Sloppy Joes

I have to tell you how easy this was. I needed something quick to prepare that could simmer in the crock and be ready when we came home starving so that we could eat. I was at the store and thought, "I'll make Sloppy Joes!" So I veered the cart and headed over to the aisle where the Manwich was. It was even on sale. Then I started to think that I didn't need to pay extra money when I already had the ingredients for this at home. Here is what I did:

I took some ground beef out of the freezer that I had already browned off before freezing. That went into the crockpot frozen.

I squirted enough ketchup to cover the ground beef, kind of. Use less if you want, the crockpot will cause the liquids to be more.

I added a half of a diced onion, I even par cooked it in the micro first

I added some dry mustard, I couldn't find any yellow mustard in the fridge and I was in a hurry. But I think that I now like the dry mustard in it better.

I added some worcestershire sauce

I added some brown sugar

I added some garlic salt

I added some salt

I put the lid on and left it on low for 2 hrs. Stirred it, tasted it, adjusted the taste with more of the above ingredients if needed, then served with toasted hamburger buns and potato chips. Easy peezy.

White Chicken Chili

Canned beans are cheap this week.

White Chicken Chili

4 cans of white beans, drained
2 cans of white corn, drained
3 C. chicken broth
2 cans diced green chilis
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 medium onions, chopped
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon oregano
1 Tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne
4 C. cooked chicken breast
One 24 oz. sour cream

Combine broth and cubes. Add all spices. Simmer broth for a few minutes. Add green chilis, corn, chicken, beans and onions. Cook 15 minutes. Add sour cream and stir for about 5 minutes.

Menu for what's on sale for the week of Jan. 27 to Feb. 2

Great sale week. Especially great if you have a slew of selected coupons to use. They will make guacamole and salsa free and pasta bowls cheap and Rotel tomatoes free this week, and chili .29 this week. I love cheap. I love free.

http://50dollarstockpile.blogspot.com/ will help you figure out the best deals this week, as will http://www.couponsense.com/ or http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/ . The latter two match up coupons with deals for you and tell you where to find the coupons if you save all of your Sunday coupon inserts.

Now, onto the menu.

$70.95

Breakfast
1-Cold Cereal, milk
2-Egg-In-The-Hole, hashbrowns
3-Cold cereal, milk
4-Cold cereal, milk, blueberry muffins, see side bar for recipe
5-Cold cereal, milk
6-French toast
7-Pancakes, see side bar for recipe

Lunch
1-Tuna sandwich, goldfish crackers
2-PB&J sandwich, cookie
3-Tuna sandwich, apple, cookie
4-Chicken salad sandwich, apple
5-PB&J sandwich, apple
6-Lunchmeat sandwich, soda
7-Pizza, soda

Dinner
1-Navajo tacos. Fry bread using white bread dough(see recipe under this) with Hormel chili on top. Top with cheese.
2-Fish filets or fish sticks, frozen vegetable of choice, Knorr side dish
3-Chicken Cacciatore using cut chicken 1/4's, canned tomatoes, pepper, onion. Green salad. Bake a few chicken 1/4's plain while making dinner to use for chicken salad sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.
4-Spaghetti Alfredo, frozen vegetable of choice
5-Leftovers
6-Pork chops, mango salsa, roasted potatoes, broccoli
7-Caesar salad, baked chicken 1/4's

Desserts:
Ice cream
Cookies

Albertson's
Albertson's brand cereal, 10/$10, buy 3
TJ Farms shredded potatoes, 10/$10, buy 1
Breyers ice cream, $1.99
Red Baron Pizza, 3/$10, buy 1
Romaine lettuce, 10/$10, buy 2
large peppers, $1

Bashas'
Sanderson Farms fryer leg 1/4's, .39 lb., 10 lb. bag, $3.90
Fresh broccoli or cauliflower, .89 lb.
Bumble Bee chunk light tuna, .48
Flav R Pac classic vegetables, 5/$5, buy 2
Ragu Past sauce, or Alfredo sauce, $1.69
Smucker's grape jelly or jam 2/$3, buy 1
Jalepenos, I've allowed for $1
Knorr side dishes, $2, buy 1

Fry's
Buy 10 deal
1-Kraft cheese, $1.49
2-Kraft cheese, $1.49(make one an italian type cheese for the Caesar salad)
3-Hormel chili, .79
4-Hormel chili, .79
5-Hunt's tomatoes, .49
6-Hunt's tomatoes, .49
7-PF Goldfish, .88
8-Keebler fudge shoppe cookies, .99
9-Oscar Mayer deli shaved lunchmeat, $2.49
10-Van de Kamp's fish filets or sticks, $2.99

Milk, I haven't priced it but I've allowed for $2.99/gallon, buy 2
Eggs, I've allowed for $1.50, buy 2 dozen
Fresh blueberries, $1
Fry's pasta, .88
Kroger Value bread, .88, buy 4
Kroger Value peanut butter, $1.47
Big K soda, .83

Safeway
Sat/Sun. only, 5 lbs. potatoes, .68 each
Boneless Pork Sirloin Chops, $1.69 lb, buy 4 lbs. at $6.76
Tropical mangos, 3/$1, buy 2

Sprouts
Roma tomatoes, .69 lb., buy 2 lbs., $1.38
Jumbo sweet onions, .69 lb.
Apples, .99 lbs, buy 5 lbs. at $4.95

Items not on the grocery list:
flour
sugar
cinnamon
syrup
butter
oil
baking powder
spices/herbs
Mayonnaise

Other great buys this week:
Boneless beef round steak, $1.57 lb.-Safeway
Boneless skinless chicken breasts, $1.88 lb.-Sprouts
S&W beans, .48-Bashas
Daisy sour cream, $1.99-Bashas
Bar S meat franks, 10/$10-Albertsons
Albertsons hot dog or Hamburger buns, 10/$10-Albertsons
Albertsons Pasta sauce, 10/$10-Albertsons
Wholly Guacamole or salsa, $1.00-Fry's
Beef Chuck Roast, buy 1, get 1 free, these run $12-$16 per roast-Fry's
Ro-tel tomatoes, .49-Fry's when you buy 10
Zesta saltines, .99-Fry's wyb10
Mott's apple juice, $1.49-Fry's wyb10
Kraft mayonnaise, $1.99-Fry's wyb10
Chex Mix, $1.49-Fry's wyb10
Herdez salsa, $1.49-Fry's wyb10
Mission tortillas, $1.49-Fry's wyb10
Hormel Chili Masters chili, not sure of the price, maybe free with coup-Fry's

White bread

You need a basic white bread dough recipe in your bag of tricks if you are a from scratch cook. You just do. But, I suppose you can use wheat bread dough for anything we would make from white bread dough. You can use this basic bread dough for homemade pizza crusts, scones, fry bread for Navajo tacos, fry bread just for the heck of eating fried bread dough with honey on it, bread sticks, rolls, cinnamon rolls and on occassion I have even attempted to make soft pretzels out of it. I got this recipe off of Martha Stewart's Living website. I will paraphrase the instruction part of it as my printer cut off a word or two here and there.

Patricia's Basic Bread Dough
from Martha Stewart Living

Makes 1 1/2 lbs. dough
One simple, easy-to-prepare bread dough can be transtformed into breads, both sweet and savory. Chef Patricia Wells likes to use this dough in everything from pizza to dinner rolls.

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 C. lukewarm water (about 105 degrees)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fine sea salt (I use what's in the blue canister, Morton's)
4 C. bread flour, plus more if necessary

1. In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, combine yeast, sugar, and water, and stir. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in oil and salt.

2-Add flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until the flour has been absorbed, and the dough forms a ball. Continue on lowest speed until soft and satiny but still firm, 4 to 5 minutes. Add more flour, if necessary, to keep the dough from sticking. The dough should be soft.

3. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Let the dough rise in the refrigerator until double in bulk, 8-12 hrs. The dough can be kept for 2-3 days in the refrigerator. Simply punch down the dough as it doubles.

NOTE: I don't do steps 2 and 3 the way stated above. After the dough becomes a ball, I then knead it in the mixer for 5 minutes on high. I transfer to an oiled bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to double in size. I then punch down and shape into loaves and put into greased pans, making sure a little oil in on the tops to avoid drying out. I cover with plastic and allow to raise. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. ANOTHER NOTE: I usually double this recipe and make 3 loaves out of it.

Week 4

Week 4 of the drawer/shelf/cabinet/box a day challenge. Still doing it. This is huge for me. To still be doing a challenge to myself and be on week 4 of it, HUGE. The accountability is what makes the difference for me. If I have someone to report to, I mean. Same concept as Weight Watchers. So reporting into Sooz each night, and her to me, of what we've dejunked that day, it's very helpful, and has kept me going thus far. So I've found weird stuff, stuff I had forgotten I had kept and a boatload of photos that were displaced that I can organize and some day, dare I say it, get them into the photoalbum(s). I've taken one load to the thrift store so far, returned a series of books to a friend, plan on returning a box of stuff to another friend today, am one step closer to listing a few things for sale on Craig's List and am working on filling another box/boxes for another trip on Sat. to the Thrift store. Slowly, change is happening around here. You can't see it yet, but in another couple of months you'll be able to. Am also working on other changes, those of the spirit and body. And I suspect that those changes will be slow also, not easily detected in a month or two but after awhile of working on them, a change will be evident.

Sesame Peanut Noodle Salad

Sesame Peanut Noodle Salad
from Emeril Lagasse, Food Network

Ingredients:
1 pound spaghetti
4 Tablespoons peanut oil, divided
4 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons freshly minced ginger
1-2 pinches crushed red pepper flakes
1 C. julienned cucumbers, optional
1/4 C. green onion tops, sliced diagonally
1/4 C. chopped unsalted peanuts
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

Directions:
Fill a medium soup pot or Dutch oven with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

Boil the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt, about 9 minutes or until al dente. Drain the spaghetti in a colander, then transfer noodles to a large mixing bowl and, using tongs, toss with 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil to keep the pasta from sticking. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining peanut oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, ginger, and crushed red pepper flakes. Whisk until smooth.

Pour 1/2 of the peanut mixture onto the spaghetti and, using tongs, toss to coat the pasta. Cover the spaghetti with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.

When ready to serve, pour the remaining peanut mixture onto the spaghetti and toss to coat. Sprinkle with julienned cucumbers, if using, sliced green onions, chopped peanuts and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Sugared pecans

Or cashews, walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts, macadamias, peanuts. Once you learn this basic method, there are endless possibilities. I did this the other night and while I still don't have all the measurements, this is one of those recipes, let's face it, that you may have to do one or two times before you get it right. Some are just that way. So don't be afraid. But I will tell you what I've learned so that maybe you won't be wasting ingredients.

Take a small nonstick fry pan. Leave it dry. Put it on the burner and I then crank it up to high heat. I put 1/3 C. of white sugar in the pan. Have the nuts ready. How many nuts you ask? I had enough to make a layer over the sugar in the pan. I didn't measure them, but I'm thinking it was 3/4 to 1 C. of nuts. If I am using them for salads, then I usually chop them once or twice with a large knife. Now you have two choices here. If you want a hard crunch glazy type coating on the nuts, then let the sugar totally liquify. You may want to turn the heat down ever so slightly but either way you have to work fast and get those nuts in the pan, stir them around and then bam onto parchment paper to cool. The sugar goes brown and if you mess around too much it will get burnt tasting. Or taste burnt, whatever is correct English here. Or you can go for the second option and put the nuts in when the sugar just starts to liquify or liquifies halfway. Then coat, get onto a sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper or a sheet pan on your counter (if using the sheet pan I would spray a thin spray of PAM onto it before putting the caramelized nuts on it). If you do it the second way the nuts will be sugary and crunchy but not as hard or evenly glazed as the other way. I like them the second way actually but I am usually messing around and don't get them in the pan fast enough and they turn out the first way. You're actually making caramel, so do it when you don't have to answer the phone and when the kids are not in the kitchen with you. Send the dogs outside even. Oh, and sometimes, when the sugar is in the fry pan, I like to sprinkle a little cinnamon over it. Or over the nuts once I've added them. You could experiment with other spices also, sweet or savory type spices. These are great in salad with blue cheese or feta, craisins and/or mandarin oranges. You'll save a lot of money by making them yourself instead of buying them already sugared. You may eat most of them as is before they make it to your salad bowl.