Remember a couple of weeks ago when I told you about how I was picked to be a part of the Velveeta Casserole Challenge? Part of the challenge was that I had to make a casserole that would feed 8 people for under $20.
So, after much thinking (and wondering what I had gotten myself into), I planned out my recipe. Since Rich and I both work from home, and clearly don’t get to spend enough time together, we all headed off to the grocery store together. And I’m sure you ladies know how much fun grocery shopping with your husband and toddler can be.
The highlight of the grocery shopping trip happened when Rich and I had an argument about which Velveeta cheese to get. Now you know if it’s Velveeta it’s going to be good, right? Right. That wasn’t the problem. The problem is that when Rich goes grocery shopping with me we have to compare the per pound or per ounce prices of every single item we buy. It drives me absolutely crazy. Because sometimes I don’t want to buy 20 pounds of beef just because it’s cheaper per pound. Or 50 rolls of toilet paper just because it is cheaper per sheet.
Anyhoo. Where was I? Oh, yes- the Velveeta Cheese.
Since part of the challenge was that I had to spend under $20 that meant I couldn’t buy things in bulk, like Rich prefers. There was one package of Velveeta Cheese that was 16 oz for $3.99. That size seemed reasonable for my recipe. So, I put it in the cart. Then Rich found a 32 oz package for $4.79. Clearly a much better deal per pound, but when you’re trying to keep things under a certain price every penny counts. And what would I ever do with that much cheese?
Well, Rich won and we bought the bigger package of cheese. In exchange for that- we had to put the ground sausage back and settle on the boxed kind of sausage because it was cheaper. And what did we do with all of that extra cheese? It makes fabulous grilled cheese sandwiches, tastes good on broccoli and mashed potatoes, and goes great on pretty much everything you can think of.
Here is my receipt from our fun filled shopping trip, and as you can see I came in at $19.33. BUT- I didn’t use all of my ingredients. I could have made almost 2 casseroles with my ingredients, I would have needed a bit more of a few things- but most of the items I only used about half of what I had.
On October 30th I am going to post my recipe- and you’re not going to want to miss it because it was delicious. And the voting will start over at Velveeta Casserole Challenge so I’m going to be begging and pleading for your votes. And, I’ll also be bribing you with all sorts of fabulous giveaways that I have lined up. So, be sure to come back!
