Today is LeeLee’s birthday. I’d tell you how old he is, but he may not like that, so I’ll just say he’s somewhere between 25 and 95.

And it ain’t 25.

(Sorry, LeeLee.)

We went out for a night on the town last Friday, so this evening we had a quiet dinner at home. Per LeeLee’s request, I made all his favorites – red beans and rice, collard greens, Tofurky Italian sausages, and champagne. And I topped it all off with a special birthday cake for dessert!

I think it all went over well. LeeLee was especially tickled that I brought out the rice cooker and pan-cooked the sausages. And we were both pleased with how the birthday cake came out – I’d never made it before, so its taste was anybody’s guess!

Happy birthday, LeeLee. Here’s to 95 more years together.

(No stats today – it wouldn’t be polite to let the guest of honor know how much you spent on their meal, now would it?)

:)

I should’ve known something was different when I took a taste of tonight’s chik’n posole, still simmering on the stove, and began to cough, reaching for my water bottle in a panic. The burn! The sting! The warmth in the throat and chest!

Too much jalapeno? Perhaps just a smidge.

Even LeeLee, purveyor of all things spicy, teared up and choked a little. But the tastiness of tonight’s meal won out in the end, and we both went back for second helpings.

The cool salad helped chill our taste buds, and the biscuits soothed our souls if not our tongues. But the chik’n posole … I think it’s one of my favorite dishes ever. EVER.

And I think I’ll make it just as spicy next time.

The stats:

Chik’n strips: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Hominy: $1.15 ($0.58/person)
Broth: $1.50 ($0.75/person)
Diced tomatoes: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Onion: $0.99 ($0.50/person)
Jalapeno: $0.25 ($0.13/person)
Salad: $3.49 ($1.75/person)
Biscuits: $3.49/12 ($0.58/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $15.86 … or $6.79 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal makes enough for leftovers. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know that we’re allies to nearly any quesadilla out there. But LeeLee and I had never tried a bacon (well, “bacon”) quesadilla before! So when I found a recipe for one over at The Frugal Girl, I knew I had to give it a go.

The dish couldn’t have been simpler. I put some rice on to cook, and while it did, I prepared my tortillas with a layer of cheese, a layer of “bacon” (four slices for each quesadilla), and then another thin layer of cheese to bind things together. I sprayed a frying pan with some cooking spray, heated it up, and let ‘er rip!

The results were … oh. Fantastic. So good. Rich, hearty, filling, tasty. Everything you could expect from a blend of cheesy quesadillas and hearty bacon! We mowed down our tortillas in record time, with the rice following shortly behind.

And the best news? We’ve got another quesadilla left over for LeeLee to take for lunch tomorrow. If I don’t fight him for it, of course.

The stats:

Tortillas: $2.99/six ($1.00/person)
“Bacon”: $4.99 ($2.50/person)
Cheese: $2.99 ($1.50/person)
Rice: $0.88 ($0.44/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $11.85 … or $5.44 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe makes enough for another lunch’s worth. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

When life throws you a scheduling curveball – when a meeting comes up at the very last minute and a leisurely dinner is suddenly out of the question – there’s really only one thing to do: Make “steak,” English peas, and twice-baked potatoes.

Who’d have thought this could be a 10-minute meal? But it’s true. Thank goodness for the freezer, is all I have to say, because remember those potatoes I made a month or so ago? They came in handy tonight!

I put the potatoes in the microwave for five minutes (I’d have preferred to bake them the old-school way, but hey, whatcha gonna do when time is tight?) and, while they cooked, I set the peas on the stove to heat up. Once the potatoes came out, the pepper “steaks” went in, and two and a half minutes later, dinner was ready! Not too shabby when you get right down to it.

And what’s more, the potatoes have held up beautifully in the freezer, and the steak was hearty and filling, as always. And the peas? Always a hit!

Take that, crazy schedule!

The stats:

Pepper “steak”: $5.99 ($3.00/person)
Peas: $1.44 ($0.72/person)
Potatoes: Prepaid.

GRAND TOTAL: $7.43 … or $3.72 per person.

:)

Now that I’ve emerged from my Tofurky stupor and holiday-decorating soiree, I think it’s time to show off some postcards from Thanksgiving week, don’t you? Meal breakdowns will return tomorrow, but for now, here’s what we’ve been up to.

We kicked off our countdown to Thanksgiving with a bowl of pumpkin soup, served with a side of sausage-cheese muffins. Let me tell you what – those muffins are a force to be reckoned with! I ate way too many in much too short a timespan. And I’m not sorry about it one bit.

Then, on the night before Thanksgiving, we determined that we needed a quick and easy meal to consume while we began the prep work for Thursday’s feast. Ramen with Rotel to the rescue … as always!

On Thanksgiving morning, we had some orange muffins and bacon to fuel the day as we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the succeeding dog show, padding around the house and generally taking our sweet time getting ready for our 2 p.m. lunch with a friend.

And then came the feast.

We enjoyed leftovers for nearly the whole weekend, but on Sunday it was time for something different. Sausage-corn chowder fit the bill beautifully, along with a new batch of sausage-cheese muffins!

Last night, I made my world-famous “meatballs” and sautéed them while we cooked some angel-hair pasta and warmed up some homemade pasta sauce I’d canned over the summer. Si si!

Which brings us to tonight, where we used up nearly all the rest of our hand-picked potatoes from September in an excellent (if I do say so myself) rendition of potato soup, with the requisite Goldfish … and the leftover sausage-cheese muffins. :)

But not to worry. We’ll have plenty more muffins where that came from, I feel sure!

I hope your holiday was as lovely as ours! What traditions did you observe?

:)

Today’s recipe was the only path I really could take tonight, to be truthful. The rain has been steadily coming down all day, the weather turning crisp and autumnal again. A cold-weather pairing of halushki, which I’d never tried before, and baked-and-mashed butternut squash were sure to hit the spot!

I became intrigued by halushki when I stumbled upon a recipe for it over at The Urban Vegan a couple of weeks ago and immediately added it to my meal plan. I’m so glad I did! It exceeded my expectations by a mile, earning an immediate spot in the winter dinner rotation … and accolades from LeeLee, which is always a plus!

But the halushki wasn’t the only part of the menu that was a first attempt tonight. The butternut squash recipe we tried was actually a test run for Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast, and on the whole we were pleased by the attempt. Next time, we’ll bake the butternut squash for a longer time, and covered with foil, to allow the pieces to soften and make mashing easier. Tonight’s came out too chunky for LeeLee’s taste, but I liked it just fine! Mixed with Silk vanilla creamer and some brown sugar – what’s not to love?

The stats:

Macaroni: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Cabbage: $1.44 ($0.72/person)
Mushrooms: $2.95 ($1.48/person)
Squash: $2.49 ($1.25/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $7.88 … or $3.95 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe makes enough for leftovers the next day. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

I wasn’t sure what to make of it when I set everything to boil in my large saucepan. Would veggie “beef,” mixed vegetables, and broth go well together, all by themselves, until the time came to add a can of cream of mushroom soup? Would that just muddy the waters, as it were? Would the spices I’d chosen go along with the dish as a whole? Shouldn’t I just throw a canned of diced tomatoes into the mix instead and call it a day?

Rather than give in to my doubts and my Type A mind, I went along with the recipe and was so pleased with the result! This turned out to be a smooth, hearty stew filled with protein and veggies and all manner of goodness, with not very much fat and next to no money involved. In fact, the most expensive parts of this meal were found in the salad and foccacia – not that I’m complaining about how those side items turned out!

So I’ll definitely be giving this dish another try. Who knows? It may even join the regular rotation by the time winter’s in full swing!

The stats:

Ground “beef”: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Mixed vegetables: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Veggie broth: $2.50 ($1.25/person)
Cream of mushroom soup: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Salad: $3.59 ($1.80/person)
Foccacia: $3.99/seven ($0.86/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $16.07 … or $6.91 per person.

:)

Oh, how I wish you’d been there!

I had SO MUCH FUN in Florida over a long (four-night!) weekend. My family and I visited my favorite cheesemakers, Sweet Grass Dairy, in South Georgia, and went on hikes and walks around some of our favorite nature preserves and lakes. We watched Florida State beat Wake Forest in football. We sent a good amount of time just lounging on sofas or porch swings, chatting and catching up with each other.

And … we ate. This IS a food blog, for crying out loud, people.

So let’s begin at the beginning, shall we?

I arrived in Florida at lunchtime, and because the drive from the airport to the house is a long one, we stopped off for a bite to eat first. But that night, I was able to savor one of Mama’s home-cooked specials, Crock-Pot chili. Hearty yet comforting, spicy yet smooth, it was a meal that couldn’t be beat! And it was the perfect dish to cap off a long day of traveling.

The next night, leftover chili fueled a whole new meal: Stuffed bell peppers! As much as I try to mic my mother’s peppers, I always fall short. Hers were delicious!

We ate out the next couple of nights, snacking on leftovers here and there. Believe me, we didn’t miss many meals! :)

… and before I knew it, it was time to return home to Virginia. Though I confess that every time I leave Florida, I have to spend a few days adjusting to what “home” is. I always leave a little bit of my heart down in the Sunshine State. I suppose it’ll be something I’ll just continue to get used to.

So, a good 24 hours after my arrival back here, I was still feeling a touch out of sorts when I arrived home after work today. Luckily, I knew just the meal to whip up to combat that! When you’re in need of comfort food, it’s best to turn to an old favorite … potato soup. With Goldfish, of course. And a salad to round things out.

I’ve had this dish in my mind for about a week now, and on this rainy, chilly night, I knew I could wait no longer. So into the pot my ingredients went, and out came chik’n posole.

I first stumbled across this dish last month over at $5 Dinners, and the first go-round was, I must say, a success. Tonight’s rendition was just as good – maybe even a little better, since there were no leftovers save for a few tiny kernels of hominy and a sad old piece of diced tomato. Paired with a salad and some frozen foccacia rolls (cooked, of course, silly!), it was a great, hearty, tasty dish.

I can’t wait to serve it again!

The stats:

Chik’n: $4.99 ($2.50/person)
Diced tomatoes: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Broth: $2.78 ($1.39/person)
Hominy: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Onion: $0.79 ($0.40/person)
Salad: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Foccacia: $3.99/seven ($1.14/person)
Hot pepper: FREE from the garden!

GRAND TOTAL: $18.54 … or $8.43 per person.

:)

First of all, I owe you an apology for missing a week’s worth of posts! Last week got away with me – work during the day (as usual), but then fun outings and adventures nearly each evening! That’s pretty rare for a weekday homebody like me … but it was a blast. From a moonlit hike at the National Arboretum (which I highly recommend and which, on a frugal note, was paid for by the company I work at!) to an evening with friends, I stayed busy but had a great time. But I apologize for being absent for a week! In the middle of it all, I promise I did take photos of each meal – and in fact managed to eat at home nearly every night, despite my adventures!

I’ll do a catch-up post soon. But in the meantime, here’s tonight’s dish.

Given the autumnal weather – and accompanying meals – of late, I found myself in deep, DEEP cookout withdrawal. Don’t get me wrong – I love soups and chilis and hearty, wintry meals. But a girl could use a burger once in awhile, too, you know?

The George Foreman grill seemed like too much work tonight. So I wrapped up a couple of potatoes (still more from the batch we picked a couple of months ago – and I can assure you there’s plenty more where that came from!), baked them in the oven for an hour, and 15 minutes from their finish time, I put four Morningstar Farms Grillers on a cookie sheet and set them in to bake as well, turning them with 7 minutes left on the clock. When I put the burgers in, I also plunked some mixed vegetables into a pot to warm up, and by the time the oven timer went off, dinner was ready!

We served the potatoes with butter and some leftover sour cream from last weekend’s chili, and served the burgers with lettuce, onion from the farmer’s market, and a tomato. It was a summertime meal in the middle of a crisp, cool fall – and a welcome interruption from cold-weather dinners!

The stats:

Buns: $0.99/eight ($0.12/person)
Burgers: $3.50/four ($0.88/person)
Mixed vegetables: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Potatoes: Prepaid.
Onion: $1.00 ($0.25/person)
Tomato: $0.91 ($0.46/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $7.40 … or $2.21 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal makes enough burgers for two rounds of leftovers. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)