Press Release – Thanksgiving Feast under $30

20 11 2008

From a press release from Aldi…..

Get Thanksgiving Feast for Less Than $30 at ALDI
Grocer beats discounters, big box by 16% to 24%,
traditional supermarkets by 30% to 40%

Batavia, Ill. (Nov. 19, 2008) – For shoppers looking to save money this season without compromising holiday traditions, select assortment discount grocer, ALDI, offers a complete Thanksgiving meal for a family of four for less than $30.

“This holiday season, we hope shoppers can focus on enjoying time with family and friends – not worrying about how to squeeze a Thanksgiving feast into already tightening budgets,” said Joan Kavanaugh, vice president of corporate purchasing. “As we’re helping shoppers cut their grocery bills in half, we’re grateful to have some of the most loyal customers in the industry.”

While food costs continue to rise nationally, you can still get a less than $30 Thanksgiving meal from ALDI that includes:

· 14 lb. Butterball Whole Turkey ($.99 per lb.) $13.86

· Chef’s Cupboard Stuffing Mix (6 oz.) $.79 each

· Chef’s Cupboard Gravy (12 oz.) $1.19 each

· Fit & Active Dried Cranberries (6 oz) $1.19 each

· L’oven Fresh Classic Dinner Rolls (12 ct.) $1.69 each

· Happy Harvest Extra Fine Frozen Green Beans (16 oz.) $.1.39 each

· Chef’s Cupboard Cream of Mushroom Soup (10.5 oz.) $.49 each

· Chef’s Cupboard French Fried Onions (6 oz.) $1.99 each

· Happy Harvest Cut Sweet Potatoes (15 oz.) $.69 each

· Belmont Deep Dish Pies – apple, peach or berry (42 oz.) $4.49 each

· Sundae Shoppe Whipped Topping (8 oz.) $.69 each

For an extra $4.99, you can also get a bottle of Burlwood wine to enjoy with your meal.

Beginning Nov. 23, ALDI also will offer a selection of appetizers for under $4, including Antoinette Brie or Camembert cheese, crab and shrimp or shrimp cakes and wheat crackers. Appetizers and other special purchase items vary weekly and are available while supplies last. Customers also can visit the Special Purchase section online and subscribe to ALDI’s e-mail newsletter to get e-alerts about upcoming specials for food and other merchandise.

Visit the ALDI Meal Planner at http://www.aldi.us for helpful holiday recipes to use with ALDI select brand items, such as: roast turkey with cranberry sausage stuffing, cranberry glazed ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and apple pie.


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Thanksgiving Day in Lansing

17 11 2008

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday.  I love cooking a huge meal.  Last year, I worked from 3 AM until 11:30 AM on Thanksgiving then went home and cooked a meal for my co-workers that included a whole turkey, a turkey breast, garlic mashed potatoes, yams, buttermilk biscuits, stuffing, and pumpkin pie…all homemade and all from scratch.

This year, I’m going to my brothers house and will probably just help my sister-in-law and maybe smoke a turkey.  The whole family doesn’t want to come to Lansing and I can’t go home until late the night before so I can’t do any prep work…plus my sister-in-law likes to cook too.

The reason I bring all this up is because I’ve been getting hits recently from people looking for a restaurant in Lansing that serves Thanksgiving dinner.  I haven’t had much luck, but I want to get a list going for those who prefer eating out next Thursday, so I’ll get it started and if anyone else knows of someplace serving turkey, leave a comment and I’ll add it to the post.  I’ll bump this post back up periodically and hopefully we can get a good list going.

Restaurants Open Thanksgiving Day in the Lansing Area.

  • The Cadillac Club – 1115 South Washington Ave., Lansing, MI 48910 – (517) 853-1921

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Kroger – Frandor

17 11 2008
  • 443 Mall Ct.
  • Lansing, MI 48912
  • (517) 332-2090
  • Website
Kroger in the Frandor Shopping Center.

Kroger in the Frandor Shopping Center.

I have a feeling one day I will visit all the Kroger’s in Lansing.  For some reason, when I need something, I instinctively go to Kroger.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been around Kroger all my life whereas the other supermarket’s in the area or foreign to me.  Maybe it’s because there just always seems to be a Kroger when I need one.

J and I were in Frandor to check out Linens ‘N Things again.  My dad wants some pans for Christmas and he’s very, very picky about what he wants, so we were hoping to find something cheap at LNT. They just lowered their prices again, so we thought it was a good time.  We picked up a few things there, but I needed to pick up a few groceries as well and there was a Kroger not too far down the parking lot.

So, we headed back to the truck to drop of the “Things” we bought from Linens ‘N Things before heading to Kroger.  I’m guessing this store is one of the older ones in Lansing.  They still have an old sign on the building and the layout is a little wierd for a grocery store.  When you walk in, you come in behind the cash registers.  There’s only one door in and out so you come out the way you go in.  If you keep walking past the cash registers, you’ll eventually hit produce and you can start shopping just like you would at any store. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Chocolate, Grocery, Lansing, Michigan, Reviews

Order a Pizza….through your TIVO

17 11 2008

I love my Tivo.  I can’t imagine living without out.  I bought the box I have now five years ago and at that time, they offered a lifetime subscription, so I haven’t paid for service for over two years now.  It’s starting to get hits every now and then and I’d really like a dual tuner, but it’s so hard to give up a working box I’m not paying for to get one that I would be writing checks for every month.

One of the neat things about Tivo is all the extra things you can do.  I can play MP3’s that live on my computer.  I can download movies and TV shows from Amazon.com.  And now, I can order a pizza.  That’s right, I can now order a freakin pizza by pressing a button on my Tivo remote.

“This is the first time in history that the ‘on-demand’ generation will be able to fully experience couch commerce by ordering pizza directly through their television set,” said Rob Weisberg, vice president of precision and print marketing at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino’s.

Weisberg said TV watchers will see an ad for Domino’s and will be able to click “I want it” from their TV remote. In about 30 minutes, the pizza will be at the door, he said.

TiVo subscribers will be able to enter their delivery address and select crust type and sauces through the TV, TiVo said.

That’s just crazy.


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Crunchy’s Burgers and Pizza – Revisited

17 11 2008
Crunchys in East Lansing. Picture taken in the spring of 2008

Crunchy's in East Lansing. Picture taken in the spring of 2008

I first reviewed Crunchy’s back in the spring not long after moving to Mid-Michigan.  That was the beginning of my quest for the best burger in Lansing.  I wasn’t overly impressed, but really liked the bar.  There were a few other things on the menu we were wanting to try and figured we’d get back there some day.  Fast forward six months.  I was working at Munn Ice Arena and J and I decided to meet up for dinner after the hockey game.  There’s not a whole lot of options after 10:00 other than pizza so J suggested we meet at Crunchy’s.

Saturday night is probably not the best night to go to a college bar if you’re not in college, but we knew that heading in.  J called ahead to see when the kitchen closed.  I was expecting to get done with work around 11 and the kitchen closed at 11:30, so we knew it was going to be close.  Turns out, I got done before 11 so we made it in plenty of time.  We were carded at the door and a waitress pointed out a table just inside the dining room that we could take.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bar, East Lansing, Michigan, Reviews, Sports Bar

Munn Ice Arena

16 11 2008
  • 1 Chestnut Rd.
  • East Lansing, MI 48824
  • (517) 353-4698
  • Website
One of the endzones at Munn Ice Arena. The view from my camera position.

One of the endzones at Munn Ice Arena. The view from my camera position.

I like hockey.  I like going to hockey games.  I like watching hockey.  I don’t do enough of either, so when I got a phone call to shoot CCHA hockey at Munn Ice Arena, I was pretty psyched.  I was just in Munn for the first time a week ago when I shot football across the street at Spartan Stadium and I thought then Munn would probably be a pretty good place to watch hockey.  I was right.

Munn Ice Arena is located on the campus of Michigan State University between Spartan Stadium and the Jack Breslin Student Events Center.   It’s a really interesting looking building.  Most of the arena is actually built into the terrain.  All you can see from the street is the roof of the building.  When you walk in, you’re at the concourse level and have to walk down to get to your seats.

Munn is a pretty good sized stadium for a hockey only arena.  The stadium holds almost 6500 people and most of those seats were pretty full the night I was there.  There are also suites on either side elevated above the seating area.  Most of the seating is bench seating, but the closer you get to the ice, there are some individual seats.  The interesting design thing, to me anyway, was the location of the team benches.  I don’t know if it’s unique to Munn or if it’s a college hockey thing (I come from an area where college hockey isn’t big, so I’ve never been to a game before). Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : East Lansing, Entertainment Venues, Michigan, Reviews

Flap Jack Family Restaurant – South Lansing

16 11 2008
  • 6927 S. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 699-5532
  • Website
  • Menu
Flap Jacks South Lansing location on South Cedar St.

Flap Jack's South Lansing location on South Cedar St.

I’m not going to give you the same ol’ spiel about how J and I aren’t really breakfast people.  Saturday’s we usually sleep in late, do a little shopping and find a couple new restaurants to for lunch and dinner.  This particular Saturday was a little out of the ordinary.  J was getting up early to do some volunteer work and I was shooting a hockey game at Munn Arena.  It just so worked out that by the time she was getting home, I would be leaving to head to East Lansing, so we got up an hour earlier than she needed to be up and went and found breakfast.

Flap Jack Family Restaurant is a small, local chain of family restaurants in the Lansing area.  We picked the store on South Cedar because it was close to our place.  It was a dreary day and by a little after 7:00, the parking lot was starting to fill up.  Since it was raining, I parked as close as I could, but I mistook some spots by the door for handicap spots, so we parked on the opposite side of the parking lot and ran inside.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : breakfast, Lansing, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews

Press Release – Hunters Helping Food Banks

14 11 2008

From a press release from the Mid-Michigan Food Bank

Bridging the Gap Between Hunters And The Hungry

Lansing, MI – For many in Michigan, fall means one thing – deer hunting. There are many reasons people hunt, to commune with nature, to bond with friends and family, and for some, to supply food for their families. But for those hunters who would rather not spend the next three months eating venison, the Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger have a solution.
Since 1991, the Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger (MSAH) has been working to create linkages between hunters, wild game processors and charities which feed needy individuals, such as the Mid-Michigan Food Bank. MSAH is an all-volunteer organization, led by sportsmen and women who are concerned about making a positive difference for the communities in which they live.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, Michigan leads the nation in hunting licenses and sadly, has also led in the increase of working poor families with children. The Mid-Michigan Food Bank (MMFB) serves more than 92,000 individuals each year. Approximately 39% of those clients are children. MMFB seeks to bridge the gap between hunters and hungry families by giving hunters the opportunity to donate wild game to hunger relief organizations.
“Being able to provide protein to our agencies is such an important goal for us,” said David Karr, Director of Operations. “Providing a well rounded diet, including meat, is made much easier with the generous contribution that hunters make each year through this program.” Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Food News, Michigan, Press Releases

Press Release – Stopping Bottle Fraud

13 11 2008

From a press release….

Legislature begins work to stop bottle return fraud

LANSING – A bipartisan, bicameral package of legislation designed to upgrade reverse vending machines to prevent fraud from illegal bottle returns saw action this week as the bills passed out of House and Senate committees.

“Michigan is losing millions of dollars annually due to out-of-state bottles and cans being returned in exchange for the 10-cent deposit,” said bill sponsor Sen. Ron Jelinek. “In a time of economic crisis, we need to do what we can to keep this money in the state.”

In addition to committee action, a bill was introduced by Sen. Cameron Brown that would establish a fund to help reimburse the costs of the machine upgrades.

“We want to assist our manufacturers and retailers with the costs to comply with the new law,” Brown said. “As a legislator representing four counties that border two different states, I know how simple it is for redemption fraud to occur. This legislation will help bring an end to this criminal activity.” Read the rest of this entry »


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Tony M’s Restaurant & Lounge

13 11 2008
  • 3420 S. Creyts Rd.
  • Lansing, MI 48917
  • (517) 322-2069
  • No Known Website
  • Menu
Tony Ms Restaurant & Lounge on Creyts Road in Lansing.

Tony M's Restaurant & Lounge on Creyts Road in Lansing.

We do a lot of shopping out in the Delta Township area and finding new places to eat is always hard.  We’ve found some good ones out there, but in our quest to eat at everyplace I keep sniffing out new ones.  I’m not exactly sure where I first heard of Tony M’s.  While J was at her monthly hair appointment, I was running errands.  After picking up a few things at Walmart, I turned on the GPS and started looking for restaurants in the area.  The usual suspects showed up, but Tony M’s also popped up so while I was waiting on J, I went and did a little scouting.  After finding out it was still there, I picked J up and we headed back for lunch.

Tony M’s is located on the corner of Creyts Road and Millet Highway just across the street from the Meijer Distribution Center.  We pulled up a little after 11:00 and found a good number of cars in the parking lot. I figured it was lunch time or something at the Meijer and since this is the only place around, it’s where everyone went.  There are two sections to Tony M’s.  In the back is the restaurant and lounge.  The front of the building is a party store and deli.  The entrances are clearly marked and we made our way to the restaurant for lunch. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Burgers, Italian, Lansing, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

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