Showing posts with label recipes budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes budget. Show all posts

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Not Completely but Almost [Free]Tatta

I heard on the Today Show today that Thursday is one of the "unhappiest" days out of the week, based on a recent poll. I'm going to have to agree with the newscasters and say that I just do not agree! Like one of the ladies said, "I'm in a great mood today! ... Because tomorrow is Friday". Nothing wrong with that ;)

Because my weeks are getting more and more scattered with travel for work and play, I'm trying to be pretty frugal about buying groceries. There is nothing I hate more than having a ton of great looking produce and letting it go to waste because I end up traveling for the week. On the other note, sometimes when my fridge is full of fresh fruits and veggies, I end up eating waaaay too much because I'm afraid that it'll go bad. So, in an effort to try and just use anything perishable in my fridge, along with buying as minimal as possible I baked a delicious yet simple Frittata on Tuesday night!


In my fridge already was 4 organic eggs, some Jarlsberg cheese slices and 4 slices of Turkey bacon - (clearly I had a hankering for a bacon/egg/and cheese sandwich sunday morning). So I popped on down to the Chelsea Trader Joes which just opened and is the best thing on earth, literally :) Smiles appear on my face when I talk about it :) :)
...and I bought some mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and spinach for ~$5. Unbeatable.

Then I pranced on home, feeling pretty happy with myself and continued to bake the following:

Simple Frittata

Ingredients
- 3 eggs and 1 egg white
- 2 cups of mushrooms*
- 8 grape tomatoes*
- 2 cups spinach
- 2 slices of turkey bacon
- 2 slices of jarlsberg cheese
- coconut oil
- salt & pepper
- Thyme (1/2 Tsp)
*Use as many of these ingredients as you want and feel free to switch them up. That's the beauty of something like this, tons of different veggie combos can taste fabulous.
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Use butter or cooking spray to coat the bottom of a square baking pan (I assume any would work fine)
3. Put bacon on pan and cook until they look browned and crispy; place on paper towel to cool
4. Cut up mushrooms if they are not already sliced, and tomatoes in half
5. Saute cut veggies in 2 Tbs of oil until mushrooms are browned
6. Put veggies into baking pan to cover the bottom
7. Place spinach on top of veggies to add an additional layer
8. Scramble up eggs and egg white in a bowl and add a little water (or milk if you prefer)
9. Add in salt and pepper to your liking, and some thyme (Rosemary could work here to)
10. Add bacon to egg mixture
11. Pour egg mixture into baking dish
12. Pop into oven for 20 - 25 minutes, until egg looks well cooked
13. Take baking dish out and place cheese on top. Throw the pan back into the oven for an addtional 5 or so minutes, or on broil, to get a nice melted and crispy top.

Take out and enjoy!!

I was able to create 4 portions of this meal and use for lunch every day. Couldn't ask for anything better than a $1.25 lunch huh??

Happy thursday all - and feel free to enjoy it since tomorrow is Friday :)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Spicy Sundays

My roomie and I started doing Spicy Sundays every week to fulfill A) our love of thai food and B) a nice romantic date for the two of us!  Candles are involved of course ;)
For Christmas I got this Thai & Asian cookbook so that we could start making our own Thai food at home - budget friendly ideas are always on my mind.

This cookbook is pretty cool because it includes appetizers, snacks, poultry, meat, veggie and dessert recipes! Also, the whole beginning goes into details about the culture and traditions involving food and ingredients in Thailand, China, Japan, Burma, etc. It then goes on about the different types of noodles, spices, veggies, sauces, [everything] that are in the book and how they are used and kept best. So much information and it was great to read while eating. Tonight I opted for a simpler recipe, there are a ton of ingredients and kitchen utensils that some of these recipes require that I don't have at the moment...future Christmas gifts?!

Stir-Fried Crispy Chicken

1 chicken breast **you can substitute in tofu as well
1 tbs coconut oil
1 tbs Thai green curry paste
2 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs sugar
2/3 cup veggie stock
2 stalks of broccoli (cut to florets) **you can substitute in asparagus or carrot sticks as well
2 tbs of chopped roasted peanuts, unsalted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cook the chicken for 30 minutes - or until done. 

Heat the coconut oil in a wok (definitely don't have this but a deep pan works just as well!) and add in the curry paste over MED heat. Stir continuously for about 1-2 minutes. 

Stir in the soy sauce, sugar and veggie stock and mix well. Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the head to LOW so that the mixture is simmering. 

Add the broccoli (or veggie of choice) and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add in the chicken (cut into pieces) and the chopped peanuts. TOSS and voila!

I hope you had a great weekend :)