Miserly Meal #7- Country Captain

Moving the meal plan around a little. It has been raining and muggy/humid as all get out here and the hogie roals I bought for the meatball subs got moldy. I hate Louisiana.

So rather than just make a spaghetti with the meatballs, I'm moving on to the counntry Captain over pasta. This miserly meal is not courtesy of Jonni McCoy, though we have has lots of fun with her book!

Country captain is touted as a southern dish and served over rice, thick with vegetables and sauce. Born and raised in southern Louisiana (any farther south and I'd get very wet! SPLASH!!! -- in the gulf...) I had never heard of it, until I got my premiere copy of Food Network Magazine. It was #30 in a pull out flyer called "50 Recipes for Marinara Sauce" Very simple, and I have expanded on it just a bit. We've tried several recipes from the flyer and it is definitly worth keeping a few $1 cans of sauce in your pantry.

The noticeable changes were that after the first time pulling all the meat off the bone for the kids at the dinner table - I swore to only use boneless skinless chicken. If I have breasts and thighs I use a little of both, if I'm buying specifically for the dish, I buy whatever is on sale. The second big change is that we have enough rice dishes... we use pasta!!

This was the very first dish that ever brought that little jar of curry powder into my kitchen, and I am thankful for it. It has opened up so many doors to new exciting dishes & flavors!

This runs about $4 plus pantry items and gives us two full meals with lunch for hubby. So about 40¢ per serving!!!! I have also frozen half in the past and it comes out great.

Country Captain

• 1 lb pasta (have fun with shapes! The girls want shells today!)
• (OR rice if you prefer to serve it over rice)
  
• 1-2 T oil (olive is nice)
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken cut into bitesized pieces.
• curry powder to taste
• Tony's or season salt to taste
• Salt & pepper
• 1 c seasoning blend or chopped onions
  
• 1 jar fav pasta sauce

Directions:

1. Prepare pasts as directed on box, draining it just shy of al dente so it doesn't overcook in the sauce later, OR cook rice and leave it set to warm.
   
2. Season chicken lightly with curry and Tony's. Leave S&P for later. You can always add more of everything. These are strong spices and you can't take it away once added.
3. Warm oil in a deep pot or skillet and saute chicken and seasoning blend until the chicken is lightly browned.
4. Add pasta sauce and simmer gently until chicken is cooked through then taste for seasoning.
5. Toss in pasta or serve over rice.

Miserly Meal #5

I cannot get my husband to eat anything "lasagna", but he'll eat pasta, meat, & cheese dishes, lol! I really thing it has something to do with teh wide noodles. I make "Mexi-sanga" with tortillas all the time and he eats it. We had dinner at his sister's and she used the wide lasagna noodles and he ate it (because he will eat anything) but he didn't "care for it". So - back to Miserly Meals this week - I turned Jonni's White Lasagne into a White Faux-sagna using rotini noodles. and mixing the non-sauce ingredients together before layering it.

The first thing my 11 yr old noticed that got us both giggling was that it's more of a yellow and green faux-sagna because of all the broccoli, spinach, and my colby jack obession! But we did sneak a bit and we lovedthe taste. I can't belive that just a few months ago she would cry about eating if she knew spinach was in a dish and now she's begging for bites before it's even done!

Using leftovers (chicken/broccoli) saves a ton, but we bought everything so it was a whopping (not!) 75¢ per serving, lol! and that was doubling to put one in the freezer as well :)

White Faux-sagna

• 1 c cooked diced or shredded chicken
• 1 c frozen broccoli thawed to warm and chopped small
  
• 1 c frozen spinach thawed and drained
• 1/2 lbs noodles cooked and drained

Sauce

• 1/4 c oil
• 1/4 c flour
• 2 c milk
• 1 t Italian seasoning
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t onion powder
• 1/2 t salt and pepper
• 2 c grated cheese (still loving colby jack here!)
  

Directions:

1. Cook noodles according to directions on package and drain.
2. Make roux by warming flour and oil in a skillet until thickened but not browned.
3. Add all remaining sauce ingredients.
4. Simmer stirring constantly until it thickens.
5. Set aside.
6. Combine meat, broccoli, and spinach with drained noodles.
7. Layer sauce, pasta mixture, and cheese (two layers) in 8x8 pan.
   
8. Bake uncovered at 350 for 20 minutes.

Option 2:
At step # 6/7 Toss it all together and pour into pan.
Continue to step #8

Miserly Meal #4 Orange Curry

This has a lot of pantry items, all I bought was a bag of steamed veggies and pork.
Jonni uses this as a way to use left over meat so that will save you even more! Just create the sauce first and toss the meat in with the vegetables to heat and toss with the sauce.
I wanted to try it now (we LOVE curry dishes!) so I spent the extra to get meat.

PICTURES COMING SOON!

Update after eating:

I'm going to change it a little if we do it again. The OJ concentrate is really strong and there is a full tablespoon of curry which overwhelmed the kids quite a bit.

Next time I'll:

make the OJ first and use 1/2 cup of that

start with 1 TEASPOON of curry instead of a tablespoon like the recipe calls for.

Orange Curry

• 1 T oil
• 1/2 c minced onion (I'm using seasoning blend)
  
• 1 lb diced or sliced fresh meat (Try thin sliced or cubed pork or beef, or poultry cutlets!)
• 2 cloves pressed garlic
• 1/2 c frozen OJ concentrate (update: very strong USE 1/2 c REGULAR OJ)
  
• 1/3 c water
• 1 T of curry powder (update: too strong flavored for kids USE 1 TEASPOON)
• 1 t salt
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 T water
• 1 c steamable vegetables
  

Directions:

1. Prepare rice to have 2-3 cups cooked rice.
2. Heat skillet over medium heat and saute onions and meat in the oil.
3. Add garlic and saute another 3-4 minutes.
4. Add OJ, water, curry and salt.
5. Warm in skillet over medium heat until simmering.
6. Combine corn starch and 1 T water (a slurry).
7. Whisk slurry into sauce in skillet.
8. Simmer until thickened 2-3 minutes.
9. Steam vegetables in the microwave.
10. Toss with sauce serve over rice.

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Miserly Meal #3 Popover Pizza

I mixed up the menu a bit because I was baby sitting 2 extra kids over night.. boys.. not my strong suit! LOL

This one was fun with the kids, but not something I'll do often. It was easy but my pans are a mess! Next time I may try crust first pre-baked for 10 minutes, then layer toppings and finish baking. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Kids + Pizza = GONE..... I didn't get pictures! LOL! When baked the crust looked wavy and one of the boys remarked it looked like mountains, but after cooling and flipping over it made a thin pizza on a biscuit like crust. Really to thin to pick up so we used forks.

Popover Pizza

Favorite Pizza Toppings (we used):

• pepperoni
• spaghetti sauce
• shredded cheeze

Crust:

• 2 egg whites
• half a c milk
• half a c flour
• 1/4 t salt

Directions:

1. Layer topping ingredients in a well oiled/sprayed 8x8 pan.
2. Mix well to combine all crust ingredients (It will be thin).
3. Pour over toppings.
4. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until golden brown (my crust never browned).
5. Cool 5 minutes and slide a knife around the edges of the crust then POPOVER on a dish.
6. Slice and serve.

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Miserly Meal #2 Chicken Florentine

Another Miserly Meal from Jonni McCoy's book!

As usual I traded in the tuna for canned chicken because of a family allergy but many canned meats trade out that way. For a tasty splurge you can try crab, canned salmon, or any other favorite canned flaky meat you prefer. You can also forgo the baking and just let the heat of the pasta melt the cheese for a warm rather than baked dish.

Chicken Florentine

Serves 6 at about 87¢ per serving
Use canned tuna (the original recipe) and save 20¢ per serving!

Ingredients:

1. 8 oz egg noodles
2. 16 oz frozen spinach, thawed & drained
3. 6 oz canned chicken, drained
4. 2 cups grated cheese (called for cheddar, I used colby jack) plus,
5. handful of cheese or Parmesan for the top.
   
6. 1 t onion powder
7. 1 t garlic powder
8. 1/2 t pepper
9. 1/4 t celery seed
10. 1/4 t salt

Directions:

1. Boil the noodles according to the package and drain.
2. Add the remainder of the ingredients to the noodles and mix well.
3. Pour contents into an ungreased 9x13 pan.
4. Top with a sprinkle of shredded cheese or Parmesan
   
5. If you do not want edges to crisp cover with foil.
6. Bake at 325° for 10-15 minutes until the cheese melts and center is warm.

Enjoy!

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Miserly Meals #1 Broccoli Beef

I found a book at the library titled "Miserly Meals" by Jonni McCoy. Published in 2002 the meal prices aren't really that far pff from what she spent when writing the book. Out of 12 meals for this weeks menu, 8 are featured in her book. I hope to have fun with this, they ALL look tasty!

Mostly I have found that the savings come in with pantry items. When writing my shopping list I found that most of the recipes I wrote down main ingredients (meats) and things I run out of because we eat it so much (cheese, onions, etc) the rest were things I keep in my pantry (rice, spices, flour, etc). This is the easiest and best way to stretch your food dollar. CREATE MEALS FROM WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE ON HAND.

Occasionally I splurged (my favorite mai fun noodles instead of rice for the broccoli beef, fresh pork for the orange curry rather than leftovers, etc) but it was still a great shopping trip. About $100 for 12 dinners, kid snacks, lunch stuffs, and critter veggies...hey the guinea pigs need yummies too!

So here is the first recipe I'll be making with/from/by Jonni...

Broccoli Beef with Maifun Noodles

Caught some thin cut eye of round on sale for $3.61 for a little over a pound... the recipe calls for only 1/2 lb!

Mai fun noodles are Japanese rice noodles. They are easily found in most stores today.. I shop at Wal-Mart! Mine were about $1.15... Just check the Asian foods aisle. I find these fun and a way to have my rice and pasta too!

Cost per serving: about 60¢ with mai fun or 45¢ with rice from the pantry. Since I got a good deal on the beef, I'm doubling the dish (not noodles) to freeze for a quick meal later. The basic 4 serving recipe follows.

Broccoli Beef

Ingredients (and my helper!):

• 1/4 c low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 T. peanut butter (whatever is your fav)
• 1/4 t. tabasco
• 1/2 c warm water
• 1 T cornstarch
• 2 tsp vinegar (I'm using rice wine vinegar from my pantry)
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1/8 t. powdered ginger (it's strong so use carefully)
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. onion powder OR 1 c. thin-sliced onion
• tiny pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
  
• 2 T oil
• 1/2 lb beef diced, cubed, or sliced thin
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• One package Mai fun noodles or 2 cups COOKED rice
  

Directions

1. In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, peanut butter, tabasco, water, cornstarch, vinegar, pepper, ginger, garlic, powder, onion powder and cayenne pepper (if using either).
2. Mix well and set aside.
3. Prepare mai fun according to package directions before beginning stirfry.
4. In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium high heat.
5. Add the beef (and onion if using fresh) and cook stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the broccoli and stir for another 2-3 minutes.
7. Scrape all ingredients to the edge of the skillet or wok.
8. Add the sauce and stir as it thickens.
9. Stir all together to warm through.
10. Once thickened remove from heat.
11. Serve immediately over Mai fun or rice.

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Pantry Pot Pie

Today's Menu
Pantry Pot Pie


Recipe:
Tonight is "Clean the Fridge or Freezer Dinner"other wise known as Pantry Pot Pie.... This is the one you use up stuff before the money you spent last week/moth really goes outthe door.. in your trash bag.

The shopping for this was easy, and only because hubby asked for it. I knew I'd have meat and stuff left over somewhere.

1 bag stew veggies - mine had potatoes, celery, pearl onions and carrots ($2.26 using 1/2 = $1.13)

The first time I made this:

• I used left over roast from Easter. Today I am using pork cutlets that I need to use before they freezerburn.
• I used a 13x9 pan (due to amount of leftovers). Tonight I have a left over pie crust (from the quiche) and want to use it before IT freezerburns.
  

Directions.

1. Cut meat into bite size pieces.
2. Brown in with a little oil.
3. If you are using HARD fresh veggies, add them now: potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc
4. Add water until just covered and simmer until tender, adding water as necessary.
5. Whisk together 1 packet brown gravy mix into 1/2-1 cup of cold water (how saucy do you want it?) and add to pot.
6. Simmer until thickened.
7. Put into baking vessel (pie crust or pan)
8. Pour POT PIE BREAD CRUST (recipe below) evenly over the top ofthe filling and bake at13x9 = 425 for 30-35 minutes or pie plate = 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Bread Crust Topping
Adding a 1/2 recipe and an original so you have what you need depending on your pan size.

Half recipe/One pie shell -- (Full recipe/13x9 pan)

• 1/4 c + 2T melted butter -- (calls for 3/4 c butter)
• 3/4 c milk -- (calls for 1 1/2 c milk)
  

1. Whisk above together briskly.. will look odd because you're adding cold to warm
   

• 3/4 c + 2T Flour -- (calls for 1 3/4 flour)
• 1/2 t salt -- (calls for 1 t salt)
• 3/4 t pepper -- (calls for 1 1/2 t pepper)
• 1 1/2 t baking POWDER -- (calls for 3t baking soda)

1. Whisk milk/butter mixture in.. will be almost corn bread consistency or thinner
2. Pour over filling and bake 13x9 = 425 for 30-35 minutes or pie plate = 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown
   

NOTE: Add dry herbs to flour mixture for added zing!

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