I made 2 trips to Costco this week…
The HH received a giant pack of beef sticks {barf!} in his stocking this year and when he went to open them up we noticed a tear in the package. All those poor, delicious beef sticks had mold on them, so I took them back to Costco to exchange them.
Costco has a great refund policy, they’ll pretty much take anything back {even moldy beef sticks!} and I love that.
While I was there I also picked up 2 gallons of milk. I don’t know about you, but I HATE THOSE JUGS! They are the worst invention ever. Yes, they store well, but pouring milk out of them is another story.
On my second trip to Costco I picked up a 25 pound sack of beans, 2 giant jars of pasta sauce and a 6-pack of sweet peppers. If you have never carried a 25 pound sack of pinto beans in your backpack for 30 minutes before, you have no idea what you are missing. It’s the kind of thing that makes you realize you are in fact, a little off your rocker. And let’s be honest here, I probably won’t do it again without some sort of cart or something. Hitch hiking had never seemed so appealing before this…
So you’re probably thinking… Mavis what the heck did you feed your family last week if all you bought was beans, milk, pasta sauce and peppers. Well, hang on, I’m going to tell you. 😉
For starters, I made a huge pot of chili with some of those pinto beans. I also used a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, spices and two spinach burger patties from my pantry and freezer, and the homemade chili was DELICIOUS! Plus, because I made such a huge pot, there were a ton of leftovers.
I also made a 3 month supply of refried beans in my slow cooker. Canned refied beans cost about a buck at my local grocery store, but homemade? Crazy cheap. Plus, when you make a big batch, you’ll have enough on hand for 6 taco nights.
Clearly I did not use all 25 pounds of beans last week. Ha! Nope, I still have 21.8 pounds left. So if you have any marvelous bean recipes you think I should try, please leave a recipe link in the comment section. 🙂
Another delicious thing I made last week was blueberry bars. We still have a boatload of homegrown blueberries in our freezer from last summer so I’ve been on the hunt for blueberry recipes lately and came across on from Smitten Kitchen and they were delicious! I actually didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, so I had to modify the recipe a wee bit {I’ll try and post my version later this week}.
When you cook, double the recipe… and pop the extra portions in the freezer. Once you get the hang of doing this, you’ll never go back to cooking one meal at a time.
In the past I would occasionally buy those giant jars of pasta at Costco thinking they were a good deal. But then I’d end up tossing out the last 1/3 of the jar because we wouldn’t use it in time before the sauce went bad. So now when I use those big bottles of pasta sauce I simply freeze the extra sauce. Seems like a no brainer, right? To make the sauce stretch even a little more I add in a few extras. My basic recipe is a giant bottle of sauce, 1 cup of water and a bag of shredded chicken or taco meat. I simply heat everything up, use a little for that night’s dinner, and then freeze the rest to use on a busy weeknight.
My brother gave me a Panera gift card from Christmas so we also had take out one night last week. Have you tried their salads? The chicken cobb with avocado is my favorite. {The HH likes the Thai chicken salad}. We also had a breakfast dinner this week too. Because really, who doesn’t love pancakes and eggs for dinner? And homemade {frozen} lasagna too.
How about YOU, did you buy anything exciting this past week?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $36.36
Total Spent Year to Date $36.36
Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.
Bridget P. says
Hey Mavis 🙂
I was so inspired by you and other bloggers that cut back on their grocery bills and put those savings away for trips that I sat down the beginning of january and looked back through my bank statements to see how much we were spending when I wasn’t really couponing or tracking what I spent! Holy cow was that a shocker!! So i decided to make a goal and write down that goal and write down what I spend every week to make sure I am on track! In six months If everything stays on track I will have tucked away enough to take my family on a nice summer vacation this year! Thank you Mavis for continuing to be an inspiration!
Mavis Butterfield says
Rock on Bridget. You can do it!
Becky says
I love adding extras to my spaghetti sauce. I put the sauce with a bit of water on low in the crock pot and start adding whatever is in the fridge or freezer.
Carrots, zucchini, onion, celery, etc. Let it cook for a few hours and then hit it with an immersion blender, or put it in a stand mixer.
It stretches my sauce, uses up extra veggies, and tastes amazing. I love the fact that I can hide extra veggies on my uber picky hubby and he’ll never know.
Plus, then it tastes home made, without peeling ten thousand tomatoes.
Becky says
Oh, and if you pressure can, you can make your own canned beans with that big bag. 1 Cup dry beans to a quart jar, with hot water, and spices. Process for 90 minutes, and you have them ready to go when you need them, and they don’t take hours to cook.
My hubby loves to smoke a pork shoulder every few months, and I take the left overs, and can it with some beans, and BBQ sauce, and its a good, filling, cheap, lunch for him .
Juanita says
I was going to suggest the same thing! Can quarts at 11 lb. pressure for 90 minutes. We have a Hope Center near our house, and I recently bought 100 lb. bag of pintos for $20. Now I have bean canning on my to-do list also 🙂
Katie says
Is it possible to can the refried beans for storage?
Madam Chow says
It is not recommended because the product is so dense that it may not come up to temperature properly. Just as an FYI, it’s unnecessary – home canned beans are so easy to turn into refried beans. It takes me about 5 minutes in a cast iron skillet!
Jen says
Something else to stretch those giant jars of spaghetti sauce? Add a cup or two of alfredo sauce. It gives the sauce a great flavor and cuts the acidity. I make my own. The recipe I use uses cream cheese and not much parmesan (cheaper!) and it tastes awesome.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-and-Easy-Alfredo-Sauce/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=alfredo%20sauce&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i3
Elise says
This is the BEST bean recipe EVER. We have a Puerto Rican restaurant in town that turned me on to them, and I started making them myself. It’s SO easy, but you do need 3 specialty ingredients that you can’t get at Costco. I know you can get the sofrito and recaito from Amazon, but when I did that, I had to get 3 bog bottles of each. I freeze the extra in ice cubes, just like you do with your spaghetti sauce (I do that with almost everything once I open a container I won’t finish). A standard rectangular ice cube is usually about 2 tablespoons. I’m not sure if you can get the Goya packet from Amazon, but you can find it SOMEWHERE online. It’s key, it’s the seasoning!
Enjoy, if you can get the ingredients… Who knows, you may just open your PO box one day and find a gift from a deranged fan… (that would be me…) No promises, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities.
http://www.food.com/recipe/puerto-rican-rice-and-beans-pink-beans-147650
Danette says
What happened to just going to one store
Mavis Butterfield says
I purchased all my groceries at Costco this week so I am not sure what you mean.
elise says
I don’t know if Amazon would count as a different store… It’s somewhere you shop anyway, right?
Madam Chow says
If you check Mavis’ rules for this experiment, Amazon, VitaCost, etc., don’t count. Neither do farmers’ markets. She means a physical grocery store.
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks Madam Chow.
felicia says
I grew up in and returned to retire in NM, strangely I am not a fan of Mexican food. But I adore non-refried pinto beans and around here we use a pressure cooker and have beans in the fridge for the week. As far as the spaghetti sauce, I learned as newlywed that my HH does not like to have his sauce messed with. I make a big batch of sauce by buying the huge pack of hamburger (4lbs), four links of hot italian sausage and various spices and garlic to which I add the huge 3 pack of Ragu the clubs carry along with beef broth. Make a big batch for the freezer and it serves as pasta sauce, lasagna base and even pizza night.
What is it with men and beef jerky?
PattyB says
I KNOW! My husband insists on coming to Costco with me. Oy. At checkout I find beef jerky in the basket. That stuff
is expensive. I’ve made it for him before but he likes it so much he eats it faster. Can’t win.
suzanne says
I do the same thing. No way am I going to have 3 types of sauces around and I love having extra in the freezer. I need to add the sausage, haven’t done that in a long time.
Tracey says
I thought you needed a cart or a wagon when I read you were walking to Costco for your groceries 🙂
Karin Carson says
pressure can your beans, they are so much better than store bought beans
ChrisM says
I’m pressure cooking various beans today for the freezer. It’s so fast! One of my daughters is vegetarian so we make a lot of vegetarian meals. But you can also cook beans in a crockpot or on the stove. No BPA from those cans. I do keep a few cans on hand for emergencies though.
ChrisM says
Oops, you were talking about canning, not cooking them ; )
PattyB says
I buy beans in bulk too… black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, and rice, flour, nuts, legumes, oatmeal, etc. I’ll put the dry ingredients in 1/2 gallon canning jars [no lid] and into the 200* oven for 1 hour and that will kill anything that hitch-hiked in with the beans. Next, I’ll vacuum seal them and put them in the basement. When I have time for further canning, I do.
Veronica says
Bean Soup!
Wynne says
One of my favorite bean recipes is Spicy Citrusy Black Beans from the Simply Recipes site. I expect it would work well with pinto beans. I usually make a double batch and keep quarts for freezer meals with rice and cilantro sauce. If you try the recipe, I recommend adding 1/2 tsp. orange zest so you can taste the citrus, and I use 1/4 tsp. chipotle powder so I’m not stuck with leftover canned chipotle. Also add the lime and vinegar in small increments to taste.
Jennifer Jo says
Costco pinto beans are soaking on the stove as I write this…
Mavis Butterfield says
That’s because you are awesome.
felicia says
I pressure can my beans, no thawing needed. I’m the worst at remembering to thaw things!
Would it be worth getting a pitcher to transfer the milk into?
Mary G says
I totally agree with you about the ease of cooking extra and saving some for later on in the freezer. Things like that make up my emergency dinner store for things like late school meetings. Those blueberry bars look great, although I think I’m overloaded more with raspberries this year than blueberries. I’d still love to see your version of the recipe if you have a chance to do a post. Your dry beans makes me want to check out Costco and compare what they have with BJ’s, where our membership comes due in late March. Our nearby BJ’s don’t seem to have dry beans, which I use. I do use canned beans, but I use dry beans more often. Thanks for sharing.
Lisa says
Our Costco used to have that same milk container. Now they carry milk in regular containers.and have for awhile. Hmm…
Mavis Butterfield says
Really? You are so lucky!
ann in E. oregon says
Thanks for the refried bean recipe! I have everything I need to make a big batch!! Can’t wait to try the recipe for the blueberry bars! 🙂
Rachel B says
Wow, I would love to get beans in bulk like that! I try to use beans pretty often, since they’re so healthy and cheap. I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to bean recipes, so that when I start to get sick of them, I can quickly find a new recipe to try and switch things up! 🙂 https://www.pinterest.com/simplyrachel36/beans/
Susan says
Looks like some great recipes on your board !
Anne F says
Hi, Mavis–
Have you thought of riding a bicycle to Costco? I do almost all my grocery shopping on my bike now. My rear basket holds two full reusable grocery bags, plus I can take along my daypack if necessary. I dream of doing a Costco run (8 miles) via bike. Before that, I’ll need to find an old kid trailer on Craigslist, though.
Carrie says
Can you share how you store your left over bulk items? How did you store the 21 pounds of left over pounds of beans?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! I will write it up tonight and post tomorrow. 🙂