Eat at home

[OceanAnnie]

I have been using this one by the pioneer woman and love it

cinnamon baked french toast

Thank you so much for the recipe! We had it tonight. It was so good! I took a couple of pictures of it. I'd post it if I could. My DH said if it tastes as good as it looks and smells it would be something. It was!

I had everything except the whipping cream. I just used some hazelnut creamer. I also had some leftover pan fried apples and cinnamon from another dish. So I threw it all together (put the apples on top of the mixture). I subtracted some of the liquid from the recipe because the apples were cooked down. It tasted wonderful!

I love the website too. I'll be using that site in the near future. I had heard of it, but never tried it. I owe you a double thanks!

 

[figment3258]

Hi Everyone!

I am relatively new to DIS, didn't start until planning our first Disney Vacay in March. LOVED Disney, now I have my sights set on a Disney Dream vacay...so let the budgeting and saving begin! I love to cook and cooking on a REALLY tight budget is the method I have chosen to save.

Groceries at Aldi this week: $66 for a family of 5

Saturday-
Spanish rice w/ ground beef
Oven roasted corn

Sunday-
Roasted hot dogs (we had a little bonfire in the backyard)
Chips

Monday-
Chicken and Cornbread Dressing
Cranberry sauce
Brown sugar glazed carrots

Tuesday-
Blueberry pancakes

Bacon

Wednesday-
BBQ chicken and black bean burritos
Chips and Salsa

Thursday-
White bean and bacon chowder
Cornbread muffins

Friday-
Baked mac & cheese with cubed ham
Green beans


I look forward to participating in this thread and getting lots of good ideas!

aboard!

 

[figment3258]

Hi! I have been lurking on this thread...some great ideas. Thank you!

I just moved to PA from NJ and find the grocery store here is fairly expensive so I bought a lot of meat at Sam's and froze it for meals. I froze some flank steak in an asian marinade and bbq rub, boneless pork in an adobo marinade and cooked some chicken to use at a later date.

I have not thought about dinners past tomorrow since I was waiting for the baseball schedule but here is what we have had.

Friday: Rachel Ray's Sloppy Joes and tossed salad (I heard about this recipe from TigerKat on the DIS and it is great!)

Saturday: out to lunch and leftovers

Sunday: I made a big pot of sauce with meatballs, sausage and pork. We had that with pasta. *It was the best meatball recipe I have made!

Monday: The asian marinated flank, rice a roni, broccoli. I made a sauce for the steak by boiling down the marinade. it was yummy!

Tuesday: A roaster chicken in the crockpot, stove top stuffing and a vegetable.

Wednesday: We are supposed to have company, if they come, it will be a lasagna, salad and crusty bread.


Thursday: Maybe Chicken ala King over rice (I have the chicken precooked in the freezer)

Have a great day everyone! Thanks for the ideas!

aboard!

 

[figment3258]

This is a fun thread and I'm getting some great ideas. With the cost of groceries skyrocketing, any way to save money is helpful. In our family we eat little red meat so I try to find other protein sources and stock up when something is on sale. Breakfast is usually cold cereal, toast, oatmeal, stuff like that. The kids and husband eat in the cafe at school/work and i usually have a sandwich or yogurt or leftovers. Dinner usually contains a protein, starch, veggie, and fruit and once in awhile a dessert. These are our menus for this week:

hot dogs on buns
tater tots
canned carrots
applesauce

grilled cheese (cheddar)
tomato soup
grapes

pan-fried pork chops (on bone, sal/pepper)
mashed potatoes (box)
green beans
peaches (can)

baked Tilapia
white rice
peas
canned pears

cheese omelets
Bisquick biscuits
brussel sprouts
strawberiies

baked chicken breast with swiss cheese sauce
white rice
corn
apple slices

baked chicken breast (on bone)
mashed potatoes

green beans
salad

ground chicken Manwich on toast
oven fries
corn
bananas

I can't wait to keep reading!!

aboard!

 

[figment3258]

I love french toast bakes. they are so easy by making them the night before and u can add so much once you know a basic recipe. So today I went to the grocery store and spent 46$ but I saved 50$! It was so cool

So far this is what we are doing
tomorrow spaghetti with sauce a salad and dipping oil for bread
Thursday baked chicken with veggie and potato's
Friday pizza and a movie
Saturday??????

heres a question what does everyone do for snacks? Do you make a dessert for each day or just buy things like fruit snacks chip ect...?

 

[charming23]

Thank you so much for the recipe! We had it tonight. It was so good! I took a couple of pictures of it. I'd post it if I could. My DH said if it tastes as good as it looks and smells it would be something. It was!

I had everything except the whipping cream. I just used some hazelnut creamer. I also had some leftover pan fried apples and cinnamon from another dish. So I threw it all together (put the apples on top of the mixture). I subtracted some of the liquid from the recipe because the apples were cooked down. It tasted wonderful!

I love the website too. I'll be using that site in the near future. I had heard of it, but never tried it. I owe you a double thanks!

I am glad you liked it. I love her site. She was on an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" and her stuff sounded so good I decided I needed to check it out.

I am going to steal you idea of the apples on top. That sounds devine.

 

[acc82]

I wonder if there are those of you like me that hate grocery shopping? It's hard for me to come up with new menu items and it's even harder to pay some of the prices! I am trying to find ways to make up for the costly things like hamburger. For example my store has ground chicken or turkey for '$2.00 per pound so I use that anytime ground beef is required. Once you add the taco seasoning or Manwich or whatever you can't tell. I also make stretch dishes like chili where I can use a pound or less of meat but double the amlount of beans and tomatoes and it's affordable and works for 2-3 meals. I find that we are doing more breakfast items using eggs for protein for dinner -- cheese omelets, french toast, quiche, even scrambled eggs. I also cook a lot with chicken breast on the bone. I learned that from the Barefoot Contessa show. I'll add the cooked chicken to pasta and a jar of Alfredo sauce, or make chicken salad or a chicken casserole, or fajitas.

I'm fortunate to not have a super tight food budget but I am a saver by nature and won't buy expensive groceries. I shop the sales and stock up. I also shop where things are less expensive like Target for staples like cereal, eggs, etc.

I'm sure this is not a new suggestion on a budget board; but, I make grocery shopping fun by couponing and challenging myself to get the best deals. I painstakingly price booked my local grocery stores for things that I use often or never have coupons for. I find that for meat and produce (non couponable), Costco is the best (or sams, but i prefer costco). For everything else, I check adds, combine coupons, use the coupons I have, and buy what I need and perhaps other stuff I'll need in the future. And, we eat organic here. So, I constantly strive to find budget friendly organic food. This is why I love costco so much. I have also found that publix and target have nicely priced organics.

I am loving these boards - keep up the suggestions. Like everyone else here, eating out is my weak point. But, my goal is to reduce eating out to once a week or less so I can save for a vacation more easily. We recently bought a nice grill and a good grilling pan and that helps a lot. Good tools help you to produce better food more easily. The dinners we make now are better and that's helped in the motivation to eat at home.

 

[LattNJ]

Meals for the next week or so, in no particular order:
-Fettuccini alfredo, asparagus
-slow cooker buffalo chicken sandwiches/rolls/lettuce, tomato, blue cheese, coleslaw
-chili rubbed pork chop with apricot glaze, coleslaw, cornbread
-sweet and sour chicken with rice
-Beef burgundy stew with rice
-frozen pizza
-chili, cornbread

I won't have to cook on Saturday because we are invited to a party, and next Friday we are going to be going to South Carolina to visit my in laws for about 5 days.

 

[jsmla]

I was inspired by tinkmom's photo Here's last night's dinner!

*Disclaimer-I'm not much of a photographer and pinto beans just aren't very photogenic!*

Pinto beans, honey ginger carrots and a corn muffin

 

[tinkmom2]

I was inspired by tinkmom's photo Here's last night's dinner!

*Disclaimer-I'm not much of a photographer and pinto beans just aren't very photogenic!*

Pinto beans, honey ginger carrots and a corn muffin

It looks awesome Can you post your pinto bean recipe?
-Christine

 

[ilovejack02]

Been wracking my brain to think of what to cook lately. Nothing sounds interesting to me.

Monday night was baked chicken thighs, baked potatoes and salad. Boring and bland.

Last night Sushi out for our oldest bday.

I have lots in the freezer, but a little low on inspiration

Tonight
Oven fried chicken tenders
sweet potato fries
cauliflower

Thursday
Shrimp Scampi
green beans
salad

Friday
catfish .. somehow lol. Not sure what I will do with it yet, but thinking pecan crusted .
smothered potatoes
broccoli ?

Saturday ... CRAWFISH yummy !!!

Sunday, I am thinking we will throw something in the smoker , have to see what the sales ads say in todays mail. For some reason I am craving turkey LOL.

 

[tinkmom2]

Today is Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken:
http://tinkmomfoodie-foodobsession.blogspot.com/2011/04/it-can-only-get-better-right-asian.html

 

[OceanAnnie]

I am glad you liked it. I love her site. She was on an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" and her stuff sounded so good I decided I needed to check it out.

I am going to steal you idea of the apples on top. That sounds devine.

I actually liked using the coffee creamer too. It added another dimension of flavor. Next time I might use a different one like vanilla caramel.

I have enjoyed reading the PW website. She is funny. I looked at a few other recipes. They aren't too fussy or complicated, but look and sound wonderful.

I just can't do fussy and complicated. Pre-dinner is the witching hour. After school mayhem and homework doesn't mesh with complicated.

 

[jsmla]

It looks awesome Can you post your pinto bean recipe?
-Christine

Thanks, I love looking at all of the food pictures on Flickr. There are some very talented photographers (and cooks!) there.

I don't really have a recipe. It's usually pretty much is whatever I have on hand. Here's what I think I did yesterday.

Ingredients
-1 lb pinto beans
-4 slices bacon
-1 large onion, chopped
-1 large green pepper, chopped
-1 large jalapeno pepper, chopped-seeds and veins removed (I put two plastic produce bags over my hands to do this)
-minced fresh garlic to taste-I used 6 or 7 cloves
-handful of cilantro, chopped
-1 ham bone with a good amount of ham still on (I used Honeybaked)
-1/2 can of Rotel leftover from another recipe (You could probably skip this.)


Cooking directions
1. Rinse and sort pinto beans, cover with water and soak overnight.

2. Render bacon in a large dutch oven, remove bacon and retain drippings. Have a BLT for lunch, give the fatty bits to your Shih Tzu

3. Saute onion, green pepper and jalapeno in drippings till soft.

4. Add minced garlic and cilantro and saute till your kitchen smells like garlic.

5. Rinse beans and add to the veggies. Cover with water and cook on low until the beans begin to soften.

6. Add ham bone and Rotel and cook till the beans are the way your family likes them. Top up with water every now and then. I usually cook mine a couple of hours.

7. Remove ham bone and pick off any ham still on it. Add ham to beans.

8. Taste and add salt or pepper to taste. These didn't need it-it depends a lot on the ham you use.

This made enough for dinner for the two of us-hubby is a big eater-with leftovers for his lunch today. I packaged the rest in two cup portions and froze to use later for burritos (add cumin and chili powder) and veggie chili.

 

[jsmla]

I actually liked using the coffee creamer too. It added another dimension of flavor. Next time I might use a different one like vanilla caramel.

I have enjoyed reading the PW website. She is funny. I looked at a few other recipes. They aren't too fussy or complicated, but look and sound wonderful.

I just can't do fussy and complicated. Pre-dinner is the witching hour. After school mayhem and homework doesn't mesh with complicated.

I never thought I say this but I kind of miss the witching hour. It's too quiet here now that the kids are grown and gone.

I like Pioneer Woman too. Hubby doesn't know it but he LOVES her! I don't use her recipes too often though. We're at that age where we can't have that much beef and cheese without exciting the doctor. I really should have used olive oil instead of bacon drippings in the beans. I do sometimes but, somehow it's not the same

 

[ilovejack02]

I never thought I say this but I kind of miss the witching hour. It's too quiet here now that the kids are grown and gone.

I like Pioneer Woman too. Hubby doesn't know it but he LOVES her! I don't use her recipes too often though. We're at that age where we can't have that much beef and cheese without exciting the doctor. I really should have used olive oil instead of bacon drippings in the beans. I do sometimes but, somehow it's not the same

I am in love with Pioneer Woman and Charlie : ) , wanna be just like her when I grow up ; ) I am now in a sheet cake mood lol due to her April 4 recipe post . Might add that to tonight's menu, unfortunately we really don't need it. Guess a long walk around the block after dinner can help with that.

 

[charming23]

I am changing things up and making the Pioneer woman's Sour Cream Noodle Bake. I had almost everything in the house and it sounds yummy. Here is the recipe

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/sour-cream-noodle-bake/

 

[figment3258]

I am so excited for tonight I am baking brea for the first time in a long time last time I attempted this the dough did not rise but this time it is rising!

Tonight s spaghetti with home made sauce bread and dipping oil and a salad

 

[LilyWDW]

I am in love with Pioneer Woman and Charlie : ) , wanna be just like her when I grow up ; ) I am now in a sheet cake mood lol due to her April 4 recipe post . Might add that to tonight's menu, unfortunately we really don't need it. Guess a long walk around the block after dinner can help with that.

I make WAY too many of Pioneer Woman's recipes. I have a bunch off her site, her cookbook, and belong to Tasty Kitchen (a cooking/recipe community she started). Everything of hers comes out wonderful and is always a hit. Her corn bread stuffing is now a Thanksgiving tradition!

 

[OceanAnnie]

I never thought I say this but I kind of miss the witching hour. It's too quiet here now that the kids are grown and gone.

I like Pioneer Woman too. Hubby doesn't know it but he LOVES her! I don't use her recipes too often though. We're at that age where we can't have that much beef and cheese without exciting the doctor. I really should have used olive oil instead of bacon drippings in the beans. I do sometimes but, somehow it's not the same

I know I'll be saying that one day! For now, there are Calgon moments, as in, "Calgon, take me away!".

I am changing things up and making the Pioneer woman's Sour Cream Noodle Bake. I had almost everything in the house and it sounds yummy. Here is the recipe

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/sour-cream-noodle-bake/

Oh, you've done it again! I see this recipe in our future! It looks so good!
Thanks for posting it.