Frugal Menu Mamas

Since I am on the road this week and it is grilling season, I chose to post a delicious marinade for pork chops.  Hubby and I learned it when we were first married from my friend Dawn in Florida….thanks Dawn!  You can do whole pork chops or it tastes great as kabobs too!  Enjoy!

Mahogany Chops

4 pork chops

6 Tbs. teriyaki sauce

2 Tbs molasses or ketchup

-Mix together teriyaki sauce

and molasses or ketchup.

Marinate chops in mixture.

Grill.

Here are this week’s deals, thanks to all the deal bloggers for collecting them!  If some are not yet linked then they were not posted at the time I collected this.  Sorry!  I know that usually I look at Stretching a Buck for the northern Kroger list and the Target list.  I use Southern Savers for the southern Kroger list.

Kroger (northern region)

Kroger (southern region)

Publix

Target

CVS

Walgreens

Rite Aide

Remember, I am on vacation this week.  Hubby will be home until Friday, so here is what I have planned for him:

MONDAY-Leftovers

TUESDAY-Leftovers

WEDNESDAY-Leftovers

THURSDAY-Leftovers

:)  If he runs out of those, there are Super Burritos in the freezer that are just thaw & bake.  Easy!

For some REAL menu plans, check OrgJunkie.com!

I know, weird huh?  We had lots of guests this week and getting a post up yesterday was just too much.  Plus, I actually made a freezer meal today and I wanted to post it for you today with a photo!  :)  I got this recipe from the book Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer.  I like that I just bought all the ingredients and plopped them in a freezer bag!  So easy!  I like even more that to prepare it all I did was thaw it and plop it in the crock pot!  So simple!  Can you tell I’m excited?  Oh yeah, it tasted good, too!  :)  The picture does not do it justice…

Hawaiian Chicken

6 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

2 16 oz. cans pineapple slices, drained

2 15 oz. cans mandarin oranges, drained

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground red pepper

rice

Optional-green pepper chunks, almonds

To Freeze:  Place chicken in freezer bag.  Mix together fruit, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt, ginger, and ground red pepper.  Pour over the chicken in bag.  Freeze.

To Serve:  Thaw chicken mixture.  Place in crock pot, cover, and cook on low for 4-5 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.  Add green pepper chunks to the crock pot one hour before serving, if desired.  To serve, sppon over rice and top with toasted almonds.

When I did this, I made this recipe and used 4 large chicken breasts.  I divided it all into 2 bags, since we don’t need much and made it into 2 freezer meals. I omitted the green pepper and almonds.  I also did not like the oranges too much. 

One more thing, the freezer lasagna that my mom wrote about last week?  Well, those photos are of a batch that she brought here.  We ate it Thursday night and it was delicious!

Next week, I will be on vacation….actually until the 6th or 7th of July.  I have set up some posts to auto-post, but you may not get all the same stuff.  Bear with me and check back in a week and a half!  Thanks!

Check back tomorrow for Freezer Friday!

Welcome to the “TOP 5″!  This regular feature will explore the top five easy and frugal ways to use various food items.  The last food item was boneless/skinless chicken breasts.

Today’s item:  a rotisserie chicken.  Can you say “YUM!”?  This item can be found at your local supermarket in the deli section.  This did not used to be a typically frugal item.  In past years they have been $6-$7 a bird!  Yikes!  This price caused me to become creative about using the rotisserie chicken for more than one meal.  Now, they are priced $4.99 at Kroger, which is a pretty nice price.  However, saving money is the goal…so here are some more ways to stretch your bird…

#1-First, serve it as a main dish with inexpensive sides like a baked potato or rice and a veggie.  If you have a more than 4 people in your family, this may be all   you can do.

#2-Chop up or shred the leftovers for a recipe later in the week or freeze in one cup portions for later.  How about this one?

#3-Use the extra chicken for casseroles like Chicken Casserole, salads, or soups.

#4-Use the extra chicken for sandwiches like chicken salad sandwiches or BBQ chicken sandwiches.

#5-Use the extra chicken for making simple chicken quesadillas or a wrap.

Now, if you want to be even more frugal, make your own rotisserie chicken.  How you ask?  Buy a whole bird when it is on sale, I just got one for $.79/lb. and at that price a 5 lb. bird is only $3.95.  Then cook it in your crock pot.  First, ball up aluminum foil into 4 balls.  Place those in the bottom of your crock pot and place the chicken on top.  Use one of these delicious recipes from the CrockPot Lady!  I made one on Monday night, but forgot to take a photo!

I know there are more than 5 uses for a rotisserie chicken.  Here are a few more ideas, but I want to hear from you!

Leave a comment with your favorite ideas or link up to your post with Mr. Linky about the best uses for a rotisserie chicken.

Once last week and again tonight I made the strawberry salad.  Here is how it looked:

The photo does not do it justice.  It was delicious.  This time I decided to be more frugal.  I did not buy the pecans in the salad toppings section.  Instead, I bought regular pecan halves and made my own sweet pecans using this recipe.  I omitted the cinnamon.  They are yummy, it was hard not to eat them all before putting them in the salad!

We had friends over, so I also made a dessert!  I got the recipe out of the “Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook”.  It is probably NOT frugal because it contains so many ingredients, but amazingly enough, I had ALL of them in my pantry and refrigerator!  It is so delicious…make it this week, you won’t be sorry. 

Enjoy!

Marshmallow Krispie Bars

1 (19.8 oz) fudge brownie mix

1 pkg. (10.5 oz) miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup creamy peanut butter (of course use JIF, its the best!)

1 Tbs. butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups crisp rice cereal (got this on sale last week!)

-Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease bottom of 9 x 13 pan.

-Prepare and bake brownies following package directions for basic recipe.  Remove from oven.  Sprinkle marshmallows on hot bronies.  Return to oven.  Bake for 3 minutes longer.

-Place chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in medium saucepan.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chips are melted.  Add rice ceral; mix well.  Spread mixture over marshamllow layer.  Refrigerate until chilled (this takes an hour or two).  Cut into bars.  (You may want to let it sit out for a few minutes before cutting, it is hard to cut through…but so worth it!)

So, you all know I believe in menu planning 100%.  I wrote about it awhile back.  Today is not about why to menu plan or even really how…it is about getting organized so you can menu plan!

So, you decide you want to start menu planning.  What would be a good templete or method to use?  I have tried SO many over the years.  I first just started by making a list….Monday-burgers, Tuesday-chicken, etc…  That is a great, simple what to get started.  However, it just wasn’t working for me.  I would dread sitting down to make the plan and could never think of what to put on my plan.  We did not want to have tacos every week!  So, then I went through and did a whole bunch of work creating 4 months worth of plans and I decided to rotate those plans.  This eliminated lots of guess work and made shopping easy.  But guess what?  I did not like this method either!  I hated being tied down.  I couldn’t shop the sales very well and I couldn’t try new recipes.

My favorite method is so simple and works fantastic for us!  I use a blank monthly calendar!  So easy!  Here is a site that allows you to print your own.  That does mean that I actually plan my menus one month at a time.  I just get out the family calendar and the blank calendar.  Then I plan leftovers and easy meals on the busy nights.  I usually plan something simple or a crockpot meal on grocery shopping days as well.  I check what’s in the freezer plan to use those items.  I look through my recipes to try and add a few of those in.  I love planning once a month because I don’t dread it!  I don’t have to do it that often. 

Now, in an effort to become more frugal, I thought I should start planning breakfasts and lunches, too.  Can I say that this is much more difficult?  I have been using a template from OrganizedHome.com.  The template is only for a week at a time.  I have the hardest time planning breakfasts and lunches.  Usually, I just keep the stuff in the pantry or freezer and we just pick what we want each day.  So, I’m wondering…is it worth the extra effort to plan the breakfasts and lunches?

Now, if you are a working person (I stay at home) and want to make life easier for yourself there are menu planning sites.  They do all the work for you and mail you the recipes and grocery lists each week.  I love this simple idea, but we are too picky to utilize one of these.  :)  Friends have directed me to two great ones:

Menus4Moms

Menus4Moms has so many choices of menu plans.  You can choose the “busy moms” menu plans, “basic” menu plans, or even the “frugal mom” menu plans.  I like it that their frugal mom plans actually have a cost analysis of each recipe.  Of course, there is a cost to use the service…$5 monthly for the frugal mom plans…not too bad!

E-Mealz

E-Mealz also has several choices of menu plans.  Their menu plans are organized by store (Kroger, Publix, etc…) or you can choose a couples meal plan.  They even have meal plans for various diet plans like vegetarian, low carb, low fat, and the points system (Weight Watchers).  So cool!  Each meal plan also includes a grocery list.  This makes your job so easy!

Hope this helps you!  Remember that I organized my recipes last week?  This should also help with my menu planning…I organized my recipes by chicken, beef, etc… so if I want another beef recipe, I just flip to that section to find it.  Streamlining the process is always great!

Tonight, I made 2 Easy Pork Chops.  They were easy, but I think I cooked them too long.  We dipped our’s in additional BBQ sauce.  I forgot to take a photo again!  Hubby has a new fancy camera, so I will try to get on the ball here.  I would probably use this recipe again if we were tired of the Parmesan Pork Chops, but that is hard to imagine.  I love the Parmesan Pork Chops much more than this.  :)  You can let me know what you think if you try it.  By the way, I’d like to give credit to who I got the recipe from, but I can’t remember…sorry!

2 Easy Pork Chops

2 pork chops ($1.78/lb. @Sam’s)

1 egg ($.10)

2 Tbs BBQ sauce (~$.05)

1/3 cup bread crumbs (~$.20)

2 tsp Parmesan cheese (~$.10)

1/4 tsp oregano(~$.05)

1/4 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning (didn’t have any…used pepper and lemon juice!  :)  ~$.10)

-Combine egg and BBQ sauce in bowl. Combine other ingredients in zip-lock bag.

-Dip chops in egg mixture then in bag and shake. Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

TOTAL=$2.23

I served this with rice ($.30) and a can of LeSeur peas (~$1.10) for a total of $3.53.  Very frugal!  I am going to try to post the prices as much as I can again.  I hate it when a magazine or cookbook advertises “frugal recipes” and doesn’t put the cost…what is frugal to them may not be frugal to me.  One site that is fantastic about putting the cost (and gave me the idea) is $5 dinner mom.

Today’s Tasty Tuesday recipe is one we tried last week.  My sister turned us on to it.  It is so simple and so delicious!  It also has very few ingredients, making it pretty frugal.  You could even make it without the chopped red peppers and fresh parsley if you want to slash the price even more.  This recipe will definitely make it into my Tried & True Recipe notebook.  I hope you enjoy it!

Easy Feta Chicken Bake

This is the one I made!