What To Make With What’s On Sale: olive oil, pudding, and biscuits and gravy

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.

Olive Oil

Sunflower Market has their liter bottles of extra virgin olive oil on sale for $5.99.  This is about as low as it goes, so I’m buying a few bottles to last for a month or two until this sale comes around again.

I use olive oil in a lot of things – about the only thing I don’t use it for is deep frying and baking (though, honestly, the Sunflower Market olive oil is probably not flavorful enough to make any noticeable difference in most baked goods).  It contains monounsaturated fat, which can reduce cholesterol, according to the Mayo Clinic.

You’ll definitely want to get extra virgin olive oil, as it contains the most health benefits.  The “light” varieties likely contain very little advantage over other oils, but more on that soon in a Behind The Label Of Your Food post.

Here’s an easy bread dip to make with olive oil:

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 T butter
salt (kosher is nice here)
freshly ground black pepper (coarse if you don’t mind a bit of spiciness)
1 T fresh basil, sliced (can substitute about a 1/2 tsp dried)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Warm the oil and butter until butter is melted, then remove from heat and stir in spices.  Serve with a loaf of chewy bread like ciabatta!

Oh man, now I’m going to have to make some bread. :)  We reverse-engineered the “recipe” from an Italian recipe and it’s definitely one of our favorite ways to enjoy bread and olive oil!

Biscuit and Sausage Gravy

King Soopers has Jimmy Dean sausage for $1.50 after coupon, and Pioneer Cream Gravy Mix for $0.69 after coupon.  I’m thinking some biscuits and gravy are in order!  Naturally, it’s best if you make everything from scratch, and if you’re going to do that, more power to you.

But, I’m thinking the gravy mix would be pretty tasty if you use the fat from the sausage when making the gravy!  You could also serve it with a side of scrambled eggs – Albertson’s has ’em for $0.79 a dozen.

Anyone have an easy, tried-and-true biscuit recipe?

Jell-O Pudding

What to do with the $0.29 Jell-o pudding that’s on sale at King Soopers?  Here’s a few suggestions:

• Pudding Poke Cake from AllRecipes
  You could do this with all sorts of combinations – chocolate cake and chocolate pudding, chocolate cake and vanilla pudding…
• Candy Crunch Pudding Pie from Jell-O
• Banana Upside Down Sour Cream Walnut Cake from Jell-O

And, this is not a use for Jell-O pudding, but doesn’t this recipe for Red Velvet Bread Pudding from Paula Deen look yummy?  I guess you could do something similar and use Jell-O pudding!

Oh!  What if you figured out something combining chocolate pudding and that cheap coffee from Albertsons?  Not exactly sure what (maybe a parfait?) or how, but that sounds like a tasty combination.

Well, that’s all of my ramblings. ;)  What are you making with what’s on sale this week?