Weekend Meal: Four Cheese Baked Macaroni

This recipe is quick, simple, and best of all, low-fat without tasting like it:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 2/3 cups 1% low-fat milk
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
• 3 ounces light processed cheese
  
• 6 cups cooked elbow macaroni (about 3 cups uncooked)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup crushed onion melba toasts (or any flavored toasts)
  
• 1 tablespoon reduced-calorie margarine, softened

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

To make the sauce, put the flour in a pan and gradually add the milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Stir constantly until thick, then add the cheese. Stir until melted:

Remove the mixture from the heat and add the cooked macaroni. Spray a casserole or rectangular pyrex dish with cooking spray and spread the pasta mixture. Combine crushed toasts and butter/margarine and spread over the mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.
All told, the ingredient total about $25, depending on the type/brand of cheese you buy. Yum!

Renters: How to Improve Your Kitchen!

So, aside from a handful of people I know who own their homes, most people rent. With renting comes home improvement limitations. Apartment Therapy has a great list of 10 thrifty improvements that won't go against your lease. Read it here: 10 kitchen improvements for renters

The Weekend Meal: Picadillo

Possibly the easiest, thriftiest meal with the most satisfying result. I've thought about making this with ground turkey instead of ground beef, but have yet to pull the trigger.

Serves 4

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 pound ground beef
  
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup low-salt beef broth
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pimiento-stuffed olives
• 3 tablespoons capers
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• White rice
  

Heat the oil for about 5 minutes then saute the onions. Add the beef and garlic, cooking until the beef is browned. Add the broth, raisins, olives, capers, tomato paste and pepper. Stir, cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve over white rice.



The cost of this meal is pretty low, coming in under $25, depending on what brand of olives, raisins etc you choose.

Sandwich Night: Turkey Sausage with Peppers and Onions

For me, there's nothing better than a sandwich. Also, it's one of the easiest things you can make. This sausage and peppers/onions sandwich leaves a lot of room for improvisation. You can use turkey or any other kind of sausage that strikes your fancy.

Makes 12 sandwiches

1 package of sweet or spicy Italian sausage, halved length wise
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium Vidalia onion, sliced
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
Sandwich rolls or hero rolls

Brown the sliced sausage and do not drain the fat. Cook the sliced peppers and onions in the sausage fat and add the Worcestershire sauce. Cook until the peppers are soft and the onions are translucent.

Toast your bread and make yourself a sandwich!


This is a pretty cheap meal, with the total coming in under $20. If you get tired of making sandwiches, I love making pasta with the left over sausage and peppers.

The Weekend Meal: Chicken Taco Salad

This has to be one of the easiest meals to make, and I'd like to think it's pretty healthy. I like making my own version of pico de gallo, but you can also use store bought stuff too.

Serves 4-6

1.5 lbs of chicken breast, cut into bit sized pieces
1 package of taco seasoning (anything from Ortega or Old El Paso)
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 8 oz package of mixed cheese
1 package of sour cream, big or small depending on your love of the stuff

Pico de Gallo
5 medium sized plum tomatoes
2-3 jalapeno peppers
1 medium white onion
1 clove of garlic
kosher salt to taste

Brown the chicken in a pan and prepare the taco seasoning according to directions. Once the chicken is browned, add the sauce to the pan and let simmer while you prepare the pico.


Bring out your trust food processor and pulse the salt, garlic, onion and jalapenos until roughly chopped.

Add the tomatoes last, so they don't get mushy. Pulse all ingredients 4 or 5 times and you're done.
Combine all the ingredients for your salad. Yum-cheap and easy.

The Weekend Meal: BBQ Ribs

I will be the first to say that this meal is not the healthiest or the cheapest option, but it is one of the tastiest. It's pretty time consuming as it needs some time in the slow cooker as well as the oven. The two cooking methods ensure tender yet crispy ribs. However, it's a pretty serious meal and it shows that you don't need some fancy kitchen with "counters" to make a meal.

serves 4-6

• 4-5 lbs of pork spare ribs
• 1 18 oz bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce
• 1/2 cup of dry rub
  

Cut, separate and wash the ribs. Use the rub evenly on all pieces and place them in the slow cooker on high for 6 hours.

About half way through the cooking time, drain a bit of the fat and liquid from the cooker. Preheat the oven to 375. Cook for the remaining time.

When time's up, take the ribs out and spread about 1/2 the bottle over the ribs. For ease, I placed the ribs in a container and shook to cover them, as I don't have a meat brush. Lay the ribs out on a broiler pan covered in lightly greased foil. You can also use any other any flat baking pan.
You can keep the ribs in the oven for 30-45 minutes, depending on how crispy you like them.

You can serve this with the extra sauce, some corn bread, plain white rice, or your favorite starch.

The Weekend Meal: Quick Quiche

This isn't one of the healthiest recipes, but who doesn't love a little cheese and mayo baked into a quiche? While this recipe only calls for one deep dish pie shell, I like to use two regular shells as I don't like my quiche to be too filled. It's up to you.

Serves 4-6

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup half-and-half 1/2 cup real mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/3 cup minced onions
• Salt and garlic powder
• 8 ounces shredded Swiss or sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach
• 1 deep unbaked pie shell

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Hand whip eggs, half-and-half, mayonnaise, and flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients.

Pour into an unbaked 9-inch, deep pie crust. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the top is golden brown.

If you're feeling guilty about this dish, serve it with a simple side salad with some honey vinaigrette.

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

I was a little tired of store bought dressing and I had some leftover vinegar from the Chinese Cole Slaw
so I thought it was time to try making my own dressing. I found this recipe in the Joy Of Cooking.

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Makes 1/2 cup

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon coarse grain mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, honey, mustard, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly.

Cool Gadget: Demy Recipe Reader

So apparently cook books are passe. Meet the Demy recipe reader, courtesy of Engadget:

This device apparently does it all, "Crafted by Key Ingredient, this here device packs a sealed 7-inch display, storage for up to 2,500 recipes and USB connectivity for syncing with your PC. Furthermore, it provides three kitchen timers, a measurement conversion calculator and an ingredient substitution dictionary to get cooks out of a pinch if they are one special ingredient short."

Apparently this is shipping from Amazon "soon," which is good because the price listed is $299.99. Better start saving.

Banana Muffin Bread

I use this banana bread recipe to make giant banana muffins because I don't have a loaf pan. Yes, those pans are only $7, but whatever giant muffins are much more fun. To make the muffins I use ceramic bakeware. this is also a great use for ripe bananas.

Banana Muffin Bread
Makes 2 muffins or 1 8.5 x 4.5 loaf of bread

1.5 cups flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 stick of butter at room temperature
1 large egg
2 medium sized, ripe banans

Heat oven to 350. Grease the bakeware. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and mashed bananas. Add the dry ingredients slowly, mixing until well combined. If you are using muffin type bakeware, fill it up only half way.


Bake for about 45 minutes.