food

August 2020: New Month, New Coupons!

Abby H.

file000786402730Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

Check out the following sites:

One of my favorite websites is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

Here are a few of my favorite new coupons:

Save $3.00 any ONE (1) BOOST® Nutritional Drink or Drink Mix

Save $0.75 on ONE (1) 32 fl. oz. Simply Smoothie®, any variety

Save $0.75 on any ONE (1) 6-pack Horizon Organic® Single-Serve Milk

Save $2.00 when you buy any ONE (1) box of Uncle Matt’s Organic Probiotic Popsicles

Save $1.00 on any TWO Incogmeato™ MorningStar Farms® Products

Save $1.00 on any TWO (2) MorningStar Farms® Veggie Foods Products

Save $1.00 on any ONE (1) ARM & HAMMER™ Liquid Laundry Detergent

Save $1.00 on any ONE (1) ARM & HAMMER™ Power Paks Laundry Detergent

Save $2.00 any ONE (1) CLEAN & CLEAR® product (excludes masks, single use, and trial sizes)

Save $1.00 ANY ONE (1) Garnier® Fructis shampoo, conditioner, treatment or styling product (see details for exclusions)

Sign up for Silk®️ emails and get $1 OFF coupons

Print coupon for $1.00 OFF any variety of Whole Fruit Bars.

Sign up and receive a printable coupon for $5 OFF 1 Mucinex Product over $14.99.

San Diego, CA Area Residents: FREE Produce! Tomorrow, July 31, 2020

Abby H.

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It’s Back!! Our friends over at Faith Chapel understand that with all that’s going on in the world that some of us still need help finding healthy food during this difficult time. And that’s it not always safe for us to go to the store or hit up a farmers market.

Distribution is happening this Friday, July 31st, beginning at 10:00am.

This is a drive-thru style event, so you don’t have to leave your vehicles. This week they are getting 1 truckload of produce delivered, so they will be only be given 1 box of produce to each vehicle.  BUT- Trust me- That’s plenty of quality produce for one family.

Here is an example of what was offered lin previous weeks: unnamedNavel Oranges, Grapefruit, Plumcots, Lemons, and nectarines. All free.

Faith Chapel is located at 9400 Campo Road Spring Valley, CA 91977

New Recipe: Baked Tortellini

Abby H.

00169 (1).jpgThis recipe is dead simple. Make it as complicated as you want. Use jarred sauce, make your own from scratch, or take a jar of sauce and church it up yourself. Whatever.

Frozen pasta, fresh pasta, heck, you can even use the shell stable/dried tortellini. You could use ravioli if you wanted.

You can make this Vegetarian, Vegan, Chock Full o’ Meat, Gluten-Free, it’s up to you.

This is one of those recipes that’s a big hit at potlucks too. It’s pretty inexpensive, and we always have the ingredients in one form or another to make a batch.

Baked Tortellini

Ingredients:

  • 6-8 cups of Red Pasta Sauce.  I usually make a big batch of this sauce and portion some out just for this recipe. If you use jarred sauce, I recommend  you add 3-4 cups of veggies (carrots, onions, celery, bell peppers, zucchini, chopped/diced tomatoes, etc.)
  • 22-30 ounces of Tortellini/Ravioli, cooked per the package directions (this will probably take a couple packages)
  • 2 Cups Italian Cheese blend

Directions:

  1. Cook the pasta per the package directions. Drain.
  2. Pour pasta sauce into a baking dish (I use a 9×13), toss cooked pasta in sauce.
  3. Sprinkle cheese on top.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-ish minutes until food is bubbly, and cheese is brown and delicious looking.
  5. Serve with hot French Bread or Garlic Bread and a green salad.

This serves 8-10 people as a main.

 

If you are vegan, substitute in filled pasta and cheese that works for you.

7/13/2020 is National French Fry Day!

Abby H.

unnamed.pngThere is a day for everything, I swear! July 13, 2020 is National French Fry Day! And I know you will all want to celebrate.

If you are trying to maintain social distancing, and don’t own your own air fryer (I like this one), check out one of these two delivery services:

When you order through DoorDash, your first order has a $0 Delivery fee!

From your neighborhood sushi spot to the burger and fries you crave, choose from over 300,000 local and national favorites across the U.S. and Canada.

Grubhub has a sweet deal too: Free delivery on an order of $15+ for new customers with code AFFFREEDEL at Grubhub.com.

And if you eat fries, you probably like ketchup too! Heinz is sponsoring a contest to go along with National French Fry Day!

One grand prize winner will receive: $1869 for 57 future takeout orders. 50 Ketchup Artists will win: $57 for a takeout meal (or two) on Heinz.

To enter, simply have to post a picture of your meal along with the hashtags #TheGreatAmericanTakeout and #Sweepstakes, and tag @thegreatamericantakeout on Instagram or @TheGATakeout on Twitter.

Pretty sweet, right?

Talk Back: What is your favorite food to top with Ketchup?

 

New Deals from Checkout 51!

Abby H.

 

unnamedCheckout 51 is one of my favorite cashback shopping apps! Most of the deals/cashback rebates are not store specific, so I can save at stores that don’t accept coupons, like Grocery Outlet and 99 Cents Only.  You can also stack with store sales and discounts.

This week on Checkout 51, there is a great selection of products, including some yummy frozen desserts to beat the heat.

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New to Checkout 51? Check out my post with more details here.

2020 Summer Lunch Programs for Kids (And Other Free Food Resources in San Diego)

Abby H.

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I am usually sooo much more on top of these free lunch posts, but…well, life has been a little crazy around here, and all over the world.

Better late than never, so, here we go. In past years schools, libraries, and community centers have hosted these free lunches, this year, however, the list of facilities has decreased.

GUHSDIf you don’t find any facilities near you offering free lunches, I recommend contacting 211, they may have more updated information.

table of hopeAnd if you are in need of food for your entire family, but you find yourself not qualifying for P-EBT or other social services, I recommend that you check out Facebook. There are tons of local groups of neighbors getting together setting up Tables of Hope. In San Diego, there are several. Tables of Hope are small groups of neighbors that have set up food distribution tables within neighborhoods to help those who might be experiencing food insecurity.

Churches and community organizations are offering free food distributions that require no proof of need, like Faith Chapel in Spring Valley. They are offering free produce each Friday through mid-August. You can find out more info here.

And the San Diego Food Bank is continuing their neighborhood distributions– Lots of produce and goodies are available each week. No proof of need or residency requirements.

There are all sorts of organizations looking to help families in need.

Even if you are not in dire need, if you need help stretching your budget, these resources are here for you!

Talk Back: How are you stretching your food budget this summer?

6/22/2020 Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

0a5e9dab796cea8a07eabe4eb4795b9e.jpgI’ve started doing weekly meal planning on Sundays. It’s easier to do it while I’m writing up the weekly calendar/schedule and prepping the snack box for the week.

I’ve been buying snacks in bulk and only putting weeks worth out in the snack box. It keeps us out of the stores, and its healthier. I’ve been doing this for about a month, and I’ve gotten really good at hiding the extra snacks.

I went to the store last night and spent a little more than I usually do- We were out of a lot of staples. I try to keep the weekly grocery budget to around $100, last night I spent $150.

I was looking over everything last night and I realized that I shouldn’t be so hard on myself- we are all home all the time, which means that we are all eating (and drinking) at home, and that means an increase in both food budget and cooking.

4 people eating 3 meals a day, 7 days a week is 84 meals per week, plus snacks and drinks. That’s approximately $1.78 per meal, per person. And I cook a lot from scratch- which saves us even more than buying convenience foods or eating out.  As you can see from our meal plan below, I’m not making Haute cuisine- It’s healthy, wholesome food that the kids enjoy.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day: Right now our local school district is serving lunch for a drive-through service for kids 18 and under M-F. It’s great because it helps stretch our budget and it gets the kids out of the house for a few minutes. They also include a cold lunch (usually cereal and milk and a piece of fruit) for the next morning. Often times, the cereal ends up being a snack for late afternoon. I’ll be posting more info about summer lunches this afternoon or tomorrow.

Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2  for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular. recently the Big Kid has been on a protein shake kick in the AM.

Usually, I do a crockpot meal on Mondays, but now that we are home all the time, we’ve been having an odd combination of fully home-cooked, scratch meals, and frozen entrees and veggies. I have been posting our meal plans on Instagram too- As well as pics of stuff we are doing to keep busy.

School has wrapped up, but we are starting distance learning summer school. It’s a lot less, but it will still keep the kiddos brains sharp. And we’ve recently started playing Pokemon Go to help get our bodies active. We go out for walks each day to try and get some monsters and steps. I love that the big kid has a pokemon Buddy in the game and as part of taking care of his buddy, he has to “walk” the buddy daily. It encourages him to get exercise and it teaches him empathy- something that can be hard for kids on the spectrum.

  • Sunday:  Customized mini pizzas for Father’s Day (We cooked them on our new Pizza Stone)
  • Monday Chicken Enchiladas, Beans, Rice, and Salad
  • Tuesday: Breakfast night (Pancakes, Eggs, bacon, fruit salad)
  • Wednesday:BBQ chicken and salad
  • Thursday: Pizza Night (pizza and salad or fruit)
  • Friday: Veggie Burgers or chick’n nuggets, salad or fruit
  • Saturday: leftover fiesta

Please stay safe you guys! The sooner we flatten the curve, the sooner life can go back to normal- whatever that means.

Talk Back: What are you cooking for dinner this week?

San Diego, CA Area Residents: FREE Produce! This Friday, June 19th

Abby H.3 Comments

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Our friends over at Faith Chapel understand that with all that’s going on in the world that some of us still need help finding healthy food during this difficult time. And that’s it not always safe for us to go to the store or hit up a farmers market.

For the next NINE (9) weeks, Faith Chapel is offering FREE Fresh produce straight from the farmers to give to you! Distribution is happening this Friday, June 19th, beginning at 10:00am.

This is a drive-thru style event, so you don’t have to leave your vehicles. Take as much as you’d like! Tell your family and friends!

Here is an example of what was offered last week: unnamedNavel Oranges, Grapefruit, Plumcots, Lemons, and nectarines. All free.

Faith Chapel is located at 9400 Campo Road Spring Valley, CA 91977

Why I Chose Always Eat After 7 PM

Abby H.1 Comment

AlwaysEatAfter7PM_FrontCoverThis post is brought to you by our sponsor, “Always Eat After 7 PM”. The opinions expressed below are my own.

Over the past few days I’ve read Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion cover to cover twice, making notes, and checking our current groceries.

I posted about Always Eat After 7PM last week here.

I decided to give Always Eat After 7pm a shot because we needed something new that helped keep us full, and in my case, help with sleep. I’m not sure if you gentle readers know, but when you have kids, sometimes sleep is elusive.  I also like how nothing is off the table. Moderation and balance are key! “Cheat” days or meals are built into the program. Joel Marion’s Always Eat After 7PM program makes dieting easy and eliminates 90% of the reasons for resistance.

Joel head shotThe author, Joel Marion took his time to research and develop the theories and practices behind this program. In an interview he states, “It actually took several years of researching for me to discover the real science of eating late night. After a few years of tweaking and refining, I finally came up with a rapid fat loss solution that overcomes all the pitfalls of traditional diets.”

Another quote from that interview really spoke to me. Most diets or eating programs are hard to follow, When asked if the Always Eat After 7pm program is hard to follow, Joel Marion said, “It’s not. And that’s exactly why I wrote the book. While any diet is never truly easy, it can be more enjoyable and much easier to adhere to when you understand how Always Eat After 7pm works because it caters to our bodies natural instincts.” And, ladies and gents, is what hooked me. 

We’ve been traditionally taught to avoid carbs, have an early dinner, and never eat before bed. But the fact is, the latest scientific research shows us this earlier model is not the most ideal. We’ve been having big, tasty meals full of flavor (and rice last night- it was so good!).

“A research paper published in Sports Medicine in 2014 showed that people who eat the majority of their carbs at dinner actually sleep better. Carb-induced, quality sleep decreases cortisol (a fat-storing hormone) and ramps up the production of your sleep hormones, serotonin and melatonin. Restorative sleep increases fat-burning hormones—the main one being growth hormone—overnight.”

We’re spending a portion of today meal planning and doing food prep, so our first full week in the Always Eat after 7PM program can be successful! You’ll probably see some new recipes and foods on the weekly Meal Plan post that will be coming up today (or early tomorrow morning, depending on how today goes).

Learn more about Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight and how to purchase it here.

Tracking PixelThis post is brought to you by our sponsor, “Always Eat After 7 PM”. The opinions expressed are my own. To learn more about how and why I partner with brands, check out my disclosure page here.

Always Eat After 7PM Book Challenge: It Starts Now!

Abby H.2 Comments

This post is brought to you by our sponsor, “Always Eat After 7 PM”. The opinions expressed below are my own.
AlwaysEatAfter7PM_FrontCoverRecently I was offered the chance to check out Joel Marion’s new book: Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight.  Since we aren’t able to hit the gym and we still want to stay on our journey to health, I decided to read the book and give this program a try.

We are still going out for walks several times a week, but I am not able to get the same level of exercise as I was pre-quarantine. And this is in no way a complaint- just a fact of life.

After reading the first few chapters of the book and browsing the recipes, I was hooked. So many parts of this program resonated with me. Here are a few excerpts that got me excited:

 “So, despite all the bad press over the years, certain carbohydrates play an important role in balancing your hormones and regulating your metabolic rate, while avoiding the dreaded weight loss plateaus that accompany conventional mainstream diets. Furthermore, when you eat these carbohydrates, you’ll feel much better than you would if you were following a traditional diet.”


“In general, healthy fats can also help increase feelings of fullness and satisfaction because they regulate appetite through a number of mechanisms, including the release of appetite hormones. What’s more, combining fat with fiber has been shown to further increase the satiating potential of fat. The satiating power of fats is often one explanation offered to describe why some weight loss trials have shown that low-carbohydrate (and higher-fat) diets tend to lead to greater weight loss than low-fat diets.”

We’ve been traditionally taught to avoid carbs, have an early dinner, and never eat before bed. But the fact is, the latest scientific research shows us this earlier model is not the most ideal. I’m excited to try out this program! Joel Marion is a fitness expert and nutritionist debunking the myths underlying traditional dieting and offers a simple, highly effective weight loss program.  This program is easy and eliminates 90% of reasons for resistance.

One thing that has stopped us in the past is snacking. With kids and a busy life, we don’t always have the time or ability to sit down and eat mini-meals or spend hours cooking recipes with strange ingredients. Always Eat After 7PM offers some really great snacking and meal options! All the recipes that I’ve looked at so far actually look tasty and are family-friendly.

If this sounds like something that interests you, I encourage you to follow my blog- I’ll be posting weekly updates with my progress and more tips and tricks from Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion. Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.

This post is brought to you by our sponsor, “Always Eat After 7 PM”. The opinions expressed are my own. To learn more about how and why I partner with brands, check out my disclosure page here.

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