Did you miss the last Honeyville Grain sale?  Have no fear, it’s back!  For a few days you can get 10% off your order.  Check out my friend Jenn’s blog at Be Prepared Cincinnati for details.

Through the month of August,  Kids eat free at IHOP from 4-10pm.  Check their website to see if your IHOP is participating.

Some of the small print:

• kids 12 and under
• 1 free kid’s meal with each adult entree
• drinks not included

I just got a note about the latest deal on Entertainment books. You know I love them. They are a great way to save up to 50% off on hotels, restaurants, sporting events and more. You can buy one for your hometown, or for a vacation city. Traveling later this year? You should look into an Entertainment book for your destination city.

This sale is only good through July 14th.

Note: Most coupons in the book expire in November. If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas, you’ll probably want to buy next year’s book.

Here’s a few markdowns I’ve seen at my local Kroger store:

• Kroger Value brand boneless skinless chicken breast $1.19/#
• beef stew meat (premium) $3.19/#
• beef stew meat $2.39/#
• Tbone steak $6.99/#
• bottom round steak about $3/#
• 73% lean ground beef 1# rolls $0.89
• 85% lean ground beef $1.99/#

Really sweet strawberries only last a short amount of time. But I like them year round.   To preserve strawberries I flash-freeze and foodsaver them.

1. Line jelly-roll or 9×13 pan with wax paper or Exopat/Silpat non-stick baking mat

2. wash, cut and core strawberries and place on pan in a single layer.  You don’t want them on top of each other.  I can fit about 2# of cut strawberries on a jelly roll pan.

3. lay flat in freezer for 24 hours.  This is flash freezing.  You want to completely freeze each individual strawberry piece.

4. After strawberries are completely frozen, remove them and fill a quart size FoodSaver bag.

5. Using FoodSaver, remove air and seal the bag.  It’ll look something like this.   Notice how there aren’t air pockets?

6. Store in the freezer for a LONG time.  This is the beauty of storing in FoodSaver bags.  It reduces the amount of air that comes in contact with your food and therefore reduces the likelyhood of freezer burn.   And in my book, that’s a good thing.

I store these bags in my deep freeze and pull out when I want to cook with strawberries.   Usually they go into smoothies, so frozen is just fine.  If you want to thaw them out and eat like a fresh fruit, you’re going to get a different consistency.  Not gross, but more watery and not as firm.

I froze a LOT of strawberries last year and have been using them off and on throughout the year.  I just opened a package from 12 months ago for smoothies.  They taste wonderful.  No freezer burn either.

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Linked to Tammy’s Kitchen Tip Tuesday

It’s that time of year again…..time to start thinking about a veggie garden.  If you want to start from plants,  Lowe’s in the Cincinnati area is offering $0.99 veggie plants through May 3rd.   If you don’t have some plants growing in a window, or want to get a jump start on the growing season, these plants can help out.  I’ve already got tomatoes growing in my window, but I’m going to check out their other veggie offerings.

Need help learning how to garden?  Two of my favorite places:

Ohio State University Extension Services offers TONS of great information on gardening locally.

The All New Square Foot Gardening book by Sqft Gardening Expert Mel Bartholomew is on our home reference shelf.  We’re always reaching to Mel’s knowledge as we try to be better gardeners.  This book is a must have in our family.

Corned beef seems to be the ubiquitous main dish for St. Patrick’s Day.  But what’s to say that you can’t have corned beef after March 17th?  If you wait until March 18th you’ll probably be able to snag some deals on this mid-March meat.  Check out some info from a John, a butcher for 30 years on what to buy and how to cook it.

I was alerted to this info from my friend Jennifer.  The Dollar Stretcher is a great resource with lots and lots of ideas for stretching your money.  Check out the website or subscribe to updates via e-mail or RSS.

Happy Savings!