This may be a bit more of a splurge than I usually do for this frugal recipe but I think $2.99 for baby back ribs at Lowes Foods is a good deal. And this recipe for Sweet and Sour Ribs made in the slow cooker caught my attention. How easy is that for what usually is a labor-intensive project, or at least ribs are in my household. (Although don't take that as me complaining because my husband does the rib cooking at home.) 

This recipe is still pretty cheap at $2.18 per serving. And don't forget to check out Sue Stock's Wednesday Deals each week, where she pairs what's on sale at the grocery store with coupons. And while you're at Lowes Foods, pick up a gallon of milk for $1.99!!!

The recipe appears in a new cookbook from America's Test Kitchen: "Cook's Country: Best Potluck Recipes." I trust their well-tested recipes. They won't let you down in the kitchen, let alone at a potluck with a crowd to impress. 

Today's Frugal Feasts recipe is centered around bone-in split chicken breasts being on sale at Lowes Foods for 99 cents a pound. When I shop, I try not to spend more than $2 per pound for meat.

This recipe for Glazed Chicken with Corn Relish comes from the new America's Test Kitchen, "The Best Simple Recipes." It costs $1.54 a serving. 

Be sure to check out Sue Stock's blog, Taking Stock, every Wednesday for a list of what's on sale paired with coupons at the grocery store. Stocking up on things on sale is one of the best ways to save money on groceries. 

Today's Specialty of the House features the recipe for the wheat bread used for the popular chicken salad sandwich at 18 Seaboard. Here's the recipe for the chicken salad:

I'm a day late on Frugal Feasts. My apologies; although I doubt you guys have been eagerly waiting for its arrival. 

I wanted to offer another vegetarian recipe because eating a few meatless meals each week is a definite way to be more frugal. I grabbed Mollie Katzen's latest book, "Get Cooking," off the shelf. It is a good primer for the person in your life learning to cook. Her recipes give very explicit instructions for the newbie in the kitchen. 

I chose the recipe for Broccoli-Cheddar Cheese Calzones because Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Kroger have frozen vegetables on sale this week for about $1 per 7 to 10-ounce bag. At all the stores, the prices come out to be between 10 cents and 14 cents an ounce.  The brands are store brands to Green Giant. So while you are stocking up on frozen veggies, you can grab some frozen pizza or bread dough and
make an easy meal out of this recipe. (I love Trader Joe's pizza dough. It sells for $1 a bag and freezes well for easy homemade pizza on a weeknight.) This meal costs $1.56 per serving. 

Everyone will be heading to Harris Teeter for Super Doubles. (If you haven't checked out the deals to be had this week, check out Sue Stock's blog, Taking Stock for her list.)

I wanted to use a recipe that takes advantage of items on sale regardless of whether you have the right coupon so I chose this recipe for Pasta with Mushroom Carbonara Sauce from Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh cookbook. (The cookbook calls for tortellini but I've adapted it for what's on sale.) Plumrose bacon is buy one, get one and Barilla pasta is buy two, get three this week at Harris Teeter. I always stock up on pasta and bacon when they are on sale. This dish costs $1.92 per serving. 

A new cookbook showed up yesterday that seemed a good fit for Frugal Feasts: "The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker," by Lynn Alley. I chose the recipe for Red Curry Potatoes and Peas because 5-pound bags of potatoes are on sale at Lowes Foods this week for $2.99. The dish works out to be about $1.64 per serving. 

Hopefully, everyone stocked up on frozen peas during the last month when Birdseye Steamfresh' vegetables were less than 35 cents a bag with a coupon. I find out about such great deals by reading the N&O's retail reporter Sue Stock's Wednesday Deals.

I also have two giveaways on the Mouthful blog that would be attractive to frugal shoppers: 

Click HERE for a chance to win a DVD from the original Coupon Queen Susan Samtur.

Click HERE for a chance to win a copy of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. 

If I know anything about Frugal Feasts readers, they like a recipe that uses a slow cooker. So I'm returning again to a recipe from this cookbook, "This Italian Slow Cooker," by Michele Scicolone. With Kroger having it's mega meat sale this week, it seems like a good time to stock the freezer with chicken. Chicken leg quarters are 48 cents a pound, and chicken breasts are 98 cents a pound. A key to saving money is buying when staple items are on sale so you aren't paying full price in a pinch. 

I chose the recipe for Lemon Chicken with Potatoes because potatoes are also on sale at the Kroger. This recipe also calls for a 1/2 cup of white wine. I can usually find a decent bottle of white wine for about $8 at the grocery store so that's what I used for my cost breakdown. Or if you are more frugal and are not so picky about wine, Trader Joe's always has wine in the $3 to $5 range. (I often have
several Trader Joe's bottles in the house because: I'm not picky about wine. I'm usually the only one drinking it. I can't stand to pour half a $8, $10, $12 bottle of wine down the drain.) So with an $8 bottle of wine, this recipe costs $1.78 per serving.  

I've never attempted making scones. I think scones intimidated me because I didn't grow up eating them. But many mornings while I was on vacation in Ocracoke this past fall, I ate chocolate chip scones at the Ocracoke Coffee Company shop. I've been eager to try baking them myself and only recently attempted it. I feel like I have found THE recipe that I will go back to again and again in this cookbook: "Baking: 350 recipes and techniques, 1,500 photographs, one baking education" by James Peterson.

These scones are easy to make and left people at the office raving about them. Actually, they are so easy that you could whip them up on a week day morning and not have to wait for a weekend. Enjoy!

Scones

3 cups flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold butter, thinly sliced
1 1/4 cups milk or heavy cream plus more as needed
1 cup dried cranberries, cherries or diced dried apricots, soaked for 30 minutes in just enough hot water to cover, drained

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, surgar, baking powder and salt. Arrange the butter on top so teh slices don't overlap and cut through the mixture with a pastry cutter until the butter is the size of peas. Add the milk and stir the mixture long enough to absorb the milk and any loose flour. If you still see loose flour, add another 2 tablespoons milk. Spriknle the cranberries over the mixture while sthirring so they are evenly distributed in the dough. Stir together the dough with a rubber spatula for about 1 minute. Don't overwork the dough. 

Dump the dough out onto a work surface and use your hands to gather it together in a mound, then flatten it into a disk. At this point, it may be necessary to knead it a little to get it to hold together in a loose shaggy mass. Roll it out into a 3/4-inch thick disk. Cut the disk into 8 wedges and put them in a baking sheet. 

Turn down the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the scones are pale brown. 

Makes 8 servings. 

This week's Frugal Feasts recipe requires you to sign up for Harris Tetter's E-vic program. You register online HERE and you get special deals with your Vic card that you wouldn't get otherwise. I recently bought a four-pack of Activa yogurt for 99 cents. Once you sign up, you can take advantage of this week's e-Vic special: two-pound Harris Teeter Rancher Beef 80% lean Ground Chuck for $2.97.
If you aren't signed up for e-Vic, it costs $4.97.

I recently attended Sue Stock's coupon class. One rule of thumb shared by Faye Prosser, the author of "The Smart Spending Guide," was to not spend more than $2 a pound on meat. This deal means ground beef costs less than $1.50 a pound. 

I found this recipe for Bacon Swiss Cheeseburgers with Tomatoes and Avocados from Sheila Lukins' book, "Ten." The cookbook's conceit is ten recipes for our favorite foods from hamburgers to ribs. Since it is January and tomatoes are not in season, I would forgo the tomatoes. Without tomatoes, this recipe costs $1.80 per serving.

Tabasco, bacon, Swiss cheese and buns are also on sale at Harris Teeter this week. As always, check out Sue Stock's Taking Stock blog for her Wednesday Deals post, where she pairs what's on sale with what coupons are out there.

This week, everyone has skinless boneless chicken on sale. Food Lion has them for $2.50 a pound. Lowes Foods has them for $2.29 a pound. Harris Teeter has them on sale in 2 1/2 pound bags for $1.99 pound. So choose your price and stock up!

Like many of you, I'm counting calories this month. (I've lost 4 pounds so far!) So I have been perusing recipes in a cookbook from the folks at Eating Well magazine. The book is “Eating Well: 500 Calorie Dinners, Easy Delicious Menus and Recipes.” This recipe for Curried Chicken Salad is only 240 calories a serving, and costs only $1.52 per serving. Happy eating, exercising and saving money!

Remember: To save more money, check out N&O retail reporter Sue Stock's Wednesday Deals, which pair coupons with what's on sale at the grocery store.