The Food Connoissorges

PB Rice Krispies

2010-08-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to get rid of some Rice Krispies (really, the Target generic) and more peanut butter (when cleaning out the pantry I found almost three jars all set to expire September 24th!), we made Peanut Butter Rice Krispies.

We use our wok when making Rice Krispy Treats. It's also been used for Puppy Chow. And maybe once for stir-fry?? :)

The recipe was easy. In fact, it was just what I thought: follow the normal recipe, but throw in peanut butter right before the cereal.

Mr Oh thinks we should try Nutella next time.

I think I like the PB treats more than the regular ones. But I am a bit of a peanut butter lover. And as I ate them, I had a crazy flashback to elementary school. I forgot we used to have them sometimes in the cafeteria.

Yummo!

Tastes Better When Someone Else Makes It

2010-08-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

Regarding food, today wasn't a very exciting day.

I ate a bowl of corn flakes around 6 a.m. when I got up with the baby.

I ate two sandwiches for lunch, with chips and dip as a side.

I ate one sandwich for dinner, along with pasta salad.

But you know what, those are some of the best meals, especially the ones involving sandwiches.

Lunch was at my brother and sister-in-law's house. They invited all the local siblings (we're now down to three from five) and our families. It was a pretty simple layout: choice of three breads, a platter of veggies, mayo, and some deli meat. As I thanked my sister-in-law and told her how yummy it was, she replied "Sandwiches taste better when someone else makes them." And she's right. It's not that I couldn't have prepared the spread like she did, it's just that I'm unlikely unless I'm feeding at least a few extra people.

The sandwich I had for dinner was just a quick one thrown together, and I ate by myself. Two slices of plain sandwich bread, mayo, turkey, and swiss cheese. It was good, but nothing special.

I could be in to having a decent sandwich, at home, once a week or so. Maybe Saturday Sandwiches or Sunday Sandwiches could become a tradition in our house. If we spent a little extra time, money, and effort to make great sandwiches, we could enjoy the leftovers throughout the week.

PB Cookies

2010-08-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

I really had planned on making a new recipe for lunch (even bought nutmeg for it), but my mother-in-law ended up coming for a quick visit and she brought yummy SmashBurgers to the house.

I ended up being alone for the evening (both Mr Oh and his brother are at work), and because the baby was sleeping so well in her swing, I decided to forgo my normal sandwich and use up some of our pantry staples. I made gnocchi with alfredo sauce and sweet Italian sausage. We had a green salad made up in the spinner and some leftover French bread from yesterday's lunch, so I had quite a decent meal.

Since I didn't get to make my recipe at lunch, I figured I'd use up some of the tons of peanut butter I found in our pantry (it all actually expires at the end of September), and make peanut butter cookies.

I've never made them from scratch before. I'm more of the buy-the-package-where-you-add-a-couple-things-and-go kind of girl, but this recipe didn't require much more time than that.

The recipe was the one on the back of my brown sugar bag:

1 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened (I used margarine since that's what we had)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda

1) Beat brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and egg until fluffy. Beat in flour and baking soda on low speed.
2) Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls (I just used my small cookie dough scoop); place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten in crisscross pattern with tines of fork dropped in sugar. (Just realized as I was typing this I skipped the sugar part...oops!)
3) Bake at 375 degrees F for 6-9 minutes (for me it was almost 11) or until set. Cool on wire racks.

This made 30 cookies.

I didn't have Hershey kisses, but I did find 4 small pieces of a Hershey bar (leftover from a s'mores night)...

Maybe next time I'll try this recipe.

Pantry Reorganization

2010-08-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

The baby's here, I'm home, it's time to start cooking and baking, right?

Well, after taking it very, very easy for the first couple weeks, and enjoying just spending lounging time with Baby Oh, I finally feel the energy and desire to do something around the house!

One major accomplishment that was completed yesterday: getting the pantry reorganized.

Now that I know I have so much food in my house, we can stop eating out (or eating take-out in) so often. We have three jars of peanut butter, three jars of alfredo sauce, three bottles of Caesar dressing, and four bottles of margarita mix. Oh, and six packages of gnocchi. We obviously need to check what we have on hand before grocery shopping.

I'm planning on making a new recipe tomorrow. And I don't think it involves Campbell's condensed soup!

Mom's Recipes

2010-07-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

Growing up, I had an amazing advantage of living overseas and experiencing new foods and cultures. This included living in Italy (yum!) and Turkey (mmm). This, combined with a mom who loved to cook, meant our weekday menus were generally very diverse and very tasty.

Mom's Marinara is a delicously simple marinara recipe. It's a thinner sauce reminiscent of sauces from the southern region of Italy. I like adding sausage, though mom usually prefers meatless. When she makes it, it is usually much more delicious than mine... but I'm catching up.

1 lb Italian sausage
4 tbs butter
1 chopped onion
2 tbs olive oil
4 cans whole tomatoes
1 cup(ish) merlot
Italian seasoning and garlic to taste.

This recipe starts, as many comfort foods do, with grease. Cook the sausage first (or beef, or whatever meat you choose... and if you don't want to use meat; skip this step. And if you like meat but want a meatless marinara, cook some bacon up and use the bacon grease. Eat the bacon for breakfast tomorrow... yum) in a large pot. Drain some, but not all, grease from the pot. Remove sausage from pot. Combine olive oil and butter in the pot with the chopped onion until the onion is tender. Add the sausage back to the pot, and add the tomato cans with all liquid. When the liquid starts to bubble, add merlot (or some other dry wine) and season to taste. If you used sausage or bacon, you probably don't need any salt. But Italian seasoning and garlic would still be delish. Let the mix simmer for 30 minutes, and pour over your favorite pasta. I like it over linguini.

Mom's Chicken Tava

Chicken Tava is a very popular dish from Turkey, specifically the region where we lived; the Adana region. That's the same place where the Adana Kebab or Kafta Kebab come from... but that's for a later post. It's delicious and simple... and most people love it because it's just chicken, tomatoes, and potatoes! This recipe varies depending on who you talk to, but if you ask me, this is how it goes.

4-6 Chicken thighs (thighs are traditional, but many people prefer chicken breast)
2 cans whole tomato, or 8 peeled and sliced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 potatoes, skinned and sliced
2 onions, sliced
1-2 tsp cumin
1 (ish) tbs olive oil
salt, pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325.

Pull out your favorite 13x9 cooking pan and sprinkle some olive oil on the bottom. Then arrange chicken thighs on the bottom. Spread tomato paste over chicken. Then add sliced potatoes, onions, and either the canned tomatoes or the sliced tomatoes and sprinkle cumin and salt and pepper. Mix the potatoes, onions, tomatoes and spices together, trying to keep the chicken on the bottom. Put the mix into the oven for 1.5 hours or until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through. Thighs usually cook a little faster than breasts.

Buon Appetito!

Eating at Home

2010-07-06T05:54:00.001-07:00

The first step to being more adventurous in cooking is to actually cook, right?

In an effort to spend less money, we're committed to eating at home more this month. I realize it's only the 6th, but we haven't eaten out yet - yahoo!

We made out a menu for the week, and our kitchen is fully stocked. No excuses for popping out for a late-night dinner (I don't get home from work until almost 9:30), or eating lunch while running errands.

Since I still am working full-time, and the husband has a few weeks until he's back to work, he's still the main cook around here. And that makes me happy. He made a mean Mexican skillet last night. :)

We will eat out this month (it's our last month as a childless couple!), but we will be deliberate about it. We're trying to plan a fun weekend and I know it will involve a restaurant or two...

Fun with Fondant

2010-07-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

We threw a "Welcome Matt" party for my brother-in-law who has recently moved in with us. Since he's new to town, we thought it would be fun to introduce him to some new people, and it was also a good excuse just to have friends over.

Picking the 3rd of July as the date apparently wasn't too smart, as most people had out-of-town plans. But we did have a good crowd of about fifteen, which actually worked out well, since it ended up raining all day and our plans of eating outside were ruined.

On my Facebook event for the party I used this image of a welcome mat. I thought it would be fun to have a cake that looked like a welcome mat at the party, but wasn't really into spending 40-50 bucks at a bakery to have one made.

I decided I'd just make the cake, and popped into a small cake/cookie decorating store about a mile from our house. I told the woman my idea and she gave me some advice. The first decision was to decide between buttercream or fondant icing. I've never been a huge fan of fondant, but the woman had samples of the brand they carried (Fondarific) and the chocolate was almost yummy- it tasted like Tootsie Rolls!

I bought a tub of 2 lbs. This is what it looked like out of the packaging:

It was a little odd to look at the knuckle marks and know they weren't mine...Oh well. I ended up using a little less than one pound of the fondant. After nuking it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, it was pretty easy to roll out.

I am not a baker by trade, and have yet to master a rolling pin. I think anyone with a little more practice than myself could've had a smooth surface quite easily.

For the actual cake I used a box of Betty Crocker mix. Someday I'll bake a cake from scratch, but not when I'm 37 weeks pregnant and have people arriving for a party in a few hours. Plus, cake mix cakes always taste yummy. I also frosted the cake with some delicous Betty Crocker frosting called something like "Super Duper Chocolate Fudge Goodness with Chocolate Chip Yumminess Sprinkled Throughout". This was to help the fondant stick.

Laying the fondant over the cake required the helpful hands of both my husband and his brother. It was nice to have the extra hands, and it laid fairly nicely.

After trimming the edges, I realized I should've frosted the sides of the cake as well. And that I have no idea what you're supposed to do at the corners. Oh well. :)

The woman at the cake store suggested I cut the letters out of the big piece of fondant, dye more fondant black, cut the letters out of the black fondant, and place them in the first holes. Then I could smooth it all out and keep it all level. That sounded like extra work and increased potential for error, so I nixed that idea. I did buy smaller letter cut-outs to make the letters fit horizontally across the cake, but those were actually too small and cost $16. So I decided to use the larger cookie cutters that I've had forever, and I'll return the tiny letters and get my money back. :)

The larger letters required me to form the word in an arc, and I think that made it look less like an actual welcome mat. Plus, I couldn't figure out a very simple way to do black horizontal lines across the cake.

In the end, I was glad I did what I did because then there was room for two dinosaurs! And my brother-in-law loves dinosaurs.

The cake tasted...like a box cake...with a tootsie roll spread on top. :) I peeled off my piece's fondant and enjoyed the goodness beneath!

Plans in the Making

2010-06-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

Obviously, I haven't posted in a long, long time. Life has been very different for us. I settled into a (stressful) manager position with my job, my husband has been (stressfully) unemployed for several months (but is scheduled to go back in a few weeks!!), and frankly, I haven't been to involved in the kitchen scene.

I did make tortillas a couple weeks ago, and am eager to keep practicing my skills.

I also have high hopes for a cake I'm making for a party this coming weekend.

And, when our baby arrives in just a few weeks, I hope to use my time at home wisely, and keep our bank account a little more full, by cooking at home a lot.

So....here we go...

Gnocchi

2009-11-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

I did intend to make a new dish this past week, but in the end, I just had Mr Oh cook an old staple. :)

We decided to make lunch at my sister-in-law's house on Thursday afternoon. We were both off from work and thought it would be a good time to visit her, our niece, and our newest nephew. Mr Oh did most of the kitchen work while I played with the babies.

Wednesday night I looked through a couple of our poor, neglected cookbooks. I focused mostly on a Rachael Ray one, knowing that the meal could be quickly prepared. A couple recipes looked yummy, but none really jumped out at me as super delicious AND super easy, so we thought we'd make some gnocchi.

We buy our gnocchi at SuperTarget, but have seen it at a couple other big grocery stores. It's by the other packaged pasta. I'm a fan of the tri-color (potato, tomato, and spinach) purely for the colors sake, because I can't taste any difference when they're drenched in sauce. However, last time we stocked up, they only had potato gnocchi.

We used to make gnocchi exclusively with Italian sausage (I think because that's how Olive Garden serves it?), then we were once forced to use ground beef (due to lack of sausage and the result was just fine), and recently, Mr Oh switched it up with chicken. This past week was our second time to make gnocchi and chicken, and I believe both times we used a creamy Rose sauce (with an accent over the 'e'). Lemme tell you...sooo good. Normally gnocchi leftovers with a red sauce aren't so tasty. Yes, first time around, the dish is delicious, but after a reheat in the microwave the gnocchi is very gummy. The creamy chicken gnocchi is delicious fresh AND after a reheat.

We also made up a Caprese salad. Ours has three ingredients: mozzarella, tomatoes, and Tuscan bread. (Yep, no greens.)

I forgot to take any photos, but will do so next time we make it.

Food Funk

2009-10-25T18:34:00.001-07:00

Life's busy and we've been eating out a lot.
This month:

Buffalo Wild Wings (to celebrate my first day at my new job)
La Fiesta (took out my parents)
Rio Verde (met for dinner on our anniversary)
Hot Wok (cheap Chinese that's close)
Sonic (drinks and dollar frito pie wraps)
Papa Johns (first time getting pizza delivered)
Cafe Garcia (my mother paid for this one)
Golden Fried Chicken (paid for takeout with my in-laws)
Pei Wei (laziness after church)

When we're at home together for a meal (which seems like hardly ever), we resort to old staples like Mexican skillet or gnocchi with sausage.

I am making it a personal goal to cook something new within a week and will post about it. :)

Tortillas

2009-08-22T19:15:00.001-07:00

They're not perfect yet, but I still have four months to work on them...

Breakfast with Friends

2009-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we had some friends over. Because both Mr Oh and I had to work, Sunday morning was the only time we could all catch up.

I set the table before going to bed Saturday night.
I love my Ikea glasses.
Love the star napkin rings from a junk store.
Love the big rodeo coasters from somewhere in Texas.

Also before going to bed, I made the casserole. It's way easy.

Line a pan with frozen hashbrowns (or sandwich bread even). I used ones that are shaped kinda like McDonald's, but shredded ones would work.
Add a layer of sausage. (I browned one pound.)
In a bowl, mix six eggs, a cup of milk, and as much shredded cheese as you'd like. (When I called my brother for a refresher on the recipe, he reminded me that no one ever says "there was too much cheese".)
Add that stuff on top, and put it in the fridge over night.
In the morning, cook it at 350 for 45-60 minutes

One of our friends is a former vegetarian, and she doesn't eat all that much meat now. She also happens to be the one that gave me two oh-so-cute Le Creuset personal casserole dishes. I left the sausage out of these, and put bell peppers in the dish shaped like a bell pepper, and tomatoes in the one shaped like a tomato!

We also had coffee, juice, biscuits, and a fruit dish. We used to have this on major holidays when I was growing up, but it's been dropped from the menu in recent years. It's just strawberries, bananas, and a couple spoonfuls of concentrated orange juice straight from the can. That helps keep the bananas from browning, plus adds a bit of a citrus flavor.

Our Garden Part 2

2009-07-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

We've moved, and left our garden behind. :( Hopefully our old landlords are still taking good care of her and she'll keep on producin'...

Beautiful tomatoes on the vine:

Beautiful tomatoes in a bowl:

The husband with a cucumber gun:

Our lone green bell pepper:

And the bell pepper dwarfed by a store bought one:

Our Garden Part 1

2009-06-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Rough Month, Foodwise

2009-05-22T08:20:00.001-07:00

This month has been crazy. We've been super busy and super spendy. We've eaten out a ton, and never have food in the house.

I have a couple posts in the works (one about our garden, one about making tortillas), but haven't transferred photos from the camera yet. Soon, I hope!

Just Call me Becky Home Ec-ky

2009-04-20T19:32:00.001-07:00

In order to sweeten Mr Oh up to the idea of a pantry challenge, I baked cupcakes on Friday night. (A box of Betty Crocker mix was on sale for 0.84 over Easter weekend.) It was all well and good until I realized I didn't have any frosting or icing.

No fear, I'll google a recipe and make it!

Quick and Easy Powdered Sugar Icing

2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Mix the powdered sugar with the vanilla and milk. Then add more milk a bit at a time until it is thin enough to drizzle over a cake. Once you've iced your cake, it's best to let it stand for one or two hours.

But, wait! I didn't have powdered sugar on hand. So what is a girl to do in the midst of a pantry challenge?

Turn to her handy dandy Magic Bullet,
and watch ordinary sugar
turn into powdered sugar.
I made seven cupcakes and used the rest of the batter for a small cake that I put in the freezer. The sugar didn't quite powderize (I'm sure that's a real term...) fully, so the icing was a little gritty, but I'm still pleased with how cute the cupcakes looked on my stand:

Cheesecake Factory

2009-04-19T19:41:00.001-07:00

Last evening, the "original" Connoissorges came to town to sample a restaurant that has a lot of buzz and a lot of cheesecake around it. The Cheesecake Factory. The wife and I have eaten at the Cheesecake Factory (hereafter known as CF) before, but we only tried the cheesecake. Go figure. So last night, when deciding upon a restaurant, we decided to hit up the CF and sample some of their "regular" foods. I don't want to give too much away, but we were pleasantly surprised.

The wait was a fast 30 minutes. Not bad for a Saturday night at 6:30, especially on a "prom night" for several schools. In lieu of waiting amongst the dozens of prom dates we ran into, we all decided to have a drink and an appetizer at the bar. I had a draught of Shiner Boch (already a thumbs up in my book), the wife had an Amarreto Sour, dad had a merlot and mom had Coke. We couldn't decide on one appetizer for the four of us, so we ended up with two. We ordered a family favorite (and one we're all fairly critical of), Calamari, and a safe bet: Tex-mex Eggrolls.

The Calamari was delightful. Lightly breaded and not too chewy, this probably-not-too-fresh squid was well made, especially for being far from the water. The only critique I would make is that it was served with your choice of tartar sauce or cocktail sauce. I would have prefered the traditional marinara sauce, but I'll not be too picky. The calamari alone was great.

The Tex-Mex eggrolls were, as expected, well received. They were a very good combination of slightly spicy with a good fresh vegetable taste and a delicious avocado-cilantro dip. It also came with a fresh tomato mix that I didn't try. Not a big tomato guy (see marinara comment above).

We were seated in an as-promised 30 minutes. We were seated in a booth in the corner of one of the many rooms that make up the CF. If I had one complaint about the ambiance, it was that there were two birthday parties going on, and when they sang, the noise carried throughout the entire restaurant. I suppose you could run accross this at most restaurants... but it didn't add anything to my experience. Our waiter, Kyle, was very good, polite, and enthusaistic about our dining experience. It worked well.

For our "regular" meals, I chose the "Classic Cheeseburger" because I enjoy a good burger. The wife chose the "Navajo" sandwich because of the always intriguing and delicious avocado-chicken mixture. Dad chose the "Teriyaki Chicken" and Mom picked the "Da Vinci" pasta.

The classic cheeseburger was delicious and large. It was enough for two meals. It came with french fries, but they were nothing to write home about, and you could likely find the same fries at McDonalds. Lucky for CF, I like McDonalds french fries.

The Navajo was a delicious Indian taco filled with chicken, avocado, vegetables and mayo. It was also served with the same fries. It was also enough for two meals.

The Da Vinci was a tasty dish with penne pasta, mushrooms, chicken and fresh herbs in a delicious light sauce. It was quite tasty, and was more than enough for two meals.

The Teriyaki Chicken was a somewhat smaller dish, with a good amount of chicken and plenty of steamed rice that was a good filling one-meal dish. The teriyaki chicken was drenched in a very good light sauce and had a garnish of sesame seeds on it. The rice is hard to screw up, and was good.

A night at CF wouldn't be complete without... of course, cheesecake.

Mom and Dad got two- one for dessert and one for later. They went traditional, and got a strawberry and a cherry slice.

The wife and I branched out a bit more. I got the chocolate mousse and she got banana creme cheesecake. Mine tasted very light, like chocolate heaven. The wife's was equally light, and tasted very much like banana pudding, a favorite in our household.

Overall, the night was a success. And though I went into CF thinking that it would be overpriced and marginal food, I left quite happily surprised. The variety on the menu (there were so many dishes I wanted to try) and the deliciousness of the cheesecake as well as the "regular" food made the experience well worth the wait.

Oh, and one of the best parts- it's always enough for two meals!

Clockwise from top- mom's Da Vinci pasta, the wife's Navajo, my classic burger. The leftovers, of course. They were still good reheated.

Thinking it through...

2009-04-17T18:44:00.000-07:00

Since I still haven't discussed the Pantry Challenge with Mr Oh (we work opposite schedules and can go awhile without face-to-face discussions), I've been trying to think it through on my own.

People that inspire me:

hungryforamonth - Very hardcore, but makes me realize how rarely I am actually hungry
myyearwithoutspending - Wasting food is something we all do too much. Not only are we throwing out good food (or recently good food), we're throwing away money (which, sadly, is a bigger motivator for me).
moneysavingmom.com - This lady is a crazy-money-saving-fool-to-the-extreme.

What scares me:

I'm currently eating a salad that contains the brownest lettuce I've ever eaten.
I might eat lunch meat that expires today (but was opened who knows how long ago??) AFTER today.
Maybe I'm taking the saving money thing too far? It's honestly not so much that I want to put this extra $100 in the House Fund (because we'll be under budget in a couple other categories and will still be able to save the extra money), but I really think it would be fun to try this challenge.

Things that could make the next 13 days easier:

We're eating out tomorrow night with my in-laws.
We got a Chili's giftcard from my parents for Easter.
We might have enough left on a TGIFriday's giftcard to eat there too.
The neighbors will cook for the next two Mexican Mondays.

Meals/Dishes we can prepare from stuff in our kitchen:

Gnocchi with ground beef and one of two sauces
Salad (fresh lettuce is in the crisper)
Goulash or Mexican Skillet
Around 4 boxed meal things
Pasta Salad
Waffles (with peanut butter or frozen strawberries...or both??)
RICE AND BEANS, BEANS AND RICE!
Plenty of canned veggies (green beans) and frozen veggies (corn and broccoli)
Potato salad (minus I don't have relish...hmm)

Things that we don't have that would be very nice to have:

Bread (I thought Mr Oh bought it on Monday...but I can't find it)
Flour tortillas (but we have corn)(and maybe the stuff to make flour ones?)
Chicken (we only have two small frozen tenders)
Fruit

If we had those four things, we could eat:

Sandwiches! I live on peanut butter sandwiches for lunch (unless I take leftovers).
Beans and rice, rice and beans with TORTILLAS!
Chicken divan, chicken noodles, some chicken boxed dinner thing (or maybe two)
Fruit :)

Okay. When I lay it all out, it seems so easy to do. I have a shirt I've been meaning to return to Target, so I could use that credit to buy a couple of the things we're lacking.

I'll still discuss this with the husband, of course, but I'm officially on board!

Pantry Challenge?

2009-04-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

We bumped our grocery budget down from $250 to $200 because we neglected to earmark money for our garden (which will hopefully be completely planted by the end of the weekend!).

So far we've spent right under $100.

I think it would be...fun?...to try not to buy any more groceries for the month. I've read a lot of blogs where families do "pantry challenges" to avoid buying groceries for a couple weeks. I realize that if we do empty our cabinets and fridge of food, we will eventually restock our supply, and in essence, will spend the money eventually.

BUT...it would be really nice to be able to sacrifice and put that extra $100 in our House Fund.

We have plenty of ground beef, ground turkey, pasta, and a head of lettuce. Our fruit supply will run out in the next couple days, so that might be the deal breaker. We'll see. I guess I should discuss this with the husband....

Italian Goodness

2009-04-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

Even though we have LOTS* of leftovers from Mexican Monday, I'm making what is known as "Italian Goodness". It was named this after I got tired of saying "Italian Sausage with Bell Peppers, Onions, and Potatoes" every other week.

Ingredients (amount I used tonight):
Sweet Italian Sausage (1 pkg; 1.25 lbs)
Green Bell Peppers (1 1/2)
Onion (almost 1)
Red Potatoes (2 decent sized ones)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (several drizzles)
Italian Seasoning (several shakes)

Directions: Cut the first four ingredients into bite-sized chunks. Place in baking dish. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil and Italian seasoning. Mix it all up.

Bake at 425 until fully cooked. (The smaller you cut up your potatoes and sausage, the quicker it will be finished.) Check it every 15-20 minutes or so. Stir and add more extra virgin olive oil if necessary.

Enjoy the goodness!

Tonight I used a smaller baking dish (not the one above), and couldn't fit in as many veggies as normal. I didn't want to have to eat the leftovers for days, plus I used some onion and bell pepper in my green salad. The only reason I actually made this tonight is because our sausage needed to be used, as did the potatoes.

*We had 10 people over for Mexican Monday, but Mr Oh probably made enough food for 20! There was enough chicken and rice left for me to eat for lunch today through Friday, plenty of refried beans, 4 tamales, 6 taco shells (gave 4 to a sister), a good amount of taco meat, and a crazy heap of fresh fruit salad. Yummy.

Smoothie

2009-04-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Last night after a long day of working (7am - 9pm), I thought I deserved a treat. Mr Oh made us smoothies with the blender a couple weeks ago, so I decided to try his recipe with...

the Bullet!
I dumped in some vanilla yogurt, fresh strawberries, half a banana, and some milk. Mix it all up and then drink it right out of the handy cup attachment:

Grocery Breakdown

2009-04-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Just because I'm bored, I'm curious, and this may help with future price per meal figurings...

lettuce - 0.99
frozen strawberries - 3.49
cucumber - 0.99
three granny smith apples - 0.35 each
bananas - 1.25/7 = 0.18
applesauce - 0.95
32 oz vanilla yogurt - 1.59
green bell peppers - 1.69/3 = 0.56
strawberries - 1.69
baby carrots - 0.99
navel oranges - 2.49/7 = 0.36

I love Aldi!

Total = 18.63
Remaining for Month = 231.37

I'm thinking we should be under budget this month. We visited our parents this past weekend (free meals!) and will be back again this coming weekend for Easter (free ginormous meals!). Also, we had a fair amount of stuff to start the month...

However, we've spent 42.52/50 for our eating out/fun money!

Mexican Skillet Price Per Meal

2009-04-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Last night, Mr Oh and I (okay...mostly him), made a skillet full of Mexican goodness. It's sort of an enhanced version of my mom's goulash (which consists of macaroni noodles, condensed tomato soup, and ground beef - that's IT!). A few weeks ago I attempted to follow a recipe for Mexican Monday, but due to the fact that I tried to basically double the recipe when I was a little short on some ingredients, it wasn't quite the yumness I'd anticipated.

Here's how we break it down for last night's cookin':

3/4 lb of ground beef - 2.60
1 green bell pepper - 0.68
1/2 red onion - 0.28
1 can of pinto beans - 0.77
1 can of diced tomatoes - .80
1 can of tomato soup - 0.54
1/2 lb of macaroni noodles - 0.43
sprinkling of cheeses - 0.50
dollops of sour cream - 0.50
corn - 0.00 (because I forgot to put it in!)
smattering of spices - ??

total cost (7.10 ) / total servings eaten (5) = $1.42 per serving

we also made a tossed salad:

1 head of lettuce - 0.99
1 tomato - 0.83
1 green bell pepper - 0.68
1/2 red onion - 0.28
croutons and dressing - ??

total cost = 2.78 (we both ate helpings last night, i've had two bowlfuls tonight, and there's about half left, so we're talking about 0.35 per serving!)

we also ate 2 tortillas each (4 x 0.9) = 0.36

So roughly, we each consumed about $1.95 worth of food last night. That's not too shabby!

The best part is that by having leftovers, I had an effortless lunch to take to work today, and there's no pots to wash tonight after dinner!

A few of my prices are best guesses, but I did pull out a bunch of receipts, so a lot is exact. (The beef cost seems high, but I'm not sure.) I didn't add tax, but a lot of the groceries were bought at Target where my discount cancels out the tax (plus some!). I also didn't add the cost for spices, croutons, and salad dressing because I didn't feel like putting for the effort, plus it would be fairly negligible (especially because of my discount).

No Seconds April

2009-04-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

This year has been full of budget spreadsheets. They've been titled "No Spend January", "No Spend February", "March Spending" (because spend we did), and now....

"No Spend, No Seconds April".

In an effort to save money and be healthier, we're targeting our grocery bill. We both have a bad habit of eating two monstrous platefuls of food for dinner. The theory is that less eating now equals more leftovers later, therefor less grocery-buying. We shall see.

I've also been toying with the idea of doing cost per meal breakdowns.

After I go eat some leftover Mexican Skillet and (unlimited per the rules) salad, I might just do a little calculating.

Fridays in Lent

2009-03-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent. We actually discussed why we do this during lunch today with friends, but that aspect is really unimportant here.

I actually don't mind going meatless. One super good thing is that it's cheaper! And boy, do I love cheapness.

Anyways, I thought I'd list some options we have on Lenten Fridays:

pasta with cheese and tomato sauce
a big ol' salad with lots of veggies and tuna from a can
grilled cheese sandwiches with potato or tomato soup
waffles or pancakes and eggs
cheese quesadillas or enchiladas with rice and beans

We went to lunch at Olive Garden. Hubby ate eggplant parmigiana and I had minestrone soup. Yummo.

He's at work tonight, so I'm keeping it low-key. I just had a bowl of cereal and two pop-tarts. Although, I might just have to munch on chips and salsa later...

taco soup

2009-02-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

Taco soup is currently simmering in my crockpot. These pictures are actually from several weeks ago, but I never got around to posting them. It's kinda funny, because as I look at the photo, I'm embarrased that I have Hunt's diced tomatoes, actual Rotel (which is just a few cents higher) and the brand for Ranch Style beans. Also, I'm laughing because I realized I forgot to add the generic Rotel that I bought today. Oh well. I need it for Velveeta queso for tomorrow's Mexican Monday.

You can see most of the ingredients in the picture, but I'll list it out...

pound of browned ground beef
2 cans of stewed tomatoes
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of Rotel
1 can of hominy, drained
1 can of corn, drained (I just used some frozen corn today)
1 can of almost every bean you can name: kidney, black*, pinto, ranch-style
packet of taco seasoning
packet of ranch seasoning
cheese**
onion***

*I lost the recipe for this (it's written on the ticket stub in the photo), and apparently couldn't recall it very well today. Not only did I forgot the Rotel, but black beans aren't an ingredient, and I put them in. Oh well.

**My mom's used Velveeta before and says it makes it extra creamy and yummy. I've used gobs of shredded cheddar/Mexican blend. Today I didn't add any, just to make it healthier. When I make a bowl later, I'll add a bit of shredded cheese on top, as well as sour cream (speaking of healthy...hehe), and some tortilla chips.

***As I posted this last picture, I realized I didn't put onions in either! ttfn...

do you use generics?

2009-02-22T12:18:00.001-08:00

Maybe the proper name is off-brand, but you know what I mean. Do you buy things like Equate shampoo and Great Value facial tissue? I do. Not always, and not until fairly recently, but I do because when you're on a budget, it's a way to spend less money.

When it comes to a lot of groceries, I'm fine with buying the cheaper version. At Target, they have lines called Market Pantry and Archer Farms. All of January, I got an extra 10% off those items, so you know I stocked up. I got cereal, pasta, peach tea mix, toilet paper, and bottled water.

Today at Wal-Mart, I bought the cheapest canned goods I could find. Who cares if it's not Hunt's diced tomatoes or Del Monte corn? Not this frugalista. :)

And while we've drastically reduced the amount of pop we have in our home, occasionally you need a glass of ice cold, refreshing Diet Dr Thunder.

He's such a poser.

The Melting Pot

2009-01-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

DH and I are attempting a "No Spend January" and one rule is to not eat out at restaurants. It's very obvious that eating at home is less expensive. However, it's not always what you want to do. Especially on your 24th birthday.

Thankfully, we were fortunate enough to be the recipients of several restaurant giftcards. One, given to us as a wedding gift, is for The Melting Pot. So off we went!

We ordered all four courses:

1. Fiesta Cheese Fondue served with carrots, celery, cauliflower, Granny Smith apples (yum!), two kinds of bread, and tortilla chips. This was probably my favorite course. The cheese was muy delicioso and I know I'll have a hard time making myself try another choice.

2. Cobb Salad for DH, Caesar for myself. Honestly, I didn't like my salad much. There was too much dressing on it. DH said his was good.

3. The main entree. We chose Mojo Fondue. It's described as a "Caribbean seasoned bouillon (that) has distinctive flavors of fresh garlic with a citrus flair!" It was...not gross, but probably not worth the $6 it would've cost if it wasn't included in the "Big Night Out" package we ordered. There were soooo many things for us to cook in the fondue: chicken, salmon, filet mignon, shrimp, artichoke ravioli (I think...whatever it was, it was the BEST), shrimp, potatoes, squash, and more. There were also about seven sauces for dipping. It was fun to try different things, but a bit of a pain that they took 3-4 minutes to cook, and honestly nothing tasted too amazing (minus the ravioli).

4. Dessert! There are several chocolate fondues to choose from, and as the birthday girl, I made the decision to try the s'mores version. Super tasty. We also got two plates of desserts, instead of the usual one, because they had screwed up and given us seafood with our entree when we'd requested it to be substituted with non-fishy things. It was a little hard to eat so much dessert, but well worth the effort. :) There were lots of yummy things: strawberries, bananas, brownies, cheesecake, pound cake, and rice krispy treats.

I'd give it 9 out of 10 giraffes. I'm being a little generous because all we had to pay for two+ hours of fun and food was twenty bucks for the tip. We still have something like $15 left on our giftcard and next time we go back we'll probably just get an appetizer and dessert. Also, we'll hopefully go with friends. It was a nice romantic dinner-for-two, but it could also be a fun group atmosphere.

2008-12-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

Life has been busy as of late. My last rotation for the semester required a 3 hour round-trip commute four days a week and ten hour workdays. And THAT required a solid day of doing nothing at home. Hopefully now that I'm on Christmas break, I can start writing on here more often.

Here's a meal I made a long time ago, but never posted:

The chicken and pineapple goodness is courtesy of a crockpot and Homemade Gourmet seasoning. Yum. This is my plate with the bell peppers; DH's vegetable for that night was carrots. The mashed potatoes look runny because I made them with a Magic Bullet! (This was before the wedding and before we owned three hand mixers.)

Another reason life has been busy: DH was in a very intense police academy for 25 weeks, and he graduated on Friday! I made cupcakes for my po-po:

chicken divan

2008-11-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

DH had the day off on Tuesday (thank you, veterans!) and like any good husband, he had flowers waiting for me when I got home. (It was our one monthiversary.) Also, like any good husband, he agreed that we should make dinner to take to my sister ME. Her DH is gone for the month (dang you, med school), so we thought she and their baby SBJ would like some company.

DH did all the prep work at our place. Then once we arrived at my sister's house, I threw the dish in the oven.

Hubby's sitting next to me now and is going to tell me how to make this lovely dish.

Chicken Divan

boil some chicken
steam some brocolli
combine in a bowl: two cans of cream of chicken soup; some milk; some cheese; no more than a tablespoon of mayo; and a wee bit of curry spice (optional)
shred the chicken and place in baking dish
add the brocolli
evenly pour the mixture on top
melt 1/2 - 1 stick of butter, combine with Stove Top (or bread crumbs, or corn flakes)
add that combo to the top of your dish
bake at 375 degrees for approx. 20 minutes (the sauce will bubble)
enjoy!

If you noticed the "somes" and "wee bits", don't be alarmed. Mexicans don't use measurements when cooking.

Also, while we're talking about divans...DH and I bought our first couch this week!

Italian Sampler

2008-11-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

DH and I had planned on making spaghetti tonight because it's easy and we needed to use up some hamburger meat. That's right, I'm from the country and I use the term "hamburger meat" instead of ground beef. I'm not ashamed.

Well, when it came time for dinner, pizza just sounded too good to me. We had a couple DiGiorno's in the freezer (thanks to Target and their sales), and it made sense to throw one in the oven. Who says you can't have two entrees for one meal?

I asked DH if he wanted to put some mozzarella on top of his spaghetti. Apparently that's an odd choice of cheese. He declared it to be bland, and I was too lazy to top off my plate, but I say it's tasty!

And just so you know, we ate salad first. You gotta get your greens in.

Mexican Mondays

2008-11-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

If there's such a thing as having a food specialty, then ours would be Mexican. This is due largely to the fact that mom's good home-made cooking was always amazing Mexican food, and that DW loves this Mexican.

Even with this specialty, DW and I cannot claim the genius of the foundation of Mexican Mondays. It was an idea brought forth from DW's sister K; without whom Mexican Mondays could not exist. It is more than just eating good Mexican food, it is an opportunity for our families to amalgamate over delicious dishes of delectable delights of the Latin American culture.

Tonight, we broke out our finest eating ware for a night of tacos, potatoes, rice, and, of course, beans. Also, in order for seven people to sit around our table, we swapped it with the coffee table. It was a bit of a squeeze, but it was better than sitting on the floor as we have when we've previously hosted.

The Z boys have their own perspective on Mexican Mondays...

I believe this is known as Mexican Mush.

we know food

2008-11-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

We are starting this blog to honor one of the greatest things in life:

food.

We enjoy it.

And we hope you enjoy what we share with you.