Date Night Do Over - Japanese

A little while back I showed you how to make my favorite chicken pesto pizza that I get at a little pizza place downtown. I showed you how I make it at home to save $$ (and the hassle of going out).

Now I'm going to share another dirty little secret of mine with you.......

We have Japanese date night at home too! I looooove hibachi chicken, fried rice and sushi! At my local Japanese place we can easily spend $75 on one meal. For years now I've been 'ripping' them off so to speak. I'll be honest I cannot make fried rice like they can. I've tried and it sucks. I also can't make sushi. I've wanted to try, but I'm afraid I'll get nasty fish and poison Hubs. So I take a little help from them and add a little of my own stuff and it turns out GREAT.

First I place a call in order for 3 orders of fried rice, yea, yea I said 3...we like a lot of rice. They're only $3 ea!

I also order sushi - $5

and seafood sauce - $3 (it's ohhhh so good and we eat it on all the meat not just the seafood).

So my total with tax is $18.53 from the restaurant.

Then from the store you'll need:
1 lb chicken - $3
teriyaki sauce - $2 (I used Lawry's.)
shredded cabbage -$2
any other veggies you want to stir fry

My store total with tax is $7.63.

This time I only did cabbage along with some carrots and green onion I already had.

You cut up the veggies you want to stir fry.

Add them to a pan with a little olive oil, teriyaki sauce, salt/pepper and cook until tender.

You cook your chicken the same way. Cut it up and stir fry with a little olive oil and teriyaki sauce until done.

Then you plate with your rice.

Total for everything $26.16!
Total savings $48.84.

To make it a complete meal break out a bottle of Trader's Joes' 'Two Buck Chuck' and you're set and you'll still save over $45.00!

Candy Apple Madness!

This weekend was glorious, the weather was cool and crisp - fall finally arrived! I wanted to celebrate in a festive way but still stay true to being the Frugal Franny that I am. So what better way to celebrate fall in an inexpensive way then to make candy apples! I got the idea while breezing through Walmart Friday afternoon - while trying to beat the afternoon Walmart craziness rush! Since making candy apples consists of 2 ingredients, I was golden! I snapped up caramel candies and honeycrisp apples (the absolute best apples) and Baby Boy and I were on our way.

Ingredients:

Apples

Caramel



You simply melt the caramel with 2 teaspoons of water and dip your apples.

I had skewers and the ribbon so that was free! I love free.

There you have it, candy (or candied whatever you prefer) apples. I only spent $5.00 on everything. It was such a simple activity but it was great time spent together as a family - Daddy even got in on the fun!

Oh and Daddy had a fab idea for the leftover caramel -

I think I might be turning the whole family into Frugal Frannies!

Chicken Pesto Pizza

We love going out and having a good time. One of our favorite places to go serves an amazing chicken pesto pizza, but going out costs $ and I'm all about saving some moolah these days!

The other night I was thinking, I can totally make that chicken pesto pizza at home. So I decided to go for it. I didn't look up a recipe I just winged it - and it turned out pretty great. The hubby and I loved it. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
-Pre-made pizza crust (because the store was out of the dough - and I don't want it bad enough to make my own!)
-Pre-made pesto (to me it's cheaper & easy just to buy a jar then make it)
-1/2 lb boneless/skinless chicken breast
-Feta cheese
-Sun-dried tomatoes
-Italian Cheese
-Olive Oil
-Artichokes (which I wound up not using)

Drizzle your crust with olive oil.

Cover crust with pesto.

Dice and cook your chicken.



Add chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, feta and italian cheese to your pizza.

Bake for about 15-20 mins at 350 degrees.

Yum! It was so good. It tasted really close to the one we get out. Their crust is better, but I think I can work on that and maybe find a better option out there.

The great thing about it was - I spend about what I'd spend on the one pizza out, but I got everything to make two pizzas and I had enough ingredients left over to throw them in with some pasta and have chicken pesto pasta, which was great too! Ahh, I love saving $$$!

No more eating out!

Ahh, it feels good to be working towards a goal!

So since this was my first official week of this process, the hubs and I have made some changes.

The first thing we cut out was eating out. We didn't spend 1 cent on eating out this week and it feels good! I cooked all of our meals. For about the past month, we had already been trying to cut back on eating out, but I pulled the check register and added it up and in the past 30 days we had spent $469 eating out! Who knew!! I was shocked. So it's cut -- completely cut out!

I was actually home some this week because my sweet baby was sick, so I had a little extra time that I normally don't. I took the opportunity to make some meals to freeze for the trying moments when I want to say.....

'I really don't want to cook...want to order pizza?'

So I made a homemade Brunswick Stew..YUM! (I'll list the recipe at the bottom.)  The ingredients only cost me $14.70 and it made 3 gallon freezer bags!

That's less than $5.00/night! I'm super excited. Things like this are little changes that I want to make.

We've also set a strict budget for groceries. No more buying junk like drinks or magazines at the check out. I'm going to make a list, shop the sales, use coupons and stick with it - no veering! So far, so good. When I want to be lazy or cave I just think about the goal that I'm working towards and it motivates me. To be able to stay home with my baby is more important then spending $200 at Walmart. It's calming in a way....
 
Brunswick Stew Recipe:
 
1 lb roast beef
1 small whole fryer chicken (or bone in breast = to about 1 - 1/2 lbs.)
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
1 lb potatoes
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 can english peas
1 can corn
1 can creamed corn
1/4 cup brown sugar
dash of worcestershire (I used a BIG dash)
Hot sauce, Salt, Pepper to your liking
 
Bake roast and chicken until fully cooked. Cut up meat and add to about 6 cups of water, boil to pieces. Cut up potatoes, add to pot and cook until nearly soft. Cut up onion and bell pepper, add to pot. Add all 6 cans of vegetables, along with brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 30-45 mins.
 
If you're going to freeze, let it cool before adding to freezer bags, otherwise you might have a hot mess!

When you're ready to enjoy, just heat it up in a big ol' pot!