Thankful for coupons! (+ how you can give to others this season!)

Some of you have questioned whether you can buy “real food” with coupons … and if you can actually make a meal with some of the odds and ends that we get super cheap each week at the store. I am here to prove you can buy “real” food and make a meal out of the food you get super cheap too!

We had Thanksgiving at my in-laws house so I didn’t end up with all the turkey leftovers (which I love!).  I knew I would want some leftovers so I bought a turkey anyways when they were super cheap ($0.59/lb. at Publix!) and planned to cook it a few weeks after Thanksgiving.

I cooked our turkey today with some of the dishes you would have at Thanksgiving.  But get this, I made everything for less than $12!  Everything was not all bought in one week but over time, as it was on the sale for the lowest price AND I had a coupon (which is how you really maximize your savings!)

Here’s the breakdown:

Turkey - $8.55

Crescent rolls - $0.50 (Kroger sale last week)

Green bean casserole - $0.39  ($0.14 green beans, FREE French Fried Onions, $0.25 Cream of Mushroom soup)

Sweet Potato Casserole - $0.99 ($0.99 3 lb. bag of potatoes bought at Aldi, butter/sugar/nuts already on hand)

Corn - $0.14

Stuffing – $0.50

Gravy – FREE

Total $11.07!!

(I had $0.25 Nestle cookies that we would have had for dessert, but we were STUFFED! :)

So 2 of us ate tonight, I fixed 2 lunches for my husband, took 4 servings of everything to my mom, and still have a huge container of turkey that I plan to use make 2 pot pies and will probably still have leftover after that!  So $11.07 provided 8 servings of everything, plus I will make 2 pot pies that will serve 10-12 people.

So, remember the next time you are out shopping and you find ingredients for super cheap, there are people out there that could use a Thanksgiving basket or Christmas meal basket.  You could easily pick up 1-2 extra of everything that you are buying for your family (add in a cake mix and frosting for dessert – usually around $0.50 after coupons) and either donate it to a food shelter or find a family in need at your church or somewhere else.  $12 is not a lot of money to provide a huge blessing to someone!  You couldn’t buy/do ANYTHING for $12 that will make you feel as good as you will by helping/giving to someone else!

Use your blessings of coupons to help someone in need this holiday! 

What’s for dinner: a Southern classic - fried okra and chicken tenders!

If you live in the northern part of the USA, let me introduce you to a Southern summer classic!  Fried okra!  I know, I know, I used to think “yuck” too!  (And I have had fried okra before out at restaurants that was mushy and “yuck”)  I did not grow up eating grits, fried green tomatoes, or fried okra but I have grown to love these foods having lived in the south all of my life (all except for the grits…I love my cream of wheat instead.)  So once a summer we have to have fried squash, fried green tomatoes, and fried okra (by my husband’s request! :)  We have already eaten fried squash so next on the list was fried okra.  :)

I picked up my okra and tomatoes at a local farm stand. 

This is how I prepare my chicken tenders, okra, squash, anything that I bread and fry.  I dip them in egg, and then in a mixture of Bisquick, salt, pepper, and a little garlic pepper.  I find that the Bisquick makes a puffy, crispy breading with a lot of flavor.

Then I fry them in about an inch of canola oil in a frying pan on the stove.  (In other words, they are not deep fried, more like pan fried.)

Add some mixed veggies (free with coupons!) and fresh tomatoes and you have a perfect Southern summer meal. :)

Mmmm….good! :)

(Just a disclaimer: we do not eat fried food very often.  Like I said we usually have fried squash, okra, and green tomatoes ONCE during the summer.  And we have fried chicken tenders 3-4 times a year.  I am sure my homemade fried food is better than eating deep fried food out, but still not something that will be on our menu every week.)

What are you having for dinner tonight?

What’s for dinner: Potatoes and chicken on the grill!

We just recently had our first Food Lion open in our area and they had some great Grand Opening specials!  

One was whole small fryer chickens for $0.39 a pound meaning I got whole chickens for $2.05 to $2.20 each! 

My favorite way to cook these chickens is on the grill.  (Sorry, I don’t have pictures of the whole process, but I will talk you through it.)  You need to clean the chicken (take the giblets, etc out of the inside).  I leave the skin on to provide a barrier on the grill.  Then I take a kitchen scissors and cut along the spine on both sides, removing it, to open the chicken up so it will lay flat.

(photo courtesy of Grilling Companion.com)

Then I use a dry marinade packet (that I got for FREE, of course!) and rub all over the chicken.  I grill the chicken rib/bone side down for a majority of the time.  Then flip and finish grilling until juices run clear.

Now we also had grilled red potatoes!  These are some of the best potatoes I have ever had – they literally melt in your mouth!  I got the recipe from my friend Christa’s blog – Grab Ur Fork.  You can read the full recipe here.  Basically you clean and cut red potatoes into thick slices and boil until they are almost done.  Then put them on the grill, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with seasoning.  I like to use a ranch dressing mix package (that I get for Aldi for $0.69!) and salt and pepper.  Grill for a few minutes, then flip, brush with butter, sprinkle with seasoning and grill for a few more minutes.

So here is our dinner!  We had fresh mango, grilled chicken, grilled red potatoes, and macaroni and cheese (made with FREE pasta and super cheap cheese from the Kroger mega sale!)  Mmmmmm, good!

What are you having for dinner tonight?

What’s for dinner : cheap pork chops, Crockpot recipe, and a whole meal bought with coupons!

Kroger has boneless pork loin on sale for $1.99/lb. this week. Boneless pork chops usually cost $3.99/lb.  But did you know that you can just buy a loin and get it cut into pork chops, saving yourself 50% off the price of pork chops?

 

You can get the butcher to cut it in store for you (they should do this for free) or you can cut it at home into thick pork chops.  This will allow you to get boneless pork chops for $1.99/lb. instead of $3.99/lb!  That is 50% savings!

I bought one a few weeks ago and the butcher was unable to cut it for me since their machine was broken.  So I cut it into about 1 inch chops when I got home.  My pork loin cost  $9.63 but I had a $1.50 Kroger mailer coupon off fresh meat so I only paid $8.13.  And I got 12-13 pork chops out of it!

I put the ones that I was not going to use for dinner that night in freezer bags and labeled them.  I used about 1/2 of the pork chops that night.

Then we had this Crockpot recipe for dinner that night.

Chicken Fried Chops

Combine in a bowl:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. ground mustard

1/2 tsp or garlic powder

 

Dredge pork chops in the mixture.

Brown the chops on both sides over medium high heat until lightly brown.

 

Place chops in crockpot.  Combine 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup with 1/2 cup of milk and pour over chops.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (or I have also done them on high for 3 1/2 – 4 hours.)  Once it is done, you can use the soup and drippings as a gravy, thickening them with some cornstarch if you want.  The pork chops will be so tender they will just fall apart!  Yummy!

Everything we ate that night, I had bought with coupons at various times (which, honestly is most of our meals now!)  We had enough for 2 servings at dinner and my husband had 2 meals of leftovers so it was 4 servings total.

Here’s the totals:

Pork chops: $4.07

Cream of chicken soup - $0.89

Betty Crocker Potatoes - $0.30 after coupon

Steamfresh peas – FREE after coupon

Crescent rolls: $0.70 after markdown and coupon

$5.96 for 4 servings or $1.49 each!

(Thanks, Judy for sharing this recipe with us!  We have enjoyed it many times! :)

Need an idea for dinner tonight?

I know, I do!  I need something for a potluck and have chicken and pork chops on hand.  You can browse for recipes too in these free e-books.

Get the chicken casserole recipes here.

 

Get the Pork Chop recipes here.