Welcome to From Coupons to Cuisine. Each week, I will use one of the grocery store sale flyers to create a dinner based on the sales for that week. The emphasis for each meal plan will be to create a dinner that is both healthy and frugal. Each meal plan I create will make the assumption that you have certain staples in your refrigerator or pantry. I will include links to recipes for your convenience.
This week, our healthy and frugal meal comes from the Stop & Shop Deals and Coupon Match Ups 12/9-12/15.
Ham is on sale at all the grocery stores this week. Let’s face it, unless you have 10 people in your family, a ham is going to leave you with a ton of leftovers. That’s why I’ve decided to include two recipes this week. The first is a basic baked ham recipe with a twist. The second recipe is my favorite thing to do with leftover ham.
What’s for Dinner?
Easy Baked ham
Ham and split pea soup
Shopping List (Based on a family of four)
- 4 lbs S&S spiral sliced ham 1.79 lb
- Fresh whole pineapple 2.99
- Birds Eye veggies 1.00 ($50/2 11-13-11 SS = .50 each)
- Rhodes dinner rolls 2.39 ($1/2 11-13-11 RP = 1.89 each)
- 1 lb Bag split green peas
From Your Pantry:
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 liter ginger ale
- 2-3 Carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch slices
- 2 Stalks celery, diced
- 1 Medium onion, diced
- 2-3 Cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Bay leaf
- Ham bone (if you have one) or 2-3 cups of leftover ham, diced. You can also use both the ham bone and some of the leftover ham.
Putting it all together:
Easy Baked Ham
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Peel, core and slice pineapple.
- Remove as much of the ham from the bone as you can (if applicable). Layer one third of the ham in the bottom of a 6 quart casserole dish. Top with a few pineapple slices and 1/4 of the brown sugar. Repeat the layers, ending with pineapple slices on top, but don’t sprinkle the last 1/4 of brown sugar.
- Pour in enough of the ginger ale to fill the dish about half way. Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar over the top.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Uncover and cook for an additional 20 minutes.
- Serve with warm Rhodes dinner rolls and Birds Eye veggies.
Ham and Split Pea Soup
- 1 lb Bag split green peas
- 2-3 Carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch slices
- 2 Stalks celery, diced
- 1 Medium onion, diced
- 2-3 Cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Bay leaf
- Ham bone (if you have one) or 2-3 cups of leftover ham, diced. You can also use both the ham bone and some of the leftover ham.
I don’t have an actual recipe I follow to make this soup. I just throw all the ingredients in a pot with enough water to cover everything and let it cook for 2-3 hours until the peas are soft and mushy. If I’m using a ham bone, I remove it toward the end of the cooking process, remove the meat from the bone and then put the meat back into the soup. If the soup seems a bit lumpy, I will sometimes use a hand blender to make the soup smoother.
My mom just made this soup last week and used her crock pot, which I never thought of doing. She said it was the first time she tried making split pea soup in the crock pot. It was awesome, and I think I will try it next time. Again, she just put all the ingredients into the crock pot and covered everything with water until the pot was 3/4 full. She set the crock pot on high and let it cook for 6 hours.
These two meals will cost you approximately $18.00 at the grocery store this week. If you add in the cost for the few other ingredients from your pantry, you have two meals for four people for about $21.00.
