The Weekend

The Weekend always is a challenge. Part of the family wants to sleep in, another part wants to go out and do stuff. This morning we had a wonderful Meditereanean style breakfast. We had some garlic and cumin infused hummus with pita pieces, black olives, tomato slices, hard salami, avacado, cucumber slices, honey and our home made cheese.
The best part was everybody sitting around the table talking while making their own mini stacks on pita.

Lunch was very simple. Yesterday we took the watery whey and used it to make a couple loaves of foccacia bread. We ate one of those loaves for lunch with olive oil, Basalmic vinegar and dried oregano.

Dinner was the remainder of the Pesto Chicken and Rice.

Sunday we will keep it simple with oatmeal infused with raisin and walnuts.
Lunch and dinner are unknown at this point as I will go to the store in a couple hours.

Making Cheese for the Meditereanean Diet

My daughter and I have decided that we would attempt to make cheese for this diet. We walked to the store and picked up the milk and lemons.  We talked about how this is eductional under the following subjects. Science by adding acid to a milk, Home economics as we compared the price of 3/4lbs of high quality cheese to our cheese. Nutrition as we used milk and lemons, nothing else.

Either way this should be interesting to eat in about 4 more hours.

The below link is where we found this information.
http://www.mediterranean-food-recipes.com/how-to-make-cheese.html

Mediterranean Diet Day 1

Went to the gorcery store and bought some food for the beginning of our Mediterranean Diet. I will put my list on at the bottom.

The first thing we did last night was make some bruschetta with tomatoes, green onions garlic, and feta. I love this stuff it is so tasty. Later in the evening we had some mixed nuts with raisins. It turned out to be an awesome snack that kept the stomach happy until morning. I took the same nut mixture and added it to oatmeal for a fantastic breakfast. I just finished having a chicken stuffed pita.  I kept it simple, lettuce, olives, basil pesto, and Parmesan chicken that I had left over from a couple nights ago.

tonight I will be using the Pesto to marinate some chicken before I bbq it. Foccacia bread with olive oil basalmic dipping sauce with some rice should make for a nice hearty meal.

My grocery list was the following:

1 jar of artichokes, green onion, 2 loaves of wheat bread, 2 packages of pita bread, walnuts,almonds, pine nuts, spaghetti, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, french bread, fresh basil, ground tumeric.

My total came to $39.51

My Kitchen The Burger Challenge

On the weekend I decided to give myself another challenge. Much like the T.V. show Survivor, I added a challenge that I think is appropriate to this blog. The challenge is to recreate a meal that we would normally eat when going out to a restaurant. This recreation could be from a fast food chain to a high end eatery. I have to complete this challenge while staying within my budget of $100 a week to feed the family. This may mean substitutions of things such as filet being replaced with ribeye as an example.

My first challenge was to take on In n Out burger. We normally eat 4 double double combos three with onions. The price tag is $23.00 plus tax. Tax differs from state to state so for this challenge I am only looking at the price.

I went to the grocery store and picked up all the ingredients I needed, hamburger buns, lettuce, tomato, onion, egg, Kraft American cheese slices, 1 pound of 80/20 hamburger, potatoes, 4 litres of coke product.

I made 8 patties using my old tupperware patty maker. We sliced the onion and  tomatoes. The thousand island dressing and mayo were such small quantities that I added $0.25 to my final total for condiments. I used a sharp kitchen knife to make the french fries. I already have a fryer with oil so I did not count the oil as an expense.

The end result was we were able to make our double double meal combo for $13.74. This created a significant saving of $9.24 compared to the $23 we would of had to pay.  I still like In N out but while on budget this will have to do.

Feel free to comment if you think I could do better or if you have suggestions from your favorite restaurant that I should try.
You can read the details of my Burger challenge at Ezinearticles titled "Having a Restaurant in My Home."

No more food Please

We have been eating the same foods for a couple weeks now. This morning we had pancakes and over easy eggs. Right now my food supplies are getting very low. I have been using leftovers for the last couple days. Running out of food kinda has me excited and nervous. In my feed a family of four for a $100 a week meal plan requires me to use the same ingredients throughout a variety of meals. Running out of food simply means I will be free to change the primary ingredients.
This change will allow us to focus on a new menu. My options are unlimited as I can cook just about anything.
I will head to the store today with 60% of my budget.My stomach tells me Italian and BBQ will enter the food chain.

January 20th Dinner Turkey Soup

I am getting a little excited as I go through this week. I am trying to use up a majority of the left overs I have accumulated over the past few weeks. This morning I pulled some frozen turkey breast out of the freezer for a turkey soup. I also grabbed a frozen portion of broth. Everything went into the slow cooker for dinner. I added some onion, garlic, poultry seasoning and a chipotle cube. With an hour left I added assoted frozen vegetables. With 20 mminutes left I took the rest of my homemade pasta noodles from the Lasagna and tore them into pieces slightly bigger than my thumb and put them into the soup.

I turned out fantastic. I put a little hot sauce in for some extra flavor.

January 20th Breakfast Yogurt

This was a simple one, I had a free sample of Kellogs granola, we mixed it with the yogurt and had a nice breakfast.
I like easy breakfast with not a lot of clean up afterwards

January 19 Dinner Pepperoni Lasagna

I went for the gusto last night, Pepperoni lasagna, I looked in my kitchen cabinets and fridge for ingredients. I found some pepperoni left over from pizza night and the remainder of a jar of pasta sauce that I had used on the pizza a couple nights earlier. There was also a little Parmesan cheese 1/8 of a regular sized jar.
I went to the store and picked up:
1 pound of sausage
1 container of Riccotta
1 bag of Mozza cheese (2 cups)

I broke out my pasta maker that I received for Xmas and made the pasta dough. I assembled the lasagna just like you would any other kind of lasagna and baked it.
Total cost for me was $6.77 for a 2.5LBS meal. I did notice the grocery store had a 5LBS lasagna for $11.78 which is actually cheaper than mine but I think mine would taste much better.

The Start of a Different and New Week

This week will be different from the other weeks. The family has begun to notice the repitition of food what.  While some foods have to be used to keep within budget I am changing what I do with the ingredients.

Follow along and feel free to make suggestions in the comment area!
Eggs we like to eat eggs. Yesterday I hard boiled a dozen eggs to make egg salad for sandwiches. If your eggs ever come out with green yolks then this recipe may help.
1) Fill pot with cold tap water.
2) Poke a hole in each egg with a hole poker.
3) Put eggs into pot
4) Turn burner to high, When water begins to boil set timer for 8 minutes.
5) Replace hot water with cold tap water, repeat every 5 minutes until eggs have become cool.
6) Peel eggs!

My egg yolks are always yellow.

January 15th - 18th meal plan

This week has so far been the same as other weeks so I did not blog anything. We did go on vacation to San Diego for a couple days and were still able to stay in our budget by grocery shopping there.

January 14th Breakfast

The Cheerios are gone, the peanut butter and chocolate flavored cereal is gone. I had toast with peanut butter.
I will have to go shopping again. Tomorrow we will do the "Chez Henderson" restaurant breakfast thing.
I pretend to be a restaurant and cook them a meal as if we went out to eat. Saves me a bundle!

January 13th Dinner Steak Fajitas

These were awesome. I stir fried some onion, peppers and shredded some of the beef from yesterdays roast. Added some taco seasoning and some shredded cheese on the side with diced tomatoes lettuce and baked tater tots.
This was a feast I have left over tortillas and fajita meat. I will use it for a hot lunch.

January 13th Lunch PBJ

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We ate them off paper plates, no mess and only a knife to clean later!

January 13th Breakfast Cereal and Toast

We are a big eaters of peanut butter.
This morning it was on our toast, my daughter had peanut butter and chocolate flavored cereal and the youngest had honey nut Cheerios.

Simple, easy and not alot of clean up afterwards

January 12 Grocery list

For the next three days our flexible meal plan included steak fajitas, roast beef with veggies and mashed potatoes, Some salads and a pudding desert. Cereal will be the theme for this week coming up and the left over beef will make a very nice stew.

Here is my lastest grocery list.
2 LBS Apples
1 Yellow Onion
1 Green Onion
1.2 LBS Roma Tomatoes
2.5LBS Navel Oranges
1PKG store brand Flour Tortillas (12)
1 flat of 30 large eggs
3 loafs of Store brand wheat bread
1 loaf Honey Oat Bread
12 Store brand yogurts
1 Beef Roast
I PKG Chicken Thigh and Leg
1 Gallon of Milk 1%
1 Bottle Olive oil
1 Bottle pancake syrup
1 Box Honey Nut Cheerios
1 Box Store brand Fusion cereal
1 jar Store brand Peanut Butter
1 PKG store brand Walnuts
1 PKG store brand sugar free instant pudding
Total cost of groceries $59.27

Janaury 12 Breakfast Variety

The adults had oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar.
One kid had Corn flakes the other had one eggs scrambled with shredded cheese left over from the tacos with the last slice of chopped ham.

January 12 Dinner Stir Fry

Deep in the back of my cupboards sits a package of noodles I purchased at an Asian store a while back. I thought to myself this would be a good time to mix noodles with a lot of different left over foods in my fridge and cover it with a sauce.

I boiled some water and began cooking the noodles.
I chopped most of the onion, some celery, garlic, carrots and put them into a fry pan. when they were almost done I add some fish sauce then the noodles.

Let them cook in the pan for a few minutes until well coated and it ws dinner time.

They loved it.

Janaury 11 Inventory / left overs

I looked at my food supply and noticed I have a whole lot of little items sitting in my fridge and cupboards.
It is time to get creative. I can hold off for possibly another day if I plan out my meals based on what is left.
The slow cooker will come into use and possibly a stir fry with those left over chicken nuggets.
I love a challenge, so follow along with us!

January 11th Breakfast Toast and Cereal

We had toast with peanut butter, jam or honey and the last of the Honey nut Cheerios,
This is Tuesday the last day of the week. I took a brief accounting of what is still around for food and there is a lot of partial packages of food.

January 10th BCS National Championship Meal

I had to go to the grocery store for this one. I took all my left over money with me about $11. I knew I needed Pepperoni for pizza. I was hoping to find some sort of chicken wing or nugget and I need a desert.
the result was I found some pepperoni, chicken nuggets and store brand ice cream all for $7.01
I walked the groceries home made the pizza by hand ( my first pizza post has the recipe) cooked it in the oven with 30 out of the 50 nuggets (this leaves me something for a latter date). We washed it down with sugar free grape drink and completely polished off the whole pail of ice cream at half time.

Great meal, great game with a lot of quality family time for only a couple bucks.

January 10th Lunch Buffalo chicken sandwich

I like it spicey every once in a while for my sandwich. I had picked up some buffalo flavoured chicken lunch meat. I had this with some lettuce and tomato. I looked just like the fast food chains make but tasted better. I cooled my mouth off with a yogurt.

January 10th Breakfast

Oatmeal with raisins and walnuts for the adults Honey Nut Cheerios and toast with peanut butter and honey.
Nice and simple!

The Weekend

The weekend is an anything goes when it comes to meals.
I had done some baking a little while back. i used bisquick to make a dough that I lined in a 12unit muffin tin.
The filling I used was beaten eggs with chopped ham and peper jack cheese. first I baked the crust until lightly golden brown. Let cool then added my egg mixture and baked again. Once they had cooled I put them into a freezer bag.

Sunday morning we popped them into the microwave and feasted on them.

Lunch was macaroni and cheese, not from a box
Dinner was hamburgers again with a corn tortilla soup.
I baked some frozen kernals of corn in my toaster oven, while they were baking I put a little oil in a pot added some chopped onion  garlic and annato seeds. Added the baked corn the left over chicken broth from earlier in the week with a little water. I peeled and diced up two potatoes added them with the old corn tortillas that I had dried out earlier in the week. Brought this all to a boil and then let simmer for 10 minutes.
Tasty!

January 8th Dinner Burgers

Our family loves hamburgers. I decided that we would have hamburgers with Pastrami. The way I like to make the meat patties is pretty simple. In a large bowl I put one beaten egg with 1LB of ground meat. mix together with my hands and form four 1/4LB patties. Occasionally I will add other seasonings but for the most part that is how we do it. Lettuce, tomato onion are the toppings.
I grill the burgers and add any cheese in the fridge to the patties right after they come off the grill.
Then we eat!

January 8th Lunch Pasta and Meatball

We love to eat pasta in our family, some days I make it from scratch other days like today it comes out of a box. I use Tyler Florence recipe from one of his shows. I soak a couple pieces of bread in milk for approximately 10 minutes. Squeeze the milk out and drain. Add the 1/2 pork and 1/2 hamburger, this is usually 1LB packages. mix it all together and makes 8 loarge meat balls. Don't forget to stick your finger right through the middle of the meat ball so it can cook all the way through.

I cook the meat balls by browning them on the outside.  I foolow this by adding the sauce and continue to cook on low heat if I use non-stick or in the oven at 350 if I use a heavy duty pan. I cook the pasta in a pot of water and give everybody a plate with 1 large meat ball.
the other 4 meatballs I freeze for another meal.

January 8th Grocery list+ a Decadent Snack

I had to go to the store to get a couple things, the main item i needed was milk and yogurt.
I walked into the store and headed to the self checkout where they I always find a hand held basket.
I grabbed the following items.
6 yogurts
Nestle Morsel chocolate chips
1 Gallon of milk
Total bill was $7.01
Every once in a while the family needs something decadent to snack on. the chips will be used to make biscotti later today.

January 8th Breakfast Time for a Change

Eggs, home made shredded hash browns, chopped ham and toast. The breakfast great days are built on. For us, this is almost the same thing we eat everyday except substitute  hash browns for pancakes. I think part of the secret for sustaining a budget like this is to not always cook the same things week in week out.

January 7th Dinner Butter Chicken "Bust"

Normally I would post what we had for dinner. This dinner was an adventure into something new. In my head, the plan was to take all the left over rice from two previous meals and combine them with fresh rice this rice would be covered with yummy butter chicken. I made the unfortunate mistake of using Chinese five spice instead of garam masala. the taste was completely off.  We still ate the meal but I won't be doing that again without all the proper ingredients.

January 7th Lunch PBJ's

Peanut butter and strawberry Jelly for everyone!

January 7th Breakfast Cereal and Toast

Everybody had something different but easy for breakfast

1. 1 bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios
2. 1 bowl of mixed Hoeny nut Cheerios and Corn flakes.
3. 1 bowl of Oatmeal
4. 2 pieces of toast and honey

January 6th Dinner Fried Rice

HEat some canola oi, sesame oil and chili oill in a pot add chopped onion annato seeds ( tumeric works aslo but add after rice) then garlic. Sweat onions until almost clear. Add the 1.5 cups of rice and stir unti coated. Add 3 cups water heat until boiling then turn off heat keep the lid on. When Rice is almost fully cooked add 1/4 cup fish sauce.

In a frying pan add oil onion, tomato, celery, green pepper and saute. Add two eggs then your favourite leftover chopped meat (turkey). Continue to cook until everything is hot.

Spread Rice on plate and cover with stir fry.

The desert was simple, Jello pudding that I made earlier during the day. I made one batch of chocoalte and poured it into white wine glasses and let set. Then I made a second batch Banana and poured on top of the chocolate pudding and let set

January 6th Lunch Egg Salad with Yogurt Parfait

We enjoy this simple lunch all the time.
Whole wheat bread, a couple hard boiled eggs with chopped celery and ollive oil Mayo. The yogurt parfait is one yogurt cup and 1/4 cup of honey almond granola. Simple quick and easy!

January 6th Grocery list

A lot of great meals will come out of this grocery list. Plus the food that is already in my cupboards, fridge and freezer from previous weeks.
5LBS Flour
12 Yogurts
2LBS Rice
Baby Carrots
Colby Jack Cheese shredded 4 cups
Mozzarella Cheese shredded 4cups
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
1 bell pepper
grape sugar free powder mix
flavored coffee cream 40 oz
2 jello puddings
half and half cream 1qt
1 mountain 2litre
1Pepsi 2 litre
Coffee
1LB turkey pastrami
1LB chopped ham
Garlic clove
Roma tomatoes
Dozen eggs
Total cost of groceries $54.65

January 6th Breakfast

My kids love pancakes, They could eat them every day if I let them. I make them from scratch with my large electric skillet which cooks 8 at a time. Total cost is about $2
2 eggs beaten
11/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil mix all together.
11/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients together with whisk
Pour 8 pancakes on hot greased skillet

When cooked, remove and keep warm (usually right under skillet) big pat of butter add 4 slices of your favorite ham and eggs)
Serve
Sometimes I make my own syrup
1.5 cups water bring to boil add sliced banana and cook for 3-4 minutes remove banana pieces and add 1 cup sugar without stirring and a little vanilla. cook for 3 minutes or until almost starts to turn brown. turn off heat transfer to measuring glass for easy pouring! Try it with your kids favourite fruit they will like it!

January 5th Dinner Soup & Pizza

I always have broth from my slow cooker sitting in the fridge. I simply put it in the slow cooker in the morning on low. When I get home I turn it to high. Grab a bowl and scramble three eggs and add 1 cup of parmesian cheese and mix well. Add this to the soup, stir gently turn off slow cooker and let sit for 5 minutes. Soup is ready to serve.

It is amazing how cheap pizza is to make. You have to learn how to make pizza dough which really is not that hard here is the recipe.
1 cup warm water, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of yeast. I normally add 1/4 cup of flour to the wet mixture and wait 5 minutes. Then I add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time until I get a nice sticky but firm ball of dough. Knead it for 3 minutes on a floured surface and roll out onto baking sheet aand let rest for 10 minutes.
Next I spread pasta sauce that I saved from Pasta night all over the dough. Add my 6 chopped ham slices, cover with store brand shredded cheese and finally put any other topping I might like or find in the fridge. Bake in oven at 450F until golden brown. take out of oven and let it sit for 5 minutes before cutting.
Truly a fantastic dinner. If you want to slurge a $3 Cabernet Sauvignon goes very well with the soup!

January 5th Lunch Turkey Pastrami Sandwich with Yogurt Parfait

We enjoy this simple lunch all the time.
Whole wheat bread, a couple slices of Turkey Pastrami,  lettuce and spicy brown mustard. The yogurt parfait is one yogurt cup and 1/4 cup of honey almond granola. Simple quick and easy!

January 5th Breakfast Pancakes

My kids love pancakes, I make them from scratch with my large electric skillet which cooks 8 at a time.
2 eggs beaten
11/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil mix all together.
11/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients together with whisk
Pour 8 pancakes on hot greased skillet

When cooked, remove and keep warm (usually right under skillet) big pat of butter add 4 slices of your favorite ham and eggs)
Serve
Sometimes I make my own syrup
1.5 cups water bring to boil add sliced banana and cook for 3-4 minutes remove banana pieces and add 1 cup sugar without stirring and a little vanilla. cook for 3 minutes or until almost starts to turn brown. turn off heat transfer to measuring glass for easy pouring! Try it with your kids favourite fruit they will like it!

January 4th Dinner Tamales

Take your 1/2 Ribeye pork roast, spanish rice and pork broth out of the fridge.
Soak 10 corn husks in warm water for 10 minutes
Gently heat pork broth
In a mixing bowl add dry ingredients; pinch of salt and  tablespoon of baking powder and 2 cups of instant masa corn flour.
Combine with liquid and set aside.
Cut the pork roast into small slices

Flatten the corn husk, grab a handful of the dough  to place on corn husk. Sprinkle some pork meat on dough and roll up (like sushi) put into steamer, I use a pasta pot with a perforated insert. repeat and set timer for 60 minutes.
With 10 minutes left on the timer I reheat the remaining Rice and a can of refried beans.
Plate the rice, beans, take the tamales out and unroll them onto the plate (2 per person)

January 4th Lunch Turkey Sandwich with Spinach Salad

Turkey Sandwich with Spinach Salad
Hard Boil three eggs
Put whole in each egg and place in pot add cold water and place on burner (high) once water comes to a boil set timer for 8 minutes. When Timer buzzes, drain and add cold tap water and let cool down repeat this three times until eggs are cool. (This technique keeps the yolks yellow instead of turning them green).
Slice
Add spinach, olives and dressing

Turkey Sandwich
2 slices of grain bread, 2 slices of Turkey ( I get mine cut a little thicker than normal) lettuce  I add substantially more lettuce if I am not having the salad, tomatoe plus a little mayo and mustard.

January 4 Breakfast Scrambled Eggs with Toast and Ham

Scrambled Eggs with Toast and Ham
6 eggs whisked in bowl with 4 oz of milk,
Heat non stick pan to medium high add pat of butter or margarine  pour in eggs cook for a minute reduce heat to low plate justbefore eggs are fully cooked (they will continue to cook while on the a plate).

Put anther pat of butter in the pan and lightly cook sliced ham and serve.

(Hint) I put bread in toaster right before the eggs go into the pan, usually the toast is ready right after the eggs, but I take toast out of the toaster as the ham cooks)

January 3 Dinner Tacos with Spanish Rice and Refried Beans

Made a nice Mexican dinner last night

1.5cups uncooked rice with half can of whole tomatoes with ½ cup of mixed frozen veggies

1 can of refried beans

12 hard tacos

10 soft corn tortillas

½ bag shredded cheddar

shredded lettuce

1/3 bunch of Cilantro

Ribeye Pork roast (small one for under $4)

1. Marinade Pork roast in left over cold coffee for 4 hours with a pinch of salt
2. Cut up half onion into big chunks plus three cloves of garlic mashed
3. Take pork out of marinade and place into slow coocker on top of onion. Add water until covered turn on low cook until internal temp reaches 180F. 4 Hours or more depending on your crockpot.
4. Rice takes approximately 20 minutes. So time accordingly.1.5 cup of rice to 1 cup of water.
5. Put half can of whole tomatoes in blender add tacos spice seasoning 2-4 tablespoons Puree.
6. When water begins to boil added blended tomatoes and ½ cup frozen veggies. Wait another minute for water to boil again reduce heat to low and simmer.
7. Take pork out of crock pot and let rest.
8. Chop lettuce, chop Cilantro and plate with shredded cheese.
9. Pork should be ready to slice. Cut the roast in half and put ½ away in fridge for another day. Slice the remaining pork thin and put some in each hard and soft taco.
10. Put 3-4 tacos on a plate with a scoop of refried beans and a scoop of Mexican rice and serve.

Keep the broth from the slow cooker in a storage container for another meal!
You should have half the rice leftover, put in storage container for another meal!

How to Finance Your Meal Plan

The first thing I do is go to the bank and take $100  cash (do not use debit/credit cards) out and put it in my pasta sauce jar that I have cleaned and labeled groceries with "Wednesday" on it. Wednesday is funding day and the start of a new week. I also have a smaller "Salsa" jar that I have cleaned and labeled "Savings". Every Tuesday night I take the left over cash from groceries and put it into savings before I fund the following week with another $100.

Never bring your whole budget with you when you shop for food. My first shopping day usually requires me to bring about $40 - $50.

Only buy Groceries with your cash if you have more that just food, seperate the items and pay from other sources. Put the receipt in the Grocery jar so the total cash and receipts equal $100 every Tuesday night.

Just because your jar has been replenished with more cash does not mean you need to go shopping. Wait until most of your food is consumed.

Shopping for Groceries

I like to plan 2-3 days worth of meals that will use some of the same ingredients. I try very hard to stay on the outside of the grocery store as that is where all the wholesome foods are. Pre packaged foods are very expensive and are usually keep in the isles of the store.

Tools you need for big savings

Welcome to the first blog for feeding your family for under $100 a Week. There are a couple tools that will make this a reality.
1) A slow cooker.
2) A large electric skillet.
That's it, I hope you enjoy this blog!