It’s official: I love our Saved Savings account. We’ve saved $423.16 since November.
Of course, some of that amount was from Black Friday savings. But $68.85 is from grocery and other store savings. And remember there was a period during/after the miscarriage where I just couldn’t be bothered. So… wow.
Another $47.78 was from the Amazon GCs I get from Swagbucks. That number is only low because I haven’t been focusing on those lately. Now that work is dying down a bit after the holiday season, I can get back to my beloved surveys.
And, of course, $184 was our savings from getting rid of Dish. We’re saving $92 a month, which means that our Saved Savings account will always have at least $276 at the end of each quarter. Sweet! Meanwhile, we really don’t miss cable much. I can’t see the shows on USA, Walking Dead and Being Human. But all of those are (eventually) available on Netflix.
I’m going to empty the account into regular savings, so that I can see how much I save this quarter.
In other exciting-to-me-anyway news, we ended last week with just over $130 (or slightly more than a third of our weekly budget) in checking. We still felt kind of punk from the flu, so we mainly stayed at home. Tim’s appetite was also diminished, which meant less fast food. Six days of my meals were covered by some defrosted Mexican chicken and two $5 frozen pizzas.
Maybe this will goad me into cooking more. I need to find more recipes because Tim can’t subsist on quasi-Mexican food (chili and various dishes involving rice and beans) as long as I can. I’m looking through some cookbooks that promise quick and easy meals. But I really love the things I can just stick in the slow cooker and abandon for 4-6 hours. That’s just so lovely.
Do you guys have any saving plans? How about easy recipes that don’t involve beef?
PS. Speaking of saving money, AllYou has extended its offer of a year’s subscription for $5. Just in case some of you missed the deal the first time around.
Best bang for the buck …IMHO…. buy a whole chicken…my favorite Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster and bake it. DW bakes one of these and it amazes me how many meals come out of it in the form of leftovers…She uses it for sandwiches…chicken salad…chicken pot pie….and after the chicken is about picked clean…chicken soup as well as chicken and dumplings. If you can pick up these birds on the cheap for say 89 cents a pound you get a pretty good source of protein at a reasonable price. DW usually gets about 8 meals out of one of these Roasters. As for beef ….with the price today it seems beef has become a garnish……
The weather here has been pretty awful during February so we stayed in a lot. Normally we hit the grocery store a couple of times a week and too often buy things we don't really need. (I know….shop with a list and a plan). Anyway, we shopped our freezer and pantry and saved a lot of money that went into our reserve fund. Personally, I really like Dish and will keep it as log as we can afford it. I don't like watching whole shows on my little netbook and hubby enjoys too many sports to give it up. So it's part of our budget.
Congrats on your saved savings! You asked, so I'll share… last week I made a slow cooked large pork roast. Meal #1 was roast pork w/potatoes & carrots plus side salad. From the leftovers, I made a meal of teriyaki pork & veggies (carrots, onion, celery, cabbage and peas) over rice. Another meal was cubed pork w/broccoli and mushrooms in a cheese sauce, topped with crunchy onions, baked. Then there was baked ziti with pork. We also had a meal (plus leftovers) of pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw. Oh, and creamy pork stew using a package of mixed veggies + one diced potato with cream of mushroom soup as the "gravy", served over biscuits. Not bad for an $8 roast.
(continued) In the past, I've used leftover pork roast with Dollar Tree ingredients of canned pinto beans, enchilada sauce and flour tortillas for pork enchiladas. You can also make pork & beans in the crock pot. The ziti is so simple, because you just put cut up pork in a pot, add a can of spaghetti sauce + a can of water + a half of a bag of zit to the pot with a little oil, stir, bring it to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes. Transfer to a lasagna pan, and before baking, top with shredded cheese. Keep in mind, I feed us 4 *and* our elderly neighbors next door. There's a LOT you can do with one slow cooked pork roast!
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Are you familiar with Stephanie O'Dea's blog, "A year of slow cooking"? She no longer maintains the blog, but the recipes are still up on the web. Best of all, if you scroll down, there's a table of contents on the left. Among other things, there are 70-some recipes for chicken. I believe most of her recipes are gluten-free, also. http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.
Well that's good about beef because I don't eat it. I definitely need to get some whole roaster recipes. And I know there are some you can even cook in a slow cooker. It's a good point about leftover meat going in sandwiches. I want to go back to having sandwiches for lunch sometimes, but the sodium in the processed meat makes it a no-go. I know there's sodium injected into the chicken too, but it's GOTTA be better than lunchmeats.
If you're husband likes sports, then definitely keep Dish. (Assuming it's on ESPN and not the regular channels. For that you can get a flat antenna I've heard.) And like I said in my post about Dish, it was a reasonable expense when it was just us. But we're now happy using Hulu because the only "sports" Tim really likes is wrestling. And that's on Hulu.
If you ever do decide to make the switch, you can now buy some pretty cheap streaming devices. Like $40 or so.
As for sticking to a list, that never happens for us either. Tim's ADD means he finds things not on the list. Plus, his sensitive stomach means that if he actually *wants* to eat an item, I'm not going to bicker.
That's impressive! We're not huge pork fans, but it sounds like most of that could translate to chicken. The "roast" part won't be as good, of course. But that's my own fault for being picky. Thanks for the ideas!
Dang. I may have to get back into pork.
Yep, I have 3 or 4 chicken recipes that I really like from her. I need to go back through some of the ones I made a note of but haven't tried yet. She's definitely been a life saver.
We didn't used to be huge fans of pork, because my guys are beef eaters. Alas, beef is out of my price range now and we get tired of chicken. Even fish is too expensive unless for a "treat". SO I figured out how to make pork taste better. Here's my tip: slow cook a roast in the crock pot with a can/bottle of light beer and some Montreal Steak Seasoning. The aroma is terrific, as is the flavor. Then leftovers are recipe ready!
The teriyaki is also very simple. In a large skillet, heat about 2 T. oil, and sauté 1 cup each chopped onion, celery and carrots for about 8 minutes. Add strips of pork (from leftover slices of roast), 1/2 head of cabbage cut up, 1 cup of frozen peas, and about 2 T. bottled teriyaki sauce. Soy sauce also works. Stir well, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for another 8 minutes. Serve over rice. You can do "pulled pork" from leftovers back in the crock pot with 1/2 a Dollar Tree bottle of BBQ sauce, 2 cups of water, and (if you like) some hot sauce. Cook 4-6 hours, and use 2 forks to pull the pork apart.
Wait until Albertson's (or other grocery stores) have roasts on sale for about 99 cents per pound. They're usually large, bone in, and shrink wrapped. Pop it in the freezer until ready to cook. I pop mine into the fridge for a day or two to partially thaw, and place 'em in the crock pot even if still slightly frozen. Just set the Crock Pot for "high". In 6 hours, the roast is done.
Ground Turkey & Lentil Recipe Base is something I've shared with a handful of folks. It works with ground turkey or ground beef. It's also a Crock Pot recipe, and I regularly FREEZE 2 to 4 cup portions for future meals. Brown the ground turkey in a skillet, then transfer the ground meat to the Crock Pot. Add 2 cups lentils (cheaper in the Mexican section or Mexican stores), 1 packet of Chef Swaggers (at Dollar Tree) Onion Soup Mix and 4 cups water. Cook for 4-6 hours in the Crock Pot. When most of the liquid has been absorbed, stir in 1 can Dollar Tree crushed tomatoes. Use with spaghetti sauce over pasta, in tacos, enchiladas, burritos, in Shepherd's Pie, etc.
Okay,since you seem to prefer mostly chicken, here we go.
– Best bang for the buck is either whole chicken, or dark meat. With a whole chicken, you're cutting price by having the chicken be less processed. In addition, chicken carcasses that you've carved the meat off of have enough meat and flavor for another dish. Dark meat is cheaper because we, as a country, don't eat it as much as we do white meat. It's a damned shame too, because chicken thighs (skin removed) are just as healthy as chicken breasts, but don't tend to be as dry.
– That being said, if you get a whole chicken, a roasting pan, and dust your oven, you can do about 3 meals for 2 people. Your two other pieces of hardware are an oven thermometer (please don't trust the one in your oven, it's not accurate), and an instant read food thermometer. It's chicken, and you both have health issues- a thermometeris 5 bucks that's going to save you a lot of grief. Your first meal- baked chicken. Get a whole chicken (do not rinse, it's unnecessary, and is a good way to contaminate surfaces, including you), some butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, a lemon, half an onion, and a sprig of rosemary. Cut the lemon and onion into big wedges, and insert into chicken, along with the rosemary. Combine the fat of choice with crushed garlic (to taste), salt, and pepper, then rub it under the skin over the breasts and on the skin of the thighs and legs. Bake at 425 F for 45 minutes to an hour and 20 (depending on size of chicken), let rest for 10 minutes, carve of the piece each if you want, and serve. If you're nervous about carving, go to YouTube, and look up Alton Brown's Good Eats clip on carving a chicken.
– Second meal- carve off two more pieces of chicken, and take the meat off the bones. Warm in a skillet over medium low with a bag of frozen stir fry veggies (cut, cleaned, and no waste). Add a little teriyaki sauce, and serve over rice (boil in bag, or frozen rice that can be cooked in a microwave). This meal will take you under 10 minutes.
– Final meal- remove as much meat from the carcass as you can, and reserve. Stick carcass in slow cooker with water, a quartered onion, two broken up carrots, and one broken up stick of celery. I add two whole cloves of garlic, some sprigs of thyme, and a sprig of oregano to mine, but it's really to taste. Set it and forget it. When done, drain the now beautiful stock into a bowl, and stick it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, skim the fat off the stock, and return it to the slow cooker with vegetables of your choices chopped into small chunks, the chicken, and some egg noodles. Voila, chicken noodle soup with a LOT less sodium than canned. The extra servings can be frozen for use at a later sick day.
For pieces of chicken (I prefer thighs, but breasts work to, just buy them skin on please), brown them in a pan, and load them into your crock pot (browning, while an extra step, gives you a lot of flavor), deglaze the pan with chicken stock, and pour that into the crock pot as well. Add onion, celery, and carrot, as well as garlic and thyme, and one cup of wine. Salt and pepper to taste, set it, and forget it. Serve with rice, potatoes, or starch of your choice, and Viva La France.
For branching out, pork with apples and onions. You're going to need a pork roast, 2 baking apples, an onion, thyme, salt, pepper, apple juice or cider, and garlic. Mince carrot, onion, garlic, and apples. Strip the springs of thyme and give the leaves a quick chop. Salt and pepper the pork, brown it, and load it in the crock pot with the knife worked plant matter. Add apple cider, some water (if you want a richer mouth feel, chicken stock), set, and forget. Left overs make great sandwiches. You can also cube some up, combine with frozen peas, carrots, rice, an egg, and some soy sauce for quick and easy pork fried rice.
As you can kind of see, my biggest saving tool is buying once and eating off of it for 3 or 4 meals. When you use really simple, classic flavors in the initial dish, you're going to be able to remake it into two or three other dishes in an instant. Another thing I love to do is pasta- something like Barilla Plus, or another whole wheat brand, is going to be satisfying, and with jarred sauce, it's fast and cheap. Health and money, experts are increasingly suggesting one meatless dinner a week (or, in the case of one food writer, meatless before 6 pm) as a way save money and diversify eating. This doesn't mean a lot of cooking, or weird foods.
Weird things I do for savings are Amazon Prime, and a flu shot. Most everything I get that's nonperishables, I get from Amazon Prime. Household goods, pet goods, beauty supplies, etc.
It's amazing to me how many folks are intimidated by a whole, roasted chicken from scratch. My sil and dh's carpool buddy (each in their 50s) rely on grocery store rotisserie chickens, rather than roasting their own. A well kept secret is grocery stores often mark down yesterday's rotisserie chickens by at least $1. Those can be bought, brought home and popped directly into the freezer "as is" for future meals. I'm thinking this is where Abby & Tim can work as a team. If they find a store that does so, Tim can go out while Abby's working and buy at a discount. He might also chop veggies, etc.?
With the reality of my new paycheck ("Now with less money!") in place, I've changed the destination of my piggy-bank coins: They'll now go into my personal checking rather than the "new washing machine fund" (which will still get $2 every time we do a laundry).
Right now I have $12 of wrapped coins and the piggy's getting heavy — must be time to invite Britain over to sort and wrap.
These won't add up quickly because I don't spend all that much cash. But I recently gained about eight bucks when the bus went up to $2 per ride: I fed the pig all the quarters from my bus-fare dish. So maybe I'll be banking $25 in the near future. Little drops of water, little grains of sand….
I'm also looking at long-haul saving after dropping quite a bundle on discounted gift cards from Cinemark (11% off) and Regis (15% off). Big ouch to pay that credit card bill, but my haircut and entertainment needs are covered for the next six months or so (maybe longer in the case of movies).
I'm not actually putting those savings INTO savings, but rather using them to prop up my new budget. What I did do was automate a $100 withdrawal from checking into an online bank. Tighten that belt, girl!
It doesn't hurt a bit that I have a frugal partner (read: "cheap date"). Yesterday while doing an errand we availed ourselves of the best deal in Anchorage: a 50-cent ice cream cone at the Jewel Lake McDonald's. Since we don't do it all that often, it felt like a nice treat. Bonus: I paid for it with a discounted gift card. 🙂
Hmmm I've never seen yesterday's rotisserie chicken offered before. Maybe they do it earlier in the day. I'd have to call around.
And yes I'm sure Tim would be happy to go pick it up for me. He's very nice about running errands for me.
Ooo, that does sound good.
That sounds good enough that I might just get over my hatred of browning meat.
Wonderful recipes, thanks! And yes I would love to make some things that can be made into secondary, tertiary, etc meals. I keep meaning to buy frozen stir fry veggies to try some stir fry recipes but it never happens
We too love Amazon. Unless I really need it soon, I try to buy as much as possible through there. And, of course, bank any savings through GCs.
Sounds like you've (as always) got a plan. I need to invest in some gift cards, but I wince at the thought of the credit card bill. Also, we have to be careful not to go out because we have the GC, but rather use the GC when we're going to go out anyway. Important distinction.
Wow, Kat. Yes, I've done chickens like that. I've also made countless chickens as I did today (weekend buy of whole chickens at 79 cents per pound-3 frozen, 1 now) by placing the whole chicken breast up in a roasting pan or Crock Pot prepared with cooking oil spray. Tie the legs together, or cut slits for drumstick ends as they do at the deli, and place the chicken in; sprinkle with garlic salt, onion powder & pepper. Roast in the oven according to pound weight (in Betty Crocker's handy, dandy spiral cookbook), or in the Crock Pot all day. When the legs are falling from the body, you don't need a thermometer to know it's done and safe to eat. I believe in less-stress-cooking!
Saved Savings as a Team? So, Tim's great at errand running (aka shopping), and maybe he'd be willing to chop or dice in the kitchen to help with meals? I know he doesn't cook. Neither does my dh, but he'll chop whenever necessary. 🙂 Also, if your in-laws qualify for food stamps, they'll also qualify for your local food bank. Ours now has what they call the 'Harvest Bag' which is a paper grocery bag filled with mostly fresh produce and some meats or non-perishables. Our elderly next door neighbor volunteers (at age 93!!), AND qualifies, so brings me their bag each week. I use it to cook for us all. It's more than enough to feed 6 each week with grocery sales + Dollar Tree.
We would have to be the ones to take them to the food bank, so that's probably not really worth it. Plus, even at only $1,100ish a month for two people they only get a little for food stamps. Of course, everything helps. But I think it's about $30. Yay Arizona.
Tim and I are trying to find some recipes that we can cook together with an eye toward him eventually cooking on his own. He just likes to practice it before having the entire meal depend on him.
If you're into spicy, plop some chicken in the crock pot with a small can of jalapenos, some chicken broth or water & bullion, and a packet of Italian dressing mix for a spicy French dip kind of sandwich.
I have easy crockpot recipes for spinach lasagna, bean soup, smoky refried bean soup, white turkey chili, and sausage and potatoes if you're interested (I use turkey sausage). Most came from allrecipes.com
If Arizona does the Harvest Bag, it might be worth it. When my neighbor drops off his weekly bag, it always contains onions, potatoes and carrots, plus in season fruit and other veggies (recently spinach, celery, cabbage and broccoli). Some weeks include a few canned goods or dry rice & beans. Once a month there'll be frozen meat of some kind. Since it's his bag, I always use the meat for the neighbors, unless it's something they don't like. He won't eat chicken or fish. Anyway, it's about $50-$60 worth of food every week… might be worth the gas/time?
Ooooh, num!
I'll have to look those up, thanks!
Hey Abby ! Long time no check in! Wow your saved savings is a lot I’m also slacking on my SB’s trying to catch up on them.
I set up most of our nonperishables to reoccurring automatic orders, which knock a couple of dollars off things, and mean we don't need them to come instantly. I also like to keep "emergency" things in our cabinets, so that I don't need to make a run out when I'm sick, etc. I keep cold meds, tissues, and other such things on hand all the time, which makes me really popular with my fiancé and our housemate when winter comes.
For other cooking that makes a lot of meals, I like to pick up mini loaf pans, and some Saran Wrap. Then I'll do things like casseroles (I like a broccoli, chicken, cheese, and rice casserole), some baked pasta dishes (baked ziti, lasagna, etc.), and I'll double the recipe. Then I load it into the mini loaf pans, one goes in the oven for dinner that night, and the rest go in the freezer. It's like crock pot soups, or stews- they freeze really well, and aren't that hard to make bigger portions of, so why not make a big batch and toss it in the freezer. It's the food equivalent of an emergency fund. When you're too tired, or Tim needs extra food, you have stuff on hand that can save you money on fast food and gas. Plus, I know Tim needs to gain weight, and you need to maintain yours, so freezing it in portions allows you to know how much each of you is getting, and what food groups you're heavy or light on. I also adore the steam in bag frozen line. They've got veggies, rice, pasta dishes… Everything you need to take some premade protein and slap it into a meal with minimal time and effort. They tend to go on sale every six weeks, so I stock up (I loved the sale I hit a week ago, it was buy two get three free). I also throw some chicken stock, a few herbs, and chicken breasts or thighs in the crock pot to poach. I take out the chicken when it's done, chop up one and throw it back in with some spoon dropped biscuit dough (Bisquick or Pillsbery works in here), and a few veggies- chicken and dumplings that night, and ready to go protein for other nights.
Last thing I suggest, and this is just my way of saving a ton of money. If you can remember to do something daily, or weekly, consider getting a few small potted herbs for your kitchen window. You can use aqua globes and miracle grow sticks to keep them watered and fed without much effort, and most herbs are weeds we discovered taste good (meaning they're not hard to grow). You can wrap sprigs in paper towls and Saran Wrap to freeze them, and you save a lot of money over buying them. Plus, they make your house smell great, and have great health benefits (the fresher the herb, the more of the micronutrients that give benefits are left intact).
Here in Massachusetts I've seent he Day Old birds at 2 stores. Market Basket tucks them in next to the Lunch Meat Ends in the deli area. Hannaford doesn't sell lunch meat ends, sadly (they're great on salads!) but they also have the cold birds in the deli area, near the packaged tubs of macaroni salad. The cold birds are usually a dollar cheaper than the hot ones; I assume they're a bit dried out from being hot all the previous day so I haven't bought any yet, but might buy one now for all the reasons LeesieG gave above.
Hmmm okay I\’ll be sure to look in the deli next time I hit the store.
I don't enjoy cooking and for one person I get tired of my leftovers sometimes. I like http://www.budgetbytes.com She has some rather easy recipes (low ingredient items, one pot cooking, frozen meals) and some more involved recipes (too many things to chop = involved for me lol). Also, she breaks down the cost/meal, which may interest you, being a PF blogger =)
I don't enjoy cooking and for one person I get tired of my leftovers sometimes. I like http://www.budgetbytes.com She has some rather easy recipes (low ingredient items, one pot cooking, frozen meals) and some more involved recipes (too many things to chop = involved for me lol). Also, she breaks down the cost/meal, which may interest you, being a PF blogger =)
I don't enjoy cooking and for one person I get tired of my leftovers sometimes. I like http://www.budgetbytes.com She has some rather easy recipes (low ingredient items, one pot cooking, frozen meals) and some more involved recipes (too many things to chop = involved for me lol). Also, she breaks down the cost/meal, which may interest you, being a PF blogger =)
I don't enjoy cooking and for one person I get tired of my leftovers sometimes. I like http://www.budgetbytes.com She has some rather easy recipes (low ingredient items, one pot cooking, frozen meals) and some more involved recipes (too many things to chop = involved for me lol). Also, she breaks down the cost/meal, which may interest you, being a PF blogger =)
I don't enjoy cooking and for one person I get tired of my leftovers sometimes. I like http://www.budgetbytes.com She has some rather easy recipes (low ingredient items, one pot cooking, frozen meals) and some more involved recipes (too many things to chop = involved for me lol). Also, she breaks down the cost/meal, which may interest you, being a PF blogger =)
I don't enjoy cooking and for one person I get tired of my leftovers sometimes. I like http://www.budgetbytes.com She has some rather easy recipes (low ingredient items, one pot cooking, frozen meals) and some more involved recipes (too many things to chop = involved for me lol). Also, she breaks down the cost/meal, which may interest you, being a PF blogger =)
Hmmm, quick and cheap recipes. How about cheesy chicken enchiladas? Or broccoli potato soup? Here are two of my faves now:
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheap-chees… http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheesy-broc…
Hmmm, quick and cheap recipes. How about cheesy chicken enchiladas? Or broccoli potato soup? Here are two of my faves now:
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheap-chees… http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheesy-broc…
Hmmm, quick and cheap recipes. How about cheesy chicken enchiladas? Or broccoli potato soup? Here are two of my faves now:
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheap-chees… http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheesy-broc…
Hmmm, quick and cheap recipes. How about cheesy chicken enchiladas? Or broccoli potato soup? Here are two of my faves now:
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheap-chees… http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheesy-broc…
Hmmm, quick and cheap recipes. How about cheesy chicken enchiladas? Or broccoli potato soup? Here are two of my faves now:
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheap-chees… http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheesy-broc…
Hmmm, quick and cheap recipes. How about cheesy chicken enchiladas? Or broccoli potato soup? Here are two of my faves now:
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheap-chees… http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/cheesy-broc…
Buy a bag of cheap frozen veggies. Put them in a pan with chopped onions, olive oil and garlic. Saute the crap out of them. Add salt and pepper (or whatever spice you have). You now have a healthy side dish that will taste good and hard to mess up.