Bacon and Peas Penne Pasta on a budget 

$1.95 for 4 servings

I am a mom, a crafter, a couponer.  It's hard to juggle them all at once but I try hard to make it happen.  I have been blessed by great sales in my area lately and I made this yummy recipe (found on barilla.com) with a few tweaks to make it my own.  My first tweak was using Penne Pronto pasta instead of Spaghetti Pronto pasta.

Ingredients

I will tell you the ingredients and the prices I paid for them by couponing, all items were bought at my local Harris Teeter but a lot of them have been on sale at other merchants as well:

• 3 cups of chicken stock (Made from chicken on sale for $.25 or with FREE chicken stock from previous sales)  
• 1/4 c water (OPTIONAL)
• 1 Box of Pronto Penne Pasta  (FREE with this week's sales)
• 3/4 Box of Frozen Peas (FREE from previous sales) original recipe calls for 1 box but my daughter doesn't like peas so I wanted to make it easier for her to set them aside.
• 4 Slices of Bacon (I think I paid $2 per pack on our last Super Doubles, so $.40 for 4 slices, I would use 6 or more next time around)
• 1/2 Cup of Cream ($.25 I always buy it on sale or store brand to save $)
• 1 handful (about 1/4c) of Shredded Mozzarella ($.35 Bought in the B2G3 FREE sale)
• 1 handful (about 1/4c) of Shredded Cheddar  ($.35 Bought in the B2G3 FREE sale)
• 1 handful (about 1/4c) of Shredded Parmesan ($.35 Bought in the B2G3 FREE sale)
• 2 Tbs of  Cream Cheese (FREE with this week's sales)
• 1 tsp salt  (FREE from previous sales)

Instructions

I used the same pot I use to cook my regular pasta.  I just thought it was easier this way.  I didn't use my fast boil stove, instead I used my biggest stove (smaller after the fast boil one).

• Put the pasta in the pot making sure the chicken stock covers the pasta.  I had to add a bit of water to make that happen.  
• Add salt
• I set the heat on high and added the frozen peas.  
• I also set my timer for 10 min (watch your pasta as you may need less time).  You have to watch your pasta so you can add the cream an the rest of the ingredients when there's like a 1/4 of the liquid left.
• While you are waiting for your pasta to cook:
• set a paper towel on a microwave safe plate, the slices of bacon neatly spread on top, and cover with another paper towel.  My microwave needs me to cook for 1 min twice.
• Cut the bacon into desired size
• Measure the all the cheese and cream
• Once my timer rang, I added the bacon, cream, and cheese while stirring it all together.
• Add more salt and pepper to taste.  My daughter doesn't like pepper so I did not use any.
• Turn off the heat when it is all mixed.
• Server and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of each plate.

And Voila!  Dinner was ready in less than 15 minutes and for less than $2 for a family of 4.  We are just 3 but I use the leftovers for my husband's lunch the next day :)

FREEZER MEALS ROCK!

What do you get when you give 2 coupon savvy moms $90 each and 6 hours of cooking time?

16+ meals, that's what!  Less than $6 per meal for a family of three.  That is just plain AWESOME! (Sorry for the yelling, I got excited)

I saw a video from Do It On a Dime on YouTube about Freezer Cooking, and was totally excited to try this out.  I instantly knew I had to do this with a friend, not only to divide shopping and cooking tasks between the both of us, but also to have a buddy and just make it more fun.  Once I told my friend Erin about it, she was totally in.

We met one day to choose which meals to make, and divide the grocery list, plan a strategy and chat, of course.

The total grocery bill for the both of us, was $180 which we split in half.  I do have to say that we are coupon savvy and we each spent as little as possible on our groceries.  We also had a bunch of carrots and potatoes leftover which I plan to use making a potato egg salad.  I will post this recipe later.

Kathryn from Do It On a Dime explains this beautifully, so I will just complement her instructions with some pictures and some tweaking here and there that worked best for my friend Erin and I.

We started chopping away, following Kathryn's prep list.  I will make my own list using hers as a template just because it is easier for me to also know what meal uses which ingredient.  I also like to chop things differently according to the meal they will go in, so for me chopped can be divided into three types of chopping.

As we were making the meals, a couple of meals came to mind.  The chicken from the broth was shredded (using a Vitamix or Ninja just put one breast at a time and pulse), and one breast was added to the broth (after taking out the amount needed for the recipes), and the other three were put into warm chicken salad bags (so that is one more meal or a different meal to use up your pulled chicken).  1 1/2 pulled chicken breast per bag.  We also had a lot of celery and carrots so we decided to make a carrot soup bag as well and use up some of the leftover bulk ingredients we got, including onions.

It took us more than 2 hours but we doubled the ingredients, and we were looking after two toddlers, mind you.  We also spent the first 30 minutes labeling our freezer bags, we also had lunch, and cut our own chicken in half (if your butcher does it for you, that's an extra half hour right there) 

The result?  All these meals:

4 Teriyaki Chicken
4 Lazy Day Stew
4 Savory Chicken
2 Chicken Salad + 2 Carrot Soup
4 Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
4 Sausage & Peppers (that I serve over pasta or on hollowed out, garlic crusty bread)
8 Browned Ground Chuck – 4 Italian Style & 4 Mexican Style
2 Shredded Chicken Soup.  Just add noodles.

Leftover ingredients:
* A lot of carrots
* 8 red potatoes
we also had some leftover wine, spices and a few others.