Strawberry Squeaks

April 17, 2013

For the second time this week, I made breakfast. I made pancakes and french toast. Here I thought I was being awesome....until the smoke alarm went off and woke up my hubby! To my defense, our smoke alarm is over sensitive. There wasn't even smoke. Reason 1,022 why I prefer to snuggle up with coffee and a blanket and have the kiddos get easy breakfast items. Ha.

I was on a mission today. I wanted to use up leftovers and items that I would be buying tomorrow. The kids both packed lunches again today. They are on a roll this week! Sandwiches, yogurt, and my daughter also brought mashed potatoes (she has a slight obsession with my mashed potatoes). My hubby had lunch at home today. How do I keep him out of restaurants? With tacos! We started putting away the taco leftovers and he decided to pack taco salad for his dinner tonight. There was a little bit of lettuce, red onion, and tomato left on the cutting board. It didn't look like enough to keep but I did anyway. I figured that I could just add more to it when we wanted salad.

I wanted to have a fun after school snack for the kiddos because I haven't done that in awhile. I looked through the fridge. Ugh. Slim pickings. All the fun snacks need ingredients that I don't have. All except one. I wasn't sure how the kids would feel about it but figured I would give it a whirl. Strawberries. Check. Mini chocolate chips. Not check. I had mini cinnamon chips though. Licorice pieces. Check. I always seem to have a ton of random candy in the cupboard. Cheese. Check. Have you figured it out yet?! Strawberry mice. Lay the strawberries on their side. Poke a tiny hole with a sharp knife and then insert a mini chip for eyes and nose. Licorice rope makes the tails and then serve by cheese. The kids thought they were awesome! Ah! I just realized that I forgot to put on the almond slice ears. Oops!

Seeing as my hubby had to work through dinner, I figured that it would be a good night to do a smorgasbord. I pulled ham, pork marsala, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, pancakes, waffles, cantaloupe, and the tiny salad out of the fridge. Holy smokes. The kids didn't even complain about having leftovers. I guess giving the option of choosing whatever they want makes it fun.

Mashed Potato Ravioli

April 16, 2013

Grocery shopping is coming up soon so I am trying to get the kids to eat up stuff before it goes bad. They packed lunches today: sandwiches, yogurt, and cantaloupe. My hubby packed the leftover tilapia and some fruit. I just wish that I had paid attention to what he had packed in the tiny container. I rinsed it out after he got home.... oh goodness. It burned my throat just rinsing it. It was the leftover hot sauce he made out of ghost peppers and habanero peppers and it was no joke! I babysat today and my little buddy and I ate up the rest of the hotdogs and cantaloupe.

I knew that I wanted to use up some of the 10 pounds of potatoes (leftover from Easter). Well, maybe it was more like 9 pounds because we had used them once. I asked around for ideas and I also looked online at Idahopotato.com. I found some great ideas and decided to try one out tonight. Mashed potato ravioli. It just so happens that I still had half a pack of wonton wrappers leftover from crab rangoon night. This should turn out somewhat like pierogies. Fingers crossed!

I decided to make my own recipe for the mashed potato filling. I have some pretty killer mashed potatoes if I do say so myself. I use a little butter, milk, salt, pepper, garlic, and sour cream in the potatoes. The recipe I looked at called for parmesan cheese in the filling. All I had was romano so I added that instead. I let the mashed potatoes cool in the fridge for about half an hour. My hubby got home just in time to help make the ravioli. We brushed the edges of the wonton wrappers with a beaten egg. Next we put a tablespoon of mashed potato filling inside, topped it with another wonton, and sealed the edges. A few minutes in a pot of boiling water and we were all set. Remember my daughter's "famous" garlic butter sauce? My son suggested that we top our ravioli with the garlic butter sauce and top it with some basil to make it look fancy. Ha. Ok, that is coming from a 6 year old. I served the ravioli with the sauce, basil, and some freshly grated romano cheese. I heated up the last of our Easter ham (yay for easy freezer meals!) and some corn (frozen from the farmer's market). So how did everything turn out? The ravioli were delicious! The only problem is that about half of them burst while cooking. Not sure if I had the heat too high, added too much filling, or didn't seal them enough. Oh well. The kids still kept going back for more and didn't stop until they were all gone. The best part about the meal? Improving my mashed potato recipe. We all agreed that from now on mashed potatoes will have cheese and basil. They. Were. Unbelievable.

Pork Marsala

April 15, 2013

The kids started off the school week the right way: by packing lunch! I did my part and had leftovers for lunch too. There was a small container of leftover taco toppings which is perfect for a salad. I added more romaine lettuce and some pea pods to it and topped it with the rest of the crab that was leftover from when we made crab rangoon.

I needed a quick dinner tonight. The kids each have an activity so we had to eat an early dinner. Plus I didn't feel like cooking. There was a pack of pork for scallopini that I had bought simply because it was super cheap. I think the pack was $1.49. I decided to make pork marsala. I didn't want to pull up a recipe to follow so I just threw stuff together.

I dredged the pork in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. I fried the pork in about a tablespoon of butter and a couple shakes of olive oil. After they were golden brown, I set the pork to the side. In the same pan, I added onion and cooked for a few minutes. Next, I added garlic, mushrooms, and marsala wine. I didn't measure anything but I would guess about 1/2 cup of wine. After that reduced, I added some of my homemade chicken broth. I didn't measure but it looked to be about 1/2 - 3/4 cup. I thickened the sauce with a mixture of corn starch and water. My easy side dishes were home canned green beans and a Hawaiian roll.

I asked everyone what they thought of dinner because it was a "new recipe". Everyone really liked it. My hubby said "it's really good, what did you put in the sauce?" Yay! I guess my "recipe" was a success.

Ice Cream Waffles

April 14, 2013

What a delicious food day! I had the kids go play while I made them a special breakfast. Yes, I know. I actually "made" breakfast. Score one for mom already! I saw a fun idea on Six Sisters' Stuff. I made waffles and cut them into an ice cream cone shape. The "ice cream" was sliced bananas. The "cherry on top" was a slice of strawberry. The kids loved it! My son said he didn't want to eat it because it was too pretty. Ha. Then he dove in.

My hubby grilled tilapia for lunch. We decided to make it into tacos. I still had about half a pack of corn tortillas leftover from when I made chicken taquitos. He quickly fried the shells while I got out the toppings. I saw the leftover avocado slaw from yesterday. Ohhhh. That would go well with tilapia. I also cut up some cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce. My hubby wanted some spice for his taco. He made a mixture of ghost chili peppers and habanero peppers (both frozen from farmer's market) and mixed it with taco sauce. What taco would be complete without finishing it off with sour cream. Yum!

For dinner, my hubby smoked salmon. I decided to do a yellow squash sauté. I started with onions in a little butter and olive oil. After a couple minutes, I added the squash. After a couple minutes, I added garlic, spinach (the rest of bag from last week), and mushrooms. I looked in the fridge and saw that I had about 2 ounces left in a jar of home canned tomatoes. In it went. Of course this sauté is only made better by topping it with freshly grated romano. I had some fruit dip that needs to be eaten up in the next few days so we had cantaloupe with dinner. I wish I wasn't so stuffed from dinner because I would totally do my part to finish the other leftovers.... angel food cake!

Crab Rangoon

April 12 & 13, 2013

Yesterday was kind of a boring food day so I decided to combine it with today's post. The kids both packed lunches yesterday. They were excited for the spaghetti-o goldfish. I just had some of the leftover lemon pasta pilaf. Yum. I spent my day getting items ready for the rummage sale and giving the house a real good cleaning. When dinner time came around, I wanted to nap not cook. We ordered delivery from our friends' restaurant: sliders (for my son), chicken wings (for my daughter), buffalo chicken sandwich (for my hubby), and buffalo chicken salad for me.

Uh oh. Two days in a row we ate out. We went out for lunch today to a Hawaiian place. My daughter got loco moco. That was one of my favorites when we lived in Hawaii. It sounds gross so bear with me. It is a hamburger patty, topped with a fried egg and gravy and served with rice and of course macaroni salad. Weird combo but it works. I had my other favorite: luau pork and cabbage. My hubby had chicken katsu. My son had a burger. Again.

Ok, so here is where food gets fun again! We decided to attempt one of the best things you get from Chinese restaurants..... have you guessed? Crab rangoon! I found a recipe at Little B Cooks.  I was a little surprised when she wrote that they turned out better with imitation crab than with real crab. The filling is cream cheese, imitation crab meat, green onions, garlic powder, and soy sauce. You put filling in a wonton wrapper and seal the edges with a beaten egg. They are fried for just a couple minutes until golden brown.

As my hubby worked on the filling, I needed to come up with a side dish. It seems like when we order a delicious tuna appetizer at restaurants that it will be served with some type of random slaw or salad. I cut up some cabbage, red onion, green onion, cucumber, and carrots. Hmmmm. I needed some type of dressing. I didn't want to use the typical mayo (not much of a fan). I put an avocado, some of our favorite teriyaki sauce, fresh lemon juice, and some minced ginger into the food processor. We served our meal with a side of sushi ginger.

The verdict. The crab rangoon turned out great! I think the only thing we would change next time is add some chopped garlic along with the garlic powder in the filling. Although, we are garlic lovers so if you aren't just stick with the powder. The slaw was missing something. Half way through dinner, I grabbed the salt shaker. That helped. We still couldn't quite place what it needed. I think next time we would just slice an avocado to serve with it and do some sort of a vinaigrette on it instead.

Lemon pilaf; grocery savings milestone

April 11, 2013

My son once again packed his lunch today. My daughter realized that school was serving a turkey, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and apple slices meal today. She couldn't miss out on that! I told her it was fine to buy school lunch.

As I prepared for grocery shopping, I realized something. My grand total savings so far was $2,860. 76. Next week will be six months of this challenge. Oh man. My goal had been to save $3,000 by the six month mark. However, I soooooooo want to hit it early and make that goal today. I calculated how much money the kids saved on lunches this past week: only $10. Uh oh. My hubby and I ate brunch out this week. We spent $23.33. Our pre-challenge weekly average was $80 on restaurants so we saved $56.67. So that means that I can only spend $102.43 at the commissary today in order to make my $3,000 goal. That is totally unattainable. Sigh. I still put forth my best effort.

My pre-challenge weekly average at the commissary was $175. Today I spent $27.62 on toiletries and cleaners. One item that I needed to buy was Swiffer dusters. I looked at the price of the refill packs and then compared them to the refill packs of the dusters from Pledge. Hmmm. Pledge was cheaper. I decided to buy a small pack (that came with the handle) of the Pledge and give it a try. Hopefully we will like them just as much and then I can continue to buy them and save money. My daughter needed toothpaste. I normally go back and forth from Crest and Colgate. I looked for the cheaper kinds and compared the ingredients. I grabbed a box of "Ultra brite". It was only 88 cents! It was comparable to other types. What do you know? It is made by Colgate! I needed garbage bags. I usually get either Glad or Hefty. I realized that the store brand that I get of storage bags also makes garbage bags. They were pretty cheap: $2.89 for 20 bags. When I unpacked groceries, I took them out of the box and put them in the Hefty box. We'll see if hubby notices a difference. I spent $1.74 on impulse items. I decided to get a can of baby corn. My kiddos love them. Also, the commissary had a new item today. My kids love spaghetti-o's. How about spaghetti-o's in the shape of goldfish?! I spent $70.20 on food. I decided to only buy one gossip magazine today: $2.18. Ok, are you ready?! After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $97.63 out of pocket today. That is a savings of $77.37. My total savings for this week is $144.04. This brings my grand total savings for this challenge to......$3,004.80 in 176 days!!! I did it! Oh yeah, and did I mention that a few weeks ago I called our cell phone company and our cable company and got our rates lowered? Those two bills together will be lowered $950 over the next year! It really is unbelievable how much we are overpaying. Whether it be in grocery shopping, eating out, cell phone data plans, or other household expenses, there is always "fat" to trim away. Have you trimmed your fat?!

I saw a recipe for lemon pasta salad that sounded good. Good until I read heavy cream as an ingredient. Ugh. I decided to make up my own lemon pasta dish. I sauteed onion, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil. I added in some local white wine. After a few minutes, I set it to the side. I brought chicken broth to a boil and added orzo pasta. I treated it like a risotto. I would simmer it and let some broth reduce and then add more to the pan. During the last few minutes of cooking, I added some frozen peas and the onion/mushroom mixture. After taking it off of the heat, I added the zest of one lemon and the juice of about 3/4 of that lemon. I topped it with freshly grated romano cheese. I served it with rotisserie chicken and Hawaiian rolls. Yum! For dessert, we celebrated me hitting my goal with cake! We had angel food cake along with a duo of sauces. You got it. Leftover sauces. Ha. Lime pie dip became sauce number one. Blueberry crepe topping became sauce number two. They both went amazing with angel food cake.

Relish the secrets of pasta salad

April 10, 2013

The kids switched today. My son wanted to buy school lunch and my daughter packed a sandwich. I checked their school lunch accounts and couldn't believe what I saw. For the past month (although they were out of school for a week), my daughter bought lunch five times and my son only bought lunch three times!

My hubby had a late work day today so we went out for brunch together before he went in. While we were out, we bought a few things for our garden this year (seeds, etc). I got home and did some planning on what veggies would go where in the garden and what to put in the expansion (uh, once my hubby builds it!). That got me thinking about what we all canned last year. I looked through the cupboards to see if I should can the same amount of stuff this year or if I need to plant less of something. I saw that I still have an entire row of sweet green tomato relish. Geez. I need to figure out what to do with it other than topping hotdogs or in deviled eggs. We only use a tablespoon or two at a time. I'll never make it through all my jars like that.

My hubby had to work late so I knew it would be just the kiddos and I for dinner. Hmmmmm. This makes it a perfect night to get creative with dinner. I will probably be going grocery shopping tomorrow or Friday so I wanted to use up items that I would want to buy fresh when I shop. There was still Italian turkey lunch meat. We hadn't even opened the pack! There was one hamburger bun and two hotdog buns left. Ok, that must be a sign. Sandwich night it is. My son loves being in charge of sandwich night. He pretends he is a Subway worker. Ha. He built us sandwiches with Italian turkey, provolone cheese, spinach, red onion, and cucumber. I also had guacamole on mine. He served them with a side of a homemade pickle (man, we still have a TON of those too).

What else should we make? I wanted to use relish.  I asked friends earlier today and some suggested tuna salad, macaroni salad, or potato salad. I decided to throw together a random pasta salad and see if it worked. My daughter and I cooked up the end of the bag of vegetable shell pasta. We chopped celery that was starting to get a little wilted (the rest of it I will use to make chicken broth with soon), red onion, the rest of the cucumber, and one bunch of broccoli. I looked in the fridge and saw there was a bag of shredded cheddar cheese with just a little bit left. That'll work. There was also a small container of chopped tomatoes in the fridge. My son had wanted me to keep it so he could take it to lunch yesterday but he forgot. By small, I mean there was probably only about 10-15 pieces so I threw that in too. For the dressing, I mixed together a little bit of ranch (I didn't want it too heavy on the dressing) and half of a jelly jar of my homemade sweet green tomato relish. Oh boy. Is it going to taste weird? Will the kids eat it?? Well, after getting about 15 minutes into our movie night picnic, I hear.... "Mom, can you please get me more of the macaroni salad?" I asked what the kids thought of the pasta salad and if we should make it again. My son said "every day". Ha! Score! I guess I found what to do with all my relish.