Summer Recipe: Tomato Pie

Remember that NPR series "How Low Can You Go?" from back in April about recipes that cost less than $10? In addition to posing the challenge to professional chefs, they also opened it up to listeners. 

And here is the winning recipe from the listener entrants -- a great looking tomato pie that I wish I had to eat RIGHT THIS SECOND! Yeah, it has a cup of mayo, but it looks fantastic. And you can use the low-fat variety. Or just get over it. 

Here's the article, which has the complete recipe. 

Lettuce Celebrate Golf, at P.F. Chang's

Okay, that was corny. But this is a good deal -- one FREE order of lettuce wraps with entree purchase at P.F. Chang's until 6/14/09 (dine in only).

It's in celebration of PGA Tour pro Briny Baird hitting the bullseye...maybe you golf people know what it means, but I don't. What it means to me is a free order of lettuce wraps, which are delicious. So thank you, Briny, and thank you, P.F.!!

Get the details here. Oh, and I highly recommend you top off your meal with one of their mini desserts for $2. I can vouch for the carrot cake one...YUM!

I Flip, You Flip, We All Flip for Flip Flops (for $1)!

Heard a little Internet rumor that Old Navy is bringing back their Flip Flop day this Saturday, May 23. Apparently all solid color styles are $1 each, limit 5 per customer.

Worth checking out! Summer may begin now.

Groceries for Two: $40

I just put together a quick sample grocery list using this week's specials at Randalls and Newflower Farms. It's challenging, but do-able, to eat fairly well on approximately $40/week.

Here's what I came up with:

Randalls:
- FRIDAY ONLY: 8-piece all natural roasted chicken (in the deli) $5
- Remarkable wheat bread: $1
- Remarkable giant hamburger buns: $1.50
- Lucerne cream cheese: $.99 (buy some cheap bagels…breakfast!)
- Lucerne milk, gallon: $2.99
- Lucerne string cheese: $2.99 (for snacks)
- Quaker Life cereal: $1.99
- Fresh Express Salads: buy 1 get 1 free
- Some cheap peanut butter and jelly
- Eggs
- Kraft American cheese: $.99 WITH COUPON in flyer
- dried black beans
- rice

Newflower:
- All natural lean ground beef: $1.88/lb.
- Green beans: $.88/lb.
- Yellow squash/zucchini: $.88/lb.
- 1-lb. bag carrots: $.50
- Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt, 32 oz.: $2.50 – BUT, I have $1 coupon, making it $1.50
- Peaches: $.99/lb.
- Strawberries: $2.50/lb.

You can have cereal/bagels/eggs for breakfast. Chicken or peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, plus fruit and carrot sticks; string cheese and yogurt for snacks. Have beans/eggs/toast, cheeseburgers/salad, chicken/veggies/rice and maybe beans/rice for dinner.

Half Price Books Summer Reading Program

Hi, friends. I've not been very inspired to post lately, and I'm also pretty sure no one reads this blog anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But I will continue to put up things as I find them, like this...

Got kids? Do they read (or are they read to)? Then the Half Price Books "Feed Your Brain" Summer Reading program is for you! From 6/1 through 7/31, kids 12 and under can earn one $3 gift card per week to Half Price Books for reading just 15 minutes a day. Each week!

Just visit the site here and then print out a reading log to track your kids' reading minutes. Complete instructions for parents and teachers can be found here.

Happy reading!

Summer Kid Movies

For those of you with kids at home this summer, here's a good, cheap and air-conditioned way to keep them entertained for a couple of hours each week -- the Summer Movie Clubhouse brought to you by Cinemark Theaters. In Austin, the movies are running on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10:00, and cost just $1 each. Or pre-pay for 10 movies and spend just $5!

Not a bad way to beat the summer heat and get out with your kids.

Movie Monday

Happy Monday, everyone! Enjoy a FREE movie rental tonight from your friends at redbox with code 6A43JK. As usual, it expires at midnight tonight.

Stamp Out Hunger...TOMORROW

Join the Largest One-Day Food Drive in the Nation!

Across the U.S., letter carriers will collect bags of healthy, non-perishable food along their routes. Bags are delivered to all mailboxes in early May, and community members are asked to fill them with healthy non-perishable food and set them on their doorstep or by their mailbox to be picked up by a letter carrier on Saturday, May 9. Or, Stamp Out Hunger online by making a financial donation.

[Note: link goes to Austin food bank, but if you're in another area I'm sure your local food bank would appreciate a financial donation as well]