Cajun chicken and cauliflower

 

 

I know I've done a lot of chicken recipes but this was delicious, easy, and crazy cheap, so I just couldn't help myself.  First off, this was part of the crazy cheap chicken purchase from early July. 

 

 

 

These drumsticks were so very, very cheap.  They were sold by the pound but there were 14 drumsticks for $3.18  There were also 4 thigh/drums for $2.51 in another package.  Tonight, I cooked 4 of the 14 drums and 2 of the 4 thighs, making the cost of the chicken $2.17. 

 

To season it, I added a bit of water in the bottom of the pan (to keep it moist) and sprinkled on generic cajun seasoning.  By the way, I had previously cooked 7 of the14 drumsticks, freezing the rest for later.  These final 3 were re-bagged to save for yet another meal.  They were cooked at 400 for 40 minutes.  While they were cooking, I mixed up a bisquick coffee cake. 

 

 

As a side, I waited until the timer was down to 10 minutes and then steam-microwaved an entire bag of broccholi and cauliflower with some butter, some garlic salt, and some black pepper.  Dinner came out great and was enjoyed by all! 

 

 

Emily had seconds, and ate the last of the cauliflower.  Then she started snitching other peoples' cauliflower.  Finally, it was time for dessert!

 

 

So, our total for tonight was: $2.17 chicken, $1.69 broccholi/cauliflower mxi, previously calculated dessert at $2 a pan, we ate less than half a pan as a family tonight, so even being generous with rounding, $1 dessert tonight.  Total cost = $4.86. 

Seafood "Medley" (or something)

Ok, so the story behind this meal is pretty typical for "how I get my recipes"....

 

Something like three years ago, I was visiting my awesome sister at her home in Lancaster, PA.  I had told her how my daughter enjoys strong flavors: Salt and Vinegar chips over plain chips, Extra Garlic in her spaghetti sauce, how she sneaks raw onions when I'm dicing them, too... and how we had just made shrimp scampi with extra, extra garlic and she loved it.  So my sister asks if I think my kids would eat a seafood mix, and I'm all, "huh? what kind of mix are we talkin about here?"  Apparently, in any town larger than this one, (i.e., any town, anywhere)

you can buy this: (or something like it)

 

 

This bag came with pieces of clam, shrimp, "other mollusks", squid and octopus tentacles, imitation crab meat, and some things I could not identify with my eyes, which didn't even seem to be on the ingredients list.  I seem to recall my sister bought something along these lines...  and the kids loved it.  I mean, really, really LOVED it. 

 

So while I was down in Delaware for our family vacation this year, I stopped in a "Super Fresh"

(Rte 1, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware) for three, yes three bags of this stuff. 

(It was $5.99 a bag, in case you care, and the bag says it contains 5 servings.) 

 

 

To give a little more volume to the meal, I added a fairly large piece of Pollock from this bag.  I put it on my palm to show you the size.  It was one vacuum-sealed fillet, and, I kid you not, this bag of 4 fillets was $1.99, so this tasty morsel was 50 cents! (Jubilee in Coudersport, sale was over weeks ago, folks.  This is why I have a deep freezer.)

I let my oldest boy help tonight.  He's the one who wanted this meal the most, actually.  To add flavor, we used a big splash of lemon juice (probably 1/4 cup, maybe even 1/3 cup), a small splash (1 or 2 tsp) of apple vinegar, 2 heaping teaspoons of garlic, 1/2 stick of real butter, and some salt, pepper, and paprika.  I simmered the whole pan over medium/high heat (a 7 on my oven, for what it's worth) for about 10 minutes.

Our side dish tonight was butter-herb pasta, but instead of making it from a bag, I just boiled some mixed pasta (roughly 1/3 box "tri-color" pasta - the kind used in pasta salad - and a large handful of egg noodles) strained it, then, in the pot it was in, melted the other 1/2 stick of butter and added several shakes of old bay and several shakes of Italian seasoning.  When it was done, I put it on a plate to serve.  You can't see or taste or smell the butter and the herbs but they were there and they were delightful.

Despite how much she liked it last time, my daughter seemed apprehensive about the meal.  But once she started eating, she had seconds... and thirds...

This one is a tentacle piece.  Yum.

and when I was passing tentacles down to my eldest, at the end, she snagged them en route.  Twice.  Needless to say, there were no leftovers.











Mystery meat.  Less yum...

Dessert was vanilla wafer cookies.  Because they were on sale at Best Buy Foods for 79 cents for the whole box.  We ate maybe 4 cookies each, barely 1/4 of the box, so dessert for the whole family was 20 cents.

Our total tonight, then, was... $5.99 mixed seafood, 50 cents extra Pollock, 1/4 of a $2.69 pack of real butter, or 67 cents worth of butter, 65 cents worth of pasta (normally I only buy 99 cent boxes but this was $1.29 for the tri-color) and 20 cents dessert = $8.01 

Even allowing for the cost of the seasonings, garlic, lemon juice, and vinegar, we're not even close to $10.  And I ate octopus.  Booyah!

Going on vacation

Just a quick note that I'm going camping.  So no posts until Monday August 27th.  But there will be at least one about my meals cooked over a fire.  Until then...

Chicken and fries

This afternoon one of my kids had a doctor's appointment, so I didn't have a lot of time for dinner.  I looked in the freezer for something semi-instant and found this:
Now, I just bought this last week for $5.99 a box.  It comes with "Six to Eight Pieces".  If you can't read the fine print in the corner there, this was their variety pack, with breasts, thighs, and drumsticks.  This particular box came with seven pieces, of which, we ate four, so there's $3.43 worth of chicken.  This can be microwaved or baked in the oven; the oven takes 40 minutes and the microwave 10.  I did what my mother always did: microwave for 5 and bake for 20 (at 350, directions on the box). 

Actually, since I have a weaksauce microwave, I nuked those four pieces for six minutes.  While they were baking (on a cookie sheet in the oven) I turned on my deep fryer to make the cheese fries:

They only had to "fry" until they floated.  It took 4 minutes.  Then, I put the fries on the same cookie sheet, just on the other end.  I sprinkled on some mozzerella cheese from the bulk bag I bought a while ago, and put the whole tray back in the oven.  The large bag of fries was also on sale last week, for $2.29.  We ate about half of the bag, for $1.15.  The cheese was trickier, since I bought it in bulk so I can't even estimate "I used half the bag" or "used 1/3 of the bag".  Instead, I can say, I used two handfuls.  But, I know from experience in a pizzaria that each handful (of mine - I have small hands) is about a half cup, and that, when on sale (not in bulk) mozzerella cheese is about $5 for 4 cups.  I used one cup, so about $1.25 worth.  Let's err on the side of caution and call it $1.50



So, for dessert, I made butterscotch pudding,
which takes two cups of milk, or about 1/8 of a gallon,
which costs $3.59 right now, and the mix was 50 cents,
so the dessert (which filled five dixie cups) cost 95 cents total,
or 19 cents each.

We only had 3 of those cups (57 cents), because I had pie. Lots. Again.

So the total for tonight is: $3.43 chicken + $1.15 fries + $1.50  mozz. cheese + 57 cents pudding + 33 cents pie = $6.98



Italian sausage with spaghetti

When my youngest first saw this on the counter, he asked, "Are we eating giant worms for dinner?"  It reminded me of this, so I just told him, "Yes."

I put the sausage in a casserole dish with 1/4 a jar of spaghetti sauce and enough water to cover, then covered that with a lid, and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. 

I asked Emily what she wanted for dessert and she chose pie.  I thought I had enough rhubarb from this year for one more pie, but I knew I had enough berries from the bushes.  So I mixed up some pie crust and some mixed berry filling (raspberry, black raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry, 1/3 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar) all picked for free here in Potter County.  Well, not the flour and sugar.  The only thing I did differently was add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the pie crust (and that was a WIN.  Definitely doing that again.)  As usual, I rolled out the crust between two sheets of waxed paper, to make the transfer easier.  I was able to put the pie in just as the timer was beeping on the sausage.  The pie actually cooked at 425 for 30 minutes.

I then put hot water on for the spaghetti, pulled the sausage from the casserole dish and put it in a frying pan with only half the water poured on top, cut it into serving-sized pieces (that sausage yielded 7 pieces between 4 and 6 inches) and put the pan on high heat while the spaghetti (half of a $1 package) cooked.  That only took 7 minutes, and the water had boiled off the sausage, leaving it just lightly browned on the bottom and fully cooked all the way through.  In other words: perfect.

The kids loved their meal, especially Lucas, who really enjoyed eating "giant worms". 

The pie was done, but hot, and the kids all opted for vanilla cones (previously calculated at 38 cents a cone)  I'm the only one who had a slice of warm pie.  I still say my kids are nuts.

So the sausage was $4.35 and even though we cooked it all we only ate 4/7 of it (the rest is saved in my fridge for another meal) so that's $2.49 worth of sausage.  The pasta was 50 cents.  The bottle of Francesco Rinaldi sauce was $1.67 (3 for 5 at Costas this week).  The ice cream cones were 38 cents times 3, or $1.14, and the one slice of pie was 1/6 (I know it's a BIG slice.  I'm allowed) of a pie where my only expense was 2 and 1/3 cups of flour, 1 cup sugar, a little cinnamon and salt, and 2/3 cups crisco.  I don't really have any idea how much that all cost, but let's assume $2 tops, and I had 1/6, or 33 cents worth.  So, the total is $2.49 sausage + 50 cents pasta + $1.67 sauce + $1.14 cones + 33 cents pie = $6.13

Breakfast for dinner (part 2)

Tonight I wanted something fast and easy.  The kids wanted breakfast for dinner again.  I made somthing a little different than my usual breakfast for dinner, which is normally pancakes and eggs.  Tonight I started with hash browns: I diced 4 medium potatoes (about a fourth of a bag, which cost me $2.99.  I had to buy a brand new bag tonight 'cause I used up the last of my potatoes last Friday.  So, 75 cents worth of potatoes, a dollop of margarine, a bit of water and shake on the cajun seasoning like there's no tomorrow.  Oh, and fry in a pan on medium-low heat.  Keep the skins on for this; just wash them.

The omelettes were simple: lunchmeat ham (bought roughly 20 slices for $2.50 when it was on sale a few weeks back, froze it so it wouldn't spoil.  I used 4 slices in the eggs, so 1/5 of $2.50 means it was 50 cents worth of ham.  A single onion of negligable cost (really, really small onion, about 1 tbsp worth put in the eggs, and the rest put in the hash.) 

A bunch of bananas at 49 cents a pound (we ate 2 as a family and assuming they were REALLY heavy bananas we'll be generous and call it $1 worth of bananas.  Also, bought a bag of cheese at $2.99 and used about a fourth of that, too, so 75 cents of cheese.  Eggs were free for me (WIC item) but since they're normally $1.80/doz, and we used a third dozen (4 eggs) we'll call it 60 cents worth of eggs.  Last, but definitely not least, everyone had a cup of yogurt, since they were 3 for $1, so that's $1.34 worth of yogurt.

So our total tonight was: 0.75 potatoes + 0.50 ham + (negligable) onion + 0.60 eggs + 0.75 cheese + $1 bananas + $1.34 yogurt = $4.94

Beef brisket and potatoes

So I don't actually know what part of the cow a "brisket" is from, but I did this in my crockpot with my mom's roast beef recipe, minus the tomatoes, because my kids don't like stewed tomatoes.  In fact, the only reason I feel confident calling this "beef brisket" is because of this:

To the beef, in the crockpot, I added: 6 potatoes, skinned and diced, 1 large onion, diced, 3/4 cup vinegar, 2 tsp garlic powder, 2 Tbsp salt, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp Worcestire sauce, 1 tsp mustard, and 1 bay leaf. My mother also used to add a 1-lb can of diced tomatoes, but, as I said, my kids don't like stewed tomatoes. It was cooked 2 and a half hours on high heat. You can also do it 8 hours on low, prepared in the morning and ready when you come home. I did not do it this way, because I work 6-2 and didn't want to eat my dinner at 2 in the afternoon.

The kids really liked dinner, which honestly surprised me because all the vinegar and salt in with the meat and potatoes made the potatoes taste like salt and vinegar chips. 

My daughter even asked for seconds.

Dessert was Reese's cups, one each, because they were on sale last week.  I just put them in the freezer right before serving dinner.

So the total for tonight is... $5.60 Beef, $1.50 potatoes (no, six potatoes weren't that much, but a great portion of the bag had rotted and I had to throw out the rest) and $1 worth of Reese's = $8.10.

I would've even had about $1 worth of roast beef left to make a sandwich out of, if the dog hadn't snatched it right off the table when I left to use the restroom.

A really "green" freebie

So this has nothing to do with food, but here's another freebie for you...and I, personally, love this because it's totally in the spirit of my mother.  She wasn't exactly a hoarder, but she had hoarder-like tendencies.  She was very environmentally friendly, and couldn't envision sending something to the dump if she (or anybody, really) could get just one more use out of it.  Thus, we had a "junk pile" in the back of the basement that had some... unusual... stuff in it.  Like, a neighbor got a new TV, gave us his old, 25-inch one, but we still had a working 13-inch one, and she didn't want to send it to the dump... because it still worked... but she didn't know anyone who would want one.. and she could sell it, but it wasn't worth having a yard sale way out in the woods unless you had a big one.  And somehow, the "junk pile" never seemed to get to "yard sale" proportions.

So this thing here... she would have loved it.

http://my.freecycle.org/

You sign up with an e-mail address, pick your hometown from a list (unlike Craigslist, many small towns are on freecycle) and post to the group if you have something to give away.  In the e-mail newsletters, you'll see posts from other users.  I've given away a couch, a coffee table, a roll of carpet, and a box of books.

It's good for the environment.  It promotes the idea of "neighborhood".  And it's free!