Sweet/Hot Red Pepper Relish

A number of years ago, Safeway sold a food magazine called, “Select” that featured their products in the recipes.  Recently, I was going through some magazine I found and clipping the recipes I wanted to save.  This recipe was one of them.  The interesting thing is, if I had gone through these magazines before three or so years ago, I would not have been interested in this recipe.  Three years ago is when I found that I liked red peppers even though I do not like the green ones.

This has become one of my favorite things to have on hand.  I try to keep some of this in my fridge at all times.  The recipe recommended that the relish be served with cream cheese.  In the photo, I have “frosted” 4-oz. of soft cream cheese, turned upside down, with the relish.  I have also used it in a dip, as a condiment to meat and poultry, and spread by itself on crackers.  This would be great served at a Super Bowl Party this weekend.

Although the recipe calls for white wine vinegar, I have used red wine vinegar and rice vinegar with good results.

Sweet/ Hot Red Pepper Relish
2 red bell pepper (about 1 lb. total)
1 onion (1/2 lb.) peeled
1 c. Safeway Select Verdi White Wine Vinegar or red wine or rice vinegar
1 c. sugar
1/2 t. to 2 T. hot chili flakes (optional)  I am a wimp and use 1/2 t. which makes it plenty spicy for me.
salt

Coarsely chop peppers and onion and place in a food chopper or blender.  Chop till particles are about 1/8 inch.  Place in a medium saucepan and add vinegar, sugar and chili flakes.  Bring mixture to a boil over high heat.  Cook, stirring often, over medium-high heat until liquid looks syrupy and is reduced to about 3 tablespoons, about 24 minutes.  Add salt to taste. Serve spread over cream cheese with crackers, add to sour cream for a dip, use as a relish with meat or poultry.  May be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator up to a month.  Makes 1 to 1 1/2 cups.

Eat from the Pantry Challenge

I am at the end of Week 4 of my Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  I was again able to come in under $35 for the food portion of my grocery bill for the week.  I realize that I am only able to do this because I am filling in for the food I already on hand.  I could not keep to this budget if I was starting from scratch each week.  I look at my collection of spices, which contribute so much to the flavor of the food that I cook, and realize that to replace them would cost way more than $35.

My pantry and freezer are both still full, so I am going to try to continue this challenge through February, but I will not continue to bore you with the all the details
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This week I did purchase some ground beef and couldn’t resist a great buy on sugar which was at the lowest price it ever gets around here.

I shopped at three stores for my purchases as two of the stores had very low prices on what I purchased.  I drive by both stores twice on the days that I work, so I don’t need to go out of my way to shop there.

Wrays
2 dozen eggs @ $ .99 a dozen.  (This is less than half of what a dozen eggs are selling for right now.)
3 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce @ $ .33 each.  (This is the best price I can get for tomato sauce.)

Fiesta Foods
2 bags sugar @ $1.50 each.  (This is best price I can ever get for a 4-lb. bag of sugar, and I had put the last bag of sugar in my sugar canister.)

Safeway
5 lb. bag Calrose rice @ $4.49.  (I had used the last of my rice in fried rice on Saturday.  It is difficult to find this rice in less than 5 lb. bags.  I was lucky to find it on sale.  Regular price is $6.79)
1 pkg. of 20 flour tortillas @ $2.49.  (I know I can make them cheaper than this, but I have not had much luck making tortillas myself.)
1 8-oz. pkg. Kraft Natural Cheddar Cheese @ $2.00  (I am almost out of sliced cheese.  This was supposed to be a BOGO, but they only had 1 package so sold it to me for half price.)
1 8-oz. pkg. Safeway Shredded Mozzarella Cheese @ $1.99 (I used the last in my 3-Meat Popover Pizza.)
1 8-oz. container Cook Whip @ $1.25 (I was almost out.)
1 red bell pepper @ $1.50 (I was almost out.  $1.50 each is the best price I can find for red peppers right now.  The store actually charged me for 2, so I will be getting an adjustment.  It pays to check out your receipts.)
1 container grape tomatoes @ $3.99.  (I thought these were on sale in my Safeway JustforU, but was wrong.)
2 pkgs. coleslaw @ $ .93.  (This was on sale, and I redeemed a rain check I had for the BOGO.)
4 lb. 80/20 ground beef @ $2.29 a lb.  (Although I have ground beef in the freezer, I am low on packages of browned up ground beef, and I needed a pound to make the Swedish Mini Meatloaves I was planning to make for dinner on Wed.  This would also use up a pound of ground pork that I found in the freezer.
1 l.5 qt. container Butterfinger Ice Cream (Because I wanted a treat, and we were out of ice cream.)

The total for the above is $36.62.  I returned 2 packages of disposable loaf pans to Safeway for $3.94 so the total is $32.68.  I did have to purchase a bag of cat food which came to $11.89.

What we ate in Week 4.

Jan. 21  We had Beef and Vegetable Stoup for lunch.  Hubby had leftover pork and dressing for dinner
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Jan. 22  We had Beef and Vegetable Stoup for lunch.  Hubby had leftover pork and dressing for dinner.

Jan 23  Forgot to write down what we had for lunch.  For dinner I made oven barbecued chicken wings and thighs, Rosemary Garlic Potato Stacks and green salad.

Jan 24  For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches.  For dinner both hubby and I had leftover chicken and potato stacks with salad.

Jan. 25  I made a cheese, macaroni and ham soup for lunch.  I had to work so I made some fried rice and picked up some take-out Chinese for dinner.  As I explained before, we put take-out and restaurant meals in our entertainment budget, so the take-out was not figured into the grocery expense.  The cost of the take-out was approximately $8.00.  We had dinner, and I will get at least two more dinners for me out of the take-out and the fried rice I made.

Jan 26  We had the cheese, macaroni and ham soup for lunch.  I made Barbecued Steak Strips with Noodle and baked Butternut squash for dinner. 

Jan 27  We had chili burgers for lunch.  Hubby had leftover chicken and potato stacks for dinner.  I had leftover Chinese.

It has been good for me to take more time to think about the amount of food I purchase.  As I said above I am going to continue to try to eat mostly from my pantry continuing into February.  To reward myself I am going to purchase an electric saucepan from Amazon with part of the money I saved.









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Eat from the Pantry Challenge

Well, life has been happening here at Grandma Loy's, and I just found out that this post has been sitting here since Wednesday.  As "they" say, better late than never!

I am at the end of Week 3 of my Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  I am still attempting to keep the food portion of my grocery bill at $35 over less.  This week it was a little harder to do as I had to redeem two rain checks that I had gotten in December.  Although some stores here give up to 90 days to redeem a rain check, the store that issued these only gives you 30 days.

I ended up shopping at three grocery stores plus Dollar Tree this week.  I usually don’t go to this many stores.  Rosauers is out of my way so I only go there if they have an extra good sale, but that is the store where I had gotten my rain checks.  There is a Dollar Tree in the same shopping area so I went there to check to see if they had corn chips.   I pass Wray’s every day when I am working, but don’t shop there much since they became an IGA store.  They don’t seem to have the sales that they used to
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Rosausers
2 lbs. walnuts @ $5.99 a lb.  (This was one of the rain checks.  Walnuts are running $8.99 a lb. here)
2 pkgs. almond bark at $2.19 each (This is a seasonal item that doesn’t go on sale except at holiday time.  Regular price $3.89 each.)
1 pkg. rotini @ $ .89 (The store was having a half-price sale.  I used my last package last week.  This is where I would have purchased more if I was not on this budget.)
12 oz. honey @ $1.99 (This was also part of the half-price sale.  The price was $ 2.99 at the sale price, but I found one with a $1.00 coupon attached.)

Wrays
1.31 lbs. broccoli @ $ .89 a lb for at total of $1.17
3.87 lbs. cauliflower @ $ .89 a lb. for a total of $3.44

Safeway
1 box Peanut Butter Captain Crunch @ $2.50
1 pkg. La Choy chow mien noodles @ $1.99
1 Marie Callender frozen dinner @ $2.00
1 I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter @ $1.99
1 gallon 1% milk @ $2.59
2 pkgs. Fresh Express Salad @ $1.29 (This was buy one, get one)

Dollar Tree
4 pkgs. corn chip,s like Fritos (do not usually purchase this many at one time, but the Dollar Trees that are closest to me have not had any of these for 6 weeks)

Total for Week Three 3-$40.21, so I did go over my $35 goal, but the average expenditure for the three week is still close to $35.

What We had for Week 3.

Jan. 14  Lunch-hubby had 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, I had chili.  He had a meeting and had pizza.  He paid for the pizza with his entertainment money.  I had leftovers for dinner.

Jan. 15  Lunch-Sausage Noodle Bake.  Dinner-Cheeseburger Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, Bacon Brussels Sprouts Medley for me, bacon green beans for hubby.

Jan 16  Lunch-Sausage Noodle Bake.  Dinner-leftover meatloaf, baked sweet potato and green beans for hubby, leftover meatloaf, homemade rice-a-roni, and Brussels sprouts for me.

Jan 17  Lunch-Sausage Noodle Bake.  Dinner-leftover again for both hubby and me.

Jan 18  Lunch-Chili Burgers with cheese.  Dinner-We had dinner out with the 4-Wheeling Club.  Hubby paid from his entertainment money.  The club chose a fancy burger place.  I had French fries left that I took home

Jan 19  Lunch-Cheeseburger with fries I brought home from dinner last night.  Dinner-Pork Chop Dressing Bake with gravy, baked sweet potato, and the last of the green beans.

Jan 20  Lunch-Dilled Beef and Veggie Stoup.  Dinner-Hubby had pork chops and dressing from last night.  I had leftover meatloaf and the last of the homemade rice-a-roni.

I forgot to mention last week that we also had peanut butter bars and brownies made from mixes that I had on hand.

I feel pretty good that, so far, I have stayed pretty close to my goal.  I am getting low on some staples so next week may be more of a challenge.  As I said last week, this challenge is really helping me to think about whether or not I really need something.  It really is not necessary for me to have things like six jars of mayo in the pantry.  I realize that I have not purchased much meat over these three weeks, but using as much meat and chicken from my freezer as I can is part of my goal.

Cheeseburger Meat Loaf-Improv Challenge

The ingredients for this month’s Improve Challenge hosted by Kristen over at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker are cheese and crackers.  We could use any kind of crackers and any kind of cheese and do anything we wanted as long as the cheese and crackers were included.

I hadn’t made meatloaf in a while and had been disappointed with the meatloaf recipes I had tried that included cheese in the ingredients.  The cheese always seemed to disappear into the meatloaf so that it didn’t even seem to be there.  I had toyed with the idea of making a layered meatloaf, sandwiching the cheese between layers of meatloaf mixture.  This seemed to be a good time to try it.

I had made meatloaves with saltine crackers, but chose to use Ritz Buttery Garlic crackers in this meatloaf.  I also used ketchup for the moisture.  This made the meat loaf quite red.

The meatloaf did not slice quite as nice as I would have liked, probably because of the layering technique I used.  I prefer to make free-form meat loaves, but the meat loaf can be baked in a loaf pan.  I would line the pan with foil.

Hubby and I both really liked the flavor of this meatloaf.  He had two big helpings.  This recipe will have a permanent place in my “tried and true” recipes.

Cheeseburger Meat Loaf
1 1/2 lb.  lean ground beef (I used 80/20 because that is what was on sale, I would have preferred 85/15)
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed (I used Buttery Garlic)
1 t. seasoned salt (I used Lawry’s)
1 t. sage
1/2 c. ketchup
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. minced, dried onion
2 eggs
1 c. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Place ground beef in a mixing bowl.  An easy way to crush the sleeve of crackers is to hold the sleeve between your hands and push them toward each other.  The crackers will crush easily.  Remove paper and add crackers to ground beef.  Add seasoned salt and sage and mix together lightly.  Measure ketchup into a glass measuring cup.  Add Worcestershire sauce and dried onion.  Add eggs and beat well.  Let set for a few minutes to allow onion to soften.  Add to ground beef mixture and mix well.  Divide meat into three equal amounts.  Grease a 7x11-inch baking dish.  Take one-third of the meat mixture and form into a rectangle in the baking dish.  Sprinkle 1/3 cup of the cheese over the meat rectangle.  Keep the cheese at least 1/2-inch from the edges.  Form second third of meat mixture into a rectangle over the first layer.  Sprinkle another 1/3 cup of the cheese over the second meat layer, again keeping the cheese at least 1/2-inch from the edges.  Form a rectangle with the last third of the meat mixture and place over the second layer.  Smooth the outside edges together to seal in the cheese.  Place in oven and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle the last 1/3 cup of cheese over the top of the meatloaf.  Bake another 15-20 minutes.  Let set for 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

You can find all the information for joining in the fun of Improv Challenge by visiting Kristen's Improv Challenge Page.

Check out the links below to see what other bloggers have made with cheese and crackers.

Eat from the Pantry Challenge

I am at the end of Week 2 of my Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  As I explained last week, I looked around at my pantry and freezer and realized that I had “too much food”.  I decided that for at least the month of January, I would eat from the freezer and pantry as much as possible and attempt to spend no more than $35 a week on the food portion of my grocery bill.  For week one, I spent $32.04
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Week Two’s food purchases at Safeway were:
8 oz. of walnuts @ $3.42.  This was a sale price, regular price $4.29.  After I bought these I realized that I had a rain check from another store for a pound of walnuts for $5.99 that I must use before Jan. 23, so I should not have purchased these.
1 lb. dried red beans @ $1.29.  I want to try made from scratch chili
1 lb. split peas @ $1.29  For split pea soup
1 lb. white beans @ 1.69   Used in ham and bean soup
48 oz.. of corn oil @ 3.79  I want to try making homemade corn chips from a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.  I probably didn’t need to get this now as I have not yet purchased the special corn flour that is needed.
1 pkg. Kraft Natural Cheese slices @ $2.99.  I was out of cheese slices and this was the best sale price I could find.
1 pkg. hamburger buns @ $1.50
4.62 lbs. 80/20 ground beef @ $2.29 per lb. Total $10.58.  This made 12 hamburger patties for the freezer and one meat loaf.  This was a sale price.
2 dozen eggs @ $1.99 per dozen.  This was a sale price, and I was almost out of eggs.
1 loaf of bread @ $ .99.
I will have to admit that I broke a basic rule of grocery shopping when I went to purchase the eggs and bread and shopped before work and was hungry, so purchased two Maple Cinnamon Donut Bars @ $ .50 each for a total of $1.00.

I also purchased at the Dollar Tree a package of Cheese Curls and a can of applesauce.  I found when I got home that I had two packages of the Cheese Curls in the cupboard.  So spent a dollar I didn’t need to.

If my figures are right, this week’s total is $34.52, so I am still on track.  Next week will be more of a challenge as I have items on two rain checks I need to purchase.

This is what we ate for week two:

Jan 8.  Hubby had some leftover soup for lunch.  I had a fried egg sandwich.  For dinner, we had steak purchased in Week 1, baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts and grape tomatoes.

Jan 9.  For lunch, we had some leftover meatballs and pasta.  For dinner, hubby had leftover steak, baked potatoes, and corn.  I had leftover pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.

Jan 10.  For lunch, we had leftover soup.  For dinner, hubby had ham, sweet potatoes and corn.  I had leftover steak, baked potato, broccoli and cauliflower.

Jan 11.  For lunch, I made Ham and Bean Soup and corn bread.  For dinner, we had Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs, Homemade Rice A Roni, steamed Brussels sprouts and grape tomatoes.  (recipes coming).

Jan 12.  For lunch we had cheeseburgers.  Granddaughter is here from California.  We had her and her mom for dinner.  I made granddaughter’s favorite dinner.  Steak cubes (round steak cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes, dredged in seasoned flour and fried), mashed potatoes, creamed corn and milk gravy.  Granddaughter doesn’t eat gravy, but hubby wants it for his mashed potatoes.  I had broccoli and cauliflower.

Jan 13.  Hubby had leftover bean soup, and I had cornbread and milk.  For dinner, hubby had leftover chicken, baked sweet potato and corn.  I had leftover bean soup and cornbread.

One thing that the challenge has helped me do so far is to start making me be more aware of what I am purchasing and whether or not I really need it.

Chocolate Magic Marshmallow Buns-Dessert Challenge

It is a New Year and a new series of Dessert Challenges at Lady Behind the Curtain.  Sheryl hosts this challenge, and each month she picks two ingredients that must be included in a new dessert recipe you post.  This month’s ingredients are cocoa mix and marshmallows
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Since I am on my self-imposed Eat from the Pantry Challenge, I looked around to see what I had on hand to include in a recipe.  I had the cocoa mix and the marshmallows.  After thinking about it, I remembered a recipe that was a winner in a Pillsbury Bake-Off many years ago.  It involved wrapping crescent rolls around marshmallows and baking them.  Today there are variations of that recipe all over the internet
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I wondered if, instead of dipping the marshmallows in melted butter and rolling them in a sugar/cinnamon mixture, I could borrow a technique from my Nutty Marshmallow recipe and dip the marshmallows in hot milk and roll them in the hot cocoa mix.  I figured that it couldn’t hurt to give it a try.

One caution, the crescent rolls must be very tightly sealed or the marshmallow will leak out while the buns are baking.  For easy clean-up, line your baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.  Some recipes have the buns baked in muffin cups.  If you do this, I would grease the muffin cups very thoroughly
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Since there are only two of use, I used one can of crescent rolls.  The recipe can easily be doubled, but it is not necessary to double the amount of milk.

The buns are best served warm, so if there are leftovers, I suggest reheating them in a microwave for about 15 seconds.

Chocolate Magic Marshmallow Buns
1/2 c. milk
1 can crescent rolls
8 marshmallows
1 envelope hot cocoa drink mix
toothpicks
1/3 . powdered sugar, sifted or put through a sieve

Place milk in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until hot.  Meanwhile open can and separate crescent rolls into wedges.  Place wedges on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet.  Open envelope of cocoa mix and pour mix into a shallow pan.  Using a toothpick, dip a marshmallow into the hot milk.  You may have to tip the saucepan a bit to cover the marshmallow.  Roll marshmallow in the cocoa mix.  Place marshmallow on the wide end of crescent roll wedge.  Roll wedge around the marshmallow and bring sides together to seal tightly.  Repeat for remaining marshmallows and crescent roll wedges.  Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.  While buns are baking make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, any cocoa mix leftover from rolling the marshmallows and 1 T. of the milk the marshmallows were dipped in.  Mix until well combined.  Remove buns from oven and let cool slightly.  Brush buns with the glaze.  Serve warm.  Makes 8.  Store any leftover buns tightly covered.  Buns may be reheated for 15 seconds in the microwave.  Enjoy!

Check out the links below to see what other bloggers have made with cocoa mix and marshmallows.  If you would like to join in the fun of Dessert Challenge next month, you can find all out the information at Sheryl's Dessert Challenge page.

Eat from the Pantry Challenge

With the start of the new year, it is natural to do a little re-evaluating.   I recently really looked at my pantry, cupboards and freezer and realized I really need to use up some of the food that I have on hand.  I pretty much purchase food on sale when I can, but sometimes I get a little carried away and buy a little too much.  Do any of you do that?

Anyway, I have declared the month of January and perhaps February, Grandma Loy’s Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  I normally spend about $50 to $60 each week on the food portion of my grocery bill.  By eating from my pantry, I feel I can reduce that amount to about $35 per week for the food portion of my grocery bill.  We have two cats so I do need to purchase food and cat litter for them.  I do not count that nor paper products toward my food bill.
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To help keep me on the “straight and narrow”  I am going to post my gains and losses here each week.  Here is how I did for week one:  My total grocery bill was $46.10.  This included a Cook’s Country magazine for $5.95, non-fat spray for $ 1.93 and toilet tissue for $5.26.  I paid .92 in sales tax on these items.  This made the food portion $32.04.

It is interesting to know that according to the USDA, the November 2013 (the latest available) costs for a family of two people our age, following the thrifty food plan is $82.90.  The low-cost food plan is $107.20, the moderate food plan is $133.30, and the liberal food plan is $160.40.

The food that I purchased was:
1 can kidney beans @ .89  (I am going to try roasting them)
1 loaf bread @ .94
4.10 lbs. beef loin steak @ 3.50 per lb.  (this is enough for 3 meals, plus leftovers, will put 2 pkgs. in the freezer)
9.59 lbs. pork shoulder roast @ $ .99 per lb. (I will cut this in half to make 2 roasts for the freezer)
1.49 lbs. Brussels sprouts @ 1.99 per lb.  (to serve as a side dish, probably some left over)
1 container grape tomatoes @ 1.99 (my “ode to salads” in the wintertime)
l pkg. egg roll wraps @ $2.00 (If I don’t make something from these, I will cut them into strips and make wonton crisps.)

These are the meals we had this last week.  Neither hubby or I usually have breakfast, and I only cook three nights a week due to my work schedule so we eat leftovers the other nights)

Jan. 1:  Hubby was 4-wheeling and I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch.  We had Chinese take-out for dinner.  The cost for the take-out was $9.20.  I did not charge this against the food budget as we did not go out for New Year’s Eve.  I made homemade fried rice stretch the take-out.  There was enough for dinner and 3 left-over lunches.  (Our granddaughter who is visiting from California had some of the leftovers lunches.)

Jan 2:  I made Split Pea Soup to have for lunches for several days.  We had leftovers for dinner
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Jan 3.  Split Pea Soup for lunch and leftovers for dinner
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Jan 4.  Spit Pea Soup for hubby for lunch.  I had leftover Chinese.  Made baked ham, orange glazed sweet potatoes, and corn casserole for dinner.

Jan 5.  Split Pea Soup for lunch.  Made Tomato Soup Barbecued Pork Shoulder Roast in the crockpot.  Serves with mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli and cauliflower
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Jan 6.  Spit Pea Soup for lunch.  Hubby had a meeting and ate in town.  I had the last of the leftover Chinese.

Jan 7.  I made Bacon Cheeseburger Chowder for lunch.  Hubby had leftover pork roast and orange glazed sweet potatoes.  I had leftover pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.

I also made a banana cream pie with bananas, vanilla pudding mix that I had on hand.  I made a shortbread type-crust with flour, brown sugar, and butter, Very Fudgy Malted Milk Brownies which will be this week’s Saturday Sweet.  For the Dessert Challenge posting tomorrow, I made Chocolate Magic Marshmallow Buns.

I will also be posting the recipes for the Orange Glazed Sweet Potatoes, the Tomato Soup Barbecued Pork Shoulder Roast in the Crockpot and the Bacon Cheeseburger Chowder.

I am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish in week 2.

I didn't know there was another Pantry Challenge going on when I decided to do this, but there is and I am linking up at Good, Cheap Eats.