Couponing

I love to coupon. It gives me great joy to walk out of King Soopers or Safeway with bags of groceries and pay next to nothing. And I love to share it with others as well! This is why I'm going to detail a little bit more of how I do it. It really has saved me and my family a bunch of money. I'm going to estimate about $500 since October. If you have any questions or want me to walk you through something in more detail, please leave me a comment and I'll be glad to do that. I'm here to help you save as well!

Where do you get coupons?
1. Newspapers: They usually only come in the Sunday paper so that's all I subscribe to. It was like $30 for a year's worth of Saturday and Sunday papers. If you don't want to subscribe, then just pick up one at the gas station on Sunday.
2. Online: www.coupons.com and www.smartsource.com are my primary sources of online coupons. If a specific sale is going on at target, they have some on www.target.com as well. And sometimes it's just specific manufacturers sites. It all depends on the sale.
3. Online "Clubs": I'm a member of www.vocalpoint.com and Pssst, a club with General Foods that gives it's members previews to new items coming out in the future. I get high value coupons (over $1) and free samples of foods all the time. In exchange, I fill out a quick survey or review of the product.

How do you know when these bargains are available?
Alot of my planning is done with the help of www.springsbargains.com and www.bargainblessings.com. I've talked about these sites before but let me emphasize again how invaluable these two blogs are to my shopping. If you haven't already done so, please check them out. They walk me through all of the grocery ads every week and let me know where coupons can be found. They also keep me updated on other specials or events going on in the city.

Comfort Foods

I made two great dishes tonight. Everyone's out (but me) and so I had the kitchen all to myself. Don't worry, I worked out for almost two hours in preparation for these scrumpious recipes :). Dinner was steak sandwiches. I found this recipe on the Cooking Light website (though I'm not sure how "light" it really was). Thin sliced steak, peppers, and onions on a fresh bakery bun topped with provolone cheese. Drooling yet? It contained 365 calories per serving and I also added some green beans and coleslaw. Maybe 600 calories total? Not totally sure about that.
The steak was on sale at Rancho Liborio a couple weeks ago for $.99/lb! That's an amazing price for steak! Now I just have to find good recipes to use all of it. Any suggestions? It needs to be relatively healthy! This recipe was easy to prepare and done in under 30 minutes. Maybe a good submission for 30 minute meals?


I wanted to make this spicy asian coleslaw that I'm hoping is close to the recipe for Sunbird's slaw. But alas, I did not have a couple of ingredients when I arrived home and was too hungry and tired to go back out and get them. I'll try again tomorrow. But in the meantime, try this recipe if you like stick-to-your-ribs home cooking without the calorie count!

P.S. I'm having trouble loading another picture so I'll do a seperate blog with the other recipe.

Steak and Cheese Sandwiches
1 tsp olive oil
2 C thinly sliced onions
2 C sliced green peppers
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 C sliced mushrooms
3/4 lb top round steak, trimmed and cut thin
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
4 slices reduced-fat provolone cheese
4 steak rolls

Heat oil in large nonstick pan (important as you don't use a lot of oil) over medium-high heat. Add onions, peppers, and garlic and stir-fry till lightly brown. Add mushrooms and saute for 4 minutes. Remove veggies from pan and add meat, salt, pepper, and worchestershire sauce to the pan and saute for 4-5 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.
Place one slice of cheese on each bun and broil for 1 minute until cheese in melted. Top buns with meat and veggies and serve!

Decadent Irish Cream

At this very moment, my kitchen is filled with the delicious smells of Chocolate Chip Irish Cream Pound Cake (tidbit, did you know pound cake is so named because it used to contain a pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs? My goodness, a pound of butter!). I love Bailey's, in everything! It is especially good in hot cocoa. This cake is beautiful and low in fat. It contains 305 calories a slice, a bit high but half of what an original slice of pound cake would contain. The secret to this cake is only 8 tablespoons of butter (instead of the original 32 tablespoons) combined with fat free cream cheese. Cream cheese is wonderful as a substitute for butter. It still gives a rich, moist cake with a significantly reduced amount of calories. I also will sub applesauce in certain cakes for butter. Not quite as rich, but much healthier. This recipe is from the Cooking Light website and I hope it's as wonderful as it smells. Hold on a second and I'll tell you!

Yep, it's amazing!

Chocolate Chip Irish Cream Pound Cake

• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup Irish Cream liqueur (I used 1/2 cup and it was plenty!)
• Baking Spray with flour
• 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon flour in small bowl and toss to coat. Combine rest of flour, baking powder, and salt in mixing bowl and stir till well combined. Place cream cheese and butter in seperate bowl and beat on high to blend. Add sugars and vanilla and mix together. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beat well after each addition. Beat on high for 1 minute. With mixer on low, add flour mixture and liqueur to sugar mixture and beat well. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into 12-cup bundt pan that has been well greased or sprayed. Bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Then cool completely on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Another Successful Trip

Ok, this is probably the best day of my life. Well, maybe not but I pulled my parents out of bed to witness my glorious triumph. No joke. Just ask them! Safeway's food deals this week are spectacular. They just PAID me $.82 to take almost $51 worth of food home tonight. This a first for me. Bask in my awesomeness.

I've never been handed cold hard cash for groceries before. I've heard of such things but it's never personally happened to me. Until today that is! Here's how I did it. (A complete list of Safeway's deals and other promotions can be found at bargainblessings.com; I'm too lazy to write them all down and that's not really what my blog is about). I tried to blow up my receipt the best I could but it got a bit blurry. It says I saved 102% off my purchase.
That's the $.82 they paid me. This makes me happy.

Safeway Promotion #1: Buy 5 qualifying Kelloggs, Post, or Betty Crocker Items; Get $5 instant savings

1. Post Raisin Bran Cereal: $1.50 (-$2 coupon) FREE; I bought 2

2. Kelloggs Fruit Snacks: $1 (I had two different coupons. One, a $1.50 off and one a $1 off) FREE, I bought 2

3. Nature Valley Clusters: $1.50 (-$1 coupon) $.50; I bought 1

Safeway Promotion #2: Buy 5, Save $5 on Marie's Pourable Dressings, Eat Right Salad Mixes, POM Teas, or 8 oz Mushrooms

1. Maries Pourable Dressings: .99 ea (-$1 coupon) FREE I bought 4 as that is all the coupons I could print.

2. Eat Right Spring Mix Salad: .99 ea I bought 1

Safeway Promotion #3: Buy $25 worth of qualifying frozen foods, get a $10 off coupon for your next purchase. I did this on Monday so I already had a $10 off coupon. See my post below.

So far, the 10 items above have cost me $1.50. But keep reading!

The rest of my order included:

1. 2.29 lbs of cabbage at $.29/lb: $.66

2. 3.87lbs of corned beef at $1.29/lb: $5.07

3. 3 Banquet Turkey Potpies at $.69/ea: $2.07

4. Barilla Pasta: .88ea (-$1 coupon): +.12 moneymaker

So: $1.50 + $.66 + $5.07 + $2.07 - $.12 = $9.18

- the $10 off frozen food coupon = $.82!!!!!! Amazing, isn't it :)

Another See Me Shop!

I get inspired when I see or hear about the bargains others are attaining and I hope this helps you as well. I love when I get a great deal! The one pictured is mostly frozen foods and so my grand total of $13.57 is a great deal. It may seem a bit high for a good deal but these items are very expensive!

I shopped exclusively at Safeway this week and I'll be going back again tomorrow for some new deals. I would have to say that Safeway is the most expensive of the grocery stores except for specialty food stores like Whole Foods so I don't shop there very much. King Soopers and Walmart are a much better deal if you don't have coupons or there are no great sales going on. I've detailed what I bought. Bargainblessings.com explains Safeway's frozen foods promotion much better than I could and the promotion is so long that I don't want to type it all. I'll be going back tomorrow to get in on their Kelloggs and Post product specials. Raisen Bran, Nut Clusters, and Corn Pops are all free this week!

At Safeway this week: Buy $25 in frozen foods (before coupons!), get $10 off. This promotion runs until March 30th so you've got plenty of time to get in on it if you want! Make sure you check out bargain blessings post for a complete list of what's on sale.

Here's what I bought on Monday. These prices are after all discounts and coupons.

• 2 Dreyers Ice Cream: $.80 each
• 2 Freshcetta Pizzas: $1.99 each
• Chicken Taquitos: $1.99
• 4 Toaster Strudels: $.49 each
• 4 Michael Angelos Veggie Lasangas: $.30 each
• Coconut Shrimp: $.99
• 4 Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls: FREE!
• 3 Barilla Whole Wheat Pasta: FREE!

P.S. I also bought 8 packages of string cheese but I forgot to put it in the picture. They were $.25 apiece. Do you think string cheese freezes? If not, anybody want some?

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

It's been awhile since I've blogged and I'm missing it. Surgery in the family and then an awful bout of bronchitis has delayed my writing aspirations. But here's a couple of great recipes to end your day off right.

I've become famous of this appetizer called Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes. They're a spinoff of the Cheesecake Factory's appetizer but I've given it a Finnegan flair :) My recipe is gluten free and much smaller than the original. I just switch the flour for rice flour and make them bite size. The original recipe is below.

The other recipe I tried tonight is Stuffed Poblano Peppers. I'm guessing they're about 300 calories apiece but don't quote me on it. They are fried. Next time, I may bake them and see if that works. They were time consuming and a bit frustrating as I could not get them to stay together. I finally used toothpicks to keep the filling from falling out. But they were delish! My family loved them. And aren't they pretty!

Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes

1 1/2 cups frozen white corn

1/2 cup butter

3 T sugar

1 pinch salt

1/2 masa harina corn flour

2 T white flour (I use rice instead)

For Garnish

Chopped Avocado

Salsa

Cilantro

Sour Cream

1. Chop 1 cup of defrosted white corn in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

2. Combine pureed corn with softened butter, sugar, and salt. Blend well

3. Add masa, flour, and rest of corn and blend well.

4. Shape into 2 inch patties and arrange on baking sheet. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Flip over and bake another 3 or 4 minutes.

5. Top with toppings and serve warm.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

10 poblano peppers

1 bottle salsa verde

1 lb shredded colby jack cheese

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

2 cups flour, divided

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup dry Jiffy cornbread mix

1. Roast poblano peppers under broiler for 10- 15 minutes until charred and blistered. Remove from heat and soak in cold water. Peel skins with a paring knife or your fingernail. Slit one side from top to bottom

2. Combine salsa verde, cheese, onion, and red bell pepper. Stuff poblano peppers with filling (I needed to use toothpicks here to keep filling inside).

3. Heat several inches of oil in large skillet. In one bowl, place 1 cup flour. In second bowl, combine eggs and milk. In a third bowl, place jiffy mix. Dip peppers in flour. Roll or brush on egg mixture and dip in jiffy mix.

4. Fry in oil till crispy and golden. Top with more salsa verde and serve.