Thursday nights typically mean at least one of us will be coming home late, so I’m always on the lookout for something fairly straightforward to make on the fly, even if it’s 8 p.m. and we’re starving. Tonight, I ended up getting home early and had all the time in the world, but, safe in the knowledge that I’d already chosen a one-pan meal, I used my spare time to make and can six jars of salsa. (I don’t idle well.)

So. Dinner!

A week or so ago, I stumbled upon a Taco Pasta recipe over at $5 Dinners (which is quickly becoming one of my go-to sites for frugal, healthy, and filling – not to mention delicious! – meals), and I knew it would be a perfect Thursday night candidate. It might even get us off our Hamburger Helper habit (which, in fairness, we haven’t fallen prey to in awhile).

I was initially skeptical that our pasta would cook in the pan with everything else, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results! The excess water boiled off as the pasta cooked, and we were left with a wonderful meal that was rich in protein and low in fat. Paired with a side salad, it was a complete dinner that left us both full and satisfied. We’ve given it the thumbs-up, which means we’ll be adding it back into the rotation soon. In the meantime, LeeLee has plenty to take for lunch tomorrow – always a bonus!

The stats:

Ground “beef”: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Fusilli pasta: $0.99 ($0.25/person)
Tomato paste: $0.89 ($0.45/person)
Kidney beans: $0.99 ($0.50/person)
Cheese: $4.59 ($1.15/person)
Salad: $3.99 ($2.00/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $15.44 … or $6.35 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal makes a good-sized portion for lunch tomorrow. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

Pasta, to me, is one of the very best ways to mix and meld lots of various flavors. You can add nearly anything to a pasta dish and come up with something that’s pleasing to the palate!

So I knew when I saw this recipe over at – where else? — $5 Dinners, I knew I was going to have to give it a try.

Truth be told, I’ve made a dish like this before. A friend of ours had LeeLee and me over to dinner years and years ago, way back when, and concocted a very similar dish, which I went on to replicate time and again through my early 20s. But it’s been years since I’ve made it, and I was so glad to stumble onto something like it again!

I’ve gotta say, this particular flavor blend really it the spot. I loved the way the olive oil brought out the more subtle tastes inherent in zucchini, onions, and cherry tomatoes, and I loved the pure summer-ness of this meal. I’ll definitely be making it again before autumn makes its way in!

The stats:
Pasta: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Zucchini: $0.60 ($0.30/person)
Cherry tomatoes: $3.00 ($1.50/person)
Onion: $1.00 ($0.50/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $5.60 … or $2.80 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal made another portion for LeeLee to have for lunch the next day. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

Well, we’ve been able to sidestep this meal for the better part of a month now, but once again, Tuesday night madness reigned supreme, and here we found ourselves, two steps between making a takeout run and making something quick and easy here at home instead.

Say what you will about ramen – or Rotel, for that matter. Scoff if you must. But we ate better tonight that we would have if we’d picked up something on the way home … and we did so much cheaper, too.

I’ve extolled the virtues of this dish 1,000 times, so I won’t repeat myself here – too much. :) But I will say that rarely have I found a dinner I can make in less than 10 minutes, spending less than $4 per person, and with a fill-you-up level of at least three hours. This dish fits the bill. And on nights like tonight, it’s a lifesaver!

The stats:

Ramen: $1.25/six ($0.10/person)
Rotel: $1.25 ($0.63/person)
Chik’n patties: $3.50/four ($0.88/person)
Salad: $3.99 ($2.00/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $9.99 … or $3.61 per person.

:)

Tomato-Basil Quiche.

As I’m writing this, two quiches are baking in the oven, and though I haven’t sampled them yet, if they taste as good as they look we’ll be in good shape!

I got this particular recipe from one of my very favorite blogs, $5 Dinners, and was especially interested to use it because of the multitude of tomatoes and fields of basil we’ve got around the house right now. These quiches definitely made a welcome dent in our supply!

And the preparation was a breeze. No vegetables to sauté. No pans to get dirty. Just two pie pans and the filling! I was shocked at how easy it all was to put together.

Now we’ll just have to see how it tastes …

It was very good! It could’ve used more salt, but that’s my fault – we ran out of salt as I was seasoning the quiches and the end result wasn’t a surprise. But LeeLee didn’t seem to mind – between the two of us, the entire pie pan was cleaned out within minutes!

I’ve got the second quiche cooling in the kitchen now; when it’s ready, I’ll put it in the freezer to bring out later. I can’t think of a more efficient meal!

The stats:

Tomatoes: Prepaid.
Basil: FREE from the garden.
Eggs: $2.00/six ($1.00/person)
Pie crust: $4.19/two ($2.10/person)
Onion: $1.00 ($0.25/person)
Zucchini: $0.60 ($0.30/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $7.79 … or $3.65 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal makes two quiches, one of which we’ll freeze for later. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

I’ve been wanting to give this deal a try all summer, and today, I knew our time was nigh.

I learned a few months ago that Whole Foods Market had launched a “Twofer Tuesday” pizza deal, and ever since I’d been eager to give it a try, to see whether it was all it was cracked up to be. So, tonight, with the cupboards bare of any meal-like concoctions (today is Grocery Day) and our stomachs rumbling with hunger, I decided to give it a whirl.

The initial price to entry is steep $16.99. That’s for two large pizzas, which put my mind at ease a bit. But the proof was in just how far we could stretch those pizzas … and I must say, I was impressed with the results!

I ordered two different kinds – one zucchini-ricotta pizza with lemon basil and one portabella-shallot pizza. Both were a delight – so light and so airy, and so downright summery. LeeLee and I each had three slices for dinner, paired with a Caesar salad from home, and we were stuffed. But we were shocked by how much pizza we had left over!

Let’s see. I packaged two slices apiece for LeeLee and me for tomorrow’s lunches. Then I took the remaining six slices – three from each pie – and divided them into two additional containers for freezing, so we could enjoy them later, on another rushed and hurried night. So that’s six per-person servings for $16.99 – not a bad deal!

I read on our local Whole Foods’ website that they’ll be ending this promotion at the end of August. I hope they reconsider – if Twofer Tuesdays continue, we’ll definitely be back!

The stats:

Two pizzas: $16.99
Caesar salad: FREE (buy-one-get-one-free at Safeway!)

GRAND TOTAL: $16.99 … or $2.83 per serving.

:)

Well, tonight’s meal was a last-minute substitution, necessitated when the cherry tomatoes I thought I had on hand (for lemon-basil pasta, you see) simply weren’t there. So I turned my attention to this meal, which was also on the menu for the week (courtesy of inspiration from $5 Dinners), and promptly began to frown, for I hadn’t half the ingredients and was feeling a bit dejected at my lack of planning!

(Oh, sure, I started the week with these ingredients. But the eggs went toward Saturday’s brunch, the onion went to a Friday night barbecue … the list goes on an on.)

But never fear! A little substitution never hurt anybody! Or, in this case, an omission or two. Or three. But who’s counting.

I found that mixing two cans of black beans, mashed with a potato masher, with half a cup of bread crumbs, a small bell pepper, and some fresh cilantro, spiced up with some cumin and some salt, hid a multitude of culinary sins. So we didn’t have onion. So we didn’t have your standard egg binder. Who cares? These cakes became, well, cakes very quickly, and within 20 minutes they were ready to roll, served with some fresh corn and green beans from Great Country Farms, our CSA!

I will say that the other lucky part of this meal (the first spot of luck being the fact that everything worked out as it should) was that earlier today, my friend Denise and I spent the afternoon canning salsas – one tomato-based and one peach-based. So tonight with dinner, LeeLee and I gave the peach-mint salsa a try with our black bean cakes, and the combination was so good it looked like I planned it that way! That never hurts.

So, in short, we had a great meal, learned a new recipe, and tasted a new canning creation. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday night!

The stats:

Pepper: FREE from the garden!
Black beans (two cans): $1.98 ($0.99/person)
Bread crumbs: $1.69 ($0.14/person)
Cilantro: $1.67 ($0.09/person)
Corn: Prepaid.
Green beans: Prepaid.

GRAND TOTAL: $5.34 … or $1.22 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe makes enough cakes for two servings of leftovers. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

This really hit the spot tonight!

We were facing off with midweek chaos this evening, going nose-to-nose with deadlines and new projects and unexpected assignments. Something had to be done. Something quick and easy to prepare. Something filling. Something to give us a break, for goodness’ sake!

A pizza party was the perfect solution!

When I got home from work, I commenced working on the dough, which took me all of 10 minutes to prepare. Then, all I had to do was sit back and relax while the dough rose for 45 minutes – a task I was gladly amenable to! When the dough had risen enough to my liking, I pre-baked it for 10 minutes before topping it with sauce, mozzarella cheese, and veggie pepperoni slices and baking the whole thing for another 15 minutes. While it baked, I tossed a salad and set the table. Fifteen minutes later, dinner was finished!

If I’d been thinking ahead, I would have made the dough last night or over the weekend. That really would’ve made this meal especially quick today. But no matter. We each had enough going on that an hour’s time before dinner was a welcome surprise!

The stats:

Dough: $1.12 ($0.56/person)
Sauce: $1.85 ($0.93/person)
Pepperoni: $4.29 ($2.15/person)
Cheese: $4.99 ($2.50/person)
Salad: $3.99 ($2.00/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $16.24 … or $8.14 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal makes enough for a good-sized serving of leftovers. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

My apologies for the blurriness of this photo! I don’t know WHAT went wrong with these tonight.

Tonight was a race against Mother Nature – and I think we ended up in a tie!

I had a couple of squash in the fridge from last week’s CSA shipment that were just this side of overripe, so I knew I couldn’t delay in cooking them. And, of course, what better way to cook squash than to throw it in a foil packet, season the slices with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and toss everything with a little oil before throwing the whole shebang onto the grill?

No better way, right? Right.

So on the squash went, and out LeeLee and I went onto the patio to supervise. Within about five minutes, the gray clouds that were supposed to hold off until 7 p.m. began to roll in at 6 instead, and shortly thereafter, the rain began to fall – huge, thick drops of rain that hit the bricks with thud after thud. LeeLee and I packed up and headed back in, leaving the squash to cook by its lonesome while the onion rings baked inside.

When the squash was nearing its completion, I put the chorizo on to grill, and closer still to dinnertime, I laid the buns on the grate as well. With the rain still coming down, I rushed everything back inside with nothing worse for wear, and dinner was served!

So how was the squash, you might ask, since that really was the impetus behind this whole sordid tale in the first place. Well … not so good, actually. It seems that while I thought the vegetables were “just this side of overripe,” they were actually on the other side of ripeness. They weren’t BAD – they just weren’t GOOD. And that was totally my fault by waiting until today to cook them. I won’t make that mistake again!

But everything else was great. And the meal was finished off with a sweet treat, something else I concocted to make the most of some quickly ripening CSA deliveries:

Peach cobbler.

And unlike the squash, this was PERFECT, if I do say so myself. I can’t wait to try it again. (I used this recipe, if you’d like to give it a try on your own!)

Squash. Peaches. You win some, you lose some!

The stats:

Chorizo: $4.99/four ($1.25/person)
Buns: $0.99/eight ($0.12/person)
Squash: Prepaid.
Onion rings: $2.99 ($0.75/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $8.97 … or $2.12 per person.

:)

Oh, I needed some carbs today. After running 10 miles before work this morning, I was craving them, in fact.

But I didn’t want just any carbs. No, they needed to pack a nutritional punch, as well, providing a little bang for my buck. So by the time I got home from work, I knew just what I was going to make: An eggplant penne meal I’d seen written about over at $5 Dinners.

Eggplant? Pasta? Fresh salad greens and tomatoes from the CSA, delivered to my doorstep just this afternoon? It doesn’t get much better than this!

I was surprised at how easy this recipe was to make – but, then, I’ve made enough $5 Dinner recipes by now that I shouldn’t have been so shocked. Erin does a great job of whipping up fantastic meals for a fraction of what you think they’d cost, both financially and time-wise. So when everything came together perfectly at the end, with minimal prep work in advance, I should have known … but I was still pleasantly surprised!

Anyway, in short, this dish was a hit. LeeLee and I both loved it, and my body was very grateful for the shot of carbohydrates. We’ll definitely be making it again!

The stats:

Eggplant: $1.50 ($0.75/person)
Penne pasta: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Parsley: FREE from garden!
Basil: FREE from garden!
Crushed tomatoes: $1.45 ($0.73/person)
Cheese: $2.50 ($1.25/person)
Lettuce: Prepaid.
Tomatoes: Prepaid.
Garbanzo beans: Free (my mother had extra cans and gave us some!).

GRAND TOTAL: $6.45 … or $3.23 per person.
BUT WAIT! This meal makes enough leftovers for a hearty lunch tomorrow. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)