stuffed shells

So my ex is in town.  Again.  And he likes Italian food.  A lot.  So, tonight I made one of his favorites: stuffed shells.  Now, I actually made two pans (one a 13x9, shown here, and another 8x8, not pictured.) We ate about 1/3 of the shells that I cooked, so that will show in my cost calculations.  The remainder was boxed up and frozen for future "easy" meals.  And just in case you're wondering "does she ever actually pull those leftovers out and re-heat them?" the answer is yes.  Quite often, actually.

I started by boiling a whole box of jumbo shells and cooking a whole family pack of hamburger (shells $1.39, on sale, hamburger $5.68).  The shells I boiled, as I always do, with a little bit (prob 2 Tbsp) of vegetable oil in the pot, to keep them from sticking to the pan or eachother.  The hamburger was pan-fried with half a large diced onion, about 1 Tbsp "Italian seasonings" and 1 tsp garlic.  Oh, and I also set the oven for 400 degrees.  Don't forget that part.

The lump in the middle of the pan is the frozen mozzarella

When the burger was cooked, I added a 24-oz container of cottage cheese (because it costs 1/3, per pound, of what ricotta cheese does, and in pasta shells it tastes so close I dare you to tell them apart!) about 1/2 pound of bulk mozzarella (2 handfuls) and 4 slices of wheat bread, hand-torn into small pieces (about the size of a thumbnail).  This was my mother's doing.  She always added shredded bread to her meatballs, meatloaf, stuffed shells, and manicotti.  Why? Because meat averages $3 a pound, cheese averages $4 a pound, and bread averages $1 a pound.  Throwing in a little bread gives you more stuffing for your money.  It absorbs a lot of the liquid in the cottage cheese, too, hiding the fact that you're using a half-price substitute in the first place.

It was here that I ran into my first real snag of the evening: no spaghetti sauce.  I found this hard to believe, since just a few weeks ago my favorite brand, Francesco Rinaldi, was on sale for $1 a jar at Costas, and I could have sworn I bought a bunch of it.  But either that was longer ago than I thought, or we've been eating a lot more pasta than I thought.  Either way, the only jar I had was an already-opened jar, in my fridge.  It was nearly full, so that's a plus.  I briefly pondered going to the grocery store, but dinner was already running a little bit later than usual, and I didn't want to prolong deliciousness.  So, I added some ketchup to the jar, a little bit of water, and shook it up.  It actually worked fairly well.  I was surprised.

When the shells were done cooking, I drained out the hot water and poured in cold, and let it sit a moment.  I repeated that process, and the second time around, the shells were cool enough to hold in my hand.  So, I stuffed them with the good stuff and put them in the pan.  Hint: if using a coated cake pan, instead of glass, you might end up with cheese stuck to the bottom if it drizzles out, so pour about 2 Tbsp of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the pan, smear it around with your fingers, and then stuff the shells.  

A gentle reminder: this family, including my ex, ate 1/3 of the meal prepared, so if you DON'T have a deep freezer, or a husband or teenager to eat a mountain of stuffed shells, only use 1/3 of what I've used.  I put the two pans of shells in the oven for 15 minutes with just a sprinkling of mozzarella on top.  (maybe another 1/4 lb on BOTH pans)  For a side dish, we had bread and [fake] butter.  As a family, we ate 7 slices.  I had my youngest set the table.

So our totals for tonight are... shells (of which we ate a third): $1.39 + $5.68 burger + 8 cents for 1/2 onion + $1 jar of sauce + $2.44 bulk cheese (3/4 lb mozzarella at $3.25/lb) + $2.99 cottage cheese + 36 cents bread in shells ($1.99 loaf of generic wheat divided by 22 slices is 9 cents a slice) = 13.94, divided by 3 = $4.65 for the shells.  The extra 7 slices of bread would be 63 cents, and the misc. butter and italian seasonings MIGHT be another 10 cents, so $5.38 so far, then dessert was leftover birthday cupcakes (daughter's birthday was yesterday), which was a $1 mix with maybe 50 cents homemade frosting, made 24 cupcakes ate 6 tonight, so cost of dessert was 38 cents, making tonight's GRAND TOTAL

 (and I am so ready for bed).... $5.76

Birthday princess with a meal fit for a Queen

  

chicken romaine wraps with vegetable stew

So finger sandwiches are one of my daughter's favorite snacks.  In order to consider it a "meal", I added the stew, and made sure the wraps had protein and vegetable.  That, I feel, elevated this from "appetizers" to "dinner".  

There was some beef left over from last week's beef roast.  I had frozen it, and with this meal in mind I pulled it out last night.  Then, because I knew I needed some wheat tortillas to make the wraps, I went to the grocery store with the kids right after work.  

We found some crazy cheap chicken, coincidentally on sale; this pack was $3.34.  We also got this can of mixed veggies for 69 cents, this "romaine lettuce head" for 98 cents (yeah!) 2 lbs of onions for 88 cents (yeah!) and the tortillas for $2 (not so yeah...)  Salad dressing is $2 a bottle this week - not a fantastic price, but not bad.)

I put two pots of water on the stove.  In one, for the stew, I put 3 bullion cubes, about 2/3 of the beef, the can of veggies (which was almost ALL carrots, so I added these peas.  Then, because I couldn't leave well enough alone, I added onions (diced the smallest one out of the bag)  and corn.)



In the other pot, I put 2 of the 3 chicken breasts (third in the freezer) and set the timer so they could boil.  Then I diced the onion, mentioned above, and put half of it in the stew, saving the other half for the wraps.

To make the wraps, I put down a tortilla, some dressing, a single leaf (they were big), more dressing, and some meat, mixed with dressing and diced onions.

Then, I wrapped it up and sliced it into "snails",
turning them on their side and "displaying" them.  I made four wraps: One beef and honey mustard, one chicken and ranch, one chicken and thousand island, and one chicken and ranch with no onion, for my youngest.









Instead of putting each wrap on a plate for each one of us, because I knew that was too big of a serving for my kids, I put some of each wrap on a serving platter and had each kid pick 3 "snails" to go with their soup.  (It might not seem like much, but each full sized wrap made 6 snails, so 3 was half of a wrap, or a kids' serving).  Emily took four, "because they're delicious."

And she's right.

The soup was good but my oldest just does not photograph well.

Dessert was full-sized candy bars, purchased on sale (50 cents each) the day after Halloween and masterfully hidden for a full week, but eventually discovered when I pulled them out to get one for myself.

Our total for tonight is: 2/3 of $3.34 chicken, or $2.23.  4 leaves off a 98 cent head of lettuce, lets call it 10 cents, a few Tbsp of different salad dressings, which cost $2 a bottle, so 50 cents, max, 1 onion out of an 88 cent bag (of six) = 15 cents, 69 cent can veggies, a little bit of frozen peas/corn to fill out the stew, call it 50 cents max, 3 out of 25 boullion cubes, which cost $1.59 a container, or 19 cents, and 50 cent candy bars x family of 4 = $2 dessert, bringing our total to: $6.36

This is good mom! Bunnies LOVE carrots!

not goulash, yes pumpkin

Editor's note: Ok, so one of the reasons I was hesitant about this project (crazy cheap dinner, that is) is because I knew that, eventually, I would run out of recipes.  But (shock and awe!) I haven't yet made goulash.  My daughter pulled out my copy of Rachel Ray's Family cookbook, Yum-O! a few days ago, and opened it up to the garlic-filled Ghoul-ash, and asked if we could please please please make this?  I said sure, (love the pun!) but we'd wait until tonight and use my mother's recipe, not Rachel Ray's.  Just the same, I read hers and it sounds... um...very different from every other goulash ever made.  Right down to the dill and pimentos.  So I got out all the ingredients for my mother's super-delicious goulash:  

Yep, that's it.  Top-cut hamburger made from locally grown beef, probably $5 a pound in a store, so that's what I'll call it.  For me it was free.  Have I said I LOVE my hometown?   The rotini was $1 a box and I only used about 2/3 of the box.  The onions were previously calculated at 14 cents each, and the can of tomatoes was $1.49 but I ended up not using it.  Which is why I can't really call this goulash, since to me, goulash always includes diced tomatoes.



So, I started by putting on some water to boil the rotini, thawing out the burger in the microwave, and then putting it in my large skillet to cook.  I diced half the onion (other half in the fridge) and put that in with the burger.  I expected to have lots of drippings to brown the onion, but this was apparently top-TOP-cut burger, because there was none.  I mean, maybe an eighth of a teaspoon of grease from the whole pound but basically, NONE.  I didn't want it to dry out so I added 1/2 cup or so of water.  Without really knowing why, I added a bullion cube.  ???  Who knows ???    I added the rotini to the water and turned down the heat on the burger meat  to medium, and set the timer for 6 minutes (I like my pasta medium-well).  I couldn't get the idea of dill out of my head, so after some (very) quick decision-making, I sprinkled on 1/2 teaspoon of dill before any other spices.  So all that was in the pan was burger, 1 bullion cube, some water (mostly evaporated already) onion, and dill.  And at this point, it smelled delcious.  I mean, so, sooooooo good.  And I just couldn't dump tomatoes on top of that delciousness.  It would be culinary murder.  So even though I've already done beef bechamel, I did it again.  I scooped out the burger meat (and onions) and set it on a plate, added a cup of milk, another bullion cube and another half-teaspoon or so of dill, let it reach a boil, and mixed in some flour to thicken it up.  Then I put the burger and pasta in the sauce, and mixed it all up.  Mmmmmmm....

As a side, I just took 1 cup of frozen pumpkin meat, microwaved it, and added salt and pepper.  In less than 20 minutes from beginning to end, we had dinner for four.

The kids were fairly skeptical about the pumpkin meat.  My oldest said straight up that he would not eat it.  I insisted that everyone try some.  They all ate their pasta first.  In case you forgot, it was the opposite the first time I served this: everyone ate their vegetables first, because they didn't want to try this strange pasta concoction...

 And my youngest drowned his pumpkin in salt and pepper before he'd even touch it.

In the end, everyone ate what was on their plates, but they requested that I only put pumpkin in desserts from now on, and never, never cook it this way again.

But we all LOVED the non-goulash.  

Dessert was halloween candy, and the calculation here is easy:  The most expensive candy is the mini-bars, and at DG, they're 8 for $1.  So I told the kids to take 2 pieces each, and I knew that it would be at most a dollar.  My oldest actually declined dessert.  He wanted to leave the table and go build with legos.  I took 2 mini candy bars, and my other 2 kids gladly ate their brother's share.





So, our total for tonight is: $5 top-notch burger (Free for me, but I'm special) + 67 cents rotini (2/3 of a $1 box) + 7 cents onion (half of 14 cents) + $1 dessert + 23 cents (1 cup milk) + 50 cents (2 bullion cubes and 1 teaspoon of dill) + 80 cents that I would pay for 1 can of canned vegetables, even though my kids didn't like the pumpkin meat anyway...

= $8.27

So, again, sorry I didn't make the tomato-y goulash.  But this was friggin delicious.

Actually, I am not sorry at all.

Beef on Weck (not really) with corn chowder

So tonight's dinner was one of my many crockpot recipes: roast beef sandwiches, served with corn chowder on the side.  I wanted to serve Beef on Weck and when I searched the internet, I learned that it's a roast beef sandwich - what makes it "on Weck" is that it's served on a kaiser roll with toasted caraway seeds - known as a kummelweck roll.  It is also traditionally served medium-rare, but I cooked mine thoroughly.  (I, like many people, thought it was beef on wick, but the internet is never wrong.)  

Since these were Pepperidge Farm  seeded sandwich rolls, purchased crazy cheap ($1.00 for a bag of 8 rolls) at Best Buy Foods (across from CCMH) this was technically "roast beef sandwiches" rather than "beef on weck".  

Doesn't matter.  Had meat.

So, since the last few weeks I've made more than enough for two families, I invited some family to join us.  At the other end of the table tonight was my grandmother, uncle, and cousin, so tonight's meal was a dinner for seven, rather than four.

I started this afternoon with a beef roast, 1.74 pounds for $6.06, frozen, but thawed in my microwave using the "defrost" option.  I put it in my slow-cooker on high for 4 hours with nothing but salt, pepper, 3 bullion cubes and enough water to cover.  It actually came out a little too dry, and I would recommend using the low heat setting, or not doing it as long.  The kids used ketchup, and I used spicy mustard, to add some moisture to the sandwiches.  It was still delicious, don't get me wrong, just, as I said, a little too dry.



When we got about 45 minutes from dinner, I started the corn chowder.  I modified this recipe, cutting out the bacon (as my relatives don't eat pork) and using vegetable oil to cook the onions instead of bacon grease.  So here's the recipe, repeated: In a pot (not a pan) cook 1 small diced onion in 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil.  Dice 2 large potatoes and add to the pot with 1/2 cup water.  Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.  Then, add 1 cup of milk (original recipe called for 2 but I found that I prefer a "thicker" chowder), 2 cans of creamed corn, and 1 can of "regular" corn.  Heat through and serve.

For dessert I made pumpkin muffins (not cupcakes - muffins) using the pumpkin meat from our jack-o-lanterns, which most people would just throw out.  Truth be told, you can't use carving pumpkins for pies, (well, you can, but I wouldn't recommend it) but you can use them for muffins or bread.  

What I do is, when carving the pumpkins, I separate the seeds, put them directly on a cookie sheet and roast them, and the "goop", I put in a glass bowl, and microwave it for 5 minutes, then stir (and smush) with a fork, then another five, and so on, until it's the consistency of "stringy applesauce".  Do not add water.  It may not seem like it, but there's "pumpkin juice" in there...

We get about 2-3 cups of goop per pumpkin, and we carved four this year.  I freeze the extra in Ziploc baggies for easy access.  To make pumpkin bread (or muffins) in the fastest, easiest way ever, mix one spice cake mix (no eggs, water, or oil, just the powdered mix) with 2 cups of fresh pumpkin puree.  (You can also use 1 can of pumpkin puree, or thaw frozen in a glass dish in the microwave) .  Cook the bread or muffins in the oven at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes, until a fork poked in comes out clean.  I got 17 muffins out of this mix.  We ate 7 for dessert tonight, leaving 10 for breakfast the next few days...

So despite the fact that 1.74 pounds of meat divided among 7 people is only 4 ounces each, the sandwiches were still filling.  

Which was good, because none of my kids wanted the chowder (although we somehow managed to polish off the entire pot)





Before I calculate the total, I'd like to reiterate that we fed 7 people tonight instead of 4, so my budget becomes $17.50.  Totals for tonight were: $6.06 beef roast, $1 for 8 rolls, 1 small diced onion (14 cents) 2 large potatoes (10 cents) 1 cup of milk (23 cents), 2 cans of creamed corn (on sale a few weeks ago for 39 cents each), 1 can of "regular" corn (not part of the sale, 89 cents), 1 cake mix ($1.33) and 2 cups pumpkin (calling it "free" but if you want to get picky you could say $2 since that's the price of one "pie pumpkin" at Jones' produce stand) making our total either $10.53 or $12.53, depending on how picky you're being.

And there's leftover muffins.  Yay!

meatloaf and cornbread

So I have a few meatloaf recipes but one of my favorites is almost identical to my meatball recipe, but with one minor addition: cheese. 

 

 

I preheated the oven to 400, and started with a family-sized pack of hamburger: 2.83 pounds for $5.60.  I thawed it in my microwave and mixed in what you see here: 2 slices of wheat bread, torn by hand into itty bitty pieces, about 2 Tbsp of "Italian seasonings", 4 raw eggs, and 1 cup of shredded mozzerella.  I also added about 1 Tbsp garlic, 1 tsp onion powder (just eyeballing it, you could also use diced onion but my boys have been picking out the onions) and about 1/2 tsp pepper and 1 tsp salt.  Again, just eyeballing it.  I mixed it thoroughly by hand, put it in a loaf pan and packed it down, put spaghetti sauce on top to keep it moist (you can also use ketchup or gravy.  Whatever floats your boat.)  I used about 1/4 of a jar of Francesco Rinaldi, on sale last week for $1 a jar.  You only need a thin layer of whatever.

 

 

Then I mixed up the cornbread: I used 2 boxes of Jiffy mix, on sale this week at 2 for $1.19.  I needed to add 2 eggs and 2/3 cup milk to make 2 mixes, but I've found 1 mix is only big enough for my family, and I had invited a few guests.

 

 

The cornbread was done in 25 minutes, and the meatloaf was cooked on the outside but raw in the middle, so I cranked up the heat to 450 and gave it another 20 minutes while I mixed up the honey-butter (2 parts generic butter spread, 1 part honey) and set the table.  It actually needed a total of an hour, 40 minutes at 400, 20 at 450.  My oldest 2 asked for "grownup sized" plates, and that's what they got.  I thought they wouldn't eat it all but they did!

 

 

My youngest got a half-portion but he cleaned his plate.  In fact, he wanted his meatloaf ("hangabur") on a "sammich", so I put it on a roll. 

 

 

 

Dessert was microwave popcorn.  And yes, that one bag was enough for all of us.  That's a disproportionately large bowl.

 

 

So tonight's prices are: $5.60 of hamburger meat, 6 eggs (4 in meatloaf, 2 in cornbread) or half of a $1.89 dozen = 95 cents, 2/3 cup of milk = 15 cents, 2 packs jiffy mix = 1.19, 1 cup cheese = 80 cents, 2 slices of wheat bread (20 slices = 1.99, so 2 = 19.9 cents) = 20 cents, 1/4 of a $1 jar of Francesco Rinaldi = 25 cents, 1 "hangabur" roll = $1.49/8 (They're cheaper at Dollar General but I bought this pack at Costas to avoid the hassle of two stores) = 19 cents, and one bag of generic popcorn = 67 cents.  So, our total is: $5.60 meat + 95 cents eggs + 15 cents milk + 1.19 mix + 80 cents cheese + 20 cents bread + 25 cents sauce + 19 cents roll + 67 cents dessert =  

 

$10 even. 

 

Wow.  I couldn't have done that if I tried.  Of course, there was 1/2 of the meal leftover, (1/2 of the meatloaf and 1/2 of the cornbread) so tonight's was a $5 meal and tomorrow's will be a $5 meal.  Because my guests were delayed, and decided to eat at home.

sloppy joes and seasoned potato wedges

 

So one of the recipes I've been keeping to myself is my mother's recipe for sloppy joes.  These things are so, so tasty they may just change your mind about sloppy joes for the rest of your life.  In my daughter's words, "These are much better than the school sloppy joes, Mom."  So, Friday night, I assembled my ingredients and got started, dessert first.  As usual.

 

This recipe for peanut butter no bake cookies is the best I've ever found, and I can't even give proper credit to my source because I copied it down in my recipe file over a year ago and no longer remember my source.  But here it is:  First, I assemble all six ingredients.  Then, because speed is the key to nobakes (you don't want them solidifying in the pot or over or under cooking) I measure out in the following manner:  In the pan itself, I put 1/4 cup (which is also 1/2 a stick) of margarine and 1/2 cup of milk, which I put on medium heat until the butter is melted.  

 

While that's happening, I measure out my 3 cups of oats and put them aside in a large tumbler, and stir two cups of sugar into the milk/butter combo, dissolving it completely.  I then turn up the heat on the pan to a medium-high and set the timer for four minutes.  In that four minutes, I measure out 1 full cup of peanut butter and 1 tsp vanilla.  I also set aside a cookie sheet with waxed paper on it, keeping the waxed paper handy (you'll need about 3 sheets).  Also, I stir it a couple of times so that the sugar/milk/margarine doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.  When your timer goes, your sugar/milk/margarine should be at a rolling boil.  If not, keep it on until it is, then let it boil about a minute more. 
 

 

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in quickly your peanut butter until smooth (beat it like fudge) and your 3 cups oats, then spoon quickly onto the waxed paper, putting paper between each layer of cookies.  Then put another sheet of paper (or another cookie sheet, or both) on top of the whole shebang, and put it in the fridge to cool.  The top layer helps prevent any potential in-fridge spills, of which there are surprisingly many in my household. 

 

These cookies are large (you can make them as large or small as you like) about twice the size of an oreo.  And there were 22.  But before they were even cool I ate one.  So we'll say this recipe made 21.

 

 

Then, I started dinner: I pulled out a 1-lb bag of burger (I had bought a 2.8-lb family pack and split it into 3 baggies for freezing) but realized that it looked small in my pan, so I added another (and was rewarded for my efforts with plenty of leftovers).  While the burger was browning I diced an onion (recipe calls for one small but I only had "medium-sized" ones so at first I only diced half, but with the extra burger added the other half) and pre-heated the oven to 375 for the potato wedges.  A good rule-of-thumb is one large or 1.5 medium potatoes for an adult serving.  I used one large and three medium.

The wedges were easy: slice the potatoes "long ways" into halves, then slant your knife and cut each half into "wedge" shapes.  The "medium" potatoes I cut the halves into four wedges each; the larger potoato I cut each half into six wedges.  That gave me 36 potato wedges.  I put them on a cookie sheet, sprayed that sucker with butter flavor cooking spray (generic Pam) and seasoned them; half the tray with "cajun" and half the tray with "italian".  I did it this way because (1) my oldest doesn't like the "cajun" and (2) after half the tray, my "cajun" was gone.

Then, into the oven. 

By now, the burger was done and so were the onions.  I didn't have a lot of grease because this was "quality" burger, but if you do have a lot of grease, this is where you drain it off.  Now, I add the rest of the sauce to the burger, in the same pan: 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup catsup, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/8 cup (or 2 Tbsp) mustard, and 1/8 cup worcestire sauce.  Stir it all together, put a lid on it, and turn the heat down to simmer.  Set your timer for 10 minutes and check on the potatoes.  If they need stirred, make sure you re-spray and re-spice them.  If they're done, they're done.  The sloppy joes should simmer for a minimum of 10 minutes to really soak up the flavor.  If they start to dry out, add more water and stir.  (I would also add that 25 minutes is kind of a "maximum" time, too.  If you cook them any longer, you're not going to get any more flavor, and you're just prolonging the deliciousness for no good reason.)

My oldest was really

tentative at first...

But then
he devoured his food




I've already said that
my daughter enjoyed the meal

And once he pulled out all of his onions,
my youngest enjoyed his meal, too.




Surprisingly, we each only ate one cookie. 
They were quite large, but that doesn't usually stop us.




Now, for the totals: 
The burger was $1.98/lb and I used 2/3 of a 2.8-lb family pack, which makes the cost of tonight's burger meat $3.70.  A single onion (1/7 of a 98-cent 3-lb bag) was 14 cents, and 4 potatoes (out of 15 in a $1.98 5-lb bag) was 53 cents.  Let's assume 25 cents for an ounce or two of generic Pam and some seasonings.  Let's also assume 50 cents for the combined cost of catsup, sugar, worcester and vinegar in the sloppy joes. That makes the "dinner" part of tonight $5.12.

The no-bakes are tricky to calculate, but I'll do my best: 1/2 stick of margarine (depends how much it is when on sale - can range from 59 cents on a dollar saver at Costas to 99 cents to $2.50 if you buy a brand name, I'm gonna go "middle of the road" and assume $1.29/pk, or 1/2 stick = 16 cents.  If milk is $3.60/gallon, then 1/2 cup = 11 cents.  If peanut butter is $2.50 a jar than 1 cup = (roughly half) $1.25.  If oats is $1.85 at DG for a "small" container (which, according to the label, contains 13 servings of 1/2 cup each, then 3 cups cost 86 cents.  The cost of a teaspoon of vanilla is negligible; let's assume 10 cents.  The cost of 2 cups of sugar when a $2 (4-lb) bag contains (according to the product label) 454 teaspoons.  Seriously?  Well, I wasn't a math major for nothin'...  Ok, so there are 3.5 teaspoons in 1 Tbsp, and 16 Tbsp in a cup, which tells me that 4-lb bag contains about 8.11 cups.  So each cup cost 24.67 cents and 2 cups cost 49 cents.  Which is about what I would've guessed anyway... But now I know.

So this batch of 22 (ahem) or 21 very large no-bakes cost 16 cents margarine, 11 cents milk, $1.25 peanut butter, 86 cents oats, 10 cents vanilla, and 49 cents sugar, which makes them 14.14 cents per cookie.  Like I said, we only ate four with dinner last night.  In fact, we still have some, which in this house is nothing short of miraculous.

So $5.12 dinner + 4 times 14.14 cents cookies = $5.69

 

And did I mention there were left-overs? 

There were left-overs, so I'm billing this dinner as "under $5"