Friday, July 8, 2011

Turkey Deals!!!

Okay, so many, many months ago, I won a year's supply of Jennie-O Turkey. What a wonderful prize. They sent me a bunch of coupons for Jennie-O Turkey. It was a great prize and allowed us to save quite a bit on our grocery bill. At the time there were a few stores in the area that carried different items, but then slowly it became harder and harder to find the product locally. A few weeks ago, when I was at the grocery store, I stopped by the meat department and asked the manager about ordering it. He checked to see what his vendor could offer him, even though his store didn't carry it standard. There weren't many options, mostly just variations on a theme, ground turkey and turkey sausage.

I placed an order for a case of 93/7 Lean Ground Turkey and 90/10 Lean Sausage Links yesterday. When I called, he told me he would order it on Monday and it would be in about a week later. I thought that would be perfect - just enough time to eat some of the stuff in the freezer and make room for the 28 packages of turkey I had ordered.

Imagine my surprise when I got a call from the store today, telling me the turkey I had ordered was in. I went this evening to pick it up and my freezers are both officially stuffed to the gills!

16 - 20 oz 93/7 Lean Ground Turkey
12 - 90/10 Lean Sausage Links

-$84 "Free" $3 off Jennie-O Turkey coupons

Total $1.72 OOP.

Works for me, about 6 cents a pack.

Since it has been a few months since I could buy the product locally, I have a good number of coupons left. We will be eating a lot of turkey! My original plan had us using it 3 - 4 days a week (including lunches, because I could get Jennie-O deli meat), but with the months of no usage, in order to use up the coupons before expiration, it will need to be more like 5 - 6 days a week.

Anyone have any suggestions on preparations to try with ground turkey?

Do you make "hamburger" patties and freeze them? Do you season them? Do you lay them on a cookie sheet to freeze individually before packing them up? How long do you/can you keep homemade patties in your freezer?

The uses that are familiar and part of our standard dining plan:
I figure I will make up a few types of chili. I can do Spaghetti and Meatballs, and assorted other pasta type dishes. I can do tacos. I can do Sloppy Joes. I can do Sheppard's Pie. I might do some Cheeseburger Pasta, Cheeseburger Rice and/or Cheeseburger Pizza. I can make Nacho Mac'n Cheese.

I'm thinking I might try to find a Swedish Meatball recipe. Isn't Salisbury Steak made with ground meat? I just know that we need to keep it mixed up, so as not to get tired.

Have any other recipes that use ground meat?

The sausage links I figure that I can use for breakfast for dinner, actual breakfast, Sunday brunch and maybe even on a regular pizza.

This post shared at Frugal Friday and Super Savings Saturday.

7 comments:

Keriann Tankersley said...

Oh you lucky lady! I would love a year's supply of turkey!! :)

I frequently buy ground turkey when it's on sale and go ahead and shape into turkey patties. We like ours spicy so I put 1 lb of turkey into a bowl with 2 tbsp of salsa, a few shakes of cumin and red pepper flakes, pepper and 1 egg white and mix it up really well. Then just shape into patties and flash freeze. They store for several months with no problem.

If I grab a package that is a manager markdown then I will go ahead and brown it and freeze in 1 cup increments to put in casseroles or mix with eggs for breakfasts.

I will also go ahead and make taco meat (just brown with taco seasonings) so I can just pull it out and thaw it on a busy night.

Hope that helps! I'm super jealous of all your free (well $0.06/package) meat!!

Dolly said...

The best thing I've had is a Turkey (or Chicken) Tamale casserole (found by google), with browned ground meat, that had enchelada sauce (we made ours - easy!), corn, black beans, cheese on top of that, then a corn bread mix on top of that - pop in the oven. YUM!!

I too would love to have turkey coupons!! That is too cool!!!

Teri said...

I just made ground turkey patties "meatloaf" style and grilled on our bbq. Yum! (I mixed the ground turkey with 1 egg, some chopped garden onions, salt & pepper, a little cooked rice and about a 1/4 cup homemade bread crumbs -oh and a couple squirts of ketchup.)Be sure to spray or oil your grill first! These were a great hit with my family. :) I wouldn't keep turkey patties in the freezer for more than 6 months (raw or cooked). I also make my own turkey sausage patties, cook and freeze for several months. Nice to have in a hurry and works great on pizza. We use ground turkey for any recipe calling for ground beef. Enjoy your "free" turkey!

LivingSoAbundantly said...

I love making mini meatloaves by cooking them in muffin tins.

Here is a link: http://www.food.com/recipe/mini-meatloaves-3-variations-kraft-food-and-family-magazine-326810

You can sub in the ground turkey for the beef. I have also just made my regular meatloaf recipe with breadcrumbs, etc., and followed the rest of the directions.

I also love this recipe: http://livingsoabundantly.blogspot.com/2009/06/classic-mini-cheeseburgers.html

Here's another, Beef Taco Salad: http://livingsoabundantly.blogspot.com/2009/07/beef-taco-salad.html

My friend has an excellent way to freeze meals without using dishes in the long run: http://georgiascookiejar.blogspot.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-container-free-storage.html

That is awesome that you got so much meat! I hope I didn't take up too much space in the comments!

Robert said...

I made lasagna with it last year and no one noticed it was not ground beef.

I might try a alfredo meal as well if you are in the mood.

The turkey sausage I would try cut up in a sausage strata meal

Cora said...

anything you can make with ground beef you can make with turkey.You can make turkey burgers and freeze them as long as you would hamburger patties.Meatloaves,speghetti sauce,tacos,pizzaburgers,anything at all.Your sausages can be cooked with soupbeans,cooked just like pork links for breakfast,or anything you can use sausage links for. Sure would trade places with you. I love ground turkey,although I usually buy our stores fresh ground turkey.

1froglegs said...

I always find that ground turkey produces much less grease, almost to the point where you don't have to drain it.