My Recipe Library

Monthly Menu: November 2011

2011-12-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

AFter reading this book

I decided taht I would try to cut back on my grocery bill by shopping only twice a a month instead of every week.

ITw as a challenge to plan 2 weeks of menus. I had to dig through old cookbooks and recipe boxes to jumpstart my creative cooking juices, but I can tell you that it really did make a difference to my grocery bill! And who doesn't love saving time,money and gas by staying away from the gorcery store! Not to mention the hassle of the actual shopping and unloading.

So, here's what I made in November. I will try to add the recipes for specific dishes as time allows.

1st: Meatloaf (the GOOD kind. My kids even like it)
2nd: Hamsteakd with green beans and baked potato...so easy!
3rd: tostados
4th: chicken potato bake. yum
5th: Costco Pizza (ok! I went to costco that day and capitalized on the $6 pizza!)
6th: Broccoli and cheese soup
7th: chken linguini
8th: Beef Stroganoff
9th: Lemon Parmesean pasta
10th: sweet and sour chicken
11th: creamy enchiladas
12th: Chipotle pans! SO GOOD!!!
13th: leftover rice/chicken
14th: Wild rice and chicken soup in bread bowls
15th: baked pork chops with sauted apples and green beans
16th: sesame noodles
17th: chicken kiev
18th :burgers, potato salad and baked beans (reliving those long gone summer days)
19TH: crockpot tortilla soup
20th: pizza...again....but it was home made this time.
21: shepherd's pie
22: leftovers
23: leftovers (I was making sure that they'd be good and ready for Thanksgiving!)
24: Thanksgiving Turkey
25: Turkey leftovers
26: Turkey soup
27: Beef and broccoli stirfry
28: BAked Potato bar
29: More turkey soup
30: Lasagna

There you go! I'll put up December's menu next month. I should mention that I don't hold myself to the planned menu. SOmetimes I swap one meal for another, or I just make leftovers work when I'm super tired or busy (as noted above!) BUt I do have somethign planned for each day. This actually made my menu stretch out even more so that I could use some of my november menu ideas for the first week of December, which cuts down on December's budget even mroe. I would estimate that I saved appx. $75-100 in Nov. by shopping this way. I'm hooked on this idea. Maybe soemday I"ll be organized enough to shop just once a month. Maybe.

Apple Sauce Cookies

2011-12-03T19:42:00.001-08:00

Ok, last apple recipe...for now.

When I make dehydrated apples, I use one of those hand crank thingies

And I love it! It makes my life so much easier. When my dehydrater is full of apple slices, my sink is full of peels. I boil the peels and cores down wiht about 1 cup of water and then mash them trough a old fashioned food mill that my mom picked up at an antique store eons ago. I love that thing. And it gives me about 2 cups of yummy fresh apple sauce.

So the other day I decided to use my fresh apple sauce to make some applesauce cookies.

Here's teh recipe I used with my modifications noted.

http://www.food.com/recipe/applesauce-cookies-298710

Modifications:
1 cup butter instead of 2
almost 2 cups of applesauce instead of 1
Extra 1/2 cup flour (appx)
I only added 1/2 cup chocolate chips and you definilty need 10 mins in the oven.

Apple Presents

2011-12-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

Another great apple recipe! This one is from

1 tsp orange zest
1/3 cup fresh squeezed OJ
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium granny smith apples peeled, cored and sliced
1 tube of refigerated bread stick dough (I used crescent rolls and it worked well!)
1 tb. melted butter (I omitted this)

Pour the OJ in the bottom of a deep dish plate or glass bakign pan. Make the cinnamin sugar and add the orange zest to it. Then you open up one of the crescent rolls, spinkle it with cinn-zest sugar (my variation) place 2 to 3 pieces of apple near the end, and roll the apples up in the dough. PLace them seam side down in the pan. Sprinkle them with more cin-zest sugar (brush with butter first if you're using butter) and bake in a 375 oven for 25 minutes or so.

It's a lighter, tastier variation of McD's apple pie.

Apple BRownies

2011-11-20T23:05:00.000-08:00

HEre's a great way to use up some of those autumn apples that may be hanging around your kitchen.

Apple Brownies

1 TBL soft butter

1 cup sugar
(mix)

Add 1 egg
mix well

Add Pre mixed Dry stuff:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp b.p.
1 tsp cinn.

Blend all

Add 3 medium chopped apples. ( I used 2 cameos and that was plenty. I did not peel)

Nuts if desired (I did not add them)

Batter will seem very scanty and dry. It will look like too many apples.

8x8 or 9x9 square baking dish greased at 350 for 40 mins.

Very good wtih whipped cream. Crsipy top with warm chewy middles. Really good.

Salad Sonora

2011-05-15T14:54:00.001-07:00

1 cup lentils
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1.5 tsp chili powder
.5 tsp ground cumin
1 cup corn cernals drained
1 cup salsa
4 oz green chiles
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup sliced olives
.5 cup fresh cilantro

wash lentils. place in saucepan with onion , garlic,chili powder cumin and 2 cupswater. heat to boiling, cover, reduce to simmer for 10-12 mins or jsut unitl lentils are barely tender. drain if needed. combine withall remaining ingredients,cover andchill several hours or overnight. serve in a taco bowl on thin sliced veggies wor with tortilla chips.

Pinto bean fudge

2011-05-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

2/3 cup canned milk
1 to 1 1/2 cups minature marshmallows
1 to 1 1/2 cups strained pinto beans
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 to 1 cup sugar
1/2 cup nuts
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Combine sugar and milk in kettle then boil fivem inutes stirring constantly. Add remianing ingredients and stir until marshmallows melt then pour into buttered pan. Cool and cut into squares.

ham and bean soup

2011-05-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

3/4 lb fully cooked ham
1 medium onion

2 garlic cloves
2 16 oz cans white beans
3 cupschicken broth
2 cups water
1 cup potatoes
3/4 cup carrots
3/4 cup celery
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 tb fresh parsely

IN saucepan,saute onion, garlic and onion till tender. Add next seven ingredients. Cover andsimmer 30 minutes or so. Add peas. cookfiveminutes. add parsely and serve. Really good.

Black Bean taco filling

2011-05-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion (I use half)
2 garlic cloves
1 bell pepper
2 cans black beans rinsed, drained,and mashed
2 tb cornmeal
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup salsa

saute onion and garlic with bell pepper until tender. stir in mashed beans and cornmeal. Add seasonings and salsa. done. yum.
Top tacos with red onion, tomato,cilantro, avocado or what ever else you like.

"Bugs" side dish

2011-05-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

1/4 cup wild rice
1/2 cup long grain rice
(instead of the two above ingredients, I use 3/4 cup of the wild rice mix from costco)
2 garlic clovesm inced
1 tbl butter
1/2 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp pepper
1 cup lentils washed
1 coursely chopped onion
4 cups liquid (chicken broth usually)

Saute onion and garlic. Add lentils. Add liquid and boil. Reduce heat. simmer 30 minutes or till water is gone.

Serve with sauted cinnamin apples and some kind of pork.

Lentils and Brown RIce Casserole

2011-05-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups lentils uncooked
1 large onion
1 to 3 garlic cloves
1 cup brown rice
1/2 tsp.basil
1/8 tsp salt
1 small can chopped green chiles
1 or so cups of mozz.orcheddar cheese
1/2 cup cilantro
2-3 green onions

Saute onion and garlic till golden. Addallotheringredients except last three. STir into casseroledishwitha tight lid orfoil. BAke at 350 for 90 to 120 minutes. Stir twice. Add cheese, cliantro and green onions.

OR

Saute onionand garlic till golden. Adll all ingredients excpet last three. Simmer unitl lentils and rice are soft. Putin 9x13 pan,melt cheese on top in 350 oven. Add cilantroand green onions. serve withsour cream and or salsa.

Not as bad for you Chocolate Chip cookies

2011-01-16T15:20:00.001-08:00

My sister in law gave me this recipe. We like it a lot

1/2 cup melted butter
3 TB oil
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Blend that well.

Add one egg and
2 tsp vanilla

Blend

1 cup oats
1 cup white flour
1 cup brown flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Blend

Add a teeny bit of water if the dough seems crumbly

1-2 cups chocolate chips

form balls and bake at 350 for about 8-9 minutes.

Creamy Black Bean Soup - my version

2011-01-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

We made this last week and wow, we LOVED it. I modified it a bit. So first I'll post the original recipe from America's Test Kitchen with my modifications noted. I'm not including all the instructions for soaking the beans and cooking them with the ham chunks. My way is much faster and it was so so good.

Beans
1 pound (2 cups) dried black beans, rinsed and picked over
(I used 4 jars of home pressure canned black beans. I pureed two of them with a stick blender)

4 ounces ham steak, trimmed of rind
(I went to Costco and bought a pack of 3 very large ham steaks. I used only one half of a steak for this recipe and it was plenty!)

2 Bay leaves
5 Cups of water (not necessary if you're using canned beans)
1 tsp. salt (ommit if using canned beans)

Soup
3 Tb. Olive oil
2 Large Onions (I only used about 3/4 of one onion)
3 celery ribs (I was out of celery, but I think it would be very good with)
1 large carrot (I love carrots so I added 2 carrots, plus a handful of food storage carrots)
1/2 tsp salt
5-6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 1/2 TB ground cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I used just a small pinch)
6 cups low sodium chicken broth (I used 2 cans)
2 TB cornstarch mixed with 2 TB water for thickening at the end. I did this and it helps.
Juice from one lime, about 2 TB

GArnishes
These make the soup extra special and so so yummy, so don't skip them
Lime wedges
Minched fresh cilantro
finely chopped red onion
Avocado diced
sour cream

Heat oil in large dutch oven until shimmering and add the onions, celery, fresh carrot, and salt. Cook till soft and lightly brown. Add garlic, cumin,red pepper flakes. Cook till fragrant, about 3 mins. Stir in your 2 jars of beans, then your 2 jars of pureed beans. Add the chicken broth. increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Add your food storage carrots if you wish. Add the ham at this point ifusing canned beans. If not, wait. Simmer uncovered for about 30 mins.

If you use dry beans to start, then at this point you ladel out about 1.5 cups of the soup and puree it in the blender.

Next, add your mixture of cornstarch and water to theicken the soup. Return to boil to let it fully thicken. Off heat, stir in lime juice. Serve immediatley with separate garnishes. YUM.

Lemon Parmesean Pasta

2011-01-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

Everybody LOVED this one, even my three year old.

1 pound dry fettuccini
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 TB butter
1 TB lemon zest
Juice of one lemon
1 cup grated Parmesean cheese
salt and pepper to taste

prepare pasta. Heat cream, add butter and stir. add zest and juice. boil. reduce to low and stir in cheese till melted. and salt and pepper. drain pasta. add sauce to pasta. stir well to coat. voila.

This is from a book I have called 52 weeks of Proven Recipes for Picky kids by Jill McKenzie. I've tried a handful of recipes from the book, but so far this is the only one my kids would eat.

Real Hummus from Allrecipes.com

2011-01-09T16:37:00.001-08:00

I love hummus! The instant kind is no good. And the fresh prepared stuff at the store can be pricy.
My husband and I liked this recipe a lot, so give it a try!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/real-hummus/Detail.aspx

Best EVER Granola bars

2011-01-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

I can't say enough bout these. I took a bunch of these with me to the hospital when my fourth was born and I'm so glad! We ended up having to stay for 4 days and I was so glad to have these with me. They're great for taking in the car, packing in lunches or just munching on at home. They are filling and nutritious. THey don't last long at our house!

http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/04/11/homemade-granola-bar-recipe-no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-these-bars/

Golden Barley Fruit Salad

2011-01-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

Every Spring and Fall our food coop does a "stock your pantry" order. Last spring I ordered 25 lb of barley. I love barley. But I didn't know what else to do withit besides put it in my beef stew. So I started hunting for barley recipes and this one was really good!

http://www.barleyfoods.org/recipes/goldenbarley_salad.html

Yum!

homemade laundry soap

2011-01-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've made this laundry soap recipy several times and I like using it. It works well and is very cost effective!

Here's the link:
http://www.theideadoor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=239

Be aware that the smell is much stronger when you're making it, but the smell will eas up when it cools. It will congeal after it cools. That's normal. It's very gloopy. And ther will be some watery parts after you start using it, like whey. I just scoop it out with the plastic lid of one of my old commercial laundry soaps. I keep the 5 gallon bucket under my laundry room sink when I'm not using it. Highly recommend this. Super cheap and it's easy to keep the supplies in your family storage. You can find the ingredients for this recipe at Fred Meyer in the laundry isle. They're all next to eachother on the shelf.

Homemade Toothpaste

2011-01-09T16:20:00.001-08:00

I know, you need your toothpaste to foam up and suds in your mouth. Me too. But as part of my effort to be more self reliant, I wanted to learn how to make my own toothpaste and keep the ingredients on hand for that "what if" situation. IT was fun too.

Here's the best recipe I found

http://thriftysoaper.blogspot.com/2009/03/best-homemade-toothpaste.html

My kids didn't like it very much, but in a pinch I'm sure they could get used to it. It's really not that bad. It grows on you for sure!

Home Cleaners

2011-01-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is not for eating!
I got these home cleaner ideas from a TJed class I took last Spring on the Home Mini Factory, based on the DeMille book called The Coming Aristocracy. I've used these and they work pretty well!!

All Purpose Cleaner1 Tb.white vinegar
1 Tb. lemon juice
1 Tb. liquid castile soap (Like Dr. Bronners)
1 cup distilled water

Tub Scrub (works well on glass stove tops too!)
1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup salt
10 drops citrus oil
5 drops tea tree oil

Soft Scrub
1/4 cup baking soda
2-3 Tb. liquid castile soap

Handwash
Make this in a foaming pump dispenser. You can buy an empty one at the healthfood store, or just buy some foaming soap at the store, use it up, and keep the dispenser.
1/3 part castile soap
2/3 part water

I actually use more like 1/4 liquid soap and 3/4 water.
This can be trying to your hands. Keep some lotion around. But it sure can be economical if you buy the big jugs of castile soap. It lasts forever!

Potato Pan

2011-01-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know the real name of this recipe. I saw it on TV while nursing my newborn a few months ago and decided to give it a try. It was a big hit!

Peel about 8 medium potatoes. Use a mandolin to slice them in uniform chips, or use a knife and just be very precise and patient. Place the slices in a large bowl of cold water to prevent browning.

In a medium saucepan melt about 3 TB of butter and add some olive oil, maybe 4 TB. ?? Brush the sides and bottom of a cast iron skillet with this mixture. Arrange your potato slices in an upright spiral starting at the outside edge and working inward. So, don't lay them flat. Keep them standing.

Slice 2-3 shallots and wedge them in throughout the potato spiral. Pour the remaining butter/oil mixture evenly over the top of your sprial. Top with salt and pepper. Lay fresh sprigs of thyme over top. Bake in a very hot oven, maybe 400 or 425, till it smells really good and they look golden brown here and there.

Peanut Butter Balls

2011-01-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

I like to make these for my kids and keep a bowl of them in the feezer for quick, easy, not-too-bad-for-you snacks that they love.

I don't measure the ingredients. Just find a good mix that looks right to you. I'm listing them in order of Most to Least in terms of quanitity.

Rice Crispy Cereal
Peanut Butter
Honey
Powdered Milk (for some added nutrition)

Dump it all in a big bowl, mix it up and form balls. It's a sticky, icky job. If you have room in your freezer, lay the balls out on a cookie tray to freeze before putting them in a ziplock. Store in your feezer. Or, you can do what I do and just stick them in a freezer safe bowl to freeze and knock them off one at a time as you eat them. It's not hard.