Great Time to Stock Up!

Yesterday, Sumiko posted a recipe in which she substituted other ingredients for a can of cream of chicken soup.  While I don't use cream soups very often, I always try to keep them on hand for those times when I do need them.  With the holidays coming up, many stores have cream soups and other canned goods on sale, making right now a great time to stock up!  Because these items are so inexpensive (and even FREE!), I would recommend buying them even if you don't personally use them and donate them to a local food bank.  Food banks are always looking for donations, but particularly so during the holiday season.  Thanks to Money Saving Mom and a little of my own research for the following suggestions:

Target
These prices were in Sunday's ad and are good through Saturday, November 20.

• Campbells condensed soups (including Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken) are on sale for $0.50 each.  You can print coupons for $1.50 off 3 condensed and great for cooking soups here, making them FREE after the sale and coupons!
• While we won't be having Stove Top stuffing on Thanksgiving, I like to keep some on hand to have as a side dish for other meals.  This week, Target has it on sale for 79 cents.  There is a Target coupon for $0.50 off 2 here, which can be used with a coupon for $1 off 2 here.  In case you weren't aware, Target accepts one store coupon with one manufacturer's coupon for the same item, increasing your savings!  After sale and coupons, they are only $0.04 per box!
• We're big proponents of homemade gravy, but if gravy's not your thing, Target has Heinz gravy on sale for $0.79 per jar.  You can print a coupon for $1 off 3 here, making them $0.46 cents each!
• Del Monte canned vegetables are on sale for $0.45 each.  If you get the newspaper, there was a coupon for $1 off 5 cans of Del Monte fruits, vegetables, or tomatoes in the September 19th RedPlum insert.  After sale and coupon, the total cost will be $0.25 per can.  **UPDATE** This coupon is expired and, as far as I know, there isn't another one.
• Check out other Target sale/coupon match-ups here.

Ralphs (Southern California Kroger Affiliate)
Some of the deals you can get at Target are also available at Ralphs and possibly at other Kroger affiliates around the country.  Please check your local ad to confirm.  Additionally, these sales are only good through TODAY, so if you're needing or wanting to stock up on these items at these prices, you're going to have to head out TODAY!  Sorry for the late notice.

• Carnation Evaporated Milk is on sale for $0.69*.  In the RedPlum insert in last Sunday's paper (11/14), there was a coupon for $0.50 off 2 cans.  With doubled coupons, you'll be able to get them for $0.19 each.  You can use this to make Jacque's Pumpkin Pie Cake!
• Campbell's Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken Soup are sale for $0.49*.  Pair with the $1.50 off 3 coupon here to get them for FREE!  The coupon for the cream soups is the "Great for Cooking" one.  If this is something you use a lot, you can also use the $0.25 off 4 coupon from the September 12, October 3, or November 7 SmartSource inserts, which will double to $0.50, making the soup $0.37 per can.
• Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers on sale for $0.49*.  Can be paired with $0.50 off 2 coupon in the General mills insert from October 3 or last Sunday (11/14), which will double to $1 to make these FREE!
• Nabisco Snack Crackers are on sale for $0.99 each.  There was a coupon in the SmartSource insert last Sunday (11/14) for $1 off 1, making these FREE!
• Heinz Gravy is on sale for $0.75*.  If you pair the sale with the $1 off 3 coupon here, you'll be able to get these for $0.42 each.  I've seen Ralphs advertising Super Double Coupons, but I'm not sure if it's effective yet.  If it is, this coupon will double to $2, making them only $0.08 each!
• Campbell's Chunky Soups are on sale for $0.99* each.  There was a coupon for $1 off 2 in the October 10th SmartSource, which should double to $2 with the Super Double Coupons, making these FREE!

*Items marked with an asterisk are part of the buy 10, save $5 event.  In order to get those prices, you must purchase 10 participating products (see store or ad for details).  These are some of the best deals I found.  You can check your ad for more great deals and pair them up with coupons, using one of the coupon databases listed here.

**UPDATE**
If you still need a little motivation and convincing, I went to Ralph's this morning and spent $6.76 for all of this:

Total Savings: $56.26

Creamy Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

Everything is better with bacon.  Unfortunately, its cost almost always exceeds my $2 per pound limit for meat.  So when I find it on sale, I buy a lot of it and freeze it.  Last week Safeway (Vons or Pavillions for you Southern California people) had bacon on sale for $1.99 per pound.  I bought two pounds one day (that was the limit) and got a rain check for two more another day.  They also had boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.88 per pound.  Not the best price for chicken breasts, but good enough.

A few years ago I found a version of the following recipe in my mom’s recipe file.  I don’t know where she got it, but it sounded amazing.  It originally called for a can of cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup.  I never use canned cream soups—I can use items I keep on hand to make a healthier, cheaper alternative.  I also changed the cooking method.  The original recipe said to bake it in the oven; I now make it in my slow cooker.

You can alter the fat-content of this recipe depending on what kind of sour cream and milk you use.  I use regular sour cream and fat-free milk.  Though I like it served with noodles, I usually serve it with brown rice for the fiber.

Creamy Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt

Pepper

6 slices bacon

1 lb. sour cream

2-4 Tbsp. flour

1½ Tbsp. chicken bouillon

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

½ c. milk

Rice or noodles, cooked

Fry bacon until pale and limp.  Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Roll each breast, wrap with a slice of bacon, and secure with a toothpick. 

After it is cooked--pale

Before it is cooked--red

When serving, be sure to remove
all toothpicks or warn everyone

Place in slow cooker.  In a small medium bowl, stir flour into sour cream; less for thinner sauce, more for thicker sauce.  Add chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, and milk.  Pour over chicken. 

Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 6-7.  Cooking time will vary depending on size of breasts and variations in slow cookers; check for doneness using a thermometer.  Serve over rice or noodles.  Yield:  6 servings.  Total cost:  about $8.50, $1.42/serving.

To make this in the oven, assemble in a casserole, cover, and bake at 275° for 3 hours.

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

One of my husband's new favorite meals is BBQ chicken sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce.  In the past, I had made these with bottled BBQ sauce, but after a while, they just didn't taste good anymore.  Maybe if I had used a different BBQ sauce, we would have liked them better, but I wasn't willing to spend the money (or time) to try making it with different sauces (and risk wasting the food if it wasn't to our liking).  This sauce seems to have a lighter taste than many of the bottled sauces we've tried, so it's not so overpowering in the sandwiches. 

Let me tell you a little secret about my husband: 9 times out of 10, he prefers store-bought over homemade.  When he asked me what kind of BBQ sauce I used, I told him that I'd tell him after dinner - I didn't want the fact that it was homemade to sway his opinion.  Well, he loved it (and so did I) even after he found out it was a homemade sauce!  I'm happy to say that BBQ chicken sandwiches are now back on our regular menu rotation!  I love these because they're really easy.  Additionally, you can make a lot of sauce at once and just freeze it!

BBQ Sauce
1 cup ketchup
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
2 Tbsp hickory flavor liquid smoke
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Taste and adjust vinegar and brown sugar until desired sweetness or tangyness (I think I just made up that word) is reached.  I ended up adding a little extra brown sugar since we like our sauce to be a little sweeter.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-20 minutes, depending on desired thickness.  The longer the sauce simmers, the thicker it will become. 

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
1 to 1.5 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 large onion, chopped
1.5 to 2 cups barbecue sauce
Hamburger or sandwich buns

Place chicken and onions in slow cooker.  Cover with barbecue sauce.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.  Once chicken is cooked through, remove from slow cooker and shred.  Place chicken back in the slow cooker and stir to cover chicken in sauce.

Under broiler or in a toaster oven, toast the buns.  Place chicken on buns, along with other desired toppings.  I like red onions on mine; my husband likes his plain.  Both the sauce and the cooked chicken are freezable.

Slow Cooker Steel-Cut Oats

We all know that every day should begin with a good breakfast, so we’ll start our slow cooker recipes with steel-cut oats.  But first, a little personal history.  I absolutely hated oatmeal for most of my life.  There were times I wished I liked oatmeal and would force myself to eat it, hoping it would grow on me.  But now I love it!  What happened?  I got pregnant.  When I was expecting my first child, I craved pepperoncinis and oatmeal (not together).  I understood the peppers—they are salty like pickles.  But oatmeal?  That’s when I started eating oatmeal and, fortunately, I still liked it even after I gave birth.

There are a variety of ways oats are sold:

Groats:  whole oat kernels with the hulls removed; contains the oat bran, germ, and endosperm

Steel-cut oats (Irish oats):  groats that have been cut with steel into two or three pieces

Rolled oats (old-fashioned oats):  groats that have been rolled flat

Scottish oatmeal:  steel-cut oats that have been steamed and ground

Quick-cooking oatmeal:  steel-cut oats that have been rolled

Instant oatmeal:  same as quick-cooking oats but processed to smaller flakes

Steel-cut oats are by far my favorite way to make oatmeal.  When cooked, they have more texture than rolled oats, kind of the al dente version of oatmeal.  And the flavor is nuttier than rolled oats.  Nutritionally, all oatmeal is good for you, but steel-cut oats are better for you than the more processed varieties.  They have a lower glycemic index which means you don’t get hungry as quickly after eating them.

The one inconvenient thing about steel-cut oats is that they take 30-40 minutes to cook on the stove.  I’m not a morning person, so I cook them in the slow cooker over night.  The house smells so good in the morning and we have fresh, hot oatmeal ready to eat.

I think steel-cut oats are good enough to eat plain.  Even my toddler boys scarf it down plain.  But I really love them with some banana slices and cinnamon.  If you want, you can add dried fruit to the slow cooker at night or in the morning, depending on how re-hydrated you want the fruit.

Oatmeal is definitely a great way to stretch your grocery budget if you stay away from packets.  WinCo carries many types of oatmeal in the bulk bins.  When I went yesterday, steel-cut oats cost $0.83/lb. and rolled oats and quick oats were $0.50/lb.  I then went over to the cereal aisle and compared those prices to packets of instant oatmeal.  Quaker original instant oatmeal cost $1.98/11.8 oz. which comes to $2.68/lb.  Hy-top instant oatmeal was better at $1.74/lb., but nowhere near the cost of the oatmeal from the bins.  If your store does not carry items in bulk, canisters are also an economical way to buy oats.

I also took a look at the cost of Cheerios, America’s favorite oat cereal.  They happened to be on sale but the cost still came to $2.03/lb.  The generic version came to $1.63/lb.  You also have to consider that 1 lb. of Cheerios yields 1 lb. of Cheerios.  One pound of steel-cut oats, however, yields about 6 lbs. of oatmeal.  That’s $0.14/lb.!  Just switching from cold cereal to hot cereals could save a lot of money.

Slow Cooker Steel-Cut Oats

1 c. steel-cut oats

4 c. water

Dried fruit (optional)

Place oats and water in slow cooker.  Add dried fruit, if desired (may need a little extra water).  Heat overnight on low.  The top layer will be a little dried out.  Just stir it in.

Slow Cookers

One of my favorite kitchen appliances is my slow cooker.  Slow cookers are capable of cooking a variety of foods: meats, soups, beans, and even desserts!  The best thing about it is that by using a slow cooker, I'm able to save time and money.

Before I had my daughter, I had a 40-hour per week job outside of the home.  When I came home I was usually exhausted and often didn't have much energy left for cooking (nor did we have a dishwasher or counter space, which made cooking and clean-up more of an involved process).  During this time of life, I used my slow cooker as much as I could!  It was so nice to prepare a meal before work in the morning and come home and have dinner already done, not to mention the wonderful smell in the house from dinner cooking all day long.  Sometimes I would prepare everything the night before and then just refrigerate it until the next morning.  That way, in the morning all I had to do was stick the crock in the slow cooker and push start (which is ideal for us non-morning people).  Even though I'm no longer working outside the home, I still use my slow cooker frequently.

One reason I love my slow cooker is because it is a money-saving appliance.  Because of it's cooking process, it's ideal for cheap, tough cuts of meat.  When tough cuts of meat are cooked slowly for long periods of time, they become tender, moist, and delicious.

There are several brands and types of slow cookers with different features.

Basic: There are basic slow cookers that simply have a switch that has off, low, high, and warm.  You turn it on and it stays on until you turn it off.  There are no bells and whistles here.  Some of them have crocks that are removable and some have crocks that are built-in, which is something to think about when purchasing a slow cooker.  One with a crock that is not removable will be more difficult to clean.







Automatic: These slow cookers are a little more advanced than the basic model.  They usually have some sort of timer that will turn the slow cooker either to off or to warm once the time has run out.  Some allow you to put in any amount of time and some limit you to a specific time increments (i.e. 4 or 6 hours for high and 8 or 10 hours for low).  Some even have probe thermometers that you can stick into your meat and once the meat reaches a certain temperature, it will turn the slow cooker off or to low.



What we have:
 
Kimiko: I have a Crock-Pot SCRC507-W 5-Quart Countdown Slow Cooker.  You can set it to low, high, or warm in addition to setting how long you want it to cook (in 30 minute increments).  Once the time has run out, it automatically turns to warm.  This countdown feature is wonderful, since I'm not always home when the food is done cooking.  It's also nice that I can set whatever amount of time I want and I'm not limited to specific time frames.  For example, I can set it on low for just 3 hours if I want to; I'm not limited to 8 or 10 hours on low.  I also don't have to worry about overcooking the meal when I'm not home and when I am home, I don't have to worry about turning it off at a certain time.  Additionally, since it automatically turns to warm instead of turning off, I don't have to worry about my food getting cold and reaching an unsafe temperature - it stays hot until we're ready to eat.


Sumiko:  I have two slow cookers.  When I went away to college, someone gave me a 2.75-quart manual Rival Crock-Pot.  Although I have a large family, I really like the smaller capacity of this one for smaller batches.  I love steel cut oats but never have time to cook them in the morning.  I just put oats and water in this small Crock-Pot before I go to bed and I have delicious, warm oat meal in the morning.

                                              

There are two things I do not like about this slow cooker.  First, the crock is not removable, making washing a hassle.  Second, it came with a plastic lid.  I have a casserole dish with a glass lid that fits that I use instead.  The particular model I have is no longer available.  Fortunately, the comparable models that Rival now makes have removable crocks and glass lids.  You can find them here, priced from $19.99 for a 2.5-quart to $29.99 for a 3.5-quart.

I also have a newer 5-quart oval Rival Crock-Pot Smart-Pot which is also no longer available.  They now make 5-quart round and 5.5- and 6-quart oval Smart-Pots, available here for $24.99 to $54.99.  The Smart-Pot series allows you to program it for 4 or 6 hours on high or 8 or 10 hours on low.  Once the time has elapsed, it automatically switches to the warm setting.  I really like this slow cooker, and it is the perfect size for our family.  There have been a few occasions when I wished I could manually turn it to warm.

What we use it for:

• Beans 
• Chicken
• Roasts
• Soups and stews
• Hot apple cider
• Oatmeal
• Taco/Burrito filling
• Desserts

A Sneak Peek and Some Exciting News!

We received so much positive feedback from freezer weeks that we’ve decided to do two more weeks dedicated to another kitchen appliance:  the slow cooker!  That’s right, two whole weeks of recipes, tips, and information about cooking in your slow cooker.  Kimiko will start out next week with an equipment review.  So be sure to check it out!

What’s the exciting news?  Last week we announced the addition of our recipe indices to make it easier to locate the recipes you want.  Today we want to announce that it is now easier to find us!  Up until now, we’ve only been located at neartonothing.blogspot.com; but now you can also find us at neartonothing.com!  Either URL will bring you here, so feel free to continue to use the original one.  The new address just makes it a little easier.  Know someone who can benefit from our recipes and tips?  Just send them to neartonothing.com.

Jacque's Pumpkin Pie Cake

If you are a regular reader of Near to Nothing, you know that we like to tweak other people’s recipes.  In fact, when I cook, I rarely even use a recipe.  But Jacque’s Pumpkin Pie Cake is one recipe I do not mess with!  You just can’t improve upon perfection.  It was given to me by a sweet woman who has known my husband since he was in kindergarten.

I generally do not make dishes that call for mixes or ingredients that I do not normally keep in my pantry, but this one is worth it.  I have to plan ahead to make this because it calls for a box of cake mix and evaporated milk.  In the fall and winter I usually keep puréed pumpkin in my pantry or freezer.

If you are buying canned pumpkin, be sure to check the label carefully.  It is usually found right next to the cans of pumpkin pie filling.  You want straight pumpkin for this recipe.

Evaporated milk is milk that has had about 60% of the water removed.  Do not substitute sweetened condensed milk for evaporated milk.  Sweetened condensed milk has about 15% sugar added and is then condensed to about one-third of its original volume.  When baking with either of these milk products, I always use regular, not fat-free.

Jacque’s Pumpkin Pie Cake

4 eggs

20 oz. (2½ c.) evaporated milk

2½ c. pumpkin purée

1½ c. sugar

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 box yellow cake mix (vanilla is amazing too!)

1 stick butter, melted

1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Whipped cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease 9x13 pan; set aside.  In large bowl, whisk eggs by hand to break up yolks and whites.  Add evaporated milk, pumpkin, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.  Whisk until smooth and blended well.  Pour into prepared pan.

Whisking the eggs first helps
incorporate them more
uniformly.

Pour cake mix into medium bowl.  Add melted butter and mix until all cake mix is wet.  Sprinkle over pumpkin mixture.  Sprinkle nuts on top.  Bake about 1 hour, until toothpick comes out clean.  Serve warm or chilled with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

Topping should be crumbly with
hardly any dry spots.

I prefer to serve this dessert
chilled with whipped cream.

I normally chop the nuts bigger,
but I was at the bottom of the bag.

So simple, yet elegant enough to
look amazing on my china.

Note:  Ok, I did change one little thing.  I decreased the baking time from what Jacque wrote.  She lives at a higher elevation, and I live practically at sea level.

On a semi-related note, Kimiko promised a picture of our dad's grandkids pumpkins in her roasted pumpkin seed post.  You can find last year's pumpkins at the bottom of that post.  Here are this year's: