Making Do In The Kitchen.....Mac and Cheese Variation

We love us some Macaroni and Cheese in my house.
I had Mac & Cheese with diced leftover Easter Ham on the menu yesterday.
I was going to use my usual recipe and just add the ham.
And my 'usual recipe' for said dish is the same one my mother used and taught to me many years ago.  I believe she originally got 'our family traditional recipe' off the box of Mueller's Elbow Macaroni.lol

Anyway, upbeknownst to me, we ended up out of fresh milk on Tuesday when I went to make the Mac and Cheese.
The Horrors!!
Add in that it was so hot here and I really didn't feel like standing over the stove for an extended time making a roux so that I could make the cheese sauce.
So I went digging in the stockpile and came up with an improvisation.....

While I didn't have any milk, I did have many cans of Evaporated Milk in the stockpile.
I also had jars of Alfredo Sauce so instead of making a roux, popped open a jar of Alfredo Sauce, dumped it into the pot and heated it slowly on medium.
When it was warm, I whisked in slowly the can of evaporated milk.
Then I slowly added an 8 ounce block of extra sharp cheddar cheese that had been grated, one handful at a time, incorporating by whisking, each handful before I added another.
The secret is to keep stirring so your cheese melds and doesn't separate from your milk.

Then it was just a matter of assembling the noodles, ham and sauce into the baking dish, sprinkling more grated cheddar on top and mashing up some multi-grain townhouse type crackers on top of the cheddar layer.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Using the ingredients I did may have saved me a little time & effort in the kitchen.
It definitely helped me use up some stockpile items and not have to run to the store for fresh milk.
And I have to say that the flavor of this dish of mac & cheese was EXCELLENT!
The combination of the parmesan in the alfredo sauce and the extra sharp cheddar was so good.
The paremsan gave it some tang while the cheddar gave it some bite and having 2 cheeses gave it a depth that truly enhanced the flavors!

In plain talk....it tasted better with 2 cheeses than one. ;-)

I think next time I'll try adding some Monterey Jack or Mozzarella.

Sluggy

The 1st Quarter of the Year is Over

Can you believe the year is a fourth of the way over?
I can't!
I am already so far behind on my 2010 Goals it's not funny.
Ugh!

Here is what I spent part of my day doing on Tuesday....

I went through all my older Sunday Coupon Inserts and clipped the few non-expired coupons left in them and sent this pile of paper to the trash.
I've been clipping coupons as I go so far this year and just labeling the inserts and keeping them around until I thought I needed a coupon.  And I've been good these last few months weeding out the expireds that I clipped from my envelopes on a regular basis.
But I still had these inserts stacked up from Jan. and such with mostly expireds in them so they had to go!


If you haven't purged your expireds yet now is a good time to get on it. ;-)

Sluggy

This is What We Elect to Govern Us....

Ok Folks, I am not going to make any comments here beyond the fact that this man was ELECTED to Congress by the folks in one of the electoral districts located in Georgia.
This man is a Congressman.

Now put down any beverages and go watch this clip....
WHAT THIS CLIP

Sluggy

$30K Savings Challenge MARCH 2010 Totals.....GangBuster Month!

I have posted my MARCH End of Month 30K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have to report that we finished up March in the Black.

The amount we ended the month of March with was.......$3,673.47

Income
Besides Hubby salary we had a hefty amount in Rebates and some rolled Coins under the Income Heading. Add in a quarterly stock dividend check, a dental insurance reimbursement for #2 son's dental surgery in Feb. and a partial car insurance reimbursement when we took the old car we got rid of off the policy and the income side looks quite healthy!


Outgo
As for the expenses in March.....

The electric bill went down around $100 from last month.  Even though the heating bills should keep going down now until late Fall, I really need to get cracking on finding the new heating system for the house.

 The credit card bill was half of what it was last month, mostly because of less eating out. The previous month had a lot more birthday eating out.  We did have a small bill for #1 son's schooling, a driver's license renewal and an unexpected small furniture purchase(a new file cabinet) this month along with usual gasoline purchases that are put on the card and paid off each month.

We had a few out-of-the-ordinary expenses in March...some additional car insurance due to the car we bought so for a short time we had FOUR cars on the insurance**YIKES!**, a few doctor's visits, quarterly garbage and sewage bills, state tax bill & school related expenses for #2 son.  
All totaled, the out-of-the-ordinary expenses came to about $850.

The Food Budget costs for March are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in March was under the budgeted $250(due to the rebate money that came in last month)and our Savings percentage was a whopping 94.89%!

Looking Ahead to April....
The cc bill is on track to being under $500 this month again, which is always good. ;-)
I am also expecting our federal tax refund to hit the account in April.
On the not-so-good side of things, we have a local tax bill that is due by the end of this month.
The good thing is that the tax refund is larger than the local tax bill so that's good news!

YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $8,523.72 in Savings.  To save $30K for the year, we need to put away $2,500 per month average.  We are ahead of our target as the 1st quarter savings total goal is $7,500!

So how was your March financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?  Let us know!


Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday.....April 5th Edition w/Spending Breakdown

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...
I injured my shoulder last weekend so there was NO Meal Plan or cooking done by yours truly last week.
Hubby pitched in and cooked a few nights and we got take-out for the other nights. 

Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week.....our household presently consists of 2 adults and 2 teens at home.  No children under 14.

This week we'll be using leftover Ham from Sunday's dinner to make two new meals this week. Monday's dinner is also using a leftover grain from a few weeks back to build a new meal.  Since alot of what I am serving is stockpiled, I'm adding a Cost Breakdown Section where I'll list what I paid for the ingredients that are on hand so you can see what I spend w/stockpiling & sales versus buying it weekly when it might not be on sale. If I use a leftover ingredient I won't add that cost as it was already figured into the previous meal's cost.

MONDAY--Bolognese Sauce(freezer and stockpile) over Fried Polenta(leftover from Shrimp and Grits meal), Tossed Salad Greens(need to buy) with Dressing(stockpile)
TUESDAY--Baked Macaroni & Cheese with Ham(stockpile/freezer/leftover ham), Steamed Broccoli(have)
WEDNESDAY--Haluski(have & stockpile), Spinach Salad(freezer-bacon/have eggs/need to buy spinach)*Mostly a vegetable/grain meal with some dairy/No meat meal(except for a bit of bacon)
THURSDAY-Tortellini Alfredo(stockpile), Tossed Salad(need to buy)w/Dressing(stockpile)
FRIDAY--Fish(freezer), Coleslaw(have & stockpile), Oysters(have), Rice(stockpile), Corn(stockpile)
SATURDAY---Creamy Potatoes and Ham(using leftover ham/need to buy potatoes) , Wax & Green Beans(freezer)
SUNDAY--Eat Out

I'll post the recipe for the Halushki recipes later in the week. 

Here are the cost breakdowns...
Bolognese over Fried Polenta w/Tossed Salad--Polenta is leftover(.00¢), oil for frying(.30¢), tomatoes and spices for sauce($1.20), italian sausage for sauce($1.00), ground beef for sauce($1.69), salad greens($2.00), salad dressing(.50¢)=$6.69
Mac and Cheese with Ham with Broccoli Dinner--ham is leftover(.00¢),noodles($1.00),cheese($3.00), milk($1.00),roux ingredients(.70¢), broccoli($1.49)=$7.19
Halushki w/Spinach Salad--Cabbage(.78¢), Egg Noodles(.50¢), Onions(.25¢), Butter(.40¢), Salt/Pepper(.05¢), Spinach($1.50),Bacon(.50¢), Egg(.13¢), Dressing(.50¢)=$4.61
Spinach Tortellini Alfredo Dinner--Tortellini($3.00), Alfredo Sauce jarred($1.25), Parmesan Cheese(.70¢),Salad Greens($2.00), Dressing(.50¢)=$7.45
Fish Dinner--Flounder($5.99),Hush Puppy Mix for breading(.50¢), Oil for frying(.70¢), Cabbage(.78¢), Mayo, Sugar, Celery Seed & Vinegar(.75¢), Potatoes(.99¢)=$9.71
Potato & Ham Dinner--Ham is leftover(.00¢), Potatoes(.50¢), Butter (.60¢), Cream Cheese($1), Cheese($1), Milk(.50¢), Spices(.30¢), Green Beans($1)=$5.40

Adding up what has already been spent and what I need to spend for this week's menu, I can serve this menu of 6 meals to a family of 4 adults/teens for a total of $41.05.

Leftover nights have no cost as they were already figured in when the meal was served the first time.  If you divide the meals' cost by 6 nights(Sunday is dining out & that's on the enterainment budget), you get an average cost per night of $6.84.  That's $1.71 per person per night.  And this is mostly a cooking from scratch menu.  The only 'processed foods' are the jarred Alfredo Sauce and the Salad Dressing.   Who says you can't cook healthy on the cheap?

LAST WEEK'S FOOD SPENDING
Being sick, I didn't set foot into a grocery store last week...I did go to Rite-Aid but since I had Gift Cards I spent nothing out of pocket.  I did send DH to the store at some point for a few things to tide us over and he spent $26.52 on deli meat and cheeses and some hamburger as he hadn't thawed any ground beef that day for dinner.  He also bought himself a bag of potato chips.  No coupons used, nothing bought on sale.  But in a crisis, you pay what you have to and you buy what you have to, right?  I am thankful for the stockpile during weeks like that.  Between the freezer and stockpile we had most of what DH needed to make some healthy-ish meals.


The only NEEDS for this week's menu are potatoes, milk, salad greens, cabbage and fresh spinach.  There is a special on grated cheese which we are almost out of so I'll pick some up as well.  I am going to say $20 will get us through the week and this menu.


FOOD WASTE REPORT
Nothing wasted this week...Again! 8-))

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week.

Sluggy