I made 2 trips to Costco this week…
The HH received a giant pack of beef sticks {barf!} in his stocking this year and when he went to open them up we noticed a tear in the package. All those poor, delicious beef sticks had mold on them, so I took them back to Costco to exchange them.
Costco has a great refund policy, they’ll pretty much take anything back {even moldy beef sticks!} and I love that.
While I was there I also picked up 2 gallons of milk. I don’t know about you, but I HATE THOSE JUGS! They are the worst invention ever. Yes, they store well, but pouring milk out of them is another story.
On my second trip to Costco I picked up a 25 pound sack of beans, 2 giant jars of pasta sauce and a 6-pack of sweet peppers. If you have never carried a 25 pound sack of pinto beans in your backpack for 30 minutes before, you have no idea what you are missing. It’s the kind of thing that makes you realize you are in fact, a little off your rocker. And let’s be honest here, I probably won’t do it again without some sort of cart or something. Hitch hiking had never seemed so appealing before this…
So you’re probably thinking… Mavis what the heck did you feed your family last week if all you bought was beans, milk, pasta sauce and peppers. Well, hang on, I’m going to tell you. 😉
For starters, I made a huge pot of chili with some of those pinto beans. I also used a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, spices and two spinach burger patties from my pantry and freezer, and the homemade chili was DELICIOUS! Plus, because I made such a huge pot, there were a ton of leftovers.
I also made a 3 month supply of refried beans in my slow cooker. Canned refied beans cost about a buck at my local grocery store, but homemade? Crazy cheap. Plus, when you make a big batch, you’ll have enough on hand for 6 taco nights.
Clearly I did not use all 25 pounds of beans last week. Ha! Nope, I still have 21.8 pounds left. So if you have any marvelous bean recipes you think I should try, please leave a recipe link in the comment section. 🙂
Another delicious thing I made last week was blueberry bars. We still have a boatload of homegrown blueberries in our freezer from last summer so I’ve been on the hunt for blueberry recipes lately and came across on from Smitten Kitchen and they were delicious! I actually didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, so I had to modify the recipe a wee bit {I’ll try and post my version later this week}.
When you cook, double the recipe… and pop the extra portions in the freezer. Once you get the hang of doing this, you’ll never go back to cooking one meal at a time.
In the past I would occasionally buy those giant jars of pasta at Costco thinking they were a good deal. But then I’d end up tossing out the last 1/3 of the jar because we wouldn’t use it in time before the sauce went bad. So now when I use those big bottles of pasta sauce I simply freeze the extra sauce. Seems like a no brainer, right? To make the sauce stretch even a little more I add in a few extras. My basic recipe is a giant bottle of sauce, 1 cup of water and a bag of shredded chicken or taco meat. I simply heat everything up, use a little for that night’s dinner, and then freeze the rest to use on a busy weeknight.
My brother gave me a Panera gift card from Christmas so we also had take out one night last week. Have you tried their salads? The chicken cobb with avocado is my favorite. {The HH likes the Thai chicken salad}. We also had a breakfast dinner this week too. Because really, who doesn’t love pancakes and eggs for dinner? And homemade {frozen} lasagna too.
How about YOU, did you buy anything exciting this past week?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $36.36
Total Spent Year to Date $36.36
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