Being frugal by nature (and a former crazy coupon lady), I
tend to purchase what’s on sale or special, and plan meals around that.
Switching from the standard American diet to a whole food plant based way of
eating has not changed that. What has changed, drastically, is the contents of
my shopping cart. When couponing my motto used to be, “If it’s free, it’s for
me!”
And I used to bring home a lot of
free stuff (junk). While I no longer stock up on packaged and processed food
items, I do still love the thrill of the hunt and one of my favorite things to
do is check out the marked down produce at my local store.
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| Stir fry w/Thai peanut sauce |
Yesterday I got some great deals and have
already put most of it to good use. I made stir fry last
night for dinner. My omnivore husband and I both enjoyed a serving and I had three
leftover portions for the freezer. I also made some mushroom and sweet potato
curry. Then I made mushroom stroganoff. We’ll be enjoying both these dishes the
next couple days, or freezing them for later. For dessert I had a fruit bowl using some of the mango. Today for lunch I had a big, beautiful chopped salad and have enough for a couple more. I used some of the mango in that and it was awesome!
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| Mushroom Sweet Potato Curry |
When I get these prepackaged salads on sale, I throw away the dressing packets and toppings and use my own
WFPBNO options.
The squash got spiralized and it’s hanging out in my fridge,
along with half a jar of Trader Joe’s fat free marina. I think I’ll let them
meet up for lunch tomorrow … or maybe dinner since I will probably have another
chopped salad for lunch. And this time I'll add some garbanzo beans.
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| Chopped salad lunch, al fresco |
And today when I got home from work I sautéed up some more mushrooms, along with onions, peppers and garlic that I had on hand. I'll use this mix for pizza, or add some
beans for tacos, or add some air fried potatoes for hash, etc. I had one more
container of mushrooms left and decided, after googling multiple mushroom
recipes, to make gravy. Again I sautéed onions, mushrooms and garlic for my
base before adding veggie stock, soy sauce and thickening with flour. By this
time I had worked up an appetite and the mushroom gravy won out for dinner. I
grabbed some pre-cooked potatoes from the fridge, which I always have on hand,
and smashed potatoes took just a couple minutes.
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| Smashed potatoes w/mushroom gravy |
The total cost for all my marked down produce was $10.26, but
it only cost me $.26 out of pocket as I used a $10 gift card that I received
free a week ago with a store promotion. This is what I got: seven 8 oz. packages of organic mushrooms, two 12 oz. packages of stir fry veggies, one 8 oz. package of sugar snap peas,
1 lb. of mexican squash, one 10 oz. package of mango chunks, one can of garbanzo beans, one single serve chopped kale salad mix and one family size chopped kale salad mix. And this is what it has, or will provide (with a few additional items already on hand): 5 servings of stir fry, 4 servings of mushroom, sweet potato curry, 3-4 servings of mushroom stroganoff, 3 chopped salads, 1 large serving of spiralized mexican squash, plus enough toppings or fillings for multiple pizzas or tacos, not to mention the mushroom gravy that will top lots of smashed potatoes.I'm estimating 20 meals from my haul yesterday. My
inner crazy coupon lady is quite satisfied indeed … as is my tummy … and will be for days to come!
In part 2 I’ll share more about my shopping strategies and how I save … so stay tuned! Be sure to click
on the follow button to be notified.
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A lot of Veggie Stir Fry and Mushroom Stroganoff!
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