Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 12/15

Has been a busy week and no time for blogging.  I will just share on dinner we had this week.  Make your own Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff

1 pound of ground meat
1 1/2 C noodles
1tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry parsley
1 C canned mushrooms
1/4 tsp pepper
1T corn starch
1 C water
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C Sour Cream
Brown meat all remaining ingredients except Sour Cream and mushrooms.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer covered  until noodles are done about 20 minutes.  Add Sour Cream and mushrooms, simmer 1 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand 5 minutes before serving.  If you don't have sour cream increase milk to 2 cups.

I also make this with my dehydrated potato slices.  Also since I am only feeding 2 I reduce the amounts so I don't have left overs.  You can make just about any amount you need.

I also have a post on sugar free chocolate milk and hot chocolate this week.

Be sure to visit The Gardener of Eden and see what others are sharing from their cupboard this week. 

Sugar Free chocolate milk and hot chocolate mix

My brother loves chocolate milk and hot cocoa for breakfast.  Around here I can not buy a sugar free mix for chocolate milk and only reduced sugar hot cocoa mix.  Decided it was time to make my own.  The hot cocoa was simple but the chocolate milk wasn't as convenient.  He usually makes his own chocolate milk which he can do with something like Quik however baking cocoa doesn't mix well with cold unless you first make a slurry with it so had to settle on a syrup.


Chocolate Milk Mix

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 dash salt

PREPARATION:

Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Add water, and mix until smooth. Bring this mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for one minute, be careful this does not over boil. Remove from heat, when this cools add the vanilla.

Well this was great accept for him to measure out 2T and get it mixed up was a challenge so I make up a quart at a time for him and all he has to do is pour it in his glass.  I use 6T for a quart of milk.

Hot Chocolate Mix

makes 2 2/3 cups, enough for eight 3/4-cup 180 ml servings)

2 cups nonfat dry milk powder

1/2 cup lower-fat powdered nondairy creamer

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ Cup splenda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Mix together all ingredients. Transfer

to a self-sealing plastic bag.

When ready to use, place 1/3 c. of the mix in a heat-proof mug. Fill w/ boiling water and stir. I use 1/4 cup of mix.

I don't have a price on these but it wasn't important.  The important thing was he can have his chocolate and no sugar.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 12/8/11

Well it is time again to recap what came out of the cupboard and what went in this week.  I am afraid there has been more coming out than going in.

Thursday night was an experimental night with a new recipe.  Szechwan Chicken Stir fry over rice.  Some of the $.87 red pepper went into it.  It is hard to put a price on this as there was so much of a little of this and a little of that but I would guesstimate no more than $3.00 and it will reappear later.

Friday night was baked pork chops with my stove top stuffing and homemade Condensed Cream Soup.  Fried corn with red pepper.  Cost $3

Stuffing Mix
Enough stale but not dry bread to make 18C of cubes
(about 18-20 slices of bread cut into 1/4" cubes)
6 T dried parsley
2 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp crumbled sage
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1tsp dried thyme
Place all but bread in food processor and process until power.  A spice grinder will do the same.
Mix seasoning and bread cubes to coat all the cubes evenly
Spread on a cookie sheet and allow to dry completely.
to make there are 2 ways with fresh celery and onions or with dried
If fresh
sweat 1/2 C chopped celery and 1/4 C chopped onion in 5T butter until translucent in a sauce pan
Add 1 1/2C chicken stock to pan, bring to a boil stir in 4 C of bread cubes, remove from heat, cover and let set 5minutes.  Fluff with a fork and serve.
If Dry
Add 1 1/2 C of chicken stock and 5T of butter to a sauce pan add 2T dried celery and 1T dried onion to pan, bring to a boil and let boil 2 minutes.  Add cubes as above.

Condensed cream of Mushroom Soup
4-5 slices of dried muchrooms
Pour 1 Cup of boiling water over mushrooms and allow to steep 1/2 hour
Remove mushrooms and chop
Place 1/3 of soup mix in a pan
Be sure you still have 1 C of mushroom stock.  If not add water to make 1 C
Slowly stir stock into soup mix and cook over medium heat until thick  Add chopped mushrooms
To Assemble
Brown pork chops, lay out in a baking pan, pour soup over pork chops then cover with stuffing mix. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees of 45 minutes or until pork shops are done.

Saturday night was Spaghetti( Homemade with tomatoes from the garden) with meat balls for 4.  Loaf of fresh made French Bread.  Cost $3.00.  This will be seen again.

Sunday Night yep that Szechsan Stir Fry showed up again for brother and French Bread.  Had to cook more rice $.35.  Also made 1 TV dinner for the freezer.  I sorta didn't eat.

Monday night Brother had a repeat on the Spaghetti and Meatballs and French Bread plus one TV dinner in the freezer of just Spaghetti and sauce.  No cost.  I skipped eating again.

Tuesday night Meat Loaf with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans Almondine. (previously canned)  Parts of those red peppers showed up again.  Cost $3.75 But watch for that meat loaf to appear again soon.

Just of laughs I have to share one of my loaves of bread from the weekend.  I normally make fresh bread to have for sandwiches of my brother over the weekend.  We never finish a loaf before it gets stale so I bought some smaller pans.  Well it sorta worked.  I put about 14 oz. of bread dough in one pan.

 Looks pretty good, right?

 

But here is the laugh.  The other side.  I had cut a slash length wise across the top of the bread.  It rose so much it actually peeled and separated one top side right off the bread.

Wednesday night is just me for dinner.  I made shrimp scampi over rice with basil/garlic butter I had stashed in the freezer and a lettuce wedge with creamy French Dressing that I made a week or so ago.

I was bad at the grocery store this week.  I actually bought a loaf of bread for the weekend but I will be away all day Saturday and the only think my brother is capable of getting himself for lunch is a sandwich and he can't cut fresh bread for himself and even if I did it early he might not figure it out.  I also put up 4 meals of chicken breasts, 2 meals for just me of liver and 4 meals of cube steak.  (a bit pricey but have to splurge once in a while)  Total groceries $37.00.  That did include $8 for 2 pounds of cheese with I have an addiction for.

Also made sugar free chocolate syrup for chocolate milk and sugar free cocoa mix but will post that this coming week in a separate post.

Don't forget to drop by  The Gardener of Eden and see what others are putting up, what they are using from their summer stash and maybe share some recipes.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 12/1

I can't believe today is the first of December.  I am sure many have been feasting on leftovers from Thanksgiving and also squirreling some away in the freezer for later on.  I didn't cook at home this year, went to DD's, so I had no leftovers and sure miss them.

Friday when everyone was eating leftovers, we had leftovers also but some of the pork roast that we had last week.  Made a sweet and sour pork over rice.  It wasn't bad but Norma please don't look.  Had enough left over that one meal was put up for a TV dinner for some night in the future.  Cost $1.29  Green Peppers came from the freezer.

The TV Dinner that includes a Roll.  So guess I did have some leftovers from Thanksgiving

  Sweet and Sour left over pork

    3 cups cooked pork, cut into 3/4 inch pieces

    1 teaspoon salt

    1 tablespoon cornstarch

    1 large egg

    1/2 tablespoon flour

    1/2 cup canola oil

    1 tablespoon sugar

    2 tablespoons cornstarch

    1 cup water

    1/2 cup pineapple juice

    1/4 cup ketchup

    1 teaspoon soy sauce

    1/4 cup cider vinegar

    1 green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

    1 large onion, coarsely chopped

    1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, well drained (reserve juice)

    2 cups cooked rice

Directions:

    1 Toss pork pieces with salt and 1 tablespoon cornstarch.

    2Mix egg and flour to make a batter.

    3 Dip pork pieces into batter with slotted spoon.

    4 Fry in hot oil until nicely browned.

    5 Drain on paper towels and keep warm.

    6 In a deep skillet, mix sugar and cornstarch; stir in water, pineapple juice, ketchup, soy sauce and vinegar.

   7 Bring to a boil, sirring constantly, until thickened.

   8 Continue cooking and stirring for two minutes.

   9 Add green pepper and onion; cook for five minutes.

 10   Add pineapple chunks and pork pieces and simmer, uncovered, for six to eight minutes or until pork pieces are heated through.

I didn't have any pineapple chunks so used a small can of pineapple juice and used all cornstarch no flour.

Weekends I have to prepare lunches for my brother.  Saturday I made a creamy turkey soup from turkey stock I had in the pantry.  The stock had meat in it also.  A carrot from the garden, a quarter of an onion and should have been a stalk of celery however the most mortal sin of all there was no celery in the house.  However I dry all the leaves from my celery so rehydrated some of them, a hand full of thin egg noodles and 1/4 c of my condensed cream soup mix had bologna in the freezer I had gotten on a managers special for $.99 for 12 oz. so all in all a very inexpensive lunch for 2 days.

Saturday night dinner was open face Reubens made with left over corned beef from last weeks boiled dinner, home made sauerkraut, home made Thousand Island Dressing, a loaf of rye bread from the freezer and swiss cheese that was bought for a big gathering in September.  Since the cost of the meat has already been declared the balance of the meal was about a $1.00.

We went all out for Sunday dinner.  Filet Mignon with red wine sauce, Baked Potato and pan roasted Brussels Sprouts with bacon glazed in balsamic vinegar.  Only thing from the garden was the Brussels Sprouts from a year ago.  Cost $3.25

 Monday night tacos sounded good so decided to make my own taco shells.  It was an experience but they were edible.  Got as far as making the tortilla but then it went a little downhill on making them into taco shells.  Will try a different method next time with the tortilla shells that are now in the freezer.  They were not worthy of a picture but the total cost was about $3.00 for dinner for 2.

Make your own taco seasoning.

Taco Seasoning Mix

3/4 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup chili powder
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. each cornstarch, crushed dried red pepper,
dried minced garlic, ground cumin

Combine all ingredients and seal in ziploc or vacuum seal bag (or jar).

To Use: 2 T Mix, 1/2 c. water & 1 lb ground beef, simmer altogether.

 

Taco Bell's Hot taco sauce

1 6-oz can tomato paste
3 cups water
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1-1/2 tablespoons chili powder
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon minced dried onion
2 tablespoons canned jalapeno slices ("nacho slices")


1. Combine the tomato past with the water in a saucepan over medium
heat. Stir until smooth.


2. Add the cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt, cornstarch, vinegar,
and dried onion. Stir.


3. Chop the jalapeno slices very fine. You can use a food processor,
but don't puree. The best kind of jalapeno to use are those bottled
for nachos or pizza. Add them to the mixture.


4. Heat the mixture to boiling. Continue to stir about 3 minutes and
remove from the heat.


5. Let the sauce stand until cool, and then put in a tightly sealed
container and refrigerate. This will last 1 to 2 months. Makes 3-1/2

cups.

Tuesday DB had the rest of the corned beef in another Reuben Sandwich so no real cost there and I had Linguini with white clam sauce.  Total cost for the Linguini was $4.50 but there are 3 meals in the freezer for another time.  Also had brown and serve rolls from the freezer with a garlic cheese spread for an Italian bread.

Wednesday is usually my night not to cook since DB is out to dinner that night.  I just made myself a hot hamburger sandwich and french fries smothered in gravy and fried onions. Cost $1.00

The manager's specials were good to me this week.  Got 1 1/2 pounds of white mushrooms for $2.97 and that is about what 1/2 pound normally cost.  The went into the dehydrator immediately.  Also got 2 lovely red peppers for $.87.  Didn't weigh them by a pound is about $2.49.  Here are the peppers.

Didn't use a lot from the garden this week but all came from the freezer or pantry and were originally purchased on sale.  Also the use of homemade mixes make meal getting easy and much less expensive than the prepackaged stuff.

Don't forget to visit The Gardener of Eden and see what others are cooking from their cupboards this week.