-Prepare two portions of spaghetti of your choice (I like to mix half regular, half whole wheat – this time around I used the Ronzoni Smart Taste since I had a coupon that made it super cheap on sale a while back)
-Drain the pasta and reserve while you prepare the veggies and beef
– Cut your choice of veggies (I used carrots and green onions in mine, and omitted the onion in The Hub’s) in to matchsticks – I aim for 1 cup veggies total
-Allow a skillet (or wok if you have one) to heat over high heat before adding a spritz of cooking spray (I use canola) and 1/2 lb beef for stir-fry or thinly sliced beef of your choice – cook fast over the high heat until meat is just cooked through.
-Remove beef from heat and add 1 teaspoon reduced sodium Soy Sauce and 1/2 teaspoon (more or less to taste) Red Pepper Flakes – stir well to coat all the meat
-Return noodles to heat and add veggies and 1/4 cup Sesame Ginger dressing (I like Newman’s Own Lighten Up Sesame Ginger) to the noodles stirring to coat and allowing to heat through (but not so long that the veggies get limp – they are good crisp but warm.
-Pile noodles on plate, top with beef and serve
Category Archives: Penny Pincher
>Spicy Beef with Sesame Ginger "Faux Mein"
Filed under Beef, Penny Pincher
>Egg topped noodles -Penny Pincher redo
Filed under Beyond Easy, Penny Pincher, Picture, Time Crunch Tested
>Inside-out Shepherd’s Pie
Filed under Ground Beef, New Twist, Penny Pincher, Picture
>Beefy Mac with Creamy Tomato Sauce
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Filed under Penny Pincher, Picture, Time Crunch Tested
>Breakfast For Dinner – Sweet Potato Casualty
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All of that cooked together for a bit to crisp up, and then I added 2 whole eggs and 4 egg whites, all of which had been scrambled with a splash of milk and a pinch of dry mustard powder. Last week King Soopers had some grade B eggs in the manager’s special section, so I snatched some up – I assure you they are just as good as grade A, and so much less expensive:
For some added kick, a few generous splashes of Louisiana hot sauce:
Filed under New Twist, Penny Pincher, Picture
>Hamburger Stew really sounds boring…
>Sunflower Market has killer prices on ground meat right now. So I loaded up on ground chicken and extra lean ground beef and stocked the freezer. ( I get excited about the strangest things.)
In addition, King Soopers has Campbell’s Condensed Soups on sale this week, and I had a coupon for them as well – so I snapped up some cans of various types that I can use for bases and sauces.
Last night I browned 3/4 lb of the extra lean ground beef in my big stock pot, and then added in 1/4 cup of red wine to deglaze the pan (add it and scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan.)
Then I used a can of Campbell’s Beef Consomme made according to the directions on the can, adding that to the pot along with 1/2 of a can of mixed veggies. All of that came to a simmer together and I also shook in a couple of dashes of Worcestershire Sauce. Meanwhile I cooked two handfuls of Egg Noodles (I use No Yolks because of The Hub’s Cholesterol issues) in a separate pan of boiling water and sliced some fabulous crusty sourdough bread (shhhh, don’t tell – from the day old rack.)
Using two teaspoons of corn starch and two teaspoons cold water, I made a slurry and added to the boiling stew, mixing rapidly to thicken. Then I added the egg noodles and ladled it into bowls.
SO MUCH FLAVOR! The Hub gave it a bit of the stink-eye because of the simplicity, I think, but he really dug it. Hooray for simple, hearty,delicious, stretch-a-buck meals!!
Filed under Ground Beef, Penny Pincher, Time Crunch Tested
>Teachin’ ya Tuesday – How to make "cheap meat" delicious.
>In this humble blogger’s opinion, there is no such thing as a bad cut of meat. (And when I say meat here, I mean any animal protein – beef, chicken, pork, lamb, and anything else you might come across. I ain’t skeered of whatever you might have to offer.)
It is all about preparation, not price – I promise.
One of the house favorites around here is steak night – we love a good hunk of red meat in this family, no doubt, and it is one of my favorite meals to prepare for birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations. That being said, I have given up on splurging for “good” steaks, even for those celebratory dinners. Not. Worth. It.
The best tasting steaks I have ever made at home are simple, inexpensive (and nice and lean, BTW) Top Sirloin steaks prepared using this salting method. Doubt if you will – but try it anyway. You’ll see. Try it on just about any cut – whatever is on sale for rock bottom prices. My mouth waters just thinking of it.
I am a big fan of stew meat as well – for price and portion control it is tops in my book. Not just beef, but lamb and pork stew meat are frequent ingredients in our kitchen. The trick with these, and with all “tougher” cuts of meat is to either marinate for a long time using a nice acid-y marinade (think balsamic vinegar and herbs and overnight at least) if you want to do a quick-cooking preparation; or cooking low and slow for an extended period of time (crock pot, low temp, from early morning until dinner) accompanied by flavors your family enjoys. (Herbs, or sauces, or mustard… anything that will impart flavor as the meat cooks.)
As for poultry – dark meat gets a bad rap for being less nutritionally desirable than the expensive breast meat. This is not necessarily true. Thighs are slightly higher in fat than breast meat – but they also have a rich, meaty flavor that can mean more satisfaction for less actual consumption (but that is just my opinion.) The Hub is not a huge fan of dark meat but the price is right, so I use it in stews, soups, pot pies, enchiladas, casseroles, and other ways that mask the rich flavor of the darker cuts.
I am always looking for new ways to use inexpensive cuts of meat in delicious ways – what tricks/tips do you have for me?
Filed under Penny Pincher, Smart Shopping, Teachin' Ya Tuesdays
Laughing Cow Pork Chops
Ya know what, actually, I do too. A LOT.
So this whole “high cholesterol” situation for him, coupled with my desire to maintain a reasonable weight and and diet that is at least “more-healthy-than-not” means that I have to get a little creative to keep us happy AND healthy at dinnertime.
Behold, the lighter stuffed pork chop.
I start with fairly thin (and regularly on sale for a great price) boneless pork loin chops:
Using a sharp, thin knife, I create a pocket in the center of the chop. Holding it flat with your hand and carefully slicing deeper and deeper into the chop, working slowly out to (but not breaking through) the edges of the chop:
Pretty, eh?

Mies en Place Moment, I mix one egg white with two tablespoons of skim milk and a generous dash of Tabasco (ok, for us, a few generous dashes… you choose for yourself.)
Filed under Penny Pincher
>Pasta with pesto, chicken, and carrots
>First of all, I got the BIGGEST b/s chicken breasts I have ever seen at Sunflower this past weekend:
BTW – these are on sale for $1.67lb through tomorrow, October 14th – so stock up! (Especially since one of these goes a LONG way)
For example, I cut one up into chunks, which I tossed in flour seasoned generously with Beau Monde seasoning:
Then I just tossed the pieces into a hot skillet coated with a little canola spray, browned on all sides and added a touch of vermouth to the pan before covering to let the chicken cook through:
Filed under Chicken, Penny Pincher, Picture, Time Crunch Tested
>With appologies to Carbonara..
> I love pasta Carbonara, but I don’t make it at home because I am not great at it.. But I was craving something like that last night, so I dug around in the fridge and cabinets and came up with this:
-I tossed some spaghetti in a pot of WELL salted boiling water and then,
-I cooked 4 pieces of turkey bacon in a deep skillet, and then removed the bacon and deglazed the pan with a cup of vermouth (Why vermouth? because Julie Powell used it a lot during the Julie/Julia Project and I just read that book, so when I saw the bottle, I just went for it.)
-I added a cup of chicken stock and let it reduce and concentrate a bit while I chopped up the bacon and then thickened it a bit with a quick roux (that’s right, I said a QUICK roux.. how times have changed).
After it thickened a bit (It was the consistency of a thick syrup almost, not too thick, but not watery) I added an extra tablespoon of butter for flavor, removed it from the heat and added a couple handfuls of frozen peas.
-The drained pasta got mixed in with the sauce, along with the bacon, and when I plated it everything got a grating of Parmesan Cheese.
O.M.G.
It was good.. that sauce was GOOD!! Crazy good – sweet and velvety, mixed with the salt from the bacon and parm, and the fresh little POP from a pea every little while.
Oh yeah.
Filed under Beyond Easy, Penny Pincher, Picture