More Budget Stretching Meals and Store Freebies

I want to tell you, everyone should take advantage of responding to the on-line questionnaire when you get a receipt at the store offering you a chance to win Whatever amount of money.  A while back I decided to go to Brookshire Bros. website and do the questionnaire.  Maybe I could get lucky and win the $1000 in gas or groceries.  Well, so far I haven't heard that I won anything big like that, but each week in my e-mail I get a couple of coupons from Brookshire Bros. and some yummy looking recipes.  Each week one coupon is for a FREE item.  Of course, you have to buy $10 worth of groceries to get the freebie, but when shopping the other specials in the store there is no problem getting a $10 order.  So far, I have gotten an appliance light bulb, a good sized container of Organic Chicken Broth, a large can of Cream of Mushroom soup and one of Cream of Chicken Soup, all for FREE. I have a coupon for this week for a 1 lb. chub of Angus Pride Ground Chuck.  I will be shopping at Brookshire Bros. Monday or Tuesday to take advantage of that.
Also last Saturday, I had a had a coupon for $2 off any package of Swift All Natural Pork.  It turns out the Swift Pork Country Ribs were on sale.  I was able to use the coupon and get an even better bargain.  With the $2 off, I got almost 4.5 lbs of meat for $6.33 or only $1.42 per lb.  The sale price was $1.88/lb which was a good deal anyway.

Monday's are usually Super Busy and Hectic to say the least. Makes for an excellent CrockPot cooking Day.  Because of procrastinating, or just plain taking off on Sunday there is a lot of routine housework to do, and then  I have a TOPS meeting and weigh-in, try to work out at Curves, see after Mimi, tutor after school time, shop at HEB since I'm in Lumberton anyway, and so on. Anyway, on Monday morning I pulled out the crockpot and set the Ribs to cooking.   I put salt, pepper,  and marjoram on the meat and seared it in the cast iron skillet before putting it in the crockpot. I added about half the bottle of Barbeque Sauce--happened to be honey mustard flavor, but have used most any kind--to the top of the meat. I then added the onion soup mix on top of the meat and put about 1/2 of the container of Chicken Broth in the crock pot.  I started it out on high then turned it to low and let it cook.  I was not sure if it might be too salty with the chicken broth and the onion soup mix and having salted the meat also, but it turned out delish. 

Crockpot Pork Ribs on a Budget

I baked some sweet potatoes in the microwave and by mid afternoon, we had a yummy meal of pork ribs and sweet potatoes.  I got the sweet potatoes before Christmas when they were like 17 cents a pound. Unfortunately, I should have gotten more as they are all gone now.  (Hubby did cut some sprouts off to plant in his container garden on the front porch, though.)  Anyway, the meat and the potatoes were fantastic.

And with this package of meat, we ate at least 3 full meals during the week.  One day, I made mashed potatoes to go with it. and had steamed some fresh broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.  Another day, I fixed rice which we mixed with the gravy and what meat was left.  I think we even made sandwiches out of it once.
Sometime during the week, I fried okra.  I use the frozen cut okra when fresh okra is not in season. Another time I fried up some fresh squash that I had left in the fridge.

I hope everyone can benefit by getting the on-line coupons just by responding to a quick questionnaire.
Happy Cooking!