The ladies who lunch

Like many other people out there, I am quite passionate about finding ways to save money. I am a coupon-cutter and very proud of it. :)

Yesterday, I drafted a shopping list based off the sales and coupons in the weekly Cash Wise ad and determined meals from the ingredients I was getting for cheap. I was intending to make a cilantro-lime crab salad in avocado halves for lunch today since my wonderful, cheery cousin was joining me for lunch, and as luck would have it, imitation crab had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon! I already had the other ingredients, so this worked out beautifully. I did my grocery shopping last night and saved 26% off my bill using coupons.

Diced tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, and crab
with a little mayo, lime, S&P, and cumin.

The crab salad turned out great, despite my lack of adherence to proportions or measurements. I just chopped however much I felt like of cilantro, tomatoes, and red onion, and stirred in a large scoop of mayo, then sprinkled in some salt, pepper, and cumin, and squished some lime wedges over the mixture. I did add the correct amount of crab. :) The other thing I did differently was scoop out some of the avocado, so I had a bigger "boat" to fill with salad, and mashed it up to stir in the salad.

(It is also helpful to brush the avocado halves with lime juice to prevent them from browning.)

Remove the pit by stabbing firmly with a knife
then scoop out some of the avocado to create
a shallow "boat" to fill with crab salad.

Oh! Also along the lines of saving money is my tip to check out discount grocery stores, especially for produce. Aldi's and Save-a-Lot have recently moved into town and are incredibly busy all the time. It is sometimes hit or miss with the ripeness or quality of the produce, but generally I've had a lot of luck finding 69¢ mangoes, 19¢ lemons or limes, 99¢ strawberries, and more!

Back to avocados and lunching with one of my favorite ladies...

My cousin and I had a perfect summer luncheon complete with a peach spritzer and strawberry pecan salad (with the pecans I caramelized yesterday). I felt as though I should have worn my cute polka dotted dress and discussed the latest in women's fashion.