The Pentons

Well, week 1 I didn't get to cook everything that I planned.  We went out to dinner 2 different nights, one time to Red Robin where we got their Southwestern Salad for 5.99 and once to KFC where their 7 piece meal deal was $10 (our money for eating out comes from a separate budget so I still have $40 to spend on eating out this month), and I didn't cook on Saturday night.  So all in all we didn't have our chicken satay, white bean/sausage rigatoni, or spicy pan fried fish.  So those will be back on the menu for this week.

Mon:  Spicy pan fried fish
Tues:  Chicken Satay with salad
Wed:  Lasagna
Thurs: Chicken Noodle toss
Fri:  White bean/sausage rigatoni
Sat:  Breakfast Quiches

I posted the other recipes previously so here is the Chicken Noodle Toss:

Make a spice rub for the chicken:  1/4 c. brown sugar, 2T paprika, 2t salt, 2 t coriander, 1 t pepper, 1 t garlic powder, 1/2 t cayenne pepper, 8 chicken breasts.

Rub chicken with the spice mixture.  Bake in oven at 400 for 20 min.  Cool for 30 min.  You can freeze 4 of the chicken breasts to use for another meal and use 4 in the noodle toss.

Noodle toss:  You can use any kind of noodles, they suggest rice sticks, but I just use spaghetti.  Cook the noodles in boiling water.  Combine chicken (diced), 2 T lime juice, 2 T soy sauce and 1 medium green onion.  Toss mixture with noodles and serve on top of arugula, basil, and cilantro. 

Breakfast Quiches


This weeks shopping trip:
Again I'll be shopping on Tuesday this week and since I went slightly over budget last week on my shopping I only have $5!  I only need to buy lettuce, oranges, green onions and eggs.  Can I do this??  Stay tuned...

So today I went grocery shopping and I spent $35 (I went a little over but a lot of the things I bought are for 2 weeks time so next week I won't really do any shopping except maybe produce)  This is what I got:

14 boxes of cereal (this will be enough for the whole month)
4 gallons of milk
10 lbs of chicken (this will last the whole month)
Sausage
eggs
oranges
limes
cilantro
tomatoes
lasagna noodles
tortillas (a pack of 30)

Not bad I think.  I didn't get any snacks really but I have some in our food storage so I think we'll be okay.  My total savings was $27.  Yahoo!! 

So this week starts my $100 challenge!  I will do my grocery shopping on Tuesday this week and I plan on spending only $30.  I will buy Chicken (I usually get bone in with skin because its cheaper--this week at Smiths its .99/lb), Sausage, tortillas (I get these at the bread store by my work for $1.50 for the wheat ones), eggs, oranges, lettuce, tomatoes, limes, cilantro, and cereal (its on sale at Smiths, you buy 4 and get 2 gallons of milk for free!  I will probably get about 10 boxes)  See my upcoming posts for the deals I got this week!!

This is what I'll be cooking this week:

Mon:  Teriyaki chicken with rice (I think I've posted this recipe before)
Tues:  Vegetable Fritatta
Wed:  Tacos (Craigs favorite!)
Thurs:  White bean sausage rigatoni
Fri:  Spicy pan fried fish with salad
Sat:  Chicken Satay with rice pilaf
Sun:  Crock pot BBQ chicken

So if you know me, all of my meals take under 30 min. to cook so I'll post the recipes below for these meals if you are interested in a fast meal!

Vegetable Fritatta:  this is actually a new recipe for me but I've made something similar to this before.

Combine 8 eggs and 1 T basil.  In a skillet combine 1 c. frozen corn, 1/2 c. zucchini and 1/3 c. green onion.  Add 3/4 c. chopped roma tomatoes.  Cook for 5 min or until veges are crisp.  Pour egg mixture on top of veges cook on medium heat.  As it cooks lift edges of the eggs so that uncooked eggs can cook.  Sprinkle with cheese.  I think I will serve it with garlic bread.

White bean sausage rigatoni:

Cook 2 cups rigatoni.  In large saucepan combine 1 can kidney beans, 1 can stewed tomatoes undrained, 8 ounces cooked sausage, 1/3 c. fresh basil or 1 T. dried basil.  Heat mixture thoroughly, put on top of pasta and serve!

Spicy Fried fish:

Prepare dip for fish:  1/4 c. cornmeal, 1/4 c. flour, 3/4 t cayenne pepper, 1/2 t chili powder, 1/2 t garlic powder, 1/2 t paprika.

Dip thawed fish fillets (whatever kind of fish you want, we will have cod) into beaten egg mixture and then into the prepared dip.  Fry in a skillet with canola or olive oil.  Cook 3-4 minutes for each side of the fish.  Drain on paper towels.

Chicken Satay:

Whisk 4 T. peanut butter and 1/3 c. soy sauce, coat 4 pieces of cubed chicken.  Put chicken on wooden skewers (make sure to soak these!!) Broil for 5 min.  Rice pilaf I take the poach of pre-made uncle ben's and serve that (I know, I cheat)

Crock pot BBQ chick:

Take chicken with bones and skin and place in a crock pot with 1 whole container BBQ sauce, on low for 8 hours.  Take out and enjoy.  I will probably serve this with salad...you can never have too much salad!!

So last night we went to see Avatar.  I went in with no expectations.  I had heard from other people that it was good but I didn't really know what it was about, etc.  I was blown out of the water!  It was really good!  Craig said that it was the first good movie since Lord of the Rings...which for Craig to say that it means a lot.  I liked it because it was an original idea, and really very intriguing.  It was in 3-D which I'm not the biggest fan of because it gives me a headache and sets my balance off, but other than that I highly recommend it!!

So, many of you may know that I'm a couponing fool and I buy everything at discount.  What you may not know is I have about a years supply of canned food all over my house...literally.  (ok maybe not that much but it seems like a lot becuase we live in a small apartment).  So I received some inspiration from a coupon blog that I follow and for the month of March ( I know I'm jumping the gun a little, but I'm trying to psych myself out for this) I'm going to only spend $100 on groceries, for the whole month.  Wow, do you think I can do it?  I will still have a small budget to go eat out ($50), and I will still have $30 to solely spend on food storage, but for everyday needs I will only spend $100.  Why am I doing this?  I got kinda depressed when I realized we weren't getting as much back in our tax return as I anticipated, apparently I didn't pay enough in taxes this last year (taxes, who needs them) anyways in order to compensate for my depression, I'm going to be saving more money than I usually do and where will I get this money...from the money I usually spend on food.  The question is now...do you think you could do it too??  Let me know if you're up for the challenge!