Spaghetti Casserole is a easy and frugal dinner idea that only needs a few ingredients, such as bacon and cheese.
Spaghetti Casserole is a meal from my childhood that I've always enjoyed. It's also one of the few dinners that I was willing to reheat the next day as leftovers (I'm not big on leftovers). When talking to David and the kids today I mentioned that we were having it tonight and that I would post it on the blog. I said that I think it might need a more "fancy" name. Spaghetti
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Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Until about a year ago, I never made fish at home. David always said he didn't like it (that's changed), and fish was very rarely, if ever, one of the meals I had as a child so I had limited experience with it. I found fish to be a bit intimidating. It just seemed like something I would definitely screw up if I ever tried to cook it.
But here we are. Sometime last year I decided it was time to get past these fishy phobias. We had started Weight Watchers and I wanted
Creamy Cauliflower Soup + Sunset Magazine
Growing up, there was only a few magazines that I remember my mom reading regularly and one of them was Sunset. I remember flipping through it and often seeing cool houses and wishing I could live in one of them. Other than that, I didn't really get what was so special about the magazine. But I was much younger then.
Fast forward to today and Sunset is one of those magazines that invokes happy feelings in me. When I see their usual cursive "Sunset" at the top of the cover of the magazine,
Thyme Roasted Vegetables
Anyone get those $5 off Jennie-O coupons that were given away during an episode of The Biggest Loser in 2009? Well, they expired on December 31, 2009. On New Years Eve (HA - that would be December 31, 2009 - the reason for this story), I was busy in the kitchen finishing up cooking all of our party food when I realized that I didn't use my coupon! Perhaps most of you would have let it expire, but not this frugal mama! Hubby and I headed out in the cold to Food Lion (just before they closed, I
Cheese Bread
Homemade Refried Beans
My husband isn't a big fan of canned refried beans, but he's LOVES them when I make them myself. Even leftovers of them get eaten up quickly.
Homemade refried beans are super cheap and they freeze great. And while I am listing the recipe below for only 1 pound of beans, I don't cook such a small batch. If I am going to make them, I usually do at least 3 lbs at one time and I freeze the leftovers into smaller portions for future meals.
Here's how I do them. You will notice that I DO NOT add
Any Cereal Chicken Tenders
One of the favorite meals in our house is Chicken Tenders...yum, yum, yum.
I make mine by baking them in the oven, rather than frying, and the coating on them is any kind of cereal that I have on hand. Just about any cereal will work - in the past I've used sugary cereals like Captain Crunch (I have no problem admitting that these are GOOD), but lately I use cereals such as Fiber One or Total - which everyone in my family gobbles up too. I've even used Shredded Wheat or Cheerios. The cereal I
A Side of Black Beans
In our family, refried (pinto) beans are almost always served with the Mexican food I cook. While I love refried beans - my husband would rather have black beans. Here's how I make black beans for a side dish:
Black Beans
3 cans of black beans; drained and rinsed
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use less or none if you don't like spicy)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a
Fruit & Chicken Salad
In the Summer, we have salad for dinner about once a week. Not only do I like how easy they are, but on a hot, mucky day, it's so refreshing to have a light meal such as a salad.
Walmart had strawberries on sale and considering how great they looked and that we haven't had them much this Summer, I decided to buy some. Of course, we could just eat them as-is, but my mind turned to yummy various desserts I could make. But this week was also a week that I was determined to spend as little as
Strategic Dish Drying Club
Sadly, we don't have a dishwasher.
Everything must be handwashed, which I don't really mind, but I would love the option to use a dishwasher on some days.
At some point in the early years of our marriage, it dawned on me that people actually hand dry the dishes that they hand wash. I seriously didn't know this. I believe I saw it on a movie or TV show: a couple standing in the kitchen while she washed and he dried. Interesting concept. Here's me: I let them air dry in their dish