Bargain Meal of the Week: St. Patrick's Day Edition

It's time for another week of Bargain Meals! Erin over at $5 Dinners (a great read!) is hosting a gathering of bloggers all over the Internet, creating frugal meals straight from the sales circulars of their favorite stores. Check it out for even more inspiration. I contribute every week for the current sales at Publix, which run from Wednesday to the following Tuesday. Keep in mind that you do not need to purchase two of a product to get the buy one get one price. Publix marks down their products to half price for the BOGO deals.

This recipe, Cabbage and Potato Hash, is perfect to honor St. Patrick's Day and is one of our favorites. Another frugal blogger posted this last year, and once I tried it, I totally fell in love. It is simple but so good! The recipe is very versatile. You can make it lighter (turkey bacon) or heavier (lots of real bacon) depending on your tastes. I generally use more bacon than the recipe calls for and a whole head of cabbage instead of half so as to have for lunch the next day. When I am in a hurry, I use hash browns (square chunks not shredded) instead of cooking and cutting up my own potatoes. It's good either way. Serve with homemade Spinach Bread (green for the occasion)!

Items on sale that can be used in this meal:

Butterball Turkey Bacon, 12 oz, at $2.79 BOGO
Final Price: $1.39

Green Cabbage, 29¢ lb

Red Potatoes 3 lb bag, $1.99


Cabbage and Potato Hash
by Frugal in Franklin

Ingredients:

• 4 med. baked potatoes (already baked and refrigerated) –peel and dice into ½" chunks
• 2-3 slices of thick cut bacon
• 1 lg. onion cut into ½ " chunks
• ½ small head of cabbage shredded (boiled for about 3 minutes to soften)

Directions:

Begin by frying the bacon. Remove from the pan, crumble, and set aside. Add the onion to the bacon grease in the pan (remove some of the grease if it's too much for your preference). Cook the onion in the grease until the chunks are almost translucent and brown on the edges.

Add the cabbage to the pan, mixing thoroughly with the onions, and heating the cabbage through. Add the potato chunks and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the bacon crumbles before serving.

Hint: I used leftover baked potatoes from a previous meal. Cooking and then refrigerating them seems to preserve the integrity of the potato, so it doesn't turn to mush when you heat it through.