Sit at the table together

... and eat a meal. It's amazing what you will learn. We are trying to get back into the habit of Family Meals at least 2-3 times a week. It takes some planning, but it's incredibly worthwhile. Some nights it's a frustrating experience, other nights we laugh and enjoy ourselves the hilt.

Well if you've known me for any length of time you know that I love my pasta! I'm always coming up with something different, but I have my stand-bys that I love to make.

Today while blog hopping around, I found a website through one of the Google Ads (YIKES Yes, I click on some) ... Share The Table has a plethora of recipes and ideas from all sorts of people, literally HUNDREDS of dishes! What an incredible resource that I now have bookmarked and will utilize regularly! I encourage you to take a look there and see what you find. There are some great ideas.

$tretching that Dollar

Let's admit it ... times are rough ... here are some ideas I just set out for someone that was looking to $tretch the almighty dollar ...

Vegetables: Check and see if there are folks in your area that have vegetable gardens with extra produce, check into Community Gardens also? They are big in our area as are Farmers Markets. We planted a container garden on our back deck this summer and had green beans, basil, 3 varieties of tomatoes, 6 varieties of peppers and strawberries. We will do a bigger garden next summer.

One neighbor brought us some amazing Zucchini, we ate some right away and froze the rest for this winter. My roommates mother gave us Squash that I blanched and have frozen for meals.

Local Churches: Many have emergency food pantries available, Gift Cards for grocery stores etc. Be prepared to present your ID and personal info. In some areas they do network and limit how often you can utilize them, but it's to make sure there is enough to go around.

Meat: I only buy meat that is on the shelf w/ markdown coupons on them. The meat is still good, they just want to quick sale it rather than toss it in a day or two. I bring it home and either repackage it for the freezer or it goes into a stew or soup and then into the freezer. I try to buy the larger packages and look for sales. I also buy the BULK flash frozen chicken at Costco, it's quick and easy to use in a recipe and for the price, a great buy.

Food Share: Find a friend/neighbor that you can buy in bulk with. My sister and I do this along w/ some other friends. We belong to Costco and will make LARGE purchases and divide them between us. I'll be doing that this week with a Rice purchase, we use a lot of rice and it's so much cheaper to buy 25-50 lbs at a time.

Coupon Shop: This is a discussion unto itself, but seriously use coupons and shop the sales with them. Don't overlook stores like CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens for many staple items. You can get GREAT deals there when you combine the Saver programs with Coupons. I just finished off Peanut Butter that I bought for .25 a jar at Walgreens LAST YEAR. Seriously, my family thought I was nuts when I came home w/ jars and jars of it, but no one complained when it was readily available.

Scratch Bake: Do you have a breadmaker sitting on a shelf? Put it on your Christmas list! Or pull out the cookbook and look up a quick bread recipe. One bag of flour can take you a long way. I'm even starting to make my own tortillas.

Dual Purpose Meals: This one is good, make one base dish and use it for 2 or 3 different meals. For example, last week I did a Burrito meal w/ Chicken, rice, corn, beans and a side of green veggies. The main base of the meal had enough for 3 meals. I added fresh tomatoes the next night and the third night, cheese. It was just different enough that no one cared and it was healthy!

Homemade Soaps: I no longer purchase laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent. I make my own and it costs pennies and is just as good!

Be honest: If someone asks if you need help, or how you are doing, let them know. I've been the recipient of food donations over the past 3 years on a semi-regular basis from neighbors and friends. It's very humbling, I'm a giver, but I've been a recipient and it's come at the most needed times.

What secrets do you have for stretching the dollar in your budget? Feel free to add them in the comments, I'm always open for suggestions!

Another quick meal ...

What's up with all these Meal posts lately? Well we're broke and need to eat off what we have in the house; we feed anywhere from 3-5 people a night, so here we go for tonight's quick and easy meal.

Chicken Burritos

In ONE large covered pan:

• 3 flash frozen chicken breasts
• olive oil
• water
• garlic diced
• salt, pepper, other herbs/spices as desired
  

Let them simmer for awhile, no need to defrost ahead, this will do it for you.

Once meat is defrosted I cut it up into chunks right in the pan.

Add to it:

• 2 cups water (or chicken stock)
  
• Rice (I tossed in a mixed brown rice)
• frozen corn
• can of black beans (juice included)
• parsley
  

Let cook until the rice is soft, depending on your stove and the setting you use, you may need to add more water or chicken stock.

Heat up tortillas in the microwave, add filling, shredded cheese, whatever additional condiments you desire and serve on a dish.

After this meal you have only ONE pan to clean. That's EASY and healthy!!

Pesto Pasta meal in 20 min

Ok folks … hang on… this is so incredibly quick and easy!

I have grown my own Basil and Tomatoes this summer. Today I did a huge Basil harvest and turned it into Fresh Pesto. I filled one zipper sandwich bag and it’s now frozen for winter use, the remainder I used for dinner tonight.

First off, I chose some fun multi-colored “curly pasta” that I knew Abbie would like. Tossed that into a boiling pot of water w/ salt and olive oil (the olive oil keeps the pasta separated and I NEVER rinse pasta off after cooking it)

In my Magic Bullet Blender I placed:

• Basil Leaves (washed and drained)
• Olive Oil
• Parmesan (mine was pre shredded)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Pine Nuts
• GARLIC!!! LOTS OF GARLIC (I forgot this in the original entry!!)

(I don’t use exact amounts, I cook to taste like my grandmother taught me)

Blend until it’s all mixed in well. Add additional Olive Oil, Parmesan, Salt and Pepper to taste.

Now tonight, I wanted to add a salad, but didn’t have one available, so I ran out to my container garden and pulled tomatoes off the vine, rinsed them off and tossed them into the Magic Bullet Blender and crushed them in with the Pesto mixture.

I took the mixture, put in in a sauce pan and heated it up.

I served the Pasta in bowls, added a scoop of Pesto/Tomato Sauce over it and voila’ dinner!

For Dessert I chunked up fresh Peaches and in a container they went and they sat in the freezer while we ate dinner. Once done eating, I pulled a pint of whipping cream out of the freezer, defrosted it in the microwave and tossed it into the same blender (washed of course). Grabbed the Peaches out of the freezer and tossed them in and blended it into a frothy Peach Smoothie, skin and all.

Poured it into a cup and handed it off to Abbie. She LOVED it!

The leftovers are now in a tupperware container, freezing into an ice cream type mixture for us to enjoy later.

Unfortunately my camera is not working so I don’t have a picture, but I’ll get one next time!

another Magic Bullet moment ...

I absolutely SWEAR that I don't get paid to advertise for this product!

Orange Juice doesn't get fresher than this!!

Peel 3 oranges, drop into Magic Bullet Juicer and get ready for fresh yummy Orange Juice!!

An amazing tool!!

 

Have you ever heard of the Magic Bullet Blender?

 

 

I purchased this from a friend of mine a couple years ago (she got a 2 for 1 and didn’t need 2). It is used in this household nearly everyday to make everything from Salsa, guacamole… to frozen sorbet! I can’t speak highly enough of it!!

 

 

 

Today I harvested a huge colander full of Basil from our container garden and I knew I wanted to make Pesto and  it for the Winter. For the past couple years I’ve only used what you see in the picture, but I remember seeing the Infomercial this past week and noticing they were juicing w/ a Blender attachment. I suddenly remembered that I HAVE THAT ATTACHMENT!

 

So tonight I pulled it out of the cabinet, took the Juicer center out and OMGosh I have a Blender with a pestle plunger!! I put ALL the Basil into the blender attachment, added my olive oil, garlic, pepper, salt, pine nuts and parmesan, put the lid on and clicked it into the base. With the pestle I pushed it all down and within a minute, I had PESTO!!

 

It’s now divided into 2 zipper lock bags, dated and put into a larger freezer bag for us to use this winter.

(Oh, for the record…I did NOT receive a penny from the Magic Bullet people for this, in fact, I need to replace mine soon, anyone have a connection? lol)

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

From my (in real life) friend Mama Fox at http://foxfamilyfive.blogspot.com

I am making this for the first time this weekend. I have the Washing Soda from the Homemade Laundry Detergent. Will buy the Borax at Fred Meyer also.

Homemade Dishwashing Detergent

(this is a DRY powder)

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda
• 3-5 drops of tea tree oil (already have it on hand)*

I put it all in an empty plastic container and shake it up. I put one tablespoon in each compartment (for a total of 2 tbsp per load).

*Optional - I did add this. I bought the natural 100% tea tree oil in the health food dept of Fred Meyer. It was about $10 for the little bottle but, it will last forever and has a ton of household uses. Everything from an all natural antiseptic for cuts/wounds to blemish control for your face and some companies add it to their shampoo to help keep the scalp as clean as possible and promote healthy hair growth. So, there you have it. =)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Awhile back, someone asked for this recipe in my comments, sorry it took so long to actually do this post on it. From my (in real life) friend Mama Fox at http://foxfamilyfive.blogspot.com

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Cost is for Oregon @ Fred Meyer, we have NO sales tax here!

1 Fells Naptha Soap Bar=$1.29 (makes 1 batch)
1 box of Arm and Hammer WASHING Soda=$3.29 (makes 6 1/2 batches)
1 box Borax Laundry Booster=$5.50 (makes 19 batches)

Essential Oils for scent (optional)

1--5 gal. bucket with a lid. Any clean one will do. I bought one at Fred Meyer for $4.
Hot water
1--Grater for soap (I used the slicer/shredder/Grater attachment for my KitchenAid this is quick and easy but, any grater will do.)

Stove top
Pan for melting down grated soap and water

½ gallon laundry soap container (cleaned out, any container that you can our from will work)


Here are the instructions:

1 bar of soap, grated (I used Fels-Naptha Brand)
1 cup washing soda (Arm & Hammer Brand)
1/2 cup Borax
4 cups HOT water

Grate the soap, and put into a pan on the stove with the 4 cups of HOT water and cook over med low heat until the soap is melted.

Pour into a 5 gallon bucket, add the Borax and Washing Soda and stir well.

Add HOT water (we used the bath tub) to the top of the bucket to equal 5 gallons of liquid.

Let sit over night, this mixture will gel.

Stir well the next morning.

Take the old clean laundry detergent container and add 1 quart of laundry detergent concentrate and 1 quart of HOT water, screw on the top and shake well.

You now have 1/2 gallon of homemade liquid laundry detergent. Shake before each use.

You can add essential oils at this point if you so desire. I picked up some Tea Tree Oil to help with 'disinfecting' and the yummy smell.

Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads) Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Tweak this recipe ...

So last night I made a wonderful Scallop Bisque to go along with the Steak and Candied Carrots. It literally took about 25 min from start to finish to prep and cook everything.

We bought some Round Steak earlier in the week, cut it into smaller portions and put in the fridge in a ziplock bag w/ marinade. All we did was pull it out and put on a slow grill.


While that was cooking I made the Scallop Bisque and Candied Carrots.

Here are the recipes I used:

Scallop Bisque
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sea scallops
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed and very finely minced
• 1 bay leaf

Preparation:

Rinse scallops, chop into 1/2-inch pieces. Melt butter in medium saucepan; sauté onion until softened. Blend flour into butter mixture and gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until thickened. Add salt, pepper, garlic, and bay leaf and scallops. Cook over low heat for another 15 minutes.

Remove bay leaf and serve.

Candied Carrots:

• Slice baby carrots into thinner pieces (any carrots can be used, we had these on hand)
  
• Cook in saute pan w/ butter over low heat to soften and brown
• Add brown sugar and lightly stir to coat.

When all was prepared, the 4 of us sat at the table, the Adults had a glass of wine and the kiddo had root beer (a HUGE treat!).

Here is where you get to add your input, the Bisque was really good, but the recipe needs a little zing to it. What would YOU add to get a little more taste out of it?

Leave a comment, we will be preparing this again!