New Recipes!

One of my prayers is that I will glorify God in how I care for my home - how I take care of my family. One way that I love to do that is cooking for them. So we all noticed when I got in a rut cooking. Every week, I could only think of the same things over and over. It had been my policy previously to try one or two new recipes a month. I had some winners - La Madeliene's Tomato Soup and Chicken Yum Yum (don't mock the title! It's accurate!) and some losers. California Sushi Rolls didn't go over big with Nate or Suzy, but I believe Vanilla Butternut Squash Soup was the biggest bomb I ever made. But I had gotten so into a recipe rut that I hadn't even thought of looking for new recipes.
I mentioned it to Nate, and he agreed that it was getting a little boring eating the same thing week after week.
I flipped through my cookbooks, but nothing struck my fancy. I googled "recipes", "frugal recipes", "easy recipes", and "quick recipes." It gave me information overload! Millions-billions- of recipes...I couldn't even think, my eyes just glazed over. Finally I googled something like "in a recipe rut!" And a blog came up that was just what I was looking for - Breaking The Recipe Rut!
I very quickly found two do-able, affordable recipes. I made them last week, and they were both winners with the family!
I thought I'd share them here.
The first is a lowfat marinera sauce. I added a bag of frozen meatballs to it. The first night we had meatball subs, and another night we had spaghetti with meatballs. And I froze about half of the meatballs for later meals, so it ends up being super frugal.
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Main Event Marinara Sauce
Olive Oil Spray
1 cup minced yellow or white onion
2 tablespoons freshly minced garlic
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons no salt added tomato paste
2 teaspoons honey (I substituted 2 teaspoons sugar because I was out of honey)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt, to taste (optional)

Spray a medium nonstick saucepan with olive oil spray and place over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until just becoming tender (they should not brown), 4-6 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and with a wooden spoon stir in the tomatoes, water, tomato paste, honey, oregano, basil, and pepper flakes until well combined. (I add the frozen meatballs at this point.) Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for at least one hour. Season with salt if needed.
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This was a huge hit with Nate, so we will definitely have it again.

The second recipe is a white chili. It's actually a Racheal Ray recipe.
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White Bean Chicken Chili
1 32-ounce box chicken stock
3 cans white beans, left undrained
5 cups cooked chicken, rotisserie or boiled (I used canned chicken)
1 16-ounce jar salsa
1 8-ounce block pepper jack cheese, grated
2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used a teaspoon of garlic powder because I didnb't have time to chop the garlic!)
Black or white pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely crushed corn chips
Sour cream, for garnish

Place all ingredients except the corn chips in a crockpot. Cook on high until the cheese is melted (about 1 - 1 1/2 hours).
Chili may also be cooked on the stovetop over medium-high heat until cheese is melted.
When the chili is ready, add the crushed corn chips, if using, and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. Garnish with more chips, cheese and/or sour cream and serve.
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This made an enormous pot of chili! I should have immediately frozen half of it instead of letting it languish in the fridge.
Here's another recipe. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds pretty ingenious, so I intend to. SInce I know most of you, like me, usually have frozen chicken breasts in the freezer, I thought I'd share it before I tested it. If you make it and it's good, let me know!
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Easiest, Yummiest Chicken EVER!
When you are in a pinch and dinner is an hour away and all you have on hand is frozen chicken breasts, which are still as hard as a rock since you didn't even think to thaw them, this is the recipe for you! You'll fool everyone with the flavor and they'll all think you slaved away.

Here it is:

Frozen chicken breast
Mayonaise (we use Best Foods Lite)
Season Salt
Foil

That is it for ingredients, and we can't even count two of those items as ingredients! Wouldn't season salt be...a seasoning? Anyway...

Take a nice big square of foil, slap the frozen chicken breast down in the middle (do this for as many as you need to make). After the chicken is laying stiff as a board and cold as ice on the foil, take a tablespoon and drop a plop of mayo on each breast, being careful not to actually touch the spoon to the chicken. When all mayo is plopped, use the spoon to spread it across the frozen breast, then sprinkle each with a healthy dash of season salt.

Bring the corners of the foil up and pinch them together, forming an airtight tent around the chicken, but leaving air around the chicken itself. Place each bundle on a jelly roll pan and bake at around 350 or 375 for an hour or so (check for pinkness before serving. If I'm in a hurry, I'll bake at 400). Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes, then de-tent the chicken and place on a platter. Be sure and save the juices in the foil and pour those over the chicken.
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Sounds easy, doesn't it?
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Tuna Noodles

Sometimes I think I'd be embarrassed if people knew the kinds of things I cooked for myself when I'm alone, other times I think, "I'll post it on my blog!" Obviously I'm in the second mood tonight!
Nate's at a men's once-a-month Bible study tonight. Just about every time he's gone for that, I make tuna noodles for me and Suzy.
It's not that Nate doesn't like tuna noodles. He vastly prefers them to going hungry. Or, slightly prefers them to going hungry. But I love them - especially the leftovers that I eat for lunch the next day! I
Here it is:
1 box whole wheat rotini noodles
1 foil pack of tuna
2 chopped tomatoes
about 1/2 cup of nuts (toasted pecans are my favorite, but I usually use honey-roasted sunflower seeds. Tonight I used a mix of almonds, cashews, sunflower and pumpkin seeds)
handful of shredded mozzarella

Boil the noodles 12-14 minutes until done. Drain and return to the pot. Toss them in a good splash of lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and a heaping spoonful of dried basil. Stir in tuna, tomatoes, nuts and cheese.

It may not be to everyone's taste, but it IS healthy, so that's a point right? Oh, and don't worry. I promise if you come over to my house for dinner, I will never, ever, make this for you!

Cranberry Oat Bars

My friend Elisabeth made these for us one evening, along with her cheesy manicotti. The manicotti merits a post of its own, so maybe that will be the next recipe. Elisabeth told me that her family's tradition was to have cranberry oat bars and hot chocolate as they decorated their Christmas tree. A lovely tradition, and we've started it ourselves! But it's too good for just once a year, so I made it just recently.
Step One:
Find a cute helper with a can-do attitude:


Step Two:
You have a choice here. The official recipe call for 2 cups of cranberries cooked with 3/4 water and 1/4 cup sugar until the berries pop.
Or, if you like it very tart, you can do it my way: 3 cups of cranberries and a generous cup of sugar with about 1/3 cup water.
Either way, let the cooked berries cool.

Step Three:
Mix 1 1/4 flour, 1 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt in a medium bowl.

Step Four:
In a large bowl, mix 3/4 cup softened butter, 1 cup sugar (1/4 cup at a time) 2 large eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add the oat mixture and mix well.

Step Five:
Reserve 1 cup of dough; spread the rest in a greased 9" or 8" pan. Cover with cranberries. Drop reserved dough in spoonfuls. If you've used a square pan, drop the dough in a checkerboard pattern. It will turn out very pretty. If you're using your blue deep-dish Emile Henry pie dish because it's beautiful and you love it, you'll find out that checkerboards don't work in the round. In that case, drop the dough as best you can:


Step Six:
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.


That's it. They're delicious, and they go very well with mugs of hot chocolate. After you're done making them, if you have an easily-pleased child, stuff the empty flour bag with notebook paper and tape it shut. Tell her it's a toy bag of flour for her play kitchen:

Chicken Quesadillas and Mexi-casserole

This is one of Nate's favorite meals. It's VERY easy and delicious.
Chicken Quesadillas
Ingredients:
- Package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
- Jar of chunky salsa (I like lime & garlic, the cheapy Walmart variety, $2)
-10ct package of tortillas
-bag of shredded cheese. It doesn't have to be quesadilla cheese. Cheddar and colby jack are also really good.
- Sour Cream
-a side vegetable

* Put the chicken in a crockpot and pour salsa on top. Cook 5-7 hours. Shred the chicken and mix it up with the salsa in the crock pot.
* Butter one side of the tortillas.
* On a griddle, foreman grill, or large skillet, place one tortilla butter side down. Sprinkle with cheese. Add a layer of chicken and another sprinkling of cheese. Top with another tortilla butter side up.
* If your using a grill, it's a lot easier because you cook both sides at once. In the skillet, you'll have to carefully flip it over. Cook until golden brown.
* Let it set on a cutting board for a minute as you get another quesadilla started. Then cut into quarters and stack on a plate as you go.
* Save the leftover salsa chicken in the fridge for mexi-casserole.
Serve with sour cream and a side vegetable, and there you go! But that's only the first round for us. We're a family of three, but with Suzy, we only eat like one of 2.25. All in all, we get four meals (2 dinners, 2 lunches) out of the salsa chicken. We have the leftover quesadillas for lunch the next day. Then I make the mexi-casserole for dinner the next day.
Mexi-casserole
Ingredients:
- Leftover Salsa Chicken
- 1-2lbs pasta, like macaroni, or a pan of rice
- shredded cheese
- corn
- optional: can of black beans or sauteed bellpeppers.
* Cook and drain the pasta (or rice). Add the leftover chicken and corn, and anything else you want to throw in there.
* Spread the mixture into a 9x13 bake pan. Top with cheese.
* Bake at 350 until cheese is melted and it's warmed through.

This is really good with sour cream too. I have cayenne on the table to add to mine. Suzy won't eat it that spicy, otherwise I'd just add it in before I baked it. We eat the leftovers for lunch.
So, if I get enough things on sale, the ingredients for these 2 recipes costs about $14.50. Which, for four meals, works out to be $1.20 per person per meal for our family. For 2 meals for a family of four, it would still only be $1.80 per person.