Easy Way to Cook Brown Rice in the Oven Friends...I'm baking brown rice these days. For years, I'd made it on the stovetop, as that's how I learned how to cook rice when I lived in the Dominican Republic years ago. Then I discovered the rice cooker. I've only been using my rice cooker for a few months, but I love it. It cooks the rice so beautifully, and the clean up is … [Read more...]
Avocado Egg Breakfast Sandwich – How to Make Baked Eggs with Cilantro in Muffin Tin
My boys love eggs. (Both my 7 and 5 year olds are now quite proficient at making scrambled eggs for breakfast.) They also love avocado. And English muffins. And chips and salsa. I took a risk in putting all these things together for a "breakfast for dinner" meal, and it was a big success. (Minus the chips, but I suppose you could add those if you wanted a little crunch in your … [Read more...]
5 Tips for How to Make Homemade Bread
Learn 5 Important Tips and Strategies for How to Make Homemade Bread The smell of fresh bread baking in your own oven. The thought of adding a dollop of butter to it, watching it melt and soak into the warm bread. Then biting into it and letting the warm, fresh bread melt in your mouth and fill your heart and tummy with that cozy comfort that only … [Read more...]
How to Cook Asparagus
Seeing amazing prices on asparagus at the grocery store these days? We are right in the middle of asparagus season right now...and we're gonna be seeing prices of $.99/lb - $1.4/lb, maybe less! I'm all about eating seasonally and taking advantage of these great prices. No sense paying full price for other green veggies like broccoli or green beans, when you can get a bunch of … [Read more...]
Homemade Pie Crust Recipe
I learned something about homemade pie crusts recently. Most people are scared of them. And completely overwhelmed with the thought of making a homemade pie crust. Huh. Really? I want to know...are you overwhelmed by the thought of making your own pie crust? Have you ever considered skipping past the pre-made rolled crusts from the store? Or you an old pre at homemade … [Read more...]
Homemade Sugar-Free Granola
Some people like their granola extra, extra, extra sweet. I am not one of those people. I much prefer adding some fresh fruit to a not-so-sweet granola...for a perfectly healthy and balanced (and filling) breakfast! Or afternoon snack. Charlie devoured his bowl of granola topped with strawberries. Even asked for a second bowl. And asked for it again the next … [Read more...]
Spicy Mexican Omelet
I'm often asked during news interviews and radio interviews..."Is this really possible to do this $5 Dinners thing?" And my typical reply is... "Of course, a key part of this whole frugal cooking business is being creative with the ingredients that you get on sale, or even discounted, from the grocery store. If you score a fabulous deal on butternut squash and you don't know … [Read more...]
Quiche Biscuit Cups
I'm in love. I'm not sure I'll ever go back to regular muffins. I kid...but seriously, these were absolutely scrumptious!!! Duffy sent this recipe to me and I knew I had to try it and share it you all for breakfast week! Before we get to the nitty gritty, here are some other "drop-ins"... For Meat: Sausage, Ham or Chicken - cooked For Veggies: Broccoli, … [Read more...]
Mexican Bean Tostadas – How to Make Tostadas
So it occurred to me at about 5 pm on Sunday (when the Super Bowl had not started yet...somehow in my head the game was supposed to be in the afternoon), that we needed to eat dinner. And while all the appetizers that I had out would have probably sufficed, I still wanted to have something "dinner-ish" to serve to the guys! (We'd hoped to have friends over...but that … [Read more...]
How to Cook Turkey Bacon
Bacon...bacon...bacon. Too bad it's so bad for you! Because it tastes soooooo gooood. We don't eat a lot of bacon, but when we do I try to use turkey bacon. Lean, lean, lean turkey bacon. But the problem with the "lean-ness" is that it doesn't release much fat to cook itself, like pork bacon does. I've tried cooking turkey bacon in the microwave on … [Read more...]