I’m often taken aback by Jewel’s “feed your family for…” meal deals in their weekly ads, because they just seem so… odd. But the randomness of this week’s cracked me up, so I had to share. Here we have: Manwich, fancy hamburger buns, store brand baked beans, fancy pickles, and… a bag of cookies. I’d say this meal was put together by a teenage boy, but then they’d probably have gone with the store brand buns, not the expensive Pepperidge Farm. And could we at least try to throw a token fruit or vegetable in here? Unless they’re counting the pickles…
lol, Further, a couple of you point out there is no MEAT. I forgot that Manwich is just sauce — I do not buy it, ever. So I guess you mix it with the beans? Riddle me that! Oh wait, the fine print underneath says they are factoring in the purchase of ground beef into the $3.00 per serving cost.
So, question: Anyone here ever bought an entire “feed your family” meal deal from Jewel’s ideas? 
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Are they forgetting the meat in this “meal”? LOL
Ewww that’s right. I don’t buy Manwich so forgot it’s just sauce! Maybe you’re supposed to mix it with the baked beans? lol
uh, there is no meat. Are you supposed to mix the beans with the manwich sauce and pickles and serve it on the buns?
I just read the fine print — they are factoring in ground beef in that $3.00 a serving. So … that’s something? lol
And the fine print says you have to divide the estimated cost per single serving by the manufacturer’s suggested number of servings per package.
One sandwich per person, and maybe a pickle and a cookie??
I did a quick calc and their items before the beef came to approx. 11.25. So they have to assume its going to feed a lot more than 4 people.
For $12.00, you can do a lot better than sloppy joes with store bought cookies. Those aren’t even good prices.
Meijer has bad suggestions with their meals too. Meijer likes to show breakfast pancakes for dinner.
They can try to be a little more creative.
Maybe this is a Friday meal during lent. I wouldn’t eat this combo of food.
They must be getting paid from the vendors for the space and advertising. I agree, this is no meal, nor a deal.
Publix has meal deals that actually make sense – they put the pasta, sauce, and hamburger on sale at the same time and show all three in the add. Throw together a small salad and add some garlic bread and you have a meal.
But, this one from Jewel? It doesn’t make sense to me.
Kind of related is the fact that the Jewel employees no longer are required to wear their ‘lower prices’ buttons. What do you expect from a store that doesn’t quite understand what lower prices mean?
I have never bought the meal deal at jewel, and after this add probably never will.
Aren’t beans considered to be vegetables?
Nah, beans are legumes
We do eat Manwich, because my husband and I are both secretly 12 year old boys. They remembered the pickles, but they FORGOT THE AMERICAN CHEESE!!!! I can shed some light on their math:
A 15 oz can = 6 servings. A serving of Manwich sauce is (supposedly) equal 1 serving of vegetables. If you add in $3 for the ground beef and assume 2 cans of baked beans, it comes to about $2.70 per serving for 6 servings.
When I make Manwich, I usually shred two carrots and chop up an onion and a bell pepper and a couple of stalks of celery, and cook that in with the meat. It adds an additional serving of vegetables over 6 servings as well as bulking it up and stretching it further, and the super strong bbq flavor of the Manwich sauce keeps it from tasting too carroty. I got the carrot idea from this blog here: http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html
Thanks for that link. Still trying to prepare meals ahead but mostly doing crock pot meals these days. I just can’t seem to get in a routine to prepare ahead… going to keep trying though it would be so less stressful come dinner time. I do love my crock pot.
Does anyone have that book “Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer”? Just curious about cooking meals ahead and freezing and how they are.
Have read it and liked the book.Got it from the library. Have made egg bakes from her recipe. She includes instructions for preparing the dinner for the the day you’re cooking as well as freezing the meal you’re fixing.
Great thanks! I think I will get it. A small investment of $8 something (I like Kindle ed.) will give me the motivation I need to do it! I don’t want to waste the money!
Good reviews too and I like that she gives the receipt to freeze it uncooked. Which reminds me of the pre-couponing Dinner by Design days 
I borrowed both through my library. If your library doesn’t have it (mine didn’t) use the inter-library loan system to borrow them.
What I did was pick out the ones I thought my family would like, and copied those pages into my recipe binder. Because we buy our beef wholesale and get it delivered frozen, I don’t do any of the beef ones. But we do buy Bag-O-Chicken breasts at Tony’s whenever they hit $1.69/pound or less, so I’ll make up a batch of Cilantro Lime chicken or the Hawaiian Chicken.
Manwich is just plain gross. I have bought some of their meals, though – they had one over the summer for brats, buns, and potato salad and they had another one once that was a rotisserie chicken, a side from the refrigerated section, and a can of store brand veggies. Every now and then, they get it right. lol
I’ve stopped shopping at Jewel, though, because their prices are SO high! Over the past 2 years, prices have at least doubled on nearly everything I buy and their sales aren’t that great. We are lucky to have a Butera nearby, and even Dominick’s sales are better. Most of our meat comes from Sam’s Club – can’t beat their deals!
The pickle IS the vegetable, although transformed!!
So…we had Manwich tonight. I did make coleslaw to go with it for more vegetably goodness.
And immediately after dinner, I realized that my poor Sis-in-law is supposed to drive down to Kentucky with us tomorrow.
Jewel hardly ever has anything that makes me run out the door to get it. If you ever find a great deal it is because they happen to have a clearance on something you have a coupon for.