Summer Time Barbecue Fun

One of my favorite things about summer time is grilling out. There is just something about the taste of food fresh from the grill. Whether we are grilling burgers, dogs, chicken, fish, vegetables or fruit , they just taste better coming off the grill. You can even be creative and make dessert on the grill too - have you tried s'mores on the grill - yumm!

Of course, grilling out is even more fun when we have friends and family over to join us for dinner. Everyone brings a dish to share and you can experience so many different types of dishes. Some of my favorite recipes have been first experienced at a cook out.

We are fortunate that our deck is on the east side of our house, so if we plan a late afternoon barbecue we can sit on our deck in the shade of the house - which makes it more comfortable to sit outside when we grill out.

When it's hot out, we like to set up the Slip'n Slide or the sprinkler for the kids. They have a blast playing in the water.

After a cook out, we often find ourselves lingering and visiting into the night. At our last cookout, we broke out the Scrabble board and played on the deck (better than cards or games with money that can be messed up by the wind!). It was so nice to spend the day hanging out with friends and relaxing.

As a Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger, they have shared some recipes with me that you just might want to try at your next cook out. Why not start your meal with an Applewood Bacon Spinach Salad. Spinach is one of those foods I avoided as a kid but it is my favorite salad base now. Then, serve BBQ Blue Sandwiches with a side of Grilled Fruits. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of Blue Cheese, but I tried it in a recipe one time where it melted and it really gave a nice flavor to the recipe and didn't have that strong, pungent flavor that I associate with Blue Cheese. Of course, you can always set it on the side and allow guests to use it as they please.

No compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine or that of my family. I am currently a member of the Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger Program. Each post written for this role, serves as an entry into a grand prize giveaway. Hormel provides materials and resources to assist me with my posts. For June, I received a welcome package to allow me and my family to experience many of the Hormel Foods products.
The welcome package:

CVS Deal - 7/8

I haven't been to CVS in what seems like forever. I stopped by yesterday because I needed some vitamins and wasn't sure if they were on sale this week or not. Of course, the type that I needed were not on sale, so I opted to skip getting the vitamins. I did however get a coupon from the machine for a free Hershey Air Delight Milk Chocolate bar, they however were out of the candy bar. When I asked where I could find the candy, they told me they were out but that I could substitute any other candy for up to $1.15 off. I chose a 3 Musketeer Truffle Crisp.

1 - 3 Musketeer Truffle Crisp

-FREE CRT

$0 OOP.

Not what I planned to get, but a rather yummy trip to CVS.

This post shared at Super Savings Saturday.

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.