This is a classic example of being creative with ingredients you have on hand.

I made this for us early last week…using up the tomatoes from Aldi from the week before, and the feta cheese from Monday’s shopping trip. Also, this is another example of a meal that uses an “expensive ingredient,” that is paired with a few other inexpensive ingredients and pantry staples to keep the overall cost of the meal down.

(Feta = expensive…pasta/tomatoes/egg = inexpensive.)

This meal ended up being dinner for just Steve and I (the kids had leftovers since they can’t have dairy) and after his first bite, Steve began staking claims on the leftovers. He took what was left for lunch to work the next day…and the “euchre lunch club” was insanely jealous of his “gourmet lunch.” Amazing how a few simple ingredients can be cooked up in a way that is “gourmet” but still very inexpensive to put together!

Enjoy…

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I fell wildly behind these last few days…and in the process my beautifully designed meal plan and food photographs just didn’t happened as I hoped they would! I did manage to make this delicious-ness late last week…using up some potatoes I found in the freezer that I’d bought during the 50% off store closing sale.

This week’s $5 Dinner Challenge recipe can be found over on One Dish Dinners -

Ham and Potatoes Saute with Baked Eggs

And yes, it’s Monday afternoon…still trying to figure out what to eat this week. If you need me, I’ll have my head in our deep freezer…still hoping to have cleared it out…by the end of the week! ACK!

Hope you enjoy this delicious & hearty breakfast, or brinner!

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Have a Frugal and Healthy Recipe to share?

Post the recipe on your blog and then add the link below. Other guidelines can be found here. To make it easy for other readers to find your recipe, please leave the link that leads directly to your recipe post. Any links that lead to your homepage will be deleted. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave your recipe in the comments section!

So I had every intention of making omelets with all the fixings you see here last night. Then I remembered that we had a makeup soccer game. So I scratched the omelet idea (because they take longer to make!) and went with a scramble instead. All the same ingredients…just as delicious outcome!

Perfect way to use some peppers from the garden or farmer’s market. I only used green pepper…but you could use red, yellow, orange, hot, mild…whatever floats your pepper boat.

Or whatever you have on hand or in the garden!

(Couple notes about this breakfast scrambles…I use 2 eggs per person when making scrambled eggs. My boys LOVE eggs…and this seems to be our “magic egg number.” Also, I cooked up a bag of dried black beans because I didn’t have any cans. And because it’s cheaper that way!)

If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

Do you have a recipe using green peppers that you’d like to share?!? We’d love to check it out!

As we head into this holiday weekend, I thought I’d leave you with a simple breakfast for dinner recipe. Or it would be perfect for breakfast this weekend, as you hang out with family and friends!

This may in fact be the most flavorful frittata that I’ve ever made. This is not to put a damper on the other frittata recipes featured here or in my Breakfast and Lunch cookbook. It’s to say that the flavors were full, rich and complimented each other beautifully.

The key to making this recipe work is the “salting” of the eggplant. If not salted and drained, the eggplant will have a very bitter undertone to it…and no one wants bitter in their frittata. (At least I don’t.)

To do this, you simple cut the eggplant up into little bite size pieces, or smaller, and the place it all into a colander.  Sprinkle some salt over it all and set the colander in the sink and let sit for at least 30 minutes. The salt draws out the bitter juices from the eggplant.  Then rinse with cold water and the eggplant is ready for the recipe.

Now for the rich, rich Tomato Eggplant Frittata…

This breakfast is perfect for the mornings when you want something tasty but without much mess. As it’s made in one pan and is super quick and simple, it fits the bill nicely. I think this would make a fantastic breakfast for dinner as well!

The only top 8 allergen it contains is eggs!

First we’ll sautee onion, garlic, and mushrooms until the mushrooms take on this lovely golden color.

Then we’ll add in some chopped ham. I just picked up some safe lunch meat that was on sale and used that.

After the ham is heated through, we’ll add in the eggs and spices and scramble the whole thing together.

When  the scramble is done add a few sliced green onions or even chives for garnish and you have a lovely, filling breakfast!

Back in January, I spent a lot of time traveling promoting my 2nd cookbook.  I often stopped for meals at Subway…and during one of those stops, I was looking over the menu in hopes of finding a new sandwich to try.  The BLT caught my eye and then it got me thinking about what else would work with a BLT.

Tuna salad would work…especially with some melted Swiss on top.

What about egg salad?! I wonder if that would work…

It does! This is a perfect sandwich for this summer…and I can’t wait to try it with perfectly ripened, warm tomatoes…straight from the garden.

I really enjoyed the sweet-salty combination of the egg salad and bacon.

Egg Salad Tips and Tricks

1. Use your pastry blender to cut the eggs when making egg salad. It’s a no fuss way to get the perfect amount of egg “chunkiness” in your salad.

2. Use Sandwich Spread. I’m surprised when I find out that friends don’t know about this secret ingredient.  It’s found amongst the mayo in the grocery store and I use it with mustard on sandwiches…I use it to make tuna salad…and I use it to make egg salad.  It has a delicious tangy, yet sweet, flavor that is perfect for tuna and egg salads.

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Have a Frugal and Healthy Recipe to share?

Post the recipe on your blog and then add the link below. Other guidelines can be found here. To make it easy for other readers to find your recipe, please leave the link that leads directly to your recipe post. Any links that lead to your homepage will be deleted. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave your recipe in the comments section!

A great weekend breakfast, or for one of those weekdays when you don’t have to rush out to school, playdate or appointments! And would make a great “brinner” too!

Ingredients

Jennie O fully cooked Turkey Bacon (half of a 12 oz. pkg.)   $1.40
Ortega flour tortillas (10 pk.)   $1.99
1 dozen eggs   $1.69
3 pounds of potatoes  $1.40
Shredded cheddar cheese (8 oz)  $1.99

Total Cost – $8.47

Directions

Pre-heat electric skillet to 350 degrees. Add 1 T. vegetable oil to the pan.    Peel and cut the potatoes. Then put them in the hot skillet.  Cook these for about 5 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 275 degrees. Cover the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, fry the bacon in a separate pan.  When this is cooked, remove bacon from pan and  place in paper towels to absorb grease. . . When this cools a little, break it up or crumble, then set aside.

Use the same pan the bacon was cooked in to cook the eggs. Since it is lean turkey meat, there will be very little grease, but it will help add flavor to the eggs. Beat Eggs in a large bowl or measuring cup. Scramble in frying pan on medium heat. This should only take a couple of minutes.

Place one flour tortilla on a paper plate (for easy clean up). Top with scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon and shredded cheese. Serve with fried potatoes.

Do you ever end up with just a couple handfuls of spaghetti noodles?!  And you don’t know what to do with them?!

Several weeks ago the boys had MRIs.  It happens every year.  This year, they asked if I thought Ryan could do the MRI without sedation.  He would have the chance to watch a movie through the “magic googles” and would get to wear heavy headphones to both hear the movie and block out the noise of the MRI.

He agreed that he’d give it a try.  So I went with him into the MRI room, got him all set up with his magic goggles and headphones.  Then the tech said to me, “Feel free to have a seat or stand here and watch.”

Huh?

“You mean I can stay in here.”

“Sure. Here are some earplugs.”

“OK thanks…I guess I’ll stand here with him.” (Even though he couldn’t see, feel or hear me.)

So I stood there next to the table, at Ryan’s feet for about 20 minutes, just watching him do his best to keep still. Then I got tired of standing there. I knew the MRI would last at least another 25-30 minutes, so I went over to some chairs near the table.  And next to the chair were some magazines.

I figured out quickly that I needed to distract myself and picked up a few to look through. And one of them had a recipe for Spaghetti Frittata.

Seriously?! Does that really work?!, I thought.

I’m here to testify today that it indeed works!

I didn’t write down the recipe. And I can’t remember which magazine it was. I blame the hammering sounds from the MRI machine for killing my short term memory that day.

So here’s my best attempt…

Saute some garlic and chopped red onions in some liquid gold.

That’d be olive oil.

Sweat them out. With a little salt and pepper.

Add the “as best as you can drain them, drain them” diced tomatoes.

When you drain them, drain them over the leftover noodles.

Top with a couple handfuls of fresh spinach.

A 10 oz. box of frozen spinach will work too. Cooked and drained.

Let the spinach melt.

Add some leftover noodles.  I didn’t measure…couple pasta server-fulls.

Or that much.

Stir it all in.

Mix up the egg mixture.

Pour over the top of the noodles, spinach and tomatoes.

Let cook for a few minutes, or until the eggs along the edge of the skillet begin to set.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until eggs have cooked through in the middle.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Slice.

Serve.

With some fresh fruit and/or bread.

I plan to make this again this summer…using fresh basil and rosemary from the garden!

Then it will be bursting with flavor!

I’m often asked during news interviews and radio interviews…”Is this really possible to do this $5 Dinners thing?”

And my typical reply is… “Of course, a key part of this whole frugal cooking business is being creative with the ingredients that you get on sale, or even discounted, from the grocery store. If you score a fabulous deal on butternut squash and you don’t know what to do with it, then you’ll waste that money. My hope is to help and equip other home cooks to think outside their normal cooking routines and popular family meals.”

And this is exactly what happened after my recent shopping trip to Jungle Jim’s.  I found some super inexpensive red and yellow peppers ($.75 each), 2 boxes with oodles of jalapenos and a giant bunch of cilantro for $.60….and I had to use them up!  I couldn’t let any of this delicious marked down produce go to waste, so I used as much up as I could that night!

By making these super scrumptious Spicy Mexican Omelets…

(Read my recent interview with AOL’s Kitchen Daily!)

*Note: I did mix up some of the peppers without the jalapenos to make the kids’ version of the omelet.  I didn’t want to risk making theirs too “hot” and them not eating it.

Chop, dice.

Remove jalapeno seeds if you can’t handle the heat.  Keep the seeds if you want the spice!

Read

Toss peppers, jalapeno and cilantro.

Whisk up the eggs, milk and salt and pepper.

Pour into an omelet skillet that is hot with oil.

Using plastic spatula, move some of the eggs that have set to the side and tilt the omelet pan so that the uncooked eggs run onto the skillet to cook faster.

Once the eggs have mostly cooked through, add the pepper mixture.

Top with shredded cheese and let cook 30 seconds or so.  Fold over the omelet.

Let the cheese melt.

Slide the omelet onto serving plate.

Repeat until there’s an omelet (or two) for everyone.

Enjoy.

Have another. And enjoy it too!