Sloppy Joe Mixes

Oct 26, 2012 by pearsonsprogress    3 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Canning/Preserving, Grocery Challenge, photos, recipes, saving money

Here are the 6 packets of Sloppy Joe mixes I have in the cupboard and it’s time to get serious about pushing through these… I mean really, how long should they be kept in the pantry? I used one packet yesterday with this recipe that I found on the McCormick  website.

Texas- Style Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef- I used a jar of ground beef that I had canned last year- very handy to have canned meat on the shelf
1 package McCormick® Sloppy Joes Seasoning Mix
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) pinto beans, drained and rinsed- I didn’t have pinto beans so I used Cannellini Beans
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 can (4 1/2 ounces) chopped green chiles
8 hamburger rolls or flour tortillas- I used the flour tortillas because they were in the pantry.
Shredded cheese (optional)-Not optional for me

1. Brown ground beef in large skillet on medium-high heat. Drain fat.

2. Stir in Seasoning Mix, pinto beans, tomato sauce, ketchup and chiles. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 minutes.

3. Serve in rolls. Or, place 3 tablespoons meat mixture along center of each warmed flour tortilla. Top with shredded cheese, if desired. Fold over edges of tortillas to serve. I filled the flour tortillas with the cheese added and then  fried them.

These burritos were good. Not gourmet but a good use of the ingredients on hand in the pantry.

Sautéed Red Cabbage

Oct 13, 2012 by pearsonsprogress    3 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, Organizing, recipes, saving money

In my desire to use what I have and not spend any extra money, I found this recipe for 1/2 of the red cabbage that I bought on sale a week ago. I usually make a recipe with apple but since I really don’t want to spend anymore cash I hunted up a recipe using the ingredients that I have.

My menu using this recipe is:

1st plate- Cream of  Zuchinni soup with pita bread (I made yesterday)

2nd plate- Meat & spicy gravy over couscous, Sauteed red cabbage (recipe below) and a green salad (I have to use that last bit of Romaine lettuce in the fridge because my garden greens are getting ready to pick.

If you have a good recipe for the other ½of the cabbage, let me know! In the meantime I will be searching the web.

Sautéed Red Cabbage

4 side dish servings

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1/2 red cabbage, shredded
• 1/3 cup white or apple cider vinegar, eyeball it
• 2 rounded tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• Salt and pepper
Directions
Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and onion and sauté 2 minutes. Add cabbage and turn in pan, sautéing it until it wilts, 3 to 5 minutes. Add vinegar to the pan and turn the cabbage in it. Sprinkle sugar over the cabbage and turn again. Season with mustard seed, salt and pepper and reduce heat a bit. Let cabbage continue to cook 10 minutes or until ready to serve, stirring occasionally.

Day #30… the end of this challenge & I DID it!

Dec 11, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    4 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, food, Grocery Challenge, recipes, saving money, Spain

HOORAY! I did it and I was able to save all but 10€ of my grocery money for (hopefully) a celebration trip with my  husband in May 2012. I’m a planner… I’ve learned that fun & relaxation just does not  happen… I have  to plan for it and create it! In any case… I was able to serve meals for 30 days using my pantry and freezer contents + the 10€ for extras.  It really is a sense of accomplishment! Ok…Will I stop here? Yes & NO. I still have a lot in the freezer… why buy more? I think actually that I’ll continue to eat out of the pantry & freezer and TRY to get to the bottom of it. It would be so great to see it empty! In fact this will be a good project for me… to pull one thing out of the freezer each day and ‘work with it’!

The last 30 days I spent: 9,84€

I have left: 0,16€

Tomorrow I’m having some ladies over from church to show them how to make some cut-out Christmas cookies. These are not your ordinary sugar cookies, but a wonderful sour cream pastry that are tender. They are a hit around here! I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

I’ll serve the cookies and this coffee to my church friends:

Mocha-Mint Coffee

6 cups freshly brewed coffee
4 squares (1-ounce each) semi-sweet
baking chocolate, chopped
1-1/2 cups hot milk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
8 peppermint sticks or candy canes
Pour the hot coffee into large
saucepan and stir in the chocolate. Heat
over low heat 5 minutes or until chocolate
is melted, stirring occasionally. Pour
the milk into a microwave-safe container
and heat on high for 1 to 2 minutes,
or until hot (or heat in another saucepan
over medium high heat until hot, not
boiling). Add milk and extract to the
coffee chocolate mixture; stir until well
blended. Carefully ladle into 8 mugs.
Garnish each serving with a peppermint
stick. Yield: 8 servings.

The Aussie $21 Challenge

Jun 2, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, Grocery Challenge, saving money

This is one of the sites I like. Here is the link to a short video on the $21 challenge. It shows  you how it’s done.  I wish I could get the book, but they only mail to Australia and New Zealand at this time.

The principal is easy: to use what you have. We are often times blind to what we have on the shelf or freezer. If we do this just once in a while, we will accomplish: Read more »

Cabbage

Apr 20, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    3 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, Grocery Challenge, recipes, saving money

I went to the downstairs refrigerator to get some bread I baked and found that I had a whole head of green cabbage. This is good news but it also means that I have to find a way to use it soon because we have a trip coming up at the end of this month. I just hate to see food go to waste! I looked in several cookbooks and I found one that sounds tasty in, The Biggest Book of Casseroles I bought while in the USA a few years ago.  I’ve made several of the recipes in this book as they are easy to put together for family or guests and casseroles can use several of the ingredients in the pantry and fridge.  I also don’t hesitate to substitute if I don’t have the exact ingredient called for. I will add my substitutions in parenthesis after the ingredient.

I have also made these recipes from this book: The Biggest Book of Casseroles

• Fruit & nut Baked Oatmeal~ page 35
• Caraway Batter Bread ~page 47
• Cranberry Bread Pudding~page 68
• Polenta- Pecan Apple Cobbler~page 86
• Tuna Noodle Casserole~page 95
• Cheeseburger Casserole~ page 139
• Prairie Potato Bake~ page 142
• Pork & Spinach Bake~ page 171
• Pork Chop Casserole~ page 173
• Florentine Lasagna~ page 203
• Denver Potato Casserole~ page 210
• Huevos con Frijoles~ page 239
• South of the Border Pie~page 260
• Layered Potatoes & Leeks~ page 268
• Cheesy Chicken & Mostaccioli~ page 272
• Sweet Potato Casserole~page 294
• Mexican-Style Chicken~ page 322
• Nacho Turkey Casserole~ page 323
• Tex-Mex Chicken ‘N’ Rice Casserole~ page 324
• Cajun Chicken Pasta~page 334
• Monterey Tortilla Casseroles~ page 341
• Carrots Au Gratin~ page 373
• Best Ever Corn Pudding~ page 398

WOW, even I’m surprised about how many I’ve made! I really think this cookbook is worth the price of about $13.

Here’s the recipe:

Creamy Cabbage & Sausage Casserole

Serves 8-10

1½ pounds of bulk pork sausage (I will use ground pork & add the sausage seasonings)

3/4 cup chopped onions (only have ½ onion so I’ll add a couple of green onions from the garden too)

10 cups of coarsely chopped cabbage (1 med)

1½cups of dairy sour cream ( I use a product called quark in Spain since they don’t sell sour cream here)

1½ cups of shredded American cheese (6 oz) (I’ll use cheddar cheese and any bits of mozzarella that I have)

¼ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of pepper

1½cups  soft bread crumbs (about 2 slices) ( I may use some leftover toast & grind it or some fried onion topping I have)

2 tablespoons of melted butter

In a Dutch oven cook sausage and onions over medium hear  until sausage is brown; drain. Cook, covered over medium heart about 10 mins or until cabbage is crisp- tender, stirring occasionally. Drain any excess liquid. Stir in sour cream., cheese, salt & pepper..Transfer to an ungreased 3 qt. baking dish.

In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs, & melted butter; sprinkle over sausage mixture. Bake uncovered in 375° oven for 20 minutes.

*I’m sure that we’ll have leftovers and I’ll probably have to freeze some, but all these ingredients will freeze well.

Pantry Essentials

Mar 22, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Grocery Challenge, recipes, saving money

I try and keep my  pantry and freezer well-stocked with a variety of canned, dried and frozen goods that I  know we’ll love to eat. Canned beans, frozen vegetables, meat and fish and dried fruit, nuts, pasta & noodles, rice & grains, are all essentials with a long shelf life – meaning I will always have the ingredients standing by to pull together a delicious meal or to jazz up my leftovers. The trick is to replace items once you have used them up. I keep a running list.

I use my  pantry to create meals from leftovers. Any spare fresh tomatoes could be added to some canned ones to make a great topping for pizza. Rice would turn leftover chicken and wrinkly peppers into a delicious summer salad. Add a can of lentils to my ground beef meat to make it stretch further. John actually prefers a rice crust for quiche rather than pastry. It’s easy to do:

rice

RICE CRUST:

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Raiding the Pantry

Mar 10, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, Grocery Challenge, saving money

eggs

It’s just great having chickens!! It’s like a gift I receive everyday when I go outside to collect the 3 eggs. 3 chickens=3 eggs.

Here’s what on the menu for today: Read more »

My Pantry

May 14, 2009 by pearsonsprogress    1 Comment     Posted under: Blogroll, Canning/Preserving, Gardening, Grocery Challenge

It’s been busy around here! As you’ve already read, we had family for a visit, then another young woman came from France for 4 days and finally this weekend, we will have another gal in one of our ‘guestrooms’.

Work is busy, church is busy and our house is staying full! In spite of all of the activity, I’ve found time in the evenings to do some canning. These past 2 weeks I have canned 10 kilos of pork cubes (some with Chipotle seasoning), 10 kilos of potatoes and I ground, seasoned, made and canned 10 lbs of sausage patties.

My PANTRY is filling! It’s sure nice to have a jar of ground beef ready to pop open (I use reusable canning jars) and add to a casserole. This week when I was rushed for time due to work and meetings, I opened a jar of beans, & one pork cubes to make nachos for lunch. I add some fresh lettuce, scallions and cilantro from my garden, some salsa and cheese over chips.

I sure look forward to the summer tomatoes, peppers and onions for making enough salsa that will last us a year.

These are my 3 shelves of canned food. The photos are slightly overlapping each other and you can get a ‘larger’ view by clicking on the photo.

The benefits of canning for me:

1. fresh food canned with the seasoning I want and use
2. I buy at the cheapest prices to stretch my grocery money
3. I always have food on hand when we travel or have friends over
4. I enjoy the process and like to see the pantry full of options for meal times

The downside of canning for me:

1. my hands & nails have taken a beating
2. I have to be careful not to strain my wrists
3. I’m usually up pretty late at night getting it all done