This is my easy, frugal alternative to Eggplant Parmesan. I wasn’t quite so eloquent when my daughter asked what I was making for dinner. I told her I was making Eggplant Parmesan without the eggplant and without the Parmesan. she said, “it sounds like you’ve got nothing”. After she finished eating she leaned over and said, “You might want to consider naming this recipe based on what is in it, instead of what is missing”.

I included a layer of rice under the zucchini to make this vegetarian dish just a little more filling. Plus it helps sop up the extra spaghetti sauce.

Instead of breading and frying the zucchini, I add a layer of croutons. The croutons add the flavor and crunch you expect in a Parmesan dish, but it is a lot faster and easier. Since it is baked instead of fried, it is also lower in fat.

You can stretch cheese further by using a super fine grated cheese. That is only one cup of cheese in the picture above, but it looks like more because it is finely grated. Quite often when you eat Eggplant or Chicken Parmesan at a restaurant it doesn’t actually contain Parmesan cheese. My husband and kids do not like Parmesan cheese, so I rarely use it. If your family likes Parmesan cheese, then replace 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese with it.

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My family loves stir-frys. And I really appreciate how quickly they come together. However, some days I feel like using one pan for rice and another pan for the stir-fry is one pan too many when it comes time to clean up. It’s not because I am lazy… oh who am I kidding? It’s totally because I am lazy!  This recipe combines our favorite Asian flavors in one easy skillet dish.

I used white basmati rice, which cooks in about 20 minutes. If you use a different rice, use one with a similar cooking time. The recipe calls for chicken broth. I make chicken broth in a slow cooker to stretch my grocery budget a little further. If you do not have chicken broth, you can substitute vegetable broth or water.

I added sesame seeds to this recipe. I save money on sesame seeds by buying them from the bulk section of our grocery store. I can buy a pound of sesame seeds for less than the price of a bottle of seeds in the spice section.

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This is a variation on a dish my mother made when I was young. My mother made very few international dishes. Most of our food was basic Central and Eastern European cooking. Lots of meat, lots of potato, lots of sauces and gravies. My mother never even made spaghetti. That is why this dish stands out in my memory so much, because other cuisines were just never represented in our house, which I think is quite typical of must immigrant households.

In my mother’s very carnivore house, her version was served as a side dish, not a main course. When I do make this for my mom, she always comments how this is not quite like her version (I love the addition of the hoisin sause and other tasty things) and that it really needs a chicken leg to go with it. Feel free to serve it that way, but I love it because it is a complete meal in one dish, easy to serve, easy to eat and great for lunches because it is delicious cold as well as hot!

Frugal Tip: To wrap Christmas and other gifts, I have made and purchased lots of fabric bags. My recipients know that they need to return the bags to get another gift next year. The easiest solution is to buy decorative pillow cases at the thrift store or at the dollar store. If you can sew, it is really easy to sew up a drawstring bag which makes it super easy to wrap: drop the gift in, pull the drawstring, BAM, done!  For gifts to people who I do not feel comfortable in asking for the bags back, I make gift bags and containers out of junk mail. Check out my blog for more information. 

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely adore the lovely rice you get on the side at a Mexican restaurant. Tex Mex is the name of the game. After much trial and error I think I’ve finally recreated a recipe that’s really close to what you’ll find in a local restaurant. This rice pairs perfectly with any sort of Mexican dish and is super simple and cheap to put together. It’s also free of the top 8 allergens!  I hope you enjoy it!

This is one of my favorite quick and easy meals.  It is a one dish meal that is as simple as opening several cans and a box mix! I adapted this recipe from the back of a Near East rice pilaf mix to supersize the veggies for more nutrients and fiber. This Santa Fe Rice Pilaf is great with orange wedges or other fresh fruit on the side. A great, light summer meal to add to your rotation!

Ingredients:

Aren't you jealous of my green stove?

If you’ve ever wondered when to add pasta or rice to a recipe in the slow cooking, I’m sharing answers over at One Dish Dinners!

• When to Add Rice to the Slow Cooker
• When to Add Pasta to the Slow Cooker

Being able to slow cook some meat in a sauce with some veggies all day, then add the starch at the end of the cooking cycle…makes for super simple, slow cooked, one dish dinners!

There are probably a few of you who are wondering how I get my children to eat their dinner wrapped in a leaf. Well, my oldest child is a Lord of the Rings junkie, and what the oldest kids are interested has a tendency to trickle down to the younger children…so my children pretend that food wrapped in leaves is made by elves. I am happy to listen to all of their favorite LOTR quotes for the umpteenth time, while they enjoy stuffed cabbage for dinner.

I forgot to make my rice in advance, so instead of waiting 45 minutes for it to cook, I prepared the rice in a pressure cooker. It only takes 7 minutes to cook white rice in a pressure cooker and brown rice cooks in just 18 minutes. While the rice was cooking, I was able to prep all of the other ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 large head of cabbage, cored
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 large carrots, finely shredded
2 celery stalks, diced
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (don’t drain)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 lb. lean ground turkey
1 cup cooked long-grain brown rice
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Sauté until the onions are soft, approximately 5 –7 minutes.

Place a large pot of water on to boil.

Leave half of the vegetable mixture in the pan and transfer the other half to a large bowl.

Add the diced tomatoes, sugar and vinegar to the skillet. Simmer on low for 10 minutes.

Add the ground turkey, rice, pepper, salt, and egg to the bowl, Mix well.

Remove enough leaves to make 16 cabbage rolls. Cut the denser ribbing from the bottom of the leaf. If you don’t have enough large leaves you can use to smaller leaves. Place 3 –4 cabbage leave in the pot of boiling water for 1-2 minutes to soften them. Remove with tongs, place the leaves in a bowl of cold water to cool. Then move the leaves to a towel or colander to dry. Repeat the process for the rest of the leaves.

My Blanching System

Place a portion of the meat mixture in the center of a leaf.

Roll up bottom, then fold over one side, then fold the top down, then roll to close. Place in a greased baking dish with the seam-side down. Repeat until all of the cabbage rolls have been made.

Spoon the tomato mixture over the cabbage rolls.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.

I serve cabbage rolls with rice and use the leftover cabbage to make Sautéed Cabbage and Carrots.

Sautéed Cabbage and Carrots

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, julienned
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Heat oil in large skillet. Add cabbage, carrots, garlic powder and pepper. Cook over a medium-high heat, tossing occasionally, until the cabbage just begins to wilt, approximately 7 – 10 minutes.

I often make Gluten-Free Oatmeal Shortbread for dessert which my kids pretend is Lembas Bread.

Is your cooking ever influenced by your children’s interest?

When Steve and I lived in the Dominican Republic, one of our favorite side dishes was smothered okra.  I would go into the fruit and veggie market and get a pound of fresh okra.  I’d grab some peppers and an onion, then I’d probably pay $1 for it all…maybe $1.25, and I’d be on my way.

Eddy was my market man…and he always gave me a great deal! Nothing had prices on it, but I knew he was giving me

(While there are a number of things that I miss about our days in the Dominican Republic…our friends, our church, the simplicity of life, the slower pace…I especially miss the insanely cheap prices on fresh fruit and vegetables.

Insane-ly. Insane-ly. Cheap.

(I often wonder if I still lived there, if I could make all these $5 Dinners for just $3 or $4 with the cheaper produce prices!)

Once I got home, I’d rinse and start chopping…sauteing the vegetables with some canned tomatoes for a delicious smothered okra side dish.

And here I’ve turned this side dish favorite into a full meal…

Let’s get to it, shall we?!

Saute the chicken pieces in olive oil with some salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning.

Toss in a bag of frozen okra.

Then a bag of mixed peppers.

(Add them frozen, no need to thaw.)

Add can of Rotel.

Mix and toss.  Cooked a few more minutes, until the veggies begin to thaw.

Add a few drops of Tabasco. Or a lotta drops of Tabasco.

Whatever kind of heat you like.

Cover and bake. Serve over brown rice.

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My family of 10 loves this recipe. There are so many ways to prepare it by adding different vegetables and meats, that we often vary it by what we have in the fridge.

The “must haves” for this recipe are

• rice
• eggs
• soy sauce

After that you can add peas, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, ham, chicken, pork, or whatever else you would like.

For this recipe, we used 1 cup frozen broccoli – chopped, 2 grated carrots, and a leftover oven fried pork chop that I minced.

1. Prepare the frozen broccoli and rice (We used 6 cups) according to package directions and grate the carrots.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp oil on medium high in a large wok or skillet.
3. Add cooked rice to the wok and fry for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Move the rice to the outer edges of the wok, making a hole in the center.
5. Crack the eggs in the center of the pan, and scramble.
6. Add the vegetables and meat, plus 2 Tbsp. soy sauce and stir it all together until well heated.
7. Enjoy!

A simple variation of chicken and rice.

It’s simple to make. It calls for simple ingredients. And is simply delicious!

This is the last of the recipes that was on my “pantry challenge” list from December and January. And how fitting that I’m making it on the last day of January! I had the chicken thighs in the freezer and knew I wanted to use them in the slow cooker (because I don’t grill when it’s 20 degrees out!)  While using a gumbo soup vegetable mix would have been more appropriate, I used a vegetable soup mix of frozen vegetables…that has also been hanging out in the freezer!

Add some Creole seasoning (and say BAM! while you’re at it!)…sorry, I had to!

Let it cook the day away and enjoy a no fuss meal at the end of the day!

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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!