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!

Cooking on a Budget --or "making something out of nothing"

I have really enjoyed cooking (and eating) last night and today. While I'm not a great cook, I think I do pretty good.  And I do enjoy cooking and baking. Pies are my favorite thing to bake (and eat). Probably my forte in the kitchen though is putting together a tasty, somewhat balanced meal with what's on hand and doing it quickly.  I was doing 30 minute meals way before Rachael Ray was popular. Albeit, probably not as fancy as hers. Truthfully, I usually have a lot on hand that I've bought when it was "on sale".  We study the grocery store ads each week and often go to 3 different stores to stock up on the "sale items" that we use regularly.  Throw in a few coupons for further savings and we are able to eat well on a limited budget. I seldom buy items that are not on sale, unless it is staples we have run out of or something I need to make a particular dish.
I sometimes make planned-overs, also.  That is left-overs or extra food that is deliberately planned to make a different second meal.
Sometimes I tell hubby that a meal is "made from nothing".  His response is " I'm glad we had 'nothing' to make it out of."
Today I made Chicken Soup. This is one of my "something from nothing meals".  Truthfully,  I didn't intend to make Chicken Soup this week, but the Chicken Breast I got out of the freezer yesterday turned out to be the bones and skins that I had saved for soup stock. You see, when Chicken breasts are on sale for $1 per lb. I buy several packages.  I then cut the skin and bones off, leaving boneless skinless chicken breast which I put in appropriate sized packages  to freeze for use in various dishes calling for boneless skinless chicken breast.   I put the bones and skins in another package to use for soup stock. Or sometimes I cook it right then and make soup or put the stock in the freezer.

Anyway, I put the chicken on to boil after supper last night.  I put in sea salt, black  pepper, savory, some chopped bay leaf, a couple of stalks of celery, about 3/4 of an onion I had already peeled in the fridge, a small carrot chopped in large pieces and covered it all with water.  I brought it to a boil and simmered it covered for several hours. I was gone for short time and when I came back in, the house smelled so good.  Told Hubby we should start a cafe.  The smells would be so attractive.  The food might not be the best, but the aroma, ummmm!
This morning early, I removed all the bones and skin.  There was 3 to 4 cups of meat and veggies to put back in the stock.  Later, I added a can of mixed vegetables, a can of diced tomatoes, and a couple of packages of Ramen Noodles with the seasoning pack and voila! Chicken soup.  We like to crush the noodles into tiny pieces in the package before adding them to the boiling broth.  Sometimes I have fresh frozen tomatoes from a local garden, but since those are all gone, we had to revert to canned ones. Also sometimes I use frozen mixed veggies.  It just depends on what I have on hand.  In any case, the canned or frozen foods have been bought on sale and ramen noodles are cheap, cheap, so the whole big pot of soup costs very little.  This chicken soup turned out so, so yummy. I will definitely stick with the sea salt and the particular herbs I used. We ate some for lunch with whole wheat crackers and I took some to Mimi.  Then late afternoon Paul and  each had a second bowlful. UMMM Good. There is still enough for another meal.  I may freeze it to use sometime when I don't have time to cook or we may eat it tomorrow.

For supper, I pulled 2 Tombstone pizzas out of the freezer and into the oven. Added a green salad and we had a real treat for a Friday night meal and avoided the expense of going out.  I got the pizza recently on a special of 4 for $10.  We will have left over pizza for breakfast too.

We had ham for Christmas dinner.  Last week, I took the ham bone which still had a lot of ham on it and made 15 bean soup.  I buy the package of 15 bean soup mix for that. It includes a seasoning packet and has the instructions on the package.  We really enjoyed that also. I know it sounds like we do a lot of soup, but say hey, it is winter and a good bowl of hot soup is real comfort food. Of course, you could stretch the dollars a bit more by buying pinto beans or navy beans or whatever you like and seasoning them up yourself, but no more often than we have ham with the bone I sort of splurge and get the 15 bean soup package.
Happy Cooking Everyone---

This was actually written a week or so ago. I just now got the pictures put together, but hey that's okay.
Meantime I have enjoyed shopping,cooking and we have enjoyed eating a lot more good food.
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