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Menu Plan Monday

Corrie @ "Cents"able Momma — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I do my grocery shopping on Tuesday afternoons, so it works better for me to include the following Monday in my plan, so I know what I need to purchase.

Monday – Hot dogs/Hamburgers and Fries
Tuesday – Chicken Rice Soup in the Crockpot – see recipe below
Wednesday – English Muffin Pizzas
Thursday – Tacos
Friday – Homemade Spaghetti
Saturday – Homemade Pizza
Sunday – Leftover pizza
Monday – Chili

Chicken Rice Soup

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken breasts (I boiled 2 chicken breasts and then cut them up)
1 cup celery
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup onion
1 1/2 cups rice
1 28 oz. can tomato sauce
12 cups water
6 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tbsp. parsley
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. hot sauce
1/2 tsp. salt

I added all the ingredients to the Crockpot in the morning (except the rice) and let it cook all day on low. About an hour or 2 before serving, I added the rice.

This soup was delicious, and we had lots left over to freeze for future meals.

Frito Pie

Corrie @ "Cents"able Momma — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:27:00 +0000

One of my favorite meals growing up was Frito Pie. When I moved out of my parent’s house, I brought this recipe with me. It’s a great meal to make for new moms, since you can bring it ready-made or send the base already made with the rest of the ingredients to add after it’s been in the oven. Plus, many kids like the dish (or at least get excited about eating Fritos for dinner!).

1 lb. ground beef
1 can (16 oz) pinto beans
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 1/2 cups corn chips
1 1/4 cup sour cream

Cook ground beef until meat is browned; drain. Stir in beans, tomato sauce, taco seasoning mix and 1/4 c. of cheese. Sprinkle 1 cup corn chips in bottom of 8×8 baking dish. Cover with chili. Bate at 350 for 20 minutes. Spread sour cream over chili. Top with remaining corn chips and cheese. Bake 4-5 minutes longer.

6 to 8 servings

For more recipes, check out the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Life As Mom.

Homemade Dutch Pea Soup

Corrie @ "Cents"able Momma — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:45:00 +0000

Since my dad is Dutch, I grew up eating really yummy homemade pea soup. When I moved out of my parent’s house, I, of course, took the recipe with me. Normally, I’ll make the soup and then freeze all the leftovers, so we can eat it again for a couple more dinners.

Begin about 3 1/2 hours before dinner

10 cups broth or water, plus 1 cup at the end
2 packages green split peas (12 oz. each)
1 bunch of leeks (3 or 4) – I usually chop the bulb part in my food processor
3 carrots – I use mini carrots chopped in my food processor – I just guesstimate how many
2 potatoes, chopped
1 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. Mrs. Dash
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 package Knorr leek soup mix
1 pkg ham chunks (if desired)

Place peas and 10 cups fo water in large pot. Cover and simmer on med-low for 1 1/2 hours. Add leek, potatoes, carrots, and spices. Cook covered for 2 more hours. Dissolve leek soup mix in 1 cup cold water. Add to soup, along with the ham chunks (if desired). Simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve!

For more recipes, check out the Grocery Cart Challenge’s recipe swap.

Works for Me Wednesday – My Recipe Binder

Corrie @ "Cents"able Momma — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:00:00 +0000

My most important tool in the kitchen is my recipe binder. Back when I was a single girl, I got a subscription to one of those recipe magazines where they show a picture of every recipe. I had to have the picture, since I’m rather picky, and I like to see whether something is going to “look” good. So, when I got married, I had a box of these magazines, plus a loose stack of recipes that I had torn out of magazines, printed off the internet, etc. Every once in awhile, I’d go through the magazines and try to highlight some recipes to try, but it was rather overwhelming, and I rarely used any of them.

Then, a couple of years ago, I came up with the idea to go through all my recipes, and cut out the ones I was interested in. I taped both the picture and the recipe to a piece of paper and put it in a sheet protector in my binder. And then…I recycled the rest of the magazine. The recipes are organized in my binder by appetizer, main dish, salad, dessert, etc. It takes up much less space than a boxful of recipe magazines, and best of all…I use it all the time!

Do you have a system that works for you? For more kitchen organization ideas, check out Rocks in my Dryer.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Corrie @ "Cents"able Momma — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0000

I grew up eating homemade spaghetti sauce, so I don’t think that the jarred stuff tastes good (no matter how much my MIL tries to doctor it up with meat). However, I do have to admit that the jarred stuff is very easy to make. I don’t always have an hour to cook the days that we want to eat spaghetti.

So, my solution is to make a double batch of my sauce from scratch and freeze the leftovers in family-sized meal portions. Then, for the next month or so, all I need to do is pull the sauce out of the freezer and warm it up to go with the freshly cooked noodles. It makes for an easy and nutritious meal.

Here’s the recipe for my spaghetti sauce if anyone’s interested (it’s for a single batch):

6 oz. tomato paste
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1/2 lb. ground beef or turkey
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (try a smaller amount the 1st time to make sure it’s not too spicy for you and your kids)

Chop onion and green pepper. Put in pan with hamburger and sautee. Drain fat. Add tomatoes, paste and spices. Simmer for half an hour.

For more ideas on things that work for other people, check out Rocks in my Dryer. For more recipes, check out The Grocery Cart Challenge and Life as Mom.

Frugal Fridays – Homemade Pizza

Corrie @ "Cents"able Momma — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:00:00 +0000

In our family, it’s tradition every Saturday night to order pizza and watch a movie. We would always order from the same place, and we’d order enough so that we could have the leftovers after church on Sunday (an easy meal to heat up in a hurry).

However, about a month and a half ago, with rising food prices everywhere, the pizza place increased their prices by about a dollar for the special that we order. We know the employees, and they said that the owner hated to raise the prices, but she had to, due to increases in her costs.

For some reason, that dollar increase, caused me to reevaluate our spending on pizza. I had tried to make pizza at home in the past with the Boboli crusts, but they were fairly expensive to buy, so it wouldn’t have lowered the cost that much. I have also tried making my own crust from a pizza crust mix. I thought it was good, but it was a long time ago (before I was married) that I did it.

It just happens, that in late May when I first started looking at the “frugal” blogs, someone posted about a clearance deal on breadmakers. It was only $35, with free shipping. I quickly purchased it, because I thought that making bread would be a good idea – cheaper than bought whole wheat bread and healthier without the preservatives. So, I thought….maybe I can make the pizza myself, crust and all. I tried it, and we haven’t ordered pizza from the restaurant again since. I wonder if they miss us . I still make enough for us to eat on Saturday night with leftovers on Sunday.

It’s a pretty easy recipe from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook. It’s copyright protected, or I’d share the recipe. You can make it in the bread machine or a Kitchen Aid mixer. Basically, the bread machine just mixes the dough and allows it to rise. You could also try a packaged mix or even purchase ready-made dough like Boboli or a refrigerated dough from someone like Pillsbury that you could roll out yourself.

It’s nothing fancy, but we like it, and it’s saving us about $50/month.