Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken

Another tasty recipe from this friend. I loved how easy this was to get into the slow-cooker and how I had everything on hand. It is North African in style, and is delicious with the chicken thighs and couscous, but you could easily substitute chicken breasts and rice if that's what you have on hand.

It is really tasty comfort food. It is also cheap if you get a good price on chicken thighs! I got a package of 10 thighs for $3.50, add the tomatoes ($0.60) & rotel ($0.80 for 2 cans) being on sale and its about $5 for this dinner.

Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken
1 Tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
8 chicken thighs, skins removed
1 large onion, chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained (RoTel)
1 can (14.5 oz) crushed or diced tomatoes, undrained
2 Tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups hot cooked couscous

Heat oil in 12 inch non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken in oil about 4 minutes, turning once, until brown.

Mix onion, diced and crushed tomatoes, honey, cumin and cinnamon in 4-5qt slow cooker.Place chicken in slow cooker. Spoon tomato mixture over chicken.

Cover and cook on low heat setting 7 to 8 hours or until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

Stir in peanut butter until melted and well blended. Serve chicken and sauce over couscous.

Serves 4

Spanish Lentils & Rice

I love this simple dish. It's super tasty, super simple, frugal and a great variation from typical casseroles that are heavy and meaty. The lentils & rice make a good complete protein so you can just add a salad and its a quick, easy, healthy, complete meal. Approximate cost: $2.50 for entire casserole.

Spanish Lentils & Rice
from 2003 Southern Living
Makes 4-6 servings
approx 20 min. prep, 30 min cook, 20 min bake

3 1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 cup dried lentils
1 tsp salt
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 (10 oz) can ROTEL Mexican festival diced tomatoes
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in medium saucepan, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until lentils are tender.

Saute onion and bell pepper in large lightly greased skillet over med-high heat until tender. Add cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes.

Stir onion mixture and tomatoes with rice mixture, and spoon into lightly greased 13x9 baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, top evenly with cheddar cheese, bake 5 more minutes.

Black Bean Enchilada Bake

Another entry in the frugal dinners category, this one is tasty, healthy & filling. It's also quick to pull together once your beans are ready (which takes a bit of pre planning but is worth it from a cost perspective!)

Start 2 days before by putting your black beans to soak. Rinse and sort a pound of black beans, then cover with water in a large bowl and leave overnight to soak. The next morning, drain, rinse and put in the slow cooker. Cover with water and put on low for several hours or the whole day until they are cooked. Cool down and place in the fridge in storage. Use 2 cups in the following recipe. The remaining 3-4 cups of beans will keep up to a week in the fridge for other recipes or you can place single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze individually and transfer to a freezer bag once mostly frozen. This way you won't have a frozen lump of beans.

Now to make the enchiladas you'll need:

1 T oil
1 large onion $0.10
3 cloves garlic, minced $0.10
2 cups of your cooked black beans $0.30
1 cup frozen corn kernels $0.50
1 tsp cumin
2.5 cups salsa, divided $1
6-8 small tortillas, corn or flour $1
1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheese (Monterey Jack, Cheddar, combo...) $1

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat, saute onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the beans, corn, cumin and 1/2 cup of salsa. Cook for 3-4 minutes, coarsely mashing beans with the back of spoon or a potato masher. Spoon 1/3 cup of filling into each tortilla, roll up. Spoon 1/2 cup salsa into 11x7 or 8x8 baking dish. Arrange tortillas seam side down, top with remaining salsa. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Uncover, top with cheese, bake 2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Makes 4-6 servings (or more depending on what you serve it with!)

Total cost of meal: ~$4

This was a big hit with my boys & DH. Meatless main dishes that satisfy them are awesome! Using dried black beans really makes it cheap too! Enjoy!

Meatloaf "Surprise"

This recipe is actually called Savory Scotch Meat Loaves, and is in the Better Home and Garden's Low Cost Cooking Cookbook. But with my kids we call it Meatloaf Surprise, because of the surprise of an egg inside. It is quite tasty and economical as well as easy. According to tonight's dinner conversation, the boys would like to start experimenting with different surprises on the inside. We'll see how those experiments go, I guess they aren't being surprised by the egg inside anymore.

Having been inspired by $5 dinners, I'm endeavoring to calculate the total cost to make this meal as well.

This recipe makes 4 servings:

Hard boil 4 eggs, peel and set aside. $0.40

Mix together:

1 lb ground beef (or pork or turkey) $1.58
1 beaten egg $0.10
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs (I just put a piece of bread in the food processor) $0.05
1/4 cup finely chopped onion $0.16
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper $0.25
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper

Shape one-fourth of the mixture around each hard cooked egg, completely enclosing the egg. Arrange in an 8x8 baking dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Drain off excess fat.

Mix together:

1/2 cup ketchup $0.25
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp vinegar $0.01
1/2 tsp chili powder $0.01
1/4 tsp dried oregano, crushed $0.01

Pour sauce over meat loaves and bake in 350 degree oven for an additional 15 minutes. If desired, top with shredded cheese.

Total cost: $2.82

Serve with a salad.

Here is a link to the original picture.