A broke woman's blog.

Ha ha! It's my day to cook.....Let me see. Today I made some lasagna, cheesy garlic bread and a spinach and tomato basil salad. I haven't cooked lasagna in about a year. We had went to Detroit and my little cousin wanted me to cook her some. So I cooked her some but I had used rotini pasta. I try to do things different at times. But today I just used the regular lasagna noodles. My girls and I went to the store and got everything we needed the night before and I forgot the french bread. So I had to use what I had to make the garlic bread......hot dog buns lol. Well it worked! You learn to improvise. After everything was cooked and we dug in lol. My lasagna fell apart on me but it's okay. It was still good! Okay are you ready? Well here we go. Remember, cook according to your needs.

Spinach and tomato basil salad

4 large tomatoes
1/2 purple onion (to your liking)
1/2 bunch fresh basil (to your liking)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of pepper (to taste)
2 oz. red wine vinegar
hand full of spinach

1. Rinse off tomatoes, spinach and basil.
2. Let basil and spinach dry while you slice the tomatoes.
3. Slice the ends of and cut the tomatoes a 1/4 inch thick from side to side.
4 Lay the slices flat and cut into 1/2 inch medium dice.
5. Put them in a mixing bowl.
6. Cut your onion in 1/4 inch small dice.
7. Put onion in the bowl also.
8. Chop up the basil to YOUR liking and sprinkle it over the mixture.
9. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
10. Add spinach.
11. Add about 2 oz. of the red wine vinegar.
12. Stir it and let it marinate.
13. Taste it and if you need to add something more, do so.


Lasagna Bree's way!!!!!

Hamburger
Sausage
Medium onion
Medium bell pepper
Minced garlic
Tomato sauce
Sour cream (optional)
Cottage cheese (optional)
Corn (optional)
Shredded cheese (any kind)
Lasagna
Seasoning (optional because of the sausage)


1. Cut the ends and hull off onion. Diced onion very small.
2. Cut ends and top off bell pepper. Rinse off and dice it very small.
3. Mince garlic.
4. Saute the onions, garlic and bell pepper for about 2 minutes then add hamburger and sausage.
5. While that is cooking, boil your water for the lasagna.
6. Once meat is done drain all the fat off.
7. Add lasagna to the water. Stir it around a little bit so it won't stick. Cook it for about 12-15 minutes. The reason is you want your noodles al dente (half done because when you bake the lasagna your noodles won't be mushy).
8. After the fat has drained off put the meat back in the pot and add your tomato sauce.
9. Add some sour cream to the mixture and let it cook down.
10. After your 12-15 minutes turn your pot off on your lasagna and quickly pull them out and layer them on the bottom of your pan.
11. Layer your meat mixture, cottage cheese, corn, cheese and lasagna until you run out.
12. Put in oven on 350 for about 15 minutes.


Cheesy garlic bread

Hot dog buns
Garlic powder
Butter
Shredded cheese

1. Spoon out how much butter out you think you will need in a bowl and put it in the microwave until it starts to melt.
2. Add some garlic powder to taste.
3. Drizzle over hot dog buns.
4. Sprinkle cheese over buns and bake for about 5 minutes so they won't get hard.

Source: Bree

I don't think I need any introduction from the title. You already know Sunday is my day to cook dinner at my house. This is the meal that I wanted to cook the previous Sunday but my dad beat me to it! Well I finally got a chance to cook what I wanted. My dad is a bird lover and I love bird too! He loves it fried but I love it baked. So are you thinking we had bird for dinner? You guessed it right. Baked bird it was. I made baked chicken with cream of mushroom, wild rice, corn and sweet peas mixed, biscuits and a Reeses pieces cake. Yea, my daughter wanted that cake lol. I'm the type of cook who will cook from scratch and out of the box. You don't have to be a professional chef to make wonderful tasting food. It's all in your mind and hands. All you have to do is find it! So let's get it started!

Mise en place [MEEZ ahn plahs]! Don't worry. You do this all the time I hope. All that's saying is for you to have everything in place that you need to prepare your meal. You will tire yourself out running back and forth throughout the kitchen looking for stuff.


Baked chicken

Chicken (whatever parts you like)
Chopped chives
Chopped basil
Seasonings (whatever you like)

1. Pull off fat on chicken and wash it.
2. Season it and sprinkle chives and basil over it.
3. Let it cook to YOUR liking. Done, I hope!

Wild rice

1. Just buy a box of Rice-A-Roni and follow the directions.

Mixed sweet peas and corn

1. Open a can of sweet peas and corn and bring them to a boil.

Biscuits

1. Grands biscuits. Follow the directions on the can.

Cream of mushroom

1. Open can and scrape the cream of mushroom in a saucepan.
2. Heat up and serve it on top of chicken!

Reeses pieces cake

1. Buy cake mix and follow directions on the box.
2. When cake is half way done, drop some reeses pieces in the mix.
3. When the cake is done, you can put your icing on so it can melt into the cake.
4. An hour after cake has cooled off sprinkle more reeses on the icing.
5. Put cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes to let icing get cold, then take it out.
6. You may eat!

Source: Bree

You already know what today is. It's Sunday and it's my turn to cook. Well see here is the problem.......I went to the store last night to get what I wanted to cook for dinner. I wanted baked chicken covered with cream of mushroom, mashed potatoes, corn and cornbread. My stepdad had other plans. He baked some ribs. All I can say is mmmmmm delicious. Well I woke up to him yelling, "Are you going to finish dinner." How could I say no! We had baked ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, fruit salad, and a cake. I had my tummy ready for that baked chicken! What's so funny about it is that he LOVES chicken but he wanted ribs. Oh well. I shall have it one day. But all I want to know is are you ready to cook? Well let's hit the kitchen!

Ribs

Ribs (beef or pork)
Bay leaves
Seasoning

1. Cut your ribs up and wash them off.
2. Season them really good to where you can smell your seasoning.
3. Get a roasting pan and put the bay leaves at the bottom.
4. Put ribs in the pan and let them cook to your desired finish.
5. You can pour off the fat or leave it in the pan so your ribs aren’t dry.

Mashed potatoes

I do not measure butter or milk. So use it at your discretion.

Box of potato buds
Butter
Milk
Water

1. Boil water and add a dash of salt in it.
2. Put buds in a plastic bowl or mixing bowl.
3. Add water, butter and milk.
4. If you like a lot of butter add more.
5. Use a mixer to mix all the contents together.
6. Whatever more you need add it.
7. Potatoes should come out fluffy like a cloud!

Corn

Can of corn

1. Clean off top of can.
2. Open can.
3. Put corn in a pot and heat them up.
4. Once heated you may eat!

Chocolate cake
Any chocolate cake mix will do

1. Read the directions!
2. Once cooled cut cake in half horizontally.
3. Put icing and whatever topping you want in between the layers.
4. Do the same on top layer.
5. Put in fridge and let chill for about an hour and serve!



Fruit salad

5 large strawberries
1 Granny Smith apple
1 Red apple
½ peach
10 medium sized seedless grapes

1. Cut up strawberries in small dices ¼ in x ¼ in x ¼ inor close to it.
2. Slice apples in half down the middle.
3. Turn apple on flat side and cut in ¼ in halves.
4. Turn them on flat side again, cut down the middle and turn them horizontally.
5. Cut them in ¼ in squares.
6. Do the peach the same way but only half of it.
7. Put fruit in a bowl and put in grapes.
8. Mix the fruit and refrigerate.
9. When ready to eat put a teaspoon of cream cheese topping and eat up!

Source: TJ (my stepdad) and Bree

Sunday dinner again! Let’s see what do we have here! Hamburger casserole. Hmmm hmmm hmmm. This was my first time making it and it was delicious! It started off with my dad wanting some lasagna. Well, he always gets what he wants so I cooked what I wanted lol. For dessert I made a cake. That was good too! Let’s get this party started shall we?

Hamburger casserole

Hamburger meat
Noodles
Sour cream
Cottage cheese
Chopped basil
Chopped chives
Chopped onions
Cheese
Can of sweet peas
Can of corn
Seasoning

1. Brown hamburger meat and add in onions, chives, basil and seasoning.
2. Boil water for noodles while hamburger meat is cooking.
3. Add noodles when water starts to boil.
4. Once hamburger and noodles are done drain them.
5. Dump hamburger meat in a pan and top it with cheese.
6. Pour peas, corn, sour cream, and cottage cheese on top of hamburger meat.
7. Pour noodles on top and add more cheese.
8. Mix all together and then add the chives.
9. Put in oven and bake it for about 20 minutes and let stand for 10 minutes.
10. Now you may eat!

Source: Bree