Cuisinart + Cheap Cheese = $$ Saved

I'm planning on making this recipe that I found on Money Saving Mom.

My fiance and I received a very nice Cuisinart from my parents as a housewarming gift a couple months ago but I've been nervous to use it because it seems so complex. So many blades and attachments! Either way, I finally decided that today would be the day because I had cheese to shred to make my dinner.

I shredded a 8oz block of Big Barn Cheddar from my Hickory Farms order, rough price, $1.50.

Just referencing prices from Giant for the same cheese:
Giant Brand 8oz shredded bag = $3.00
Sargento 8oz shredded bag = $3.69
Kraft 8oz shredded bag = $3.99
Nature's Promise 6oz shredded bag = $3.69 (would be $4.92 for 8oz if existed)

Saved? Anywhere from $1.50-$3.42!

Hickory Farms & Ebates

Hickory Farms is having a great sale. A week or so ago most of their holiday sets were 75% off, this week many of them are 85% off and since shipping is calculated by the cost, not by weight, the shipping is even cheaper this week (it's pretty pricey to begin with so be forewarned). However, thanks to a special coupon offer: use SIZZLE or CLIPPER in the special coupon offer box, you will receive an additional 15% off and if you go through Ebates you'll get an additional 4% back from the purchase!

I'm not sure whether to include this in my weekly or monthly budget but I've made 2 separate orders. One last week that just arrived today and one this week which should be shipped soon. Some of the items are going towards birthday or holiday gifts this year, some of the items are things I know we will use (at least a couple of the sausages are going to be used for the south american dish I make fairly often), I plan to grate some of the cheese to freeze and use for other dishes - not sure which. Either way, either we or someone close to us will be using all of the items.

The items from Order #1 are:
1 Warm & Hearty Welcome Gift Box
1 Summer Sausage and Cheese Gift Box
1 The Sausage & Cheese Slicer Gift Board

This amounted to the following items:
cheese
6oz Smoked Gouda
7oz Edam
8oz Cheddar
7oz Sharp Cheddar
7oz Mission Jack Blend (I already know this I'm shredding for Mexican dishes)
4oz Swiss
7oz Havarti
4oz Three Cheese & Onion Wedge
6.5oz Apple Pie Cheddar

meat
3-12oz Beef Summer Sausage (36oz!)
7oz Beef Summer Sausage 1/2 eaten
7oz Ham Summer Sausage

spreads/mustard
2- 3oz jars sweet hot mustard

We also got a cutting board with cheese/sausage slicer but it seems a little wonky - will try to fix because I was hoping to gift that to my dad for father's day this year.

And some of those little strawberry candies. I don't know how many because my fiance quickly stole them away from me to eat, I presume (or hide).

I spent $30.63 including tax and shipping and will be receiving 4% back (roughly $1.20).

I would like to know from you, fellow bloggers, which cheese above would be good to shred and freeze? Would you combine any of it? What are some dishes you like including the above ingredients?

Just to break down this first Hickory Farms purchase.
56.50 oz of cheese = roughly 3.5 lbs
50.00 oz of sausage = roughly 3.11 lbs
1 cutting board
2 jars of mustard

Knowing how much cheese costs around here, I doubt I could get it for any cheaper at the local grocer, even on sale, so I'm pleased.

Quiet Week

Haven't been shopping too much this week, though I may brave stores tomorrow.

I've been using up what we have in the house. Three days ago I made Chicken Corn Chowder soup which was a variation of a recipe from one of my cookbooks (this particular cookbook focuses only on soups, it is wonderful in the winter).

Basically, I boiled 4 chicken breasts from a previous shopping trip when boneless skinless chicken was under $2/lb and removed the breasts after they had cooked through. Then I added salt, pepper and this soup to the chicken broth. I then took a can of corn and pureed it with about 4oz of low-fat condensed milk, sauteed a whole chopped onion with garlic, honey, salt and some frozen corn (about 1/4 cup), chopped up one of the chicken breasts and added everything to the pot and cooked on low for 3 hours.

During the last hour I added a cup of rice and simmered everything on low after boiling for a couple minutes with the rice. What resulted is a creamy, rich tasting but low-fat corn chowder that we've had for dinner every night since. I used the V8 because I had bought it when it was on sale at Shoppers during one of their double/triple promotions and paid under a $1 for it, so the soup had a little zip but wasn't overwhelmingly hot.

Anyway, I hit Giant for some potatoes and more soy nog and CVS for milk this week:

Giant (January 14, 2009):
$.88 5 lb bag of white potatoes (on sale from $2.99)
$4.00 4 boxes of soy egg nog

= $4.88 Oop

And at CVS (today, the 16th) I picked up milk, though I put it on a gift card so I spent nothing out of pocket. We're trying to stay in because it is inaugural weekend and also freezing.

Apple Crisp

I made this delicious apple crisp a couple days ago because we still had about 1/4 of the bag of apples when they were on sale at Giant a few weeks ago for $.88/lb (in bag) and I hate for things to go to waste. I didn't have a whole lot in the house but thanks to the sales, I've been stocking up on baking supplies. And because this recipe doesn't call for anything really outrageous, I didn't even need to leave the house.

I took this recipe and altered a little bit.

Ingredients I used:

"filling"
5 med-large gala apples
1/4 stick butter (or a couple tablespoons)
1/2 cup sugar
several general shakes of cinnamon (I'd guess about 1/8 c. total)

"crust"
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick butter

For the filling, I basically cored, peeled and sliced the apples. Then I put them in a pot with the other ingredients and cooked them down on low covered till the apples had reduced and the liquid was brown and syrupy.

The crust was supposed to be easy. You basically combine the ingredients in a food processor or mixer till it becomes crumbly, but my food processor broke (thankfully it is still under warranty and they are sending me a new one) but I mixed all the ingredients by hand. I now know why something as simple as a crumb cake was a big to-do several years ago. It is a pain in the neck but delicious!

I put the apple mixer in a sprayed glass pan (Pam is my friend). Added the "crust" and smoothed out on top and then added a few more generous shakes of cinnamon and little more brown sugar.

Baked at 400 degree for 45 minutes till browned on top.

Not exactly the pinnacle of health, but few ingredients, especially if you are trying to create something before something (in this case the apples) go bad. This and banana bread are my 2 easy recipes when bananas and apples are about to go. I bet it would be good with any fibrous fruit - pears I think I'll do next.

Bon Appetit!

Recipe: Onion Garlic Sauce with Pork (and rice and peas)

I promised my boyfriend I would write this recipe down because he really liked it. This is my own invention and basically that means that I throw ingredients into a pot, sniff, add some more, sniff, add some more, etc. Somehow this works out but don't go by these measurements exactly.

The most important part of this recipe is the onion garlic sauce.

It starts with 1 onion (I used sweet yellow - I'm sure any would do).

I sliced the onion and put it into a pot with about a Tbsp of oil (canola) - waited till they cooked down and turned clear.

I then added the following:
1 dash salt
1 dash pepper
a pinch of ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground garlic (the kind in a jar that's refrigerated)
2 tsp parsley (used dry)
1 tsp sweet basil (used dry)
a few generous shakes of onion flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
a few generous shakes of minced garlic (dried from jar)

When the onions start to turn golden I turned off the heat, and transferred the onions to a blender, added about 1/4-1/2c of teryaki sauce, 1/4-1/2c olive oil and about 1/4 c brown sugar. I then blended on liquify for about 30 seconds and then pulsed for another 10 seconds and transferred the contents back to the pot and turned it on low.

I then used the already cooked pork tenderloins I recently purchased at Shopper's. These are usually $6.99 for 5 small medallions of smoked pork, but I paid $4.99 because of a doubled coupon, and in the greater scheme of things, under $1 based on the number of items I purchased and the total for the grocery bill.

I took the tenderloins straight from the refrigerator and heated some more canola oil (not very much - just enough to coat the bottom) in a pan on high. I then sauteed the tenderloins till they were golden on both sides. I plated the tenderloins with some leftover rice and then added some frozen peas to the pan and sauteed them in the leftover "juices" from the pork.

Adding the peas to the plates, I added about 1 Tbsp of onion sauce to the plates and served. I wish I took a picture but the boyfriend was very hungry and it smelled so good.

There is about 1/4 cup of sauce leftover and 1 pork tenderloin (the boyfriend will be having it reheated tomorrow for lunch). This recipe would probably be good with chicken or salmon as well as the pork and could easily be doubled, tripled, etc.

Because of the coupon deals at Shopper's, I was able to make this for well under $5

Free $ At Giant!

Getting a daily paper, we usually wind up with at least doubles of some of the circulars. This week, we had doubles of the Giant one, including doubles of the transfer Rx, get a $20 gift card coupons. My boyfriend had already redeemed one of them yesterday but had another Rx to fill (the poor thing has a pretty nasty sinus infection!) so he asked me whether or not I thought they would accept it again today. I said it didn't hurt to try. Turns out, they didn't even raise an eyebrow and now we have $40 in gift cards to Giant (that is at least a week's worth of groceries for us!).

Tonight's dinner was a leftover hamburger crumbled and some fresh and frozen vegetables in quick scrambled eggs, and I'm making this recipe again from over at Money Saving Mom for dessert. If you remember from last time, I changed the recipe around a bit. This time, I did some alterations again.

I used:

4 eggs
6 cups of oats
3/4 c sugar
1 c applesauce
1 c low-sugar peach mango juice
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 c. canola oil

We'll see how it turns out. This time I'm planning on freezing half of it for snacks since last time we lost half of it due to mold. Boo! Hopefully individually wrapped frozen portions will keep it from going bad this time.

Because I had to get my car inspected (long story) and drop it off at the shop, the Safeway stop I made had to be light enough that I wouldn't kill my back walking home. I did pick up additional fixings for the dinner I'll be making (recipe below, though I can't take credit for it, if you believe it, my 21 year old brother's invention) and some more Frosted Mini Wheats (surprise! surprise!). Also, I bought some expensive chocolate on clearance (70 cents a piece).

At my Safeway, there was a huge rack full of this chocolate near the dairy cases. As you can see, from one of the companies' websites, these bars usually go for $6 a piece! I might go back to stock up for gifts.

So, without further adieu the shopping receipt totals and recipe:

$.70 Chuao Chocolatier Spicy Maya
$.70 Chuao Chocolatier Chinita Nibs
$.70 Chuao Chocolatier Earl Grey
$.70 New Tree "Renew" Blackcurrant
$.69 can of corn
$.84 can of black beans
$1.39 enchilada sauce
$2.99 package of mexican cheese
$1.89 flour tortillas
$1.19 frozen spinach
$1.99 Kelloggs clearance brown sugar frosted mini wheats (we'll see if he likes these)
$2.50 Kelloggs frosted mini wheats

- $1/2 Kelloggs frosted mini wheats

= $15.28

Running weekly tally: $23.80

And now the recipe. I've never made it before, but my brother (when he's not at college) makes it every couple of weeks and it's delicious!

Its best to think of it as a lasagna.

1 package of flour tortillas
1 can enchilada sauce
1/2 small can green chiles*
1 can corn (with some of the liquid saved)
1 small onion
1 bag of spinach
1 can refried beans or pureed black beans
(added: ground beef)
1 bag of shredded mexican cheese
cumin
salt
pepper

depending on your casserole dish you'll need either a half or a whole package of 12 inch tortillas cut in half.

1. Quickly brown the onion and garlic in a pan, add the corn, green chiles and half a can of the beans. Heat on medium stirring. Add the spinach and the corn liquid, stirring until the spinach wilts a little. Add cumin, salt, and pepper and taste. Take of the heat and set this aside

2. Normally I heat the remaining bean puree to make it easier to spread.

3. Pour a little of the enchilada sauce into a bowl. Coat the tortilla halves in sauce. Spray the casserole dish with some nonstick and then pour a very thin layer of sauce in the bottom. Lay down the tortilla halves so that they form a little lip at the bottom of the pan.

4. Spread a little bit of the bean mixture, followed by the spinach stuff, then cheese then a little more of the sauce. Keep on repeating this pattern (tortilla, bean, spinach, cheese, sauce)

5. Make sure the top tortilla are well coated in the enchilada sauce and top it with the remaining cheese and optionally jalapeno slices.

6. Bake at 375 for 15-25 min until the thing is piping hot. Let sit and cut and enjoy.

* I'm not using the chiles because my boyfriend and I both have sensitive stomachs, and I'm adding some of the ground beef from a previous grocery trip.

Edit 6:45pm
The boyfriend really liked the casserole, even though he was dubious after I mentioned it had both spinach and corn in it. He even asked for a second helping! This recipe makes a lot of food, especially if you use a large shallow baking dish. I went through the full 2-3 pounds of beef, most of the spinach mixture, all of the sauce and all of the tortillas. We ate about 1/5 of it. I did alter the recipe slightly - I used whole black beans and mashed them with a potato masher with the spinach, corn and onions (healthier than refried beans).

All in all a success.