Frugal in Franklin

Cabbage and Potato Hash

(This hash was made with corned beef, not bacon. But it will give you a good idea of the dice size I used for ingredients)

A few weeks ago, I had some leftovers in my fridge that I hated to waste and I came up with this recipe. It was so good that it will become a standard part of our menu during CSA season.

Cabbage and Potato Hash

4 med. Baked potatoes (already baked and refrigerated) –peel and dice into ½" chunks

2-3 slices of thick cut bacon

1 lg. onion cut into ½ " chunks

½ small head of cabbage shredded (boiled for about 3 minutes to soften)

 

Begin by frying the bacon. Remove from the pan, crumble, and set aside. Add the onion to the bacon grease in the pan (remove some of the grease if it's too much for your preference). Cook the onion in the grease until the chunks are almost translucent and brown on the edges. Add the cabbage to the pan, mixing thoroughly with the onions, and heating the cabbage through. Add the potato chunks and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the bacon crumbles before serving.

 

Hint: I used leftover baked potatoes from a previous meal. Cooking and then refrigerating them seems to preserve the integrity of the potato, so it doesn't turn to mush when you heat it through.

 

Also, I cooked the whole head of cabbage at once, reserving ½ for Rumbledethumps later in the week.

 

Finally, if you are worried about the saturated fat content of this menu, you could skip the bacon and use canola or olive oil. You could even add in a handful of pre-cooked bacon crumbles (like you find next to salad dressing) at the end.

 

 

 

Rumbledethumps (Another Yummy Use for Cabbage)

 

This another easy way to get kids to eat cabbage. This is a Scottish dish, although I'm sure my version is probably not very traditional. If you like the idea, but want to skip the cheese, try searching for Bubble and Squeak or Colcannon recipes.

• 1 small head of green cabbage
• 4 large or 6 small potatoes
• Butter to taste
• Milk to taste
• 1c. Shredded Cheddar

Cut cabbage away from core and slice into ¼ " shreds. Add cabbage and a ½ tsp. salt to boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes until cabbage is tender. Drain Cabbage, and set aside. Peel and dice potatoes. Prepare as you normally would for your favorite mashed potato recipe.

Mix the thoroughly drained cabbage and the mashed potatoes together. Spread in a well greased casserole. Top with cheese and place in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and dish is heated through.

 

 

 

 

Cabbage Crunch Salad

 

Dealing with large amounts of cabbage from the CSA is no problem at my house. My husband and 13 yo ds just love this cabbage salad. In fact, my son requested that I serve this on an evening when we did not have other events going on so that he would be able to really enjoy it.

 

Cabbage Crunch Salad

 

• ½ c Chopped Almonds (optional)
• 1 med. Head of cabbage (or a bag of slaw mix)
• 4 minced green onions (give or take depending on what you have)
• 2 Packages of chicken flavored ramen noodles broken into bite size pieces (Reserve 1 seasoning packet for dressing, toss or save the other packet for another use)

Dressing

• ½ c Canola Oil (or veg. oil of choice)
• 4T Sugar
• ¼ c Vinegar (Cider, Red Wine, Rice Wine)
• ¼ tsp Pepper
• 1 Ramen Seasoning Packet

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together and set to the side. Slice the cabbage away from the core is thin shreds, disposing of the core. Add the minced green onions. Pour the dressing over all and stir to combine. You will need a very large bowl. Do not be intimidated by the amount of cabbage, it will shrink down significantly as the dressing wilts the cabbage. Refrigerate this mixture a few hours before you are ready to serve. No more than one hour before you are ready to serve this dish, add the almonds, and ramen noodles.

This recipe packs well and would be great to take on a summer picnic or camping for the weekend.  For more great camping recipes visit LifeAsMom.

 

 

 

Our Favorite Way to Eat Kale

I think that we would all agree that if we're going to eat our veggies they need to be simple to prepare. That's why a simple sauté is my favorite way to prepare Kale. Here's what I do:

I start by heating up a few teaspoons of olive oil in a pan. Then I add a few cloves of coarsely chopped garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, I add the kale. (I like my kale sliced in ¼" ribbons). I saute the kale until it wilts and is tender enough to eat. If the kale seems a little tough, I will add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and cover it. Most of the time this is not necessary.

I finish off my kale with a good dousing of hot pepper sauce and salt to taste.

Don't get discouraged if your first experimentation with kale fails. It tooks us some time and a variety of recipes to find the way we like kale. Now, my hubby and I love it. I'm still working on the kids!

Mom’s Emergency Cookies (A Very Flexible Recipe)

 

When Meredith at Like Merchant Ships, posted about having to put together a last minute cookie tray, it reminded me of this great recipe. My sister passed it on to me when I got married. It just doesn't get any easier, and if you are a couponer with a big cake mix stash, you will never be without cookies again.

Ingredients:

1 Box cake mix, any flavor

2 eggs

½ c of vegetable oil (I like canola)

 

Mix all ingredients and drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes at 350 degrees. (The recipe gives a yield of 3 doz., but I usually get less)

 

The beauty of this recipe is that the sky is the limit. Our favorite combination is chocolate cake mix with chocolate chips. However, you could use any flavor cake mix you want. Add any flavor chips, dried fruits, nuts, oatmeal, etc… You can also make these into sandwich cookies, using a little jam, icing, or ice cream. How about putting a thumbprint in them and adding a little filling? Need something fancy and fast? Drizzle a plain chocolate cookie with melted white baking chocolate. You'll look like a gourmet cook!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flexible Muffin Recipe

Fish Mama at Life As Mom, is focusing on romantic meals this week. How about breakfast in bed with Dark Chocolate and Cherry Muffins? This is my favorite basic recipe for making muffins.

Mix together these dry ingredients:

2 ½ c Whole Wheat Flour

½ tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1tsp. Baking Powder

In a separate bowl, combine these wet ingredients:

1c Sour Milk

1 Egg

½ c Oil

½ c sugar

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, adding mix-ins of your choice. For Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins, I would add about 1/2 c. each of chopped dried cherries and chopped dark chocolate.

You can lighten this recipe by using 2 egg whites, and ¼ c of oil mixed with ¼ c of fruit puree (bananas, applesauce, pumpkin etc…) You can replace all the oil with fruit, but it will be very dense.

Don't be afraid to mess with this recipe. Add to it as follows:

Dry mix-ins—recipe can accommodate about 1c total:

Nuts

Seeds

Berries, chopped or grated fruit

Chocolate or baking chips of any flavor

Coconut

Savory additions—cheese, bacon, chopped broccoli, sausage

Grated carrot or zucchini

Wet Mix-ins—When combined with the oil, this should equal ½ to ¾ c

Sour Cream

Pumpkin Puree

Apple Sauce

Cooked Cereal (oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc…)

Nut Butters

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Spices:

1tsp. Cinnamon

¼ tsp. Nutmeg

1-2 tsp. Lemon or Orange Rind

Pumpkin pie or Apple pie spice

For more great recipes, be sure to check out Grocery Cart Challenge.

Our Favorite Pizza Crust

 

I've been making homemade pizza for years. I've experimented with tons of different recipes, some simple and some complicated. I've used my bread machine and mixed by hand. After much trial and error, I finally landed on this recipe:

• 1T Yeast
• 1T Olive Oil
• 1T Sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. Salt
• 1 ½ c Warm Water
• 2c Whole Wheat Flour ( I use freshly milled hard white wheat, but you can use the flour of your choice)
• 2c White Flour

Mix everything together but the flour. Then add the flour and mix with a fork until you have a stiff ball of dough. Knead the dough for 3-5 minutes and it's ready to use. I promise, it's really that simple and it makes a great crust!

In the spirit of creating a flexible pizza recipe, here are a few of the different things I use for sauce:

• Jarred Spaghetti Sauce
• Jarred Pizza Sauce
• Italian Spiced Tomato Sauce
• Tomato Sauce with a ½ tsp of sugar, salt, and Italian Seasoning added
• Tomato Paste, thinned with water and seasoned as above

 

Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe (And How to Create Your Own)

I love getting a bottle of dressing for free with a coupon, but nothing beats a freshly mixed vinaigrette.  My favorite vinaigrette recipe comes from 1,000 Lowfat Recipes, by Terry Blonder Golson.  Check it out on Amazon, it's one of my favorite cookbooks.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3T  Balsamic Vinegar

1T Lemon Juice

1/8 tsp. kosher salt (other salts will work if needed)

1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper (again you could substitute)

Whisk together all the ingredients.  This will store in the refrigerator for quite awhile.  I keep mine in one of those squeeze bottles, like they put on the table in restaurants.

Do you have some other kind of vinegar or oil on hand?  If you want to take a swing at making your own vinaigrette, try this great article

 

 

 

 

 

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (Flexible Recipe)

 

I still have a crisper drawer full of biscuits from the Kroger biscuit deal awhile back.  I wanted to use some up, and thought that modifying an old recipe that I had from Cooking Light would be just the ticket.

Ingredients:

• 12 refrigerated biscuits (2 small cans of 6 each)
• 1lb of Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage
• 1small jar of Spaghetti Sauce
• A generous handful of cheese

Procedure:

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and spraying an 8x11 casserole with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Lay all the biscuits out in the bottom of the dish and then pat them out flat, overlapping them to eliminate holes in the dough, and pressing the dough 3/4 of the way up the sides of the dish.
3. Brown the sausage and add the spaghetti sauce.  Pour the sausage/sauce combination over the biscuits.
4. Top with cheese
5. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Substitution ideas:

Dough:  Bread dough (fresh, frozen, or refrigerated), Pizza Crust Dough (fresh or refrigerated)

Sauce:  Pizza sauce, tomato sauce with a few added spices, or italian style diced tomatoes drained

Filling:  Hamburger, breakfast sausage, pepperoni, ground pork, chicken or turkey,  or veggies (saute the veggies before adding so your finished casserole is not soggy)

Cheese:  Whatever you have on hand (not swiss).  I used a combination of cheddar and mozzarella because I had several almost empty bags of shredded cheese I wanted to use up.

Looking for more great recipes?  Head over to Grocery Cart Challenge for the Recipe Swap.

Oven Barbecued Chicken

I recently found myself with some thawed leg quarters and no time to pull off my original plan (homemade pot pie).  I thought about putting barbecue sauce on them, and then baking them, but I didn't want it to be too bland.  I got on Recipezaar to view a few different Oven Baked Barbecue Chicken recipes, and then I created this:

I started by dicing half an onion and tossing it in a frying pan with a small amount of canola oil.  While the onion was browning, I salted and peppered the chicken pieces and placed them in the pan to brown lightly on both sides.

I removed the chicken and placed it in a greased baking dish.  I added about 1/2 c. of water to the pan to deglaze it (pull up all the little brown bits and onion  that stuck to the bottom).  To the liquid in the pan, I added about 1/2 a bottle of barbecue sauce and mixed thoroughly.   Then, I poured the sauce over the chicken.  (Hint for moms of picky eaters: I made one pan w/ barbecue sauce and one without)

   

I baked the chicken uncovered at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  Believe it or not, those few extra steps in cooking made a huge difference in flavor.  This was excellent, and my kids have been asking for it again. I'm sure you'll see it pop up on next week's menu.

In the spirit of flexible cooking, here are a few suggestions:  You could use this same recipe to oven barbecue any meat or even tofu.  If you have an abundance of tomato sauce or ketchup, but no barbecue sauce, google a recipe and make your own.  No onion?  How about some Garlic.  That would give it a different, but excellent flavor.  Ooh, or same cooking technique, but use garlic and a can of Italian style tomatoes instead of barbecue sauce.  Oven Baked Chicken Cacciatore, anyone?