Baby Food- Chicken and Rice Recipe

Making baby food for our little ones has been a HUGE moneysaver for us. Baby food is easy to make and you can store it conveniently in your freezer. I learned most of the techniques I use from the Super Baby Food book and I have taken advice from our Pediatrican. Here is a recipe that my Pediatrician suggested to use after a baby is old enough for chicken. We have used this recipe with all three of our childern and they love it!

Chicken and Rice

1 boneless skinless chicken breast plus water for cooking

2 cups uncooked white rice

6 cups water

Bring 6 cups water to a boil. Decrease temperature to simmer and add rice. Cover and cook for twice as long as directed or about 40 minutes.

In a separate pot, cover chicken breast with water and cook for one hour or until it pulls apart easily with a fork.

In a large bowl, place chicken breast and pull apart with forks. Add rice to chicken breast and puree. Add water (not chicken stock) as needed to thin out.

When chicken and rice is to your desired consistency, spoon into ice cube trays. Cover ice cube trays with foil and freeze. When food cubes are frozen, pop out of tray and put into labeled and dated freezer bags. To heat, thaw completely and use.

I usually leave the chicken and rice a little thick. When I am ready to use a cube, I heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds or until thawed. Then, add water to thin out and cool as necessary.

Making your own baby food is easy and cheap! I hope that you will be encouraged to try making yummy meals for your baby. For more frugal recipes, go to $5 Dinners for the $5 Dinner Challenge!

-Robin

Menu Plan Monday - The Birthday Edition

Today is my birthday, so my favorite food... crab legs is on the menu! My husband made this cake for my twin sister and I. We celebrated our birthday over the weekend.

Monday: Crab legs, potatoes, and carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

Tuesday- Spaghetti Casserole

Wednesday- Chicken casserole with a vegetable side

Thursday- Steak and potatoes

Friday- Out to eat with friends

Saturday- Beef Fajitas

Sunday- Beef Roast and vegetables

I hope you all have a great week! For more menu plans, go to Orgjunkie.com

-Robin

Mint Lemonade

This is a frugal cool drink for the end of the summer. I am usually able to get a large bottle of lemon concentrate at the drug store for free - $1 making lemonade super cheap. We grow mint on our porch, so it's free.

Mint Lemonade





6 cups of water


1 cup lemon juice from concentrate


1 cup sugar


Fresh mint leaves





Heat water and sugar on the stove until sugar is dissolved. Remove from stove and pour in a 2 quart pitcher. Add lemon juice and fresh mint. Stir. Serve over ice.





Thanks Sara for inspiring this recipe.



For more frugal recipes, go to $5 Dinners for the $5 Dinner Challenge!


-Robin

Fresh Basil Pasta

My husband made a wonderful side dish of Fresh Basil Pasta the other day. It was incredibly easy to make and I loved using the fresh basil that came right from our back porch.

Fresh Basil Pasta

4 oz vermicelli

6 fresh chopped basil leaves

2 T butter

2 T grated parmasean cheese

Sprinkle of garlic powder

Cook pasta as directed. Drain pasta and add butter, cheese, garlic powder, and basil. Serve warm.

We ate this side dish with chicken and it tasted wonderful! For more great recipes, check out $5 Dinners for the $5 Dinner Challenge!

-Robin

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Cubed Steak and Tomatoes (pictured)

Tuesday: Breaded Cod

Wednesday: Leftover Buffet

Thursday: Creative Concoction

Friday: Turkey and the Trimmings (our friends are coming over)

Saturday: Eggplant Mozzarella

Sunday: Once a Month Out to Eat (My 7th wedding anniversary)

For more great menu plans go to Orgjunkie.com

Check out this week's $5 Dinner Challenge Recipe- Homemade Character Birthday Cake and Icing

-Robin

Homemade Character Birthday Cake

My husband and I have always made our children homemade cakes for their birthdays. As they get older, we are finding that it is becoming increasingly challenging. When our middle child turned 2, we surprised her with a Swiper the Fox cake. Needless to say, she was thrilled. She went around saying, "Swiper no Swiping" and "oh, man." She had lots of fun!

Here is how we did it:

My husband drew a sketch of Swiper from one of our Dora books. Then, we cut the cake and added the icing.

Sour Cream Cake

1 c. butter softened

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 pint sour cream

3 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Pre- heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together. Then, add sour cream to mixture. In a separate bowl, mix together baking powder, flour, and baking soda. Add the dry mixure to the wet mixture and beat until smooth. Pour mixture into 2 nine inch round pans or one sheet cake pan that have been greased and floured. Bake on 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Birthday Icing

1 lb confectioners sugar or 3 3/4 cups

3/4 c. crisco

1/4 c. cream or liquid

1/2 tsp flavor (vanilla)

Beat until smooth.

*We usually double the recipe*

Making your child's birthday cake is fun. It doesn't have to look perfect. They will think it is special just because you made it especially for them.

For more great frugal recipes, go to $5 Dinners!

-Robin

Grateful for Peaches

A few weeks ago, we picked 1 1/2 bushels of peaches for $.32/ lb. We ate so many of them, I wasn't sure if we would ever want peaches again. A few weeks later, we are ready to use all of those peaches that we put up in the freezer. I am so grateful for the work that we put in to freezing those peaches. Now, we can relax and enjoy! We have made peach pie, peach bread, peach jam, peach muffins, and peach cobbler so far.

If you have any great peach recipes please share!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

-Robin

One-Skillet Pasta

Since I started couponing, I have had a big increase in the amount of stockpile food in my pantry and freezer. I really like having lots of food around. It comes in handy when we have been busy all day and I can put a meal together quick.

When my Taste of Home Magazine came this month, I found a few great stockpile recipes. One was for a One-Skillet Pasta dish, view recipe here. Our whole family enjoyed this meal. It was a great substitute for spaghetti.

What are your favorite stockpile meals?

Check out more Menu Plan Monday and $5 Dinners!

-Robin

Freezing Tomato Paste

About a month ago, I made another batch of freezer pasta sauce. We have made that recipe about five times now and each time we make it a little different. We have thought that the sauce was sometimes a little too runny, so this time I made it with 3/4 of a #10 can of tomato paste. We have tasted it and the additional tomato paste has made the pasta sauce a little thinker and it still tastes wonderful.

I really didn't know what to do with the extra tomato paste, since we did not have enough leftover for another pasta sauce recipe. So, I froze the tomato paste in ice cube trays (like homemade baby food). It has worked out well! It is perfect for when you only need a few ounces of tomato paste... you don't have to buy an expense tube or waste most of a can for just a few ounces.

This method would also work well when you have to open a can but only need a few ounces. Don't throw out the remainder of the can, just feeze it!

Freezing tomato paste using the food cube method Works for Me!

-Robin

Peach Cobbler

My family and I recently went peach picking and picked 1 1/2 bushels of peaches for $.32/ lb. At this great price, you can make a peach cobbler for less than a dollar! Here is the recipe I used:

Peach Cobbler

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup of milk

3 cups of sliced peaches, lightly tossed in sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 casserole dish. Combine sugar, flour, and milk in a bowl and pour into the bottom of the casserole dish. Then, pour the peaches in the middle of the dish on top of the batter. Bake the cobbler for approximately 55 minutes.

You can subsititute many fruits in this recipe. Check out the Blackberry Cobbler guest post that we did last year on $5 dinners.

For more great recipes, go to Menu Plan Monday or $5 dinners!

-Robin

Stuffed Banana Peppers

We have picked lots of banana peppers from our garden this year. I really didn't know what to do with all of them. I frozen some for pizza toppings, gave some away, and we have tried to eat the rest. I have been making stuffed banana peppers. You could change the recipe as you like.





Stuffed Banana Peppers





8 Banana Peppers - free from the garden


1/2 c. Sour Cream - $.10 (using a sale and coupon)


1/2 c. Shredded Cheddar Cheese - $.90





Make a slice all the way down the length of the pepper. Remove all seeds. Mix cheese and sour cream together and stuff into pepper. Bake on 350 degrees for approx. 15 minutes.

Approx. $1





I am going to try to freeze some peppers that are ready to stuff, so that we can unthaw, stuff, and bake them sometime this fall.


Happy Menu Plan Monday!

This post is linked to $5 Dinners.


-Robin

Peach Pie

On Saturday, my family and I traveled to a nearby peach farm. We picked 1 1/2 bushels of peaches. When I got home I started working on peach jam and preparing the peaches to freeze. Yesterday, I remembered that I had homemade pie crusts in the freezer, so we made a peach pie. Here is the recipe that we used.

I hope you have time to make a good peach pie while the peaches are in season.

Happy Menu Plan Monday!

-Robin

"Serial Meals"

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

A great tip for saving money is using the food you have and not wasting it! One of the ways that I do this is by making "serial meals." Serial meals are meals that I make in a row that use the same ingredients. For example, last week, I had a bag of hamburger buns in the freezer that I had bought on sale for $.89, so I waited until hamburger was on sale and made hamburgers. Knowing that my family would not use all 8 buns, the next night, I unthawed some shredded chicken and made barbecue chicken sandwhiches. The 3rd night, we had one bun left and some chicken, so I made chicken salad. We used the one remaining bun and some bread to finish off the chicken salad.

Even though I am able to make food for really cheap by buying at the lowest price and using coupons.... I still can not stand to waste food. Making "serial meals" is a good way to make meals and leave no waste!

-Robin

Fresh Tomato Salsa with Banana Peppers

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

As our garden tomatoes start to come in, I'm trying to think of some new ways to use our produce. I had never made salsa before, so I've been excited to try. I picked a banana pepper, cilantro, and tomatoes from our garden and got started. Here is what I came up with after using a few recipes as guides.

Fresh Tomato Salsa with Banana Peppers

4 beefsteak tomatoes

1 small vidalia onion

1 banana pepper (I took most of the seeds out)

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lime concentrate (you could use lemon concentrate)

Pinch of oregano

Pinch of cumin

Add all ingredients to blender. Pulse until desired consistency.

Serve with your favorite chips and guacamole.

The salsa was yummy! I used whole tomatoes. For a thicker consistency, you could deseed the tomatoes (freeze the insides to throw into soup later).

For more great recipes go to Menu Plan Monday!

-Robin

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

I know that laundry detergent is not a part of the grocery challenge, but I have to mention it because the savings is amazing! My family and I made our first batch of laundry soap in October 2009. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was super easy. Even if I would have messed it up, we would have only wasted a few dollars. It was worth the try!

Before using laundry soap, I was buying store brand eco friendly laundry soap at a wholesale store. We were paying around $17 for laundry detergent every 2-3 months. The homemade laundry detergent costs only about $.05/ load. It would be even cheaper if we had an energy saver washing machine. By using homemade laundry soap, we are saving about a hundred dollars a year. So, by the time our kids graduate from high school, we will have saved around $1800 on laundry soap!

I use the Duggar's recipe (scroll down) and found all the ingredients at Publix. My family of 5 will only need to make this recipe 2 times per year.

If you are new to homemade cleaning products, you are probably wondering what you are going to do with the leftover ingredients. After all, you will probably not have to make the laundry soap very often. I use the leftover borax and washing soda in my dishwasher.

Diswasher

Pre-Wash:

1/2 tablespoon Borax

1/2 tablespoon Washing Soda

Main Wash:

1 tablespoon Borax

1 tablespoon Washing Soda

I use white vinegar for the rinse.

The eco benefits of homemade laundry soap are that it's all-natural and it cuts out having to recycle those large laundry detergent containers (not to mention the ones not being recycled).

As and added price reducer, there is usually a Borax coupon (scroll down) for $.35 off, which will double at a lot of grocery stores.

After using homemade laundry soap, I will likely never buy regular laundry detergent again... unless it's free ; )

-Robin

Banana Pudding (Pudding Made from Scratch)

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

I have posted many times about how I love to make my own mixes. One of my favorite mixes is pudding mix. They are easy to make and easy to store. You can make them for about the price of pudding on sale with a coupon, which was $.34 the last time I bought it.

Pictured above:

Top - Mix (only use 2/3 c. of it per recipe)
Middle- Making the pudding

Bottom- Banana Pudding

It is nice to make things from scratch and have them on hand when you get a craving for it. The recipe I use comes from my Make-A-Mix book.

This recipe was made with Publix Vanillla Waffers, the penny item a few weeks ago.

Bananas $.33/ lb

Milk- Free

Whip Topping- Free

Vanilla Wafer- $.01

A large Banana Pudding approx. $.40

Happy Menu Plan Monday!

-Robin

Making Your Own Mixes

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

One of my favorite frugal things to do is make my own mixes. Making your own mixes cuts down on preservatives in convience foods and helps keep your cabinets stocked so that you don't have to run to the store for anything. I have found that if you have stocked cabinets, you rarely have buy things at regular price when you need them. The key to making your own mixes is buying flour and sugar at the lowest price. Recently, I even bought flour in bulk to make several of my mixes. Flour in bulk is about $1.25/ 5 lb.

Most of the time, I buy staples with sales and coupons from the grocery store. I found a great buy price guide for staples on Southern Savers that I use to ensure that I am paying the lowest price. If a staple is at a low price, I stock up and make a mix.

Here are a few of my favorite mixes that I keep on hand:

Hot roll mix for pizza crusts

Whole-Grain Pancake Mix

Pasta Sauce

Chicken Mix

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Freezer Pie Crusts

Pizza Sauce Mix

The Make-A-Mix book is a great guide to making mixes. It's cheap and easy!

-Robin

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

If you were wondering why I stock up on every fresh fruit and vegetable available, here is why. We love to pull out berries, that we picked fresh and stored in our freezer, months later. Yesterday, the girls asked for a smoothie and I was happy to make them one. We really don't have a set recipe.... we just throw whatever fruit we have in and blend. Ripe bananas make the smoothies sweet, so we never add sweetener. I have also made green smoothies for the girls and they love them.

Approximate: Strawberry Banana Recipe

1 ripe banana

2 c. strawberries

1 six oz. strawberry yogurt

1 c. water

Blend together. If it is too thick, just add water. Our fruit was all frozen. If you have fresh fruit, you might want to add ice.

The girls wanted to take a picture of their cups too! So cute!

-Robin

Cubed Steak and Tomatoes Recipe

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

The other day at Bi-Lo, I bought some cubed steak on sale. We have tried several recipes with cubed steak, but the other night my husband put together a dish that was my favorite. I'll give you the recipe, but it might not be exact, it was a made up recipe.

Cubed Steak and Tomatoes

1 lb. cubed steak

2 tablespoons flour

salt and pepper

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 onion sliced

1/2 cup chopped celery

Cover steak in flour salt and pepper. Pound steak thin with mallet. Brown steak in some cooking oil in a large sauce pan, add tomatoes, onion, and celery. Cover and simmer on low for one hour and fifteen minutes.

Serve over rice and a vegetable side dish.

Cubed steak and Tomatoes $3

Rice: $.10

Broccoli: Free

Meal Total: $3.10 for the 4 of us!

-Robin

Homemade Freezer Pie Crusts

ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

Last night, I made some pie crusts to store in the freezer. We are getting ready for some visitors,

so I am trying to make preparations ahead of time. I have found that it is super easy to make pie crust and store them in the freezer. You can store them in the freezer for up to 10 months.

Freezer Pie Crust

12 c. flour
4 teaspoons salt

1 lb. vegetable shortening

1 1/4 c. water

Mix together flour and shortening with a pastry blender. It should be the consistency of cornmeal. Then, measure 2 cups and add 4 tablespoons of water. Mold into a ball.

Cut seven 12 inch pieces of aluminum foil and seven 12 inch pieces of saran wrap. Place a ball of crust in saran wrap and wrap tightly. Then, place it in foil and wrap tightly to seal. Repeat for each ball. Write the date and place in freezer.

To use just unthaw.

This makes holiday meals easy! and cheap!

I think I'll use some of my freezer pie crust to make pies with my frozen berries.

For more great Menu Plan Monday recipes and a great freezer cooking book giveaway click here.

-Robin