My Homemade Marble Slab Creation

I love chocolate soft serve. If I won the lottery, I would have a soft serve ice cream machine. Oh, yes.

And what makes it even better? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

To make my own "Marble Slab" version, I scoop the ice cream and pop it in the microwave for a few seconds. Just enough to make it mushable (Spell check's gonna have a field day with that one...). I add a little chocolate syrup and milk and mush!

Once I've achieved creamy chocolaty bliss, I cover with two chopped peanut butter cups to make my bliss heavenly!

Yes, it's excessive. Excessively delicious! You know you want one.

And if you really want a cost analysis, it's about .75--But I'd pay any price!

Enchiladas

I forgot to take a picture of all the ingredients together, but here they are:

Precooked Shredded Chicken: .70 (Ground beef, shredded beef, shredded pork, etc. works well, too!)

1 Jalapeno & 2 Serrano Peppers, chopped: .25 (or use a small can of diced green chilies for about $1)

1 block of Cream Cheese: $1

1 pack of Flour Tortillas (soft taco or fajita size): .75

2 cans of Enchilada sauce: FREE

Mexican cheese: approx. .50 worth

Total Meal Cost: $3.20

1. In a large skillet, cook or warm your meat.

2. Add cream cheese and peppers/chilies. Stir until cheese is melted and peppers/chilies are dispersed.

3. Spoon mixture onto tortilla. Roll tortilla and place in large baking dish.

4. Once all tortillas are rolled, pour enchilada sauce over the top.

5. Top with cheese.


6. Bake at 375* for 30 minutes.

BBQ Chicken Dinner

Again, not so much a recipe as it a meal cost breakdown.

I just put chicken in the crockpot, covered with barbeque sauce, and cooked on high for 4-5 hours. The chicken barely even stayed together to get it on the plate for this picture!

Chicken: $1.35

BBQ Sauce: FREE (Actually, I was paid .08)

Boxed Scalloped Potatoes: FREE

Frozen Green Beans: FREE

Pillsbury Breadsticks: .40

Butter: FREE

Total Meal Cost: $1.75

Meatball Marinara Pasta Dinner

Everybody already knows how to make plain old pasta with marinara sauce, so this isn't really a recipe. I'm just breaking down the cost of some of my meals to show you how cooking from your fridge & pantry (which you stocked using sales & coupons, right?) can save you money.

Wacky Mac Pasta: 19 cents

Italian Style Meatballs: 40 cents

Classico Pasta Sauce: 67 cents

Pillsbury Italian Bread Loaf: 40 cents

Mozzarella Cheese (not pictured): approx. 30 cents worth

Garlic Powder & Italian Seasoning

Total Meal Cost: $1.96

Chicken Broccoli Braid Recipe

This recipe is so simple and the best thing about it is that it is completely SUBSTITUTABLE! You can use any meat, any veggie, any cheese that you have on hand. There's also no measuring required!

Here are the ingredients I used and their costs with sales and coupons:

Precooked chopped chicken : approx. 75 cents (I used 2 breasts for 4.5 people)

Cooked or Thawed bag of Frozen Broccoli: FREE

Shredded Cheddar Cheese: approx. 63 cents (I used about half a bag)

Mayo: approx. $1.00 (I used about half a jar)

Crescent Rolls: FREE

Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder

Total Meal Cost: about $2.38

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix your meat, veggie, cheese, mayo, and seasonings to taste and desired consistency.

3. Place two crescent triangles together at their broadsides. Repeat and overlap the two large triangles as shown.

4. Place filling. (Broccoli not shown in image due to stubborn toddlers.)

5. Pull up the small ends, twist, and lay flat.

6. Repeat with remaining crescents and filling.

7. Bake for 17 minutes or until dough is cooked through and golden brown on top.

Enjoy! (BTW, those pretty little flowers in the background were brought to me by aforementioned stubborn toddlers. Broccoli absence forgiven.)