Day 23 - January 26, 2014: Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Coleslaw

My husband makes THE BEST pulled pork.  He uses a bbq rub that consists of just paprika, kosher salt, coarsely ground black pepper, garlic powder, and dry mustard.  He adds 1 tbsp of liquid smoke and sets the slow cooker to 8 hours on low.  After about an hour, the house smells wonderful and then we all have to wait another 7 hours to eat the delicious thing, which is probably the hardest part about making this meal.

Here is what we used:
3-pound Boston butt pork roast: $6.17
1/2 bag mixed slaw: $1.00
3 tbsp of Marie's prepared slaw dressing: $0.75
1 bag of take and bake rolls: $1.99
Total: $9.91

Before:

 

After:

Verdict:
Did I mention that my husband makes THE BEST pulled pork???  The verdict is that I can't wait to have the leftovers tomorrow :o)

Day 22 - January 25, 2014: Not much

We were running around so much yesterday that we didn't have a family dinner.  My daughter had a class in the morning, we had a play date in the afternoon, and another one in the evening.  For lunch, we grabbed a gyro and a souvlaki off a food truck ($16) and split those by 4.  And this is what the kids asked for at 5:00 pm, before we ran out the door again at 5:30...

Cheap dinner; certainly less than $10 :o)

Day 21 - January 24, 2014: Pumpkin Penne with Sausage (Rachael Ray)

On Friday night, I made one of our favorite meals.  Here is the link to the original recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pasta-with-pumpkin-and-sausage-recipe.html

I didn't have time to pick up the fresh sage or garlic, which cut down on cost, both in ingredients and gas used to get to the supermarket.  I also use more pumpkin than the recipe calls for (about 1 1/2 cups) and I always get half sweet Italian and half hot Italian sausage.
So, this is what I spent:
Penne: $0.79 (yes, it was a really great sale; unfortunately, they limited me to 6 boxes, so I'll have to make it back to the store before tonight, to buy some more)
Sausage: $2.22 ( a little over a pound)
Wine: $1.25
Pumpkin: $0.99
Chicken Broth: $0.60
Onion: $0.20 (I only used about half of the medium onion)
Heavy Cream: $0.25? ( I used 2 Tbsp instead of 3, like the recipe says)
Condiments and Parmesan: ??, no more than $1, I'm guessing...
Total: less than $7.30

I added a green salad on the side for about another dollar, so I guess I should count that, too :)

 

Bon Appétit!

Verdict:
Caution: This makes A LOT of food!  Which, in our case, is good, because we love it so much that everyone always eats 2 portions of this.  My son only had one, but he is still working on an ear infection, so he just wasn't up for chewing too much.  And we still had 2 portions left, that my daughter and I shared with a friend after we got back from open gym last night.  Our friend liked it, too. 

Day 20 - January 23, 2014: Honey Balsamic Glazed Chicken with Broccoli and Rice

Tonight was the night for the family pack of chicken thighs I got at the $5 sale last week.  So I got one of those little recipe cards for chicken thighs from a local store and went for it.  Here is what I used for tonight's dinner:

I rubbed the grilled chicken seasoning over the chicken thighs and placed them in a pan, then baked the chicken at 375°F for 45 minutes, glazed it with honey and balsamic vinegar and some garlic and let it bake for another 7 minutes.  I drizzled a little more honey and vinegar over it right before serving.  While the chicken was in the oven, I steamed the broccoli (a little too much, unfortunately) and tossed it with some butter and shredded Parmesan.  Then I heated up one of those Minute Ready to Serve things.  THAT was a huge mistake.  The only reason I bought it was because our store had triple coupon week and I had a 75¢ coupon, so I only paid 26¢ for two.  Turns out, even that's too much to pay for something nobody likes and that you end up throwing away.  When will I ever learn?

Here is the breakdown for tonight's dinner:
Chicken thighs: $3.50 ( I made 7 and froze the remaining 3 - they didn't fit into the pan anymore)
Broccoli: $1.99
Honey: $0.80
Rice: $0.13
1 1/2 tbs of vinegar, a few shakes of seasoning, a pinch of freeze dried garlic, 1 tbs of Parmesan, and 1 1/2 tsp of butter: negligible
Total: $6.42

Verdict:
Aside from the rice, we all liked it.  The kids loved the chicken - my daughter finished her brother's, too.  My husband came home late and got stuck with the leftovers.  He thought the chicken was a bit sweet, but still had two pieces, so clearly, it couldn't have been TOO sweet ;o)

Day 19 - January 22, 2014: Takeout

Okay, I am going to admit that I got takeout last night.  I was on my way home around 6 pm, the kids were hungry, my husband was working late and I didn't feel like cooking.  Does that sound like a bad combination yet?  If not, it will once I admit to where I got "dinner" from.  Hardees.  Yup, you read that right.  We got some burgers and fries.  For dinner.  It tasted okay; not as special as I remembered it from craving it during a pregnancy 7 years ago, but okay.  We spent more than twice as much as we would have had we opted for a nutritious, home-cooked meal.  The only proud mommy moment in all this was that my 6-year-old had to explain to my 3-year-old what a drive-thru was, as he didn't remember the one or two other times he's ever been through one. 

Day 18 - January 21, 2014: Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I had bought some stew meat at the $5 sale last week.  So, I decided to make stew and use up some of the stuff in my refrigerator, like the celery that I bought to make tuna or egg salad 3 weeks ago, which I never ended up making.  Then I looked up a stew recipe (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-beef-stew-i/) and lined up my ingredients:

As you can see, I used only about 1/2 the amount of meat and threw in more veggies and potatoes to make up for it and to make it under $10.  And here is the list of ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of beef broth: $1.30
1.25 pounds of beef: $5.00
5 red potatoes: $0.50
1 yellow onion: $0.70
5 carrots: $0.25 (the 1 pound bag was $0.49 at Aldi!!)
Brussel Sprouts (2 handfulls?): $1.32
4 stalks of celery: $0.89
Condiments needed for recipe: negligible
Total: $9.96

I made it according to the directions on allrecipe.com and this is what I got:

Verdict:
Good taste overall.  The meat was a little dry but it was the perfect dish for today's snow day.

Day 17 - January 20, 2014: Meatless Monday

Looks like I have some catching up to do on my posts tonight...

Last night, we had a delicious dinner, inspired by a dish that I recently had at my friend Maria's house.  She had made farro with roasted butternut squash, zucchini, pine nuts, and beans.  So I tried to re-create her recipe last night.  Here are the ingredients I used:

1 cup of farro: $1.20
1 can of white beans: $1.19
1 Butternut squash: $0.79
2 zucchinis: $1.70
1 handfull of roasted pumpkin seeds: $0.35
Herbs (I used some freeze-dried basil) and EVOO: negligible
Total: $5.23

I tossed the cubed butternut squash in EVOO and herbs and roasted it for about 20 minutes by itself, then added the cubed zucchini and roasted it for another 20 minutes, at 325°F.  Next time I will definitely use a higher temperature, but I made banana bread at the same time, so I was trying to kill two birds..  In the meantime, I cooked the farro according to the directions on the package.  I left it all sitting on the stove and, when we got home at 6:50 pm, I heated everything up, including the rinsed beans, tossed in the pumpkin seeds and served it with some shredded Parmesan on top at 7:10 pm.  Only 10 minutes behind schedule :o)

Verdict:
It was a little different than Maria's, but still very yummy.  Maybe it was the pumpkin seeds.  I think she used pine nuts.  My husband loved this dish.  The kids weren't crazy about it, but they ate about half their portions; I think so they could get banana bread ;o)