What To Make With What’s On Sale: apples, arborio rice, flour, and coffee

Time for What To Make With What’s On Sale! Let’s get to work pulling together what’s on sale in Colorado Springs with what’s in our pantries from previous weeks, and plan meals for our families that maximize those sales.

Apples, Apples, Apples!

Sunflower Market has nine – yes, NINE – varieties of apples for $0.57/lb this week!  So, clearly apples are a good addition to as many meals as you can fit them in. :)

My friend Amy has a long list of apple recipes you need to check out!  I’m also liking the looks of these Fried Green Apples from Cheeky Kitchen and Lynn’s Caramel Apple Bars look amazing.

If you don’t like dipping apples in sweet stuff, you’re crazy.  I’m planning on trying out this caramel recipe from Food Network soon.  Someday, someday, I will make caramel without burning it.  A simple mixture of cream cheese, brown sugar, and cinnamon is also a yummy apple dip, and some people have said it’s divine with some Heath bar mixed in.

So, uh, now that we have our desserts planned for the week…

Arborio Rice

Another great deal this week is the bulk Arborio rice at Sunflower Market.  It’s $1.49/lb which is the absolute lowest I have ever seen it!

Arborio rice is a short-grain rice that cooks up very creamy.  It’s what you use to make risotto, and trust me: there is no substitute for it.

Here’s a couple of risotto recipes: this recipe for Dirty Risotto is a great one-dish meal.  There’s been some great deals on red bell peppers and Italian sausage lately, so maybe you have some in your freezer to pull this together and make it a relatively inexpensive meal.  Parmesan Risotto is a simple, basic side dish that we love with fish or something like Parmesan Chicken.

Risotto has a reputation for being kind of fussy, and it can be – for it to be the absolute creamiest that it can be, it needs to be stirred nearly constantly, with the broth added just a ladleful at a time.  But, honestly, you can cheat and just stir it nearly constantly instead of truly constantly. :)  Here’s a video explaining how to make risotto.

Flour

Albertsons has a great price on flour this week, though it kind of got buried in the matchup with all the other deals they have!  It’s $1 for five pounds, and last time they did this sale, even whole wheat was included!  Hopefully we’ll see this sale often this winter.

I’m trying to get back into the habit of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day.  It’s a super easy way to make bread, and while I wouldn’t say it’s 100% authentic artisan, it’s much better than what you’d buy at most grocery stores!  The big disadvantage is that it does take up room in your frig, but hey – bread without having to knead it?  I can sacrifice some frig room.

A big batch of cinnamon rolls would be perfect to take advantage of that rock-bottom price on flour… except, where have the butter sales been?!

Coffee and Creamer

King Soopers has good prices on both Seattle’s Best and Starbucks Coffee, and Coffee Mate creamer is free after coupon!  I love iced coffee, but of course that means you have to brew it ahead of time and cool or freeze in order to have a cold drink.

Jeremy brewed me almost a gallon of decaf coffee (he’s definitely the coffee maker in this family!) and then froze it into ice cubes.  When I need a mid-afternoon treat, I put some ice cubes in a blender, pour in some creamer and milk and maybe some chocolate syrup, and then blend it up for a much cheaper than Starbucks treat.

I tried doing similar with cold coffee and plain ice cubes, but it made a pretty watery drink once the ice started to melt. By freezing the coffee, it keeps the drink tasting good even after it melts!

Well, those are my ideas!  What are you making with what’s on sale this week?

Check out previous weeks’ What To Make With What’s On Sale posts for more ideas!