GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER

That moment when Mother’s Little Helper asks if a friend can stay over for dinner. That other moment when you get a call from someone you know who is passing through town tonight and you find yourself with an extra dinner guest.

How do you stretch your dinner plans into one or two extra servings?

Amazingly, two chicken breasts can go pretty far with the right extenders. Slice in half, pound flat, stuff with cheese and flavored butter, roll and dip in bread crumbs. That’s an attractive adult dinner with side dishes. If you have leftover vegetables, add them into the stuffing mix as well.

Slice chicken breasts thin, sauté and add to box of cooked pasta with your favorite sauce. This can be a lemon/garlic/chicken stock sauce, a brown butter sauce or a honey/orange juice or pineapple sauce. The honey/orange juice sauce works well with rice.It all depends on what is in your pantry.

Kabobs on skewers and served over rice…another great way to prepare chicken breasts for unexpected company. Fruits (pineapple/melon/) or vegetables (onions/green peppers) are great extenders and much less expensive to purchase than extra boneless chicken.

My mother would assign me the task of making hamburgers from ground chuck whenever she wanted to serve hamburgers for dinner. We were a party of five.

Why me? I could take a pound of ground chuck and make it yield five hamburgers. She never knew how I did it but on burger night, I knew my role. I couldn’t cook, but I could eek out an extra burger from that pound of meat.

Cooked ground meat with onions and chopped/grated vegetables stuffed into large pasta shells covered with sauce makes a small amount of ground meat feed many. Sautéed ground meat and a fun pasta shape mixed with sauce and mozzarella topping makes “pizza pasta” for hungry children or for adults, call it “baked ziti”.  

Your pantry is your friend when it comes to unexpected dinner guests. Combined with the web, a very resourceful tool, you can keep your budget in check without writing a check to your local grocer.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: In your recipe box (virtual or physical), keep “go to” recipes that you can make to ramp up “nothing to something” in a short time. Being prepared is another technique to maintaining a frugal budget!

       A BOX OF PASTA, CANNED TOMATOES, A JAR OF ARTICHOKES

                                  PERSONAL MEAT LOAF FOR EACH GUEST

 

 

TWO STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS YIELDING FOUR SERVINGS

 

SECRETS OF A COOKBOOK HOARDER

There was a time when I could spend hours and hours reading. Summertime was my favorite time. Going back to my childhood of reading novels, I particularly liked series.

My favorites were “Little House on the Prairie” and “The Bobsey Twins”. When one book ended, I eagerly awaited the next in the series.

I thought my children would like reading if I could hook them on a series as well.

For the eldest of Mother’s Little Helpers, there were “Boxcar Children” and “Pee Wee Scouts”.

His first hand in the kitchen was replicating a cookie recipe from one of the Pee Wee Scouts books. I may even still have the handwritten recipe that he wrote for me over 20 years ago.

For my middle helper, it was “Sweet Valley” series and for the youngest helper, it was the “Goosebumps” series of books. The older two were voracious readers; the youngest had more distractions, read as video games. as competition for a good book.

For myself, I discovered another type of book that I enjoyed reading. Cookbooks!

A nice feature to a cookbook is that you can read a section. I was a busy working mom. Unlike a novel that goes on and on for chapters, a cookbook is segmented into topics. You can start at any place in the book, and not always at the beginning. How “novel” is that!

Recently, I discovered that I’m somewhat of a cookbook hoarder. I had not realized this until doing some cleaning and reorganizing just how many cookbooks that I’d purchased over the past three decades.

I made an honest attempt to consolidate.

I had three piles: the 'donate' pile, the 'keep' pile and the 'not so sure' pile. The donate pile was too small. The pile of cookbooks to keep was too large and nothing made it onto the “not so sure pile”. Why? Because every time I touched a cookbook, I’d start reading.

All these books, and yet I still can’t decide what to make for dinner.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: With the invention of the internet, there are so many cooking and recipe websites. Save resources, use the web. If you must touch a cookbook, visit the local public library and borrow it. You have already paid for those books with your tax dollars.

                                  THE "KEEP" PILE OF COOKBOOKS

 

 

JUST ESSENTIALS JULY-UPDATE

The month has gone by and as I reflect on my challenge, it comes with mixed results.

My first goal was to spend money on only essential items to restock my pantry.

Except for two cartons (they aren’t gallons anymore) of ice-cream, I stayed on task.

The second goal was to spend only $100 of my $160 budget on groceries, HBA and food. I wanted to see if I could carry over $60 and move that money forward for a future month.

To that end, I rang up $100 worth of goods but missed buying a few items: black beans, red beans, celery and yellow cornmeal.

Had I not bought the ice-cream, I may have been able to use that $5.50 on those items. It would have been close.

Yet, I don’t find that to be a failed challenge. The ice-cream was on sale and I could not find the four mentioned items on sale this month. Waiting another week to incorporate them into the August budget was not austere on my meal preparations. And I have $60 to carry forward.

With that thought, it brought me to my next challenge: Austerity August.

As I evaluate my pantry moving into August, I seem to be in good shape to start the month. No meat or fish were purchased in July as my freezer pantry was well stocked. Heading into August, that inventory still looks good.

As a weekend shopper, August is going to be a big challenge for austerity. There are five weekends of shopping. If anyone is up to the challenge, that would be me! Stay tuned!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: For parents that are preparing children for back-to-school, August can be an expensive month. Set aside a designated amount of money for your back-to-school shopping whether it is clothing, mandatory school supplies, snack items or after-school activities. If you live in a state that has “tax-free” shopping weekend before school begins, it may be a good time for savings. If you can endure the crowds!

                                 MAKE YOUR OWN BEAN SOUP MIX

 

THE UNBRIDAL SHOWER

The concept of the unbirthday, as immortalized in the Disney movie, “Alice in Wonderland”, is something I can wrap my head around and run with.

So much so, that I spun it into an “unbridal” shower.

When Mother’s Little Helper was about to marry Prince Charming, she wasn’t too keen on the traditions of pre-marital celebrations, such as the ‘bridal shower’.

Marrying at Disneyworld, what better place than Orlando to host her “unbridal shower”!

Borrowing some ideas from “Alice in Wonderland”, the theme for the “unbridal shower” was a tea party. Goodies and beverages were marked “eat me” and “drink me”. Gifts were labeled “open me” and it was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend the morning hours leading up to the early evening wedding.

Being on the frugal side herself, she seemed to enjoy the low-key festivities of her “unbridal shower”. It took a little imagination and a lot of risk, but the “unbridal shower” was a success.

Several hours later, she was a beautiful “Princess Bride”.

Years have passed, Prince Charming and his Princess Bride continue to live happily ever after. They have even added an heir to their royal family who is now an inquisitive and adorably charming little boy. Such is the circle of life.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: To save energy and time when baking, make a cake using layer cake pans or bake cupcakes. If making cookies, consider making one large cookie in a pizza pan or 8x8 square dish and divide the cookie into bars when the baking is done. Your dessert will be ready in 15 -20 minutes with minimal effort on your part!

                                       ONE LAYER CAKE DIVIDED IN HALF

 

                                         BAKE TWO: ONE NOW, ONE LATER

 

EGG PLANTED ON MY FACE

The moment you realize you have that ever embarrassing, most humiliating “egg on your face”.

Those moments [yes, more than once] seemed to come most often when Mother’s Little Helpers were teens.

It’s not enough that I was perceived as not “all knowing” but I had a reputation to live up to.

I don’t think my teens were much different from other teens. Trying to pull one over on one’s parents is a rite of passage of all teens, regardless of the generation. With technology, I think it will be a little harder for Grandmother’s Little Helpers though.

I must admit, I was pretty good at figuring out their little ploys and kept the “egg on my face” moments to a minimum.

Except for those lost DMB tickets. For non-millennial readers, that would be Dave Matthew Band.

What began as a nice gesture turned into a calamity in the amount of time that it takes for a coat of paint to dry on four walls.

The tickets were on Mother’s Little Helpers dresser when the project began so they had to be moved or they would get ruined by paint. At the end of the day, the bedroom was coated in fresh paint and I was coated in “egg on my face”.

You see, the tickets were gone. I mean, as in “nowhere to be found” gone.

To this day, the tickets never turned up. Anytime an item goes missing, I now refer to it as GWDMB. [Gone With Dave Matthew Band].

I had to make good on what I lost. Do you know how expensive purchasing DMB tickets are at the last minute through one of those scalpers, I mean ticket brokers? Let’s just say, not one of my more frugal moments. 

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: A large tray of eggplant parmesan will yield more servings if side dishes of pasta or bread go along with it. In my “cook once, eat twice” philosophy; I bake the eggplant slices so that the oven does the work and not my aging feet. Plus, it is a healthier version than fried eggplant. Part of the tray is served with pasta; leftovers as a sandwich for dinner another night. Eggplant parmesan freezes well, so give this one a try!                                                 

                                       BAKED EGGPLANT SLICES

 

 

ASSEMBLED BAKE EGGPLANT PARMESAN

 

LEFTOVERS

                              

                              

                                                  

 

 

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU TOMATOES

One of the most frugal ways to acquire food is getting it free. You’ve heard that expression, “if life hands you lemons, make lemonade”.

In my house, when life hands me tomatoes….yes, I make marinara sauce!

A friend gave me two large, very ripe tomatoes the other day and they smelled so sweet. I wanted to savor them as far as I could stretch them so I made marinara sauce.

You’d be surprised how much sauce can be made from two tomatoes. These two were extremely juicy which is why I did not want to slice and eat them. All that precious flavor would be lost on the cutting board!

A marinara sauce is a lighter tomato sauce in color and in texture as it has no meat and does not cook for hours on end. In about 30 minutes of simmer time, I had half an 8 oz jar of sauce.

So if you have a generous neighbor or friend who has a bounty of tomatoes this time of year from the garden, consider using the tomatoes for sauce. Serve over your favorite pasta or topping for chicken parmesan and savor the flavor!

MARINARA SAUCE –

Tomatoes

Pinch sugar

Salt/red pepper flakes

Oregano/basil

 

Boil water and add tomatoes until the skin breaks apart. Place them in an ice bath for a minute to cool them down. Peel. In a large measuring cup or small bowl, remove the section of seeds. Chop the remaining tomatoes. Whirl in a blender for smooth sauce or squish with clean hands for a chunky sauce.

 

 

 

 

Sauté several cloves of crushed and diced garlic in olive oil. Add the tomatoes from the blender. Season with the remaining ingredients and cook on a simmer until sauce thickens to your desired consistency. This takes about 30 minutes. The reduction can be poured into a jar and stored in the refrigerator until ready for use.

 

 

 

THE GHOST OF HUMPTY DUMPTY

 

In my weekly race against the cooking clock, I wanted to accomplish these tasks in twenty minutes. Cooks three types of beans; boil and peel eggs, make pasta salad and turkey chili.

All of the things that I needed to do were either already cooked and needed assembling or could be cooked in 12 minutes [ground turkey meat and eggs].

The hard boiled eggs would take the longest, I would start with eggs. I filled a pot with water, added my eggs and when the water boiled, I set the timer for 12 minutes for them to cook. Only a couple minutes were used off the clock.

Next, the turkey chili. The meat was browned and cooked in 10 minutes. While that was browning, the pressure cooker was cooking the first of three rounds of beans.

First round was navy beans. By starting with the lightest color bean first, I can reuse the hot water, decreasing my prep time waiting for water to come up to temperature for the next two pots of beans. Each pot of beans in the pressure cooker was going to take 5 - 6 minutes to cook. Three sets at 6 minutes each, I would have 2 minutes to spare which I used for draining and getting the next batch ready to cook. After navy beans, in went the garbanzo beans and last were the black beans.

Meat was done and drained; beans were cooking under pressure, next up to assemble was the pasta salad. Everything was cooked; it was just a matter of adding the ingredients to my 8-cup measuring cup and stir. Done, cover and into the refrigerator!  Quickly assemble the chili for the crock pot, cover and plug-in. Done.

Five minutes left on the timer. I dump the eggs into a bath of ice water to get them ready for peeling. Ten hard boiled eggs to peel and only a few minutes remaining on the timer. As I begin to crack the eggs, pieces of shell opted to remain on the eggs! NO!!!!!

Working as quickly as I could to beat the clock, I really didn’t take notice of the eggs appearance as I rushed to remove the shells. After all, I was the only one eating them this week for breakfast. Unlike an episode of a “Chopped”, plating didn’t count in this competition.

“Eggs-aspirated”, the clock won the challenge. I was “beaten” by some eggs. How ironic. Memo to self: never include hard boiled eggs in a 20-minute challenge!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Menu planning is key to a successful frugal budget. Meal planning promotes using all your ingredients, eliminates waste while keeping costs down .                                                                        

 

                                            

                                                                        A Jar of Hard Boiled Eggs

                                                           Turkey Vegetable Chili

                                                                    Pasta Salad

                                                            Three Types of Beans

 

 

 

 

"JUST ESSENTIALS" JULY

A grocery challenge. It shakes up my grocery shopping so that I can appreciate my blessings.

Have I pared down my spending as far as I can go? Although, I often wonder if I can go $10 lower. As prices in dairy, citrus and meat keep rising, I haven’t found the right time to try that challenge.

Instead, I came up with a challenge to only purchase the “just essentials” this month.

My meat and health/beauty/detergent stockpile is solid so unless I see a steal of a deal, my goal is to limit my spending to the “essentials”.

Each week, those essential grocery items for me, include fruit and vegetables. They fluctuate depending on the sale.

I’m hoping to find some green peppers this month. They freeze well and are usually in abundance during the summer months.

Periodically, my staple of root vegetables depletes and that will be one focus of July. Carrots, celery, potatoes, garlic, onions are low. They have been added to the list.

We consume soup for dinner on Tuesday evenings. If I can find zucchini, fresh corn and eggplant, that would be a bonus for my soup recipes.

An assessment of my refrigerator staples indicates that the supply of butter, eggs, milk and orange juice are running low as well. They are on the list.

My list for the month is ready. It’s time to review the ads and see what’s on sale to replenish my supplies.

Who knows, maybe this will be the month that I can shave off that extra $10 from my shopping budget!

 

SOUND THE BULGE! Today’s tip: Due to droughts earlier this year in various parts of the country, fruit prices and certain meat prices have escalated. Know your prices and when you see a good deal, scoop it up! Eating vegetarian one night or having soup will help keep your weekly dinner meal price lower as well.

 

                     START WITH HOMEMADE CHICKEN OR VEGETABLE STOCK

 

                                         

 

 

                                        

                        

                          

 

 

 

 

SLIPPERY WHEN WET

"I'm Chiquita banana and I've come to say - Bananas have to ripen in a certain way”.

For those who may not recognize this, it’s the first line to a most popular jingle released by the Chiquita Banana Company almost seventy years ago.

How about Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” song, aka “The Banana Boat” song? 

Then there is the “Yes, We Have No Bananas” song.

Just in case you thought songs about bananas were only written for a generation of baby boomers, bands such as Radiohead and singer Jack Johnson have dedicated tunes to the fruit best known for growing in the tropics.

Now, I have nothing against other fruits. There is a song about… apples. There is one by the Osmond's, “One Bad Apple”. Another song by Bobby Goldsboro was about little green apples.

Presidents of the United States of America had a song in the late 90’s about “Peaches”.  Millennial readers may remember their song “Lump”. I dare say most millennial parents remember neither.

All this to say that when I want a song with appeal, bananas will win, hands down. When wanting fruit with appeal, don’t let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Soft or overripe fruit can be either frozen or cooked depending on the fruit. Frozen bananas can be used in smoothies or for baked goods. Apples can be cooked down to apple sauce and frozen. Applesauce is a healthy substitute for oil in baked goods. Overripe strawberries sprinkled with sugar will yield a summer syrup for ice cream or cake.  Decrease food waste by carving out those brown spots and consuming the remaining fruit instead of tossing it into trash.

 

 

 

THE 33-MINUTE CHALLENGE

One morning, I wondered how much could be accomplished in 33 minutes.

It may appear to be an odd amount of time but that’s how long it was going to take to bake a cake. The preparation of the cake would take 3 minutes but the baking would take a good half hour. The challenge was on!

I ran upstairs to toss wet laundry in the dryer for 5 minutes. Back downstairs in the kitchen, the cake mix is prepared and into the oven. Back up a flight of stairs and toss the contents of the dryer into the laundry basket. Next, head to the back room to hang up the laundry.

Drying clothes for 5 minutes seems to be sufficient time to allow for wrinkles not to set in when hanging clothes to dry. I’m not sure why or how, but it works!

There are 21 minutes left on the timer. Time to start a meal for dinner this week!

Do I need rice this week? I think not, so I skip rice at this point and start an entrée. But if I wanted rice, I would start it now. It would take 20 minutes.

My grandmother would make for us kids her version of hot dogs. When my grandmother cooked, everything contained tomato sauce, even hot dogs. I began by peeling two potatoes and an onion. Chopped both into small cubes and tossed into olive oil with garlic to get them browning and cooking. Chop a green pepper and toss that in as well.

Meanwhile, I glance over to the counter and the pineapple needs to be cut. I tackle carving while cooking potatoes and onion with garlic. Done!

Next, red beans need to be cooked in the pressure cooker. Those will take 8 minutes and onto the stove top they go!

Grabbed a package of hot dogs from the refrigerator. It’s a real treat for me to eat those given how laden they are with sodium. I’ll only need four. While there, I reached for a jar of tomato sauce. A large tablespoons worth is all that would be needed and into the pan it went with the sliced hot dogs. Season with pepper. Cook until heated through as the timer on the oven begins to beep. Time’s up.

My 33-minutes have expired and the cake has baked to perfection. My kitchen counter has a spread of my accomplishments, minus the laundry which is hanging in the upstairs back bedroom. In a few hours, I’ll spread some frosting and coconut on the vanilla cake and have dessert for the week. Now the rest of the day is for fun!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Multi-tasking condenses chores into a smaller block of time. Is laundry getting away from you? While laundry is in the machine, do another chore. You’ll find that both are done at the same time and it required no extra time on your part!

 

                                       THE 33 MINUTE CHALLENGE

 

A 9 x13 cake

One pineapple cubed

Pineapple flavored water

3 cups of cooked red beans

Grandma's Hot Dogs

 

TALE OF TWO CARDS

I have two credit cards that I use for shopping. One is for groceries, one is for everything else.

I’ve been debating whether to put every purchase on one card to simply my life.

Each card has its own advantages. One provides points, which I convert to gift cards. The other provides money, which provides dollars to my checking account.

Decisions, decisions.

I swipe my card when I purchase groceries, losing track of how much has accumulated on my account.

Admittedly, it takes awhile to accrue enough points on my grocery credit card to amass increment sums of $25 in money. With a monthly grocery/food budget of $160 for two adults, sometimes a shopping trip will amass only 15 cents towards cash rewards.

 

This week, my credit card paid my checking account $32.05!

 

With an average budget of $40 week for shopping, this deposit of $32 is almost a full week of groceries for my pantry.

I’m still trying to decide if it’s better to use one card or two. For now though, I’ve targeted my $32 and plan to spend it during a month when there are five weeks of shopping instead of four. Looking at the calendar, that is closer than I thought!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Using a store loyalty card in addition to a credit/debit card that provides “rewards” can be a bonus to savings when shopping for groceries. However, comparison shopping still is Rule #1 as stores that do not offer loyalty cards can often times have better prices.

 

ONE SHELL OF A MEAL

There are fewer things more exciting to a frugal shopper than a great deal.

Several months ago, I found boxes and boxes of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Shells marked down to 99 cents a box. They were a fraction of their regular price of nearly $4 a box.

These boxes contained six puff pastry shells in each box. Doing some fast short division from my parochial school days, I quickly decided that would be too good of a deal to pass up.

Featured on the box was a luscious berry dessert with whipped topping.

I bought three boxes, wishing I had room in my freezer for more. With summertime coming, those pastry shells would make a great receptacle for blueberries and strawberries.

So much for good intentions.

Instead, I had a turkey breast. I divided it into two sections. Cook once, eat twice!

One half of the breast was prepared as a glazed apricot turkey breast.

I decided to chop the other cooked half into small cubes. I went to my freezer a found a bag of mixed frozen vegetables. Meshed with a can of cream of mushroom soup, this would be the makings of a delicious turkey pot pie.

I didn’t want to heat the oven on a summer Sunday morning to make a turkey pot pie. Feeling a bit pressed for time, I didn’t want to make a pie crust either. Then I remembered my puff pastry shells in the freezer.  Instructions read: baked while frozen! I baked the shells, assembled the pot pie mixture inside the shells and covered them with the little pastry lid carved from the top of the shells.

Spending less than $5, I was able to prepare a dozen shells which were divided amongst 5 adults. Now that’s one (s)hell of a frugal meal!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Jumbo pasta shells are another great vesicle for using leftovers and creating a delicious meal. Ground cooked turkey or beef with tomato sauce or chopped chicken/turkey with an Alfredo sauce and you have elegant leftovers and satisfied diners!