I’m pleased to announce that the winner of the $5 Dinner Mom cookbooks is……
Kay Lynn, The Bucksome Boomer!
Congrats, Bucksome Boomer! I will be contacting you shortly to get your information so I can send you the books.
Thank you to all who entered!
It’s my 116th post! And I’m giving something away!–CLOSED
My life has become an insane mess of crazy lately. Remember how I said I was going to take some time off from teaching? Well, I might have changed my mind. I did so because I have two nonmortgage debts left to pay off and teaching this class will mean that I will have to use less of my savings to finish paying off one of them next month. Since the class will end before my trip to Disney World, which is the main reason why I turned down the others, I decided to suck it up and teach.
When you combine the teaching with the personal things I have going on (not to mention that I will be taking yoga classes two nights a week), my life is getting out of hand. However, one constant in my life is the fact that we need to eat. I have become enamored with Erin Chase, The $5 Dollar Dinner Mom. I absolutely love her recipes–they’re easy, practical, use normal ingredients, don’t take more than 45 minutes to make and are inexpensive (she takes her name very seriously). If it were not for her cookbooks and website, I believe my family would not eat. Seriously.
So I’ve decided that I need to share her books with the world (and by world, I mean those of you who read this blog). Yes, it’s time for the very first Daily Money Shot giveaway! I’m giving away copies of both of Erin’s books to one lucky winner.
Frugal recipe: Lemonade chicken
When I used to eat meat, my go-to food was chicken. We ate a lot of chicken in my house because we’re lucky enough to get it for free. Chicken is also a nice, versatile food that can be prepared in a countless number of ways. It’s actually a great food to have on hand if you’re just learning to cook.
One of the simplest ways to prepare chicken is to make breaded chicken cutlets. You can eat them plain, use them in chicken parmesan, turn them into chicken fingers/nuggets…the list goes on. My mom put an interesting twist on chicken cutlets. She makes lemon chicken but she does it in a really creative way: she uses frozen lemonade.
I never would have thought to use frozen lemonade because a) it’s just not something I buy and b) I’m not really an out of the box thinker when it comes to food. But the final product of this recipe is delicious, especially over rice or pasta with some steamed vegetables or a salad. As an added bonus, it’s really inexpensive to make!
Lemonade chicken
Ingredients:
- 1lb chicken breasts
- 1-2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
- Optional: Parsley, lemon slices
Directions:
- Bread chicken by dredging through egg and coating with breadcrumbs
- Bake at 350° until cooked through (you can also fry)
- Marinate cooked chicken in thawed lemonade concentrate (can marinate for 1 hour up to overnight)
- Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
- Optional: Garnish with parsley and/or lemon slices
Note: When marinating the chicken, do not do so in an aluminum pan. Any other material is acceptable.
Swamp soup
Last night, I made this for dinner:
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| I swear this is edible |
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Jana, what the f*ck is that? It looks like something I pulled from my gutters or something you sample from a swamp. How the hell is that edible?” I know you’re thinking that because that is exactly what I thought when I first looked at it.
Just to clear up any confusion, it’s soup. It was supposed to be a derivative of something my daughter ate at daycare (which I now believe was Italian wedding soup but let’s not go there) and something she said she liked. When I asked her what was in it she told me: hamburger, spinach, carrots and rice. I figured “hey, I can make that. No problem.” So I bought the ingredients and decided to make it for dinner. What could go wrong, right?
I can’t say that anything necessarily went wrong because it tasted really good (or at least I thought so). My daughter hated the spinach but she’s 4 1/2 and I don’t really trust the judgment of someone who thinks chicken nuggets are gourmet foods. My husband wasn’t home to eat it.
I’m glad I made it because, honestly, I’ll make it again though I might substitute the frozen spinach for fresh spinach. It might give it less of that swampy appearance. In case you want the recipe, here it is:
Daily Money Shot’s Swamp Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 bag Morningstar Farms soy burger crumbles (did I mention that I don’t eat meat?)
- 1/2 bag frozen spinach
- 1 can fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
- 1 carrot, shredded (though you can cut it into pieces instead)
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- Black pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Heat soy burger crumbles, frozen spinach, tomatoes and carrots until warmed through (if still a little frozen, that’s OK)
- Add vegetable broth and season with pepper.
- Bring to boil then let simmer for approximately 15 minutes
Oh, wait. This is supposed to be about money. Um, let’s see. It cost $4.49 for all of the ingredients, making it around $1 per serving if you go with 4 servings. Not too bad! The $5 Dinner Mom would be proud.
Frugal recipe: Baked beans
On Sunday night, we had grilled hot dogs for dinner. We did this mainly because my in-laws sent us home with tofu dogs for me and all-beef hot dogs for my husband and daughter. Normally, I don’t buy hot dogs but since they were free, I sure wasn’t going to turn them down (especially with the SNAP Challenge going on). We had rolls at home as well as some carrots so we were looking at a very simple meal. But we all felt like something was missing.
Then we realized what it was. Beans! Hot dogs are not complete without baked beans on the side. The problem was we had just spent a great deal of time in traffic and neither myself nor my husband was willing to get back in the car to go to the supermarket to get some. So I improvised. I remembered that I had a recipe for homemade baked beans in one of my Weight Watchers cookbooks. I checked the recipe, checked my pantry/fridge and learned that we had all of the required ingredients. Since I had made this recipe before, I knew they were good and I was not worried about trying something new.
To make enough for my family, I doubled the original recipe. Here’s what I did:
Homemade Baked Beans (adapted from Weight Watchers 5 Ingredients, 15 Minutes cookbook)
Ingredients
- 1 29 oz can pinto beans or 2 15 oz cans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I used honey flavored but any kind works)
- 6 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp onion powder
Directions
- Combine all ingredients in medium sized saucepan
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Makes approximately 4 1/2 cup servings.
This recipe hits the trifecta of meal planning: quick, simple and free.
