Tonight’s $5 Dinner Challenge meal comes from Melissa, who blogs at Mom’s Plans. She is currently working full time while raising two little ones.  Her goal is to learn to live on less, as they strive to make it possible for her to become a stay at home mom.

Ingredients
1 bag pita bread
1 cup spaghetti sauce
Favorite pizza toppings, such as pepperoni, ham and broccoli, ham and pineapple, sausage and green peppers…whatever!
1 slice mozzarella cheese for each pizza or shredded mozzarella cheese
Side salad

Directions
1. Cut the pitas in half to make open faces, and bake them in the oven at 350 for a few minutes, until they become crisp and start to curl in on the edges.
2. Spread spaghetti sauce on top and layer on whatever ingredients you have on hand. We put on sliced mozzarella, deli ham and blanched broccoli.
3. Cook at 350 for another few minutes, or until the cheese melts.
4. Serve Pita Bread Pizzas with Side salad or other favorite veggies to round out the meal!

Melissa’s Note: These taste like a thin crust pizza. My family prefers thicker crust pizza, so at the dinner table, we decided to fold each half over. We ended up with pita calzones that were tasty. This is a great way to use up leftovers!

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
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Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp warm water
1 tsp olive oil ($.03)
1 cup whole wheat flour ($.20)
2 cups white flour ($.28)
1 packet or 1 Tbsp yeast ($.25)
1 tsp sugar ($.02)
1 tsp Italian seasonings ($.05)
1/4 cup Italian salad dressing ($.10) If I had to do this meal again, I’d have used a Greek vinaigrette instead!
3 Roma and 1 Heirloom tomato (from the garden)
1/2 cup diced green olives ($.50) Manager’s Special!!!
2 cups mozzarella cheese ($1.25) My store regularly has shredded cheese on sale for $1.25/2 cups.
2 Gala apples, cut into slices ($.50) On sale for $.50/lb. this week!

Directions
1. Prepare dough in bread machine, by adding the water, olive oil, flours, yeast, sugar and seasonings in that order to the bread machine. Set cycle to dough.
2. Slice tomatoes and olives.
3. Knead and roll dough out and place onto pizza baking stone or pizza baking sheet. Top with Italian (or Greek vinaigrette) salad dressing. Place tomatoes and olives around the pizza. Top with mozzarella cheese. (Note: I left a small portion of the pizza cheeseless and the boys at the crust and tomatoes.)
4. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes, or until dough has cooked through and cheese begins to golden on top.
5. Serve Tomato and Olive Pizza with Sliced Apples.

Cost $3.18

No photo tonight…because I have no Internet at my home at the moment. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I was none to happy with amount of time I spent on the phone trying to order a new modem. But at least they threw in free overnight shipping and a month of free service for the 4, yes 4, hours I spent calling around and finally ordering the new modem.

So I’m posting from my iPhone tonight. Forgive any typos, wouldya?

This recipe comes from my BFF from the Dominican Republic…she made this for us all the time!

Ingredients
1 1/2 chicken breasts ($1.50)
1 green pepper ($.50) On sale last week
1 orange pepper ($1) On sale last week
2 tsp fajita seasoning ($.20)
1/2 cup mayo ($.25)
1/4 cup milk ($.03) I used rice milk
2 sprigs of fresh parsley (free from garden)
1/8 tsp dill ($.02)
1 garlic clove crushed ($.05)
1 small piece of onion, crushed ($.05)
Salt and pepper to taste

Crust:
1 cup water
1 tsp olive oil ($.03)
1 tsp salt
3 cups white flour ($.60)
1 tsp sugar ($.02)
1 yeast packet ($.20)

1-2 cups of shredded cheese ($.75-$1.50) on sale recently! But I omitted the cheese to stay dairy-free!
1/4 watermelon ($.75)

Directions
1. Place dough ingredients into bread machine and set to dough cycle. (sorry I don’t have any by hand directions!)
2. In the meantime, dice chicken and peppers (I did this last week before Blogher and froze them, as I did not want them to go to waste!). sauté with fajita seasoning until chicken pieces have cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Make homemade ranch dressing by whisking mayo, milk, parsley, dill, crushed garlic and crushed onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put in fridge until ready to use.
4. Once dough cycle is complete, roll out dough onto pizza stone or baling sheet. Bake at 400 for 6 minutes. Remove and add ranch dressing, chicken and peppers. Top with cheese (I omitted cheese.) bake another 8-10 minutes, or until cheese has melted.
5. Cut watermelon into wedges or pieces.
6. Serve Chicken Fajita Pizza with Watermelon.

Cost $5.20 without the cost of cheese!

So I was NOT thinking clearly about the new dairy allergy when I wrote up my meal plan for the week and included pizza!  Hello, CHEESE!  So this pizza is cheeseless!  I thought it tasted fine without the cheese, as the BBQ and red onions gave it a rich flavor.  (But still, there’s just something odd about a cheeseless pizza!)

I’m on this “lets see how few dishes I can use,” so I’ve started marinating meats in the dish I plan to cook them in (except when grilling of course!)

Let’s get to the recipe!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts ($1.66)
1 cup BBQ sauce (free) Used $1 Kraft coupon when on sale for $.98
Homemade Pizza Crust ($.80)
1/2 large red onion ($.29)
2 crushed garlic cloves ($.10)
1/2 – 1 cup BBQ sauce (free)
Lettuce from the garden (free from the garden)
1 Roma tomato ($.35) Also on sale this week!
1/2 cucumber ($.25) On sale for $.50 each this week!
2 small sweet potatoes ($.99) for the boys, as they are not big salad eaters!

Directions
1. Dice chicken breasts and pour 1 cup of BBQ sauce over the pieces. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Saute chicken pieces in skillet over medium high heat for 8-10 minutes, or until chicken has cooked through.
2. Prepare homemade pizza dough in the bread machine. Recipe/Directions here.
3. Meanwhile, saute chopped red onions and garlic in 1 tsp olive oil for 4-5 minutes, or until onions become more opaque.

3. Roll pizza crust onto pizza pan or baking stone. Top with 1/2 – 1 cup of BBQ sauce and spread around with spoon.

4. Top with cooked diced chicken and sauted red onions. (Top with 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese!)
5. Dice tomato and cucumber. Toss with lettuce and salad dressing.
6. Slit or vent sweet potatoees. Bake sweet potatoes at 350 for 1 hour in glass baking dish with 1 cup of water, or microwave for 7-10 minutes. Microwave cooking time will vary depending on thickness of each sweet potato.
7. Serve Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza with Garden Salad and Sweet Potatoes.
 
Cost $4.44

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Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp warm water
1 tsp olive oil ($.03)
1 cup whole wheat flour ($.20)
2 cups white flour ($.28)
1 packet or 1 Tbsp yeast ($.25)
1 tsp sugar ($.02)
1 tsp Italian seasonings ($.05)
1 green pepper ($.68)
1 small yellow squash ($.54)
1/2 onion ($.15)
1/2 cup olive oil salad dressing ($.25)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.50)
2 apples ($.50)

Directions
1. Prepare dough in bread machine, by adding the water, olive oil, flours, yeast, sugar and seasonings in that order to the bread machine. Set cycle to dough.
2. Slice green pepper, squash and onion into “pizza topping” sizes.
3. Once dough cycle is completed, remove dough and place on floured surface. Knead and roll out with floured roller to fit onto pizza pan. (I used my 16″ pizza baking stone.)

4. Spread olive oil dressing over the pizza dough. (You could certainly use pizza sauce, but it didn’t sound appetizing to me tonight!) Top with shredded mozzarella and then place sliced veggies over the cheese. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.
5. Slice apples.
6. Serve Homemade Veggie Pizza with sliced apples.

Cost $4.55

Print this Recipe

Mashed Sweet Potatoes…I got 12 lb of sweet potatoes for just over $4 yesterday. I baked, mashed and put them into Ziplocs. 5 meals worth. So I’ve got $.80 sweet potato portions to use up in the next few weeks. I just might grab more this weekend. This really is a deal too good to pass up. Having a cheaper vegetable portion really makes my $5 Dinners easier to come up with! And of course, we are having mashed sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. With cheap sweet potatoes, I just might be able to add some carmelized walnuts on top of the sweet potatoes…we’ll see if the budget allows! (For more kitchen tips, head on over to “Kitchen Tip Tuesday” at Tammy’s Recipes. And for more “Works for Me Wednesdays”, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer.)

***UPDATE: November 20th…I got a report that sweet potatoes are $.25/lb at Super Walmart in Greater Cincinnati (Thanks Amy!)…Anywhere else??? Leave a comment!

The rest of my shopping trip…(Sorry I forgot the photo AGAIN! I’m slowly getting “back on track”!)

Total before coupons $85.52
Total after coupons $48 even!
Percent Saved 45%
Upromise Deposits $2.50

Ingredients
GF Pizza Crust ($1.25) I used about a third of the dough for this meal and froze the other ones. And bought the package on sale.
Regular Pizza Crust ($.75)
Pizza Sauce ($.50) Half a jar
2 cups Cheese ($1.50) There is a Shortcuts coupon for shredded cheese at Kroger.
20 or so slices of pepperoni ($.35)
1/2 bag of Carrot Sticks ($.50) These are on sale at Kroger this week, and I had a “best customer” store coupon for these.

GF Pizza Crust
GF Pizza Dough Package (yeast included), 2 eggs, 2 T EVOO

Here are my GF mini pizza. There is another cookie sheet with 6 more mini crusts. I made 4 for the boys tonight and put the rest into the freezer for future snacks or lunches.

Wheat Pizza Crust
3 cups flour (1.5 white, 1.5 wheat flour), 1 cup water, 1 T EVOO, 1 t salt, 1 yeast package, 1 t sugar

I made this dough in the bread machine. Water and oil in first, then flour, then salt, sugar and yeast.

Directions
1. Make GF dough according to package instructions. Make wheat pizza dough in bread machine, as indicated above.
2. Bake crust for 6-7 minutes at 350. Then add sauce and cheese, bake another 15-20 minutes.
3. Serve with carrot sticks.

Cost $4.85

I have a great 14″ baking stone that makes the perfect amount of pizza for us!

Ingredients
1 cup water
1-2 T EVOO (extra virgen olive oil!) ($.05)
3 cup flour (usually 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat) ($.35)
1 packet yeast ($.33)
1 t salt
1 T Italian seasoning ($.05)
1 t sugar ($.02)

1/2 jar pizza sauce ($.50)
25-30 pepperoni ($.75)
2 cups cheese ($1.67)
2 Carrots, peeled and cut into sticks ($.35)

Directions
1. Bread Machine: Load ingredients in order in your bread machine. Set to dough cycle. When done, knead and roll out in a bit of flour and place onto baking stone/sheet. Let rise a few minutes.
2. Ladle and spread sauce over crust. Add cheese and top with pepperoni.
3. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 or until cheese is bubbly and turning golden brown.
4. Serve with fresh carrots. Crunch! Crunch!

Cost $4.05

Ingredients
6 Tortillas ($.77)
1/2 jar pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce ($.50)
Pepperoni ($.75)
1/2 Green Pepper, thinly sliced ($.50)
2 cups shredded cheese ($1.67)
Carrot Sticks ($.75)
4 Watermelon Wedges ($.30)

Directions
1. Preheat oven 350. Lay tortillas flat. Spread on pizza sauce. Layer 1-2 rows of pepperoni and sliced green peppers. Sprinkle with cheese, leaving room to roll.
2. Roll up tortillas and place snugly into 8×8 dish. Cook about 10 minutes so cheese melts.
3. Serve warm with carrot sticks. Delicioso!

Cost $5.00

Before

After

Ingredients
Hamburger Buns or Rolls ($1)
1/3 jar of Pizza Sauce ($.33)
Pepperonis ($1)
2 cups Mozzarella Cheese ($1.67)
Fruit or Carrot Sticks ($1)

Directions
Place buns open side up. Spread spoonful of pizza sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Add pepperonis on top.
Warm 350 for 8-10 minutes, until cheese is bubbly!
Serve with fruit or carrot sticks.

Cost $ 5.00 even!