Couponing

Ok so I have never understood how extreme couponing works.  I don’t get how people can go into a store and buy over a hundred dollar’s worth of groceries for only seven dollars…it’s a complete mystery to me.  Although I don’t do extreme couponing, I have started looking through papers for deals and coupons for items I do use.  One place that I keep saving money with is Target. I recently downloaded the Cartwheel app and like seeing how much money I save by using the extra discounts that come with it.  Ever since their security breach last winter, Target has also been providing awesome coupons in their weekly sale paper.  One week they had a great deal where if you bought $50 worth of certain items such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies, they would take $20 off at the register.  As I looked through the items, I thought “Hey! These are great deals on brand name products that I actually use!”  I decided that I would hit up Target on Saturday morning the week of this great deal, and so did every other woman in town…it was a madhouse!  I ended up getting great deals on laundry detergent, toilet paper, garbage bags, and other cleaning supplies.  While extreme couponing isn’t for me, I do encourage anyone who is on a budget to look at sales papers for the coupons like this that can save money.  I only spent $30 on the products pictured below. It was two months ago that I bought all of it, and we are only halfway through using each of the products. If you have room for it, buying items in bulk when they are on sale is the way to go!

Crock-pot Roast Beef

 The recipe that I’m posting about today is my top favorite meal of all time.  The ingredients for it only cost about $12.00 total to make it. This recipe makes makes enough food for at least two meals, and it is one of the best home cooked Southern meals you can find…so what could be better than that!  It’s my favorite meal that my mom used to make as I was growing up and is now my go-to comfort food. While she always makes hers in the oven, I have modified mine to be cooked in the crock-pot due to my busy schedule.  It only takes about ten minutes to assemble all of the ingredients and get them in the crock-pot and ready to be slow cooked.   To make this I only have to use a few ingredients.

For this recipe I used a top round roast, 2 cans cream of chicken soup (plus 2 cans water), 1 packet dried onion soup mix, half a bag of baby carrots, and 8-10 medium sized red potatoes.

To start, I sear my roast in a pan with a little bit of oil. I generally let it sear for about 3 minutes on each side

Once it has seared, I put it in the crock-pot and pour the dried onion soup mix on it. Then I pour the cream of chicken soup and water over. Add the rinsed carrots and potatoes to the crock-pot.

I let it cook for 6-8 hours on low in the crock-pot or until tender and ready to be enjoyed!

Crock-pot Roast Beef

Ingredients:

·      1 top or bottom round roast

·      2 cans cream of chicken soup + 2 cans water

·      1 packet onion soup powder

·      ½ bag mini carrots

·      8-10 medium red potatoes unpeeled (or 5-6 large)

Directions

1.     Heat a skillet with a little oil and sear both sides of the roast (I usually sear 3 minutes for each side)

2.     Once both sides are seared, put roast in crock-pot.

3.     Put dried onion soup mix over roast.

4.     Pour the two cans cream of chicken soup + two cans of water over the roast

5.     Rinse the carrots and potatoes and place around roast.

6.     Let cook for 8 hours on low or until meat is tender.

Freezer meals

I'm back from my hiatus and am in the process of revamping this blog.  Instead of it just being recipes, I'm going to be focusing on other tips and ideas for young adults to save money.  Since my semester ended, I should have more time to make posts and hopefully my summer courses won't interfere and prevent me from posting.

One of the best ways to save money is to take a homemade lunch to work with you, rather than hitting up a fast food chain everyday.  Sometimes it can be difficult prepare a lunch early in the morning when your coffee has barely had time to kick in or you are rushing around trying to get ready and it takes forever to figure out what to wear...this is when freezer meals are perfect!  Ryan and I usually set aside one weekend a month to dedicate to cooking and creating freezer meals for the month.  We plan out what meals we want to make and then make a giant batch of them and divide into individual containers.  We made red beans and rice using 3 boxes of Zataran's red beans and rice mix and cut up cooked Italian sausage to put in them. We also made more meals of chicken stir fry using the recipe at the bottom of this post.  Once the meals are cooked and have had time to cool down, we place them in individual tupperware and label them.  Then they are ready to freeze.  These meals are perfect and end up costing about $1.50 per individual container, which is a lot better than spending $5 or more each day for fast food on a lunch break!

In addition to the lunches, we also made a batch of breakfast burritos for busy, on-the-go mornings.  Here is the link to my recipe for these: http://cookingformyhungryhusband.blogspot.com/2014/01/breakfast-burritos.html.  The ingredients for these generally cost about $12 total, but will provide breakfast for 15 days!

 Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 lb bag brown rice
• 1.5 lb precooked tyson chicken
• about 10 diced mini carrots
• 1.5 cups broccoli florets
• 1 Bottle of stir fry sauce such as the Panda Express Sweet Chili Sauce
• Any additional vegetables you would like to add such as zucchini

 Directions

• Cook rice according to directions
• When rice is almost done, start heating the chicken and vegetables in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil.  Saute until chicken and vegetables are golden. 
• Combine chicken and vegetables with the cooked rice.
• Pour sauce over chicken, vegetables, and rice and stir together thoroughly.