Publix Specials - November 19 to 25

There are lots of good deals on Thanksgiving food at Publix this week. Click HERE to view the Publix weekly ad.

My bill this week was $139.99 and my savings was $86.20. Not too bad considering I got 4 bottles of wine.

• Sweet Potatoes - 37 cents a pound. It's rare to see the price this low! Click HERE to see my November 19 post about sweet potatoes.
  
• Fresh Pineapple - $2.99 each, cored and peeled or whole. This is about as low as it goes. Click HERE to see my blog from earlier today about pineapple. If you were able to print the 75-cent-0ff coupons I told you about on October 25, you can get an even better price of $2.24! Unfortunately, those coupons appear to be gone now.
• Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheese - 2 for $5. $1-off-2 coupon in 11/22 paper.
  
• Bird's Eye Vegetables - 50% Off. Click HERE for coupon. I'll be stocking up on lima beans.
  
• Breyers Ice Cream - BOGO
• Triscuit - BOGO. Click HERE for coupons and rebate information.
  
• Planter Nuts - 2 for $5. Click HERE for a $10 rebate when you buy 10 Nabisco products.
  
• Crisco Pure Canola Oil - BOGO 55-cents-off 11/08 paper
  

Lots of smoothie ingredients on sale this week. Stock up and freeze! Click HERE for stockpiling ideas:

• Fresh Pineapple - $2.99
• Greenwise Organic Spinach - $2.50
• Bolthouse Farms 100% Carrot Juice -
  Advantage Buy for $3

Good deals on wine:

• St Francis Chardonnay Wine - BOGO (regular price $14.99)
• Mondavi Wine - on advantage buy for $8.99. $1.50-off coupon in 11/15 paper.
• FREE wine carrier when you buy three bottles of wine.
  

A few reminders about your next trip to Publix:

• Use your Discover card to get 5% cash back on groceries (through December). Make sure you sign up for the program first. Click HERE for more information.
• You can use two coupons on the BOGO items (one for each item). You can usually print the internet coupons at least two times.
• Get a FREE movie from Blockbuster Express with code: GT11A (exp 1/31/10).
  

Good Deal on Triscuit

Although Triscuits are not organic, they have a number of healthy characteristics. They contain only three ingredients: whole wheat, soybean and/or palm oil, and salt. A serving of 6 crackers contains 3 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, and only 1 gram of saturated fat.

Now is a great time to stock up. Here are some of the great discounts available right now. You can combine these for a really good price.

• Publix - BOGO (regular price is $2.79)
  
• Target - Click HERE for a $1-off Target coupon. The Target coupon is for the family size, which is regularly priced at $3.49. You can use a manufacturer coupon along side the Target coupon.
  
• Walgreens - 5 for $10 with a $3RR, for a final price of 5 for $7. Combine that manufacturer coupons and rebate for a really good price.
  
• Manufacturer coupon in the 11/8 newspaper ($1 off 1)
  
• Manufacturer coupon HERE ($1 off 2)
• Manufacturer coupon HERE ($1 off 2) on the Kraft website (on the "Jingle Tips and Tricks" page, click on "get started" and look for a green "coupon" tab on the upper right side of the page).

• $10 rebate HERE when you buy 10 Nabisco products.
  
• Planter's nuts (on sale at Publix for 2 for $5) also qualify for the rebate offer.
  

Stockpile Smoothie Ingredients and Save

Publix sells pineapple cored and peeled. You could also buy it whole to use for a nice holiday centerpiece before you eat it. If you do this, you can plant the top of the pineapple and grow your own fruit-bearing tree. Click HERE to find out how.

If you use pineapple for smoothies stock up when it's on sale and freeze it. To stockpile pineapple for smoothies, cut it up into small pieces and divide into portions of about one cup. If you don't divide it, it will just freeze into a big clump that you won't be able to use easily. Pineapple is a great ingredient for smoothies, since it's sweet flavor covers over things like spinach and carrots.

Another favorite smoothie ingredient of mine, Bolthouse Farms 100% Carrot Juice, can also be stockpiled. Pour it into an ice cube tray. Then you can add your cubes to your smoothie.

Really, you can freeze most any fresh fruit or vegetable that will go rotten before you can use it. I find that it's easier to cut the fruits and peel the bananas before they are frozen.

Fresh Greenwise Organic Spinach also freezes beautifully. They fall into the smoothie like like green snowflakes.

Using a few frozen ingredients is a nice way to make a smoothie more cold and icy without actually having to use ice (which might make it taste watered down).

Click HERE for my favorite green smoothie recipe.

Coupon for Driscoll's Berries

Click HERE for 50-cents-off coupon for Driscoll's berries. Look for the "Click for E-Coupon" link at the bottom right corner of the Driscoll's homepage. I was able to print the coupon twice.

Thanks Thrifty Mama.

BOGO Wine at Publix

St Francis Chardonnay Wine is BOGO (buy one get one free) at Publix until Wednesday, November 25. I don't think I've ever seen BOGO wine before! I've never had this brand, but I'm willing to give it a try. It would also make a nice hostess gift to have on hand for the holiday season.

Sweet Potatoes: The Wonder Vegetable

Sweet potato is one of the few things I know my picky kids will eat, so I make it a lot. Here are some suggestions for preparing this very nutritious vegetable. When selecting sweet potatoes, I tend to go by the philosophy that the smaller the potato the better the flavor (and the faster the cooking time).

• Baked Sweet Potatoes. Turn the oven to about 375 degrees on and toss them in. It's that simple. I find that they cook faster when I put them in a cast-iron skillet and cover them with foil. When they are soft, you can serve them just like a baked potato.
  
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes. After you bake them (as described above), you can cut them open and scoop out the potato into a bowl. Serve them like mashed potatoes. You can add a little butter, oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, and/or nutmeg to jazz them up. Although it's not necessary, running them through the food processor or mixer makes the potatoes a bit more fluffy and creamy.
• Fun with Straws. Kids love to drink anything from a straw, so why not mashed sweet potatoes? It works surprisingly well if you use those giant straws (only $1 from the local Chinese market).
• Sweet Potato Fries. This requires a little more effort, but it is totally worth it. When prepared this way, the sweet potatoes caramelize and have a slightly crispy texture. This has become a favorite recipe in our family. My kids love it! First, peel the sweet potatoes (2 or 3 potatoes are usually enough). Although the skins are tough, a good quality peeler (like Kitchen Aid) makes it a very easy task. Cut the potatoes into pieces the size of french fries. Put the fries in a bowl and coat them generously with olive or vegetable oil. Then lay them out in a single layer across a baking sheet (a cast iron skillet works best for me). Bake at about 375 degrees until the potatoes are soft on the inside and have a slightly crispy, caramelized outer layer.
  
• Sweet Potato Casserole. I have a wonderful family recipe I will share in an upcoming post. It's a traditional southern recipe we've modified over the years to reduce the fat and sugar.
  

You can also freeze the mashed sweet potatoes in ice cube trays. I've done this with lots of different fruits and vegetables. Because the cubes are small, they defrost quickly. These are some of the ways I've used frozen puree cubes. It's a great way to sneak extra nutrients into to a recipe without dramatically changing the taste.

• smoothies
• pancakes
  
• french toast
  
• vegetable soup
  
• spaghetti sauce

Sweet potatoes are also the perfect baby food. Wholesome Baby Food an excellent resource for making homemade baby food.

My First Produce Share from Sweetwater

I picked up my first share of produce at Sweetwater Organic Community Farm today as part of my community-supported agriculture (CSA) membership. Click HERE for more information about Sweetwater and how to find a CSA near you.

I have a half membership. I paid $400 for 15 pickups (every other week from now until May). That comes out to $27 per pickup. I'd say $27 is a very reasonable price for all the beautiful produce shown above. The fact that it is organic and locally-grown is icing on the cake.

The pick-up process was very simple and pleasant. The farm was easy to find. It is near the intersection of Hillsborough Avenue and Hanley in Tampa, close to the airport. From Hanley, you turn onto Commanche. There are no signs - just a dead end street with a little bridge at the end. Parking is adequate along Cammanche. Cross the pedestrian bridge over Sweetwater Creek, and you enter the world of Sweetwater Farm. It's shady, peaceful, and inviting. Volunteers mill about doing farm chores. CSA members drift in to quietly pick up their shares at the barn.

Luckily, I knew where the barn was since I had been to one of the Sunday Markets. Otherwise, I probably would have felt lost. There was a welcome table with a sign-in sheet. I found my name on the sheet and put a check under today's date. No one approached me, so I asked one of the volunteers to guide me through the process since it was my first time. A very nice man named Roberto explained the very simple process they have for pick-ups.

Here's the drill - there is a table with all the produce in bins. On the chalkboard there is a listing of what is in each bin and how many of each you are suppose to take. The order of the list corresponds to the order of the bins.

There is a Swap Basket at the welcome table where you can trade out things you don't want for things other people have left in the basket. I wasn't so bold to do that this time, but I'm sure I'll be doing it in the future.

I was worried that since I came late in the day, I was going to get the bruised-up leftovers. However, I'm happy to report that the produce was consistently gorgeous! My only complaint is that the harvest seemed a little heavy on the salad greens. However, with some research, I might find other uses for some of the produce besides salads. Before my next pick-up, I'm going to come up with a systematic way to label the produce as I'm putting it in my bags. This should help me with my research and recipe searches.

After I gathered my produce, I chatted with Roberto for a bit. Turns out we both have children that are roughly the same age (that usually makes for an instant bond). Roberto use to live on the farm before he had children. If I were younger and sans family, I think I'd like to be part of their internship program and live on the farm.

Roberto generously offered to show us the chickens. He fed them greens (I never knew chickens ate greens). They don't have enough chickens to sell eggs. However, there is a vendor that sells eggs at the Sunday Market. We took a quick stroll around the growing plants and headed out. It was a very pleasant experience. I really love the easy-going peaceful vibe.

I split my membership with my parents, so I headed to their house to split up the treasure and eat dinner. Since we have so many salad greens, we decided to make a nice dinner salad with pecan-encrusted goat cheese and raspberry dressing. Absolutely delicious!

I'm very pleased so far with my CSA experience. I'm looking forward to finding out what our next harvest will bring!

Kitchen of India Meals $1.60 on Amazon

Get a 6 pack of Kitchens of India ready-to-eat meals on Amazon for only $9.65. That comes out to $1.60 each (regularly $2.90). My husband loves to take these to work for lunch. Plus, they're vegetarian!

Here's how to get this price:

• Click HERE to get to the Kitchens of India Ready to Eat Dinner Variety Pack, 10 ounce boxes (pack of 6)
  
• Look on the right-hand column for the section titled "Subscribe and Save to take off 15%"
• Chose "Subscribe Now". You will actually be subscribing to this service, but you can easily cancel it later by going to "My Accounts/Manage Your Subscribe and Save Subscriptions/Cancel This Subscription". However, this program looks like it might be a good deal for things you order on a regular basis.
  
• At check out, enter code KOI32534 to save an additional 45%.
• Shipping is free with the Subscribe and Save Program!

Thanks Thrifty Mama.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Beans & Rice

We had a the most delicious dinner tonight - roasted tomato soup with garbanzo beans and brown rice. It was a very simple meal made from a handful of ingredients I had on hand. It was flavorful, healthy, mostly organic, and only cost about $7. Most of the ingredients are on sale until tomorrow (November 11).

What kinds of yummy dishes have you made from your sale items?

In case you're interested in recreating this soup, here is the recipe. By the way, I'm no Canary Girl, but I did use my own picture this time. She inspired me.

Ingredients:

• Gourmet House Organic Brown Rice - sale price 99 cents.
• Swanson's Organic Vegetable Broth - sale price $2.50.
• Organic Grape Tomatoes - BOGO.
• Organic Garbanzo Beans (canned).
  
• Ruskin Tomatoes - FREE - a kind gift from my husband's colleague. They were the loveliest, most flavorful tomatoes I've had in a long time.
• Alexia All Natural Bread - BOGO. I had the ciabatta rolls. They were pretty good, but not great. Plus, they were not whole grain.
  

Directions:

• First, make the brown rice according to the instructions (it will take about 45 min).
• Next, cut the tomatoes into wedges and roast them with olive oil at a high temperature until they are slightly charred on the edges (about 30 min). You could also add in some other things like garlic or red peppers. The roasting process adds a wonderfully rich flavor to the soup.
  
• While the tomatoes are roasting, combine the vegetable broth and beans in a pot and bring to a boil. I used garbanzo beans, but just about any bean could work. I think white northern beans would be great.
  
• When the tomatoes are finished roasting, put them in a pot and puree them with a hand mixer. Careful - they're hot!
  
• Combine the rice, beans, broth, and tomatoes and simmer.
  
• Season with olive oil, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, and garlic powder.
  
• Enjoy with a nice roll.
  

Nutrition S'Mart News

Nutrition S'Mart is having a Customer Appreciation Day with free samples, prizes, and special pricing. If you sign up for the free Nutrition S'Mart email newsletter HERE you may also get a $5-off $35 coupon to use on the that day. I'd be happy to email you the coupon if you like.

• Tampa - Saturday, November 14 - 11AM to 4PM
• Palm Beach Gardens - Saturday, November 14 - 11AM to 4PM
• Pembroke Pines - Saturday, November 21 - 11AM to 4PM

There's a new location opening on November 16 in Wesley Chapel at 1821 Bruce B Downs (813-341-444).

Nutrition S'Mart will be open on Thanksgiving Day from 9AM to 1PM.