ZipList Giving Away $600 to Lucky Wise Bread Readers!
Editor's Note: The contest has ended! We're picking the winners right now. Please keep an eye out for a prize email from Wise Bread or KillerAcesMedia (our parent company). Congrats to comment winners Addrienne Mertens ($150), Anne Mostella ($150), Cynthia C ($50), and Kelsey ($50). Congrats to Twitter winner @Shawnamichelle2 ($100). ZipList User registration winner is Brenda B.
To help us celebrate Thanksgiving, ZipList is helping us give away $600 in prizes!
ZipList is a free online and mobile shopping list and recipe organizer that lets you save all your favorite recipes and automatically organizes your grocery lists. I'm a big fan of this service because:
- You can create and share lists with your family, and allow them to add items or check them off in real time. No more duplicate dishes on Turkey Day!
- ZipList has over 300,000 recipes from hundreds of popular food websites, like Woman's Day, Martha Stewart, and $5 Dinners.
- You can access your list online or via free apps from iPhone or Android. You always have your list with you so no more wasted trips to the supermarket.
3 Easy Ways to Enter $600 Giveaway
1) Comment Entry: $400 Prizes
Simply leave a comment below before end of 11/23/11, answering the question: What's your favorite Thanksgiving budget dish or comfort food? (Answer must be at least two sentences long.)
We'll randomly select 4 comment winners. Prizes are 4 Visa Gift Cards: $150, $150, $50, $50 -- perfect for your holiday grocery shopping spree.
2) Twitter Entry: $100 Prize
To enter, simply do this before end of 11/23/11:
- Tweet this message: Retweet to win $100 from @Ziplist & @WiseBread giveaway http://bit.ly/ziplist2 #zipwin
- Follow @ZipList and @WiseBread so we can contact you if you win.
We'll randomly select 1 Twitter winner. Prize is 1 $100 Visa Gift Card.
3) ZipList User Registrant: $100 Prize
To enter, simply click this link - http://zipth.is/@ztq8dy to save The Ultimate Budget Thanksgiving Dinner checklist to a ZipList account, where you can then create a grocery shopping list, search for personalized recipe recommendations and discover other helpful checklists.
One lucky person will be chosen at random to win a $100 Visa Gift Card.
General Rules
Limit to one comment or tweet per day per person. You can enter all 3 contests to increase your chances but you can only win 1. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years or older. Ends at 11:59 pm Eastern on 11/23/11. Winners will be randomly selected and announced on Wise Bread before December 15. If winners do not respond to prize notification within 3 days we reserve the right to select another.
5 Ways to Save Big on Thanksgiving
While Thanksgiving may be the biggest meal of the year, with a little simple planning you can have a stress-free and budget-friendly Turkey Day!
1) Use Checklists to Keep Track of What You Need: Save a checklists to help you make sure you have all of your Turkey Day essentials, like stuffing mix, sweet potatoes and green beans. No need for extra, costly trips to the supermarket. Check out this budget dinner checklist created just for the holidays:
Ultimate Budget Thanksgiving Dinner Checklist Get the most out of your budget by opting for some pocket friendly Thanksgiving grocery items.
2) Make Less Than You Think You Need:
Take a headcount, but then make less. There are so many must-have side dishes - mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole - that guests won't be taking their usual helpings. Make less of each dish and you should still have plenty of food.
3) Save on Side Dishes
It's easy to modify traditional favorites to save money. For green bean casserole, mix frozen green beans with frozen corn. Once cooked, top with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. You can also see big savings by opting for brown-and-serve rolls over crescent rolls.
4) Buy a Frozen Turkey
Believe it or not, you can save 30-40% (or more) by choosing a frozen turkey over a fresh, organic or free range turkey. Just be sure to give yourself 4-5 days for the turkey to thaw in your refrigerator. If you choose to thaw your turkey in cold water, allow 30 minutes per pound.
) Bake Your Own Pies
Pumpkin pie is cheaper to make than to buy (and it's so easy to make!). Plus, frozen pie crusts can often be found on sale. Here are a couple of our favorite pumpkin pie recipes to add to your recipe box:
Double Decker Pumpkin Caramel Pie Recipe This pie took first place in a local Fall Harvest Festival pie contest!
Traditional Pumpkin Pie Betty Croker Recipe A traditional favorite made fuss-free with an easy pat-in-the-pan crust!
Good luck with the contest! I look forward to reading all your yummy entries.
Tagged: Food and Drink, Giveaways
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My favorite Thanksgiving recipe has got to be the stuffing. I almost never eat it any other time of the year, so November marks the countdown to stuffing!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is the stuffing. I love that it's both creamy and crunchy and can be created in so many different ways.
Ahh, favorites are too hard to choose! Two Thanksgiving things I absolutely would die without? Stuffing and creamy brocolli salad. Yum!
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my favorite thanksgiving food is mashed rutabaga. the only hard part is cutting the rutabaga. boil a couple cubed rutabagas till tender, drain, throw in a stick of butter, salt & pepper, mash, add some turkey gravy and enjoy.
my favorite budget Thanksgiving dish is the mashed potatoes. I can usually get a 5lb (sometimes even 10lb) bag on sale for $0.69 this time of year. I add a tiny bit of butter, dab of sour cream, and milk (salt & pepper & garlic too) and have fluffy potatoes for not much money
My favorite budget comfort food is mashed potatoes and carrots (both mashed and mixed together) with a splash of ginger or cinnamon. The spices give the popular dish a nice twist and make it more nutritious than your typical mashed potatoes. Yumm....
Sweet and Sour Green Beans with Bacon-- yummy. Not typically Thanksgiving or a comfort food, but I only get them when home for the holidays with my Grandma.
Homemade gravy. Thoroughly mix together equal parts flour and drippings in a pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the roux is lightly browned. Then wisk in turkey stock until it reaches the consistency you want. So good and it's pretty foolproof.
Sweet potatoes! You can make casserole with them or top with marshmallows or candy them or even make pie. Very budget friendly and a staple for Thanksgiving dinner.
Turnip and Carrot is hands down my favorite Thanksgiving dish. 2lbs of purple top turnips and 2lbs of carrots costs less than $6 and covers me for at least a week in the veggie/side dish department. With a little butter and salt it's irresistible.
Two words: homemade stuffing! My mother make her own stuffing,and it tastes delicious! The savory food is great alongside other traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. Some may not like stuffing, although I am not sure why. My mother's stuffing is also NOT put in the turkey, allowing it to stand on its own among the creamy potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Stuffing, when created at home and sans poultry, is a delight!
With potatoes on sale right now, homemade garlic mashed potatoes are hard to beat. They are cheap, yummy, and comforting.
My favorite budget conscious Thanksgiving food is mashed potatoes and gravy. Our local Ralph's always has 10lb bags of potatoes on sale and we have all of the other ingredients in the house already -- butter, milk, salt, sour cream. The gravy is easy enough too, using the turkey drippings. Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without mashed potatoes and gravy!!
Mmmmmmmm mashed organic yukon gold potatoes! Served with gravy from my organic, free-range turkeys.
Buy frozen? Are they serious? Know where your food comes from, do a little research. An organic or heritage turkey may cost more but at least you know it was raised in decent surroundings!
My family would hurt me if I didn't make pumpkin pie. My husband and I like to use pumpkin for all kinds of things, and I buy a specific name-brand can because nothing else tastes like it, not even the fresh pumpkins at the store. I save a little by buying the big can and freezing whatever doesn't get used in the pie.
Our cranberry salad with apples and walnuts is a holiday must. It's economical and it looks beautiful and colorful.
I can't decide between the mashed potatoes with lots of butter and milk or the dressing with onions and celery. Wait, I forgot about the not from the can cranberry sauce that brings it all together. Since we're vegetarians, we eat a meatless turkey with meatless gravy and all the wonderful sides. Yum. How long until Thanksgiving?
You cannot have Thanksgiving without Glazed Carrots!! I find using the baby carrots the best and then I use brown sugar, maple syrup, butter and lket them simmer until just slightly soft!! Yummy and the kids love them!!
Mac n cheese, the ultimate comfort food!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is green bean casserole. I try to make it every Thanksgiving and it just reminds me of all the Thanksgivings in my past!
For Thanksgiving, if you want budget and filling, I always go for mashed potatoes and corn! This is sooo inexpensive. Add salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper for some spice, and you are good to go.
My favorite budget dish is scalloped corn, canned corn, boxed cornbread, butter, and sour cream. Delicious!
Favorite budget dish and comfort food is definately sweet potatoes. Plain baked topped with butter and brown sugar, boiled and sprinkled with brown sugar and baked to carmelize, mashed and topped with marshmallows........ endless options
Thanksgiving is an easy holiday to do on a budget. My favorite budget Thanksgiving dish is sweet potato casserole. I use free walnuts from my grandmother's trees and everything else can be bought on sale at low prices.
Mashed potatoes! Potatoes are really inexpensive and everyone expects them at Thanksgiving. If you want to splurge, add some cream cheese - yum!
My favorite budget dish for Thanksgiving is squash casserole. I can always find squash on sale at this time of year, which makes it economical, in addition to being delicious.
For me, Thanksgiving is about the turkey. I always stake out the kitchen and sneak some as soon as it is getting carved for the platter.
My Thanksgiving comfort food is stuffing. I make mine with bread, cranberries, pear, sausage, sage, mushrooms and onions baked in a pan until crispy. The best bite is the crispy corner piece.
My mom always makes a jello salad for the holidays with frozen berries that we picked over the summer, raspberry jello, and applesauce. It's delicious and always reminds me of good times with my family.
I believe mashed potatoes is the best budget dish. Simple, easy and cheap and can be eaten for days after.
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food dish is sausage stuffing. It is what my grandmother and my mom always made which of course I now make, and now my grown daughters make! Mine is never as good as my mom's though!
My favorite Thanksgiving foods are butternut squash and cranberry sauce(jellied). Both I consider comfort foods-I would be happy with just those two items for my meal! They are also simple and two of the cheapest dishes on the 'menu'!
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I make a baked apple and sweet potato side dish that is wonderful. It's fairly economical, except for the real maple syrup in it that is worth every penny!
My favorite budget Thanksgiving dish is stuffing. It's just bread crumbs, seasoning and water, but boy is it good!
My family loves green bean casserole as a budget friendly Thanksgiving side dish. Especially budget friendly if you catch sales leading up to Thanksgiving to get canned beans and canned soup mix for cheap!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is sweet potato gratin. I make it with smoky caramelized onions for extra flavor. And plenty of heavy cream :)
I love turkey but the biggest treat is once the bird is cleaned of meat, I make soup. I boil the carcass with onions and salt and pepper to make a rich stock. Then i strain out the bones and skin, and add celery, carrots, more onions, and whatever veggie I have. At the last minute I will add a little pasta or rice. This and a turkey sandwich is the best!!!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is the Tofurky turkey dinner. I've been a vegetarian for 17 years and had to rely on side dishes to keep me fed throughout the holidays. Now I get to have a special treat along with my favorite green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and homemade rolls.
I love mashed potatoes, that is my favorite side dish for thanksgiving. It doesn't cost a lot.
Favorite comfort food to me would have to be bread and chocolate pie!
Stuffing is one of the most economical sides at Thanksgiving. My family particularly likes the crunchy part of the stuffing along the sides and edge of the pan. To make certain that everyone gets their wish, we not bake our stuffing in muffin pans. Great crunch and indivudal servings to boot.
For a budget friendly AND comfort food dish, I would have to recommend Georgia Biscuit and Cornbread dressing! Day old biscuits and cornbread, milk, broth, egg, celery and seasonings...it's fabulous by itself or add some turkey and it makes a great one dish meal!
i looove mac and cheese for thanksgiving!
I'm awful :), I usually eat out on Thanksgiving!
I love green bean casserole at Thanksgiving! It's definitely a comfort food for me, it's easy to make and it's very cheap.
My favorite Thanksgiving dish is Roasted Potatoes with rosemary & onion. My mom makes it every year and they are simple, delicious, and remind me of home.
My favorite Thanksgiving dish is both inexpensive and a comfort food. We have always had collards for Thanksgiving. This food brings back childhood memories of the past when I didn't even like collards. Now I love them!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is my mother's turkey stuffing. She's given me the recipe and I've watched her make it many times but I just can't get it exactly the same.
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes-Just Milk, A Little Flour some butter & potatoes thinly grated; add a little cheese, sour cream or maybe some chopped onions-feeds a ton of
people & looks fancy if you sprinkle red dried pepper on top
It's not particularly clever, but you can't go wrong with mashed potatoes! They are cheap and probably my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.
My all time favorite dish would be the stuffing. You can't have turkey without the stuffing...alot of stuffing. It's so easy and cheap to make, and there are so many different ways to make it. I don't think you can go wrong.
Baked Macaroni and cheese is an quick and easy as a side dish on thanksgiving. Especially for the little ones, It is my top pick comfort food.
My favorite food on thanksgiving will always be green bean casserole. It was something my grandmother and I used to make together.
Potatoes are my comfort food, and Thanksgiving, in my opinion, is incomplete without a potato-based side dish. That being said, a $2 bag of potatoes is the way to go if you're cooking dinner on a budget. Mashed, scalloped, or baked potatoes are simple and fantastic when you jazz them up with sour cream, gravy, fresh garlic, chives, etc. Add any other herbs or seasonings like curry or cumin to the mashed or scalloped potatoes to add a little bit of a kick and voila! Usually these ideas only take me about 20 mins each including prep.
My favorite is glazed pearl onions. Made with beef broth and balsamic vinegar, they add a dash of sweet and pungent to the milder flavors of Thanksgiving.
My favorite Thanksgiving budget dish/comfort food is our Fresh Garden Green Bean Casserole. Made pretty much the same as the traditional Green Bean Casserole only with fresh Green Beans and Onions from our veggie garden! (Harvested, blanched and frozen;) Saves money and also no pesticides so healthier for our family! Happy Thanksgiving!
Without a doubt, the best dish on a budget is anything with sweet potatoes. My family doesn't like the sweet potato dishes with marshmallows - they like it mashed and with butter and salt. This makes it an even cheaper dish!
Everyone in our family loves mashed potatoes and we never have leftovers. Even though the price of potatoes has gone up quite a bit, it's still an economical side dish.
I love anything with sweet potatoes. And my mom's corn casserole whose recipe she got from a former neighbor. mmmmm.
Mashed Potatoes with gravy made from the turkey juice is my favorite comfort food. It's so good and filling.
My favorite Thanksgiving food is sweet potatoes. They can be eaten baked (with butter & brown sugar) with Thanksgiving dinner and then made into a variety of casseroles after the holiday!
sorry here is a longer comment. I loved the instant mashed potatoes and brown gravy. You can add some garlic and cheese to it if you want to satisfy your taste buds but its cheap and saves you lots of time as well.
I LOVE green bean casserole. I know it's cliche but it is by far the best darn thing ever- I look forward to it every year!
Stuffing! I've tried every kind, but old-fashioned, well seasoned stuffing emains my fave, ESpecially with gravy spooned on top. Next to pumpkin-anything, it's the one thing I always eat more than I should!
You can't have Thanksgiving dinner without mashed potatoes and gravy. It's an inexpensive side dish that is traditional & I consider it comfort food.
I so look forward to mashed potatoes and gravy at Thanksgiving. We have mashed potatoes and gravy throughout the year with different main dishes but there's something about the my mom's very smooth and creamy mashed potatoes and the turkey gravy that is the best!
my favorite comfort food is bread pudding with lemon sauce
My favorite budget and comfort food all in one is broccoli caserole. It is so good and made with cambells soup, mayo and cheese. One thing it is not is fat free. Hey it's TG.
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My favorite Thanksgiving budget dish is my mom's decades-old recipe for stuffing. It's two giant loaves of bread ripped up and mixed with celery and onion that's cooked in TONS of butter and salt, Bell's seasoning, a chopped apple and a couple of eggs. It's the best part of Turkey Day, and is super cheap to make!
We make our own cranberry sauce! It is great and so much tastier than the canned stuff!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food that's also cheap to make from scratch is Lemon Meringue Pie. I can't get enough of it.
I enjoy sweet potatoes as a side dish. They are economical and delicious and seem to go well with all the other foods we serve at Thanksgiving.
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is my cranberry fruit salad (because it is so good) and pumpkin pie (because I think custard-type desserts are comfort food). I try to shop sales and use coupons, so almost everything dish I make could be considered a "budget" dish. I even buy bread from the bread-outlet store. Thanks for the giveaway.
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I clicked the link to save The Ultimate Budget Thanksgiving Dinner checklist to my ZipList account--Thanks!
A favorite budget Thanksgiving dish in my family is Green Bean Almondine. For years someone made Green Bean casserole with the fried onions and canned soup and there was always a lot leftover because most of us don't really like it. The following year someone brought something similar but better. It turns out that Green Bean Almondine (made with frozen green beans, slivered almonds, onions, and a little butter) is a now a very popular side dish and makes some of us very happy because it's healthier than the green bean casserole (and the ingredients cost less).
My favorite is the yam casserole. Yams, brown sugar, nuts - yum. Not very expensive at all!!!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food has to be stuffing. I love the flavor and moistness it has from being baked inside of the turkey. Add a little gravy and you have the ultimate comfort food!
My favorite is sauteed parsnips! They're so sweet when you leave them frying in the pan for awhile...
Since I am a pretty picky eater mac and cheese is great for my budget and my taste! Better stock up now!
My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food & budget dish is macaroni & cheese (two things I'm not eating while I try to lose weight). I think I could actually have mac & cheese as the entire meal! Well, mac & cheese, turkey breast, and cranberry sauce is all I need.
Sweet potatoes with apples, brown sugar, pineapple and pecans. No marshmallows
By far, my fav Thanksgiving comfort food is mashed yams with butter. Yams are not expensive at all and are packed with nutrition to boot.
Homemade macaroni and cheese is my favorite comfort food. It's economical as well.
Our faves are making our own stuffing. Also baking 2 pies at a time- one to give and one to keep!
Some of us look forward to roasted brussels sprouts for holiday meals. Others do not care for them, so to each his own.
I love macaroni and cheese, extra cheesy, with bits of bacon and crumbled up crackers on top. It's not expensive to make, fills you up, and satisfies-and heating up the leftovers (if there are any!) makes for a quick meal the next day when you are too tired to cook!
Homemade cranberry sauce is well worth the effort. Any leftovers can be used to make great cranberry scones. This year we are traveling, so I won't be hosting dinner. I have already made sauce just so I can make the scones.
My favorite is sweet potatoes. They are always on sale around now. Boil them, mash them with a little milk, butter, and brown sugar. Then I put them in a baking pan with mini marshmallows on top and chopped walnuts/pecans. Bake them in the oven until the marshmallows are brown. Yummy.
The best comfort food is the leftovers after Thanksgiving dinner. It's wonderful to have great home made food for a few days without having to cook it. Just warm it up!
Sadly I have no had opportunity to enjoy Thanksgiving in several years. My family no longer gets together, my friends have all moved away. I don't want my children to miss out on holiday memories, so I let them spend every Thanksgiving with their father's family. I do love a big bowl of Stuffing as my comfort food. something about it just makes me feel better.... even if it is eating it alone!
We buy a much larger turkey than we need because everyone like cold turkey sandwiches the next day. I also make a few turkey pot pies to freeze for future dinners as during the week were running like crazy and don't have time to make a "good" dinner.
My Favorite dish is my grandma's spinach pie. It is made with spinach, ricotta and feta cheese along with a few other secret ingredients. It is wonderful and makes the holidays what they are. Miss you grandma.
My favorite Thanksgiving dish is untraditional and very culture driven. Puerto Rican's love anything that's pork related so I would say Pernil for me! It's always less than $1.50 per serving
My budget comfort food is Turkey and Gravy over Rice. Can it get any more homey than that?
holiday potatoes that are smooth like silk! Sour cream and cream cheese give this dish a white as snow look and insanely delicious flavor. A little salt goes a long way too!
There would be a revolt if I didn't make my sausage and turkey dressing - I precook a couple turkey wings with vegatables a couple days prior to the big day - and incorporate that into my dressing. It's a meal in its' self.