$5 Dinners

You’ve seen the awesome website, $5 Dinners, right? With complete meals coming in at under $5 for a family of four, the website has garnered much attention, and its writer has published an equally awesome book, called (not surprisingly) $5 Dinner Mom’s Cookbook! If you are new to couponing and shopping with a tight food [...]

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Pressure Perfect Menu Plan

This week, I’m making meals out of the book “Pressure Perfect” by Lorna Sass. I *love* Lorna Sass’ cookbooks, and I *love* my pressure cooker, so this is a menu plan sure to rock my socks. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, let me tell you the number 1 reason you should go get [...]

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Ten Dollar Dinners

Melissa d’Arabian, host of Ten Dollar Dinners on Food Network, is delightfully down-to-earth, makes hearty meals with wholesome ingredients, and does it for under $10. I can get behind that! Roasted vegetable penne without the sausage Crispy skinned chicken a l’orange, fennel and cabbage slaw, roasted potatoes (my own recipe) Salmon cakes, roasted asparagus with [...]

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Another week, another menu

Last week, I made several menus from Clara, the Depression cook from Youtube. The meals were simple and inexpensive, but not the most flavorful. This week, I’m kicking it up a notch with a lot of inexpensive, flavorful ingredients, like smoked trout, chipotle in adobo, and miso – all delicious flavors where a little goes [...]

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Great Depression Cooking with Clara

Have you entered my giveaway yet? If not, go enter now! The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, February 16. Have you seen Clara Cannucciari’s Great Depression Cooking videos on YouTube? Isn’t she darling? Simple, inexpensive, healthy meals are shown along with charming Clara telling her family stories from the Depression. Filmed by her grandson, [...]

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Great Dinners With Less Meat

When I moved out of my parents’ house, I brought along my mom’s tattered copy of “Great Dinners with Less Meat” by Dorothy Ivens. Its frugal menus include dinners that serve up to 10 people with one pound of meat or less, and all of the menus include recommendations for appropriate starters, side dishes, and [...]

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Menu Plan and OAMC: Chicken Breasts

OAMC stands for Once a Month Cooking, which is basically making up a bunch of meals all at once, stashing them in the freezer, and pulling them out instead of cooking from scratch every day. This week, I’m going to prepare 6 packages of chicken in marinade/sauce. It’s not exactly OAMC since I’m not making [...]

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Menu Plan Monday

Another week, another menu! Sticking to my menus have really been saving us money, and we’re working through the pantry staples. I’m happy to report that I have stayed on budget for the month and will end the month with a little left over for the savings goal at this rate! We taste tested hot [...]

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One Chicken, Four meals for four

Occasionally, whole, sustainably-raised, local chickens go on sale at our independent market for $.99 per pound. At that price, cheaper than their conventionally raised counterparts, I stock up and fill the chest freezer. When it’s time to cook them, I s-t-r-e-t-c-h the meat so they last until the next great sale. Generally, I get 4 [...]

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Menu Plan Monday: Making the most of our pantry staples

Another week of pantry eating is upon us! We have quite the variety of dry beans, so you’ll see those as the staple of the week, and likely for the next few weeks as well as we work down the stash! Monday: Black bean and sweet potato soup Tuesday: Chinese meatballs, brown rice, green beans [...]

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