Coupon Savings - Ralphs Grocery Store

I bought:

• Horizon Organic Individual Milk - Regular 1.25 each (on markdown for .49 each plus 3 coupons for $1 off two milks) - paid 0.00 because I actually got .03 cents in overage
• Skinny Cow Chocolate Clusters x 4 - Regular .99 each (on sale for .69 each plus a .75 off two which doubled up to 1.00) paid .80 cents for all 4
• Luna Bars x 2 - Regular 1.49 each (on sale for .99 each plus a .50 off each bar coupon)  paid 1.00
• Quaker Rice Cakes x 2 - Regular price 1.99 (on sale for .99 each, plus a .55 of two coupon which doubled up to 1.00)  paid 1.00 for both
• Monster Coffee Energy Drinks x 2 - regular price 2.49 (I had two free coupons so they were both free)  paid 0.00
• Boursin Cheese - regular price 3.99 (on markdown for 1.99 plus there was a 1.00 off coupon on the package) paid .99 cents

Total before store savings and coupons would have been - 26.50 plus crv and tax

I paid - 2.80 cents plus crv and tax

Tips from this shopping trip:

1. pay attention to products while shopping, they often have coupons attached to them
2. do NOT be afraid of markdown, just be selective...Ralphs is known for marking down food close to the expiration date...the cheese for example is good until the 27th but since I plan on using it immediately thats more than fine.  The milk is actually good until Oct. 20th so they most likely just had an over stock.  Mark down food is NOT bad...but you do need to always check expiration dates first
3. dont be afraid to pay twice....I needed my skinny cow chocolate coupons to both double to maximize savings so I paid in two different transactions

Recipe - Green Chile, Ham & Cheese Quesadilla

Despite the fact that this is my second Quesadilla recipe since starting this blog, I don't usually eat them a lot.  I love them but always figured tortillas and cheese were too many calories (or points!) but I discovered they're actually incredibly versitile, cheap to make and fast and easy.

I really like Quesadillas, but just cheese and tortilla can be a bit gummy and bland.  One of my favorite combinations is ham and cheese.  The ham adds a lot of flavor and extra protein without a lot of extra calories.  Today I wanted to kick up the flavor a bit and added some green chiles since I had an open can in the fridge and wanted to use them up.

I topped half of a low carb, high fiber tortilla (2 points) with 1/2 an ounce of mozzarella, then added 1 ounce of lean ham (1 point) and topped it with the remaining 1/2 ounce of mozzarella (2 points total for cheese).  You want to make sure you have cheese on top and bottom of the ham so that the quesadilla doesn't fall apart.

It gets a bit crispy on the outside, gooey from the cheese and sort of sweet and smokey from the ham.  The green chiles also add a nice kick of flavor but no heat.  This is also great with a little jalapeno with the green chiles or substitiuted for them. 

I rounded my breakfast off with a cup of fresh strawberries and it was delicious!

New Blog

Hey All.....just wanted to let everyone know that in order to celbrate new life changes and get a fresh startI recently started a new blog and won't be updating this one anymore.

Hope to see you all there! :)

Happy Life, Happy Wife