Month: April 2015

Monday Night Goal Post (yes, it’s Tuesday morning, but how nitpicky do we really need to be here?)

This week I am really trying to work out of the pantry and freezer because I’ve got a quarter of a cow showing up here soon and need the freezer space and my pantry is a shambles.  Boy was recently pondering our storage possibilities and told me he thought we could toss the entire pantry because ‘it’s full of stuff we never eat, so let’s put other stuff there’.

Sure. Let’s do that.  Lego with marinara will surely work out.

This week’s plan, barring remodeling:

  • Mon: sandwiches,leftovers, and white beans with escarole and Italian sausage
  • Tues: chicken pot pie, fruit and garden salad
  • Wed: bbq chicken mac and cheese, fruit & veg
  • Thurs: baked deviled eggs, garden salad, grits
  • Fri: Taco Tuesday on Freedom Friday. My kids swear this is funny. I don’t get it.

Things I’m using that are on sale are the Italian sausage, chicken thighs for the pot pie, lettuce and tomatoes for the salad, and the eggs are Easter eggs that the kids can finally start to part with.  Yes, we’re weirdos that eat the dyed eggs because we can. 

That’s how Cheepie rolls. Let me know how you’re rolling this week!

Dinner Score, Week 22

 I hear you. I know. Where’s Week 21? How can I just leave it back there, unscored and unloved?  What kind of cruel mayhem is being wrought?

In the interest of looking forward I’m just abandoning it. The Internet Accountability Project has survived larger hits than this, and I know we’ll muddle through somehow.  We’ll just put it down to Spring Fever and get on with our bad selves.  The Complaint Department looks forward to your letters.

Here’s the goal, as a reminder:

  • Mon:  baked chicken leg quarters, grapes, broccoli, spinach salad with strawberries, potato salad
  • Tues: fried rice, egg drop soup, apples, frozen veg.photo 1
  • Wed: fresh pasta with sausage, onions and peppers, Caesar salad, fruit, 
  • Thurs: BBQ chicken wings, rice, peas, fruit
  • Fri:  pizza, fruit, salad

The actual:

  • Mon: see above (benefits of writing after eating. 3 points.

    photo 2

    Look how pretty!

  • Tues: pork fried rice, carrots, apples, cooked spinach. 3 points.
  • Wed: ziti with peppers and sausage, Caesar salad, grapes. 3 points.
  • Thurs:  P Terry’s. 0 points.
  • Fri: Leftover Buffet! 1 point.

The end of the week was a bit of a mistake, but I rocked the beginning of the week.  

Everyone ate the pasta dish on Wednesday, even though there were vegetables touching meat touching noodles!  Tiny wasn’t thrilled about it, and separated everything, but I was a happy camper.  One pot dishes are my favorites. Along with crockpot dishes. And things grilled in foil packets. And casseroles.  I may have a problem in this area, so we’ll just agree I like a lot of things and move on to the scoring.

10 points is a good week. A solid B- or so. I was happy with the meals, and even Friday was a plus to me because we’d stacked up a lot of leftovers and it’s nice to not cook for a night.  It was also a frugal week because nearly everything was either in my house already or was a sale item. Cheepie is a fan of weeks where that happens!

I’ve slipped a good bit on the goal of having Boy and Tiny each take a night to cook dinner.  The effort required to walk them through it at the end of the day was a drain at the end of the day that had me losing my patience, which wasn’t helping them learn how to put a meal together but more learning how to get out of my way.  While that is an important skill, it’s not the one I was hoping they’d learn. So we’ll keep trying, and I’ll note when they are involved and how it worked out.

Cheep Cheep!

Trader Joe’s Silly Thing This Week

Chorizo is a many-defined thing. It can be splendorous, and it can be a weird plastic tube of salivary glands and seasoning that you’re supposed to smush out into a hot pan and hope for the best.

Traditionally, a sausage is a way to use up the random bits left over after you’ve secured the good cuts–the little trims, possibly organs (hello boudin!), cheek meat (before it became popular) and whatever else seemed like a good plan at the time.  Chorizo seasoning is a peppery paprika blend of things that is, to me, the downright best part of a breakfast taco. It’s bullish enough to cover a multitude of sins, including organ meat that might otherwise be thought a slippery greasy mess, but only if that mess is balanced with actual meat that has texture.

I am here to tell you that it’s not always the case that the chorizo makers that make the products available in the store have followed my simple rule. Ever thrown out a pan of food? Go ahead and buy the cheapest chorizo at the market.  Squish it into the pan, and tell me if you decided to crack eggs over that, or toss it and hit Taco Cabana.  I’ve got an iron stomach, and even typing that brings back images that do not make Cheepie happy.

Which is why, for a change, I’m liking my Silly Thing this week. Cheap chorizo should Screen shot 2015-04-10 at 9.40.35 PMobviously be soy–it’s hugely assertively seasoned, the cheap bits that used to make it are now much pricier, and all we’re doing is mixing it into tacos. This isn’t Spanish chorizo, for slicing on a pretty cheese plate–this is Mexican chorizo that is not even a sausage except for that people keep putting it in plastic tubes! Why do we do that? A grocery mystery.

I’m not giving up on meat chorizo, but at $1.99 for 12oz, you’re going to have enough to make extra tacos for the freezer, which will save you one morning from the Krispy Kreme. Pork chorizo costs twice that or more, and it’s good, too. It’s just not my funny thing this week.

Soy Chorizo, for when you’re all done with salivary glands and paprika!

 Thank you TJ’s!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

Are you still in an Easter Candy Coma? Snap out of it–it’s a new ad week and there’s shopping to be done!

moonstruck-snap-out-of-it-o

I’ve got cheese and Blue Bell in my freezer, and this week I’m hoping to make a start on getting fruit frozen for the smoothies and fruit pops my kids will eat all summer long. There are strawberries and blackberries for a good price at HEB this week, so those’ll be first in the freezer. Given Austin is eight months of summer, keeping the freezer full of fruit is key to avoiding daily trips to the sno-cone stand!

Also great this week is another cheese sale at Sprouts. Fiesta has potatoes for just under 20c/lb, and chicken legs on their deep discount.

Sprouts (last week’s good through today)

Halo mandarins, 2lb sack                    $1.98/ea

red or green leaf lettuce                       48c/lb

D’Anjou pears                                         48c/lb

organic Red Delicious apples             $1.50/lb (DD)

organic kale bunches                           88c/ea (DD)

bulk cut Monterey Jack cheese          $1.99/lb

bscb                                                         $1.79/lb

Sprouts thick-sliced bacon                 $2.99/lb

Beyond Meat Chicken-free Strips       B1G1

Fri-Sun ONLY:

corn                                                                                       25c/ea (C15)

boneless skinless chicken thighs                                    $1.49/lb

reduced-sodium turkey breast cold cuts, pre-pack    $3.99/lb

Fiesta

drumsticks, jumbo bag                             69c/lb (Fiesta Limit)

russet potatoes, 10lb sack                     $1.97/ea (DD)

Red Delicious apples                                49c/lb (DD)

Fiesta brand vegetable oil, gallon          $4.99/ea

Anatina brand pasta, 32oz                       99c/ea

HEB

mangoes                                                                          33c/ea (C15)

strawberries, 1lb                                                           87c/ea (DD)

Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apples               77c/lb (DD)

blackberries, 6oz                                                            87c/ea

County Post drums or thighs                                     $1/lb

Screen shot 2015-04-07 at 11.23.57 PM

Randalls

Skinner pasta, 12oz.                        79c/ea

Kellogs cereals, various                 $1.99/ea (when you buy 4)

Wheatsville

Field Day organic broth, 32oz. box      $1.99/ea

Nutiva organic coconut manna            $7.99/ea

MORE CHEESE! It used to be that Sprouts had a different cheese each week at $1.99/lb. They stopped that ages ago (3 years by the flyer blurb). This is the second week in a row they’ve gone back to it, and I hope it is a resurrection of a regular pattern.  I’ve got about 10 lbs of cheddar in the freezer, and I’ll likely add at least 5 of jack to that. Quesadillas for YOU! and YOU! and YOU!

If you’re in the mood for a party, Fiesta’s got live crawfish for $1.59/lb by the sack. Sacks are usually big, about 50 lbs, so make sure you have a lot of hungry friends, or go smaller for $1.79/lb. This is much cheaper than HEB’s $2.79/lb. 

There we go, Cheepsters. Another week, more grocery sales. I hope you find things you want to stock up on–and if you do let me know what you decided was the deal you had to have!

Cheep cheep!

Monday Night Goal Post

I’m doing the plan post before the score post–just this side of criminal behavior. But I really didn’t want to let the plan post get to Tuesday again. It’s so cheating when we’ve already eaten the plan.

So, quick and dirty, here it is:

photo

lemon pepper thighs cooked up nicely!

Mon:  baked chicken leg quarters, grapes, broccoli, spinach salad with strawberries, potato salad

Tues: fried rice, egg drop soup, apples, frozen veg.

Wed: fresh pasta with sausage, onions and peppers, Caesar salad, fruit, 

Thurs: BBQ chicken wings, rice, peas, fruit

Fri:  pizza, fruit, salad

Sale items I’m using this week are the chicken leg quarters, grapes, strawberries, potatoes, and sausage.  Shopping the sales this week had me pondering whether I should get my act together and write up a grocery budget.  It’s one of those things I always mean to do, but never get around to. Like printing out a weekly schedule so we all know what’s happening every day–it’s smart, not too tricky, and should happen, but I just don’t do it.

Do any of you work with a weekly grocery budget? Monthly? Do you plan out meals, or do you plan on shopping sales and then making plans? I’d love to hear how you deal with this. I know my ‘shop sales when I have time and also then buy bread and milk’ plan is not the most effective!

Trader Joe’s Silly Thing This Week

This week’s silly thing is the kind of thing that might only bug me.

It’s water, with minerals added, which is then filtered, and then electrolysed to raise the pH.

I worked in a lab. I had a reverse osmosis filter to take care of. I electrolysed things. I

it's just water

it’s just water

know what a pH is.  This description has me googling to make sure my brain didn’t somehow forget how electricity works. Or how water works. Or how words work.

My kids have bottled water brand preferences. They only know this from truckstops, since at home we drink tap water (hell-o algae bloom! nice to see you again!). So I am not a connoiseur of fine bottled water.

But I do know that if you add minerals to water, and then run it through a R/O filter, you’re pretty much undoing the ‘adding of minerals’ part of your plan.  The electrolysis of the water may very well be raising the pH of the water but raising the level of ions 2.5 orders of magnitude is something that is more often accomplished by adding, well, additives.

Googling this led me down a lot of snake-oil paths of hooey, and now all my internet browsing is going to be littered with deionizer ads, ionizer ads, and lots of water filter ads.This is what I do for you, my Cheepsters.

99c/liter, and $1.29/1.5L are both reasonable prices for bottled water ( though the larger size is clearly the winner, unit-price-wise) whatever the ion count.

Shop Well, Cheepsters!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

CHEESE!  Cheese is one of those things I spend a lot of time thinking about.

Not only how to eat it (melted? spread? baked? fried?), but how to buy it.  Sliced, shredded, bricks, sticks? The general basic price I think of as my max per pound is $4. Get higher than that, and I’m ignoring you, whether you’re shredded, fancy, or Brie.  Well, maybe not you St. André. You’re special.

This week? This week Sprouts has cheddar cheese for $1.99 per pound, which has not happened in a few years.

mmmmMMMmmmm

mmmmMMMmmmm

Cheese freezes well, as long as you’re not planning on using it for pretty slices since it becomes a bit crumbly.  At this price, I’m going to be buying quite a lot.

Fiesta’s got Blue Bell for $3.99 again. Limit 2, but you can go every day! I would write more about this, but I’m still too excited about the cheese.

And finally, hams are already being marked down at the Randalls near me, as you know if you’re following me on Facebook. A cryovacked ham will freeze just fine (despite it just having been thawed by the store), and you can eat it later if you’re already all hammed up.

Randalls–see note below about dates

Gold Medal Flour,5 lb                                 $1.99/ea

C&H Cane Sugar, 4 lb                                $1.99/ea

Sprouts (last week’s ad still in effect on Wednesday!)

red seedless grapes                                          98c/lb (DD)Screen shot 2015-03-31 at 11.33.04 PM

pineapples                                                         98c/ea (C15)

mangoes                                                           48c/ea (C15)

red bell peppers                                               48c/ea (DD)

organic vine ripe tomatoes                                98c/lb

bulk cut mild cheddar                                      $1.99/lb

boneless skinless chicken thighs                    $1.69/lb

country style bone-in pork ribs                        $1.69/lb

organic romaine, red or green leaf lettuce      $1.50/ea (DD)

organic pears                                                   $1.50/lb

Fiesta

russet potatoes, 5 lb. sack                                        99c/ea

pork spare ribs                                                         $1.99/lb (Fiesta Limit)

beef brisket, whole in bag                                       $2.99/lb (Fiesta Limit)

bscb                                                                        $1.99/lb (Fiesta Limit)

Birds Eye frozen vegetables, 16 oz.                         99c/ea

Screen shot 2015-03-31 at 11.35.45 PMBlue Bell,half gallon, limit 2                                     $3.99/ea

Land O Lakes butter, 1 lb.                                      $2.99/ea

organic Red Delicious apples                                   99c/lb (DD)

HEB

strawberries, 1 lb.                                                      97c/ea (DD)

asparagus                                                               $1.48/lb (C15)

Halos mandarins,3lb sack.                                     $3.98/ea

corn                                                                           25c/ea (C15)

green pears, Gala apples,tangelos                          87c/lb

organic hot-house cucumbers                                $2.50/ea (DD)

BBQ or lemon pepper chicken leg quarters             77c/lb

Smithfield shank or butt portion ham                      $1.47/lb

Market Fresh sausage links                                    $2.97/lb

Last week: I’d listed apples at HEB as 50c/lb, when they were 50c/ea. Sorry about that! If it’s any consolation, I went there fully expecting 50c/lb, and had some all bagged up before I realized my error.

Randalls:  They’re either having a holiday change of sales schedule or shifting to a calendar sale week. This current ad runs from 3/29 to 4/5.