Frugal Fridays - Fourth of July!

Today was neat, since not only is it the Fourth of July, but it's also Friday, which means I got to plan a Frugal Fridays meal. This is pretty much what we would have eaten anyway, but it's fun to go through the ingredients and see exactly how much this meal cost us.

Once again (unplanned) we ended up making a meal with chicken, a salad, and a starch. Tonight we tried to keep the heat out of the kitchen, because today was HOT! Our meal featured: Grilled Lemon Chicken, a deliciously marinated main dish; Tangy Potato Salad, using microwaved potatoes and cheese instead of boiled eggs; and Dinner Rolls made from bread machine French bread dough, left over from lunch today (the heat the oven created when we made these this afternoon is the biggest reason we decided not to heat up the kitchen this evening).


Prices of ingredients, in order of appearance:
Lemon juice - 1/4 cup + 1 tsp. - $0.21
Chicken leg quarters - 1 lb. - $0.50
Potatoes - 3 - $0.40
Celery - 2 stalks - $0.20
Monterey jack - 2 oz. - $0.60
Mayonnaise - 1/2 cup - $0.22
Flour - 3 1/2 cups - $0.45
Yeast - 1 tbsp. - $0.20

Total Price - $2.78, but some of that shouldn't really count. We only ate four rolls tonight, but the recipe makes 12 and some were consumed earlier today for lunch. Even so, definitely under $10!

When you buy yeast in bulk (such as at WinCo), it is so very much cheaper than buying it in a jar, or (gag) in those dumb little packets. I don't recall the exact price per ounce that we got, but it was less than 20 cents. So I'm probably overestimating to say that our tablespoon of yeast (just over one ounce) cost that much.

Grilled Lemon Chicken

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. onion salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 chicken pieces (we used 2 leg quarters, separated)

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken. Place chicken in quart-sized ziploc bag, pour marinade over the chicken. Refrigerate at least 3 hours, turning bag over every so often to make sure all the chicken gets marinated.

Grill chicken over medium coals for 45 minutes, turning and basting frequently.

Tangy Potato Salad

3 medium potatoes
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 oz. Monterey jack cheese, diced
1/3 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp. mustard
1 tbsp. dill relish
Salt and pepper to taste

In order to keep from heating up the kitchen, I microwave-cooked the potatoes. I think this would have turned out with a better texture had I boiled them. So cut the potatoes into chunks and boil them until done. Drain and cool. Add celery and cheese.

In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients, then fold gently into potato mixture. Chill until serving. Garnish with some paprika if desired.

French Bread Rolls

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. active dry yeast

Place ingredients in bread pan of bread machine in order recommended by manufacturer. Set machine to dough cycle, or remove after first rise.

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Divide into 12 pieces. Shape each rolls. Place on greased baking sheet, cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size.

Bake at 400 degrees 15 to 20 minutes or until done.

Celebrating 100 Posts and Father's Day

This is my 100th post. Hooray. Just thought I'd mention it.

Since my gift for Jeff for Father's Day was a new charcoal grill, we figured it would be appropriate to celebrate the day with some grilled burgers. I thawed out some ground turkey, wedged up some potatoes, baked up a loaf of focaccia, and we created a great meal together!


Onion-Swiss Turkey Burgers
1 pound ground turkey
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 tsp. soy sauce
2-3 tbsp. water
Dash pepper
Sliced Swiss cheese

Combine all ingredients except cheese. Shape into patties (four to six, depending on how big you want 'em. We did six). Set aside in refrigerator.

Heat grill to high heat. Grease cooking grid. Place patties on grill and cook 10 minutes. Turn patties over and place one slice Swiss over each patty. Cook ten more minutes or until cooked through. Serve on buns with favorite burger condiments.


Yeastless Focaccia Bread (I know I just posted this, but I'll post it again for kicks and giggles.)
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Stir together water, flour, baking powder, and salt until it forms a ball of dough.

Plop dough into greased baking pan. Using oiled fingers, spread dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Dough will be sticky and elastic. It does not have to be perfectly even, but make sure there are no holes. Rub the top and sides of dough with olive oil.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until just golden.

To serve with burgers, cut into squares. Slice squares horizontally.

This bread seriously rocks. It is awesome. It took me exactly five minutes to measure the ingredients, stir it into a dough, plop it in the pan, and spread it out. Plus 25 minutes to bake, and you've got yourself a 30 minute little loaf of bread. Sweet!


Baked French Fries (Does that make them French Bakes?)
3 small baking potatoes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

Preheat oven to 450. Grease baking dish.

Cut potatoes into thick wedges. Toss potato wedges with oil and seasonings. Arrange in single layer in greased baking dish.

Bake 30-45 minutes, turning halfway through. The thinner your wedges, the shorter the cooking time, and if they're pretty thin you might also want to lower the temperature a bit too.

Here's our new little grill, cooking its inaugural batch of burgers. It did a great job. I think this was the start of a beautiful thing.