Grumpy Mama Creamy Pasta; or How to Feed a Tribe for $6.00

A few days ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Brittany at VaVoomVintage posted a recipe for Grouchy Girl Pie after a grouchy day. I had a very, very grumpy day today; where I started to think there was no way I could accomplish all the things I set out to do. I was very grumpy on the way to pick up my older boys, and then I decided to "get over myself" and just do what I had to do. I came home with a plan; after giving my boys their daily chore assignments and having no idea what to make for dinner; I decided to fall back on one of my "easy dinners" that just happens to be a very thrifty meal to make. Today I just happened to have about 1/2 cup of white wine that my husband poured me last night and I fell asleep before drinking, so rather than throw it out, I decided to add it to my recipe; but I normally make non-alcoholic pasta, so just substitute more milk for the wine in this recipe. As always, I'm a very "throw it in" cook, so these are my best estimates of what I use! And this makes a huge amount;  I will feed six people (plus Elvis, indirectly) with this and have leftovers for a lunch or two or three. I weighed the pot after I was finished; over 10 pounds!

Creamy Pasta in a Pinch

20 oz dried rotini or a similar shape pasta
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
2-3 cloves garlic
3-4 marinated artichoke hearts
1/4 cup butter or olive oil (or a combo)
2 cups milk
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the cheap stuff)
1/2 cup white wine
Your favorite seasonings, basil, oregano, or an Italian blend

The first thing I do is set a pot of water on the stove to boil, then I oil a glass pan, add the chicken breasts, salt and pepper them and put them in a 425 degree oven to bake. Then I chop the garlic while the butter and/or olive oil is heating up in a skillet. I add the garlic and saute briefly. I add the flour, stir to make a roux, then add the wine and/or milk gradually while mixing with a wire whisk. Stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat, add chopped artichokes, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste, seasonings. By this time the pasta should be ready and the chicken should be cooked. Drain the pasta, return to the pan, add the sauce, chop up the chicken and add that as well. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Simple!


I also serve this with a loaf of my home baked bread which I posted a recipe for earlier, salad mix, and broccoli or asparagus. Here's how I break down the cost:

Pasta $1.50
Chicken $2.00 (I have three freezers and only buy chicken if it's $2 or less)
Garlic, Seasonings, Oil, butter, and flour .25
White wine (doesn't count because it was re purposed)
Milk .25
Parmesan .50
Artichoke Hearts .10 (I got a great deal on a jar of artichokes, and just used a small amount)
Homemade Bread and one stick of butter (my boys like butter!) .75
Salad Greens .40
Asparagus .25

I may have under-or-over estimated a few of these things, but I think it all comes out in the wash; so I've managed to feed my hungry family for $6.00!

And it's delicious!

Flour Frenzy

This picture is a quick snapshot, of me, in my kitchen in all my red apron-ed glory....I wish! Ah, for those yellow dishes! I love yellow dishes! Unfortunately my kitchen is not as darling by half. Today is Thursday, which means that tomorrow my Andrew will be selling homemade bread for the mock economy in his classroom. My bread is in high demand there; probably because it is bought with mock money; so I try to make at least 6-8 loaves for him to sell. And that's on top of the bread I'm supposed...I mean am making for everyday use. I also am extremely backed up in the soap department, so today's tasks include one batch of Patchouli soap...which is done; and I have three loaves baking in the oven as we speak.

And it shows. I have developed a system for making the most of my tiny kitchen and limited mixing and oven space. I make one batch of bread which makes 3 loaves, using the recipe I posted earlier, let it rise in the mixing bowl for about an hour; then when it's risen, I take it out and immediately start another batch of bread in the mixer, then form the first batch into loaves, repeat until exhausted and covered in flour. If I do this properly, I should have one batch rising in the bowl, one batch rising on the baking sheet, and one batch in the oven.  Unfortunately I am terribly behind today, and at this rate will not be able to fill my kitchen from floor to ceiling with bread; although I am exhausted and covered in flour....

Off to bake more bread!

Happy Thursday!

Foolproof Busy-Day Bread.....

I posted earlier about making bread for my family and want to share the recipe I use. It's always difficult for me to share recipes, because I'm a "throw it in" kind of baker, especially when it comes to bread, but this method I use is actually based on an episode of 'Cake Boss'. Some of you may have seen it; when Buddy and family went to Italy, they stopped in a bakery that makes bread daily in a centuries-old wood fired oven. The bread looked absolutely delicious, and although I don't happen to have a centuries-old wood fired oven handy, and in fact only have a years-old floor model from Sears electric oven, it still makes awesome bread! In the episode of 'Cake Boss', the baker was asked what their secret was. He answered that it was "the air" in that particular region of Italy that made the bread so great; alas, I have no Italian air, only Idaho air, but the bread doesn't seem to notice. I make all my bread dough in my Kitchen Aid mixer that was a wedding present, and is something I still use every day and couldn't live without, but you can certainly use a little elbow grease and mix and knead the bread by hand. I developed this recipe by listening carefully, or rather, reading the subtitles when the baker said "5 grams salt per kilo flour". A rough estimate of 5 grams is 4 teaspoons, and that's the amount of salt I use per kilo, which is about 2.5 pounds. This seems like a lot of salt, and I've actually found you can reduce it a little without affecting the recipe. I should also add that instead of bread pans, I love making bread in the traditional Italian fashion, round loaves which are formed by making a simple dough ball, smoothed over with ends tucked into the bottom, slashed on top once with a knife, on a baking sheet. Cornmeal is good to sprinkle on the greased pan, but I generally forget to do this, and it's not crucial. So here goes:

Busy-Day Italian Bread

2.5 pounds unbleached flour
4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. active dry yeast
Warm water (think warm bath temperature: 100-120 degrees)

Add the dry ingredients to a stand mixer bowl, or other large bowl. Mix with wire whisk. For stand mixers, use the dough hook attachment, add warm water while mixing on the lowest setting. By hand, add some water, then mix with a wooden spoon. When dough starts coming together and pulling away from the bowl, or becomes too stiff to mix with spoon, stop adding water and mix away until a soft, slightly sticky, smooth dough forms. With mixer, continue to mix with dough hook, which kneads the dough,  for a few minutes, until everything is well mixed and the dough is smooth and while soft, is able to be removed from the bowl in a big dough ball and handled with floured hands. If you've added too much water, just add a bit more flour, but don't overdo it, it should still be a soft dough. If you're kneading by hand, knead your little heart out, it will take probably 10-15 minutes of vigorous kneading to reach the same point. Cover bowl and allow to double in size, an hour or so, then punch the dough down, divide it in half for two large loaves, form loaves on greased and cornmeal-ed baking sheet and cover with a towel. At this point preheat your oven to 400, and put the rising bread on top of your range, to allow the heat from the preheating oven to accelerate the rising process. The second rise is faster, in my oven the bread is ready to go as soon as the oven finishes preheating, probably 20 minutes to a half hour. Pop the bread in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. And that's all there is to it!

If anyone needs me to clarify anything or has further questions, please comment and I will respond with whatever help you need (short of actually coming to your house and baking the bread myself!). Enjoy!

I'm so sorry there are no pictures of this bread! I never thought to take any, but I will take photos later today when the bread for today is finished, to show!

The greatest thing since...

I've recently been trying to find ways to stretch my grocery budget even further. I've always been very thrifty, but because of the state of the economy in the last few years, I've had a need to keep my grocery budget the same, while at the same time joyfully expanding our family...twice! It was this need to keep costs down that led me to learn the art of soap making; and we all know how that turned out! I also cloth diaper and use cloth wipes, make my own soap (obviously) as well as laundry detergent, buy in bulk, make everything from scratch, and pretty much do everything humanly possible to get the most out of my grocery budget while still providing my family with hearty and (I hope) yummy meals day in and day out. Recently, Elvis began to eat solids, and this has put additional strain on my poor little budget, especially since he absolutely refuses to eat the homemade baby food that I intended  to be his only food, and I'm still working on getting him to eat "regular" food, since I don't believe in giving children purees for any longer than necessary. Because at the moment I am spending something like, eeek! 10 to 20 dollars a week on baby food, I decided to start making all the bread we eat with my own little hands! I've always been an avid baker, making bread to have with dinner several times a week, but I've never felt equal to the task of providing the bread for toast and sandwiches, not to mention the bagels, hamburger buns and hot dog buns that our family uses every week. We can easily go through a loaf of sliced bread a day, and although I shop at a bread "thrift" store, at an extremely reduced cost, it is still triple the cost of homemade bread, and of course, not nearly as delicious. My favorite recipe only uses one pound of flour, and a nominal amount of yeast and salt; costing only 25 cents per loaf, a far cry from the price of bread in stores. It will take some getting used to, since we are all used to eating sandwiches on uniformly sliced, abnormally soft-crusted commercial bread, which as a bonus is filled with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, dough conditioners and preservatives, and a huge amount of sodium compared to homemade. Before they "invented" pre-sliced bread, people were used to eating toast or a sandwich on a thick, rugged slice of bread, and thought nothing of it. I hope that in my family at least, we can go back to blithely eating a hunk of bread without complaint!