I amended my Saturday post after learning DH spent more than I originally thought, and am going to push myself to reserve a final Hamilton, as my nephews always referred to the $10 bills stuffed in their Christmas gifts from their grandparents. Jane at Life Begins at Retirement left me a motivational comment that has me spurred on to figure out wholesome and hearty meals with what I have in house. Like Jane stated, we too have little to no meat in the house except the frozen ground turkey, a frozen package of breakfast sausages, and a ham bone with quite a bit of ham left on it. I don't even have any stock cubes right now, nor any dried beans to make some soup. Still, here is what I spent some time preparing yesterday to take us into the week a bit. I'll still pick-up hotdogs and buns for our fast Halloween traditional meal, but will substitute potato wedges with spicy sour cream instead of French Fries. I'm not sure about Thursday and Friday yet. I can make a tuna hot dish ahead of time-we still have a can of tuna, cheese, and noodles, Maybe there will be enough of things each night and Friday will be a leftover night.
Penne Pasta Bake-Sunday's dinner
2/3 rds of a jar of marinara, with 1/3 cup water, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1 tsp garlic, and 1 tsp dried onions added
8 ounce cooked penne pasta
1/2 bag (6 ounces, frozen carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli
4 (about 1 cup) ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 package (about 15 slices pepperoni
Pour 1/3 sauce in sprayed baking dish, cover with 1/2 cooked noodles and 1/3 more sauce
layer 1/2 the cheese, the pepperoni, the vegetables, and the other half of pasta noodles
cover with the remaining sauce, then top with remaining cheese
Bake for 60 minutes covered in a 350 degree oven, served with warmed slices of garlic bread
Ham and Diced potato Bake-Mondays dinner for DD2 to put in the oven at 5:00
Simmer ham bone in enough water to loosen all meat off and to make a hammy broth
Drain broth and reserve, letting the bone and meat cool
Remove all pieces of ham from the bone
Combine ham and broth with 1/2 package of frozen diced hash brown potatoes, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1/2 cup sour cream, and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Stir all together and pour in a sprayed baking pan
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes, top with 1/2 cup grated cheese, bake for another 15 minutes. I'll serve with steamed vegetables.
Turkey Meat loaf -made ahead for Tuesday supper
1 pound thawed frozen ground turkey
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp pepper
1 large squirt ketchup
1 large squirt mustard
Mix all together and bake in a shallow baking pan, I used a 7 by 9 ish baking dish. Bake for 40 minutes at 350. It ends up being more like a Turkey pan of bars-not a loaf, but it slices well on buns as DH like for leftover sandwiches. ( I plan to serve Tuesday with packet mashed potato and mushroom gravy, but if no gravy, I would have taken out at 30 minute and topped with a mix of ketchup and mustard before baking another 10 minutes.)
Having a lot of spices in house sure helps with flavors. The seasoning is what makes the bargain ground turkey feasible in a meat loaf. With the remains of the 8 pound bag of potatoes bought earlier in the month, I can supplement any of these meals. I easily can roast potatoes with a bit of chili powder or garlic and Italian seasoning. I can make a rice pilaf with some of the seasoning, stir in the other 1/2 of the bag of vegetables and have a lunch for DH and I to heat up on a work day. Thanks, Jane for the motivation to get super creative. Perhaps we will end up with some of our tastiest meals of the month.
Very creative! You're right, having a good assortment of spices to hand really makes those end of the month meals easier.
ReplyDeleteAdd garlic and onion to anything and I think it tastes better.
DeleteWhen I make meatloaf, I use the pan drippings to make my gravy. You just need a little mixed with flour to make a roux, then add water, whisk to thicken, adding more flour if needed. I sometimes add a bit of Worcestershire sauce. I've never used a jarred gravy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about herbs, spices and seasoning. Do you have any dried minced onion? If not, consider getting a jar when the dry spells end. I use it to make homemade onion soup mix, which I then use to season lots of things. A heavy sprinkle of the mix, some water, and a long stay in a slow cooker with some carrots has salvaged many a cheap cut of beef. My favorite way to roast potatoes is with olive oil and a heavy sprinkle of the mix. You can find recipes online for the mix and adjust it to your taste. For instance, I don't use sugar or salt in mine.
Oh yes-I love having dried onions on hand. Those went into the meat loaf in healthy doses. Im not one to add sugar, but I have an admittedly horrible salt habit for myself, though add it later to just my food.
DeleteThanks for giving recipes, you've inspired me - I am working on reducing previous months overages from a spendy summer. It looks like I am going to shave about $100 off the overage but need to plan suppers for the last 3 days of the month. Your penne is a real possibility as I have a container of frozen pasta sauce and a box of deeply discounted pasta that need using up. Just have to buy a loaf of french bread to make some garlic bread. Your ham and hashbrown dish looks tasty - I have a small ham and bag of hashbrowns in the freezer! If it was just me I would rarely go to the store (because I am perfectly willing to have eggs and toast for supper lol) but when you are cooking for others they don't necessarily approve of that - so I wait until hubby goes out of town then have 2 minute suppers :)
ReplyDeleteI ended up thinning the ham broth to cut some of the salt, but then added no other salt to hopeful disperse it a bit more. Yes, I used cream of mushroom soup-highly processed, but once in a while, I just am going to cut time corners.
DeleteGreat creativity. When I started reading the first recipe I thought it said 2/3 jar of mayonnaise. I thought my word that is a high calorie dish! Had to reread.
ReplyDeleteI had to check to see if it was my dumb typos! I do add 1/2 cup of mayonaise to my seafood, which I use tuna, hot dish. it really does add an extra level of lushness to a very otherwise bland cheapo meal.
DeleteI love adding that extra level of lushness to foods. I think that is why I have been able to continue keto. Mayo, bacon and heavy cream could make even cardboard taste better.
ReplyDeleteIf I could overcome portion control, the added fat would be nothing but good!
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