Red Beans and Rice

Its been a while since I posted here. Life has been hectic just trying to live it lately. With the overtime pretty much over for a while for my husband, we are now living on 100 dollars less a week than we did when we were working for Jerry. When the overtime is there its great we have more money than we have ever had before but when its not things get very tricky.

I have been having to cook on an even smaller food budget than before and that lead me to recipes my grandmother considered old standards that I had never made before. Mainly redbeans and rice.

One of the problems I have always had is that my When I cook my recipes for 8 are usually more like for 16. So there was plenty to go around. I made this recipe on Wensday and I still have leftovers after eating it nearly everyday since then for lunch. The cost is almost non existant.

2 bags dry red beans - 1.39 each at my local walmart
8 servings of long grain white rice (basicly half the box) Box price 3.25 for the largest generic brand box using half of it that makes the price of the rice used around 1.73 or so.
1 ham bone - if you can find the ham for .99 then the bone could count for as much as a half lb to two lbs of the ham itself so between 54 cents and 1.98 mine was about 60 cents worth
2lbs of Smoked sausage - buy whats on sale and you can usually get this for about 3 to 4 dollars I got lucky and got it for a dollar a lb so my cost was -2.00
1 onion - I got a bag of ten medium size yellow onions for 1.99 and used one for around .20

The rest of the ingredients consisted of dry seasoning like salt, black pepper, red pepper (I just used chilli powder) Buy the cheap kind at walmart for .50 a container and your price for all of your spices will probably be around a penny but Ill call it 5 cents to be on the safe side.

Total cost for the entire meal - $7.36 Price per serving - $0.45 Even my grandmother who went through the depression would be impressed by that.

I have included the link to the recipe since it isn't my own. Give it a try, it sure beats soup night.

Paula Deen and Friends Living it up Southern Style Cookbook

The kids got this for me for mothers day and I really like the looks of it. I haven't gotten to try any of the recipes yet but several of them have caught my eye. For instance, her camp out menu is very interesting. She has a recipe she calls Hamburger pie. Well, its not a pie, but it is a recipe I am very familiar with. My grandmother and mother both called them picnic meals. Its one of my favorite things to take on a camp out. What I never considered was that you could do a twist on it with chicken or pork chops. I can't wait to try those.

She also has a menu made up just of drinks. Some are leaded as in don't give them to anyone under the age of 21. Most of them however aren't. It was nice to see good old fashioned recipes for summer drinks that wouldn't leave you wondering if you could walk to your car much less drive it.

She also talks a bit in the introduction about getting a part in the movie Elizabeth town. I love that movie. In fact, I didn't know much about Paula until that movie came out. I loved her character so much I had to get start watching her on the Food Network. Now her cookbook has proven to be a wonderful addition to my library as well. If you haven't gotten a copy yet, check it out. You may find something you really like.

I can say this much for the recipe's. Ive never seen a grits recipe that looked more like flat bread or a hoe cake than it did rice or cornmeal mush. I may actually have to try it. I might be southern but so far in my life I haven't been that southern. :)

Chicken Pasta Mexicana

Edit note: added picture

I finally had time to stop and work on one of my recipes for the blog. Life has been a bit hectic. I have a picture of this recipe but everyone will have to be patient while I locate the cord to my camera so I can upload it.

Chicken Pasta Mexicana

2 lbs cooked shredded boneless chicken

1lb dried elbow macaroni noodles (substitute your favorite noodle if you like Penna Pasta would be good too.)

2quarts Chicken Broth

12 oz of your favorite Chunky Salsa

8oz cooked black beans

2 cups frozen corn

8 oz sour cream

2 8oz cans tomato sauce

8 oz Mozzarella Cheese

8oz Colby and Jack shredded cheese

Diced Tomatoes as Garnish

1. 
   
   bring chicken broth to boil then cook pasta in the broth until cooked to the texture you like.


2. 
   
   In large skillet heat chicken, corn, black beans, salsa, and tomato sauce thoroughly


3. 
   
   Drain cooked noodles mix in the chicken mixture, sour cream and Mozzarella Cheese


4. 
   
   Once the cheese is melted, place a layer of Colby and jack cheese on the bottom of the plate, using a measuring cup center 1 cup of the pasta onto the Colby and jack


5. 
   
   Top with the fresh diced tomatoes


6. 
   
   Serve

Serves 10

Note: I use homemade chicken broth I get from boiling the chicken off the bone.

Update

I broke my toe and cracked the bones in my foot behind it. So the Ciabatta bread was put on hold. Im hoping to be able to stand long enough to make it sometime next week.

Torpedo Subs by Quiznos

We tried the new Torpedo Subs from Quiznos last night for supper. Having a broken toe, makes cooking a bit difficult.

These things were awesome. Bear pointed out that they were small and for a dollar more you could get a foot long sub with everything on it at Subway, but nothing Ive ever gotten from Subway was this good.

It was so good it has inspired me to try my hand at making Ciabatta bread and my own sandwiches. Ive found a few recipes I'm going to play with. When I'm done, Ill post the best of them here.

In the mean time, Supper tonight is coming out of thin air. I'm making some of the loaves of Artisan Bread, Bear has gotten tired of pasta in a tomato sauce, but he will eat it with a cream based sauce. So I'm probably going to make a homemade Mushroom Cream sauce with ground turkey and serve it over noodles or rice. That will go nice with the Bread and then this weekend Ill try the Ciapatta bread and post how well it turns out.

Great Bread Recipes

Ive been focusing on finding cheep healthy and quick bread recipes.

The first one I found was in Mother Earth News. Five minutes a Day for Fresh Baked Bread. Its a bit on the salty side if you cook it right away but when served with cheese or along side a good pasta dish, you don't notice it. It has a sour dough taste if you leave it for a few days. It does really only take five minutes after the initial creation of the dough and you don't have kneed it.

If your looking for Sandwich bread, then this is the prefect recipe. It has to do the whole rise and re-rise thing but ultimately, it turns out wonderfully.

If you want great homemade hot dog or hamburger buns then try these. Just be careful because if you don't get the liquid cool enough before you add it to the flour mixture you will kill the yeast. Unless you have a thermometer, leave it until you think its cool enough then leave it a bit more.

Enchalada Cassarole

I also wanted to try my hand at making healthier homemade refried beans I got the recipe from here. They turned out quite well though I could have let the beans cook for a half hour longer than I did before trying the recipe.



So I put it all together to make an enchilada recipe. I adapted my own recipe from an idea I found in one of the Taste of Home Magazines. But, because I didn't have all the items it asked for and some of them I did have many of my family members wouldn't eat, I recreated it to get something I think is just as good.



2 lbs Ground Turkey, Beef, or Pork (I used the Taco Seasoned Ground Turkey that walmart has been selling for a dollar a lb.)

2 lbs Mexican fancy cheese

3/4 cups sour cream

6 tortillas (Homemade or store bought, mine was home made)

1 cup frozen corn, cooked to the point of no longer being frozen

1 red onion, chopped

16 oz tomato sauce

Refried beans (how ever much the refried bean recipe makes for you.)

Head of Lettuce

1 Tomato



Cook the ground meat and onions together, mix in the corn, tomato sauce and refried beans

put a layer of tortillas in the bottom of a 13x9 inch casserole dish cover with the meat mixture. Top with a layer of sour cream and cheese then repeat.



Bake at 425 until the cheese is melted. Top with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes



If you have meat filling left over that won't fit into your casserole dish then make another in a different dish until its all gone. I made 1 large one and 1 smaller one.