Month: February 2015

Happy Ad Wednesday!

It’s Valentine’s week, so to get your usual shopping done you’ll be wading through a lot of flowers and hearts.  Good luck and stay strong, you need milk, bread, and some salad, and must not be swayed by orchids, tulips, or Whitman Samplers!

For some reason stores think everyone likes to make surf-n-turf on Valentine’s Day, and they put steaks and shellfish on sale. Here’s a short roundup of lobster sales, in case you’re like me and want to make lobster bisque. Or lobster mac and cheese. Or a lobster roll. Hm. Do you want to invite me over?  We would get along swell.

  • lobster tails:  4oz @ Randalls for $5.99
  • whole cooked lobsters: 16-20 oz @  Fiesta for $7.99
  • lobster tails: 4-5oz $5.97 each @  HEB

Sprouts has organic apples for under a buck a pound, and stone fruits are back at 98c/lb as well. It’s early for them though, so check what you’re buying.  Their cheddar cheese at $2.99/lb is also a steal.  And Fiesta’s got stock up Blue Bell pricing again, so make room in the freezer!

HEB

strawberries, 1 lb.                                                $1.25/ea (DD)

xl Hass avocados                                                  $1.50/ea  (C15)

xl Red Delicious apples                                        48c/lb   (DD)

assorted pork chops, bone in                              $1.97/lb

HEB brand deli-shaved lunchmeat, 16 oz.          $3.97/ea

chicken thighs or drumsticks                                     $1/lb

Randalls

asparagus                                                         $1.49/lb

Honey Bunches of Oats and other cereals        $1.99/ea

Friday only:

Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup                         50c/ea

Quaker Life cereal, 13oz.                                  $1.67/ea

Bird’s Eye and Green Giant frozen vegetables     $1/ea

Sprouts

Halos mandarins, 5lb box                                    $3.98/ea

pineapples                                                             98c/ea

plums, peaches and nectarines                           98c/lb (DD)

organic Braeburn apples                                      98c/lb (DD)

mild cheddar cheese                                           $2.99/lb

chicken breast tenders                                        $1.99/lb

bulk oats, quick, rolled or steel cut                       69c/lb

organic lettuce                                                 $1.50/ea

organic baby carrots, 1 lb. bag                       $1.50/ea

thick-sliced bacon                                               $3.99/lb

Fiesta

Bluebell, half gallons                                          $4.50/ea

red or green seedless grapes                           $1.99/lb  (DD)

chicken tenders                                                 $1.88/lb (Fiesta Limit)

Eddy rope sausage, 2.5lb pack                        $4.79 (Fiesta Limit)

pork brisket, whole                                            $1.99/lb

chicken leg quarters, family pack                        88c/lb

Blue Ribbon long grain rice, 2 lbs.                     99c/ea

the other guys:

Wheatsville

Knudsen organic juice, 32oz.                               $3/ea

Blue Sky natural soda, 6-pack                             $3/ea

Whole Foods

organic red bell peppers                                     98c/ea (DD)

organic kale                                                     $1.50/ea  (DD)

Trader Joe’s

sardines in Harissa, 4.4 oz.                              $1.29   Sardines in Harissa

The online flyer for TJs is arranged for leisurely browsing, with each product getting it’s own clickable box you need to click and look at to see the price. Today, I chose to click this.  Tiny fish in a tin, in a Harissa sauce, can be yours for the low low price of $1.29. 

If you get some, please tell me what you did with them.  I’m curious. Not enough to go get some, but in a mild ‘do-you-put-them-on-Triscuits?’ kind of way.

Go forth and shop, Cheepsters! Let me know if you find any super deals I missed!

Week 14 Plan Post

I can’t top the perfect score from last week, and I was tempted to go ahead and plan a week of cereal and sandwiches in order to rig at least a decent score as a follow-up. But that would be cheating on the Internet Dinner Accountability Plan.  Cheating to get imaginary self-imposed internet points seems a terrible legacy to leave my children, so I’ll stick with a regular week of meat/side/fruit/raw veg/cooked veg and hope for the best.

Given we’ve had Monday dinner already, that’s a head start.  Refrigerator buffet was a pretty slow go, but everyone has those days where you just make do with what’s leftover. The benefit is everyone gets what they want–bean and cheese tacos? Sure! Osso bucco and bread? Of course. Salad and pork tenderloin? Aren’t you the healthy eater!  Was there a party this weekend? Yes there was, leftover veggies and ranch for all!  The plus of being able to choose what you like seems to balance the possible dreary aspect of leftovers.

So here goes Week 14:

  • Mon: Refrigerator Buffet
  • Tue:  chicken soup, rolls, garden salad, apples.
  • Wed:  Prince Spaghetti Day! pasta, sausage, caesar salad, blackberries.
  • Thur:  pork fried rice, pineapple, snap peas.
  • Fri:  macaroni and cheese, fruit, veg.

This is not an exciting menu, but we’ve got an excitable week here at House Cheepie.  Boy is going to a dance, Eldest has got a lot of after school things going on, and Tiny? Tiny is all hopped up on sugar after the first day of a week-long Valentine candy situation. So she’s excited.

This week’s plan is things I could make in my sleep. Good things, that some of us like, that are dead simple.  The sale items I’m using are: chicken, apples, blackberries, pineapple and pork.

I’ll post the sale round-up tomorrow.  If you’ve got some standard go-to dinners that you put in your ‘I can make this out of what’s in the house in about a half hour’ file, I’d love to hear them.

Unless it’s eggs. Believe me, I’ve done pretty much everything to eggs and all anyone around here wants is scrambled.  I’ve made Eggs in Clouds, and been denied the applause due an egg magician of this caliber of EggDom. 

It is a perfect savory meringue pillowing a lovely egg yolk (/gordonramsay). Look at how perfect that is!  So pretty. And fluffy. But I can’t eat four of them when people abdicate in favor of peanut butter toast.

Tiny was a baby when I tried this, and gave her egg a solid go, as she did all food. She’s still the most adventurous eater.

So, if you have non-egg based dinners that you haven’t ever seen on my meal plan lists, I’d love to see them in the comments.

Cheep Cheep!

Sunday Night Goal Post

Football season is over, do I need a new sports metaphor to use for the title of these posts? I’ll have to consider it. Given I have enough trouble just getting the meals out, I’m not sure I should put any neural power on the task, but the brain wants to ponder what the brain wants to ponder.  

The plan:

  • Mon:  baked chicken breasts, couscous, caesar salad, berries and apples, cauliflower
  • Tues:  Taco Tuesday. beef tacos, beans, pico de gallo, queso, apples, carrots
  • Wed:  Prince Spaghetti Day.  salmon ravioli, spinach salad, fruit
  • Thurs:  tomato soup and grilled cheese,  fruit, veg
  • Fri:  Family Crafty Night. coconut chicken on rice, fruit, veg

The actual:

  • Mon: baked chicken breasts, couscous, caesar salad, berries and apples, cauliflower. (love writing the plan after Monday dinner!). 3 points.photo 1
  • Tues: beef tacos, beans, rice, shredded cheese, carrots, apples. 3 points.photo 2
  • Wed: pesto fettucine, salmon ravioli, spinach salad with tomatoes and avocado, carrots, berries. 3 points.
  • Thurs: tomato soup, nachos with queso, sugar snap peas, plums. 3 points.
  • Fri:  coconut chicken on rice, snap peas, sautéed zucchini, mushrooms and carrots, grapes, cauliflower. 3 points.

Well, look at that! Just look.

After 13 weeks, I completely won dinner!  All dinners involved a balanced meal. All followed the plan. All were eaten by a majority of the family.  Over three months in, and the plan and reality finally merged.

I’m just going to bask in the joy here for a bit and do the meal plan tomorrow. It’s not every day I get to give myself 15 imaginary internet dinner points AND post a link to one of the best shows of the 1980s.

Cheep on, Cheepsters!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

This week is a good sale week. 

Citrus is cheap again, with oranges and grapefruit going for a song. Sprouts has conventional apples for 33c/lb, which is  the cheapest I’ve seen it since starting the blog. 

Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs are under $2/lb at the four main chains, so if your freezer is looking bare, then you can stock up now.

Don’t forget that pork picnic is different than shoulder, and that you’ve got a thicker skin and porkier flavor to deal with. Still good, and cheap, and goes a long way, but different.

Fiesta

bscb                                                $1.79/lb (Fiesta limit)

whole pork picnics                          $1.19/lb (Fiesta limit)

blackberries, 6oz.                           $2/ea

pork blade steaks                           $1.99/lb (see NOTE)

Fiesta long grain rice, 4lb sack      $1.77/ea

russet potatoes, 5lb sack               $1.69/ea (DD)

Saturday only!

Texas juice oranges, 5lb          $1.99/ea

Texas grapefruit                       6/$1  (that’s 17c each!)

Southern Hen Wings, 5lb. bag         $5.99/ea  (hen wings? never seen this. but $1.20 for wings is very cheap, and if you’re okay portioning them and use the tips for stock? this is a great deal)

Fiesta bacon, 24oz.                         $3.99/ea   (see NOTE)

Bumble Bee  tuna, 5 oz.                     59c/ea

El Charro Queso Fresco, 10 oz.      $1.99/ea

Nature’s Own Butter Bread                99c/ea  (limit 2)

Key limes, 2lb sack                         $1.99/ea

HEB

large gold pineapple                             $1.98/ea (C15)

green pears, Gala apples                         88c/lb  (apples DD)

bscb                                                       $1.99/lb

organic Gala Apples, 2lb sack              $2.78/ea  (that’s $1.39lb for organic!)

blueberries, pint                                    $1.77/ea

Randalls

bscb or thighs                                       $1.99/lb  (thighs cheaper at Sprouts, breasts at Fiesta, but with minimum purchase)

And that’s it. Randalls, you’re going to get a pointed post of your own this week.

Sprouts

Fuji apples                                              33c/lb  (DD)

red or green bell peppers                      33c/ea  (DD)

cantaloupes                                          88c/ea  haven’t seen these in a bit! (C15)

yellow onions                                        33c/lb  (C15)

organic celery                                          98c/ea (DD)

Sprouts Extra Virgin Olive oil, 1 ltr.       $6.99/ea

Monterey Jack Cheese                         $2.99/lb

boneless skinless chicken thighs         $1.79/lb

Kettle brand chips, 5oz.                       $1.50/ea  (this is a stock up price, if you won’t eat them all when you get home!)

Notes

Pork blade steaks are $1.99/lb this week at Fiesta. These aren’t ‘steaks’ in the way you buy beef, and aren’t chops either. I’ve never found a good way to cook them. I’ve grilled, broiled, sautéed and sauced, and they’re always tough.  I finally decided the thing to do was roast them, and use the meat in other dishes like pork fried rice.  So look at this package when you buy it and think about how you cook.  Does what you know about meat give you a clue here? If you’ve got better ideas than mine I’d love to hear them.  I have com to believe this is how they ditch the cheap bits before consigning the carcass to grind.

Fiesta bacon for $2.66/lb. It’s a good price, but look at it when you buy it. if you like thick meaty bacon, this is not your bacon. It’s usually cut very thin, and is very fatty.  If you want good bacon slices for breakfast, this bacon might disappoint.  If you want bacon crumbles, and bacon fat for cooking, this is a great thing to buy.

Mail Report:

Well, all I can say is that I find the timing suspect. I start a blog that would be simpler to do with the timely delivery of circulars I’ve received in the mail for a decade. Within a month, those circulars stop arriving in any sort of usual timeframe, and then cease.

It’s like the Post Office wants me to learn to write a webscraper than can deal with pdfs. Since I’m still on baby steps learning Spanish on DuoLingo, I’m going to have to wait on that, at least until I can navigate the Mexican meat market with more authority (NOT a euphemism for anything)(seriously)(get your mind on the groceries at hand).

Until next time, Cheepsters!

Monday Night Goal Post

While I am trying to make sure these go up on Sunday, my life is conspiring against me. It’s possible that I’ll have to permanently shift the Sunday Night Goal Post to Monday, but for now I’m continuing to view it as an aberration. 

As with the Happy Ad Tuesday post, I’m trying not to see this as a failure, but simply an adapting of the blog to my actual life.  The blocks of time I have free to compose a post are when they are, and I’ve got to use what I can.

This week will have a head start, since I’ve already fed dinner to people, meaning I’ll get all the points for Monday.  Whoop!  I’ll add a challenge to a later weeknight to balance it out.  See if you can spot it.

Sale items this week that I’m using are: apples, bone-in chicken breasts, and avocados.

  • Mon:  baked chicken breasts, couscous, caesar salad, berries and apples, cauliflower
  • Tues:  Taco Tuesday. beef tacos, beans, pico de gallo, queso, apples, carrots
  • Wed:  Prince Spaghetti Day.  salmon ravioli, spinach salad, fruit
  • Thurs:  tomato soup and grilled cheese,  fruit, veg
  • Fri:  Family Crafty Night. coconut chicken on rice, fruit, veg

I’m feeling good about two weeks of good scores.  This week Eldest has a lot of school commitments, and Tiny is doing booths for selling cookies for Girl Scouts, so there are scheduling concerns.  With luck it’ll all work out!

Cheep Cheep!

Dinner Score, Week 12

For everyone that’s had their mind clouded with cholesterol and poor choices since the Super Bowl, here’s the plan for last week:

  • Mon: beef curry w/rice, spinach, berries
  • Tue:  baked chicken thighs, fruit, veg, carrot sticks
  • Wed:  Prince Spaghetti Day!
  • Thur: osso bucco, polenta, broccoli, fruit
  • Fri:  Fish Fry!

Nothing crazy, no wild ambition to go all Hell’s Kitchen and make a Beef Wellington so Gordon Ramsay can holler about soggy pastry.  Let’s go to the videotape:

  • Mon: beef curry w/rice, berries, cucumber and carrot sticks. 3 points.
  • Tue:  baked chicken thighs, spinach, grapes, cauliflower.  3 points.
  • Wed:  out with friends to fried things and sunshine. 1 point.
  • Thur: homemade pasta, meatballs, caesar salad, apples. 3 points.
  • Fri:  hot dogs, cauliflower, raw vegetable, strawberries, s’mores. 2 points.

photo 1 photo 2 photo 3

A 12 pointer! That’s a good week.  One meal shifted (spaghetti day), and one changed (minus osso bucco, add hot dog), but over all the week went as expected.  The osso bucco got moved to the weekend, and  the original night out was planned as a Fish Fry night turned into a different night out with friends.

Monday night’s dinner was the funny curry sauce I bought at Fiesta and tweeted about. What, you don’t follow CheepieAustin on Twitter? Why not?  If it’s just because you don’t do Twitter, that’s not a good reason. I don’t do Twitter either, as evidenced by the facts that I feel compelled to capitalize it, I often forget to hashtag, and I’m being followed by more than one racecar driver for reasons deeply unclear to me.

That sauce is not going to be a favorite.  It’s not even in the running. It’s a kind of fruity horrifying thing, and the fact that  I laughed at  the tagline ‘just add mutton’ was less funny once my house smelled like this stuff!  It was very odd. 

Friday night was originally a night out for fried catfish and hushpuppies.  The remix to hot dogs was the result of Tiny wanting to cook her dinner over a fire in the fireplace, since it’d gotten so chilly out.  It was a good plan, but the fire Boy built was so hot that nobody could stand in front of it long enough to cook a hot dog, so a kitchen assist was necessary.  By the time s’mores were needed, the fire had burnt down a bit, thank goodness.

Overall I’m pleased with the week.  Let’s hope I can say the same next week!

Cheep Cheep!