Convenience Confessions

this week we are away from home a lot due to the Independence Day holiday, visiting wonderful friends and finally getting a much-needed date night with Deputy Handsome. So I will be cooking some this week, but we'll also be relying on convenience foods I have stocked in my pantry and freezer from recent sales. I almost don't want to admit to eating these foods after being up on my high horse about freshness and goodness, but sometimes it tastes so good to be bad. Here are our favorites:

Freshchetta Frozen Pizza - this is the best-tasting frozen pizza. It doesn't taste like any other pizza I've ever had - frozen or not! The sauce tastes fresh, not what you'd expect and the combination of five different cheeses makes me a very happy girl.

DiGiorno Pizza and Cookies - I was so excited when I first found coupons for this item, before I had ever seen it advertised or seen the actual product in the grocery store. It took quite a few weeks for my local stores to being stocking this double-dose of deliciousness, but thankfully my coupons hadn't expired yet when it finally arrived. I think DiGiornio pizza is not as good as Freshchetta, but you know I'm a sucker for cookies.

Rice-A-Roni - As much as I love cookies, Deputy Handsome loves Rice-A-Roni. I have mentioned before that I could serve this every night and get no complaints from my husband and on nights I have not cooked ahead, it's so easy to pull some chicken from the freezer and a box of rice from the pantry and have dinner ready in 30 minutes.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - I recently had a bunch of coupons for the new fancy mac & cheese, but after trying it, the plain blue box kind suits me just fine too.

not-just-for-breakfast cereal - about a month ago, when asked about my couponing, I mentioned that I had fifteen boxes of cereal in my pantry at the moment (average price per box: $1.25). Someone incredulously asked wouldn't it get stale before we could eat it all and I just laughed. Deputy Handsome can go through a box in four days and I am not far behind that pace. When I was pregnant I could eat three bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch a day and never get tired of it. And even now, sometimes when I put off dinner until after the kids are in bed, I often reach for a box of cereal for a quick and satisfying meal.