Cooking – A penny pinched

Category : Cooking

Menu for 3/28/11 – 4/3/11

March 28th 2011 Posted at Cooking, Costco, Menu planning, Recipes
0 Comments

I had a pretty good week last week. There was only one night when I served leftovers, and the only thing that’s left from last week’s menu is breakfast for dinner, which doesn’t really count. My favorite recipe from last week was the Sirloin Steak with Garlic Butter. Nevermind that I overcooked the steaks and that I used garlic salt instead of garlic powder. In fact, I prefer garlic salt. What can I say? I like to live dangerously. Next time, I’ll know better than to make the full amount of sauce and store it for the following day’s lunch. It’s NOT the same.

Monday
Crispy fish fillets with honey glazed carrots and baked asparagus with balsamic butter sauce

Tuesday
Quinoa and Black Beans (modified because I only have pinto beans)

Wednesday
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Thursday
Pasta

Friday
Costco (yes, I eat at the Costco food court after doing all my shopping for the week)

Saturday
Light and Fluffy Spinach Quiche

Sunday
Grilled Salmon with green beans

Please give menu planning a try. It may seem like a chore at first, but it really takes a lot of stress away during the week. Check out the myriad of blogs linked at I’m an Organizing Junkie for more meal inspiration.

Menu for 3/21/11 – 3/27/11

March 21st 2011 Posted at Cooking, Menu planning, Recipes
0 Comments

Unlike the previous week, I actually managed to stick to my menu this past week. Not a single thing remains unmade. I’m not being very ambitious with the meals planned for this week, but I do have one new recipe planned for Tuesday.

For those of you who clicked on the picture of a strawberry shortcake to get here, I thought you might like to see the larger version. It was every bit as delicious and satisfying as it looks in the picture. On Friday and then again on Sunday.

Monday
Spaghetti and salad

Tuesday
Sirloin Steak with Garlic Butter

Wednesday
Tacos

Thursday
Soup and salad

Friday
Costco

Saturday
Breakfast for dinner or leftovers

Sunday
Pizza and salad

Please give menu planning a try. It may seem like a chore at first, but it really takes a lot of stress away during the week. Check out the myriad of blogs linked at Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more meal inspiration.

Menu for 3/14/11 – 3/20/11

March 14th 2011 Posted at Cooking, Groceries, Menu planning, Recipes
2 Comments

In spite of my best intentions, two meals from last week were not made, so I’m pushing them to this week’s menu. Here’s what I’ll be making this week. Check out the bazillion blogs linked at Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more inspiration.

Monday
Turkey Chili (modified)

Tuesday
Day off from cooking. It looks like I’ll be having some kind of curried cauliflower.

Wednesday
Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

Thursday
St. Patty’s Day! Corned beef brisket and cabbage.

Friday
Eating out

Saturday
Mac and cheese surprise. No, I have no idea what I’ll throw in there yet. Tuna? Peas? Corn?

Sunday
I’m still trying to decide what to make with the 2 packages of imitation crab and lobster I bought this past week. I’ll update when I figure it out.

ETA: I settled on this Crab and Pea Salad recipe, although I would’ve loved to give Faith‘s suggestion a try. Maybe next time.

Dinner 3/8/11

March 9th 2011 Posted at Cooking, Pinching penies, Recipes
0 Comments

One of the downsides of pinching pennies is that I don’t eat fish nearly as often as I should. I’m trying to do better, but the sales are rare, and my storage space is limited. My absolute favorite recipe for salmon is the Baked Dijon Salmon, but I wanted to try something different this time. This recipe for Salmon with Brown Sugar Glaze was rather similar to my usual stand-by, but it fell a little short in my opinion. To be fair, I did modify it according to the top review, which means that I used honey instead of brown sugar. I think I’ll stick with my usual recipe and keep looking for something different as well.

If you’re like me, make sure you open a window and run your range hood fan. I managed to set off the fire alarm when I opened the oven door, probably because of the honey that had dripped onto the pan and burned. Yes, I’m THAT neighbor.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the recipe costs.

2 salmon fillets, 4 oz each – $1.50
Rice – $0.10
Lettuce – $0.80
Balsamic vinegar – $0.16
Grated parmesan – negligible
Croutons – $0.12

TOTAL: $2.56 for two servings or $1.28 per person.

Menu for 3/7/11 – 3/13/11

March 7th 2011 Posted at Cooking, Recipes
0 Comments

Here’s what I’ll be making this week. Check out the bazillion blogs linked at Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more inspiration.

Monday
Soup, crusty bread, and salad

Tuesday
Salmon with Brown Sugar Glaze

Wednesday
Chicken fried rice

Thursday
Eating out

Friday
Turkey Chili (modified)

Saturday
Breakfast for Dinner

Sunday
Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

Dinner 3/5/11

March 6th 2011 Posted at Cooking, Pinching penies
0 Comments

I bought some boneless skinless chicken breasts a couple of weeks ago, and I thought they were such a great deal until I got ready to make dinner the other night. The part of the chicken breasts that you could see through the clear plastic wrap was all nice and pretty, but the underside was full of fat. By the time I was done trimming the fat off the chicken, two of the three chicken breasts in the package barely weighed 1 pound. The whole package was 1.92 lbs to begin with. Not such a great deal after all.

After using that one pound of chicken for dinner that night, I had a single chicken breast left to do something with. I chose to grill it last night and served it with leftover veggies in cheese sauce and a salad. Here’s the cost and nutritional breakdown.

1 chicken breast – $0.84
Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers – $0.50
Lettuce – $0.80
Salad dressing – $0.12
Grated parmesan – negligible

TOTAL: $2.26 for two servings or $1.13 per person

Not too bad as far as cost goes, but was it healthy?

1/2 chicken breast – Calories: 120, Total Fat: 1.5g, Carbs: 0g, Protein: 24g
Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers – Calories: 45, Total Fat: 1.5g, Carbs: 7g, Protein: 2g
Lettuce – Calories: 0, Total Fat: 0g, Carbs: 0g, Protein: 0g
Salad dressing – Calories: 70, Total Fat: 6g, Carbs: 3g, Protein: 1g
Grated parmesan – Calories: 20, Total Fat: 1.5g, Carbs: 0, Protein: 2g

TOTAL: Calories: 255, Total Fat: 10.5 g, Carbs: 10g, Protein: 29g

Again, not bad, if a bit low on the calories. The fat could’ve been lower had I used a different salad dressing. I normally only use balsamic vinegar, but I wanted a bit of a change this time, so I tried Ken’s Lite Caesar.

Menu for 7/26/10-8/1/10

July 26th 2010 Posted at Cooking, Recipes
4 Comments

This was the culinary highlight of my week: steak salad with lemon garlic vinaigrette. If anyone’s curious, I calculated the cost per serving for this recipe and it’s $1.82. Don’t believe me? See for yourselves.

Salad for 2:
lettuce: $0.30
feta cheese: $0.47
cucumber: $0.125
tomato: $0.31
steak: $1.81
Teriyaki sauce: $0.16
Total: 3.175

Salad dressing for 6:
3Â tablespoonsÂ Â fresh lemon juice: $0.50
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard: negligible
3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper :negligible
3/4 teaspoons sea salt: negligible
3 cloves garlic, finely minced: $0.04
9 tablespoons olive oil : $0.88
Total: $1.42

Cost per serving: $1.82

Other than that, the rest of my food wasn’t very photogenic. I made strawberry pies again, but I’ve already posted photos of those. I wanted to try to take pictures of a single slice, but it ended up looking like a hot mess. A delicious hot mess, but still not something I wanted photographic evidence of.

Here’s what I’ll be making this week. Check out the bajillion blogs linked at Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more inspiration.

Monday
I had Fabulous Zucchini Grinders and they were just OK. That may be because I’m not a huge fan of zucchini and I thought the texture was a little odd.

Tuesday
Easy Crock Pot Salsa Chicken

Wednesday
Make Ahead Lunch Wraps (I have a ton left over from last week.)

Thursday
Vanilla Peach Pork Chops

Friday
Spaghetti

Saturday
Baked Teriyaki Chicken

Sunday
Pizza

Menu for 7/19/10-7/25/10

July 19th 2010 Posted at Cooking, Menu planning
0 Comments

Last week was really hot in the Kansas City area. Either that or I’m a wimp. In either case, I tried to keep my oven use to a minimum because I’d rather not give any more money than I absolutely have to to the electric company. I hadn’t realized how many of my favorite recipes involve the oven. I guess it’s back to the old crockpot, even though most people, including me, tend to associate it with fall and winter meals. Here are a few of the meals I had last week.

Crockpot BBQ chicken is always a favorite and easy to make. It also helps that it doesn’t heat up the entire house. Instead, it makes it smell great all day long. As good as it is, however, it can get a little boring at times.

I managed to score free dinner with a coupon promotion on Wednesday: Thai Cashew Chicken from Panda Express. I was afraid it would be a tiny serving based on the tiny box they used for my portion, but it ended up being a good-sized meal. The funny thing is I caught the two employees chatting in Spanish about how to only serve a small amount since it was free. Nice.

I had been looking forward to this meal all week. It was initially scheduled for Saturday, but… You know how it goes. It’s so simple, but it incorporates so many ingredients I love that I consider it comfort food. It’s basically plain scrambled eggs with some green onion, salsa, sour cream, and shredded Cheddar cheese. I eyeballed everything. The horror!

Here’s what I’ll be attempting to make this week, “attempt” being the key word here. Head over to Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more inspiration.

Monday
Black bean burgers and salad

Tuesday
Steak salad

Wednesday
Make Ahead Lunch Wraps

Thursday
Best tuna casserole

Friday
Mac and Cheddar with Broccoli

Saturday
Easy Crock Pot Salsa Chicken

Sunday
Leftovers?

Menu for 7/12/10-7/18/10

July 12th 2010 Posted at Cooking, Menu planning, Recipes
4 Comments

Last week’s meals turned out great. My favorite was the pasta salad, but that’s because I rarely get to eat mushrooms. I don’t really have a recipe for this because I played it by ear. Basically what I did was boil a package of Wacky Mac and toss it with some sliced mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and Ranch dressing. Yes, Ranch. It was perfect.

My other new recipe was for Porcupine Meatballs II and they also turned out great. I served them with mashed potatoes and a side salad. I know this sounds like a meal better suited for the winter, but I’m running out of ideas here. In any case, the meatballs were really easy to make, but I already have some thoughts on how to improve this recipe. The first and most logical way would be to use leaner ground beef. I used 80% lean ground beef and there was quite a bit of grease on top of the sauce towards the end of the cooking time. The other solution would be to cook the meatballs without the sauce at first, drain the grease, then add the sauce and finish cooking. I’m leaning towards this solution since I already have more of the same kind of beef in my freezer.

Monday
Pizza. I was going to make last Friday’s BBQ chicken, but it slipped my mind.

Tuesday
Crockpot BBQ chicken with baked potato and salad

Wednesday
Pasta

Thursday
Best tuna casserole

Friday
Mac and Cheddar with Broccoli

Saturday
Scrambled eggs with salsa, sour cream, and Cheddar cheese

Sunday
Leftovers

Visit Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more inspiration.

Menu for 7/5/10-7/11/10

July 5th 2010 Posted at Cooking, Menu planning, Recipes
0 Comments

It goes without saying that I did not adhere to my menu 100%, but such is life. This upcoming week will also be a little light on the cooking for several reasons. 1. I’ll be alone a couple of days. 2. It’s still pretty hot and I love keeping my energy consumption as low as possible. 3. This is my last super-duper busy week.

Monday
Soup

Tuesday
Porcupine Meatballs II with mashed potatoes and salad

Wednesday
Pasta salad with tomatoes and mushrooms

Thursday
Leftovers

Friday
Crockpot BBQ chicken with baked potato and salad

Saturday
Chili dogs and a salad

Sunday
Salmon burgers with mixed veggies andÂ a salad

Visit Iâ€™m an Organizing Junkie for more inspiration.