This Weeks Dinner

Sorry that I am a bit late posting this. This week as Laura said we made Crock Pot Spicy Turkey Lasagna that my friend Chris Domser donated. The meal was fantastic. My middle son who is going through a no green stage actually ate the spinach that was in it. Only thing I might change next time is a little less red pepper as the kids said it was a little spicy. I loved the fact that I could throw it all together in the crock pot and go do other stuff around the house while it was cooking and then we had it with green beans and garlic bread so that was all I had to prepare right before we ate . I did forget to take pictures this week but this is a highly recommended meal from our house.

Laura already posted the recipe but here is what the cost of the meal was for us:
Ricotta Cheese: $2.95
Shredded Italian Cheese: $3.39
Frozen Spinach : $3.09
Lasagna Noodles : $1.99
Pasta Sauce: $2.46
Crushed Red Pepper: $1.29
Total: $15.17

Happy cooking everyone and have a great week!
~Rachelle~

Laura's Week 5 Meal

For week 5 we made the crockpot lasagna, recipe donated by Chris Domser. Here is the recipe:

Meal: Crock Pot Spicy Turkey Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 lbg ground turkey
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t salt
1/2 t red pepper flakes
15 oz light ricotta
2 c shredded Italian cheese
10 oz frozen spinach (chopped, thawed, and squeezed dry)
12 lasagna noodles -- uncooked and broke in half
26 oz chunky pasta sauce
1/2 c water

Directions:

Brown turkey over medium/high heat for 5-7 minutes.  Season with salt, oregano and pepper flakes.  In a bowl mix ricotta, cheese and spinahc.  In a slow cooker, add a liner for quicker cleanup.  Then layer the bottom with noodles broken to cover.  Spoon 1/2 meat, pour on 1/2 pasta sauce and 1/2 water.  Spread cheese mixture over top.  Repeat layering.  Slow cook on low for 4 hours.  Makes 8 pieces.

With this meal I also made twice baked mashed potatoes, garlic bacon green beans, and garlic bread. 

This meal was a huge hit! Everyone really loved it. I wasn't sure how well it was going to turn out since I only had a 3 quart crock pot but it actually worked well, it just wasn't as flat as it probably could have been. It was nice that the lasagna only took about 10 minutes to put together and then just had to cook for about 4 hours. I am generally not a huge fan of lasagna but this was actually pretty good. I liked the ricotta cheese as opposed to the usual cottage cheese. 

Here are the numbers for this weeks meal:

From Central Market:

Spinach 15 oz: $2.39

Crushed Red Pepper 2.62 oz: $4.99 (only used half a teaspoon)

Lasagna Noodles 1lb box: $2.00 (used about 5 noodles)

Spaghetti Sauce 26 oz: $1.39

Ricotta Cheese 32 oz $3.99 (used about half)

Shredded Italian Cheese 16 oz: $2.99

Total for lasagna: $17.75 (served 7 people with one serving left over)

For the sides:

Bacon bits: $2.99 (used half between green beans and mashed potatoes)

Cream cheese: $1.19

Russet Potatoes 5 lbs: $1.79 (used half)

Green Beans: $1.69

Garlic Bread: $2.19

Meal total: $27.60 

If we would have had an 8th person, it would have cost about $3.45 per person. Not bad!

The green beans and twice baked potatoes are something I learned from my mom so if you want the recipe for those let me know and I will tell you, its one of those just throw together dishes you never actually measure out. 

Have a great week everyone!

Laura

Week 4 Meal - In Wisconsin

So to start out after a few little mishaps we finally had this meal tonight and it was well worth the wait! These Flank Steak Naan Bread Wraps are delicious and I want to personally thank Ellie from Home Cooking Montana for allowing us to use this recipe. To go along with the wraps I also made green beans, cheesy potato wedges (also from Ellie's blog), and sauteed mushrooms.

Now for the mishaps. Living in such a small is proving to be difficult to make certain meals. For example I was unable to find flank steak so we had to use sirloin. When I went to get everything on Sunday the store was also out of cilantro, this is not the first time that the store has been out of cilantro here. For some reason my first time of making the Naan Bread was not successful. It didn't rise correctly and I couldn't get it to roll out right. My second time of doing this was much more successful though. This recipe does take a little extra time just because of making the bread, but it is well worth it to have the homemade bread. We are planning on making up more of the bread to use for wrapping other things (hubby wants to try teriyaki chicken). The boys all loved it, and I think my husband was in love from the first bite. For the steak marinade I rubbed it with garlic, then olive oil and then put the remaining pesto for the sauce on both sides. All together actually preparing time, not time waiting for bread to do rise was about an hour.

Here are the prices of the items I had to buy for the wraps, although most only took a minimal amount some of the stuff I did not have on hand.:
Steak - $7.92
Instant yeast (3 pack) - $2.09
Cilantro - $0.89
Garlic - $0.40
Lime - $0.99
Bread Flour - $3.23
Wheat Flour - $2.86
All Purpose Flour - $1.58
Sour Cream - $1.42
Parmasean Cheese - $1.86
Total Purchased for Wraps - $23.24

Remainder of the meal purchases
Green Beans - $2.98
Potatoes - $1.50
Green Onions - $1.18
Mushrooms - $3.38
Total - $9.04

Grand Total $32.28


Here are the links for both of the recipes:
Wraps:
http://homecookinginmontana.blogspot.com/2009/05/naan-bread-stuffed-with-flank-steak.html
Potatos:
http://homecookinginmontana.blogspot.com/2009/04/cheesy-potato-skin-wedges.html

Laura's Week 4 Meal

This week our choice of meal was Naan Bread stuffed with Flank Steak with a crushed red potato side. The recipe was courtesy of Ellie @Home Cooking in Montana . My sister found her blog and there were so many amazing recipes that we asked her if we could use a couple for our challenge.

I started my dish yesterday by marinating the steaks. For the seasoning I used 2 tablespoons of minced garlic (from a jar), about ¼ teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, and a tad bit of garlic salt (I really like my garlic). After mixing those ingredients together I added enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil into the mixture that would cover the steaks nicely. I poured it onto the steaks, making sure to cover all sides of the steaks, and put it into a container in the fridge to marinate overnight.  

The total time for this meal was about 5 hours because the Naan bread needs to rest for a total of about 2 and a half hours. I also had to cook each Naan piece separately since I only have a small cast iron skillet.

Everyone gave this meal a thumbs up. One person wasn't a HUGE fan of the cilantro pesto sauce that went inside of the Naan with the steak but everyone else loved it and even went back for seconds. This was probably the best seasoning for steak that I have ever tried. Being that I am a huge fan of garlic, it was perfect.

Here is a picture of the meal! Sorry its not the best quality, my camera died so I had to take it with my cell phone.

Here are the numbers for this meal:


Store: Safeway
All Purpose Flour: $1.61 for 5lbs (used 2 cups)
Whole Wheat Flour: $3.99 for 5lbs (used 1/2 cup)
Bread Flour: $3.69 for 5lbs (used 1 cup)
Pepper Jack Cheese: $2.69 for 16oz (used about 2oz)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese: $2.69 for 8 oz (used 3/4 cup)
Flanken Rib Steaks: $6.29 for 4 steaks
Lime: $0.50 for one. (used half)
Red Potatoes: $1.55 for six
Cilantro: $0.99 for a bunch (used about half)
Organic Chives: $2.24 for 0.66oz (used about 0.2 oz)


Total Spent: $26.24 to feed 6 people with seconds.


(also, keep in mind that I have enough flour left to last me probably a year or so)


I am actually very pleased with this meal. I think that I will be making this in the future. I still have 4 Naan pieces left so I will for sure be finding something to do with those.


Have a good night!


Laura

Week 3 Meal - Rachelle

Tonight we made Taj Maholla Chicken, submitted by Aaron Smit courtesy of the Food Network website. I made mine with corn as a side dish and brown rice for it to go over. Total time to prepare this meal was approximately an hour and a half for me which was a half hour longer than the recipe said. I also was unable to find coriander or pomegranate juice at our local grocery store. We felt that this meal was good but because of those 2 missing ingredients that ended up being substituted it didn't seem to have much flavor. Everyone ate it though.

This was an expensive meal to make because I had to buy a lot of spices that I did not have but I will also have them to use at a later time. Here are the items that I had to purchase this week for this meal.
Heavy Cream - $3.69
Cinnamon Stix - $6.63
Turmeric - $4.87
Whole Cloves - $6.65
Chicken Thighs - $5.98
Ginger - $0.57
Red Onions - $0.87
Roma Tomatos - $0.92
Total to purchase for this meal - $30.82

Here is the link for the recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/taj-maholla-chicken-recipe/index.html

Jan. 16th Dinner - Laura

Hello!

As I said previously, tonight's dinner was the Taj Maholla Chicken. This dish was a bit difficult to make. Between myself, and two of my friends it took us two hours in total from start to finish. I can imagine that cooking it a second time would probably be a little bit quicker because I would definitely do all the chopping in the beginning and just set items aside.

It turned out to be similar to what I would assume is a curry (however I have only ever had curry once and I don't remember it much). I have never cooked with bone-in chicken before so I am not sure if this would make much of a difference but, I think that it would have been easier to get boneless chicken since in the end result you use the chicken shredded.

I served the chicken with white rice and a slice of a baguette on the side.

Overall, the chicken was pretty good but probably not something that I would cook again. My guests liked it but felt the same way I did. I was told that it was a little sweet so were I to make it again, I would probably add more chili powder and garlic. We couldn't even tell that there onions or tomatoes in the sauce.

My guests have rated this meal 3 out of 5 stars.

Here is a picture:

-Laura

Shopping Trip for Jan 16th Dinner - Laura

This week we are making the Taj Maholla Chicken, recipe donated by Aaron Smit.
This was a pretty intense shopping trip because of all the spices I had to get. Here are my numbers:

Safeway:

Pomegranate Juice: $3.39 for 2 liters. (used 2 tbsp)
Cumin Seed: $3.91 for 0.95 oz (used 2 tbsp)
Coriander Seed: $3.99 for 0.87oz (used 2 tbsp)
Cinnamon Sticks: $6.15 for 0.75oz (used 2 sticks)
Bay Leaves: $2.71 for 0.12oz (used 1 leaf)
Peppercorns: $2.00 for 0.85oz (used 2 tsp)
Garlic: $0.50/head (used 1.5 heads)
Ginger: $1.08 (used half of what I bought)
Tumeric: $4.63 for 0.95oz (used 1.5 tsp)
Bone-in Chicken Thighs: $5.93 for 6 lbs (used 2 lbs)
Red Onion: $0.83
Heavy Whipping Cream: $2.51 for 1 pint (used 0.5 cups)
Roma Tomatoes: $0.78

All other ingredients I already had.

Normally I would add up how much the meal cost to make but in this case I think it would be too confusing to say per teaspoon or table spoon.
The total cost for what I bought was: $38.66

-Laura