Meal Deals: Bubble Up Pizza

I got this recipe from my friend Megan and it's a really fun one.

Bubble Up Pizza

INGREDIENTS

2 Pillsbury Grands Biscuits (or generic)
1 jar pizza sauce (I used my Free Prego)
Mozarella cheese
Toppings (we just used pineapple)

DIRECTIONS
1. Quarter the biscuits and place in a greased 9x13" pan like so:

2. Top with sauce and toppings. Bake for 30-45 minutes (check intermittently for biscuits to be cooked all the way through).

   

3. Add cheese and bake another 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

It may not look very appetizing but it tastes good and the kids will love to pull it apart.

Meal Deals: Easter Brunch Ideas

Here are a few delish recipes from cousin Sue again. One of these would be great for Easter Brunch. Both use a lot of eggs which you can get for Free at Albies this week.

French Bread Breakfast Casserole

INGREDIENTS:
1 loaf French Bread
8 oz. cream cheese
8 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
6 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup syrup

DIRECTIONS:
1. Grease a 9x13" baking dish. Cube the french bread into 1/2" cubes. Layer bread cubes and cream cheese cubes.
2. Combine eggs, milk, butter, and syrup. Blend well. Pour over bread in casserole dish and use a spatula to moisten all the bread. Cover with plastic wrap an refrigerate up to 24 hours or bake immediately.
3. Bake uncovered at 325 for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top and center is set. It should not be mushy. Let strand 10 minutes before serving.
4. Drizzle with syrup.

Green Chile Egg Puff

INGREDIENTS:
10 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pint cottage cheese (can make it without this)
1 lb. Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
1 lb. Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1/2 cup melted butter
2 small cans diced green chilies  (I don't drain them)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a bowl combine eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt. Use mixer to stir ingredients. Add cheeses, butter and chilies.
2. Pour into a 9x13" baking dish.
3. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until center is set.

I can't decide which one to make. Either of these would be great served with melon or fresh fruit and maybe some Old Orchard Pineapple Orange Juice.

UPDATE: Here's what I made Easter morning. It fed 7 people with leftovers.

And we had our Old Orchard juice too!

Meal Deals: Mandarin Chicken Salad

Update: The hubs just asked me to make this for dinner again tonight. Even with snow falling he said he'd grill some more chicken! I guess I'll make soup tomorrow. :)

This is soooo yummy!

Does it bug you that salads you make at home never taste as good as a restaurant's? Not anymore! I told you when I bought Marie's Poppy Seed Dressing HERE that I had an amazing recipe to share. Well, I have finally made the salad I was referring to and it was delish. My mouth is watering looking at the picture!

INGREDIENTS:

1 head of red leaf, green leaf, or romaine lettuce, chopped

3-4 chicken breasts, chopped (grilled is best)

1 can mandarin oranges (often $0.50 at Walgreens)

1-2 avocados, chopped

1 cup slivered almonds (can buy this amount for less in the bulk section at WinCo or use this $1 off Fisher's brand nuts HERE)

1 cup French's fried onions (Use your $0.75 off coupon SS 3/28)

1 container Marie's Poppy Seed dressing

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all ingredients. Toss salad so the dressing is evenly distributed. Serve immediately.

The one I made fed 4 adults and 1 child with a bit leftover. All heads of lettuce are not created equal. Some were tiny and some were huge. I obviously got a huge one. I also used a couple fresh Cutie tangerines instead of mandarin oranges this time to add to the freshness factor. It was a hit!

Treat Deal: Oreo Truffles

Remember all that cream cheese I stocked up on at Albertsons? I had plans to make Oreo Truffles for Valentines day but didn't get to it. Luckily the date on my cream cheese is not past the "besy by" date.

This recipe came from my cousin Lauren who was sworn to secrecy by her old college roommate that she wouldn't share the recipe. It took a few years but I finally got the recipe from her (she got permission to share). It is actually fairly simple. Too bad I didn't just figure it out on my own years ago!

INGREDIENTS:
1 package of Oreos
1 8 oz. Cream Cheese
Chocolate Chips (I like semi-sweet)
All of these items were purchased with coupons. Yeah!

DIRECTIONS:
-Let the cream cheese soften.
-Crush the oreo in a food processor or mash them in a ziploc bag.
-Mix the crumbs with the cream cheese. Refrigerate for a while if they are too soft to roll into balls.
-Once you have balls formed melt your chocolate chips in the mircowave. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, repeat, until chocolate is melted.
-Dip balls in melted chocolate and place on wax paper. Put them in the fridge to harden.
-Store in the freezer. (This is the way I like to eat them, right from the freezer.)

I got some Peanut Butter Oreos too and when I try them out I will let you know how they turn out. I am going to use peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar instead of cream cheese. Picture to come.

Meal Deals: Chicken Rancheros

I got this recipe a few years ago from one of my jewelry customers. It is awesome. I make it all the time. I had a crock pot for years and didn't know what to do with it because I thought all you could make was roasts (and I don't like red meat much). I have since learned to love my crockpot. I even have a chicken fettucine crock pot recipe that I will share sometime.

INGREDIENTS:
-boneless skinless chicken breasts (however many your family eats)
-1 enchilada sauce packet (about $0.50 at WinCo for their brand)
-1 small can tomato sauce (pretty cheap with coupons)
-green onions (less than $1 for a bunch)
-moneterey jack cheese (buy on sale, shred and freeze)
-sour cream (purchased on sale with coupons)

1. In the crock pot add chicken, enchilada sauce packet, tomato sauce and 2-3 cans of water. You need enough so it doesn't dry out. Let it cook on low all day or high for 3-4 hours (sometimes less).
2. About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat make your rice, shred the cheese and cut up the green onions.
3. In each person's bowl add rice, then chicken and sauce, top with cheese, sour cream and green onions.

It will look like this:

Then mix it up really good so it looks like this:

This is a great meal to make for large groups or when you need to take dinner to someone.

Meal Deals: Swiss Chicken

I've got another easy peasy recipe for you. This one is from my mom's cousin Sue again. You can see her blog HERE. Seriously though, this takes like 5 minutes (or less) to prepare. My favorite kind of cooking: fast, easy, and yummy!

4 to 6 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts (not pictured)
Swiss cheese, sliced (or shredded)
1 can cream of chicken soup
¼ cup milk
2 cups bread crumbs or croutons (whatever floats your boat, or whatever you have!)
1/3 cup butter, melted (no I did not use the whole cube in the pic.)
 
Place the chicken in a 9x13" casserole dish. Top with cheese. (I don't like raw meat pics.)
 

Mix the cream of chicken soup and milk.  

The milk thins it out like you see here:

Spoon soup mixture over chicken and cheese.

   

Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top of the chicken and top with melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour (I used chicken tenders and it was ready in about 40 minutes).

We like to eat it with rice. Enjoy!

Meal Deals: Baked Penne Recipe

I told you how I scored Free Pasta and Free Prego at Albertsons this week HERE and HERE. One meal that is a family favorite (from my friend Ivy who is a wonderful cook) is Baked Penne. It's like lasagna but a million times easier (and just as good). Here's what I started with (1 lb. ground beef and dried minced onion not shown, it just looks yucky in pictures, at least to me):

First cook penne noodles as directed on the package. While the pasta is cooking brown the beef with minced onion (or whatever you like to season it with). In the meantime add the cottage cheese, 3/4 cup parmesan, 1 cup mozarella and 1 cup cheddar cheese in a bowl and mix it up.

Once the noodles are done drain the water and add the pasta sauce and meat. Mix well so the noodles are coated with sauce:

In a 9x13" baking dish layer 1/2 of the noodles:

Then the entire cottage cheese/cheese mixture:

And the rest of the noodles:

And some more cheese to make it look pretty:

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes & this is what you will have:

Yumminess! Seriously though, this one is so easy (and impressive).

We had salad and garlic bread with it. I recruited my little helper A.K.A. Bree to butter the bread:

Everything except the cottage cheese was purchased with coupons and/or on sale. The whole meal was definitely a deal at less than $5 (and that makes me happy). Enjoy!

Meal Deals: Sour Cream Enchiladas

So I bought 4 cartons of sour cream at Albertsons with the plan to make Sour Cream Enchiladas for dinner one day this week. It is a really good recipe. It has a good flavor without being spicy for the kids.

I gathered these items (this was to double the recipe). All were were purchased with coupons (minus salt, pepper and garlic powder)! The tortillas and sour cream were deals from this past week.

Sour Cream Enchiladas (makes one pan, you can double it and freeze some!)

INGREDIENTS:
1 16 oz. container sour cream (I use light)
1 small can green chilies (if you like spicy add some jalapenos)
1-2 cups chicken broth (I don't measure it)
2-3 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
6-10 flour tortillas (or corn)
2 cups shredded cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil the chicken until all the way cooked. In the meantime combine sour cream, green chilies, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a large skillet. Add chicken broth until the it becomes desired consistency for the sauce. Let mixture simmer while chicken cooks. Cook over low heat.

2. Reserve 1 cup of sauce then add chicken. Simmer about 10 minutes.

3. Add a spoonful of chicken mixture into each tortilla. Add some cheese. Tip: I like to dip the tortilla in the mixture first so that it doesn't dry out while cooking.

4. Place filled tortillas seam side down in a large casserole dish. Top with remaining 1 cup sauce and cheese.

4. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted.

I served enchiladas with my $0.47 salad pack. Yummy meal, great deal!

Meal Deals: Poppy Seed Chicken

If you are like me, you are always looking for new, simple dinner recipes. This week you can get Ritz crackers for $0.79 and Darigold sour cream for $0.29 at Albertsons. See this post to find out how. I am using both those items along with other items I have stocked up on during sales. I thought I would share what we are having for dinner at my house...

Tonight we are having Poppy Seed Chicken with rice and broccoli

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of cream of chicken soup from an earlier sale (maybe $0.50, I can't remember?)

1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts purchased during the 1.79 or 1.88/lb. sale ($2.82)

1 cup sour cream (less than 1 container 0.20)

1 sleeve Ritz crackers (1/4 of package so 0.20)

1 teaspoon poppy seeds (not sure, I think you can buy these in the bulk section at WinCo and buy a very small amount, or just don't add them)

1/3 cup butter, melted (0.40-ish)

Total cost: $4.12 (I buy rice in bulk and broccoli is relatively inexpensive so I did not add them into my cost.) And we always have leftovers!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Place the chicken into a 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, stir together the condensed soup and sour cream. Pour over the chicken. In a separate bowl, stir together the crushed crackers, poppy seeds and melted butter. Sprinkle over the chicken and sauce.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top of the casserole is browned and the sauce is bubbly.

*To crush the crackers, put them in a gallon zip lock bag and go over them with the rolling pin.*

Recipe courtesy of my friend Megan @ Recipes from the Pickle Boat (I also borrowed her picture because I was out of poppy seeds). This has become a family favorite! Perfect timing, my timer just went off. Enjoy!