struggling

Ok our finances stink right now, we are frugal by nature, but this is a bit ridiculous.

We have $30 to make it til Thursday afternoon when I can deposit Chris's next check, its just a little too tight.

We have gotten seriously behind in our bills because of medical bills and whatnot, our foodstamps have been temporarily cancelled thanks to some carelessness and I am beyond frustrated at our situation.

I have however discovered that for about $20 a week I can feed my family pretty well so long as I keep my pantry stocked. I have really done a good job of keeping stocked but as I watch it drain to keep us going its pretty scary. Certain members of our household have had to learn how to accept that sometimes their favorites are just going to have to wait.

Frugal Challenge

What's for dinner?
I have Chicken, Chicken and More chicken
I have Bison Steak
I have Ground Buffalo
I have Pathetic Looking Pork Chops
I have Minute Steaks
I have Hot Dogs
I have a roll of Sausage
I have 3 bags each Frozen corn and Green Beans
I have Salmon
I have chicken Fried steak

I have frozen bread dough
and a goal of spending less than $50 over the next two weeks, can it be done??

Ok, I do have spices and a pretty good pantry full of dry stuff.

Here are my meal ideas

1. White Chicken Chili made from Dry beans and using Bouillon instead of broth
2. Chicken Parmesan made using canned sauce and pre breaded chicken out of the freezer
3. Minute steaks smothered with Canned mushrooms and sliced onions, served on baked frozen bread dough seasoned accordingly (garlic goes on everything, and I have several salt free Montreal steak or chicken seasoning blends, no salt in this house)
4. Buffalo chicken with baked smiles Butter and Frank's red hot with a touch of lemon juice, all out of freezer
5. Chicken, Black beans and rice black beans cooked from dry
6. Pathetic Looking Pork Chops cooked in Crockpot with BBQ sauce and pulled turned into BBQ Pork sandwiches, served with Baked Beans and a loaf of Frozen bread dough
7. Ground Buffalo Tacos shells and salsa in pantry
8. Spaghetti with sausage added to the canned sauce with garlic bread out of freezer
9. Chicken tortilla soup Once again black beans from dry
10. Lemon Garlic Chicken
11. Chicken Quesadillas
12. Hot Dogs, Macaroni salad (tuna, pasta, onions, mayo, and celery)
13. Chicken Fried steak, white gravy Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes (have gravy mix, need taters)
14. baked salmon

Looking at these 14 meals, I would need to buy a box of mashed taters, a bag of onions, a bag of regular potatoes to bake, some cheese, and a jar of salad dressing and another stalk of celery.

quick dinner

Normally I wouldn't do this, but we had a huge sale here not that long ago on Chicken Voila, since I had orientation tonight this made a good quick dinner.

I added two chicken breast halves and voila, dinner for 3 quick and easy.

Total cost less than $4 for the whole meal.

Taco Soup Improved

This was an improvised recipe that we really liked.

The original recipe was
14.5 ounce Rotel Tomatoes
1lb ground beef
1 can each
Beef Broth
Corn
kidney beans
Chili beans all undrained
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing
and 1-2 cans water
Cook in Crock pot all day.

Now we like the original recipe, but since we just moved, I still don't know where everything is, and I didn't realize what we wanted early enough to crock pot this meal.

I used 1 can rotel tomatoes, 1 can beef Broth, 1 can corn, that was it for following the recipe.
I did not have (or could not find) Kidney or chili beans, so I used one can refried and 1 can of Black beans, I do not buy Taco seasoning packets (we buy a huge jar) or Ranch dressing mix, so I used about a quarter cup of powdered taco seasoning, and left out the ranch altogether.
Then, I added some salsa because it seemed a bit bland (we like things hot and spicey here)
I cooked up about 3 lbs of ground beef, divided it into 4 meals, putting 3 away for other uses....and cooked the soup on the stove.

When it was done, We topped it with Mexican Quesadilla cheese blend (asiago, monterey jack, and white cheddar I think), sour cream, and tortilla strips, next time, I think I am gonna make my black beans from scratch and switch the tortilla strips for a quarter bag of doritos, that way we aren't tempted to nibble the strips til they are gone.

scrambled brains

No, we aren't eating brains around here, but mine have been quite scrambled lately, my menus have been a shambles and I can barely tell which end is up at this moment.

menu plan for this week though....hopefully baring any total misery.

Sunday, Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Monday, Neuro-Opthamologist appointment, Chicken Voila (easy and I don't need to see what I am doing)
Tuesday, Minute Steaks cooked with Mushrooms and Onions
Wednesday, I have orientation, Chris and Lauren will have Tater Tot Casserole
Thursday, Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy and Mashed Potatoes and Garlic green Beans
Friday, Taco Soup
Saturday, Taco Salad