Here we are- January 17th. That means our budget started two days ago. So far, so good.
Along with the new budget comes a new menu of sorts. Last week, I came up with a list of meals we could eat for dinner that met certain criteria. They had to: have few, inexpensive ingredients; have ingredients that we typically keep in the house; be easy to make; be remotely healthy. Keeping in ingredients few and inexpensive will hopefully keep the prices at the grocery store at bay. Choosing recipes that include ingredients we already have in the house keep us from buying off-the-wall things that we would never use again. Being easy and healthy are bonuses, and mostly needed because between us we have too many jobs and not enough hours in the day.
I do try to research recipes every now and again, and I love to find good ones. A recipe that we recently tried was one of Ben’s favorites. It’s so simple I’m pretty sure that no one can mess it up if you follow the recipe.
You can click above for the original link. But all you have to do is mix a packet of Good Seasonings Italian dressing mix, some Parmesan cheese, and a little garlic powder together, coat the chicken in the mixture, then bake at 400* for about 20 minutes. Done, and delish!
We also have a new, not-so-healthy dinner, but I really don’t care when it comes down to one thing- pizza! We put pizza sauce and toppings on a tortilla, then baked it on a preheated pizza stone for about 8 minutes at 400*. I would eat pizza every day if I let myself, so I am always down with finding something new that deters us from gorging on a frozen pizza once or twice per week.
I promise to get better about taking pictures of our dinners before I eat them all. I normally think about it once I’ve finished half the plate, which really doesn’t do anyone any good.
I’ve also been working on knitting up some goodies for friends, making blankets and hats for babies that are almost ready to make their debut, knitting items for the shop, reading a book I’ve been needing in my life for years, and not pulling my hair out when our mailman comes and our dogs want to kill him. I’d love to have a set schedule for my blog here, but that hasn’t taken priority… yet.
Cody and I usually do personal pizzas with pita bread. That way he get mushrooms, and I don’t have to eat fungus. I like the pita bread cause I like to pretend it’s healthier and we don’t have tons of leftovers. We use the pizza stone in the winter, but we’ve actually put them on our grill in the summer. they are super tasty!
I’m gonna save that chicken recipe! Looks good! I do the same thing when I look for new recipes…I don’t like making things that have like 15 or 20 ingredients, and I HATE buying a whole jar of some random ingredient or spice when the whole recipe calls for like 1 teaspoon, and it’s something that’s like 4 bucks a jar that I’ll never use again. If that’s the case, I usually just leave it out. I wanted to pass along one of my favorite cheap, easy recipes. It is so quick and easy to make, throw it in the oven when you get home from work, and it’s done in an hour. The recipe sounds weird (when I first read it I was skeptical), but it is seriously one of my favorite meals. We make it a lot. It’s called sausage casserole. Brown 1 lb ground sausage in a skillet (like the kind you would use for biscuits and gravy). Drain sausage, and then combine sausage, 1 cup of uncooked instant rice (brown or white rice), 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of cream of mushroom soup (you can also add 1/4 cup diced onion and a small can of sliced mushrooms if you want, but I never use either of these things). Combine all the ingredients in a casserole dish (I use a square one). Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for one hour. We used to be bad and eat the whole thing in one sitting, but if you serve it with a vegetable or two, you can stretch it to three or four servings. And it’s good reheated at work the next day for lunch too.
January 5 at 12:25am · LikeUnlike · 1
Jenny, that is an awesome recipe! I’m going to try that sometime soon. Thank you!