Dinner Tonight: Asian Chicken Salad

See my previous post for details about this dinner.  There isn't really much to add to that, so this post will be short and sweet.  Tonight's version was delicious as usual.  There is a reason we keep making this over and over - it's yummy!  It's also pretty easy and quick to make, especially if there is leftover dressing from the last batch.  I'm even looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Dinner Tonight: Smokestack

Sometimes the habits of my former life are just really hard to break.  Tonight, I gave into them and we had take-out for dinner.  This isn't the first time this has happened, and it probably won't be the last.  There were some contributing factors as to why I decided not to cook.

1. French fries - the crispy, crunchy, delicious little devils.  They tempt me from afar.  Today at work someone had some - I never even saw them but could smell them wafting through the hallways.  Even when I thought I was going to cook dinner I had briefly considered stopping at McDonald's on the way home.  Why can't I resist them? 
2. I worked about an hour later than usual. In my former life this was a normal occurrence, and of course in my former life I didn't cook for the greater part of two years, so the trigger of later hours let the old ways slip right back in. 
3. I was tired and cranky.  Wait, am I always that way?  Not sure if that's a valid excuse.
4. The kitchen was still dirty from last night's meal.  It wasn't that bad but I was frustrated because I thought I didn't have a clean cutting board.

So, with the combination of all of the above, we went to our old standby, the BBQ place right down the street.  I called in the order, waited a few minutes, went to pick it up and was back home to eat in less than 20 minutes.  Hubby was even frustrated that dinner was ready too early, since he had a plan for our TV watching for the evening.
It may be from a fry-induced delirium, but I have composed a Shakesperian soliloquy inspired by my beloved Smokestack:

O Smokestack, Smokestack, wherefore art though Smokestack?

Deny thy calories and refuse thy expensiveness

Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I'll no longer live a leaner life

Ok, that's all I remember from the memorization exercise in 9th grade English. 

Mailbox Monday

Happy Mailbox Monday!  Thanks so much to Debra at A Frugal Friend for hosting!  I have been meaning to participate every week but for no good excuse I just haven't been getting it done.  Here are all of the freebies I got this week, click here for the past 5 weeks worth! 

• Redbook & Good Housekeeping magazines (from Recyclebank) 
• Enfamil formula/coupons (very nice size freebie and high $ coupons but I have no clue where this came from - I will be donating it since I don't have any babies!) 
• Baby's Dream Nursery Guide (could be the source of the Enfamil - I think I did have to indicate I was going to need a nursery soon in order to get this - someday I will and the book will last longer than the formula!) 
• Gold Bond hand sanitizer sample from Walmart 
• Mariani dried plums sample (for some reason they sent me 2, I don't think I signed up twice) 
• Kleenex sample from Costco 
• Smead Super-Tab folder  
• Fresh Wave odor-neutralziing crystals from being a fan on Facebook 
• Staples $13 rewards for buying batteries (I almost threw this one away thinking it was junk mail! It's going towards a new ink cartridge since printing coupons takes a lot of ink!) 
• Save-a-lot coupon book 
• Conagra coupon book 
• Fiber One pack for my first ever blog review/giveaway, courtesy of My Blog Spark!
• Not pictured: I won a giveaway!  It's a Musicolor from Jolly Mom!  Thanks so much to the ladies @ Mailbox Monday (especially Melissa at Getting All My Ducks in a Row & Win My Year) I have been inspired to enter a ton of blog giveaways and have won 3 so far!  Only one of them has actually arrived, and I forgot to take a picture, but it looks like this and is going to be a great gift for my niece who turns 4 in a couple of weeks!

Visit A Frugal Friend to see what others got for free in their mailbox this week (sorry, I'm having some issues with the button!)

Mailbox Monday - Catch Up Edition

Since I have been so behind posting all of my freebies each week, here they are from the last 5 weeks:

• Swash fabric dewrinkler from Tide/Vocalpoint
• Always Infinity Sample
• Stacy's Pita Chips sample from All You
• Benefiber orange sample/coupon from Walmart
• Garnier Nutritioniste sample from Walmart
• Splenda Flavors for Cofee sample/coupon (still available here)
• Chiquita smoothie coupons

• Olay lotion (free after mail-in-rebate)
• Nescafe Tasters Choice sample 6-pack (here)
• Dunkin Donuts Coffee sample
• Kotex product sampler and coupons
• Excedrin sample from Sam's Club
• Breathe Right Strips sample (here)
• Porkeez dog treats and dog medicine syringe from Drs. Foster & Smith (free gift w/purchase, free shipping, bought syringe for $0.15 using YouData $ in Paypal account, got $20 worth of free dog treats that my dogs absolutely love - deal found thanks to Deal Finding Chik!)

• Philosophy Gingerbread Man shower gel sample
• Butter recipe cards from Wisconsin dairy farmers (here)
• Right at Home coupon book
• L'Oreal Lash Boosting Serum and Mascara from being a Bzz agent
• Target freebies: Ham steak (used $2 off ham coupon from target.com), All laundry detergent travel size (used $1 off coupon from here)

• Weight Watchers Magazine
• "Being Girl" sample pack with Always & Tampex products
• L'Oreal Everpure shampoo & conditioner samples
• Slimfast bar sample from Sam's Club
• Lipton green tea sample & adorable carrying case
• Hills Science Diet dog treats sample (here)
• Emergen-C drink mix samples/coupon (actually not bad - drank these when I wasn't feeling well to help boost my immune system) (here)
• Escada perfume sample (here)
• Unilever recipe booklet
• Living a Heart Smart Life cookbook from Liberty Hospital (local freebie, here)
• Pace picante sauce, from winning game here
• International Delight creamer, from being a Facebook fan
• Wii Your Shape coupon/band from being one of the first 10 people to comment on a post at Stockpiling Moms!
• Freebies for hubby: Lactaid sample, Nicorette gum sample
• Not pictured (partially because I already used/consumed the main coupon): Free Yoplait smoothie from Pssst... and ten $1.25 off coupons to share!

• Coromega Omega3 Orange Squeeze sample (orange flavored fish oil? eww, why did I sign up for that?)
• Avery label pads sample (here)
• Living Proof No Frizz Styling Cream, for being a fan on Facebook
• Green Works laundry detergent sample/coupon from Good Housekeeping
• Atkins diet bars sampler/carb counter (here)
• Pillsbury calendar
• Cheese Nips - 2 boxes free from Price Chopper (priced at $1, used $2/2 coupon)

Menu Plan Monday

Last week we actually stuck to the plan the whole week!  Of course it helped that I didn't actually make a plan for Sunday night, but that is beside the point.  Let's see if this week will be as successful.  I did keep my grocery bill under $30 which is very exciting, especially since I was tired and didn't shop around at several stores like I usually do.  Here is this week's plan:

• Monday: Asian chicken salad, garlic bread
• Tuesday: Turkey burgers, fries
• Wednesday: Beef and noodles, green beans, biscuits
• Thursday: Taco salad
• Friday: Caribbean chicken fingers, rice pilaf, rolls
• Saturday: Steaks, sauteed potatoes, corn, mushrooms, crusty bread
• Sunday: Cheese Fondue & Chocolate Fondue (we can't afford to go have a romantic dinner at the Melting Pot, so I thought I'd make one myself)

For hundreds of other menu plans, visit orgjunkie.com.

Dinner Tonight: Hashbrown Casserole

This is another one of my favorite meals, though apparently hubby doesn't agree.  I am not sure what happened - he is the reason I started making it in the first place.  His coworker brought some to work several years ago and he liked it so much he asked for the recipe.  The one that she made was meatless and just a side dish, but I thought I could turn it into a meal by adding some ground turkey.  In my opinion it turned out great!  As far as I know hubby always enjoyed it until recently he started complaining that I used too much onion.  So, the last couple of times I made it I left the onion out of his half and he at least agreed to eat it.  I have always served this meal with toast since I think of it as being kind of breakfast-y, but apparently hubby didn't remember that as he was surprised by it tonight.  He thought there needed to be more interesting bread to make up for a "boring and tasteless" meal.  So, I made him some garlic bread with the leftover Wal-Mart bolillo rolls from the other night.  He ate both the bread and the casserole, and just said that it was "edible" - not exactly winning praise but at least he didn't feel like he had to go out and buy a substitute meal.
I thought it was super yummy.  I love how the top is crunchy and the rest is soft and gooey.  So let's ignore his opinion and pretend it's fabulous and you can't wait to try it!  I can't find the original recipe, so this is a bit of a mixture between what I remember and the modifications I have made (adding garlic of course).  When I googled trying to find a similar recipe, they all involved some sort of cream soup.  Mine doesn't have any soup and I wonder if that was the original intention of hubby's coworker or if she forgot to type it in the email she sent him with the recipe?  We will never know, as she stopped working there years ago and they didn't keep in touch.  Fortunately I don't think it suffers without the soup.

Hashbrown Casserole

1 lb ground turkey
Garlic powder, seasoning salt & pepper to taste
10 oz frozen shredded hash browns
5 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup corn flakes, crushed
2 Tbsp melted butter or butter substitute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Season turkey with garlic, seasoning salt and pepper and brown in skillet.  Drain if desired.  Combine meat, hash browns, cheese, sour cream, onion and seasonings in large bowl, mix well to combine.  Spread into casserole dish (I use 11 x 7 but you could use 13 x 9).  Top with corn flakes and drizzle with melted butter (I use Brummel & Brown since it's my favorite butter substitute and it saves quite a few fat grams - I think the original recipe called for a whole stick of regular butter but I just couldn't bring myself to go there).  Bake for 30 minutes until crispy on top and warmed through.

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Estimated cost of meal:

Hash browns: $.67
Turkey: $1.50
Cheese: $.80
Sour cream: $.30
Onion: $.10
Seasoning: $.10
Corn Flakes: $.25
Butter: $.15
Toast: $.30

Total: $4.17

Former life total: Dinner @ Five Guys: $19

Leaner Life Savings: $14.83 or 78%!!!

Dinner Tonight: Teriyaki steak & pot stickers

I have mentioned before that hubby is kind of carb-happy.  That's why it really came as no surprise when he came into the kitchen when I said dinner was ready and said "is there bread?"  We were clearly having an Asian-inspired dinner and he still wanted to know if there was bread.  Have you ever had bread at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant?  I know I haven't. 

However, due to our starch-loving habits I did attempt to make another side dish, though after my crab rangoon failure I was a little apprehensive.  I made pot stickers  from the great maven of Chinese cuisine, Martha Stewart.  Really I had just had a craving for pot stickers for a while and saw this recipe in Martha's magazine and decided to give it a try, especially because I still had leftover wontons from the crab rangoon.  I used ground turkey instead of pork, green onions instead of chives ($.33/bunch versus over $2), and added some garlic powder because everything needs garlic.  I also had to substitute for the sherry since I couldn't justify buying a whole bottle in order to use 1.5 teaspoons.  I used some dry white wine instead.

The flavor of the meat was really yummy and exactly what I wanted, but I had some trouble with the wrappers.  I think that wonton wrappers are much thinner than the dough Chinese places actually use to make dumplings, and several of my pot stickers fell apart.  The ones that held together worked out okay though, hubby wasn't crazy about the texture but I think it grew on him.  I actually made these on Sunday and froze them since I wasn't 100% sure if I would make this meal on schedule.  So when I made them tonight I just thawed them and re-fried them really quickly.

The dipping sauce Martha recommends was not that flavorful and way too sour, so I had to try to doctor it to make it taste like the yummy sauce they serve at restaurants.  I added quite a bit more sugar and then some honey to try to thicken it a bit, plus red pepper flakes and more scallions.  The end result still wasn't quite right, but it was decent.

As for the technical "star" of this meal, the teriyaki steak, I basically just made it up as I went a long.  I cut sirloin into thin strips and seasoned with garlic powder, red pepper flakes and a sprinkle of sesame oil, then stir-fried in a bit of vegetable oil.  I added soy sauce and light teriyaki sauce once it was almost done cooking.  It was pretty tasty though nothing earth-shattering.  I didn't want to go to crazy with the sauce since hubby isn't a huge fan.  I served with some plain white Minute Rice (I'm scared of my rice maker and can never get the sticky kind to turn out right).

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Estimated cost of meal

Wontons: $.85

Turkey: $.40

Scallions: $.10

Ginger: $.50

Seasoning: $.30

Dipping Sauce: $.50

Steak: $2.50

Rice: $.50

Seasoning: $.10

Total: $5.75

Former life total: Dinner @ BD's: $37

Leaner Life Savings: $31.25 or 84%!!!