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Looking over my grocery receipt, I realized the majority of our money is spent on dinner.  In a quest to reduce (yet again!) our weekly food bill, I’ve come up with some ideas to get the dinner cost even lower – have breakfast for dinner.  I hope you enjoy some of these ideas:

• Pancakes.  You can buy pancake mix at Aldi’s for $1.00 (just add water), and a bottle of syrup for $1.00.  That $2.00 can feed our family of 7 easily.  My boys love pancakes for dinner, and the pancakes fill them up.  You can also add fruit such as blueberries to the mix to add a fun flavor to your dinner.
• French Toast.  A carton of eggs, a loaf of bread, a little cinnamon, and some syrup makes a delicious rib sticking dinner.  To make the French Toast, scramble the eggs in a shallow dish.  Cover each piece of bread with the egg by dipping in both sides.  Cook break pieces in a buttered skillet until the bread is golden brown on each side.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with syrup.
• Bacon and Eggs are a treat at our house, and we love having them for dinner.  Bacon is a luxury in our house and gets a bit pricey with 5 boys devouring it.  But because we have our own egg laying chickens, I can consider bacon and eggs a frugal meal.
• Breakfast Burritos.  These treats are a huge hit at our house, and I love making them ahead of time and freezing them.  Fill a burrito with scrambled eggs, shredded cheese, and any other ingredients your family enjoys.  You can add sausage, bacon, onions, green peppers, salsa, a variety of cheeses, ground beef….whatever you have on hand.
• Breakfast Casserole.  All Recipes has a list of top 20 breakfast casserole recipes.  They can be made ahead of time, and often taste better when you allow them to sit for hours before cooking them.
• Biscuits and Gravy.  If you do not have your own recipe, you can find some great biscuit and gravy recipes at Cooks.com

What’s your favorite breakfast meal to serve for dinner?  I’d love to hear about it!

Summer is here and what better time to fill your freezer with delicious homecooked meals!  The way this can be done is by doing something called once a month cooking.  Once a month cooking (also called once a week cooking or freezer cooking) is an incredible way to save money and time each month.  The concept is very simple – you cook all of your meals for the month in one day (even diet meals).  Now that may sound overwhelming but if you do it right it is very easy.  Check out Frugal Mom’s section on Once a Month Cooking to get a brief overview of how the process works.

I have just finished writing a cookbook on once a month cooking that not only teaches you in detail how to do it, has once a month cooking forms to help you every step of the way, but it is filled with over 70 recipes that were tested by members of the FrugalMom forum!

Here’s one of the delicious recipes in the book:

Beef Manicotti

Freezing Method: Flash Freeze / Freezer Bag

Cooking Day Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 small chopped onion
3 slices of bread, torn into small pieces
1 egg
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup milk
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1-package manicotti shells (8 oz.)

Cooking Day Instructions:

1. Cook ground beef and onion in skillet until browned.
2. Drain.
3. Stir in bread, egg, cheese, milk and seasoning.
4. Mix well.
5. Fill uncooked manicotti shells with meat mixture.
6. Flash freeze, then transfer to freezer bag.

Serving Day Ingredients:

2 jars of your favorite tomato sauce.

Serving Day Instructions:

1. Place frozen shells in a lightly greased 13” x 9” baking dish.
2. Pour sauce over shells.
3. Cover dish tightly with foil and cook at 375-degrees 1 ¾ – 2 hours or until shells are tender.

Enjoy!

Since we talked about not wasting leftovers, let’s share ideas and recipes for leftover Thanksgiving yummies!

The Sandwich

As I was preparing dishes on Thursday for my family’s Thanksgiving meal, all I could think about was The Sandwich I would get to have on Friday. Yeah, it’s that good. I’ll be honest though, no one else in my family loves The Sandwich the way I do. And for the life of me I can’t understand why. But why don’t you try it for yourself and tell me what you think!

To make The Sandwich, add the following ingredients on white bread: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mayonnaise. I’ve experimented with adding gravy, but I like it better without.

Open Faced Turkey Sandwich

Ingredients:

• bread
• gravy
• cooked turkey

Instructions:

• In saucepan, mix turkey with gravy. Heat.
• Toast bread
• Spoon turkey & gravy mixture over toast and serve.

Turkey Noodle Casserole

Ingredients:

• Cooked turkey
• 1 package Egg Noodles
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• 1/3 cup milk
• Corn flakes (crushed)
• 2 T melted butter

Instructions:

• Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain.
• Combine turkey, soup, cheese, soy sauce, milk.
• Layer the bottom of a greased casserole dish with noodles.
• Spoon turkey mixture on top of noodles.
• Cover the entire dish with crushed corn flakes.
• Drizzle melted butter over corn flakes.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Turkey Spaghetti

Ingredients:

• Cooked turkey
• 1 onion
• butter
• 1 bell pepper
• 1- 7 oz. jar pimentos
• 1- 8 oz. can water chestnuts
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 1 lb. Velveeta cheese (cut into chunks)
• 16 oz. box spaghetti

Instructions:

• Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain.
• Saute onion & pepper in butter.
• Add pimentos, water chestnuts, soup, sour cream & cheese.
• Heat over medium until cheese is melted. If sauce is very thick, add water until it is the consistency of a spaghetti sauce.
• Place cooked spaghetti at the bottom of a casserole dish.
• Pour sauce over top.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 45 minutes.

Tropical Turkey

Ingredients:

• Cooked turkey
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T white vinegar
• 8 new potatoes
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 can sliced peaches
• 1 T flour

Instructions:

• In skillet mix orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar & flour.
• Add potatoes & turkey.
• Simmer together over medium heat until potatoes are tender.
• Add peaches & basil.
• Cook 5 minutes until peaches are hot.

Turkey Salad

In salad bowl, mix cold cooked turkey with your choice of salad ingredients.

Dressing:

• 2 T Grey Poupon
• 2 T Red wine vinegar
• 6 T olive oil

Toss salad with dressing.

What are your favorite recipes for your leftovers?

Growing up, my mom was not a casserole maker. My real first experience with casseroles was in my college cafeteria. One casserole in particular stands out in my mind, and my roommate and I had a very special name for it. We named it Surprise Casserole, because it would be a surprise if we ever ate it.

Thankfully my past casserole experience didn’t stop me from making casseroles, because really – they are the greatest invention ever. When I am stuck with what to make for dinner, a casserole is always the answer. I love how you can take a variety of ingredients, throw them together and call it “Mom’s Famous Casserole.” Really all you need is a meat, some type of sauce, some type of pasta, a topping, and a bit of imagination!

Here are recipes for 2 casseroles that I made this past week. One I’ve named Tropical Tuna Casserole, and the other I am calling Mexican Lasagna. They were both huge hits at my house, so I thought your family might enjoy them too!

Tropical Tuna Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 packages egg noodles
• 2 cans tuna (drained)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 can milk
• 1 can pineapple chunks (drained)
• 1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (divided)
• Bread crumbs (or crushed crackers)

Instructions:

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.
2. Drain noodles and put back in pot.
3. To the noodles add: tuna, soup, 1/2 of cheese milk and pineapples. Mix well.
4. Put the mixture into a casserole dish.
5. Top casserole with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.
6. Cook at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes until it is nicely browned.

Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 1 jar salsa
• 1 can enchilada sauce
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 container ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• Corn tortillas
• Black olives, pitted & chopped
• 2 cups cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1. Completely cover the bottom of the casserole dish with a thin layer of salsa.
2. Tear the corn tortillas into quarters and layer over the salsa.
3. Layer the chicken over the corn tortillas.
4. Put another layer of corn tortillas over the chicken.
5. In a small bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the egg.
6. Spread the ricotta mixture over the tortillas.
7. Layer the black olives over the ricotta.
8. Add another layer of corn tortillas.
9. In a separate bowl, mix the enchilada sauce with the soup.
10. Pour the mixture over the casserole.
11. Top with a layer of cheddar cheese.
12. Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through.

Enjoy! What are your family’s favorite casseroles?