Tasty Tuesdays: Flip it up....

.....flip it back, flip it on the pancake stack!

Pancakes are a favorite here at our house, but most mornings I lack the motivation to make up a batch from scratch. For a long time, I would buy microwave pancakes from the store, but those got to be really expensive. So to save time and money, and give the kiddos one of their favorite meals more often, I make my own version from scratch!!

I always get out my trusty copy of Joy of Cooking and use their basic pancake recipe.

1-1/2 C flour
1tsp. Salt
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 or 2 eggs
3Tbl. melted butter
1 to 1-1/4 C milk.
3 Tbl. sugar.

But again, this takes alot of work, my "cooking assistants" are quite messy and cries of hunger come from impatient little ones. That's why I always double the recipe, sometimes triple it, depending on how well stocked I am with staples. After mixing it all up, I make enough pancakes to feed my herd and we eat.

She-fit.com

After our meal, I head back to the kitchen to cook up all the rest of my batter. I like to make small pancakes, just a little bigger than silver dollar sized. This size is easy to cook, cool, and store. When they are ready to come out of the skillet, I place them on a cooling rack until they are room temperature.

Once cool, I take aluminum foil cut into small squares, and alternate pancakes and foil into a tall stack. I store my pancakes in a normal plastic zipper bag. I can usually store 3-4 medium stacks in each bag and then I just lay them in a flat area in the freezer until frozen. The next day, I toss the bag down into my "breakfast" drawer in the freezer and whenever we have a craving for pancakes, I just take out exactly what we need.

When it's time to warm those delicious flap jacks up, I just lay them on a microwave safe plate in a single layer and warm them for about a minute until hot! So easy, pancakes even on the busiest of mornings! And since I made them from scratch, I know exactly what is in them, I can make them with chocolate chips or blueberries, or a couple of each, and they are super cheap to make. Since we save so much money we can have this treat more often!

Tip: As I use up the pancakes, I take the foil squares out of the zipper bag and put them in my baking drawer to use again next time. It saves money and resources and saves me the time of cutting up more squares! I also label my freezer bag - pancakes - and reuse this bag over and over again when I mix up a big batch of tasty pancakes!

Tasty Tuesdays: Baked Potato Chowder

Last Tuesday, I shared how potatoes can really help to stretch your budget and make a simple and easy meal.

Another delicious meal idea is to make soup. I love to make this soup at the end of the month when I start cleaning out the refrigerator. It is super easy to make and in no time you've used up leftovers that were going to go to waste and you have a filling dinner.

I like to make a large batch because this freezes so well. And even though this is the basic recipe I start with, I add anything that sounds good and it has always turned out great!

Combine listed ingredients in a large stock pot and cook until hot and thick! (About 45 mins on medium heat)

• 8-10 potatoes -peel and microwave in a covered dish until soft and then rough mash
• 3 cups milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or your favorite cheese(it's even great with Velveeta style cheese)
• 1-2 cups cubed chicken
• Any leftover vegetables (think corn, carrots, onions, etc)
• 1/4 cooked bacon or turkey
• 1 tsp salt
• Optional: 1 tbsp garlic powder 
•                  2 tbsp of ranch seasoning powder

To thicken it up into a chowder, I make a roux with flour and butter in a skillet then add milk whisking quickly until I have a rather thick pasty mixture. Slowly pour this into your stock pot while stirring.

Let me know what you think, it's a favorite at our house alone or with a grilled cheese or panini!!!

The Simple Potato

 Looking for a way to save money on your grocery budget? We love to eat a fun and simple meal of baked potatoes either once a week or every other week. I put out cheese, butter, ranch, and cook up some bacon (to please my meat-a-saurus hubby) and it seems like a treat. They each put just what they love on their potatoes and besides baking them, there is hardly no work involved!

Picture - foodpeoplewant.com

Potatoes are a super inexpensive food, and while I wouldn't eat them all the time, they are "Rich in carbohydrate, vitamin C and potassium, the potato often gets a bad rap because it is a high-glycemic food. However, the potato offers some fiber, especially when eaten with the skin on." - EatingWell.com

So the next time you are running low on grocery money, grab some potatoes and let your family fix them just how they want 'em!

Tasty Tuesdays! Aldi's Produce

I love Aldi's prices but I hardly ever have a chance to head over to the store in the city just over from us, so the next best thing is PRICE MATCHING!!

Just head to your favoring store that price matches (ie Walmart, Target, etc) and pick up your produce! Walmart's policy is you don't even have to have the ad, but most weeks (if I have ink) I print off the ad of Aldi's Website  and take it with me!

Strawberries $1.29/pk (16 oz)
Florida grapefruit .29/ea
Peaches, plums or nectarines .29 ea
Navel Oranges 1.48/bag

Kiwi .99/pk (16 oz )

These are great prices and while you are at Aldi, take advantage of all their other great prices!!

Tasty Tuesdays: Homemade Bread

I had a really hard time trying to decide whether to make this a Tasty Tuesday or a Thrifty Thursday post, but since it's food Tuesday won out, but it's such a great deal.....ahhh I'm so torn!

Anyway, I love the smell of homemade bread, it makes the house feel warm and homey, it's delicious, and it's always fun to serve up a loaf of something beautiful that you created all yourself!

I roughly figured out the cost and it's surprisingly frugal!

Flour - $2.05

Eggs - $0.14

Yeast - $0.32

Sugar - $0.24

Salt - $0.17

Oil - $0.18

Water -Free, I know not really, but you know.

GRAND TOTAL - $2.96/4 loaves = $0.74/loaf!!!

Here is the recipe I use:
14 cups of flour
3 T of yeast
1 cup sugar
2 T Salt
2 eggs
1 cup oil
4 cups water

Dissolve 3 T of yeast in 1 cup of water and add pinch or two of sugar. Wait for it to foam (approx. 15-30 mins)
Add 1/2 your flour (7 Cups)
Add 2 T of salt
Add the rest of you 1 Cup of sugar
Mix well
Add your 2 eggs
Add 1 cup of oil
Add the rest of your flour gradually (7 cups)
Knead until smooth (approx 5-10) (Put flour on your counter)
Wash out your mixing bowl and place your smooth dough ball in it to rise
Let your bread rise for 2 hours, punching it down every 30 mins (4 times)
Separate into 4 balls
Make each ball into 6 ropes
Braid you bread (see tutorial)
Let the braided loaf rise for 1.5 hours on a greased pan
Brush bread with whisked egg for an crisp, shiny egg wash
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 30 mins

Here is the tutorial on how to braid it.
http://www.ehow.com/video_2341036_braid-six_strand-challah-bread-loaf.html
Let me know if you have any questions!!!!

I slice and then toast it and it makes delicious sandwiches or it makes wonderful bread for dinner just by itself, or add butter and garlic and bake! Since it makes 4 loaves, I usually freeze a couple, give one away, and then enjoy a fresh warm loaf that day! This goes really quick and is a favorite, but it makes great sized loaves!

If you are wanting freeze some, the best way I have found is by wrapping the loaf in tin foil first and then wrapping it with plastic wrap really well. When it comes time to thaw, I let it thaw wrapped for about 2-3 hours and then unwrap it so it doesn't get soggy.

I wanted to include a picture of my own loaf, but I turned on the camera and all there was was a ghostly pink screen, hmmmmm.....that's great!

Tasty Tuesdays: Roast Chicken

So I'm always excited when I try something new in our menu and it actually works! Not to brag but not only did it work, but it was a home run for my food-aholic husband! My experiment turned into one of the most moist and flavorful dishes I've ever made.

It all started with a super cheap chicken from Save-a-Lot and my crock pot! I love crock pot cooking, there is nothing better than looking like you spent all day slaving over a hot stove but in actuality dumped a bunch of random items in and walked away. I also love the smells that cock pot cooking produces!

So I rolled up 4 balls of tin foil and set the my washed chicken on top of it. At the Howard House our favorite stand by seasonings are ranch and garlic powder, I covered the chicken in that and put the lid on......wasn't that easy? No liquid, no work, no nothin'! I let it cook for 8 hours and when I opened the lid, what came out was the most tender, juicy, melt in your mouth "rotisserie" chicken!

We ate the chicken that evening with mashed potatoes, salad, macaroni and cheese, and some garlic bread.....I felt like we were out for dinner. That night I striped the chicken down and portioned the chicken into smaller bags for use later. I was going to freeze some, but ended up making some other things sooner than I normally would.

First, I took the chicken and make it into a delicious Mexican casserole, with SW seasoning, Velveeta, tortillas, a can chicken soup, and some shredded cheese. This casserole is a family favorite and only used a fraction of my delicious chicken. This casserole freezes fantastic, so it's great to make a couple batches up and then get them out as needed.

Second, I took the chicken, added some fried rice and made some stir fry. This is one of Tom's favorite meals and again it makes a huge batch that we eat on for a few dinners and he also takes portions of it to work, CHEAP LUNCH!

Third, we had another meal of leftovers of roast chicken.....Grant loves just plain chicken, so he will eat this for lunch after lunch, after lunch after.........

I still have chicken to use in chicken salad, for sandwiches. I was thinking of making chicken pot pie or chicken and dumplings too, the possibilities are endless! All of this for a $4.59 chicken!!

Is there a recipe that your family's menu revolves around?? Any great deals that you just HAVE to share???