Whatever Wednesday

I have exciting news. I am going to be featured as a guest blogger at Grocery CartChallenge  on Friday. Stop back by to see what I purchased this week and see my article posted there.

 I always like to find something different to fix the family. I usually try to travel around the globe for dinner ideas for the week so no one gets tired of any dish. My daughter is just like me. She asked the other night why we don’t have Mexican food every night. Both of us could eat Mexican food every night. We both love it. Especially if it involves queso of some kind. However, my husband like a variety of food.

This week we traveled to India for a different flavor with ground beef called Keema. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com App on my phone when I was looking for recipes with cardamom. I purchased this on major sale at Sprouts. See my shopping trip here. I love that I can have my phone in the kitchen with me while I cook and view the recipe without having to print it out and waste toner and paper. Plus I have my recipes with me where ever I go.

According to some of the reviews this is not a traditional way to make this dish and I did a few things different too to make it my own recipe. This made enough to feed all five of us with small leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 lbs. Ground Beef

1 onion Finely chopped

2 cloves minced garlic

½ table spoon Cardamom

¼ table spoon cinnamon

¼ table spoon cloves

A pinch of nutmeg

1 cup or 8 oz of tomato sauce

¾ cup beef broth (I used chicken because that is what I had. Still very tasty)

1. In a large heavy skillet over medium heat, cook onions and garlic until onions are soft and translucent around 5mon.

2. Then add the beef and cook until evenly brown breaking apart with spoon until crumbled. Drain excess fat.

3. Stir in Cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. (I measured it all so it fit in one table spoon)

4. Stir in tomato sauce and broth. Continue to cook on a lower heat until most of the liquid had evaporated reducing the sauce.

This can be served over rice or noodles. Depends what you have the most of in your pantry. This is fabulous burst of flavor from the traditional foods we are used to eating. The husband and the kids loved it. The Cardamom can be expensive. But if you viewed my post, I purchased just a little while it was on sale and that will make four to five dishes. Supper yummy and something different from what you might normally eat.  I just love it. This meal in now in our meal rotation. 

Hopefully I won't have as many problems as I did with my Friday Linky. Do you have any recipes you would like to share? Link up below. Hopefully I won't have as many problems as I did with my Friday Linky.

Whatever Wednesday

Zucchini Fritters

I made these when the kids where not home. I really didn’t think they would like them at all. However, when they came back, they scarfed these down. I was so surprised. It may have been how I described them as savory pancakes. They are all over them. Especially the little one, he kept saying “more fritters mommy, more fritters.” I got them to eat vegatables without complaining. This is a big accomplishment in my house. These are on the menu again.

I got the recipe from the App ALL RECIPES.

3 med Zucchinis shredded

1 small onion shredded

3 eggs beaten

½ Romano or Parm Cheese

1 cup Milk

2 Cups flour (I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)

Salt, Pepper, Garlic and other seasonings to taste

1. In a large bowl, mix together the zucchini, onion, eggs, cheese, milk and flour. Season with Salt, pepper, garlic and seasonings.

2. Pour a couple of table spoons vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop ¼ cupfuls of the batter in the skillet and flatten slightly. Turn the fritters over when the center appears dry. Cook other side until golden brown

Whatever Wednesday - Biscuit Empanadas

Now on to food. It is out of necessity we create or invent. I am not sure if that is a quote, but it is something I am saying now. I have been getting tired of eating the same thing. I really wanted empanadas, but I didn’t have any pie crust. And I was just too lazy to make some. So the mother of invention stepped in and I looked at my fridge. I had taco meat, cheese and biscuits bought on sale and BOOM! Biscuit empanadas were born. We have had this twice. It has gone over well both times. I have been telling my friends and they are willing to try it too.  You can get biscuit coupons here.

Biscuit Empanadas

Ingredients:

1 Can 8 count Biscuits
1 lb. Browned Ground Meat with taco seasoning
1 Cup Cheese
1 Cup Onion (Optional)

1. Open Biscuits and take a rolling pin and flatten out each of the 8 biscuits into about a 6-8 inch circle. Using flour for dusting so they won’t stick.

2. When all are rolled out, take about 1 ½ tablespoons of Browned Taco Meat and place in the center. Then top with Cheese. Fold the dough over and seal with a little water and a fork. 

3. Bake in the oven per instructions for the biscuit empanadas. Super simple and very delicious.

Do you have a recipe you would like to share? Please leave a link below.

Meals

Are you getting in the back to school mode yet? I am there and trying to figure out fun lunch ideas for my daughter. Sandwiches everyday is not going to cut it. I just thought of something today and tested it in my kitchen. I call it Cheesy Bread.

I normally buy the 9 grain or whole wheat fresh baked bread that is discounted in the back of the store. I freeze this and we take it out as we need it and warm it up in the toaster. This bread is smaller than the average size loaf I use a couple of more slices than I would the average loaf.

First place the bread in the toaster. You want it to be nice and dry and crunchy. Then I placed some shredded cheese and sprinkled some parmesan on top. I put it in the microwave for 1 minute or until the cheese is nice and bubbly. Then I take it out and let it cool. You can cut it up into bite size pieces or leave as is. Then I put some pasta sauce in a small dish to dunk the slices. This was delicious. It was just like pizza, but the bread doesn’t get soggy with the sauce. I am definitely doing this again.

A small variation could be adding some Italian spices to the top of the cheese or adding different cheeses.

I hope you enjoy.

Tips for Tuesday

I am reposting this article, since it was so popular a couple of months ago.

With many of us couponing or trying to save money we need to stretch those box meals a little further. For me a simple box meal just doesn’t feed all five of us.  I like to have leftovers for little face and me for lunch the next day. It is easier to decide what we will eat and I don’t have to make a big meal just for two people.

I would like to share with you a few ideas I have for adding flavor to boxed meals without adding sodium. The sodium content of these is amazingly high. I try not to feed these to my family very often, but they are better than buying fast food for five of us. I will do it in a pinch.

The best thing to add to any meal is an onion. I can purchase these for $0.49 lbs. So I am only adding $0.49 extra cost to my meal. I usually use ½ or 1 onion chopped and sautéed . This adds not only lots of flavor but around a ½ to 1 pound of food to the meal. The kids don’t even know it is in there, since most boxed meals have onion powder. Adding onion ramps up the flavor and increases the vegetables for the meal.

I also like to add carrots, especially to higher sodium meals. This will help decrease the salty taste in a meal. I will add around 1 or 2 peeled and either shredded, pureed or chopped finely. This is around ¼ to a ½ cup of carrots. What a sneaky way to enter extra veggies into the kids meals and they don’t even know. I like to add carrots to Sloppy Joes too. We just need a little more to make it stretch to feed all of us.

Corn is the next best thing to add to a meal. I find it goes well especially with Mexican dishes. I try to buy frozen when I can. Otherwise just open a can and pour it in. I like the cream style corn with the Asian Rice a Roni. Use the water from the can for the water to add to the dish. This will add just a little more flavor than just regular water. I will also save the water from the corn and use this for soups later.

Try adding peas to a meal. If you or your kids don’t like the taste of peas try pureeing them and add that to the meal. You won’t see them or taste them either. I like to add peas to fried rice and canned soups.

Beans can be added for extra protein to any dish. I like black beans for Mexican dishes. Sometimes I will add both corn and black beans to stretch a meal.

Try adding a little of two or three of the above mentioned vegetables to each meal to see what you can come up with and not change the taste too much. This is a fun experiment to try with your family. Try other vegetables you like to see what other combinations you can come up with. Look at the box and see what dehydrated veggies are already in there and add the real thing. This is a great way to stretch a meal for just a few pennies per meal.

Do you normally add anything to a box meal? What are your favorite recipes to add veggies to? What Veggies do you add?

*Photos provided courtesy of Wikipedia

Tips for Tuesday

With many of us couponing or trying to save money we need to stretch those box meals a little further. For me a simple box meal just doesn’t feed all five of us.  I like to have leftovers for little face and me for lunch the next day. It is easier to decide what we will eat and I don’t have to make a big meal just for two people.

I would like to share with you a few ideas I have for adding flavor to boxed meals without adding sodium. The sodium content of these is amazingly high. I try not to feed these to my family very often, but they are better than buying fast food for five of us. I will do it in a pinch.

The best thing to add to any meal is an onion. I can purchase these for $0.49 lbs. So I am only adding $0.49 extra cost to my meal. I usually use ½ or 1 onion chopped and sautéed . This adds not only lots of flavor but around a ½ to 1 pound of food to the meal. The kids don’t even know it is in there, since most boxed meals have onion powder. Adding onion ramps up the flavor and increases the vegetables for the meal.

I also like to add carrots, especially to higher sodium meals. This will help decrease the salty taste in a meal. I will add around 1 or 2 peeled and either shredded, pureed or chopped finely. This is around ¼ to a ½ cup of carrots. What a sneaky way to enter extra veggies into the kids meals and they don’t even know. I like to add carrots to Sloppy Joes too. We just need a little more to make it stretch to feed all of us.

Corn is the next best thing to add to a meal. I find it goes well especially with Mexican dishes. I try to buy frozen when I can. Otherwise just open a can and pour it in. I like the cream style corn with the Asian Rice a Roni. Use the water from the can for the water to add to the dish. This will add just a little more flavor than just regular water. I will also save the water from the corn and use this for soups later.

Try adding peas to a meal. If you or your kids don’t like the taste of peas try pureeing them and add that to the meal. You won’t see them or taste them either. I like to add peas to fried rice and canned soups.

Beans can be added for extra protein to any dish. I like black beans for Mexican dishes. Sometimes I will add both corn and black beans to stretch a meal.

Try adding a little of two or three of the above mentioned vegetables to each meal to see what you can come up with and not change the taste too much. This is a fun experiment to try with your family. Try other vegetables you like to see what other combinations you can come up with. Look at the box and see what dehydrated veggies are already in there and add the real thing. This is a great way to stretch a meal for just a few pennies per meal.

Do you normally add anything to a box meal? What are your favorite recipes to add veggies to? What Veggies do you add?

*Photos provided courtesy of Wikipedia