Want to Know What’s New?

 Do you want to know when there is something new here?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  Make sure you fill out the e-mail address section on the comment box (it won’t be published).  Then, whenever something new comes on, I’ll send you a quick e-mail with the link to let you know.

Smart Chicken- Smart Idea

We are excited to introduce a new line to our meat department!  Al’s Karwick, Al’s East, and Barneys Supermarket are now carrying Smart Chicken!

What’s so great about smart chicken?  Here are just a few reasons why it’s a smart idea!

* The most natural chicken in the US

* No antibiotics

* No growth- promotants

* No animal by- products

* No hormones

* Significantly reduced levels of harmful pathogens

*Boneless products proven twice as tender

OUR MISSION
MBA Poultry is dedicated to producing the safest, highest quality fresh chicken in the United States while exemplifying excellence in all aspects of customer service.

OUR PROMISE
We promise that Smart Chicken® is the purest fresh chicken available today. We will forever continue to raise the standards against which all others are measured.

Smart Chicken® was the first poultry produced in the Unites States utilizing the pure air chill technology in place of water immersion. We then pioneered the utilization of Controlled Atmosphere Stunning in the U.S., ensuring that all birds are handled with care in every aspect of production. In addition, all of our birds are raised without the use of antibiotics, animal by-products or hormones. We are also Certified Organic & Certified Humane to provide you with the most premium product, produced with the highest standards, from egg to shelf.

This Saturday, you’ll have a chance to try the Smart Chicken difference for yourself!  All three locations will have samples of Smart Chicken available for you to try!  Check back soon to find recipes from the Smart Chicken Kitchen- or click here to go to the Smart Chicken Kitchen Website.

Menu Monday

Menu Monday- TACO TIME!!

Main Course- Since salad ingredients are part of the main course, we’ll just skip right to the main course this week.  Tacos are a quick and easy meal everyone in the family loves!  For a fun meal, create a taco bar and have everyone make their tacos and then sit down at the table together. 

Start by browning some 90% Lean Ground Round.  Also, remember to preheat the oven for the shells.  Now, you can start cooking the Uncle Ben’s Mexican Fiesta Rice.  Combine the rice and seasoning packet, two cups of water and (optional) one tbsp of butter into a saucepan.  Stir it well and let it come to a boil.  Then, reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes.  By this time, your meat should be getting browned and you’ll probably need to add the Old El Paso Taco Seasoning and let it simmer.  While that’s simmering, you can start getting all of the toppings ready. This would be a good time to put the shells in the oven to heat them up, too.  Dole Salads are on sale this week.  So, for a quick way to get the lettuce for your tacos, get a green salad and cut it just a little more and you have lettuce ready for your tacos.  Put some Kraft Shredded Cheese in a bowl.  Take out the Our Family Sour Cream and Old El Paso Salsa.  Then, pour a can of Old El Paso Refried Beans into a pot and cook it on a low to medium heat.  And, get some Birds Eye Frozen Corn out and heat it in a pot with a little water.  When the rice has simmered for 10 minutes, remove it from heat and set it aside for five minutes.  Drain your meat and put it in a bowl next to the other taco bar ingredients.  The shells should be warm by now so you can take them out, too.  Then, add the refried beans, corn, and rice to the taco bar.  Dinner is served!

          

 

Main Course Total- $16.77 (Of course, you’ll have lots of ingredients left- salad, sour cream, corn, salsa- for another meal)

Dessert- Earlier in the day, make some Pilsbury Brownies and you’ll have a great finish to a great meal!

 

Dessert total- $1.67 (Of course you probably should have some brownies left for another meal, too.  But, we won’t tell anyone if you eat them all now!  They are 3/ $5 this week so you might as well get 3 boxes!)

 

 

Shopping List

 

 

Meat- 90% Lean Ground Round- $2.88

Produce-Dole Salad- $1.89

Dairy- Our Family Sour Cream- $1.50

            Kraft Shredded Cheese- $2.50

Frozen- Birdseye Frozen Corn- $1.50

Grocery-Uncle Ben’s Rice- $1.00

              Old El Paso Taco Seasoning- .75

              Old El Paso Taco Shells- $1.50

               Old El Paso Salsa- $2.00

               Old El Paso Refried Beans- $1.25

               Pilsbury Brownies- $1.50

 

 

Frugal Friday

I’m not sure whether this fits into the frugal category or not.  But, it doesn’t cost a penny and it definitely can make life easier.  So, I wanted to share it with all of you.  Although it’s such a great idea that I’d like to take credit for this great tip, I really can’t.  My sister shared this one with me. 

One of the reasons we started this site was to have an opportunity to share recipes and ideas about how to make different foods that we sell.  But, if you’re anything like me, after awhile recipes are stored in so many different places that finding the right one becomes quite a challenge.  And that’s where this great tip comes in handy.  Since email addresses are so easy to get these days, create a separate address just for your recipes!  Find one that offers an e-mail search.  I know Gmail does.   This way, when you are looking for a recipe for chicken, you can do a search for chicken and it will pull up all of your chicken recipes.  Or, if you put a label in your recipe, such as “soup” or “appetizer”, you can do a search for those certain categories.  Are there some people in your family or frequent guests that have special diets?  This would be a great way to store and access certain recipes for diabetics or people with food allergies when you need them. 

Every month we will be featuring different recipes on our main fresh choices daily site.  You may not want to try all of them, but I hope that there will be recipes on there that you’ll want to save and that they’ll become family favorites.  Also, I’ll be sharing recipes on here when I find a great product or through the “Menu Monday” feature.  If that’s not enough recipes for you, check out our recipe site  or the the links to the right.  There are many choices, depending on what kind of recipes you are looking for- healthy, special dietary needs, recipes for certain feature brands, or miscellaneous recipes.  Our own recipe site  can give you recipes for any occasion or by putting in an ingredient, you can find a recipe for what to make with it.  If you find a good one, let us know!  We’d love to post them here! 

Like Music? Like Cake?

       

Like music?  Like cake?  Then, October 1st is your lucky day!  That’s when Barney’s will have their fun new Wednesday event!  Karaoke For a Cake!  From 4- 6 pm, all you have to do is choose one of the many songs, sing it all the way through, and you get an 8 inch cake FREE!  What’s the catch, you ask?  Well, there really is no catch- just a few simple rules.

1) You must complete the song. (In other words, no chickening out once you start)

2) Off key singing is permitted as long as you sing the words.  (People get paid good money for writing them)
3) Anyone under 18 must have an adult there.  The adult doesn’t have to sing, just be there for moral support.

4) We have a great selection of music to choose from.  So, please don’t bring in your own Cd’s.

5) One cake per day.  Duets or groups qualify for one 1 cake. (Even the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would still get only 1 cake) 

6) If you need help with equipment, please ask.  (Just don’t ask us to sing with you- trust me, you really don’t want that!)

7) We promise not to laugh (Well, maybe not!)

Now, if you’re not the singing type, don’t think there’s nothing in it for you.  This would be a great way to get some entertainment and get your shopping done at the same time!  We’d love to have you come visit, too! 

So, see you all on October 1st!  That gives you a whole week to practice!

Hump Day Humor- Gotta Love Sesame Street

Menu Monday- That’s Italian!

What’s For Dinner?

Salad-

Let’s start off with a healthy Dole classic salad.  You might want to add roma tomoatoes, Our Family salad dressing, and New York garlic Croutons. 

Main Course- And now, for the main course- lasagna!  Our Family Quick Skillet Lasagna is quick and easy.  Just follow the directions on the box and add 1 lb of ground beef.  We can’t forget the Cole’s garlic bread.  Just pop it in the oven and you have great tasting garlic bread before you know it!  Add some fresh cooked mini carrots and your dinner is complete! 

 Dessert- And last but not least, dessert!  Finish off with a Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookie.  Who am I kidding?  I’d eat about five- not one! 

Grocery Bill-

 

     Salad- $3.75

     Main Course- $5.99

     Dessert- $2.00

That makes this week’s menu total $11.74!  That’s not bad- especially considering you would definitely had salad dressing and chocolate chip cookies (maybe!) left over for another meal!

Shopping List-

(Prices according to ad week of September 22)

Produce-

     Classic Salad Mix- $1.00

      Mini Carrots- $1.00

      Roma Tomatoes (half lb)- .50

Meat-

     81% Lean Ground Beef- $1.99

Frozen-

     Cole’s Garlic Bread- $2.00

Grocery-

     New York Croutons- 1.25

      Our Family Salad Dressing- $2.00

      Our Family Quick Skillet Lasagna- $1.00

      Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies- $2.00

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing… Menu Monday!

Today starts my new Monday feature.  Each week, I will take items from our ad and create a menu for a day.  You will get recipe’s and ideas for an entire meal using our ad items.  I’ll include a shopping list at the bottom so you can easily pick up the items you need!

I would love to get your recipe ideas as well!.  Send me an e-mail or leave me a comment.  We may use it in a future “Menu Monday”!  So, check out our ad, get on your apron, and start cooking!

Frugal Friday

In a shaky economy, people are shifting to a new trend.  Rather than going out, people are saving gas and avoiding the high priced restaurant meals.  America is cooking again, and loving it!  The food network has been giving us cooking lessons any time we want them- 24 hours a day- and the Internet gives us recipes and meal ideas for every ingredient we can find!  But, with all of this information, how do we keep from being overloaded?  And, who has time for a new recipe every night?  I’m lucky to get a meal on the table- even hot dogs- some nights!  So, here are my ways to spice up home cooking without getting overwhelmed. 

First of all, pick a day that you have time to relax and think.  I picked Sunday afternoons because I’m usually off work and I have a little down time.  So, I sit down at my desk and write down my menu for the week, checking the Al’s ad online - making sure to accomodate for any evenings when I’ll be working late or short on time.  This usually doesn’t take long, but makes a dramatic difference in what our dinners look like in the next week.  If I don’t plan ahead, I come home from work too exhausted to come up with anything new or exciting.  Then, I make out my shopping list and head to Al’s to get everything I need for the week!

While making out your list, try to pick one new recipe you’d like to try.  If you don’t have any ideas, I have a few recipe links to the right might want to try or check out our Fresh Choices Daily site to see the feature recipes of the month.  Plan your new recipe for a night when you have time- maybe a day off or a day you will be home early- so you don’t have to rush.  This way, making something new will be enjoyable rather than stressful. 

Here’s the test.  Ask your family what they think.  Find out if they want to have it again next week.  Soon, your new recipe experiments could be your signature dish!  But, don’t feel bad if not every one turns out perfect.  There’s always next week!

Kid’s Day America

Saturday, Al’s and Barney’s  will have a booth at Kid’s Day America, sponsored by the Wellness Center in New Buffalo.  We will be talking about some of the exciting new things we are bringing to the stores.  And, of course there will be things to try and treats to take home!  We’ll also be demonstrating this new website.  There will be drawings for some cool prizes, too!  So, if you’re not busy Saturday, come join us at the New Buffalo High School from 12-3 (MI time)! 

During Kid’s Day, if you tell me you are there because you saw this site, your name will be entered into another drawing!  See you there!