Black Bean Nachos

Here’s an easy weeknight meal or perhaps a party appetizer. I got this from an old Pampered Chef cookbook.

6 (7 inch) flour tortillas
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
4 green onions with tops, thinly sliced
3 Tbs salsa
2 cups shredded Mexican-style cheese
½ tomato chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Slice the tortillas into wedges using a pizza cutter. Spread out on a baking stone. I think if you don’t have one of these just put them on a pan with a little cooking spray on it. Bake for (recipe says 10 minutes) it took mine about 20 to turn into chips. While that’s cooking mix your beans, onions and salsa in a bowl. I also had a few chopped onions and red peppers left from last night so I threw those in. I really think you can add whatever toppings you like. Even some meat if you want. Take your chips out of the oven, top with 1 cup of cheese, then your bean mixture, then the other cup of cheese. Bake for another 3 minutes or until cheese melts. Take out and top with tomato. Serve with sour cream and guacamole. Just sour cream at the Reid house as I had no avocados. Enjoy! Kim

Pizza Casserole

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Hopefully things are settled down and I will start posting more. I have decided to stop posting about my groceries and focus more on recipes since that seems to be more interesting to you all. And also put up my menu plan each week so that if you want to copy cat some of it you can. Would you find that helpful? Otherwise I must not waste my time. Or would you rather see all my groceries. I don’t buy as much in the summer as we eat a lot out of the garden. What are you thoughts?
Last night I made this pizza casserole. That is what we will call it since I put it in a casserole pan. I finally found a crust recipe that I really like. The reason I put this in a casserole dish is sometimes when I make a pizza I put too much junk on it and then the crust doesn’t rise good and I make a mess. This turned out great and we enjoyed it. Go ahead and try making your own crust. It is easy and delicious and doesn’t take long at all. Ps. I found this crust recipe via Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures.

Crust:

1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Stir in sugar, salt, oil and flour. Beat vigorously 20 strokes. Cover and let rest about 15 minutes. With buttered fingers, pat crust into a greased 9 x 13-in. baking pan. Push the crust up around the sides a little so you will have an outside pizza like crust. Note: This make a super “pan” pizza with a really thick crust.

Spread with pizza sauce (as much as you like) and add toppings and cheese. On this pizza I have Italian sausage, mushrooms, red bell pepper and onions. The cheese is a mix of mozzarella, parmesan, and a little Colby jack mix (only because I didn’t think I had enough cheese). I try to mix the cheese and the toppings all together with just a little extra cheese on top. Otherwise the pizza is like crust, toppings layer and then cheese layer and it doesn’t turn out like a pizza more like a casserole dish. No good. So mix it up a little.

Orange Chicken

I saw this and thought I would give it a try since I love the Chinese food and it is something I like to eat out. Yes, it does require some frying. I know, shameful. Just the other day I was telling Buffy how I wanted to start eating more healthy foods and start being more aware of what I put in my body. She goes, yeah right you fat pig. Get in the kitchen and fix us something to eat! Can you believe she said that to me? The nerve! Not really but I did just tell her I was going to get healthy and then look what I go and do. Here is the recipe. It was a hit at the Reid house and I will be serving it again. Now let me give you some tips should you decide to try your hand at this. It took a little more time that I usually spend preparing the evening meal. If you were having guests this would be a tasty treat.

1. 3 pounds of chicken is a lot. You will have leftovers by the truckload unless you are serving a bigger crowd than just your family. I realized this about halfway through trying to fry up 3 pounds of chicken. Benjamon woke up from his nap (not good) so as I was trying to finish he sat at my feet crying out Momma, Momma. Then he proceeded to pull my shorts down to my ankle as he attempted to pull up on my leg (again not good) but what could I do? I must get this chicken cooked I thought to myself as I stood there with my pants around my ankles. Granny panties fully exposed as I stood there and fried chicken. No shame in my game, right?

2. Slow down sister! I know you’re going to try and dump all this chicken in one pan. You must fry a little at a time leaving room around the sides. If you put it all in it will stick together and make a scene from a Freddie Kruger movie. For real ya’ll!

3. You need a big ole pan to bake it in! I started off with a 9 X 13 and couldn’t fit it all so I moved up a size. A big fine woman such as myself has larger pans than 9 X 13 in her house. If you don’t then you might want to cut this in half or use two pans.

I served this with my fried rice recipe minus the chicken as a side dish. I hope that you will try this. It is oh so good and well worth the effort. Benjamon enjoyed it too by the way.

Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

I am always looking for new recipes to try. Especially for breakfast because I end up feeding the children the same ole stuff. I have been trying some of the recipes posted on Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures lately. I have made several of her dishes all of which were very tasty. This baked oatmeal was a great variation of plain oatmeal. Since it was served in a pan I tried to tell Meredith (my two year old) that it was cake. She took one bite and informed me that it was in fact oatmeal, not cake! Anyway, you can find the recipe here along with a bunch of other great ones that I can’t wait to try.

Chicken Spaghetti

This is an easy and inexpensive recipe that we enjoy at the Reid house. It does freeze well. The recipe is to make two casseroles. If you just want one cut it in half (duh, right?)

6 Chicken Breasts
½ cup picante sauce
1 small can green chilies (I sometimes leave these out as my son is sensitive to spicy food)
2 cans cream of chicken (cream of mushroom or sour cream) *This time I used cream cheese since I had so many
1 small can black olives (optional)
½ medium onion sautéed (optional)
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp ground pepper (or to taste)
2 cups grated cheese
16 oz spaghetti

Stew chicken (*I either cook the chicken in the Crockpot, or use any leftover chicken that I have. It doesn’t have to be breast). Boil spaghetti in broth (I don’t do this. I boil the spaghetti in water with a few chicken bouillon cubes added but plain water is fine). Mix all other ingredients including chicken. Drain spaghetti saving 1 cup of broth. Add spaghetti and mix well. Use the extra broth if needed to make a creamy consistency. (Should not be too soupy). This recipe will make two large casseroles; divide mixture into two greased 9 X 13 pans. I add a little more cheese on top just because I like cheese. The recipe does not call for it. You can make this ahead of time. Again it freezes really well so go ahead and make two so you will have one for later. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until bubbly.

NOTE: To cook chicken in the Crockpot just put the chicken in the pot frozen or not it doesn’t matter. Add water to fill and add a few chicken bouillon cubes for flavor. If you have any onion or celery throw that in also for the flavor. Cook on low all day or overnight.

Freezer Spaghetti

Since I have already spent my grocery budget for the month let’s talk about some other stuff shall we? When you make a casserole do you end up throwing out the leftovers after a few days? I hate to waste food and I hate to eat leftovers. Here’s how I solve it. Instead of making things in a 9X13 I use two smaller pans. We eat one and I freeze the other to eat later. This dish is really just spaghetti that I put in a casserole. My hubs doesn’t really like spaghetti much so I have to trick him by changing it up. I use whatever I have on hand. Here is my example:
Boil your noodles (whatever you have) & drain
Brown meat-this dish has ½ pound of sausage, ½ pound of hamburger
Then I add any veggies I have. Mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes. Just whatever you like and have at home.
Mix your noodles and meat. Add spaghetti sauce. Put in the two dishes. Then I put pepperoni on top because I had some that needed to be used.
I add cheese to the one I will bake and leave the other. I prefer mozzarella but anything will work. I don’t add the cheese until I thaw and cook.
Bake at 350 until heated and cheese melts. About 15-20 minutes.
Let the freezer meal cool and then top with foil. I write the date, what it is, and cooking directions on the foil. This comes in handy if you need one of the men folk to put it in the oven. Then top with a lid if you have one. If not the foil alone will be fine. The night before I will cook this I put it in the fridge so it has all night and the next day to thaw. Then I take it out, top with cheese, bake and have a super easy meal.

Coupons 101

Girls you must stop the insanity! If you are paying full price for anything you buy you are paying too much. We use a coupon for everything. Groceries, diaper, health and beauty, lawn care (Hubs may not purchase fertilizer, seeds, ect without a coupon) restaurants! In this day there is a coupon for everything. Hubs called me a “money pirate” the other day as I was hovering over him while he was planning a trip to Home Depot. Our monthly budget is $200.00. We buy everything with that $200 bucks. If we go out to eat it comes out of that money, if Hubs needs something for the yard that money, groceries, diapers (the trade comes in handy here). We make it on this budget most months. Occasionally if there are some special occasions in a given month we will fall short a little. We also “occasionally” like to partake in an alcoholic beverage. That is not included in this budget. We do have a separate budget for that. Hehe.

Where do I get coupons?

1. Subscribe to the newspaper.
2. Ask your family and friends for their coupons. I assure you there are tons of people that you are close to that get the paper and don’t use coupons. (In my case every week for sure I get my paper, my friend Jamie gets two papers and my parents get two papers so I will always have 5 sets of newspaper coupons)
3. Use the internet. Coupons.com and smartsource.com.
4. Read blogs! A lot of the bloggers will post a coupon that I might want. I only print it if it is something I would use. And remember it might be free so you have to ask yourself would I want this if it were free?
5. Subscribe to All You Magazine.

How do I organize my coupons?

I used moneysavingmom method. I clip my coupons and have then organized alphabetically. You can use the coupon princess Homeland deals very well using this method. This works best for me. When I first started I kept them as they came in the paper and just wrote the date on them. You can do Christi’s Homeland deals very well using this method.

Is it time consuming?

You can spend as much or as little time as you like working on coupons. I got insane about it for a while. Now I have slowed down and I normally only work CVS and Homeland. They are both right beside my house (using less gas) and next month we will become a one car family. I will blog all about that later. I find that the cashiers at both of these stores are very friendly and don’t mind to do several transactions for your coupons. Target has great deals but I would rather have a colonoscopy than use my coupons at Target. The cashiers are ALWAYS rude and they act like the money you save comes out of their paycheck. I do like to do Wal-Mart but normally I have both children with me and only when I want to punish myself do I drag them to Wal-Mart.

Just start simple and try it. Once you see how much money you will save I promise you will be hooked!

Money Saving Tips

I have been watching some of these money saving tips on TV and I think DUH…..But I haven’t always been doing all this stuff to save money. In my former life (when I had a job and didn’t have two mini humans that totally depended on me) saving money wasn’t such a big deal. We have always been frugal but not out of necessity like we are these days. I thought I would share some things that we do to cut back. You can use the ones you find helpful. Or if you like to sit around and talk about how I have completely lost my mind then perhaps these will give you a little ammo……

Household

We use vinegar to clean. You can get two huge containers of vinegar at Sams for around $3.00. It last forever and cleans everything just as well as any other household cleaner. I clean the kitchen, bathrooms; mop the floors, Windex all with vinegar. Not to mention I have a two year old who loves to taste everything. If she takes a squirt of vinegar who cares it’s just vinegar. I also use it in the laundry for fabric softener. No, you can’t smell it on your clothes. It works try it. For more vinegar uses you can go here.

Of course we use energy efficient light bulbs. We also take out some. Like if you have a ceiling fan with 4 bulbs. Do you really need 4 bulbs on? Really it is much more pleasant lighting to just have one or two. Just try it and see.

I make my own laundry soap which saves tons of money.

You don’t need as much dish soap or laundry soap as you think. Only use half of the recommended amount and see if your clothes and dishes aren’t just as clean. Most of that stuff just goes down the drain. Try it and see!

We trade stuff. WHAT? Yes. You know I work CVS and get tons of beauty products for almost nothing. So when I go to visit my mom I usually try to work out a deal with her. I will bring her a bunch of things like shampoo, soap, razors, deodorant, and whatever else I got at the grocery store (like all that BBQ sauce). In return she will buy some diapers and give me her coupons from the week before. Obviously I am getting the better end of the deal but hey she’s the Mimi and she likes to do stuff for the kids anyway that just gives a little perk.

We don’t have cable. Now, this is a new thing. We have been going about a month without it. It is actually refreshing. GASP! Oh no she didn’t…….Really; I got to where I felt almost tied down to the TV. With TiVo or DVR you can record everything under the sun. All of a sudden you are addicted to three shows a day that all come on at the same time. Now I just pick one and watch it. Sure we miss the wonder pets but it is also nice to know there is only OETA or the Jesus cartoons. No commercials in between for your two year old to learn about Hannah Montana or how Obama is the coolest guy on the planet. Not to mention the issue of the two year old being addicted to the TV…. That’s a whole different post.

Cooking
I like cooking. We have a freezer and we use it. If I make a casserole (like lasagna) I use two 8 X 8 pans instead of one 9 X 13. I cook half and freeze half. That saves a ton of money and when I don’t feel like cooking I always have food on hand. It also ensures that leftovers don’t get thrown in the trash. I use coupons and cook around what I have. I don’t go out to the store and decide. I make my menu for next week based on the food I already have this week. If I find something on sale then great. I can use it in next week’s menu. Sometimes I have to get creative but normally we have things to make great meals on hand.

If you have any great money saving tips please share. I love to hear new ideas.

Mama's Spaghetti

Okay. I told you I would show you something I do with leftover chicken. This is a recipe from Hubs Mama. It is super easy and cheap and wonderful. Here’s the deal.

Boil spaghetti. However much you want.

In a separate pad sauté some onion and bell pepper in oil. In this case you can see I only had red but this dish is lovely with green or really just whatever ya got on the veggies.

Add the noodles to the veggies.

Then you add some smoked sausage (which you see I always get with the coupons) and the leftover chicken.

Add olive oil until you have all noodles covered.

Then sprinkle with spaghetti seasoning. We use the kind in the big container from Sam’s but any will do. And we add a lot to give the dish plenty of flavor.

Try this it’s good.

The Whole Bird

I told you I would show you how to cook a whole chicken. Well here he is in all his beauty. We can get two or possibly three meals out of this guy. The first night I serve just as chicken like you see him. Then I will pick the rest off the bones (don’t care much for this part) and put it in a casserole or other dish. I will show you a recipe I will use this chicken for later this week. You can also just freeze the picked chicken for later. Now you can purchase the fancy chicken dish I use here or you can use your Bundt pan. Just put a piece of foil over the hole so your juice doesn’t run out into the oven (added that for my semi-retarded friends).
Take your chicken and wash it off. If all the “junk” is in the middle clean it out. Then dry the chicken with a paper towel. Rub it down with olive oil or butter. Just whatever you have. Then season it. I just use whatever I have. Shown is a Cajun seasoning and some season salt. Then I stick him on the roaster and sprinkle some seasoning down in the hole. If you had some lemons you can do a lemon pepper seasoning and cut up a whole lemon and stick that in the hole. That makes a lovely chicken!

Preheat oven to 450. Put the chicken in for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 and rotate the chicken every 15 minutes. Cook the chicken for an hour like this. But if it’s a larger chicken I will do the 450 for 20 minutes and then rotate every 20 minutes so I know it’s done.