A couple recipes to pass along!

We have tried a couple of new recipes this month. They have both turned out nicely and both are made in the crock pot!!! I love throwing things in the crock pot and forgetting about them!

The first recipe was so easy it is almost sad-well, not really, because it actually made me very happy :)
Take a 25 oz bag of frozen ravioli, dump it in your crock pot, pour a jar of your favorite sauce over top, stir it a bit to coat the ravioli (I rinsed my jar out with a bit of water and poured that into the crock as well), put lid on top. I cooked mine for 3 hours on high. The last 20 mins of cooking, I put some shredded cheese on top. Easy-peasy!!!!

The second recipe I found here.... Chef in Training Ranch House Pork Chops. Also super easy and very good! I doubled the cream soup (and we used cream of mushroom soup instead of the cream of chicken). I also mixed the ranch in with the soup. And, to flavor the pork chops a lil, we sprinkled them with a tad of onion and garlic powder :)

This experiment of trying a new recipe each paycheck is really paying off! I have quite a few new recipes to add to our collection that everyone in the house loves! Even my picky husband (shhhhhh--don't tell him I said that :) And, I have a new way of making a meal (the ravioli) that I would only make in cooler months so I wouldn't have to heat up my kitchen with the stove and oven!!

Hopefully this series is giving you a couple of good ideas to try for your family too!!

******************edited add on***************
I forgot I try to add in the cost to each new meal we try. For the ravioli, I used two packages of frozen cheese ravioli from Aldi with was $2.29 a bag. The sauce was just Best Choice from Reasor's and I used two of those-they cost 89 cents a can. I used about a cup of shredded cheese--I bought a 12 oz bag from Aldi for $2.99 (that same bag is on sale this week for $2.79) so the amount of cheese cost me about $1 for this recipe. So, altogether, this meal cost me about $8 (I also made garlic bread-$1 and salad --free since I had a ton of lettuce and carrots that needed to be used from last paycheck-lol! I call it free because if I didn't use it soon, it would go bad ;) This meal also gave me quite a bit of leftovers, so for us, this made about 2 meals worth of food.

For the pork chops, they were on sale for $1.69/lb. I tried to find a package that had 7 chops in it (so each person in the family could have one)-my package cost $6.51. The dry ranch was about $1.25 and the cream of mushroom soup was 59 cents/can. That adds up to about $9. The mashed potatoes will be right around $1 since I bought the bag on sale (making regular mashed tators not the ones in the recipe). So, for about $10, I will have a yummy b-day meal. Not something we will eat often, but on special occassions :)

New Recipe and Homerun :)

I told you last month that I planned to make a new recipe every two weeks (I plan our menus out for two weeks since that is how often I do my grocery shopping). Since then, we have found out we love tetrazzini, with chicken, ground beef, turkey, and ham :) Next, we will try it with tuna ;) But, yesterday, I made Chicken Noodle Casserole. I found the recipe on Pinterest (yes, I am on Pinterest if you would like to follow me) and I really did not think everyone in my family would love it as much as they did!!! Even my picky husband (love you, Hunny :) It's so simple to throw together. I left out the bread crumbs and because I didn't re-read the recipe while makin my shopping list, I left out the sour cream (cuz I didn't buy any---oops!). I doubled the recipe as far as the noodles go-actually, I probably tripled the noodle part. When you do this, I highly recommend using one more can of one of the cream soups. Like I said, this was a hit!

Chicken Noodle Casserole

One of My Goals for the New Year

I know, so many folks out there think New Year's Resolutions are lame, and I guess I sort of do too. You set a goal for yourself, and many time, never meet that goal. But, this is one I feel I can really adhere to! I plan to try a new recipe every two weeks! Our paychecks are bi-weekly, so I shop for groceries every two weeks. I make my menu plan and shopping list at the same time (and, in most cases, I actually remember everything I need-lol). I do not plan meals according to day, usually. I just pretty much decide that day or the night before what we will eat.

But, our menus really do not have much variety and after a while, I do not even feel like making my shopping list because Im so sick of, what seems like, the same meals over and over!!

So, I have decided that each paycheck, we will try a new recipe for dinner! Most will be frugal, simple and fast. But, some will be, in my mind, a splurge dinner-something that costs more than $6 to feed my family of 7 :)

This week's new recipe was Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake. The recipe calls for 6 small boneless/skinless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs), but I have to admit I used 9 breasts in total (and that was about 4 1/2 lbs which I bought on sale at Reasors when they were priced at about $1.49/lb). My cost for the chicken was about $6. The sauce I got at Target with the pasta/sauce coupon they had a couple of weeks ago. That cost me about 67 cents. I also added in a can of tomato paste that I watered down a bit since I was using the extra chicken and so we would have extra sauce. For a side, I made spaghetti (which was about $1). The cheese for the topping was about $1 (I omitted the parmesan they called for in the recipe since my shredded cheese already had parm in it). I would say the total amount for this whole recipe cost me less than $9...not too bad for a family of 7 and it was very filling! Add in side veggies like a salad, brocolli, etc...and this can be a pretty frugal meal! And, this meal was quick and SO easy to throw together (well, minus to time it took to defrost the chicken since it was a last minute decision to make it that night :)

I will post more meals as we go through this New Years goal! Im looking forward to having lots of meals to choose from when this year is over!!!

Halloween Witch's Hands

Planning a Halloween party? Have neighbor kids that don't mind getting homemade treats when they come 'tricking'? These look like so much fun and I think kids would have a blast with these! Perhaps they can even help make them! Check out my friend's blog-What's Cookin?? to learn how to make Witch's Hands. And, don't just stop there-check out here other recipes! With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, she has some wonderful recipes she shares from her holiday menus. And, her sugar cookies are amazing! I was never able to make sugar cookies--then I tried her recipe and had no problem! She makes some pretty good chili too ;) I have tried many of her recipes, so I can assure you they are tried and true!

Fudge Pop Recipe

Target has popsicle molds in their Dollar Spot-each mold holds 8 pops. I bought 3 during my last shopping trip on Friday :) The kids were thrilled! I promised to make them some fudge pops and had originally bought pudding to make these. In searching for the recipe to use the pudding mix, I came across this recipe and decided to try it instead. Now, Im not sure if these are really that different from using just the pudding mix (will have to try the pudding next time to compare) but I must admit, these are really very tasty :) You can read through the reviews and get ideas of what other folks did while making these :) I added a bit more cocoa powder than called me (just used slightly heaping TBS). I did scant cups of sugar and will try next time to use even less as, to me, these were quite sweet. Also, the recipe says to boil until thickened-I really did not see too much thickening, so really, I think it means the mixture is not to be the consistency of hot cocoa, but a bit thicker-not like you would get with pudding :) Hope that makes sense :)

Fudge Pop Recipe

I will have to work out the cost of these one day and figure out how much it costs for this recipe as compared to pudding mix. For me, using the Target popsicle molds, I got about 19 pops-not too bad!

Pizza Crisps-Great for Freezer Stashes!

My daughter has a blog for teens-with lots of recipes. She has always loved to bake/cook, from an early age! She was right there in the kitchen beside me wanting to get her hands into whatever she could :) So, she started a blog with recipes that teens might like. And, hopefully, teens can make as well.

We made these the other day. She didn't get to help as much as my two younger kids did-they had a blast topping the pizzas with sauce, pepperoni and cheese :)

Go to her site to check out the recipe: Pizza Crisps

I baked these according to directions. I then put them on baking sheets in the freezer to flash freeze. I packaged them up in baggies. And, I will tell you, we ran out of sauce :) Only because I was using what I had on hand at the moment. So, with the rest of the dough, I just made the rounds and flash froze those. Then, packaged them in baggies. The kids can them out of the freezer and top them as they like :) We baked the frozen ones at 350--but you might want to watch these to determine how long you would back them after they are frozen-we are still experimenting with these and it would depend on how thick you make you pizza crusts ;)

A Couple Recipes to Share

Thanksgiving and Christmas, I always make Pumpkin Pie Squares. It is very much like pumpkin pie, but goes further and you do not have to worry about making a rolled-out pie crust. If you are going to be feeding a big group of people, this is a terrific dessert to make. I have made this for parties and potlucks and have had many compliments on it :) It holds up for quite a few days in the fridge without any sogginess on the crust.

Pumpkin Pie Squares
Crust:
1/2 cup butter or margerine, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
Cream butter/margerine with sugar until creamy. Add in flour (you may find it does not all incorporate). Then, fold in oats (same with oats-it may not all work itself in-that is ok). Then, put this mixture into a 9x13 pan (I like to use glass because then I can just keep the squares in there for easy trasport/fridge storage). Using hands, pat the mixture out as evenly as you can. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 15 mins or until set. Basically, until set means make sure you are not seeing much butter in your crust just sitting there. I don't let it get very brown if that helps you more :)

Filling:
This is your basic pumpkin pie filling-so if you have a favorite, use it here. If not, here is what I have used for years (probably from a can of Libby's Pumpkin :)
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
*on spices, I use 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice in place of individual spices above*

Beat eggs and sugar. Add in pumpkin and evaporated milk. Then add salt and spices and mix until you can see spices are blended evenly into mixture. Use a spoon or rubber spatula to help it along. Pour over baked crust (the crust does not have to cooled first-it can be warm from the oven). Bake at 350 until pie filling is set. I usually turn the oven down to about 300 after about 20 mins. but that is with my oven. I remember doing this often with pumpkin pies too. With these squares, I find it helps to not overbake the crust. Let cool before cutting into squares.


Another thing I started making Tiny Chicken Turnovers this year-I made them for New Years Eve last year and then again for the Super Bowl. When I made them for NYE, my husband suggested they needed cheese-so I added some shredded cheese for The Super Bowl-it really did add something extra :) Also, I love this recipe because you do not have to use just a chicken mixture-I actually used leftover turkey :) But, you could easily use ham, shredded beef, etc...You can just use the crust and fill with whatever you want. These do take a while, but they are really worth it. And, you can make these ahead of time and freeze. Then, reheat in the oven. Also, I was nervous because I am terrible with pie crusts! But, these came out nicely! I am even thinking of using this for pie crusts next time!

Tiny Chicken Turnovers:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 cup butter or margerine, chilled
5 tablespoons cold water

In a bowl mix together the flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until a ball forms. Place in fridge for a bit to make it easier to roll.

Filling:
3 tablespoons chopped onion (I like to chop mine really fine of use a bit of onion powder instead)
3 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 cups shredded, cooked chicken meat
3 tablespoons chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
or
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, diced
Shredded Cheese (no amounts here-I suggest adding in as much as you think your family might like-you can even leave this out if you like:)

Melt butter in hot skillet. Add chopped onion and saute until tender. Add in shredded chicken, chicken stock, garlic powder and whatever other seasonings/spices you might like. Stir well, then add in cream cheese. Remove from heat and allow cream cheese to melt into mixture.
I love making the mixture the day before-unless I plan to store these in the freezer. It saves time, but it also allows the flavors to mingle and we all know mingling is a good thing ;) I just store it in the fridge until I need it.
On a floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/16 of an inch. I do not measure it.. I just roll it out pretty thin. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter or biscuit cutter or glass about that size, cut out circles. Place a heaping teaspoon of chicken mixture into center of circle. Fold circle over and using a bit of water around the inside edge of the circle, seal. You can use a fork to make pretty indents all around that sealed edge. Then, using a sharp knife, cut a small air hole in the top of the pastry. Reroll any scraps and keep going until you run out of chicken or dough :) I make up pans as I go along-this way I am working on a pan while one is baking. It helps with time-and if you have kids, they might relaly enjoy helping with these! It would be great for the little ones to help with the filling part.
Bake for 15-20 mins at 375. Just until golden brown.

Once again-this one is easy to make your own-up the spices, use less. Add some flavors to the crust such as some spicy seasonings and carry that on in your filling. You can also use less butter/margerine if you like. Try playing with that part-maybe taking out a TBS or two each time you make these. Don't be intimated by the pastry dough-it really was very easy to work with :) And, this is a really frugal recipe-you can really use up things you might have in the fridge/freezer that need to go!
I have reheated these in both the oven, on about 325 until hot, and in the microwave for about a min. Both worked well.

BettyCrocker.com

Betty Crocker's website has coupons to print out when you join their site-it's all free. But, it also has some great recipes, which Im sure you figured they would anyway ;) But, they also have two sections for budget friendly meals.
Budget Cooking has easy dinner recipes especially if you are craving take out foods.
Dinners That Make Sense makes it easy for you to pick a recipe, print it out and even print out the grocery list for it-and don't forget those coupons! It even has the cost of the meal listed :) How easy is that?

Some Great Drink Recipes

Family Fun put out a great newsletter this week with some fun, and I might add, healthy drink recipes-well, most of them are healthy ;) As I looked through some of the recipes that caught my eye, I noticed they were all pretty frugal. You can use frozen bananas you have on hand (you know, that stash you put up in your freezer when they started to get too ripe and the kids would not eat them because they thought the nanas were rotten?), add in some yogurt that you got on sale (or maybe is left in that big container you bought and none of the kids want-hmmm), or use up some fruit that is in your fridge getting close to expiring, but needs the bad parts cut off :)
Also, I know my kids love icy drinks when it is warm :) They actually love anything cold, but ice cream has gotten so expensive that we reserve that for a special treat. My kids favorite drink is Magic Milk Shakes. It is easy and really very good. We have even found we do not need to add as much sugar as called for and I usually have most ingredients on hand! We have taken out the cocoa and added in a bit more vanilla, less sugar, and made vanilla shakes. Banana added in is also a winner here :)

Here is a list of many other icy drinks :) I noticed my kids don't even notice it when I add ground flax seed to berry smoothies-making them much healthier and giving my kids the great benefits flax has in it-so you might try that too with these :
Family Fun: Ice Cold Drinks
Easy Kids Recipes: Easy cold Drinks
Family Fun: Ready To Whir Smoothies
Mexican Juice Drinks (this could be fun for a party!)

Cream of Anything Soup

In one of my meatball recipes, I pour cream of mushroom soup over the meatballs in the crockpot. My hubby and I like the soup over pasta or rice. I realized I would not have enough with the one can I had to make 'gravy'. I remembered often seeing recipes for Cream of Anything soup and realized I actually had enough of the needed ingredients to try it out. I used Budget 101's recipe. To try it out, I made 1/4 of the recipe. This was hard-lol! When you are trying to divide a recipe, and kids keep coming in to ask you all sorts of things, you lose your concentration...not fun :P
My results, though, were wonderful!! It was really good! I was surprised! For some of the liquid called for, I opened a can of mushrooms and drained out some of the liquid into a measuring cup. I, then, added water for the rest of the liquid needed. I chopped some of the mushrooms from the can into small pieces (only because if my kids see mushrooms, they freak out-lol). Also, I kept out the bouillion called for. I added that in when I made the actual soup. I was not able to do the math on that part-lol!

After trying it out, and everyone loving it, I made the whole batch. I still left out the bouillion, so this way, I can use beef flavor, chicken flavor, etc when I need it. I added a note to my recipe and to the baggies in which I packaged the mix to add in the bouillion.

There are tons of recipes for make your own mixes, as well as some great frugal tips on Budget101.com. Here is a link to the recipes section Make Your Own Mixes and Convenience Foods
They also have Gluten Free Food Mixes

How to Buy a Ham

I really do not know this. For years, I have been buying a spiral cut ham from Aldi's which suited us fine. But, I noticed I could not get as much out of it as my mom always seemed to with the hams she bought. So, I decided to do some research on the subject (don't ya love search engines?). I am also wanting to catch one of the deals on hams right now that are not spiral cut-I can cut it myself, just not in a spiral-lol! It all goes down the same way, right?
I found this site which offered the difference between butt and shank portion hams-as well as some other good info. Butt offers more meat than a shank, but you pay more per pound. Of course, if it is only a 10 cent per pound difference, I think you would probably be getting your money's worth :)

Dollar Stretcher Recipes

I just came across this while looking at some things on Dollar Stretcher. It is a huge collection of recipe articles-food articles-menus-etc...I am finding many things that can help save money on food, pre-cooking/freezer cooking ideas, etc...Some of it I already know, but there are alot of new things as well. Maybe you will find some new ideas to help you in the kitchen :)

A New Bread

I made Light Oat Bread yesterday after I made the batter for my banana muffins and let the girls finish them up in the oven :)
I really liked this bread! I doubled the recipe to get two loaves. I wanted to add in a bit of wheat, but only had a 1/4 cup of wheat flour (still added it though ;). I didn't put in as much sugar as they called for and I wish I would have. The bread was still good, but I think the amount of sugar they called for would have made it even better. This made me two good sized loaves (and I started to take pics, but forgot to get one of the finished bread-lol...I promise next time as I will be making this bread again!!).
These would make terrific rolls and I think I will try that next week :)
By the way, for your bread machine users, this is actually a bread machine recipe, so if you are looking for a new recipe, try this one :) Apparently, even from the bread machine, the crust is yummy!

Cake Balls

I made Cake Balls for the Super Bowl on Sunday. I used this recipe: Cake Balls

I made a dark chocolate fudge cake (using cake mix-I think it was Duncan Hines) and I used Pilsbury's Chocolate Fudge frosting. To dip the balls, I used almond bark from Aldi. This was a really easy recipe and made a ton of balls! The almond bark melted nicely in the microwave and I used pretty much all of the blocks-I have one left over. The recipe calls for one whole can of frosting, but I tell you, I read through the reviews on this recipe and decided to try just a half of a can. I pretty much eye-balled it and when the cake/frosting mixture got to where I could easily mold the mixture into balls, I stopped adding frosting. Then, I put the mixture into the fridge for not quite an hour (I was not being patient-lol). After the mixture was cooled sufficiently, I started making my balls, placing them onto wax paper which was on a cookie sheet. I also took a tip to put toothpicks into the balls. Then, after they were all balled out and toothpicked, I placed the cookie sheet into the freezer for about an hour (again, not being too patient-lol). I melted the almond bark when I was ready to dip and started dipping-not tips here...just get in there and do it. I did find that using s spoon to pour the almond bark over the balls worked nicely though.
I placed these back in the freezer to harden the bark quickly and then I took them off the cookie sheet, placed them into a container, covered them and placed them in the fridge until half time :) My family loved these! They could not get enough...there were even enough left over the next day for the kids to have one at lunch and for us to have a treat that evening!

You can make these balls using a multitude of different combinations! I have seen red devil's food and cream cheese frosting dipped in white. How about strawberry cake with maybe strawberry or vanilla frosting with chocolate almond bark or candy melts. You can even tint your almond bark if you wish :) My combo almost tasted like an Oreo cookie :) Next time I think I would like to add a tad bit of almond extract to the cake before it bakes to up the flavor of the chocolate a bit.

I never thought to take a pic before these got devoured...But, I can assure you, I will be making these again and I will take a pic. My 2nd oldest dd wants these for her birthday, and I think she wants the strawberry mixture. I think there might be a chance I will make these for my b-day this month ( I will be 29 again-how about that?!) and try a chocolate mint mixture of some sort since I love chocolate with mint!!

By the way, I have to thank my friend for turning us on to these :) She saw them on Pioneer Woman and on Bakerella-both of which you can find in my blog lists to the right.

Banana Muffins

Mmm--mmmm! These were good! I have to say I was surprised. I will post the recipe I used from AllRecipes.com below but I want to review these. I doubled the recipe, so all my reviews and recipe variations will be for my doubled version (the recipe below is not be doubled though)..

I used half margerine and half applesauce (unsweetened). I added in cinnamon (not sure of amounts-just sprinkled, but if I had to guess, I would say a good 2 teaspoons). I also added in about 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla. With the flour, I used about 1 1/2 cups of wheat flour. In the one cup that I had 1/2 cup wheat in, I added about 2-3 TBS of Milled Flax seed and filled the rest of that 1 cup measuring cup with all-purpose (this was my final cup of flour I needed to add to the recipe). Other than those additions, I did this recipe as called for (only doubled, don't forget that-lol)

These were SO good out of the oven! The started to get overbaked on the outside (my oven runs hot) and I was afraid would be dry, but they were not! Usually, with fruit type breads, I find them much better after a good cool down, the next day, or after they have been frozen and thawed. But, these had a ton of good banana flavor! The wheat gave it some heartiness...You could easily add raisins and nuts to this recipe, but my kids do not like that all that much, so I left them out...of course, I just remembered I have a huge bag of Craisins I could have added in too...will try that next time even if with just a few :)

Banana Muffins II
SUBMITTED BY: ABI_GODFREY  PHOTO BY: Allrecipes 
"These delicious banana muffins are easy for kids to make."
PREP TIME  10 Min
COOK TIME  25 Min
READY IN  35 Min
Original recipe yield 12 muffins, or 48 mini muffins


INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.

Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.