Hot Corn Dip Recipe

Looking for an easy dip for game night? The best part is it only cost around $3.00 to make (plus seasoning and cost of chips). Thanks goes to Jackie for the recipe.

 Ingredient  List:

• 1 15 oz can white corn  (generic costs about $.50 per can)
• 1 15 oz can yellow corn (generic costs about $.50 per can)
• 1 10 oz can tomatoes & green chilies ( costs about $1.00  or less per can)
• 1 8 oz package cream cheese cubed ( costs about $1.00 on sale)
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder or to taste
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• chopped cilantro (I use dry when I do not have fresh)

Combine all Ingredients, place in oven-safe dish, and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, stir and bake an additional 15 minutes. Top with a little extra cilantro for color. Voila!  Serve with your favorite corn or tortilla chips.

Freezer-Pleaser Italian Beef

This recipe is one of my favorites from my favorite cook books Don't" Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead. I made a few changes to the recipe to make it easier for me to cook. It came out great. This is spicy so I would not call it kid friendly but sometimes I need a break from tacos and pasta dishes. LOL! Here is the recipe.

2-3 lb. roast

2 onions, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

2 16 oz jars sliced Pepperoncini pepper with juice

1/2 cup water

1 t. ground pepper

Cut roast into 4 pieces. Place into crock pot. Add next 4 ingredients and sprinkle with pepper on top. Cook in crock pot 5-6 hours. When meat has finished cooking remove and shred. Return meat to crock pot on warm and cook for 1 hour longer. Cool mixture and divide into meal size potions and freeze.

When ready to eat. Thaw meat and reheat. Top French rolls with Italian beef and a slice of Provolone cheese. Place under broiler until cheese melts. Serve.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins/Loaf

This is one of my favorite muffin recipes. I had planned on freezing the loaf but my little boy and I ate all of it in 2 days. Oh well, I guess I will have to make a double batch next time.


1 2/3 cups flour (I used 1 cup white and 2/3 cup wheat)
1 cup sugar
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and set aside. In another bowl mix wet ingredients and add chocolate chips. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix gently. Do not over mix. Grease muffin pan or loaf pan and full 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 min for muffins or 40-45 min for loaf.

* This recipe comes from one of my favorite cook books Don't" Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead.

Freezer-Pleaser

With Ground Chuck $5 for a 3 lb. roll at Meijer and Ground Beef $1.59 lb. at Kroger. I plan to make up some Taco Meat and Freeze it. I have two recipes for you to choose from. If you would like to follow along.

Taco Filling
Rio Rancho Taco Meat (I have made this recipe before it comes from one of my favorite books Don't" Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead)

*Do you have a good recipe that freezes well. If you would like to share it please email me. I am going to try to focus on 1 or 2 recipes each week that goes great with the store sales.

Freezer-Pleaser

Boneless Pork Lion Marinade Recipes.

Boneless Pork Loin is on sale this week at both Meijer ($1.79 lb.) and Kroger($1.89lb.). So I will be prepping and freezing Pork loin for up coming meals.

Here are the 2 recipes I will use this week.

Maple-Garlic Marinated Pork Tenderlion
Asian Pork Tenderlion

*I have never made these recipes before but they both looked really good. So I thought I would give them a try. They both have high reviews.

My Plan:

I will have the butcher cut my Pork Loin for me into 1 to 1 1/2 lb portions. This is enough meat for my family of 4. Instead of marinating my meat and cooking right away. I will place my meat and marinade into freezer bags and freeze. When I am ready to fix the meal. I will thaw the meat in the refrigerator overnight and cook it the next day. This allows the meat to marinate as it defrosts.

*Note the recipes call for Pork Tenderlion but I will use Boneless Pork Lion because it is less expensive.

*Click here to check out all my Freezer-Pleaser Posts.

Freezer-Pleaser

Today I decided to clean out the fridge. We are going to be gone most of the weekend. So I had to decide what I needed to use or prep before it would go bad. After a overview of what I had to use. I decided that it would be best to go ahead and prep and freeze some of my fresh produce. I just didn't think it would last much longer.

Here is what I did.

I washed and cut Green Peppers, Red Onions, Sweet Onions, and Strawberries. I then placed my cut up produce in a even layer on trays lined with waxed paper. I then patted the produce dry with a paper towel. After they were fairly dry I placed the trays in the freezer to flash freeze. After flash freezing I placed everything into freezer bags.

I also made croutons you can click here to read my post on making your own croutons. I try not to waste anything. Freezing has come in handy so many times. I have often bought more produce than I was able to use. This also comes in handy when you find rock bottom prices on produce that needs to sell ASAP. Freezing will give you some extra time to use it. Just about everything can be frozen with the right method.

*Note: If you try to skip the process and just put your cut up produce in a bag before flash freezing. It will freeze together in big clump. (Yes, I this know from experience.)

Freezer-Pleaser

This easy recipe goes great with this weeks sale at Kroger. This recipe is adapted from Once-a-Month Cooking. I love this book and use it weekly. Amazon has a great price on this book $10.36 you can purchase it from my favorites on my side bar. Here is the recipe.

Chicken Taco Meat

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 10 oz Can Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilies
• 1 1 1/4 oz packet taco seasoning or 1/4 cup

Put ingredients in a gallon freezer bag. Freeze flat. When ready to use thaw and place contents of freezer bag in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. Remove chicken cut up and return to sauce in slow cooker.

*Note after my chicken cooked for about 1 hour I took a spoon and removed the white chicken film and finished cooking.

Use for chicken taco's, salad, nachos or burritos. Top with your favorite toppings lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, black beans, avocado, salsa, rice, corn.

Homemade Skyline Chili Copycat!

One of the things we did to save money was to stop eating out. We loved to eat out at Skyline. We would eat there almost every Saturday. Saturday is kids eat free day at our favorite Skyline and even with that our bill was still around $25. I used to buy Skyline in a can at Kroger for about $3 a can for the small one. I needed almost 2 cans plus pasta and cheese. This was costing me about $10 a meal. So I decided to see if I could make my own cheaper. I found this recipe and thought I would give it a try. This is very close to the real thing just a little spicy. My family loves it and we get our Skyline fix very cheap at home.

Here is the recipe.

• 2lbs ground beef (I used 1lb ground venison and 1lb ground chuck)
• 2 med. onions (you need 2 cups)
• 4 c beef stock
• 2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
• 2-3 T chili powder
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 3/4 T unsweetened cocoa
• 2 tsp instant minced garlic
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 T dark brown sugar

Puree the onions and garlic in food processor. In a large stock pot cook onion and garlic in a little oil until liquid evaporates add beef stock and bring to a low boil. Add raw meat and break up meat with a wisk until very fine then add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer mixture for a least 1 hour breaking up the meat. (Skyline has a very smooth texture so this is a must.) I chilled the mixture overnight so I could remove hardened fat. (This step is optional if you want to cut the fat content from your chili.)

Serve over hot dogs, pasta, potato's, fries and top with your favorite toppings cheese, onions, beans.

*Note I doubled this recipe and froze in meal size containers. That way all I have to do is thaw the chili and warm it up in my small crock pot. I was able to divide this into 7 meals for our family. This is a great week to make this recipe with the sales on cheese, ground chuck, and pasta you should be able to make this cheap.

Freezer-Pleaser

I wanted to share with you one of the things I do when I buy boneless chicken breasts at a good price. Instead of just putting the chicken in the freezer. I go ahead and prep it. This saves so much time later. Here is what I do.

1. I cut and trim fat from chicken.


2. I cover chicken and pound flat until it is the same thickness(this helps it to cook evenly).


3. I divide chicken into meal size portion place in freeze bag and cover with one of my favorite marinades.(I used Lawry's in the photo)


4. Label freezer bags and freeze flat.


5. When I am ready to cook it. I will thaw the chicken over night in the refrigerator. (This will allow the chicken to marinate.) I will either grill the chicken outside or on my George Foreman grill. It's so easy and time saving!

* I bought this chicken when it was on sale for $1.88 lb. The marinade was $.50. So I was able to get meat for 5 meals for a little over $10.

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

I quit buying microwave popcorn about 2 years ago (unless I can get it for free or really cheap) and started making my own.

Here is how I make it. You will need a brown paper lunch bag, a clip like the one in the photo, popcorn, and desired toppings.

• Put about 1/3 cup popcorn into paper bag.
• Close top of bag with clip (you do not need oil).
• Pop in microwave on regular popcorn setting ( when popping slows down remove).
• Top with salt and melted butter.
• Enjoy

Freezer-Pleaser

This is my favorite Ziti and Lasagna sauce. I don't recommend this recipe for spaghetti the sauce is just to thick. I always double this recipe and freeze into container to use when I make baked ziti. For those of you who use venison. This recipe camouflages the taste of the venison.

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (I use ground venison)
• 2 lbs. Italian sausage
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 t garlic powder, or more to taste
• 1t Italian seasoning, or more to taste
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 29-ounce cans tomato sauce
• 1 6-ounce can tomato paste

Brown ground beef and sausage in a large pot. Add onion and seasons and continue to cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until onion is browned. Drain off all fat. Add the tomato sauce and paste simmer for about 15 minutes. Dived into freezer containers.

What do you do with left over bread?

Make Croutons !

Here's the deal I can not throw anything away. So I save all my left over bread (buns, crusts from sandwich bread I cut into dinosaur shapes for my son) and store it in the fridge until I have a large bag full. The rest is easy.

• Cut bread into cubes.
• Drizzle with olive oil.
• Sprinkle with your favorite seasonings (I use Italian seasoning).
• Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.
• Mix bread gently until evenly coated.
• Spread bread out on baking pan.
• Bake at 300 stirring often until bread is crispy.

Crockpot Recipe

Teriyaki Pot Roast

This recipe is from our family cook book and was given by my aunt Judi.

• One 3 to 4 lb chuck roast (I use venison)
• Cooking oil
• 1/2 t ground ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 T soy sauce
• 2 onions, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup hot water

Brown roast in oil in heavy skillet. Put browned roast in crockpot. Add the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours.

Freezer-Pleaser

Sweet Sloppy Joes

We love sloppy joes. I make a big batch of this recipe and freeze it. I don't really like left overs so dividing into meal size portions makes sense to me.

• 5 lbs ground beef (I use venison)
• 3 small onions, chopped
• 3 small green peppers, chopped
• 3 (10 oz) cans tomato soup (undiluted)
• 3 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
• 3 cups ketchup
• 6 T brown sugar
• 3 T Worcestershire sauce
• 3 t prepared mustard
• 1/2 t garlic powder

Cook ground meat, onions, and green peppers in large pot until meat is browned and crumbled. Drain. Add rest of the ingredients and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, stir often. Cool and divide into meal size portions and freeze. Thaw and warm up on serving day.

Taco Meat

Taco Meat

This is one of my favorite bulk cooking freezer recipes. My family loves tacos, taco salad, and nachos. We seem to have taco night once a week. So I make a big batch of this recipe and freeze in meal size portions. When I want to have tacos for dinner all I have to do is thaw it and warm it up. This saves me so much time on those busy weeknights.

• 3 medium onions, diced
• 5 lbs ground beef 
• 3 cups salsa
• 3 pks or 3/4 cup taco seasoning
• 41/2 t brown sugar
• 3 4oz cans green chiles
• 1 T garlic powder
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 3/4 t pepper
• 3/4 t red pepper flakes
• 2 cups water

Brown ground meat and onion. Drain grease. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Cool meat mixture and divide into meal size portions. Freeze.