Veggie Soup (that kids will eat!)

                                         Veggies and broth, cooking up

                                        After using the immersion blender.

Finished product

Do you wonder what to do with extra veggies?  Although it's almost grilling season, I awoke this morning to wind and cool weather.  No grilling today, but I wanted something easy for dinner.  By easy, I mean, heat and eat, I don't mind putting in some work up front to have a great tasting meal quickly later.

So, I got a bunch of extra veggies I had in the house....we'd had people over this past weekend and I had leftovers from a veggie platter....carrots, celery, bell pepper, I used those, plus 2 onions and then added some olives I had from an open can of olives and some tomatoes.  I added a couple of cups of chicken broth and then a cup or so of water and let the whole thing simmer for an hour or so.

My grandmother used to make a soup like this and I wouldn't eat it.  She  called it "diagonally through the garden".  But, I have a secret weapon my grandmother never had.....an immersion blender!  If I tried to feed this soup to the kids, without the immersion blender, they wouldn't eat it.  But, after simmering for an hour or so, I removed it from the stove and used the hand blender to make it a smooth broth.  

Let me tell you, this broth is awesome!  It has rich depth of flavor and is slightly sweet, from the carrots and bell pepper. Now I could eat it this way but the kids would want more.  (Side note, you could just take this broth and freeze it, then thaw and add things in later for a super easy meal.)  This time, I added some ham and a couple of handfuls of orzo.  I like orzo because it is a pasta, but it's got the texture of barley...so it adds some heartiness to the soup.

This broth is so easy and so versatile.  I could have added say, brats and rice (precook the rice and add just before serving).  Or I could have added chicken (like if I have leftover chicken, not enough for a meal) and string beans.  Well, you get the picture.

You can make the broth from just about any veggies you have in the house, as long as carrots and onion are in there....got spinach, yeah, that works.  Don't like olives?  Leave them out....it's very versatile and very low cost.  But best of all, it's healthy and tastes delicious!        

Save Money....Grow Your Own Food!

A great way to save money is to grow your own food.  It's not as difficult as most people think.  About a month ago, I sewed seeds for "cut and grow" lettuce...a variety of lettuces that you can clip the outer leaves and let the inner leaves continue to grow...so you can harvest and eat some of the lettuce and not take out the whole plant.  This is a great way to eat and not have to re-sew the lettuce seeds.


So my lunch today will be salad made with baby greens grown in the garden....and the same plants will give me lunches in the future!


I've got tomatoes in but it's too early in the season to harvest, but they will be great with the salad greens later in the year.  

Asian inspired noodles

I got this recipe from the Food Network. I had everything in the house to make it already. It's so tasty...tastes like Thai Noodles with Peanut Sauce...the kids love it! I like it way too much! I've made it twice in the last week. Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/sesame-and-peanut-noodles-recipe/index.html

I added leftover chicken and made it a meal!

Basque Beans

Beans with sausages....so easy and so good. Start by dicing 2 onions throw them in the pan with some olive oil. Add 2 red bell peppers (or green or any color you have on hand) diced. Add sausage (this will flavor the beans...so choose...you can make them spicy with a hot sausage or mild with an italian sausage). I usually add a package of sausages, like Johnsonville italian sausage. Add 4 cloves of garlic, diced. Add 3 cans of garbanzo beans, liquid and all. Add 1 can of tomato sauce and then fill the can with water and dump that in, too. Cook on low heat for at least 4 hours. You can easily make these in the slow cooker. A friend of mine makes hers by putting the whole pot in the oven at 250 over night. Either way, slow, low cook them so all the flavors can marry.These beans are so flavorful and delicious! Here they are as they are about to start cooking.

Mushrooms....Portobello mushrooms

I love mushrooms. I especially love mushrooms, now that I'm trying to lose some weight. They are hearty and tasty and filling. My favorite way to eat these portobello mushrooms are on the grill. But, it's not exactly grilling weather, so my second favorite is teriyaki mushrooms.

A lot of people don't know what to do with these babies, so I'll tell you....first, you turn them over and pop off the stem. Then, use a tablespoon to scrape out the black stuff that is underneath. When the black stuff is all scraped out, it will look like the picture on the right. Then, I chop them up and throw them in a pan, with a little water on the bottom (so as the pan gets hot, the mushrooms don't burn). I want to cook them, not burn them.

I leave them in the pan at medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If there is any liquid left over, I drain that out. Then I throw on about a tablespoon of teriyaki baste and glaze. This is important....use the glaze, not just teryaki sauce. The glaze will coat the mushrooms and stick to them.

That's it. Now they are ready to eat. They are scrumptious. Don't believe me? Try it yourself!

Spaghetti the easy way....

So, the kids don't like cabbage (their loss) so I needed something quick and easy to serve them for dinner tonight and I decided that spaghetti would be it. I'm not into making sauces for them (they don't appreciate the work or have the decerning palate to appreciate the nuances in flavor from a home made sauce), so I just "juice up" the sauce. For me, that means, use a jarred sauce, heat it for one minute in the microwave in a bowl and then add a heaping tablespoon of sour cream. It makes the sauce nice and creamy and they love it. Then I finish with some parm cheese...so here's what the kids had for dinner:

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

I love sweet and sour.....and I'm trying to shed some weight, so sweet and sour chicken is out. So I decided to get my sweet and sour by making some sweet and sour cabbage. It's delicious and a one pot meal, not to mention low in calories, so it meets my criterea. Now, believe it or not, I add sausage to my cabbage and that's ok, because one sausage is about 280 calories and since the onions and cabbage are practically no calories, it balances out.

This is what I do....in a pan, pour 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Add one whole onion, diced. Let the onion sweat a bit then add 2 tsp. sugar. Add one sausage (I used Johnsonville sweet sausage, cut the casing off and cut it into small bits. ) let the sausage cook with the onion a bit, while you shred the cabbage.

Add the shredded cabbage....I used about a quarter of a cabbage. At the same time, I add about 1/3 a cup of water. I'll add more later, if it seems to be too dry. Then I add a couple of shakes of balsamic vinegar. (Sorry, can't be more specific, that's how I measure.) I'll taste later and add a bit more, if it seems too sweet. Let the cabbage cook, in an uncovered pan, stirring occasionally, for about 20-25 minutes. If you hear it sizzling, you've got a dry pan, add a bit of water, maybe a quarter cup and continue cooking. Give it a taste....if it's too sweet, add another shake of vinegar.

Here's the finished product:

It's really quite good and final calorie count is around 320, which isn't bad for a dinner.

This is a great website for gifts!

What a cute party favor this would make! And it's something the kids could actually use.

Now, what child wouldn't want to take a bath with this soap?

Wouldn't this be a cute favor at a baby shower? All hand made soap!

Cupcakes made out of soap...cool party favor, don't you think!?

A friend of mine makes handmade soaps and soap petals. They are stunning. If you have the need for a gift, it's a great place to check out!

Above is one of her soap angels...what a great gift for a child for their first communion!

Here is the link to her site....check her out!

http://www.gourmetscents.info/

Shopping Day!

I went shopping today at Safeway. This is my big "before Thanksgiving" trip, between now and Thanksgiving, I'll only get a few things, like milk and some fresh produce. I bought the turkey last week, a 15lb butterball for $9.99. It's snug in the freezer, waiting to be thawed and brined.

Today was a great shopping day. The total was $134.35 before coupons and card savings and $68.41 after, for a savings of 49%! There was so much good stuff on sale this week, from OJ to broccoli, to apples, to grapefruit. Baby carrots, which are much eaten in our house, are $1 a bag, so I got 3!

I loaded up on all the Thanksgiving food, too...stuffing mix, big bag of potatoes, olives, eggs, bacon, monkey bread (for the day after breakfast) green beans. Now, I'll only get a few fresh items, like milk and fruit and veggies between now and Thanksgiving.

Bread!

Today I'm baking bread. I love to bake bread and I don't do it often enough. I think that I shy away from baking in the summertime because it's warm and I don't want the oven on when it's warm. With fall here and the cooler weather that comes with it, I decided to bake bread today.

I wish I could say it's more economical but I don't know about that. My family tends to eat a whole loaf a day, when it's home made bread! But then, I can't seem to resist it, either.

It's really very simple, not at all complex, to bake bread. You just start the yeast with some sugar, let it activate and then mix it with a bit of oil and salt and a lot of flour. Then let it rest for an hour or so....then you have a great excuse to read or relax or surf the net for an hour!

Then punch it down and knead and bake.

I know my kids will be happily surprised when they get home from school to fresh baked bread. They've been asking when I'd bake bread again for a while and today is the day!

Don't you just love the internet?

I sure do! I like that I can get anything I want and I don't have to hunt around to find it.

Tomorrow is Rico's birthday. We are having a small family party on Sunday, but we always do something on a birthday to celebrate, too. So, I'm going to surprise Rico with Angry Bird cupcakes.

We don't own an iphone or an iPad, so Rico only gets to play Angry Birds when friends who have those devices come and visit. Maybe that's why it's such a special game, he can only play it now and then. Anyway, I saw another FB friend make angry bird cupcakes and knew that Rico would love them. So off to Amazon I went and viola! The toppers are plastic, they'll be toys he can play with after the cupcakes are gone.

I'm not a baker, but I think they turned out cute and that he'll like them.

They cost only a couple of dollars to make and that left me the extra money to buy the birds. Besides, with all the money I save on groceries, I can splurge for my kids now and then!

Trout!

I buy the trout at COSTCO, it's gutted but with the head and tail on. I just cut the tail and head off, then freeze them each one in a single freezer bag. One trout is enough to feed a family of 4. And I mean good portions, not wimpy portions.

To cook the trout, I just heat some canola oil in a pan and then put the trout in and cover. Heat at medium heat for about 7-9 minutes, depending on the size of the fish then uncover and flip the whole thing over. Let cook covered for another 7 minutes or so.

Remove the fish from the pan onto a plate, then use 2 forks to pull the cooked fillet off the fish. It's actually pretty simple, the fish will just flake away from the middle bone. Just insert the fork into the middle of the fish and pull out.

I served the trout with peas and smashed potatoes. It's an esay dinner and not expensive at all. The trout was $15.00 for 4, so each trout is around $4, the peas , 1 can 89 cents on sale and the potatoes are $5.99 for a 10 lb bag and I used 2 potatoes, so about 50 cents.

Total for the dinner around $8.00, not bad.

I made a run to COSTCO today and bought my favorite, hearts of romaine. We'll be having salad with romaine for the next week. At $2.99 a bag, it's such a great deal, since there are 5 romaine hearts in a bag.

The other find I bought was cranberries. A 3 pound bag for $4.99. I took about a pound out and I'll make home made cranberry sauce to serve as a side this week, then freeze the rest. Cranberries freeze very well and you can pull out what you need and put the rest back in the freezer. I love cranberry muffins and cranberry bread, so that'll be coming up, as the weather gets cooler.

Fritata!

With just the egg and oil in the pan:
Once I've added all the toppings, except the grated cheese:

A fritatta is a money saving cook's best friend. If you don't know what it is, now is the time to learn. It's an egg dish and it's very versitile.

My kids call it "egg pizza". I think of it as a quiche without a crust. At any rate, it's a super easy way to get rid of leftovers, while creating a delicious meal.

You start with a cast iron pan. Pour enough oil to cover the bottom, so it won't stick. Doesn't matter what kind of oil. Then whip up some eggs. I usually figure 3 eggs per person, more or less, so for a family of 4, you'd use about 10-12, depending on how hearty your eaters are. Pour the egg mixture into the warm pan.

Then, add whatever toppings you like. Really, whatever bits of leftovers you have. In this example, I used a bit of leftover pork tenderloin (I had one piece left over, not enough for anything else), some red bell pepper, some green oinions, and one tomato. But I could have used just about anything...bacon, mushrooms, cilantro, whatever you have on hand works.

Then leave it on the stove for about 5 minutes, just enough for the bottom to set. Top with some grated cheese and bake in a 350 oven for 35-40 minutes. Serve.

Easy, tasty and inexpensive! I'll add some bread and apple slices on the side and that's our dinner tonight!

It's Tuesday, Menu Planning Day!

I plan my menu around what's on sale any given week. I shop at Safeway, so that's where I look for bargains.

I'll shop on Friday, so I can take advantage of their Friday only specials.

Some of the good bargains at Safeway this week:

Chicken leg quarters for 69 cents a pound. You have to buy the value pack, but it's worth it. Break them up yourself (cut the drumstick from the thigh) and you save 30 cents a pound! Then freeze some in family size portions for future meals.

Red seedless grapes are 99 cents a pound and you can buy a 6 lb. bag of oranges for $5, so that will be our fruit this week.

Another Friday special is the $5 lb raw shrimp, I'll get some shrimp. A pound of shrimp can feed the whole family. If you're not sure how to cook the shrimp, here's a great recipe from 10 Dollar Dinners:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/lemony-shrimp-scampi-pasta-recipe2/index.html

Safeway also has cereal on sale...Honey Nut Cheerios. Since this is Marielle's favorite, I'll buy 2 at the sale price, then slap on a coupon for save $1. on 2 and pay $1.47 for each box. By the way, this coupon is from more than a month ago. I only clip coupons on items I buy anyway, then I just sock them away and once a week, I look through and see if I have any match ups. It takes only minutes this way.

If you like smoked salmon and I do (this is a guity pleasure for me), it's on sale 2 packages for $4. So I'll buy a package of that, as well, and enjoy some lox and bagels for breakfast a couple of days next week.

I'll probably stop in on Monday and get some of the meatballs. They have a Monday only special of a bag of meatballs for $5. That's a get this deal, go through the quick check and get out of the store, type of buy for me. I like to pair the meatballs with cranberry sauce and chili sause in the crock pot for an easy meal. At $5 a 2 pound bag, that'll make a couple of meals and really inexpensive, too.

Brunch!

On Sundays, in our house, I only cook 2 meals....brunch and dinner. It's a chance for me not to spend all day in the kitchen and the kids love brunch.

I usually make brunch around 11 am. If the kids are up early and hungry, I'll tell them to just munch on a piece of fruit until brunch.

Usually I'll make something like french toast or pancakes, sometimes a Dutch Baby and then eggs and bacon. If you have leftover sandwich bread that's kind of stale from the week, a great way to use it, is to make french toast. After dipping in a milk and egg wash and cooking, you just can't tell it's old bread.

So today I made, eggs, pancakes and bacon. The kids loved it. It wasn't difficult....I microwave the bacon, while making the pancakes and eggs. The pancakes I made from a mix (just add water).

So, total for brunch:

Pancakes $1.50
Eggs ($1.39 a dozen on sale, I used 6) 70 cents
Bacon ($2.99 a pound, I used half) $1.50

So, a great Sunday morning brunch, cost: $3.70

Feed Your Whole Family with One Chicken Breast

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil
1/4 chopped onion
1 boneless/skinless chicken breast
3 tbs flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 lb (or more, if you like) broccoli
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
3 tbs teriyaki glaze

Rice or noodles

Optional: parmasean cheese or parsely

One thing the Chinese have known forever, is that if you go low on protein and high on veggies, you can feed a lot of people for a little money.

So, with that in mind, last night I made a dish for the whole family, using one boneless, skinless chicken breast. I buy these in bulk at COSTCO and freeze them, then pull them out to use.

This is what I did:

In a skillet, heat 2 tbs olive oil. Add 1/4 diced onion. Let the onion wilt for a couple of minutes then turn up the heat.

While the onion is wilting, cut the chicken breast into cubes. Don't worry if they aren't all exact cubes.

Dredge the chicken in flour. (This is important as the flour will thicken the sauce.) Don't salt or pepper the chicken, the teriyaki and chicken broth will add enough salt.

Add the chicken to the now hot pan. Sear it on all sides.

Remove chicken to a plate.

Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and deglaze the pan, scraping up all the bits that are on the bottom (they are full of flavor)

Add 1/4 red bell pepper diced and 1 lb of broccoli cut into pieces. Throw the chicken back in, bring to a boil and let simmer for about 5 minutes. This will cook the chicken through and cook the veggies and reduce the sauce, all at the same time.

Turn off the heat and add 2-3 tablespoons of teriyaki glaze.

Serve over rice or pasta. Garnish with a bit of cheese and/or parsley.

This was a huge hit in my family. Everyone had a generous portion and then seconds, too!

Brocolli is on sale right now at Safeway for 79 cents a pound. Red bells were on sale last week for $1 each. Chicken breast, 8 in a pack, at COSTCO for 15.00 Noodles, 1 entire package, 89 cents (from the pantry, were on sale a few weeks back at Safeway)

Total for dinner:

Brocolli 79 cents

Bell pepper 25 cents

Noodles 89 cents

Chicken $2.00

So, dinner for the family: Under $5.00

Full of flavor, tasty and healthy!

Side note: This recipe would work easily as well over rice. My kids are just on a pasta kick right now, so I used pasta. The cost would still be very low, as rice is about 30 cents a serving.

Another "no cooking night"

So Wednesday, we had PTA meeting and that means get homework done, a little down time and then off to PTA. Since Marielle was behind in her reading, we had to sit together for about an hour to catch up and that put my schedule behind.

I had a coupon for $1.50 off new Buitoni frozen ravioli and it was on sale from $9.99 to $8.99 at Safeway last week, so I bought a couple of packages. I had tried the chicken and mushroom at Bunco and loved it. So I bought one of those and one of the lobster and shrimp ravioli dinner as well.

The package says dinner for two on it, but really ,this is easily dinner for 4. Just pair it with some garlic bread and a salad and you are good. Really, the amount is very generous, I cannot imagine 2 people eating all of it, well, maybe 2 teenage boys but for most families this is really easily made into dinner for 4.

I didn't have high expectations, really, because most products that say "shrimp and lobster" usually have this mush that you can't tell what it is inside the ravioli. But this had actual shrimp and pieces of lobster that you could tell was lobster. It was easy to make, just boil the pouch and ravioli and while that was cooking, I made a salad and some garlic bread.

It made a great easy, quick meal. The price was right (with the coupon, the cost of the ravioli was $7.49) a bargain for this quality product.

I'll definitely serve it again.

Fish and Weekly Safeway Deals

Fish is a very healthy food. I often hear, "But my kids don't eat fish. Well, maybe fish sticks."
If your kids don't eat fish, it's time to introduce them to it. They say you have to serve something 10 times or more, before many kids will accept it. So start serving more fish!

Fish isn't really expensive, either. We buy our fish at COSTCO, in the big size, then we break it into meal size portions and freeze the meal size portions in the freezer and pull them out when we are ready to prepare. Take it out the night before and leave it in the fridge and it will defrost by dinner time.

Another great thing about fish is that it's super fast to prepare. Last night we had talapia. I buy it in fillets. I just sauteed it in the pan with a bit of butter and some spices. I used paprika, seasoning salt and tumeric, but if your family isn't into spices, just use seasoning salt. It takes only about 3 minutes per side.

I made sauteed mushrooms to go with the fish...just sautee in a bit of butter and then just before they are done, I added 2 tablespoons of Greek salad dressing for a great flavor.

With that, I served baby carrots and Noodle Roni. Yes, you can make your dinner easier but adding one "semi-home-made" item.

Total cost for dinner: Fish $2.00, carrots 20 cents, mushrooms $2.00, NoodleRoni $.89
So dinner for us cost a little over $5.00

One way to cut down on costs for food is to make your protien serving smaller. We each had half a fillet. That came to about 5 ounces. Most Americans think you need huge portions of protien, but you don't. It's far healthier and much cheaper to eat more veggies and less protien. I assure you that none of us left the table hungry.

______________________

Deals this week at Safeway:

Broccoli is a great deal at 79 cents a pound...buy enough for a couple nights dinners and don't be stingy, you can put lots of broccoli on the plate for pennies.

Apples, I think it's Gala apples, but not 100%, are on sale for 99 cents a pound...my kids will have apples in their lunch this week.

Bananas are 79 cents a pound, a good price. We'll have bananas as snacks this week.

Eggs are on sale for $2.49 for 18 eggs. Why not make breakfast for dinner one night this week? Eggs are one of the cheapest protiens you can get. Another idea with the eggs is a fritatta, one of my favorite ways to cook eggs.

Onions are on sale for 99 cents a pound. Carmelized onions are delicious and make a great side dish.

Last week, Safeway had a special that if you buy $75. in groceries, you got a $10 off coupon for future groceries. I took advantage of that and used my $10. off coupon this week.

Total cost for groceries for us this week: $47.82

One thing I try to do, is buy big one week and small the next. So this week I bought some staples like milk and eggs, but tried to keep my overall shopping small. We'll use things from the freezer and pantry, adding fresh items for the week.

Soup

Soups make a delicious meal and they are budget friendly.

I make taco soup with stuff in the pantry. I buy the canned goods when they are on deep sale, like 89 cents a can.

I make my taco soup a bit differently than most recipes I've seen. I don't like the texture of ground beef in soup. So I substitute sausage. And that's a great thing to do...substitute! Don't be afraid to mess with recipes, leaving out things, changing things around, so that the recipe works for you and your family.

So, here's my recipe for taco soup:

2 sausages (I like chicken sausage), diced
1 can corn
1 can pinto beans
1 can pinquitos
1 can diced tomatoes (I like the kind with garlic and basil)
1/2 onion diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix
1 packet dry taco seasoning
About 2 1/2 cups water

In a pot pour in the olive oil, heat and add the onions. Let the onions wilt on low heat for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, dice up the sausages. Add the sausages, then add all the other ingredients. Just dump the cans into the pot, no need to drain or rinse. Bring to a boil, stir and let simmer for 35-45 minutes. That's it.


I garnish mine with some chopped cilantro and some crushed tortilla chips. I'll add a side of bread and a piece of fruit and that's dinner!

Cost:

1/2 package chicken sausage $2.00 (on sale for 4.99 with a $1 coupon)
1 can each: corn, pintos, pinquitos, tomatoes $3.60
Taco mix envelope: 89 cents on sale
Dry ranch dressing $1.10

Total for the soup: under $8.00

This easily feeds our family dinner with left overs, which I gladly eat as lunch one or two times more.

Leftovers

I know, I know, I hear it all the time, "My family won't eat leftovers". Well, if you are throwing out leftovers, you are throwing away money. It's that simple.

My family isn't keen on leftovers, too. So I re-invent them.

We had left over chicken from the salsa chicken sandwiches I'd made. So, rather than toss it out, I reinvented it as a pasta dish.

This is what I used:


I made half a box of pasta, per the instructions. Then, I added one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon sour cream to the pasta, after draining. I cut up the leftover chicken, then some red and yellow bell pepper. I threw in half a can of corn and half a can of olives. Then I added about a quarter cup of italian salad dressing (adjust for taste). I threw that in with the pasta and then topped with some fresh cilantro and viola, here's the dinner:

Now, does this look like leftovers to you?! Everyone loved it and ate it up!