Creamy Turkey Salad Wraps

We had a turkey for Easter dinner. I know it sounds odd. But in order to accommodate our budget I bought the turkey after Thanksgiving for $.25/lb. And then I saved it in the freezer until Easter.

The other cool thing about having turkey for Easter dinner is...I didn't feel inclined to share it with guests. I typically love to have dinner parties and invite friends to join our holiday feasts, but 1. I'd just done that the Friday before and 2. nobody really wants turkey for Easter dinner. Right?

So when our family of four finished getting our fill of a nearly 13 pound bird, I got to work de-boning and shredding. The result? 10 more meals worth of meat. $.25/lb x 13 lbs = $3.25/11=$.30 a meal. Not bad.

I froze most of it, but a small portion was left out for use this week. Everyone knows about the infamous Thanksgiving turkey leftovers...well, I asked my ever-so-wise and experienced mother for recipes. She had a plethora. To narrow it down, I specifically asked for picnic applications, and this is what I got. It was delicious!

Creamy Turkey Salad Wraps

1/2 lb. turkey, cooked and shredded

1 hard boiled egg, chopped

2-3 whole dill pickles, chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped onion (quite strong; we like onion)

2 T mayo

1 tsp. mustard

2 T dill pickle juice

salt and pepper to taste

whole wheat tortillas

Mix it all together in a small bowl and serve wrapped in tortillas. Best if served cold. This made enough for dinner last night and lunch today. (5 wraps)

Dinner Menus

Last Friday we threw an Easter Egg Hunt and dinner party at our house. I was really pleased with the results because we fed 30 people and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids all for $50. But, it's making it tough to stick to my budget this month! And I decided to start potty training my toddler, so that makes it even trickier--it's already cost me $20!

Anyway, in an effort to really stick with it, I'm making a plan. Mostly, it's a dinner plan, but if I already know I have what we need for dinner, the rest I can do easily with what we have on hand.

This Week

M: Penne pasta w/marinara and Parmesan, peas, canned peaches

T: Split Pea Soup and leftover rolls from Easter dinner

W: (Geo Caching night!) turkey wraps and dried fruit, "pigs in blankets" for a snack when we got home

Th: Creole Red Beans and Rice

F: Tuna Casserole, broccoli--make one for the freezer, too

Sa: hamburgers, potato salad

Su: spinach and ricotta pasta

Next Week

M: Beef Dumpling Stew

T: Spanish Rice Bake

W: Salmon Burgers, fries

Th: Chicken Cacciatore, green beans

F: Coconut Chicken Fingers, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Sa: Pizza

Su: Vegetable Lasagna, salad, French bread

Homemade Graham Crackers--I Already Love These!

Photography from MarthaStewart.com

I found the recipe on Martha Stewart's website. I didn't change the ingredients, but I took shortcuts where I could on the instructions. We haven't tried them yet, but there are some in the oven right now!

Deliciously Irish

I put my Irish heritage to work last night and served cabbage stew for dinner. This is what it had in it:

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1/4 head cabbage, chopped

2 potatoes, chopped

1/2 cup ham, chopped

seasoning salt

paprika

Sautee onions in a couple tablespoons butter. Add cabbage and cover with water. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add potatoes and more water if needed, season with seasoning salt and paprika, cover and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in ham and cook until potatoes are done.

We served ours over mashed potatoes, which turned out well for two reasons: the stew was a little salty, so it helped tone it down a bit, and it made it go around a bit more--we were hungry! Even our two-year-old gobbled it up.

Cost of dinner: about 5o cents.

Sunday Dinner

No pictures today, but our dinner was scrumptious so I had to share. It was probably the most expensive meal of the week, but it still didn't exceed $5.00 for the whole family. The menu?

Barbecue Beef Sandwiches-made with a roast I got on sale last week and homemade hamburger buns I pulled out of the freezer.

Sweet Cole Slaw-made with your basic slaw ingredients, but I grated my own cabbage and carrot for a fraction of an already cheap cost. Since these veggies are in season, this was super cheap!

Homemade Baked Beans-made with excess sauce I spooned out of the crock pot from the beef and some already-cooked-beans I had in the freezer.

Freshly Squeezed Lemonade-made from lemons picked out of my in-laws' backyard! You can't beat free.

To top it off, there was enough leftover beef to store for TWO future meals! Of course I'll need sides to accompany those meals again, but it's so wonderful to get three dinners for the work put in to one!

Dessert from Pantry Staples

Most people get a hankering for dessert every now and then. Since our dinner last night was...less than impressive...our stomachs were calling for reinforcements only a couple hours later. So I peeked into the pantry to see what we had, and this is what I saw:

Doesn't that just speak, "No-bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Drops" to you? (No-bake Cookies, Mountain Bars, whatever you call them) I used my mother-in-law's recipe because it's my husband's favorite for this reason: they set up at room temperature and he can eat them sooner! I always make one alteration: an additional cup of oats.

1/2 cup milk

2 T cocoa powder

2 cups sugar

2 T butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup peanut butter

3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

Combine sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to boil, boil 1 minute, then remove from heat. Off heat, add peanut butter, vanilla and salt. Stir until well blended. Mix in oats one cup at a time. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool.

Eggs-ellent Creations: Hash Brown Quiche

Still working from what we had on hand this week, I cooked up a pretty simple dinner the other night that ended up being pretty tasty. No real recipe here, because you can use whatever sounds like a yummy combination, or what's available in the kitchen. I started by grating potatoes and adding them with a little butter into the bottom of a pie plate. I baked it at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes to allow the hash browns to crisp a little, then took it out and dumped in my fillings: cheese, ham and onions.

Then I beat a few eggs with salt and pepper and poured it over the top, returned it to the oven and baked at 350 for about a half an hour. We ate ours with homemade biscuits, since this dish by itself wasn't enough to be filling!