Sunday Coupon Inserts

Just one coupon insert today: P & G.

For the locals, $1 Tennessean newspapers can be found at Dollar Tree, Kroger (until the end of the year), CVS and Daily's. You may want to call your store first to see if they are participating.

Publix: Lots of Free Items!

I was looking over my post about Aldi. They do have some good deals, but shopping at Publix can not be beat! Lots of free or almost free items this past week by matching sales with coupons and using competitor coupons (HG Hills and Food Lion). This was my shop from 12/24.

Spent $32.45
Store Coupons $44.48
Vendor Coupons $ 61.34
Ad Savings $19.33
Advantage Buys $6.29
Saved $131.44!
80%

Aldi Shopping Trip!

Late posting this, but every 4 to 6 weeks I'll try to make a stop at Aldi. As I always say, Aldi is a great place for the basics (eggs, milk, vegetables) and for items that often don't have coupons. The best deal was on the spiral sliced ham at $1.29 a pound! The pinto beans at $1.29 for two pounds was a great deal.

My favorite new items I bought was the dried whole cranberries with a hint of orange. These are a seasonal item. I bought only one, but could easily enjoyed several more.

I was looking at all the groceries and even if I had nothing else at home for the week, these could easily feed my family of four with just a few additions. My total was $56.78 including that large spiral sliced ham.

SUPER EASY Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

I made these pancakes as the start of my plan to get a my three year old to eat a few more fruits and vegetables. Here's the recipe below. You won't believe how easy it it.

1 cup of pumpkin pie filling
1 cup of wheat blend pancake mix (I used Hungry Jack)
1 cup of water

Mix all ingredients together until the batter is smooth. Cook in a non-stick pan. Add a small amount of oil or non stick spray as needed. Cook as you would any pancakes. Turn when bubbles start to form and then cook an additional minute or two on the other side. Makes about 6 medium to large pancakes.

The verdict:

My husband and I really liked these. The spice was pleasant without being over whelming to the pancakes. Pancakes were very moist, and I ate my without syrup.

My picking son ate 4! This really surprised me as he usually only has one occasionally.

My daughter was undecided. She is used to her whole wheat pancakes.

Next time I'm going to try adding sweet potato puree and see how it goes.

New Publix Deals!

Because of the Christmas Holiday, the new deals will start Saturday. Michelle at I Heart Publix has the list. And you still have a couple days left to purchase some great sale items from the current list.

Menu Monday

I'm trying a new tactic this week. In order to get my children to eat more fruit and vegetables, I'm going to try sneaking in puree in some dishes. We'll see how this works out.

For my weekly dinner menus, I usually try to have one slow cooker, one meat less, and one seafood entree. On average, most of my meals are less than $5. I'm able to do this because I shop sales, use coupons, and stockpile some items.

Monday: Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs, sweet potato fries, broccoli and cheese, strawberry apple sauce(adding some pureed frozen strawberries), home made rolls (using my bread machine to help with this). $3

Tuesday: Twice baked potatoes. (I'm also going to try to sneak in some pureed cauliflower in the mix instead of extra mashed potatoes and omit the bacon.) $2

Wednesday: Baked chicken over vegetable fettuccine Alfredo. $4

Thursday: Christmas Eve TBA

Friday: Merry Christmas! Spiral sliced ham, Costco spinach salad (my favorite), mashed potatoes, rolls and caramel cheese cake. (I'm making the caramel topping from sweetened condensed milk. The safe way to caramelize is noted below.)

I have not decided which cheesecake recipe I'm going to use. Here's some I'm thinking about. Juniors Cheesecake, New York Cheesecake, Super Easy Cheesecake.
This meal is way over $5!

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Home made cheese pizza and salad. $3


To Caramelize sweetened condensed milk:

Oven method; Pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk into 9 inch pie plate. Cover
with foil; place in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with hot water. Bake at
425 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until thick and caramel colored. Beat until
smooth.

For more menu ideas check out organizingjunkie.com.

No Coupon Inserts!

No coupon inserts today. Next week, there should be only one insert P&G.

If you would like to purchase a Sunday paper anyway, locally $1 Tennessean newspapers can be found at Dollar Tree, Kroger (until the end of the year), CVS and Daily's. You may want to call your store first to see if they are participating.