Spicy Beans

Cheap & Simple, Family Table, Food, Meals, Recipes No Responses »
Nov 162010

This rice recipe (a variation of it) has made itself a staple in our household over the past couple years.

Spicy Red Rice

  • 2 tablespoons oil or bacon grease
  • 1 cup long grain white rice
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon each oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1 tablespoon dry onion
  • Dash red pepper (optional)
  • Dash black pepper
  • 8 oz can or 1 cup chopped fresh or canned tomatoes
  • 2 cups water

I double it for our family. Generally I heat the rice and spices in the oil for a few minutes, and then add the water. Simmer for 20 minutes, remove from heat. I take the lid off for 30 seconds to allow the steam to escape, but I’ve yet to see a rice recipe that calls for that. Doesn’t stop me, though. I let it sit a while before fluffing.

We’ll eat this the first night, sometimes with sausages mixed in, but usually as a simple side. Last night we had the rice, warm tortilla chips, corn (from Costco, organic and frozen – very good) and tilapia. Decent dinner.

I had about 4 cups of rice leftover from the meal so last night I put 2 pounds of black beans in to soak overnight. Today before work, I rinsed them and threw them into the crockpot, covering them with water, adding about 1/8 cup dehydrated onion, 1 T. dehydrated garlic, a bit of black pepper and a bay leaf. I let that sit on low for about 6 hours, then kicked it up to high for another 2 hours when I got home from work.

After that, I removed 3 bowls full of beans and some liquid (about 2.5 cups each) to freeze for when I need black beans, and added some sausages in to the remaining beans. This cooked for a couple hours. After it was done I removed the sausage. The beans I fished out with a slotted spoon and mixed in with the leftover rice. I put that in a small casserole and topped with a bit of cheese, set it under the broiler to melt the cheese.

Dinner was the sausages, rice and beans, corn, warm tortilla chips. It went over well, and was a very cheap meal to eat. The sausages were from Costco (it was a 12-pack that I split over 2 meals), as were the chips (priced as a substantial savings over bying the same chips at our large grocer).

It is so nice to be able to sit down at the table with the kids to a warm meal. I feel spoiled!

The past couple days I’ve intentionally “shopped the freezer” to whip up a couple of meals. Tomorrow I head back to Costco, and possibly the regular grocer (time allowing) to pick up some items for some of the meals I have planned.

This all makes up for the complete glutton-fest I had today as I stopped by my favorite little restaurant to get my Peruvian chop bowl with cilantro rice and arepas, spending $10. Thankfully it was enough food to allow for 2 lunches for me. But still it was totally unnecessary. Old habits are hard to break.

Posted by Groovy Mom at 11:12 pm

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Cheap & Simple, Holidays, In Repsonse, Recipes 7 Responses »
Nov 112010

Because, if I’m going to gain weight over the holidays, I’m taking you all down with me. Only addicts drink eat alone, so they say.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1- 15 ounce can pumpkin
  • 1- 12 ounce can evaporated milk (I did not have, so I subbed powdered buttermilk and 10oz. water — worked fine)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg*
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger*
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves*
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • —-
  • 1- 18.25 ounce yellow cake mix
  • 1 cup walnuts or pecans (didn’t use)
  • 3/4 cup or 1-1/2 sticks butter, melted (you KNOW I used this – heck yeah)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 9×13 pan. Completely combine 1st set of ingredients. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with cake mix. Gently pat down with spoon. Sprinkle with nuts. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 50 minutes. Cool and cut in squares.
* Or use 4 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice or Mixed Spice
I’m sharing the fact that I made this, but it is not my recipe. It is all over the internet, though and I don’t know how we’ve never met, Dump Cake and I.
I’m also sharing the fact that you can’t judge a recipe properly if you’re a pig that dives into it very quickly after removing it from the oven (my kids and I did this, yes we did). Right away I was not terribly impressed. Too sweet, pumpkiny and just not very good. I chalked it up to it being an easy recipe.
And then I tried it again the next day. Can you say entirely different opinion? Momma’s taking this badboy to Thanksgiving. If I had to tweak it at all, I’d say don’t be afraid to pack in the cake mix nice and firm. But that’s about it. OK, not really. I had another thought – chocolate cake mix. That sounds super-dee-duper good, but who knows it might just be one of those things that sounds better on paper. If you try it, lemme know. That is, if I don’t try it first. Just remember, this is a good make-ahead cake.
Doesn’t look to special out of the oven, does it? More like a potato casserole or something. Hey kids, want some potato casserole? (Snicker)

Posted by Groovy Mom at 7:28 pm

Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup

Cheap & Simple, Food, Homemaking, Meals, Pinching Pennies, Recipes 4 Responses »
Nov 072010

One of the areas where we spend too much money is food. It is difficult feeding 4 growing boys (not to mention parents, too) with crazy schedules healthy, nutritious meals when you’re on a financial (and time) budget. Too many meals we’ve resorted to ordering out or throwing in pizzas simply because I was too worn out / worn thin to be able to whip up a satisfying meal. I’m not saying that the occasional pizza and salad is a terrible thing, but the times where I’ve looked back on my checkbook and saw that I spent $70 on two spur-of-the-moment dinners back-to-back? Yikes. Shudder. Embarrassing.

Because of that, one of my biggest goals is to intentionally put more thought into our dinner and meals. Not saying that I can avoid eating out (see yesterday), or that we won’t pick up or order in. But we need to do it with less frequency if we are going to climb out of debt. My lack of planning has not been helpful. I, personally, need to be more mindful of my time and the commitments I take on. It feels a bit selfish, but I think it is important for me to do. Discipline.

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been spending more time planning and organizing what we will have for dinners and lunches. The internet is a wonderful tool when it comes to looking for cheap, healthy meals, crockpot recipes, tips and articles on frugal living. I have collected an array of recipes to try, and today I made this: Weeknight Chicken Noodle Soup. The recipe is simple, calling for ingredients that are easy enough to get your hands on and probably already have (save the rotisserie chicken).

I had to pick up the celery, but had a HUGE bag of carrots from Costco, some broth, and egg noodles just waiting to be used. I followed the recipe pretty closely, making the following changes:

- did not saute the vegetables

- used 1 carton of broth, plus some of my bullion and water

- added about 1c. chopped onion

- did not use the cornstarch at the end

- added about 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (I like a little kick to mine)

It was quick and delicious. I’ve made chicken soup a million times before, and have even with a rotisserie chickens (either plucking the meat off, or using leftover chicken for stock), but have not done it this way, throwing the entire chicken in the pot to heat. It streamlines the process, softening up the chicken, making it easier to pull of the bone while heating it, too, and flavoring the pot with the skin. It’s funny how you can make something using the same ingredients you’ve used before, but by shifting the process a little bit, come up with a new method. I’m glad I did, and will definitely be using this again. It took me very little time to whip up a nice, warm pot for lunch.

We ate this with some crusty bread and Amish butter. Mmm.

Posted by Groovy Mom at 5:10 pm

Homemade Boyardee

Cheap & Simple, Current Affairs, Food, Recipes No Responses »
Nov 022010

Today I voted.  Frank and I went to the polls together.  There weren’t any lines.  It surprised me that they don’t check your ID.  My goodness, it’s more difficult to check out a book at the library than it was to walk in and vote.  I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Even if politics as a whole leaves a sour taste in my mouth, it always feels good to be part of the process.

It will be nice to not be inundated with horrific political ads, for a while.

—

Tomorrow is my regular day off.  Work has been extra busy, and I was asked to come in for more hours, so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get done tomorrow, but my hope was to get some meal-planning done, get some bills paid, balance the checkbook, clean.  Tonight was kind of a hodgepodge-lodge for dinner.  I had a bowl of noodles, Frank had a Hot Pocket and pizza.  The boys ate some homemade Boyardee-ish, finished off the pizza.

Homemade Boyardee-ish

This recipe tastes similar to the store-bought noodles with sauce, but is much cheaper.

Ingredients:
1 pound box of pasta (macaroni, shells, etc.), boiled and drained
1 can of Campbell’s tomato soup
4 slices of processed cheese

Directions:
Boil and drain the noodles; return to saucepan. Add can of soup and heat on med-low. Add slices of cheese, one at a time, and stir until melted. Remove from heat and enjoy!

Posted by Groovy Mom at 10:55 pm

Using Up Leftover Kidney Beans

Food, Kitchen, Meals, Pinching Pennies, Recipes No Responses »
Oct 302010

A few recent expenses and a desire to get rid of debt has led me back on the path of increasing my time spent meal-planning and finding cheap (but healthy) meals for the family.  It is not easy to feed 4 hungry boys, let me tell you.  Earlier this week I shopped my pantry and found a big bag of dried kidney beans. I  soaked overnight and threw them in the crockpot the next morning before work, planning a dinner of beans and cilantro rice.  I was a bit skeptical over how it would be received, to be honest. No meat, and just beans. And rice, of coarse.

After the beans cooked on low for a good 9 hours, I finished them for 1 more hour on high, then transferred the majority over to a skillet where I heated them with some canola oil, garlic, pepper and and onion. After they were a bit mashed and bruised-looking, they were ready. We ate them with heaping plates of warm tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream and cilantro rice. Yum.

However, a few days later I was at a loss over what to do with the remaining beans.  I had already made chili recently, and having more beans and rice probably wouldn’t cut it.  Instead I put the beans (about 4 cups or so worth) into the bottom of my cast iron pot.  I added about 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, 1/2 cup of water, and a package of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning mix while heating it  a bit on the stovetop, then added 1 package of beef sausages on top*, lidded it and put it in a 350 degree oven for 2 hours.

We went to pick up the kids at the mall and run a few errands, and by the time we got home the house smelled delicious. The sausages were plump and tasty, the beans were delicious. We had baked potatoes on the side (made earlier in the crockpot). I love it. Tonight, with all the running around we did, could have very easily spent $30-plus a night of pizza, burgers or take-out because of poor planning. But a little bit of thinking had me using up some beans I would have possibly tossed out, and putting a meal on the table for much less than one that was store bought.

*These were Usinger’s beef dogs purchased from Costco. They come 12 to a pack, divided into 2 packs of 6. Because they were large, I cut them in halves to make 12 servings. I do this quite often because, for some reason, eating 2 halves rather than 1 sausage makes it seem like you’re eating more. It’s much easier for me to give some of the boys 1/2 a sausage and then give them seconds, rather than start with the whole thing. This isn’t necessary for all of my children, but there’s a couple that prefer quantity over quality.
Posted by Groovy Mom at 12:33 am

Ceviche

Food, Recipes No Responses »
Jul 122010

New Years Eve my cousin’s husband Jason’s contribution to the spread was a big old bowl of shrimp Ceviche. I had never tried ceviche before, but just eyeballing it up, I knew I had found another food love.

Whatever the serving size is for ceviche, I’m pretty sure I ate 3 times as much that night. Firsts, seconds, and then later on in the evening – thirds!!!

Flash forward to this weekend, they had a cookout over at their house. I was hoping so badly that Jason’s ceviche would make an appearance on the menu. But, having just flown into town, and feeling under the weather, Jason spent much of the night stretched out on the couch just trying to feel better.

I made it through the gathering without crying, since there was many other foods to be It took me one day to satisfy that craving. Today I googled and found many recipes, some with more of a tomato base, some made up with other sea-foods like fish, mussels, scallops. But I wanted the shrimp. That’s what was calling me. Not to mention, that’s what I have on hand. I found this recipe on Food Network and though I could easily work with it. A quick run to the Super Walmart got me the cucumbers, cilantro and extra lime juice I needed.

It took less than 20 minutes to throw it all together; we ate it immediately. I doubled the recipe and eyeballed most of the ingredients. The changes I made:

  • Used frozen, cooked shrimp. Thawed them about 1/2-way and then tossed them with a half cup of lime juice and set them aside while I chopped.
  • Did not use ketchup.
  • Did not use olive oil.
  • Used red onion.

Result:

Yummy. Frank and I had two bowls, straight up. I washed it down with a Bud Light Lime. Mmm. Very good, but I have no craving whatsoever for it today. Killed it. Perfectly.

Posted by Groovy Mom at 9:41 am Tagged with: ,

Cheap Ramen Meal for 5

Food, Meals, Pinching Pennies, Recipes 3 Responses »
Feb 102010

5 packs of ramen (4 chili lime, 1 chicken)

5 scrambled eggs

1/4 of what was left of a “seasoning” bag of frozen veggies (chopped onion and peppers).

Dinner for less than $3 bucks. Hel-lo. (And NO complaints!!!)

Posted by Groovy Mom at 10:30 pm

Homemade Irish Cream

Food, Recipes 2 Responses »
Dec 312009

(As posted over in my foodie collection…)

At my last bookclub meeting, one of the ladies brought some “Homemade Bailey’s” (as she called it). I wasn’t sure if I had actually had Bailey’s before, to be honest. I’d had Kahlua, which I thought was similar. I’d always imagined Bailey’s to be minty. I don’t know if it is the whole Irish-green-mint association process that sparks off in my mind or what.

Homemade Irish Cream

At any rate, I tried Kelly’s concoction and it was good. I told myself that I, too, would make some Irish Cream.

Today was the day.

In anticipation for New Year’s Eve tomorrow, I wanted to mix up something a bit festive. Normally I’m one who strays from the recipe card, finding ways to insert my own twist to cast of characters. This time, I was good, and followed the recipe. I figured if I was going to spend close to $30 on a bottle of liquor, I didn’t want to waste it with one of my haphazard “interpretations” of a recipe I had not even tested yet.

I found many variations for Irish Cream, but decided to go with this one from One Perfect Bite:

Irish Cream Liqueur

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups whiskey (i.e. Jameson’s Irish whiskey)
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
2 teaspoons instant coffee
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

I mixed everything in a 4-cup glass measuring container that had a small spout, anticipating the pouring process from the container to my rinsed and empty cherry DaVinci syrup bottle. See, I’m an eager, impatient lady sometimes, when I’m bustling about the kitchen. I had to remind myself to be slow, stir careful and pour patiently. Good girl.

End result? Yummy. It’s a whiskey-tastin’ treat, yes it is. I filled my syrup bottle nearly to the top, and had about 1 cup of leftover. Frank and are sipping the extra right now over ice.

Posted by Groovy Mom at 1:56 am Tagged with: ,

What's For Dinner - Easy Roast Beef Subs

Food, Meals, Pinching Pennies, Recipes No Responses »
Oct 132009

It’s _____day night and you’ve hardly had a minute to spare, jetting from one place to another…

What’s for dinner?

Easy Roast Beef Subs

Busy night, thank goodness for pre-planning a meal. What could have turned into a$20 plus drive-thru meal, was instead a 15-minute prep and eat meal. And it was good, just as good as if we were to eat out. It is satisfying to save a little bit of money. I realize that there are definitely times where our family needs to stop somewhere, shove some food in the kiddo’s mouths so they can eat and get some shut-eye, but I would much rather those days be lessened, and not feel like they are forced. I really prefer it to be enjoyable to eat out, rather than necessity.

Posted by Groovy Mom at 9:59 pm Tagged with: ,

Weekend Wrap-Up (Pancakes)

Coupons/Freebies, Giveaways, Homemade, Kitchen, Meals, Recipes 5 Responses »
Jul 272009

It is still, technically Monday. Not too late for a weekend wrap-up.

We did a lot this weekend. Friday night we went out with my brother, Frank’s cousin and a couple friends. It was a long night, but a nice time. We covered lots of ground, had plenty of fun, and finished the night off at a favorite Mexican restaurant with a delicious platter of shared food.

Saturday I woke up and made pancakes. Mmm. Later, we bummed around and then stopped at an anniversary celebration (parents of a boy on Dante’s soccer team). Got to catch up a bit with folks we don’t always see. Then it was home to watch some television with the family.

The next day we went to an impromptu soccer tournament, local festival where we played BINGO and the kids played some cheap games to win cheap toys. Oh, and I made waffles Sunday morning (they didn’t turn out so well).

Nice weekend. But back to the pancake-making. My mom’s been making buttermilk pancakes for the boys for lunch the past few weeks on occasion. She’d watch them (actually, she’d entertain them) for a few hours while I went in to work, and they would delight in some of her “famous,”  “best-ever” pancakes. I’ve been requested to make them at home, but keep forgetting to get the recipe. So I had to improvise. A try at it last week left me with some not-so-good ‘cakes. But this recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes was a keeper (not only is it a keeper, but it introduced me to Google’s Knol, which is pretty darn cool).

My favorite eggs.

What happens when you get too cocky…

What happens when you pay attention… (this is Lootie’s batch, he has a syrup-love)

For Franny and Dante, who love chocolate chips.

It was a yummy recipe, with great instructions (read the instructions, if you like making pancakes… I like his way of mixing in 1/2 of the dry to wet, and then mixing in the rest of the dry). I tried using it for waffles and it was a bummer; didn’t work. But that’s OK. It makes delicious pancakes. Will have to make a point of getting my mother’s Famous, Best-Ever Buttermilk Pancakes recipe to compare.

——————————————————–

GIVEAWAY – Good-As-Money

I have 2 coupons to give away, courtesy of Eggland’s Best Eggs (they sent me some for me and some to share).

(1) for a  Free carton of Eggland’s Best Eggs
AND
(2)  50¢ off coupons for Eggland’s Best Eggs

Simply leave a comment here telling me what you’d use the eggs in and I’ll pick a random winner on Friday. Make sure you use an email address I can contact you with. :) Yup, that’s it. You don’t have to follow me, you don’t have to blog about it. Just leave a comment so I have a way to contact you.

Posted by Groovy Mom at 11:30 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,
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