Budget Tip:
Personally, I prefer Grey Goose, however ANY vodka is good for this recipe, so feel free to get the kind in the plastic bottle if you want. The lemonade completely hides the taste :)
Suggested Ingredients
Vodka
Crystal Light Lemonade
Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
Suggested Method of Mixing
Fill up a martini shaker with ice. Fill up the shaker about 1/3 full with vodka and the rest with lemonade. Shake, Shake, Shake! Taste it. If it's too strong add more lemonade, if it's not strong enough, add more vodka! Strain into martini glasses.
Now the fun part. Gently pour a small amount of the chambord down the side of the martini glass so that it will sink to the bottom. When it settles you'll have a really pretty drink with a little surprise sweetness at the bottom.
YUM!!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Picnic Potato Salad
Ok..so maybe you are wondering what to do with the potatoes left over from the smashed potato recipe. This is the perfect choice since it goes well with anything from lunch to dinner. Of course, it's best served super cold! This recipe makes ALOT so feel free to scale it down to half for a family dinner of 4 or so.
Budget Tip
Instead of buying relish, buy a jar of dill pickles. Mt. Olive puts their pickles on buy one get one free all the time, so stock up! When a recipe calls for dill relish, just chop up a pickle and there you go! Want to save even more money? Pickle your own cucumbers from your own or someone elses' garden.
Suggested Ingredients
4lbs of whole red creamer potatoes
4 eggs
4 or so green onions
2 TBSP capers, drained
1 cup of mayo made with olive oil or other reduced or fat free mayo
1 cup of reduced fat or fat free sour cream
1 big(ish) pickle, chopped
1/2 of a small red onion, diced
italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
dill
Suggested Cooking Method
Fill a large pot with cold water and some salt. Throw in the potatoes (whole) and eggs. Turn on high and wait to simmer. Once it simmers, turn it down a notch to keep it from boiling over. Check the eggs by pulling one out and spinning it around on the flat side. If it doesn't wobble too much, it's done. Pull the eggs out, peel, chop and let cool. While the potatoes are cooking, mix 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup sour cream, pickle, onions, parsley, dill and lemon juice. Add the eggs and mix slightly. Put in the fridge until the potatoes are done.
The potatoes will be done when you can stick a sharp knife through them easily. Once they are done, pull them out with a slotted spoon and put them into a colander to cool for a bit. Once they are cool enough to handle you can break the potatoes up either by hand, which i'm not fond of, or by cutting them up into cubes. I like to cut them up because it makes it look nicer and i'm a bit on the anal side when it comes to things like that. Besides, when you break them off with your hands, the skins tend to seperate from the potato and I like the skins to stay on.
Mix the broken or cubed potatoes into the mayo and sour cream mixture. Now, add however much of the remaining 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup mayo that you want. If you like your potato salad really creamy add all of it, plus feel free to add more.
Place into the fridge for several hours or overnight to get it nice and chilled.
Budget Tip
Instead of buying relish, buy a jar of dill pickles. Mt. Olive puts their pickles on buy one get one free all the time, so stock up! When a recipe calls for dill relish, just chop up a pickle and there you go! Want to save even more money? Pickle your own cucumbers from your own or someone elses' garden.
Suggested Ingredients
4lbs of whole red creamer potatoes
4 eggs
4 or so green onions
2 TBSP capers, drained
1 cup of mayo made with olive oil or other reduced or fat free mayo
1 cup of reduced fat or fat free sour cream
1 big(ish) pickle, chopped
1/2 of a small red onion, diced
italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
dill
Suggested Cooking Method
Fill a large pot with cold water and some salt. Throw in the potatoes (whole) and eggs. Turn on high and wait to simmer. Once it simmers, turn it down a notch to keep it from boiling over. Check the eggs by pulling one out and spinning it around on the flat side. If it doesn't wobble too much, it's done. Pull the eggs out, peel, chop and let cool. While the potatoes are cooking, mix 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup sour cream, pickle, onions, parsley, dill and lemon juice. Add the eggs and mix slightly. Put in the fridge until the potatoes are done.
The potatoes will be done when you can stick a sharp knife through them easily. Once they are done, pull them out with a slotted spoon and put them into a colander to cool for a bit. Once they are cool enough to handle you can break the potatoes up either by hand, which i'm not fond of, or by cutting them up into cubes. I like to cut them up because it makes it look nicer and i'm a bit on the anal side when it comes to things like that. Besides, when you break them off with your hands, the skins tend to seperate from the potato and I like the skins to stay on.
Mix the broken or cubed potatoes into the mayo and sour cream mixture. Now, add however much of the remaining 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup mayo that you want. If you like your potato salad really creamy add all of it, plus feel free to add more.
Place into the fridge for several hours or overnight to get it nice and chilled.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Cold Cucumber Soup
This is one of my hands down favorite recipes. If you've never tried a cold soup, try this one. It is so crisp and refreshing. The flavors really meld together after a day or two in the fridge - if it lasts that long!
Budget Tip
Make this in the summer-time and you can get cucumbers for right around .50/each. That makes this recipe, super inexpensive and since it makes alot, it goes a long way!
Suggested Ingredients
2 TBSP butter (yes, use real butter)
3 good sized cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
1 videlia or other sweet onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cans of 98% fat free cream of celery soup
1 1/2 cups of water
1/3 cup fat free sour cream
freshly chopped dill, usually about a TBSP, but whatever you want
Suggested Cooking Method
Melt the butter in a good size cast iron skillet. Throw in the cucumbers, onion and bay leaves. A note about the by leaves, break them up a bit, but leave them large enough so you can pick them out later. Cook over medium low heat for a while until the cucumbers are soft. Be careful not to let it get brown. Since the cucumbers have alot of water in them, you won't have to worry much about them burning as long as your heat is low. Pick out the bay leaves and throw them away.
Now, the fun part. There is NO way, unless you have an industrial size blender that you are going to get all of this in the blender at the same time so take the pan off of the heat and add the lemon juice. Then add as much as you feel safe with into a blender and blend until smooth and frothy. In a very large bowl add the water, soup, sour cream and dill and mix slightly with a spoon. As you finish blending the cucumber and onions, add it to the ingredients in the bowl. Once you've finished blending all of the cucumber and onions and added them to the bowl, mix again with the spoon. Blend all of this again in the blender until it is smooth.
I find that as it comes out of the blender, it's best to put it directly into 2 large storage containers. Put the storage containers in the fridge and let it get cold. I like to make this a day ahead of time so that it has time to get really chilly and for the flavors to meld together.
Don't be scared of this recipe because it has a blender in it or because you have to preplan and make it ahead of time. This is one of the absolute best recipes and if you try it once, you will make it as often as you can!
Budget Tip
Make this in the summer-time and you can get cucumbers for right around .50/each. That makes this recipe, super inexpensive and since it makes alot, it goes a long way!
Suggested Ingredients
2 TBSP butter (yes, use real butter)
3 good sized cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
1 videlia or other sweet onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cans of 98% fat free cream of celery soup
1 1/2 cups of water
1/3 cup fat free sour cream
freshly chopped dill, usually about a TBSP, but whatever you want
Suggested Cooking Method
Melt the butter in a good size cast iron skillet. Throw in the cucumbers, onion and bay leaves. A note about the by leaves, break them up a bit, but leave them large enough so you can pick them out later. Cook over medium low heat for a while until the cucumbers are soft. Be careful not to let it get brown. Since the cucumbers have alot of water in them, you won't have to worry much about them burning as long as your heat is low. Pick out the bay leaves and throw them away.
Now, the fun part. There is NO way, unless you have an industrial size blender that you are going to get all of this in the blender at the same time so take the pan off of the heat and add the lemon juice. Then add as much as you feel safe with into a blender and blend until smooth and frothy. In a very large bowl add the water, soup, sour cream and dill and mix slightly with a spoon. As you finish blending the cucumber and onions, add it to the ingredients in the bowl. Once you've finished blending all of the cucumber and onions and added them to the bowl, mix again with the spoon. Blend all of this again in the blender until it is smooth.
I find that as it comes out of the blender, it's best to put it directly into 2 large storage containers. Put the storage containers in the fridge and let it get cold. I like to make this a day ahead of time so that it has time to get really chilly and for the flavors to meld together.
Don't be scared of this recipe because it has a blender in it or because you have to preplan and make it ahead of time. This is one of the absolute best recipes and if you try it once, you will make it as often as you can!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Sour Cream Smashed Potatoes
The point to this recipe is not that it is all that much different and spectacular but that with some of the staples you already keep around the pantry you can easily make a yummy side-dish to go with just about any main dish. It's inexpensive, filling and not altogether bad for you either.
Budget Tip
Potatoes are cheap! Enough said!
Suggested Ingredients
Red Potatoes
Parsley
1 - 2 garlic cloves, minced
fat free sour cream
1 - 2 TBSP real butter
Parmesan Cheese (the shaker kind) (optional)
Suggested Cooking Method
Do not peel the potatoes but be sure to wash them off. Cut the potatoes up into medium size cubes. I usually slice the potatoes long-wise, then place the potato face down on the flat cut part, then make 3 long-wise cuts. Then turn the knife short-wise and cut the slices into cubes. (I'm saving for a camera, I promise - unless someone cares to donate an old one they aren't using any longer) Boil the potatoes until they are just done - not too soft and not too hard. Drain and put back into the pot. Smash the potatoes preferably with a smasher utensil but a large fork will work too.
Once the potatoes are coarsely smashed, add in the rest of the ingredients to taste. The sour cream is meant to take the place of milk and it really gives them that baked potato taste. Now, you'll notice that I said to use real butter. The reason being if you are only using a small amount of butter, you might as well get all the yummy flavor of it. Otherwise, if you are watching cholesterol and/or fat and calories, use a substitute that you like. Or, heck, add more sour cream and no butter at all! The Parmesan cheese really is there to give it a bit more flavor and in fact if you want to make it even more baked potato-like, feel free to add some bacon, or in my case, turkey bacon crumbles.
Once you have it all mixed together, just put it on the stove on medium heat for a few minutes to bring it up to temperature.
Budget Tip
Potatoes are cheap! Enough said!
Suggested Ingredients
Red Potatoes
Parsley
1 - 2 garlic cloves, minced
fat free sour cream
1 - 2 TBSP real butter
Parmesan Cheese (the shaker kind) (optional)
Suggested Cooking Method
Do not peel the potatoes but be sure to wash them off. Cut the potatoes up into medium size cubes. I usually slice the potatoes long-wise, then place the potato face down on the flat cut part, then make 3 long-wise cuts. Then turn the knife short-wise and cut the slices into cubes. (I'm saving for a camera, I promise - unless someone cares to donate an old one they aren't using any longer) Boil the potatoes until they are just done - not too soft and not too hard. Drain and put back into the pot. Smash the potatoes preferably with a smasher utensil but a large fork will work too.
Once the potatoes are coarsely smashed, add in the rest of the ingredients to taste. The sour cream is meant to take the place of milk and it really gives them that baked potato taste. Now, you'll notice that I said to use real butter. The reason being if you are only using a small amount of butter, you might as well get all the yummy flavor of it. Otherwise, if you are watching cholesterol and/or fat and calories, use a substitute that you like. Or, heck, add more sour cream and no butter at all! The Parmesan cheese really is there to give it a bit more flavor and in fact if you want to make it even more baked potato-like, feel free to add some bacon, or in my case, turkey bacon crumbles.
Once you have it all mixed together, just put it on the stove on medium heat for a few minutes to bring it up to temperature.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Parmesean Turkey Meatballs with Mushroom & Onion Gravy
Budget Tip
Ok, I'll admit it ground turkey is not the cheapest food item, but if you can manage to buy it in bulk from Costco, it's not too bad. In addition, the rest of the ingredients for this dish you either already have on hand or are super-cheap.
Suggested Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (like the kind you put on top of spaghetti)
1 egg
a generous helping of dried parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
a bit of salt and pepper OR my favorite Tony's Creole Seasoning
1/2 a good size yellow onion, chopped
1/2 a package of fresh mushrooms, sliced
some chicken or veggie broth
1 can of mostly fat free cream of.. celery or chicken or mushroom (i like to use celery or mushroom but if my son is eating it I generally use chicken)
dash of olive oil and some cooking spray
Suggested Cooking Method
Spray a skillet with cooking spray and put in a dash of olive oil. Heat the skillet up on med-high heat. Mix the egg, turkey, cheese, parsley, garlic and seasoning of your choice. Make little meatballs, or big ones, however you like them and place them in the skillet. The point is to get them brown but not quite done in the middle. I usually turn them once to get them brown all the way around. Transfer to a plate as they become brown.
After the meatballs are done, put in a bit more olive oil and saute the onion and mushrooms until the onions have a nice brown color. Add in some broth to cover the onions and mushrooms and then add in the can of cream of whatever soup. Mix together until the soup isn't lumpy and then put the meatballs back into the skillet. Add more broth if needed and let the meatballs simmer over medium heat until they are done in the middle.
I like to serve this with smashed potatoes (recipe coming soon) or rice since it makes a great gravy.
Ok, I'll admit it ground turkey is not the cheapest food item, but if you can manage to buy it in bulk from Costco, it's not too bad. In addition, the rest of the ingredients for this dish you either already have on hand or are super-cheap.
Suggested Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (like the kind you put on top of spaghetti)
1 egg
a generous helping of dried parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
a bit of salt and pepper OR my favorite Tony's Creole Seasoning
1/2 a good size yellow onion, chopped
1/2 a package of fresh mushrooms, sliced
some chicken or veggie broth
1 can of mostly fat free cream of.. celery or chicken or mushroom (i like to use celery or mushroom but if my son is eating it I generally use chicken)
dash of olive oil and some cooking spray
Suggested Cooking Method
Spray a skillet with cooking spray and put in a dash of olive oil. Heat the skillet up on med-high heat. Mix the egg, turkey, cheese, parsley, garlic and seasoning of your choice. Make little meatballs, or big ones, however you like them and place them in the skillet. The point is to get them brown but not quite done in the middle. I usually turn them once to get them brown all the way around. Transfer to a plate as they become brown.
After the meatballs are done, put in a bit more olive oil and saute the onion and mushrooms until the onions have a nice brown color. Add in some broth to cover the onions and mushrooms and then add in the can of cream of whatever soup. Mix together until the soup isn't lumpy and then put the meatballs back into the skillet. Add more broth if needed and let the meatballs simmer over medium heat until they are done in the middle.
I like to serve this with smashed potatoes (recipe coming soon) or rice since it makes a great gravy.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)