My toaster oven might be the best money I ever spent. I bought it when I realized it was more energy efficient than the conventional oven/stove combo - and truly I use it all the time and have less clean up than I would with the big oven. Being the geek that I am I'm really looking forward to purchasing the toaster oven sized cookware sold in some catalogs. Meanwhile the George Foreman Grill I bought at a thrift store must have been an extra wedding or housewarming gift because it had never been open or used and was only $12.
As a side note I know someone who bought a crock pot and upon getting it home had the pleasant surprise of oven mitts, cookbooks, a picture frame, and "Congrats on Your Marriage" card inside of the crock pot. Needless to say I think there are an ungrateful couple and bewildered gift giver somewhere out there - the lesson from this is a) check all the wedding, baby & housewarming gifts you get, b) if you're going to add stuff to a gift (which was a wonderful thought) take the entire thing out of the box and make it a presentation of it's own, and finally c) never be mislead by a box label.
Now on to the meat (pun intended) of this post. My favorite place to grocery shop (other than Findlay Market or Country Fresh Market) is Remke/Biggs. They remind me so much of the Rosauers I shopped at in Missoula - clear down to the creative options for carting your purchases from the store, and of course the selection of products and prices/specials. It's a little different Roasuers had "Power Buys" and "13 Hour Sales" while Remke's has the standard sale prices but offers "Pump Perks" - still though...dare I say it...I find them to be better than Kroger and Wal-Mart. I also really care that they are truly a local chain - not just one that is headquartered here. That being said - I went grocery shopping last night and made some purchases that gave me 6 luscious meals for about $2.50 each.
I Know.......
The first purchase I made is stuffed portabella mushrooms - 2 for $4.99. Remke's had several varieties available - having never had this particular entree before so I picked the pizza variety as it had a little bit of everything (and I couldn't pass up 2 nutritious meals at $2.50). Feeling a thrill of brilliance I walked around the store some more and found 4 pre-made ground chuck patties for $4.89. A light opened from heaven and a choir of angels sang "aaaaawwwwhhhhhh" as just moments before this find I was seriously considering heading to Steak n' Shake for a marvelous double steakburger with cheese and everything. I went with these instead, picked up a small head of romaine lettuce, a purple onion, some pickles, and a pack of slimwich buns - ending up with 4 meals for about $2.50 each - score!!
I got home and immediately popped one of the portabella mushrooms into the toaster oven (350 for 25 min) giving me time to unpack everything else. The result was good - not thrilling - but good enough. I still ended up snacking on the cottage cheese and chips & dip I bought as well (not so great for the waistline). In retrospect I really should have thought of a salad to or side to go with the stuffed mushroom - but alas you live, learn, and try again tomorrow.
So today I made a hamburger from the ground chuck patties - I knew when I bought them that they were a good size but I didn't realize how thick they were and sure enough after I do the math I find that each patty is almost a half a pound. Now this is what I really love about the George Foreman Grill - it cooks the hamburger evenly on both sides at the same time - and - it warms/toasts the buns while cooking. So it gives me time to prepare all the toppings (cutting, washing, slathering.....) without requiring me too keep watch over it or do the flip. What can I say - my burger was AWESOME!!!!!! Better than a drive thru burger and probably better than a burger at a good, down-home, greasy spoon too.
So there's today's post - a) behold the genius of small appliances & thrift stores; b) open all your presents - don't just look at the box; and c) buying pre-made food at a good price makes great sense and cents :)
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