Saturday cooking, boy fun, some make-do sewing and CVS

I got busy with some cooking Saturday morning.  I made a Dutch oven full of chili.  I put some aside in a saucepan to reheat for our supper.  2 chili-loving grandsons were here for an overnight and that is one reason I cooked chili.  My dad has been wanting chili so I filled a quart jar to take to him.  The other containers were labeled and went in the freezer for future meals. 

Chili is such a convenient freezer food- it reheats quickly and is just as good after freezing as it is fresh cooked.  We like it with corn chips or rice or crackers or pasta.  

I have based my chili loosely on the Flat Landers Chili recipe on AllRecipes.com for years.  I don't add the celery or bell peppers, sometimes I make it heavier on meat and sometimes heavier in beans but the spice mixture in the recipe is simple and just right to us.  

I also sliced a pound roll of breakfast sausage into 13 slices and cooked them.  I also baked 2 small cans of biscuits, bought with coupons for 19 cents a can.  We had sausage biscuits for breakfast and the extras all went in the freezer for future breakfasts,  

I prefer homemade biscuits but store bought biscuits really do freeze and reheat better than scratch biscuits. M

The grandsons wanted to do a craft so they painted some pine car kits from the thrift store. 

I set out acrylic paints and was a little nervous that 3 year old Braeden might be trouble with permanent paints but it was just fine.  The table was covered with a big sheet of brown packing paper I saved from a delivery box.  

The boys had lots of fun painting the cars and playing with the cars once the paint dried.  

They wanted to sleep with the cars but I said the cars had to stayed parked on a table all night.  

Saturday sewing was 5 potholders.  The blue squares with appliqued hearts were in 2 huge bags of scraps given to me awhile back from an acquaintance.   There were not enough heart squares for a quilt but they were the perfect size for potholders.  

I put all the old potholders in the laundry.  Once washed, some may return to the kitchen, some may get recovered and some might get thrown out. 

CVS 

I had coupons for everything and I had $27 in extra care bucks.  

It didn't go quite like I expected.  The Gold Emblem coupons I blogged about yesterday can only be used 1 kind per customer.  So, I checked out a second time and got more nuts and snacks on the second receipt

I thought I was buying the right things to get the $5 back on Gold Emblem like in the ad below but only $6 of it counted.  

Still- I am very happy with the outcome.

5 6 roll packs of Viva paper towels

4 100 count Lipton tea bags - we drink lots of hot and iced tea!

6 bags of cashews and mixed nuts

6 bags of assorted snacks

2 pounds of elbow pasta

2 boxes organic white cheddar shells and cheese- we had them for lunch and it was delicious 

Total spent was just under $15 and I got back $13 in extra care bucks.

CVS shopping takes some preparation and organization to get the best deals but for me,  it is worth it! 

CVS is the only store where I try to do deals.  I've read about other shoppers doing good at Target, Dollar General, Publix, Rite Aid, Sears, Kmart .....if you want to stretch your shopping dollars and are willing to do the preparation, my advice is to look on Facebook for a deal group for a store you can shop at or to look at the forums on SlickDeals.Net 

I hope you have all had a nice weekend!