I'm going to do something big

I'm going to give you my sketti recipe. And here's why: I have joined Weight Watchers and I want to share this great recipe because I'm really excited that something I made already is only 5 points and gives you two or three servings of fruits/veggies per serving of sauce!

Points Value: 5
Servings: 20 1-ladle spoonfuls
Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 1.5 hr
Level of Difficulty: Easy


Ingredients
10 clove(s) garlic clove(s) (medium)
2 tsp olive oil
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup(s) canned diced tomatoes
3 pound(s) cooked ground beef, 10% fat
2 shallots
1 1/2 cup(s) Carrots
1 1/2 cup(s) vidalia onion(s)
2 cup(s) celery
2 medium green (or yellow or red) pepper(s)
12 oz canned diced tomatoes
1 cup(s) red wine
fresh or dried italian herbs like basil, sage, oregano, red pepper flakes, rosemary, parsley, thyme


Instructions

Sweat veggies until soft. Add crushed and diced tomatos to veggies. Add half a cup of wine and let simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. In another pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and saute shallots, add the ground beef, brown, drain, add to the sauce. Add herbs. Let simmer for half an hour or more.

Not bad for a Tuesday night...

Tonight for dinner I had an egg salad sandwich with a side of homemade raw fries made from some red potatoes I had laying around the house.

Blogger isn't letting me upload photos right now, perhaps later.

Everyone has their own egg salad recipe, mine is fairly simple, but I like it. Take one hard boiled egg, slice it up (twice) in the mushroom slicer thing that everyone has in their "Kitchen Stuff" drawer.  Mix the cubed egg with a spoonful of mayo and a drop of mustard. Then salt and pepper to taste. I put pickle slices on top of the egg salad, it adds a little something extra.

And it was delicious!

Since my husband's a soldier, should it be Freedom Onion Soup?

I've made this a few times and it's always a huge hit, especially with one of my favorite people, who happens to be a vegetarian.  Yes, the beef stock is not ideal, but we looked at the bullion cubes I used and the ingredients said less than 2% beef, so we don't worry about it.

French Onion Soup
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large)
4 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons dry sherry or dry white wine (optional- I used some chardonnay that was about to turn)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash black pepper
6 slices french bread, toasted (I took italian bread and sprinkled it with olive oil when I forgot to pick up french bread at the store)
1 cup shredded Swiss, Gruyere , or Jarlsberg cheese (4 ounces- I used Gruyere and let people add their own to taste)

1. In a large saucepan melt butter, add onions. Cook, covered, over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until onions are tender and golden, stirring occasionally. (I added some salt at this point) Stir in broth, sherry (if desired), Worcestershire sauce, and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sprinkle toasted bread with shredded cheese. Place bread under broiler until ladle soup into bowls and top with bread.

Recipe courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.

I'm really bad at this

The pre-deployment process has swallowed me whole the last couple of months.  That Nice Man I Lived With is going with his work friends in the mountains to fulfill a lifelong dream of hanging out with goats for a year.  Here is my current favorite (last minute dinner guest) recipe:

Herb-Roasted Pork Tenderloin
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C Worcestershire sauce
1/4 C vegetable oil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp sage
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 and 1/2 lb pork tenderloin
Stir together first 11 ingredients in a shallow dish or zip lock
freezer bag.  Prick pork with a fork, and place in marinade, turning
to coat.  Cover or seal and let stand at room temperature for 30
minutes or chill 2 hours. Remove from marine and place prok on a a
rack in a roasting pan.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until 160
degrees.

I keep all the ingredients in the house and I usually grab a couple pork tenderloins when they're on sale at Sam's Club or Publix and stick them in the freezer.  My mother grills this, but I really prefer the oven.  We take the left over marinade, add some brown sugar and cook it in a sauce pan while the tenderloin cooks to make a nice glaze at the end.

I'll try this blogging thing again in a few months.  Maybe... Hopefully.

I'm Having A Cheese Baby

So I am a bad Southerner.  I don't eat grits, collards, or any kind of barbecue other than pulled pork with a mustard based sauce.  I don't watch NASCAR and I only go to football games to people watch.  And until recently, I did not like pimiento cheese.  There, I said it.  The quintiessential Southern food.  And I hated it.  Too slimey.  Until now. 

A lovely friend of mine served DiPrato's pimento cheese and pita chips at a baby shower she hosted recently.  What have I been missing?  This is an amazing concoction!  So, in the spirit of trying to save money, I decided to try to find a similar recipe online and use what I have in the house.  Here's what I got:

• half a package (4oz) of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups grated parmesean cheese
• 1/2 cup mayo
• A dash of garlic powder
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of pepper
• 2 to 3 tablespoons pimentos, smashed
• 1 tablespoon grated onion
• Cracked black pepper

Using my kitchen aid mixer, I beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Add all of the remaining ingredients and beat until well blended. I try to put it in the fridge overnight to let all the flavors mix together, but usually I just end up eating it from the container with wheat thins to make it appear more civilized.  The last three days I've eaten almost two full batches of it.  I'm going to have to lay off it tonight or I think I'll never poop again.

Gourmet for pennies

So That Nice Man I Live With and I have been on a bread kick as of late.  I think it's the colder weather, our bodies feel like they need to add some extra layers of fat (as if that were needed).  The problem is, bread at the store is expensive.  My favorite place to get bread in Columbia is rather pricey, considering that there are only two of us and it tends to go bad before the loaf is finished.  We buy our meat at Sam's Club or the commissary in bulk and put it in the deep freezer in the garage in portioned off sizes.  It helps me stay more in control of what I eat when I can only have what has been thawed out and it makes for less waste at meals.  The last time we mass bought meat, one of the items we purchased was a 10 pound tube (yes, really, a tube) of ground beef.  I put the beef in 1 pound portions in zip lock bags (another item we buy in bulk) and put them in the freezer.  Well, it turns out that there are only so many times TNMILW will eat spaghetti and chili.  So this week we started making gourmet hamburgers.  Well, I really like yeasty roll kind of buns, particularly the kind they make at Publix.  Those are not on the Have To Have grocery list.  So I made my own. 

Here is the recipe:

• 2 cups warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, butter, warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the salt, and gradually stir in the flour until you have a soft dough. Divide into 25 pieces, and form into balls. Place on baking sheets so they are 2 to 3 inches apart. Let rise for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the rolls for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool slightly, then split them in half horizontally to fill with your favorite burgers. 

 

We paired the burgers with home made raw fries seasoned with kosher salt.  Those were made by using the slicer side of the 4-sided grater and frying in 375 degree canola oil for about three minutes and then set them on a cookie cooling rack to let drain.  That meal would have cost us $30 easily at a gourmet burger joint in town.  Instead, we used things we always keep in the house and had left overs for lunch the next day!

Aaaand Revamp!

So while spending time with some wonderful friends recently, I discovered that pretty much everyone has money problems.  It's not a military thing or a young family thing.  Everyone is tightening their belts these days and a lot of people don't know the best way to do it.  So as I prepare for 2011 and the changes that are coming, I am challenging myself to write in this blog at least once a week and to find a new way to be Fabulously Frugal every week.