Spicy Cabbage Soup

Can you tell I cooked this morning?

One thing that can help you stretch your budget is starting a pot of soup while cooking something else. Especially anything which:

• takes a while to cook
• uses veggies
• required chopping with your food processor

So, while making cabbage rolls I decided to throw on a pot. I used the left over cabbage pieces (raw) put through the food processor. I also threw in carrots, a can of spicy tomatoes, green pepper, mushrooms and 1 envelope of Asian spicy soup mix, a chicken bouillion cube and 6 cups of water.

Simmer until veggies are cooked.

Porcupine Meatballs

This recipe uses the left over meat mixture from the cabbage rolls (following post):

roll meat into 1 " balls and place in casserole dish sprayed with PAM.

I cooked mine in the convection oven , at 350 for about 40 minutes. A little longer if in the big oven. Go ahead and pack 'em in, they shrink up a little while cooking.

Need to stretch them a bit further? Add italian bread crumbs, oatmeal, or other dry cracker type product. My kiddos loved them and asked for seconds. Not too spicy. Add them to spaghetti sauce or serve them in subs for another meal option.

New Years Day Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage Rolls

I should probably preface this post by letting you know (in case you wandered here by search engine accident...) that this is not one of my tried and true recipes.

Cabbage is supposed to bring money in the new year, and couldn't we all use a little more? Buying cabbage is a a good way to save money, too. It's very stretchy budget wise.

Cabbage on sale this week was .33 cents a pound, so I couldn't resist. My big head of cabbage cost about .80 cents and was enough for three large dishes. This is the first of those three.

random side note: it struck me while making this, that truly this is like making enchiladas, but using cabbage leaves instead of tortillas... it's amazing how many of the steps are similar. They are also very similar to stuffed peppers.

Sweet and Sour Tomato Gravy/Sauce:

1 large can of tomatoes (crushed/diced)

1 large can of tomato sauce

1 can of tomato paste

1 egg

garlic

onion

bell pepper

sugar

white vinegar

1 pound ground beef

1 cabbage

1 roll sausage (as spicy as your family likes)

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (okay to use brown and partial wild-- but not all wild.)

This took a lot of pots. I usually like to limit that.... maybe you could help?

Big stock pot: Boil salted water. While waiting on water to boil, core cabbage, but try to keep leaves intact. Carefully peel leave into separate leaves. Do not over "Martha" yourself here-- it's okay if they have a split or two, but mainly try to keep them in one piece.

Place the leaves in the boiling water for about 5 minutes. (You are just trying to make them soft.) Remove pot, drain off hot water and replace with cold to stop cooking process. Remove leave from pot as you are using them, and pat dry with paper towels. Don't use the whole head. WHen you get to the smaller harder to remove part, save it for another dish (coming!).

Filling:

In big pot (see? gotta be a better way) brown onions, garlic, bell pepper. Add 2-3 tablespoons of your Tomato paste. Remove from heat and place in large bowl. Add to bowl the meats and the rice, and 1 egg. Mix together.

Sauce:

In same big pot (see! Saved you a pot...) put the rest of the tomato sauce, and other tomatoes. You could use seasoned tomatoes (onion/pepper) if you like to spicy up the sauce a bit... Add 2 tablespoons white vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Heat to low boil and reduce to simmer.

Take first leaf and using a small knife, remove the vein on one side only. (Try not to cut all the way through the leaf.) If you want to make smaller rolls, divide bigger leaves into two.

Using hands, make a small roll of filling, place in leaf and roll up burrito or egg roll style, starting with the thicker vein end. (Fold in sides as you are rolling.)

Prepare your dish -I used a big 9 x 13.. coated the bottom with sauce. Then put in the rolls, seam down.

This does not use all the meat filling mixture. Save about 1/2 for prcupine meatballs!

Cover with remaining sauce and cook at 350 for about 1 hour 15 minutes. (Until meat is cooked..)

Hoppin' John stretches Luck, and buck!

One of my favorite people (and also a fabulous blogger over at Mommy Doesn't Cook on Fridays) posts photos of her food.
I attempted this for this post, and want you to know it's tougher than it looks! Honest, the food wasn't all grey....

Here in the southern part of the US, NY Day calls for 2 requred dishes: Black eyed peas (for luck) and cabbage / greens (for money). Now, even if the good luck part is superstition, black eyed peas are low in fat, have no cholesterol, are naturally low in sodium (before adding the salt pork of course...),and are high in iron, potassium and fiber. PLUS they are cheap!

Now, chances are if you are reading rubber dollar already-- you probably appreciate and extra buck. So today's post will tell you how to stretch that cabbage / black eyed peas a little further!

Grocery stores here all put the two on sale (bonus!) during this time of year. Save even more by buying dried black eyed peas and soaking them overnight yourself. With the exception of Texas Caviar, I can't think of a black eyed pea dish that can't be made just as well with dried peas.

Recipe:
Hoppin' John

1 bag dried black eyed peas (.88 cents)

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (about .07)

1 salt pork (splurge and get the kind with a little meat on it... trim the fat.) $2.30

2 ribs celery (.30)

1/4 green pepper (.25)

garlic (I have a giant vat of this at all time, so it's hard for me to calculate cost..)

1/4 onion (.25)

2 cans of chicken broth (1.64) or make a stock using bouillon for about .20

Total cost: $5.69 makes enough for several meals.

Soak the beans overnight in a big bowl with twice as much water as beans. Use cold water. I dump the water and replace it several times. (I've heard mixed reviews on this. I've heard dumping the water helps lessen the "gassy" property of beans.) Drain off liquid.

Place in large stockpot with chicken broth, set on low to medium-low. (Let them come to a low simmer.)

Use a little butter and brown the chopped onion, garlic (minced), green pepper and celery. (Go ahead and throw the whole veggies through your food processor and store the left-overs in tupperware in the fridge. (Separately or together.) You'll thank yourself later in the week when you are cooking. Add the veggies to the pot. Add the rice after the peas are tender.

For color, you can add red bell pepper or carrot pieces if you like. Serve with corn bread.

Can I really make it two weeks without stepping into a grocery store?

I've been reading a lot about extreme ways to shave an even closer grocery bill a little more.

There's quite few, some more extreme than others-- but one we tries is my experience with 2 weeks of NOT STEPPING INTO A GROCERY STORE.

(Now in interest of self-disclosure, I did go in a Wal-mart, but not for anything found in the grocery store/no food/ no drugstore stuff.

The theory here is pretty simple-- each time you go into a grocery store, you're likely to pick up
" a few extra things" which add up. So for two weeks, you do not go to the store. Before going, you menu plan and shop for the two weeks. Then if you run out of something (bread? milk?) too bad! Make do with something else. Before you start whining, I too have kids in school. During these two weeks things happen-- snack mom for soccer, for example-- which were unexpected and unplanned. Still, with a little scrambling you can cover. And all without being granola mom.

Did it work? Yep. It did. I'm totally on the band wagon. One downside might be coupon deals that require multiple trips. However our monthly grocery bill (already low by many standards at about $80/wk for a family of 4) did drop. After the second two weeks, I'm pretty sure we could do three except for milk. (I do not have a freezer big enough to freeze milk.) Maybe we'll try to be milkless every third week, or at least go 2 1/2. Anyone doing this without a freezer??? Let me know your plan!

Thing

Weeks worth of menus- Columbus Day

Monday - Pot Roast with green beans, crescent rolls and tea
Tuesday - Chicken Oriental with peas, carrots/ranch
Wednesday - Chicken Spaghetti
Thursday - Crock pot Lasagna
Friday - Hamburgers on the Grill
Saturday - chili dogs (One missing!)

Incredibly Easy pot roast:

Take one pot roast an in a cooking bag, shake with flour. Brown in skillet with a few tablespoons of oil.
Put Roast back in cooking bag and add:
1 envelope onion soup mix, 1 envelope pot roast seasoning (these can be substituted for other things I sometimes use homemade adobo mix)
1 can golden mushroom soup (Beefy mushroom is also good, but avoid plain cream of mushroom as the color is bad for this recipe.)
Add carrots and diced potatoes to fill bag.
Place entire bag & contents in crock pot twist top closed and close lid.
Don't have a crock pot? You can make a few slits in the bag, and cook it in the oven on a cookie sheet for 4-6 hours on 300*

Free $10 at Lettering Delights

I love new fonts-- for newsletters, for cards... and here's a chance to pick up $10 in free ones from Lettering Delights.

Go to their facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lettering-Delights/148064725254?v=wall

and become a fan. They will reward you with a coupon code for $10 free!

Better hurry, won't last.

Free Honey Bunches of Oats

FREE CEREAL.

Honey Bunches of Oats cereal is on rollback at Walmart for $2 until September 30th.
Use this $2/1 Honey Bunches of Oats printable coupon to score some free cereal! Isn’t that the best kind?
Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal, $2$2/1 Honey Bunches of Oats printableFREE after coupon!
Find lots more current Walmart deals here!

Mmmmm... Free Pop Tarts

My children didn't really discover pop-tarts until recently. Seems like there's been a lot of really good coupons for them as of late.

Today is no exception.

Right now at Target, there's a printable for Kellogg’s Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts,which sell for $1.52.

$1/1 Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts Target printable

$2/2 Kellogg’s Select Fiber-Added Products, exp. 10-11-09 (RP 8/30/09)

2 FREE after 1 Target and 2 manufacturer coupons

Now, if you are unfamiliar with the Target coupon policy it is PERFECTLY legal to use a target coupon and a manufacturer coupon together.

That means you can buy 2 boxes of these, use the 3 coupons (Target, printable and RP) and get the 2 boxes free. Enjoy!

Nature Valley Nut Clusters - Nearly Free

From the unassuming bag and color, one would never guess that these are the BEST THING EVER! Two words for you.... "Fiddle Faddle". Sweet little granola goodness balls.

I was sent a sample by mail recently, and there was not a person in my household between 5 and 43 who didn't love these. Seriously.

So there's a printable coupon for 'em right now at Hot coupon alert — print this $1.60/1 Nature Valley Nut Clusters printable (IE) or printable (FF) . Then go to Cellfire.com and shortcuts.com and get another $1/1 loaded to your shopping card.

$2.60 off 1! These babies will be near free with the sales they are on recently.

Just a warning, if your kids catch you hiding them... you're gonna be in trouble. :-)

Free Coke!

You can say it-- I'm a coke addict. True, sad. But true. Only the kind in the red can though.

So how to afford it when you are DOUBLE CHEAP? Well, My coke rewards (coke's loyalty program) helps. This week you can get a free coke!

Here's how:
Sign onto Mycokerewards.com (If you aren't a member yet-- sign up.)
Find the TGIFriday's "pick up more stripes" program.
You'll get 25 points which is enough to redeem for one of the following prizes:
FREE 20 oz. Coke (Sprite, Diet Coke, etc.)
FREE 18.5 oz. Dasani Essense
FREE 32 oz. Powerade
FREE 20 oz. Minute Maid

Cool!

Target Deals for the Cheap at Heart

A friend told me she took her daughter shopping-- they each took 1/2 the list and met at the checkout counter. Her bill was over $200 from adding stuff to the cart! (wow....)

So in honor of my dear sweet friend-- here's a list of things you can get on the DOUBLE CHEAP at Target this week.

Kashi Trail Mix Bars (6-ct.), $2.88Get a $5 Target Gift Card wyb 5

$1/2 Kashi TLC Chewy Granola Bars printable Kashi TLC Chewy Granola Bars printable (IE) or printable (FF)

As low as $0.38 ea. wyb 5 after coupons and $5 gift card!

Eggo Waffles - $1.50
$1/2 Eggo Frozen Products Target printable
$1/2 Eggo Frozen Products, exp. 9-27-09 (Kellogg’s/Keebler Insert 8/2/09)
$0.50 ea. wyb 2 after coupons!
Now that's cheap breakfast!

$1/1 Kellogg’s Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts (8-ct.)
– $0.55/1 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, exp. 11-8-09 (RP 9/13/09)
– $1/2 Pop-Tarts, exp. 9-27-09 (Kellogg’s/Keebler Insert 8/2/09)

$1/2 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts (12-ct.)
– $0.55/1 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, exp. 11-8-09 (RP 9/13/09)
– $1/2 Pop-Tarts, exp. 9-27-09 (Kellogg’s/Keebler Insert 8/2/09)

$1/2 Kellogg’s Special K Bars (6-ct.)
– $1/2 Special K Bars printable

$1/2 Kellogg’s Special K Crackers
– $1/1 Special K Crackers printable

$1/2 Kellogg’s Special K Nutritional Products
– $1/2 Special K Bars printable
– $1/1 Special K Blueberry Cereal printable
– $0.75/1 Special K Chocolatey Pretzel Bars printable
– $1/1 Special K Crackers printable
– $1/1 Special K Protein Shakes printable
– $1/2 Special K Protein Products, exp. 9-27-09 (Kellogg’s/Keebler Insert 8/2/09)

$1/2 Kellogg’s Special K Cereals (10-oz.+)
– $1/1 Special K Blueberry Cereal printable

$1/1 Kashi Frozen Pizza

Walmart Roundup

Happy Sunday! Nothing I like better than a cart full of free (or nearly free) stuff from Wallyworld!

This week there's good deals to be had at Walmart- here's a few of my favs.

Healthy Choice dinners - $2.50 There's a printable coupon here: $2/1 Healthy Choice printable
Making dinner a mere $0.50 after coupon!

You'll need some dessert, of course- so how about some
Jello Pudding or Gelatin, $0.50$0.50/2 Jello printable (IE) or printable (FF)
$0.25 ea. after coupon!

Or (one of my personal favs... a CHOCO TACO) honestly, if you haven't had one-- they are awesome!
Klondike Choco Tacos, $1$1/1 Klondike printable
FREE after coupon!

Pillsbury Grands Biscuits (5-ct.), are $0.74
Here's a $1/2 Pillsbury Grands printable making them
$0.24 ea. after coupon!

Reese’s Candy Bars, $0.50$0.55/1
Reese’s Candy Product, exp. 10-31-09 (SS 8/23/09)
FREE after coupon!

Sun Chips (sm. bags), $0.99
$1/1 Sun Chips, exp. 10-31-09 (ALL YOU September ‘09)
FREE after coupon!

YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals (6-oz.), $1
$1/1 YoBaby printable
FREE after coupon!(Thanks, Couponing 101!)

Bengay Patches, $1.50
$2/1 Bengay, exp. 11-30-09 (SS 8/2/09)
FREE after coupon!

Reach Dental Floss, $0.97
$1/1 Reach Dental Floss, exp. 5-31-10 (SS 6/14/09)
FREE after coupon!

Schick Slim Twin Disposable Razors, $1.97
$3/1 Schick Disposable Razor, exp. 9-27-09 (SS 8/16/09)
FREE after coupon!

Zantac 150 (8-ct.), $4.23
$5/1 Zantac printable
FREE after coupon!

Chinet Plates, $2.36
$2/1 Chinet Lunch, exp. 9-30-09 (SS 8/9/09)
$0.36 after coupon!.

Hungry Hippos Travel Size Game, $4.79
$4/1 Hasbro printable
$0.79 after coupon!

Rubbermaid Bottle (1-pt.), $1.46
$1/1 Rubbermaid Beverage Pitcher or Bottle, exp. 9-27-09 (V 6/28/09)
$0.46 after coupon!

Free Chik-Fil-A TODAY!

Okay, Labor Day goers --break away from crafting and head on over to Chik-fil-a for a free Chicken sandwich!

Some reports form Alanta said it must be a Jersey... but here in Flower Mound, Texas - a hat or anything would do. I'm pretty sure they were even allowing this at the drive through!

Head on over-- it's good all day!

When we got there at 11:15 there was almost no line, but by 11:40.. it was a biggun. Might want to try the late afternoon time, rather than dinner.

FREE Chik-fil-A tomorrow!

Don't forget- tomorrow on Labor Day you can get a free original chiken sandwich at Chik-fil-a. Just wear any sports logo in.

It'll be busy!

Knock me over with a feather... $5 Frito Pie

Knock me over with a feather-- turns out someone has been reading the blog. In fact, two people! They reminded me I've been lax on updates, which reminded me about tonight's FLASHBACK DINNER.

Flashback dinner tonight is Frito Pie. It's close to a $5 for a family of four, provided two of the four are not teenage boys.

I have some picky eaters, so I made this in two batches.

Brown 1 lb ground beef and drain. (On sale- $1.98/ lb.)
Place back into skillet with 1 can chopped tomatoes (7 ounces or close - $.95)
Now, place 1/2 of this mixture aside.
To the rest add 1/2 packet of taco seasoning (.99 cents/2 = .50)
Let the water from the tomatoes cook down.

Serve with grated cheddar over fritos (in a bowl, or Middle School style from a small bag with the side cut open.) If this doesn't bring back visions of insecurty and homeroom, nothing will.

Chicken Tacos - $5 Dinner

I am always in search of a $5 dinner. If you are new to this blog, I probably need to mention that this means $5 for a family of four. Tonight fit the bill.

The other day Kroger had a meal deal (I won't get on my soapbox about how I don't always think these are a good deal...) anyway, it included free taco shells. I actually needed 2 of the other things, so I went ahead and took the deal.

1 box of 12 taco shells-- FREE.

Ground beef?? Too rich for my blood. Chicken.

I had Pilgrim's pride cheicken tenders that I got on the buy 1 get 1 free sale at Kroger (about every month, it seems) plus a $1.00 off any Pilgrims pride fresh chicken product from a May (?) circular. Total chicken cost $2.59.

Cheese- Bag cheese from Kroger on sale $1.50 (I bought quite a few!)

Total cost for tacos for 4? $4.09. And there are shells, chicken and cheese left over, so my actual cost was even lower.

Side note-- sometimes old favorites were favorites because our parents were thrifty. My chicken nugget girls LOVED the chicken tacos and even asked for more. They never had tacos in hard shells before :/.


Cooking:
Thaw chicken if frozen. Cut into small pieces (take out bones if there are any.)
Nuke (microwave) for 3 minutes on high. Remove, cut up more and cook again for 1 minute. Check again, if not cooked repeat 1 minute increments.
Separate chicken into small people and big people piles in bowls.

In the small people bowl-- shread chicken using two forks (ugh!) or PC whacker chopper. Same for big people bowl.
To big people bowl o' chicken, add taco seasoning mix (99 cents) and broth from cooking the chicken.

Serve with shredded lettuce or not. Tomatoes? only if garden grown for this price!

Enjoy and happy thrifting!

Mary Kay

Psst...printable fiber one yogurt coupon

Fiber, yucky right?

The new fiber products are everywhere...some good and some bad. This one is definitely a good one! Yummy creamy goodness without even a hint that it might be good for you.

Print a Yoplait Fiber One yogurt electronic coupon.

Kroger SUPER DOUBLES TODAY

Yes, I know, all capitals is the same as shouting.

but hey... aren't super doubles worth shouting about?

Today only, Kroger has SUPER doubles (doubling up to and including $1.) I was a little worried that getting there at 8:00 the shelves might already be cleaned out... but they weren't and they did have people stocking while I was there.

It takes a little patience to get through the aisles, but it was worth it-- over $100 in coupon savings! And I left a lot of my coupons on the shelf by products I thought were still "too rich for my blood." (one well meaning lady told me, you do realize that would only be 99 cents?-- I told her I haven't paid for toothpaste, shampoo or bodywash PERIOD in over a year.)

Get over there. Seriously. It's worth it.

Today's coupon savings: $119.40 plus an additional $10 rebate check coming from Kelloggs. % (not as good) 51%. Still I was happy because that included a lot of things we just needed, like fruit and milk as well.

Happy shopping~!

Kroger Super DOUBLES!

Krogers in TX and LA are having SUPER double coupon days tomorrow.

Coupons UP TO $1.00 will be doubled.

GET THERE EARLY!

Bring those high dollar coupons, print any extras out tonight and get moving!