Menu Planning Monday for the week of 5/3/09


Yesterday I completed another freezer swap and I ended up with a total of 15 meals! You may have noticed that my posting has slowed down quite a bit recently. It’s the end of the school year, which is always hectic anyway, but on top of that we had a day of for flooding, some of the schools in my area have closed due to swine flu, and I’m covering medical leaves for other people plus my kids and I have been sick. This week, I’m grateful for these freezer meals and that’s where most of our menu for the week will be coming from!

Here’s my menu for the week:

Sunday: In addition to all of the great things we’re learning about managing our finances, I have enjoyed not having to cook on Sundays since we get to eat at our Dave Ramsey class 🙂

Monday: Chicken Fajitas

(HEB, which is one of our local grocery stores has “Combo Loco” deals each week where you get several free items when you purchase one or two specific items. The fajita deal is one of my favorite deals! When you buy seasoned chicken fajitas and a bag of shredded cheese, you get free bratwurst, guacamole, salsa, flour tortillas, sour cream, and a soft drink)

Tuesday: Spicy Sausage Skillet (freezer swap meal) – the recipe for this is actually attached to the meal, so I will add it when I get a chance

Wednesday: Ravioli lasagne (freezer meal)

Ingredients:
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 pkg (25 oz) frozen cheese ravioli
2 cups small curd cottage cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

Directions: Spread ¼ cup of spaghetti sauce in 9X13 pan. Layer with half of the ravioli, 1 ¼ cups of sauce, 1 cup of cottage cheese, and 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layer. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

If freezing, place in a disposable aluminum pan. Cover with foil and freeze.

To bake: Thaw in refrigerator. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Thursday: Shredded Beef Tacos (slow cooker) – I recently discovered a new recipe blog – Favorite Family Recipes – and I have been wanting to try this recipe every since it was posted! (and it says you can freeze the extras which works out great in my book!)

Ingredients:
3-4 Lbs. lean roast beef
1 pkg. onion soup mix
2-3 c. water
1 onion, diced
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. Pace picante sauce (I’m going to use the Pace salsa verde which is SOO good if you haven’t tried it yet!)

Lightly sear the roast on all sides. Add to crock pot and sprinkle with onion soup mix and add 2 c. water. Cook in crock pot on low for 8-9 hours, keep an eye on it and add more water as necessary. Make sure there is always about 1-2 cups of liquid in there. Do not let the water cook out! After meat is cooked, drain juices into a large jar. Place jar in the fridge so the fat will rise to the top and be easily removed. Shred the meat and toss our any excess fat. Saute onion in butter. When onions are clear, add flour and stir until smooth. Add 1-2 c. of the meat drippings, stirring or whisking constantly until it is a gravy-like consistency. Return shredded meat to crock pot and add gravy mixture and picante sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir and simmer. Meat should be moist and juicy.

Friday: Pork tenderloin polynesian (freezer recipe) – We have a blog where we post our monthly recipes from our freezer swap, but since we just did the swap yesterday, the recipes haven’t been posted yet. I found this recipe on Freezer Chicks, which I’m guessing is similar to the one used for our meal:

Ingredients:
1 pound pork tenderloin cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 eggs- lightly beaten
1/4 cup flour, whole wheat
2 Tbsp. vinegar
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 cup chicken bouillon
1 cup pineapple chunks with juice
1 ea green pepper- chopped
1/2 cup carrot- chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ginger, ground
1 tsp garlic powder

Roll meat cubes in eggs and then flour.
Place in freezer bags
Add remaining ingred to another bag. Freeze.

Thaw both bags.
Brown the pork in a large skillet sprayed with oil until the juices run clear. 5-7 min. Remove and drain. Add the “sauce” bag to skillet, cook over med. heat until mixture begins to thicken.

Serve over hot rice.

Saturday: Chicken enchiladas (my husband has been asking for these and we should have plenty of tortillas left over from Monday’s meal to cover it!)

Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the 98% FF kind)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (I use the 98% FF kind)
2 cans green enchilada sauce
1 8 oz-16 oz. tub of sour cream (depends how spicy you want the enchiladas)
2-3 chicken breasts, shredded (if I’m in a hurry, I use canned chicken)
1 lb. cheese, shredded
1 dozen flour tortillas (you could use corn also)

Add cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and enchilada sauce to a pan. Cook on medium low heat, stirring occasionally. When sauce is will mixed and starts to thin, add sour cream. Continue stirring occasionally until the sauce is well mixed and thinned out. Place a layer of the sauce along the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Fill each tortilla with the shredded chicken, sauce, and cheese. Roll and place in the baking dish. When you have filled all of the tortillas (this should make 1 dozen), pour the remain sauce over the top of the enchiladas and then cover with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the cheese is well melted.

Chili’s Guiltless Grill giveaway

It’s carnival week and Live Giveaways, and I’m giving away two coupons for a free Guiltless Grill Entree at Chili’s.

The Guiltless Grill menu has been expanded and now includes the following items:

*Guiltless Carne Asada steak
*Guiltless Honey-Glazed or Grilled salmon
*Guiltless Buffalo or Grilled chicken sandwich
*Guiltless Chicken platter
*Guiltless Black Bean Burger
*Guiltless Cedar Plank Tilapia

All items on the Guiltless Grill menu are under 750 calories, 25 grams of fat and 8 grams of saturated fat. They area served with with steamed seasonal veggies and Parmesan cheese.

Here are the details on this giveaway:

The giveaway will run from now until 11:59 PM (PST) on Friday, 5/8/09. I will announce the winner on Saturday, 5/9/09. (The winner will be randomly selected using random.org)

You can enter up to three times. Here are the ways that you can enter:

1. If you’ve already tried out a Chili’s Guiltless Grill menu item, tell me which one is your favorite. If you haven’t tried one out yet, check out the menu here and tell me which one you would like to try.

2. Sign up to follow my blog (if you are already following my blog, you automatically get an entry!) or subscribe to my blog (if you subscribe, please post a comment to let me know that you have subscribed).

3. Create a post on your blog letting others know about the giveaway and link back to my blog. Be sure to comment here with a link to your post!

Please create a separate post for each of your entries. If you win, you need to provide me with some way to contact you. If your profile is public with a link to your blog, that works. Otherwise, watch the blog closely on Saturday, 5/9 for me to post the winner.

(If you post a comment as “anonymous” you need to include some sort of identifying information or your entry will not be valid)

Good luck! (Be sure you check out Live Giveaways for other great giveaways this week!)

What’s hot at Target this week


There are lots of great gift card deals this week! In my opinion, this is the “hottest” deal this week:

Buy 2 Glade Fragrance Collection Soy Candles, get a $5 gift card – extended through 5/11/09

The smaller candles are priced at $5.79 each. Here’s how to “work” this deal:

Buy 2 Glade Fragrance Collection 4 oz candles – $5.79/each

Use 2 of the $4/1 coupons from today’s inserts
Use a $5 Target gift card (I always keep one of these to “roll” into deals like this)

You will have $1.42 left on your Target gift card and will get a $5 gift card back! (these make great gifts!!)

Buy 4 Fiber One products, get a $5 gift card: (listed in ad are Honey Clusters or Original cereal, 5 ct bars, or muffin mixed – priced at $2.39/each)

$1/2 printable coupon here
$1.35 Chocolate Mocha bars printable here
.75/1 Fiber One cereal printable here

Buy 4 Fiber One Chocolate Mocha Bars – $2.39/each

Use 4 $1.35 printables
Use $5 Target gift card (spend $4.16 on gift card)

Spend $0 (if you use the gift card), earn a $5 Target gift card

Buy 4 Fiber One Cereals – $2.39/each

Use 4 .75/1 printables
Use $5 Target gift card

Spend $1.56, get a $5 Target gift card back

Buy 2 Dove 4 oz facial lotion or Pond’s facial towelettes (30 ct), get a $5 Target gift card

Buy 2 Pond’s towelettes – $4.79/each

Use 2 $1.50/1 coupons from 3/29 RP
Use $5 Target gift card

Spend $1.58 OOP, get a $5 gift card back

OTHER DEALS:

Schick Quattro Pro razors – $6.99/each

Use $4 coupon from 3/22 or 4/26 SS
Use $2 Target.com printable coupon

Spend $.99 OOP

Check out the coupon match-ups for the current Target printables here.

Check out the Coupon Generator on A Full Cup to print your Target coupons:

Afullcup.com Target Coupon Generator

Find more Target deals here on Attention Target Shoppers!

We have a winner!

The winner of the Target gift card giveaway is Jo.

Hopefully Jo will come back and share some new bargains from the gift card win! Congrats again Jo!

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog, for entering the giveaway, and for sharing your Target finds and tips. I actually learned a lot and got some great ideas for saving in the future!

Stay tuned next month for another giveaway! 🙂

Weekly coupon round up: preview of coupons from the 5/3 inserts

This week there will be three inserts in the Sunday paper! You can access the full listing of coupons that will be included here on The Coupon Clippers. Keep in mind that inserts vary by location, so your inserts may have different coupons or different dollar amounts.

If you are looking for multiple copies of coupons, The Coupon Clippers is my favorite resource. Coupons for the Sunday inserts are available for purchase early Saturday morning and the hot coupons go FAST.

Here’s the “hot” coupons I spotted from this week’s inserts: (there are lots of them!)

SmartSource
*Bic Soleil Refillable Razor HANDLE buy ONE get a FREE Bic Soleil Cartridge Refills 4-pk, to $7.29, expires 6/14/09

*$1/2 Glade PlugIns Scented Gel Refill packs on TWO, expires 6/13/09

*Glade PlugIns Scented Gel warmer buy ONE get ONE FREE, to $2.39, expires 6/13/09

*Glade Scented Oil Candles refill pk, buy any and get a FREE Scented Oil Candles Tin holder, to $3.99, expires 6/13/09

*$4/1 Glade The Fragrance Collection on any product, expires 6/13/09

*$1/1 Ken’s Marinade or Buffalo Wing Sauce on any, expires 6/30/09 (free when they go 10/$10, which they do fairly often)

*.75/1 Kraft BBQ Sauce on ONE bottle, 18 oz or larger (get it for free or close to free on sale)

RED PLUM
*$1/1 Garnier Fructis Shampoo, Conditioner or Treatment on any, excluding trial size (these always come in handy for CVS/Walgreens deals)

*$1/1 Garnier Fructis STYLE Product on any, excluding trial size

*.50/1 McCormick GRILL MATES Blend, Marinade or Spice Rub on ONE (free or close to free if your store doubles and they go 10/$10)

*$.75/2 Quaker Chewy GRANOLA bars on any TWO boxes (combine with the coupon on Target.com for cheap granola bars!)

PG
*$4/1 Always INFINITY on ONE, 28 count or higher

*$1/1 Crest Rinse on ONE, 440mL or larger (these always seem to come in handy for Walgreens/CVS deals)

*.50/1 Crest Toothpaste on ONE, 4.2 oz or larger paste or liquid gel (these always seem to come in handy for Walgreens/CVS deals)

*Gillette Shampoo, excludes trial size, buy ONE and get ONE FREE Gillette Styler or 12.2 oz Shampoo

*$2/1 Gillette Venus Razor on any ONE

The Coupon Clippers

There are also some great printable coupons on Coupons.com (print them below):

*$1/1 Kelloggs Frosted Flakes cereal
*$2/1 California Pizza kitchen pizza
*$1.25/1 DiGiorno pizza
*$1.50/2 Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing
*$.50/1 Cottonelle toilet paper 4 pk
*$1.50/1 Dove Cream Oil body wash
*$1/2 Fresh Express salad blends
*$.75/1 Fresh Express Complete Salad kit
*$2/1 Dry Idea deodorant (makes it free at Target)
*$.75/1 Barilla Piccolini pasta
*$3/1 Huggies Pure & Natural diapers
*$1/1 Kelloggs Apple Jacks cereal
*$1/1 Kelloggs Mini Wheats cereal
*$1/1 Kelloggs Raisin Bran cereal
*$1/1 Kelloggs Froot Loops cereal
*$1/1 Kelloggs Corn Pops cereal
*$1/1 Kelloggs Rice Krispies cereal
*$1/1 Kelloggs Special K cereal (use it with the Target deal this week)
*$3/1 Children’s Claritin Non-drowsy
*$4/1 Non-Drowsy Claritin (15 count or larger)
*$4/1 Claritin-D (15 count or larger)