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| MUSHROOM BURGER SCRAMBLE |
Here's the link to the recipe: Mushroom Burger Scramble.
Friday, December 13, 2013
New version of an old favorite
Here's the link to the recipe: Mushroom Burger Scramble.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Favorite Recipe: Quick Asian Pork Stir-Fry
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| QUICK ASIAN PORK STIR-FRY |
I'm keeping my cooking simple this week because of all the food preparation for Thanksgiving. So, I made this all-time favorite last night that for some reason I never got around to posting on my recipe site until now. It's based on my Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps recipe and I tend to just throw in whatever I'm in the mood for at the time. Use the recipe as a guide and tweak it to your own tastes.
Have a very nice Thanksgiving everyone!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Holiday Shopping
Today I did my big holiday food shopping trip for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will need to get a few more things later but I got most of the staples today. Aldi has some great sales this week, and Kroger has turkeys on sale, so this was the time to pick up what I'll need for the holidays since I had to spend at least $20 to get the sale price on the turkey.
Here is what I got for a total of $45.29 after my Kroger senior discount and coupons:
- 15 1/2 pound turkey @ .59 per pound - $9.23
- 9 bags of Kroger frozen vegetables @ $1.00 per bag - $6.10 after my senior discount and a $2.00 off frozen food coupon (I got 3 cauliflower, 2 bell pepper/onion blend, 3 green beans and 1 Asian blend)
- 1 pound Kroger pork sausage - $2.25
- 16 ounces Kroger shredded mozzarella - $2.69
- 16 ounces Kroger cottage cheese @ $1.25 on sale minus discount and 40-cent coupon - $.72
- Roma tomatoes - $.64 (Walmart)
- 3 bags pork rinds - $.99 each
- 1 1/2 pounds zucchini - $.89
- 2 8-ounce Swiss cheese @ $1.49 each
- 8-ounce Colby cheese - $1.49
- 8-ounce pepper-jack cheese - $1.49
- 1 can tomato paste - $.39 (I usually pay 44-cents at Walmart)
- Deluxe American cheese - $2.99
- 3 pounds butter @ $1.69 each
- 2 bags fresh cranberries @ $.99 each
- 1 can pumpkin - $.89
- 2 dozen eggs @ $.99 each
- Celery - $.59
- 3 pound bag of onions - $.59
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| CHICKEN CORDON BLEU CASSEROLE |
Of course I also bought a few high carb items and non-food items that aren't mentioned here. Tomorrow I will make some "zoodles" out of the zucchini that I bought and serve them with Dottie's Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. If you haven't tried that recipe, what are you waiting for? It's delicious and super easy to make. Someone just posted a link to this YouTube video that demonstrates four different "zoodlers":
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
I nearly forgot to tell you about the deals I got today. Food Town had Jimmy Dean maple pork sausage on sale for only $1.29 per roll but the sale was only on that flavor. I'd never tried it before but I bought two rolls even though it's a little carbier than plain pork sausage. It has 2 carbs per serving which is 1/6 of the package. I fried up one roll when I got home and it's pretty good but now the whole house smells like maple syrup. Eating it is a little like eating sausage and pancakes at the same time. They also had Owens sausage on sale for $1.88 per roll and I got one each of the regular and the Italian flavors.
I got one bargain at HEB from the clearance bin. Because the boxes were damaged, they had two boxes of Atkins Advantage bars marked down to $3.00 each so I bought both packages. I avoid sugar alcohols but I thought that perhaps my husband might like to nibble on them when we become a strictly low carb household after our son moves out.
Military Appreciation Monday
Last night we went to Golden Corral for their special Veteran's Day dinner. My husband is a veteran so his meal was free. It had been many, many years since I last went to Golden Corral so I wasn't sure how many low carb options they'd have there. I did quite well and there were probably more options that I missed. I had a small steak, some rotisserie chicken, a little pot roast and a few bites of their Bourbon Street Chicken. I indulged in a few chunks of cantaloupe and honeydew melon for dessert. I know that the bourbon chicken had some sugar in it but I didn't eat very much. I looked it up online and it has 4 carbs per serving, which isn't too terrible. It reminded me very much of my Seoul Chicken and, frankly, I like my recipe better. There was some kind of spice in theirs that I couldn't place and didn't care for. The place was very crowded and I never had a chance to look at the seafood area and I'm sure there would be some low carb options to be found there. I also didn't explore the veggie choices. I pretty much just grabbed some meat and headed to our table. Everything that I had tasted good and I went home satisfied.
It's looking like our son might finally be moving out soon. He's been threatening to do so for quite some time but his prospective roommates kept backing out on him. This time they've gone as far as filling out the application for an apartment so I think it might really come to pass this time. If you recall, I wrote a while back that I will stop buying and cooking high carb food once I only have myself and my husband to cook for. Looks like it's time to start making my menu plans and make a list of new recipes that I'd like to try. I will have to really watch my budget though because we'll have less income without our son's room and board every month. I'm hoping that not having to buy high carb foods for my son and husband anymore will make a big enough difference that I won't have to skimp too much. I'd like to start posting my weekly shopping lists here once we go totally low carb and we shall see if it is possible to eat well on a very tight budget or not.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Sprouts Farmer's Market
I got an ad in the mail today for a new store in the area. It's called Sprouts Farmer's Market. Has anyone heard of it or been there? It's not too far from me, but far enough that I'd only go there to check it out to see what they've got. Is it worth making the trip?
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| Courtesy: Sprouts Farmers Market. |
Monday, November 4, 2013
New Recipe: Fish Chowder Casserole
You can view the recipe on my main site: Fish Chowder Casserole
I apologize for not posting much lately. I've been very busy making Christmas presents.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Apriva sweetener update
I was surprised at how quickly I went through my first bottle of Kroger's Apriva. The label states that it contains 200 servings and a serving is one "squirt". The first day that I used it, I marked the date on the bottom of the bottle so that I could see how long it lasted. It looks like two weeks is about it for me and I only used it to sweeten my coffee. At the most, I drank coffee three or four days per week and I drank three or four cups (mugs) each time that I made coffee for myself. I've been using 4-5 squirts of the sweetener per mug of coffee. If I've done the math correctly, that works out to no more than 160 squirts per bottle, not 200. Also, there were some days when I lost interest and only drank two or three cups and some days when I used less of the sweetener so 160 is being generous. The number of servings in my bottle was probably closer to 120-130. There might be a couple of squeezes left in there after my first cup of coffee this morning but there's not enough that I can hear or feel it sloshing around when I shake the bottle.
I still like the convenience of this product. It would be great to take on a trip or when going to a restaurant, but I rarely travel and we almost never eat out. I did buy another bottle of Apriva this week because Kroger had it on sale but that will probably be the last one I'll buy. A large bottle of Sweetzfree goes a lot farther for the money, I think.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Great price on fish today
I bought something different today that I'd never seen before. This week Food Town had 2-pound bags of frozen Swai nuggets for only $2.99. How's that for cheap? Now I hope I won't regret buying only one bag of them. I've got a couple of ideas for using them. One thing I've wanted to try for quite some time is to make my JLSBP recipe (Just Like Stuffed Baked Potatoes) with fish added to it. My thinking is that it will taste like a fish chowder casserole. Or, I could use the fish pieces to make my Fish Cakes recipe again. It's been years since I last made those. I'll post back if I do end up making the fish casserole.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Liquid Splenda at Kroger
I have no idea how accurate my squirts were but I found that I needed to use a lot less than I thought I would. I like my coffee VERY sweet and I usually put in 5-6 drops of Sweetzfree, which is supposedly the equivalent of nearly 1/4 cup of sugar! Obviously that can't be right so I think that Sweetzfree's conversion chart is off quite a bit. Anyway, I only needed about 3 squirts of Apriva per mug of coffee or the equivalent of about 3 teaspoons of sugar. That seems a lot more reasonable than 1/4 cup worth of Sweetzfree, doesn't it? It could be my imagination but the sweetness seemed different than Sweetzfree somehow. I'm not sure if it's a flavor thing or just the kind of sweetness. Maybe I was tasting the preservatives they put in Apriva. It tasted fine, just slightly different.
Walmart used to sell a similar product called Sucralose To Go but they've recently stopped selling it in favor of the Skinny Girl brand of sweeteners. I looked at those yesterday and wasn't impressed with the choices. They're expensive and they don't have a sucralose version; only monk fruit, stevia and agave. I did notice recently that HEB has Sucralose To Go but I can get Kroger's version cheaper with my senior discount. Kroger's is $2.99 so I paid $2.69 for it. I just went to the Sucralose To Go site and they're still listing Walmart as the only place to buy it. I really did see it at HEB about a week or two ago so I guess they just need to update their site since you can't buy it at Walmart any longer and it's obviously available elsewhere.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Tuesday Bargains - Meat Bonanza
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| Pork & Mushroom Stir-Fry |
I don't know if it was a good price but I needed to stock up on garlic anyway. I paid 81-cents for both heads. The 8-ounce containers of mushrooms were on sale for only 89-cents each. Those are both going into my pork dish.
HEB had Land O Lakes butter for $2.00 with a store coupon so I bought two pounds. They also have ribeye steaks on sale for $3.97 pound so I splurged on a package of three huge steaks. The heavy cream was the usual $3.56.
No luck today but I'm still keeping an eye out for a sale on eggplant so that I can make Eggplant Lasagna. They did have a pretty good supply of it for change though. I don't know when eggplant season is but I suspect it might be in the fall. They were selling them by the pound today and they would have cost a fortune at $1.79lb. When they have them on sale, they're usually 2/$1.00.
Tomorrow is our 31st wedding anniversary and we're planning to go out to eat somewhere. I'm not sure where yet but I've got a couple of ideas. I always enjoy the fajitas at Chili's but I was thinking of trying P.F. Chang's. I've never been there and hopefully they've got something that's not too outrageously carby if I omit the rice/noodles. I know that they're loaded with sugar but I'd really like to try their Chicken Lettuce Wraps, minus the rice sticks, and the Kung Pao Chicken sounds good. Can anyone recommend some good options to try there?
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Thursday Shopping
I didn't get any outstanding deals today but Kroger does have a few nice sales this week. If you spend $10, you can get a dozen large eggs for 99-cents. They've also got 16-ounce packages of Kroger brand cheese for $2.99 and 3.5-ounce Hormel giant pepperoni for a dollar. I like to snack on them or layer them in a pizza/lasagna type casserole. I also use them when I make submarine sandwiches for the guys. Family packs of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are .99lb this week too.
I needed some heavy cream and Walmart was out of it, which is pretty typical. I always see it there when I've got plenty at home but, when I need it, they're almost always out. Anyway, now that they're putting milk in theirs like everyone else, I decided that I might as well buy Kroger cream today. I've always avoided buying it there because of the skim milk they put in it. With my 10% senior discount, I paid pretty close to the same amount I'd pay at either Walmart or HEB for a quart of cream. It was on sale for $3.99 this week which works out to $3.59 with my discount.
While I was at Walmart this morning, I saw that they sell those big 24-ounce bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee like I got on clearance at Kroger last week. They want $13.78 for it and $7.28 for the 12-ounce bag. So, I did get a super deal on the big bag at $7.99.
When I got back from shopping, I got my cooking done for the day. I made Spinach Lasagna again but made my variation this time which has Italian sausage added and extra cheese.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
More new duds...
Just popping in to show you what I got for $16.00 at the charity shop today. I've bought more new clothes for myself in the past few months than I normally buy in several years. The funny thing is that so far I haven't even spent $100. I think I spent around $20 on my first visit there, then $40 last time and $16 this time.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Thursday Shopping Bargain
Thursday, September 26, 2013
New Recipe: Microwave Eggdrop Soup
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| Microwave Eggdrop Soup |
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Favorite Recipe: Chicken with Peanut Curry Sauce
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| Chicken with Peanut Curry Sauce |
The chicken gave off a lot of juices which made the sauce a little thin. So, I added 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum to thicken it up and it came out just right.
The brand of red curry paste that I buy is from Thai Kitchen. It seems to be the brand that all the stores sell around here and it's very good. I have no trouble finding it at Kroger and Walmart.
I cooked some rice for the guys to have with their curry and I just put mine in a bowl and ate it with a soup spoon. I didn't want to miss any of the yummy sauce. Click here to see my version of the recipe.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Thursday's Deals
Kroger is having one of their "mega sale events" this week where you get $5.00 off any five specially marked items throughout the store. Most of the time they don't have five items that are worth buying but this week they do. Besides buying 3 boxes of cereal for my son, I got 18 eggs for only $1.24 after the dollar off and my senior discount. I also got an 8-ounce block of Kraft cream cheese for 99-cents.
Kroger also has their cottage cheese for $1.99 ($1.79 with my discount) and butter for $1.77. I got two pounds of the butter for $1.59 each after my discount. I got a 16-ounce bag of Kroger shredded mozzarella and a 16-ounce chunk of colby cheese for $2.59 each (sale price is $2.88). It wasn't on sale but they had my favorite White Chocolate Raspberry CARBmaster yogurt in stock. My store doesn't usually sell that flavor so I have to go to a different Kroger when I want some. It looks like they're filling in that space with the White Chocolate Raspberry while they're out of the Blueberry Muffin flavor. That's just fine with me.
I splurged on a little treat at Walmart today. It's been a while since they've had it in stock so I picked up some Smithfield jowl bacon. You can read my review of it HERE on my main website. It really isn't terribly expensive for bacon but it's still an indulgence that I don't buy often. It's $2.88 pound which is quite reasonable for such good, smoky bacon.
Community coffee is on sale again this week, just when I'm nearly out of my current stash of it. Funny how they time the sales around how quickly I use mine up. I only drink coffee about three times a week so a bag lasts me quite a while. Anyway, it's $3.99 per bag at Kroger this week and I had two $1.00 off coupons. So, the two bags that I bought were only $2.99 each.
I like to keep whey protein powder on hand to make shakes for myself for times when I'm short on low carb options in the fridge. I was out of it but they had a $3.00 coupon for Body Fortress brand in the Sunday paper this week. Luckily, Kroger has the Body Fortress Whey Isolate on sale this week because even with the coupon it would have cost over $20. I only buy the whey isolate because Body Fortress's regular whey protein now has way too many carbs per serving. The whey isolate is normally $25.99 at Kroger. This week it's on sale for $20.79 so I paid $17.79 with my coupon.
Last week Kroger had boneless chicken thighs on sale for $1.77 pound but they were out of them the day I shopped. So, I got a rain check and bought them today.
Yesterday I made myself a low carb pizza and it came out wonderful. I topped it with a full 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. As I mentioned the other day, I did make an extra crust with the rest of the cream cheese and it's in the freezer for another day.
Today when I got back from shopping, I made a big bowl of BLT "Potato" Salad with a few tweaks. I didn't put any bacon in it but I did put most of a 10.5-ounce container of halved cherub tomatoes. I also put in 8 hard boiled eggs instead of the three that the recipe calls for. I like to make my veggie salads double as main dishes when I can by adding extra protein to them such as eggs or ham. A big serving of this salad makes a very nice lunch and it's one of my favorites.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
I only got a few goodies this week. Food Town had 24-ounce packages of thick-cut bacon for only $4.99. I'm baking the second batch of it in the oven as I type this (see Oven Bacon). The guys are enjoying the first batch. I also got two packages of shredded mozzarella cheese for the Deep Dish Pizza I'll be making tomorrow. Those were on sale for $1.77 each. Since it takes only half a package of cream cheese to make the crust, and I don't know what else I'd do with half a package, I'm going to make two crusts and freeze one for another time.
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| BLT "Potato" Salad |
HEB still had their canned pizza sauce for 55-cents each so I bought three more of them. They also had a deal on ribeye steaks for $3.97 pound if you spent at least $10. I got a package of three which we're going to have for dinner tonight. It would have been nice to have the cauliflower salad with the steaks but I had no idea until I got home what I was going to make with it or I would have bought the tomatoes and onion this morning.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
Once again I found a lot of ground beef marked down to 99-cents pound at Food Town this morning. As I type this, I'm in the process of cooking hamburger patties in my Nuwave oven. I can only cook three at a time so I have to keep running to the kitchen to put in the next batch. I bought 12 pounds so I got 24 half pound patties which I will freeze and then have for my breakfasts. One thing I like about cooking my burgers in a foil-lined pan in the Nuwave oven is that I can spoon the drippings back over the burgers before I freeze them. What I do is chill the fat until it starts to firm up and then spread some on each patty before I freeze them. The extra fat keeps the burgers from drying out when I reheat them in the microwave later. It's also nice to dip each bite into some of the fat as I eat my burger.
Food Town had Duke's mayonnaise on salefor 99-cents because it's going to expire in October. I don't know if I'll use it all by then but I'm sure it will be fine for a while longer than that. It wasn't on sale but I got a jar of Mt. Olive sugar free sweet relish for $1.54 after a 75-cent coupon. They also had 8-ounce cans of store brand tomato sauce 4/$1.00 so I bought four.
Some other good stuff from Food Town was a tube of Colgate toothpaste on sale for $1.33 or 58-cents after my 75-cent coupon. Cabbage was .29 pound and onions were .39 pound.
I only got one nice deal at HEB today but it was a great one. I needed pizza sauce to make a pizza for the guys tomorrow but I'd never bought it at HEB before. While looking at the different kinds they had, I noticed that their store brand canned pizza sauce was on sale for just 55-cents per can. There was a tag on the shelf that said they were normally $1.50. I bought three cans so I hope that it tastes good. I don't think I could make my own pizza sauce that cheap and Walmart's Great Value sauce is a dollar for a 14-ounce jar. These are 15-ounce cans.
Food Town had Duke's mayonnaise on salefor 99-cents because it's going to expire in October. I don't know if I'll use it all by then but I'm sure it will be fine for a while longer than that. It wasn't on sale but I got a jar of Mt. Olive sugar free sweet relish for $1.54 after a 75-cent coupon. They also had 8-ounce cans of store brand tomato sauce 4/$1.00 so I bought four.I only got one nice deal at HEB today but it was a great one. I needed pizza sauce to make a pizza for the guys tomorrow but I'd never bought it at HEB before. While looking at the different kinds they had, I noticed that their store brand canned pizza sauce was on sale for just 55-cents per can. There was a tag on the shelf that said they were normally $1.50. I bought three cans so I hope that it tastes good. I don't think I could make my own pizza sauce that cheap and Walmart's Great Value sauce is a dollar for a 14-ounce jar. These are 15-ounce cans.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
It seems like I've been getting a good deal on marked down ground beef for a few weeks in a row now. I try not to pass it up, especially for 99-cents pound like I found again today. What tends to happen is that I'll catch the mark-downs for a few weeks in a row and then find nothing for a couple of months or more. That's why having a big freezer in the garage is so handy. I bought about 9 1/2 pounds this morning. I froze five 1-pound bags of it. With the rest I made a 2-pound meatloaf and cooked two pounds of taco meat for the tacos we'll be having later this week. We actually already have a meatloaf in the fridge that I made on Sunday but my husband was disappointed that it seemed to be going so quickly.
At Food Town I got a 12-pack of Fiora toilet paper that was on sale for $3.44. They had a store coupon for $1.00 off if you spent at least $10.00 so I got it for only $2.44. I really like that brand and it's on sale quite often. They also had jars of Duke's mayonnaise on sale for $1.99 and I got 40 cents off with a coupon. They still had the fajita marinade on sale for 99-cents so I bought one more bottle. I got one free item: a 10-ounce bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce. It was on sale for 50-cents a bottle (it's normally at least $1.59 at Kroger) and I had a coupon for 55-cents off.
At HEB, they still had their pork rinds buy two bags/get one bag free deal so I got three bags for $3.00 total. Today was the last day for that coupon. It wasn't on sale, but I bought a quart of heavy cream for $3.56, which is the same as Walmart charges. Lastly, I got a tube of Lip Smacker lip balm from the clearance bin for 75-cents. It was even the Dr Pepper flavor that I normally buy. The package had been opened so they taped it up and marked it down just for me to come along and snatch it up.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Taco Pie Update
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| Taco Pie |
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
I only got a few good deals yesterday. I was planning to make burgers for dinner using some raw patties that I had in the freezer. However, Food Town had some packages of ground beef marked down to $1.29 pound so I decided to get a couple packages and make fresh burgers instead. I ended up with about 7 pounds of meat and I made all of it into patties then cooked them in my NuWave oven. I kept some of the cooked burgers in the fridge for us to eat over the next few days and froze the rest for another time. For dinner last night I had a very tasty burger topped with a slice of onion, a slice of tomato, mayo, mustard, dill pickle relish and my homemade ketchup. The tomatoes weren't on sale yesterday but the onions were only 39-cents per pound.
Food Town also had the fajita marinade that I use on sale for only 99-cents per bottle so I bought two of them. It's called Figaro Fabulosa Quick Fajitas Marinade. It's normally around $1.79 in most stores around here. The marinade has smoke flavoring in it so I get a grilled flavor in my chicken whether I cook it outside on the gas grill or inside on my counter top grill.
I got one other good deal at HEB. They had a coupon for a free bag of their store brand pork rinds if you bought two for $1.50 each.
I should mention that Tuesday is the last day of any sales that I get at Food Town or HEB. The new ads come out on Wednesday here. If I can remember to do so, I'll post the current sales for those stores in my Thursday posts. Of course only those who live in the Houston area will benefit from this info since they're local grocery chains.
Today I'll be roasting the whole chicken that I bought at Kroger for 49-cents per pound a couple weeks ago and I'm going to make stuffing for the guys using the marked down stuffing cubes that I got from the clearance bin for only 69-cents. I've decided to make the whole bag of the stuffing (it's a 1-pound bag) and freeze the extra cooked stuffing. Otherwise, the rest of the stuffing cubes in the open bag would just get stale before I'd have another chance to use them.
Monday, August 19, 2013
CARBmaster Blueberry Muffin Yogurt
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Salvaging Dinner
My plan for today was to make Chicken Lazone, which I've been wanting to make again ever since the first time I tried that recipe. I had a pound of fresh mushrooms to use up so I was going to cook them separately and add them to the Chicken Lazone at the end. To save on clean-up, I sautéed the mushrooms ahead of time in the same pan that I was planning to cook the chicken in. Meanwhile, I also cooked some rice for the guys and some green beans. All that was left to do was to make the Chicken Lazone.
Imagine my horror when I opened the package of chicken tenders and discovered that they were spoiled. I never eat chicken that smells "off" so into the trash it went, all three pounds of it. My first reaction was panic because I had no idea what I was going to serve for dinner with the rice, mushrooms and green beans. Then I remembered that we still had some leftover pork roast in the fridge. So, I cut the pork into cubes and added them to the sautéed mushrooms in the pan. Since I'd already seasoned the mushrooms with the same seasoning I was going to use on the chicken, I added some more of the seasoning blend to the meat. There was quite a lot of fat on the pork so I didn't add any butter but I did add a splash of heavy cream at the end to make a sauce. Dinner was saved!
Those are Trader Joe's frozen French green beans on my plate.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Thursday Shopping Bargains
Just a short post today because I didn't buy much. Kroger still has cheese for $1.88 for 8 ounces so I bought a few packages and I got another 24-ounce container of cottage cheese for $1.99. This week they've got a great price on bone-in chicken thighs for 79-cents per pound. They're the large family-size packages with 10 pieces. Lastly, I bought a container of the new CARBmaster flavor, Blueberry Muffin, to try. I've always wondered why they didn't have it in blueberry. I'll report back once I've tried it. They didn't have any of the new Pumpkin Pie flavor but that doesn't appeal to me anyway.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
Today I did something a little out of the ordinary. I did go to my two usual grocery stores, Food Town and HEB, but I didn't buy much there. You see, I planned to go to a local charity shop called Treasures of the Heart and I didn't want to have any perishable food sitting in my car for hours. I did bring a cooler and some "blue ice" to keep my produce chilled.
As far as food bargains go, I got a good price on celery (68-cents) and mushrooms were only 88-cents per 8 ounce package. I bought two of those but I don't know yet what I will do with them. I plan to make Unpotato Salad tomorrow to go with a pork roast so I needed to buy a cauliflower, celery and a red onion. I had to pay full price for the cauliflower ($2.99) but the red onions were on sale for 69-cents per pound. They also had yellow onions on sale for 39-cents per pound so I stocked up on a few of those.
I fell in love with the skirt and was so pleased to find that it fit me. My two favorite tops are the red one and the very colorful one. You can't tell in the photo but the red one has tiny spots of gold glitter on it. I don't usually go for sparkly things but that top is sparkly in a cute fun way. I think that three of the tops will probably go pretty well with that skirt which has a little bit of a rusty colored pattern on it. I think those two salmon colored tops might go fairly well with it and I know for sure that the cream colored one will.
I'm exhausted from trying on all of those clothes, plus the 50 or so other items that didn't fit me, so I think I'll have some lunch now and just relax this afternoon.
That's the extent of my food shopping for today. But, my bargain clothes shopping more than made up for it. I hate shopping for clothes and I especially hate shopping at malls. If I buy any clothing for myself, I either buy it all in one big all-day shopping trip about once every year or two, or I just pick up an item or two now and then while I'm grocery shopping at Walmart. I recently discovered Treasures of the Heart. It's a lot like shopping at a place like TJ Maxx or Ross where there are just rows and rows of racks of all kinds of things jammed together. But, nothing there costs more than about $5.00 each, at least for women's clothing. Everything is color coded, which indicates how long an item has been hanging on the rack. So, you might get another 25%, 50% or even 75% off of the basic $4.00-5.00 price depending on the color of the tag. This was only my second time shopping there. The first time I went, a few months ago, I spent about $20 and got a pair of shorts, a wool suit (skirt and jacket) and three tops. Well, this time I made out like a bandit! I did so well that I had to share it with everyone here on my blog. I spent just under $46.00 and bought:
- 2 pairs of jeans (one blue and one black denim)
- 1 skirt
- 1 nightie
- 9 tops
- $5.00 x 1
- $4.00 x 6
- $3.00 x 3
- $2.50 x 1
- $1.50 x 1
- $.75 x 1
I fell in love with the skirt and was so pleased to find that it fit me. My two favorite tops are the red one and the very colorful one. You can't tell in the photo but the red one has tiny spots of gold glitter on it. I don't usually go for sparkly things but that top is sparkly in a cute fun way. I think that three of the tops will probably go pretty well with that skirt which has a little bit of a rusty colored pattern on it. I think those two salmon colored tops might go fairly well with it and I know for sure that the cream colored one will.
I'm exhausted from trying on all of those clothes, plus the 50 or so other items that didn't fit me, so I think I'll have some lunch now and just relax this afternoon.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Thursday Shopping Bargains
I spent quite a bit more than usual this morning because Kroger had so many super sales that I couldn't pass up. Below is a list of everything that I bought today at Walmart and Kroger. When I buy craft supplies and clothing, etc. at Walmart, that comes out of my grocery budget so I've included those things in the list. I'm kind of regretting that I bought that pork roast on Tuesday at Food Town and paid $1.29 pound for it. Kroger has them on sale this week for only 79-cents per pound!
Walmart:
Walmart:
- Clear Passage nasal strips - $6.67
- 2 bottles black acrylic paint (.57 each) - $1.14 *
- 1 package assorted jump rings - $2.00 *
- Snapware storage container ($6.97) - $4.97 after $2.00 coupon *
- Clean Shower - $1.97
- Frozen ravioli - $2.72 (for the guys)
Kroger:
- 24 ounce Kroger cottage cheese (1.99 on sale) after 40-cent coupon and senior discount - $1.39
- 2 bottles Kroger OJ (2.50 on sale) after 75-cent coupon and senior discount - $3.75 for both
- 18 ounce Kroger peanut butter - FREE with coupon
- 8 ounce Kroger sour cream - after 40-cent coupon and senior discount - $.49
- 3-pack Brita filters (they're $14.88 at Walmart) - after $2.50 coupon - $13.19
- Community coffee ($3.50 on sale) - $3.50
- 8 ounce Kroger cheese (on sale for $1.88 x 10) - after 50-cent and 75-cent coupons and senior discount - $15.50 ($1.57 each)
- Kroger parmesan cheese - after senior discount - $2.36
- 10 ounce Kroger frozen spinach - after senior discount - $.76
- 2 Kroger Deluxe ice cream (for the guys) - after senior discount - $4.50 for both (not in the photo)
- 2 Boston butt roasts (.79 pound on sale) - after $1.50 meat coupon - $9.17 for both
GRAND TOTAL - $76.62
If I had paid full price for those two pork roasts, they would have cost $33.61! The regular price for everything that I bought today would have been about $129.00 so I saved $52.00.
When I got home from shopping, I prepped the ingredients to make chicken fajitas. I was going to grill the chicken, peppers and onions outside on the grill but decided that it was just too darn hot to stand outside cooking. So, I stir-fried the peppers and onions in my wok and cooked the chicken in my countertop grill. I also made a batch of Cilantro Pepita Sauce to put on the fajitas.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Tuesday Bargains
Once again, I got some nice deals at all three stores, but not so many at Aldi today. I got a dozen eggs there and those are always 89-cents. I needed green peppers for fajitas this week but they weren't so cheap at Aldi this time. I was stuck though and had to buy them there at three for $1.69. I guess that's not so bad at 56-cents each. I really could have used more than three peppers but I didn't really need six this time so I'll make do. I bought some of their pork rinds and they're not as salty as they seemed the first time I bought them. HEB was out of the plain ones so I to buy Aldi's or do without. I do like that Aldi's pork rinds tend to be smaller pieces than other brands.
Here's what I bought at Food Town:
- 4 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce at 4/$1.00
- White onions - .39 pound
- 1 bunch cilantro - 50-cents
- Boston butt roast - $1.29 pound
- Boneless chicken breasts - $1.99 pound
- 2 huge prime rib steaks marked down to $2.99 pound
I've never had prime rib steaks before so hopeful they'll be good. They look a lot like rib-eye steaks but with a bone. The chicken breasts are huge at nearly 3/4 pound each. I usually wait until I see Boston butt roasts for 99-cents per pound but $1.29 wasn't bad. They did have some ground beef marked down to 99-cents per pound but I've got a nice stash of it in my freezer and I really wanted to buy those steaks. Plus, the hamburger looked very brown like it had been sitting around too long. Since this blog is called "In the Kitchen with Linda", would anyone be interested in seeing photos of my kitchen? It's very tiny but I'm happy with it. In spite of the small size, I've got plenty of counter and storage space.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Kroger Coupons
It's almost like Christmas when the packet of coupons from Kroger comes in the mail. Most of the time they send coupons for products that they know I buy and there's often a coupon for something free. There are some nice ones this time:
- 40-cents off any size Kroger sour cream
- 40-cents off Kroger cottage cheese
- 70-cents off two 8-ounce packages Kroger cheese
- $1.50 off Brita filters
- FREE 16-18 ounce jar of Kroger peanut butter
- 99-cents off Aquafresh toothpaste
- 50-cents off a $2.00+ Dairy Department purchase
- $2.00 off Revlon cosmetics
- $1.50 off a $7.00+ meat department purchase
- $1.50 off two 12-packs Diet Pepsi
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