Tilapia with Creamed Spinach

First of all, I know it has been a really long time since I posted... Ugh.  So sorry, dear reader.  I'm not even going to promise to post more regularly.  I can say this, as I have exciting, BUDGET-FRIENDLY meals like this one, I really want to share it!  Look for those!!!)

Tilapia with Cream Spinach, with a side of pear halves

First, the ingredients and prices:

From Save-a-Lot (all their store brand):

• Tilapia 32 oz (11 fillets)................................ $5.99
• 2 10 oz boxes Frozen Chopped Spinach...... $2.58 Total
• Shredded Parmesan Cheese 5 oz ..................$2.49
• 2 cans Pears 15.25 oz each............................$1.98 Total 
• Staple Pantry ingredients, milk, spices,
       etc. ...........................................................$1.00

                                                   TOTAL .............$14.04

From other retailer:

• Garlic Cheddar Biscuit Mix.........................$2.00

GRAND TOTAL PRICE = $16.04

EACH SERVING:  two fillets, about 1/2 to 2/3 cup spinach, two biscuits, and two pear halves.

Total Servings:  5.5

TOTAL PRICE PER SERVING:  $2.92

Recipe and Instructions

1)  Prepare Biscuits according to package directions.

2)  Spray large baking pan (with low sides) with olive oil cooking spray.  Unwrap fish and lay on pan in one layer.

3)  Prepare Creamed Spinach in microwave and on stovetop: RECIPE 
**I made one change.  Using the Save-a-Lot Shredded Parmesan Cheese, I put half into the pot and saved half to top the fish (see below).

4) Spoon Creamed Spinach evenly over fish, sort of a blob of about 1/2 cup on each fish.  Sprinkle with reserved Shredded Parmesan Cheese.

5) Bake fish for 15 minutes at 400°.  (I broiled last minute-and-a-half.)

This is the best part... It was really delicious!  

I ran it through a calorie counter, and mind you, I wouldn't swear to this accuracy, but to the best of my ability, I am guessing that a meal of 2 fillets with spinach on top, two biscuits and two pear halves runs about 700 calories and 20-25g fat.  We're trying to eat one main meal a day and snack on fresh fruit the rest of the time, so if those numbers are at all accurate, I'm pretty happy about it!

Crock-Pot Timing

I'm making a turkey breast for dinner.  Looking at the recipes for roasting it in my crock pot, I always seem to be right between the "high" and the "low" cook times.  For example, they'll say "Cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 6-8 hours."

My dilemma is two-fold:  I love the flavor boost from slow cooking, but I never seem to be able to get up at 5:00 am to put it on.  I'm sure you'll have some suggestions, and sure, Thanksgiving or Christmas make it easier, but just an average Friday doesn't get the 5:00 am treatment.

My second dilemma is that I usually can get my bum up to cook early enough that some slow cooking could be enjoyed.  So, here's my formula for when you want slow cooking, but don't want to eat dinner at 10:30 at night.

I'm a mathematician by degree (and I'm not the only one in the trailer park) so bear with me as I give you the math by brute force and then go back and explain it.

Food safety warning:  I don't know all the science for this, so while I don't use the "cook on high" time in my math, I DO NOT use this formula if the recipe doesn't say that the item can be cooked on high.  Also, if I have less time than what the recipe says to cook on high, then I need to wait until a day when I have more time, or, of course, cook it in the oven.

Let T1 = the time the recipe gives if you only cook on low
      T2 = the amount of time I have

First, subtract the time I have from the high time: T3 =  T1 - T2
Then, subtract this time (T3) from the high time (T2):   T4 = T2 - T3

T3 will be the number of hours on high.
T4 is the number of hours on low.

EXAMPLES:
Recipe says:  "Cook 10 hours on low."  I have 8 hours:
T1 = 10
T2 = 8
T3 = 10 - 8 = 2
T4 = 8 - 2 = 6
So, I have eight hours, so I'm going to cook 2 hours on high and 6 hours on low.

Recipe says:  "Cook 12 hours on low."  I have 7 hours.
T1 = 12
T2 = 7
T3 = 12 - 7 = 5
T4 = 7 - 5 = 2
So, I have 7 hours, I would cook 5 hours on high and 2 hours on low.

I'll let you know later how my turkey breast comes out... but right now, my kitchen is already filled with smells of butter, turkey, rosemary and thyme!

Coming Attractions...

Whew!  A lot going on around this mobile home park with back-to-school and all!  Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, but I have been very busy in the kitchen!  I have several posts coming up, including a three-part post on HAM!

In the mean time, I saw this article and thought you'd like it.  I saw it on facebook, posted by one of my favorite tv shows, Deals!!!  After this article, I'm thinking maybe it is my Scottish roots that makes me so frugal???  Maybe!

This Couple Spent $1.56 on Their Wedding -- Could You??

Teenager Deterrent

I'm a horrible speller.  I rely on my computer/internet spell checkers a lot!  The other day, I was writing out my shopping list.  Even though I was doing it with a pen and paper, I paused for a second after writing broccolli brocolli broccoli for the little red line to show up.

This all reminds me that there are some words I can't remember how to spell.  Top of the list:  DETERRENT.

Being a particularly "blonde" morning, deterrent sends me on a directly different mind track which of course leads to the kitchen.  I'm hungry, too, so it doesn't take much.

Wait... back to deterrent... a couple of years ago, I came up with a fool-proof teenager deterrent.  I was having a little trouble with a couple of the neighborhood boys.  One of them had set up a basketball net in our cul-de-sac.  Now, I'm all for exercise, blah blah blah, but these guys would let the stupid thing sit for days on end, and then, late on Saturday night, when Sunday is the only day that I can't oversleep, THAT'S WHEN THEY WOULD PLAY BASKETBALL.  I was so inspired to tell you this tale that I drew you a quick picture:

So there I was, about 11:30 on a Saturday night, and about eight teenage boys would start their game.  BOING BOING BOING (what sound does a basketball make?) and STOMP STOMP STOMP (I think all of them wore size 19 shoes).  

What to do?  I'm ready to go full grouchy-old-lady in the neighborhood, but I don't want to rush things.  So, I thought to myself, "How can I strategically remove these boys from my cul-de-sac?"  I didn't think my friend Renda could get her bulldozer here fast enough, and I don't know any supermodels.  I'm too proud to just call the police.  So I asked myself, "What else would move these teenage boys?"

I headed to the kitchen.

I flipped on the vent fan for the oven.

I whipped up a batch of brownies and started baking.  While I waited for them to get full scent, I sauteed some garlic and onions.  Ten minutes in the kitchen, fifteen minutes after they arrived on the cul-de-sac, the young men had vanished.  

DETERRENT -- From the Latin, deterrere, which means, "to frighten away."  You see, I realized that night that every teenage boy is deathly afraid of starving to death.

Well, you can't win them all...

So, last night's dinner... um...

It started innocently enough.  I decided to make the Homestyle Bakes Dumplings and Chicken.  That was my first mistake.  Of course, I had to doctor it up a little.  And, for that matter, if you ever buy this product, which you should NEVER buy, then do NOT prepare it according to the box.  You HAVE GOT to doctor it.  This product is just awful, and any doctoring only makes it barely palatable.

The product itself is a dry biscuit mix that you prepare with water and then drop it by spoonfuls in the bottom of the baking pan.  That part is pretty good.  The bad part is the chicken stew part in the can.  You're supposed to pour that over the dumplings and then cook it.  From the second I opened the can, I knew I had made an awful mistake.

Way back in ancient times when I was a child, I liked chicken soup.  Chicken and stars, alphabet soup, chicken and noodle -- I loved them all.  Then in college, something happened.  I worked a summer in a camp for Jewish girls.  I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of this summer, except for Fridays.  The camp celebrated Shabbat every Friday and the celebration itself was just amazing.  The hard part was the diet.  We had no meat during the day on Fridays--just PB&Js for lunch.  Dinner was just delicious:  Matzo ball soup, Challah bread and fried chicken.

My problem came because of two events.  First, I was a water safety instructor and by the time I got to dinner, I was starved.  Second, I was a counselor for the 15-year-old cabin, so we were one of the last tables to be served.  So, we'd come into dinner, just starving, fill up on rich chicken-based matzo ball soup and even richer Challah bread.  I literally made myself sick eating that soup.  And, unlike all the dozens of foods that made me sick when I was pregnant, to this day I can never eat canned chicken soup again.

The second I opened those cans last night, that smell took me back twenty-five years ago to those Friday nights.

I lost all zeal to make it delicious, but I tried anyway.  I roasted about six frozen chicken tenders to add to the meat.  I used milk instead of water to make the dumplings.  I added in a small package of mixed vegetables.  I sprinkled it all with rosemary and thyme.  All of these things helped immensely.

The family ate it and said that they liked it. (Meh.)  It served 5 of us for dinner, and a couple of the guys ate seconds and thirds.  They cleaned it all up--there were no leftovers.

For the five of us, it cost about $2 for the extra chicken, $6 for the Homestyle Bakes, $1 for the mixed vegetables, so for the five of us, it was about $9 total.

There you have it.  My sad, sad story of how I broke up with chicken soup, so many years ago.  Sniff.

What food have you broken up with?

(Someday I'll tell you why I'll never again drink rum, but you can probably guess how that story ends.)

Grand dinner tonight!

Well... it was so-so... but everyone is happy and full.

Dinner was these simple chicken patties that Save-a-Lot sells.  They're 14 for $3.99 and the buns are a package of 8 for 75­­¢ at the discount bread store.  That makes 14 chicken sandwiches for $5.30.

I went to the farmer's market on Saturday and got a ton of delicious fruits and vegetables.  I got three giant zucchinis and five yellow squash.  Tonight I crinkle cut sliced them and then steamed them.  I made a cheese sauce with some American cheese to go with the zucchini and squash.  There is plenty of leftovers of both, and I'm not exactly sure how much it was, but I'm going to say the veggies were about $3 and the cheese sauce was about $3.

Finally, I had really splurged and bought three pounds of fresh cherries at the farmer's market.  We had eaten two pounds just by grazing, but the last pound needed to be either eaten today or prepared into something else.  So, I got out my trusty Pampered Chef Cherry and Olive Pitter (THAT THEY HAVE DISCONTINUED -- GRRRRR!) and pitted all those cherries in just a few minutes.

I made a quick glaze with this recipe.  I also whipped up a quick 2-layer chocolate cake (mix).  My new favorite icing is to use this recipe without the oats or nuts, and this time I substituted 1/3 cup shortening and 1/3 cup margarine for the peanut butter.

To assemble the cake, I put the bottom layer on the cake tray and iced it with the icing.  I layered the cherry glaze.  Then I added the second layer and iced the whole cake.  I served slices of the cake with a spoon of extra icing and cherry glaze poured over the top.

It wasn't cheap, the cherries made that expensive, but all-in-all this black forest cake came to about $5, including the extra ingredients (eggs, milk, etc.)

In total, that made our meal about $16.30.  I served eight with vegetable and cake leftovers.  We can't do this every night, but when I consider that last night's dinner was about $5 for eight of us, I think we can splurge every once in a while and have a Freaking Black Forest Cake!  (My name for the recipe.)

$800 Yearly Grocery Budget

Wow!  No, it isn't us.  This family of four spends just $800 on everything -- just $200 per person!  Very interesting article.  By the way, I LOVE the Deals Show and follow them on facebook.  If you get a chance tune in -- I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

But couponing... do you do it?  I don't.  As much as I can muster is to scan the weekly circulars online for each of the three stores I frequent.  I tend to have a hoarding personality, so it looks like a big "red zone" of danger for someone like me.

What do you think?