Frugal Large Family Cooking: Celebrating Beans Tostadas

The Tostada is the next meal you can make with beans for very little to fill a crowd and make them happy!

Servings 16

• 4 cups Homemade Beans [free these should be left overs]
• 4 Tablespoons margarine/butter [10.25 cents based on margarine)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (.32 shredded on sale)
• Shredded iceberg lettuce (.50 1/2 a head)
• 1/2 # tomatoes diced (.50)
• corn tortillas (or pre-made tostadas or corn meal to make tortillas) [$1 for 1/2 of 32)

Only use if you happen to have:

• diced or sliced olives
• sour cream
• salsa

1. Take you homemade beans heat them up butter/margarine & milk and mash them. (You do not have to mash them if you don't want to. My family doesn't care if they are mashed. If you aren't going to mash them don't add the milk!)
2. Either toast the tostadas, fry the corn tortillas or make homemade tortillas according to the package directions (listed in order of cheapness)
3. Top the tostadas 1/4 cup of beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes (or any order that makes sense to you *smile* I put cheese on first because I like it melted but you may want to put it on top of the lettuce)  and extras

We serve this with homemade Mexican Rice.  Total Cost....$2.42 or .15 per tostada *BIG SMILE*

Favorite Recipe's: Texas' King Ranch Chicken

My husband doesn't much care for chicken and he thinks casseroles are okay but he loves this creamy bit of heaven. I hope your family enjoys it as much as ours.

KING RANCH CHICKEN

---

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 can (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• at least 12 corn tortillas, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large saucepan, cook pepper and
onion in melted margarine until tender, about 5 minutes. Add soups,
RO*TEL and chicken, stirring until well blended. In a 13 x 9 x 2-inch
baking pan, alternately layer tortillas, soup mixture and cheese, repeating
for three layers. Bake 40 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

Serves 8.

May the Lord bless your kitchen!
RH

The Frugal Kitchen: Dinner on a dime!

How do you make dinner for your family for less then .50 per person? Each week we make beans and rice/cabbage and corn bread every Wednesday night (which by the way is another way to feed your army for less then a.50 per person. but that's another post).  When I have collected enough leftovers I make these simple and tasty Bean&Cheese Burritos.

Bean & Cheese Burritos

All of my ingredients are generic:
Homemade Beans (any/ all left over beans)................$0
Generic Flour Tortillas (8)......................................... $1.99
Cheese.(Kroger Sale Cheese).....................................$ 1.66
salsa(Walmart Bulk size!) .........................................$.50
taco seasoning(Sam's Club bulk)...............................$.25
rice ..............................................................................$.50

We keep the optional ingredients in the fridge most of the time and we top the  burritos with tomatoes and sour cream and add the cooked onions to the beans them if we have them.
diced onions (optional)
tomatoes (optional)
sour cream (optional)

Total $4.90 or .61 per person, well, I didn't make .50 but .61 is still pretty good I think.

1. Mix beans, salsa, rice, taco seasoning and 1 cup of cheese. mix
2. Spoon about 1/3 cup into each tortilla and fold it up and turn it so the folded side is on the bottom.
3. Put the other cup of cheese on the top cover an bake at 375* for 25 minutes.

We normally serve this with corn (which adds 1.99 to the total meal)which makes it $.86 per person. These burritos are enough to fill up most folks without corn, my kids just eat a lot.

We really enjoy this meal. For me the key to frugal cooking is tasty food, then I don't feel like I am constantly sacrificing!Let's help each other and add links to your frugal meals in the comments.

Blessings!

Gooseberry Patch

So, last week while I was waiting for the DH at Sam's club I ran across a bunch of discounted Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks. While I was waiting I carefully reviewed the recipes looking for the weird ingredients that I never use or have. What I found was what looks to be simple and sweet home cooking. So I spent $7 of my grocery money to buy the cookbook that had a little bit of everything. Additionally, I also remember my friend Mrs. H at Heritage School House who is a wonderful cook loves these cookbooks. Now that we have made several of the recipes I can see why! So I have decided to cook through Gooseberry Patch! Thanks Mrs. H!

Come on by ...

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, Ecclesiastes 9:10a

Canning, canning, canning some more...... at this point that is about grape jam, diced tomatoes, and dried cream beans. This is the first year we have canned tomatoes. My goal is to have 12-15 cans of diced tomatoes for the year. Right now we are saving 20# of tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. I still need to make some more of Heather's Tomato Crack also know as Cilantro Salsa! But I still have to find a use for my medium sized tomatoes perhaps tomato juice?

Homesteading on RH

Summer's approaching...

I do not fry very many things, and when I say fried I usually mean oven fried. But one of my favorite things in the summer in our garden are the green tomatoes. Because during the end of Spring and start of summer we start eating Fried Greens Tomatoes! I don't really have a recipe for this item although I started out making them with one...but here is what I do...

1-4 Green tomato(es)

1 cup corn meal

1 egg

1 teaspoon house seasoning (a la Paula Deen)

1. Combine corn meal and house seasoning in small bowl.
2. Beat egg and put in bowl
3. Slice the tomatoes
4. Dip the tomatoes in eggs
5. Dredge tomatoes in cornmeal mixture
6. Until golden brown
7. Eat with anything all the time!

Now that's a proper side dish or breakfast like I had this morning!

Now go get your vittals on!

K

Mustang Grapes or Muscadine Grapes

22

I am an undercover canner! Earlier this year we canned black berries and today I want to can some Mustang Grapes. Every year we go and pick grapes off of our friend Oudia's Crepe Myrtle affectionately called a "Grape Myrtle". This year we got to pick grapes with Ms. Rachel Altman who also gave us some of her Mother's canning supplies!

Now, I have canned Mustang grapes before but this time I also want to make fruit leather for the kids. The problem is that mustang grapes burn your hands and I am sure your mouth. Additionally, they are not sweet. So as I am researching this the first thing I have found is that Mustang & Muscadine are not the same type of grape. They are a Native American grape found in Kansas, most of eastern Oklahoma and Texas, through to western Arkansas and Louisiana. They are acrid..though I do not know what that means so I'll translate it as it will burn your mouth and taste nasty!

After some research I think I am going to Simply Recipes, I've had good result with her recipes before. Fruit leather is just processed fruit with or without a sweetener added. Clearly for these grapes we will be adding a sweetener and I think I am going to use honey. Then left in a warm oven for at least 8 hours.

I hope this works well because in a few weeks we will be picking some free pears! It would be fabulous to have enough homemade blackberry, grape & pear fruit roll ups for the kids for the next year or so.

I can't wait for my fruit trees to really start bearing and don't worry I'll be sharing just like God taught me through Barney!!

Frugal Eating #3: More Meaty Matters

All summer long Brisket will go on sale for between 1.29-.79/#. I start buying at .99/#.

BTW Brisket ,if you are not from Texas, is beef shoulder.

When it hits these low prices it's time to buy your stew meat. Buy this meat and cut it into stew meat chunks. This will save you at least $1.59/# off the cost of stew meat! Beef rarely sales for less than $1.99/# so this meat is a great deal for the conscientious homemaker.

Be sure to buy enough so your dear husband can BBQ or slow roast it also. Use your leftovers for black bean soup or pulled BBQ Beef sandwiches...yummy.

Frugal Eating #2: Meaty Matters

Turkey...right now if you live in BCS area walk do not run to Albertson's and pick up a frozen turkey. They are .29#. You can substitute turkey meat in all of your casseroles. The cheapest chicken you can get is at Wal-Mart at .49#, that is a 59% savings!Pick all the meat off of the bird after having a nice turkey dinner. Bag it up in individual bags so you can just grab some when you are cooking and need cooked chicken or turkey. Last year I cooked an extra Turkey (a friend had a turkey she was going to throw away) after Thanksgiving and did not run out of cooked meat in March! Additionally, after I cooked the turkey I used the bones to make ultra healthy and tasty broth. If you do not live in the BCS area or you do and you are unable to get an Albertson's turkey. Remember that at Thanksgiving & Christmas Turkeys can be found for as low as .10# we will be buying at least 3-4 of these birds!

Eating Tasty food cheap at Rooster Hill!

Menu Madness at Rooster Hill

June 29th - July 5th
Monday - Spaghetti, meatballs, sourdough garlic bread, house veggie
Tuesday - Taco Soup with chips sour cream cheese
Wednesday- Beans, Rice & Cornbread
Thursday - Tomato Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
Friday - Homemade hoagies on homemade sourdough, sun ships, fruit & Snacks at Washington on the Brazos
Saturday Sloppy Joe's & French Fries
Sunday - Ginger Stir Fry Chicken & Rice

HAPPY 4th of July!

RH

Frugal Eating

Okay, with gas at $4 a gallon I am on the hunt to cut our grocery bill. We are going to be working on getting our 125X75 garden ready to grow for Fall! But in the meantime I am trying to reduce our grocery budget by finding some more frugal recipes. My one issue is they have to taste good! I'm not just interested in my family choking it down. I want to make some "tasty" food! So I always start my searches at http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/, The Pioneer Woman (though she is not the most frugal but usually very tasty!) and then on to Google. Right now I am focusing on bean dishes (you might not want to sit behind us in church...lols). I want to have at least 2-3 dishes a week that cost no more then .50 per serving! Yes, you read that correctly I want to feed my family of 5 a healthy dinner for $1.50! I'll keep you updated on my progress...But I am slashing my budget from $450 to 275 (who needs Jenny Craig!). On top of this we have decided to try to drink DHA free milk (translation: organic milk which is at least $2 more per gallon!) To balance this out we are giving up Crystal Light (well Wal-Mart's generic version of Crystal light!) $1.79 and sticking to mint tea, mint water, milk & water!

What is your family doing to save money in tight economic times?

Rejoicing in the kitchen!

Kyle

Menu Madness at Rooster Hill

June 6/24-6/29
Monday- Chicken Brunswick Stew
Tuesday - Beans, Rice & cornbread
Wednesday - Oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn
Thursday - Split pea soup
Friday - BBQ Chicken Pizza (L/o chicken from Monday & Wednesday, homemade pizza crust)
Saturday- Tacos, homemade low-fat refried beans (from Tuesday)
Sunday - Left overs

We usually have Beans, rice & cornbread at least once a week!

This weeks tips:

• Cook 2-3X as much mashed potatoes as your family will eat and freeze the rest in meal size portions!
• Make 2-3X as much pizza crust as you will need and freeze the leftover crust for your next pizza.

Happy Cooking!

RH

Quarantine (and a recipe to boot!)

This is a first at the McVay household. We have ever had a sickness work its way through more than one person! I know its odd! I had it last week, Parker got it on the 24th, Pearson woke up with it today. I guess since I was sick I have not been as fastidious to decontaminate the sickie and all traces of the sickie.
But on a comic note Peyton who I think has the start of this STOMACH FLU has been walking around making sure no one touches, so they do not get sick. She's screaming "Pearson is touching Parker", "Parker's touching me", "Can sick kids pet the dog???" lols

Philippians 4:4 ...Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Hopefully, we'll be well soon and I can do another Kitchen post! See you soon!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Side note from Mama McVay...Here is the best Chicken noodle soup recipe I have found. For sick children they start with the broth and advance to the rest. You can freeze this in yogurt cups so anytime someone in your house is sick you can break out your homemade soup as you transform into super MOM!

This is a 5* All Recipe, recipe....

Grandma's Chicken Noodle Soup

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups wide egg noodles
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
12 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 cups diced, cooked chicken meat
DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and oil, and boil for 8 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and rinse under cool running water.
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine broth, salt, and poultry seasoning. Bring to a boil. Stir in celery and onion. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water together until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Gradually add to soup, stirring constantly. Stir in noodles and chicken, and heat through.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandmas-Chicken-Noodle-Soup/Detail.aspx