Tonight's Frugal Dinner - fried rice

I doubt I'll get a picture in to this post.  Sorry.
So, we should just establish a point after which the cost of the items used in recipes no longer has to be accounted.  For instance, if I've had something over a year, could I just not calculate the cost in to my recipes?  I know, that's silly reasoning.  If that's all it took, I'd just keep everything for a year before cooking it, then everything would be free, right?  Yeah, it doesn't work that way.  It's just that, for the fried rice, I'm using sesame seeds that I've had for at least a year, and I don't have a clue how much they cost.

Here's the best estimate I can make:

2 c rice - $.30
butter - $.25
Soy sauce - $.30
Smoked sausage - $.50
bacon - $3.00
eggs - $.30
sesame seeds - $.15
ramen seasoning - $.17

Total for a huge pot of fried rice - $4.97.  I'll serve my veggies separate from the fried rice.  'Cuz that's how I prefer it. 
That takes my total for dinner to just about $6.00.

I had to estimate the cost of most of the items.  I know the smoked sausage is right on.  And the eggs.  But the rest, since I don't really use measurements, is pure hypothesis.

Another Resolution

In my post yesterday about how I was planning to get back on the bandwagon in several areas I forgot one: 

I plan to prepare more (all?) of our meals at home rather than going out.  I really have no excuse not to do so.  I don't have school work filling my evening schedule, and I am mostly past the nausea stage of pregnancy.  Yes, I have every reason to do the cooking at home.  Plus, the cost of one meal out could buy a week's worth of groceries.  Since money is always tighter in the summer, I need to help all I can.

Last night's dinner wasn't an especially frugal one, but it was certainly more frugal than Chili's or even Whataburger.  I made gnocchi that I bought at Fresh Market ($5.98), with a tomato cream sauce ($.15), and pork sausage ($2.79).  I served it with garlic bread ($1.75).  This dinner cost a total of $10.67.  I liked it, although a commercial for Pizza Hut ruined my appetite.  (Weird.  Just 3 weeks ago I was CRAVING Pizza Hut like nobody's business. In fact, it was in the plan for today's lunch, but now I don't know if I can handle it.  I did say I was almost out of the nausea phase of pregnancy, right?)  The kids didn't seem to love it, either.  That's probably because gnocchi is almost unheard of around our house.  Oh, well. 

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, 8/5

Had to be quick tonight, since I still have TONS of work to do to finish off my course assignments. Summer Seminar has to be the easiest of grad courses, right? Well, if my work ethic in this course indicates how I'll do over the next few years, I am in BIG trouble.

Anyway, our quick dinner tonight consists of a double batch of Philly Cheesesteak Hamburger Helper and oven baked french fries. We'll probably have some applesauce alongside.

Here's the cost breakdown:

2 pkgs. ground beef -- about $3.60 (I probably should have just used one pkg., but my husband will like the "extra" meat. ;) )
2 boxes Hamburger Helper -- $1.50
1 bottle of applesauce (we won't use the whole thing) -- $.20
1 bag of frozen fries -- $0 -- We received this bag of fries in a box of Angel Food that we bought in MAY 2009. I refuse to count the cost of something we have had in the freezer for over a year. Plus, the box cost $30 and came with a lot of stuff. I have no way to figure the cost of just the fries.
We'll use ketchup, no doubt. I don't know how much we paid for that, but surely we won't use more than $.30 worth.

So, the grand total for tonight's dinner for 3 adults and 3 kids -- $5.60!

Tonight's Frugal Dinner FEAST, 7/31

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Becki, in Michigan! I hope you are enjoying fairer weather than we are! (Over 100 degrees today, even in the shade!) I wish you and Rob and Terri could be here to share our yummy dinner! A celebration feast is what we're having, in your honor. :)

Our dinner tonight is cost us just under $10, including all sides and condiments and even dessert!

Here's the menu:

Zesty Herb marinaded steak - $2.87
Garlic & Herb marinaded chicken -- $2.40
Rice-a-roni -- $2.00
Applesauce -- $.20
Carvel ice cream cake -- $1.99
I think we're throwing in some leftover sides from last night's dinner. So, mac n cheese and coleslaw joining the menu, at no cost. :)

Total: $9.46 for a FEAST for 3 adults and 3 kids!

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, 5/26

An easy and cheap dinner tonight!

hamburger buns -- $1 at Winn-Dixie

Curly's barbecue pork -- FREE at Winn-Dixie (Used B1G1 coupon combined with their B1G1 sale)

Knorr creamy garlic noodles -- $.34 from Publix last week

Steamfresh veggies -- $.34 from Publix in April

Tonight's total: $1.68 to feed us all! (Feeding 3 adults and 2 kids. Maybe only 2 adults, since my sister doesn't seem to feel well. Maybe only 1 adult, since my husband has strep throat. Even so, great deal!)

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, 5/24

Talani's working late today, and we have a Personnel meeting tonight. And company tomorrow. And vacation in 4 days. It's a busy day/evening, but then, they all are. So I popped an easy chicken dinner in the oven.

Mom and I put together about 20 (or what was it, Mom? I don't really remember. It was AT LEAST 12, but maybe 20 is over-estimating a bit.) chicken meals in ziploc bags. We made about 4 or 5 different recipes including Sticky Chicky, Maple-Chili, BBQ Jelly. Tonight's is maple-chili chicken. I'll make noodles and veggies to go alongside.

I wish I remember how much it cost to make the meals. I can say this: We bought the chicken when it was just $1.79 a pound for boneless-skinless breast meat at Sam's. We probably have 1 1/2 pounds of chicken in this meal. The maple syrup that went in the recipe was easily the most expensive ingredient, but we didn't use a whole lot. I would say that this dinner, with pasta and veggies included, cost no more than $6.00.

I was going to wait to post this until I had a picture, but I'm afraid of running out of time. We have to leave in an hour, and I have about a million things to do. Besides, when I checked it just a minute ago, it had that mostly-raw look to it that does not look appetizing at all. A picture would probably not be a benefit right now. :) The thing is, you're supposed to thaw the chicken in the fridge during the day. I popped mine in the oven straight out of the freezer, so it's going to take longer than it otherwise should to cook.

Find lots of freezer chicken recipes at www.oamc.8m.com.

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, Saturday 5/22

Not feeling well tonight.
In the middle of end-of-the-school-year-craziness. (Exams to grade, grades to post, etc.)
Trying to prepare for vacation; we leave in 6 days. Not close to being ready yet.
Dinner has be easy and quick and should virtually make itself.

It's a good thing I've become a smart shopper because I have plenty of easy-to-prepare, cheap meals on hand.
Nothing fancy, but filling and maybe even fun for the kiddos.

I'm feeding 3 adults and 3 kids.

1 bag of Fast Fixin' chicken fries from a long-ago Publix visit -- $1
Rice -- $.33
Steamfresh veggies purchased from Publix several weeks ago -- $.34(maybe less)
I'll add $1 to the total for butter, salt, pepper, ketchup, drinks, etc.

Tonight's dinner costs $2.67 TOTAL, or $.45 per person. Score!

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, Thursday 4/15

TACO RICE!!

We cooked for company tonight, so we did a little more than we normally would have done.

Here's the breakdown:

2 lb. ground beef, bought in bulk from Sam's -- $3.78
Rice, bought on sale at Publix -- $.33
Cheese, bought on sale and with coupon at Publix -- $.40
Sour cream, bought at Publix, no sale or coupon -- $.25
Tomato, bought at Publix; is this a normal price? Yikes! -- $3.55 (WOW!)
Lettuce, bought at Publix -- $.80
Taco Sauce, bought so long ago I don't remember where or how much, so I'm estimating -- $.50

I haven't included the cost of taco seasoning. I really can't give a good guess there. I can say that it's a homemade mix from a recipe I got off the internet. I don't remember the source, but I found it by googling "chili seasoning recipe". I use the same mix in my chili, and I really like it. It can't be more than a couple of pennies, and I made it all from things I already had in the spice cabinet; I didn't have to buy anything to put it together. I made it probably 4 months ago and, even though I made chili or taco rice fairly often, I have probably only used half. I know it's cheaper than buying the packages at Wal-Mart (although I'm not above buying the packages if I can get them for free or super cheap!), and I like that I know all the ingredients and that there are no preservatives added.

Total: $9.61
(for 5 people)

We have a good bit of leftovers. So much, as a matter of fact, that we may just eat the leftovers for dinner tomorrow night. Or I might see how I can morph the meat into a tex-mex pizza or something. Or even into a tex-mex style hamburger helper meal. Something super awesome and super frugal.

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, Tuesday 4/13

Chicken helper tonight. A convenience food, to be sure.

about 1 lb. of chicken -- $1.79, purchased in bulk from Sam's
Chicken helper -- $.75
a handful of extra noodles -- $.25
a can of pears, for a side dish -- $.00 (I raided my sister's shelf in the pantry. Sorry, Mandi. I'll replace it if you'd like. ;) )

Total for tonight's dinner: $2.79!

Wednesday's dinner: Not sure. We've got company coming and church . . . I don't know what I'll do. Not chicken. Two nights in a row of just about anything is enough. Maybe Moroccan beef and rice. Or taco rice. Or Hamburger Helper.

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, Monday 4/12

I remembered to take a picture this time, but can't find my little USB thingy that lets me put my pictures on computer. Yes, we have a memory card slot on our laptop, but our son put a penny in it last year, and we can't get it out.
On the menu tonight: Balsamic-marinaded chicken with garlic-butter noodles

Chicken - 1 1/2 lb. (maybe less) purchased at Sam's at $1.79/lb -- $2.69
Balsamic salad dressing used as marinade purchased at Publix, BOGO plus coupons -- $.25
Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta, bought at Publix, BOGO plus coupons -- $.35
2 Tbsp. butter -- $.14
Garlic salt, purchased in a large container from Sam's an eon ago -- $.05 (or less)
Steamfresh broccoli, purchased at Publix at 50% off plus Publix coupons stacked with manufacturer coupons -- $.05

Total for this meal: $3.53!
And there's enough left over for my sister to take to work for lunch tomorrow!

On the menu tomorrow: Chicken helper chicken fried rice, I think. It'll be very easy and affordable with a package of rice purchased at Publix (steamfresh again) for around $.30!

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, Monday 4/5

A leftover night! Again, we dug in without thought of taking a picture. Picture this: Sweet and Tangy ham and rice. Nothing fancy, to be sure, but our family enjoyed it!

Here's the cost break down:

Spiral sliced ham, the third leftover meal from last week Sunday's dinner (not yesterday, last week) -- around $4 or so -- when you're on your fourth meal from any source, you shouldn't have to count the cost at all, should you? :)

mustard -- about $.03 -- just a tablespoon or two from a bottle purchased at Target for around $.84

butter -- $.25

brown sugar -- $.30 -- REALLY just guessing there; I used the last 2 or 3 tablespoonsful out of a bag we bought ages ago. Way before we started couponing, so I probably spent too much for it. Anyway, I used 2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, bought at full price.

rice -- around $.33 -- bought at Publix on sale.

Veggies -- $.05 -- bought at Publix on sale with store coupons stacked with manufacturer coupons

Total for this frugal and tasty dinner -- less than $5!

Yummy!

A tentative plan for tomorrow night: something with leftover roast beef.

Tonight's Frugal Dinner, Sunday 4/4

We LOVE Sunday pot roast dinners! We have pot roast almost every Sunday, even though it's been a challenge since our crock pot gave up the ghost. (We have one in our Owner's Locker in Orlando that we are bringing home with us after Disney World, so we refuse to buy another.)
My husband has become the master at preparing our oven-baked pot roast. He uses Montreal Steak seasoning, onions, garlic, and -- when we have them -- mushrooms. That's it.
He made rice to go along with it last night. We love roast and rice so much that we usually don't even have a vegetable with it. We just want roast and rice. The kids devour it and so do we. Last night, we dug in so quickly that I didn't even think to take a picture!

Here's a price run-down:

pot roast -- around $7.00

(purchased from Publix at $2.39/lb.)

rice -- around $.33

(Rico brand rice purchased at Publix on sale; no longer at that price.)

Onion -- around $.30

garlic -- around $.15

seasoning -- less than $.05

Total: less than $8 for our Sunday dinner, even with the butter, salt, and pepper that we added to the rice and that I didn't account for.

That's a little more than I normally pay for a meal at home, but it's a special meal. Food on Sundays should be more special than every other day, right? That's what I think, anyway.

I know we have some left over, so I'll have to come up with a creative take-two recipe. Stay tuned for tonight's Frugal Dinner: Sweet and Tangy ham with rice or noodles (Another Daddy special; he's so great in the kitchen. You know, it takes me about 45 minutes to cook a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal, but he can actually do it in 30. Amazing.)

Tonight's Frugal Dinner

Well, I guess the picture isn't too inspiring, but oh well. It would have looked so much nicer with some butter or cheese on top to make it really golden and crispy. Hmm, something to think about for next time.

So glad to be getting back into the swing of eating at home. (Curse you, spring break and payday combined! You've ruined us for the rest of the month! Seriously, we've had 2 weeks' worth of eating out in 2 days.)

I thought I'd post about our dinner tonight because it happens to be quite frugal AND convenient. Like, I could cook this on PTM night convenient. It's the first time I've made it, and we haven't tasted it yet, so I suppose this post is a little premature. If it's awful, I'll leave a comment below. :)

Quick and Easy Shepherd's Pie
adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe I found on foodnetwork.com

1 tub Bob Evans Garlic Mashed Potatoes
1/2 T. oil
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 to 1 carrot, diced
a handful or two of corn or peas (I didn't want this mixed in; kind of a weird thing with me. I used some Steamfresh broccoli in the microwave instead, to be served alongside the shepherd's pie.
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
1 c. beef stock or broth (I used chicken because I didn't have any beef.)
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (I added a bit more since I was using chicken broth.)
shredded cheddar cheese, optional

In a skillet, brown ground beef. Season with salt and pepper. After beef has begun to brown, add onion and carrot. Let cook together for a few minutes. In another skillet, melt butter, then add flour. Stir to create a paste. Whisk in stock and Worcestershire sauce to create a gravy. Add the corn or peas to the meat and veggies mixture and allow to cook for a couple of minutes. Add beef gravy and stir.

Set the oven to broil on low. Spray an 8x8 or 9x9 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour in beef and gravy mixture. Spoon potatoes in an even layer on top. Broil until the potatoes are golden on top. Add cheese, if desired, and allow to melt in the broiler for just 2 minutes or so.

Here's the cost breakdown:
potatoes -- bought on B1G1 and with a coupon -- $1.20
beef -- bought in bulk and broken into smaller portions -- $1.89
onion -- $.15 (estimate)
didn't use carrot -- all out
butter -- $.20
flour -- $.05 (est)
Worcestershire sauce -- $.10 (est)
broth -- $.50
broccoli -- bought on sale with a store coupon stacked with a manufacturer's coupon -- $.05
didn't use cheese -- kiddos don't like cheddar, weird
Total cost: $4.14

If I had used cheese (on sale w/coupons) and a carrot, I would estimate that dinner would have cost around $4.50.