Stocking Up & A Week's Worth Of Groceries

 We're getting ready to do a no spend challenge coming up starting in March. When I say no spend, I mean that we will eat what we have stocked up in our freezers, in our refrigerators and what we have stored up as far as canned and dry goods. The only things we will buy will be milk products, and those will be limited to milk, half & half and heavy cream. I will not be buying yogurt because I'll simply make my own. We won't be buying cheese because I can make yogurt cheese and farmers cheese from milk. We will be able to buy produce, as well. Some produce I can grow in my Aerogarden or I can start it out in one of my raised beds, like lettuce, chard, peas and spinach.

Anyhow, I've allotted us a $400 grocery budget to get by for February and I'll also use that to stock up stuff that we use regularly, like coffee, flour, etc.
I'm challenging myself to see exactly how far we can go, spending as little as possible. I know we can do this.

Now, onto my grocery haul this morning. I shopped at our local Safeway. I saved 64% off of my total. By carefully planning my trip and allowing for a few impulse purchases, I was able to save $20 off of my total. I will use that $20 at another store to stock up on some other items that are way cheaper there than at Safeway. Whenever I shop, I have 4 tabs open on my laptop. I have Amazon, Safeway, Fred Meyer and Walmart pulled up. I go between those 4 stores. I find that Walmart and Amazon usually have about the prices on many things. Fred Meyer is a bit more than Walmart and Safeway usually has the highest prices of all unless you shop the sales, like I do.

My total, before discounts and coupons, was around $140. Safeway has a deal this week, if you buy 3 or more pounds of 93% lean ground beef, it costs $2.97 per pound. I decided to completely top off our chest freezer with ground beef and I bought 12 pounds. If it wasn't on sale and, if I didn't have a Safeway Just For U account, it would have cost me $101.88. I paid $36.64 for 12 pounds.
In the produce depart, they had fresh sage, in a clamshell, for $1. We decided to roast a chicken this coming week. The juicing carrots are Bob's big expense that he feeds to our wild rabbit population. The deer eat them, too. By feeding them in areas away from the garden, they stay out of it because they know they will get a carrot if they do.

I added coupons on Just For U for $10 off $50, $20 off $100, $5 off $5 or more produce and 10% off the entire purchase if it was over $50. Just with those 4 coupons, I saved over $40. I also got a free yogurt, 50-cents off of Yoplait yogurts, which were on sale for 24-cents each, limit of 12. The Noosa yogurts were $1.49 each, which is a fantastic price. These are delicious and they are usually quite expensive. I bought 8 of those at that price.

Here are my total savings. Saving 64% is nothing to sneeze about. 24 meals of ground beef for just over $36 is a phenomenal price. I also got quadruple the reward points (for gas discounts) for buying over $20 worth of produce.

Cucumber-Grape Salad with Crab

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If you are looking for an unusual light meal idea, this just may be your recipe. Red grapes combine with cucumbers and grape tomatoes (cherry tomatoes would be just fine) and scallions to make a delicious and refreshing seasonal salad.

When you add in some crab, it elevates this salad from being just unusual (but delicious) into something that tastes decadent.

We really enjoyed this salad last night. It really hit the spot. The cool thing is that you can use fresh crab or canned crab or even imitation crab, if that's what you like. I know that the dressing sounds weird, but you'll have to taste it to know that it's absolutely delicious!

This salad will store in the fridge for about 3 or 4 days. It does taste better after it sets for a day.

 Cucumber Grape Salad  with Crab

2 cups red grapes, halved

2 cups English cucumbers, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into half moons

2 cups grape tomatoes, halved

3 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal

4.5 ounces of crab (canned, fresh or imitation)

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon apple cider (or if you've made any of the fruit vinegar that I have previously blogged about, use one of those...especially if you've made strawberry!!)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

1/2 cup strawberry Greek yogurt

French grey salt, to taste (you can use whatever salt you have on hand, I just happen to have this)

Whisk the dressing together to combine, in a small bowl. Set aside.
Mix all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Add dressing. Toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate a few hours to chill.
Store leftovers, covered, in the fridge, for up to 3 days. 

Note: This recipe is easy to cut in half as this will make about 6 dinner serving sizes.