What's for Lunch?

Life as Mom is doing her Ultimate Recipe Swap Thursday and asking for lunch recipes. Our lunches consist of leftovers, pbj's, or whatever I can think of that day. I'm just starting to do a regular meal plan for dinners, but lunches are definitely the last on thing on my mind. Today we are all going to be home for lunch because my oldest child couldn't go to school and my hubbie usually comes home for lunch on the days that I'm not working.
Our menu consists of Pillsbury savorings and tomato soup. Nothing fancy, but the savorings actually smell quite amazing as they are cooking right now. This whole lunch recipe thing is going to bother me all day now, but honestly we are so casual that what some might consider "lunch" recipes are what I would call "dinner" recipes. No worries, as long as the bellies are filled, right?

Coupons By Request

I have always had fair to good luck in emailing companies to request coupons for their products, but lately I have forgotten to do this. Go here to see a long list of companies who will send coupons when you email your requests. What a great way to add to your coupon collection! I think I'll use this list and just start sending 5 a day.
Thanks Frugal Coupon Living!

Harris Teeter Super Doubles 2/17-2/23

The total for the items pictured above was 9.55

Here is a breakdown:

Edy's Icecream -- .97

Reynold's Recycled Aluminum Foil -- .44

Dentyne 3pk. -- 1.77(we chew a lot of gum, and I found this in a 75% off bin)

Lance 8pk crackers -- FREE

Organic Valley whipping cream -- .19

Rhodes Warm and Serve Rolls -- .25

2 Dawn Direct Foam -- FREE

SoftScrub Gel Cleanser -- FREE

Sure Deodorant -- FREE

2 Ken's Honey Mustard Dressings -- .76 ea (gave one away)

Campbell's Select Harvest Soup -- FREE

2 Aquafresh Extreme Clean Toothpaste -- .20 ea

2 Kashi Heart to Heart Crackers -- .59 ea

Kellog's Smart Start Cereal -- .34

2 Old Orchard Juice -- .50 ea

I live about 45 minutes from the nearest HT, so it was hard to decide which 20 coupons to double. I was happy with my purchase though. I used some Register Rewards from WAGS to purchase other things like Diet Pepsi and my total was still only 9.74. I love the fact that you can redeem your RRs at WAGS!

Walmart Produce Deals

This week Walmart has some great deals on produce.

My favorites are:
Grape tomatoes $1.75
Brocolli $1.50

How much of these can one eat in a week though? The answer to that for my youngest son is A LOT. He pops grape tomatoes like they're candy. But anyhow, I came up with a way to stock up on this super healthy stuff while it's super cheap.

Freeze it! My plan is to barely steam the brocolli and lightly saute the tomatoes in a little olive oil, let them cool, and then put them in the freezer. Later, I'll put them in the saute pan with garlic and olive oil. Then boil some pasta, and toss it with the veggies in the saute pan. Of course, it will be begging for some parmesean cheese, salt and pepper at this point. We ate this meal two nights ago, and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully freezing the veggies won't change it much.

Freezer Cooking Weekend

I have been cooking up a storm, and I think I'm just about done now. Here are the meals or parts of meals that I have prepared for February.

Pinto beans (cooked last week)
Shredded chicken
Chicken strips
Rice
Scalloped potatoes with ham
Ham and lima bean casserole (something new, not sure if the kids will eat this)
Whole-wheat waffles
Bran muffins

The shredded chicken was really easy. I just filled my crockpot with chicken broth and a package of taco seasoning (both of these almost free after coupons) and then cooked the chicken in that mixture for 6-8 hours. It smelled amazing while it was cooking! If you don't have enough chicken broth, I think half water would be okay. After cooking the chicken, I just shredded it with two forks. I think this chicken will be great in some soft tacos.

Now, the chicken strips really turned out well. I cut them in half through the middle to make thin cutlets. I salted and peppered both sides of the chicken. Then I sprayed my pan with olive oil spray and waited til it had reached a good med-high heat. I let the chicken cook for 3-5 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of the cutlet. As they were cooking, I squeezed some lemon juice onto them. Then I just let them rest on a plat for about 5-10 minutes, and cut them into strips for salads, wraps, pasta dishes, pizza, etc.

Diapers on my doorstep!

So I ordered my extra large box of Luvs yesterday (my 3 yr. old still wears diapers to nap, and to bed) along with a Thomas the Train drum and kid's toothpaste from diapers.com, and guess what. They were delivered TODAY. And all for $24 and some change. See the post below to find out how you can do this too!

Super Cheap Diapers at Diapers.com

Here's a great deal on diapers, and the best part is you don't even have to leave your house! Thanks for the tip LifeasMom!

• Go to diapers.com and purchase 49.99 worth of diapers, wipes or anything else. Now, you have qualified for FREE shipping.
• At checkout, enter the promotion code NMCK4808 to get $10 off your order.
• If you purchase anything other than diapers, you also can get 10% off those items by putting in the promotional code 10PERCENT.
• Print and fill out this rebate form to receive $14.97 cash or a free subscription to Parenting Early Years Magazine.

Okay here is a scenario, that I worked out. This website has reasonably priced baby and toddler items, so you could really do this many ways.

Buy 1 Extra Large Case Luvs Diapers at 35.99 (sz 1: 264 ct - sz 6: 120 ct.)
Buy 1 Pampers Sensitive Wipes 384 ct. refill at 14.99
Total after promos and rebate: $24.52