Tag Archives: shopping on a budget

What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Strawberry English Muffin Fruitwiches

24 Jul
English muffins: not just for breakfast!

English muffins: not just for breakfast!

A while back I posted about Elizabeth’s cookbook and I posted one of the recipes we’d tried at the time, a tuna salad recipe. Since then we’ve had it for lunch and even for dinner!

Today, I thought I’d post another recipe from that same cookbook, one that we have had for lunch and for dinner this summer, and one that we’ve also modified slightly to meet everyone’s different taste buds. It’s a great summer meal because it is cool, doesn’t involve using an oven, and uses a great summer fruit: fresh strawberries.

The ingredients for this are simple, no matter which way you choose to make it. You need:

Fresh sliced strawberries

an English Muffin

Strawberry jam

Goat cheese, cream cheese, or peanut butter

Elizabeth's cookbook of choice

Elizabeth’s cookbook of choice

The directions are even more simple!

“Split an English Muffin and lightly toast the halves. Spread the cut side of the bottom half with softened goat cheese or plain whipped cream cheese (we also have done peanut butter). Top with a thin layer of strawberry jam, followed by a layer of thin strawberry slices. Cover with the top half of the muffin, jam side down, and press gently.”

We prefer to do open-faced sandwiches, in order to have more fresh strawberries! This sandwich has been a hit every time we’ve served it, and it’s easily modified for everyone.

Next time you’re looking for a summery lunch or a cool dinner (or maybe even a yummy summer breakfast,) give these English Muffin Fruitwiches a try!

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It was a Ronald McDonald House Birthday Party

22 Jul
Elizabeth couldn't wait for a chance to help out the Ronald McDonald House in Providence.

Elizabeth couldn’t wait for a chance to help out the Ronald McDonald House in Providence.

I’ve always said that one of the things I love about Girl Scouts is that the kids get the chance to do things they wouldn’t normally get to do. This past spring, in March, Elizabeth had one of those chances. Her troop visited the Ronald McDonald House in Providence. The house hosts the families who have children in treatment at the nearby hospitals, no matter how long the treatment might be.

I was not a chaperone on that trip, Don took her that night. When Elizabeth came home, I asked her how it was, and it was clear to me that the visit had made quite an impression on her. She talked about all that she had seen and heard when she was there, and she said that she wanted to find a way to help out the house.

In the later part of the school year, Elizabeth began planning her 11th birthday party, which would be her first sleepover party. It was then that she told me she wanted to do something for Ronald McDonald House at her party, but she wasn’t sure what to do. Around the same time I covered a story at a local elementary school and there was a speaker there from the Ronald McDonald House.

As I listened to the speaker, taking notes for my story, I realized that there was a lot we could do to turn Elizabeth’s birthday party into a fun night of helping others. I came home and told her some of my ideas. As we talked about it, Elizabeth decided that she would incorporate her invites, her crafts and activities, her cupcakes, and even the colors of the paper goods she chose.

We kicked off our party planning and shopping with a visit to McDonalds where Elizabeth got her color scheme inspiration and took a photo with the RMH Helping Hands.

We kicked off our party planning and shopping with a visit to McDonalds where Elizabeth got her color scheme inspiration and took a photo with the RMH Helping Hands.

It wasn’t hard to get excited about this party. Elizabeth’s enthusiasm was catchy. I typed up her invitations before the end of the school year and I put the Wish List from Ronald McDonald House website on the back. Elizabeth added her own message on the front:

** A message from Elizabeth**  My theme is Ronald McDonald.  Ever since a Girl Scout field trip to the Providence Ronald McDonald House, (which by the way was spectacular) I have been inspired to do something that includes helping other other people! Now that it has come close to my birthday I went with helping the Ronald McDonald house fund. You don’t have to come with anything to donate because we’ll be making things for the house at the party, but if you would like to then the Wish List is on the back!

And then came the real fun. Elizabeth had found plates, napkins and streamers in the colors of red, orange and yellow at the dollar store. While we were there, we happened to find bright yellow t-shirts that we could decorate with the fabric markers we had at home; a great activity for the party. We decided to make covered journals and coordinating bookmarks as the craft. We’d use composition notebooks and scrapbook paper to cover them. The bookmarks would be made with the leftover scrapbook paper. These would be for the girls at the party and for the Ronald McDonald House; each guest would make one to keep and one to donate. The journals could either be for kids or adults. They could be used as diaries or for keeping notes at doctor visits or even as gratitude journals.

Around the same time, the kids saw an episode of DC Cupcakes on TV and the bakers were designing cheeseburger cupcakes. It was then that Elizabeth knew she’d found her cake. I hadn’t seen the episode myself, but the girls told me how they were made: chocolate cupcakes sliced in half to make burger patties and vanilla cupcakes sliced in half to make buns. Once assembled, fondant and frosting were used to build the “burgers.” That sounded fun and easy.

Making fondant lettuce for the "build your own burger" cupcakes for the party.

Making fondant lettuce for the “build your own burger” cupcakes for the party.

The day of the party, I used a coupon at Michaels Crafts to get a four-pack of premade fondant in red, orange and yellow. The girls each took a color and made a condiment. Elizabeth made lettuce, Caroline made ketchup and Alex made Swiss Cheese. The white frosting would be the mayo. I baked my two batches of cupcakes and set them out to cool.

These were fun and we used them for the chips and snacks at the start of the party.

These were fun and we used them for the chips and snacks at the start of the party.

Earlier in the month we’d spotted the coolest additions to the party theme: fast-food themed paper goods in the dollar bins at Target. We had plates and napkins already for some of the food, but we could definitely incorporate these items for the rest of the food. We even found similar containers shaped like hot dog holders that we could use for the cupcakes.

The night of the party arrived. All of the guests brought bags of donations for Ronald McDonald House. We had coloring books, puzzle books, toiletries and grocery items. We filled a whole basket with them. The girls decorated their t-shirts any way they wanted to. Our three decided to make theirs Ronald McDonald themed, with big red smiles. Caroline, who loves doing nails, did all the girls’ nails in yellow with big red smiles on the thumbs. So cute!

They seemed to love decorating their journals and creating special ones to put in the donation basket. As the basket filled, they were even more excited. The “build your own burger” cupcakes were fantastic. The girls got such a kick out of creating them and eating them, and they really did look just like burgers!

100_5893

Ready to deliver!

A few days after the party ended, on a Friday evening, we gathered up our family and Elizabeth got together all of the donations and off we went to Ronald McDonald House in Providence. It was exciting for me to see the house, since I’d missed the original field trip. It was fun to bring in the donations and place them in the house where the families could take a journal and where the donated items would be added to the supplies that are kept on hand for the those who need them.

All in all, this party was a huge success. It was a fun party, it was very inexpensive to put together, and it helped Elizabeth help others, which was her intention from the beginning.

Best of all though, the feeling we had from doing good for someone else, definitely takes the cake.

T-Shirt decorating time!

T-Shirt decorating time!

Below are more photos from Elizabeth’s Ronald McDonald House Birthday party.

Caroline's shirt

Caroline’s shirt

Everyone loved their covered journals!

Everyone loved their covered journals and bookmarks! Alex ran the bookmark-making station.

Ready for "Build Your Own Burger" cupcakes

Ready for “Build Your Own Burger” cupcakes

YUM!

YUM!

Ronald McDonald nails

Ronald McDonald nails

Elizabeth created Ronald McDonald smiles on a stick for all her friends to take home with them.

Elizabeth created Ronald McDonald smiles on a stick for all her friends to take home with them.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Fajita Quesadillas

10 Jul
Fajita Quesadilla veggies

I love the look of fresh vegetables when they’re mixed up and cooking!

ORIGINALLY POSTED JANUARY 25, 2012:

Today’s recipe is again, one that I did not grow up with! Imagine that, four recipes in two days, and not one of them was from my childhood! This recipe is a combination of recipes from two different people and it makes a great meal or an appetizer for a football game.

We actually had never had quesadillas at our house until about four years ago or so. Elizabeth had a friend at preschool whose house we used to go to for playdates often. My friend Jody used to make cheese quesadillas a lot when we went over for playdates. (In fact, this past fall I featured my friend Jody’s Butternut Squash Soup, which was also a playdate lunch. And just so you know, my traditional playdate lunch at my house is mac & cheese from a box with chicken nuggets. we were spoiled at Jody’s!)

Anyway….we started making quesadillas at our house on a regular basis. You can put anything in them so we’ve done just cheese, chicken and cheese, tomato/chicken/cheese, peppers/beef and cheese, and we’ve done bbq chicken/onion/cheese. However, on New Year’s Eve this year my sister in law Jessica made us Fajita Quesadillas which had all kinds of peppers, mushrooms, onions and cheese, and they were so fabulous!! We had to try them at home. So last week, we had them.

Cook up some chicken tenders first. Then shred or dice the cooked chicken.

My sister in law and I are both lucky because we both live near an Aldi’s and you can get everything you need for your Fajita Quesadillas at Aldi’s.  The ingredients vary, depending what you’d like in your quesadillas. You need soft flour tortillas, we use the large ones.

This is another meal where I pull out some frozen chicken tenders, so convenient! Cook them up if you’d like chicken in your quesadillas.

While your chicken is cooking, grate a bowl full of cheddar cheese (a block of cheese is usually plenty.) Slice up your veggies and cook them on top of the stove.

We use a countertop griddle to make our quesadillas two at a time.

Once you’ve got your ingredients pre-cooked, you’re ready to begin the last step. Butter your soft flour tortillas on one side and lay it on the griddle, in a frying pan, or use a Quesadilla Maker (which we do actually have also, but we prefer the griddle most of the time because we can make two at a time.)

Butter one side of the top flour tortilla and place it on top of the others on the griddle and flip (we have a big metal spatula for flipping!)

Once both sides are golden brown and the cheese inside is melted, you’re ready to cut your quesadillas into triangles and eat them!

finished quesadillas

Once the quesadillas are golden brown, cut them into triangles and eat!

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A Sweet Treat for a Summer Snack

8 Jul
These barely had any time on the plate before they were devoured!

These barely had any time on the plate before they were devoured!

We tried a new snack recently. I’d seen a recipe somewhere for chocolate covered apricots. I love dried apricots, and I love chocolate, so I thought this would be worth a try. When the time came though, I couldn’t find wherever it was that I saw the original recipe so I Googled them and came up with one from About.com. It called for nuts, but I omitted the nuts and doubled the recipe since I had two bags of apricots to use.

The recipe was fast and easy and made a yummy snack. I’d definitely make them again. There are lots of fruits you can dip in chocolate including strawberries and bananas. I’ve also seen recipes for chocolate dipped kiwi, and since my kids love kiwi I thought I’d try that in the future too, so be on the lookout.

In the meantime, here’s the recipe as we tried it from About.com, modified for our nut-free preferences.

Enjoy!

I melted my chocolate in a double boiler on top of the stove.

I melted my chocolate in a double boiler on top of the stove.

Ingredients: (we doubled this recipe)

  • 24 whole dried apricots
  • 2 ounces (1/2 cup) toasted almonds, finely chopped
  • 6 ounces dark chocolate

Preparation:

1. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil. Place the chopped almonds in a small bowl. (if using)

2. Temper or melt the chocolate in a medium bowl. (I did a double boiler on top of the stove.)

3. Holding an apricot by the tip, dip most of the fruit into the melted chocolate, swirling to ensure even coverage. Remove it from the chocolate and drag it along the lip of the bowl, removing excess chocolate.

Dried apricots are a pretty healthy snack, before you add the chocolate! We used semisweet chocolate.

Dried apricots are a relatively healthy snack, before you add the chocolate! We used semisweet chocolate.

4. Pat both sides of the chocolate-dipped apricot on the chopped almonds, covering both sides with nuts.

5. Place the candy on the prepared baking sheet, and repeat for the remaining apricots.

6. Place in the refrigerator to set the chocolate for approximately 10 minutes. If the chocolate has been tempered, the candy can be served at room temperature, but if it has not, it should be kept refrigerated until served.

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Macaroni & Shrimp Salad

3 Jul

This macaroni and shrimp salad is something we look forward to all year long!

ORIGINALLY POSTED JULY 11, 2012: 

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for the perfect side dish to go with the cook-on-the-grill type of meals that happen all summer long. Today’s recipe is one of those perfect side dishes.

As always, it’s super-easy and super-delicious. And as is typical, it’s originally from my mom. She’s been making it ever since I can remember and we’ve been making it on our own for years as well.

You can tell that this photo is of my dish because I actually do put my tomato/cucumber/olive salad in a separate bowl so that nothing runs together, and also because I eat absolutely nothing on my hot dogs. I barely eat the bread. But, I eat every speck of that macaroni salad!

Try this recipe out for your next cookout, I know you’ll love it as much as we do!

MACARONI & SHRIMP SALAD

INGREDIENTS

2 cups elbow macaroni (in general we use a one pound box of pasta and adjust the rest of the ingredients accordingly as well.)

2 stalks celery, thin sliced

1 can tiny shrimp, rinsed

3/4 cup Miracle Whip

celery salt to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

This is a great side dish to bring to those summer dinner parties and cookouts!

DIRECTIONS

Cook pasta according to directions.

Add in shrimp, Miracle Whip and spices.

Cover and cool in refrigerator completely before serving.

Enjoy!

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Fun Friday: Kale Chips

21 Jun
These were a fun after school snack!

These really were a fun after school snack!

Kale doesn’t sound all that fun does it?

It really doesn’t. But, I’ve chosen it for my Fun Friday post today for several reasons.

First: We had Kale Chips at the White House for the first Kids’ State Dinner last August. That whole entire trip was fun, including trying the Kale Chips which were from Samuel Wohabe, age 9, from New York.

Second: The newest winners of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge were just announced yesterday! The Rhode Island winner, Samantha Mastrati, is from Cranston and a friend of ours! She will have so much fun on her trip!

Finally: These were a fun after school snack for the girls to try out. Although Caroline had them and enjoyed them on the trip, no one else had, so I thought this would be a fun snack to share with them.

To make these is super-easy. I bought one bunch of kale for just over a dollar at the store and it made lots of chips!

The prep instructions are minimal and the cook time is quick. Within minutes you have ahealthy, crunchy snack.

Here, according to Samuel’s instructions is the recipe for Kale Chips.

Coat, toss and bake!

Coat, toss and bake!

KALE CHIPS

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves
torn into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

On a large nonstick baking pan, drizzle the kale with olive oil, season with salt, and toss until
evenly coated.

Bake until crispy, about 15 minutes.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Balsamic Chicken with Rosemary (A South Beach recipe)

12 Jun
This was both simple and delicious!

This was both simple and delicious!

This is a recipe we tried and liked some time back. It’s a South Beach Diet recipe and it was simple, easy and delicious! At this time of year we need quick and easy with all of the end-of-year meetings and events, so I pulled this recipe out again. In this photo, ours is served with couscous and a sauteed vegetable medley of broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini.

BALSAMIC CHICKEN

From the South Beach Diet Book

INGREDIENTS

6 Boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves, minced or 1/2 teaspoon dried

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 – 6 tablespoons white wine (optional)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Refrigerate overnight.

Refrigerate overnight.

DIRECTIONS

Rinse the chicken and pat dry.

Combine the rosemary, garlic, pepper and salt in a small bowl and mix well.

Place the chicken in a large bowl. Drizzle with the oil, and rub with the spice mixture.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Spray a heavy roasting pan or iron skillet with cooking spray. Place the chicken in the pan and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken over.

If the drippings begin to stick to the pan, stir in 3-4 tablespoons water (or white wine if using).

Bake about ten minutes or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the portion registers 160 degrees and the juices run clear. If the pan is dry, stir in another 1-2 tablespoons of water or white wine to loosen drippings.

Drizzle the vinegar over the chicken in the pan.

Transfer the chicken to plates. Stir the liquid in the pan and drizzle over chicken.

Serves six

Per serving: 183 calories, 26 g. protein, 4 g. carbohydrates, 6 g. fat, 1 g. saturated fat, 270 mg. sodium, 65 mg. cholesterol, 0 g. fiber

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Fun Friday: Spiced Chickpeas for an After School Snack

7 Jun
Everyone enjoyed this snack!

Everyone enjoyed this snack!

I forget sometimes that as much as I love sweets, that there are some people in this house who like the salty, more savory flavored foods. My three kids have a mix of tastes but my snacks are often the sweet kinds because that’s what I like best.

However, recently I found a recipe in the Stop and Shop Magazine for Spiced Chickpeas, which are roasted in the oven, and although I didn’t think I’d personally love them, I decided to try them as a snack for my family. The funny thing is, I personally loved them. Everyone loved them. In fact, I just bought two more cans of chickpeas so we can make them again since it’s been a little while since I made them last.

The recipe was simple and had very few ingredients besides the chickpeas, so it makes it tasty, easy, extremely healthy and affordable. If you’ve never tried them before, if you’re a sweet treats kind of person yourself, I encourage you to step out of your snacking comfort zone and give these a try!

SPICED CHICKPEAS

Makes four 1/2 cup servings

INGREDIENTS

1 can (15.5 oz.) chickpeas (garbanzo beans) about 2/3 cups

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or canola oil (we used olive)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Dash of cayenne pepper or to taste

1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

Nonstick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Drain, rinse and dry chickpeas on paper towels.

Combine olive oil and spices in bowl.

Add chickpeas and toss until evenly coated.

Spread chickpeas evenly onto a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and crispy.

Shake chickpeas around every 10 minutes or so for even crisping and to prevent sticking.

Remove baking sheet from oven and transfer chickpeas to a serving bowl. Enjoy while warm!

Per serving: 180 calories, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 26g carbohydrates, 5 g fiber, 0 g sugars and 6 g protein

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Pork Marinade

5 Jun

Dinner: marinated pork, rice pilaf, and carrots/apples/craisins

ORIGINALLY POSTED JANUARY 16, 2012

One of the things I often purchase at Aldi’s at least once per month are their Pork Tenderloins. They’re inexpensive, just the right size for our family (I buy two if we’re having company for dinner) and they come in an “original” flavor, as well as a couple of other flavors. I like the original flavor because we can do whatever we want to the pork. Sometimes we use teriyaki, sometimes we do barbeque, and sometimes we do a simple pork marinade.

Today I’m sharing the recipe with you for the Pork Marinade. Of course, it’s a recipe from my mom and the instructions say “Also good on steak,” and “Don’t double.”  So don’t.

PORK MARINADE

4 TBL Soy Sauce

2 cloves (1 tsp) garlic, crushed or chopped (we usually use minced out of the jar if we don’t have fresh.)

2 TBL olive oil

2 tsp Brown Sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp pepper

ziploc bag marinated pork tenderloin

Throw it all in a bag and you’re good to go.

That’s all there is to it! Super easy. Throw it all in a ziploc bag or tupperware marinater, throw in the pork and you’re good to go. This can be made ahead and frozen, pork and all, for future use as well. When I was pregnant with my third daughter, during my nesting or as I like to call it, panicking, I marinated and froze many different bags of pork, steak and chicken (different marinade for chicken, I’ll share it another day) ahead of time and we were able to use them for weeks and months afterwards.

Hopefully this budget-friendly dinner idea works well for you too!

Enjoy!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Anthony’s Stir Fry in Valerie’s Cast Iron Skillet

29 May
This was a recipe with all the best ingredients.

This was a recipe with all the best ingredients.

Many of you who have been reading this blog since its inception and even those of you who used to read my Sauce vs. Gravy recipe blog way back when, know that recipes mean more to me than a good meal.

To me a good recipe is one that means something to me because of a connection that I have to it, whether it is from a family member or a friend, whether it’s a dish I ate at a memorable event or maybe even stems from a family tradition that we hold near and dear.

Recipes connect me to others and to memories of others.

Today’s recipe is from my friend Anthony. Anthony owns Reel to Real Recording Studio here in Cranston and we will sometimes bump into each other at local events, but we are friends on Facebook so we “see” each other on there all the time.

Recently, Anthony posted a photo on Facebook of a stir fry he was making for dinner at his house. It looked delicious. I had to have it and I asked him if there was anything special in the stir fry as far as a sauce, but he said it was simple: olive oil in the bottom of the pan, and Worcestershire sauce mixed in while cooking, basically made to your liking. Anthony listed some ingredients he will often throw into his stir fry, including chicken or shrimp,  zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower.

The next time I went to the store, I bought chicken AND shrimp, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower. I couldn’t wait to get home to make our dinner that night. There was going to be something in this dish that everyone loved.

Even better, I was going to be using our new cast iron skillet, given to me by my cousin Valerie just a few weeks ago. When Val asked me if we had a cast iron skillet, I said that we didn’t, and she said she had an extra one that she would bring to me when she came down for Alexandra’s First Communion.

When she arrived, she gave me the pan and along with it, an envelope with my name on it. Because we were having the party, I didn’t get to read Valerie’s note until the next day, but when I did, I almost cried as I read.  In the letter, Valerie told me the story of the skillet and how she’d found it while shopping with her brother in-law during their annual summer consignment shop shopping trips. She mentioned that it’s just she and he who love these shopping trips. Her husband and his sister are not fans of the “junk” that Val and John bring home.

The story of my cast iron pan makes everything I cook in it, including Anthony's Stir Fry, that much more special.

The story of my cast iron pan makes everything I cook in it, including Anthony’s Stir Fry, that much more special.

The skillet was part of a set of three, “dusty, rusty, neglected diamonds in the rough,” Valerie wrote. She told me of how she and John bought the pans and took them home. She knew that these treasures only needed “a good home, a hot bath, and someone to make them feel useful again, things we all want.”

Valerie cleaned and seasoned our skillet for us, giving us the last of the three rescued trio of pans in the set that she and her brother in-law had found last summer.

“Good, old, seasoned cast iron is a treasure. it is a work horse in the kitchen. It holds the heat well, cooks evenly, is the original ‘non-stick’ cookware. it makes mean fried eggs, crusty hash browns and frittatas to die for,” Valerie said.

Last week, my new cast iron skillet made a fabulous stir fry, Anthony’s Stir Fry, and it was delicious.

Good friends, good pans, and treasured family members. I am blessed to have them all.

Give Anthony’s Stir Fry a try with your favorite ingredients in it.

And if you have a cast iron skillet of your own, definitely use it.

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