Store Sales + Store Coupons = Getting the Most Bang for your Buck at Food Lion

I do most of my shopping these days at Food Lion in Greenville, NC. It isn't fancy. It isn't organic (most of it anyway), but it's healthy, real, and affordable food and I'm usually able to stay within my weekly $50 food budget for the two of us. 

This budget generally ONLY includes food and sometimes things like dish soap or toothpaste. I buy MOST of our other household items in bulk for super cheap from Amazon once every few months. The last time we bought toilet paper and paper towels was in December.  I also buy all of our cat food online through Amazon, again because I can get it in bulk, get it deeply discounted or at least for a comparative price, AND it's delivered. 

One way I'm able to stay within my $50 budget is buy ONLY shopping the store sales and store brands. There are a few items that are rarely on sale (like butter, eggs, and/or organic milk), but generally at least half of what I buy is on sale. Each week I check out the online sales paper for our local store. 

• Money-Saving Shopping Tip: GET to KNOW your favorite store's websites! They often have special coupons available (often customized JUST for you and your shopping habits), they ALWAYS have their current sales flyer available. They also often have great custimization tools to create your own shopping lists that can be emailed to you or your smart phone or just printed for your convenience. You can check out all of the store's coupon policies along with all the details of any current store promotions. I have become a HUGE fan of Food Lion's customer website, it has helped me tremendously each week to create my shopping list and stay within my budget. (And NO, they have NOT paid me to say that or review their store, I've just been shopping there for years, and I'm a loyal customer!) 

I create a shopping list just from the items in the flyer and then I create a weekly menu from those store sale items. Sometimes the menu isn't very exciting... but it's nearly ALWAYS healthy, real, unprocessed foods. 

Here is a breakdown of the items I bought this week (highlighted items were not on sale, just store-brand regular priced items): 

• 2 boxes Honey Nut Cheerios (on sale with MVP card = 2 for $3.98)
• 1 box Corn Chex cereal (had a .50 off coupon ON my store MVP card, that I found on the food lion website = $2.99)
• 2 small cans of tomato sauce (.64)
• 1 bag dried lentils (1.39)
• 2 cans green beans, 1 can corn, 1 can sweet peas (on sale with MVP = $1.68)
• 1 pound ground beef (on MVP sale for $3.35)
• 2 turkey drumsticks ($3.07)
• 2 whole chickens (on sale for .99/ lb. = $10.79)
• 1 head cauliflower ($2.99)
• 3 pounds sweet potatoes ($2.52)
• 1 bunch celery (on MVP sale, $1.29)
• 3 pounds yellow onions (on MVP sale, $1.79)
• 1 pound asparagus (on MVP sale, $3.77)
• 1 green pepper (.89)
• 1 pound carrots (.79)
• 1 package sliced mushrooms (on MVP sale, $1.69)
• 1 package (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese ($2.49)
• 1/2 gallon organic milk ($3.59)
• 2 dozen medium eggs ($2.09 per package = $4.18)
• 1 pound butter ($2.97)
• 1 package paper plates (on MVP sale, $1.99)

TOTAL with store coupons & store sales = $54.10

So it turns out with this trip, it was about half MVP store sale items and half store-brand lower priced items. My goal every week is to try to make sure to buy as many REAL food items as possible and very few processed items for the best prices I can find. Right now, I don't focus on organic foods. When we have the money for them, I definitely go for organic, but I think overall if you have a tight budget and can simply focus on whole foods, you're still doing pretty darn well! 

Cheryl's lentil dal, roast cauliflower, and baked sweet potatoes

We will use the food from this trip combined with the food in our pantry and freezer to make some of the following meals: 

• Roast chicken with lemon and artichokes or asparagus (see recipe below!)
• Cheryl's lentil dal (I used the regular lentils I found instead of red lentils, it worked fine!), with roasted cauliflower and baked sweet potatoes
• Breakfast for dinner = eggs, bacon (from freezer stash), and gluten-free pancakes
• Homemade gluten-free pizza (pg. 104, The Everything Gluten-Free Baking Cookbook) with toppings of browned ground beef, green peppers, onions, homemade tomato sauce, and mozzarella. 
• Hamburger gravy made with remaining browned ground beef, celery, and onions and served over gluten-free, low glycemic biscuits or GF almond bread toast
• Homemade pulled turkey barbecue and homemade coleslaw (with cabbage from last week's shopping trip)
• Mushroom & Asparagus Omelettes with sliced oranges from last week's shopping trip

Slow cooked roast chicken with artichokes and lemon - see recipe from my slow cooker cookbook below!

Recipe shared courtesy of Carrie S. Forbes (myself), author of "The Everything GF Slow Cooker Cookbook"

Do you have a favorite store that you shop at consistently? 

What's your favorite thing about the store? 

2 Hour Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Meals: Jambalaya

One thing I learned when I wrote my slow cooker cookbook was that people have very strong opinions about their slow cookers. They can love them or they can hate them. There aren't many 'tweeners.

Well one thing I love about them (especially newer "Crock Pot" slow cooker models) is that they actually cook pretty fast, especially on high heat. And yes, I know that's a contradiction. Why in the WORLD would you want a "slow cooker" to cook FAST?

Because I'm never home. That's why!  I'm out of the house over 10 hours a day during the work week, which unfortunately is not conducive to MOST slow cooker recipes (unless you like really burned, or really over cooked food!). So some evenings when I get home... I throw something in the slow cooker as SOON as I get in the house. Toss it in... I can do a ton of other things (like write other cookbooks) while that's cooking and by the time Michael gets home a few hours later... dinner is done. And it took me all of five minutes to throw together.

And that was tonight's dinner. Zatarain's Jambalaya with gluten-free sausages cooked in the slow cooker. We served it with leftover broccoli from the night before and some canned green beans. We're super gourmet like that.

I don't make boxed mixes every week... but it's so cool you can make them like this in your slow cooker. Nothing burns, it's not overcooked (it actually cooked the rice through in about an hour and forty minutes), and there's very little to clean up. And since there's only two of us... this mix (and we added extra brown rice and water, so it wouldn't be as spicy) will make at least 3 meals for us.

Thanks Zatarain's! I love seeing those two happy words on your box! Now if only you could make it with less sodium and fewer preservatives you'd make a lot of other people happy too! :-)

So try it out! A slow cooker meal in two hours. And there's quite a few recipes you could use in one of my favorite cookbooks!

gluten free blueberry cobbler recipe

Keeping a big batch of gluten free master baking mix in the cabinet is really helpful. On Saturday, I had a partial container of blueberries that were way past their prime, along with a bag of frozen blueberries that I really needed to use up.

My friend Heather A. came to me a few months ago with an old recipe for blueberry cobbler she had when she was growing up. She wanted to make it gluten free. I don't remember ever really talking about what she should use to make it... so she figured out how to make it gluten free all on her own. Several days later she & her husband met us for dinner at a local restaurant and she brought along her homemade blueberry cobbler. I hadn't had a cobbler like this in ages... with a crusty, cinnamon-y biscuit crust and a wonderfully rich, purple, and just-sweet-enough, blueberry filling. It was delicious.  Between the four of us we completely devoured that cobbler and probably could have eaten another one! Soon after I tried to make the cobbler at home... I added more ingredients, changed things a bit... and it just wasn't as good. Heather was right... keeping it simple was the key to this awesome cobbler.

Saturday when I decided to make the cobbler again I wanted to use my Master Baking Mix. I realized this made making a gluten free version even easier... and it made a darn good casserole. I think even Heather would approve!

Heather's Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler
adapted by Carrie at gingerlemongirl.com
free of gluten, dairy/casein, eggs, and soy
printer-friendly recipe

Batter Ingredients:
1 cup Gluten Free Master Baking Mix (or gluten free Bisquick)
1/3 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons sugar

Filling Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch -or- arrowroot starch
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping:
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tbsp. butter -or- coconut oil -or- non-stick cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a small casserole dish and set aside. In a small bowl mix together the gluten free master baking mix, almond milk and 2 tablespoons of sugar until you have a thick batter. Set aside. In a small saucepan add water, 2/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch. Mix or whisk together and cook over high heat, stirring constantly until boiling. Allow to boil for 1 minute. The cornstarch/water mixture will turn translucent and thicken. Remove from heat and add blueberries.  Pour blueberry filling into the greased baking dish. Drop the master mix batter by tablespoons on top of the blueberry filling and use a fork to spread evenly over the casserole. It doesn't have to be perfectly covered. Mix cinnamon and 2 teaspoons sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle over the top of the casserole. Dot with butter, coconut oil, or spritz the top of the casserole with non-stick cooking spray (this will help the casserole to brown). Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top of the casserole is golden brown and the blueberry filling is bubbling around the edges. If your casserole dish is too small, you may want to place a cookie sheet underneath the dish to keep it from spilling over in your oven. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes before serving. Serve as is or at room temperature... serve with ice-cream, whipped cream... or my favorite -- just plain the way it is! Enjoy!

Green Onions... and how to save them for later

Did you know you can freeze green onions for later use? Every time I've bought green onions in the past they always went bad in my produce drawer before I had a chance to use them.

I can't remember where I saw it online a few days ago, but someone froze freshly sliced green onions in a plastic soda bottle in the freezer and simply poured them out straight onto a dish when they were called for in a recipe. And why hadn't I thought of that? I love the flavor that green onions add to just about any dish, but I didn't use them often in the past because they always went bad so quickly!

So this week I bought two large bunches of green onions, chopped them finely and put them in a plastic bag to freeze. I can't wait to throw them on an omelet or a baked potato later this week!

Do you use green onions a lot? Share one of your favorite recipes that uses them!

I'm adding this post to a roundup of gluten free kitchen tips, part of Wendy's (Celiacs in the House) new series on gluten free kitchens. Make sure to check out Wendy's post about her beautiful split level home with her cozy kitchen and her recent tip on making almond milk.

tomatoes from the garden

It's the first year we've had anything close to being called a "garden" -- but quite sadly the weeds quickly took over because I stink at gardening... yet we have managed to get a few tomatoes & zucchini from the now heat-tormented plants.

I love ripening vegetables on a window sill... so here are a few of our tomatoes. These are quite small... about the size of cherry tomatoes.

I think next year I'll just use these hanging tomato planters instead of torturing the plants with weeds!

Have you had any success at gardening? What's your favorite summer vegetable?

A frugal gluten free gift idea

Here's a super easy & frugal gift idea for you.

For Father's Day I decided to give my Dad a bunch of my homemade gluten free chocolate chip cookies. It may seem silly since he doesn't follow a gluten free diet himself... but he loves these cookies! Why not make a gift out of them? I also gave him a jar of homemade pickles I canned last summer and some of my favorite cooking seasoning.

I found an old tin that I was about to recycle and I colored a label on white paper with cookies on it. I glued the label to the tin. Taped an additional label on top and made a batch of my gluten free chocolate chip cookies. I made the cookies super small -- bite size really -- so the whole batch would fit in the tin without being smashed or broken. It worked great.

Michael and I also made homemade cards to go along with all the other homemade treats and I think for my Dad it was one of the best gifts I had ever given him.

So when you can't think of anything to give, or if you need to give someone a gift but don't have a lot of money to spend... make a batch of bite-size gluten free cookies! The people you love will be so impressed at how much time & thought you put into their homemade gift.

What are your favorite types of frugal, homemade gifts?