Last week ShopRite had Cool Whip 1/2 price and the ShopRite brand of cream cheese for $0.88, so I decided to pull out an awesome recipe that I got from Amiyrah’s blog last year. It’s so easy and delicious, I made it for a BBQ we attended over the weekend and it was a huge hit.

No-Bake Key Lime Cheesecake

Ingredients:
1 graham cracker crust
1 8oz bar of cream cheese, room tempurature
1 tub whipped topping
1/2 cup powdered sugar
zest of one lime
juice of two limes
1/2 tsp lemon extract (or 1 tsp vanilla, if you don’t have lemon)

Directions: Place the cream cheese in a medium bowl. With a handheld mixer, mix the cream cheese for about 2 minutes until smooth. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until it’s combined.
Place the extract, zest and juice in the cream cheese mixture and briefly combine.
Take half of the whipped topping and stir together with the cream cheese mixture. No need to be gentle.
Now, take the second half of the whipped topping, and gently fold it into the cream cheese mixture, until combined.
Place the cheesecake mix into the graham cracker crust and smooth the top.
Refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight.

Do you have a great recipe using Cool Whip? Leave a comment!

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Last week I stocked up on quite a few 40 oz. bottles of Heinz Ketchup since they were on sale for $1.49 at ShopRite and I had some $0.75 coupons that Heinz sent me when I called to compliment them on their product (1-800-255-5750). My plan was to make my simple BBQ sauce as part of this week’s Menu Plan.

Homemade Sticky Sweet BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

(2) 32 oz. bottles of ketchup

2 large onions, diced

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons dry mustard

juice of (1) lemon

pepper, to taste

(1/2 – 1) teaspoon hickory liquid smoke (optional)

Directions: Put the ketchup, onions and remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and them simmer for an hour or two until the ketchup takes on a deeper, reddish-brown appearance and thickens. Cool before using.

If you’re anything like our family, the thought of ordering pizza is very tempting on some nights. It took me at least a year when we first moved to our rural town before I finally found a favorite pizza place. That was before having children, when my husband and I both worked full-time, and we had pizza delivered at least once a week. Three children and one income later, I wondered if I could make a homemade pizza that tasted good enough to replace the cravings for my favorite pizza place while saving us money.

First I tried buying the dough pre-made at the grocery store. They have it in bags in the dairy case for $1.69, which is enough to make one 16″ pizza. It’s from a place called Birrittella’s, and I thought it tasted great, but it was hard working with the dough. I even followed their video tutorials, but couldn’t get the dough from constantly snapping back. Since I’m such a perfectionist it drove me crazy.

For my next attempt I decided to try Fleischmann’s Pizza Dough Yeast. What got my attention was its claim that it doesn’t snap back, there’s no rising time involved and it’s quick. It definitely doesn’t snap back, it is easy and quick to make and tastes pretty good. It’s just lacking a “full” flavor. I considered making a totally “from scratch” dough, then I read this about making the perfect pizza dough and almost fainted from information overload. There has to be some in-between but I don’t know what it is yet.

Here’s the end result:

Cost of homemade pizza:

Pizza Dough Yeast, 3 packets – $0.93/packet
ShopRite Shredded Mozzerella – $0.84 for 1/2 package used.
Pizza Sauce – made from ingredients on hand, approx. $0.25 for the can of tomato sauce and $0.25 for the tomato paste.
Final cost = $2.27 per pizza