Review: Meatball Subs

This is so easy, you  might just die. This is hands down the best recipe for a time crunch and requires so few ingredients you'll be signing when you see how little it will impact your food budget.

This is a recipe you can cook on the stove in a pinch or leave in your crock pot all day. It is a simple filling meal that left me with enough to serve lunch to my entire family of five the next day so its a great double batch and freezer safe recipe!

Original Recipe:

Meatball Subs


1 bag of meatballs (either turkey or beef)
2 cans of spaghetti sauce
1 bag of hoagie rolls
2 cups of mozarella cheese
Italian seasoning for spaghetti sauce


1. Combine meatballs, sauce and seasoning in a crockpot or pot on stove. Cook until done. (Can be left on low in the crockpot for many hours or done on the stove in about 30 minutes)
2. Dish rolls onto buns, sprinkle with mozarella cheese and serve.

Hoagie Rolls- 1.89
Turkey Meatballs 2 lb package- 4.35 (you could save more if you did beef instead of turkey)
2 cans of Del Monte Spaghetti sauce couponed @ .24 each- .48
seasonings in pantry- pennies over time
mozarella cheese- 1.60
= approx .60 a serving depending on how many meatballs per hoagie

I added some seasonings to my sauce, including garlic, pepper and chili pepper with just a hint of oregano. It didn't need much help, the dinner was a hit, my kids devoured it and it was one of the fastest easiest recipes I've made so far.

Review: Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

I have a different version of this recipe which I invented during my newlywed years called Slow Steak when our finances were at their tightest and I had to get creative. This is a less extreme version of that recipe that I found online.

Crockpot Beef Stroganoff-

2 pounds stew beef, cut into bite size cubes
3 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 cup beef broth
1 garlic clove, minced or grated
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp. flour

1 cup sour cream

hot cooked wide egg noodles

Mix together the flour and salt and coat beef well with mixture. Melt butter or margarine in large heavy skillet and add beef. Cook over medium high heat until beef is just browned, flipping so each side gets browned. (Don’t crowd the beef in the pan; cook only as much as will fit easily in the pan. Remove and add more. This will keep the skillet hot and prevent the beef from “steaming.”) Replace all browned beef to hot pan and add onions. Continue cooking on hot, stirring often, until onion becomes just transparent.

Into the slow cooker, add the beef broth, garlic, mushrooms, and 1 tablespoon flour. Add the cooked beef and onions from the skillet and stir gently to combine.

Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours. Add sour cream, stirring to combine, and replace cover and continue to cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until heated through. Serve over hot cooked wide egg noodles

This recipe required a little bit of prep work. I'm not sure if it mattered in the end result but the dinner was so delicious, I wouldn't attempt it any other way. I used 1lb of beef (not huge beef eaters in this house as I'm a fallen-away vegetarian who still has issues with meat = healthy) and I found that this was enough for my family of five and one leftover meal. Otherwise, I would increase to 2 packs of mushrooms to stretch 1 lb of meat or increase to 2 lbs of meat... there is never any harm with more mushrooms. Mushrooms are meaty by nature and are often used as a meat substitute for vegetarian recipes. In the future, I'll use many more mushrooms. I increased the garlic to 4 cloves beause there is no such thing as too much garlic. I did everything else as directed. Cooked for 6 hours on low then added some sour cream to taste at the end just before serving. I cook the noodles in a generous amount of salt so they are flavored and I avoid high sodium levels in the meal itself. This meal was delicious and perfect for a fall day. I think you could make this vegetarian easily by adding a combination of portabella and other mushrooms and just increasing the mushroom levels. You could still leave it in a slow cooker; however, mushrooms are expensive so this may not be a frugal meal afterward.

Beef chunks for stew- $2.56 @ 1.10 lb (You can use very cheap cuts of steak like round and shoulder... depending on what cost less, for me this was the cheapest option at my store. The meat will cook just as soft in a crock pot so here, cuts do not matter.)
Flour and seasonings- pennies over time
Broth- used bullion instead, pennies over time.
Garlic bulb- pennies, purchase price of garlic was .56 and is being used for multiple recipes
Egg Noodles- 1.05 (amazingly enough with all the noodles I have in my stock pile..I had no egg noodles!)
Mushrooms, pre-sliced- 1.30 (slice them yourself to save money if presliced is more expensive, in my store they are the same price)
Onion- .10
= approximately .83 a serving for a 1lb package of beef and 1 package of mushrooms. Unfortunately, there were no coupons for me to use on this trip!

Review: Turkey & Broccoli Pie

This is a recipe I found under my silverware sorting tray. Why was it under there? Well it lives under ther with a stack of many other recipes that I shove under there when I don't have any more room in my recipe box and can't stand to see them tacked to the fridge or on the counter anymore. I haven't made this one before so when I looked it over and saw it was relatively cheap due to having all the ingredients already on hand, I decided to add it to my menu and give it a shot!!

Here's what you'll need to make two full pie plates, enough to serve seconds and possibly thirds to a family of five, feel free to scale this recipe back by half for a smaller serving size or just one pie plate.


Original Recipe:

1 bag of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
3 cups of cheddar cheese
1 lb cooked cubed turkey (or you can do chicken)
1 small onion, chopped
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup bisquick mix
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 400F, crease a pie pan or round cake pan with oil. In large bowl mix broccoli, 1 cup of cheese, the turkey and onion. Spoon into pie plates in equal amounts.

Stir eggs, milk and bisquick and seasonings to taste until blended. Pour over mixture in pie plate.

Bake 30 minutes**** or until knife inserted in center comes out clean ***. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, bake a few minutes longer until melted. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Alright.... first I want to touch on the ***** on the cooking time because this is most important. These cooking times are not entirely accurate. You're looking at more like 45-50 minutes. Inserting a knife is not accurate because I did that- found it clean and spooned out a bit to find it gooey on the bottom. When I investigated the bottom of my see-through dishes I saw the dough had not cooked through there. I had to cover it at this point with foil to save the cheese I had already placed on top. The end result is a very, very, very slightly gooey consistency to the dough that is similar to quiche and what I expect it is supposed to be. If you baked it longer, you'll avoid this or longer at lower temperatures to avoid over cooking the top. Also to avoid this you could put in a little less of the dough, only filling the plate to half instead of submerging the mixture in the dough for a more bread type dish.

I seasoned my turkey with Mrs. Dash grilling blends 'chicken' and omitted the salt and pepper. (You'll find I omit salt fairly often when it can be avoided due to health issues but feel free to follow to your own tastes.) I really liked the flavor the mrs. dash gave the dish over all. The onions were not overwhelming, a just right amount basically. And I used 4 cheese mexican blend instead of straight cheddar. End result? My kids loved it. My kids as a general rule hate everything I cook, they all asked for seconds and ate generous servings full.

Here's the break down of the cost.

Foster Farms turkey breast cutlets 2.45 after coupon.
*To save more, bake a whole turkey or chicken and use leftover meat for multiple dishes. This was my original plan but I could not find whole turkey for my coupon.
Bisquick 2.00 after coupon.
Mrs. Dash .69 after coupon.
Frozen broccoli .50
4 cheese mexican blend 1.29 after coupon.
eggs, pennies per dozens
milk, pennies per gallons
= approximately .71 a serving for 2 pie plates which equate to around 5 generous helpings per dish.

I'll make this one again and I thank General Mills for the recipe.

Review: Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken

Original Recipe:

Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken -

 2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast halves
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Cut the chicken into large bite-sized chunks. Put everything into your crockpot and stir it around until everything is mixed up. Cover it and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 to 6 hours. Serve over white rice.

Chicken breast is expensive, so I just used a whole chicken instead. I also found that you don't really need the brown sugar and can just omit it for the natural juices that come in the fruit cans. I mixed my juices together and froze it for use at a later time to avoid waste. I recommend seasoning to taste, I made some adjustments at the end but overall I was in love with this meal. I cooked on low all day, just a set it and forget it type meal then when the chicken was done I just took it out and removed all the meat from the bones then mixed it back into the gravy and dished it onto rice. Another hit with the kids, every plate was cleared and though I was hesitant about the fruit, it ended up being my favorite part and did not become too mushy after being left in a crock pot for 6+ hours. Here is my break down of price.

(prices after coupons and stockpile savings)
Whole chicken - 3.48 @ .99lb
Seasonings, including sugar and cornstarch- pennies over time
1 large can of mandarin oranges- 1.58
2 cans of pineapple- .99 each
1 box of boil in the bag rice (Now there are many ways to save on rice here, you can cook it yourself for the full time and ultimately the lowest cost or you can buy instant rice. I need to save time so I went with the latter. If I had a rice cooker though I'd have been all over option number 1.) 1.00
= approximately .80 a serving with leftovers.

In the end I added a bit of sea salt because the sauce was a little on the bland side. I then added more ginger and just a touch of garlic. This dish is an instant favorite, will definately make it again!

Creation: Italian Ramen Skillet

This is one of my feeling naughty recipes because of the use of ramen noodles; however, I will state that ramen noodles are great options for many recipes just watch that sodium!

This was a recipe I modified from meat years ago when I became a vegetarian, I like it better this way. What I like most about this recipe is that you almost always have all the ingredients on hand and it costs very little yet it is super filling.




*** To make this recipe for a meat eater, swap the beans for ground beef or ground turkey (remember, ground turkey is lower on fat and better for your heart)



 Italian Ramen Skillet

4 packs of beef flavor ramen noodles
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of garbonzo beans
2 cups of water
1 cup of shredded mozarella cheese

1. Pour can of tomatoes and water into deep skillet. Add all packs of beef flavoring to the liquid mixture and let it come to a high simmer.

2. Add the garbonzo beans and the noodles. Cover with a lid and cook until noodles are softened. You may need to add water so watch this as it cooks. I find the noodles water level varies greatly.

3. Remove from heat and sprinkle cheese on top. Let cheese melt then serve.

Cost breakdown-
4 packs of ramen noodles .80 @ .20 each
1 can of tomatoes- free with coupon (or around .60 without)
water- free
garbanzo beans .90 (or ground meat to average price per pound as substitute)
cheese- roughly .50 from the package

This will serve a family of 5 hearty servings with about 1-2 meals left over for lunch. This dinner is around .40 with the cost of tomatoes included (again mine were free muir glen organic fire roasted tomatoes which I highly recommend, they are divine!!!) For under 3 dollars, you've fed your entire family a filling dinner, for under 5 dollars you can toss in some crusty french bread and butter or even a salad. We find this dish is plenty filling by itself. And the beans provide the protein.

I love this dish on a cold night. You can spice it up to make it a bit hotter or use tomatoes with italian seasonings, but we like it just the way it is.

Review: Moroccan Chicken Stew

This recipe blew.my.mind.  It was easy, it was cheap and it offered a taste unlike anything else. It was fancy without the pomp and fuss and it was soooo darned good!!!!! So good in fact that I the first thing I'm doing as I wake this morning is to share it with you good people. This is a perfect choice if you're looking to get out of a dinner rut!

***You can make this vegetarian and/or vegan friendly by removing the chicken, increasing the garbonzo beans and replacing the chicken stock with vegetable stock



Original Recipe:

Moroccan Chicken Stew

8 chicken thighs, skinned
1 Tb vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 ts turmeric
1/4 ts cinnamon
1/8 ts red pepper
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
4 cups chicken stock (you may want to add a cube of bouillon for richer flavor)
1 16 oz can whole tomatoes, quartered with juice (if you like spicy food you can use the kind with peppers)
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced
2 carrots, sliced into rounds
1/2 ts salt
1 19 oz can garbanzo beans, drained (average size can – my store’s aren’t 19 oz. You can also use homemade)
4 cups prepared couscous, hot
1/4 cup golden raisins (optional)
1/4 cup slivered almonds (optional)

Pour the oil into a stock pot (I use an 8-quart) over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for until the onions start to soften (you want to watch it and make sure the garlic doesn’t burn).

Stir in the turmeric, cinnamon, red pepper, cloves, and bay leaves. Add chicken and chicken stock and let it come to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for about 25 minutes.

Add tomatoes, garbanzo beans, green pepper, carrots and salt and cook until vegetables are tender.

Now...here is what I did.

I used turkey stock that I made myself from boiling down a turkey carcass the other day. I got a small whole turkey for 3 bucks after my 4 dollar foster farms coupon, cooked it for about 3 hours then shred and bagged all the meat for other recipes. I tossed the carcass, the drippings and some water into a pot and let it boil for about an hour or two. This produced me a large pot full of turkey stock and I was really satsified with that because broth is expensive and when you get up to the 4 cup quantities like in this recipe, you'll see the dollar signs add up!

I did add the bullion, I had the powdered chicken bullion packets, I added 2.

I used two cans of tomatoes, just regular tomatoes. I had Muir Glen Fire Roasted Organic on hand from couponing (which have become my fav tomato ever, btw.)

I used only 1 can of garbonzo beans but you could increase it to 2, I don't think it would hurt at all.

I used half of a large bell pepper since there were no inbetween sizes at the store. If you want to leave this out, I think you could. But it was great with it and you only need one so its low cost!

The housewife recommends serving it with couscous which you can buy cheap in bulk. I however have had the same 4lb bag of organic quinoa on hand for the last 10 months. I got it at costco for about $7. I love quinoa because its the only whole grain that is also a complete protien, plus its low on the glycemic index so its good for diabetics and those trying to watch their weight and its naturally gluten free! Now, quinoa requires rinsing before cooking or it will have a funny taste.. I always do this, then instead of cooking it in water I cook it in vegetable broth, which I can make 4 cups with 2 knorrs bullion cubes.


I used 3 carrots, I had Earthbound Farms Organic on hand.. I buy a lot of my produce organic.. as much as possible... and it doesn't hurt my costs one bit. Often I find the organic produce is cheaper than the regular stuff. It doesn't make sense to me but I'm happy for it! I also like organic with things grown in the dirt because of the levels of pesticides I'm avoiding. But thats just me. I recommend farmers markets for your produce to get high quality and low cost if you don't garden.

Finally, I chose to de-skin and de-bone my chicken, rather than buying the bag where it had already been done for me. This added roughly 10 minutes to my prep time but saved me 2 bucks and half a pound! I used a full 2.5 lb bag of chicken since I was cooking for more people than usual. You can easily scale this recipe back by half and still have left overs. But I recommend making it in bulk, you can freeze what's left if you don't eat it all first!



So thats that for the ingredients. I cooked this a little differently. Basically I was in a rush and didn't think I'd have time to let it sit in the crock pot all day and simmer. First, yes this can all go in the crock pot from the start... second... the time depends on how well you want your chicken cooked.... and third, if I had only remembered the fall back time change I would have skipped this step.
I cooked everything as the recipe states, then at the end I dumped it all into the crock pot, put it on high and let it go for the next 5 hours. I chose to shred my chicken when it was half way through, but you don't have to at all! I used sea salt instead of regular salt and found the flavors to be a wonderful balance. Nothing was too overwhelming, too salty, too sweet or too spicy. This is NOT a spicy dish, but increase that red pepper and it can be!!!

I made 2 cups of quinoa and used 2.5 lbs of chicken. This was enough to serve 3 adults and 5 children seconds then I still had half a pot to save for lunch the next day or even another dinner if you wanted to double batch it!


Here is my cost break down:

Spices- pennies over time. (I had all of the spices on hand, I'm a bit of a spice hoarder like that)
Oil- pennies over time
Broth- pennies because I made it myself and/or used bullion
Quinoa- pennies over time
Carrots and Bell Pepper- roughly $1.50
Garbonzo Beans- .59
Canned tomatoes- free with coupon from stockpile
2.5 bag of frozen chicken thighs- 2.50 (which I de-skined and de-boned myself or else it would have been $5+ for a 2lb bag)
* I did not use the rasins or the almonds due to personal taste preferences.

My total cost was 4.59 for 10+ servings. Which equals roughly .45 a serving. Even if you have to buy Quinoa or Couscous you're only adding a few more dollars to the top of that. Spices can be purchased in bulk and don't cost much more either. I can't see this meal topping 2.00 a serving.

Review: Potato and Black-Eyed Pea Soup

I was really happy with this recipe! My whole family went back for seconds, including my picky husband who basically hates everything and anything I cook. It was filling and easy and I converted it to a crock-pot recipe. What I like about this one is you can make a lot to go around with few ingredients that also happen to be pretty cheap.


Original Recipe:

Potato and Black-Eyed Pea Soup

2 quarts chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock (I used the stuff I made by boiling down our Thanksgiving turkey carcass.)
1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes in 3/4-inch cubes (5 small – 3 large. I scrub but don’t peel them)
1 1/2 cups dry black-eyed peas (3-4 cups soaked, or 2 cans)
1/2 pound of firm sausage (I like andouille. Polish is fine, too.)
1/2 pound collard greens, after washing, de-stemming, and tearing into pieces (Or 1/2 a bag of frozen chopped collards)
1 onion
Salt** and pepper to taste

Halve or quarter sausage lengthwise and slice 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick, as you prefer. Brown it and drain it thoroughly.
Cook onion a little in a bit of the leftover sausage grease.
In a large pot, add coarsely-chopped onions and soaked beans to stock and boil, then simmer for an hour or so.
Add the potatoes and cook until they are partly done.
Add collards and cook until they are wilted.
Squash the potatoes against the side of the pot and stir them in to thicken the soup.
You can also leave the lid off and let it cook down awhile until it reaches desired thickness (I like thick soup)

I used what was left of my turkey stock (I make stock from scratch by boiling down the bones and drippings), since I didn't have enough by half I added some water and chicken powder bullion. I used frozen black eyed peas and fresh collards. I used regular idaho potatos since they were cheaper and as a fan of yellow potatoes I can say with confidence that I do not feel the recipe suffered for using idahos instead. For sausage I had a hard time choosing and ultimately went with an angus beef smoked sausage.

 **I want to stress to not add salt to this recipe. Ever. For any reason. Why? The broth and sausage lend it plenty of salt so there is really no need for it. In fact, I may go for a low sodium sausage next time because for my salt sensitive pallet I would like to have noticed the sodium a bit less, but it wasn't overwhelming by a long shot!

We really liked this recipe, happy to make it again. I did brown the sausage in a bit of oil, then cooked the onion in the oil/dripping mixture and just dumped everything into a pot. I cooked on low for 6 hours and served. I didn't mash the potatoes down but it's totally an option!


My cost breakdown-

Sausage- $1.75 after coupon
Collards- roughly $1.00
Onion, bullion and stock- pennies over time.
Potatoes- $1.00 for entire bag, only used 4.

.37 a serving for 10 servings!