What was your favorite frugal meal this week? We had a delicious meal tonight of pan-seared tofu marinated in low cal creamy Emeril Herb Vinaigrette served with pierogies and sugar snap peas. Here is the cost breakdown for our dinner for a family of 4 (with 2 adults, 5 yr old, 7 yr old): Nasoya Tofu with coupon: $1.75 Emerils Herb Vinaigrette: Free with coupon and triples Mrs T's Pierogies: Free with sales and coupons from last triples Green Giant Sugar Snap Peas: Free with $1 sale and 50 cent doubled coupon from HT last week Drinks (milk for kids and water for hubby and I): Approx. 50 cents Dessert: Leftover carrot cake from 2 nights ago: 30 cents (Free mix and frosting with coupons. Total cost of cake with added pineapple (39 cents at Walgreens), applesauce (free with coupons), eggs, and oil - 60 cents) Total for entire meal: $2.55 The tofu turned out so good we will have it later this coming week served on rice or pasta with more sugar snap peas! The Emerils Herb Vinaigrette marinade was delicious and I recommend it (if you can find it on sale, of course!). So, what's cooking at your house? Faye
We are having tuna helper (.99 on sale) sometime this week. The milk was free with my Lowe's Food points. Broccoli was free with triples a while back at Harris Teeter. Tuna was .33 a can for Albacore at the salvage. We will probably have tea with it...tea was .40 for the whole box of family size bags with triples. Plus, the few packets of Equal we will use...the box of 200 packets was at the salvage for $2. That will feed my hubby and I plus give us lunch the next day. I cooked hubby clams and shrimp last night. The clams and shrimp were free (big mistakes at Lowes seafood counter...but the manager is GREAT so he made everything good). I baked a few fries (1.25 for the whole bag on sale at Lowe's) and that was it because it was so late!
I can't plan that far in advance. Not sure what we are having for dinner yet. I did make a humongus pot of Chicken Pastry last week. Annies flat noodles $3.49 Chicen thighs $.69/lb Meal for 3 days = PRICELESS! :lol:
And wheres mine????? Maybe you had to many beers.. but you did promise Craig to send some over for his knee and I promised to taste test it for him... maybe it was just wishful thinking I was hearing :wink:
Frugal - Was this a soft tofu? Can you eleborate as to how you cook it? Does it really taste good? The only tofu I've ever used was the egg roll wrappers. Used them for noodles in Chicken-n-dumplings/pastry.
Hi bandmom, Followign is how I prepare the tofu. Buy the extra firm tofu in the produce section of the grocery store. It is in a little plastic tub submerged in water. Once you open the container, empty the water, rinse off the white tofu block and cut off the amount you need for the meal. For the meal mentioned above I used abotu 3/4 of the block. After cutting off what you need, put the remaining tofu in a tupperware container and fill it with water so the tofu is covered. Put the lid on the container. Put the container in the fridge and change the water every day until you finish the tofu. It is good in the fridge for up to 7 days after openned. Now, take the tofu you are going to use and slice it into 1/2 thick slices. Wrap each slice in a paper towel and squeeze very gently to get most of the moisture out. Then cut each slice into cubes about the size of a starburst candy (maybe a little larger). Put the cubed tofu into a ziploc baggie or tuperware container with a lid. Pour in the marinade you plan on using. Gently shake to cover all pieces. Do not shake too hard as it will fall apart. Once all pieces are covered you can let it marinade for a couple hours or cook right away. I cooked it right away and it was great. Heat the skillet to medium and cook the tofu for approx 4 minutes stirring often as it will brown quickly. Once browned, add to pasta, rice, salad, tortilla roll ups......... Hope that helps! Faye
Sorry, didn't save prices.......Lets try $3 for the hamburger, $2 for the mac and cheese, $0.50 for the mushrooms and we'll say $0.20 for the onion. Don't really know what would be a good breakdown for the italian seasoning. So $5.70 for the dish and two meals so that's $2.85 per meal. I drink water with my meals so I guess you could add another $.05 for that if you wanted to. I also didn't include the cost of electricity. I don't normally look at prices so I hope this will do.
One of the great things about tofu is how it takes on the flavor of whatever it is cooked with. I use the extra firm, and I put a plate on top of the whole block for a while to squeeze out the extra moisture. Then I cut it in cubes and make a stir fry with mushrooms, whatever veggies happen to be in season, and teriyaki sauce. Yumm!
My girls like it plain and they dip it in soy sauce or ketchup. Low fat, high protein, super easy to prep.
1/2 of the perdue chicken buy one get one free with coupon cost 1.00 and 1/2 cost .50 plus about 1/4 bag of fresh express salad at 2 for 5 with 1$ off 2 which would be another .50 add some french dressing maybe .10 and a bottle of water. not bad "cheap and tasty" :lol:
Thanks for the tofu ideas.....maybe I'll have to give this a try! They say soy products are good for pre-menopausal women! :lol:
I have an excellent tofu dish we make. It is a "tofu spinach pie'. I use a whole extra firm tofu, bag of thawed and drained spinach (or a couple bunches of fresh), chopped tomato, small onion, 1 clove garlic, feta cheese, dash of oregano and basil, pepper. Drain tofu with paper towel, crumble in skillet and brown with garlic and onion, add feta and oregano/basil, tomato, spinach and simmer. Put in pie crust and cover with second pie crust, bake till brown. Serve with rice or alone. IT IS AWESOME! If you hate tofu, this will change your mind. Kids love it and it is healthy. I can't tell you the $$ breakdown though. lol. Sorry, I just thought I would share the recipe.
