Or perhaps the wrong way to cut a green pepper?!?

I am a total green pepper cutting rebel and do my own thing when it comes to dicing, slicing and cutting green peppers. I am not, however, a rebel without a cause.

I definitely cut with a cause.  In this case, freezing all these green peppers!  In the end, I wound up with the following meal size portions:

• 6 bags with diced green peppers, for soups, spaghetti sauce, slow cooking – Tomato, Black Bean and Barley Soup
• 5 bags with sliced green peppers, for fajitas – Black Bean Fajitas
• 5 bags with cubed green peppers, for stir-fries – Sweet and Sour Chicken
• 6 whole peppers, to be used this weekend for Beef Kebabs and Stuffed Bell Peppers from The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook

(And sorry for the funky lighting and for talking so softly…this was, after all, a $5 Dinners iPhone production!)

So how about you?!  How do you cut, slice or dice green?! Are you a rebel too?!

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Multitasking.

I usually don’t have trouble with multitasking. I can chat on the phone with my mom about the latest while sprinkling Critter Ridder powder all over my garden. (Pesky chipmunks.)  I can be uploading photographs of dinner while reading a story to the boys.  I can read emails while waiting in the drop off line at school (parked, and car turned off). I set up conference calls for those times that I know I’ll be in the car and less likely to be interrupted by the little people. I manage to whip up a batch of muffins with a fussy baby in the sling. (I don’t go near an open oven with him in the sling. I can just hear the panic stricken comments, so let me stop you before you get started.) But I will say, pouring muffin batter into the muffin wells with a baby in a sling isn’t all that pretty. In fact, it was quite messy!

I get how to multitask. I do it all the time. BUT, there are occasions when multitasking is not a good idea.

Making Homemade White Sauce is one of those times.

You see, making white sauce from scratch requires focus and attention. Everything happens very quickly. Once you start to melt the butter, there’s not even time to grab the milk from the fridge or some spices from the spice rack.

When I set out to make this pasta, my goal was to have a pasta dish that seemed like it was cheesy.

I miss cheese. (And I’m too cheap to pay for Vegan cheeses.)

So, I’ll just have to trick myself. I made a dairy free white sauce, using dairy free margarine and rice milk.  And I added some of my homemade taco seasoning to give it some yellow-ish/orange-ish/redness to it. You know, like cheese!

Creamy and tasty it was!

I had no intention of adding the pinto beans to this pasta. But after tasting it, my tongue was on fire. I’m not terribly sensitive to spicy foods, but the sauce had a nice ZIP to it. And I knew that it would not fly well with the little people.  So I short-order cooked.

(Is that a verb? And I sure hope my high school English teacher isn’t reading this. She might ask my school to dig out my transcripts and change my A to an F. Hi Betty. Yes, we are on a first name basis now.)

I RARELY do that…but I didn’t mean for this to turn out with such ZING. So they had spaghetti. And we will eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

So back to the beans…they really did help take an edge off the sauce’s heat. Here’s the formula.

SPICY SAUCE + bland beans (with a little chicken and pasta)= PERFECT DINNER

At least my tongue thought so.

And finally, the recipe.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter or margarine ($.30)
3 Tbsp flour ($.05)
3 cups milk ($.30)
1 small white onion, chopped ($.30)
2 cups chopped green peppers ($.44) Used half bag frozen chopped green peppers
1 Tbsp homemade taco seasoning ($.05)
Salt and pepper
1 box elbow pasta noodles ($.50) Only have 1 of my $.50 boxes left!
2 cups cooked chicken, about 1 1/2 chicken breasts worth ($1.50) Leftover from last night’s Teriyaki Kebabs…recipe coming next week.
2 cups cooked pinto beans ($.40)
1/4 Watermelon ($1)

Directions

1. Make the white sauce using the butter/margarine, flour, milk, salt and pepper (Video here).  Stir in the chopped onions, chopped green peppers and taco seasoning once the sauce is bubbling and slightly thickened.

2. Cook pasta as directed. Drain and add to large mixing bowl. Mix in the leftover cooked chicken and cooked beans.

3. Pour the creamy taco sauce over the pasta, chicken and beans. Toss.

4. Serve Creamy Chicken Taco Pasta with Watermelon.

Cost $4.84

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This is my green pepper plant from last summer’s garden.  I’m definitely planting a few more plants in the garden this year…and when it comes time to harvest, I’ll be making Jennifer’s Stuffed Pepper Casserole!

If you’ve got green peppers growing in your garden, or plans to add them in to your garden this year, then bookmark this delicious recipe!  And please share any other favorite green pepper recipes!!!

Thanks Jennifer!

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My camera battery is still dead.

***Note to self: Make this quick, and go find that charger.

We all really enjoyed this.  Even the boys, who mentioned…several times…that their lips were on fire.

{Forgive the iPhone photos}

Ingredients
4 cups cooked black beans ($.50)
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies (free) Used $.50/1 coupon, doubled, when on sale for $.83 cents
1 tsp cumin ($.05)
1/2 tsp salt and pepper, each, to taste
1/4-1/2 cup water
1 12 oz. bag frozen peppers and onions ($1)
1 bag 12 wheat tortillas ($1.29)
1 12 oz. bag frozen corn ($1)

Directions

1. Place the black beans, Rotel with juices, cumin, salt and pepper into blender.  Blend until smooth.  Add 1/4-1/2 cup of water if needed to blend.

2. Meanwhile, saute the peppers and onions with some salt and pepper.

3. Warm the tortillas in the microwave with a paper towel covering them.  Place black beans onto the tortilla and top with peppers and onions.

4. Cook the frozen corn as directed on package instructions.

5. Serve Black Bean Fajitas with Corn.

6. LEFTOVER IDEA: There was enough black beans leftover to make for “Black Bean and Cheese” Burritos for Steve’s lunch this week

Cost $3.84

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When it looks like THIS outside…

…and every tree is sight is covered with frost and snow…

…it’s SO WONDERFUL to be able to pull out some of these…

…delicious green peppers, straight from the garden, rather the freezer!  But straight from the garden into the freezer…

…and remember that spring is coming. But not soon enough!

Green peppers can be frozen “straight up” but please know that they will thaw and be, not mushy, but soft.  They lose their crunchiness after being frozen.  But that doesn’t matter when you’re dicing and tossing them into the slow cooker!

I shall consider this one of my “how to” posts for this month.

“How to Load your Slow Cooker”

I know it’s simple and basic. But here you go anyways!

Ingredients
1-2 tsp olive oil ($.05)
1.1 lb. beef roast ($2.74) Bought for $2.49/lb.
Salt and pepper
About 1 tsp garlic powder ($.05)
About 1 tsp Italian seasonings ($.05)
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained ($.29)
1/2 onion, diced ($.15)
2 small garden green peppers (or 1 large) (free!)
1 12 oz. bag frozen corn ($.30) From yesterday’s shopping trip!
1 lb. rotini pasta ($.50) Using up one of my $.50 boxes from the pantry!

Directions
1. Load slow cooker.

Drizzle olive oil.

Place roast into slow cooker. Spicify!

Add can of diced tomatoes. Spicify some more!

Add diced onion and garden green peppers.

Mix.

Cover and slow cook on low for 8 hours.

2. Enjoy the sweet aroma of Italy as it fills your home all day!

3. Cook corn as indicated on package.

4. Prepare pasta as indicated on package. Season with salt and pepper, if desired!

5. Serve Beef Roast Marinara over Pasta with Corn.

Cost $4.13

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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

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I’ve done it! I’ve really done it! I made a meal that costs more than 5 smackers!!! I wasn’t sure that was possible anymore!

I saw this recipe in a Taste of Home Slow Cooker Recipe book. I just HAD to try it. I knew if I didn’t get the green peppers on sale the meal would be way over. I was right! Even if they had been on sale, I think I’d still have gone over! Oh well. Can y’all forgive me this once???!!!

And make sure you stop by this week’s $5 Dinner Challenge for even more great frugal recipe ideas!

Ingredients
4 large green peppers ($3.96) *gasp*
1/2 cup rice, uncooked ($.10)
1/2 lb ground beef, cooked ($.75)
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles ($.37) But these are free at Kroger this week!
1/2 cup frozen organic corn ($.25)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese ($.37) Do not add if GFCFSF!
3 medium sweet potatoes ($1.39)

Directions
1. Cook 1/2 cup rice in 1 1/4 cup of water. Bring water to boil. Add rice and return to boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 20 minutes.
2. Add can of Rotel, frozen corn and cooked ground beef to the saucepan with the rice. Mix well.

3. Cut the tops off of each bell pepper and remove the seeds and stem.
4. Scoop rice and meat mixture into each bell pepper. Place bell peppers into the crockpot. Cook on low for 4 or 6 hours. About 15 minutes before serving, add shredded cheese to the tops of each pepper. Let cheese melt.
5. Slit sweet potatoes with knife or vent with fork. Bake sweet potatoes at 350 for 1 hour in baking dish with 1/4 inch water. Cover with foil. Remove and let cool about 10 minutes. Peel skins off of the potato and mash. Serve with cinnamon and butter if you like. We eat them “plain”.
6. Serve stuffed bell peppers with a side of mashed sweet potatoes.

Cost $7.19 WAY OVER

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I’ll be sharing this recipe in the Grocery Cart Challenge’s Weekly Recipe Swap!

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