Pioneer Woman's Baked French Toast

While I'm having a crafting standstill my baking continues.  I've tried numerous French toast casserole recipes and none of them have turned out too well.  They are either mushy, overcooked, or not the right flavors to suit me. 

I got the Pioneer Woman's Holiday cookbook for Christmas this past year and was so excited to start cooking out of it.  My mom works for the school system and the cooks had a bag full of thick bread heals they were going to throw away.  Naturally my mom thought I could probably do something with them.  Originally I was going to make bread crumbs but decided I didn't want to take the time to blend them up in 20 different batches using my Magic Bullet.  That's when I thought of making a French toast casserole recipe with them.  I turned to the holiday cookbook because I'd remembered seeing a couple different breakfast casserole recipes and since Ree hasn't disappointed me yet with her tasty recipes I thought I had a good chance of this one turning out. 

Even so I only made an 8x8 dish instead of 9x13, for 2 reasons: 1. in case it turned out badly and then I wouldn't have a full pan to throw away 2. I didn't want to use up 8 of my eggs since I only had a little less than 2 dozen to last me a couple weeks before I go grocery shopping again.


4 eggs
1 1/4c milk
1/4c sugar
1T vanilla (I don't measure vanilla so I just dumped some in)
Crusty bread (enough to fill an 8x8 baking dish)

Topping
1/4c margarine-cold and cut into pieces
1/4c flour
1/4c brown sugar-packed
1/2t cinnamon
couple shakes of nutmeg
couple shakes of salt

*whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla and sugar together.  Spray your baking dish liberally with PAM.  Tear your crusty bread into chunks and fill your baking dish.  Pour the egg/milk mixture over top.  In a medium bowl mix your topping ingredients together using a large fork or pastry cutter.  You want it to look like crumbs or chunks.  Sprinkle over the top of the bread.  Put in fridge overnight.  Bake in the morning at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.  Top with syrup.

 I let the bread heals dry out over night so they egg/milk mixture would soak into them and not make them a mushy mess.  I didn't have any cream so instead I used 1 1/4c 2% milk.  Other than that I followed the recipe except halving everything.   I made it last night and let it sit in the fridge.  If you do this just don't forget it's in there like I did.  I ate a bowl of cereal when I got out of the shower and then remembered I had made the casserole.  So, breakfast for lunch anyone?

January/March 2014 Monthly Menu Plan

We didn't do our once a month shopping until this past weekend so my menu plan this month also covers the first week of February for us.


I have to say this month was a tough one to make everything fit into the budget I like to stay in and I'm realizing there are times when I have to bust that budget a little and be ok with that.  One of our local grocery stores was having an amazing sale on ground beef ($1.69/lb) and pork chops ($1.49/lb).  I had already planned on buying some ground beef but couldn't pass up the pork chop sale.  We ended up purchasing 10 pounds of ground beef for about $16 and 14 bone in pork chops for just under $8.  These types of sales rarely come around and usually when they do it's not when I'm doing my OAMS.  So I considered this a blessing and that God was looking out for us since with those purchases we shouldn't need pork chops for a good 2-3 months, and the beef should last us through February, so this will allow for me to make other meat purchases and give us some wiggle room next month.


Anyways, on to the menu plan, I have a plan of 28 meals this month, some of which will change a little since we purchased more beef than planned so we have room to make adjustments without depleting our meat supply.

Monthly Meal Plan

1.veggie pot pie  I use Pioneer Woman's chicken pot pie recipe for a base, I've made it before and love the flavor.  Instead of heavy cream I'm using milk, leaving out the chicken and adding green beans instead.
2. stuffed pepper soup: this is a new recipe I've never tried before but came across it and thought it sounded delicious.  I'm always on the lookout for new soup recipes.
3.breakfast for dinner: biscuits with gravy, turkey bacon, and scrambled eggs
4. pinto beans and corn bread- my husband and son love beans, instead of using bacon to season them I bought ham hock which is much less expensive.  I bought a package of 3 ham hock for $3.52 at my local Wal-Mart and will only use 1 for each recipe of pinto beans I make.
5. deer roast with potatoes, biscuits, and deviled eggs
6. homemade pizza
7. fried bologna sandwiches with chips and fruit
8. meatloaf (recipe below) with mashed potatoes, green beans, buttered bread
9. leftovers
10. chili dogs with macaroni & cheese and fruit
11. orange chicken with rice
12. grilled cheese with potato wedges and corn
13. breakfast for dinner: homemade waffles with homemade syrup & fruit
14. leftovers
15. ham and peppers Stromboli (recipe below)
16. black bean enchilada soup (frozen meal from last month) with corn bread
17. turkey Bolognese with breadsticks
18. hamburger steaks with baked potatoes & fruit
19. leftovers
20. breakfast for dinner: ham and cheese omelets
21. homemade pizza
22. onion soup pork chops (recipe below) with fried potatoes and green beans
23. chicken fried rice
24. breakfast for dinner: breakfast pizza, I love Pioneer Woman's breakfast pizza and made it here.  I decided since I bought all the goods to make homemade salsa I might as well use some for this pizza.  However this one will be a veggie breakfast pizza instead of having the sausage or bacon on top.  I always over cook them and it will be a little quicker for me to whip up this way.
25. baked ham shank, mashed potatoes biscuits, and corn
26. tacos with Spanish rice
27. leftovers
28. pork chop casserole another new recipe I found and thought I'd give it a try.


I don't do daily meal plans for breakfast or lunch since it all depends on what I'm in the mood to cook or not cook and what leftovers we have for lunch options.  Instead I make a list at the bottom of my monthly calendar meal plan of all the breakfast items I have ingredients to make.  This way I can take a quick glance and know exactly what we have to choose from.  Here's the list of breakfast foods for this month:

Breakfast

brown sugar muffins

scrambled eggs with bacon

homemade waffles

pancakes

sweet potato bread

cinnamon swirl bread

baked oatmeal

oatmeal with toast

toast

pumpkin muffins

French puffs

Lunch

egg salad

tuna salad

turkey sandwiches/wraps

pizza wraps

cheese and crackers with turkey or pepperoni

pb&j

grilled cheese plain or with turkey or pepperoni

Recipes:

Meatloaf:  Everyone has a different way of making meatloaf but I thought I'd share my basic recipe and ways I change it.


1 1/2lbs ground beef (I prefer to use 80/20 ground beef because there is less grease)
1 egg
about 1/2 cup bread crumbs (use more if necessary)
1 onion finely chopped (you could use minced dried onion if you don't have a regular onion)
salt and pepper
1/4c ketchup (can use tomato sauce if you're out of ketchup)
1/4c milk (this is just for moisture, I've made it without using milk with good results as well but if I think about it, I try to add it.)
-throw it all in a bowl and mix it up.  Form into a loaf in a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Bake at 350 for about an hour, check for doneness just to be on the safe side.


*I don't actually measure any of my ingredients for meatloaf because there's really no wrong way to mix it up so don't be afraid to add more or less of the ingredients above.




CHANGES:
*add green, red, and/or yellow bell peppers that are finely chopped
*add shredded carrots and finely diced celery. 
*add 1t minced garlic
*I've read where people advise to sauté any of the veggies (bell peppers, onion, carrots, celery, garlic) in a separate pan before adding them to the meat mixture.  I don't do this because I'm lazy and have no desire to add in extra steps unless I find it necessary.  I haven't every made a meatloaf where the veggies I used tasted raw or hard so I don't do this step, you can if you wish.




Onion Soup Pork Chops:
4 pork chops (bone in or boneless)
1 packet onion soup mix
water


place pork chops in a glass baking dish.  Sprinkle onion soup mix on top.  Add enough water just to cover the bottom of the dish (this is just for moisture so the chops don't dry out).  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30-60 minutes.  If you are using boneless wings they tend to be smaller and thinner so you will probably only need to bake them around 30 minutes.  Bone in tend to be a bit thicker and I usually bake them about 45 minutes to an hour.




Ham & Peppers Stromboli:
1 pizza crust.  Recipe I use can be found here.
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 yellow bell pepper chopped
1 small onion chopped
1c shredded cheese (any variety will work)
1c chopped ham (this can be lunch meat ham or leftover ham from a baked ham)
Italian seasoning
salt & pepper


roll pizza crust into a rectangle shape.  Sprinkle 3/4c cheese on center of crust, leaving dough on either side.  Top the cheese with red, green, & yellow peppers, the onion, and ham.  Sprinkle Italian seasoning on top then the salt and pepper.  Top with remaining 1/4c shredded cheese.  Bring both long sides of rectangle up over your ham/onion/pepper/cheese filling and pinch together covering your filling completely.  Pinch each end closed as well.  Take a butter knife and make three 1 1/2inch slits in the top of your Stromboli.  Place on a non-stick cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 until dough is golden brown (usually about 30-45 minutes).
*I love making Stromboli because you can literally make it a million different ways.  I've made pizza Stromboli with various combinations of pizza toppings, ham and cheese Stromboli, broccoli ham and cheese Stromboli, smoked sausage with green peppers & onion Stromboli, and an all veggie with bell peppers, broccoli & cheese.
*add some dipping sauces like pizza sauce or ranch dressing if you like.

Pioneer Woman Hamburger Soup

Let me start by saying, Holy Moly it is freakin cold here!  I'm talking can't breathe when the wind hits you, icicles in the nostrils, negative temperatures, cold.  While Ohio is known for having up and down temperatures, you could be building a snowman one day and in a pair of shorts the next, I haven't seen this kind of weather so early in years.  I have to say, I'm not too fond of it.  Kind of like how I'm not too fond of 100 degree temperatures with humidity making it hotter than Hades in August.


Yes I know, I'm never satisfied but I'm just trying to be honest here.




We have had all kinds of sickness around our house.  The week before Christmas my little guy had a cold which led to 3 days of a fever and a horrible cough.  After we got back from visiting relatives over the holidays he started throwing up for 2 days, poor thing.  Then my husband got horrible diarrhea.  I'm sure he would love that I put that on the world wide web, haha.  I have been super fortunate that I have yet to catch any of it, instead I've been the one distributing meds, taking temps, cleaning toilets (so disgusting after sickness), washing 4 loads of sheets, towels, and other puked on things in one afternoon just to wake up the next day and have 2 more loads of more puked on things.  I can't imagine how many loads I'll have when there's 2 kids passing sickness back and forth.


I had to go out to the store yesterday to get my husband medicine and I couldn't even scrape off the windows it was so cold.  I had to let the car run for a good 10 minutes and then decided the store was at the end of my street and I could see well enough through the ice to make it without getting out to chisel away at it some more.  To beat it all I got our electric bill and it went up a whopping $100.  Did you know that a 2 bedroom townhouse apartment that's probably all of 900square feet uses more electricity to heat than a 2000 square foot house.  Yea it makes no sense to me either but it's a sad reality.  My mouth immediately hit the floor and I proceeded to make a beeline to the thermostat and turn it from 71 degrees down to 69.  Which probably will help zero because even with me turning it down it ran for, I swear, a solid 3 hours.  I'm really dreading our next bill.




Since I turned down the temp in the house it's a little chilly, which I know my husband will complain about but I just bundle up a little more, I was trying to figure out something to cook for dinner.  Something that would warm our insides, and of course I thought of soup.  The only problem being that I'm a once a month shopper now, we are at the end of our monthly menu cycle, and there are no soups left on the menu plan.  Which means my ingredients are a lot more limited and every recipe I looked at called for ingredients I didn't have.  Refusing to go to the store and buy any ingredients, I tossed the idea and decided we would have to settle for something else.




Then I got on Pioneer Woman's website and saw a hamburger soup recipe.  I read through it and thought I had all the ingredients and was super excited.  I've made hamburger veggie soup before but not like this recipe from Ree.  She didn't use tomato juice, which I don't have in my cabinets, and used different vegetables as well.


I wish I had a great picture to share.  Ok not a great picture since my food pictures are never "great", but I forgot when I first made it.  I'm chalkin my forgetfulness up to pregnancy brain.  After soup has sat for a little while, especially in the fridge, it no longer looks appetizing no matter how tasty it was.




I ended up having to change a couple things because once I got started I realized I didn't have some of the ingredients, go figure.  So instead of whole or diced tomatoes I ended up using half a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes.  I also wanted my soup to be a bit less like stew so I added in the extra 2 cups of water and 2tsp beef bullion granules for the broth.  I used regular russet potatoes instead of red ones because I never have red potatoes.  The only problem I found was I needed to cook the carrots a little more.  The potatoes were plenty soft so I guess next time I'll just make sure the carrots go in a few minutes before some of the softer veggies.  Over all though it was very tasty and is now in my soup rotation to make again.  There are so many ways you could change this soup to fit what you have in your pantry.  It would be a great end of the month soup for other OAMS  shoppers when your pantry is running low on goods.  It makes a large amount, especially because I added the extra 2 cups of broth.  We ended up eating this as dinner then as leftovers and I still have at least another meal to freeze for next month.  I love it when meals go a long way.

Pioneer Woman's Cobbler

I'm back with another Pioneer Woman recipe review, or rave, however you want to look at it.  She has a recipe for Blackberry cobbler in her 1st cookbook.  I have made it many times using blueberries, both frozen and fresh with amazingly good results.  A couple weekends ago we had my Dad, his wife, and my sister over for an early Christmas dinner and I decided to make a peach version.  My husband has been begging me to make a peach for months, don't really have a good reason as to why it's taken me so long but oh well, better late than never.

I had frozen peaches I got off my mom's peach tree over the summer and thawed them in the fridge overnight.  I cut the pieces I thought were a little too big and did everything else exactly as the recipe says.

This has become my go-to dessert.  For Thanksgiving I was asked to bring a dessert and rolls to my Aunts house and being the procrastinator I am I waited until the morning of to make my dessert, cherry bars.  I of course screwed up the recipe because I was in a hurry and ended up burning the top (they were actually still pretty tasty and everyone at my mom's loved them despite their burned tops).  I decided I couldn't go empty handed and whipped up a blueberry version of this cobbler in no time.  As long as you keep some frozen fruit (blueberries, peaches, raspberries, or blackberries) in your freezer the other ingredients you will more than likely find in your pantry.

This is the only cobbler recipe I've ever made so I don't know how others taste or even what they look like but this recipe is literally just mixing up the ingredients in a bowl, dropping you fruit in, sprinkling sugar on top, and baking it.  Can't get a whole lot easier in my opinion.  Not to mention it's delish!  For the peach I used a 9x13 baking dish and it was rather thin so I would recommend a deep dish pie plate (which is what I normally use) or an 8x11 baking dish.  If you have neither of these sizes a 9x13 will work just don't leave it in the oven the full hour since it is quite a bit thinner than the one in the recipe.

Cookie Dough Evening

Every year for the last 10 (and even before that with my mom) I have taken an entire day during he Christmas season and baked.  Mostly cookies but also quick breads, cupcakes, and candy.  I usually give these out to friends, family, and coworkers.  I always looked forward to my "baking day", that is until I had Grant.  Suddenly the idea of spending hours in my kitchen, more hours than before since I was interrupted by the needs of a child, no longer seemed like a fun tradition.  I pushed through for a couple years, making sure my husband didn't make plans for a specific Saturday, so I could at least have backup when needed. 

This year was a different story.  Now being pregnant and having a 3 year old, I had no desire, not one in my entire body, to spend a day baking from sun up to sun down.  Not to mention the fact that I didn't have a whole lot of people to give them out to since my mom also bakes and gives them to part of the people we know and I no longer have co-workers.  I decided I needed a new plan.  I still love baking and the idea of a Christmas season with no cookies and candy was unacceptable in my mind.

My solution for making this year easier and quicker for me was making and freezing the dough ahead of time.  I decided the best option for me was to take an evening or a couple and mix up all the cookie batters I planned on using, roll them into logs, and freeze them to bring out and bake whenever I wanted.  Genius right? 

So last night after Grant went to sleep I decided to get my butt in gear and at least make 1 batch of dough.  Turns out once I started I figured why stop?  I ended up making 3 batches of cookie dough, which is all the cookies I plan on making.  Since we are having my dad over for an early Christmas dinner, I went ahead and baked a handful of each kind before freezing the dough.

I usually stick to the same recipes I've made for years, I am after all a creature of routine and habit.  This year I wanted to try a different chocolate chip cookie recipe.  My mom's is more of a cakey cookie and I was in search of something a little crunchier.  I came across this Pioneer Woman recipe and decided to give it a whirl, after all she's never steered me wrong before.

Seeing this just makes me want to sit and eat cookie dough straight from the bowl.

 

The only thing I omitted from Ree's recipe was the flax seed.  I don't keep it in my pantry therefore I don't use it.

Golden brown to perfection!  When I first read the recipe and saw it called for instant coffee granules I was a little scared, I admit.  I love coffee but didn't think I wanted that flavor in my chocolate chip cookies.  However I decided to trust my friend Ree (oh how I wish she was actually my friend and would have me over for dinner, yum!) and add them to the batter.  I tasted the batter, because you can't have cookie batter without tasting it right? and I could taste the coffee.  I immediately thought, "crap! this is not what I wanted, what am I gonna do with all this cookie dough now?"  But I soldiered through and baked a few to at least let my husband and family try them, after all I figured I could pawn them off on someone if I didn't like the flavor.  When they baked up I tried one with the last hope that the flavor of coffee wasn't prevalent, and guess what?  No coffee flavor!

 

I was so excited.  It was just as Ree said, the coffee granules just give the cookies a little richer chocolate flavor and my oh my they are delish.  Crunchy and chocolatey and just what I was searching for in a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I had my husband try them just to be sure my taste buds weren't the only ones not tasting coffee. I didn't tell him why I wanted him to try them just that I tried a new recipe and wanted his opinion.  His comment was, "they taste like a chocolate chip cookie to me".  Translation, no coffee flavor!

 

When I found Pioneer Woman's chocolate chip cookie recipe I also came across this Brown Sugar Oatmeal cookie recipe.  Now, I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal cookies, but my mom and future brother-in-law love them.  My mom has complained in years past that she can't find a good recipe for them.  These looked divine, and I love me some brown sugar in anything so I figured I probably couldn't go wrong.

They come out looking almost, in my opinion, overcooked.  Trust me when I say they are not.  This is just the goodness of all that brown sugar.  It makes it crunchy, and gives it a really nice flavor that I think is lacking in a lot of oatmeal cookie recipes.  I plan on adding some raisins to the dough I already made and froze when I go to bake a large batch of them.

 

The last cookie I made was one I've been making for the last 4-5 years.  At some point I had a bag of Nestle chocolate chips, not sure why since no other cookie or candy I make calls for them.  On that bag there was this recipe:

 

White Chip Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4c flour

2/3c cocoa

1t baking soda

1/4t salt

1c butter

3/4c granulated sugar

2/3c packed brown sugar

1t vanilla

2 large eggs

2c white chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, mix.  In a separate bowl beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy.  Add eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chips.  Drop by tablespoonful on baking sheet.  Bake 9-11 minutes.

 

A gave them a try on a whim way back then and have been making them ever since.  They are one of the few cookies that only I make so I get to take them to my mom and sister and give them away.  Pretty much every other cookie I bake, my mom bakes as well so I couldn't ever take her mine, cuz she already had so many of her own.

 

Try your darndest after you mix it up not to taste the chocolatey goodness that is this batter.  I know it's hard, but try.

 

 

Yum!

 

These are 1 of my all time favorite cookies.  I love, love, love, white chocolate chips.  My only piece of advice is to watch while baking these because it's hard to tell if they are fully baked and you can burn them without realizing because they are already dark in color.  I have burned the bottoms of a few of my white chocolate chip cookies thinking they weren't done all the way and then it was too late.  It's a sad day when I have to throw out these favorites of mine.

 

Now for the freezing.  Some people freeze their cookie dough in already formed balls so all you have to do is take them from the freezer, place them on the baking pan, and bake.  I love this method however I only have a fridge freezer in our little apartment and spending hours freezing batch after batch of dough on 1 small cookie sheet doesn't sound like fun to me, or a the way I want to spend an entire day.

 

So instead here's how I do mine.  I take a long piece of plastic wrap and lay it out on the counter.  Spoon my dough on top of that.

 Roll it up in the plastic wrap and twist the ends.

 Place your roll on a piece of foil.

 

Roll the dough in the foil and twist the ends.

 

Write the kind of dough it is on the outside.  I do this with a regular ol' pen and it works just fine.

 

Now pop it in your freezer for when you get a hankering, yes I said hankering, for cookies.

 

 

When you are in the mood for some cookies just put it in the fridge for a couple hours or leave it on the counter to thaw, just don't leave it all day or overnight, there are raw eggs in there after all, and bake as you normally would.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pioneer Woman's Potato Soup

I have a small obsession with Pioneer Woman recipes and when my husband asked me to make him potato soup I immediately turned to her for one I knew would taste great.  The last time I made potato soup it didn't turn out well.  It called for sour cream and It's like the ingredients didn't mix together the way they should have so I didn't want to even attempt it with that recipe.  I used Pioneer Woman's and other than the fact that I blended my soup before adding the milk/flour mixture, and I used dried parsley instead of fresh, I followed the directions and ingredient list completely.

I think the next time I make it I will leave it chunky and omit the blending all together.  Everyone has their own view of the perfect potato soup and I think mine would have to be a chunkier version.  But the taste of this soup was right on the money.  I look forward to leftover night this week to have this again.

And maybe for lunch the day after that.....

Pioneer Woman's Applesauce

I love looking up recipes online but every time I find one I always wonder if it's actually as good as the person who wrote it says it is.  Most cases it's delish as promised, however there have been a few things I've made, so excited about how great they would taste, that ended up bleh.

I can almost always count on Pioneer Woman to have amazingly great tasting recipes, I actually haven't had one fail me yet and I've tried my fair share.  The other day I was randomly perusing her website when I saw homemade applesauce.  It had honestly never really occurred to me to make my own applesauce but since apples were at an all time low of $0.39/lb at one of my grocery stores I thought "why not?".  Plus I need some more guilt free evening snacks, and it seemed like the perfect thing to make during this Fall season.

I bought 8lbs of apples but 3 of them wouldn't fit in my pot.

(this picture by far is not great but I took it with my cell phone before I forgot to take one at all)

 

I used water instead of the apple juice she called for in her recipe because I didn't have any and refused to make an extra trip to the store for it.  I added the brown sugar, cinnamon, and 2 shakes of nutmeg and I have to say these apples smelled heavenly the entire time they were cooking.  I stood over the pot a couple times just to get a wif (I don't at all think that's how you spell that word but you know what I mean).

 

This applesauce was delicious and now I'm wishing I had tried this ages ago.  Making something like homemade applesauce makes me feel like a pioneer woman and I love it.

 

I was hoping the recipe would make more and if I were canning or freezing this I would have had to buy more apples but for keeping in the fridge and eating before it goes bad I think there was enough.  This batch, which was a pot full of apples, made 1 quart mason jar, 1 barilla pasta jar, and 1 ragu pasta jar full of applesauce.  I gave one jar to my mom so I'm pretty confident we can finish off the other 2 as snacks and a side dish at meals.

 

If you have ever contemplated making applesauce you should go buy some apples right this second and start cooking them up.  It's one of the easiest things to make and once you make it the first time you will want your own private stash in mason jars or in your freezer so you never have to go without.

 

I think this will be a Fall tradition from now on, except with a lot more apples.

Pioneer Woman's Tomato Soup

I am in love with this tomato soup.  I will never eat a can of Campbell's again nor will I make any other kind from scratch, Pioneer Woman has ruined me for all other tomato soups.  I don't use the Sherry she calls for because I never have alcohol in our house and I don't see the point in going out and buying some for one recipe.  I promise you will not miss it if you choose not to use it.

I don't normally have fresh herbs on hand, as I'm sure most of you out there don't, so I have used dried parsley and dried basil and the flavor is still there.  I don't measure mine but I probably put in about 1T parsley and 1-2t basil.
I have made this many times with the diced tomato but I guess I'm too used to canned tomato soup that is smooth, no chewing involved, and I think I prefer it that way as does my husband.  So this time I put in a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes instead of the diced and I love it twice as much, if that's possible.
My mom made fun at me for cooking a hot tomato soup when it's nearly 100 degrees outside but this soup is THAT good!  It's all year round good!

Good as the Restaurant Salsa

Having a low grocery budget and being absolutely determined to stick to my budget means having to come up with things on the fly.

I was in need of some salsa for the quesadillas I was making and refused to buy any at the store.  I remembered seeing a recipe for salsa in my Pioneer Woman cookbook.  I had most of the ingredients so I decided to wing it and my oh my am I glad I did because it turned out delish! 

Don't you just want to crawl through your computer screen and dip a tortilla chip in it?

 

Since I didn't have everything the recipe called for I had to improvise and come up with my own.

Here is my version:

 

Salsa

15oz can diced tomatoes

1 can Rotel diced tomato with green chilies

1/2 garlic clove minced

1/2 onion diced

about 6 slices canned jalapeno diced (the book recipe called for a fresh jalapeno but all I had was some in a jar)

pinch of salt

1/4t sugar

1/4t cumin

cilantro to taste-minced

 

Put everything in a bowl and mix.  I used my Magic Bullet and spooned the mixture into it, pulsing it a few times to break up the chunked tomato and combine everything.  This recipe made enough slaso to fill a Ragu jar I had saved for an occasion just like this.

 

 

 

I was so excited with how this salsa turned out and that I made do with items I already had in my pantry.  My husband even raved about how good it was and how much it tasted like the mexican restaurant's where we live.

 

So go raid your pantry and whip up some homemade salsa.  Your family will thank you.