Frugal Friday: Healthy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

It doesn’t get much easier than this dinner. Throw everything in the slow cooker, pull a bun from the freezer, and you have a hearty, savory meal. It’s also not that expensive to make with organic ingredients.

Aside from pantry ingredients, I made this dish for around $1.78 per person — and that includes organic beef, carrots, potatoes, and onions.

Frugal Friday: Healthy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Ingredients

  • 1 lb stew beef, cut into 1" chunks
  • 1/2 bag of organic baby carrots (about 1/2 pound)
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 2-3 minced garlic cloves
  • 4 large potatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces
  • 1 recipe Homemade Cream Soup
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1-2 cups water or Homemade Chicken Broth

Instructions

  1. Layer the first five ingredients in your slow cooker, starting with the meat on the bottom.
  2. Make the Homemade Cream Soup
  3. When the cream soup is done, mix in the worcestershire, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
  4. Pour the cream soup mixture over the meat and vegetables in the slow cooker.
  5. Add 1-2 cups liquid of your choice.
  6. Cook on low for 4-6 hours, until meat and vegetables are tender, and all the flavors have melded together.

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Frugal Friday: Beef with Broccoli

This homemade beef with broccoli hits all the highs — healthful, inexpensive, tasty, satisfying, and kid-friendly.

Aside from the beef and broccoli, all the other accoutrements for this dish are pantry staples. I made the entire meal for less than $6.00 out of pocket! My beef was only $3.15, and I got the broccoli for $1.00 at the Public Market. This is a quick, healthful weeknight dinner.

Frugal Friday: Beef with Broccoli (makes 4 main dish servings)

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 pound lean beef, cut into bite-size chunks (I use stew beef)
  • 3 cups of fresh or frozen broccoli, chopped into small florets
  • 1 recipe Hoisin Sauce

Instructions

  1. 1. Pre-heat the oil in a large pan or wok. When the oil is hot, add the meat and heat until just cooked through. You can drain the meat if there is a lot of excess oil (depends on what cut you use).
  2. 2. Add the garlic and broccoli. Saute it all together on medium low until the broccoli is warmed. I like my broccoli still crunchy, so I don't overcook it!
  3. 3. Add the hoisin sauce and simmer 5-10 minutes.
  4. 4. Serve with rice and enjoy!

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Frugal Friday Recipe: Turkey Soup with Egg Noodles

A few months ago, when everyone in my family was sick, my good friend Jan brought over what turned out to be a perfect meal for all of us – chicken soup. I don’t know if it was just because I was recovering from my own illness and my daughter’s hospital stay, but this soup was more healing to me than any medicine. Warm and rich, yet light and delicious, it was the very thing we all needed.

Of course I had to try to recreate it, but I decided to mix it up a bit and use turkey instead of chicken, because I recently made a 15 lb turkey for Easter and was looking for a way to use the leftovers.

Turkey Soup with Egg Noodles

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup chopped carrots -- I use organic baby carrots and chop them finely
  • 2 tbsp dried thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 cup medium egg noodles
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked turkey or chicken
  • 32 oz stock -- I only recommend homemade stock
  • 1-2 tbsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 3-4 tablespoons fresh chopped scallions

Instructions

  1. Saute the onion, garlic, and carrots in the oil, about 6 minutes, until the onions are nearly translucent.
  2. Add bay leaf and dried thyme.
  3. Add stock and bring to a boil.
  4. When the stock is boiling, add the egg noodles and reduce to medium heat.
  5. Cook noodles for about 5 minutes.
  6. Turn down to low and gently add the turkey, salt and pepper.
  7. Just before serving, add the fresh chopped scallions. Serve Hot.

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Frugal Friday: Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

I went to the Farmer’s Market last week and purchased over a pound of broccoli for just $1.00. Seriously, I don’t know why I am not hitting up that market every single week, especially in the winter months when we don’t get our CSA share.

Anyway, I was trying to figure out what to do with my $1.00 broccoli, when I remembered that I had lots of stew beef in the freezer from the local farm I buy from.  Here’s what I came up with — and as a bonus — it can be completely cooked in the slow-cooker!

Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1-2 cups baby carrots, chopped up, or not. :)
  • 2 cups of broccoli florets
  • 3/4 - 1 pound stew beef, chopped into 1" chunks
  • For the Sauce:
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I used a garlic press)
  • 1 tablespoon ginger powder (fresh grated is best)
  • 3 tbsp soy or teryaki sauce

Instructions

  1. Layer the onions, carrots, broccoli, and beef in the slow cooker.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce.
  3. Pour the sauce over the beef in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours
  4. Serve over brown rice.

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Frugal Friday: Spaghetti Bolognese, Slow Cooker Style!

This is my new go-to recipe when I need something uber-easy that is a guaranteed win with the kids. I like it because it is less than 20 minutes hands on, and very inexpensive to make. We had this for dinner for our family of 2 adults and 2 children last week, and there were no leftovers! Speaking of kids, please forgive the elbow macaroni in the photo; that’s what kind of pasta was requested the night I took the picture!

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients

  • (Source: Real Simple)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 4 ounces tomato paste
  • 1 cup carrots, roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 bay leaf
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 pound pasta

Instructions

  1. Combine all the ingredients except the pasta in a slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
  2. 20 minutes before you would like to eat, cook the pasta according to the package directions
  3. Serve the Bolognese sauce over the pasta and enjoy!

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Frugal Friday: Use Your Gift Closet to Save Money on Childrens’ Gifts

For the longest time, whenever I read about some supermom who had all her Christmas shopping done by July, I would be rolling my eyes and thinking, “Get a life!”

Well, I still kind of roll my eyes, but now I actually have most of my gift shopping done for the whole year! The best part is that I expend a minimum of energy and money to accumulate thoughtful gifts for everyone on my list throughout the year.

Back in June I wrote a post giving some tips on how to create a gift closet, but February is the perfect time of year to take inventory and restock.

My primary use for the gift closet is for kids’ birthday parties. When I find a sale (like this recent one on Jumbo Coloring Books at Amazon), I’ll buy several at a rock bottom price, and throw them in the gift closet.  Then, when one of my children is headed to a birthday party, all I have to do is pair the coloring book with a pack of crayons I bought for $.01 during the back to school sales in September, and I have a fun and easy child’s gift for under $6!

Here are some more ideas for kids’ gift closet additions:

  • Raid the Clearance section at Barnes & Noble after a holiday (this week, look for anything red!), and stock up on books and toys for next year
  • Wegmans  often has small toys on clearance — look for prices ending in $.92 for their final sale price
  • Check out Target’s dollar spot for small toys and books
  • Going out of business sales: I stocked up on several sticker books for 90% off when Borders went out of business earlier this year

How do you save money on childrens’ gifts??

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