food for friday

You want to see what I've been working on for the last several weeks?


In an effort to keep our meals interesting while working in a tight budget*, I decided it would be smart to make my recipe collection more user-friendly. This required a major overhaul of the dinner (and, of course, dessert) ideas I'd been gathering since I was a teenager. When I began, my recipe box was a mess, with countless duplicates, meals I couldn't remember if I'd tried/liked, recipes I'd clipped from heaven knows where. The collection seriously needed to be weeded out and, essentially, completely replanted.

First I sorted the recipes into three piles: tried and true, wanted to try, and pretty sure I'd never try. I set the third group aside and focused on the daunting task of re-copying almost every single other recipe. I chose to do this because I figured that if I was going to totally re-do my collection, I'd want it to look clean. This also gave me an opportunity to update recipes I'd altered. On the back of every main course dish that we'd tried, I listed several suggestions for sides. This way, when I'm planning out my meals, I can look at the card and get ideas of side dishes that go well with that particular main course, thus making meal planning and grocery shopping a little simpler. I also created a card listing no-recipe main/side dishes consisting of meals like canned soup and sandwiches and such which I can also consult as I plan out my meals.

The next task was to find a good way to organize it all in my box. After looking at every single one of my recipes, I sorted them into categories that I'd find useful. I purchased some small tab dividers which I attached to index cards and labeled them as follows:

• main dish
• chicken
• beef
• fish/pork
• pasta
• sandwich
• casseroles
• sides
• soup/salad
• breakfast
• appetizers
• beverages
• breads
• misc.
• cookies
• brownies/bars
• pies/cakes/frostings
• other desserts

I put the tried and true recipes at the front of each category and, just behind them, separated by a colored index card, the collection of those waiting to be tried.

My hope is that, come meal planning time, I can sit with my recipe box, thumb through the collection, and come up with ideas that are well-balanced, call for items that I already have in my pantry or can get on sale, and finally be able to work in some of the recipes I've been wanting to try for ages.

As an addition to this project, I am also going through my cookbooks and marking the recipes I'm interested in trying. Maybe someday I'll copy these ones onto index cards so that I can pare down my cookbook collection. I'm also interested in one day investing in some recipe software -- something that will allow me to search my own, tried and true recipe collection by ingredient. I know technology like this is available at a variety of recipe websites, but I'd like something that can sift though things my family is used to eating.

So it's been quite the project, but I've already been reaping the rewards. We have found several new meals this week that we've thoroughly enjoyed and we will most definitely prepare again. In fact, we liked a couple of them so much, that I've decided to share them with you here:

Chicken Fingers and Honey Mustard Sauce
(this one is super easy)

Chicken Fingers:
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs, crushed croutons, or Wheatsworth crackers
1 cup Parmesan cheese

Blend together and place in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish, pour a fair amount of oil (can use beaten egg). Dip 8-10 chicken tenders in oil, then in crumb mixture. Place on foil-lined sheet pan and bake 30 minutes at 350.

Honey Mustard Sauce:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/8 - 1/4 cup each honey and mustard, to taste

Blend together and serve with chicken fingers.

Suggested Sides: fresh fruit, green salad, mashed potatoes

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
(also super easy)

1 can (10.75 oz) Campbell's Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
1/2 soup can milk
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cups hot cooked corkscrew or medium shell macaroni (about 1.5 cups uncooked)
1 tbsp dry bread crumbs
2 tsp margarine or butter, melted

In a 1-quart casserole dish, mix soup, milk, pepper, and macaroni. Mix bread crumbs with margarine and sprinkle over macaroni mixture. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until hot. (To double recipe, double all ingredients, except increase margarine to 1 tbsp, use 2-quart casserole dish, and increase baking time to 25 minutes.)

Suggested Sides: cooked vegetable, green salad

Do enjoy!


*Our food budget, by the way, was raised in April to $175/month. $150/month was great to try and served as a fantastic kick in the pants to be more budget conscious, but it soon became clear that it wasn't a realistic goal for every month. We're still keeping it tight, though.