Homemade Applesauce

This is quick and easy. First, peel and core an apple for each person. Small apples are fine if other foods will be served as well, like as to complete breakfast. Also, if using sweet apples, you will not need to add a sweetener. For sour apples, you may like to add sugar and cinnamon to taste. Then you will want to slice the apples about eight times each.

Put these in a pan with a little water, and begin cooking down over medium heat.  You may need to keep adding a little water at a time until the apples are cooked down to a sauce. Stir often.

* Cool to eat.

* Add to muffin mixes.

* Serve warm over ice cream or frozen yogurt.

 

A Healthier Muffin Breakfast for Less

There are different ways to stretch your health dollar when making muffins. Two of these ways are:

1. Mix up your muffin batch as usual and fill muffin tins. But, if you fill your cups 2/3 of the way full, cut back to only 1/2 full. Serve one with a small piece or fruit and 8 ounces of milk, or a small yogurt and 1/2 cup of juice. If you put peanutbutter on the muffin, you have a complete, healthy breakfast.

A great fruit option is homemade applesauce.

*****Remember that, in general, Americans eat too much and are even more likely to be overweight. Eating a little less will not hurt us, and we will get used to it. Our servings are generally to big any way.*****

2. Mix 1/2 to 1 cup of fruit, berries or vegetables (shredded carrots or zucchini) or homeade applesauce into your muffin batch, depending on how big a batch it is. Then fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Serve with a small yogurt or milk.

 

Remember to always use store/generic brand ingredients whenever possible. This will save a lot of money over the course of a year, and will not distort the taste of baked products at all. No excuses not to save money on this one!

 

Bake mulitple batches at once and freeze wrapped in plastic wrap and placed into gallon size freezer bags.

 

If you know how to make homemade vanilla yogurt that tastes just like Dannon’s version, please let me know!

Stuffed Shells (Partially from Leftovers)

This one I threw together the other night. It is nothing fancy.

jumbo shells (.99)

water

pasta sauce (.99) (or 1 small can tomato soup mixed with 1 can water - .59) I did half with sauce have with soup.

cottage cheese (1.29)

shredded mozzarella cheese (leftover from pizza night, about 1/2 bag)

shredded mild cheddar cheese (leftover from pizza night, about 3/4 bag)

a little less than 1/2 pound browned ground beef (leftover)

leftover pepperoni

Mix all of the cheeses together.

Fill shells with the cheese and place in two baking pans.

I mixed two different sauces up, though you may choose to use just one. 1. pasta sauce, half of the ground beef and half of the pepperoni, and 2. Soup mixed with the can of water and the other half of the meets.

I poured 1 sauce over 1 pan of shells, and 1 sauce over the other.

I baked this for about 40 minutes at 375*.

***

I used foodstamps to purchase these foods, so I did not pay tax:

  .99

  .99

  .59

1.29

___

$3.86 split between 3 meals = $1.29 per meal

3 people ate at two of the meals, and 4 people ate at 1 meal.

So that is .39 per individual meal.

1 Pan Leftover Meal

Here is a recipe for leftover night. Since you have already counted the cost of these items in previous meals, this meal is free.

Add a little olive oil/butter/margarine to a big fry pan and heat the pan on medium.

Go through your refrigerator and add whatever you can find to the pan. Here was last nights meal for us:

boiled potatoes, already diced before cooking

whole kernel corn

1/2 lb. browned ground beef

Just mix it all up and warm through.

Along with this, we had leftover stuffed shells (made mostly from leftovers) that were warmed in the oven. My next post will be the recipe for that.

Leftover Soup

This takes minimal preparation. Here is what you do:

Keep containers in the freezer for leftover vegetables (corn, peas, green beans, squash, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.), meats (hamburg, pork, steak, ham etc.), vegetable water and pasta water. These will later be used for “leftover soup”.

This is a soup/stew, depending on what ingredients you are using.

The morning before you need to make the “leftover soup,” take all of the containers out of the freezer and put them into the refrigerator.

If you will be using a slow cooker, put all of your ingredients into it, then add water until it is 2/3 full. Cook on high for lunch (3-4 hours) and low for dinner (5-6 hours). Add any herbs/spices/pasta 20-30 minutes before serving.

You could also cook this on your stove-top, beginning 30-60 minutes before you want to eat, depending on what you put into it. Again, add other items, if you want, 20-30 minutes before serving.

This meal could end up costing you nothing, or very little (less than 50 cents) if you were to add pasta, dumplings and some spices.

Homemade Mac and Cheese

My children, nieces and nephews love this. It is usually served just as mac and cheese, but sometimes we add add-ins. Today’s were 3/4 lb of chicken and 1 can of whole kernel corn.

2 cups whole wheat pasta - one box costs .99 + tax and will make mac and cheese twice - so .52 cents for 1 meal. (You can use any pasta you have on hand, even spaghetti or lasagna noodles.)

about 1 cup of skim/reconstituted powdered milk - the cost here is too small for me to bother calculating. may need more or less. I mostly judge this by sight.

1/5 of a 32 oz. package of store brand of Velveeta block cheese. At 3.99 + tax for 32 oz. it will be .84 cents per meal. (I have not tested cheaper types of cheese. Feel free to do so.)

Just cook the pasta until almost done. Strain, put back into pan with milk and cubed cheese until cheese is melted.

$1.36 for 4 people to eat = .34 cents per person. If you do add-ins, you can stretch this for more people or 2 meals. You can also use an assortment of leftover meats and vegetables so that there is no extra cost for you.

Welcome!

I will post new recipes as I can come up with them.

Warmest Wishes,

Shannon

Mac and Cheese Recipes using Boxed Mac and Cheese

I try not to use these any longer, but sometimes I still have to. (We have a healthier, yummier version that we prefer, but it is more costly.) Boxed Mac and Cheese can still be found at 3/$1.00 for the cheap brand, which all of the children love.

Just make the mac and cheese as suggested.

Add-ins: (Use any combination of these that you have on hand, even small amounts.)

Vegetables:

corn

peas

green beans

carrots

broccoli

 

Meats:

(Use 1/4 to 1/2 lb of whatever you choose)

ground beef

tuna

steak

hot dogs

pork

ham

 

Others:

onion

garlic

pasta/pizza sauce

seasonings of choice

 

Freezing: Tuna does not freeze well.  Vegetables do, as do the rest of the meats. I can not vouch for the onion and garlic. Freeze individually in quart size freezer bags.

 

Apple Muffins

For these, I use the small boxes of Jiffy muffin mixes. I used to be able to get these for .33, but they are now .55.

You will also need one apple, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup of milk (water can be substituted if necessary - or use 1/8th cup of water and 1/8 cup of milk).

I will generally use reconstituted powdered milk in baking to save money.

Directions:

1. Prepare mix as directed on the box.

2. Chop an apple and add to the prepared mix.

3. Bake as directed on the box.

Yield: 6-8, depending on the size of the apple. We usually make a couple of batches at a time, at least. This saves on the electricity needed to bake them.

Good with: Peanut butter, butter, jelly/jam/marmalade/preserves.

Freezer: Wrap individually in plastic wrap. I have a gallon size freezer bag for muffins. I just throw them in there. Sometimes I have a few bags going. Press out as much of the air from the bag as you can.