Tag Archives: eating on a budget

A week off for me, a cookie recipe for you!

28 Dec
IMG_8409

These are a great cookie for any time of year, but they have made it onto our trays for the past two years now.

With the holidays in full swing, I took a week off from my regular blog posting in order to prepare for, and celebrate the Christmas holidays with my family.

Today, however, I have one last cookie post for you. It’s a recipe I posted last year also, but it’s great for any time of the year, so I thought it would be a good one to post.

Next week you can look forward to a return to my regular posting schedule once again. I will be showing a few of the great gifts that we received for Christmas this year that I think you’ll enjoy, and I will be back to posting recipes again too.

My blog will also be taking on somewhat of a new twist in the new year, but you’ll have to wait until next week to see exactly what that means.

Until then, enjoy today’s recipe!

Oatmeal Scotchies
INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp grd. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick or old fashioned oats
1 2/3 cup (or one 11 ounce bag) butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl.

Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in large mixing bowl.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in oats and chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 7-8 minutes for chewier cookies, 9-10 for crispier cookies.

Cool on cookie sheet 2 minutes, transfer to rack to cool completely.

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What now?

15 Dec
The angels are crying right along with us today.

The angels are crying right along with us today.

Yesterday was another one of those days that will be burned into our memories as a horrible, horrible day.

I’m pretty sure I am not the only one who woke up this morning and opened my eyes trying to think for a moment of what that awful thing was that I was trying to remember. What had happened yesterday? Oh yes, then I remembered.

A massacre happened.

Again.

I wondered exactly how to go about my day. On the one hand, you want to stay hunkered down in the safety of your own home with your own babies and never let them go, not even to school on Monday.

But then you think of all the other parents and families  out there who are in the midst of the worst nightmare of their lives who would give anything to take their kids to the most mundane of tasks this weekend.

And you wonder, do you keep going about your normal events of your days, of Christmas for them? For those who cannot ever again?

My friend Paula has a new soup blog, all soup recipes, and her new post for today is perfect. It’s a perfect answer for what we do today.

I hope you’ll read it and I hope you too, will put on a pot of Sandy Hook Soup in honor of all those who are living this nightmare.

 

 

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Honey Dijon Pork Chops

12 Dec
I have a love/hate relationship with pork chops.

I have a love/hate relationship with pork chops.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you may remember my love/hate relationship with pork chops. I love them, but my family usually hates them.

In fact, if you search the words “pork chops” in my blog’s search bar, you’ll see all of the various recipes I’ve tried, hoping to find one they like.

Meanwhile, I’ve never stopped liking them.

Recently, I picked up a package of boneless pork chops, going with the Try, Try Again method of meal planning. As I was thinking of how to try them this time, I remembered that we used to do a Honey Dijon pork chop way back when. I knew I liked it, of course, but I had no idea which other family members had or had not. I decided to search for one and try again.
I went to my favorite go-to when I do a recipe search: Allrecipes.com and found a recipe that looked like the one we used to make, except that we used to dip ours in bread crumbs after we dipped them in the sauce first.

This Pampered Chef product is perfect for recipes that require lots of dipping and breading!

This Pampered Chef product is perfect for recipes that require lots of dipping and breading!

I even remembered that I have a cool Pampered Chef product that I use for this type of recipe too, so I pulled that out as well.

The Coating Trays and Tool kit is great for recipes that require you to dip your meat into something or into several somethings. For this particular recipe I ended up using only two of the trays, one for the honey mustard sauce and one for the bread crumbs.

I hope you enjoy today’s recipe. My family liked it well enough.

Kind of.

IMG_8002HONEY DIJON PORK CHOPS

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper ( I left this out.)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 4 boneless pork loin chops
  • I added in bread crumbs for coating after the dipping step.
  • DIRECTIONS
    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking dish.
    2. Mix Dijon mustard, honey, black pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Arrange pork chops in prepared baking dish and pour mustard mixture over pork.
    3. Bake in preheated oven until pork is slightly pink in the center, about 45 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

      We served our recipe with couscous and green beans almondine.

      We served our recipe with couscous and green beans almondine.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken & Asparagus Penne

5 Dec
The finished product!

Nice and easy for the pre-holiday season!

Simple, affordable, healthy ingredients make this recipe a keeper!

Simple, affordable, healthy ingredients make this recipe a keeper!

During the holiday time, it’s easy to over do it when it comes time to eating. There’s lots of special food, lots of rich holiday food. It’s also a busy, busy time; lots to do leading up to the holidays.

That’s why, when I first saw this recipe on Pinterest for Chicken & Asparagus Penne, I was drawn to it because of both the simplicity and the affordability of it. It would be a good, easy dinner that we could use over and over again and all of the ingredients were on my shopping list at Aldis on a regular basis. There’s not much to it as far as prep and ingredients, and that’s exactly what I need this time of year. I can’t need to exert much more energy than I already am.

This recipe was linked over from Pinterest to GoodnessGracious.com but even she got it from somewhere else! I love how everyone shares, especially during the holidays! Thanks Goodness Gracious, for sharing!

CHICKEN & ASPARAGUS PENNE

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Asparagus- Steamed
  • 12 oz Smart Taste Penne- Cooked
  • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1 lb Chicken Breast- Cubed and Cooked
  • 1/2 Cup Shredded Parmesan

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients into a 9 x13 pan and stir to combine.
  2. Top with Cheese and Broil for 5 minutes or until cheese is golden.

Notes

Calories 383 Total Fat 14.5g Sat. Fat 3.2g Cholest. 50mg Sodium 273mg Carb. 45.9g Fiber 8.2g Sugars 3g Protein 25.4g

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The Reverse Dinner Party

3 Dec
Just two years ago, we were in the midst of all this, but a great new tradition did come out of it!

Just two years ago, we were in the midst of all this, but a great new tradition did come out of it!

Some of you know that two years ago my husband had surgery on his leg. He had ruptured his achilles tendon and he had a cast on his leg for several months, and was on crutches with a boot for several more. It was a long year for him and for us, and a very humbling experience, but believe it or not, some good did come out of it.

The Reverse Dinner Party is one of those good things.
During the initial few weeks after the surgery we had lots of help from family and friends. We had people raking leaves and bringing meals and staying over, all to help us out. It was an incredible outpouring of generosity.

When things died down a little, we had some friends of ours, the Garabedian family, ask us if they could bring us dinner and hang out for the evening. We welcomed the fun and the food, and we said we’d make dessert. So they cooked at their house, we cleaned up at ours, and made dessert, and they arrived on our doorstep that evening with their two girls and our dinner.

It was their turn to cook dinner this time, and we were treated to turkey and all the fixins!

It was their turn to cook dinner this time, and we were treated to turkey and all the fixins!

With that one gesture, a new tradition was created: The Reverse Dinner Party. Our friends had brought dinner to us at our house but the next month when Don was more mobile, they asked us to come for dinner at their house. It seemed unfair to have them make dinner for us again, so we decided to treat them and we brought dinner to them at their house and this time they provided dessert.

It became a fun treat and a little bit of a break, too. If you had to clean your house for company, at least you “only” had to make dessert along with the cleaning. If you had to cook the main dish, at least you didn’t have to worry about making your house presentable for guests at the same time.

Monkey bread and pumpkin pie for dessert!

Monkey bread and pumpkin pie for dessert!

There was also an element of surprise with some of our Reverse Dinner Parties. We would try not to tell the others ahead of time, what we were going to make. We’ve had all kinds of things and so far there has never been a time where we haven’t liked what the others have made. It’s also been a fun time to try out something new.

This month, we did know that the Garabedians were bringing a turkey diner, so I planned a pumpkin pie for dessert, to go along with it. I also made a new dessert that I had on hand in my pantry: a banana chocolate chip monkey bread. Both desserts and all of the dinner courses got all thumbs up from all nine of us.

This year we agreed to do a Yankee Swap in between dinner and dessert.

This year we agreed to do a Yankee Swap in between dinner and dessert.

We’ve had our dinners in all seasons, indoors and out. We’ve had drinks and desserts over a fire, sometimes we play games, and this time around we incorporated a Yankee Swap, just in time for the holidays. The kids and the adults all had a blast, so I’m sure we’ll do it again next year.

In the end, it’s a night together with friends and it’s the sharing of a meal that really matters. It amazes me to think that we began this tradition two years ago, and I am grateful to our friends who asked simply if they could bring us dinner.

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Five Thumbs Up: Apple Butter Bars

30 Nov

Caroline loves using the pastry cutter to cut the butter into recipes. This one provided a perfect opportunity to use it!

I’ve got a great new recipe for you, and it got all thumbs up from everyone in my house this week! That almost never happens!

I originally found this recipe for Apple Butter Bars on Pinterest, but it’s from the site Three Many Cooks.  I pinned it because my kids love apple butter. Overall the recipe seemed somewhat healthy: no eggs, no white sugar. Apple butter is healthy in itself, so other than the stick of butter that helps to form the crust and topping, it’s not so bad for you, I don’t think.

Caroline made these herself and it was a very easy recipe to follow. If I could change any one thing about it, I’d double it! It makes an 8×8 dish, but with five of us, it didn’t leave many leftovers to last into the next day(s).

Here is the recipe from Three Many Cooks. Enjoy!

Apple Butter-Cinnamon Bars with Oatmeal Crumble

Makes 16 bars

Relatively healthy ingredients makes for a keeper on my list!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
1 cup apple butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Spread the apple butter between the layers.

DIRECTIONS

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8- by 8-inch baking pan with vegetable cooking spray, then line pan bottom and up and over 2 sides with heavy-duty foil to facilitate removal of bars from pan. Coat foil with vegetable cooking spray.

Mix flour, oatmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in butter with a fork until well mixed and clumps form. Spread half the oatmeal mixture over pan bottom and up the sides about 1/4 inch, pressing to form a thin crust. Mix apple butter and cinnamon in a small bowl; spread mixture over crust and then sprinkle remaining oatmeal mixture over apple mixture.

Bake until crisp and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Set on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Use foil “handles” to remove bars from pan. (Can be double wrapped and frozen for several months.). Cut into squares and serve.

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Happy Veteran’s Day

12 Nov

Patriotic waffles as we remember our soldiers today!

As I type this, it is Sunday, Veteran’s Day 2012.

It’s a day to remember our veterans, those who have served so that we can be free.

I attended a wonderful Veteran’s Day ceremony on Friday at one of the schools I visited and I literally had goosebumps as the whole room pledged allegiance to the flag.

We often take our freedoms for granted, and I am grateful today for the opportunity to remember why we are free.

Thank you to all who serve and all who have served!

Since I’m posting a picture of our patriotic waffles, I will re-post a recipe for waffles that I posted a while back, too.

Enjoy them as you remember why we have the day off today!

All-American Waffles

serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

1 egg, separated (put yolk in two quart bowl and white in small bowl.)

1 cup plus 2 TBL milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 TBL canola or vegetable oil ** I recently earned that you can substitute the same amount of nonfat plain yogurt for the oil!

1 cup plus 2 TBL flour

4 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Separate the egg,  putting egg white aside in small bowl.

In larger bowl, combine the egg yolk, milk, vanilla and oil. Blend together, by hand, with wire whisk.

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the liquid ingredients and blend with wire whisk. (There will probably be some lumps.)

Beat the egg white with electric mixer until stiff. Fold into the batter with wire whisk until just blended.

(Do not beat egg whites into batter,  just fold in.)

When waffle iron is ready, drop batter into the four squares and use according to directions.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken and Dumplings

7 Nov

Don made Chicken and Dumplings for us, for the first time ever.

Recently I wrote a post showing our dinner in the Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker, and I mentioned that I’d show you what we did with our leftovers, one day soon.

Well, today’s that day.

Don had been dying to try making Chicken and Dumplings when we had some leftover roasted chicken, and this last time we made it, that’s exactly what he did.

As an aside, we try to plan a roasted chicken or turkey at least once a month during the fall/winter months because that equals two meals for us and even sometimes chicken salad for lunch. When you’re on a tight budget, you try to stretch your meals as much as you can.

Since Don had never made dumplings before, he looked up a recipe and found this one on Food.com that looked appealing to him.

Caroline did the dumplings all on her own.

He put Caroline in charge of making the dumpling batter while he put together the rest of it.

Here’s the recipe. Keep in mind that we used our leftover roasted chicken, but I’ve left the entire recipe here as is, in case you don’t have leftover chicken but still want to try this out.

Let me know how you like it! It’s a great alternative for leftover roasted chicken!

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
INGREDIENTS

1 large broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
2 celery ribs, sliced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2-1 teaspoon pepper
water
DUMPLING INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons oil

Dumplings right into the sauce to cook.

DIRECTIONS

Combine chicken, celery, carrots, onion, chicken broth, parsley, chicken bouillon granules, salt and pepper in a large pan or dutch oven; add enough water to cover chicken.Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until chicken is done.Remove chicken and let stand until cool enough to handle.Remove skin from chicken and tear meat away from bones.Return meat to soup; discard skin and bones.Add more salt and pepper to taste, if desired. (Don made a roux to thicken his soup, using equal parts flour and melted butter.)Return soup to a simmer.In a mixing bowl, combine dumpling ingredients and mix well to form a stiff dough.Drop by tablespoonfuls into simmering soup.

Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Sam’s Sizzling Tofu with Green Onions and Sugar Snap Peas

31 Oct

I’d never had tofu before, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I loved Sam’s recipe!

One of the cool things about our DC trip for the Kids’ State Dinner in August, was being exposed to things we hadn’t had before. Some things were regional, some things were just new and different for us, but so far there hasn’t been one thing I haven’t liked that I tried from that trip.

Sam’s Sizzling Tofu is my latest winning recipe to try.

I’ve slowly been going through the cookbook making a new recipe every now and then, and Sam’s Sizzling Tofu recipe was next up on my list, simply for the fact that I’d never had tofu before and this sounded good to me.
Sam is ten and he’s from Maryland. His mom, Paula, makes him this recipe for lunch often because he doesn’t like sandwiches. Paula is also the person who made the Pumpkin Soup that I posted a couple of weeks back.

Sam and I have something in common, if you remember my post last spring, because I don’t like sandwiches either, which makes lunchtime a tough time for me each day.  I do however, like brown rice, scallions and sugar snap peas, so if I liked tofu, then I’d like this too.

We tried Sam’s recipe on a Sunday afternoon and I loved it, I even had the leftovers for lunch during the week following.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…..

I wish I could have photographed the way Sam’s Sizzling Tofu really did sizzle. It was so cool!

Here is what Sam had to say in the cookbook about his recipe:

“Well, I don’t really eat sandwiches very well, so my mom has to find other things for me to eat for lunch,” says Samuel.

“One day I tried tofu and I liked it, so my mom got it. Then my mom was asking me what I wanted for lunch, and I asked her for the tofu. She made it and put it in a thermos. My friends wondered what it was, and a couple of them tried it and really liked it too!”

I’d definitely make Sam’s Sizzling Tou with Green Onions and Sugar Snap Peas again, and if you’ve never had tofu, I encourage you to try it too! If you are already a fan, then this recipe is for you as well. Give it a try, it’s a great side dish for your dinner and a great lunchtime recipe!

SAM’S SIZZLING TOFU WITH GREEN ONIONS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS

Tofu…got it!

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ pound firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1 garlic clove, minced
2 scallions, white and light green parts
only, chopped
1 cup sugar snap peas, cut into thirds
½ cup cooked brown rice
DIRECTIONS

1. In a large sauté pan over moderate heat, warm the oil.
Add the tofu and cook, stirring often, until golden brown,
about 15 minutes. Add the garlic, scallions, and sugar
snap peas, and cook 5 more minutes.

I served mine with a squirt of soy sauce on top too, yummy!!

2. While the vegetables are cooking, warm the rice in the
microwave for 1 minute on high, then serve the sizzling
tofu on top.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: “Roasted” Chicken Recipe and Product Review

24 Oct

Two chickens, two features today, it’s double the fun for you!

Today you get a bonus: a recipe and a product review from one of my favorite Pampered Chef products!

One of my very best friends has been a Pampered Chef consultant for many years, and every so often I pick one item I really, really want and I save up and buy it. I’m not talking a spatula for a few dollars, I’m talking about some of their higher priced items.

Their Deep Covered Baker is one of those items. It’s a product out of their stoneware line and it’s on the pricey end of the spectrum, but I can honestly tell you that it’s well-worth the money.

The Deep Covered Baker is a lifesaver when roasting a chicken! No more all day bake times!

I can also honestly tell you that the very first night we owned ours, we broke it.

I say we.

I won’t say exactly who.

Thankfully, Pampered Chef has a fantastic warranty program for their stoneware.

We have used our baker twice in just a few weeks’ time and this past week we “roasted” two small chickens in it, in the microwave, using my favorite Pampered Chef recipe. That’s the recipe I’m including for you below. You literally “roast” your chicken in the microwave for 30-45 minutes depending on the size, and you’ve got dinner on the table in less than an hour. When we made ours this week we also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and homemade gravy, all of which we made while the chicken was roasting in the microwave.

We had plenty of leftovers left to make chicken salad for lunches, and last time we did this we made a new meal with our leftovers, one which I’ll share with you in the future. For now, here’s today’s recipe.

Throw it all in, throw it all in the microwave, throw it all on the table.

Thirty Minute Roasted Chicken
INGREDIENTS

4-5 pound fryer chicken (or two smaller ones as we did here)
1 stick butter
3 celery stalks, 3 whole carrots
4 cloves fresh garlic (I was out so I used minced)
1 whole yellow onion

DIRECTIONS

Spray the baker and lid with oil (I used no stick spray).

Place chicken, breast side up in the baker.

Melt butter in prep bowl and press garlic into butter. Spread over chicken with a brush.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Be sure that your chicken has reached the proper temperature!

Cover and microwave for 30 minutes or until meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees (we usually need 40-45 minutes).

Your chicken comes out cooked, moist, and ready to eat! Be sure to check the temperature before serving.

You can use your drippings to cook up a homemade gravy to go on top and serve the veggies that you cooked in the dish, on the side as well.

Oftentimes we will throw our chicken in the oven either on bake or broil on a separate baking sheet, just to crisp up the skin a little more, but it’s not necessary to do so. You can bake with your covered baker in the oven as well, but you cannot broil in it.

(Should you want to make your roasted chicken in the covered baker in your oven, bake at 400 degrees for 70-80 minutes or until chicken reaches 165 degrees, with the cover on. Remove the cover for the last ten minutes to crisp up your skin.)

A cookbook is available from Pampered Chef for the Deep Covered Baker as well, featuring twenty recipes you can use your Deep Covered Baker for, utilizing both the oven and the microwave. It was my very next purchase once I had the covered baker itself!

Enjoy!

A perfect fall dinner that doesn’t need to wait for a time when you have the entire afternoon to make it!

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