Unstuffed Peppers

This is a great recipe when you can find bell peppers on sale. It’s easy and everyone around here loves it.

6 Cups cooked rice

2 lbs browned Italian sausage ( I use Jimmy Dean’s Ground Italian Sausage.

3 cans of tomato sauce

2 cans of chopped tomatos

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients together and heat through.

This takes about half an hour to throw together.

The cost is about 1.25 per person.

Here is the nutritional information. This is approximate. I used  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com to get these figures.

Now we are struggling like never before. I have taken a second job but it will be a while before we are anywhere near caught up. Because of the changes in our lives we have had to alter our spending habits and one of the biggest places we have been trying to cut back is in our grocery bill. Before I returned to school we ate out quite a bit and we bought groceries whenever we needed them and didn’t pay much attention to the costs.  Those days are gone.

My daughter, Rose who is 22 yrs old lives with me with her two children, Nick who is 6 yrs old and Joey, who is 5 months old. I still have my son, Frank at home and he is 17 yrs old. He eats a lot of food.

What I am going to try to do is make this blog about our culinary survival. Up until I got out of management I was working 70-80 hours a week and my daughter was doing most of the cooking an shopping. Now that I am home more I have been much more involved which everyone in the house is grateful for. I have always loved to cook and I am glad to be back in the kitchen. I love to try new things and be creative with my cooking which is quite difficult on a strict food budget. That’s why I thought it would be worthwhile to blog about. I have come up with some wonderful recipes myself and also found some incredible recipes that are inexpensive but awesome. I also am trying out how to get the most for every dollar. Oh, yeah and lots not forget I work a full time job, a part time job and go to school full time so there is not much time to spend in the kitchen. Most of my recipes will be easy to prepare also.

I am not, even though I would like to be, some amazing coupon diva. I am trying to use them as much as possible, but I am still learning. My daughter and I keep a very close eye on local grocery store flyers to try to find the best deals in our area. We used to almost exclusively shop at Publix but now my new favorite store is Sav-A-Lot. Imagine my excitement when I found out Sav-A-Lot had fresh grated parmesan for just over $2 when I had been paying almost $5 at Publix. Survival without fresh parmesan is not an option. I could go on and on and I will but later in my blog entries.  I am going to do my best to break down the caloric content of the food and the costs. The prices will be based on the local costs so they may differ in your area.

One of the coolest things that this experience has done for us is to teach my kids, particularly my daughter new techniques for cooking, frugality and how to still make our meals delicious.

I hope you enjoy this journey with us and I would appreciate any feedback you have, be it suggestions, techniques you have used and please, share a recipe or two! I hope that this blog helps someone else cope with the struggles of feeding a family in today’s economy and still applaud your efforts.

Here is my very first recipe because it is one of the favorites in my house.

Ta! Dah! Brownies!

This is ridiculously simple. Buy a box of brownie mix. I am not going to name a brand here because use whatever you can find on sale. I found a box of mix at Sav-A-Lot for 99 cents the other day. Make according to the box directions. Add stuff. What stuff, you may ask. Start by saving the little bits of goodies you have leftover from baking or whatever. Hold on to the small bit of chocolate chips in the bottom of a bag, same with coconut, leftover candies, marshmallows, nuts or whatever you can throw in. Mix them up. Have fun. Drizzle last bit of chocolate syrup on top. Be creative. There are so many options and it is an inexpensive yet terrific dessert that your family will love. I am not putting the calorie content here because I don’t want to know what it is! We all must have a bit of naughtiness in our lives!