Housing Works BUY THE BAG sale haul

So its really been a while since I've gone, and this time I took friends and people always ask me what I get so I thought I'd acutally do a post.  I will say this was probably my most disappointing trip, apparently because of snow storm, they haven't been able to get new shipments.  I still found some great things but mainly I got my bag so I could gift the friends I bought along something.  And even though I sent them videos and told them what to expect, I feel like the girls I took along didn't get it.  They barely digged and just wanted to leave because they felt sick.  Because of that I barely got to go through even half of the bins and was such a rush packing! I forgot things.  SO future tip, don't take people along that you think will be extremely weird about the sale and digging.  ON  the other end of that spectrum, I took some regular retail shopper friends in the past with very higher end tastes and they went LOCO ! I could barely get them to leave lol.

Here is what I ended up taking home on this trip  ONE BAG $25

SILK one piece JUMPSUIT from Banana Republic , Extra Long Zara Turtle Neck, Helmut Lang Cardigan (very unique cut), another super excellent quality unique cardigan, perfect fit H&M work blazer with flower silk inside

From this pile along the SILK JUMPSUIT form BR made my trip! I mean Jumpsuits are all the rage and this is 100% silk!  Second comes the Helmut Lang Cardigan its a really amazing cut .  Then its a tie between unique cardy and H&M blazer

I got this Slim Fit dress shirt for a friend.  Reason I picked it up is because it was in excellent condition and it was SLIM fit.

I don't usually pick up beanies but this was one of those extra well constructed super perfect fit beanies that retail for alot and are super hard to find a great slouchy fit.  And a plain gray work out shirt from Forever 21.

NIKE shorts had tag plastic still on it and looked new and in my size exactly!  The shirt too, I have this feeling that NIKE donates because this stuff I could tell was in great shape and I really was looking for more sports bras and this shirt has it built in so perfect for me!  

Saved myself $15 by not having to buy a low quality sports bra from Forever 21 :)

H&M skirt picture doesn't do this skirt justice! Its also one of my favorite finds because the way its made its made to hide your belly! One of the reason's I hate wearing pencil skirts.

Express Wrap Dresss

Another random dress

Truly my favorite find this quilted puffy kind of skirt from CLub Monaco, perfect fit and best part is the fabric helps hide my muffin top so sleek! Again super great condition

Ties = Gant pals favorite brand, Brooks Brothers, MOMA and GAP (they take no space in bag so if I see great quality one I pack it)

To the accessories!  Real Calf letter belt, Super long Silk Scarf, Sun Hat, Fitness Head band and wallet

OK I really needed a fitness head band , this one is made from really great material and has really good elastic.  The Wallet is angry lil asian girl brand! love it really great compartments!  Hat is gift for mom so totally worth it, and I really love extra long silk scarfs

And tada ! Ski pants, I really needed these this year but will be great for next year again in store would have cost me way more than my bag itself

Not pictured is perfect gray cable knit sweater (one of my fav finds), the J Crew gray tights I got, the 100% silk tights sport tights I got, the extra long knitted Michael Kors Scarf, and DKNY slacks.  And then my friends finds a 2 dresses, belt, 3 scarfs.

Burrito vs Burrito Bowl

I can't believe I didn't know this but its more cost effective to just order a burrito bowl vs a burrito. You get lots lots more filling!  At Chipotle you can even ask for the tortilla on the side!  Either way for me I have lots of freegan tortillas so basically ordered my Burrito Bowl, and used fresh ingredients first to make my burritos.  This is a great way to stretch your meals and not overeat as well because typically I can't finish a bowl in even two sittings.

I'll even stretch meals further by adding potatoes, egggs for a morning burrito !

More HOliday party left over meals

So to stretch the cost of my meals, you may have noticed that I typically make a huge batch of carbs.  In this case since most of my holiday leftovers had italian theme, I made huge batch of spagetti.

I took that spagetti, added cheap tomato sauce and home made white beans.  Then took the chicken from party, and freegan Kale salad and tossed all together to make this awesome KALE veggie, Spagetti Chicken dish.   Super healthy and cheap meal for my work day :)

Xian Famous Foods: Spicy Lamb Noodle Remix

I love spicy food and one of the most tragic things I find is when people just throw away the sauce.  That chilli oil is so darn delicious and a labor of love.  So early this year I had opportunity to get free dish from Xian Famous Foods grand opening, it was awesome.  Everyone loves free stuff but they were so generous in their offerings, I got their hand pulled noodle with spicy lamb dish to go.

I literally made spicy dishes for a week off this one meal.  Meal #1 was 3/4 of the noodles with sauce and some of the meat.  Meals 2-4 , was taking leftovers especially the sauce and adding it to bowl of rice and my favorite veggie Bak Choy.   Because of the spicy sauce I really was able to stretch this meal into 3 additionally cheap meals!

Lesson, never ever throw away the remainder of your ASian Spicy dish, a little chilli oil goes a long way!  It really makes a plain bowl of rice, a meal on its own almost.  In this case $1 worth of rice and $1veggie, total cost $2 for total of 4 delicious meals!   Or if u didn't get this free, $10 bux for 4 meals.
I do this with all my Spicy Takeways.

Christmas Leftovers Recipe REmix

I just had to post on this RECIPE remix/extender.   So been getting crazy amounts of leftovers from group parties and stuff, yes this is why I always have emergency Tupperware at my desk.  You never know when some group is going to have a party and just a ton of leftovers.  Case in point, I had huge pan of leftover CHICKEN Parmesan, EGGplant Parmesan, Pasta stuff basically.  

After eating so many meals of this you do get sick of it alil so this is why I make remix recipes. 

And of course I freeze things till I'm ready to return to my leftovers.  

This holiday my

PASTA Lima Bean Chicken Parmesan 

was born!

So when I cook at home, I'm really sparse with the cheese and meat.  My leftovers were literally huge chunks of chicken and cheese, way too rich/ gluttonous for me after a few meals.  So I basically extended this recipe to include cheap and healthy fillers.

In this case, I had dried Lima Beans (originally thought they were white beans) and my free veggie pasta from couponing.  Way healthy and grease free by themselves.  I put 1/2 bag of beans in crockpot and cooked the pasta.  And of course put them in tupperware.   All in all very little work.

Then when I was ready to eat the meal, I just put my pasta, white beans, cheap Ragu sauce in microwave ( you can do oven)  and let it cook for 90 seconds.  Then added in the party leftovers cheese and chicken for another 60 seconds.

And magically I have a more healthy meal than the chicken parm I had taken home.

Beauty of this meal for me is all I paid for was the tomato sauce and I'm going to get a lot of meals out of this one original tupperware full of pasta leftovers.  What would have been 2 meals alone now I can easily stretch into 6 meals by adding cheap healthy food staples.   Not to mention I'm going to have left over beans and pasta and pasta sauce.

I'm sharing this idea because realistically everyone can usually get pasta/beans/pasta sauce for about $1 each on a regular supermarket sale.  And this is a really really recipe, you can technically make all in one pot if your lazy like me.  And for me to save money on food, key principle is to add as much cheap fillers as possible. 

Lesson: Laziness costs money

So a couple days ago, I was starving for a hearty hangover breakfast.  I was so desperate I actually went and bought breakfast, I went to a cheap place close to work but it cost me $4!!!! Ok $4 is not a lot of money but let me tell u what I got for that 4 dollars.  One egg on a roll, with 2 slices of bacon and a slice of cheap american cheese.  And one frozen hash brown patty.  All pretty bad and my bread was STALE!!!!!!! I paid $4 and my freegan food was way way better!  So that is my lesson and I am now obsessed with prepping my meals for emergency hangover breakfasts!

And to top it off, I know better.  I know my food is better and with prep and thought I could of made a weeks worth of that same breakfast for the same price.  And this stop for breakfast which was suppose to be quick and easy, made me 10 min late for work.  Which only adds to the cost of this meal.

Quinoa Omlette

My awesome super healthy breakfast!

So I had leftover, mushroom quinoa from this fancy organic place and spicy cold avocado soup.  I just stir fried the quinoa with oyster mushroom, then cracked an egg scrambled it a little , drizzled with some freegan cheese and bam! For the final touch since I usually put hot sauce on my eggs, I opened my spicy avocado soup and healthy breakfast was made.  Really surprised at how quick it was and cheap! Compared to going out for brunch.  My cost was just 10 cents for the eggs!