Beef Stew

I had lots of veggies left over from last week and decided I wanted to make stew.  I actually bought the store packaged stew meat (which I never do!).  I would normally chop it up myself, but I was super lazy and just didn't feel like being hassled with it.  So the only thing I bought for this dish was the stew meat and I paid over $10 for just over 2 lbs.  I had left over carrots ($1), Celery ($0.49), and potatoes ($1) from my last shopping trip before Thanksgiving.  So if I would have actually bought something like a chuck roast it would have cost me half the price.  In the end it is still a super affordable dish which is hearty and comforting. 

Beef Stew
2 lbs beef stew meat
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 TBS worschestire sauce
salt and pepper
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 lb carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced
1 can of corn, drained
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
2 bay leaves
1 tsp sugar
dash of allspice
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Season meat with salt and pepper while you heat vegetable oil in a large stock pot and then brown meat in oil.  Do not crowd, brown in separate batches if necessary.
2. Add water, worschestire sauce, garlic, stewed tomatoes, allspice, salt, pepper, paprika, bay leaves, sugar, and onion to stock pot with meat.  Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook for approximately 1-1/2 hours.
3. Add celery and carrots and continue to cook for another hour.
4. Add potatoes and cook until done (approximately 30 minutes).  Add the corn right before serving. 

The great thing about stew is you can add whatever veggies you like and omit what you don't.  Add green beans, peas, squash, or whatever else you like or have on hand.  This is a comforting dish that I grew up with and has been passed down from generation to generation.  It is super simple, but brings so much flavor.  Just serve with warm buttered rolls and you have a complete meal.

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New Month, New Coupons

New month...means new coupons!  Head on over, find what you want, and print them out!

Coupons.com
$0.75/3 Birdseye Steamfresh Vegetables
$0.75/1 Muir Glen Product
Tons of Pillsbury Coupons and General Mills Cereal Coupons too!

Red Plum
$1/2 Quaker Life Cereal

Smart Source
Lots of General Mills Cereal Coupons and Pillsbury Coupons here as well!

Box Tops 4 Educations

Coupon Network

Kellogg's SnackPicks

Campbell's Kitchen

Eat Better America

Shopping blahs...

I don't know if it is all the Christmas shopping I had done in the past couple of weeks or what, but this week I did not feel like planning my meals (or shopping trips) around coupons.  This was probably one of my worst weeks in a year, but that's alright.  Everyone needs a break right???  I was completely out of meat, cheese, and lunch meat so that really caused my budget to bust.  The deals were not spectacular for me this week so I basically bought what I wanted.  I guess we'll call it an early Christmas gift ;)  Just a warning to those looking for great savings from this week...I did not try too hard and ended spending WAY over what I normally would.  The good thing is I am still on track to meet my ultimate yearly goal and my Christmas shopping is completely done!  That alone makes me super happy!  Another thing I didn't do is take pictures of all my trips.  I just wasn't in the mood.  I wanted to get everything put away and not worry about anything.  I just have the shopping blahs....

Price Chopper

Price Chopper
1 - 24 pack diet Pepsi
$6.99

1 - 15 oz Shedd's Country Crock $1
1 - $1/1 Shedd's Country Crock (December All You)
Free

1 - 16 oz Sour Cream
$1.69

2 - Kraft Shredded Cheese $2.99
2 - Kraft Cheese Cubes $2.99
1 - Nabisco Oreo Cookies $2.98
1 - $5 off WYB 5 participating products
$9.94 or $1.99 each

Fresh Meat Buy 5 for $25
3 - Packages Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (4.94 lbs total) $19.46
2 - Packages Boneless Chuck Tender Roast (2.93 lbs total) $13.16
$25 or $3.17/lb (not a great deal, but better than paying full retail price for everything)

1 - Fast Fixin Chicken Nuggets $4.99
1 - $1/1 Fast Fixin Product (October All You)
$3.99

2 - Golden Grahams $1.79
1 - $1/2 General Mills Cereal
$2.58 or $1.29 each

1 - Honey Nut Cheerios $1.79
1 - $0.60/1 Honey Nut Cheerios (print limit reached)
$1.19

Best Choice White Vinegar
$1.85

4 - Ramen Noodles
$1 or $0.25 each

Oscar Mayer Turkey Bologna
$1

2 - Oscar Mayer Cheese Dogs
$5 or $2.50

2 - Imitation Crab Flake Style $1
$2


Hen House Market
1 - Tidy Cat Scoop Litter
$6.99

1 - Best Choice Flour Tortilla
$1.09

2 - Rice-A-Roni Spanish Rice
$3.18 or $1.59 each

2 - Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
$2.36 or $1.18 each

3 - Diet Pepsi 12-packs $4.89
$14.67 (the sign said 3/$13, but didn't notice these rung up this way until now...oh well)

4 - Best Choice Shredded Cheese
$6 or $1.50 each

2 - Totino's Pizza Rolls 2/$3
1 - $1/2 Totino's Pizza Rolls (print limit reached)
$2 or $1 each

1 - Best Choice Vanilla Ice Cream
$1.88 (apparently this rung up twice...I really wasn't paying any attention)

1 - NY Garlic Knots $1.98
1 - $0.50/1 NY Garlic Knots (doubled to $1) 11/6 SS Insert
$0.98

$1 - NY Garlic Bread $1.98
1 - $0.50/1 NY Garlic Bread (doubled to $1) 11/6 SS Insert
$0.98

1 - Perfect Pasta Tri-Color Cheese Tortellini $3.33
1 - $1/1 Perfect Pasta (Hen House Holiday Booklet)
$2.33

1.18 lbs Mild Italian Sausage
$2.92 (thinking I might go back and get more)

4.4 lbs Ground Beef
$10.90 or $2.48/lb

2.05 lbs Stew Meat (I never buy this because I normally just cube it myself)
$10.22 or $4.99/lb

2 - V05 shampoo and conditioner
$2.58 or $1.29 each

Aldi
2 - Gallons Milk $1.99 each
$3.98

Hy-Vee
2 - Hy-Vee Unsalted Butter
$3.76 or $1.88 each

2 - Hy-Vee Jumbo Flaky Biscuits 3/$4
$2.67 or $1.34 each

0.97 lb DiLusso Hard Salami $7.98/lb
$7.74

1 .01lb Shaved White Turkey $2.99/lb
$3.02

2 - Capri Sun Juice Boxes $1.99 each
2 - $1/1 Capri Sun Products
$1.98 or 99 cents each

5 - Assorted Hy-Vee Pastas (Lasagna noodles included!) 88 cents each
$4.40

1 - Hy-Vee Potato Bread
$1.59

1 - Sara Lee Honey Wheat Bread
$1.98

1 - Lucky Charms Cereal $1.99
1 - $0.60/1 Lucky Charms Cereal (print limit reached)
$1.39

2 - Kraft 5-pack Mac and Cheese $3.75
$7.50 or 75 cents per box

1 - Kool-Aid Jammers $1.99
1 - $2/1 Kool-Aid Jammers WYB Kraft Multi-pack mac and cheese (peelie)
Free

2 - Kraft Salad Dressing $2.18
2 - $1/1 Kraft Salad Dressing
$2.36 or $1.18 each

2 - Kellogg's Pop Tarts 2/$5
1 - $1/2 Kellogg's Pop Tarts (print limit reached)
$4 or $2 each

1 - Argo Baking Powder $1.28
1 - $0.30/1 Argo Baking Powder 10/2 SS Insert
98 cents

1 - Hy-Vee Paper Plates 2/$4
$2

1 - Midwest Country Fare 4 lb Granulated Sugar
$1.49

Total Spent: $180.99 (OUCH!  Haven't done that in a LOOOOONG time!)
Total Saved:  $94.99
That gives me a 34% savings this week.  Like I said everyone needs a break and even though my savings were not spectacular I didn't get a high percentage of savings I am still on track to meet my main goal which is most important.  Plus I think this helps me to gain my motivation back when I actually see how much I spend when I don't match sales, coupons, and ads diligently.  Not sure yet, but I may just take next week off (unless my blahs are gone and they are super deals of course!).