts. These are larger than the shrimp being sold for the same price at Albertson's. Base your shrimp purchase on price per pound, not size unless you are doing a recipe where the size of the shrimp is important, such as shrimp kabob. I really love shrimp sauteed with butter, garlic and olive oil, then tossed with parmesan over pasta. Serve it with some of that 5-minute a day bread that I hope you're all experimenting with and a $1 bag of salad from Albertsons and your family will love you. Serve the Kroger ice cream over a piece of frosting-free Betty Crocker cake for dessert and they'll REALLY love you. Start to finish to cook it all, not including oven time for the cake and bread is about 15 minutes.

By the way, if you're out of the free pasta from about a month or so ago, La Perla pasta is only 20c for a 7 oz package at Food City until Sunday. Get enough to hold you until you can score on cheap whole wheat stuff.

Happy shopping and especially happy eating!

Cheap Joe

2009-05-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

I knew a gal who drank Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. She purchased it a pound or two at the time, brewed it at home and brought it to work in a thermos. When co-workers commented more than once regarding her champagne tastes vs. her beer budget, she'd ask, "How much do you think you're paying a pound for that cup of Starbucks?"

Do the math. At 5 bucks for a cuppa Starbucks Joe, the others were paying the equivalent of a hundred dollars or more a pound (32 cups x 5 bucks a cup less cost of the milk or flavoring or whatever).

Okay, I'm guessing re: how much the milk, etc costs. Let's just say that it's way more than the $35/or so a pound you'll pay for a good quality Jamaican Blue.

This is baby stuff, I know it. That's the first item listed in any 'How to be more frugal' article.

1) Brew coffee at home and take to work in thermos.

(Number 2 is usually something like: "Bring your lunch instead of buying it." Followed by, "Group your errands so you aren't using as much gas.")

Frugal is all in how one looks at it.

I used to buy the flavored sugar-free syrup. It's a frugal solution to what could be an expensive habit. If you use coupons, you can get those International Creamers for a song. But have you looked at the typical list of ingredients?

Da Vinci Gourmet Syrups - Water, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Cellulose Gum, Sucralose (Splenda® Brand), Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Citric Acid, Caramel Color.

Coffeemate International Creamers - Water, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Sodium Caseinate (a Milk Derivative) (Not a Source of Lactose), Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Polysorbate 60, Natural and Artificial Flavors Carrageenan, Beta-Carotene Color.

I'm sure Dipotassium Phosphate isn't in the least harmful, but I have to wonder why I need it in my coffee.

So one morning, I'm searching my cabinets for something to make the morning coffee extra special and my gaze falls on the obvious: cinnamon and vanilla extract.

duh.

Cinnamon sprinkled in with the coffee grounds, a tsp of vanilla extract added to the brewed pot. Add half and half or milk and Splenda and I've got a frugal solution that makes the frugal solution look expensive.

All my epiphanies should be so obvious.

Stockpile for the week of 5/29/09 - lunchbreak

2009-05-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from Monument Valley (and the reason this post is so late) and I'm thinking how hard it was to find decent food and wishing I'd ignored the family and brought along some cans of things and a can opener. Would've saved us a boatload of money and me a few extra pounds.

Given the greasy spoon and sugary fare I've been subjected to the last few days, this is what jumped out of this week's grocery ads and clocked me over the head with my Arizona Travel Guide:

Campbell's chicken noodle or tomato soup - 50c/each at Fry's (buy 12)
Banquet Pot Pies, 50c/each (buy 12)
Fry's brand Macaroni and Cheese - 33c/each - (buy 12)

Tina's Burritos - 25c/each at Food City - (buy 24)

Total for the above $24

Why those items? All could have been made in the microwave and stored in the refrigerator provided at the overly-expensive hotel we stayed at.

Sigh.

And we wouldn't have needed $24 bucks worth of the stuff either. I just suggest it because it will provide a lot of easy cheap lunches over the summer.

Along with those items, I'd stockpile the following:

Hunt's tomatoes, I like the chunky kind, 14.6 oz - 50c/each, also at Fry's (buy 10)
Hatch diced tomatoes with green chiles, also 50c/each, also at Fry's (buy 10)
4 dozen eggs at Fry's at 77c/each

Why?

I like canned tomatoes. You can do a lot with them. The ones diced with the green chiles are begging to be scrambled with the eggs into Huevos Rancheros.

Come to think of it, I could've made the Huevos Rancheros in the microwave also.

I say 4 dozen eggs because I think it's a good idea to keep 4 dozen on hand. Eggs turn up in a lot of for scratch recipe and while they are often on sale, they are not ALWAYS on sale. I refuse to pay more than $1/dozen for eggs and have found that 4 dozen is enough to get me through any dry spells.

So that's another $10, plus the eggs - hmmm...eighty times four equals two dollars and forty cents less three times four or twelve equals...$2.28.

I think.

Close enough. That's about another $12 added to the $24 dollars which equals $36. I'd spend the remaining $14 on the chuck roasts and steaks at Bashas at $1.57/lb. $14 is enough to purchase 9 pounds. Have 4 pounds of it ground up into hamburger, ask the butcher to run another 2 pounds of it through the cubing machine and marinate and food saver the last 3 pounds. Use a lemon or lime based marinade to make it tender.

Voila! $50 for a boatload of food.

While you're at it, notice that Basha's is selling cubed steak for $3.99/lb right next to those chuck roasts. Pat yourself on the back for being so frugally smart.

Now sit back and google 'ground beef' with 'canned tomatoes' and see what kind of recipes pop up. Probably a lot of quick and easy ones involving noodles and chedder cheese. Make a bunch of it and FoodSaver for future dinners.

You are going to be sooooo popular with your family.

I'll post another stockpile post on Wednesday!

Rising to the Challenge

2009-05-27T00:19:00.001-07:00

No blog about feeding healthy, frugal food to the family can go very long before the topic of baking bread arises. Yes, it's frugal. But the best reason for learning to deal with the mysteries of gluten and yeast is that the results tastes sooooo good.

Flour, yeast, water, knead, plus time and heat yields bread. Watch this video. These two have figured out a way to remove the kneading component.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce3k5uRkEPI

I made my dough with half whole-wheat, half white. Also, I added wheat gluten because it gives bread good loft. Vital wheat gluten is available from store.honeyville.com or from Honeyville through Amazon. I set the loaf up in the morning and let it rise all day, baking it right before dinner. Cold dough doesn't rise and I don't understand the bit in the video about letting the loaf rest for 20 minutes then baking. The loaf must be awfully dense after that.

This has been working very nicely and my family is scarfing up the bread. Give it a go. Tell me how it works out.

Next week, I'll discuss the wonderful world of homemade muffin mix, so easy and good, you're sure to exile Betty Crocker to an assisted living facility.

What to do with all that food!

2009-05-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

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!

The First Stockpile Post

2009-05-20T22:37:00.001-07:00

This is a great week for getting healthy food and doing something with the stuff you can't eat. It's late and I'm tired, so bear with me and tomorrow, I'll give you all the explanations and instructions for what to do with the suggestions tonight. There's no real order to this, it's just the way I picked it out on the CouponSense 'Create a Shopping List' (an unbelievably fab application that makes finding the best deals and matching them to coupons easier than cheating on a diet.)

To wit:

1) Hot dogs. It's Memorial Day Weekend, of course there are hot dogs. Everybody is selling the Bar-S brand cheap, but the best price is at Albertson's - 59c a pack. Purchase 12 packs and purchase 10 ears of corn for a total of...wait for it...$12. Why 12 packs? Figure if you go through one package a week, you have a 3 month supply.

(disclaimer: I know hot dogs aren't healthy and I'm a very bad person for starting off with these, but let's face it, people like 'em, especially kids. Besides, a little unhealthy never killed anybody who wasn't already teetering on the brink.)

The corn is just for eating. Corn on the cob is a seasonal treat and best enjoyed in season. So go enjoy.

2) Basha's is selling Van Camp's Pork and Beans for 38c/can. I happen to like this brand and this is a rock-bottom price. I don't think I've seen it go lower in recent memory. 24 cans will set you back about $9. Why 24 cans? It's the number on the shrink-wrapped pallet. Makes it easy to get it out of the store and into your pantry.

Hot dogs, pork and beans...are you sensing a trend?

Add a 2 lb container of the strawberries for $1.99 to get you up over the $10 so you can use the 'in-ad' coupons (That means on the front page of the Basha's ad, available at the front of the store) to pick up a package of Kraft singles for 98c and a 24 oz container of Basha's sour cream for the same price. (Yes, the Kraft singles likewise play into the theme and sour cream is useful to have around).

You get all that food for about $13

3) Now it's off to Food City to pick up 10 pounds of Gala Apples for 50c/pound, 5 pounds of papaya for 50c/pound, and 10 pounds of Roma Tomatoes for 50c/pound. That comes out to $12.50.

You have to go tomorrow, Thursday, because the price on the Apples and the Papaya is only good then. Don't fret, I have great and easy ideas for what to do with all this fruit. One of the things involves pectin. Pick up a couple of boxes. It's usually in the baking area, or at the end of the canned goods aisle. Check each store and get a feel for how much it costs and who has it cheaper. Frys has a store brand that works beautifully. Don't be proud, buy it.

And don't get the vapors. Scary as the word pectin is, making stuff with it is way easier than makers of commercial jams want you to know. I thank my compadres at the CouponSense message board for teaching me that. The message board is an incredible resource, filled with friendly and knowledgable people.

But I digress. We've only spent $36 of the allowed $50. On to the next store.

4) At Fry's, pick up 5 of the Oscar Mayer Cotto Salami - the 12 oz pack. It's good to have around. Who doesn't like a nice salami sandwich? That's $5 total.

Now we're at $41. Where to spend that last $9? Hmmm...

5) Go to Sprouts. Pick yourself up 2 pounds of fresh broccoli crowns for $1.98 total. Steam it. Eat it. It's good for you.

6) Last store is Sunflower Market. The Bulk Bin Rolled Oats are 50c/lb. That's the same stuff you get all excited about if you can buy it in the canister for $1.00. It's also really good for breakfast when you make it with cinnamon and nutmeg, brown sugar and some of the apples I said to buy.

Buy 10 pounds. It won't go bad and is great for lots of stuff besides breakfast.

That's another 5 bucks away. Spend the last 2 bucks on 8 kiwi fruit for $2 total. They'll be great with the strawberries in a homemade strawberry-kiwi freezer.

More discussion re: why these particular items and why not other particular items.

I'll also point out that with coupons, the $10 in hot dogs from Albertson's would only cost $1.20 and that would give you an extra $8.80 to spend. You could spend some of it on Potato or Cole Slaw or Macaroni salad Sunflower Market is selling for $1/lb because Memorial Day Weekend is coming up and you already have hot dogs, pork and beans, and cheese singles.

This is a GREAT week for couponers because there's so much free stuff to be had. Today I 'purchased' 23 free items ranging from orange juice to salad dressings, bbq sauce, snacks, seasonings and other items that tend to suck the grocery budget right away from us. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the store to buy 20 other free items like toothbrushes and chewing gum and sports drinks, and pasta, and potatoes in a pouch.

The information on how to do it is right there on the CouponSense website. If you have questions, leave a comment. I'm happy to explain.

And if you decide to give it a trial run, mention Mindy Likes to Coupon. I got an 'in' with the management. They'll be sure to give you a really good table.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Random Musings - Tuesday

2009-05-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today, I found an article on stockpiling that said grocers operate on the theory that most American families have a three day supply of food on hand.

That would last about a day and a half in my house.

I'll be back tomorrow with a stockpiling list.

What's for Dinner - Monday

2009-05-18T15:13:00.001-07:00

In a fit of domesticity, I cleaned out and rearranged my garage freezer. I found some ground beef that's been lurking there close to a year if its 'Sell By' date of Jun 8, 2008 can be trusted. This ground beef is prior to my FoodSaver days so I should cook it now or risk losing it to freezer burn. The ground beef is from Basha's and claims to be 90% lean, but I can already tell that it's way fattier than the ground beef disguised as London Broil I told you about in yesterday's post. So time to get rid of it.

But didn't you feed the family ground beef last night, Mindy?

Why, yes, I did. And, to be honest, I served it the night before. Last night we ate leftovers of Saturday night. (All right, all right, and Friday night. I made too much of the ground beef/Mrs. Cubbison's Stuffing mixture, okay?) That makes my mission to disguise the almost year-old ground beef so my family doesn't realize they're eating more of it tonight, all the more important.

There's a reason for Google. I hop on, input, 'ground beef recipes' and click to find this:

Fontina-filled Burgers with Sun-dried Tomato.

I'd like to tell you that this is what I'm making, but I can't. I don't have any Fontina cheese nor sundried tomatoes and ain't no way I'm running out to buy any. That stuff's expensive! Also, no way in heck I'm going to poke holes into little portions and grate smoked fontina into it and cover over with ground beef to make those luscious-looking burgers. Judge Judy is on at four and I'm still working on edits for the project from my real life.

So this is how this recipe will be ~~butchered~~ um, REINVENTED, for the Mindy Likes To Coupon table tonight:

I'm mixing the ground beef with egg and Italian breadcrumbs, salt and garlic powder. Sundried tomatoes are reinterpreted with Kraft Sun-Dried Tomato Vinagrette mushed in with the egg and breadcrumbs. I smoosh the mixture out kind of flat, thin-slice mozzerella over it, then fold it in from either side, smoosh it into a loaf pan, and bake at 350 for about an hour until it's meatloaf. I'll pour some Hunt's roasted garlic and onion spaghetti sauce over the top before putting it into bake.

I'll serve it with more of those Green Giant Steamers that I got free a few months ago (see yesterday's post). If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll bake some Pillsbury breadsticks to go with. There's a Dump Cake baking in the oven now for dessert. I mostly more or less used THIS recipe minus the cherry pie filling because I didn't have it, plus canned fruit cocktail because I did, with extra walnuts and no coconut because the kids don't like it.

I'll be a hero, mostly because of that cake. Repeat ground beef dinners are forgiven when cake is involved.

So where did I get the ingredients?

1) I already told you about the ground beef. I should have used it long before this. I'm going to keep on top of my freezer contents better in the future.

2) The Italian breadcrumbs have been in my pantry a long time. Long enough that other than the fact they're Safeway brand, I've no memory of when or for how much I purchased it. In other words, they're probably older than the ground beef.

3) Told ya about garlic powder yesterday.

4) Picked up the mozzerella from Fry's about a month ago when they were selling various varieties of their store brand cheese for $1 for 8 oz. That's steal. My only regret is that I didn't buy way more than the 20 or so I did buy.

5) The spaghetti sauce is leftover from a spaghetti dinner last week and purchased some time ago for $1 for a 26-oz can. I'm pretty sure I had some coupons to make it even cheaper, but I don't remember. $1/can is a really great price for this stuff. The brand is Hunt's and they have a variety of flavors. In on sale at Albertson's until tomorrow for $1/can if you'd like to pick up a few.

6) Already told you about the free frozen veggies. Now let me tell you about the free or near-free Pillsbury breadsticks. Got 'em at Fry's with coupons when they were on sale for $1.

7) The cake mix for the Dump Cake was likewise free or near-free with coupons, the canned fruit was purchased at a 2 cans for a buck sale and the walnuts were $3.99/lb or less at Sprouts about a month ago. A pound of walnuts is a LOT of walnuts.

8) And the Kraft Vinaigrette? You guessed it - FREE with coupons.

How do I find all these great deals? It's my job. I'm an instructor at CouponSense. Check out the home page, kick a few tires. If you decide to give it a test ride, let 'em know that Mindy Likes to Coupon sent you so they can assign me to ride shotgun.

Gotta go, the first litigants are entering Judge Judy's courtroom.

What we had for dinner tonight - Sunday

2009-05-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

The grocery store ads change again on Wednesday. I'll post my first stockpile post then. Until then, I thought I'd entertain you with tales of what I make for dinner. Tonight was ground beef browned with onions and sprinkled liberally with garlic powder. Into the ground beef I mixed a package of Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing that I had lying around in the pantry. I added some water to the mix for the stuffing to soak up because the ground beef was very lean. So here's where I got the ingredients:

1) The onions were 25c/lb at Food City last week. (Sorry, ad ends today, but Food City often has onions at a really good price. Typically, you can find them somewhere for 3 lbs/$1.

2) The ground beef is still available at Basha's. It's disguised as London Broil and is selling in the Family Pack for $1.77/lb. You're limited to two packs, so buy two. Have the butcher (that's the guy in the white coat behind the meat counter) grind one of the packs into ground beef. As I said, you're limited to two packs, but if you want to drive around the block and go back to the store and pick up another two packs, I won't tell on you. London Broil is very lean, so your hamburger will be very lean and lean is good, right?

Right.

3) The garlic powder was purchased someplace for about a buck. You know those spices I'm talking about. Everybody sells them - Italian Seasoning, Seasoned Salt, Poultry Seasoning, Onion Powder blah blah blah. Don't be proud. Buy 'em. Use 'em.

4) The Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing was also purchased at Basha's a while back. It was 77c for that big box with two envelopes in it.

You must be thinking it's pretty lame that not only can I remember where I bought the stuffing and approximately how long ago, but also exactly how much I paid for it.

I agree. It's lame. Beyond lame. Which means I'll probably do it again.

How long did it take me to make this meal?

How long does it take to brown ground beef? (answer for those who don't know - about 15 minutes). Just cover with a lid when it's pretty close to done and turn off the heat to let all the goodness permeate.

And for veggies? Some Green Giant Steamfresh (or maybe they're called Steamers?) that I picked up free a while back and tossed into the freezer. How did I get them for free? The veggies were on sale for $1.00 and I had a coupon for 50c that doubled. How did I know to put the coupon and the sale together? Well that's where CouponSense comes in. You know that thing I'm an instructor at? If you go and you decide to join, mention that Mindy Likes to Coupon and that I sent ya. They'll match us up.

You mean there are rules???

2009-05-17T20:44:00.001-07:00

Of course. There are ALWAYS rules. And I'll put them up as I think of them. For now, here are some rules:

Rule No. 1) This is a subjective list. That means it's based on my likes and dislikes and what I think is a good deal. If I don't include something on the list that seems to be a good deal, I'll explain why I didn't include it. That leads to

Rule No. 2) If you know of a deal that I don't know of, please please PLEASE tell me. Preferably before I hit the grocery store.

Rule No. 3) Some rules are meant to be broken. You'll see what rules those are as we go along.

Rule No. 4) The $50 for the stockpile is money you'd spend aside from your normal grocery spending. The idea is that eventually, you won't be spending all that much on the 'normal' groceries because you'll already have most of what you need in your refrigerator and your freezer and in your pantry.

So, like, uh, who am I?

2009-05-17T20:31:00.001-07:00

My name is Mindy and I like to eat three times a day. So does my husband. Our kids like to eat more. The problem: how to feed us and still have enough left over to open a college fund. Or pay the mortgage. Or buy a tank of gas.

I offer this blog as the solution.

What this blog is about

2009-05-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

You want to eat. Your family wants to eat. And you'd really like it if the food on the menu wasn't chock full of chemicals and provided enough nutrition to keep everybody's toes from falling off.

The $50 stockpile is here to help. Every week, I'll comb the ads and tell you what *I'd* buy if I had an extra 50 bucks to spend every week. In general, the food will be basic, nutritious, store well, and not anywhere near as hard to prepare as convenience food commercials have led you to believe. What's best? After doing the $50 stockpile for a month or so, you'll find your Old Mother Hubbard days are gone, you'll have money left when the food budget month is over and your kids will say things like, 'You mean it's legal to cook a chicken yourself?'

This blog is best used by residents of Arizona, particularly the Phoenix area, but the principles and recipes can be applied by anybody.

And...we're off.