Savings.com has a few discount codes to help things along if you are looking.

1. A Cooks.com code for 20% off one single item is good through November 2012.
2. A second Cooks.com code expires December 1, 2011 and is good for $30 off an order of $250 or more.
3. Vons is offering $5 off an order of $50 or more.
4. King Arthur Flour is offering 10-40% off, depending on the items.

I was surprised to see King Arthur Flour as a retail site. They do carry baking staples, but have a range of baking tools as well. Discounts of 20% and $5 might not seem like a bargain basement deal, but if you check the clearance section and also buy the things you actually really want, you can make your own sale and avoid all of the pushing and shoving and bake a cake instead.

Greek yogurt is more of a style or preparation technique. Regular, run of the mill yogurt is carefully strained to remove excess liquid. You can do this yourself by pouring, or more appropriately glopping, a quantity of yogurt in a fine strainer or onto a non-bleached paper towel. As the liquid drains, the yogurt remaining takes on a thicker consistency. What remains is a protein-concentrated and creamier product. However, you might not have time to allow the yogurt to strain and may opt for purchasing the variety outright. Commercially, some of the brand-names are Athenos and Oikos, though mass-market brands sometimes carry “Greek style.”

This type of yogurt may be slightly pricier than its counterparts, but when you consider the added nutritional value, you may decide its worth it.

A few extra super frugal tips:

• Print and save  Greek yogurt coupons whenever you find them online or in the paper. Make special note of the expiration dates. Most coupons are valid on one single item only, but some qualify for multiple purchases of the identical item on the same receipt. Fage, Oikos and sometimes Athenos are typically in the Organic/Natural section, while Greek-style Yoplait sits in the conventional dairy aisle. Chobani is another brand that I have yet to try.
• Look out for when your favorite grocer runs a sale. Hollywood Markets and Kroger sometimes run a “10 for 10 promotion on individual-sized yogurt. I am sure your other local names run similar sales. Slap the coupons on the register at that time if you can hold out. If the coupon is about to expire and no sale occurred, use it on the last day. A 1.25 to 1.75 was marked down to 1.00, then I slipped in my .50 to .75 coupon.
• Spot a manager’s special. Sometimes, a store location discounts short dated yogurts. I do not advocate buying a large tub of yogurt or other dairy products short-dated. However, you are very likely to eat a single individual yogurt or three within perhaps the five days before expiration. I spotted yogurt normally $1.25 on special for .78. With a .75 coupon, I scored one almost for free.

Try these slick tricks and try Greek yogurt if you haven’t already, for a price you can’t say “no” to.

This post brought to you by FRESCHETTA®. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of my readers has a chance to win a free Freschetta Simply…Inspired Pizza, plus a snifty (snazzy-nifty) new bamboo cutting board with the accessories to lay out a great appetizer display. Read on for details on how to win!

When I was in grade school, my parents moved to a two cow and one horse town (the horse actually got loose and ran around on the playground once) where the highlight of the week was eating a frozen pizza from the one grocery store and then going out for an ice cream. No, there wasn’t a pizza place, so the ice cream shop constituted a big spending night out. The pie was inevitably backed in cardboard and shrink wrapped with a cactus on the label. (What did pepperoni pizza have to do with some abandoned Old West ghost town? After all, it wasn’t as if they had baked beans and rattlesnake or bison as toppings.)

“Mom, let me open it.” Yes, the pie was so close, but yet so far under the clear shrink plastic.

“Here’s the kitchen scissors.”

“I can get my finger nail under the edge. What’s wrong with this?”

Two seconds later, a vacuum-pack pressure seal burst and mozzarella showered the floor.

I haven’t had a pizza from the grocery store in a few moons, mostly because of the deep-seated trauma, and I was quite surprised by the advances Humankind has made.

This past week, I tried a new FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ Pizza thanks to Freschetta. (Look them up on Twitter @FreschettaSI or “like” them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FreschettaSimplyInspired) Six standard-issue flavors and three limited edition combinations are stocked at your local grocer. The varieties are more akin to those at a gourmet pie factory rather than the standard fare at take out pizza counters. If you are a fan of Bertucci’s on the East Coast, Crust, or California Pizza Kitchen (the restaurant, not the frozen pizza), this will be slightly more to your liking than a $5 Hot and Ready at Caesar’s. The Classic Bruschetta, which appeared at the Snack Hound test kitchen, features a garlic pesto base rather than a tomato sauce—a boon for acid-reflux suffers. A smattering of chopped Roma tomatoes, fresh basil and roasted garlic top a three cheese blend. Basically, its a Margherita pizza with a cream rather than a tomato base.

The crust is wafer thin compared to other Freschetta pizza offerings, and I caution you to cook the pizza on the lean end of the 14-17 minute time allotment. Then again, I used a pizza stone, so there is that margin of error. For best results, set the timer for ten minutes and then check it if cooking on a stone or using a convection oven. For traditional ovens, check it after 12. The crust will approach a golden brown, but you might be one of those folks who just like the heat to glance at the cheese. Pan seared Mozzarella, anyone?

What most impressed me was the expiration date on the pizza. Yes, it actually had one. Mine was purchased April 23rd and expired in July. This is most likely why I was not overwhelmed with the sodium-heavy taste of many instant pizzas. It simply doesn’t have the dearth of preservatives. The Fresch-Taste Seal package is a plastic, recyclable tray with a peel off top. It really does lock the flavors in. I know you will miss the exercise of poking shrink wrap with a tooth pick, but it does use 30% less packaging than the traditional boxed frozen pizzas.

The taste of the pizza did not have a strong sodium bouquet like I am used to for frozen pizzas. The basil added just the right amount of sweetness. Due to the very thin crust, I would recommend cooking up two pizzas if two hungry but not gluttonous adults were making a meal of it with no salad or appetizers. The perfect application would be as a fancy appetizer at a party. Cut up the pizza into thin slices and serve on a cutting board.

Bottom line, would I buy these? I wouldn’t buy them for any linebacker-like brothers and his linebacker friends, but would definitely buy them if I wanted a bit of a more upscale pizza experience.

Speaking of cutting boards, are you ready to win? One of my lucky readers receives a small round bamboo cutting board that swivels to hide the perfect utensils for serving cheeses and other appetizers. You will also receive a certificate to redeem for a Freschetta Simply Inspired Pizza from your grocer.

To enter:

1) Comment on this blog post: Each comment laureat will receive one entry.

2) Tweet: Tweet this post to your friends. Include @TheSnackHound in your tweet, that way I’ll be able to find it and give you an additional entry.

3) Follow @TheSnackHound on Twitter. Leave me a comment here to let me know with your twitter handle if its not obvious.

4) Blog about this post with a link back.

So..you have a total of four chances to win. Winner will be determined by random number generator.

Contest Closes May 8th.

Reader must reside in the Continental USA or Canada to win.

Granted, the ship-to-store option isn’t available for the items, at least not as far as I could see, so you will have to pay shipping of $12.50 per set. Dishes are heavy to ship, so that’s not out of the ballpark. You’ll still enjoy substantial savings. My investigating attitude is going to stalk the local Sears stores to see if the same deal is offered in-store, if it is, you can beat the shipping cost, but you may not get your choice of color.

The price beats Amazon, but does not beat Macy’s IF you select Evergreen at Macy’s.

Hurry scurry, because they are disappearing awfully fast. I almost don’t have time to contemplate if my oval platter is really Yellow or Sunflower to help choose a complimentary color or should I just choose my favorite hue with no regards as to rhyme or reason, like I usually do. Any thoughts?

I get sticker shock every time I see the Red Lobster menu and lobster is “market price,” or in other words, if you have to ask you can’t afford it. Maybe I’m spoiled as I used to live near where the lobster boats moored for the night and you could have a lobster dinner for the price of a scoops of Ben & Jerry’s. I ended up going a little crazy. I bought the biggest lobster I could find at the grocery store. all $32.97 worth. I waited until the weather was really bad and the lobster traps were all safely on the shore, then I released her. Yes, it was a “her,” I checked. Then I caught her again. I forgot to take the rubber bands off of her claws. No wonder why the release had been so easy. Somehow I thought she like a baby rhino accepting a tug from an elephant to escape quick sand and would just “know” I was trying to help her. She snapped at me anyways, or whatever is it that they do with those things. The release was eventually a success and I had the scars to prove it.

My lobster adventures are over, but I still have a taste for seafood. It is so hard to wade through all the information and find it from a good source. I get so disheartened with all of the salmon and shrimp at the super market that comes out of Asia. You can still get fresh seafood shipped, I have found. In fact, there are a few sources that offer sustainably caught seafood and the price either is only slightly higher or matches conventional seafood at the supermarket.

What is sustainable? The fish or shellfish caught is the species targeted. There are no “bycatches,” such as dolphins, turtles caught in nets. Fish species that the fisher is not seeking also is not caught either. This prevents areas from being overfished and allows species to thrive. Sustainable fishing also does not rely on fish farms, which can be a breeding ground for disease as the fish are raised and live in man-made pools. Dead fish do not get decomposed naturally by the ecosystem. Fish do not become hardy, with only the strongest living to mate. Natural selection that protects fish from passing down disease does not occur. Those big fish that live a zillion years and are more prone to mercury issues, such as swordfish, are not caught by sustainable seafood merchants.

Where do you find sustainable seafood, such as Oregon pink salad shrimp, albacore caught with fishing poles in Hawaii and Canada, Skip Jack tuna and more, when you buy seafood online. Skip jack is a small tuna with a shorter lifespan that you may enjoy without mercury worries. So, it won’t make you sick, and it certainly nothing will grab your fingers or toes in mouths or pinschers.

Have you purchased seafood online or did you find a source, like an organic store that carries it? If so, tell me what you think!

We all know by now that if you are an “indoor person” you can get fit with Billy Blanks, but Billy Blanks doesn’t stop the video or DVD and tell you how you are actually doing compared to the folks in the studio.  Does he really know you are not sitting on the sofa watching him do all the work? Personally, if I was actually exercising, I’d make sure to send him an email or something to make sure he knew, because the last time I checked, it looks like Billy Blanks could flatten you if he wanted to, and maybe he doesn’t take kindly to sitters.

If there is a way to NOT exercise while having spent a lot of money on gadgets, there must be a way to feed your face too.

Over at , iNetVideo I have found amongst the sea of blu-ray movies and dvds, that Nintendo makes a game where Jamie Oliver helps you cook. Well, he really doesn’t, but its an interactive experience where you get grocery lists and figure out how to do all sorts of stuff.  In fact, they actually had other titles on dvd and various games revolving around cooking and nutrition.  iNetVideo has been around since the late 90s and has offered movies and games at a discount, but with the information overload of all the other movie websites out there, I’ve overlooked it until now.

If you interested, it appears to be a title that is being discontinued, or they just bought a lot of them, because its 70% at $5.99. It really doesn’t matter if they are coming out with a new game system, if a DS is what you have.  I still play the old Atari 2600. I don’t think Jamie Oliver would come over give you a whooping like Billy Blanks could, but he is certainly more skilled at wielding sharp objects, so you best make an effort, kids. Actually, he doesn’t have to do anything because if you choose to eat garbage all the time, you will cause more damage than a one time encounter with a juicer-of-steel could.

Typically, there will be first quality as well as factory seconds.  Some factory seconds merely have an air bubble or other small production blemish and are perfect for daily use, so don’t let it discourage you if you are primarily looking to complete or compliment your set, versus looking to ferret away pieces for collecting posterity. This is a great opportunity to buy one of the more expensive pieces, like a pitcher or mixing bowl set that you intend to use daily.

For etiquette tips on going to the Factory Sale, check out this post from 2008 and here.

As of this moment, I do not know if the new Paprika color will be in the mix as far as 1st quality pieces, but you are sure to find decorated pieces that wouldn’t have been available at a standard department store, or get a chance to mix and match with older colors.

The store is located at 70 miles west of Charleston at :

Everything Fiesta®
52 Skidmore Lane
Sutton, WV 26601

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Three days later, the candy aisle at Whole Foods still is pilfered.  The only bar to be had, if the chocolate scanner picked things up correctly, is the Milk Chocolate variety.  That is just plain boresville to a dark chocolate aficionado. My worse fear was momentarily toyed with: what if Endangered Species bars were being discontinued and this was there way of giving us our last fix?  I don’t think so, based on the empty slots remaining on the shelf. If they were truly gone, the whole area would have been remerchandised.   I don’t buy these bars every day or week as it would appear, but since I can’t have them, it makes me want them even more, especially the Goji Berry bar.  I can’t remember what it tasted like.

In the meantime, I guess I will have to be happy with the Kroger sale, but I don’t want to be. They have a limited variety of varieties and they are more expensive.  Sure, its time versus money but perhaps the thrill of the hunt is worth more to me. Perhaps the true answer is that I am just somewhat insane.  Ascribing this task as a worthy pursuit just makes me feel a bit better about my condition.

The moral of the story? If you see said dark chocolate varieties of candy bar, just clean off the shelf.  It may be more chocolate than you need right now but its cheaper than paying full price in the long run. Get thee to a Whole Foods or Kroger’s.  Just stay away from mine.

Select from new flavors such as Cookies and Milk, Maple Blondie, or Peanut Brittle, or choose any other variety on the menu. There is much sorrow in the land.  Alas, it appears that they have discontinued Bovinity Divinity. It is chalk full of large pieces of chocolate shaped like happy cows.  It brought joy to my heart.  It was discontinued nine whole years ago, but I still haven’t quite gotten over it.

Enjoy your ice cream, just knowing that I may be weeping in my dish, reminiscing on how the world was once full of small (but large compared to an ice cream cone) benevolent bovine.  Also, the nearest Ben and Jerry’s shop or even counter is at least a forty minute drive away and they don’t even have all the flavors because I think it is just a counter in a hospital cafeteria.

To me, it does not even hold a half melted birthday candle to the genius that is Nannerpuss from 2009. It has the charm of a 1983 5th grader created stop action film. You may disagree, but I am hard pressed to find anything that compares.