I’ve waited as long as I can.

I just had to go and pull the carrots!!!

Here’s what I pulled from 3 squares in the garden.  There were some itty-bittys (that I ended up munching on), and some larger ones that I threw into the slow cooker with tonight’s dinner.  (Final garden update coming this weekend)

Sweet, crisp and simply delicious!

Tonight’s dinner is a simple beef roast with carrots from the garden, celery and some spices.  I plan to strain and save the juices for beef stock.

I bought a 2.4 lb. top round roast when it was on sale for $1.99/lb (reg. $3.99/lb) a few weeks ago.  I let it thaw in the fridge and then added it to the slow cooker after breakfast.  Easy as that! 

And since we can’t/won’t eat 2.4 lbs of beef in one meal, I plan to use half for this meal and the other half soon!

Ingredients
1 2.4 lb. beef roast ($4.77/2=$2.38)
Carrots from the garden (free) Substitute 2-3 carrots sticks
2 celery stalks ($.20)
Garlic salt
Pepper
Handful green beans (free from the garden)
2 potatoes (for the Hubs and I) ($.30)
1 large sweet potato (for the boys…oldest is allergic to potatoes!) ($.45)
Butter/margarine for potatoes ($.20)
Salt and pepper

Directions
1. Place 1/2 cup of water in the base of the slow cooker. (I like to do this to dilute out the juices for saving them as beef stock.) Place beef roast into the slow cooker. Add carrots and chopped celery around the beef. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Set slow cooker on low and cook for 8 hours.
2. Wash and snap off ends of green beans. Steam in stovetop steamer or saucepan with 1/2 cup of water for 4-5 minutes.
3. Bake (or microwave) potatoes and sweet potatoes. Vent with fork or cut slits with knife. Bake for 45-60 minutes, until soft. Cooking time will depend on thickness of potatoes. To microwave, vent in same way and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until soft all the way through.
4. Serve sliced Beef Roast with Garden Carrots, Green Beans and Baked Potatoes.

Cost $3.54

Tonight Grace from Delicious Intentions shares her fabulous chilled corn soup for a crowd! This recipe serves a 20-25 person crowd…but feel free to scale it back for your crowd at home. Or better yet, make it all and stash some in the freezer for a quick and easy dinner on another night!

I’ve always loved cooking and having dinner parties. Being Italian, it’s in my blood to cook for an army. Even if it’s an intimate dinner for 4, we’ll over cook and make enough for 10. However, cooking for 100 people for my wedding was a more daunting task than I originally expected. Catering my own wedding was even more difficult because it was a buffet style dinner and there was no real way of knowing who would eat what, and how much, especially with the variety of tastes and dietary needs of the guests that planned on attending.

Thankfully, I was able to work with local farmers to get the majority of the produce that I used and they gave me a great bargain (e.g., 5 pounds of garlic for $20 and 12 pounds of basil for $48 and so forth). With what was available, I then looked at the variety of cookbooks I had, and the the family recipes archived away inside my head, to see what options I had for the menu and I built up an extraordinary culinary experience working off of what I had instead of setting out to find the ingredients I needed for recipes already chosen. I supplemented some ingredients with whatever was readily available and then threw in just a few food products from the grocery store (like deli meats and dairy products).

I was able to make ALL the food for under $400 (less than $4 per person) with 15-20 dishes in total being prepared – ranging from cold soups, to antipasto salads to Italian meat sandwiches, and finally, desserts. All the dishes served were inspired by my Italian/Mediterranean culinary style, and a surprising favorite was the chilled sweet corn soup (infused with mint) and served with an optional chili oil inspired by one of Top Chef Season 5 contestant, Jaime Lauren’s recipes.

Originally, some people had their doubts, but after finishing the soup, my cooking helpers loved it, and it ended up being one of, if not the most popular dish at the wedding. Since it was so well received, I have decided to share this recipe in particular with everyone. Sometimes on a budget, you have to do more work, and this recipe will serve 20-25 people and takes about 2 hours to prepare, but it is well worth the effort And despite the stress of catering on a budget, it’s incredibly satisfying to be able to accomplish it all yourself, and even more so when the food is so thoroughly enjoyed by friends and family.

Chilled Sweet Corn Soup with Mint and Chili Oil

Ingredients
15 ears yellow corn, cleaned and cut off cob ($3.00)
1 bunch celery, chopped ($1.50)
5 yellow onions, sliced ($1.15-1.43 depending on how many are in the bag)
5 Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered ($1.50)
10 cloves garlic, smashed ($0.50)
5 qts vegetable stock ($3.13)
1/2 lb butter ($1.67)
1 qt heavy cream ($3.98)
1 bunch peppermint, tied with a string for easy removal ($1.67)
salt to taste

**This soup comes out to be about $0.74-1.30 per serving which is remarkable for a dish that is so filling, and so decadent. Though of course, depending on the season and your local farmers market and grocery stores, your price for the dish might vary.

Directions
First, melt the butter in the bottom of a large stockpot. Then add garlic and toast it until golden. Add onions and season with salt, cooking the garlic and onions on medium heat until soft. Once the garlic and onions are soft, add celery and cook until just soft. Now add the potatoes, corn, and peppermint and cover everything with vegetable stock and allow it to come to a simmer. Cook everything together until the potatoes are soft and when the potatoes are soft enough, check the seasoning and remove the peppermint bunch.

Now comes the more difficult part: The soup mixture has to pureed (in small batches) adding a small amount of cream to each batch until smooth. Each pureed batch needs to be strained through a sieve and then allowed to cool. (The seeds inside the corn kernels get stuck in the strainer, so you’ll have to stop and clean them out every now and then. Also, depending on the blender you’re using, you may need to puree the batches more than once to get the most you can from the soup.)

After the soup as cooled, you can adjust the consistency with extra stock (or cream) and re-season the the soup if necessary. Place 6-8oz of the chilled soup in a chilled bowl and garnish with mint leaves and chili oil (optional).

If you’d like to give the soup a little extra kick you can add this chili oil. You’ll need 1 tablespoon of crushed chilies and 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil and some salt, to taste. Combine everything, heat to a simmer, and let it all steep for 20 min. Then, strain the chili oil and reserve it. Enjoy!

Grace is a newlywed, freelance clothing designer, and food enthusiast. As recent college graduate, she have decided to take a few years off before pursuing her doctorate in Psychology in order to immerse herself in a few of my more artistic interests, including food and fashion. She can be found blogging at Delicious Intentions.

So I added an ingredient to my “all-time favorite” potato salad recipe. 

Chopped pickles!

Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant.  Or maybe it’s because I just happened to see them when grabbing the dijon mustard and miracle whip.  Hmmm…wonder how this would taste mixed in???  Verdict: Delicious.

Ingredients
6 medium potatoes ($.80)
1 small onion ($.15)
2 garlic cloves, crushed ($.05)
1 dill pickle, chopped ($.10)
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp miracle whip, divided ($.20)
2-3 Tbsp dijon mustard ($.10)
2 eggs ($.20)
Cracked pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

Directions
1. In medium saucepan, boil peeled and diced potatoes, chopped onions and crushed garlic for 10 minutes, or until potato pieces are soft. Drain and place in serving bowl.

2. Chop pickle and add to potatoes with 1/2 cup miracle whip, dijon mustard and cracked pepper. Season with salt. Stir through.

3. In small saucepan, boil 2 eggs for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit in water for 10 more minutes. Carefully remove and rinse with cool water until can be easily handled.

4. Place in small bowl and chop using pastry blender.

5. Add chopped eggs plus 2 Tbsp of miracle whip to the potatoes. Stir through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until completely chilled. This will serve 8-10 people, depending on how large your “spread” is for your July 4th BBQ!

Cost $1.60

I just love breakfast for dinner!  Maybe because it breaks up the meal planning monotony I sometimes feel…or because it seems to be quicker and easier to prepare!

Tonight we had Tricia’s (Once A Month Mom) Ham and Hashbrown Bake…(original recipe from Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer).  Remember our trade.

Hello, delicious! 

The boys ate earlier than we did.  It sorta happened by accident.  But I liked it!  We let them go from the table after they had finished eating…since they started before we did.  We did eat part of the meal together (’cause that is important!), but it really was nice to just sit with the Hubs and talk…while the kids played in the playroom.  Like a mini 10-minute dinner date!

The boys ate scrambled eggs, toast and fruit salad (this week’s version consists of watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and peaches).  We also had some scrambled eggs, fruit salad and the Ham and Hashbrown Bake. 

I encourage people to add 1 “breakfast for dinner” meal into their weekly meal plan to help reduce overall weekly meal costs!  Eggs seem to be cheap everywhere these days…so base your meal around the protein packed egg and you’re set!

Ingredients
.8 lb eye of round thin steaks ($2.88)
1 Tbsp steak seasoning (FREE!) Bought last week with $.50 coupon that doubled when the Grill Mates were on sale for $1!6
6 medium white potatoes ($.80)
1/2 cup sour cream ($.20)
2 Tbsp butter ($.20)
1 crushed garlic clove ($.05)
Salt/Pepper
4 corn cobs ($.68) On sale for $.17 an ear this week!
A1 steak sauce ($.10) There is a $2 off coupon floating around for A1!

Directions
1. Set steaks on plate and sprinkle with seasonings. Let sit in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to allow seasoning and salt to tenderize the meat. Grill for 3-4 minutes on each side, until cooked through. (These steaks were very thin and didn’t take long to cook!)

2. Peel and quarter potatoes and boil in medium saucepan. Drain and return potatoes to saucepan. Add sour cream, butter, crushed garlic and salt and pepper. Mash with potato masher. For creamier potatoes, add 1/2 cup of milk at a time, until reaches desired consistency.
3. Remove husks and threads from corn. Boil in large saucepan for 4-5 minutes.
4. Serve Round Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Corn.

Cost $4.91

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I knew that today would be a BUSY day, so I planned accordingly.  Easy “breakfast dinner.”  I try to incorporate breakfast for dinner at least 2 or 3 times a month.  Helps keep the cost down and brings a little more variety to the table.  (Pun intended.) Plus, I was in no position to be whipping up a fancy meal after today’s media frenzy!!!

(Again…no photo.  I know these are an integral part of my posts.  Camera battery is charging and the camera will be back in action tomorrow!)

Ingredients
3-4 small potatoes ($.50) On sale this week $3/10 lbs
1 Tbsp oil ($.05)
8 eggs ($1.09)
6-8 flour tortillas ($.99) Use corn if gluten free (GF)
2 apples or small pieces of fruit ($.50) On sale AGAIN for 4/$1
Garnish: Salsa or shredded cheese ($.50-$1)

Directions
1. Peel and dice potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. In small skillet, add oil and then diced potatoes. Set to medium and cook for about 8 minutes. Cover and stir 1 or 2 times while cooking. Season with salt, pepper and favorite “all purpose” seasoning.
2. In bowl, whisk eggs with salt and pepper. When potatoes have browned and softened, add eggs to the skillet. Scramble the eggs with the potatoes. Once eggs have cooked, spoon into tortillas. Place in warm oven until ready to serve.
3. Slice or dice apples or other favorite fruit.
4. Serve Potato and Egg Breakfast Tacos with Fresh Fruit. Garnish tacos with shredded cheese or salsa.

Cost $4.13

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I want to thank you for your prayers over the weekend. The MRI went as smoothly as it could have gone. I only had one “mama panic moment” after I realized he had been back there for longer than normal. But he was and is fine!

I want to thank Amber from Classic Housewife for my FAB new $5 Dinner Challenge button!

Tonight’s meal is inspired by an idea at Makes and Takes. This is a fantastic kid friendly recipe. I made the meal with ground chicken (idea from Mom of Littles) and the kiddos LOVED it! I thought they tasted like chicken nuggets. GOOD chicken nuggets. Not processed chicken and fat fried chicken nuggets!!!

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken ($1.49)
1 cup bread crumbs ($.25) I ground up some GFCFSF cereal instead
1 egg ($.12)
2 Tbsp ketchup ($.10)
1 tsp garlic powder ($.03)
1/2 onion, finely chopped ($.20)
Salt/Pepper
BBQ sauce ($.25)
8 small potatoes ($.99)
1/2 – 1 cup milk ($.12)
1 -2 Tbsp olive oil (or butter) ($.10)
Salt/Pepper
1 acorn squash ($1.29)

Directions
1. In large bowl, combine ground chicken, bread crumbs/chip crumbs, egg, ketchup and spices. (Or use your favorite meatloaf recipe!!!). Mix well. Scoop meat into muffin tins (I used mini loaf pan tin.) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
2. Peel and quarter the potatoes. Boil for about 10 minutes or until tender. Drain and place in bowl. Mash with potato masher. Add milk and butter/olive oil. Mix in seasonings. Stir well.
3. Prepare squash as follows. This is my favorite way to make it. “Steaming it in the oven” makes the flesh really soft. I would love to hear your favorite way to prepare acorn squash!

(Microwaving the squash for 3-4 minutes will make it easier to cut.) Place upside down in baking dish with about 1/4 inch of water.

Cover with foil.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Remove and let cool 10 minutes before handling. Scoop out seeds and then scoop out the flesh. Drizzle with honey, agave syrup or maple syrup.

4. Serve chicken mini meatloaves with BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes and squash.

Cost $4.94

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Ingredients
1 2.5 lb pork roast ($4.05) I used half or less than half for tonight’s meal, so we’ll call it $2 for this meal! I’ll show you later in the week what I do with the other half!!!
Salt, pepper and garlic powder ($.05)
6 red potatoes ($.79)
1/4 cup low fat sour cream ($.10) Recently on sale matched with Cellfire.com coupon
1/4-1/2 cup fat free milk ($.10)
1-2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed ($.20)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups organic frozen peas ($1)

**Check here for the GFCFSF version of mashed red potatoes.

Directions
1. Place pork roast in crockpot with 1/2 cup of water (or you can spray crockpot with cooking spray). Season with salt, cracked pepper and garlic powder. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
2. Scrub and cut red potatoes into quarters. Boil for about 10 minutes, until soft and “mashable.” Drain water and place in bowl to mash.
3. Mash cooked red potatoes with potato masher. Add sour cream and milk (I’m all out of butter, but 2-3 Tbsp butter would be good too!). Add more milk for creamier potatoes or less milk for chunkier potatoes. Add crushed garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cook frozen green beans according to package instructions.
5. Remove pork from crockpot when it’s finished. Slice into 1/3-1/2 inch slices.
6. Serve sliced pork roast with gravy and a side of mashed red potatoes and green beans.

Cost $4.24

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