Sales and Freezer Meals . . . these are a few of my favorite things . . .

Here are a few things I will be buying at the grocery store this week, as well as a freezer meal I will be making.

At Sprouts a 5lb bag of Clementines is on sale for $2.99. Considering how fast my kids go through these I may need to buy one box early in the week and another later on.

I'm really excited about FREE PASTA at Bashas' this week. Barilla pasta is on sale for $1/box and there was a coupon in Sunday's paper for $.55 off of 1 box of Barilla Whole Grain pasta. Bashas' doubles coupons up to $1 so my $.55 off coupon becomes worth $1. I'm not great at math, but $1-$1=FREE! :) While at Bashas' getting my free pasta I will be picking up strawberries because they are 2lbs for $3

At Safeway 93% lean ground beef is $1.99/lb and a 5lb bag of red potatoes is only $.99! I am going to buy about 5lbs of ground beef and a bag of potatoes.

Here's a freezer meal I will be making after I go to Safeway: I will brown all the ground beef and turn all the potatoes into mashed potatoes. I will combine these with ingredients I have on hand already (carrots and frozen peas) to make 5 Shepherd's Pies. I will put one 8x8 pan in the oven for dinner and then seal the other 4 with my FoodSaver and freeze them. I LOVE making double (or quadruple) batches of foods like Shepherd's Pie and freezing them because I have a preservative free meal waiting in my freezer on nights I don't feel like cooking. I don't do "once a month" cooking because I don't want to spend an entire day cooking and doing dishes. By making a large batch and freezing the extras I'm only doing the work once and not spending any extra time in the kitchen than I normally would making dinner on a normal evening.