Friday, August 28, 2009

Barley Mushroom Pilaf & Green Bean Casserole



So I am going to combine two recipes in this one post. I served them together and they are both very quick and easy recipes. I made these sides a few weeks ago when I was still doing the $100 a month grocery challenge. I was trying to use what I had on hand for dinner and these are the recipes I found. The Barley Mushroom Pilaf I found searching on Google under barley recipes. I had barley in my pantry but had no idea what to do with it! Well, there is a website completely dedicated to barley recipes! You can click here to check it out.

Barley Mushroom Pilaf
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sliced fresh button mushrooms
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup pearl barley
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons chopped green onion (I didn't have this but really think it would have added some color, so I would recommend adding it!)
1/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat olive oil in saucepan; add mushrooms and saute until limp. Add barley, broth, green onion and rosemary. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 45 minutes or until barley is tender and liquid is absorbed. I had instant barley so I only had to cook mine for about 15 minutes. Make sure to check which kind you have before you start cooking! Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over pilaf and serve.



The green bean casserole is even easier. I make this recipe quite often but have never posted it on here because it's so quick and easy. But it's good and we all like it so maybe you will too! I found the recipe in a cookbook that was given to me as a wedding shower present. It's Betty Crocker's Bridal Edition cookbook and the recipes are very simple but every recipe I have made from that cookbook turns out nicely!

Favorite Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients:
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cans french style green beans, drained (I used frozen green beans b/c that's what I had on hand)
1 can (2.8 ounces) french fried onions (I never measure this out - just buy a large can and use a handful)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix soup, milk and pepper in 2 quart casserole or square baking dish - 8x8 works great. Stir in beans, sprinkle with onions.



Bake uncovered 30-40 minutes or until hot.

Enjoy!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Spicy Cheese Dip



Jordan cooked a pig last month and we always have so much pulled pork left over. I try to come up with different meals to use up the meat so we aren't eating the same thing over and over! I found this recipe in one of my Cuisine at Home magazines and thought it would make a great nacho cheese for pork nachos. It's great on it's own and with a tortilla chip as well. The only thing I thought it needed was a little more heat so you might want to buy an extra jalepeno in case you think it needs more spice. This recipe is a keeper!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb Monterey jack cheese shredded
1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1-2 jalapeno chili peppers, minced (I think this could have used 1 more pepper)
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:
Toss together cheese and flour until cheese is coated with flour.

Heat cream in a double boiler over medium heat. When cream begins to simmer start adding handfuls of cheese, stirring until melted. Once the cheese has melted add another handful of cheese; repeat until all cheese is melted.



Stir in jalapenos and sour cream. Keep dip warm over low heat but do not allow to boil.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

I'm a Quitter!

I just can't do the $100 challenge anymore, I'm giving up! I can't stand the fact that I can't make it to the end but I think the challenge was too drastic for our family. I definitely would like to do it again but might try $150 for the month instead. I made it for 2 1/2 weeks spending less than $30 a week on groceries but that's as far as I can go. For our 3rd week I spent $20 at Trader Joe's on Friday. That probably could have gotten us to Wednesday without having to buy anything else. Today we are having company over for dinner and I wouldn't be able to feed our friends on what we have in our house! We needed beer & ribs and that alone would have pushed us over the $100 limit for the month.

Plus, this challenge has caused some strain on my marriage! We hardly ever go out for dinner, maybe twice a month - if that. I do a lot of cooking and honestly, we eat pretty well. We almost always have a meat, starch, vegetable and a salad. Both my husband and daughter like to eat and they like to eat well. :) My husband was getting a little cranky with the lack of food in the house which was causing some bickering so I think that means it's time to stop! ;)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Penny Pinching Pantry Raid Update

We've just finished week 2 of the $100 grocery challenge for 4 weeks. I went to the grocery store on Tuesday and spent $20.81. Here's what I bought:

bread $2.99
strawberries $2.00
cheese cubes $2.00
spaghetti sauce $3.58
watermelon $1.91
lunch meat $3.79
bananas $.52
1 orange $1.19
1 onion $.44
eggs $1.49

That's great, right! WRONG! I sent Jordan to the store to buy 1 head of lettuce because we were having cheeseburgers (we had buns & the burgers in the freezer!) and I wanted to have lettuce for them. He comes home with several bags of groceries! I casually peeked into the bags and saw two tomatoes (which we already had tomatoes), 2 avocados (at $2 a pop), the lettuce, and a bag of cheddar sunchips. I said to him, you know I'm trying to only spend $100 this month on groceries, right? His reply, "Well, I'm not going to starve!" What?! I'm in the process of making dinner - we are 15 minutes away from eating and how is what you bought going to keep you from starving?! lol! Here's the damage:

2 tomatoes $2.73
2 avocados $3.98
head of lettuce $1.69
sunchips $3.00

With tax it came to $11.63 plus my $20.81 gives us a grand total of $32.44 for week two. We should have only spent $26.62 for week two so we went over by about $6. We had $73.87 left and now we have $41.43 for the last two weeks. Which is about $20 for each week. Yikes!

We've used a lot of food out of our freezer, which I think you can really tell by the picture.



Our pantry kind of looks the same to me as last week or at least not such a huge change like the freezer.



Honestly, I haven't been starving my husband. Here are a few meals that we've had for dinner:

London broil, perogies, steamed carrots, salad
Cheese burgers, sweet potato fries, corn on the cob
Spaghetti with sausage, garlic bread, salad
Mandarin orange chicken, broccoli, rice

And a few breakfasts:
Pancakes
Fried eggs & toast
oatmeal
grits
cereal

Lunches:
Steak quesadilla from the london broil
Ham sandwiches
Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
Left over's ;)

Even though we went over our amount for week two I am still feeling pretty happy about how much money we've been spending at the store. I think as long as I have some chips in the pantry my husband won't think he's starving! ;)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

No Bake Peanut Butter Pie



All I have to say is yummy, just yummy!

We went to a friend's house for dinner on Sunday and they asked if I would bring a dessert. It was hot and humid here over the weekend and I really didn't want to make something that would need to be baked in the oven. I was having a peanut butter craving so I started searching around for recipes and I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com (of course!)

One of the reviews on allrecipes said to make the crust with Nutter Butter cookies and butter. I went to Lowes Foods and they didn't have any Nutter Butters! I was so bummed so I just got a chocolate graham cracker crust instead. I was about to put the topping on the crust and I accidentally broke it into 20 pieces! After some cursing, I asked Jordan if he'd go to Harris Teeter and see if they had Nutter Butters, and they did! :) So, I halved the recipe (who needs two peanut butter pies?!) and changed the graham cracker crust to a Nutter Butter crust. Easy & yummy!

Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened (half a package)
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup milk
8 ounce package frozen whipped topping, thawed
24 Nutter Butter cookies, crushed (I used my food processor)
5 Tablespoons softened butter

Directions:

Beat together cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Mix in peanut butter and milk. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.

Combine the crushed Nutter Butter cookies and the butter and press into the bottom & sides of a 9" pie plate.



Spoon topping onto the crust - at this point you can leave it as is or decorate the top with whatever you like. I took some Hershey's syrup and a knife and just made some swirls to give a little design. Cover and freeze until firm - at least 4 hours.



We ate this on the same day I made it and it was wonderful. I had a piece the day after and it sort of tasted like our freezer so make sure to cover it tightly! :)

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Peach Crisp



We were at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago and I bought a basket of fresh peaches. We ate a few on their own and they were delicious but I had a craving for some sort of peach dessert. I love topping that goes on apple crisp so I wanted to find something similar for a peach crisp. I came across this Peach Crisp recipe on foodnetwork.com by Anne Burrell. I followed the recipe exactly and thought it turned out okay. The topping was great but the peach mixture had way too much lemon in it. The lemon flavor overpowered the peach flavor which was a little disappointing for me. Don't get me wrong, we ate all of this dessert! I'll make this recipe again but next time I would cut the amount of lemon in half - at least!

Ingredients
Filling:
5 large ripe peaches, pitted and cut into slices
1 lemon, zested and juiced (I would just try putting in the juice of 1 lemon and no zest)
3 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins

Topping:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 stick cold butter cut into pieces
(1/2 cup almonds, but I left these out)
pinch salt
1-2 Tablespoons cold water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the filling:

Toss the peaches in a large bowl with the zest (if you choose to use it) and lemon juice. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. The recipe calls to put this into individual ramekins but I just put mine in an 8x8 baking dish.



For the topping:

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor except the water. Pulse until combined, this will take about 30 seconds. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until mixture is clumpy but crumbly.

Sprinkle the topping over the peaches. The idea is to look very crumbly.



Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the filling is hot and bubbly and the topping, brown and crispy.

Serve hot and with vanilla ice cream!



As I said, this is a good recipe - just too much lemon for my tastes. I went back and read through the reviews of this recipe and no one commented that it was too much lemon, which kind of surprised me. If you give this recipe a try let me know what your thoughts are!