T-Bone Pork Chops with Scalloped Potatoes

Well, it's all there in the title, folks.  I started by thawing out some pork.  This was $4.40 worth of bone-in pork steaks, 42.88 ounces worth.  Roughly, that's 10 cents an ounce.  Thus, a ten ounce steak from this pack would be only a dollar.  Think about that.  Of course, that would include at least 2 ounces of bone, I'm sure.  It doesn't look like a big pack, but they're semi-stacked in there, so it's more meat than it appears to be. 

The last time I made pork chops I used sirloin steaks (no bone) and seasoned them with butter and italian seasoning.  Tonight, I used butter and cajun seasoning.  I'm a dare-devil, I know.  I used roughly 3 Tbsp butter and 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the glass dish, to keep them moist, then shook on the seasoning right out of the jar.  I baked them in the oven at 450 for 40 minutes.  Well, technically, I baked them for 20 minutes while I got the potatoes and the dessert ready, pulled them out, flipped them over, shook on more seasoning, then baked for another 20 with the potatoes. 

But it really amounts to the same thing... po-tay-toe/puh-tah-toe...


The scalloped potatoes I just made according to the directions on the box.  I mixed up dessert at the same time as the potatoes, so it would be ready when we were done eating.  And dessert was, at my daughter's request, pudding.  I bought 5 oz dixie cups, filled them with roughly 4 ounces each of pudding, since it was on sale last week at Jubilee for 50 cents a mix. (one mix filled 5 cups) Even when you count the cost of the milk, 1 gallon = 16 cups, and pudding mix uses 2 cups of milk, so 1/8 of the cost of a gallon of milk, roughly $3.50, is $0.43.  So dessert cost $0.93.

I took a few pics of my family enjoying the meal (although my eldest did not want to be photographed tonight) and was tired of my daughter's "poses", so I purposely took two pictures in a row to see what she looks like when she's actually eating. 

So dinner ($4.40) + scalloped potatoes ($1 mix + 18 cents milk) + 93 cent dessert =

$6.51

Power Outage Dinner for 4

Our power has been out for roughly 28 hours.  Last night, we drove to my father's house - he has a generator - and cooked a hot meal there.  Today, with no end to the outage in sight, we had an extremely interesting dinner for four....

It began with an ice cream feast.  I got home from work today at 2:45, and found that the three half-full cartons of ice cream in our freezer had not yet melted.  As I said, we were all expecting the outage to continue. So I got all the kids at the table with bowls and spoons, got our large camping cooler ready, and pulled out the ice cream, placing everything else in the camping cooler.  Then, while the kids were gorging themselves on sugar, I cleaned the interior of the freezer with soapy water.  (Multitasking QUEEN)

The rest of dinner began by examining the cupboards.  Lots of hamburger helper, cake mixes, cornbread mixes, pasta, pasta sauces, and much, much more that required electricity to cook.  I suppose I should add that I have an electric stove.  Yes, not much foresight there.  But it is very nice-looking.  When it's functional.

So our dinner tonight consisted of fluffernutter sandwiches, dry cereal, kool-aid, and ice cream.  With the serving order slightly skewed due to external conditions.  I am more than certain that I stayed within my $10 limit.  I did not take pics of the process tonight, but if anyone needs instructions on how to make fluffernutter sandwiches... well, you can just Google it:  the power is back!

Cheap family outings

I've written before about free family outings.  This is not to be confused with inexpensive family outings.  In the last two weeks, I've taken my kids on two "day trips".  Today I'm going to share one of them with you....




The first trip we took was to Watkins Glen State Park in NY state.  It's about 2 hours from my home, according to Google Maps.  Surprisingly, it actually only took 2 hours to get there.  FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, my entire family gained admission to this beautiful park, with cascading waterfalls...













....caves, a beautiful hiking trail lined with stone steps and stone walkways....









an olympic-sized swimming pool (16 feet deep in the deep end!) - no pics of the pool because water and cameras don't mix well in my experience...












....and one of the most incredible children's playgrounds I've ever seen, with some, shall we say, interesting designs....

The park is 91 miles from Coudersport each way, a total of 182 miles.  Assuming approximately 25 mpg, that's 7.28 gallons, and at the current gas price of $3.50/gal, that's a little less than $25.50 in gas.  So adding the $8 admission fee, it's $33.50 for a whole day of fun and exercise.  If you want to buy souveniers, or pay for lunch (instead of packing a picnic, for example), it's much more expensive.  A bottle of water in the park is $2.  We stopped at Dollar General on the way, bought some granola bars and bottled water, and saved money that way.  If you stick to the basics, this is cheaper than taking the kids to the movies, and it lasts all day.

And just in case you wanted to save money on something local, here's a few of my weekly "treasure finds":

This week at Jubilee, Armor corn dogs are on sale for $1 a pack.  Granted, they only come 2 in a pack, but kids love corn dogs.

And this week at Best Buys, Reese's Cups are 2 packs for $1

(so actually, you get 4 individual cups for $1.)

But if you wanted something healthier, this week at Costas,

Corn on the cob is on sale for a quarter an ear. 

How awesome is that?

tacos with salad-ish toppings

Emily is making that face because she is quite impatient to eat.  To make tacos, I coooked about 2 pounds of hamburger, bought ages ago for $4.41.  I bought "mexican" cheddar cheese today for $2.69 a bag (used about 3/4 of the bag for $2.02) a half a head of iceburg lettuce (0.79), a half of a tomato (0.66), a half of an single onion, purchased six in a bag for $2.99 (0.25), a few olives and peppers (just me, so probably less than 10 cents worth of that), and taco shells, on sale today for $1.99 at Costas.  We ate half the pack, so $1.00 for them.

I'm also the only one who opted for taco salad.

But the tacos were delicious, even enjoyed by my pickiest children.

For dessert I was asked to recreate the Mushroom Cake from Andrew's birthday party. 

Extra Life... Get it?  

Cake mixes were on sale this week for $1 each.  Just when I thought I'd seen the last of $1 cake mixes... there they were...  So I bought 5 mixes.  Anyway, Andrew's birthday cake took me roughly an hour just to get the decorating right, and I wasn't about to to put that kind of time into this one, so what we had for dessert looked like this: 

So our final total for dinner was:  meat, ($4.41), cheese, ($2.02), lettuce (0.79), tomato (0.66), onion, (0.25), a few olives and peppers (~10 cents), shells, ($1.00), less than 1/4 of the cake, cake mix ($1.00), and homemade frosting (less than $1), so 50 cents worth of cake =

$9.73

Yum

Bratwurst and Pierogies

Tonight and Tomorrow, Ste. Eulalia's Roman Catholic church in Coudersport, PA, is having its annual church festival.  Since there is a strong Polish Catholic community around here, we usually rock out with some polka and Eastern European food, including Latkes ("potato pancakes", like a McDonald's "hash brown"), Kielbasa, Cabbage rolls, and Pierogies.  I, myself, am 1/8 Polish (as well as a mixture of mostly Irish and German, with one French and one Native American in the tracable family tree) and was raised as a Roman Catholic, too.  So this food is "ethnic food" for me.

I worked overtime tonight, and was unable to attend the festival, although it rained for much of the evening and was pouring when I got home with my kids.  Since I didn't make a dinner for 4 tonight (the kids ate at their babysitter's house) I am giving you pics of a dinner I made several months ago.

 

Specialty hot dogs (cheddarwurst, bratwurst, jalapeno dogs, etc) were on sale that week for $2.50 a pack (I hate to think what they must normally cost).  They came six in a package.  I'm not sure how much the pierogies cost (as I dug them out from the depths of the freezer, and don't remember when I bought them, much less what they cost) but I know they are frequently on sale for $2.00 a box.  I checked this week's sale fliers and Jubilee is selling generic pierogies for $1.67 a pack.  I know these ones were the good ones.  Now, the traditional Polish pierogies involve pan-frying them in butter and onions, but these were frozen and already had onions in them, so I just deep fried them.  The bratwurst, oddly enough, I pan-fried.  Although I bought hot dog rolls ($1.50 for a package of 8), the kids all wanted theirs plain.  Well, with ketchup.  But not rolls.  

I don't remember what we served for dessert that night and there are no pics to remind me but I know if I were down at the festival I'd be buying us slices of homemade pie.  In fact, that sounds delicious.  A large homemade pie can be made for about $3.50, (less if the fruit filling is free, like berries picked off bushes, maybe?  Or rhubarb?) and will last 2 nights even if every member of my family has some.  Yes, I am thinking that when I am done typing tonight, I'm gonna make a pie.

So, a quick total is: 19 cents for the one hot dog roll I ate, $2.00 pierogies, $2.50 specialty hot dogs, and less than $3 mystery dessert gave the four of us a dinner for under $10.

And that would make anyone happy

Homemade Sweet Onion Sauce

My daughter LOVES Subway's Sweet Onion Sauce.  I thought I would try to recreate it but when I looked it up it was waaaaaay too complicated.  First of all, it contains 3 different kinds of vinegar: Red, White, and Basalmic.  So that wasn't going to happen.  I found a few recipes from people who had just tried to make their own, but the reviews were really varied, from "This tastes nothing like Subway's" to "This tastes just like Subway's!" on the same recipe.  I'm going to adjust the official Subway recipe to only allow for ingredients I have in my house.  Here goes nothin'....

Here's my "adjusted" recipe:
1/2 c light corn syrup
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp + 3 tsp vinegar (I had cider vinegar)
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp milk
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 dash salt
dash pepper
dash garlic powder

Combine all ingredients in glass bowl, microwave 2 minutes, allow to cool, and serve.

Final judgement from me: doesn't taste exactly like Subway's, but is still a VERY tasty sauce.  WIN.

Final judgement from my daughter will have to wait; she's on a playdate.  We'll see.

Toasted cheese and chili

Back in June, I made a VERY large pot of chili.  I froze the leftovers in quart baggies, which are the perfect size for my family of four.  It fills us up with no leftovers.  I calculated at the time that each baggie cost $2.90.  Tonight I wanted something fast and easy, so I pulled a baggie out of my freezer and thawed it in the microwave.  Since I had already done the chili as a main course, with cornbread as a side, I "officially" served the chili as a side dish tonight, with the main course being toasted cheese sandwhiches.



Also as a re-purposed leftover, the last time I posted about pizza, I said I was going to try adding seasonings to the dough.  A few days ago I did just that (it was delicious) and used the excess dough to make sandwich rolls.  They didn't rise enough, and resulted in a very flat, but tasty bread.  So, if you're wondering what those dark flecks on the sandwiches are, it's generic italian seasoning baked into the bread.







 Each of these sandwiches with shredded mozzerella cheese cost about 43 cents.  I arrived at the calculation by dividing the cost of pizza + mozz ($2.55) by two, since my recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas and the rolls are made from excess dough, then by 3, since I was able to bake one large (10-inch) and one small (5-inch) and these two sandwiches were from the one large roll. These two halves were heated in the microwave.  Only my youngest opted for a "traditional" sandwich (with storebought bread and american cheese).  This sandwich cost $0.21. I counted 26 slices of bread in a loaf which cost $1.69, and right now you can buy 16 slices of Sure Saving American cheese slices for 99 cents, so you have the materials to make 13 sandwiches for $2.68.  That makes each one about 20.6 cents.


I didn't have any cheese on bread, because, honestly, that's a lot of calories right there, and I weigh more than I would like to, so for the rest of my meal I had a plum and a very large glass of ice water with lemon juice.

"Look, Mom, I ate it all! But I don't want applesauce, I want Lucky Charms!"  And that's exactly what he got.  The box cost $3.50 (on sale right now at Dollar General) and the side of the box says it contains 12 servings.  Andrew and Emily both had Lucky Charms for dessert, so $3.50 divided by 12 servings times 2 kids = 58 cents.  Lucas had applesauce, $2.65 for 48 ounces; I poured his applesauce into a used yogurt cup (6 ounces), which is 1/8 of 48, so $2.65 divided by 8 = 34 cents. 

I had no dessert.  Again, watching my figure.  But Lucas ended up eating two cups of applesauce, so the cost of dessert for the family was 58 + 34 + 34 = $1.26.  So, our total for tonight was... $2.90 leftover chili + 43 cents x 2 homemade sanwiches + 21 cents "traditional" cheese sandwich + $1.26 dessert = $5.23.  And I almost forgot.  That single plum cost 56 cents.  Ridiculous, isn't it? 

So the total was actually

$5.79

Now y'all are gonna start eating cereal for dessert.  I've started the weirdest trend ever.

Baked Chicken breast

So tonight I had a guest in my home for dinner.  She's pregnant, so I asked before she arrived if she had any special requests for dinner.  She said no, so, like my kids, she gets what I make.

Before she arrived, I pulled out this pack of chicken that I bought a few weeks ago.  It was so crazy cheap I bought several packs.  Check out this price sticker:  That's right.  Less than five dollars for all that chicken.  Of course, before it was baked it filled the pan:

So I started by thawing this puppy out in my microwave, then separated the chicken and spread it out a bit, since the pieces that were touching still had ice on them but the edges were completely thawed.  So I flipped some of the pieces over and arranged them so the frozen parts were all on the outside of the pan.  To season them, all I did was dump what was left of a bottle of Italian Dressing (about 3/4 of a bottle, purchased at $2, so $1.50 worth of dressing) over the chicken, then put the whole thing in the oven at 390 degrees for 50 minutes.

My friend and I drove to Jones' produce stand, which just opened today, while the chicken was cooking, because I had vouchers for $5 worth of free produce from there.  I ended up getting 7 ears of corn for $2.70, and 4 plums for $2.25.  Had I actually paid cash for the corn, it would have been $1.55 for the 4 ears we ate.  (I cooked 5 ears but Andrew and Luke each only had 1/2 an ear.)  We came home and cooked it, and it was done just a few minutes after the chicken was.

Dessert was these bat-shaped cookies I made for the first time last Halloween, and a few times since then when the kids really, really want me to (and also when I happen to want something chocolate-y and it's too late to go out and buy some).  So anyway, I made a batch yesterday on my day off and we had some more for dessert tonight.  They're a ginger-snap with no ginger, but with cocoa and mint extract.  They taste like the inside of a thin mint.

Here's the recipe: In a large bowl, mix 2/3 cup shortening, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 egg; beat until creamy.  Stir in 1/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 tsp peppermint extract. 

In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 and 3/4 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt. 

Blend dry mix into wet mix. 

Here we reach a fork in the road:

To cut into shapes, mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 Tbsp cocoa (or use dry Quik mix) and roll cookies out onto that instead of "roll on floured board". 

To make a soft, round cookie like a traditional gingersnap, just roll the dough into balls in your palm, then roll the balls gently in sugar, and place on a cookie sheet.  You don't need to flatten them (like a peanut butter cookie)  They will flatten by themselves as they bake (like a chocolate chip cookie).

Either way, bake at 350 on un-greased sheets for 12 - 15 mins.  I cut these into shapes like sugar cookies, but I tend toward less traditional shapes, like doing these "bats" last Halloween, and again yesterday. 

So, our total for tonight is: $4.80 chicken, $1.50 italian dressing, $1.55 corn (but not really 'cause I had vouchers but whatever), and I am NOT calculating the cost of these cookies because it would take me so long to accurately figure out what they cost that I'm just going to say $1 for the 10 cookies we ate tonight.  A box of Girl Scout brand Thin Mints costs $4 and comes with 40 cookies, and I don't think mine cost more than the brand name ones.

All of that brings our total to $8.85 and that includes an extra adult who was eating for two.

And FYI, this photo is not from Halloween. It's from tonight. My boy just felt like dressing up with his dessert.  And then asking for four more cookies, Pleeeeeease.

Tune in next week.  Same Bat Time.  Same Bat Channel.

Yet another freebie

 There is yet another free comoddity that we often take for granted here in northern PA:

Sunshine

In addition to releasing mood-boosting chemicals in our brains, the sun provides light and heat.

To raise the dough for these rolls,  I put them on the front seat of my van on a sunny day.

And my favorite use for a bright sun-shiny day? 

Hanging clothes on the line.  It's clean and green, it's free and easy, and it brings me home.

Chicken quesadillas

This is one of my favorite "fast and easy" meals: Chicken and cheese quesadillas.

First, I assembled all the ingredients for dessert: Pumpkin Spice Cake with cream cheese icing:

I only used a half a brick of cream cheese this time.  The cake mix cost $1.33 (I haven't seen a 99 cent mix since winter, actually, but the can of pumpkin was on sale for 99 cents.  I just prepared the cake mix as directed, but added a can of pumpkin to the mix.  I like walnuts but the kids don't, so I poured a little more than half the mix into a 9x9 brownie pan, added a cup of nuts to the remaining half, and poured that into an 8x8 pan.  I baked at 350 for 25 minutes.  The one with nuts ended up taking longer (maybe because it was thicker - you would think less actual batter in the pan would lead to a lower baking time but even physics surprises me from time to time).  While it was baking, I began work on the quesadillas....




Normally, I make these one at a time and microwave them to melt the cheese.  This time, though, I already had the oven on, so I just made four of them and put them on a cookie sheet in the oven to melt the cheese.  I mixed some cheddar cheese with taco seasoning.  I bought this jumbo jar over half a decade ago and it's still half full.  But it hasn't grown sentient life, so I guess we're good.






I had some extra chicken left over from making a whole chicken once upon a time, and some chives from my garden that I'd just tossed in the freezer.  The tortillas were $1.50 for a ten-pack.  The cheese was $4 a pound, and I used a little more than half the bag, so we'll call it $2.50 worth of cheese.  I'm the only one who used the salsa and it was only a Tbsp or so, so we're calling the price on that negligable.  



I put them in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese, and microwaved a bag of peas ($1.70) then pressed the quesadillas (that's fancy chef-like talk for I smushed them down with the palm of my hand) and put them on a plate to serve. 

It turns out I had two 10-inch tortillas left over from a previous meal, so the kids got 8-inch "kid sized" ones and I got a larger one.  It kind of worked out pretty well.





When the cake was done, I mixed up some cream cheese icing using a half a brick of cream cheese (50 cents - I ONLY buy cream cheese when it's $1 a brick, usually around Thanksgiving) and about 2 cups of powdered sugar, a tsp of vanilla, and enough milk to make it the right consistency.  Since the cake was still warm, it kind of melted the icing, which is why it looks thin in the middle and thick at the edges of the cake.  But that's OK.  It's delicious enough that we don't care what it looks like.

So, our total for tonight is: 

$1.33 mix, $0.99 pumpkin, $0.50 cream cheese, $0.63 powdered sugar,

 $1.50 tortillas, $2.50 cheese, $1.70 peas

= $9.15 

(And that's counting much, much cake that we haven't yet eaten)

Mmmmm...   Delicious, it is.

.

chicken pasta casserole

So Friday night I went to a fish fry at my dad's house and completely forgot about posting.  Then Saturday, I got sick from heat exposure.  Then Sunday I forgot all over again.  So here's Friday's post today.  On one hand, it's not a whole meal, but on the other hand, it's also three days late.  Yay for me!

Here's the recipe for the casserole I made as part of Andrew's birthday party last Saturday.  Oh, and by the way, yes I did find my camera, and no, all of the spaghetti was eaten.

I made a pound and a half of rigatoni (spiral noodles), which was on sale for 99 cents a pound, so that's $1.50 worth of pasta.  It was so much that I had to put it in two casserole dishes, one 9x9 and one 13x9.  I topped the pasta with a full jar of Francesco Rinaldi sauce (my favorite, on sale last week for $1.33 a jar)  I baked and diced $5.57 worth of chicken and added the red, green, and yellow diced peppers that I had frozen from this recipe, previously calculated as $1.85.  Then, I topped with a pound and a half of cheese ($6 worth), and another jar of sauce (another $1.33).

So, our total cost of a monstrous amount of casserole was $1.50 pasta + $1.85 peppers + $6 cheese + $5.57 chicken + $2.66 sauce = $17.58.  My family of four only ate half of the small dish at a sitting.  The rest I ate as leftovers or gave away to relatives.  I could have gotten 5 meals, easily out of this, so I'm going to call the price for each meal for my family as $17.58/5 = $3.52.  If I make this again, I'll do it in a loaf pan. 

Money can't buy me love

I'm a big fan of free.  So here's a few endorsements for activities that are free and local that my kids love to do:

1.  Spend time at the public library.  The Coudersport Public Library's children's section has a toy railroad, a separate "kids" computer, magnetic puzzles, videos, and, of course, lots of books.

2. Go to Lyman Lake for a swim. Granted, there is gas money involved (Google maps says it's 16 miles. My Hyundai only gets 18 miles to the gallon, so we're talking roughly a gallon of gas, or $3.70, give or take.) But compare this cost: Less than $4 for a swim at the Lake, which has a sand beach vs $17 daily admission for my family of four at the town pool. Plus, the lake has wildlife. Salamanders, butterflies, bullfrogs, minnows, and ducks. 

3.  Play at the park.  Any park.  Or even better, pack a picnic for the park.  : ) 

4.  Hike the nature trails at Carp Park.  The entrance to the trail is below the baseball fields.


And, for what it's worth, all of these activities are funded by taxes.  Which means you've already paid for them.  Seems kind of silly not to get your money's worth.

Can't find my camera but I made spaghetti

I'm really mad at myself for this one.  Often, I lose the phone or the remote or something, but my camera is kinda high up on the scale of stuff-I-don't-want-to-lose.

Pics may be added when I find my camera, although by then the spaghetti will be gone.  So, actually, I made the spaghetti, along with a big batch of homemade meatballs, for my son's birthday party on Saturday.  He's a big fan of the Mario Bros video games; I made him a Goomba pinata and a "1-Up" cake, as well as spaghetti and meatballs.  And, because I tend to overdo it, I also made a rigatoni chicken casserole that I may post on Friday if I ever find my camera.  *inward snarl*.  There was so much food that we ate spaghetti yesterday AND this evening.

So: homemade spaghetti and meatballs which translated to feeding my family of four three times (plus assorted guests which I'm not counting here, because some of them ate the casserole)

In my jumbo pot (that I used to make chili here) I made a whole pound of spaghetti.  It was on sale last week at Costa's Sure Fine in Coudersport for $1 a box.  I bought two boxes of spaghetti and two boxes of the rigatoni for the casserole.  I only cooked one box of spaghetti Saturday but each box is a full pound, so it was more than enough.  I used a family-sized pack of hamburger meat ($8.50, to the best of my recollection) mixed with four slices of shredded white bread (negligible cost) roughly 2 tsp of Italian seasoning, and 4 eggs ($0.60).  I moulded it into meatballs and baked them in the oven at 400 degrees until they were done.  It took maybe 10 minutes?  I set the timer for 5 and that wasn't long enough.  I strained the spaghetti and poured on Francesco Rinaldi sauce, my favorite, and also on sale last week 3 jars for $5.  (1 jar = $1.67).  I also made salad consisting of $4 worth of lettuce ($1.99 for each of two heads) and one very large tomato for $1.50.  I diced onion but nobody wanted any.  One jar of salad dressing $2.50 on sale, and birthday cake for dessert, of course, all 3 days since I made way too much of that too.  2 mixes at $1.33 each and one jar of store-bought icing (I got lazy - $1.99) and 1 batch of homemade frosting (less than $1 but I'll be generous and call it $1)

Total for three meals = $9.10 meatballs, $1 spaghetti, $1.67 sauce, $4 lettuce, $1.50 tomato, $2.50 dressing, $2.66 + $1.99 + $1 cakes = $25.42.  Divided by 3 because, as I said, I'm being generous with my allowance even though I fed some to guests AND b/c we STILL have salad left even after tonight, each night's total is... $8.47.