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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I like to operate from a menu plan, but during the summer my menu plan is written in pencil and subject to change after visiting the garden. On today’s tour I discovered that some of  my kohlrabi and broccoli plants were beginning to flower. I immediately began harvesting…and creating a new dinner plan.

My daughter describes kohlrabi as a B list vegetable – not cool enough to make it on to Veggie Tales.

After you cut off the stems, peel the kohlrabi bulb with a vegetable peeler to remove the tough outer layer. It is often described as tasting like broccoli stems, which is what inspired me to modify my broccoli salad recipe to include it, but I think it tastes more like jicama. When I shared my observation with my family, my daughter noted that jicama is another one of those uncool veggies that nobody knows about.

Kohlrabi greens are edible. I like to save them to add to soups and salads. I used kohlrabi greens with this recipe to create a bed and placed the Broccoli Salad with Kohrabi and Chicken on top of them.

I love how fast stir-frys come together. Broccoli and Beef is one of my favorite dishes, but I avoided making it for years because I thought the recipe involved too many steps for an easy stir-fry dinner. The recipe I was given by a friend involved cooking the meat in oil, steaming the veggies, cooking both in a marinade and then adding a sauce…just not going to happen on a busy night. Then one evening it occurred to me: I am not a recipe follower! So I used the flavors and created a fast and easy Broccoli and Beef recipe that we can enjoy even on busy nights.

You don’t need a wok to make stir-frys. I just use a large frying pan and push ingredients to the side before I work on the sauce in the center.

You do need oyster sauce when you make Broccoli and Beef, it is the secret ingredient. (Don’t tell your children that the secret ingredient is oyster sauce – that is why it is called the secret ingredient!) In our area a nine ounce bottle of oyster flavored sauce sells for $1.99. I use 14 cents worth in this recipe. It is a fairly inexpensive way to jazz up your stir-frys.

After you have cut your broccoli florets, don’t toss the stems! You can julienne the stems and use them to make Broccoli Slaw.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 pound thin flank steak, cut in thin strips
1/2 small onion, cut in thin strips
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups broccoli florets
1 cup carrots, julienned

Sauce Ingredients:

3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Directions:

Add olive oil and soy sauce to a large frying pan or wok. Add steak, onions and garlic and cook over a medium-high flame until the meat is mostly browned.

Add broccoli and carrots. Cook over a medium-high flame for 4 –5 minutes or until broccoli is fork tender and meat is cooked through. Remove pan from flame.

In a small bowl, combine water and corn starch until they are thoroughly mixed. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and ginger. Stir until completely mixed.

Push the steak and broccoli to the sides of the pan, leaving the center empty.

Add the sauce and cook over a medium flame, stirring constantly, until the sauce begins to thicken, approximately one minute. (This sauce is not going to be extremely thick, like the restaurant variation, but it is flavorful).

Toss the beef and broccoli with the sauce until thoroughly coated.

I serve Broccoli and Beef over white rice or fried rice.

If you are not a recipe follower, feel free to completely disregard my directions and create your own variation! :)

Extra curricular activities are the scourge of my existence. They are leaving me weary and interfere with my dinner plans. I have fewer helpers and less time to prepare dinner for my increasingly hungry crowd.

Food allergies prevent me from indulging in my occasional desire to pick up fast food. Food allergies also make prepackaged convenience foods cost prohibitive. So I have modified my methods to decrease the cooking time of some of our favorite dishes. Cooking the veggies over high heat in a skillet before adding them to the casserole dish reduces the cooking time of this recipe by half.

Prepping in advance saves time on busy nights.

Plan ahead to use leftover meat in future dishes or batch broil meat and freeze it in 2 cup containers.

Use a food processor to grate a block of cheese all at once, instead of grating what you need each time you cook. I freeze the grated cheese in 1 and 2 cup containers, but you should review your recipes to decide what would be convenient for you.

Use a food processor to chop several onions at once. I freeze the chopped onions in 1/2 and 1 cup containers.

Prepare vegetables as soon as you come home from the store. After I buy broccoli, I chop up the florets and then julienne the stems to use in Broccoli Slaw or stir fry.

Before celery turns, I dice the stalks and freeze them in 1/4 and 1/2 cup containers.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole Recipe

Since most of the prep work was already done, I only had to mince the garlic and chop the carrots. This enabled me to put dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups diced carrots
6 cups broccoli florets
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons parsley

Topping Ingredients:

2 cups coarsely chopped dried bread ( I used Udi’s Whole Grain to make this gf)
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

1. Place oil in a large skillet. Add onions, celery, garlic, and carrots. Cook over a medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

2. Add broccoli to skillet and continue cooking over a medium-high heat for 2 minutes.

3. Add chicken, broth, parsley and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. While broccoli mixture is simmering, combine bread pieces, cheese, olive oil, and garlic powder in a small bowl.

5. Spoon broccoli mixture into a greased casserole pan. Sprinkle bread mixture over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

What do you serve for dinner on busy nights?

Smothered Pork Chops.

Oh yes. We’ll be making you again!!!

And as you can see, we have yet again another sorta vague recipe. It leaves me wondering…How many chops?! Based on the fact that I doubled the celery and onion it called for and that was plenty for the 9 chops I had…I’m going with 4 chops for the original recipe.

Place the flour with a little salt and pepper on a large plate.

Dip the pork chops into the flour.  Not quite the same thing as dusting. But it works.

Place the dipped chops into a skillet with the oil.  Brown for 2-3 minutes over medium high heat.

Brown all the chops. If you are making more chops than can fit into your pan, remove the chops and repeat.  I chose to bake the chops because I was making 9…and they all would not fit in my skillet to simmer.

Chop up the celery and onions and toss with the olive oil and pickle juice.

Browned chops go into glass baking dishes.

Celery-onion-pickle juice mixture goes on top before baking.  Go ahead and smother them with the onions and celery.

These. were. oh. so. incredibly. delicious. They really had it figured out back in the 30s and 40s.

This is post-depression cooking at its finest y’all!!!

Smothered Pork Chops

Adapted from my Grammy’s Tested Recipes from 1940

Makes 8 adult servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup flour ($.10)
• 1 tsp salt and pepper
• 9 pork chops ($7.41) Manager’s Special
• 2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil ($.05)
• 2 onions, chopped ($.60)
• 4 celery stalks, chopped ($.40)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil ($.10)
• 3 Tbsp pickle juice, from the jar (is this free?!) ($.10)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4  broccoli heads ($1.67)
• 1 bag frozen Sister Schubert’s Rolls ($.99) On sale, store promotion and coupon
• Butter and jam, optional
  

Directions

1. Place the flour and salt and pepper onto a plate or dish large enough to dip the pork chops.  Coat each side of the pork chops with the flour mixture.
2. Heat the oil in the skillet and then brown each side of the pork chops.  Once browned on both sides, place all the pork chops into a glass baking dish. (I used 1 9×13 and 1 8×8 to get the 9 pork chops to fit. Without smooshing.)
3. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the chopped onion, chopped celery, olive oil and pickle juice. Season with a little salt and pepper.  Pour the mixture over top of the browned pork chops.
4. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until pork chops are no longer pink in the middle.
5. Steam the broccoli.
6. Prepare the rolls as directed on the package.
7. Serve Smothered Pork Chops with Steamed Broccoli and Dinner Rolls.

Cost $11.42

This made enough for our family, our friends and there were leftovers.  Would easily feed 8 adults!

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I loved the Grilled Salsa Chicken so much.  I had to try something similar with marinara and fresh Italian herbs.

It’s a toss up.

They are both just so yum-ilicious!

Ingredients

1 package chicken thighs ($2.26) Manager’s Special
Fresh basil, oregano, thyme (from the garden)
1 jar favorite marinara or spaghetti sauce ($.99) Coupon and sale
Salt and pepper
1 box whole wheat rotini pasta ($1)
(Parmesan cheese…Steve had some on his pasta, the rest of us did not.) ($.05)
2 large broccoli heads, cut into florets ($.74) On sale last week!

Directions

1. Chop the herbs.

2. Stuff the herbs under the skin on the chicken thighs.

3. Spoon in some sauce (just like with the salsa in the Grilled Salsa Chicken.) Season with salt and pepper.

4. Grill until cooked through.

5. Cook pasta as directed on box. Serve with remaining marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese (optional).

6. Steam broccoli florets.

7. Serve Grilled Marinara Chicken with Pasta and Broccoli.

Cost $5.04

Pictured above: the mixins.

This is a quick and easy pasta salad. And quite refreshing too.

(Too bad, it’s cool and wet outside today!)

Ingredients
2 cups elbows or penne pasta noodles ($.50) Almost out of my $.50 boxes of pasta!
6 strips of bacon or turkey bacon ($.50) Bought this past week for $1.5o/package.
2 heads broccoli, cut into florets ($.79)
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes ($.19)
About 1/2 cup homemade ranch dressing (or your favorite store bought!) ($.40)
Fresh fruit ($.50) We had apple slices.

Directions
1. Cook the pasta as directed on the box. Drain and rinse with cool water.
2. Cook the bacon in a skillet or in the microwave on paper towels. Let cool, then crumble.
3. Steam the broccoli florets for just 2 or 3 minutes, in a stovetop steamer or in the microwaveable bowl with 1/2 cup of water, covered with plastic wrap.
4. Place the cooked and cooled pasta in a large mixing bowl and toss with the crumbled bacon, broccoli florets, diced tomatoes and homemade ranch dressing. Toss. Toss. Toss.
5. Serve BBT Pasta Salad with fresh fruit.

Cost $2.88

Half of the family has finished their dinner.

The other half was sidetracked by the gorgeous weather, and the desire to use every moment of sunlight to work on “opening up the garden.”

(Nevermind that it might snow next week.  I’ve GOT to get my seeds for the spinach and lettuces, or is it LETTUCI?!, into the dirt.)

So open the garden up we did.

The little people ate and are off at the library (with their daddy) hanging out with the life size caterpillar from “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

The big people will eat later.  After we reheat of course!

So here are my buffalo chicken wings…minus the celery and the blue cheese dipping sauce!

Ingredients

About 2 lbs of chicken wings ($2.42) Recently on sale for $1.19/lb
1 bottle of Franks Red Hot Wings Sauce ($.19)
Bread (from the freezer) and butter ($.79) On Manager’s Special of course!
2 large broccoli heads ($.82)

Directions

1. Marinate the wings in the hot sauce for at least 30 minutes, ideally overnight. Or better yet, freeze the wings in the sauce and let marinate as they thaw.

2. Bake wings and sauce at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until no longer pink.

3. Warm bread.

4. Steam broccoli in stovetop steamer or in a microwavable bowl with some water, covered with plastic, for 4-5 minutes.

5. Serve wings with bread and broccoli.

(Totally would have made a fabulous dipping sauce, but no time.)

Too distracted by the garden! And cleaning dirt from my fingernails!

Cost $4.22

SPLURGE ALERT!!! CONVENIENCE FOOD ALERT!!!

(BTW I have loved hearing your do’s and don’t's when it comes to convenience foods!)

It was one of those days.  It started too early. It was filled with distractions. And a few schedule changes. And it left me in no mood to cook.  Y’all have those days too, right?

There is but one option for dinner on a day like today.  And no, it’s not take-out!

A one-dish, one-skillet dinner…straight from the pantry/freezer!

Ingredients
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken ($1.50)
1 package Thai Kitchen Sesame Rice Noodles ($3) * I regularly see coupons for this product line!
1 package frozen stir-fry vegetables ($1)

*Package included sesame oil, rice noodles and seasoning. If I were to make this without the package, I would have use 1 Tbsp sesame or peanut oil, 2 Tbsp sesames, 2 Tbsp chopped peanuts, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder and salt and pepper to taste, in place of the seasonings that came with the package.  Would be more economical if you used about 1/2 lb. of thin spaghetti noodles!

Directions
1. Follow the directions on the box to cook the rice noodles in a large skillet or wok, set aside once cooked.

2. In the same large skillet or wok, stirfry the frozen vegetables, the cooked chicken and the seasonings in some oil.  Add in the cooked rice noodles and stirfry for 3-4 more minutes.

3. Serve Sesame Chicken Stir-fry.

Cost $5.50

I first had the idea to make this dinner after seeing it on Brandy’s site awhile back. But we can’t do canned soups, so I made it from scratch.

Here you go.

Ingredients
About 1 lb. steak ($2.67) On sale for $2.69/lb.
1 Tbsp oil ($.05)
Salt and pepper
3 Tbsp butter or margarine ($.30) I used dairy free margarine
3 Tbsp flour ($.05)
3 cups milk ($.30) I used rice milk
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($.10)
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 4 oz. can sliced mushrooms ($.50) On sale at Walgreens this week!
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 bag of no-yolk noodles ($.41) On sale for $1.82 and matched a $1 coupon! Just $.82 for the bag!!!
2 large heads of broccoli ($.79)

Directions

1. Add the steak, cut into cubes, to a large skillet with the oil and some salt and pepper.  Brown.

2. Remove the browned beef from the skillet and set aside.

3. In the same skillet that you used to brown the beef, add the butter/margarine and let melt.

4. Add the flour and stir it into the melted butter.

5. Whisk in the milk and turn heat to medium.

6. Add the Worcestershire sauce and let cook over medium heat for 6-8 minutes…

7. …or until starts to bubble and thicken.

8. Once bubbling, stir in the chopped onion and sliced mushrooms.

9.  Stir the beef back into the sauce.

10. Let simmer over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until sauce reaches desired consistency.

11. Prepare noodles as directed on package.

12. Steam broccoli in stove-top steamer or in microwavable bowl with 1/4 cup of water covered with plastic wrap for 4-5 minutes.

13. Serve Beef Stroganoff over No-Yolk Noodles with Broccoli.

Cost $5.17