Breafast on the cheap

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but if you don't plan ahead it can break your budget.  This week I've been using my Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast.  I know you're probably thinking "WHAT, Thanksgiving and breakfast don't match." But I promise they do.  AND it's yummy.  I used leftovers of my scalloped sweet potatoes and made them into a mash.  Then you just smear it between two tortillas and cook it.  I melted some butter in a saute pan and "fried" it, but if you want you can use some cooking spray or bake it on the oven for 10-15 min.

When it comes to breakfast be creative.  You don't have to eat the typical breakfast foods for breakfast, make what makes you happy.  And if you love breakfast, great news you can eat it for dinner.  I love breakfast for dinner.  Waffles, pancakes or french toast easy and cheap.  So have a little dinner for breakfast and save the good stuff for when you're awake enough to enjoy it!

Thanksgiving, Part 2

I always try to make Thanksgiving as stress free as possible.  Breakfast is either the cinnamon rolls in a tube or cereal.  I love to cook but when I'm looking at a day of kitchen time I do what I can to make the morning easy.  Another of my tricks to a stress free Thanksgiving is to do as much prep as possible the day before, or the morning of since I'm slacking this year.

At my house we always have Thanksgiving dinner around 4:30 - 5 in the afternoon.  I have easy apps that I put out a lunchtime to keep us fed and give me time to cook the real dinner.  This year I started my morning by roasting chili's in the oven and making the cornbread for my stuffing.  Both of these things need time to cool before cooking with them and they're really easy.  A way to keep the cost down for stuffing, and the other 90 recipes that use stock, I make sure I have the dried bullion cubes they have the flavor you want but are much cheaper than the liquid chicken or vegetable stock.  Next I'll look at all of my recipes and set out a schedule for the day.  I try to do prep throughout the morning and early afternoon so that when cooking starts it's just a matter of popping things in the oven at different times.  I have a toaster oven that I use for the few small items that I need to cook at a different temp or won't fit into the oven. 

My policy is dessert first.  Dessert is always one of my most involved recipes and it requires a few different cooking and cooling times.  Since I'm making a cake this year I only have the one cooking time, but I'll need to let it cool before I can frost it.  Frosting will be easy but messy and can be left for when everything else is in the oven and I have reclaimed counter space.  And if something doesn't work out as intended, don't stress  be creative or just dump it.  If you don't have one of the side dishes or if you need to send someone to the store for a last minute side or frozen pie IT"S OK!  Thanksgiving is about spending time with your family, not trying to live up to Leave it to Beaver!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Thanksgiving, Part One

This was last year's Thanksgiving feast, minus the turkey and apps.  I love Thanksgiving and I tend to go overboard, I made all of that for the two of us...  AND we got a 17lb turkey, I don't eat turkey.  Yeah It's a compulsion.  I love cooking and the holiday's is the perfect time to cook.  No school and no one complaining about diets!

This year my original budget was $20, but I took some lose change to the bank and got another $20, so $40 for Thanksgiving dinner.  This was hard for me, last year our turkey cost more than that.  So I started by looking at what I have around the house, then based on those ingredients I started my menu.  I choose dished that would require only a few purchases.  I also tied to purchase ingredients that I would use in multiple dishes.  This cuts down on the bill and still makes a feast!  I mean come on people, it IS Thanksgiving the national holiday celebrating two of the seven deadly sins... sloth and gluttony.  Watch football, eat, nap, eat more, watch a movie, eat, go to bed, wake up and start process again with leftovers and shopping that starts at 5am.  We need a feast!

So lets move on to the feast; the last few years I've started to make a southwestern influenced Thanksgiving.  My husband and I are originally from Colorado and grew up eating some of the best Mexican food outside of Mexico.  Green chili's, Chipolte in Adobo, Cotija cheese, we love it all.  Unfortunately we now live in Kansas and I couldn't find good Cotija cheese so I'm using goat cheese.  The goat cheese and the brie are my two splurges, they also cost less then $10 combined.  When you plan out your menu decide how much you want to spend, then find the cost of the main components of your meal.  Doing this means that you can find money to have a much needed splurge.  I also make sure that we have a few apps, the meal and dessert.  To me it's just not a holiday with out all of that.

So here's the menu:
Apps:
Hummus and Pita chips
Brie en crute with pear and raisins

Meal:
Seiten Wellington (It's pronounced satan; yeah like that Satan, but yummy)
Mashed Potatoes
Caramelized Onion Cornbread Dressing
Chipolte Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Rolls
Wild Rice with Dried Cranberries
Pablano Gravy

Dessert:
Spiced Pumpkin Cake

I might make a few changes, chef's prerogative.  I'm debating adding another app or cranberry sauce.  Oh and all of this has only cost me $35.78, so I have enough to get a few more things if I decide too.  I will also have enough food to feed at least 4 people and have leftovers. 

Week 1

Since Thanksgiving is in two weeks I've decided to combine my first two weeks into one shopping list.  I'm using as much as possible from my pantry.  The hope is to have a little extra for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  I started my planning our menu for the two weeks.  I have a tentative menu for Thanksgiving as well.  If I have money left over I will alter the menu for Thanksgiving a little.  I write my menu from Saturday to Friday.  I usually go grocery shopping Saturday morning.  There seams to be plenty of managers specials and the adds from Wednesday are still in effect so I have had time to look at them for deals.

Step 1: I looked in the pantry to see what we had, and looked at grocery store adds to see what was on sale.  Luckily I take after my mother and had more than enough.

Step 2: Start compiling recipes that primarily use what I already have.

Step 3: Write the Menu

Step 4: Compile my shopping list

I've found that writing a menu and a shopping list are the easiest and most overlooked steps in sticking to a budget.  It was something I did even when I was employed.  It also helps if you have a busy schedule.  You can plan out your menu for the week to coincide with different events in the week.  I have class two nights a week, so for those weeks I always planned meals that I could make ahead and were easy for my husband to warm up, or the night before I would make plenty of something that was good as a leftover.

My menu for the next two weeks:
Sat: Spicy Broccoli Pasta                        Sat: Chickpea Cutlet Fritata
Sun: Spaghetti with Chickpeas               Sun: Vegan Fillet Mignon, Mashed Potatoes & Veggies           
Mon: Po'Boys and Sweet Potato Fries    Mon: Chili and Cornbread
Tues: Sweet Potato & Lentil Dal             Tues:  Black bean and Salsa Soup
Wed: Burrito Bowls                                Wed:  Cajun Black eyed Peas over Rice
Thur: Stir fry                                            Thur: Pumpkin Ravioli with Bourbon Cream Sauce and Wild Rice
Fri: Pizza                                                Fri: Leftovers

The shopping list:
Broccoli Slaw                                         Wild Rice
Chickpeas                                              Soy Milk
Bread                                                     Mayo
Hogie Rolls                                            Red Hot Peppers
Salsa                                                     Granola Bars
Frozen Veggies: Stir Fry, Side Dish        Canola Oil
BBQ Sauce                                           Applesauce
Sweet Potatoes

And I more than met my goal, $36.31 for two weeks!  Here's proof

                                (sorry the picture quality is so poor.  I was so excited I used my camera phone)

Of course when I got home I went to wash dishes and realized we're out of soap.  So back to the store for that, but I have $23.26 to use for that and Thanksgiving.  I'm a little shocked that I'm happy about a Thanksgiving budget of $20 since in previous years I haven't had a budget and spent well over $150 to feed the two of us.  Well time to plan a little menu for Thanksgiving, and I'll even get to have dessert!