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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Search Results for: freezer meals

Recipe: How to Make and Freeze Pesto

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By Mavis Butterfield on · 13 Comments

This afternoon I made pesto for the first time this year. It’s May 3rd, and I’m making pesto.  Life is good!  Not only is pesto easy to make, but it freezes well too.  And I plan on freezing a whole lot of pesto this summer let me tell you.

Slightly Adapted from Simply in Season

Ingredients

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 olive oil

Toss everything into a food processor or blender and pulse until it turns into a thick paste.

Serve immediately over warm pasta, with crackers or use as a spread in a hot panini sandwich.  What you don’t use, simply pour into ice-cube trays and freeze until solid.

Place the frozen pesto cubes in a freezer bag, date and store in the freezer until ready to use.

Simply in Season is an easy to read cookbook full of delicious recipes.  The book is broken down by seasons so you’ll know exactly what meals to prepare as the fruits and vegetables start to roll in from your garden or at the local produce stand.  I LOVE this cookbook and give it 2 big thumbs up! Amazon currently has Simply in Season on Sale for $13.59.

*Amazon prices are subject to change without notice.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Recipe: How to Make a Layered Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada

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By Mavis Butterfield on · 5 Comments

* I am posting this recipe again today for those of you who might have missed it the first time I wrote about ..  This is by far one of my family’s favorite meals.

The summer of 2010 I came across a money-making deal at QFC grocery on Kraft shredded cheese. I loaded up. I don’t remember how many packages I brought home, but we are still pulling bags of shredded cheese from the freezer.

According to the package, the cheese should have expired November of 2010. So either

A) You can freeze cheese for 1 ½ years,or

B) We have no taste buds what so ever.

A few weeks ago the latest {and most torturous} edition of the Williams-Sonoma catalog arrived in my mail box. In the catalog there was a recipe for Layered Chicken Three Cheese Enchiladas. I knew I had to make them.

I quickly decided the best way to go about making this dish was make a big batch of seasoned shredded chicken in a crock pot and enjoy chicken soft tacos one night, and to make the layered chicken enchiladas the next night.

This recipe was very easy to make. If you have all the ingredients on hand, you should definitely add it to your dinner menu soon. The Handsome Husband gave it a 10 out of 10!

Ingredients:
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 1 3/4 cups red enchilada sauce
• 9 corn tortillas, each about 6 inches in diameter
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese
• 1 can drained black beans
• 1 can drained corn

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F.

In a large nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Add the chicken, corn, black beans to the onion and stir well to combine.

Spread 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 3 1/2-quart round wide Dutch oven. Arrange 3 tortillas in a single layer on the sauce, overlapping them as needed to cover the sauce. Top with a generous 1 cup of the chicken-onion mixture, 1/2 cup of the sauce and 1/4 cup of each cheese. Repeat the layering 2 more times, alternating the direction of the tortilla layers and finishing with 1/2 cup sauce and 1/2 cup of cheese.

Transfer to the oven and bake until the ingredients are heated through and the cheese is melted, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes. Serves 6-8. Original Recipe Credit

Amazon: Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 3-1/2-Quart Oval Wide French Oven

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Mavis Butterfield Etsy