Cass Cooks, Too!

posted by Cass on Sep 29

I had another good frugal shopping week. This week’s finds included pork loin at $1.09 a pound (already made that into bbq) and catfish fillets at $1 for 12 ounces. Yumm! So, here’s what we are having this week.

BBQ sandwiches
Fried catfish
Soda pop chicken
Corn dogs
Pintos beans
Brats

We also used AngelFood for the first time this month, I am very pleased with the value, and you can expect a post on that sometimes this week.

posted by Cass on Sep 26

#1. Melon. What’s your favorite kind?
#2. Orange citrus. What’s your favorite – oranges, nectarines, navel oranges, tangerines, etc.
#3. Oreos. What kind is your favorite? (Don’t eat Oreos? What about olives?)
#4. Pot pie. Share a recipe. (No pot pie recipe? What about a casserole or some other hot meal you bake?)

This is my first time playing Four Foods on Friday, and I am excited about it. Of course, if I didn’t like to talk about food, I wouldn’t be having a cooking blog, now would I?

1. I like honeydew the best, I think, but I eat mine with salt. In fact, I eat all melons with salt, so there ya go.

2. Oh my. I don’t know about the orange citrus, but maybe tangelos. Tangerines are too small for the effort involved, LOL.

3. Chocolate stuffed Oreos. D’uh.

4. Take some cooked deboned chicken, canned will do if that’s what you’ve got. Throw in a bag of mixed vegetables, or a few cans of different vegetables, if that’s what you’ve got. Add a large can of cream of chicken soup, or cream of mushroom if that’s what you’ve got. Top with garlic biscuit mix, or frozen biscuits or canned biscuits if that’s what you’ve got. Cook until the filling is bubbly and the bread is browned. Can you tell that I am all about using what you’ve got?

posted by Cass on Sep 23

How much do you guys pay for microwave popcorn? I seem th remeber it’s about $2.50 for a 15 bag box. Does that sound about right? And pulling out my handy dandy calculator, I’m guesstimating you get about 180 cups of popcorn out of that, and it’s full of trans fats which will lead to high cholesterol and clogged arteries. Let me introduce you to my friend “old style popcorn”. Now, before I begin, let me tell you I used to do it the microwave way, too. But I can’t do that anymore because I have…wait for it… high cholesterol.

So, popcorn. I pay less than $1.50 for a pound of it, and here’s how I make it. I found this method on the internet, but I can’t track it down again. If it’s you , give me a shout out, and I’ll link you up!

Add about a tablespoon of oil to a heavy saucepan, and place 2 or 3 kernels in it. Turn the heat to one notch below high, and wait for your test kernels to pop. When they do, add 1/4 cup of kernels and remove from heat, placing the lid on the pot. Count to 30 slowly. You can use this time to get out your bowl or pour some wine . Put the pan back on the heat and shake it slightly while the corn pops. It won’t take long, because the kernels have taken up some heat while they were sitting in that hot oil.

This method leaves very few old maids, and it makes awesome, tender popcorn. I use olive oil to cook my corn or bacon grease for an extra treat. Yum, yumminess! You can increase the quantities as needed, just keep the proportions.Be sure that your pot is big enough, too. I have made that old Orville Redenbacher commercial come true in my own kitchen with this recipe. You know the one where the lid comes off the pot? yeah, that one. Except I use Great Value, because it is so cheap!

posted by Cass on Sep 21

I had excellent results at the store yesterday, spending about $100 and ending up with enough meat for 12 main meals, plus leftovers, and almost five pounds of squash! I also had to buy a few spices. Combined with what we already had, I don’t think I’ll need much beyond bread and milk for at least two weeks. PLUS! We are using AngelFood for the first time this month, and that will stretch it even further. I’ll tell you more about that after we get our food, and I see what it looks like. But enough babbling, let’s get to the eating!

We’re having:
Polish sausage/squash/dirty rice
Soda pop chicken
Fish
Fried chicken
Hot dogs
BBQ ribs

Oh! This week is the Family Favorite Edition, and that means I should give a recipe. I almost forgot. Hmm, most of the stuff on my menu is just “food”, meaning I have cooked it for so long I no longer think of it as a recipe. I think I will tell you how I plan to make the polish sausage/squash/rice, and even that isn’t rocket science.

I’ll start with:
2 boxes of dirty rice, approx cost $2.50
3 packages of Polish sausage that I found for 99 cents each for a total of $3
2 pounds of squash, at an approx cost of $2 (also on sale)
2 onions

I’ll fix the rice according to the package directions. While that is cooking, I will slice and brown the sausage, and while the sausage is browning, I will slice the squash and onions. After the sausage browns, I’ll saute the squash and onions in a little bacon grease with salt and pepper until it is tender. I like my squash to be a little browned in places, so I start the heat high to make that happen, and then turn it down. (I do the same for the sausage.) When it’s done, I will mix it all together and serve it. I’ll have to come back and edit the post to show the finished dish, but here is a tantalizing shot of the ingredients. I’m such a tease, aren’t I?

So what are you cooking? Click the button above and join in the menu planning fun!

EDITED to add the picture of the finished dish.

posted by Cass on Sep 18

I just want to let you know that I am indeed back, and glad to be home. I installed a few plug-ins this morning to make our user experiences a bit more friendly. On the outside, it’s mostly comment related: you can now click a button to subscribe to comments for any post, and also clickable smilies. Love me some smilies!

Internally, there are a couple of comment ones, and also Zemanta. I love me some Zemanta almost as much as I love clickable smilies. Which I also have in here. See?

Hahahahahahah.

And yes, next time, I will talk about FOOD.

posted by Cass on Sep 10

Here’s a little trick I use to save money on ribs. We love ribs, but I don’t like paying for so much bone, especially since I like mine falling-off-the-bone tender. To stretch the actual ribs, I buy boneless pork neckbone trimmings. I don’t know if they are available everywhere, but if they are, check them out. You can pay a bit more per pound for them that you do for the ribs, because it’s all meat.

Yesterday, the kids had pizza for lunch. I decided to try making it at home to see if I could make a good tasting pizza that was cheaper than the box stuff in the freezer section. Turns out I can, and here’s what we used:

2 packets of Great Value pizza crust mix at .44 each
1 can of mushrooms at .94
About a buck worth of grated mozzarella
leftover spaghetti sauce from the night before, original cost $6 because I added sausage to it

The kids all said it was fantastic, and the one bit I had left me drooling for more, and glaring at my soup balefully. Total cost, assuming $1 for the sauce: less than $4 for two good pizzas. As a comparison, 2 crappy Tony’s pizzas were $5 total.

Did I take a picture? Noooooooooooooo. Sorry.

Also, I am leaving tomorrow for a little fun. I’ll be in Orlando hanging with friends and learning some stuff. I’ll be posting more foodie goodness on the 18th.

posted by Cass on Sep 7

I have started making my menus mid-week. I look at the sales papers (just like my Grandmother used to do), and base our menus around what’s on sale. Sometimes, we have a great variety, and sometimes we eat a lot of chicken. Good thing I know four hundred and eighty seven ways to prepare chicken, huh?

Another thing that effects our menus is that I cannot eat a lot of beef, since I am limiting my saturated fats due to elevated cholesterol levels. Also, I have capped my meat spend at $2 per pound with rare exceptions, and beef is usually more than that, even on sale. So, pork and chicken and turkey, oh my! Except seafood. I’ll pay for that, because we all love it so.

This menu week, which began on Friday for us, we are having

• fried chicken
• BBQ ribs
• chicken pot pie
• chicken fajitas
• dry beans and rice with sausage
• spaghetti
• seafood

posted by Cass on Sep 5

That’s right, ya’ll! You heard me correctly. And it cooks in the crock pot, so you don’t have to steam!

You will need:
4 chicken thigh, approx. cost $2.55
1 20 count pkg small flour tortillas, approx cost $1.90
salt and pepper

Throw the chicken thighs in the crock pot around lunch time, on high, with salt and pepper and just let them cook. And cook. And cook.

About half an hour before you plan to eat, take the thighs out of the pot, get out your tortillas, and cut them into 8 sections each.

Deal them into the pot (just like cards, LOL) one piece at a time, stirring after each stack is added.

Now, remove the skin and bones from the thighs, shred the meat (if you need to–it will most likely fall right apart) and add the meat back to the pot. Cook until the tortilla pieces thicken up, adjust the seasonings to taste, and serve. Yumm!

Now, I am not going to lie and tell you that this chicken and pastry tastes just like your Grandma’s. Or even your Mama’s. But it is pretty tasty, it’s fairly easy and quick, and it’s filling. And also, very, very cheap. This recipe fed my family of nine, with broccoli on the side, and we had leftovers.

posted by Cass on Sep 1

This weeks menus are made, and I thought I would share. Sometimes I get to it too late to post! We’ll be having

• fried chicken
• chicken and rice casserole
• chicken and pastry
• manicotti
• pork roast
• BBQ sandwiches
• sloppy joes

I’m late this week, but I will try to get better! I’ve gone back to planning the week’s menu’s based on what’s on sale. I made this one last Wednesday, and you can tell that the sale meats were chicken and pork. I had some food in the pantry and freezer, so I only needed to spend about 100 bucks.

We’ve actually eaten some of these meals already: the fried chicken, the pork roast and the BBQ sandwiches. Those were so good and easy! I cooked the roast for lunch on Sunday, and then had my daughter shred the leftover roast and add a bit of BBQ sauce and throw it in the crockpot. It cooked while I was off doing other things, and it was ready for them to eat after the party at church while I we off again doing yet other things. Sunday is not a day of rest for me, But I do try to take a different day of the week We had the manicotti tonight, and it was good, too! I guess it’s almost time for the next menu planning session, isn’t it?

BTW, if you can get chicken leg quarters in sale, those are a great deal. We paid $6.39 and got enough chicken for the three meals above!