Crab Ragoon

Ingredients

8oz Imitation crab, chopped

1 large carrot, grated (julienne is fine but I prefer grated)

1/2 cup bok choy (or celery), finely chopped

1/2 cup onion, diced (I used purple because that is what I had)

1 jalapeño, seeds removed, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp white pepper

2 tsp zesty lemon

1 tsp teriyaki

6oz cream cheese, softened

pinch of salt

wonton wrappers

1 egg, whisked

Olive oil or melted butter 

Heat oven to 425. Combine crab, carrots, bok choy, onion, jalapeño, garlic. pepper, zesty lemon, teriyaki, cream cheese, and salt. 

Spoon mixture into wonton wrapper and seal with egg wash. Cover baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray. Arrange ragoon on the sheet and brush with olive oil. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden.

Vanilla Ice Cream

IIce cream. How does something so diverse seem so complicated? Well, I'm letting the secret out. It isn't complicated at all!

Ice cream is custard + flavor. You start with a custard base of egg yolks and cream/milk & add flavor.

Equipment you will need:

Whisk, preferably an electric whisk (I've got my handy dandy Kitchen Aid mixer with whisk attachment)

Saucepan

Stove

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

Several bowls (I have a small bowl for my premeasured sugar, egg white bowl, egg yolk bowl, egg shell bowl, and a bowl for my final mixture. You'll also need a larger mixing bowl).

Ice cream maker

Freezer safe storage container

Ingredients:

8 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups half and half

2 1/2 cups whipping cream

1 tsp salt

4 tsp vanilla extract (or one vanilla bean, scraped)

Put a saucepan on medium-low heat with the half and half. Stir frequently until mixture begins to steam. This is called "scalding". It was a step used to kill bacteria back before milk was pasteurized. We need it to make our custard base (and if you cook a lot, scalding helps impart flavor into the liquid for cooking). When the milk begins to steam, remove from heat.

In your large mixing bowl whisk your egg yolks and sugar. Now slowly whisk in the half and half, a slow and steady stream, as you don't want to cook curdle the yolks and have lumps, we are making a custard, which is smooth.

Once your half and half is whisked into your yolk mixture, put it back in the saucepan on medium low and scald again. In your final storage bowl combine your cream and custard. Then whisk in your extract & salt. Cool mixture (covered) in the fridge for at least 8 hours before running it through your ice cream maker.

You can add crumbled Oreo cookies (when the ice cream is nearly done turning) to make cookies and cream, scald the half and half with orange peel for a bit of zing. Just remember: custard base + flavor = ice cream. Easy as pie, well... ice cream. Another tip is that the fat content of your milk determines the richness of your ice cream. The more fat, the richer the flavor. You can try heavy whipping cream or even 2% milk to find how rich you like it.

I bought my whipping cream on clearance (for expiration) half off so I needed to do something with it. I made vanilla scones, Yum! That recipe can be found here or by searching #couponwhorerecipes on instagram.

I served our ice cream with an angel food cake (thanks Alton Brown) made using the separated egg whites (you could even attempt marshmallows!). Click here for suggestions to utilize your egg whites.

Beef Stew

Sundays are usually so hectic at my house. I have to get up early to snag my newspapers (for my coupons of course), get home, get the kids fed & ready for church. Then it is time to eat lunch & get on our way to the church building... & of course I somehow have to find time between all of that to go through the new sales ads for the week & flip through the coupons. Church is three hours and by the time I get home I just want to relax with my family before my husband is back to working early mornings and long days for Uncle Sam. That is why Sunday is OFFICIALLY (well... sometimes unofficially) Slow Cooker Sunday.

I love my slow cooker because I can throw an assortment of items in there, set it on low, live my life, and come back to a delicious meal ready for my family with little effort. Tonight's meal: beef stew (a favorite of my husband).

Ingredients:

1 lb beef, cubed (I usually buy pork roasts whenever I find a cheap sale & divide up my meat before they hit the freezer)

3 medium carrots, cleaned and chopped in large

3 celery stocks, leaves removed

3 red potatoes (I used russet because that is what we had, my son insisted on four so we just went with it)

1 medium onion, quartered (again, I used what was on-hand,half of a very large onion)

salt & pepper

1 can cream of mushroom (optional; or cream of chicken, you can also use 2 cups of homemade creamed soup)

1 Lipton onion soup mix packet (or 5 TBSP of your own homemade onion soup mixture)

1. Quarter the potatoes and put them in the bottom of your pot. Salt and pepper them (about 1/2 tsp each).

2. Add onion, celery, and carrots & salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp each). I don't skin my carrots for this recipe. I just give them a very good scrub, everything gets tender in the slow cooker.

3. Add the beef on top of everything (I do defrost it first) and sprinkle with the onion soup mix. Cover and cook on low for eight hours (you can cook on high four hours but it tastes better the longer and slower it cooks).

SIDENOTE: I'm very particular about how I layer the ingredients in the pot. After cooking this meal SEVERAL times I feel like this makes all the ingredients their best. The potatoes are moist and tender because they sit in the liquids dripping down from the meat and the sweating veggies, slowly infusing them (with DELICIOUSNESS). The vegetables are sitting on top of the potatoes, creating a steamy environment that keeps them slightly crisp (I hate mushy veggies) but not mushy. The meat is well-seasoned by the soup mix. Perfection.

You can simply serve it this way or stir in your creamed soup.

Enjoy.

Safeway coupon deals I snagged this week

Total spent: 18.94 ($10 in CHEESE)

Total saved: 61.14 

Get back: $3 from iBotta

Net total: 15.94

A part of bringing down my meal costs is shopping sales, not just all sales, but the best sales of the week and meal planning around those deals. Keep in mind I am always eyeballing meat and seafood sales & clearance in my store & when there's an awesome price I stock up so I'm not necessarily always needing to find a deal on my protein.

The best part of shopping? Getting PAID to shop. Yes. GETTING PAID.

Nature Valley granola bars, granola thins, and oatmeal squares are on sale this week for 2.49 but when you buy four participating products you save $4 bringing each box to 1.49. Already a decent price of you want to grab a few boxes but make it a stock up price (aka buy enough to last four to six months) by using the AMAZING coupon being offered on coupons.com under zip code 77477. The coupon is for 1.25 off of ONE (1.25/1) box. Now... This magical Catalina machine pictured in the bottom left is what makes it a RUN deal. This magical machine typically prints coupons you can use on random items when you checkout. But sometimes it will print a UNIVERSAL coupon. That is right. A coupon you can use on ANYTHING (well, I should be more specific, certain exclusions do apply and usually include tobacco products, prescriptions, USPS stamps, etc). When this happens Couponers take advantage of this to lower their expenses. Especially in this case because we (they, everyone! Save all the money!) are getting paid to shop! And here is how:

Buy (4) Nature Valley Granola 2.49 each

= 9.96

- Buy 4, Save $4 store promotion

= 5.96

Use (4) 1.25/1 Nature Valley printable coupons (-$5 total)

= .96 

& currently when you buy (4) boxes a $2 Catalina is generating, making it a 1.04 money maker! Yes! You make money because you spend .96 and get back $2! 

Now, you must split your transactions and buy four at a time to ensure you get $2 back for every four boxes, but making over $3 is worth the extra two minutes at checkout! 

Next I bought Gogurt for $1! Gogurt is on sale for $2 this week. Use the $1/1 coupon from coupons.com (zip 77477) and snag these up for $1 each! My boys LOVE Gogurt. As you can seem they're normally $3 so saving 66% works for me! I'm ecstatic with saving at least 50% on grocery items. And on the upside, they're perfect frozen so I can stock up and not have to worry about expiration dates.

Buy (1) Gogurt $2

= $2

Use (1) $1/1 Gogurt (-$1)

= $1 

Another great way to save on groceries is by signing up for iBotta! You can earn $ back on common grocery items you buy, including some bonus offers to make the savings even better! The current bonus offer on iBotta requires you to buy a single gallon of ANY brand milk and redeem the .50 iBotta offer. Once you've redeemed that offer, redeem any other two (grocery, restaurant, movie theater, electronics, etc.) and get the credits for both offers and an additional $1 by Sunday, 01.05.14.

I already purchased my gallon of milk and redeemed my .50 iBotta credit. So today I bought one dozen eggs (ANY brand) and used a .35 off one (.35/1) coupon that came in the 11.03.13 Sunday newspaper coupon inserts (SS = Smart Source, RP = Red Plum, P&G = Proctor & Gamble)

Buy (1) Eggland's Best 2.69

= 2.69

- .35/1 (11/03 SS)

= 2.34

Then I submit my receipt to iBotta and got a .50 credit to my account.

Net total: 1.84

Found a GREAT deal on cream cheese (did you know they don't have cream cheese in Italy?).

Buy (1) Challenge Cream Cheese $2

- $1/1 Challenge Cream Cheese (coupons.com)

= $1

Submit receipt to iBotta

Net total: .25!

TWENTY-FIVE CENT CREAM CHEESE!

Eggs and cream cheese are staples in my kitchen so the savings is appreciated, and because I completed the milk offer and two other offers I'll get back $1 bonus! Even better savings! Sign up for iBotta today and start saving!