Making the Most Out of Food... Stretching the budget

     Like my mom, I am all about saving money, using coupons, and finding sales... especially when it comes to food. I know where to find the online coupons (so I don't have to pay for a Sunday paper) and I have all my grocery store apps installed on my phones so I can view my Market Street Rewards points and weekly flyer, my downloadable/printable Walmart coupons, and compare prices at other grocery stores. 
     After much persistence from my Pop, we have ventured to a new store in McKinney called Winco.  They recently sent out flyers to draw customers in to their new store including coupons for free items, one being free bacon... WHOA!  We walked into this store and it was like a SAM's and Walmart combined. They had bulk and regular items of all sorts, so my grocery shopping that day is what sparked my next blog idea.  One item they had on sale was their pork loins and I bought mine for $15. This thing was so big that when I got home I busted out my giant cutting board and chef knife and got to hacking.

For $15 I able to get two 3 lb pork loin roasts and eight boneless pork chops... not too bad eh?  As you can see I Saran wrapped them (because I haven't invested in a vacuum sealer yet) and but my new stash of pork in the deep freezer. I used one of the pork loins to make a delicious pork carnitas dish that night... Thanks John for the recipe. And let me say, those carnitas were delicious! 

     Another thing Winco had was bulk items, they had large barrels of grains, flours, oats, snacks, nuts, you name it. So me and husband ventured over to the rice barrels and scooped 2 lbs of brown rice for only $1.36. Rice is another food that is low cost and goes a long way, and by choosing brown rice its a much more healthier grain vs white. As you know my sexy husband has been really dedicated to working out and recently had a personal trainer make a meal plan for him to help get to his goal.  With me getting off later it is often hard for me to come home each night and cook so we both decided to pre-portion our meals. This has many advantages for the both of us. With it already cooked and refrigerated we already have our meals ready, eliminating the option to just pick up food on the way home. Another advantage is they are pre-portioned so we wont over eat and help control our calorie intake. Check it out below, that's me getting food organized.  Each container has a half a cup of rice, half a cup of steamed veggies, and grilled pork chops.

     So long story short, keep your eye out for budgets and use your imagination when it comes to sales, and invest in a deep freeze. By taking that little extra time on my weekends I save a lot of time during the week. Hope every one had a great weekend, until next time..