Snowy, Icy Week in Arkansas

Wow, it has been a snowy and icy week here in Arkansas. Something we are not used to by any means. We are sorry, we just have to close it all down. (*cheeky grin*) I have been menu planning again, and it helps so much to know what we are going to eat. It helps me to put down the meat to thaw from the freezer. It helps fight the temptation to grab a quick burger or Popeyes. But I get tired of putting the same thing on the menu, so here we go, post your favorite meal, be sure to include side items too. Perhaps I can gain inspiration from that.

More meatless meals (or very little meat)

so a trip to the grocery store today held very little meat on sale, boneless skinless chicken breasts I bought two packages so I am thinking of more meatless meals and ways to stretch the meat..

Soups are a great way to go meatless, or very little meat.
Vegetable soup
potato soup (a small bit of bacon or ham, or using a ham bullion base, can add lots of flavor to this meal)
Bean soup
Dumplings are great fillers use them in chicken and dumplings add extra dumplings and use less chicken, use a good rich chicken broth to make up for less meat.
Also use dumplings in chinese soups

Another meal that you can make that uses little meat...
I scramble up two sausage patties, add scrambled eggs (just a couple) mix with cooked rice, top with a bit of cheese and salsa, yummy dish
I also do this with left over meat (like a pork chop or peice of chicken), adding mixed veggies to the rice mixture, putting in some soy sauce to season.

Something else we have eaten alot is baked potatoes topped with bean chili and cheese
also baked potatoes topped with broccoli and cheese
baked potatoes topped with baked beans and coleslaw are delicious also.
Dont forget pasta
Macaroni and cheese
Pasta salad (add a bit of cheese or meat to make this a main dish)
Pasta and sauce with no meat or minimal meat if you cannot go completely meatless
Try this,, large slices of zuchinni breaded and fried, then prepare spaghetti and sauce and put the slices of zuchinii on your spaghetti top with sauce and cheese for zuchinni parmesian.
Zuchinni can be cubed and added to sauce and put in lasagna for a vegetable lasagna
Cheese pizza (make your own crust)
Vegetable pizza, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms.
spinach pizza

I hope these give you ideas, would love to have you leave your ideas in the comment section.

Saving more with Cooking...

It is common knowledge that groceries has gone up..and for some reason most people's wages have not gone up.  So how can you save money in the kitchen, without sacrificing your health?

Learn what foods are inexpensive, but filling and healthy.

Lets start with beans....

Pinto beans with cornbread are healthy and filling.  Protein packed.

But your saying beans get old fast...many people get tired of beans fast.  How about this...swap the variety of beans your using.
Pinto beans
Great Northern Beans
Navy Beans
Kidney Beans
Cranberry Beans ( similar to pintos a bit smaller)
Black Beans
Pork n beans
Boston beans
Ranch style beans
Butter beans (*gags*)
White Kidney beans (cannelli)
Garbonza beans

So how can you use these beans?  First of all it is cheaper to use dried beans (you can even buy dry beans and home can them, to have them on hand for faster meals)
First of all don't forget that many stores sells bean combos that are great for soups and chilis.
Pinto beans can be seasoned with cajun seasonings and add a bit of sausage and served over rice for red beans and rice (kidney beans also can be used like this) also mash them up for refried beans..and make burritos with them.
Great Northern Beans and Navy beans are delicious cooked with a bit of ham and eaten as a main dish
Cranberry beans, use these just like you would pinto beans
Black beans, add taco seasoning and eat in place of meat on nachos..YUMMY!!
Pork n beans make great baked beans, also a favorite dish here is to take about 3 cans of pork and beans and add about a quarter to half a pound of ground beef (browned and drained) and bbq sauce to taste.
Boston beans are great for baked beans also
Ranch style beans, at our house we use these as a side dish, but also use them in a main dish called cowboy casserole (google it, the recipe is online in many places)
I dont eat butter beans so no ideas there *shudders*
White kidney beans can make a awesome white chili with these and northern beans with cumin an add a bit of chicken (I use about one boneless breast)
Garbonza beans can be seasoned and mashed up to make hummus, which is great on pita chips.

The internet is a great source for finding recipes, so to your google search and search for bean recipes...
here are just a few I found with one google search, all of these recipes are available at http://allrecipes.com
Quinoa and Black Beans, Refried Beans, Mexican Bean Salad, Black Bean Vegetable Soup.

At http://justbeanrecipes.com there are over 4000 recipes for beans and they break them down by the type of beans.

So happy bean cooking, and don't forget the Bean-o ROFL

Meatless Meals...

So groceries keep going up and up, and lots of people are cutting their budget by going with more meatless meals.  So I thought I would post a few ideas....These are not vegetarian meals but could probably be adapted to be so.  Some will be full meal ideas, some will be just main dish ideas. 

Eggplant parmesian with a salad and french bread
Spaghetti with red sauce no meat (if you absolutely have to have meat, try cutting down to about a third pound of meat, it wont be much but will provide the flavoring you desire) with a salad and french bread
Beans and potatoes.  Pinto beans with fried potatoes and fried okra is a favorite meal here, served with cornbread.
A early summer favorite here is fresh green beans cooked with small potatoes.
Creamy brocolli soup
Creamy potato soup
Vegetable soup
Meatless chili or chili beans
A favorite for my inlaws was yellow squash cooked with whole tomatoes or a can of rotel
Cheese enchiladas (however cheese is as expensive as meat)
Rice and beans (cajun style)
Lentils can be used many ways personally I do not care for them
What are some of your favorite meatless meals?

Have you missed me?? What's cooking?

WOW, I havent posted here in a while, it has been a wild month.  My mother in law had surgery and her short hospital stay turned into a long one.  I stayed busy with that.  Very busy.

So today I thought I would share what I have been cooking lately....
I enjoy cooking when I am home long enough to do so...ROFL

So we will work backwards

Last night was
Great northern beans with sausage, mac and cheese and cornbread
Tuesday night was
C.O.R.N (clean out refrigerator night) I baked cookies however (cake mix with pecans rolled in powder sugar)
Monday Night
Potato soup (with sausages) with cheddar biscuits
Sunday
Roast (beef) Potatoes and Carrots
Friday
Chili with fritos
For Thanksgiving I was the pie maker, I made pumpkin pie, pecan pie and two egg custard pies.

On Monday before Thanksgiving I made turkey and dressing with gravy for my son, he loves it and I knew we werent having it for Thanksgiving, so I made him a pan of that...

What is cooking at your house?  My goal is to cook and not eat out, trying to save money for the holidays...
Speaking of the holidays, I have a very small tree this year, I dont think the big one is coming out...

More meal ideas...

Chicken spaghetti, with rolls and salads

Lasagna, Green Beans, Garlic bread sticks

Chicken and Dumplings, Biscuits

Baked Pork Chops, Rice, Carrots

Fried  Fish,  French Fries, Hushpuppies

Baked Chicken, Mashed potatoes, peas.

Enchilada Casserole, green salad.

Chili over baked potatoes with cheese, sour cream, onions

Chili Dogs with french fries

Shrimp alfredo, green beans, garlic bread

Fried potatoes, pinto beans, salt pork, fried okra

Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, with bread

Pancakes with bacon and eggs

Chocolate gravy, sausage, biscuits

Biscuits and gravy with sausage, hash browns

Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, carrots, bread

Grilled Steak, baked potato, salad, texas toast

Turkey salad roll ups with veggie sticks and ranch dressing

Chicken and Dressing with Gravy, Mashed potatoes and green beans.

Some side dishes:

Hashbrown casserole (google it)
Cold Spaghetti Salad
Broccoli Salad
Corn Salad
Corn Bread Salad
Tabouli salad
Macaroni salad,
Red potato salad
Baked/fried apples
Mac and cheese

I hope some of my readers will share some of their meal ideas in their comments

Lots of guest posts lately...

I admit it, I have been lazy about posting.  Shame on me.  So today I decided to post some meal ideas, JUST in case your stuck about what to have for dinner...

Fajita nachos - prepare fajita meat and refried beans and serve over chips...delish..  Use any kind of meat, chicken, beef, pork, we had these recently with pork steaks cut into strips and cooked fajita style with yellow and red peppers

Chicken enchilas, refried beans and salad

Beef enchiladas (same as above)

Taco salad with refried beans

Chili meat served over spaghetti with breadsticks and a side salad

Spanish chicken (saw this on Sandra Lee) served over rice, with veggies (she fried her chicken golden brown, then place on top of peppers, and onions and topped it with a tomato paste rue or gravy, cooked on low for 4 hours in her crock pot) How I make it is to put skinless boneless chicken in my crockpot and pour in a jar of salsa or a can of rotel tomatoes, and cook on low till tender

Spanish steak (I do it the same way as I do MY spanish chicken) serve with rice and usually pinto beans (I am not a big bread fan but corn bread would be good with this)

Sub pizzas open sub rolls and top with pizza sauce, and toppings and bake until cheese is melted, eat with side salad or chips.

Chicken tenders, with potatoes and gravy.

Grilled ka-bobs on the grill with veggies.  Also served with augratin potatoes.

Chicken alfredo served with garlic bread and green beans

I will be back tomorrow with more ideas, Feel free to leave a comment with some of your favorite meals

ok, this is a money saving post....please feel free to reply

Jessica's reply to the other post made me think, so I wanted to come over here and post some ideas for saving money.

• the biggest place most people find to shave their budget is on groceries, here are some ideas for that.
• coupons
• clearance (check the mark down meat bin, find out when your store marks down the meat (and produce) and be there that same day
• loss leaders, most stores offer items at a loss to get you in the store, buy only those and stock up on them
• keep a pantry, having food in the house helps to circumvent eating out on a whim.
• when you shop, put things away to make meal prep easy, for example, if I buy ground beef and know I want to make meatloaf, I mix it up then and there and freeze it and then cook it in my crockpot.
• remember your crockpot is your friend when it comes to saving time and having good food on the table when you get home from work.
• REMEMBER your time is money....so saving a quarter on something when it takes you an hour to go thru the sales papers and your coupons isn't very frugal (my opinion)
• also remember sometimes conveniences while more expensive can be money savers, for example, buying convenience foods that I can prepare quickly on busy days are still cheaper than eating out. 
• Combine your errands so your not just running your gasoline out.
• Remember turning lights off (and unplugging appliances that are energy drainers) will help with the utility bills
• Take some money off the top of your check (even arranging to have it deposited directly into savings if you do direct deposit) is the easy way to save, it you dont see it you dont miss it.  
• Examine your payroll deductions, especially if your letting the government use your money all year.  
• Shop thrift stores, yard sales and consignment stores.  Name brands can be found there at bargains (just got a awesome pair of mudd sandals for 1.00 a couple of weeks ago)

• if something seems over the top for you, examine it, to see how you can tweak it to fit your circumstances.  

Please my regular readers who are frugal and have any more ideas, post comments.