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Day 28 – AYGC

By Valerie

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Well, talk about a let down for the last day. No shopping. No eating out. We had great, big sandwiches (with the slice ham and rolls from Sam’s yesterday) for dinner. Everyone was sort of doing his or her own thing so dinner was a non-event today. Andy and I ate together, my other son was hanging out with friends. Mike ate later (finishing off the last of the shredded beef). Normally we all eat at the table together — every night. Always have. I know my boys don’t realize it yet, but it’s a tradition they’ll likely miss at some point in their lives.

While I didn’t put much effort into the meal, I did manage to use up a bunch of cream cheese and eggs and made a cheesecake. Big sucker, too! With a nice fresh strawberry topping. I had to do something with those strawberries I splurged on before they went to waste. Plus, I made use of 2 pounds of cream cheese (I still have three 8-oz. packages).

Categories : All You Grocery Challenge

Tags : Cream Cheese, Eggs, Friends Mike, Sandwiches, shopping, Shredded Beef, Strawberries, Strawberry, Sucker, Tradition

Day 27 – AYGC

By Valerie

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

This was a shopping day for me, and an eating out day for Mike. He bought lunch for himself and a friend who was helping with the workshop. Fair trade. Their lunch (at Wendy’s) cost about $16 (no receipt since he didn’t realize the contest was still in effect).

My shopping took me to Sam’s Club and a quick stop at Harris Teeter on the way home. Sam’s was to pick up sandwich rolls, sliced ham, cream, milk and a big bag of pre-cut salad (2.77 for 3 lbs). I spent $19.05 there. At Harris Teeter I stopped to pick up some Pepsi for my husband’s helper and splurged on a few pounds of cherries (on sale for 1.77/lb) for a total of $7.76.

Before I left to go shopping, I threw the ingredients for a loaf of bread into my bread maker. I use an easy potato bread recipe, and in this case, shaped it into a large, oblong loaf. I love the added body the potatoes create.

For dinner I made a no-boil lasagna recipe, using some homemade Italian sausage for the meat. I think sausage, instead of hamburger, makes all the difference in lasagna. With the lasagna we had a tossed green salad, fresh homemade bread, and green beans straight out of the garden. Yum!

Virginia’s Easy Lasagna

1 lb Italian Sausage
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Salt
3 cups Spaghetti Sauce (large can)
1-1/2 cups Water
15 oz Ricotta
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese — shredded, DIVIDED
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan
1/4 cup Parsley — chopped
1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper
8 oz Lasagna Noodles — 9 pieces, uncooked

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large sauce pan, brown meat; drain. Add spaghetti sauce and water; simmer about 10 minutes.

In medium bowl, stir together ricotta, one-half mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.

Pour about 1 cup sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking dish (spray with Pam for easy clean up). Arrange 3 UNCOOKED pasta pieces lengthwise over sauce; cover with about 1 cup sauce. Spread one-half cheese filling over sauce. Repeat layers of lasagna, sauce and cheese filling. Top with layer of lasagna and remaining sauce; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil; bake additional 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Easy Potato Bread

3 oz water
6 oz milk
1/4 cup instant potato flakes
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tbsp sugar
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp Yeast, Active Dry

Put ingredients in bread machine in order listed. Set machine for 1-1/2 lb, dough setting. Start.

When the dough is ready, take it out of the machine and set it on a floured counter to rest for a few minutes.

Shape into an oblong loaf.

Let rise for 35 minutes in a warm place.

Bake for 20 minutes in a pre-heated 375° oven.

Day 26 – AYGC

By Valerie

Friday, August 7th, 2009

No shopping today. Dinner was tamales (made from scratch several months ago and vacuum-sealed) served with a faux Spanish rice, salsa and enchilada sauce (also pre-made from scratch and frozen in silicon muffin pans then vacuum-sealed). The boys were so hungry that we ate all the tamales before my husband even came in from working on the workshop. He had a burrito with more of the shredded beef we’d had the other day and a homemade tortilla.

Here’s my enchilada sauce recipe:

Enchilada Sauce

2 tbsp Oil
2 tbsp Flour
1/4 cup red chile powder — mild
2 cups beef broth — fresh or canned
2 cups tomato puree — canned
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Cumin — powdered
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Salt

Heat oil in large saucepan. Add the flour to the oil and make a roux. Stir and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes until it becomes brown in color. Add the chile powder, beef broth, tomato puree, oregano, cumin, garlic and salt to the roux and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Notes: I’ve substituted tomato sauce for the puree and nobody noticed. Chile powder and chili powder are NOT the same thing. Chile powder is actually powdered chilis, and chili powder is a mixture of seasonings to make chili and usual includes chile powder, salt, garlic, etc.

I frequently make a double batch of this sauce, since I’m going to freeze most of it anyway. I have 3 silicon muffin “pans” that I freeze this and other sauces in. Because the silicon is so flexible the sauce pops right out; each piece being about 1/3-1/2 cup. My experience is sauce quantities are somewhat forgiving, so I’m not worried too much about being exact.

Day 25 – AYGC

By Valerie

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Networking meeting day again, so I bought lunch out: $8.72 (for the buffet, water & tip)

Even though we had a cream sauce dish last night, I went ahead and made Chicken Fettucine Alfredo for dinner tonight. Mike LOVES it. He’s been working especially hard on the workshop, so I want to make him nice meals.

The recipe I use for Fettucine Alfredo is from The Pioneer Woman website. If you haven’t visited her site, check it out. She won all sorts of Bloggie awards and even has a cookbook coming out soon. She’s a wonderful writer, photographer, and I haven’t tried a single recipe from her site that I don’t absolutely love.

I brined the chicken breasts while it was defrosting. I’ve been whittling down my stockpile of boneless, skinless breasts. I stock up when the price drops to $1.80 or less a pound, usually buying 20-30 pounds and bagging it up into 1-1/2 pound portions (about what most of my recipes call for). Once the chicken came out of the brine I sliced it into thin strips and tossed it on a hot skillet with just a little bit of olive oil. I toss it with the sauced pasta just before serving. With our pasta entree we had a side of celery sticks. Sort of weak, I know, but I really needed to use the celery up.

Categories : All You Grocery Challenge

Day 24 – AYGC

By Valerie

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

A late afternoon trip to the bookstore to look over college directories with my 17 year old prompted a treat at the Starbucks. Cost: $6.24. It was a nice treat, and not all that expensive, but considering it cost about 3 time what I spent making dinner… Well, you get the picture.

Dinner tonight was a tuna casserole. The tuna was free with coupons a few months back, and the pasta was probably 5 cents after triple coupons. I served the casserole with canned green beans. Sort of ridiculous, since I have beans growing in the back yard, but we didn’t get home until about 6:30 and had to rush out back and help my husband lift and position a wall for the workshop he’s building. I know some people don’t like canned green beans, but we do, and in fact *I* prefer them over frozen green beans (unless I’m the one who froze them).

Here’s the tuna casserole recipe:

Tuna Casserole

1 cup elbow macaroni (I used spirals)
3 oz cream cheese
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
1 can Tuna, Light, Canned in Water — drained (or 1 pouch)
1 Tbsp. Onion — chopped
1 2-oz. jar chopped pimento — drained (optional)
1 4-oz. can mushroom pieces — drained (optional)
Potato chips — crushed

Cook macaroni according to package directions and drain. Soften cream cheese and blend in cream of mushroom soup, using electric beater or wire whisk. Stir in milk and mustard until blended. Add in drained tuna, pimento (optional), onion and mushrooms (optional). Fold in cooked macaroni. Spray a 1 1/2 qt. covered casserole dish with cooking spray and transfer tuna mixture to casserole dish. Top with crushed potato chips and cover. Bake at 375 degerees F for 20 minutes. Remove lid and bake for 5 more minutes.

Recipe Notes My family LOVES this recipe. I don’t usually have chips so I use crushed saltines.