Shepherd's Pie

Brown together:

1 lb. ground beef

1 med. onion, diced

*Cook potatoes to make about 2-3 cups mashed. Mash and set aside (or you can use instant potatoes..but it doesn't taste as good) 

*Place cooked ground beef and onion in the bottom of a casserole dish. 

*Boil 1 pint of green beans and spread over top of hamburger.

Mix together:

1 can tomato soup     2/3 can milk

1 egg

pour over top of beans and meat. spoon mashed potatoes on top of it all and then sprinkle grated cheese over potatoes. 

*bake at 350* for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is good and melted.

**if you desire, you can add other vegetables in the pie.   

Peanut Butter - Nutella® Brownies

Fantastic recipe that will make your heart stop...literally

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup Nutella®
1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Melt butter in the microwave in a medium-size bowl, and add the sugar and vanilla. Add the beaten eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, blending well. Pour into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix everything together until thoroughly combined

Microwave the peanut butter and Nutella® in 30 second increments until it has a runny consistency; add to the batter and mix together well. Stir the Nutella® mixture into the batter; then pour it into a 9x13-inch baking dish that has been liberally sprayed with cooking oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Let brownies cool completely before cutting.

Notes: Make a quick and easy powdered sugar icing to drizzle over the brownies: 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Fried Rice is a super easy, fast and cheap go-to meal. It can be made in 20 minutes or less. This is a good thing to make when you have leftover rice. You really need to have cold rice for this recipe to work so plan ahead a little.  Also, you could use pork or ham instead of chicken if you like.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of leftover rice, cold (brown or white)
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts, pork, or ham), cut into cubes
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Frozen peas and carrots
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Soy Sauce (to taste, but I would say about 3-4 tablespoons)
• Sprinkle of dried ginger, garlic, and  onion powder (optional)

Directions:

1. If you have a wok, use that.  If not, just use a large saucepan.  Heat the butter in the pan over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and saute for just a half minute or so, until the garlic is lightly browned and fragrant.  Add the chicken and saute until cooked, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the green onion and frozen carrots and peas and saute another minute or two.
2. Add the cold rice and stir it around to heat it through.  Then move all the rice and chicken mixture over to make a spot in the pan where you can scramble the egg up by itself.  Add the egg to the pan but don’t mix it with the rice until it’s been cooked in the pan and scrambled up.  Once scrambled, mix it in with the rice and veggie mixture.
3. Last, add soy sauce and a sprinkle of ginger, garlic and onion powder, to taste.  I add soy sauce until the rice is a light brown color, but add as much or as little as you like.  Heat it some more until it’s well blended and hot and serve!

Good Ol' Meatloaf

When my wife and I were recently married, we frequently experimented with new recipes, as we tried to figure out what we liked and disliked. This recipe comes from my wife's family cook book, and we have grown to love it.

Meatloaf

2 lb ground beef

2 eggs

2 C. Bread Crumbs...or we like Oats

1 pkg. onion soup mix 

little squirt of catsup

1/2 C. warm water

8 oz. tomato paste

Add soup mix to water, then combine mix and other ingredients with beef. Mix thoroughly. Place in greased loaf pan and (top with tomato paste.) Bake at 375* for 1 hour.

**The first time we made this, we accidentally put the tomato paste in with all the other ingredients instead of on top. It was a mistake, but we haven't gone back since. It made the loaf much more moist and brought out a lot of flavor.

Whether this is your first semester in college, or you're a seasoned senior, or even if it has been so long that you can't even remember attending college, I hope you find this blog fun and useful. Many of us these days are trying to live the frugal life, and that is what this blog is all about. Focused on cooking, this blog will discuss both recipes and stories that revolve around cooking on shoe string budget. Anyone is welcome to post a recipe that is inexpensive and fairly easy to make, or if you have no recipes, feel free to post a humorous story.