December 2021: New Month, New Coupons!

Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

The printable coupon market is slowly coming to an end. Smartsource no longer offers printable coupons, and you may notice that there are fewer coupon inserts in your Sunday newspaper. This is in favor of more offers available on apps. But if you love printable coupons….

• Coupons.com (printable coupons, e-coupons, and a cashback app)

One of my favorite websites is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

December means saving on baking ingredients, giftable items, food storage (for all those cookies and leftovers!), and cold/flu OTC meds.

For a complete list of types of foods and items that will be on sale, check out this post on the cycle of sales.

Here are a few of my favorite new coupons:

Save $1.50 on any ONE (1) bag of Truvia Sweet Complete® Granulated All-Purpose, Confectioners or Brown Sweetener
Save $0.75 When you buy FOUR (4) Avocados From Mexico

New Recipe: Loaded Roasted Cauliflower

I’ve seen this kind of recipe before and I had never made it because it’s really hard to pick decent fresh cauliflower, and honestly, frozen cauliflower is always kinda… soggy (?) when you defrost it and cook it.

We’ve been getting a lot of cauliflower in our  Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box over the past 5 weeks, so I figured it was time to give it a shot.

This recipe is easy. And tasty. It does not duplicate potato skins. I don’t care what any low carb/potato hating website tells you.

Loaded Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• 2 heads of cauliflower, leaves and stem removed, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 T. Olive oil or your favorite cooking oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup bacon crumbles (use real bacon, not baco’s)
• 4 green onions, chopped
• Sour Cream (optional, but tasty)

Served with a green salad, rotisserie chicken, and half an avocado. YUM.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place cookie sheets lined with foil into oven to heat up with the oven.
2. While oven/pan is heating, toss cauliflower in oil, salt & pepper.
3. Once oven is heated to 450, remove pan, spread cauliflower out in a single, well spaced layer.
4. Bake for 8 minutes, then turn veggies to roast evenly.
5. Return to oven and bake for another 8 minutes.
6. Remove from oven. Top with cheese and bacon. Broil for 2-4 minutes, until cheese is melty and bacon is hot.
7. After removing from broiler, top with green onions and eat up ASAP.
8. Serve with sour cream, or salsa. Or both.

This serves 2-4 people as a side dish, or be greedy and eat the whole recipe as a main dish. I won’t tell anyone. I make this at least once a week.

This recipe is gluten free. You can make it vegetarian by omitting the bacon.

Free Chips & Guacamole for National Chip & Dip Day: March 22 & 23 at Rubio’s!!

Ok, so in California, avocados are everywhere. They grow here (especially in San Diego County), and in San Diego our hometown, favorite Rubio’s Coastal Grill is hooking us all up with some tasty guac!

Rubio’s Coastal Grill is giving away free, freshly made chips and guacamole, with any order, in celebration of National Chip and Dip Day. On two days this year, Monday, March 22 and Tuesday, March 23, simply order online at Rubios.com, or through the app, and enter coupon code MKTG1067 at checkout, or scan the QR code on the coupon (https://www.rubios.com/coupons/national-chip-dip-day) in restaurants.

Rubio’s guacamole is made daily in their kitchens using rich Hass avocados, cilantro, garlic, lime juice and natural sea salt. Rubio’s uses responsibly sourced seafood and features bold, unique flavors in dishes including their latest menu items, the Smoky Oaxacan Shrimp Bowl, the Smoky Oaxacan Shrimp Two Taco Plate and the Puerto Nuevo Burrito with wild-caught Langostino Lobster, now available for a limited time only.

Rubio’s outdoor patios are now open. Guests may also order online, or through the app, for contact-free curbside or express pickup, or delivery for just $1.99. For more information about Rubio’s Coastal Grill and to view the menu, visit Rubio’s, Facebook and Instagram.

New Recipe: Corn and Avocado Salsa!

I received two ears of corn the other day, and unsure of what to do with them, I left them on the counter with bell pepper, onion, avocado, and tomato and went about my day.

Coming into the kitchen to make lunch, I glanced at my pile o’produce and realized that we had almost everything to make Corn and Avocado Salsa.

This is a quick, simple recipe- Enjoy!

Corn salsa

• 1 cup fresh corn (removed from the cob with a knife) you can also use frozen corn defrosted
• 1 bell pepper color of your choice, chopped (I used red)
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
• 2 FRESH Jalapeños, deseeded, minced
• 1/2 large onion, chopped (I used a sweet onion, but red/purple onions are tasty too)
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 1 14 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Juice of 1 lime
• Approximately a handful of cilantro, minced (if you are like me and cilantro tastes like soap, use parsley instead)

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients, stir to combine.
2. Place in refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours before serving. It’s best if it rests overnight before eating. This gives it time for the flavors to mingle and blend.

This is a very pretty, colorful dish. It is great as salsa or as a salad.  It’s great with chips, as a side, on tacos, in burritos. No lie, I ate some out of the mixing bowl. 10/10, would do it again.

If you don’t like black beans, good substitutes are white beans or pinto beans.

 

 

Exclusive Avocados from Mexico- Recipes, Savings and More!

Growing up in California, everyone knew someone who grew avocados. Creamy, rich, delicious… Avocados are one of my favorite toppings for toast, salads, omelets, enchiladas.

Avocados from Mexico wants everyone to enjoy this amazing veggie! More than just a yummy ingredient in guacamole, check out these important ‘Cado facts:

 

• Avocados From Mexico contain good fats and nearly 20 vitamins and minerals making them part of a balanced lifestyle.
• When you eat a meal with avocado, the fruit acts as a nutrient booster to help your body absorb the fat-soluble nutrients found in the other foods.
• Avocados are a good source of fiber, which slows down digestion helping to leave you satisfied.
• Fresh avocados are a heart-healthy fruit. They provide naturally good fats, are low in saturated fat, and are cholesterol, sugar and sodium free.
• Eating dietary fat helps the body absorb vitamins A, D, E and K. Avocados contain mainly naturally good fats with 5g of monounsaturated fats per serving (1/3 of a medium avocado).

Now that you know all of that, aren’t you longing for creamy avocados from Mexico? Join new Avocados from Mexico – The Avosauce newsletter and get your customized scoop on avocado recipes, health tips and much more.

12/30/19 Weekly Meal Plan!

It’s the last meal plan for 2019! I’ve got lots of good stuff planned recipe-wise this week. I’m doing my best to use up a lot of the stuff we’ve got in the freezer and pantry.

I’ve got a bunch of bananas that are REEEEALLLY ripe, they will be turned into banana bread today.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian (well, the big kid is, but the rest of us aren’t), but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2  for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and Bitty. The big kid takes his lunch to school, but once in a while, I can convince him to buy his lunch.

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked. We’ve got a bunch of stuff in the freezer, as I’ve been portioning out 2-3 adult-sized entree portions from several meals a week and freezing them for later meals.

• Monday:  Pork Chili, and cornbread
• Tuesday:  NYE and I’m not sure what we’re doing, but I’ll have fresh veggies, fruit, hummus, and other snackies.
• Wednesday:  Chef Salad (greens, hardboiled eggs, cheese, peppers, carrots, celery, snap peas)
• Thursday: Quinoa Veggie Bowls
• Friday:    Date Night (I think we’re going out)
• Saturday:  Pizza & Fruit Salad
• Sunday:  Breakfast for dinner (savory waffles with poached eggs)

One of the kid’s recent favorite lunches is “Plate of Snacks”. I use the sectioned plastic plates (like old school cafeteria trays), and fill each section with a snack from the corresponding food group. This tray has goldfish crackers in the protein section (the 4-year-old insisted because there was fish on the section).

Talk Back: What are you planning to cook this week?

11/4/19 Weekly Meal Plan

The littlest kiddo and I went grocery shopping on Friday, and man did we stock up! I went over budget by about $10 again this week, but we picked up some pantry staples that we had run out of. They will last at least a month, so I’m not too concerned.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian (well, the big kid is, but the rest of us aren’t), but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and Bitty. The big kid takes his lunch to school, but once in a while, I can convince him to buy his lunch.

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked. I did a little meal prep over the weekend, chopped and bagged veggies soups and chili, and made cookies for the kids.

• Monday: Breakfast for dinner: Egg scramble with bacon, cheese, and veggies, hot cocoa
• Tuesday: Leftover chicken tetrazzini, I made a huge batch last week.
• Wednesday: Vegetable ravioli soup (recipe this week)
• Thursday:  Taco-dillas (Quesadillas made with taco fixings), beans & rice
• Friday: Vegetarian chili (I made a double batch last week and frozen part of it).
• Saturday: I’ve got two events on Saturday, so I’m going to grab pizzas on the way home.
• Sunday:   Leftover-palooza.

 

Talk Back: What are you planning to cook this week?

10/28/19 Weekly Meal Plan

The littlest kiddo and I went grocery shopping on Friday, and man did we stock up! I went over budget by about $10, but I was able to pick up a lot of stuff that will last us a few weeks, and stuff for both kiddos school/preschool Halloween parties. This week I’m re-organizing the freezer.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian (well, the big kid is, but the rest of us aren’t), but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and Bitty. The big kid takes his lunch to school, but once in a while, I can convince him to buy his lunch.

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked. I did a little meal prep over the weekend, chopped and bagged veggies soups and chili, and made cookies for the kids.

• Monday: Breakfast for dinner: Breakfast sandwiches on bagels, strawberries, hot cocoa
• Tuesday: Crockpot chili (vegetarian), protein biscuits made with Kodiak Baking mix recipes forthcoming!!
• Wednesday: Grilled Cheese sandwiches, soup, goldfish crackers, strawberries
• Thursday:  Halloween- Pizza night!
• Friday: Skillet casserole, probably chicken tetrazzini
• Saturday: Quesadillas, Mexican Caesar Salad
• Sunday:   Leftover night

 

Talk Back: What are you planning to cook this week?

10/14/19 Weekly Meal Plan

I won a $25 Grocery Outlet Gift card on Friday, so I used it to pick up some snacks and goodies for school lunches this week. Thanks to my frugal buddy Brooke from Crying Out Loud, we’ll be eating a lot of eggs this week (3 dozen eggs- woo hoo!). We hit up the Harvest Festival over the weekend, and we picked up some seasoning kits from Whatcha’ Got Cookin’ that we’ll be using this week.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done, so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and Bitty. The big kid takes his lunch to school, but once in a while, I can convince him to buy his lunch.

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked. I did a lot of prep for the coming week over the weekend. I cut up the produce, bagged it for meals, made up some smoothie kits, and cut up cantaloupe to have this week. Thanks to some frugal shopping over the weekend, I’ve only spent half the grocery budget for the week. I will probably use it all.

• Monday: Happy Meals on the way home from weekly group autism therapy for the kids. Grilled Cheese and Chicken and Rice Soup for the grown-ups. Soup is in the freezer from a previous batch.
• Tuesday:  Fritatta with so many eggs (and veggies too)
• Wednesday: Welcome Home Chicken in the crock pot (with seasoning kit from Whatcha got Cookin)
• Thursday:  We’ve got respite, so it’ll be something early and light, probably what I like to call a “meal of snacks”- it’s all kind of different things on a cafeteria tray.  Previous Meal of Snacks include: Chicken Nuggets, goldfish crackers, cut up fruit, hardboiled eggs, glasses of milk, and cookies.
• Friday:   Date Night!
• Saturday:  Pizza Night
• Sunday:   Leftover night

 

Talk Back: What are you planning to cook this week?

Recipe: Not Your Average Taco Salad

My Taco Salad is a little different than most, there is no big, greasy, deep-fried shell. Instead, I use tortilla chips as a garnish. This was one of the first recipes I concocted after we committed healthy eating about 10 years ago. It’s very filling and has tons of veggies.

There are all kinds of changes and modifications that can be made to accommodate any dietary concerns.

Not Your Average Taco Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground meat of your choice (Beef, chicken, turkey, or pork, or a mixture)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained and rinsed (or you can use 1.5 cups of frozen corn)
• 1/4 cup water (or however much the packet tells you to use)
• 2 cups Tortilla chips (I like these flax seed Tortilla chips)
• 2 cups (per person) Salad greens of your choice

With the following ingredients, use as much as you’d like, I prep 1/2 cup-1 cup per person:

• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped bell peppers (I usually use one red, one yellow, and one orange pepper for color/variety)
• Shredded carrots
• Cucumber slices
• Avocado slices or guacamole, whichever you prefer
• Shredded or crumbled cheese
• Black Olive Slices
• Jalapeno peppers Slices
• Sour Cream or plain Greek yogurt
• Salsa of your choice

Directions:

1. Brown meat, set aside.
2. Using any residual fat in the pan, and adding olive oil, cook onions until clear and soft.
3. Add meat back to pan, mix in taco seasoning and water. Cook as directed on the taco seasoning packet.
4. Add in both cans of beans and corn, cook until heated throughout.
5. To plate, on a dinner plate or a big bowl- arrange 2 cups greens, top with 1/4-1/2 cup meat/bean mixture, top with other veggies and 1/2 cup chips and cheese and a dollop of sour cream/sour cream.
6. If you NEED dressing, mix a little sour cream or plain Greek Yogurt with salsa or hot sauce and top your salad.

For a vegetarian taco salad- use soy/veggie crumbles instead of meat.