Wok's For Dinner: Chicken Angel Hair Pasta

I ended up working late tonight (seems to be a reoccurring theme lately), so hubs tried his best to get started on supper to help me out. So sweet! How I love him so. :) I do not use Alfredo sauce in my recipe, but hubs pulled it out of the cupboard, so I took the hint that he wanted the Alfredo sauce. Not a problem. It's a very rare treat that I make anything with Alfredo, so I didn't put up a fuss and allowed it for this meal, especially considering that my hubbie pulled all the ingredients out so they'd be ready for me to put it all together when I got home.

Chicken Angel Hair Pasta (with Alfredo sauce)

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded or cut in 1-inch cubes
1-2 carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
1 pkg (10oz) frozen broccoli
1 clove garlic, minced, or 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
12oz angel hair pasta or spaghetti
2/3 cup pasta water or chicken broth or 1 bottle Alfredo sauce (we used the Alfredo tonight)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:
Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Begin heating water for pasta; cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, add carrot to skillet; cook, stirring for 3-4 minutes. Add broccoli and minced garlic or garlic powder to skillet; cook, stirring, for 2-4 minutes longer. Add chicken broth / pasta water or Alfredo sauce. Stir in lemon juice and cooked chicken. Reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Drain pasta; stir into chicken mixture. Serve immediately with grated Parmesan and ground black peppper.

Time Out For Women

If there's one thing that I have trouble doing, it's taking time out for me. I've tried focusing on being a bit more feminine this year, wearing make-up more often, washing my face morning & night (I've never been good about washing off the make-up at night), painting my toenails, maintaining good posture...things like that.

But I am really, really bad about my wardrobe. I would rather buy clothes, shoes and toys for the kids, than to even replace a worn-out pair of shoes for myself. I'd rather wear that worn-out pair of shoes, knowing that the money I would need to spend to replace them, regardless of amount, could go towards something we need. Food. Bills. More clothes & shoes & toys for the kids (what can I say, I love them).

I finally decided to Take Time Out For Women--this particular woman, as a matter of fact. And I bought myself a pair of shoes.

And I love them. I didn't feel guilty whatsoever buying them. I planned ahead, preparing myself mentally for the purchase.

Seriously, I have a problem spending money on myself.

But as I mentioned, I planned for this purchase. I budgeted for it. I knew ahead of time that I wanted a new pair of shoes, and I prepared my mind mentally for the purchase. So there would be no guilt. No, "But I really should spend the money on _____ instead."

I came home with a smile on my face, and I wore my new shoes to church the next day.

I think that I can find a way to budget a second new pair of shoes, maybe a purchase a few weeks down the road. :)

How about you? Are you comfortable spending money on yourself, or do you feel guilty at the simplest purchase for yourself?

Spectacular Sides: Carrot & Raisin Sald

My mom made this meal quite frequently when I was young. My husband doesn't care for it, but I love it. I don't make it often, but sometimes, it just seems the right side dish and I can't pass up the opportunity to make it.

Carrot & Raisin Salad

Ingredients:

4 medium carrots

1/4 cup raisins

1 2/3 oz crushed pineapple in juice, drained

2 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Shred carrots into a medium bowl.

Thoroughly mix in remaining ingredients

Refrigerate salad; serve chilled.

Wok's For Dinner: Kraut Bierocks

This was only my third attempt EVER to make a yeast bread. EVER. Give me a quick bread recipe, and I can whip it out with two hands tied behind my back and a blindfold on. Figuratively speaking. ;) But give me a yeast recipe, and I just recoil in fear. The first yeast bread I tried to make was a breadmaker recipe, and I really gave it a good try. It was Hawaiian bread. And although it tasted good, it was more like a rock than bread. But I've always wanted to continue giving yeast breads a try. I know the more I try, the more I'll get used to them and familiar with making them. So I took a big leap of faith making the bread for this meal.

I really thought I had completed bombed out, though. I didn't have any powdered milk and thought that I could substitute milk-milk from fridge. Which meant I had to increase the amount of flour for the recipe. I really thought that I was going to end up with rocks again.

But, surprise, surprise, they turned out great! Perhaps this is a "no fail" bread recipe...? Perhaps a higher being "had my back." Who knows? But hubs and Little Miss LOVED these Kraut Bierocks, and hubs told me to make it again. (He ate 3 of these!). Little Man ate the bread tops of the buns and refused to eat any of the meat filling. He definitely mised out because they turned out just fine!

You can view the recipe that I used here. Below is what I ended up making after my changes:

Kraut Bierocks (yes, I literally thought "rocks" is what we'd eat after my bread recipe changes!)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pkg active dry yeast

1/2 cup white sugar

2 cups warm water

about 5 cups all-purpose flour (original recipe is for 4 cups flour, but I had to add almost a whole cup so I could work with the dough)

1/2 cup milk, room temperature (original recipe is for 1/2 cup powdered milk)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

1 lb ground venison (you can use ground beef like the recipe calls for)

1 lb ground venison sausage (the recipe says to use ground Italian sausage)

1 cup chopped onion

3 cups shredded cabbage

3 Tbsp prepared mustard

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

8 American cheese slices, each slice folded into 4 squares

Directions:

To make Sweet Dough: In a medium bowl, combine the yeast, sugar & water, and mix together; let stand 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine 4 cups flour, milk, baking powder and shortening, then stir in & kneed yeast mixture and more flour (since I used liquid milk instead of powdered, I added nearly an extra cup of flour), then knead for 10 minutes. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes, then knead again. To make Filling: Meanwhile, brown ground meat & ground sausage with onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain any grease from the skillet, then stir in cabbage, mustard, salt & pepper. Cook until cabbage is tender to your liking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flatten a piece of dough. Place a piece of cheese onto dough, and a large spoonful of meat filling on top of cheese square; fold dough over to form a round bun. Lay folded-side down in a lightly greased baking dish, then place a cheese square on top of bun dough. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning baking sheet around halfway through cooking to ensure even browning of buns.

If freezing: Prepare the meat mixture ahead of time, cooking up the ground meat & sausage with the onion, cabbage & seasonings, then place in gallon-size freezer bag and lay flat in the freezer. Thaw 36-48 hours in the refrigerator.

Again, these turned out really good. I guess I can make yeast breads after all! Well, I'm sure these buns turned out nowhere close to the intent of the original recipe, but they were still great. It just made my whole day to get such approval from my husband and little girl.

Menu Plan Monday: 3/8-3/14/10

I've changed up the menu plan form I've been using for the past year. I ran out of sheets for the old menu plan I've been using, which basically allowed me to write down the menu for each day of the week plus a section where I could write a grocery list, except I used that section to write down the activities for the week so I could better plan the menu in accordance to what was "going on." I decided to create a weekly planner that was similar to the one Kat from Inspired To Action had created with her Maximize Your Mornings ebook (FREE!, you can request yours here).

My new menu plan sheets include a scripture study plan, workout plan, and to-do list as well as the events and menu for each day. Now I have one "go to" visual for me, posted right next to the calendar, and it doesn't take up a lot of space. Hubs noticed it immediately and gave me a thumbs up of his approval. As you can see above, I scanned a copy for you to see what I'm talking about. By no means it is complete for this upcoming week. :)

And yes, I even added a couple things on the workout plan this week, and I have very high hopes that I'll be able to get started. We bought a new exercise bike, something we've talked about and talked about getting for about 6 months now. After lots of shopping around, and comparing, and debating, and saving, we finally picked one out and it's an early anniversary present to each other. Hubs has used it a few times already, and I just need to try it out myself. I'm not going to overdo it by trying to cycle every day this week, but I will do two days this week to start out. Baby steps for now!

On to the menu plan for this week! Recipes will post throughout the week, so please check back often. :)

Monday--Chicken Angel Hair Pasta, Zucchini

This is our weekly "Family Home Evening" or FHE night. We'll be putting up our Easter decorations and talking about the true meaning of Easter as we do so.

Tuesday--Chicken Tacos & all the toppings

I have a meeting later this evening, so hubs gets to put dinner together.

Wednesday--Pizza Casserole, Pears

Hubs' turn to have a meeting this evening. This is a freezer meal, so I'll try to get everything heated up and ready for him to eat in time for him to go to his meeting.

Thursday--Lite Lemon Chicken, Couscous, Cheesy Cauliflower

Friday--Salmon Patties, Ants on a Log, Vegetable Medley

Saturday--Slow Cooked Pork Tacos, Rice

Sunday--

Breakfast: Chocolate Buttermilk Muffins

I was going to make these muffins this morning, but ended up not making anything. But I do want to give them a try so I put them back on the menu for this week.

Dinner: Creamy Chicken & Chile Enchiladas, Fruit Cocktail

For hundreds of menu plan options, visit OrgJunkie.com!

The Goody Bag

Coupons & freebies for you & me!

Freebies

• FREE Parents Choice formula samples--2 formulas--Click here for Premium Infant formula, and click here for Advantage formula.
• Click here for free Ideal sweeneter. Make sure your speakers are plugged into your PC so you can listen to some groovy music when you visit the website! :)
• Register or sign in here for a sample of L'Oreal Beautifully Strong Shampoo. At the bottom of the page on the left hand side, click the "Special Offers & Savings" box and on the next page you will see the two offers for free samples.
• Visit Walmart here to request a sample of Beneful Incredibites for your dog.
• Become a Nabisco Facebook fan here and starting on Monday (3/1) you’ll be able to print out a coupon to get a FREE package of Nabisco Cookies when you buy one package of Nabisco Cookies and a gallon of milk. This will be available on the first Monday of each month for the rest of the year (2010) *While supplies last.* March maximum is 500,000 coupons. Limit one per household.
• Click here for a Free Uniball Jetstream Retractable Pen--1st 10,000 Daily till 4/30. Limit 1 per person/email addy during promo.
• Register here for a free Baking Soda Shaker.

Coupons

• Become a Facebook fan of SunChips here and receive a coupon for a free bag. First 100,000.
• Answer a few questions over here for a chance to win a coupon for Borden Cheese Singles Sensations.
• Sign up here to receive 5-$1 Multigrain Cheerios coupons, one coupon will be emailed to you each week.
• $1/1 Ritz Crackerfuls coupon available by print here, or request one by mail here.
• Over $30 in coupon savings available here from Home Made Simple.
• Click here to print your $1 off Dove soap coupon or click here to request a coupon by mail
• And here you can request 2--$1 coupons for Gain detergent and dryer sheets/fabric softener.
• Sunny Delight coupons available by print here or by mail here.
• Print a coupon for Mahatma rice when you click here and register or login for The RICEipe Club.

Our 2010 Gardening Adventures Have Begun!

We planted some seeds just a few days ago, and already they have begun to sprout! Above are little baby lettuces. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll do well this year and produce a crop of salads for me & the family!

We still have broccoli and cabbage growing in the garden. These were planted in late Summer 2009. They never matured enough to harvest before Winter set in. But with as cold as it has been this season, and all the snow we've had, they're still growing just fine! I almost picked the broccoli last Fall before the first frost, but hesitated because there was only enough for a bite or two per person. And the cabbage was more like brussel sprouts. So I decided to wait & see how they did over the Winter months. So far so good, as you can see in the picture above! This was just a couple days ago when we got 2 inches of snow that melted away as quick as it came. (It's crazy, in this week alone, we're going from 30 degrees & 2 inches of snow a couple days ago, to 60+ degrees and sunny skies this weekend!)

Our family is so excited about our garden this year. It's only our second year of having a full-fledged garden. I've done some container gardening in years' past, but they were nothing compared to the size & scale of our first garden last year. It's a great project that our whole family can get involved in, from planting the first seed, to harvesting the last crop. No produce section can compare to watching the work of your hands take shape as seeds germinate, plants grow, flowers bloom, and fruits & vegetables transform right before your own eyes!

Wok's For Dinner: Rustic Stuffed Potatoes

These potatoes are heaven on a fork! Very easy & very versatile because you can change up the toppings, creating different flavor combinations to suit your taste buds.

Rustic Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients:
2-3 large potatoes. or 6-8 small/medium potatoes
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup bottled barbecue sauce
2-3 tsp cider vinegar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepepr or cajun seasoning
Toppings of your choice: shredded cheese, chopped green onion, sour cream, bacon bits, chives, etc.

Directions:
Scrub potatoes clean, and pierce in several places with a fork. Cook the potatoes either by 1) microwaving on high for 10-15 minutes, or 2) wrapping in foil, placing on a baking sheet and baking in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Meanwhile, mix chicken with barbecue sauce, vinegar and cayenne or cajun seasoning in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until chicken is heated through and sauce is hot. Place cooked potatoes on serving plates and remove foil (if you baked in the oven). Cut potatoes up, and spoon chicken mixture over the potatoes. Sprinkle your favorite toppings on top, serve & enjoy!

Wok's For Dinner: Trout Au Gratin

This is a really quick and easy and tasty recipe for fish. In the past, I've made it with flounder and tilapia, and tonight with trout (I think this was my first time to have trout, and I loved it!). The kids ate their fish good too, and I heard "mmm, yummy" at least a time or two. :)

Trout Au Gratin

Ingredients:
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 lb fish fillets
1/4 cup mayonnaise (light or low fat mayonnaise works good)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a shallow dish, combine breadcrumbs and cheese. Brush all sides of fillets with mayonnaise; coat with breadcrum mixture. Arrange in a single layer in a shallow baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and fish flakes easily.

A Better Breakfast: Apple Date Yogurt

This isn't quite homemade yogurt, but it's a close second. It's one of hundreds of recipes that I've been hanging on to, waiting for the day that I try it out. I couldn't convince either of the kids to try it (they prefer the little store-bought cups of Trix yogurt, or the tubes of go-gurt) and hubs refused as well (he just doesn't eat yogurt at all).

So I gave it a try. It was rather tasty, a little tart thanks to the lemon juice and shredded apples. Overall, a healthy meal, and a nice alternative to a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

Apple Date Yogurt

Ingredients:
4 apples, peeled and shredded
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup dates, chopped
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix the apples, lemon juice, honey and dates. Hindsight is 20/20, 'cause I should have mixed the lemon juice just a little sooner with the apples to keep them from browning up.

Fold in the yogurt with the apple mixture.

Top with chopped walnuts and serve.

Wok's For Dinner: Taco Soup

Yeah, finally, woohoo, it was Taco Soup night! I've postponed making this meal for various reasons, but decided that come what may, we would have it tonight. And for a brief moment, I wondered today if we would actually have it or not. I had to work late, and the thought crossed my mind to just grab a fast food meal on my way home. But hubs must have read my mind because he came to my rescue and called me at work to let me know he was going to make the soup. The meat had already been cooked up as a freezer meal, so it was just a matter of putting it in a pot with the rest of the ingredients and heating everything up.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 pkg ranch seasoning mix
1 can Rotel tomatoes and chiles (we used the mild version)
1 can diced tomatoes (hubs used fire roasted tomatoes, yum!)
1 can corn
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
shredded Mexican-style cheese

Directions:
Brown ground beef and onion; drain grease. Add ground beef mixture with remaining ingredients, excluding cheese, into a large pot. Cover with enough water to make soup. Heat on medium heat. Serve in soup bowls with a little shredded cheese on top (yes, I realize now that I used a Black Bean soup bowl for the picture! lol).

If freezing: Brown the ground beef and onion in advance and freeze--it's that simple! :) I used a quart-size freezer bag, which I could lay flat in the freezer. To thaw, I placed it on a plate in the fridge and let it thaw out for 24 hours.

Wok's For Dinner: Pork Roast With Plum/Fig Sauce

This is a perfect way to use your leftover pork roast or pork chops. Now, I do have one little disclaimer. I was going to use plum jam, but could not find any at the store, so I settled on fig jam, and the taster was spectacular. I gave hubs a fairly large portion, and he still wanted seconds! I think you could also turn this recipe into a stir fry by stir-frying 1-2 cups broccoli florets and 1 large carrot, sliced, in a little olive oil and mixing it in with the pork and plum (or in this case, fig) sauce.

Pork With Plum Fig Sauce

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp plum or fig jam
1 Tbsp honey
1lb leftover pork roast, shredded

Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium skillet. Add minced garlic, stir until fragrant. Stir in soy sauce, jam and honey. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add shredded pork roast and stir until sauce is incorporated throughout the roast and roast is heated through.

Variation: If you go for the stir-fry option, then I would suggest using 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup jam, and 1/4 cup honey instead.

To-Do Tuesday: Week 8

I'm on my 8th week of To-Do Tuesday--yeah me! I like being able to stick to a schedule, knowing each wee about this time, that I'll sit down, evaluate the week ahead, and plan some of the tasks that I want or that simply need to get done. Thanks, Lisa, for your inspirational message that yes, things can get done! Even when I have a week that I can't check everything off, I can still look back and say to myself, "Wow, I did ___, ___, and ____." And it doesn't matter if it's a small task or a huge project, it's nice to see that progress is somehow getting made.

Just one way that I have found helps me find "balance" and enjoy the busyness of life!

This week's list:

• Dust/vacuum--my son actually asked me this evening if he could vacuum the rugs. Who was I to say "no"? Well, it was close to bedtime, so I asked him to wait until the next morning.
• Put out Easter decorations, and let the kids help out.
• Till up and expand our garden. We got some seeds planted in little transplant peat pots this evening--corn, peas, lettuce, more corn & more peas. Would have done more but we need to buy some more trays to put the peat pots in. Still, it's a start! Hubs and I have talked about making the garden bigger this year, so we're going to try to get that done by this weekend since it's supposed to be nice & sunny.
• √Plan March once a month cooking menu. Is it already that time? Yikes! I feel like I just made my February menu and cooked everything up. I might not get to this part of the To-Do list. I've got to stock up on some more meat to better plan my menu. Right now, all I have is some chicken. I got the Piggly Wiggly flyer in the mail today, and after a quick glance, I saw that pork loins were on sale for $1.59/lb, so I think I'll go snag me one of those because I'll be able to cut a loin up into enough chops for 10 meals. I'll have to see what else is on sale this week when I get the new IGA and Food Lion flyers when they arrive in my mailbox on Wednesday.
• √Read at least one chapter out of my personal reading book. I've kinda procrastinated on my personal reading the past few weeks, allowing myself to get caught up in other tasks. I've done great reading a chapter of The Good Book nearly every day, and reading to the kids on a fairly regular basis. But the personal reading, reading for pleasure, reading because I need to spend time just relaxing and enjoying a nice book, I tend to put off doing anything like that because I'm not very good at taking time for just "me."

How about you? What's on your To-Do List this week? Visit Week 54 at Crazy Adventures in Parenting, and link up!

Homemade Chicken Stock

I use homemade chicken broth in a lot of dishes, such as rice, as a soup base, or in mashed potatoes, to name a few. When I buy large packages of split chicken breasts, chicken leg quarters, or a whole chicken fryer, I try to make a point of making homemade chicken broth. Actually, I make chicken stock, which has a much fuller and richer taste, and a gelatinous texture from using chicken bones (chicken broth is usually made with the meaty parts).

I find my slow cooker to be an invaluable tool to making the perfect homemade chicken stock, because I can cook the chicken in the slow cooker during the day, and then make the chicken stock while I'm sleeping. The process may seem long, but it's really a great alternative to spending 5 hours or more sweating over a hot stove just to make some broth.

Here's how I typically make homemade chicken stock (it's really versatile because you can add or take out herbs and add or take out vegetables).

Homemade Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
carcass from chicken breasts, leg quarters, or whole fryer
2-3 coarsely chopped celery and tops
1-2 chopped carrots
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
water

Directions:
Place chicken bones and unedible parts in slow cooker. Add celery, carrots, onion & peppercorns. Add enough water to cover. Turn temperature to low, and cook in crock-pot overnight, or 8-10 hours.


After cooking, strain out as much of the bones, peppercorns and vegetables as you can; discard.

The next step requires removing the chicken fat. The easiest way to do this, for me, is to put the crock into the refrigerator. As the stock cools down, the grease will settle on top of the stock, and any missed bones, chicken pieces, vegetables, will settle on the bottom of the crock. Plus, since I cook the stock up overnight, I can let it cool in the fridge while I'm at work or running errands, and finish preparing it after I get home. And if I don't get a chance to skim off the fat/grease, then it's ok since it's chillin' in the fridge, and I can take care of it the next day.

Once fat has settled on top of your stock, use a spoon to scoop it off, and discard. The gelatin-like substance beneath the fat is your chicken stock--yummy goodness!

Place chicken stock in 2-cup portions in freezable containers or quart-size freezer bags. I got a total of 8 cups of chicken stock with the last batch that I made, and I was super excited because I managed to find room in the freezer! :) Another benefit of making your own stock--it's practically free!

Bargain Buys

I told myself that this week was going to be a "light" week. There wasn't much that we truly needed a lot of. But the deals this week were hot, hot, HOT, and I just could not pass up some of the deals that were out there.

Food Lion--MVP card deals:
Food Lion brand canned vegetables were just $0.33 each!!! I knew these wouldn't stay on the shelves for long, so before going scrapbooking Friday evening, I swung by a nearby Food Lion Store and grabbed just as many cans as I could find. I came out with 12 cans of green beans, 1 can of corn, and 2 cans of mixed vegetables. Everything else had already been cleaned out.

Seedless red grapes are also on sale for $0.99/lb. Not as good as the green grapes that were $0.88/lb last week, but still a really great bargain for this time of year. I grabbed a couple bags and popped these into the freezer for use at a later date.

12-count Pop-Tarts are also on sale for $2.50 a box. When you buy 10, you save $10 on your total purchase, bringing the actual cost down to just $1.50 a box!

I also had a two coupons for DiGiorno 200 Calorie Portions from Kraft First Taste that I felt like using. One coupon was for a free box, the other coupon saved me $1.50. Each box was $3.49, so after both coupons, I only paid $1.99 for both.

Kraft salad dressings were also marked down to 2/$4. I picked up 1 bottle and used a $0.55 coupon (I would have bought more because I have several coupons, but the coupons state only one coupon per person per day). Price after savings & coupon was just $1.45 for a 16oz bottle.

The Smart Option gallon milk (not pictured) is still on sale, although the price has gone up from $2.25/gal to $2.36/gal. Still a really great buy! The new price should be good through Tuesday, 3/2, when the current week's sales will end. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the price won't change, or at least won't go up, when the new sales start on Wednesday.

CVS:

Valentine's items are marked down 75% off! I picked up a couple boxes of Valentine's cards for the kids to use next year. Regular price was $2.99 but each box was marked down to just $0.75!

My daughter has a constipation problem that began when we started potty-training her a year & a half ago. The only thing that keeps her "regular" is Mirelax, which is expensive. So we buy the generic version. The 30-day supply of CVS Purelax was marked down to $13.95. My CVS was completely out, and the truck had not been unloaded. The cashier said it would be another week before another bottle would be on the shelf, so she gave me a rain check so I can pick up a bottle at a later date. Sweet!

Target:

I found several surprise deals when I went to Target this past Saturday, and thankfully I had several coupons so I could snag the deals! Kraft Easy Mac 4pks were $2.79 each. After using a $1/2 Target coupon, I paid $4.58, or $0.57 per pack. I have several boxes of macaroni & cheese, but I rarely make it for dinner, and it's too much for just the kids to eat for lunch (hubs won't eat it). So the little Easy Mac packs are an inexpensive alternative, and one that I rarely indulge in. Quaker Chewy Granola bars were marked down to $2/each. I didn't have a coupon, but these are great for the kids' lunches. Del Monte gel fruit packs were $1.83 each, and after a $0.75/2 coupon, I paid just $1.45 per pack. Del Monte Fruit Chillers were also marked down to $1.83 each. I bought 3 boxes, and used three $1/1 coupons and paid just $0.83 per pack! Johnson's Baby Shampoo, travel size, was just $0.97. I used a $1 coupon and got $0.03 overage! Sobe Life Water was $1.02, and after a $0.50 Target coupon, I paid just $0.52 (and it tasted great having it with my dinner!). Finally, Nabisco 100 calorie pack were marked down to $2/box. I picked up two, used a $1/2 Target coupon, and paid just $1.50 per box.

IGA:

Picsweet 14oz-16oz frozen vegetables were on sale for just 5/$5 this week. For that price, they were worth stocking the freezer with. I like stocking up on frozen vegetables that are difficult to find for such a good price, like broccoli. And this time I found Italian Pole Beans were also marked down for the same price. These are nearly impossible to find frozen for this little, so I bought 3 bags. I would have gotten more, but my refrigerator & chest freezers are very packed, and I knew that I wouldn't get much in them (the chest freezer is loaded with frozen vegetables that I've bought, vegetables from our garden that I froze, homemade freezer jam, bread, and some Hot Pockets breakfast sandwiches I bought for my hubbie).

Split Chicken Breasts were just $0.98/lb at IGA. I bought two packs, and then cooked them up in the crock-pot Saturday afternoon. There wasn't room in the freezer for both packs, so it was easier to just cook these up, then take the meat off the bone and freeze that. I then use the bones to make homemade chicken broth (recipe coming later this week), which I'll also freeze.

My broom has seen better days. I lost the cap on the end, the handle is badly dented, and the bristles are frayed. IGA had brooms for just $1, and I thought for that price, it was worth picking one up. My kids like to help sweep, so I'll let them use the older broom.

Breyers 6oz yogurts were on sale for $0.39 each--what a deal! All varieties were on sale, but I selected the fruit on the bottom version.

Walgreens:

Coupons inside the Walgreens insert got me 10 packs of seeds--sweet corn and green beans for hubs to plant, radishes, basil, parsley & morning glory for me to plant (hubs doesn't care so much about these kinds)--and Butterball chicken broth for just $0.50 each. There were several cans, but I was hard-pressed trying to find any that weren't badly dented. I managed to find 4 cans, 2 of which were the low sodium version, and picked those up. I prefer to make homemade chicken broth when I can, but I go through this fairly quickly and like to keep a supply of the canned version.

How about you? What deals have you snagged this week? Please share your bargains and post a comment below! :)

Visit Melissa's Bargain Blog for the deals for the week of 2/28--click here for Walgreens deals, click here for Target deals, and here for CVS deals. Melissa provides plenty of scenarios to help you maximize your dollar and minimize your OOP (out of pocket expense).

Wok's For Dinner: Venison and Bean Tostadas

I loved these tostadas! Hubs, too, said that he enjoyed them, and the kids ate them really well, although I served theirs taco-style since it was easier for them to handle.

Venison and Bean Tostadas

Ingredients:
8 flour tortillas
1 lb ground venison (you can substitute ground turkey or ground beef)
1 small onion, chopped
1 pk taco seasoning mix
2/3 cup water
1 can (15oz) chili beans, undrained
toppings of your choice: lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.

Directions:
Cook ground venison with onion in a large skillet, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink; drain any grease. Stir in taco seasoning, water, and chili beans. Simmer on low for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place tortillas on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 7 minutes or until crisp. If they puff up during baking, just pok them with a knife or pat them down with a spatula or your hand (make sure the tortillas have cooled down first!). Place baked tortillas on plates, top with lettuce, venison mixture, and your favorite toppings.

If freezing: Allow venison mixture to cool after cooking and simmering with beans and taco seasoning. Place into a gallon-size freezer bag, squeeze out the air, seal & lay flat in the freezer. Thaw 24-36 hours in the refrigerator. Heat in a medium saucepan on the stove, and serve over tortillas.