Breakfast for Dinner 3

My ex-husband came to visit earlier this week.  He had me feeling nostalgic and I told him that while I'm still cooking up a storm, I don't really enjoy making his two favorite dishes: lasagna and sausage gravy over biscuits. The whole time I'm cooking I get flashbacks to being a happily married woman, cooking for my loving husband.  But then I realized, I am now cooking for my loving kids.  The love is still there, so there can still be lasagna.  And sausage gravy over biscuits.  And so, there was going to be gravylicious breakfast for dinner...

But then we had a bit of a medical emergency and didn't make it home until 5 pm today.  Which is when we are usually done with dinner and setting the table. 

 

So if I was going to make this, I had to make this fast.

 

 

These large boxes of Bisquick had been previously priced at $5.99/box.  However, 2 weeks ago they were on sale for $3.99/box.  So I bought 2 boxes  I followed the directions on the box: mix 2 1/4 cups Bisquick with 2/3 cup milk, knead on Bisquick covered board (probably another 1/2 to 1 cup.  If we call it 3/4 cup then we can say I used an even 3 cups of mix tonight) anyway, knead for about a minute, then roll out dough 1/2 inch thick, cut into biscuits and bake on ungreased baking sheet for 8 to 10 minutes at 450F.  Mine took 8.

 

 

My youngest was my helper tonight: he suggested that we "cut them in shapes", but not knowing how they would turn out, we did mostly circles, with a few "hearts".  He "helped" again by "cleaning" the bowl.

 

, While the biscuits were cooking I needed to start the sausage.  This pack was $2.41, and was a little less than a pound.  Since we were in such a time crunch, I put the frozen chunk in the microwave, which half-way cooked it, then finished cooking it in the pan. When the sausage was done, I scooped it out with a slotted spatula, and added about a cup of milk and 2 cups of water.  

 

I would have added "italian seasonings" at this point but I didn't find them in the first place I looked, and I was in such a hurry that I mixed my own by sight: salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, basil, parsley, and a chicken bullion cube. Then I stirred the pork back in and set everything out on the table.

 

 

As a "side dish" I served bananas, which were on sale this week, 44 cents a pound. Two of these were really long, so we broke them in half to serve the four of us.  You might think that's an exaggeration but look at the length of half  the banana shown here:

 

 

 

  Dinner was delicious, but despite the fact that my youngest cleared his plate, he was still upset everytime I said "Eat your biscuits".  Because to him, this is Biscuit:

 

 

Dessert was applesauce, but dinner was so filling that only my youngest wanted any of it anyway.

 

 

He loves applesauce

 

 

So our total tonight is: 3 cups Bisquick (whole box is 9 cups, costs $3.99, so 1/3 box costs $1.33) + 2/3 cup milk ($3.49/gallon = 15 cents) + $2.41 (sausage) + 88 cents bananas (defintely less than 2 pounds but I'm rounding up anyway) + 10 ounces applesauce (32 oz = $2.35 so 10 oz = 73 cents) = $5.50

 

All right, you may now commence with the "big banana" jokes...

 

 



 

 

 

ShakeNBake (Sort of) and Squash Pie (Really)

 

 

Again, I know I've been doing a LOT of chicken here, but the kids wanted some tonight, and I was in the mood for something quick.  I used some more of these crazy cheap drumsticks. 

I didn't actually have any "shake N bake", but I had these bread crumbs which I mixed with generic Italian seasoning, then just dragged the thawed drumsticks through the now-seasoned bread crumbs. I baked them in the oven on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, until the crumbs were browned and the chicken peeled easily off the bone (and I could see it wasn't pink inside.  That helps, too.)
 

 I had this corn on the cob that someone had given to me,

which I boiled for 12 minutes to beautiful perfection. 

 

 

The squash pie I actually made several days ago, and it's been sitting in my fridge.  So I cut smaller slices for the kids and a large slice for myself, and heated it up for a few seconds in the microwave, and, well, the kids didn't like it at all.  I, personally, loved it.  I think the kids didn't like it because it looks like a fruit pie, like apples or pears, and it tastes like squash.  I mean, technically I guess squash is a fruit.  Only it's not, according to my younglings.

So I ended up eating 2 1/2 servings of pie, and they didn't have any dessert because in this house, you get what you get.  By the way, I just used my favorite apple pie recipe and substituted squash for the apples.  This is also super-duper good with zucchini, but for that, I use a pear pie recipe.

 

Total for tonight: cooked 10 crazy cheap drumsticks, (kids ate 2 each, I ate 4) purchased at the almost unbelievable price of $2.31. Three ears of corn (free for me, gift from my ex's grandma, only 3 because I ate a whole one and broke the others in half, then I ate the remaining extra half as well.) which would cost $1.99 if you bought them right now from the grocery store, so we'll call it that.  The pie, again, was free, excluding the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and crisco, but which would cost a MAX of $2, and we (meaning me) ate less than half the pie, or $1 worth.  SO: $2.31 + $1.99 + $1 = $5.30 

TANSTAAFL, folks. 

Corn Chowder and Chicken Caesar Salad

 

So tonight I'm trying two foods I've never made before.  I have made Caesar salad from a bagged mix before, but in my opinion, that just doesn't count.  I have to say, they both came out splendidly, but the corn chowder was a bit thin for my taste, so I would only add 1 cup of milk, not two, the next time I make it.  But this recipe made enough for my family of four, plus seconds for Emily, with enough left over to feed all four of us another night.  So I would say this makes probably 8-10 adult servings.

So the first thing I did was look up a recipe.  I checked Betty Crocker first, but it called for two ingredients I didn't have in the house, so then I went to the internet.  This recipe came from allrecipies.com but they had so many variants on "corn chowder" that I went with this one:

 

Pan fry 6 slices of bacon on low-medium heat, crumble, and set aside, reserving the grease.  In the grease, saute one small, chopped onion.  Add 2 large, cubed potatoes and 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

 

Stir in 2 cans creamed corn, 1 can of "regular" corn, salt and pepper to taste (I didn't use any cause it smelled soooo good as is) and 2 cups of milk.  Heat through, garnish with the bacon, and serve. 

 

I would recommend 1 cup since this soup was kind of runny, even after I boiled it for an extra 10 minutes, trying to boil it down, and ended up boiling it over... 

 

 

This photo was taken after I ladeled out the finished soup into the large glass serving bowl.  Ordinarily I would just serve in the pan, because (1) it means fewer dishes to wash, and (2) I'm only serving my family, so I don't care about "fancy".  Tonight, I served in separate dishes because (1) we were being fancy (we like to do that once in a while) and (2) the pan was so full and overflowing there's no way I could've carried it to the table without spilling half of it on the floor. You know, I would also recommend either using a larger pan or pouring it into a pot before adding the corn and the milk.

 

While the potatoes were cooking for 15 minutes, I was busy preparing the Chicken Caesar Salad.  I started by boiling a single chicken breast in a pot of water.  It was bought on sale in a family pack of 8 boneless skinless breasts for $9.48, so each one was $1.18, assuming they're all the same size.  This one was actually on the small side, and I didn't even use it all on the salad. 

 

I got out another serving bowl and tore some lettuce by hand, then diced four slices of bread to make some homemade croutons in my toaster oven.  To make croutons, dice bread 4 x 4 slices, spray with cooking spray, and sprinkle with seasonings.  I just used generic "Italian seasoning", which I tend to use a lot.  I put them in the toaster oven and set it to "medium" toast.  They were too soft, so I did them again on "light" toast, and a few in the middle got burned.  But that's ok, because we didn't even use all the croutons. 

 

 To just feed my small family, I only tore a few leaves of lettuce, used about 1/3 of the croutons, 1/3 of the 8 oz pack of "fancy shredded mozzarella" (which means finely shredded), about 3 Tbsp of imitation bacon bits, and about 1/2 of the chicken breast I cooked.  The other half was put in the leftover soup.  The chicken breast took longer to cook than I thought, but again, that's ok, because I was trying to boil down the soup anyway.  Since we were going for "fancy" anyway, I pulled out the good china, which, thankfully, my children did not chip, crack, or destroy while we ate tonight. 

 

Luke loved the salad, but didn't like the chowder very much.  Andrew loved the chowder, but not the salad.  Still, I insisted that all the kids try each dish, but then I let my boys trade. 

Emily liked everything, too, and had seconds of soup and her salad.  Andrew had been playing with the neighbor's boys when I called him in for dinner, so he didn't stick around for dessert, which wasn't anything fancy anyway.  I bought these popsicles from Dollar General for $2.25 a box, so each popcicle was 22 1/2 cents.  As a family, we had 3.

 

 

Our total tonight will be skirting the ten-dollar mark, I think, because I didn't have any bacon or creamed corn, so I had to go out and buy some.  Normally, I only buy bacon when it's on sale for $2.50 a box, and I buy a ton of it.  This was the cheapest bacon they had and it was $3.19 a pound.  I only cooked half the box, but that's still $1.60 worth of bacon, and the bacon was just a garnish. 

 

 

The creamed corn was on sale for 79 cents a can, and the regular canned corn was already in my cupboard, but I did a price check while I was at the store and it's normally 85 cents a can.  The head of lettuce was 1.69 but I only used a small fraction of that head (as you can see from the photo) so I'm going to estimate it at 40 cents worth, a little less than 1/4 of the head.  The bottle of dressing was not on sale, $2.39, and I used about 2/3 of it, or $1.59 worth.  The cheese was on sale (and still is, until tomorrow, folks), at the price of two bags for $3.19, and I used about 1/3 of one bag, or 53 cents worth.  I have never seen it this cheap, not even in bulk, and bought 8 bags.  Potatoes are on sale right now for $1 a bag, but the potatoes seen here were bought a week or two ago at $1.99 a 5-pound bag.  I only used 2, but one was rotten (as you can see in the photo) and I had to throw it out.  So I've got to make sure I use the rest of my potatoes soon.  But I digress.  These three potatoes were about 1/5 of the bag, or 40 cents.  Onions were (and currently are by the way) only 98 cents a bag.  My bag contained about 8 onions, so each one is roughly 12 cents.  Two cups of milk out of a gallon at $3.49 is 44 cents.  The homemade croutons used 4 slices of bread, previously calculated at 6 cents a slice, so 24 cents worth of croutons (although we only ate half).  All prices listed are at Costas Shur Fine in Coudersport, PA.

 

And so we have....79 cents + 79 cents + 85 cents (corn) + 40 cents (lettuce) + $1.60 (half a pack of bacon) + $1.59 (dressing) + 53 cents (fancy cheese) + 40 cents (potatoes) + 12 cents (onion) + 44 cents (milk) + 24 cents (croutons) + $1.18 (chicken) + 68 cents (3 popsicles) = $9.61

 

 

 

And I am AWESOME.

 

 

 

Cubed Pork in Gravy and Tri-Color Tortellini

 

 

 

So this week, pork sirloin cuts (almost all meat, no bone, very little fat) are on sale at Costas ShurFine in Coudersport for $1.88/lb.  I cooked these before in the oven with butter and seasonings.  Since it's hard to pass up a $1 steak, I stopped after work and picked up a family-sized pack.  We also bought a few other things...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also on sale is ShurFine tortellini, BOGO, regularly priced at $4.29 a 1-pound pack.  I almost bought some, but I remembered I had this at home.  Now, this was a gift, so I have no idea how much it should cost.  I searched Google, found the official website, the facebook page, but no "shopping" results that would give me an idea of price.  Technically, this pasta was free for me, but I'm going to call it $2.15, since I cooked about a pound's worth. 

 

 

 

 

I pan-fried the sirloin chops, but this was a pretty big pack: The two smaller chops in the pan and the two larger chops stayed in the pack.  I'm going to be generous though and say I cooked half the pack, at $2.95.  I fried them with: about 2 cups water, 1/4 cup butter, 2 bullion cubes, a teaspoon of minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, parsley, and just a dash of dill (I know, unusual choice, but it was sitting on my spice shelf just daring me to use it, and it turned out great) 

 

 

 

 

When the meat was done cooking, I removed it with a fork and cubed it.  I added some milk to the sauce, intending to make another Bechamel sauce like I did last week.  When I made that sauce, though, I said that too much flour would make it a gravy instead of a cream sauce, and, well, I added too much flour....

 

 

Since I didn't know how the kids would like it, I kept everything separate, including the gravy.

 

 

But they liked it!  Really, really.

 

 

 

Now last week, someone left some free squash for the taking.  Yeah, just like I said in my TANSTAAFL post, people around here grow so much squash and zucchini in the fall that they'll just give it away.  I told my brother you can make a pie out of it; I've done it before and it's pretty tasty.  However, last night I made not one, but two desserts out of squash.  One was a standard pie (top and bottom crust, filling consisting of diced squash, cinnamon, and a lot of sugar) but the other one was a pumpkin cheesecake.  Only with squash instead of pumpkin. 

 Yep.  Made it last night and already half gone.

 

So to make this deliciousness, skin and remove the seeds from 1 and a half small squash (maybe 8 inches long each) or one larger one, and dice the "meats".  Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Cook the "meats" by either microwaving in a glass bowl for 5 minutes, stir, and another 5, or in a pan on the stove, with just 1 or 2 Tbsp water, stirring frequently.  If you want, you can mash them (like mashed potatoes) or leave them cubed.  I left them cubed.  Grease a 9-inch pie plate.  Into the bowl with the squash, mix 1 brick cream cheese, 1/2 cup bisquik powder, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 2 eggs.  Beat well, then pour into your greased pan and bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.  Cool for at least half an hour at room temp before refrigerating.  Serve chilled.

The only thing of any real cost here was the cream cheese, and I got mine on sale.  Right now, Philadelphia brand is on sale for $1.50, but the brick used in this cheesecake was a $1 ShurFine brick.  Even including all of the remaining ingredients, this whole dessert cost no more than $2.  My family ate 4 slices, or half of the pan.  Our total tonight, then, is $2.95 (pork), $2.15 (tortellini), $1(best guess for homemade gravy) and $1 (four slices of cheesecake) = $7.10

I cleaned my plate, Mom!

 

 

 

Camping Dinner (Foil Packets)

As you may or may not know, I went camping with my kids in the last week of August.  While most of our meals there were standard camping fare (hot dogs, hamburgers, pb&j, etc) I did cook two slightly different meals.  The first was spaghetti and meat sauce over a campfire (that was fun).  The second was foil packets. 

Now, when I was a kid, I was a Girl Scout, and our troop leader called these "stuffed toads".  I don't know why, but maybe it's because calling them "foil packets" isn't naseating enough.  Making them is simple enough: first, I cooked some hamburger in a frying pan over a fire.  I was lucky enough to have a grill, but if you don't, you can also use raw burger.  In fact, that's what we did as scouts.  I only pre-cooked my burger because I like to drain off the excess grease.

 

 

 

Next, lay out some pieces of tin foil on a prep surface (I used our picnic table) and open up some cans of potatoes and vegetables (I bought peas and corn but only used the corn). Divide the veggies, potatoes, and meat among the packets, and fold them up so they're completely enclosed. 


Next, place them over the fire to heat them, or directly in the fire if you're cooking the raw burger in the packets.  Again, if you do it this way, they'll be greasier, but it's chef's choice, there.... 

When they're done heating (or cooking), simply remove them with tongs, open them back up, and eat them!  There's virtually no cleanup, so that's a plus as well!

 

 

For dessert, I sliced some bananas, added pieces of chocolate and marshmallow, and tossed this one large foil packet on top of our smoldering coals.  (Think smores, but with banana... mmmmm.....) 

 

It may not look appetizing, but it really, really was. 

 

 

So, our total for tonight's dinner was: 1-pound pack hamburger, $2.28.  Can corn, 89 cents.  Can potatoes, 99 cents.  3 bananas, not really sure but they're 69 cents a pound and 3 bananas feels like it's about a pound, so we're going to call it that.  The whole pack of marshmallows was $1.19, but I only used a few, call it 1/4 of that, and the 2 candy bars were part of a six-pack for $4.50.  So, that's $2.28 (beef) + $0.89 (corn) + 0.99 (potatoes) + 0.69 (bananas) + 0.30 (marshmallows) + 1.50 (2 candy bars) = $6.65

 

We had a good time on the rest of our camping trip, and, if you want to make these without the fire, you can put foil in the oven as well.

Beef Bechamel (and peas)

 

So I had no idea that my homemade hamburger helper had a fancy French name until one of the nurses at work told me so.  I googled it, and apparently it's the mother of all French sauces, made with butter, milk, seasonings, and flour.  I used to make this all the time as a new bride because it's 1)fast 2)cheap and 3)easy.

First, I cooked a little less than a full pound of crazy cheap hamburger.  It was a 2.8 pound pack for $5.51, and I cooked roughly a third of the pack ($1.84).  I browned it in a half a stick of butter (25cents, real butter), a splash (1/2 cup?) of milk, one beef boullion cube, a heaping teaspoon of garlic, and, to be honest, I didn't measure, but shook on what looked good in the realm of salt, pepper, thyme, basil, paprika, rosemary, and just a dash of cayenne pepper.  In a separate pot, I boiled 1/2 pound of spaghetti (50 cents, baby!) with a Tbsp of vegetable oil (to keep it loose without constant vigilance). 








When the burger was cooked, I scooped it out with a slotted spatula and put it in the pot with the strained spaghetti.  That left me with just the cream sauce, which I thickened with flour.  I just added a teaspoon at a time, mashing it in (still on low heat) with a slotted spatula.  Since it was still a little lumpy, I poured it into a cup and used a hand-held drink mixer.  When it was still a little runny (you don't want it too thick in the pan - it's a cream sauce, not a gravy) I poured the meat and spagetti back in and stirred it all together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, because I wanted something green to go with this, I microwaved a half a pack of frozen peas (90 cents) in a glass bowl, with some butter and just a dash of dill.  (Trust me, this tastes Awesome.  Or try it yourself.)  So, as I said, I haven't made this in years, and the kids were a little skeptical of this mystery food.  They started by eating their peas. 

Only when they had no choice did they dare to touch the pasta. 

 

 

 

 

 

But then....

 

 

Sooooooo gooooooood.....

 

(And dessert was applesauce)

 

 

So our total for tonight's dinner was: Hamburger ($1.84), Pasta (50 cents) Sauce (butter was 25 cents and was the most expensive part, we're gonna call the whole sauce 50 cents' worth), Peas (90 cents) and 1/2 jar of applesauce (Lucas had a cereal bowl, the rest of us had 6-oz dessert bowls) (1/2 of $2.35 = $1.18).  Total = $4.92

 

 

The best part of tonight's dinner:

The kids tried something they've never had before, and they actually liked it.