Great Food Day!

Yesterday is what I like to call a "great food day". Now because we ate at a great restaurant or anything like that but because we got a lot of great deals! :)

First we made the trek (I say "trek" because it's a 45+ minute drive) out to Trader Joe's. I try to make it over there every month or so if I can to stock up on some things that we really like, such as Jasmine Rice, Thompson's raisins and organic tomato sauce. These items may sound like simple things you can find at any store but TJ's just taste better. While we were there I realized I had nothing planned for dinner that wouldn't take a long time to prepare so we needed something quick to prepare once we got back home. Usually to me quick food = expensive food so I took my time looking to see what we could get for a good price (considering we'd probably eat out if I didn't grab something). I finally settled on an item I had heard people raving about - Mandarin Orange Chicken. This chicken is frozen little breaded chicken pieces with a sauce you microwave and pour over it when it's finished cooking. From the looks of it, it reminded me of the Orange Chicken we love to eat at Panda Express so I figured it would be a hit. I also grabbed some frozen Pot Stickers to go with it. Upon arriving home I put the chicken in the oven to bake while starting a pot of Jasmine rice and the pot stickers. I also prepared some broccoli that we had in the freezer.

The meal was wonderful! My husband was shocked that frozen food could taste so much like the takeout we love. I paid $8 for everything we needed for that meal and if we had bought the same food at Panda I think the price would have been around $20 for the 5 of us. Not bad for "psudo-takeout" :)

Once dinner was done, kitchen cleaned and kids in bed, I realized I needed to complete an order I had started on Safeway.com for the rest of our grocery items. I still have two free deliveries left from a coupon I had last month so onto the computer I went to finish my order. Before I began I noticed I had an email from Safeway saying that they have two new coupon offers:

Use the code LASAGNA to get a free family size frozen lasagna with your order ($150 or more)
Use the code ORGANICS to get a free box of organic frozen blackberry/chocolate ice cream bars with your order. ($125 or more)

As you can imagine, I used both of those codes as well! So tomorrow, when I could be taking my kiddos out to fight the 100+ degree weather to shop for food, we will be here at home awaiting the "grocery man" as my girls like to call him :) I even ordered all my paper products and bottled water as well. Can you tell I don't enjoy shopping in heat? :)