Feed Your Family For Less Than $30 Per Week- Part 2

Step two of my plan to feed my family on less than $30 per week was to start laying it out on a calendar. Plan out which days I would cook which meals. I opened up blank calendar templates for six weeks and began plugging meals in. I focused on trying to get a well rounded week. I didn't want to have chicken three times in a row or make pizza the same week I make spaghetti. I also plotted out my plans for breakfasts. I decided that I would make 4 different breakfasts each week and on the 5th morning it would be mom's choice. The 4 breakfasts will repeat week after week.

Here is my six week meal plan.

Knoedel Recipe

I say Kanoodle, you say knoedel... let's call the whole thing off!

In an effort to broaden our families culinary horizons I stumbled into the world of Knoedels.

Knoedel is an Austrian dish of pure comfort and merriment. By definition, they are big, round, poached or boiled dumplings made without yeast. By taste they are hot, moist, yumminess floating in delicious broth.

I found many recipes for Knoedels made out of potatoes, but I didn't have any potatoes on hand. Then I found a recipe for Knoedels made out of Cream of Wheat. Yeah, Cream of Wheat, like the yummy hot cereal that we love so much in winter time. Also known as Farina (C of W) Knoedels. I browsed over the recipe (cream of wheat... good, butter... good, eggs... good!) and decided that there was nothing not to like and oh boy, was I ever right!

The easy, peasy recipe:
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. salt
1 cup cream of wheat

Mix together butter (just slightly softened) and 2 eggs. Add salt and slowly stir in Cream of Wheat. Shape into small teaspoon sized balls(they will triple in size when cooked). Drop all balls into boiling water at the same time. Boil uncovered for 2 minutes then remove from heat and cover for 15 minutes... don't peek at them durning this time. After the 15 minutes remove dumplings from hot water and add them to 1 quart (32 oz) of hot broth (chicken, veggie, ham, beef). Serve hot and enjoy.
These have become a staple in our house. They require easy ingredients that are always in my pantry and they are quick and easy.

These are fantastic when you are sick, easy when you don't have many ingredients on hand and a wonderful "memory" food for the kids.

Feed Your Family For Less Than $30 Per Week

I have been working very hard on a project that I'm so excited about! I have been working for the last week to organize a food plan for my family. I have compiled recipes, planned meals, prepared a shopping list and purchased 18 weeks worth of food.

This alone might not sound monumental. Oh, but it is! The most exciting part of this is that I have created a plan to feed my family good, nutritious, and delicious home-cooked meals for the next four and a half months and all of the food to do it cost me less than $500. When the grocery bills were all calculated, I was amazed at the incredibly low total. 

All of the recipes that I have planned are tried and true family favorites. I focused on meals that are super easy and fast... and of course we have to have Deep Dish Pizza a few times too! I cook 4-5 dinners per week for my family, we usually eat out or have some other plans once a week and we eat leftovers 1-2 nights per week. I also planned breakfasts (no more cold, sugary cereal) and bought lunch fixin's for the kiddos.

Because I am so excited about my recipes, menu and shopping totals, I have decided to share all of my hard work with you. Feel free to follow my meal plan, or use bits and pieces of it to lower your food bills and build your food storage.

Since this is such a big project, it will take me a few days to share and explain. Please, use the link below to access the collection of dinner recipes that I have compiled.


Recipe Collection

Some of these recipes have been shared before at The Common Cents Home, others are new, but all are fantastic. In the coming days I will be going into more detail about some of the new recipes. I will also share my calendar, shopping lists and tricks.

After this, I will NEVER look at meal planning the same way again!

Removing Grease Stains

Have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? The main character's dad uses Windex to cure every ailment and problem the family has. When I was growing up my dad was a little like that, but his cure of choice was Paint Thinner. It seemed like every stain or issue we had, paint thinner was the answer. The main thing he used it for was removing grease stains, both from carpet and clothing. It works great! That stain in the picture was very old, in fact it had been there since we moved into our house. I have used vinegar and steam cleaned over it multiple times. It is in an out of sight location so I haven't ever gotten around to ridding the carpet of it once and for all, until yesterday. I decided it was time.

I got out the trusty Paint Thinner and poured a generous amount on an old rag. It takes a good amount of scrubbing at the spot, but that stubborn grease stain came out of there in less than 3 minutes.

See! Gone! (I left that little spot right by the can in tact just so that you would know this was the same area of carpet and there was no "tom-foolery" involved.) The Paint Thinner removed an old, old grease stain in less than three minutes! The great part about this remedy is that it works on most clothing, too. Next time, you get grease on your pants from the car door, or your bicycle chain, you don't have to throw them out. Try Paint Thinner when all else has failed!

Cooking a Perfect Ear of Corn

 

I was looking for a definitive answer on how to cook the world's greatest corn on the cob. Googling the question brought me a million different answers. I had no idea who to believe or which method to start with. Then it occurred to me, what do you do when you want to cook the best sweet corn? You ask someone who really knows about sweet corn. Well, where do they really know about sweet corn? Iowa, of course! So that is exactly what I did. I went to the source of the matter. I got myself a lesson from a good friend of mine who grew up in Iowa. And let me tell you something, it was the most worthwhile lesson I have ever gotten.

Not only is this method fast and super easy. I have now repeated the method about a dozen times and had perfect, delicious, kernel popping, sweet corn each time! I was surprised at how easy it is to get a perfectly cooked ear of corn. Want to know the insider secrets? Alright, here it is...

-Husk corn and remove silk
-Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. You want to have enough room and water for your ears of corn to float freely in the pot.
-Carefully, drop corn into boiling water (unfortunately, this is a warning from experience.)
-Cover with lid and boil for exactly 6 minutes.
-At the end of six minutes your corn should have a strong corn smell and the color will have deepened.

That's it! Perfect corn every time!

*One last fantastic insider tip. If you get a batch of corn that isn't as sweet as you would like, add a little sugar to the boiling water before dropping in the corn. It'll sweeten your ears right up.

The Great Big Unexpected Kitchen Redo

Once upon a time...

My kitchen looked a little something like this.

When we moved into our house three years ago, we quickly painted the yellow cabinets white and the yellow walls sage green. And then we went about our merry way for the next three years. Until, last month, when I decided this kitchen just wasn't "floating my boat" anymore. So, I sent my hubs and the kiddos away for a weekend and painted my laminate counter tops. (I know we've already talked about that little adventure, and how happy I was with the results, but really that is where this whole story begins!) After painting the counter tops, this is what I ended up with:

It looked great. I was in love with my new counter tops. But a new situation arose in the process. Check it out:

While prepping my counter tops, I had to remove some old yucky caulk that was between the laminate and the wall. This also removed a chunk of the wall. ... That's ok, I really wanted a back-splash anyway. So, while I was away my husband tackled that project. He put bead board up for me. It looked fantastic! (sorry no pictures) I loved it so much. But the new counter tops and pretty white back splash made my cabinets look just a little dingy, well ok, they looked A LOT dingy! I suggested that we lightly sand them and give them a fresh coat of paint. The husband agreed. While we were at it, he wanted to replace the hinges because they looked like this:

yuckiness!

We took all of the cabinets down and got out the electric sander. As soon as we started layers of paint began peeling off! Oh, NO! Sanding was clearly NOT going to work. We discussed and decided that the better route might be to try to strip the cabinets. I ran to the local hardware store, bought a can of stripper and was excited to watch the paint start bubbling away. It was like a really cool high school chemistry demonstration. I was thinking this was going to work. However, after three strips, there was still paint on the cabinets. They looked a little something like this:

There was much-too-much paint left on there to simply paint over. The surface was rough and yucky (I seem to be using that word a lot in conjunction with my old kitchen.) We discussed the amount of time and stripper it would take to remove all of the layers of paint, and decided that it would be a lot of work and money and we probably still wouldn't be happy with the out-come.

Time to explore other options! Our cabinets had routered edges. We needed to figure out a way to re-face the cabinets, and make the edges work. More bead board, here we come! I sanded down all of the cabinet edges as much as possible to make them smooth while my husband cut trim pieces and bead board. We used Liquid Nails to attach the bead board to the cabinets and drawers.

And more Liquid Nails to attach trim around each one. We used masking tape to hold them together while the Liquid Nails "set." We literally had tape holding our whole kitchen together.

Since we had brand new faces on our cabinets, why not replace the handles? My husband has always hated the old ones and now we could get any size we wanted since there was no concern over matching up old screw holes. I went for the brushed nickle small sash pulls.

What had started so small and simple, quickly snowballed into a giant four day project, (My husband was pretty sure I was trying to kill him when I selected the handles that had 4 screws EACH in them) but I could not be more thrilled with the outcome! The entire project (including the counter tops) came in at about $200, and gave us a whole new look.

 And she cooked Happily Ever After!

Wait a minute! Did someone say something about a new tile floor?!?

...and the kitchen saga continues...

Homemade Deep Dish Pizza

Have you ever tried to make pizza at home and thought "ehhh, it's not as good as the pizzeria, but it's not bad for homemade pizza"? I've done that so many times! And then I tried this recipe, this isn't just good for homemade pizza, it is some of the best pizza I've ever eaten! It is fantastic and so cheap to make at home. My family gets really excited on pizza night when I tell them that I'm making deep dish pizza. I'll be honest, this isn't a fast recipe but it is worth the time and really it doesn't require too much hands on work, you just need to allow for "rising" time.

I came across this recipe over at The Frugal Girl and it has become a regular on my dinner rotation.

Deep Dish Pizza Recipe
1 medium potato
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
3 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup warm water
6 Tbs vegetable oil
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 lb mozzarella cheese grated
meat and veggie pizza toppings as desired

-Peel and quarter potato and boil in small saucepan for 10 minutes until fork tender. Once cooled grate potato using large holes on box grater. Measure out 1 cup of grated potato.

-Mix 3 cups flour, yeast, and salt in large mixing bowl. Slowly add warm water and 2 tbs of vegetable oil. Begin kneading until water seems incorporated, then add 1 cup grated potato and knead an additional 3 minutes; adding more flour as needed to achieve good dough consistency.

-Cover and allow to rise in a warm location for 1 hour

-Pour 2 Tbs of vegetable oil each into two 9 inch round cake pans. Divide dough in half, press into roughly 9 inch round shapes and place in each pan. Press them out in pan to fill evenly.

- Cover dough and allow to rise for 30 minutes while preheating oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees with pizza stone on bottom rack of oven.

-After the 30 minute rise, poke the crusts all over with a fork. Place the pans on the pizza stone in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

-Top crust with Spahgetti sauce, cheese and toppings. Move the pizza stone to upper shelf, return the pans to the oven and continue cooking for an additional 10 minutes.

-Remove from oven, allow to cool and slice. Close your eyes and imagine you are at Round Table pizza, it's that good!

I have learned to allow 2 1/2 hours for the preparation of this pizza. I realize it requires some advance planning, but believe me, it is worth the effort! (Thanks Frugal Girl for a favorite recipe.)