OK, so you don’t see this too often: two Cheap Eats posts in one day. But I just wanted to let people know about the Free McSkillet Burrito promotion that is planned for tomorrow and Friday (Feb. 28-29). It’s not completely free - of course. You have to buy a medium or large drink. But if you were thinking of trying it out, this might be the time to do it. To be honest, I’ve been eyeing this burrito and thinking of getting it. I might just venture out on Friday morning and give it a go.

More details are on the McDonalds website.

By the way, because I’m doing two posts today, I’ll probably skip next week’s usual long post because I’ve got a ton of other work to do…

Free. F-f-f-free. Phree. Fwee.

That has a wonderful sound to it, hey? It’s the sound we like to hear the most here on Cheap Eats. But, it always seems there’s a catch to free goodies. Like you have to lend your email to unscrupulous marketers. Or you have to sell out your blogging integrity to thee man. Or you have to walk around like a living sandwich-board advertisement. I haven’t tried that one yet, but the year is still young.

So, I was sent this Senseo Coffee Pod System for free the other day. Now, what is the catch? The catch is that like free cell phones, free dish/cable network installments and free magazines, they want to make it as easy possible to rope you into a monthly “subscription” based type of payment. Sure, the phone is free, but you’ll be paying them a monthly fee that will eventually eclipse the cost of the “free phone” by far.

OK, so you don’t HAVE to sign up for any coffee subscriptions. However, because you need to use the special circular coffee packets with the Senseo machine - it’s pretty similar. They’re just reducing the barrier to entry by making the machine free - getting a lifelong coffee customer is completely worth the $70.

Incidentally, even though I was sent this machine without asking, it’s not like I’m special or anything. ANYONE can signup to apply for a chance to get a free Senseo machine as of right now. You just go to the Share Senseo website and fill out a quick questionnaire. The thing is - you are signing up for a CHANCE to get a free machine. You’re not guaranteed one. Needless to say, I’m told that if you use this link instead of just typing in sharesenseo.com, your application might be, er, expedited. And no, I’m not getting a kickback for sending you to them.

Ok, back to the coffee maker. Yes, so it does require their little “coffee pods” in order to use the machine (I’m debating whether or not it’s worth the effort to try and find a way to circumvent this by “making my own”. Right now, I’m leaning toward it being too much work). Also, you should note that I am NOT a coffee snob. I’ll drink pretty much anything as long as it’s not too burnt tasting. So if you really like coffee, your mileage will vary.

The first thing I noticed about the Senseo machine is that it is really WEIRD looking. To me at least. I wasn’t used to how curved everything was. It sort of looks like a cylinder that is leaning over to touch its toes. Now, I’m all for cool and unusual design - but I have to say that I wasn’t so happy with the way the main cylinder curves over the bottom plate where you put the cup.

I noticed right away when the instructions said to first flush out the device once by putting a bowl underneath to catch the excess water. I couldn’t find a bowl that would fit on it because the curved neck wouldn’t allow a large bowl to sit there without hanging off the edge. (Note: if you do get a machine, to flush it you can simply use a large wide cup that holds at least 10 oz. and you’ll be fine.)

My next complaint is the somewhat “unwieldy” curved nature of the detachable water reservoir. The shape just really makes it awkward to fill up and carry around - it’s shaped like a curved flat cannister, maybe like a warped hip flask or flat canteen. I guess it needs to be that way because the neck is so curved - anyhow, a minor complaint.

Continue reading “Free Senseo Coffee Maker” …

OK, so due to my unwillingness to settle for short and sweet posts, I put off posting about the Free Auntie An’s Pretzels until it was too late. Completely missed talking about the February 2, 2008 event. I’m not going to make the same mistake with IHOP’s National Pancake Day. I’ve posted about it before, but here it is again. It’s next week February 12, 2008 and occurs from 7am to 8pm.

They will give one free short stack of buttermilk pancakes to each guest (that is three pancakes), with no purchase necessary. The catch - they ask you consider making a donation to support local children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network or other local charities. That’s not really a “catch” to most, but i guess a few might think it is.

Visit: IHOP National Pancake Day

Every so often, I have a little conversation in my head with myself. A little mini “The State Of Cheap Eats” conversation. (By the way: warning, do not try talking to yourself when driving.) The conversation always concludes with the following: “Man, I should really try and write shorter posts on the blog. I could have more frequent posts and it would take much less time. I mean, there are fans of the longer posts but it’s just so draining and time consuming to research and write them. I could have a backlog of shorter posts to fall back on when I don’t have the time to write up a 3 dollar recipe. In addition, shorter posts would help out on the chronic shoulder/back issues I’ve been having.”

And I always resolve (especially near the new year) that THIS time I’m going to stick to a more frequent but shorter post schedule. The problem is, I always do one or two short posts and then fall back into the “usual”. It just seems like I’m not wired for writing quickhit blog posts or something. That’s great for readers, but bad for me.

Anyhow, what I mean to say is that I’m going to try again to keep up with the blog by writing shorter things. Hmm.. look at this post, it’s already as long as Britney’s hair would have been if she hadn’t shaved it all off.

Just kidding, no bagging on Britney please. The main reason for this post is to tell you that Fiber One is handing out free samples of their cereal. And all you have to do, i.e. “the catch”, is sign up for their EatBetterAmerica newsletter. That’s all you ever have to do for these things - agree be inundated with yummy emails. I would use a throwaway email address. Sometimes I also send these free samples to my PO Box to avoid getting junk mail at home - although not all places will send to a PO Box.

I think I might try and write up more of these “free food” thingies in the future - they’re popular, easy to talk about and relatively quick to post. In my opinion, I think you’ll save more money on food by learning how to cook and cutting down on eating out. But hey, give the people what they want right?

Anyhow, here’s where you sign up: Free Fiber One Cereal

Ugh, I’m a little under the weather. So we’ll have to go with simple pics with captions again for this week.

Obviously, making good use of Turkey Leftovers from Thanksgiving is definitely Cheap Eats. I say if you cooked the turkey, you’re entitled to the bones and some of the meat. Even if you didn’t make it - beg, borrow and steal that carcass. And heck with it: take the mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberry as well. I surreptitiously begin “setting aside” a leftover goodie bag while most guests are still working on clearing their plates. And you can distract (or scare) other would-be turkey bone thieves with wild-eyed stories of the “turkey that got away”.

By the way this year, I did the turkey using the Alton Brown brine-method w/ foil turkey shield, Polder probe and once again it came out underdone. Grr… Needless to say, after following his method EXACTLY 3 years in a row with the same results - I’m looking for a new method next year.

But let’s talk, er, happy turkey thoughts. Happy turkey leftover thoughts that is: I like to make at least 2 things with the leftovers. First is an Open Face Turkey sandwich, as in below:

I just warm up the leftovers and pile it on top of toast. To me, this is even better than turkey on the Day itself. Second up: The day after I also make a stock with the turkey bones and carcass (stockpot: water, 1/2 onion, 1 garlic clove, 2 carrot, 1 celery, dried thyme, simmer slow, skim, strain, refrigerate). Then on Saturday for lunch, we add some noodles, carrots, leftover shredded turkey, dash of Worcestshire, and sometimes potatoes to the heated stock. And it’s Turkey Soup time:

Man, looks like it came out of a can. But tastes a lot better. See you next week…

Just wanted to let everyone know that I’ll be taking a short break from posting. It should be no more than 2-3 weeks and then we’ll return with food reviews and recipes. Thanks for standing by.

Well lookie what we have here… I’m actually talking about The Cheap Eats Poll. Take a guess when was the last time this was changed out. That’s right - more than ONE YEAR ago. As such, the poll has had time to garner a huge number of votes (3095). Well, that’s huge for my site anyhow.

Several people had asked when I was going to change this darn thing out, and I just kept putting it off over and over again until it became almost a joke. But today, I decided to take a short break from food reviews to force myself to do it.

I have to say I’m pretty surprised with the results. According to the poll, today’s cooks are much more resourceful than I had thought. There’s hope for us after all. Maybe.

I had thought there was no way that the majority of people who answered would have cooked more than 2-3 times a week. Instead, nearly half the people (46%, 1429 votes) actually said that they cook dinner EVERY DAY. This is an astounding number to me, when you consider how busy modern workers today are and how easy it is to just pick up food on the way home. Sure, if this was the 60s I wouldn’t be surprised.

I have to admit myself that we fall into the category of only cooking dinner 2-3 times a week - there were 1211 other people who also responded this way, which is about 39%. If you add up the two categories, you come out with 85% of the people responding to the poll cooking dinner more two or more times a week. That’s awesome. Of course, you might also say that the people who visit my site, being the saavy Cheap Eaters that they are, would be more likely to cook their own food. I think there might be some truth to that.

In any case, it’s great: I keep saying it, but cooking your own meals instead of eating out is probably one of the greatest ways to save money on the food budget. If I get around to the Manifesto (and you know I won’t) then that’s probably rule #2 or 3.

The “once-a-week” chefs came out around 9% (265 votes). Hey, cooking once a week is better than none at all. Only six percent (190 votes) said they eat out all the time. I seriously thought there would be many more votes for those two categories.

At this point, I have to mention something nearly as important as cooking your own food: just because you don’t cook it yourself doesn’t mean that it’s eating out. My advice: creatively leech off of mom’s (or dad’s) home cooking all you can. That is, if you and the folks get along and they live relatively close. Hey, if you feel guilty about it, do the dishes! Or contribute to the cost of the food bill.

Ok, so there is another poll up now. I didn’t have much time to think about the theme for this one, so it’s pretty simple… what’s your favorite cheap eats food staple? I can’t promise that this one won’t be up for a long time like the other one was, but I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t stay up for a year at least!