secretoslp

It's hard to imagine buying from a grocery shelf when you can make your own scrumptious Sweet and Sour Sauce at home. Sweet and Sour Sauce is a wonderful combination of sweet and acidic ingredients that blend to well together to create a sweet and sour taste. With basic pantry ingredients you can whip up the sauce right in your own home. Read more »

Fragrant and aromatic smells crisscrossed throughout my downstairs and I could not wait to dive into this Roasted Vegetable Medley! I am a firm believer in using what you have available to create something new. My last trip out to the store I picked up asparagus on sale and some red potatoes thinking I would use the red potatoes in a potato salad to eventually go along side some pork ribs. This morning I was inspired to create a side dish for the dinner we are having tonight ~ Shake 'n Bakish Style Pork Chops . If you can't tell already by the many pork recipes here at Cooking On A Budget, we love pork! Pork fits into our particular grocery budget is another reason why I cook with it so often. Read more »

I am so pleased that I chose Turkey Shepherds Pie with Fresh Herbs as one of the posts to revamp. To check out the post, just follow this link . At $1.58 per serving - this delicious dinner is such a great meal for the family. It's easy, very budget-friendly and a recipe you'll want to make over and over again!

Some of my best recipes for family dinners have received a much needed face lift. In keeping with my theme of the last couple of months to clean up my blog I have made a concerted effort to go back through recipes already posted - some from as early as 2012 and give them a much needed face lift. By that I mean re-making and double checking the actual recipe and instructions, updating the text and respectively the costs and photographs. Read more »

For the beginning, intermediate and even seasoned cooks I present potato basics. Have you tried making a potato gratin only to have it end up watery and lacking flavor? Are you ever stumped on just how many potatoes to peel to feed 4 or 6 or more people? What makes up a great twice baked potato and what's the best way to do them. I have the answers for you. Read more »

Soft and chewy in the center with a bit of a snap on the outside, these Big Daddy Chocolate Cookies will cure your need for some chocolate. My husband requires chocolate to be present in his life. Every. Single. Day. Generally he snacks on ice cream sandwiches, but he'll devour chocolate in any form. The easiest way for me to cure his chocolate fix (and the least expensive) is to whip together a cake mix and make some cupcakes if his supply of ice cream is running low. It's either that, or some cake box cookies. Read more »

  We will eat well this week and the blog will get some much needed make overs too! 3 Dinners and a total of 4 Posts will be made over based on my frugal shopping trip to the grocery store and the fact that new photographs are really needed! We love these dinners and why I did not decide to make them over sooner is beyond me. Read more »

Easy as one, two, three - a no fuss s low c ooker recipe. Freaky Friday is where a number of bloggers secretly get assigned another persons blog and are asked to replicate a recipe that catches their eye. I was given Lisa's Dinnertime Dish and as I was looking through all of the recipes, these Slow Cooker Baked Beans caught my eye. It caught my eye for a few reasons. First, it's as simple as all get out ~ all the ingredients cook in the crock pot and I had all the ingredients on hand. I picked the recipe because of her describing how she made these for a Memorial Day weekend where she would be gathering with family at their cabin in Northern Minnesota. I love family gatherings, love the fact they have a cabin and love that food is the center of their weekend getaways. It would be mine too if we had a place like that. Read more »

W HO is your favorite celebrity chef? I came up with a list of ten celebrity chefs that I admire greatly for their work and for how they have inspired me over the years.  I have to give credit where credit is due and the celebrity chef who inspired me to want to do more in the kitchen believe it or not was Emeril Lagasse. When I first watched a very early show of his on the Food Network I was rather transfixed and hooked from the moment he spoke. He wasn't eloquent and his use of the English language wasn't polished at all ~ he was just a regular guy in front of a camera cooking. And he was freaking hilarious at times. I was drawn in by his Fall River Massachusetts accent and his conveyance of the fact that what and how he was cooking, "wasn't rocket science". Therefore he made my list. Gordan Ramsay has captured me completely and utterly. I think he's one of the best chef's in the world and I love that his high standards, not only for the food but for cle