What's Been Cooking? Cheater Lemon Cake, Buffalo Chicken Dip and Honey Mustard Pork Chops

Tonight we have dinner with the Boy Scouts for the Blue & Gold Banquet, 

so I don't have to cook dinner!  Gotta love that!  

Every family has been asked to either bring a dessert or salad.  Normally I'd bring a nice green salad or a yummy quinoa salad, but since I'm trying to reserve my veggies for my family's dinners this week, I decided to bring a dessert.  

I took a look in my pantry to see what I had that needed to be used up and came out with a lemon cake mix.  I usually try to buy cake mixes when they are on sale for $1 or less per box.  So, I baked up the cake, according to the box directions.

Once it was done cooling I made a very simple glaze to go on top.  I figured a glaze would be more cost effective than a frosting.  

Simple Lemon Glaze for Cheater Lemon Cake:

• 2 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon water

Whisk all ingredients together and then pour over baked and cooled cake.

The total cost for my pot luck worthy Cheater Lemon Cake: about $2

Since I'm not making dinner tonight and the banquet isn't until 7pm, I decided to make the kids a yummy after school snack that should hold them over until the later dinner.  We didn't watch The Super Bowl this past Sunday, since we got rid of satellite TV in 2014 and now only have Netflix.  Not that any of us actually missed watching the game, but we did miss out on all of the yummy game time foods that we usually eat while watching for the commercials.  

Enter Buffalo Chicken Dip!  Served with a sleeve or two of club crackers, this dip hit the spot for my boys when they got off the bus.  

Back when I started this blog, Pinterest wasn't a thing yet.  And now, we can type in any kind of dish we want to make and have tons of recipes pop up WITH pictures!  I eat with my eyes first, so Pinterest makes picking recipes out, so much easier.  

I found this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip and decided to give it a try.  Of course I changed things up a little, to use what I had.  And cooking on a budget is all about flexibility!  You must be able to alter recipes to fit what you already have in your house if you want to save money.  

Buffalo Chicken Dip:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 1 large can chicken, drained
• 1/2 cup shredded Sharp cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients, except for the shredded cheese, in a baking dish.  No need to dirty two dishes, so just mix it all up in what you are going to bake it in. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, add the cheese on top and bake for about 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Total cost for Buffalo Chicken Dip: about $4, plus the cost of crackers.

The picture above is before baking, I didn't get one after it was cooked.  But, my boys loved it and it was much appreciated by them when they got off of the bus. 

Since I'm not cooking dinner tonight, I thought I'd link over to the recipe that I used last night to make Honey Mustard Pork Chops.  They were a hit!!  Served along with roasted potatoes that we gleaned back in October from local Potato fields (which equals lots of free potatoes!) and a side of honey glazed carrots (can we say cheap!?), our entire dinner last night cost us about $4 or so.  Since we have to pay for the pigs to be butchered, that's our main cost.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pico de Gallo

I love fresh salsa, it's so easy to make and it tastes so good!! Made with fresh from the garden tomatoes, it's even better! I love the already minced garlic in the jar, that is what I usually use in most of my recipes, it can be used in this recipe, but fresh garlic that you mince yourself will be 100 times better! It's worth the extra work for me to mince the garlic for this Pico de Gallo. This recipe is more of guide then an actual recipe also, you can adjust anything in the recipe to your family's likings. If your family doesn't like much onion, don't put as much in. If you really love cilantro, like me, add a whole bunch. If you don't like much spice, only add one jalapeño. Make it how your family will enjoy it!! Serve with homemade or store bought tortilla chips and your good to go!!

Pico de Gallo

6 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeño peppers, minced
½ bunch cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or more to taste)
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper (or more to taste)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. Stir once more before serving and enjoy with your favorite chips!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

desired quantity corn tortillas
oil for frying
salt

Heat oil on high heat in a large skillet. Make sure there is at least ½” of oil. Cut the corn tortillas into slices that resemble chips. Place cut tortillas into hot oil and cook 1 to 2 minutes per side, until they are a golden brown color. Take browned tortilla chip out of oil and place on a paper towel lined plate, season with salt and enjoy!

Easy Guacamole

This will be the first of my Mexican Feast recipes! A couple of weeks ago I spent all Sunday in the kitchen making Chile Verde, Mexican rice, refried beans, pico de gallo, homemade chips and this easy guacamole. We ended up making burritos out of it all, if you'd like to see the huge burrito that my husband made, go check out over here. Anyway, I'll be posting the other recipes in the following few days. This guacamole is so easy to make that it's funny! And as far as I'm concerned, it's the only guacamole recipe you'll ever need!

Easy Guacamole

2 Haas avocados

1/4 cup salsa or pico de gallo

1/2 - 1 teaspoon garlic salt, to taste

fresh ground pepper to taste

Cut the avocados open, take out the pit and then take out the flesh using a spoon. Place in a bowl and mash with a fork. Stir in salsa, garlic salt and pepper and taste. Check to see if it needs more salt or pepper. Serve and enjoy!

Tostones

Growing up with a mom that is half Puerto Rican and a dad this is part Scottish, we ate lots of different kinds of foods. Puerto Rican foods being my all time favorite! I love a good bowl of rice and beans or some arroz con gandules. Yum! There isn't any better kind of comfort food to me! And whenever we ate Puerto Rican foods you could always find these fried plantains or tostones on the table! Actually they never made it to the table because we'd be standing by the stove waiting for them to be done so that we could grab some off the plate when they were nice and hot! Just one of my many childhood memories, that inevitably had something to do with food. When I was a kid, my mom would make fried plantains like this, or she would shred the plantains and then fry them in little piles, they kind of resembled a fried little haystack or a spider. But, I like my tostones like this the best. This isn't really a recipe, but more of a technique. I hope that you make these, your family will love them!

Puerto Rican Tostones (Fried Plantains)

desired quantity of green plantains

vegetable oil for frying

garlic salt for seasoning

Make sure that when you buy the plantains that they are completely green, no yellow or brown. To peel the plantains cut off the ends with a knife and then cut a line from top to bottom only going through the peel. Then stick your finger under the peel and remove, this can be a little tough, just make sure that you get all of the peel off. Heat the oil for frying. Slice the plantains into big chunks, a little smaller than ½ an inch. Put a few plantains in the preheated oil and fry for about 2 minutes per side or until a nice golden color, continue until done frying all of them. Then once all of them have been fried once, smash the plantains by placing a plate over the plantains and pressing down, you can also use the smooth side of a meat tenderizer to do the job. Fry one more time until crispy and golden. Season with garlic salt and serve immediately. Enjoy.

This is what the plantains look like when you buy them, be sure to get the ones that are completely green, not yellow or brown. You can find them in the produce section of most grocery stores, next to the ethnic fruits, such as the mangoes and papayas. Out here in Idaho I can find them at Wal Mart and at Winco.