Barbeque Ranch Chicken Salad

Our favorite place to get a good salad is Panera Bread. Jessica’s favorite salad to get is the BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad. This is our attempt at making the salad, and we’ve got to say- it tastes exactly like the one from Panera. Plus, we pay around $8.00 for the salad at Panera, but we paid a total of $10.70 to make this salad (which serves 4), and you only have to use half of the cilantro and avocado. Loving this recipe.

What you’ll need:

Mixed Romaine Salad- $3.00-Walmart

Cilantro- $.65c-Walmart

Tomatoes- $.60c-Walmart

Avocado- $.75c-Walmart

Ranch Dressing- $1.50-Walmart

BBQ Sauce- $2.00-Kroger

Santa Fe Tortilla Strips- $1.00-Kroger

Black Beans- $.60c-Walmart

Corn- $.60c-Walmart

 Price per person: $2.67

Directions:

1.) Cook chicken with salt and pepper. Cut into strips.

2.) Cut up tomatoes, cilantro, and avocado.

3.) Open and drain cans of corn and black beans.

4.) Cook corn in skillet until hot.

5.) Mix 1/2 cup of bbq sauce and 1/2 cup of ranch for dressing.

6.) Combine salad, tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, black beans, and corn.

7.) Top salad with tortilla strips and bbq/ranch dressing.

8.) Serve. :)

We love this salad just as much as we love it at Panera- only this time, we'll be saving a lot of money.

Stay class fellow food lovers,

J&T

Baked Tilapia & Veggies

Hello!
Tonight's dinner was just great, and now it's time to share our recipe with you. When we first started dating, all we did was cook together. Jess was living in the dorms, and Tim was off-campus so needless to say- she came over a ton for anything that wasn't cafeteria food. This Baked Tilapia & Veggies recipe- we actually put together ourselves. We both love fish, vegetables, rice, and cheese sooo why not combine them all together? We thought it was a good idea, and we're sure you will too.

What you'll need:

Frozen Tilapia Filets- $2.00

2 cups of any kind of vegetables you want- $2.00

((We used squash, zucchini, carrots, green pepper, and orange tomatoes))

2 cups of cooked rice- $1.00

Lemon Juice- $1.00-for a big bottle

Salt & Pepper

Parmesan or Mozzarella Cheese(optional)

Total Price: $6.00. Makes 4 servings.

Per Person: $1.50

Directions:

1.) Thaw frozen tilapia filets and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.) Start cooking the rice according to directions on package.

3.) Chop vegetables and set aside.

4.) Lay out about two 1.5'-2' of tin foil and spoon half of rice on each. Place fish on top.

5.) Put half of the vegetables on top of each and sprinkle salt, pepper and lemon juice.

6.) Fold foil over and make into packages. Poke holes in the foil with a fork and place in the oven.

7.) Bake on 350 for 30-35 minutes.

8.) (optional) Open package put mozzarella cheese on top and bake until cheese melted.

9.) Enjoy :)

{Tip: If you buy your tilapia filets @ Food Lion, sometimes they have their tilapia filets for buy one, get one!}

Stay classy fellow food lovers,

J&T

Creamy Italian Chicken & Orzo

Ciao!
Tonight we decided to do Italian- our favorite type of food. Who doesn't love a good pasta? Pasta is always a cheap route to go with meals, and you can buy the noodles in bulk! This particular dish is called Creamy Italian Chicken & Orzo Skillet. It fills you up real quick, and you'll probably have plenty of leftovers for later. :)

What you'll need:

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces-$2.50

1 small zucchini, chopped-$1.00

1 tub of Philadelphia Italian Cheese & Herb Cooking Creme-$2.25
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes-$1.00
2 cups of cooked orzo pasta-$1.00
Total Cost: $7.75 (You'll easily serve 4 people if not more out of this.)
Just so you can see the amazing deal on this cheap meal. Price per person is 1.93. Whoo!

**An optional part of this meal is Sister Schuber's Yeast Rolls. They are soooo good!**

Directions:
1.) Take out your cutting board and begin to chop up the tomatoes and zucchini.

2.) Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.

3.) Begin cooking the Orzo pasta.
4.) Add a quarter size amount of oil to a nonstick skillet. Begin to cook the chicken and zucchini on medium heat 6-7 minutes or until chicken is done.

5.) Add the Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking cream & chopped tomatoes into the skillet.
6.) Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

7.) Serve the chicken, zucchini, creme, and tomatoes over the pasta.

Prep time: 15 minutes. Total Time: 25 minutes. 

This recipe is great- especially when you have guests over! We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.

Stay classy fellow food lovers,

J&T

5 Minute Chicken Quesadilla

Hola!

It’s time to talk about quick & cheap lunches. Tim works at Liberty University which is only a mile from our house, and he gets an hour lunch break. I always like to have him a little something ready for him when he gets home, but for a while I wasn’t sure what I could make that was quick and easy until I discovered these Chicken Quesadillas! They take 5 minutes to make and fill us up completely. We always buy the ingredients for these in our grocery store visits, and we get about 15 quesadillas out of them every time! 

What you’ll need:

Flour tortillas (We use the fajita size.)-Great Value brand-$1.30

Shredded Cheese-Great Value brand-$1.25

Sour Cream- Great Value brand-$1.25

Banana Peppers-look for the best deal. We paid $2.00

Chipotle Tabasco sauce (possibly the best ingredient)-$1.50

Tyson Premium Chunk White Chicken (In the Tuna aisle)-$2.00

$9.30 for 15 quesadillas? Yes, please!

That's .69c a quesadilla!

Directions:

1.)    Lay out a flour tortilla and put two spoonfuls of Tyson’s chicken on top.

2.)    Place desired amount of cheese, sour cream, banana peppers, and tabasco sauce on the tortilla.

3.)    Pour a quarter-size amount of oil on a skillet. Place stove top heat on medium.

4.)    Begin to cook the quesadilla until the bottom is brown.

5.)    Place another tortilla shell on the top of the other and flip to brown the other side.

Seriously, how easy was that? It’s so good! Hope you enjoy this quick and easy lunch meal. We always do!

Stay classy fellow food lovers,

J&T

{Good tip: If you want to make these quesadillas for a group of people, impress your friends with how great you can make it look. Cut the quesadillas up, line up in a circle, and add a little avocado & cilantro in the middle.}

Asian-Braised Pork with Cucumber Salad

I can't even look at the title of this post without drooling a little. 

Seriously, this is our first post on our new blog about great food, and we couldn't think of a better way to start it off than this recipe.
Now- a large part of this blog is about finding good & inexpensive food, and we promise you- that's exactly what you'll get.
We will post how much each meal cost us to make as well as where we got all the ingredients. We'll post pictures of these meals- cause we are making every single one of them as we go. A big part of this is finding recipes to cook for two (since we are always stuck with leftovers, we want to expand our use of the food that we do make without always making the dreaded  leftovers.) Our first recipe we are posting is actually a Crock Pot meal. We bought our crock pot @ Bed Bath & Beyond for 30$! And we've definitely got tons of use out of it.
I'm done with going on....now onto the good stuff...the recipe :)

**Before you go on to count the items needed in this recipe, note that many of the ingredients are things that you probably have in your spice cabinets already. Also, the things you need to make this dish are reusable in a number of other recipes thus bringing the overall cost down (the other recipes will be posted later in the week). Think ahead & plan ahead for your meals- possibly the most important thing for budget grocery shopping.**

What you'll need:

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (regular soy sauce works fine)

Salt & pepper to taste

1/4 cup of brown sugar (for pork)

1 tbsp. of brown sugar (for cucumber salad)

2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into pieces

1/4 tsp. ground ginger-optional

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

1 cup of white rice

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 cucumber, thinly sliced into half moons

1/4 cup of a sweet onion thinly sliced

Directions:

1.) Combine soy sauce, red pepper, salt/pepper, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, in a crock pot or slow cooker and coat the trimmed & cut pork pieces.

2.) Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours (times may vary depending on cooker)

3.) About 30 minutes before finished start cooking the rice according to the package
4.) Whisk together rice vinegar, tbsp of brown sugar, ginger, salt and pepper, put in sliced cucumber and onion.
5.) Serve pork over rice and cucumber salad on the side.

Pictures of our meals and steps..with tips!

 Make sure to slice the cucumbers really thin!

 SO good :)

Stay classy, fellow food lovers!
-J&T

{All ingredients bought at Walmart & Kroger for best deals. Total for this meal (including all the spices used was 18$). That might seem a little expensive, but remember, you'll be able to use all these spices again in later meals thus bringing the overall cost down. Besides all that, we used about 1/2 of the pork for this meal and are saving the rest of the pork for a meal later in the week. The pork was 8$ at Walmart, and you'll get 2-3 meals out of it! Great deal!}