Tuesday Dinner

Curried Coconut Chicken

This dish has gone from being a completely unfamiliar flavor profile to one of my family's favorite meals. The Kid does a fist-pump in the air whenever I mention what I'm cooking for dinner.

I can't lay claim to the recipe because it's not mine and my only changes are minor. (I use a little less chicken, a whole onion, etc. Stuff like that.) It's all kinds of awesome, though, no matter how I tweak it to suit my needs.

Totals:

$2.50 (1/2 of 2.5 lb bag bought BOGO at HT)
$1.37 - 1 can coconut milk
.50 - 1 onion
.25 - 1 can tomato sauce
.33 - 1 can diced tomatoes
.20 - rice

$5.15 for dinner for 3 (with enough leftover for about 1 more serving)

Thursday Dinner

Crunchy Shrimp Stir-Fry

Usually when I make stir-fry, I use chicken. I thaw it, cube it, marinate it in soy sauce, toss it in cornstarch, stir-fry it, remove it from the pan, stir-fry my veggies, then add the chicken back at the end. It's delicious, but time-consuming.

Last night I wanted that taste, but didn't feel like putting forth that amount of effort. I remembered that I had a box of SeaPak popcorn shrimp in the freezer and decided to try to shortcut the process. (There are frequent coupons for this product and both Food Lion and Harris Teeter regularly put it on sale BOGO. When you can combine the two, it's about a buck a box.)

I made the rice in the microwave as I always do. When the rice had 15 minutes left, I put the shrimp in the oven according to the package directions. When the shrimp had about 5 minutes left, I put the veggies in the skillet to stir-fry. (The veggie blend I use is called Asparagus Stir-Fry and it's from WalMart, sold in the frozen vegetable case.) Everything was done at about the same time, so I poured in about 1/3 bottle Kikkoman stir-fry sauce into the veggies, tossed in the shrimp hot from the oven, and served the whole thing over rice.

It was so awesome (and so easy!) it may become my new standard way of doing stir-fry. Even The Kid, who isn't crazy about breaded shrimp, gobbled it down and said to always make it this way from now on.

Totals:

$1 - shrimp (BOGO + coupon)
$1.39 - vegetables
.60 - stir fry sauce ($1.79/bottle at WalMart)
.20 - rice

$3.19 for dinner for 3

Wednesday Dinner

Tonight was an exact repeat of dinner I served last month - Citrus Shrimp with rice and Sesame Broccoli.

I've made this for family, friends, even a bunch of picky little kids and I've never met anyone who didn't love it.

Totals:

$3 - shrimp (used 1 lb for 3 of us instead of 1.5 lbs in my recipe)
.20 - rice
$1 - orange & lemon
.25 - additional sauce ingredients
$1.50 - broccoli

$6.05 for dinner for 3

Saturday Dinner

I'm still sick (head cold) and still not up for cooking, but I really wanted something warm and rich and comforting for dinner tonight, so I solicited some help from my family to make Mexican Rice. Mainly I sat at the kitchen table and "directed traffic" - chop that, add this, stir, etc.

Mexican Rice

1 lb. ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
3 slices bacon, diced
1.5 cups uncooked rice
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 packet taco seasoning mix
2 cups chicken broth or water (I used chicken broth)
shredded cheese (I used cheddar/jack blend)

Brown ground turkey in large nonstick skillet; remove and drain. In same skillet, saute diced bacon with onion until bacon is cooked. Add turkey back to the pan along with remaining ingredients except cheese. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 - 25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Add a little more chicken broth or water if it starts to get too dry. Top with shredded cheese and replace cover for a minute or two until cheese melts. This dish feeds 6 - 8 generously.

Options: I had both leftover corn and leftover black beans in the fridge -about 1 cup of each - so I threw them in.

My head is too fuzzy to do all the calculations, but I estimate this dish cost about $4 based on $1.29 chub of turkey, bacon & cheese bought on sale, taco seasoning free after triple coupons, etc. But even if you paid full price for every ingredient, this would still be a pretty economical dish to make given how many people it feeds.

Monday Dinner

I broke out the grill tonight for what may be the last time this summer. Awhile back, I splurged on a boneless marinated lamb shoulder and decided it was finally time to cook it. (This particular roast was originally $14 and change but I got it for about $7 after meat markdown + coupon.) So I grilled it to medium-rare, sliced it thin and served it with yellow cherry tomatoes from my garden (these need no embellishment) and my Fake-Out Lemon Broccoli Risotto.

Totals:

$7 - lamb
$1.25 - broccoli
$2 - other risotto ingredients
free - cherry tomatoes

$10.25 for dinner for 3 (with lamb and risotto left over)

NOTE: The wine department can be a great source for coupons, and they are often for unbranded items that never have coupons (fresh meat, produce, gourmet cheeses, etc). For this lamb roast, I used a coupon for $4 off any fresh meat that came off a wine bottle.

Tuesday Dinner

Tonight's dinner was a mix of homemade and ready-made. I cooked Chicken Fried Rice from stratch, and rounded out the meal with ready-made egg rolls.

For the fried rice, I cut 2 boneless chicken breasts into cubes and marinated in soy sauce for about an hour. I tossed them in a little cornstarch (my secret) and stir-fried in a little oil until browned and crispy. I removed them from the pan and added 2 eggs, lightly beaten, then cooked until they were scrambled and set. I set these aside with the chicken. I added a bit more oil to the pan and stir-fried 1 chopped onion for about 5 minutes, then added 1 tsp. garlic and cooked another minute. I added 3 cups cold cooked rice (I cooked this morning) and stir-fried everything for about 3 minutes, adding about 3 Tablespoons soy sauce. At the end, I stirred in 1/2 of an 8oz package frozen peas, the chicken and the scrambled egg, and let cook another few minutes or until everything was heated through.

The egg rolls are a brand I've only seen sold at WalMart, in the deli cases up front. $2.50 for a package of 5. I usually get the the shrimp variety, which is low-fat ( 3 grams per egg roll) and delicious.

On Michelle's suggestion (Hi Michelle!), I'm going to start posting photos of my meals when possible. Of course, some things just won't lend themselves to photos, and I'm sure I'll have photos that won't come out well, but I'm going to try and make them a regular part of this blog.

Totals:

$1.50 - chicken (about 12 oz. purchased at HT BOGO sale)
.41 - 1/2 package peas
.20 - rice
.25 - onion
.15 - eggs

$2.50 - egg rolls

$5.01 for dinner for 4 (sister joined us)