Some Grocery Gloating

In The Village we have a supermarket that is part of a small chain here in the southern part of our state. It's a nice store, good service, not outrageous prices, and very handy to have close by. DarlingMan LOVES their deli sandwhiches and salads - his food of choice if we are getting "take-out." However, since my paycheck buys the bulk of the groceries, and I only get it once per month, we generally do a major Costco/Walmart trip right around payday, and only purchase perishable necessities during the rest of the month. Now that NewWalmart is right by our house, I don't find myself going to the Village Store very often any more (which is kind of sad, and of course has economic consequences from a larger perspective).

However, this week's mailbox ad from Village Store was verrrrrrry enticing - a veritable extravaganza of produce! So at around 10 this morning GrandmaT, Mrs. Igor, Niece, and I loaded into the SilverBullet and headed to The Village. Mrs. Igor and GrandmaT filled up one cart with stuff for both our house and Chez Igor, which I piloted a second cart. Here's what I got in my load, with the total at the end:

• 3 lbs of "WackyMac" vegetable pasta
• 2 lbs store brand white rice
• 4 boneless pork loin chops
• A good-sized London Broil, which will be sub-divided into 3 meal-size pieces
  
• 2 16-slice packages American cheese (gotta have my cheese-n-crackers!)
  
• 5.16 lbs of bananas
• 1.80 lbs of celery
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 bunch of fresh basil leaves
• 2 bunches of radishes
• 4 LARGE red bell peppers
• 15 lbs of russet potatoes
• A 15.88 lb seedless watermelon
• 2 bags pre-washed fancy romaine salad mix
• 1 bag pre-washed spinich leaves

And that all cost... a whopping $39.97 (I did have $2.50 worth of coupons).

GrandmaT added 5 lbs of carrots, about 5 lbs of red and green grapes, another couple pounds of bananas, a 2 lb. block of cheddar cheese, and a giant box of ice cream sandwiches to our haul.

The rice, spinich, basil, and parsley (plus some garlic) were turned into a fantastic looking-and-smelling make-ahead-for-the-freezer dish which is cooling on the counter right now. I'll post a picture and the recipe a little later.

WOW! I'm feeling pretty frugally satisfied right now!