Red Beans & Rice!

* 1 pound dry kidney beans (approximately 6 cups cooked)
* 2 quarts of tap water
* 1 pound turkey sausage
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 4 stalks of celery chopped
* 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
* 2 teaspoons salt
* Good shot of Tabasco Sauce
* Hot Cooked Brown Rice or White Rice (double the recipe for the rice)

Soak the kidney beans overnight in the tap water, or you can use the quick soak method. Bring them to a boil in the tap water, and then let them sit, covered, on the back of the stove for an hour or two.

After you have done the initial bean preparations let them boil for about an hour or until they are getting tender. While they cook you can prepare the vegetables and the meat. The onion, celery and garlic will need chopping.

Fry the turkey sausage in a large skillet. Crumble it up with a fork as it cooks. Set the sausage aside until the beans have cooked at least an hour.

After the beans have softened up and are getting close to tender, it is time to add the rest of the ingredients. If your sausage is spicy, you may not want to add the Hot Sauce, so taste it before adding any willy-nilly. If your sausage is not spicy then a small shot of Hot Sauce will marry nicely with the rest of the dish. Simmer the beans, sausage and vegetables for about a half an hour longer, or until the beans are all the way tender. I put the brown rice on to cook right before I add the vegetables and sausage to the beans. This gets them both done at about the same time.

Serve this by scooping up a big glob of rice into a cereal bowl. Next ladle a goodly amount of the bean mixture on top of the rice.

Beef Barley Soup!

2 qts water
2 tbsp powdered beef soup base
1 c. barley
2 small diced potatoes
1 chopped celery
3 diced large carrots
1/2 lb ground beef
1 chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic minced

Saute onion, garlic and ground beef. Drain fat. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 1-2 hours.

If mushrooms are cheap they add a nice touch.

This is a great filling winter stew. Everyone loves it, including the men in the family. It really stretches a small amount of meat to feed everyone.

Still here...

We are getting ready to move next month (FEB) so I am only really making simple meals right now. I am currently working on using up things in the pantry right now so it isn't anything fantastic and sadly not the most healthy things around either, but it will make moving easier.

In other news, I started back to school on Jan. 19th so I am really busy right now. I go to school 4 nights a week and so my days are packed, except today when I spent most of it with a sinus headache. SO hopefully I can resume putting up our recipes after we get moved and begin the cooking process again.

For tonight though, we are returning to the scene of the crime and having our all time favorite of Turkey Taco Soup. Delicious, nutritious, and chocked full of protein goodness! I can't wait! It even makes Algebra seem better after a meal like that.

Take care everyone!

Festive Fruit Punch

4 cups Tonic Water
3 cups ice cubes
2 cups Pineapple Juice
2 cups Orange Juice
2 cups light Cranberry Juice
1 lime sliced
1 orange sliced


Combine all ingredients in pitcher and serve immediately!

Courtesy of Cooking Light Magazine.

Turkey Taco Soup!

This is a great soup which for us was better the 2nd day!! The recipe is very versatile and can be made as hot or mild as you like it and probably even vegetarian. One of the things I like about it is that it is easy on my stomach and full of great protein! Which is great for a 9 wk post op Gastric Bypass patient. The other side of that is my family loved it too! SO I will give you the recipe and then let you know what we added!

TURKEY TACO SOUP

Serves 5

1 1/4 lbs ground turkey

1 medium onion (chopped is fine or diced if you are trying to fool your kids)

1 can (15oz) crushed tomatoes

1 can (15 oz) Rotel & tomatoes (here is where you can really adjust your kick)

1 can (15 oz) black beans undrained (very important not to drain)

1 can (15 oz) pinto beans undrained (very important)

1 cup frozen corn

1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix

1 pkg dry taco seasoning mix


DIRECTIONS

1. Brown turkey and onion in soup pot or dutch oven. Turkey can burn easily so we did a tsp of olive oil to help that.

2. Add everythng else.

3. Cook over medium heat 30 minutes and serve.


HINTS:

I added Low sodium chicken broth because I wanted soup and it was more like a chili. Plus, I added a bag of mixed frozen veggies to ours so the we could get more of those in there.

Rotel at our Kroger was only in 10 oz cans so we used 2 cans of mild in our soup.It had a bit of a kick at first but at the end of cooking it was more flavor that heat. And day 2 was a flavor sensation. We also added a can of stewed tomatoes and could have added one more, but we are tomato crazy in our family.

Finally my husband served his with tortilla chips on bottom and cheese on top. I don't eat much in the way of chips but some 2% 4 cheese mexican blend was yummy on top and just adds to the protein.

Hurricane Chicken!

Hurricane Rita Chicken & Pasta

1 pkg chicken tenders or chicken breasts
1 container mixed Good Seasons Italian Dressing
1 pkg cooked pasta ( I use whole grain farfalle but you can use just about any small pasta you want)
2 cans quartered artichoke hearts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In glass baking dish put chicken and cover with 1 bottle Good seasons Italian dressing. Bake until done. I usually bake 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the chicken cut I use. No need to turn chicken during cooking and because of dressing chicken stays nice and moist.

Prepare Pasta per package directions. When Chicken is done cut into bite size pieces. Logically, you could do this before but I do not. Toss chicken and remaining dressing with pasta. Add more Good Seasons (mixed up) to the mix to taste.

We usually grate fresh parmesan on top and serve with salad and bread.

And yes, like it's name it was concocted while we were weathering what we got of Hurricane Rita.

Up and Coming in our house:

Red Beans and Rice for Sunday Dinner and later this week Larry's Macaroni salad


From the website on Better budgeting which can be found here:

http://www.betterbudgeting.com/index.htm





Larry's Macaroni Salad
by Larry Wiener

"Larry, would you be able to make your macaroni salad for... ?" That’s something I hear at work, church, with the family – so many times when there’s a get-together with food. It’s an easy, tasty recipe to make (don’t worry – I’ve included it here), and I’m glad to do it. And how I do it will show you a principle of black belt shopping put to use.

* * *

The three main non-perishable ingredients in the salad are macaroni, mayonnaise, and relish. I know I am going to be using these ingredients regularly, so I buy them when I can at the lowest price and keep them around. That way all I have to go out and buy are the perishables.

In my area, mayonnaise goes for about $3.25 a quart at the supermarket. Quite regularly, however, with a sale and a coupon I can get it at the store I use (for my coupon runs), for about $1.00. I do that whenever I can.

The macaroni usually goes for about $1.08 a pound at the local full service supermarket, but I can pick it up for 50 cents a pound at a dollar store. Sometimes the supermarket has it on sale for less than that. Trader Joe’s carries it for about 69 cents a pound if neither of those sources is available. I buy that in bulk. The relish I use is about $1.40 to $1.80 for a 1 lb. jar. I pick that up at the dollar store for $1.00

I figured it out that to make the salad would cost $4.45 for those ingredients if I bought them at my local store with no sales our coupons. The way I buy them, they cost $2.55. All it takes is a little planning ahead.

Of course I do this with much more than the ingredients for macaroni salad. In my area, I know of many of the items I need that go on sale on a regular pattern. I just use a coupon then and pocket the savings. Certain items are best bought at dollar stores and I know what those are. In other cases the combination of the coupon and sale gets me a better deal than the dollar store.

All this sounds very time-consuming, but it really isn’t, especially since it saves emergency trips to the store because I always have a lot of non-perishables around.

Here are some tips that allow me to work this system on a regular basis. Details may differ for your area, but these work for me:

Do a dollar store run every now and then. Buy a few weeks’ worth of the items that are best bought there (for me, those include pasta, relish, dishwasher detergent, lentils, juices and sometimes soups).
Figure out how to work the coupons in your area. In my case, I know that one certain chain doubles coupons and often has items on sale the same week the coupon comes out in the paper. This saves me all the filing and sorting of coupons that otherwise might keep me from doing the system (I do save a few coupons for items that don’t go on sale that same week, but not many).
Consider warehouse stores for items you buy in bulk. Make regular runs if you have one in your area (this is not a big part of my plan because the coupons are so good here).
Buy perishables only in the amount that you will use before they go bad.

This system probably saves me about $100 a month as a single person who eats out a time or two a week. A family of four could easily save $300 a month.

Last but not least, here’s how to make the macaroni salad

LARRY’S MACARONI SALAD

3-4 stalks celery

2-3 green onions

1 ½ - 2 lbs. macaroni

About 2 cups mayo

About ½ cup sweet relish

1 green pepper

Mustard (to taste)

Seasoning to taste

Chop up celery, green onions, and green pepper in a food processor if you have one. Cook macaroni. Mix all the ingredients together. Vary proportions, sizes, etc. to size or group and taste. Season with pepper, dry onion soup, or whatever you like. Chill and enjoy.