A Few Things from the Kitchen

An attempt at cake doughnuts.

They weren’t pretty,but they tasted good.

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers and Rosemary Potatoes

Gluten free Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Biscuits

Big Mac in a Bowl (New to Us Recipe)

I’m not a huge Big Mac fan, but my husband loves them.  We decided to try this recipe.

http://healthytofit.org/big-mac-in-a-bowl-healthy-and-fit/

It was a hit.  I even enjoyed them.  I did make a few changes.  I used ground turkey, which I cooked with onions and bell pepper added.  I seasoned it with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  We also used a regular Thousand Island Dressing.

Batch Cooking Ground Turkey — Mini Cooking Session

I haven’t really felt the need to do huge cooking days since I am only cooking for two right now.

However, I still like to do some meal prep.  Now I am mostly just doubling or tripling when I cook.

I took 2 pounds of ground turkey and divided it for four meals.

I seasoned this with bell pepper, onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to keep it kind of generic.

I made one meatloaf for the freezer.  I’ll cook this in the crockpot when I cook it.

I kept one portion out for Big Mac in a Bowl (recipe share coming tomorrow) — I kept this warm in the crockpot until supper time.

One portion went into the refrigerator — it will go in pasta sauce to serve over spaghetti squash.

The last portion went into the freezer and will either go in chili, a “hamburger” helper, or another pasta dish.  

Trying a Pinterest Recipe

I tried my hand at homemade "Cheez Its."

They weren't to bad, but in the future I will probably add more cheese.  

The recipe is a simple one, and I'll probably make these again.

A Week of Simple Dishes

 I’m still adjusting to one and sometimes only two being around at meal time.  Added to that for this week has been a topsy turvy schedule that has had me not knowing who would be here until the day of and sometimes mere hours before.  So in no particular order these are the main dishes I pulled together in keeping with the pantry challenge.

 We served breakfast one night that included hash.  I know this isn’t the healthiest dish, but I always keep some in my hurricane box.  Once the season has passed I try to make sure we rotate this stock.  

 

I thawed a 2 pound package of lean ground turkey breast, which I used in a pot of vegetable soup and for filling for Shepherd’s or Cottage Pie.  I had enough to make two casseroles so I took advantage and made one for the freezer for next week.  To change it up I’ll serve the one tonight topped with mashed potatoes, but I’ll use a box of stuffing from the pantry to give the second one a different twist next week.  I love it when I can cook once and get multiple meals from it.  (The soup will be for my lunches and for anyone who wants a bowl as a side with meals.) 

Pumpkin Oatmeal bars that used up the rest of a can of pumpkin and some lingering raisins.

A simple dessert using a box of pudding I had hidden in the pantry.

Homemade pizza night -- I made pepperoni rolls for my daughter and then a pan pizza (gluten free) for myself.

Sorry for the dark photo -- beef stew using home canned veggies and beef from the freezer.

 I baked a small pan of macaroni and cheese, and the leftovers went home with my daughter for her to have a quick meal on her busiest day.

Then for a lunch for myself, as I continue to eat up the hurricane food supply, I heated a can of chili and topped it with some cheese.  

January Challenge — Use it Up

I don’t know why I didn’t photograph it, or if the photo simply didn’t “take”, but Carol (previously of CT on a Budget now on Facebook for those of you missing her blog like I was) has been encouraging us to make sure we don’t let any leftovers go to waste.  Always a good frugal practice!!!!  

After all the holiday indulgences we were craving some simple food and I made a pot of beef stew.  Of course we had leftovers.  I decided to turn the leftovers into a pot pie, which is missing from my saved photos.  Since I was going to dirty the food processor anyway to make pie dough and have the oven going, I thought I may as well have it all do double duty.  I made enough dough for three pie shells — double for the pot pie and single for this peach pie.  I cooked the pot pie at the lower temperature that the peach pie calls for (only about 50 degrees lower than I would normally cook the pot pie anyway) and just increased the time.  

 I used not only the beef stew, but all the ingredients came from items I already had on hand including using canned peaches for the pie. I reduced the sugar content and made both dishes gluten free. The bonus, my husband absolutely loves peach pie, and he was a happy camper!

Starting the Year Out Right — Frugal Living

The lore I grew up hearing in the South (and perhaps this is the same in other areas, too) is that whatever you spend January 1st doing is indicative of how your year will go.  While we opted not to do the traditional Hoppin John this year, I did give my nod to this tradition notion.  Nothing beats starting off the year on the right foot — the frugal foot.

I pulled two Cornish hens from the freezer and rubbed them down with olive oil and Greek seasonings.  I roasted them in the air fryer oven that I got for Christmas.  (The little red air fryer went with my daughter to her new place — lots of changes here in the last few weeks and I’ll try to catch everyone up as soon as I can.). We invited my daughter over for lunch and the three of us ate well.  Then I pulled almost 1 1/2 cups of meat from the bones to go in either a soup or casserole.  When I had finished that I simmered the carcass and ended up with a quart of flavorful chicken broth.  (I had picked the bones pretty well and there was about 1/3 cup of chicken I pulled off after simmering that I just added to the jar of broth.).  Not too shabby for two tiny hens.

Canning Split Pea Soup

Sharing a bit of my small batch canning.  I like to cook a family sized recipe and can the excess so I have ready-made soups.  (The recipe is typed out under the video on the YouTube site.)

Baked Spaghetti -- typed recipe

Baked Spaghetti (preheat 350F)

8 ounces of cooked spaghetti noodles, drained
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
1 to 2 cups of shredded mozzarella
about 4 cups of pasta sauce with your choice of meat and veggies
parmesan cheese for sprinkling on top

Mix egg, milk, 2/3 of mozzarella, and pasta together.  Pour into greased dish.
Top with rest of mozzarella and the parmesan.  Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Grandmama's Jelly Roll (Recipe included)

This is how to make my Grandmama's Jelly Roll.  I use homemade jelly in mine, but you can alter it with any flavor you like.  (The recipe is posted under the video on YouTube. It is pretty simple....and a great use of pantry staples.)

Chinese Pot Roast -- Crockpot Recipe

This is a family favorite -- even my pickiest loves it.  As always it is a versatile recipe and you can alter the veggies to suit personal preference.  You can use almost any cut of beef because of the slow cooking.  You can also use the same concept with a pork loin.

Cook with Me -- Chicken Fajitas

We tried a new to use chicken fajita sauce and it was a hit.  I found it at Aldi.  Even my daughter loved it, which is saying something.

Cream of Whatever Soup

Carol, sorry it took so long.  On a good note, I've finished both my classes this week.  I'm slowly working on catching up on the rest of my commitments.


An easy how-to for making any kind of creamy soup you would like for use in casseroles

Casserole Recipe

This recipe is such an easy recipe.  It is really versatile.  I've used canned goods, home canned goods, rehydrated dried goods, and/or a variety of leftovers in the past.

Freezer Cooking

I found ground beef on mark down this week at almost half off.  I decided to prep it for freezer meals.  Not bad for about 30 to 40 minutes work.  Plus I’m ahead of the game for some future meals.

Week 4 What We Ate

Sunday — Breakfast was coffee and cheerios.  Lunch was GF chicken nuggets, tater tots, and cheese sticks.  Supper was beef tips in gravy, yellow rice, and string beans.  Yes, that was different than the menu, but my husband wasn’t at home.  We went with my usual rules of not taking anythign away from other meals.  

Monday 

The flu has hit our house or a flu like something.  I was up and down all last night with sick stomach, fever, chills, bodyaches, the works.  My daughter is going okay.  Today I have lived on dry cereal.  Even plain rice and things like that haven’t stayed down.

She had eggs, toast, and bacon.  I was asleep during lunch time, and I think she grabbed something quick from the pantry.  For supper, I heated up the rice, baked some chicken, and heated up some chickpeas.  A bland looking plate.  I thought I was feeling better, and it all sounded good to me.  Big mistake!

 Tuesday I was feeling a little better when I woke up.

Sorry about sideways photo.

I made my daughter a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

I had an egg and a piece of bacon.

Today was her day on campus and she ate there.  

I had half a GF tortilla with sunbutter.

By mid afternoon my head was throbbing again, but I wasn’t down.

For supper I made mac and cheese (from the menu) and my duaghter had BBQ pork with hers.

I ate a bit only to discover the pounding headache is what seems to be killing my stomach.

Ugh!

Wednesday

I woke up feeling marginally better.

My daughter ate cereal, and I opted to not eat.

Lunch was scrounge through the refrigerator.

By midday I was feeling better, but didn’t want what was on the menu.

Since it was the first time I was really hungry in days I decided to just go with it.

I fixed turkey breast filets, rice, green beans, gravy, and opened beets.

Then I cooked a yellow cake to serve with peaches.

It was all very good!

Thursday

I feel mostly human today!

Breakfast was waffles, eggs, and bacon.

Lunch was a protein shake for me, because I spent the day working on a research paper.

Supper was a “clean out fridge meal.”

Friday

Nobody wanted to really eat this morning.  

I had coffee and my daughter had some cereal.

Lunch was a protein shake for me, and my daughter ate ham biscuits.

Supper was supposed to be hamburger steak with gravy, but once again it didn’t work out where my husband could come home.

We took a vote and opted to just have burgers instead.

Saturday 

Breakfast — we made a batch of blueberry waffles and I had a protein shake.

Lunch was the two leftover burgers.

Supper was supposed to be quiche.

We kind of hand unassembled quiche.

We just cooked our eggs and bacon and had them with toast.

All in all I am pretty pleased with how the week went.  

Despite feeling horrible and switching some things around we did not pick anything up.

We stuck to items we had and tried to stick to the idea behind the menu.

Cold Start Yogurt

Over last weekend I made Greek style yogurt for our family using the IP.  I didn’t want to share the post until I knew how it went over.

This is it straining because I wanted it thick.

One bottle of this milk and 1 heaping tablespoon of starter yogurt (Aldi brand Greek)

yielded:

2 1/2 pint jars full and 3/4 of a jar of whey

The yogurt is very tart and just the way I like it.

I used it for a sour cream replacement, in potato salad for a quick lunch, as a base for a ranch style dressing,  and as a breakfast food.

The whey went into my baking.

(My husband took 1 jar with him.)

It doesn’t get any easier to make.

Make sure your Instant Pot liner is sterilized.  

Pour in cold milk.

(It needs to be ultra pasteurized.  Aldi brand organic in the red carton will work. 

I’ll try to remember to get a future photo.)

Whisk in a heaping tablespoon of starter.

Hit the yogurt button, cover, and let count down for 8 hours.

(Normal setting.) 

If you want to make yogurt with other milks you will need to follow the more traditional method.

Links for ideas:

Cold Start Yogurt

Traditional Yogurt Recipes

Pinto Bean Chili Recipe 6 of 12

I know it seems like I have forgotten my 12 Days of Pintos.  I haven’t....life is just nutty around here.  It’s okay.  That is how life is.  My go with the flow is “flowing along.”  Haha — couldn’t resist!

Anyway, I had originally hoped to have leftover pumpkin chili to go on my baked potato, but it didn’t work out that way.  We ate it last week on baked potatoes instead of having pizza. (However, my daughter basically turned her baked potato into a pizza.) 

I simply didn’t get home in time enough to make my crust....sometimes it happens if meetings go over.   Like many disappointments prove to be, this was a blessing in disguise....the perfect opportunity to add my next pinto bean recipe entry.

This recipe is the recipe I decided to use.  Pinto Bean Chili in the IP (using dried beans). It is from Neena over at Paint the Kitchen Red. Of course, I never do things quite as called for.  I also didn’t need a large batch of chili.  Since she gives step by step (extremely detailed instructions) I am not going to do so.  

Sorry about the water spots, but I don’t want to waste paper by printing this out again.

I’ll use it as is.

I did end up using 2 cans of Rotel.

Just to make certain I don’t have any trouble with tomatoes sticking, I leave them on top when I cook chili.

When it was done I gave it a good stir and this is what I ended up with.

Verdict:

This chili is pretty good!

I ate some in a bowl for my lunch.

Then I had some on a baked potato for my supper.

(With me being the only one home to eat it, I’m thinking I may freeze some leftovers.)

     

Food Storage Breakfast (Recipe Included)

For those of you who are comfortable using an electric pressure cooker, a hot breakfast doesn’t get much easier than this.

I use an Instant Pot, but will include the times and pressure for reference.

This is all food storage items that most pantries will have.

This recipe was shared with me.

I’m sharing what I changed and then I’ll share in parentheses what they did.

Pumpkin Oatmeal

1 cup old fashioned oats (steel cut)

3 cups of water

1/2 can of pumpkin —not pie filling

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon)

1/2 cup dried cranberries (raisins)

1 to 2 teaspoons of butter if desired, but totally optional

Put the items in your pot in that order.  DO NOT STIR.

In the Instant Pot, use the porridge setting and change the pressure to low.

For other pressure cookers, do low on 20 minutes.

Release pressure, stir, and serve.

This makes 4 or so large servings.

My husband and I ate, and I put away that much more in the refrigerator for the next day.

He declared it the best oatmeal he had ever had.

Needless to say I’ll be keeping it in the repeat.

Past Week’s Frugalities

Sunday
 We were able to make the trip to take my grandson home.  While my daughter in law isn’t completely well, she is feeling better than she was.  We took snacks and drinks with us.  When we made it back home (well after dark) we did a CORD type supper — we cleaned out several smaller containers of leftovers.  I also packed several smaller items for my husband to take to work with him.  

Monday
 I declared Monday a pajama day of sorts.  I had a lot of detailed cleaning to do that hadn’t been done over the last few weeks.   I ran laundry and used the dryer to help offset heat.   For dinner we made beefy potato soup using up some lingering potatoes, a free packet of beef broth concentrate, and the pressure cooker.

I took two additional online surveys and I am slowly building my points back up.   We opened a can of milk to use in our coffee rather than rush out to pick up more.  I paid a bill online saving on postage.  

 Tuesday

 Today included errands.  Hobby Lobby, where I bought three skeins of yarn for a requested shawl.  Turned out I will have to have more because I miscalculated (skeins were smaller) sigh.     Once again we turned to the pressure cooker and our food storage.  Chicken from the freezer, peas, arborio rice and seasoning from the pantry, and cheese we buy in bulk made a delicious chicken risotto with enough leftovers for lunch the next day.  This isn’t an extremely inexpensive meal until you compare it to the cost of going out to a nice restaurant to have a good quality risotto.

Wednesday

I picked up some supplies from Sam’s Club.  Milk and sodas for home.  (Our best price when sales aren’t an option.). Supplies for 4 batches of sausage balls for my husband’s work Christmas party.  2 ended up being enough and I will make the other two later.  I may bake and freeze them to pull out in a couple of weeks.  I also bought two big bottles of Clorox (color safe).  I use these regularly in my laundry, because we are bright colored people.  It seems to help keep my reds and purples from fading.  These were on sale with a $4 coupon off for each.  Keeping a watch on the cycle, 2 seem to last me until the next cycle, especially with me having a partial bottle already.

I forgot to take a photo, but I used food storage to make a gluten free chicken casserole with me in mind.  This was my test run of using a can of GF cream of mushroom soup (Great Value brand).  I added home canned mixed veggies and an can of Aldi potatoes. (I cut them smaller).  I cooked the chicken in the pressure cooker and then assembled a simple casserole....topped with 1/2 of a box of Aldi’s GF stuffing mix.  Because everything was cooked and I had been in the kitchen all day, I simply popped this in the microwave when my husband arrived home.  While he changed clothes, I set the table.  By the time he finished, I had a nice meal waiting.  (I ate leftovers the next day for my lunch.

Thursday

My daughter and I had appointments to get our hair done.  Not inexpensive, but we did take advantage of a “package” offer to reduce the costs some.  Because we were in the area and I had two more items to pick up, we went into the local Walmart Supercenter.  I picked up cucumbers, Greek dressing, gaucomole, eggplant, rutabaga, turnips, and Smoked Paprika.  Sounds like an odd combination, but my husband will be home until the beginning of the new year and we will do a lot of one pot meals with root veggies.  We also picked up a frozen pizza for my daughter and some lactose free ice cream for her.  She had pizza for dinner — a savings over take out, and I had 3 GF chicken strips and a cucumber with Greek dressing.

Friday

My mama and uncle came for breakfast, and we made a simple meal of biscuits, ham, and homemade jelly/jam.

This was my day to take my daughter to do a little shopping for herself.  We found her a nice pair of boots half off.  I rarely buy name brand, etc. just to have them, but these are a good quality that I expect to last her well.  We also picked up a pair of spring/summer shoes for her on winter clearance for 75% off the original cost.  Again good quality from a nice shoe store.  

We left the shoe store and went into a local department store to check their sales.  We found her a nice bomber jacket and a sweater.  I also bought a sweater vest for myself and a nice winter scarf.  (I’m loving my wardrobe capsule plan because I know what colors willl work and what pieces will add in well!) Our items were 40% off and we received an additional 20% off at check out.

For dinner we used the pressure cooker and pantry staples to make corned beef hash (home canned potatoes and a can of corned beef), and I baked 6 cornbread muffins.

Saturday was an at home day.  I did laundry, but because of temps did opt to use the dryer.

I used the pressure cooker for all three meals.  

Pantry staple breakfast — old fashioned oats, cinnamon, dried fruit cooked in the pressure cooker makes a creamy and warm dish with a low cost per serving.

Lunch — Taco Soup (I heated up a jar of my homecanned soup, it didn’t take but a few minutes to come to pressure and be ready.)

Dinner — My husband grilled burgers, and I used the pressure cooker to make GF 3 Cheese Pasta.  (It does include cheddar, but I used a white cheddar.)

That is it.  Our week in review.  I have been sick and relied heavily on the pressure cooker.  My own fault sick kind of thing because I ate something I shouldn’t have....sigh.  To counter balance it I have relied heavily on allergy medications.  

At some point during the week, I did order a couple of cookbooks using a coupon to get $5 off of $15.