What's Cooking: Skinny Pizza Rolls

Pizza rolls are so tasty, but so bad for you! I was excited to find this recipe for a healthier version...and they taste GOOD!

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup pizza sauce or tomato sauce
- 20 pepperonis (turkey pepperonis are healthier)
- 24 wonton wrappers
- 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon basil/oregano mix or Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- pinch of sweetener such as sugar
- pinch of black pepper
- Optional: 1/3 cup chicken breast, diced or 1/3 cup light Italian sausage

Cooking Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450ºF. Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper, or foil coated with non-stick cooking spray. Gather ingredients.
- Combine pizza sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, seasoning and chicken, or sausage in a bowl. Stir until combined.
- Begin filling wonton wrappers by placing about a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. You could use a little more or less, just try not to over-fill them, or the filling will ooze out the sides when you are baking them.
- To seal them shut, place your finger in water, trace two of the corners with the water, and fold the wrapper in half to meet the two dry corners with the two wet corners. Press to seal the two sides together. (Note: the water acts like glue to seal the corners shut.)
- When wonton wrappers are filled, give them a light spray with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top of each one. Lay pizza rolls out on prepared baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven (450ºF) for 10-15 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden brown. Serve or freeze.

Freezing Instructions:
 Cool completely and store in freezer bags. To serve: Warm in microwave or oven until heated through.

Source: www.dashingdish.com

My Shopping Trip: Meijer

General Mills cereals are $0.87 after coupons and sales this week, so I stocked up! I'm also getting ready to try and make healthy pizza rolls so I needed to get some pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

Transaction:
(4) Cinnamon Toast Crunch @ $2.50 each
(4) Honey Nut Cheerios @ $2.50 each
(2) Kraft Shredded cheese @ $4.99 each
(1) Meijer Pepperoni @ $0.98
(2) Kraft Homestyle Mac & Cheese @ $1.88 each

Coupons Used:
(4) -$0.50 Cinnamon Toast Crunch
-$0.50 Cinnamon Toast Crunch (mPerks)
(4) -$0.50 Honey Nut Cheerios
-$0.50 Honey Nut Cheerios (mPerks)
(2) -$2 instantly WYB 4 General Mills Cereals
-$0.50/2 Kraft Shredded Cheese
-$1/2 Kraft Homestyle Mac & Cheese
-$1 Kraft Homestyle Mac & Cheese (mPerks)

OOP $18.72 with tax
Saved $24.3

My Meijer doubles coupons under $0.50 and allows manufacturer coupons to be stacked with mPerks digital coupons.

What's Cooking: French Toast Sticks

One of my favorite breakfast foods is french toast.

We have nonstick baking sheets, so I did not spray the pan and my french toast sticks stuck to the pan! I sprayed the next batch and that seemed to work much better. You could also add 1/2 cup vegetable puree (sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash, or acorn squash is recommended) to make these a little healthier.

Ingredients:
- 1 loaf of bread
- 1/2 cup of butter, melted
- 8 eggs
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 1/3 cup of milk
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cooking Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice bread slices into thirds. In a large bowl mix all ingredients except sliced bread. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Dip bread pieces, one by one, in the batter until coated and then place on the cookie sheet. Bake for 30 minutes turning over half-way through to ensure even cooking on both sides. When done, remove to cooling rack. Serve or freeze.

Freezing Instructions:
Allow to cool on cooling rack completely or place on a cool cookie sheet and place in freezer for 10-15 minutes or until partially frozen (flash freezing). Place in Ziploc freezer bag and place in freezer until ready to use. To serve: microwave 30-45 seconds.

Source: www.onceamonthmom.com

My Shopping Trips: Walgreens & CVS

I have been wanting to get more into freezer cooking and I was waiting for a decent deal on freezer bags. They had them B1G1 at Walgreens this past week, so I took advantage.

Walgreens:
4 Hefty Zip Gallon Freezer Bags @ $3.29 B1G1
1 Lypsyl Extreme Cold Sore Relief @ $5
(2) -$1/2 Hefty Zip Bags
(2) -$2 RR
OOP $6.39
Saved $17.37
Received $5 RR from Lypsyl

CVS:
1 Pretzel M&M's @ $4.19 each ($1.49 each with e-mail coupon)
1 OneTouch UltraMini Glucose Monitor @ $10
-$1 Pretzel M&M's
-$10 OneTouch Glucose Monitor
OOP $1.19
Saved $22.99

What's Cooking: Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwiches

So yummy! I made mine with mayonnaise and no onions.

Ingredients:
- 1 Large chicken breast
- 1 Red apple, cut into small squares
- About a half a cup of chopped celery
- A large handful of red grapes- each grape sliced in half
- About half of a red onion, finely chopped
- A handful of chopped walnuts or pecans
- About 1/2 cup of low fat plain yogurt or mayonnaise
- Salt, pepper
- Bread

Cooking Directions:
Boil the chicken until fully cooked. Let it cool somewhat, then chop into small pieces. Add all ingredients into a large bowl and stir.

Freezing Instructions:
Place individual portions of salad into quart-size freezer bags. Label and freeze. To serve: Thaw in refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Source: www.healthyfortwo.com

My Shopping Trip: CVS

This was the most amount of money I have saved in a single CVS transaction!

Transaction:
(2) Colgate Total Toothpaste @ $2.75 each
(2) Nivea Lip Care @ $2.50 each
(2) Nature Made Fish Oil Vitamins @ $10.99 B1G1
(1) OneTouch UltraMini Glucose Monitoring System @ $9.99
(1) Nivea Body Wash @ $4.00
(1) Nivea Creme Tin @ $0.99
(1) Kotex U Liners

Coupons Used:
(2) -$0.75 Colgate Toothpaste
-$10 OneTouch Glucose Monitor
-$1 Kotex U product
-$2 Nivea Body Wash
(2) -$2 Nature Made Fish Oil
-$3/2 Nivea Lip Care
Free Nivea Creme Tin (from Beauty Club e-mail)
-$7 ECB
-$4 ECB
-$2 ECB

OOP $4.44 with tax
Received $8 total in ECB
$1 SavingStar deposit
Saved $61.32

My Shopping Trip: Target & Walgreens

I love getting stuff for FREE! Here are my shopping trips from Target and Walgreens this week.

Target:
2 Market Pantry Mac & Cheese @ $0.74 each
2 Travel Size Band Aids @ $0.97 each
1 Rectangular Labels @ $1.94
-$0.05 Reusable Bag
(2) -$1 Band Aids
(2) -$1 Market Pantry Mac & Cheese 
OOP $2.03
Saved $3.47

Walgreens:
4 Snickers Creme Valentine Candy @ $0.59 each ($0.39 each with in-ad coupon)
1 St. Joseph Enteric Aspirin @ $2
1 Sundown Vitamin D @ $4
-$1 Sundown Vitamin
-$1.50/2 Mars Seasonal Candy
-$5 RR 
OOP $0.59
Saved $10.42
Received $2 RR from aspirin
Will submit $4 MIR for vitamins