This Mama Cooks! On a Diet

Thrifty Food Tips from a Busy Mama

Kristy Shreve Powers offers some great thrifty tips for meals on her Busy Mama's Guides blog.

Her first great featured link is Hillbilly Housewife. If you're down to your last $45, it's a great site for squeezing every penny out of your food budget. One word of caution - Hillbilly Housewife assumes that you're a SAHM or SAHD that can watch over a pot of beans boiling on the stove all day. I don't know about you, but as a WAHM, I'm too busy to stay in the kitchen that long.

Check out her Busy Mama's Guide to Spruced Up Salads which should give you lots of great ideas for combining a big bowl of greens with a little of this and that left over in your fridge.

Finally, read her post Busy Mama's Guide to Cheap & Easy Recipes Transformed to think about making your everyday meal into something healthy and nutritious. Mmmmm veggie mac and cheese...

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Food Blog of the Week takes a break (and breaks some eggs)

This Mama has severely overextended herself this week with writing assignments, Usborne Books recruiting, and charter school matters. So no Food Blog of the Week today. Instead, I offer up a recipe for Omelet in a Bag, which was emailed to me by two friends last week.

Omelet in a Bag

1. Use quart size Ziploc freezer bag.
2. Have guests write their name on bag with permanent marker.
3. Boil pot of water.
4. Crack 2 eggs (no more) into bag, shake to combine them.
5. Add ingredients such as: ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc.
6. Get air out of bag, zip up and shake.
7. Place bag in rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes.
8. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot.
9. Open the bag and the omelet will roll out easily.

I think it's a great way to cook up omelets when you're camping (no frying pan to wash), or when you have a bunch of people over for breakfast and want to serve them all at the same time.

It's also a handy idea for making quick eggs in the morning. Just prepare your ingredients (except eggs) the night before and place them in the bag. Refrigerator overnight and in the morning add the eggs and cook.

• Mr. Breakfast has a warning about melting Ziploc bags
• Chuckwagon Diner recommends 10 minutes of cooking time
• Lifehacker analyzes the recipe step-by-step (good pictures, too)
• Men in Aprons' omelet looked so good I had to share the picture (above). Alas, it wasn't Adam who cooked it. Instead see his attempt and tips.

Thanks for your patience. Food Blog of the Week will return next week.

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Mini peach pies

I'm always on the lookout for recipes that look fun for kids to make as well as eat. This one for pint-sized peach pies in the March 2006 issue of Parents magazine fits the bill. Since they're made with frozen fruit, you can make them year-round.

Mini Peach Pies

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cups frozen peaches
2. 1 refrigerated piecrust
3. 2 1/2 Tbsp. graham cracker crumbs
4. 2 Tbsp. sugar
5. pinch of cinnamon

Directions:

1. Defrost peaches. Heat over to 400 degrees.
2. Using 4-inch bowl as a guide, cut 5 circles from piecrust. Roll out slightly, then place on a baking sheet.
3. Place 1/2 Tbsp. of graham cracker crumbs in center of each crust.
4. Using a plastic knife (for kids), cut thawed peaches into chunks. In medium bowl, mix peaches with sugar and cinnamon. Divide peaches among crusts.
5. Fold edge of each crust up and over peaches to form pies.
6. Bake 30 minutes until pies are golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Suggestions:

• Try using berries or other kinds of fruit - fresh or frozen.
• Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
• These would also make great party finger food.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or powered sugar.

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Muffin tin taco bowls

I really like the idea of using muffin tins to make something besides cupcakes. At a recent B&B stay, we were served breakfast eggs (with cheese and salsa) that were cooked in muffin tins. So when I saw the following kid friendly recipes in the February 2006 issue of Parenting magazine, I was glad to finally have some recipes to try out.

Taco Bowls
Yield: 20 taco bowls

Ingredients:

1. 10 6-inch flour torillas
2. 1 lb ground turkey
3. 1.25-oz package of taco seasoning mix
4. 8-oz. package shredded reduced-fat monterey jack cheese
5. 8-oz. package shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2. Trim about 1/2 inch from the edge of each tortilla with clean scissors or kitchen shears. Push the trotillas into nonstick muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a nonstick pan, saute turkey over medium heat, breaking apart large chunks and stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add taco seasoning mix and 2/3 cup water and simmer meat about 5 minutes.
4. Fill each tortilla cup with 2 tablespoons of cooked ground meat and top with a large pinch each of shredded cheeses.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes until the cheese is melted and cups start to brown.
6. Serve with salsa.

Suggestions:

• Use another kind of ground meat, meat substitute, or shredded pork or beef. This would be a great recipe for leftover meat as well.
• Use corn torillas instead of flour - better tasting and more fiber.
• You can also serve with avocados.
• Try using non-fat refried beans instead of meat.

Pizza Bites
Yield: 16 pizzas

Ingredients:

1. 13-oz can premade pizza dough
2. 1 cup pizza sauce
3. 1 cup shreeded reduced-fat mozzarella
4. 16 slices pepperoni

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Roll out pizza dough to a rectangle about 10x13 inches. Cut out circles with a 3 inch  cookie cutter.
2. Press each circle in bottom of muffin tins and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until dough is golden. Remove from oven.
3. Top each piece of dough with 1 tablespoon each of pizza sauce and cheese. Top with 1 slice of pepperoni.
4. Increase oven to 400 degrees and return tin to oven for 5 to 10 minutes until cheese is melted and golden brown.

Suggestions:

• Substitute veggies for pepperoni.
• These would make great finger food at adult parties, too.
• Great use for leftover sauce.

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Lentil-rice casserole

This casserole recipe is taken from Amy Dacyczyn's book The Tightwad Gazette #2. This is a standby at our house when I don't have the time or energy to make anything fancy. Just chop, measure, mix, cook and serve.

I usually double this recipe so we have lots of leftovers for Big Bad Dad to take to work and reheat.

Lentil-Rice Casserole
by Christina Parli of Springfield, Ohio

3 cups chicken broth (you can substitute vegetable broth or use water and bullion cubes)
¾ cup uncooked lentils
½ cup uncooked rice (whatever kind you have on hand, white, brown, basmati,etc.)
¾ cup chopped onion
½ tsp. basil
¼ tsp. oregano
¼ tsp. thyme
¼ tsp. garlic powder

Blend all together in a casserole dish. Bake, covered for 1½ hours at 300 degrees. Serve with some grated cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.

Amy writes that you can cook this in your crockpot, although I've never tried that method.

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The universal quiche

Eggs on sale? Make a quiche. Got leftover meat, cheese or veggies you don't know what to do with? Make a quiche. Need to make a quick meal for someone who's gluten-free? Make a quiche.

Quiche is probably the most simple and frugal dish around. I like to use this all-purpose recipe adapted from The Tightwad Gazette III: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle by Amy Dacyczyn.

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