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These baby friendly cinnamon rolls are sweetened with just bananas! They are only 3 ingredients and will have your whole house smelling like fall goodness!
So I got this free watermelon. Obviously watermelon is good just to eat, but I was looking for something interesting to do with it, and wanted to incorporate it into a meal. First, I scooped out balls of watermelon. I combined this with some quinoa (I used some one-minute quinoa that I got couponing), plus chopped cucumber a neighbor gave me, a purple onion from Fair Foods, and canned black beans from couponing. I drizzled some balsamic salad dressing over it. It was quite a hit. I don't have a melon baller, but at some point we seemed to have acquired these kid spoons that are scooplike rather than spoon-shaped, which suck as spoons, but work great for making melon balls. Yes, my grown ass made melon balls with an alien spoon. Don't judge. The melon balls weren't super spherical, but the watermelon was overripe, so they wouldn't have been even if I had a melon baller. +1 for the weird alien spoon. Next, since the watermelon was super overripe, there was a lot of juice and shredded melon left in the shell. I didn't want to waste it, so I combined it with some kosher/vegan agar-based jello-type stuff I had on hand. I made the whole thing in the watermelon shell, because this looked fun. I poured as much of the liquid/liquifying watermelon pulp into the measuring cup so I wouldn't end up with too much liquid, then made sure the water was fully boiling, and poured it into the cup. I needed two cups for the amount I made, and I made it a little under to make sure it would set up with the fruit pieces added. It turned out great, and was a big hit with both kids and adults. Someone suggested the watermelon juice would also be good for margaritas or jello shots, which seems like it would also be pretty great.
Chili (shown here on some delicious nachos) is one of my favorite standby meals. Everyone in the household likes it, it keeps for a week in the fridge if it lasts that long, it freezes well, and best of all, it's incredibly easy and cheap to make. It's easy to make with couponing finds, pantry staples, veggies from Fair Foods, WIC, or your other favorite source. Pretty much all you absolutely need is beans, some sort of tomato product, and seasoning. My easiest chili recipe is quite cheap, but isn't actually the cheapest recipe I've come up with (which I'll get to later.) Here's what you need: Two cans of beans -- I used one can of kidney beans and one can of black beans One 16-ounce can of diced tomatoes -- can also use one can of tomato sauce, one can of tomato puree plus water to make it about 16 ounces, or two to three fresh tomatoes One onion Spices -- I used Goya adobo plus lots of cumin Peppers with some heat to them, or powdered pepper, or hot sauce -- I used hot sauce Put everything in a pot. Cook on the stove until boiling, then turn down and simmer on low for about two hours, until it looks like chili. If it needs it, add a pinch of sugar to bring out flavor and help everything caramelize. Add salt, more seasonings, and more hot sauce or other hot peppers if needed. As listed here, it makes about six servings for about $2.50 worth of ingredients (assuming full shelf price). If you coupon, you likely have cans of beans and tomato products in your stash that were somewhere between free and 20 cents each. If I have time, I prefer to cook chili in a slow cooker. It's less likely to stick and turns out better, but you need to plan ahead. I would at least double the batch if I were doing this. You can also add veggies to chili. Zucchini and yellow summer squash are my favorites. Corn, yams, pumpkin, spinach, kale, and peppers are all great too. Especially if you're using the slow cooker, I imagine you could add just about any vegetables, since they get really soft and blend together with the other ingredients. If you want to make the recipe even cheaper, use dried beans. Obviously this method takes several hours, even if you use the stove on high heat. They're considerably cheaper though, since a pound of dried beans is about the same price as a can but will absorb water and yield a whole pot. I don't bother soaking beans when doing slow-cooker chili. My slow cooker is the large oval type, and I generally put a total of one pound of dried beans (usually some combination of kidney, pinto, and black beans to add up to one pound). For a pound of beans, I would use two to three cans of tomato products or several pounds of fresh tomatoes, two to three onions, and a lot more spices. Where to get inexpensive spices warrants its own post, I think. Stay tuned!
Afritada is a Filipino favorite with tender chicken cooked in a rich savory tomato-based sauce. Cooked low and slow until the oil separates from the sauce and the meat becomes fork-tender.
If you have a cluster feeding baby, it can be hard to figure out your schedule and routine. Check out this sample cluster feeding schedule for baby.
Go ahead and double this Chili Garlic Fried Cauliflower recipe from Delish.com and you'll have no regrets.
This was one of the easiest things I've made recently and one of the cheapest. I had several huge zucchinis from my garden, even after I gave a bunch away to anyone who would take some. I also had onions, jalapeños, and habañeros from my garden, plus green peppers, avocados and limes from Fair Foods. I wasn't planning to use the peppers, but ended up needing them because Old El Paso and I have differing ideas about what constitutes "seasoning." Maybe I should start a class action suit. Just kidding. Mostly. I grew these, yo I sauteed the zucchini, green peppers, and onions, along with a packet of Old El Paso fajita seasoning that a coupon deal had paid me to take out of the store. I then tasted the stuff and realized that the packet contained approximately nothing, despite claiming to contain a bunch of spices. Which is weird, because their chili seasoning and taco seasoning are all right. This was bland though. I ended up adding soy sauce, lime juice, adobo, habañeros, and cumin. So, basically it was like I made my own seasoning anyway. Oh well, still cheap, and all stuff I had on hand. Next time there's a deal on the seasoning packets, I'll just get the taco one. There's not a lot of difference in the actual spices included, and I can add soy sauce and lime juice to the fajitas myself. The dim lighting makes the bad tortillas not look as bright white or spongy as they actually are. Do not be fooled. I also had several boxes of Goya Spanish rice from couponing and Old El Paso tortillas that were free from couponing. FYI, the Old El Paso tortillas aren't very good. The flour is the overly bleached bright white type and they're kind of spongy and puffy, like bad overly processed white bread. Even store brand are better than these. They were free though, and they taste fine when filled with deliciously seasoning veggies. Oh, and I made some guacamole too, because guacamole. Threw it all into the spongy tortillas, and there's some good stuff. There was enough for leftovers too, because there was so much damn zucchini. They kept well when pre-assembled and taken for lunches. (Sour cream and guacamole transported on the side if you're able to reheat it).
I made these super quick and easy pancakes using ingredients I got for free. A local organization gave us some basic food packages that contained bags of oats, bags of rice, bags of dried beans, canned tomatoes, frozen fruit, frozen vegetables. (The frozen fruits and vegetables were huge bags with no brand name on them and appeared to be foodservice surplus). So, yeah, these were quite similar ingredients to what WIC gives, so I'm going to tag this as WIC as well, even though we don't currently get WIC. As usual, I didn't really use a recipe, but I can reconstruct what I did. I put about 1-1/2 cups rolled oats and one frozen overripe banana (thawed first) in a large pitcher, added about a teaspoon of baking powder, then added almond milk a bit at a time until it was the right consistency to pour for pancakes. I mixed it with a stick blender. This is important; if you don't use either a stick blender or jar blender, which makes your oats the consistency of course oat flour, you will end up with something edible, but it will be more like oatmeal cookies with whole rolled oat pieces and it won't puff up and be chewy in the same way that this is. For syrup/compote/whatever, I microwaved frozen blueberries and sugar for one minute, stirred it, then put it in for another minute. It was boiling by the end of the two minutes. You can do the same on the stovetop. I didn't measure the sugar; you don't need to, and can just do it to your preferred sweetness and consistency. You can also add spices if you like. This technique will work without sugar, though it will be a thinner mixture if you don't use any. Regardless of amount of sugar, blueberries don't have enough pectin in them to gel into a spoonable jam-type mixture, so you won't get anything much thicker than what is shown here. (And I realize I should have used a plate that isn't the same color as blueberries so it's clearer what it looks like, but I was mostly focused on making breakfast, with blogging as an afterthought.) If you wanted this jam-type texture, you would either need to add store-bought pectin, or use half cranberries and half blueberries.
I can't even tell you how much I am loving the Fair Foods truck. They come to my neighborhood every week and offer whatever surplus produce they have for $2 per bag. The bags are actually around 15-20 pounds most weeks. One week they had cases of blemished tomatoes for $2 as well. Last week we got summer squash, onions, garlic, lemons, and tomatoes. This is some of the leftovers of the haul: For a quick dinner, I tossed onions and squash on a baking sheet and sprinkled it with oil, soy sauce, lemon juice from a couple of the lemons, and fajita spices. I roasted it in the oven until it looked amazing, then served with rice and sour cream on WIC tortillas. Amazing, fresh, healthy dinner (plus lunch the next day and still plenty of raw veggies left) for $2 plus a few cents' worth of items from my pantry.
Chicken Afritada is a popular chicken Filipino dish that is cooked in tomato sauce with carrots, potatoes and bell peppers as the main vegetables.
Amazing vegetarian enchiladas stuffed with black beans, broccoli, bell pepper and spinach, topped with homemade red sauce. My favorite enchilada recipe! Recipe yields 8 enchiladas, enough for about 4 servings.
Have I mentioned I have a bunch of potatoes? Potato, potato, potaaaatoooo. I made potato salad with the tiny potatoes, the red potatoes, and the purple potatoes. It tasted like potato salad, except it looked red and purple. There was probably something more interesting I could have made that specifically used tiny potatoes and/or purple potatoes, but I made this, and it was good. I also made potato tacos. I'm not sure if potato tacos are a thing, but I imagine they probably are, because root vegetables are a staple of traditional diets in the Americas. I chopped the potatoes up with onions and made basically homefries, but with more seasoning (I used jalapeño sauce, smoked red chili, and lots of cumin). I had small corn tortillas leftover from something, so I served the potatoes on those with tomato salsa, corn salsa from Trader Joe's (this stuff is seriously good; I highly recommend it), and some leftover goat cheese salad crumbles a neighbor gae me, which were the closest thing I had to cotija or similar. They turned out great, and were very popular among my family.
Breastfeeding pain is not uncommon. Here are the 10 most common breastfeeding problems moms deal with, including those that cause breastfeeding pain, and how to deal.
This vegan chicken piccata is so close to the authentic dish, thanks to homemade seitan, made with a tender inside, and crispy outside! Coated in a light, creamy lemon caper sauce!
This is a veggie burger recipe I invented through a little experimentation. The kids love veggie burgers, but they're so expensive, and even with coupons, are rarely cheaper than about 75 cents per patty. The recipe is vegan and uses simple household ingredients. Pictured: veggie burger with the cheap homemade bread I featured previously and some homemade oven fries. Oh, and fake iced tea that was free with coupons, mayo and barbeque sauce that were free with coupons, plus some produce from the Fair Foods truck. This meal probably cost about a dollar for the whole family and a few guests. Ingredients: Steel cut oats (I've also used rolled oats, and this works well too) Black beans Optional: Seasoning Ketchup, tomato sauce, pasta sauce or barbeque sauce -- whatever you have I cook the black beans and the oatmeal in the slow cooker, separately. I don't have two slow cookers, but these are things I tend to make large recipes of on a regular basis and keep in the fridge, because they're useful for cheap-and-easy cooking. The recipe I use for steel cut oats is this one. I do it plain so I have it available for recipes like this, then if anyone wants to add fruit or anything or breakfast, we add it to individual portions and microwave them. FYI, the best prices on steel cut oats are the Trader Joe's brand and the Stop and Shop brand. If you can get a coupon for the ones in the metal can, the cans are pretty fabulous for later storing sewing supplies, crayons, dominoes, etc. I cook the black beans in the slow cooker as well. I use a recipe similar to this one. You can cook them to about the consistency shown in the recipe, or you can let it go longer until they're more like refried beans; either will work for the veggie burgers. Once you have your beans and your oatmeal, put about an equal amount of each into a large bowl. Add whatever flavors you like in your veggie burgers. I usually add a few tablespoons of whatever tomato product was on sale (ketchup, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, barbeque sauce, etc.) plus adobo seasoning, or a similar blend of salt, pepper, onion, garlic, etc. The mixture should be firm enough to form into veggie patties. If not, add flour or bread crumbs until it is. If you don't do wheat, I'm sure rolled oats would work. You can also add interesting seasonings or whatever veggies you have around; we've done it with spinach and some jarred Indian spices. Next, form the burgers into patties about the size of boxed veggie patties, or bigger or smaller as you like. You can form them in flour or bread crumbs as needed so that they aren't sticky and they form correctly. Cook the patties either in the oven on a lightly oiled baking sheet, or pan-fry them with a small amount of oil until browned and cooked through. Both methods seem to work equally well. Pan-frying probably gets them a bit more even and takes less time per burger, though if you made more than three or four, they won't all fit in the pan so you don't actually save time. They take under 10 minutes in the pan and usually about 20-30 in the oven. I cook them at 400 or so, depending what else might be in the oven. This time I also tossed in some potatoes from Fair Foods that I sliced up and brushed with oil and salt. Enjoy!
This is a recipe for beef mechado.
Crispy and delicious, easy homemade air fryer taquitos are a healthy twist on the classic Mexican dish. Shredded chicken wrapped in flour tortillas and air-fried to perfection!
Tender rosemary dumplings, vegan chicken and veggies are simmered in a rich herbed broth in this hearty vegan chicken and dumplings stew from Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking.
We like to call this a miracle recipe because it not only gets your kids to eat cauliflower, it gets them to like it.
If you have a cluster feeding baby, it can be hard to figure out your schedule and routine. Check out this sample cluster feeding schedule for baby.
This is a great to introduce Kimchi to the unadventurous eater.
These frittata fingers make the best finger food for baby led weaning and toddlers!
There’s no glory in changing diapers. There’s no glory in refereeing arguments. There’s no glory in picking your toddler’s dinner up off the floor. There’s no glory in hauling the kids to and from practices and activities and playdates. There’s no glory in cleaning spit up off your shirt . . . again. There’s no glory in helping your kids with homework. There’s no glory in rinsing out yet another blowout-stained onesie in the bathroom sink. There’s no glory in changing wet sheets in the middle of the night. There’s no glory in cluster feeding. There’s no glory in showing...
El día del niño se acerca y tenemos que celebrar a los pequeñines del hogar. No es necesario gastar mucho dinero para hacerlos felices, además recurrir a este tipo de regalos los estimula mental y emocionalmente. ¡Crea hermosos recuerdos que pueda conservar para siempre! 1. Una botella con una medusa. No una real, por supuesto. […]
I got 15 avocados and four pounds of spinach from Fair Foods yesterday. I don't really need to make a WTHDIDWTV for avocados, right? They're easy to use for guacamole, sandwiches, or dumping some adobo on them and eating them. The four pounds of spinach though is requiring some creativity, and tonight's dinner involved both, so there. I had some Vietnamese rice paper spring roll wrappers and some Vietnamese vermicelli, both bought from as Asian market for a dollar or so each. (Note to self: write blog post on things one can find in Asian markets). I made spring rolls with vermicelli, avocado with adobo on it, and raw spinach leaves: Authentic spring rolls would generally have more flavor to them by way of cilanto, mint, and/or basil. I didn't have any of that stuff, and it's usually expensive. So the rolls were a little bland, but the texture was perfect, and it was nothing some condiments didn't take care of. (If you do the coupon thang, you have a whole stash of condiments that were free or near free, right? We poured some Lawry's teriyaki sauce and sesame-ginger sauce up in these, and they were perfect.)
The fair foods truck this week had okra, corn, onions, red potatoes, grapefruit, oranges, bananas, and iceberg lettuce. Amazing. I grilled the okra, which is incredibly easy and in my opinion tastes pretty much the same as fried okra. Just cut off the ends, put it on a baking sheet, drizzled it with olive oil and some spices, and baked at 450 until it looked done: Some of the okra we ate just like this. The rest, I used to make the fritters. I cut up about a cup or so of okra into small pieces, along with one small onion that I had sliced and grilled, plus the kernals from half an ear of corn, also grilled in the oven in the same way. I added half a cup of cornmeal, half a cup of flour, adobo, cumin, about half a cup of cheddar cheese, then enough milk to make it into a firm dough. I dropped it onto a baking sheet, flattened them out a bit, and baked at 400 until done:
