Freezer Cooking: Quick Cheese Ravioli

Now when I first seen this I thought it was going to be a quick recipe, boy was I wrong.

Well serving day is quick, but preparation day is a bit time consuming.

Once you get started and get in a grove it really doesn’t take long. I even made my friends set for her cause I was done with all of my other recipes that day.

These tasted really good, even though I over cooked them and most my filling ended up in the water. But nothing a slotted spoon couldn’t get out, so it just ended up all mixed together, lol.

In the bag frozen

I used a regular marinara sauce, but the recipe does include a Parsley-Basil butter drizzle.

Like I said this was really good, Mr.B even liked it. But you have to be very careful to watch them while they are boiling, otherwise you will end up with a lot of empty shells. Also maybe while preparing them if you wrap the edges so they look more like tortellini’s they will cook better.

I plan to make these again, and will try wrapping them that way. I will double or maybe triple the recipe though as it can be time consuming. And if I can get 2-3 meals out of it then it’s really worth it.

Here’s the recipe: Quick Cheese Ravioli

Freezer Cooking: Chipotle Chocolate Chili

Next up on our freezer cooking journey is the Chipotle-Chocolate Chili. I cooked it in the crockpot all day so it was ready to eat when we got home from work. And I dumped it in frozen, so it really was super easy.

I thought it was a tad sweet, so I would skip the chocolate you add to it on serving day. I think the cocoa added on preparation day is enough.

My mom had it 2 days later and thought it was a bit spicy. Maybe it marinated a bit more sitting in the fridge, cause I didn’t get that at all. I did also add sour cream to mine and she didn’t. So that could be it as well.

Mr.B ate it for lunch the next two days, so I guess he liked it. He didn’t really give me an answer on how it was. Just kept eating it, lol.

I really like having chili already prepared in the freezer, so I may do this again with just my regular chili recipe. I usually make my chili in the crockpot and have to open cans and add everything in the morning before heading out the door, this way would cut the time to nothing.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like it: Chipotle Chocolate Chili

Freezer Cooking

I signed up for Freezer cooking classes through a local city my friend works for. It’s 6 classes held every 2 weeks. We purchase the meat and then go in and prepare 6 meals, they have all of the other supplies there for you.

I decided to make 4 of the meals this last week, so I doubled up on 2 of them to equal my 6 meals. 2 of the meals just weren’t things we would eat.

But I thought I would share them with you guys as I make them. This week I made Chipotle-Chocolate Chile, Grilled Honey Lime Chicken, Creamy Chuck Roast with Mushrooms, and Cheese Ravioli. The other 2 meals were Sesame Salmon and Breakfast Sausage and Apples.

So far we have had the Roast and Chicken, both were pretty good.

The roast was the easiest to prepare for freezing. This was one of the dishes I did 2 of, so we have another one ready to go anytime.

Last night I cooked the chicken on my foreman grill, I’m sure it would have been even better on the outside grill. I mean it was good, but I love the taste of anything cooked on the gas grill.

The chicken was the other one I did 2 of so I actually doubled the recipe and then split it among 3 bags with 3 chicken breasts in each. They all had plenty of sauce with them so I could have probably got a 4th bag out of it. When I make this again I will double it as well and make 4 bags with 3 breasts each.

I also didn’t do the 2t of chopped jalapeno and just threw 1 slice of it in to each bag. Just because the baby might have some of it and I wouldn’t want it to spicy.

Here are these 2 recipes if you would like to try them. I made them as a document so you can just print them if you’d like. Like I said they were good, and easy to make.

Creamy Chuck Roast with Mushrooms

Grilled Honey Lime Chicken

Good for you muffins

Yesterday I decided to make some muffins using the Flax seed I ordered. I actually ordered it already ground up so it’s easy to just throw in anything. I learned about Flax on another blog and she talks about throwing it into everything and even using it as an ice cream topping. So I thought I’d give it a taste, and it kind of taste like nuts. So I could see using it as a topping as well.

But for my first baking adventure with it I decided to make Pumpkin Spice Muffins from a recipe I found online. And while they aren’t great...they aren’t horrible either, lol.

I felt they were missing something, and that was when I realized I used pure pumpkin instead of pumpkin pie mix. So it was missing a lot of seasonings. Next time I will make them correctly, lol.

The recipe is super easy:

1 box spice cake mix

1 can pumpkin pie mix

1/2 cup ground flax

1/2 raisins

Combine cake mix, pumpkin pie mix, flax, and raisins in a bowl
and mix well. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups (use regular
or mini muffin tins). Bake at 350° for 20 - 25 minutes.

I don’t like raisins so I omitted them in my recipe. Also the batter is really thick so I added a bit of water to the 2nd batch. Well I only made 1 batch but I only have 1 muffin pan, so the 2nd group to be baked. I also got a can of cream cheese frosting so that helped with the blandness some.

Mr.B wasn’t a big fan of them, but his friend liked them. Hopefully when I make them again, the correct way, he will like them.

Boat load of Goodness

I really want to provide my son with the best nutrition possible. I also want to make sure he gets tons of nutrients. Reading other blogs I’ve heard about all sorts of things to give my baby, some I’m not so sure about and others sound like a great idea.

One thing I’ve always heard about is flax seed, and I planned to use it. It has a boat load of good qualities, and I’m excited to include it in our diet as well.

I planned to put it in little mans baby food when I make it, but I’ve read not to introduce it until 7-8 months...so I have to wait a bit longer.

I did just order some from nuts online for $3.99 a lb. I decided to order from them because I was in search of Clodhoppers, lol. When I was in the hospital they brought me some of these as my night time snack and they were SO good. But you can’t buy them any where, so I jumped online in search of them and found them there. While on their site I was looking around and they have such a HUGE collection of stuff, I was surprised.

But I just ordered my clodhoppers and the ground flax seed. It arrived in 2 days and even came with a sample of Chia seeds.

Which from what I’ve been reading are even better than Flax seed...but cost a bit more. But I’ve been enjoying the sample and had them in some tea yesterday. Their website has a recipe section so I’m looking forward to trying some of them. And may end up ordering more if I notice a difference in how I feel.

I did find a recipe for Pumpkin Spice muffins with Flax that I am going to make this weekend...I’ll be sure to share the recipe and how it turns out with you.

Oh and if any of you would like to order from nuts online leave me a message with your email and I can send you a referral and you will get 10% off your order. They have no idea I’m doing this so I don’t get any thing from them...well they do offer 10% off my order for any referral. But anyone can get that by referring someone. So nothing special for writing this post...I just did it because I really liked my products I ordered.

My first fondant cake

I’ve been a busy little baker today let me tell you. I made my first 2 tier fondant cake for work tomorrow. I started out using butter cream frosting I made but it wasn’t thick enough to actually decorate with. So I frosted the 2 tiers and then covered them with fondant and used colored fondant for the decorations. Since I wasn’t planning on using fondant I haven’t practiced making things yet so I wasn’t sure what to do. I’d really been set to use butter cream. But it turned out alright I suppose, I mean it couldn’t get much worse, lol.

My butter cream frostingBoth cakes frosted  ...and completed

But cake wasn’t the only thing I made today...more on that later.

Easy as pie Petit Fours.

Back in February I found a super easy way to make Petit Fours...so I thought I would try it. While out shopping this afternoon I picked up everything I needed to make them and this evening my sister and I set out on our little adventure.

Our ingredientsI started out rolling the white fondant. It was super easy to roll out but I didn’t put anything down to stop it from sticking so that caused an issue. Cut a circle out and placed it over the Oreo cakester Wrapped it around Then rolled out the pink to make some cute flowers. And that’s it! How easy was that?!?! It does take some time, but I think it would have been faster had I prepared my mat so the fondant wouldn’t have stuck.

I’m seriously considering taking the Wilton cake decorating classes. But I would LOVE to find someone to go with me. I think it would be a lot more fun that way. I wonder who I can talk into going with me?

My first attempt at bread making.

I finally got Windows writer to upload pictures so I could share this new recipe I found with you. As I said here I’ve been busy baking bread. What I didn’t tell you is I also broke my mixer doing that. Apparently the dough (is dough the correct word?) was a tad to thick for my little Betty Crocker mixer. It was just a hand mixer, but now it’s in the trash. So I’m on the lookout for a big stand mixer. I’ve always wanted one but never got around to buying one, besides we’ve always had such a small kitchen I’ve never had a place for one. But our soon to be new kitchen has plenty of room so I’m taking the plunge. Now to decide on which one.

Oh...about that bread. We had some bananas that were getting to be to ripe so I started searching the internet for a recipe and I found this: Crispy Cinnamon Streusel Banana Nut Cream Cheese Bread. Now that’s a mouthful, lol.

So I set out to make it this afternoon. 2 hours later and I have 2 delicious loaves of bread. It would have taken less time but after my mixer broke I had to start stirring by hand.    My loaf pans were pretty full and I probably could have gotten 3 out of itBe sure to cover completely with topping because it’s the best part.It rises and browns so beautifullyand slices even better

While I was cooking it my husband made some remark that he probably wasn’t going to even eat any, let alone 2 loaves of it. So when I was getting ready to package it up I took him in a slice. He ate it and loved it! In fact after he finished that piece he went and got himself 2 more pieces. So I'd say it was a hit.

I took the other loaf to work and the loved it there as well. One of my co-workers asked when I was going to make it again, cause she wanted more. I told that to Mr. B  and he said “Good, that saves me from asking you to make it again”.

I suppose I’ll be buying bananas and making this again…but not till I get a new mixer that is. But I do suggest all of you make this bread if you like banana bread, cause it’s good. So here’s the recipe so you can make it too:

Crispy Cinnamon Streusel Banana Nut Cream Cheese Bread

Ingredients

BREAD

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 medium)
• 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

STREUSEL

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Beat butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer until creamy.

3. Add sugar, gradually, and beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until blended.

5. Gradually add flour and next three ingredients to butter mixture, beating at low until just blended.

6. Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanilla.

7. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x4 loaf pans.

8. Batter will be thick.

9. For streusel: Stir together 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon.

10. Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter in pans.

11. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

12. Bread may be shielded with aluminum foil that last 15 minutes to prevent excessive browning of streusel.

13. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes.

14. Remove from pans and cool 30 more minutes before slicing.

15. For perfect slices, cut with a serrated or electric knife after cooling.

PRINT RECIPE

A Super Bowl feast.

So...who are you rooting for on Super Bowl Sunday?

Me...well I don't much care. We're Packers fans so we were a little disappointed to see them lose in over time. Better luck next year boys.

But I'm actually off this year so I was planning on making us some Super Bowl munchies. I've been scowering the web for a few delicious looking recipes and I think I've found some. So on our plates this Sunday will be Bacon Wrapped Smokies, Outrageous Warm Chicken Nacho Dip, Restaurant-Style Buffalo Chicken Wings and of course some veggies and fruit to make it a little healthier.

Bacon Wrapped Smokies Ingredients
1 pound sliced bacon, cut into thirds
1 (14 ounce) package beef cocktail wieners
3/4 cup brown sugar, or to taste
DirectionsPreheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Refrigerate 2/3 of the bacon until needed. It is easier to wrap the wieners with cold bacon. Wrap each cocktail wiener with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle brown sugar generously over all.
Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the sugar is bubbly. To serve, place the wieners in a slow cooker and keep on the low setting.

Outrageous Warm Chicken Nacho Dip Ingredients
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers (such as RO*TEL®), drained
1 (1 pound) loaf processed cheese food (such as Velveeta®), cubed
2 large cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, shredded
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup diced green onion
1 1/2 tablespoons taco seasoning mix
2 tablespoons minced jalapeno pepper, or to taste (optional)
1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
Directions
Place the diced tomatoes, processed cheese, chicken meat, sour cream, green onion, taco seasoning, and jalapeno pepper into a slow cooker. Cook on High, stirring occasionally until the cheese has melted and the dip is hot, 1 to 2 hours. Stir in the black beans, and cook 15 more minutes to reheat.
Footnotes
If the dip gets too thick, thin with small amounts of milk

Restaurant-Style Buffalo Chicken Wings
Ingredients
oil for deep frying
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup hot sauce
1 dash ground black pepper
1 dash garlic powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 chicken wings
Directions
Heat oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). The oil should be just enough to cover wings entirely, an inch or so deep. Combine the butter, hot sauce, pepper and garlic powder in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir together and heat until butter is melted and mixture is well blended. Remove from heat and reserve for serving.
In a small bowl mix together the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt. Place chicken wings in a large nonporous glass dish or bowl and sprinkle flour mixture over them until they are evenly coated. Cover dish or bowl and refrigerate for 60 to 90 minutes.
Fry coated wings in hot oil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until parts of wings begin to turn brown. Remove from heat, place wings in serving bowl, add hot sauce mixture and stir together. Serve.
Are you having a big party? If so...what's on your menu?

What's Cookin good Lookin?

Mr. B is a huge fan of Lasagna, it is his favorite meal. So when I came across this recipe I knew I had to make it. Not only because it looked good, but because I could make a bunch up and freeze them so he could heat and eat when ever he had a craving.

So this weeked I am making these:

Don't those look delish? Now the original recipe calls for tofu and spinach, which I am not about. We are meat eaters so I will be using meat. Usually ground beef, but I have been going with healthier alternatives and using ground turkey, so I may do that.

Here is the original Recipe with my substitutions in red.

Lasagna Roll ups

1 (16 ounce) package uncooked lasagna noodles
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 pound firm tofu 1lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach - thawed, drained and squeezed dry May leave this in as you usually can't taste it when it's mixed in dishes, otherwise I will just omit all together.
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 (28 ounce) jar pasta sauce

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles for 5 to 8 minutes, or until just slightly underdone; drain and rinse.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together grated cheese, ricotta cheese, tofu, frozen spinach, and 1 cup Parmesan cheese.
3. Lay out a noodle. Spread a layer of the cheese mixture on the noodle, then add a thin layer of sauce. Roll the noodle up, and place seam side down in a 13x9 pan. Repeat for other noodles. Top with remaining sauce and Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 30 min, or until hot and bubbly.

I will be adding my meat to the sauce instead of tofu to the cheese mixture. I may also decide to double this recipe since I am going to make up a bunch and freeze them.

I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out!

Cooking, giveaway results, and a Q&A.

Today Mr. B and I raked the yard, boy did we have a lot of leaves. I'm glad that the trees in our yard are now bare so we shouldn't need to rake again this year. But I am not looking forward to the snow fall that is soon to follow. As I am the one who has to leave for work in the morning it will always be covered in fresh snow, I wonder if I can get Mr. B up to shovel and clean the car off for me.

I made bean soup for dinner tonight, well actually it cooked in the crock pot all day. I used a very simple recipe that included ham, beans, onions, water, and pepper, That's it. Throw it in the crock pot and cook on high all day. I also made corn bread with a touch of sugar added, we like ours a little sweet. Some how I even got Mr. B to volunteer to do the dishes even though it was my turn, but I wasn't going to complain.Now I'm sitting here blogging and watching the shows I have recorded on the DVR. Monday is our busiest recording night so I have a lot to catch up on. Luckily it goes fast since I can fast forward through commercials, the best thing about having a DVR if you ask me. Oh, you didn't ask me, well you got my opinion anyways, lol.

Also I need to post the winner of the Navigating the Land of IF book. The first name drawn was actually Melissa G, but she stated she already had this book so I did another draw at random.org and the winner is Jennifer! I have emailed you and hope to hear back from you soon.

Well I think I'm done rambling on, unless there is something else you think I should talk about....anything???? Do you have any questions for us, anything you're just dying to know? Well feel free to ask in the comments section and I'll be sure to answer them on an upcoming Q&A post.

Melissa's Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I was laying on the couch the other day trying to think of some new recipes. We eat a lot of chicken and I've run out of new, fresh ideas. So I started thinking. Mr. B's favorite dish is lasagna, but the reason he loves lasagna is the ricotta cheese. So I started thinking about chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese, and then it grew from there.

I decided to stuff my chicken with ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese. Then I decided that since his next favorite dish is Parmesan chicken that I should also bread it. So I decided to use some Shake 'n Bake as well. I needed to run to the store for the shake n bake and while there I seen some fresh mushrooms and thought those would taste wonderful in it as well.

I returned home and gathered my ingredients:

Once home I decided that an onion would add great flavor as well. I chopped up the mushrooms and onions and sauteed them for just a few minutes in a teaspoon of olive oil.

In another bowl I had mixed together 1 tub of ricotta cheese, a handful of mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled in some Parmesan.

Added my sauteed mushroom/onion mix:
Then I split my chicken breasts like so:
and stuffed it as full as I could:
I then coated them in the Parmesan crusted shake n bake and placed them into a lightly sprayed pan:
I baked them for about 25 mins until the chicken was cooked thoroughly.

Since I had some mushrooms left and some cheese mixture I decided to throw them together for a stuffed mushroom type of thing. I also coated the mushrooms in the shake n bake mixture I had left:
Then spread out the cheese mixture and added mozzarella cheese to the top.
I baked this for 10 mins then put under the broiler to brown.

We had company over for dinner so I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the completed meal, but Mr. B snagged a picture of the chicken on his plate:
Every one said it was great! And Mr. B said I will be making this again, which is a great compliment from him. Since he usually says he loves everything I make, but to be that adamant about eating it again is a good sign. I'm glad it was a hit.

I served this with bow tie pasta and steamed broccoli with cheese sauce. I also had some sauce for the pasta and the chicken. I had enough for 4 people and it was a little over $21 for the whole meal. We do have lots of pasta and sauce left for lunch tomorrow. So we will get 2 meals out of it as well.

Here is the complete recipe if you would like to re-create it. But I didn't really measure anything so it is very vague on the amount of items....sorry.

Italian stuffed chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 12oz tub ricotta chees
About a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 package sliced fresh mushrooms (I only used half the package for the chicken)
1 medium sized onion
1 packet Parmesan crusted shake n bake.
1 teaspoon olive oil

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil.
Mix ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese in bowl. Add sauteed mushroom/onion mixture.
Split chicken breast and stuff with cheese mixture.
Coat with shake n bake
Bake on 400* for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked thoroughly.

I hope you enjoy :)

Baked French Toast from Heaven.

I love French Toast, it is one of our favorites. So when I found this recipe I had to make it. And let me tell you, it was good!


Now doesn't that look good?

I know you want to make this for your family as much as I did, so I'll share the recipe. Courtesy of Paula Dean.

Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup

• 1 loaf French Bread (13 to 16 oz)
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoom ground nutmeg
• dash salt
• Praline topping, recipe below
• Maple syrup

Directions

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Praline Topping

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

I think you should make this on Saturday morning, and bring me some at work. I'll be very thankful, I promise!

Wish I'd had a Margarita too.

Well Mr. B and I decided we need to get healthy. And in order to do that we need to drastically change our eating habits. So I've been on the search for some healthy inexpensive meals. Then I remembered a favorite dish of mine, that is some what healthy.

So I ran to the store after PT and picked up all my ingredients, $30* later and I'm headed home.

*I also purchased things other than tonight's dinner. Tonight's meal was around $16.
Wondering what were having? Why Salsa Chicken with Black beans and Spanish rice of course. I purchased reduced fat, no fat, or organic products and the whole meal comes in under 600 calories.

The chicken was put in a pan with just the salsa, no oil or anything. I usually make my own spanish rice but went the easy route and bought a box mix instead. Also I bought a can of refried black beans, not as low cal as just regular black beans would have been. But we like our beans refried, lol.

I served the chicken over romaine lettuce. I take 1 serving of reduced fat shredded cheese and sprinkle over the whole meal, I also top my beans with pico de gallo. We also have 1/2 a serving of baked tortilla chips.

And ta da:Dinner is served! We enjoyed it and were very full after all of that food. As a bonus and because I made so much and turned 3 chicken breasts into 6 we have a ton of food left. I think it will be dinner tomorrow night as well, easy for me!

Another boring day.

Another Friday night in and another delicious meal.

I had PT this morning so when I got home I threw 2 Cornish Game Hens stuffed with dressing in the crock pot with some chicken broth.

6 hours later and they were falling off the bone and smelled awesome! I whipped up some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and croissants. I also made some home made gravy with the chicken broth. It actually turned out really good, the best I have ever made. And ask Mr. B I can not make gravy. For some reason it never turns out, but he was seriously impressed, and I was super happy!

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the competed meal, so you'll have to use your imagination and my word for how good it looked.

On a side note: I finally got my books in the mail I ordered a few weeks ago. One of which was a huge crock pot cook book. So I'll be posting new recipes and results in the future.

Friday Night Fun

I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but when I'm working I don't enjoy cooking so much. So we tend to get out a lot on the nights I work. But really, who wants to get out of work at 8pm, after working since 8am, and come home and cook dinner? I know I don't, that's why we eat out a lot, lol.

But since I am off on Medical leave right now I have found time to cook. So we've been eating at home a lot more. Which has to be much better for us health wise and financially.

Friday night is our usual "Big Night Out" meaning we go to an actual restaurant and not a drive thru. And sometimes a movie or just out with friends. Well since being on medical leave has put a little dent in our finances, and we have a surgery to pay for, we have been trying not to splurge so much.

We did go see a movie tonight: Zombieland. But we went to the Twilight showing so that for 2 tickets is was only $8.50 instead of the usual $9 a piece. Quite a savings, and I think we may start going to the twilight showing more often. It was a pretty funny movie, if you like zombies, which I do!

But I also decided we should eat at home. Like I said we usually go out to a niceer restaurant at least once a week. Well once you consider dinner for two, drinks, and tip we usually spend at least $50 or more. That's a lot, don't you think?

So while grocery shopping I picked up a couple of steaks. Here they are marinating before Mr. B grilled them. Those are some nice looking steaks at $5 and some change a piece, don't ya think? (Don't worry I'll give you the total of the day at the end of the post)
Now we usually have a vegetable and either mashed or baked potato with our steaks, but since I am making Potato soup tomorrow I decided to just do a double veg tonight. So we had sauteed Zucchini and Squash (each .99 cents a lb), one of Mr.B's favorites.
I always cook these together in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and Mrs.Dash Original Blend.
While I'm cooking the veggie's Mr. B is cooking the steaks on the grill. We finish up at the same time and dinner is served.
Doesn't that look delish? Our steaks were a little over cooked (bad thing about not being at a restaurant, you can't send it back, lol) because it was getting dark out and our outside light isn't working, so Mr. B had a hard time seeing our steaks. Usually we have dinner then a movie so it's lighter out, but since we went to the early show then stopped at the store afterwards we didn't get home till almost 8pm.

But it tasted wonderful, much better than a restaurant steak!

So, are you wondering how much our Friday night cost? Well let's see:

Tonight:

Twilight Movie
2 Tickets: $8.50
Snacks: $7.50
= $16.00

Dinner at Home
2 T-bones: $11.20
2 Zucchini: $2.97
2 Squash: $2.34
= $16.51

Total for night in: $32.51

A usual night out:

Evening Movie
2 Tickets: $18.00
Snacks: $7.50
= $25.50

Dinner Out (I'll use the dinner we had with my family last week at a place like Red Lobster)
2 Meals $37.98 (18.99 x2)
2 drinks $4.00 we just order pop/tea not an alcohol drink
Tax $3.00
Tip 20% $9.00
= $53.98

Total for night out: $79.48

That's a savings of $46.97! Wow, That's a lot! I didn't realize how much we were spending on a night out. I can't even imagine what our total would have been if we'd have each had a cocktail instead of pop and Iced tea. I think I will try to stick with the new Friday night more often.

Who wants a Pasty?

My husband LOVES Pasties! I'm sure growing up in the U.P. had nothing to do with that, lol. Usually we order 10 from the Pennfield Band Boosters every year. They actually drive up north a pick up the homemade pasties, and they are pretty good. But I think I missed the sale this year or they didn't have it. Either way James had to miss out on his beloved Pasties.

So being the good wife that I am (insert back patting here) I decided I am going to try and make him some from scratch. I've been researching recipes online and they all seem to contain the same ingredients. But I've chosen this one to try and re-create. Wish me luck, and I'll be back to post pictures!

Some brief history on the Pasty can be found here, just in case you were wondering what it was.