$5 Dinners

My friend Erin's new cookbook has just been released! It was featured on Good Morning America this morning. Woo-hoo!

(Click below to view the GMA segment with cutie-patootie George Stephanopoulos.)

The Best Cookbooks of 2009

You can order your own through Amazon, or go to her website where she's also doing a great giveaway of ten of her cookbooks every day for the next two weeks!

I ordered a few copies myself from Amazon. Unfortunately, they didn't get here in time for her signing party she hosted this evening. But don't worry -- I know where she lives. And as soon as they come in I'll be getting them personalized and mailed to a few lucky recipients of my own... ;)

I made a healthy meal for $2.25. And the whole family ate it.

My friend Erin started a website last summer to help herself prepare frugal dinners for her family -- she used the blog to motivate herself and to hold herself accountable. A math teacher by trade, she enjoyed talking with her husband at dinnertime and breaking down the cost of what they were eating. (I could so totally relate. Um, not.)

What she didn't count on was how quickly her site would attract readers and take off into the blogosphere like a rocket ship. I've lost count of how many interviews she's given, how many times she's been featured on the local news station... My mother-in-law lives in San Antonio, Erin's hometown, and she recently saw a feature mentioning her blog. "Hey," she wrote to me, "Is $5Dinners your friend's blog you've talked about?" (Why yes, it is, Becky -- did I ever get around to emailing you back to tell you that?)

I am not a math teacher by trade. I could no sooner break down how much a dinner cost off the top of my head than I could stand up and sweep the tablecloth off the table without crashing all the dishes to the floor. But you know how they say be careful about the company you keep ... they might rub off on you and all that. The other day I found myself exclaiming to Erin what a cheap and delicious meal I had prepared for my family and how everyone loved it!

I'd say that I'm not sure what's more exciting about that statement -- the cheapness or everyone loving it -- except that I really don't concern myself too much with everybody in my family liking what I make: I figure I've done my job just by putting it in front of them on the table. "You can lead a horse to water," and all that.

But it really is a bonus when everyone likes what you made and asks for more and it totally helps the budget. Especially in these trying times and all. (Anyone want to rent a cute little house in Vegas?) Because, honestly? I've attempted meals that even I don't like, and that's a bummer.

The last time I made a meal using raw beans, for instance. Blech. I was turned off of this amazing cheap ingredient for ... well, for quite a while. Until recently, I decided to give them another go. Black-eyed peas, to be exact. (Are they of the bean family?)

Black Eyed Peas and Sausage over Rice

16 ounces dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and sorted
1 medium onion, diced
1 sausage link, cut into pieces
3 or more cloves of garlic (can you have too much?)
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
black pepper to taste

Presoak peas as directed. (I soaked them all night, at least 12 hours.) Drain the water from the peas and place peas in a crockpot. Add all other ingredients, plus enough water to cover. Stir well. Cover and cook on low setting 8-10 hours. Serve over rice.
Approximate cost: $4.25

I won't try to break down each individual ingredient; but I do know the beans were about $1.50 and the sausage was about $2.00 (with a coupon). But the thing is? This was two meals for four people. I won't even count Sean-Peter, who wouldn't touch a single bite the first time we had it. (We're working on that.) The second go-around he had two helpings (eating one. thing. at. a time). Everyone else ate their fill the first time -- John had two heaping plates -- and several days later again when we had it as leftovers (I did make fresh rice). And there's still some leftover that I will finish off myself in a couple of lunches.

Total cost for one meal serving four people ~ $2.25.

John has already asked for it again, but I told him, sorry, I've got some recipe using pinto beans lined up first. Stay tuned and I might let you know if that one's a hit, too.

Recent Images (and their stories, too)

I found an apraxia playgroup online a few months ago, back when I was still scratching my head trying to figure out what apraxia even was, other than this affliction that had its grip on my son's speech.

Erin was the brain behind the playgroup. She did what I did: googled her little heart away trying to figure out her son ... only she didn't find the local support group she thought should be there. So she started one! She has been so instrumental in helping me to find my way on this journey -- except when she starts using really big words and then my brain starts to cramp and my eyes roll in the back of my head. She's really, really smart.

And she's had to be, because it ends up, as it often can, that apraxia isn't really what's going on with her son after all. I won't even try to explain the journey that she has been on with her son, where the most recent development has been to determine that the lesion on his brain is not a tumor. Yea.

Thing is, her faith is even stronger than her intellect. Visit her blog and you'll see what I mean. I'm sure she won't mind. And she plays awesome music on it, too.

Yea, she rocks. And so does this photo of her and her son, doesn't it?

I knew I had a winner the instant that shutter snapped. Do digital cameras have shutters? Whatever.
Sean-Peter and Ryan are really becoming quite the buddies, too. Although they aren't around each other as much as Ryan and Olivia get to be, since Erin saves my life almost every week when she catches Olivia as I slow down and push her out the car door because we're always running late lets me drop Olivia off at her house during Sean-Peter's speech therapy sessions. I think Sean-Peter likes playing the helper with a littler guy for a change. You can almost hear him, "Watch your step."

Yes, they are hot and sweaty. Glory Be and Hallelujah the rains have stopped and the floods have come down. Summer is here!See? I love this photo, too. It's all in the lighting, I tell you. Especially with my camera. It needs all the help it can get.

And here's Olivia with her shy face on, getting ready for her dance recital. (And in bad lighting, see?) It was crazy in that place, and more and more in these social situations she is showing her self-consciousness...
...but it rarely lasts long.

This is the girl, after all, who I overheard declaring, to no one in particular, "Finally I'm finished with my dance class so now I can go on the dance stage."
Don't you just want to gobble them up?

Here she is with her mom post-performance. I'm the shiny one. I would show you what she looked like on stage, but my camera doesn't do stages. Suffice it to say, she loved it as much as she thought she would. I might need a new camera...

At this point I would like to include a picture of Conner getting ready to take off for his week-long scouting trip. But I forgot my camera. So just pretend there's a photo of him, say, giving me the thumb's-up sign because he finally found a seat on the bus. On that chaotic testosterone-filled bus with boys and young men off to prove their manhood. Or at least survive a week in the wilds of Indiana without getting too homesick.

Speaking of wild.
"Me strong!!"

He wasn't really saying that here, but he does like to say it a lot. The "str" blend isn't spot-on, but it's developmentally appropriate. Needless to say, I am well overdue on a post updating the explosion of his "spontaneous language". It's so remarkable I don't even care that it's rarely grammatically correct. I have a theory that he's been speaking grammatically incorrect sentences for so long when we couldn't understand him that now it's just going to take that much longer to correct them. It's just a theory. But now when I try to correct him to say I instead of Me, for instance, he just looks at me funny and then can't remember what he was going to say next. So I let it go. Keep the sentences coming, buddy.

His expression for "Olivia" has also evolved, as Olivia is demonstrating here. "Look, mom, this is how Sean-Peter says my name now!" Indeed. As his usual Ow-wah has become Oh-ee-ee-uh, virtually overnight.
Remember these letters? YES, THEY WILL GET ON HER WALL. Alas, her room is still a work in progress. They're kind of fun to play around with around the house, though.

But back to this.

"Two-fisting it." He didn't really say that, either. But he could have, if he weren't so intent on cleaning them up. This distraction made it possible for Chef Oh-ee-ee-uh to finalize the cookie dough batter with the chocolate chunks. One. at. a. time.

Because they taste better that way, don't you know, when you put them in just so.

I finally had to set the timer and cut her off. I wasn't getting any younger.

And these cookies are awesome. I remember having them not too, too long ago at my sister Carmen's house. When I asked her which recipe she used she told me it was mom's. When I asked mom about the recipe she told me it was one of Carmen's.

This is pretty typical communication that goes on with my family.

Regardless, I do encourage you to make some of your own. Be sure and don your chef's hat and add the chocolates one. piece. at. a. time.

Carmen's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (because the mom's always right):

cream together:
2 c. margarine (or 1 c. margarine, 1 c. shortening)
2 c. sugar
2 c. brown sugar

add:
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

mix together:
4 c. flour
5 c. oatmeal (mix small amounts at a time)
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda

mix together all ingredients and add chocolate chips/chunks

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.