Announcing the second book giveaway contest from Simple Pleasures Press! Throughout the month of June 2015, to celebrate the beginning of summer, we’ll be running a series of giveaway contests. During the last week of June, there will be a Grand Prize, so you’ll want to stay tuned. 🙂
The book to be given away this week will be an autographed paperback edition of the newly re-released book, Mix-n-Match Recipe: Creative Ideas for Today’s Busy Kitchens, by Debi Taylor-Hough.
All you need to do is submit Your Favorite Frugal Recipe in the comment section of this blog post.
Contest Rules:
- Leave a comment on this blog page containing your favorite frugal recipe. (Only one entry per person will count toward the contest.) One winner will be chosen at random.
- Be sure to fill out the email address section of the comment form so I’ll have a way to contact you if you’re the winner. (The prize will be sent via snail mail, so when I contact the winner, they’ll need to provide a valid mailing address — but please don’t leave your snail mail address in the comment section!).
So, that’s it. Easy peasy.
Official entries for this giveaway will close at Midnight (Pacific Standard Time) on Friday, June 12th, 2015. At some point during the day on Saturday, June 13th 2015, I’ll choose a random number using an online random number generator. Whoever’s entry is located at that number’s spot in the comment list will be the winner!
Remember: You need to enter your comment and frugal recipe between Monday morning (when this blog post went live) and before Midnight of the following Friday to be eligible. The comment section will remain open indefinitely, however — so people can feel free to share their frugal food ideas and recipes just for the fun of it — but ONLY those comments posted BEFORE midnight on Friday will be actually entered into the official drawing.
So, are you ready?
Then let’s go! ——> What’s YOUR favorite frugal recipe?
~Debi
Next Week’s Prize: An autographed copy of A Twaddle-Free Education: An Introduction to Charlotte Mason’s Timeless Educational Ideas! Be sure to sign up for email updates from this blog (the sign-up form is in the sidebar to the left) to stay up-to-date on coming giveaways, contests, new book releases, and other events.
Simple Pleasures Press 
I really like to cook from scratch, and I often find there’s leftovers that I incorporate into another meal. This weekend I made King Ranch Chicken using leftover chicken and leftover taco shells I had in the freezer. When there’s leftover vegetables (like corn, peas, etc.), I pour the vegetables and liquid into a bowl I keep in the freezer. When it’s full I brown a pound of ground beef, add the thawed bowl of vegetables and usually add some tomato sauce, garlic and onion to make soup. At the moment there is about 1 1/2 c. of rice I have in the freezer; I’m planning to use it when there’s leftover broccoli to make a broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole soon (I’ve also made this adding cooked, cubed chicken and topped with french-fried onions – so good!). I also save leftover homemade biscuits, rolls, cornbread, or heels from homemade bread (for some reason no one wants the heels!) into a large zip-top freezer bag. Once it’s full I use that to make dressing and add cooked, cubed chicken or turkey if I happen to have that, mixing it altogether to make a casserole-style version of turkey and dressing.
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Good old rice and beans. Just water, canned beans, and rice. Optional onion, garlic, oil, etc.
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A quick and filling recipe for our family growing up:
Tuna Casserole
8 oz egg noodles
1 can tuna -drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can peas – drained (optional)
Cook noodles then drain and return to pot.
Add tuna, soup and peas (if using) to pot of noodles, and heat through
Serve with bread and butter if desired.
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This is very frugal because I mostly used leftovers to create this yummy soup. I still haven’t came up with a name for it though.
I’ve always been one to experiment, or throw things together using food on hand. In some cases it sounds weird to others!! I know that because I’ve been told. I say “Don’t knock it ’till you try it!”
In this case I had some cooked ground beef which I cooked earlier in the day for a batch of sloppy Joes I was taking to a potluck. I had some ground meat leftover and sauerkraut left in the fridge from the hot dogs the night before.
So I browned a bit of chopped onion in a pan, then I added some caraway seeds, garlic and onion powders, cayenne pepper…then poured in a container of beef broth. Stirred it all up. Added about 3/4 of the bag (From refrigerator section) of sauerkraut (didn’t drain or anything) and the ground beef I cooked (it was maybe 3/4 of a pound).
Stirred it all up and let it cook for a long while. It needed some salt so instead of adding salt, I just added a beef bouillon cube. I ended up adding a couple more shakes of cayenne pepper as well.
When I served it to myself I put on a slice of provolone (Swiss would be good) and a dollop of sour cream.
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I love cooking with food storage items because I can mix up a lot of different things into jars or bags and have quick weeknight meals later. I also make these into Christmas Gifts. Of all the recipes I have made, this chicken noodle soup has been in high demand:
Chicken Noodle Soup (layer all ingredients into a pint jar)
• 1 T minced onion
• 1 T chicken bouillon
• ½ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 cups egg noodles
Add this to the label and attach a small can of chicken:
Directions: Bring 5 cups of water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and mix in the contents of the jar and a can of chicken. Cook 5 – 7 minutes, until the noodles are al dente.
NOTE: You can change this to include any kind of pasta including wheat pasta; just change the cooking time to match the instructions for the pasta you use. I have also switched this up with a cup of dry minute rice.
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We are a cheese loving family. So I grate and save all the little bits of leftover cheese. When there is enough for the size dish I need I thaw and mix it with prepared noodles, add cream, butter and a bit of pepper and bake. REAL mac-n-cheese, yet never the same.
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One of my favourite frugal recipes is what I call Cabbage Roll Soup, a can of unsalted tomatoes ( or home canned, even better), shredded cabbage, rice, ground beef and spices. I incorporate leftovers whenever possible.
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My mom makes an awesome BBQ chicken that my kids love as much as I did growing up. It is super easy to make and most people have these items in their pantry or fridge.
Grill enough chicken for your family when chicken is done pour the sauce (recipe below) over the chicken and allow to thicken.
Sauce recipe:
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup mustard
1 T of vinegar (I use Apple cider)
1 cup of water
Mix all this well and pour over chicken in a large skillet. Let cook until sauce is thick. I serve it over rice. The sauce is awesome on the rice as well!
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My daughter has a lot of food allergies and I haven’t been able to use any premade BBQ sauces. All the homemade recipes I’ve found were time-consuming and used a lot of ingredients. This sounds so simple! Going to try this one, for sure!
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I turn left over meat loaf into sloppy joes. so easy to do. I just add some Worcester sauce, mustard, brown sugar, and ketchup and water. let it simmer. we like it on homemade biscuits.
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Well that would be ramen noodles lol, but I usually only have them as a side when we need a quick dinner.
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