Pizza Bake

I was trying to come up with something quick and easy tonight...so I made this concoction. It tasted so good!

Pizza Bake
1 bag of small shells (FREE from Basha's)
2 jars of Ragu chunky sauce (FREE from Safeway)
3 cups of Mozzarella Cheese
1 pound hamburger/ground beef
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 TBS Garlic

Boil noodles as per directions.
Brown ground beef with seasonings in large skillet.
Heat sauce in sauce pan.

Mix together in a casserole dish with 2/3rds of the cheese. Layer the top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes.

The kids named it for me....Margaret said "mommy it tastes just like pizza." So there you have it! I think that it cost about $3.00 for the hamburger, cheese and our salad.

Birthday Dinner for Michael Jr.

Well Michael is 17 officially today.  I always make the same thing for him. His favorites:  hamburgers, mashed potatoes & shrimp.  Doesn't sound like it goes well together, but he sure likes it.

When I barbeque hamburgers, I mix spices into the hamburger before creating the patties.  I use garlic powder and montreal seasoning and simply mix it in.  You can't imagine the difference by mixing it in!

Shrimp is one of my favorite dishes, but it is usually expensive!  So I buy it when it is on sale.  I happened to purchase this shrimp for $5 at WalMart, which is pretty darn cheap for shrimp.  I hate how restaurants saturate shrimp with butter.  I cook mine a little different.  I simply put olive oil and garlic salt in a skillet, then put in the shrimp.  I cook it on medium, covered for about 5 minutes.  You can't imagine how amazing it tastes.  And it doesn't feel like I'm eating a stick of butter!

A hint on making mashed pototoes:  I use my kitchenaid.  It is so easy!  Put in the potatoes, stick of butter, a little salt and milk.  Turn on the mixer and all done!  Can't beat that and it is easier than hand mashing them any day!

Top it all off with a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and this has been Michael's birthday dinner for years. 

I'll be honest, Michael is not a big fan of my cooking.  He is a meat and potatoes type of guy and he doesn't like his food touching.  So anything that I make mixing any ingredients he is stand offish about.  Thankfully there is something that I can make that he likes!

A Winter Night Dinner for less than $2.00

I thought I would be working late tonight, but my plans changed. So dinner was so easy! I had put on a crock-pot of beans before I left for school and when I got home, I baked up some corn bread. On a cool night after standing in line for Santa with the children it warmed the soul!

The beans were less than a $1 and the cornbread was FREE about a month ago at Safeway, I just added an egg and 1/3 cup milk. Gotta love that!

Oh So Good Salsa!!

My husband was craving salsa this afternoon, so being the wonderful wife that I am, I made him salsa that was cheap!

I used my cans of tomatoes that I bought at Frys last week for 29 cents a can.

Recipe:

4 cans of tomatoes
1/4 red onion (love red onion--double the flavor means I use half the amount of onion, if you use a yellow or white onion, I would use 1/2 of an onion.)
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
4 oz green chile
2 tbs minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red chile paper

I put the onion & cilantro in the food processor with the seasonings, once it is chopped, I put the green chile & tomatoes in on pulse twice, just to mix everything up.

I made a slew of salsa for less than $4...compared to a jar of salsa-->quite a bit less than what I made is $4 a jar.

Oh I hate to say it again but I have to: yum yum!

Pizza for less than $5

Who needs Delivery? Why pay the prices that Pizza Hut & Dominos demand? I made two extra large pizzas today for less than $5 and it was better than delivery and it wasn't even DiGiorno's!

I used the following EASY no rise dough from allrecipes.com (my favorite place for recipes on the net!) http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pizza-Dough-I/Detail.aspx



I made one cheese & another veggie...I was trying to duplicate Dominos American Legends Pacific Veggie and I think I did a pretty good job of it. I used my FREE Ragu sauce, my 99 cent cheese and I just grabbed veggies that I had in the fridge and used my handy dandy canned tomatoes. FANTASTIC doesn't describe it enough!

Let me know what you think~

Count Down to Thanksgiving!

I know, isn't it crazy that it is Thanksgiving time already? It seems like we just finished taking down the Christmas tree from last year. This year is bitter sweet for me. Last year was my last Thanksgiving with my mother. She passed away two weeks later from breast cancer.

Anyhow, I always cook for Thanksgiving. I am one of those crazy people who look forward to Thanksgiving and try to one up the year before....so I need your help. I am looking for the perfect addition to our traditional Turkey dinner.

So ladies...and I suppose gentlemen if you are out there: Your mission has been set, are you up for it? I'm looking forward to all of the new additions that you will post. Once I've had the Turkey Day feast, I will post what my husbands family thinks of it.

My mouth is already watering with anticipation!!

What's Your Favorite Vaue Meal?

I took the night off of major cooking tonight. I made BLT's. Always a family favorite! So I got to thinking...what is your family favorite value meal? We all have them...the meal that we always have the staples on hand for and everyone loves. Feel free to share recipes as well.

Let the sharing begin!

Dinner for 6 for less than $3.00!!

AND that was the entire meal, not per serving!

Dinner was great tonight! It was delicious and practically FREE! The only thing that I actually paid for was the chicken. We had chicken breasts, potatoes Au Gratin, and Birds Eye Veggies.

I love my electric skillet! I simply placed my chicken breasts bone side down in the skillet, set it for 350, put salt, pepper, garlic powder (you know I love the garlic!!!), and basil on top and covered it for 25 minutes--EASY EASY!!

As the chicken was cooking, I baked the potatoes Au Gratin as per the instructions on the box and put the veggies on to steam.

25 minutes later, my dinner was done! Did I mention it was practically FREE?

Best Laid Plans!

You know, I woke up this morning thinking it would be a great day. I was off to a great start. I remembered to take the chicken, that I had gotten on sale from Safeway for 89 cents a pound a couple of weeks ago, out of the freezer. I knew that I was going to use my potatoes and Birds Eye veggies that I got for free from Fry's and life was good!

Then Karessa whined from her room, I don't feel good. Well she is 14,so I figure she can stay home by herself without burning down the house. So we left her at home and I started my day--which was pretty cool because I was on the local radio station talking about technology in schools. I didn't fumble too badly over my words! While at the radio station, my husband calls their non live line (thank goodness!) to tell me that our youngest daughter, Margaret, is in the nurses office and needs to come home. Ughhhhh!

Rushing back to school, posting my grades because of course they are due today! And then making substitute lesson plans for the rest of the day, I run home. Cleaning up these kind of messes are not what I enjoy most about being a parent! Then our middle daughter, Eve, called to say that she was sick and needed picked up from church. Now I have 1/2 of our family down with the sickness....let's hope and pray the other 1/2 stays healthy.

Needless to say my dominos coupons came in very handy tonight!!!