Day 11

Yesterday I had to run to the store for red raspberries (yes, I was craving them and they are on sale this week). While I was there I picked up yogurt, bread, juice, and some ingredients for a dessert I wanted to try. Total was $18.87 so we have $470.54 left for the month.

One new recipe we tried this week which was both economical and good was Beefy Cabbage Rolls. The picture below looks gross...and the rolls looked kind of gross on our plates but we all ate them and enjoyed them. It wasn't a "these are the most delicious things in the world, I want them every week" sort of thing but more of a dish I will probably make every month or two.

1 medium cabbage
2 lbs. ground beef (I used just one pound)
2 eggs
1 onion, chopped
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. salt
dash of pepper
3 c. cooked brown rice
2 c. tomato sauce

Core cabbage. Steam for 10 to 15 minutes in saucepan. Separate leaves. Mix next 7 ingredients in bowl. Spoon mixture onto cabbage leaves; roll leaves to enclose filling, beginning at thinner edge of leaves. Line bottom of Dutch oven with leftover or torn leaves; arrange cabbage rolls in prepared pan. Top with any extra leaves. pour tomato sauce over top. Simmer, covered, for two hours. Rolls may be frozen and reheated in oven.

We also had apple crisp that same night. My apple crisp is just apples sprinkled with a little cinnamon, then a mixture of butter, flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, and a bit more cinnamon...mixed up until it resembles small crumbles. Pour the topping over the apple and bake for about 45 minutes or so. It always turns out differently since I don't use exact measurements and just pour into a bowl but it is always yummy!

The reason I mention the apple crisp is not because I have an award winning recipe, but rather to remind you to use up items before they go bad. I had just bought a big bag of apples last week but they all seemed to be bruised pretty badly when we started eating them. The kids hate apples with bruises and I can barely make myself eat them either so I decided to cut them up and make dessert instead. I turned something that none of us wanted to eat (bruised apples) into something that everyone wanted seconds of and saved a $3 bag of apples from being wasted.

As a matter of fact, we had a lot of leftover brown rice from when I made the cabbage rolls (I cooked about 5 cups worth instead of 3) so the next day I make fried rice with the leftovers.

Remember to use up what you have instead of letting it go to waste. Becoming creative in the kitchen is a must on a small budget.

For those of you doing the challenge as well, be sure to check in in the comment section to let us know how you are doing 11 days into the challenge. Leave your blog link if you are blogging about it.

And thank you to all those who left kind words about Weezy. She may be able to come home later today, I'm supposed to call the vet this afternoon to see how she is doing with getting around. Otherwise, she should be home tomorrow. We can't wait to have her back with us, the house seems so lonely without her!