What do you get with one half pound of sauasge?

You get dinner for six.  Well ok you get the sausage in our gravy for dinner.  We had sausage gravy over biscuits for dinner.  This was easily under five dollars to feed us all.  I don't have the cost break down as I used left over frozen sausage I had in the freeze.  And I tried a new big biscuit recipe which you can find here.  These were very good but huge. One goes a long way.  I cheat and just use my cookie cutter and cut them into squares instead of rounds this way I handle the dough less.  These turned out to be about 1.5 - 2 inches high they started at an inch high.  I highly suggest you at least try them.  I did make a few changes, I used butter instead of shortening.  And I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 unbleached AP flour (I have this premixed at in my flour container on the counter so everything is made with 1/2 WW flour).  Other than that it's all the same.

Excuse my cookie sheet it's a cheapie from the dollar store it does the job.

Then I just made a basic sausage gravy with sage, and peppers and onions since that was mixed in with my pre cooked sausage.  It's simple cook your meat,  once it's cooked if you have a lot of fat drain some off but you want some to use to make the rue.  (is that the right spelling?) cook that a little bit and then add some milk and your spices.  Let thicken and serve over yummy biscuits.

Now just add I nice side of fruit salad or some other nice fresh fruit or veggies and you have a great meal in our house.  It's a great way to feed a lot of people with a little bit of meat.  What is your favorite breakfast for dinner item?

On Turkey how many meals, 6 in total, quick catch up plus Thanksgiving turkey leftover ideas

So I am not a great blogger LOL.  I got two more meals out of the turkey a pot pie and a soup.  I also got a few lunches as well.  That's not counting all the meals that the stock will go into.  One 12-14 pound turkey is a great source of meat for a family of 6, and if you plan your meals out right and watch the portions, you can get a lot out of it.  Now this turkey cost me about 21.00 so we will use 20 as a middle number and for six meals for the meat alone that is 3.33 a meal, that is not counting in the savings from making my own stock and the meals it will go into and the lunches that were made from left overs or the meat itself.

With thanks giving around the corner so many people are going to have lefts overs and wonder what they can do with them so I thought I would share what my ideas are.

• salad, you can use it like chicken on top of a salad
• home made hot pockets with broccoli and cheese
• you can use it in pasta sauces
• take a jar of bbq sauce and make pulled bbq turkey sandwiches
• pot pie
• so many soups
• I like to bake it into eggs with spinach and feta and veggies
• you can use it with beans and taco mix for tacos
• pretty much I use it like I would chicken
• Chili

I know that this isn't a lot of ideas but it's some.  This year for thanksgiving we got a 20+ pound turkey, and I can't wait to cook it up for the holiday nor can I wait to play with the left overs I have so many ideas that I am not sure if they will work or not but I am planning on that bird to feed us for a week.

I have also decided I will post my Thanksgiving meal, the prep and what not.  Now I know I am not the best cook out there but I am sure going to try and have one yummy meal.  I am finalizing the menu in the morning and I will post it then. 

One lasagna three meals

So to night we had the last of the lasagna for dinner with salad.  One pan of lasagna lasted for three meals for all of us.  We got two dinners and one lunch with it.  This isn't a meal I make all the time.  About once every couple months or so.

I didn't take any pictures but it was very close to the last one I blogged about that you can find here. I made this same size pan but cut our amounts down and added a salad.  I would say for each meal that we had we came in under $10 but I haven't done the math yet.  I will have to up date the post tomorrow when I do it.

One Turkey how many meals? Day Three Stock or Broth

We are talking Turkey stock or broth which from my research seem to be pretty much the same thing.  For two days I worked at making this stock and my house smelled great.  Like Thanksgiving turkey all day long.  Broth is something that is great for you, and easy to make.  So I thought I would share how I did it.  First off I read this great article on Cooking Traditional Foods you can also find them on Facebook here. The article is great and pretty much tells you how to do it step by step.  But I thought I would type up what I did with pictures because I am silly like that.

First thing I did was pick as much meat off the turkey bones as I could and then roast it.

I also pulled out the jars that had the drippings from when I roasted the turkey.

And then it was all into the pool, eh I mean stock pot.

Then I added water until it was covered and many I was lucky my pan was barely big enough.  Next time I will break the bones down more.  In all there was 2 gallons of water added to the pan.

Then I added the vinegar 2 tbsp per quart of water.

Then I let it sit for an hour to let the vinegar do it's thing.  After that I turn on the burner and brought it up to a simmer.  Once it was simmering I went to bed, I let it simmer for 30 hours (you can do more or less time this just worked this time for me.)

I then turned it off and picked out all the big pieces of bone and such.  Then I let it cool down a bit before straining it the first time.

My set up for straining, stock pot strainer, and a kitchen towel.

Straining the first time.

After straining it.

After I strained it I put it in the refrigerator over night.  So that the fat could get hard.

 

Then I used a spoon to skim the layer of fat off the top.  And strained it again.

The set up a bowl, kitchen towel and a strainer.

All strained and ready for storage.

At this point I was almost done, all I had last was to jar it up.  We reuse glass jars here so that's what I did.  I got six quart sizedish jars, (one is a pickle jar not sure about it's size) and half gallon or so in a ziploc bag (ran out of jars).  I labeled them and froze them.  I should be able to get a few meals out of this ALONE.  I can use this stock for soups, or just cooking my beans or rice in to give it added flavor.

 This is my best looking stock to date.

 The ziploc bag before it went in the freezer

Six yummy jars of turkey goodness.

The $20 I spent on this turkey has saved me already, from the two meals I have gotten plus a few days of sandwich lunches, plus all this stock is great.  I still have about 6 cups of dark meat in the freezer for other meals and ideas.  I can't wait to use them.  I am going to try some new recipes.  I hope this helps you out when you make stock.  It is easy I know it looks like a lot but the hard work is over you cooked the turkey and took the meat off the bones.   In all I would say my active time doing this was maybe an hour (I have small children so it was a stop and go thing sometimes)  that's straining it twice (over two days) and jarring it all up. Which would have taken less time had I had a funnel. LOL Instead I had to use a ladle to fill the jars up.

One Turkey how many meals? Day Two

Tonights dinner with turkey was light.  After yesterday's dinner kind of needed to be.  We had home made tomato soup and grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. We used about 1/4 to 1/3 of one breast of the turkey for the sandwiches and it was a nice meal.

How I made my tomato soup

1 28 oz can of tomato sauce (found with the canned tomatoes)
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 onion choped
1 green pepper
2 gloves garlic choppedsp evoo
1/2 can of water
and then I used different spices to our taste. (salt, pepper, ect)

First chop the onions, green peppers, and garlic

then cook the onions and green pepper add the garlic near the end.

Then add all the tomatoes and sauce and water stir and turn to med low and stir occasionally

After about two hours add the soup to a blender and puree it. 

I did this in stages and poured into to a bowl until I got it all pureed after that I added it back to the pan I cooked it in.

See it's much smoother now.  At this point I did add some sugar to cut the acid of the tomatoes and checked all the seasonings.  Then I put it on low and let it sit till dinner time stiring it every now and then.

Mean while I made bread the same recipe from before but doubled.  And my littlest man got into a marker and the flour I dropped on the floor.

Don't worry it was a non toxic marker one my 2 yo was coloring with while I cooked.

And that's the soup really I let it sit till it was time to eat. Hubby was a little late but that was good it gave the bread time to cool.  I bake it in a corning ware dish and it worked great it was huge and one slice made one sandwich or two slices made one really big daddy size sandwich.  Here is the bread in the oven and fresh out of the oven.

 In the oven looks like I am cleaning it tomorrow

 Fresh out of the oven with butter melted on the top

Close up of the top.

To make a grill cheese I just mozzarella cheese and some left over turkey now I didn't butter the outsides and it toasted up fine.

With the soup we just added a little cheese to it. 

I have tons of turkey left and I have yet to make my stock too.  I am sure I can get at least two more meals from this bird and a couple of lunches for hubby.

One Turkey how many meals?

So tonight I had a great idea I would blog about how many meals plus broth I get from my 14 pound turkey.  So lets start with tonight.  Tonight was a normal turkey dinner and almost half of the bird was gone but this feed six of us.  The older two boys shared the meat off of a leg, my daughter, the baby and my self shared a breast plus made a sandwich for hubby's lunch.  And Hubby had a wing.  I still have a thigh left that I think will be turned into Turkey pot pie or a soup tomorrow night.  I will also start my stock.  I did save all the juices from the turkey for my stock and I got two pasta sauce jars full.

My goal is to get four meals out of this bird plus stock and a few lunches for the hubby.  I know we ate almost half of it but we did skip lunch for this meal so that's our excuse LOL.

Any ways I thought I would start off with my recipe I guess you could say for turkey.

How I roast a turkey

• First get husband to unwrap and clean out the giblets of the turkey (I normally feed them to the dog I know they are healthy for me and I do wish I saved them for the stock but I forgot)
• Then have hubby wash the turkey since he already has turkey hands, mean while get the roasting pan ready for the bird
• Have hubby place bird breast side up in the pan
• Cut two granny smith apples in half place on apple inside of the bird and the other under the flap of skin by the neck
• Cut one medium size onion (we used sweet onion) in half and peel the outside off and place one half in the bird and one half under/in the skin at the neck area
• Next I peeled 4 large cloves are garlic and lightly crushed them and places two each in side the bird and under the neck area.
• Then I took soft butter and rubbed it on the bird under the skin and a little on top with some evoo and Black pepper and Lawery's seasoning salt.  I then add about 1 cup water to the bottom of the pan.  Then make a foil tent or place the lid on top and roast at 325 until done.  Mine took about 4 hours  30 minutes before it was done I took the tent off to let the skin brown.
• Let it sit for about 15-20 min with foil on top before cutting I find it doesn't lose it's juices as much that way.
• Enjoy!

With our dinner we served, peas and mashed potato with cheesy bake, Fresh baked Italian bread I used this recipe for the bread.  OH and to make it extra yummy I rub butter on top to melt it a little bit it's yummy.

And then dessert we had homemade apple pie.  Now that I am trying to make my own crust I am still perfecting this recipe for ourselves.  Don't get me wrong it tastes great but there are still problems like it's watery and the bottom crust didn't come out right.  But I will keep trying.  I do have pictures of that though. They are not the best but the pie was yummy.

All in all it was a great meal and I forgot how much we loved having turkey I think I will stock up on them when they go on sale around thanksgiving.  I can see how if you think outside of the box you can get a lot from them.

Pork chops with homemade musch room gravy with green beans and a spinach salad for 4.92

Tonight's dinner was yummy and tasty and all homemade.  And all at .98 per person not the healthiest  of meals but yummy non the less. 

Cost break down

pork chops (1.33) 

mushroom (1.39)

green beans (.50)

 spinach salad (1.70)

brown rice (free with wic)

staples

 

I wish I could tell you a recipe for the sauce/gravy but I winged it next time I will write it down to share this was very good and much lighter than they kids with the canned cream soup.  I even used water as I didn't have any stock on and and it was still full of flavor. Really it wasn't hard either and it's something I suggest you try.

Now I feel like saying sorry for the lack of posts but I have been posting more over on my other blog Spirit goes from fat to fit.  And well I have been busy just being a mom.  I have cut back on the coupons a bit but still aim to save money every time a shop and I am aim to eat better, which leaves many coupons out for us.  But it's a great thing.

I am also working on home schooling my Ricky which takes up a good part of the day.  But I will be around and posting and share with you.  Just not as much.  I have to out being a mommy first, I am sure you all understand.  I am going to aim for 3-4 posts a week over here.  And I am hoping to share more homeschool links and tips.  

Thank you for reading.

Homemade lasagna for .66 a slice.

I recently tossed my hand into trying to make homemade pasta.  And let me tell you when you can make lasagna for .66 a slice you can't beat it.  Also the noddles were made with wheat flour and AP flour.  Only thing I did wrong was have a couple thick spots.

As a child lasagna was something my mom only made like 3 times a year if we were lucky.  It always cost to much to make.  And for all my life I believed that.  But Monday I was sitting thinking about what to make for dinner and I wanted Lasagna but I didn't have ricotta or pasta for it.  So I looked around the house to see what I did have that I could use.  Well I had fat free cottage cheese that I had picked up when it was a $1,  and I have sauce 2.00 worth on hand.  And then one pound of ground beef from the butcher which was 2.38 I also had a pound of mozzarella cheese on hand.  which was 2.50 for the pound.  Thats it that's all I used and that equals what  about 7.88 for one big pan of lasagna that we got two meals out of?  I wonder what made it cost more to my mother.  I am going to ask her what she used.

Now the noddles were so easy to make and tasted like regular pasta to me.  Here is the recipe that I used. (I kind of used two different ones and came up with my own)

Homemade pasta with out a pasta machine

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3 tbls EVOO
• 8 large eggs

Mix all together and kned for about 5 minutes and then let it rest another five minute then I cut it into 6 equal size pieces and then I rolled them out with the rolling pin I had.  I rolled them the size of my pan and made just a single sheet for each layer.

This is really easy and you don't really need anything special you can use veggie oil if that's what you have too.  And then I just made my lasagna like normal but used the cottage cheese instead of the ricotta.  And let me tell you we didn't miss it.  So give the pasta recipe a try and let me know what you made with it and how you liked it.  I can't wait to try it again.

Tonights dinner was Goulash and Garlic bread under $5

Tonight's meal was a simple family favorite and it was pretty cheap here is the break down.

Ground beef from butcher 2.28 one pound
1 box past .19 (had $1 off coupon)
1 Large can organic diced tomatoes 1.79
1 half onion .15 (this is a high guess but it was a big onion)

Total for the Goulash $4.41

And the garlic bread was made with staples of yeast flour and water and salt, and of course butter and garlic powder the recipe I used can be found here it's the first one on the page.  I didn't make them into a loaf though I made some into knots.  And others I made into pull apart rolls.  To make them use your muffin pan and place three balls of dough into each cup and let it rise and then back at 375 till done. brush with melted butter with garlic powder and enjoy.

Sorry for the lack of post the last week I have been enjoying family but I am back on my cooking and posting thing.  tomorrow is pork tenderloin again with roasted veggies unless i figure out a different way to cook it have any ideas?

Breakfast for dinner

Tonight's dinner was great and simple it was breakfast for dinner.  We had sage sausage gravy over biscuits and strawberries and lime juice.

I only have pictures of the biscuits today I just wasn't in the mood to take more.  And well I am not sure I will post a recipe yet as I am still work one out for the gravy and the biscuits are pretty basic.

I did try a new trick that I read somewhere and I froze the butter and shredded it on my hand grater.  This allowed me to mix the dough with less handling and I truly believe this helped make them lighter.  I also soured my milk this time. It's not something that I normally do but I wanted to try it this time these two little changes in my normal recipe made a huge difference. So I guess what I am saying is don't be afraid to change things up a little at a time.  You might find that one chance that makes something good great or easier as well.

Oh and so try slicing up strawberries and squeezing a lime on them.  This simple act just makes them better my kids thought it was wonderful and so crazy to do.

All this was under ten as most items were pantry items or items I have on hand all the time.  

Thanks for reading
Spirit

Steak and cheese hot pockets

These were so very very good.  See we bought chuck steaks from the butcher in a freezer pack and well we didn't know what to do with them until we thawed them.  So on fathers day we had the shepherds pie. With a cost of under ten.  Last night I took another chuck steak about 1 pound of meat and I turned it into these hot pocket like things.  Again for about 6 dollars we had a great meal.  We paired it with a big salad as to lighten it up and it was great.

Ok I don't really have a recipe for this but I will tell you what I did and if you have any questions please ask I will answer them as soon as I can.

First I started the chuck steak early in the day as it need to go low and slow to get nice and tender.  What I did was season it with our favorite spice (we used webers chicago grill mix) and then I added an onion and 1/4 green pepper and then some water.  The last things I added were A1 sauce (bold kind) and like 7-8 shakes of lea and perrins Worcestershire sauce.  And turned it down low and cook for a few hour until the meat pulled apart.

I let the meat cool (only because I didn't know when my husband was getting off work.) but you don't have to let it cool.  

Once I was cooking dinner I chopped up some peppers and onions and starting cooking them till soft and then I added the meat back to warm it up. 

Then I made a cheese sauce.  Just a basic one like you would make for mac and cheese. 

Then I made pizza crust (I used the packet kind from Betty Crocker) and found the trick is to let it sit about ten minutes before you start using it.  Then I just rolled out circles and put the cheese sauce on them and then the filling and then closed it up.  Some I rolled, some I just folded in half, and one I made into a pouch as I wanted to see which was worked the best.  They all worked fine so do what works for you.  Just remember like with the pizza rolls don't roll them out too thin or they will pop.  If you fold them in half like a half moon a small slit in the top to help them vent is a great idea.

Also make sure your seal them well I have learned putting a simple slit in the top will help stop the popping.

And that's it.  Next time I make them I will get a more recipe like format typed up to share but they are very easy.  In fact I have plans for other hot pocket like ones for our freezer as the left overs made a great lunch for my hubby with the salad we had.

I will get back to break downs of cost of meals next week.  Things are a little crazy here.  I am also thinking of making a list of what I think are pantry items and staples as I don't put these in my cost break downs and this list can be different for everyone.

Father's day Menu and recipes

As you may have read our fathers day was a great day.  I love cooking and did a lot that day and really it didn't cost much or take much time.  I haven't done the math but I know we had everything for 10 bucks or less.  The key is to have your stables and pantry stocked up like.  I always have eggs, milk, flour, butter and other supplies in the house I count these as my pantry items so they are never in the cost break down as I always buy them and keep them in stock.

MENU

Shepherds pie
Irish soda bread
Brownies with starwberries

Now I don't have a recipe for the shepherds pie as it was a kind of toss together meal.  But I do have recipes for the Irish soda bread.  This is a great bread to make when you don't have yeast or you don't have a ton of time to wait for bread to raise.  It's a good bread for with stews I think it's dense but yummy here is the recipe.

Preheat oven to 450Makes 1 2 pound round loaf  Ingredients4 cups flour ( I used AP and it was fine)1 tbsp sugar1/2 tbsp baking soda 1/2 tbsp baking powder1 1/2 cups water2 tsp vinegar (cider or white, I used cider)
Combine dry ingredients and set aside,  mix water and vinegar together.  Add the wet mix to the dry and mix.  Turn out on to floured surface and knead for 2 to 4 minutes don't over do it.  shape into a round loaf and cut an "x" in the top with a sharp knife. Bake for 40 minutes and remove while still hot pour 1 tsp melted butter over the top.  And enjoy.

Now we can move on to brownies.  These were yummy and so easy to put together like supper easy.  As easy as a box and I bet most of you have everything in you kitchen to make them tonight

Oh and they are super moist too

Homemade Brownies

1 cup melted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 Cup flour or add 1/2 cup for cake like brownies
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix in the order given and bake at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes until tooth pick inserted into middle comes out clean.

You can tons of stuff to these nuts, chocolate chips or caramel (I did this)

These are prefect with berries have a bite of chocolate and then berry it is the best.  Enjoy!

Roasted Pork Terderloin with roasted carrots and homemade perogies all for $3.00 and recipe

Tonight my hubby was off from work and so I had more time in the kitchen so I thought I would make perogies.  It never fails that when I make them that they take all day to do as well.  Thing is I could break them up over a two day period but I never do I don't know why.  Perogies are easy to make they just take time.  You could do like I do and make a huge batch at a time and freeze them for a later time.  I will explain how later.

My recipe makes 3.5 doz perogies.  Here is what you need

6 cups AP flour
2 tsp salt (I used sea salt this is the only salt I use anymore it's about a med gran as well)
5 tble spoons butter
1 1/3 cold water (ice water even) you may need more it depends on how much water your flour soaks up you could use up to 2 cups.

Filling
I cheated with my filling and use instant mash.  You can use left over mash taters from another night or make your own for this if you make your own to make your dough better save some cooking water from the taters.

2 sm pkg instant mash
1 large onion chopped
1 head of garlic roasted
herbs of your choice
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoon butter

Ok depending on what kind of taters you use for your first step might depend on how you start this out.  If not using instant mash.  Start your taters first cook them like normal and save a little bit of the water for your dough.  While taters are cooking roast your garlic in the oven.  With a little evoo and wrapped in foil.  After garlic and taters are done mash them together and let your filling cool.  also place your water in the freezer to get cold.

Frozen Strawberry pops for about 2 bucks.

So in this 100 degree weather you need to keep cool so I thought I would make ice pops now I do have the store bought ones here to but they are full of sugar and I am trying to limit the amount of it.  I fail a lot of the time but I know my kids if I make something they will eat that over the premade stuff.

So I thought I would give those puree fruit pops a try I love these things but they are pricey to buy.  They are so easy to make. Now I have an ice pop maker (target 1 dollar) but you could make ice pops in so many things from paper cups to ice cube trays.  Even small glass jars with sticks in them.

Your next tool you will need is a blender or something else to puree the fruit I have a blender.  Next just puree your fruit I used frozen strawberries, and a little juice.  I added no sugar as I thought what was in the berries and the juice should be enough.  I used juice I had on hand as well which was apple juice.  Our pops were still a little tart but a huge hit.  My husband who doesn't really like the other kind loved these one.

I have plans for other kinds some using the stock of baby food I have on hand and others making some grown up flavors.  I will let you know.