A little over 3 years ago my life changed for the better.

I was doing the dishes after having a meal similar to this one. And just like you’d see on a “ticker” on ESPN or FoxNews, the phrase “$5 Dinners” passed through my brain. Then it passed through again. And again.

And it wasn’t long before I was sitting at the computer to see if this concept had been launched in internet-land yet.

It was just before the word “recession” made its way into mainstream media. But it was while we were in our own little “personal recession,” if you will. My husband was working his “main job,” along with a pizza delivery

There are 2 things that I remember about the meal that we had on that fateful August night…it was pork chops that I’d bought on Manager’s Special, along with peaches that were also on sale…and probably some homemade rolls. And the total of the meal being $3.85.

I remember sharing that number with my husband, as if it were yesterday. And I remember the look on his face like…wow, that’s pretty cool that it’s so inexpensive…but a little creepy that my wife remembers how much all of it cost.

(I think he’s pretty grateful for my strange ability to remember prices on food, how much I paid for specific items after coupons, and how to total meal costs while wheeling the cart through the grocery store!)

We’ve had a similar pork chops with peach salsa since then. And now we can add the “grilled” version to the every growing list of meals that can be made for less than 5 bucks.

Here’s how it went down the other night…

How to Halve a Peach

Run the knife around the peach…starting at the top by the stem…

…running all the way back to where you started the cut.

Gently twist…

And pull the two halves apart.

Scoop out the seed with a spoon.

They are ready to be grill-ified!

Perfectly tender and smoky pork chops with melt in your mouth grilled peaches and a slightly crunchy bite from the red onions…

It is summer time and the living is easy. To compliment that concept, I love to prepare these easy and delicious potatoes for my husband to throw on the barbecue. Marinate some meat beforehand and dinner is ready to go.

Barbecued Potatoes

• 5 medium potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat the barbecue to high.

Thinly slice the potatoes, onions and garlic.

Microwave the potato slices on high for 5 minutes, just to start them cooking. 
Or cook briefly in boiling water.

Meanwhile, butter a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil (or if you run out of heavy duty, double wrap in regular aluminum foil.

Spread a layer of potato, onion and garlic slices on the buttered foil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, repeat until all the ingredients are used up.

Fold up the sides of the foil over the potato mixture and seal the top and the ends. 
You may need to push the potatoes into an even layer through the foil. Put on the barbecue. Cook on high for 20 to 30 minutes, reduce to medium (or move to top rack) for another 10 to 20 minutes Often, we turn down the potatoes when we turn down the temperature on the meat. The potatoes should cook about 40 to 45 minutes in total. 

Open the foil and transfer potato mixture to a serving plate.

YUM!

Super Easy Marinade for Pork Chops

This recipe is enough for two meals. I marinate the meat, take half out of the bag for dinner and freeze the rest for next time.

• 2-3 pounds pork chops
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons vinegar (whatever kind you like and have on hand)
• Montreal steak spice (to taste)

Directions

Slip your hand under the rim of a plastic bag and use it to toss meat pieces into the bag.

Pour the oil and vinegar directly into the bag. Shake the steak spice over the meat.

Twist the top of the bag and push the air down, to create an air pocket. Shake the meat to distribute the ingredients.

Let the air out of the bag and gently massage.

Refrigerate until cooking time (time it so that the meat is done about five minutes before the potatoes are done).

Remove the portion for today’s dinner onto a plate. Close bag and put into a zipper lock freezer bag. Label and freeze.

Sear the meat on high for one or two minutes on each side and then turn barbecue to medium until cooked through (about 4 minutes per side). Place on serving platter, cover and let rest for about five minutes before serving.

Frugal Tip

Saver, know thyself! OK. There is a wonderful deal on chicken that is close to its expiry date. It is half off its already great price. You buy three chickens: One for dinner, two to marinate and freeze. What a deal. Yes, it is a busy week, but you can save so much money!

Only you get home and you already have dinner made. Oooops. So you put the chickens in the fridge to deal with after dinner. After dinner, you run out to take the kids to sports, after all the taxiing, you are really tired and go to bed early. The next day is a run around day. So it the next. Somehow, by the time you get to the chickens you got for such a great deal, they have already spoiled and you have to throw them away. Hmm, not such a great deal after all.

Really, when faced with such a great deal, I don’t jump on it as often as I would have before. Not because I am not frugal, but because I am realistic. If I am realistically not going to be able to easily deal with the great deal, I pass it up and leave it for some other frugal person to take advantage of and I save myself some money after all.

I’ve been dreaming about these burgers for a while. A long while…ever since the Inside Out Cheeseburgers from last summer. I’ve been pondering what other delicious things could go inside of a burger…why not pesto!?!

A little homemade pesto.

Some provolone cheese.

A tomato, sliced just moments after picking from the garden.

All together as a burger…grilled to perfection.

Talk about a serious party of flavors in your mouth!!!

Fajita filling usually consists of meat, peppers, and onions. However, I don’t see any reason to stick to traditional ingredients, especially when my kids are not crazy about peppers. I do like the color of traditional fajitas and try to include the same colors using vegetables from my garden. I replace some of the peppers with yellow squash and tomato. One of my children will still pick the bell pepper pieces out, but with this variation there are still other ingredients left in the fajita when he is done.

I always use corn tortillas. While flour tortillas are more flexible, corn tortillas are less expensive, more flavorful, and also have fewer calories.

I made this pizza on Wednesday afternoon. The same afternoon I made some whole wheat, sugar free muffins (I will share the recipe as soon as I can make them again…I need to get my hands on some more sucanat first!). The afternoon I was feeling pioneer-ish!

My neighbor was over and our kids were playing around the yard. We were catching up, talking about the upcoming school year…and she was watching me and my pioneer-ish ways in action. I explained as I made the homemade ranch dressing. And she walked out with me to the “back garden” to pick tomatoes. And she watched in awe as I sliced the avocado in the palm of my hand.

(I think I might have caught her taking notes.)

She enjoys learning and watching as I cook. Or grill, in this case. And I enjoy teaching her a few tricks here and there too!

I made my traditional pizza crust dough in the bread machine, but replaced the white flour with wheat flour and used honey in place of sugar (remember my goal for August!) And for whatever reason, it was huge. HUGE. It took up over 2/3rds of my grill…and I have a big grill!

The dough rose to the same height as normal, had the same amount of flour, liquid, etc. But when I rolled it out, it was nearly double in size. Not sure of the reason…better consistency with the all whole wheat flour…no. idea.

So the crust…topped with one of my favorite flavor combinations…tomatoes, avocado, ranch and cheddar.  With some grilled chicken pieces. Then, finally cooked on the grill.

De. light. ful!!!

(Other than the kind of cheese I had to use being terribly expensive (so the boys could enjoy this treat), this would be an inexpensive dinner for 4 when using regular shredded cheese!)

The final recipe from this month’s pantry challenge.  This is a new one to me. Maybe not to you.

In the freezer I found chicken breasts, peppers and onion blend, loaf of reduced priced bread, slices of pepper jack cheese. And the pantry did make a contribution to the meal…some jarred salsa!

Once I had it all out on the counter, it occurred to me that I bought some fajita seasoning at Penzey’s Spices…so it was a no brainer!

Make a melt…with grilled chicken strips, topped with sauteed peppers, some melted cheese on top.

And since I had not purchased any of these items in the very recent past, it really did feel like this meal didn’t cost anything. (Even though it did. On other weeks.)

That’s the beauty of coming up with meals from the pantry and freezer!

Cut bread to the size sandwich that you want. Add salsa.

Slice up the grilled chicken. Or use batch grilled chicken.

Lay a couple strips of grilled chicken over the salsa.

Top with sauteed veggies. Then cheese. Melt in microwave or under broiler.  Serve.

A lovely “no cost” dinner!

Ratatouille is one of the most frugal dishes in my repertoire. When my garden is in full swing the only ingredient I have to buy to make this dish is olive oil. As much as I like ratatouille, I must confess it has a couple of downsides. First, if I turn on the oven on a hot July day and only have vegetables to show for it, I will have a mutiny on my hands. Which brings me to the second problem with ratatouille: it is entirely comprised of vegetables. It takes more than a Disney movie to convince my kids to eat ratatouille.

I can get around cooking this dish in the oven by grilling the vegetables individually and then combining them to make the ratatouille:

Convincing the kids to eat it is a little trickier. Here are a few things that work for me:

Serve salad dressing on top. My daughter will eat most vegetables as long as she is allowed to put salad dressing on them. She defended her decision to add Asian dressing by saying, “Ratatouille is basically just a cooked salad”.

Serve it over rice. My oldest son doesn’t mind that ratatouille is comprised entirely of vegetables. He minds that dinner is comprised entirely of vegetables. Serving it over rice helps fill the ever-growing teenager’s hollow leg.

Top it with spaghetti sauce. My youngest child is still at the stage where he prefers his ratatouille hidden under a thick layer of spaghetti sauce.

Substitute vegetables. I made this recipe with traditional ingredients, but there was a time when my husband and kids would not eat eggplant. If members of your family will not eat one of the vegetables in the recipe, you can substitute it with potatoes. I also try to add ingredients my family likes. I found some portabella mushrooms on sale and splurged since my husband enjoys them.

Talk about flavorful.

I’m amazed at how 1 sprig of sage can make such a difference in the flavor of the chicken…but, of course, the cooking method has infuse that flavor too!

In addition to flavorful, it’s simple too. Drop the chicken onto a piece of foil and add the sage, some diced onions, olive oil and vinegar. I add a few drops of vinegar to the grill packet as well, as it tends to help take the edge off the “chicken-y taste” and allows the sage flavor to take over.

As the chicken cooks and steams within the foil packet, the juices and sage flavor percolate in the foil and give the chicken a delicious flavor and tender texture.

As we continue on the Summertime Pantry Challenge, we had this with the Rosemary Bread from the farmer’s market in Ashtabula (that I sliced and froze.)  We also had some vegetables from the freezer.

Yeah for simple and flavorful dinners!

I’ve shared a few articles about grilling over on SCJohnson.com this summer…just wanted to be sure you didn’t miss them!

• Grilling 101 – Grilling Meats, Marinating and Batch Grilling
• Grilling 201 - Grilling Fruits and Veggies
• Grilling 301 – Grilling Breads and Potatoes

I hope they help you feel more comfortable in front of the grill…now go get your grill game on girls (and guys!)…

Here’s a new concept for you.

Twice baked ‘taters.

Except you bake. Then grill.

(Instead of bake twice.)

And when I baked mine, I did so in the slow cooker…out on the porch (a trick I learned from Lynn when I was pregnant with Tyler…I couldn’t stand the smell of cooking food, so I’d put the slow cooker out on the porch to cook and I didn’t have to smell it and get queasy. This trick works great in the summer when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen.)

I’ve been thinking about twice baked potatoes for some time, but couldn’t figure out how to do them in the summer time without turning my kitchen into a oven.

The answer was simple. Bake in the slow cooker. Bake on the grill.

Love. love. love. the smokey flavor they take on from being grilled! And love that I got to use my wild chives from the garden too!