I’d like to introduce y’all to Angie!  Tonight, she’s sharing a meal for her family of 7 that’s just under $8.50!

In between school, boy scouts, choir, girl scouts, homework, BPSA scouting, potty training, MOPS, learning how to walk and PTA – somewhere in there this family of 7 has to eat! I don’t have an excess of time or money so I need to cook smart.  That’s right, this is a complete easy meal to add to your recipe books. Using the crockpot is just awesome to the 10th power because you don’t even have to be there until the finishing touches are needed! It looks like a complex meal, but the ingredient list is actually pretty simple.

Chicken and Dumplings

3 cups cooked shredded chicken $2.68
1/2 onion (diced) $.13
1 clove garlic (chopped fine) $.06
3 cans of biscuits* $1.17

Green Beans

1 1/2 pounds fresh beans $1.95
1 tsp butter

Watermelon Slices

1 whole watermelon $2.50

Total meal $8.49

Chicken and Dumplings:

• In a crock pot, combine chicken, onion and garlic in 8 cups of water until done (approx 4 hours on high)
• Remove chicken, and shred with knife (should yield 7 cups, what you don’t use – freeze for another meal)
• Strain broth
• Set aside 2 cups of chicken broth for green beans
• Add remaining broth plus 8 cups of water to large pot
• add shredded chicken
• Cut each biscuits into 1/4ths and add to chicken and broth
• Boil on medium for 45 minutes stirring every so often.
• Let sit for 15 minutes before serving to firm up.

Green Beans:
While you are stirring your chicken and dumplings,
In a medium pot combine 2 cups of reserved chicken broth and 1 cup of water to and bring to a boil. Snap off the ends of the beans and add them to the broth mixture. Boil for about 10 minutes depending on how firm you like your beans. (By boiling it with the chicken broth, you are getting all those wonderful garlic and onion flavors.) Drain beans, return to them to the pan and add the butter. Saute until butter is melted and serve warm.

*I choose to use biscuits (and you can use ANY kind) because I can find them for .39 a can. To make the meal more frugal, make your own dumplings. To make the meal faster, use boneless skinless chicken breasts, canned broth, garlic & onion powder.

Now child #2 wants to start Taekwando, I may need to find kitchen appliances that plug into the car.

Happy Cooking!

Angie Atchley is a freelance writer and is also the voice behind Vivo Bello. She chronicles the antics of her 5 young children, posts kid friendly recipes, and hosts Meaningful Mondays about random acts of kindness.

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

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!

I found a watermelon on sale for $2.50.  I thought about juicing the watermelon, as I knew the Hubs and I would enjoy it, but I wasn’t sure about the kids.

I knew they LOVED watermelon…

Exhibit A

I wasn’t sure they would like the juice. But I made some anyways.

Here is the scene on the kitchen counter. I love making fresh fruit juice, but it sure is messy and sticky!

I threw in some mint because the mint is taking over and I can’t use it fast enough!  (If you have any ideas, do share!)

I’m not exactly sure how many ounces of juice I got from the watermelon.  You see, I gave the boys a taste of the “questionable” watermelon juice, and they couldn’t get enough!!! 

The Hubs and I enjoyed a glass on a warm and muggy afternoon.  Quite refreshing!

All in all, I was able to get 32 oz. in the bottle, plus several glasses and a few popsicles.  I also plan to put some of the juice into ice cube trays for smoothies.

I {heart} summer and all the great prices on fresh fruit!

This recipe can now be found exclusively in The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook.

I have the pleasure of taking dinner to some dear friends, as she just had a major surgery. This meal will serve 4 adults and 4 kids. If you’ve got a larger family, this is the post for you!

Ingredients
1 package ground beef ($2.25) On sale this week
1 package taco seasoning ($.50)
1 8 oz ccan tomato sauce ($.33)
2 cups rice ($.60)
1 bar cheese, shredded ($1.50) Bar cheese tends to be cheaper than pre-shredded or pre-cubed!
1/2 watermelon ($1.50)
6 ears corn ($2.25)

Directions
1. Cook 2 cups rice with 4 3/4 cup water. Bring water to boil, add rice, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
2. Brown ground beef. Drain. Return to skillet, add 3/4 cup water, taco seasoning and tomato sauce. Stir through.
3. Add ground beef to rice. Put into 9×13 baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until cheese melts.
4. Boil or nuke corn.
5. Slice watermelon.
6. Enjoy the feast with friends or family!

Cost $8.93

Ingredients
4 Burger Patties ($1.50)
4 Buns ($.50)
4 Cheese Slices ($.74)
Ketchup/Mustard ($.10)
“Almost Cobb” Side Salad (Free…are leftovers free???)
3 Corn ears (still $1)
Watermelon Slices ($.25) ($2.99 for whole watermelon and $1.50 for a whole canteloupe this week!)

Directions
1. Grill Burger patties and top with cheese as they finish grilling. Serve on “grill toasted” bun with condiments of your choice.
2. Boil or grill corncobs. Serve with salad, watermelon and burgers!

As you can see, I’m completely torn between grilling and crockpotting! It’s barely warm enough to grill, and barely cold enough for the crockpot! We’re having the same problem with clothes (happens every April and October!)…can’t put away the summer clothes, but can’t get out all the winter clothes…drawers aren’t big enough! Happy Fall everyone!

Cost $4.19

Ingredients
16 oz elbow macaroni ($.99)
1/2 lb ground beef ($.85)
1/2 chopped onion ($.30)
1 small can tomato sauce (+ can worth water) ($.33)
1 small can Rotel with green chiles ($.62)
1-2 cloves garlic ($.10)
1/4 cup milk ($.10)
S/P
Spices: cilantro, cayenne, cumin, whatever you wish!
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese ($.85)
Fresh Fruit: Peach, Watermelon, Canteloupe ($.75)

Directions
1. Cook pasta as directed. Brown ground beef with onion (or use leftovers from spaghetti or other meal!) and drain. Put back in skillet and add tomato sauce and Rotel, milk, garlic and spices. Serve warm topped with melted cheese!
2. I like to eat sweet fruit with zippy and spicy dishes!

Cost $4.89

I know this is a popular one! Here’s how I do it and how much it costs me! This one can be stretched with more rice and 1 more can of tomatoes for lots of leftovers!

Ingredients
1/2 lb Ground Beef ($.90)
1-2 cans whole tomatoes ($.59)
1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies ($.65)
1/2 cup rice, uncooked ($.10)
1 taco seasoning packet ($.33)
1/2 cup red and black beans, uncooked ($.30)
1-2 corn cob ($.50)
water
4-6 slices watermelon ($.35)

Directions
1. Soak beans in water overnight. Cook beans covered with at least 1″ water for 1.5 – 2 hours, until tender. Save a litte juice and drain off the rest.
2. Boil/nuke corn and then cut off kernals.
3. Brown beef, drain. Put back in pot. Add tomaotes, Rotel, rice, taco seasoning, beans and corn. Cover with water and simmer until rice is cooked and your house is filled with the tasty aroma of Taco Soup!
4. Serve yummy spicy soup with sweet drippy watermelon!

Cost $3.72
I love it when it comes out way under! This is a great one to double, freeze and pull out on a busy afternoon!