Potato Salad

This is a great side dish served warm or chilled. Easy to make and improvise with whatever you have in your pantry. I like it as an addition to a meal that need just that one more thing to make it stretch. Enjoy!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Serves:10-12
Cost: approx. $1.50

4 large potatoes peeled and diced ($1.00)
1 stalk celery finely diced
1/4 onion finely diced
2 hard boiled eggs diced ($.25)
4 slices bacon finely chopped ($.25)
1/4 cup mayonnaise

Place potatoes in boiling water and cook until tender. Drain potatoes. Add celery, onions, eggs and bacon and mash coarsely. Add mayonnaise and combined well.

Possible additions: cheese, green onion, ham....

This recipe and many others are featured at The Grocery Cart Challenge's Recipe Swap.

Oven baked ranch chicken strips

I find it really hard to pass up fresh chicken breast when it's on sale. A few weeks ago Tyson hormone free chicken was priced at $1.77 a pound. You bet I snagged a bunch of that and put some away in the freezer! It's a treat to actually have a piece of meat that isn't diced and cut up at our house, but I still make this meat stretch by cutting it in strips. Less waste and it cooks a lot faster, too.


Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20-30 minutes
Servings: vary
Cost: for breading only approx $1.00


Chicken breast cut into strips (varies)
1/2 cup butter melted ($.50)
2 cups bread crumbs ($.25)
1 package of ranch seasoning mix ($.50)

Dip chicken breasts in melted butter and then coat with a mixture of the bread crumbs and seasoning. Bake immediately at 350 degrees on a greased cookie sheet until meat is no longer pink (25-30 minutes).

To freeze: Place coated chicken strips on a cookie sheet and place into freezer until meat is solid. Transfer to a freezer bag. When ready to cook take frozen meat and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.

*When frozen individually like this it's easy to pull out a few strips at a time for salads**

Strawberry Shortcake

We needed a little taste of summer on this cold February day. I found this recipe in an old church cookbook and it is by far THE BEST shortcake recipe I have ever tasted. Not too sweet, not too bland, very moist and fluffy. Some of the kids said they would even choose it over chocolate cake!!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time 12-15 minutes
Serves: 9-12 (depending on how generous you want to be)
Cost: Approx. $3.50

4 cups strawberries cut ($3.00)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 cups flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter melted ($.50)
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combined all dry ingredients. Blend in butter. Add milk and vanilla and mix well. Place in two small greased cake pans. Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes. When cakes are cooled serve layered with strawberries and whipped cream.