recipe — Page 16

Tomato White Bean Soup {All You Magazine Recipe}

This month’s All You Magazine has some delicious recipes inside! With my 30 Day Challenge I was pretty excited to try the Tomato and White Bean Soup (page 75).

The base of this recipe is really good. It’s a very inexpensive recipe and is a great way to use up leftovers. Unfortunately, I the recipe as written didn’t have a lot of flavor so I free-styled. I made several versions of this recipe in an attempt to spice it up a bit. My favorite was adding 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp of garlic powder and 1 tsp of cajun seasoning. It was also very good and probably more kid friendly when adding two cloves of garlic, 1 tsp of sugar, and 1/4 tsp of sage.

*Tip: When using tomato paste, freeze your leftover by dropping spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Once it’s frozen, remove from the cookie sheet, fold, and place in a freezer bag. BAM!!

Easy Freezer Breakfast Meals for Back To School

Jul 30 by Paul 1 Comment

Back to school can mean chaotic mornings and leave you and your kids reaching for something easy to make for breakfast. Instead of buying pre-packaged foods, you can save a bundle by making a stock of your own Easy Freezer Meals for Back To School that are easy for kids (and adults!) to grab in a hurry and pop in the microwave or toaster.

I Heart The Mart

You can make a stock a couple times a month, or if you don’t have much freezer room, do it one morning of your weekend.

To demonstrate how much you can save by making your own, let’s look at the cost of premade waffles you find in the frozen foods section. On sale, you can usually find these for around $2.00. In the pack, you get 8 waffles. This makes each waffle, around 25¢ each. If you make them yourself, using a simple waffle recipe, you can easily make them for pennies each. Waffles freeze well and don’t take long to reheat, either. Just pop on in the microwave for 30 seconds or if you prefer them toasty, stick one in the toaster.

Here are some more ideas for freezer breakfasts:

Make pre-wrapped breakfast burritos with sausage or bacon crumbles, cheese and scrambled eggs.

Bake muffins in large batches. Pull them out of the freezer and re-heat in the microwave.

Use up leftover fruits like bananas by chopping them into small pieces and freezing them. Add them to yogurt and a blender and you have a smoothie.

Just as you can make waffles, try doing french toast pieces as well.

Assemble English muffin sandwiches with sausage, eggs and cheese. Pop one in the microwave or toaster oven.

Banana bread makes a great on the go breakfast and also freezes well. Just slice it and stick it in the freezer.

Make a breakfast casserole with diced ham, eggs, hash browns and cheese. Keep it in the freezer and put it in the oven when you first wake up. It should only take 20 minutes to heat and is hearty and delicious.

If your kids really dig those french toast sticks you can buy, just make french toast and cut it into sticks. Freeze in separate packs of 3-4 for easy access by the kids.

What do you do on busy mornings to make sure your kids get breakfast?

All You Recipe Re-Make: Grilled Vegetable-Pesto Pasta Salad

Jul 26 by Paul Leave a Comment

I Heart The Mart

All You, the magazine put out by Walmart, has some awesome recipes in it. A lot of them are said to be easy on the wallet as well. I made the Grilled Vegetable-Pesto Pasta Salad on page 71 of the July 26th issue of All You to see if it was indeed as good and as low price as it says it is.

Let me just say, It definitely was all that and more. Not only was it super easy to make, but it cost only about $.80 cents a serving, even less than it says in the magazine. Now, some of that is because I already had a couple of the ingredients, but really, the ones I had are things most others probably have in their homes and pantries as well.

This salad would even taste good as a warm pasta dish, in my opinion. It is so full of flavor! I loved the nice, bright colors and how well it screamed, “summer” with the fresh squash and zucchini. This is absolutely sure to be a hit at any summer potluck you go to and really, just takes minutes to make after you grill the vegetables.

To save money on the recipe, I swapped out a few of the ingredients. I think that it tastes just as good as the original recipe would, but with less convenience priced ingredients and really, what you are buying that is convenience, isn’t really that hard to make anyways.

Grilled Vegetable-Pesto Pasta Salad

1 Zucchini (81 cents)

1 Yellow Squash (88 cents)

1 Red Bell Pepper ($1.74)

1 Red Onion (59 cents)

1 Tbsp Italian Season (Had on hand)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil (Had on hand)

Salt and Pepper (Had on hand)

3 Cups or about 1 Box of Farfalle (bow tie) Pasta ($1.00)

1 can of Cannellini Beans (white Kidney Beans) (68 cents)

1.7 oz jar of prepared pesto (This was something I substituted. It was around $2.68 for this, but the dry Pesto sauce packets were only $1.66 and I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to it)

1/2 cup fresh grated Romano (Again, I substituted with the Mama Francisco’s I used in the Pizza Bake for flavor and cost effectiveness-came out GREAT!)

1Tsp Lemon Juice (Had on hand)

To make Grilled Vegetable -Pesto Pasta Salad, see the recipe in All You or go to the All You recipe online. When it gets to the section about adding the prepared pesto, just whip up the sauce packet according to the directions for a rub on the back of the packet.

New Mama Francesca Coupon for Parmesan Cheese + Pasta Bake Recipe

Jul 15 by Paul Ivanovsky 1 Comment

There is a new $1.00 off Mama Francesca coupon. I posted an awesome recipe a few weeks ago an snow you all have a reason to try it! I will post it again below instead of making you search all over the site. Let me know what you think of it.

Mama Francesca Parmesan Cheese: $2.98
$1.00/2 Mama Francesca Coupon
Total: $2.48

This meal is so simple I am convinced you do not have to be a master chef to make Pizza Pasta Bake and it would make a great freezer meal to heat up later. This recipe calls for ground turkey. If you have not tried substituting ground turkey in your ground beef recipes, I highly suggest it. Not only is it usually a lot cheaper than ground beef, it is low fat. My family can’t really even taste the difference, either.

I also used a new product I saw on the shelves here. In the section where the canisters of Parmesan cheese are sold, is a brand called Mama Francesca. There were three varieties there. I chose the Parmesan Garlic. It really added a big amount of flavor to this dish and upped the awesome factor! If not use what you have and add a little garlic to it.

To make the Pizza Pasta Bake, you will need:

1 frozen lb of ground turkey ($2.58)
1 box Ziti or Rigatoni ($1.00)
1 bag of Velveeta’s shreds in Queso Blanco ($2.00)
Ricotta Cheese, skim milk variety ($1.94)
Armour Pepperoni ($2.28)
Mama Francesca’s Parmesan Garlic cheese blend ($2.98 minus 55 cent peelie coupon=$2.43)
1 can of your choice Hunt’s Pasta sauce. I used Mushroom. ($1.00)
13 x 9 pan
Large bowl
Spoon or spatula
Non-stick Spray

To Make Pizza Pasta Bake:

1. First, brown the ground turkey. You will not need to drain it because it is so low in fat, the moisture in it will evaporate. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. When you start the browning of the turkey, also start the water for your pasta.

3. After you drain the pasta and the turkey is cooked, place them both is a large bowl. Gently fold together.

4. Add the Hunt’s Pasta Sauce and coat the mixture. Shake in the Mama Francesca’s Parmesan cheese and fold in. You don’t need a lot, about 1/2 cup will do.

5. Add one handful of Velveeta shreds and mix in.

6. Add a cup of ricotta cheese and mix the entire mixture well.

7. Pour into a 13 x 9 coated pan. Level it out.

8. Add a layer of pepperoni. Top with remaining Velveeta Shreds.

9. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes until cheese is slightly brown and the bake is sizzling.

10. Allow to rest for 5 minutes and enjoy!

Because you do not use the entire container of Mama Francesca’s cheese, you should have a bunch left over to use in other recipes. I hope your family enjoys this Pizza Pasta Bake as much as my family did!

Only about $2.00 a serving!

Crockpot Swedish Meatballs + Coupon!

Jul 12 by Paul Ivanovsky Leave a Comment

The Farm Rich meatballs are on roll back at Walmart right now for only $4.98, and there is a new $1/1 Farm Rich Coupon that you can print.

This makes a super easy meal for this weekend.

Check out this recipe from Smashed Peas and Carrots how you can make CrockPot Swedish Meatballs for next to nothing!

Crockpot Swedish Meatballs

1 Bag Frozen Meatballs (use coupon HERE)
1 can french onion soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 8 oz container of sour cream
1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained
1 tsp minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

See rest HERE

Iced Coffee Recipe! Make at Home and Save Money.

Jul 8 by Paul Leave a Comment

With summer in full swing, it’s time to reach for the cold drinks. One favorite is the iced coffee drinks that come from coffee shops and the pre-made packaged kind. Skip the drive thru and their $4.00 drinks and pass on the convenience store’s $2.00 or more drinks as well and make it yourself! Even the packets are not low cost and you get far less.

(Guest post from Christina – Walmart Specialist)

Even if you buy iced coffee in packs at Walmart, they are still near the $6.00 range for these little coffee delights and you get far less than if you made it yourself. Making this recipe also allows you to choose the flavors and come up with your own.

For this Iced Coffee recipe, you will need:

Coffee of your choice (I use Cafe Bustelo $3.88)
Half and Half ($1.58)
Sweetener ($2.58)
Ice Cubes
Water

Optional: Flavor of your choice such as caramel sauce or chocolate syrup.

1. Make your coffee a little stronger than you normally would. I made 2 pots of extra strong, or about 12 cups.

2. Put the coffee in the fridge to cool. It should be ready to use in about 1 1/2.

3. Fill a glass full with ice. (I got both this glass mug [$2.00] and carafe [$3.88] at Walmart by the way.)

4. Pour on the coffee, add chocolate syrup or other flavoring if you desire.

5. Add Half and Half. A splash will do. (Don’t you just love the way it swirls in the cup?)

6. Sweeten to taste.

You can also make this on a larger scale in the carafe or another container and keep it in the fridge. Keep in mind, though, that the mixture spoils faster than the coffee alone, so if you aren’t going to drink it up in a very short amount of time, I suggest you keep the coffee by itself in the fridge minus the ingredients.

While the initial ingredients cost more than in the store, because you are only using a portion, these servings cost less than 50 cents each. The only real expensive part (and it’s not really, you could also use milk for a lower fat version!) is the Half and Half. In one small can of Cafe Bustelo, you could get a lot of servings.

There is another way to brew the coffee, called “Cold Brewing” which is where you use cold water, leave it sit at room temperature and strain it out after. This allows you to make a stronger brew, but it can be time consuming and messy. Either way you do it will work for this recipe.

Grilled Vegetable-Pesto Pasta Salad

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