supper for poor folks, y'all.....

                                                     photo: Southern Living Magazine

After a conversation with a friend the other day, it dawned on me that not everyone does this....eats beans and rice. lol  I grew up on pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread because it was cheap and my parents could grow them in their garden and nothing and I mean nothing, beats my Granny's beans & fried potatoes. :) We also ate rice, occasionally, but growing up, I never had rice with the main meal. We always had rice as a dessert, with butter, cream, sugar, vanilla & cinnamon...yum. However, when I married Charlie, he was a huge rice with a meal fan...chicken and rice, rice with salt and pepper and butter, fajitas, red beans & rice...etc. I am sure you just really wanted to know all of this fascinating history. ;) Anyway.....

So, after reading Dave Ramsey and becoming loyal "followers", we have once again, in an attempt to save money and be "weird"..started eating beans and rice, at least once a week!

Without further adieu, here are some things we do to spice up the "bland" beans & rice category!

Glorified Beans & Rice

 Red Beans & Rice w/smoked sausage

& my own thrown together mess!

Julie's beans & rice supper

*1 small bag pintos, washed and sorted, soaked if you like but I don't always do this..shocking, I know! lol (Add seasonings...Lawry's season salt and black pepper. I also use 1-2 strips of bacon for every pot of beans).

*2 cups white rice cooked (4 cups water, 1 T. butter, 1 tsp. salt) (not quick rice) (seasoned with black pepper)

*2 cans hominy (one can white, one can yellow) (Our kids love hominy...you can also use whole kernel corn if you like...can also omit)

*toppings: grated Colby Jack cheese, homemade sour cream, pico de gallo & guacamole, olives, whatever you want!


cook beans and rice seperately. Heat up hominy. Mix all together or eat separately and serve with your choice of toppings!! Yummy! Our kids eat this up...they love that they can pile on the toppings...whatever they like. :)


Well, there you go! Our easy anytime supper! And, I often make a HUGE batch of beans and rice, freeze in Ziploc bags (separately) and reheat for a quick and hearty lunch or supper during the week. Economical and yummy!

♥Julie♥

~Homemade Instant Oatmeal...~

This is what I made for my family this morning, instant oatmeal!! I got the idea from Life as Mom and thought, Why not?" so....this is what I did. Feel free to try whatever works for you! So much healthier and CHEAPER than the boxed stuff! :)  Hallelujah! This is the stuff that makes me feel fulfilled! Taking care of my family the best I can.

"Homemade instant oatmeal" may sound like an oxymoron, but this recipe makes it easy to make oatmeal instantly using homemade ingredients, instead of whatever is in those store-bought packets. Not only is it easy to make your own, the homemade version is more filling and less expensive than the store bought stuff, and you can make it without all the sugar and preservatives. Makes one serving of instant oatmeal- Wikipedia

1/4 cup quick oats

1 tsp. dried milk powder

1/8 tsp. salt

3 tsp. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

*And, I added some dried apples & raisins that I keep for homemade granola.
About 6 Tbsp. of hot water.

I put ours in individual bowls this morning but I am planning on making some ziploc baggies this afternoon to have on hand in our pantry. Easy and Quick breakfast!


Give it a try & let me know what you think..

♥Julie♥

Cooking 3 meals out of 1......

Last night for supper we had red beans & rice. I fixed some oven fried potatoes w/onions (just slice them and sprinkle with sea salt, pepper & drizzle fairly well with olive oil). I fixed enough potatoes and brown rice for 3 meals had some whole wheat tortillas on hand so last night before bed I scrambled a dozen eggs and I threw the eggs, potatoes, brown rice and some shredded cheddar/jack cheese on the tortillas, wrapped them up and this morning microwaved them for about 30 seconds and added ketchup or salsa! They were seriously yummy and I love the fact that they are full of fiber, protein and healthy!!

Also, I saved the beans and remaining brown rice and cheese and today I am going to assemble burritos for lunch with these!!!!

Cheap & good!!

I was frugal today..

I had to run some errands today and pick up some neccesities at Wal-Mart so I had to come up with something quick and cheap for lunch and usually the kids throw a fit for McDonald's because they have Barbie stuff in the happy meals right now...lol but, today, I actually just told them that we were going to Sonic to get a blue coconut slush (they love those) and a cheeseburger and they were actually fine with it!! Yay for well behaved kids!! :) (I was really expecting a fit!)

Anyway, I ordered off of the dollar menu and it was 2:02 when I ordered so our $1 drinks were .50 cents!!!! YAY!!! I ordered 3 Jr. cheeseburgers , 1 small order of tator tots, 2 small blue coconut slushes and a medium sweet tea for me and my total came to....... $6.00!!!!!!

That's right, folks, $6, to feed me and ALL 3 children!!!! I think that was pretty reasonable for a fast food lunch and the cheeseburgers were really good!!! :)

How have you saved money lately???? Inquiring minds want to know!! Please share!!

~Julie~

Menu Planning for January 5th-11th...

Okay, this week we are starting the New Year and with that comes a new budget! We are trying to follow Dave Ramsey's methods so we are definitely NOT overspending, there will be NO eating out because we simply do not have the money for it. :)

So, I am going to list my menu and then break it down into what I have to buy and how I did on my $35 a week budget!

Here's what's cookin' this week:

Breakfasts:

Amish Baked Oatmeal

Pumpkin Muffins

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Breakfast Burritos(make extra for freezer)(Cheese free from WIC)

Cereal, milk & bananas (get cereal & milk free from WIC)

Peanut butter toast, bananas (peanut butter free from WIC)

Biscuits & sausage gravy

Lunch:

pb&J's

cheese & crackers

leftovers

grilled cheese

corndog muffins

(basically, this is how our lunches go with stuff from the freezer thrown in every now and then. Sometimes I might make fried rice or heat up some leftover muffins or something like that to go with lunch. Sometimes we have breakfast burritos or homemade hot pockets)

Suppers:

Fried Rice, salad

Autumn Chowder, sweet onion muffins

Baked Mac & cheese, carrots, brussel sprouts

Spaghetti, Salad

Broccoli Quiche, salad

Red Beans & Rice

Burrito Supreme Casserole(recipe below, courtesy of Darcy), with these refried beans, Salad

* I have most of this in my pantry so I only have to buy:

tortillas (maybe I will make these)

Broccoli

salad stuff(lettuce, tomato, we have vinegar/oil mixed up already)

pumpkin (large can)

hot dogs

bread

sausage

bananas

The "real work" will begin next week when we must start from scratch with a pretty much empty pantry! :)

Burrito Supreme Casserole

8 (8-in.) flour tortillas
1 1/2 c. tomato juice
1 env. taco seasoning mix
1 T. vegetable oil
1/2 - 1 lb. ground beef
1 (16 oz) can refried beans
3 c. shredded cheddar cheese
shredded lettuce
chopped tomato

Combine tomato juice, oil and taco seasoning mix. Stir well and set aside. Cook ground beef and drain if needed. Stir in beans and 1/2 c. tomato juice mix. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes until heated through. Remove from heat. Place 1/4 cup beef mixture and a couple tablespoons of cheese down center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas and place seam side down in lightly greased 9x13-in. baking dish. Pour remaining tomato juice mix over casserole. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining cheese, bake 5 additional minutes or until cheese melts. Sprinkle lettuce and tomato over casserole.