This beef stew was made with Dollar Tree grocery ingredients. (Some Dollar Tree locations now have freezer aisles & canned/dry goods.) My paycheck has been a over $100.00 short lately because of the US Government Sequestration. So, I've had to come up with some cheap but filling dinner ideas.

• Egg Noodles from Dollar Tree 12oz bag. (Only use half the bag & don't add them until the last hour).
• 1 Package of frozen mixed veggies Steam'ables 10oz from Dollar Tree
• 3 packages of frozen Rib Eye steak meat from Dollar Tree 3oz each. Cut into small pieces.
• 1-2 medium sliced, diced or whole onions- your preference (The onions are not from Dollar Tree)

Sauce:

I mix my sauce first and whisk it together in a large bowl, then I pour it over the meat & veggies in the crock pot. Stir everything together.

• 2 cups of Water 
• 1 cup of Ketchup
• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce 
• 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoons of salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper 
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning. (Red lid)
• 3 tablespoons of Flour (Whisk into sauce).

Directions: Cook for 7 hours on low in the crock pot. During the last hour of cooking- add the egg noodles and stir well. (This makes around 5 servings.)

You can add whatever veggies you have laying around, I had half a bag of baby carrots left over, so I put those into the stew as well.


Other Dollar Tree related blogs: 

My Dollar Tree is Freaking Amazing!

* Everything was purchased by myself, I am not affiliated with Dollar Tree.

I love picking up stuff for our apartment to decorate. I visited Pier 1 Imports this past Friday. I saw this Elephant Teapot on their website before and it was 20% off in the store. It was just $12. I'm using it more for decor than for drinking tea though, hehe. It's currently sitting on one of my living room tables. I love it!


I also got some new dishes from... Dollar Tree! I saw these on their website, (but not wanting to buy in bulk- 24 bowls would be a bit excessive...) My husband checked a few of the Dollar Trees around us and was able to find the plates & bowls. Can't seem to find the matching mugs at any of the stores near us, but oh well. They are really pretty dishes and only $1 each!


Another Pier 1 Imports find. They had these large turquoise plastic tumblers (23 oz.) for $6 each. I thought the color would go well with the above dishes. They are made with a heavy durable plastic.



Other things on my to do list:

• Find a cute kitchen mat for in front of the sink. 
• Find dining chair covers or cushions (white, black or aqua).  
• Keep bidding on vintage/antique salt & pepper shakers on ebay until I win a set, lol.

 

I never took pictures of the floral Target placemats I ordered. When they arrived, instead of being black & white... they turned out to be black and frosted clear; (That was not mentioned on Target's website) Clear did not work with our dark wood dining room table. The design did not show up well at all...

I didn't want to return them because I really liked the design, so I've been trying to find something to go underneath them. We finally found white contact paper at Dollar Tree. So I sat down and put contact paper onto the back of each placemat. (Was that ever tedious, lol!) Now the color is showing up how I wanted it to. Black & White. Plus the contact paper can be cleaned with soap & water. :-)

The lamps I ordered from Target arrived the other day. Only when I opened the box. Instead of two of the same exact lamp. I had two very different damask lampshades. One was smaller and more narrow, the other was like the picture on Target's website, bigger & rounder with gray around the damask pattern. They looked pretty stupid standing next to each other when I wanted two matching lamps.

I took the lamps to our Target to exchange, but they had to do them as a return. They gave me a Target giftcard with my refunded balance. Luckily they had the same lamps in stock so I was able to pick out two matching shades this time. And I did see that more narrow damask shade there. So to anyone buying two of these damask lamps online- just be aware you may get two different style shades and you may have to return them! (The model number for both of the lamps with different lampshades were exactly the same too!)






I got some really cute aqua & black & white baskets at Dollar Tree. I put them on our entertainment stand to organize things.


 I also found these really gorgeous turquoise pillows at Target. They weren't on sale, but I really loved them and there were just 2 left. I got both of them to put on our black & white chairs in the living room.


I looked all over Target's website. But apparently they aren't selling this pillow anymore. The turquoise damask is a velvet material. (The UPC is: 065153726 18x18).

I've always loved Dollar Tree. They always have a really good selection of products and a lot of name brand items all for $1.00 or less. Just last year our Dollar Tree put in a freezer section and expanded their food aisles.

They have Campbells & Progresso soups now. Tons of canned vegetables, noodles, tortillas. I already discount grocery shop at Bottom Dollar & Food Basics. But wow my Dollar Tree has really stepped up it's game! I wanted to share some of my awesome Dollar Tree grocery finds!

Frozen Fruit! My dollar store now has frozen fruit! Even Aldi & Walmart charge $3+ for frozen fruit. I can now get frozen strawberries & blackberries for $1! I love making smoothies so these come in handy. Plus I sometimes take Crystal Light lemonade powder & frozen strawberries and blend with ice for strawberry lemonade! Yum! 


This isn't even half of the frozen vegetables Dollar Tree now offers. These are just some of my favorites!


This has to be the craziest dollar store find ever. Real frozen baby shrimp at the dollar store! They even had the full shell shrimp, (but I don't like their little heads, lol. They creep me out). Think I'm going to make a Thai stir fry with these baby shrimp & some veggies one night!

Frozen stuffed cheese ravioli & name brand tomato sauce. So neat! Hoping these Ravioli were worth $1! :-)


We also got these amazing skins on, garlic & onion fries last week. But this week they were out of stock, so I don't have a picture of the package. They reminded me of KFC's wedge fries. They were really amazing & only $1!


And no; I'm not getting paid to advertise Dollar Tree! I just really really love them!