Mailbox Monday - Catch Up Edition

Since I have been so behind posting all of my freebies each week, here they are from the last 5 weeks:

• Swash fabric dewrinkler from Tide/Vocalpoint
• Always Infinity Sample
• Stacy's Pita Chips sample from All You
• Benefiber orange sample/coupon from Walmart
• Garnier Nutritioniste sample from Walmart
• Splenda Flavors for Cofee sample/coupon (still available here)
• Chiquita smoothie coupons

• Olay lotion (free after mail-in-rebate)
• Nescafe Tasters Choice sample 6-pack (here)
• Dunkin Donuts Coffee sample
• Kotex product sampler and coupons
• Excedrin sample from Sam's Club
• Breathe Right Strips sample (here)
• Porkeez dog treats and dog medicine syringe from Drs. Foster & Smith (free gift w/purchase, free shipping, bought syringe for $0.15 using YouData $ in Paypal account, got $20 worth of free dog treats that my dogs absolutely love - deal found thanks to Deal Finding Chik!)

• Philosophy Gingerbread Man shower gel sample
• Butter recipe cards from Wisconsin dairy farmers (here)
• Right at Home coupon book
• L'Oreal Lash Boosting Serum and Mascara from being a Bzz agent
• Target freebies: Ham steak (used $2 off ham coupon from target.com), All laundry detergent travel size (used $1 off coupon from here)

• Weight Watchers Magazine
• "Being Girl" sample pack with Always & Tampex products
• L'Oreal Everpure shampoo & conditioner samples
• Slimfast bar sample from Sam's Club
• Lipton green tea sample & adorable carrying case
• Hills Science Diet dog treats sample (here)
• Emergen-C drink mix samples/coupon (actually not bad - drank these when I wasn't feeling well to help boost my immune system) (here)
• Escada perfume sample (here)
• Unilever recipe booklet
• Living a Heart Smart Life cookbook from Liberty Hospital (local freebie, here)
• Pace picante sauce, from winning game here
• International Delight creamer, from being a Facebook fan
• Wii Your Shape coupon/band from being one of the first 10 people to comment on a post at Stockpiling Moms!
• Freebies for hubby: Lactaid sample, Nicorette gum sample
• Not pictured (partially because I already used/consumed the main coupon): Free Yoplait smoothie from Pssst... and ten $1.25 off coupons to share!

• Coromega Omega3 Orange Squeeze sample (orange flavored fish oil? eww, why did I sign up for that?)
• Avery label pads sample (here)
• Living Proof No Frizz Styling Cream, for being a fan on Facebook
• Green Works laundry detergent sample/coupon from Good Housekeeping
• Atkins diet bars sampler/carb counter (here)
• Pillsbury calendar
• Cheese Nips - 2 boxes free from Price Chopper (priced at $1, used $2/2 coupon)

Menu Plan Monday

Last week we actually stuck to the plan the whole week!  Of course it helped that I didn't actually make a plan for Sunday night, but that is beside the point.  Let's see if this week will be as successful.  I did keep my grocery bill under $30 which is very exciting, especially since I was tired and didn't shop around at several stores like I usually do.  Here is this week's plan:

• Monday: Asian chicken salad, garlic bread
• Tuesday: Turkey burgers, fries
• Wednesday: Beef and noodles, green beans, biscuits
• Thursday: Taco salad
• Friday: Caribbean chicken fingers, rice pilaf, rolls
• Saturday: Steaks, sauteed potatoes, corn, mushrooms, crusty bread
• Sunday: Cheese Fondue & Chocolate Fondue (we can't afford to go have a romantic dinner at the Melting Pot, so I thought I'd make one myself)

For hundreds of other menu plans, visit orgjunkie.com.

Dinner Tonight: Hashbrown Casserole

This is another one of my favorite meals, though apparently hubby doesn't agree.  I am not sure what happened - he is the reason I started making it in the first place.  His coworker brought some to work several years ago and he liked it so much he asked for the recipe.  The one that she made was meatless and just a side dish, but I thought I could turn it into a meal by adding some ground turkey.  In my opinion it turned out great!  As far as I know hubby always enjoyed it until recently he started complaining that I used too much onion.  So, the last couple of times I made it I left the onion out of his half and he at least agreed to eat it.  I have always served this meal with toast since I think of it as being kind of breakfast-y, but apparently hubby didn't remember that as he was surprised by it tonight.  He thought there needed to be more interesting bread to make up for a "boring and tasteless" meal.  So, I made him some garlic bread with the leftover Wal-Mart bolillo rolls from the other night.  He ate both the bread and the casserole, and just said that it was "edible" - not exactly winning praise but at least he didn't feel like he had to go out and buy a substitute meal.
I thought it was super yummy.  I love how the top is crunchy and the rest is soft and gooey.  So let's ignore his opinion and pretend it's fabulous and you can't wait to try it!  I can't find the original recipe, so this is a bit of a mixture between what I remember and the modifications I have made (adding garlic of course).  When I googled trying to find a similar recipe, they all involved some sort of cream soup.  Mine doesn't have any soup and I wonder if that was the original intention of hubby's coworker or if she forgot to type it in the email she sent him with the recipe?  We will never know, as she stopped working there years ago and they didn't keep in touch.  Fortunately I don't think it suffers without the soup.

Hashbrown Casserole

1 lb ground turkey
Garlic powder, seasoning salt & pepper to taste
10 oz frozen shredded hash browns
5 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup corn flakes, crushed
2 Tbsp melted butter or butter substitute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Season turkey with garlic, seasoning salt and pepper and brown in skillet.  Drain if desired.  Combine meat, hash browns, cheese, sour cream, onion and seasonings in large bowl, mix well to combine.  Spread into casserole dish (I use 11 x 7 but you could use 13 x 9).  Top with corn flakes and drizzle with melted butter (I use Brummel & Brown since it's my favorite butter substitute and it saves quite a few fat grams - I think the original recipe called for a whole stick of regular butter but I just couldn't bring myself to go there).  Bake for 30 minutes until crispy on top and warmed through.

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Estimated cost of meal:

Hash browns: $.67
Turkey: $1.50
Cheese: $.80
Sour cream: $.30
Onion: $.10
Seasoning: $.10
Corn Flakes: $.25
Butter: $.15
Toast: $.30

Total: $4.17

Former life total: Dinner @ Five Guys: $19

Leaner Life Savings: $14.83 or 78%!!!

Dinner Tonight: Teriyaki steak & pot stickers

I have mentioned before that hubby is kind of carb-happy.  That's why it really came as no surprise when he came into the kitchen when I said dinner was ready and said "is there bread?"  We were clearly having an Asian-inspired dinner and he still wanted to know if there was bread.  Have you ever had bread at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant?  I know I haven't. 

However, due to our starch-loving habits I did attempt to make another side dish, though after my crab rangoon failure I was a little apprehensive.  I made pot stickers  from the great maven of Chinese cuisine, Martha Stewart.  Really I had just had a craving for pot stickers for a while and saw this recipe in Martha's magazine and decided to give it a try, especially because I still had leftover wontons from the crab rangoon.  I used ground turkey instead of pork, green onions instead of chives ($.33/bunch versus over $2), and added some garlic powder because everything needs garlic.  I also had to substitute for the sherry since I couldn't justify buying a whole bottle in order to use 1.5 teaspoons.  I used some dry white wine instead.

The flavor of the meat was really yummy and exactly what I wanted, but I had some trouble with the wrappers.  I think that wonton wrappers are much thinner than the dough Chinese places actually use to make dumplings, and several of my pot stickers fell apart.  The ones that held together worked out okay though, hubby wasn't crazy about the texture but I think it grew on him.  I actually made these on Sunday and froze them since I wasn't 100% sure if I would make this meal on schedule.  So when I made them tonight I just thawed them and re-fried them really quickly.

The dipping sauce Martha recommends was not that flavorful and way too sour, so I had to try to doctor it to make it taste like the yummy sauce they serve at restaurants.  I added quite a bit more sugar and then some honey to try to thicken it a bit, plus red pepper flakes and more scallions.  The end result still wasn't quite right, but it was decent.

As for the technical "star" of this meal, the teriyaki steak, I basically just made it up as I went a long.  I cut sirloin into thin strips and seasoned with garlic powder, red pepper flakes and a sprinkle of sesame oil, then stir-fried in a bit of vegetable oil.  I added soy sauce and light teriyaki sauce once it was almost done cooking.  It was pretty tasty though nothing earth-shattering.  I didn't want to go to crazy with the sauce since hubby isn't a huge fan.  I served with some plain white Minute Rice (I'm scared of my rice maker and can never get the sticky kind to turn out right).

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Estimated cost of meal

Wontons: $.85

Turkey: $.40

Scallions: $.10

Ginger: $.50

Seasoning: $.30

Dipping Sauce: $.50

Steak: $2.50

Rice: $.50

Seasoning: $.10

Total: $5.75

Former life total: Dinner @ BD's: $37

Leaner Life Savings: $31.25 or 84%!!!

Dinner Tonight: Cold Cut Sandwiches

For hubby this meal was a bit of a repeat, since he made himself some sandwiches last week while I was at my mom's house.  Thankfully he agreed to eat them again as we were trying to get rid of some of the cold cuts that had piled up in our fridge. 
We had Hilshire Farms Deli Select oven-roasted turkey and hard salami this time. We added chipotle-cheddar cheese, lettuce, red onion, Miracle Whip and pepperoncini and deli mustard for me.  After 5+ years of marriage, I determined that hubby prefers mayonnaise on his sandwich.  I thought that he like Miracle Whip but apparently he is just okay with it and would rather have mayo.  We always have both on hand so this isn't a problem it was just strange to find it out so late in the game!  Oops! 
I buy bolillo rolls from the Walmart bakery and they are really good!  I am continuously amazed at how good the Walmart bakery is in general.  I always like their fresh breads and they are very reasonably priced. 

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Estimated cost of meal

Meat: $2
Bread: $1
Cheese: $1.15
Condiments: $.30
Veggies: $.50
Chips: $.70

Total: $5.65

Former life total: Dinner @ Mr. Goodcents: $14

Leaner Life Savings: $8.35 or 60%!!!

Dinner Tonight: Drumsticks with macaroni & cheese

I'm not even sure I want to write about this meal it was such a disaster.  Hubby absolutely hated the chicken, and his reaction to it pretty much ruined the meal for me too.  He was very disappointed because he thought it looked like yummy comfort food but thought it tasted like deviled eggs.  The mustard/mayo mixture used to coat the chicken just didn't sit well with him.  He wished I had just used Shake and Bake, which I guess I will have to do next time since I still have 5 more drumsticks in the freezer that we have to eat someday.  On the bright side, this meal was pretty cheap so at least I don't feel like I wasted a lot of money on all the chicken that got thrown away.
It's times like this when I question trying new things, but I have to remind myself that for almost every recipe that we hate, we find one that we like, such as the chimichangas we're having again later this week. 
The macaroni and cheese was a boxed mix from Annie's and it tasted okay.  It was really thin and I had to put it back on the stove to get some of the liquid to evaporate.  The green beans were good as they always are, but bacon makes everything better.  We also had some Grands biscuits, which were pretty much the only thing serving to fill me up later in the evening.

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Estimated cost of meal

Chicken: $1.35
Breading: $1
Mac & cheese: $1.20
Green beans: $.75
Biscuits: $.75

Total: $5.05

Former life total: Dinner @ Cracker Barrel: $23

Leaner Life Savings: $17.95 or 78%!!!

Menu Plan Monday

We got way off track last week and only made a few of the dinners had planned, so are several that carried over to this week.  Luckily that kept my grocery bill pretty low since I already had most of the ingredients on hand.

• Monday: Baked drumsticks, macaroni and cheese, green beans, biscuits
• Tuesday: Cold cut sandwiches, chips
• Wednesday: Pot stickers, teriyaki steak, rice
• Thursday: Hashbrown casserole
• Friday: Shredded beef chimichangas, beans, rice
• Saturday: Dinner out (probably using our Red Lobster gift card)
• Sunday: TBD...perhaps a variety of Super Bowl snacks

For many more menu plans, visit orgjunkie.com.