Madison St. Produce

I always drive by the produce stand at Madison Street and 111 and can see the strawberries growing in the field behind the stand. The kids and I always are amazed we can see them from so far away and we know they must be big!

So I finally stopped there to see how the prices were and if there was anything I "needed." I did get some strawberries; I got an overflowing pint for $2.99. I don't mind paying a bit more for local produce that I can see growing. There were no carbon emissions during the transport of the strawberries from field to stand (except the breathing person carrying them there...)!

I also got artichokes at $1 each; not a bad price, but I made sure to pick out the biggest ones I could find. ;-)

They had a couple other items like asparagus and broccoli.

All of it looked good and all of it was VERY local. :-)

Tonight we are hosting the in-laws and having pork chops with squash-rice casserole. This is one of my stand-by recipes, but it is a good one, a cooking light recipe, and one that gets the kids eating zucchini willingly.

I won't be able to post my plan for next week for a bit...for some reason I didn't get the weekly ads today! It is going to throw off my schedule, but oh well. Nothing I can do but check the stores' websites.

Good luck to you!
--Katie

Dinner tonight

I finally made some things from the Cooking Light magazine. I had planned to make steak this weekend, but of course we ended up going out one night and didn't really do dinner the other night (an all-afternoon party with great food and I didn't need to eat).

I had planned to make the flank steak they had in the magazine, but it worked out that the New York Strip was a better price and there wasn't as much in the package. I try to keep our meat portions small and cook more vegetables.

I made garlic mashed potatoes and butter roasted carrots to go along with it. I have to say that this dinner was a winner. The kids gobbled up the carrots AND the mashed potatoes (even WITH the garlic mixed in)! I had it all cooked up and ready in about 20 minutes.

I still have zucchini I need to cook up before it gets too old...sounds like squash-rice casserole and pork chops tomorrow!

Menu/Plan for this week

The ads came yesterday in the mail and Sprouts has some great produce deals that will accomodate some of the new recipes from Cooking Light! I am very excited to try a few. Some of them are really just my regular dishes made more interesting, so hopefully that will go over well with my family.

Here's my list of items that I am planning make next week:
Bacon and broccoli mac and cheese
Spaghetti and meatballs with salad
Pan seared flank steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and butter roasted carrots (weekend meal)
Make-at-home pizza and salad
Pork chops with mushroom gravy, spaetzle, and green beans
Chicken, broccoli, and rice bowl

I may pick up a frozen lasagna just so I can have one brainless night. I also still have the ingredients to make burritos or nachos. ;-)

The vegetables that go with these meals are actually all on sale at Sprouts: green beans and broccoli are 99 cents per pound, mushrooms are 99 cents per package, potatoes are 2 lbs for $1, and I can get a one pound bag of carrots for 99 cents this week. Sprouts also has cucumbers on sale 3 for $1 (remembering that you don't HAVE to buy three) and gala apples for 99 cents per pound. I will also check at Sprouts for the flank steak...they sometimes have ok deals on meat. I have actually done REALLY well this month on grocery spending, so I have a little bit of wiggle room. I can probably splurge a little for a steak dinner this weekend.

That just leaves a little bit more to get at Vons. I still need to check my Just4U savings and see what is on sale this week. I need to get a couple items for lunches (applesauce, yogurt) and then we will be set for next week!

I think that pizza night will be Friday - the kids were looking through the DVD's and saw Princess Bride and asked me about it...sounds like MOVIE NIGHT!

Good luck to you!
--Katie

New ideas, new menus?

I have been out of commission for the past couple days...I must have bent funny or strained a muscle that pinched my sciatic nerve and sent me to my knees. So, I have had lots of time to think about how to change my exercise habits and how to incorporate more healthy eating into my family's routine.

Routine...in fact I need to break free of the routine. Spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, pork chops with sweet potatoes...my go-to meals are starting to feel ordinary. Boring. Bland. It is time to branch out. I have used my kids as the excuse (they may not like the strong flavors, they don't eat that vegetable...heck: *I* don't eat that vegetable!). But establishing adventurous habits now will serve them well in the future!

So here I sit in bed reading my new Cooking Light magazine with renewed interest. I have always enjoyed reading it even if I didn't try the recipes. But now it seems more imperative to use these recipes whenever I am able to get the ingredients inexpensively. And my mouth is watering..."pan-seared flank steak with garlicky asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes"..."butter-roasted carrots"..."hazelnut-crusted halibut with roasted asparagus"... One word: yummy.

Cooking Light has changed slightly in recent times to openly acknowledge that not everyone has a fully-stocked pantry with hours of time to prepare beautiful meals. They highlight kid-friendly recipes, recipes that use convenience foods (like store-bought rotisserie chickens), and healthy but inexpensive meal options. Perfect for someone like me.

So I will embark on a new food adventure. I will let you know how my sometimes-finicky family responds. ;-)

Trip to Vons

I am finally settling into the Vons Just4U program...it was difficult at first to figure out the best procedure to cut coupons because there were these extra personalized savings that weren't part of the coupon matchups that people publish online. But I think I have it all sorted out: start with the matchups, then move to the Vons website and get any extra coupons based on that list. There are coupons that they have on the Vons website that are also in the newspaper, so sometimes I don't have to cut out the manufacturer coupons. I also haven't cut out the Vons coupons from the Tuesday flyers for weeks because they are all on the website and I can load them directly to my card.

So I set myself up to go today and got the following items:
4 Quaker oatmeals, buy one get one, plus $1/3 from PE 2/26 = $8.38
6 Betty Crocker cookie mixes, $1.99 each, plus 6 $0.40/1; The first one doubles to $0.80 = $11.94 - $0.80 - $2 = $9.14
2 Kraft Dressings, personalized price $2.08, $1/2 q = $3.16
3 Welch's Grape Juice, $2.99 each, in-ad coupon for $1 off, $1/1 q = $2.97
4 Rosarita Refries, $0.79 each = $3.16
1 Mission Soft Flour Tortillas, in ad coupon for $0.50/1 = $1.49
2 Cans organic corn kernels, $0.99 each = $1.98
Capri Sun, Personalized price = $0.88!!! (This is not what I expected...would have bought more!)
Jet Puffed marshmallows = $0.99
Starbucks Via iced coffee, $6.99, $1/1 e coupon = $5.99
3 All Laundry detergent, $3.99, $1/1 coupons = $9.97
2 Oscar Meyer Deli meats, $3.99, $1/2 coupon = $4.38
2 Whole Chickens, $0.77/lb = $9.14

Total was $63.56, saved $69.36!

I was pretty happy. When I was checking out, the lady helping me said that Tide detergent and lots of shampoos were going on clearance sometime this week...I don't use Tide, but if you do you might want to stop by tomorrow or the next day to check it out. She didn't indicate WHICH types of shampoos were going to be on sale, so this is when a well organized binder full of CUT coupons helps. I am so far behind on cutting that I have given up for now. But it is working for me. :-)

Good luck to you this week!
--Katie

Shopping at Sprouts and Target and Meal Plan

Today I sat down for a couple minutes and thought about our week. Pretty easy: the kids want pizza at some point, I can work out of my stockpile, and I picked up a couple items yesterday at Target, too.

I printed some Target coupons for $1 off pasta and sauce and $1 off frozen chicken breasts. The Market Pantry brand spaghetti sauce is pretty good and the noodles are noodles (I am not picky about those). They are on sale this week for $1 each, so I got a jar of sauce and a box of thin spaghetti noodles for $1 total after the coupon. I keep Kirkland frozen meatballs in my freezer, and I always have some broccoli, so that's a complete meal for about $3. Not bad!

For our plan this week, since I was able to pick up frozen chicken breasts, I am going to make poppyseed chicken casserole with rice and green beans tonight. Then we'll have burritos/nachos, Pizza night with salad, chicken with Twice Baked Potato Casserole (http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Twice-Baked-Potato-Casserole) and broccoli, spaghetti and meatballs with broccoli, and pork chops with squash-rice casserole (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/squash-rice-casserole-10000000361523/) and sweet potatoes. That squash-rice casserole is actually a Cooking Light recipe and it is a great way to get my kids to eat zucchini.

Sprouts has their zucchini on sale for 88 cents a pound, so I picked up some of those, along with: broccoli at 50 cents a pound; a pineapple for 99 cents; Fuji apples at 88 cents a pound; green seedless grapes at 99 cents a pound; red potatoes at 49 cents a pound; garnet yams at 99 cents a pound; one pound of strawberries for $2.50; a bag of salad for $2.99; a yellow onion at 50 cents a pound; boneless pork chops for $2.48; eggs for $1.50; a bag of Pirate's Booty for $3.50 (!); and frozen blueberries and strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and two packages of Van's whole grain frozen waffles, all on sale 20% off. My grand total was $35.22 (after I used two reusable bags and saved 10 cents off my order). ;-)

I still will need to go to Vons for a few items...their whole chickens are 77 cents a pound this week, so I will get at least one and maybe even two or three. Grilling season is in high gear for us and whole chickens on the grill are so great. I have also cooked one in the crock pot and it turns out really tender and juicy. I also need to pick up some refried beans, but I think that's all I will need unless there is some really good deal on something. ;-) I will let you know how I do. I have only spent about $50 this week on groceries, so I am hoping to limit myself.

What is your plan this week? Good luck to you!
--Katie

Time Changes Stink!

So, here we are on day two of waking up one hour earlier and none of us are adjusted yet. We have had a totally strange several days...

First we took a little excursion to celebrate a birthday with a friend. We played hooky from school and had a great time. Then DD ended up getting sick early in the morning on Friday. Maybe it was the fact we only ate fried foods on Thursday, maybe it was one of those foods that upset her tummy, but she ended up laying on the couch all day on Friday. She finally was feeling better on Saturday afternoon.

Then of course we had to deal with Daylight Savings Time adjustments and it has just been a weird couple of days. Since DD wasn't feeling well, we didn't do normal meals for a couple days. So I still have some veggies in my refrigerator, lots of milk, and some dinners left that I can make. Because of all of this, I haven't done much with meal planning or couponing.

So, it is time to jump on the bandwagon yet again. But I think I am going to change up my schedule a bit. I had been planning to shop on Sundays, but lately just haven't wanted to go to the store those days! I would much rather play and hang out with my family. So I am going to shift my shopping day to Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesdays are double ad days at Sprouts, so you can take advantage of the previous week's sales and this week's sales on the same day. Also, Wednesday is the day after the Vons ads change.

Last week *was* weird, but I did get to make the Chicken Tortilla Soup in the crockpot and that was a winner. I used a taco seasoning packet for the spices, but it was the mild version - I may have to go spicier next time. That was just about the only thing I would change. We actually had lots of leftovers, too, so that helped when we weren't really eating normal meals when DD was sick.

This week, I have enough stuff in my stockpile to make macaroni and cheese with broccoli (meatless meal), spaghetti and meatballs with broccoli or green beans, and maybe even my poppyseed chicken casserole. Once I get a chance to look at the ads this afternoon, then I will make a plan for the end of this week and the beginning of next.

In the meantime, I need more coffee.
Good luck to you!
--Katie

Hanging Laundry to Dry

I have been thinking about ways to eliminate energy use to reduce bills and to just not use energy! It is going to get easier starting tomorrow to keep the lights off at night...

But today I pulled out the umbrella clothes line and hung out the towels and sheets. I purchased one of these great contraptions from Walmart last year for about $30. (Note: yes from Walmart and yes it was made in China. I will say that I researched purchasing an umbrella clothes line that was made in the US, but I was unable to justify a $100 purchase when I wasn't sure if I was going to use it regularly or not!)

With our very dry and hot weather (it starts to feel like the inside of a clothes dryer around the end of April), my clothes, towels, and sheets end up dry in about one hour. Today took a little longer since it was cool and calm. I never put my laundry out on a windy day; I would end up with dirtier clothes and my allergies would flare up!

Hanging clothes to dry is a great way to save energy in a couple of ways. First, you aren't using the energy to dry the clothes. Second, you aren't heating up the house and making your air conditioner work harder.

I actually kind of like going outside to hang up the clothes; the air around the clothes hanger is a couple of degrees cooler from the evaporation and it just is kind of old-fashioned. My kids run around under the clothes and it is fun to stand in there amongst the laundry. The hummingbirds come to see what I am doing and I get a little dose of Vitamin D.

You might have concerns that your laundry ends up stiff. I have an easy solution: I toss my clothes in the dryer for a very short time (5-10 minutes) with a dryer sheet. No stiffness! This can also be an advantage for shirts that usually need to be ironed or with your sheets. You may eliminate your ironing duties (another energy savings).

It can also get your whites "whiter." Sunshine is a great bleaching agent!

You can tell I like it...will you try it out? Let me know! ;-)

--Katie

Weekend projects

I have been volunteering myself for all sorts of fun projects lately and I was able to churn one out this weekend!

DD's teacher had requested that I make her a Dr. Seuss flag for in front of her classroom and I am so excited to give it to her on Monday! It was super easy and not too expensive. I found ripstop nylon at Joann's and had so much fun designing this. Let me know if you want more details... ;-)

Saucony Shoes are Awesome!

I had bought some new running shoes back in September with the hopes that the new kicks would encourage me to at least walk three times a week and maybe even build up to running. I started wearing them to break them in so I could use them during a 5k walk/run at Thanksgiving. Well, they made it that far, but soon developed holes in the sides right where the mesh met the upper at the toes. So there was no way they would last. I could already see my sock peeking through the hole. I was highly disappointed that my old Saucony shoes were in better shape than my new ones!

So, I went out on a limb and submitted a form through their website explaining the problem. They promptly sent a message back telling me to send in the shoes through UPS, they would inspect them, and then they would determine if it really was a defect or if it was normal wear and tear.

Well, I am very happy to report that I received brand new running shoes today! No questions asked. And they sent me a "newer model," presumably because they could see the flaw in the design of the others. ;-) It only took them about two weeks from the day I sent the shoes in!

It never hurts to try! If you really like a product, let them know and they might send you some coupons. If you are unsatisfied with a purchase, let them know.

Good luck to you!
--Katie

Simple Homemade Wheat Bread

I say "simple" meaning two things: simple ingredients and simple to make! There are exactly 6 ingredients in this bread. And I have a Kitchenaid with a dough hook, so I threw it in there and let it run while we were having dinner.

And I just tried it and *I* think it is good, but the true test will be tomorrow when my family tries it!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/honey-wheat-bread-ii/

Trip to Vons

Well, I ended up with more than I had planned on...buy one get one on Quaker oatmeal, Mission tortilla chips, and Kraft shredded cheese (continuing next week too), Dannon Greek yogurt is $1, got bananas for 49 cents a pound, Frosted Mini wheats for $1.99, some snacks, splurged on Starbucks via iced coffee and hot cocoa k-cups, one pound of strawberries for $3, and a couple other items. I technically spent $72.56, but I had some money left on gift cards that I bought last month through DD's school (and that was included in last month's budget). So I really only spent $47.71 (this month). ;-)

Looks like Sprouts has an interesting frozen foods sale next week; I will post later today or tomorrow about that!

Good luck to you!
--Katie

New Price Book from Hip2Save

I just got notification of this blog post from Hip2Save: http://hip2save.com/2012/03/06/what-are-your-grocery-price-points-plus-my-new-printable-spreadsheets/

This looks pretty good! I think I will probably fill in the holes in mine with this list. Haven't had a chance to look at it extensively yet, but it looked pretty comprehensive.

Hope this can help you with your price book. Good luck to you!
--Katie

Plan (or Non-Plan) for This Week

I am calling this a "non-plan" because I think I am going to try my hardest to get only the very essentials at the store this week. We are going to try to eat through some of the items in the pantry and freezer!

I was looking through the freezer just to see what I had so I could start making my list (and to see if I could avoid going to the store) and I found a pork tenderloin I had purchased and some chicken breasts, pork chops, and frankfurters from Omaha Steaks that we had received as a Christmas gift. So I changed my plan; I am going to go to Vons and pick up the following:
Milk
Bread
2 cans of chicken broth
1 can of black beans
Tortilla Chips
Deli meat
AND THAT'S IT!


That will take us through the following meal plan:
We had Spaghetti and Meatballs last night...already had everything I needed for this...;
Pork Tenderloin, Cheddar broccoli (or maybe just plain) rice, broccoli or sweet potatoes;
Chicken Tortilla Soup in Crockpot (kids may have just chicken nuggets and french fries) (http://jonandjenmiller.blogspot.com/2010/09/crockpot-chicken-tortilla-soup.html);
Poppyseed Chicken Casserole (because I just can't get enough!) with rice and broccoli or other veggie;
and Leftovers.

We can always do burritos/nachos one night for a meatless meal, too! I may go to Sprouts and pick up some fresh berries or other fruit depending on what is on sale, and I may need to get some more avocados to eat with the Chicken Tortilla Soup. But I doubt I will get over $100 total for this week! Yay!

AND I still have the frankfurters we can use next week.

I am also participating in a children's consignment sale going on this weekend, so hopefully I will get some earnings from that. Check it out at www.monkeyinthemiddleconsignmentevent.com.

I am hoping I can continue this trend of saving money through the whole month...

On another note, just thought I would mention that the Disney Movie Rewards program is having a promotion right now that if you enter two movie codes you can pick one of three blu-ray movies for free (not including a small charge for shipping). I am a member of this program (I never pass up a rewards program) and had not entered two codes from movies we got at Christmas, so I scored the first Tinkerbell blu-ray for a grand total of about $4!

I hope all this information helps you in your meal planning and shopping...
Good luck to you!
--Katie

CVS deals

I have received notification for a couple of CVS deals that are good this week:

Seems that PediaCare is on sale for $5.99 with a $5 ECB in return (of course, limit 1). There is also an online coupon for $1 off a PediaCare item through their website at http://pediacare.com/coupon.aspx. So you will pay $4.99 out of pocket, but get back $5 in ECB's. ***this is for next week; starts 3/11, but print the coupon now!!!***

Also, make sure if you go in that you scan your card at the red coupon machine at the front of the store: it seems that there are some coupons for a free "convenience pack" of Oreos that are printing. I am assuming a "convenience pack" is a small snack pack, but that's a perfect size for a treat in a lunchbox!

So now I may just have to head over there after all. But I will NOT be purchasing any personal care items. ;-)

 Good luck to you!
--Katie

This week...

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday so far...I was happy to find that my papers had been properly delivered this week (there have been some issues lately) and my LA Times included two Smartsource inserts, a new P&G insert for March, and one Redplum insert. I haven't had a chance to look through them yet, but a new P&G insert is always fun!



I have kind of been MIA over the past couple of days...DH was out of town and then he returned, my birthday was last week, I came up with new craft projects I want to do (of course), and I was just generally REALLY BUSY! I finally had a reprieve yesterday, but a mom's work is never done...the laundry pile was getting a little big.

So today I decided I was going to take a break from shopping for toiletries and personal care items. The CVS game is so fun to play (it is so exciting to get those ECB's!), but we are set for a while with our personal items. This is where a stockpile is nice, especially for those items: I can easily take a month off from shopping and still be fine. So I have some ECB's that are set to expire on March 22. I will wait until then to even think about going again, and then it may only be for Easter candy. ;-)

But, I thought I would suggest looking at couponmom.com to make your plan...looks like there are some good deals on Revlon, Welch's grape juice, Gillette razors, Garnier hair products, and Physician's Formula makeup. I *may* have to go just to get the Arizona Half and Half that I love since it is buy one get one free this week. But that's ALL I am going to get. ;-)

Just looking at couponmom.com and the ads, Vons has a deal for a $10 reward coupon when you spend $75 (easy to do...). You have to use the reward q by the 11th, but still... It also looks like there are good deals on asparagus, Hillshire Farm smoked sausage or bratwurst (great for grilling in the good weather), Cheerios, Foster Farms chicken breast (which is good since I recently used my last frozen chicken breast!), Ribeye steak, Tyson breaded chicken selections, Frosted Flakes, oranges, and coke. I haven't looked at my "Just4U" list yet, so there may be even better deals there. I will post my plan this afternoon.

I also want to note here, since we are approaching Earth Day, that I also consider how my choices at the store affect the environment. I am not obsessing over it, but if I can get produce from the USA and not from South America, that is a huge savings in transportation emissions. Pesticide standards can also be very different in other countries. When I make my menu plan for the week, I include a meatless meal...the production of meat is also a huge drain on resources. I will also admit that I have harbored a long hatred of the Smithfield meat company: their swine processing facility is on the James River in Virginia nearby where I used to live. They continually had serious issues with discharges of waste into the river when we were living there, and I still refuse to buy their products.

You may also want to consider buying organic produce in some cases to both reduce your exposure to pesticides and fertilizers and to encourage the reduction of those chemicals in the agricultural process. You can hit them where it hurts (the wallet) and they respond. This is the reason why there are so many organic choices in your corner grocery store! Take a look at my "Buying 'Green'" page for more guidance on which produce items have the most potential for exposing your family to high levels of agricultural chemicals.

I hope you all are successful in saving money while providing healthy meals to your family...good luck to you!
--Katie