EASY Healthy Homemade on a Small Budget | Fridge Clean Out Recipes | Realistic Nutritious Meals

hey welcome back thank you so much for joining me I have a lot of stuff in my pantry and fridge that are just odds and ends and leftovers and things I need to use up before I go on a full shopping trip so today I'm just going to be picking up a few things and I am making a special dinner for a birthday so we'll be picking up a few things I don't normally pick up but I want to just use up all the things that we have as much as possible so let's get to the store pick up a few things and I'll show you what I'm making here is my list I have hardly anything really to buy a lot of produce today I'm going to try to keep it under $40 so let's get started first thing I want to get is a pound of sharp cheddar for $3.79 I usually just get this one here and for snacks this week I'm going to grab one of these for $3.9 today they have a lot of chees is on sale right now I want to try this white cheddar cheese $22.19 we love to do shurer um a lot around the holidays so going to give this one a try I'm making taco salad tonight A lot of times I use ground turkey but tonight I want to use a lean ground beef and I see this 937 for $6.9 a pound so I think I'm going to look for a little package of this today and the 8020 is a lot cheaper at $4.99 a pound but I just find that it's just way too fatty for something like this for us usually and um we're celebrating a birthday so I really want it to be perfect so that's why I'm getting the more expensive stuff today so I'll get this one here for $615 we've been drinking a lot of orange juice lately so$ 329 for this one that I'll be getting today can't forget the milk I'm going to get a couple of our favorites here for 419 luckily they have it today I'm making some taco shell bowls and I like to use these large flower tortillas these are medium soft taco size so this should work well and they're $1.99 for a 10 count today on the Aldi Savers they have some really good deals on cucumbers they're 24 cents each so I think I'll get a couple of those today and I did notice they have a 5B bag of these yellow potatoes for $1.99 that's a really great deal we don't need it today though I still have potatoes left over and asparagus is $189 a pound as well I don't think I need any of that today and then apples are $1.99 for a 3B bag so I may get a bag of that as well I'm actually planning on making some vegetable sushi rolls and spring rolls and all kinds of things maybe salad so I'm going to get um maybe three cucumbers today actually next I'll get some iceberg lettuce just one head for $169 this one looks really good carrots are $159 for a 2 lb bag so I'll get one of those today carrots are the most underrated vegetable I'm telling you I'm going to go ahead and get a bunch of green onions for 84 cents I used a lot last week so I don't have a ton growing so I'm going to get one and don't forget when you cut off the white ends with the roots you can actually put these in water and they'll regrow within just a couple of days that's my little um Scrappy cooking tip for today cilantro is 89 cents a bunch so I'm just going to get one of those today too keep my cilantro in a jar of water in the fridge and it lasts about a month doing that now I need avocados they're 49 cents each then I'll get some roma tomatoes for 79 cents a pound and maybe a couple onions for 49 cents a pound oh and maybe a lime or two for 15 cents each probably never find avocados cheaper than at MDI at least not in California couple RMA tomatoes and a couple more avocados for good measure and I'm planning to make a homemade tomato sauce with all the tomatoes I have in the freezer and celery is a good um ingredient to add to my homemade sauce when I'm making um you know it from scratch I use carrots onions and celeries this is 97 cents I'll get one Bunch I'm at a l of words what do they call it onions carrot celery I don't remember the name there we go croutons always help my kids eat their salad so I'm going to go ahead and get these um cheese and garlic croutons for $1.29 these are really tasty I know they're not super healthy but if it gets them to eat their salad I'm a happy mama I feel like I went over budget let's go see what I'm paying today so this is everything I'm getting today the avocados sent me me over I'm at $434 this week the first dinner I'm making is that birthday dinner it is a taco salad I think I got it from a Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook years and years ago and first we're going to start by cutting the lettuce I like to prep that first and put it in the fridge so it gets nice and crispy I just like to get my aggressions out and whack the bottom of the lettuce on the counter but seriously it just loosens the core and then I can pull that out twist it out super easily and then I'm just going to slice it one way turn it and then slice it the other way to make nice 1 to 2 in pieces and that's the size that I usually cut it but you can actually do shredded lettuce that way too by just making it a lot thinner so it's up to you and I love this salad spinner it has been a total Game Changer because not only do I wash it in the colender then spin out all the water but I actually store my lettuce in the container with the lid on I just take the water out drain that out and then just put the entire colander back in and cover it with a lid and put it in the fridge and this keeps it nice and fresh and crispy and so perfect for about 5 days I think so I love it next I'm going to be making the taco bowls First grab an oven safe container like a bowl or a casserole dish and grease that really nicely with butter and put those tortillas on top and put a little bit of water just brush it all on and cover it completely with water and then use some foil balls to push it down make sure it doesn't get lifted in the oven we're just going to throw that in the oven at 350° for about 20 to 25 minutes they get really nice and crispy the kids devour these I make extra because they're just fun to have pretty much anything in I love them and next I'm going to Brown my ground beef you can use ground turkey that's actually my preference I usually like ground turkey for this dish but for the birthday we were kind of splurging so we did ground beef just Brown that really nicely and then add the minced garlic you can use as much garlic or as little garlic as you like if you don't have garlic use what you have on hand just some garlic powder would work perfectly fine too and then I'll just drain some of the grease out I just like to use a paper towel because it's easy but you can drain the grease any way that you like I just recommend not leaving it in there and just don't drain it down the disposal because it could clog up the disposal and just clog the sink and all that so next I'm adding a can of black beans and I added about 2 cups of frozen corn but you can just use a cup of frozen corn or just canned corn whatever works for you then a bunch of that taco sauce and a couple of tablespoons of chili powder this is really to taste I'm making a double recipe of the original because we like have leftovers but you can make your own taco sauce too the sky the limit you can just use tomato sauce and seasonings that works fine too next I'm going to smash my avocado just so it's easier to place on the bowls I use my fancy little tool here because it keeps me from getting injuries I did get an injury from using a knife so I don't use a knife to get the seed out of an avocado anymore that's just a little uh extra story for you another story for for later maybe then I add the lettuce into the taco bowls and add some diced green bell peppers diced tomatoes and green onions but you can can use any toppings that you like or you can omit any of these if you don't like them and of course you can use any lettuce that you like too or no lettuce whatever floats your boat then just add that taco mix on top and some shredded cheese that smashed avocado and that's it super easy so delicious I highly recommend giving this one a try this next recipe is a honey garlic chicken and I wanted to make it a little bit different this time it's in the instant pot and I wanted to put some vegetables in there so I grabbed some bell peppers out of the freezer I just freeze them just like like this fresh I don't cook them or anything I just throw them in the freezer and then I give them a little bit of a rinse and just let them sit on the end of The Cutting Board until I'm ready to slice them and they're perfectly thought out and ready by the time I get to them so first I'm just going to chop some onions I'm going to chop all the vegetables a little bit bigger than I normally do because I'm not sure how they're going to turn out in the instant pot I don't want them to overcook a ton so I just chop those onions and then mince up my garlic first I chop off the ends of the garlic and then smash the garli garlic it makes it a lot easier to peel that way then I start to chop my bell peppers I almost did it the old way but then I remembered old habits die hard so I just put that back up on its end then sliced it in quarters and then you end up with sort of a Christmas tree that's what Gordon Ramsey says when he teaches this method then again I'm chopping those bell peppers a little bit larger than I normally do because I don't want them to be too thin because then I just feel like they'd be really really um overcooked So I placed my chicken and it is partially frozen but you can use Raw chicken it'll work great in the instant pot just add more time if it's frozen then I add some water soy sauce brown sugar honey a little bit of sesame oil and all of that minced garlic I add a ton of garlic so it's really up to you you can use as much or as little as you like we're Garlic Lovers here so I tend to go really heavy-handed on the garlic then I'm going to top that with all my veggies and close that up and I'm going to put it on normal pressure for about 15 minutes and the key is to make sure that you let it natural release almost the entire way or the entire weight it's going to take like 20 minutes or so after it's all finished to Natural release just make sure it's 165 at least internally before you finish it up if it's not fully cooked through put it back in and you know put it on normal pressure for another 5 minutes or so then I'm going to remove everything out because I want the sauce to be a little bit thicker this time so I'm just going to add a little bit of a cornstarch slurry here just add you know a tablespoon or two of cornstarch to a couple tablespoons of water mix that up and then add it in and put this on sauté and just let it sauté for a few minutes till it gets nice and thick then I'm going to shred the chicken and add that chicken back in so it gets really nice and Saucy and very nice and moist and then just let that kind of simmer for a couple of minutes so we're ready to serve and just look how delicious I just made some rice on the side it's just jasmine rice topped it with everything plus some hot sauce and green onions and that's it for this one this next recipe is my absolute favorite way to use the bones and skin from a leftover turkey or chicken what I do is I just freeze that all and then when I'm ready I just pull it out of the freezer and put it in a very large stock pot and top it with with water partially cover that and just let it go for about 2 hours on a very low simmer then I'm going to remove the chicken bones or turkey bones and all the large pieces so that way they don't get in the way of actually straining everything out and then I carefully strain it into another large pot and then I start adding my seasonings and anything else I want to add to make the broth in this case I'm making a f because I'm kind of obsessed with F I add a half of a chopped onion and all that turkey that I had left over that was in the freezer I just threw that right in then I seasoned generously with salt added some ground ginger if you have fresh ginger that'll work too a little bit of sugar and then I actually had a tea diffuser that I put the rest of my cloves and Starin and black pepper um you know whole black pepper corns and so that way I didn't have to sift all that out plus one cinnamon stick I just let that go for about 20 minutes or so just so it wasn't overpowering with the flavors then then I just removed that it made it super easy they do sell reusable sachets but I just don't have one on hand I just have a tea diffuser so that worked great then I added a little bit of lemon juice and in the meantime I cooked some fa noodles and some ramen noodles and I just added that all to the bowl with some cilantro green onions in the broth oh my gosh next I decided to use the leftover chicken in my freezer to do a make your own pizza night you can make your own pizza dough or you can just get the pre-made pizza dough from Aldi for a little over a dollar which is what we did and I just froze it until we're ready to use it so I just flowered a surface really well and again I thaw that overnight um so that way it's nice and easy to work with cuz having it frozen obviously won't work then I cut it in about 2/3 and 1/3 and I just separated that 1/3 into two smaller pieces for the kids and rolled it really really thin just in my experience for the kids ones just using a tiny tiny bit of dough really works well and then for mine and my husband's I just rolled out that one very thin as thin as I could um it ended up being sort of of a heart shape but that's okay it can be rustic and just put your own touch on it you don't have to worry if it's a perfect circle or not it doesn't make a difference in The Taste then I just placed that on a baking sheet lined with foil just for easy cleanup whatever you have will work if you have a baking sheet that works fine I decided to go ahead and do a barbecue chicken pizza for mine and my husband's this time I did make some homemade pizza sauce for the kids so they could use that for their pizzas it's really easy just tomato sauce and some seasonings I'll list that in the description for you in case you want to see it it's super easy it only takes like 5 minutes to make so for our pizza with the barbecue chicken I just put any leftover barbecue sauce that I had on hand this is the honey barbecue sauce from Alie so I added as much as I could cuz there was only a little bit left spread that around and then added some mozzarella cheese on top and my leftover chicken that was sawed I did not heat it because I'm going to be putting in the oven anyway it was already cooked through so it didn't really matter and then I added some onions on top too we didn't have any red onions which is what I usually like to make with this but the sweet onion or yellow onions work really good for this I just diced them up chopped them up roughly then I added a little bit more barbecue sauce on top whatever was left then Bak that until it was fully cooked through nice and brown and melty and then topped it with some cilantro and you can put anything you want on top oh my gosh you've got to try this though so so good the barbecue chicken pizza absolutely delicious next for dinner I made a loaded sweet potato fries I make something like this very frequently it's one of my favorite ways to use sweet potatoes I had a ton of sweet potatoes on hand so I just slice them up in a fry shape however thick or thin is fine however you like it and then I tossed it with some avocado oil and salt and pepper I like to separate just some with salt and pepper for the kids just make sure that if you're making these you're really really generous with the oil that will help keeping it from sticking to the tray I don't like to use parchment or foil in this case I feel like it just sticks more when I do that so I just put it directly on the baking sheet now for me and my husband I always add chili powder just for a little bit of spice it adds a ton of flavor and then I just bake those at 425 de fhe for about 30 to 45 minutes I just toss it about halfway through to make sure everything Cooks evenly and then this time we only had some leftover chicken some grape tomatoes and Greek yogurt and hot sauce that's all we really used um I did have a jalapeno from the garden that I went ahead and picked and put on top too we normally use avocado and all kinds of other toppings but we didn't have anything else on hand and that's what I love about this dish though you can really make it your own with anything you have on hand so next I'm making a very easy spaghetti I had no idea what I was going to be doing with this I kind of just made it on the Fly I had some leftover diced onions from the previous night and so I just added those into a large pot with some oil just some olive oil just sauteed those until they were nice and soft and translucent then added a can of Hunts tomato sauce it's my favorite budget friendly tomato sauce and they have a ton of different flavors I add a little bit of water to the can to make sure I could get all the tomato sauce out and then I just let that simmer for a few minutes and I was kind of deciding if I wanted to add some cottage cheese or cream cheese I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I just put the cream cheese in this time I love adding cottage cheese anytime I want a lasagna sort of pasta dish but this time I just didn't feel like using it so I add a little bit of pasta water from the pasta I was cooking mixed it up till everything was melty then just added the spaghetti gave it a toss and served it as is the cream cheese just adds that nice creaminess to it and it's kind of like a vodka sauce after everything without any vodka it was really delicious very easy I definitely recommend giving this one a try I hope you enjoyed those recipes and at least got a few ideas for things to make in your home if you need some ideas for more dinners or breakfast lunches I have a few meal plans and other recipes on my channel so go ahead and check those out and please be sure to subscribe and hit that little like button it really helps my channel a ton and of course if you are subscribed put on that little bell for notifications so you get notified every time I post have a wonderful day and thank you so much for joining me bye

Channel: Laura Legge

Views: 8,140

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Id: 0FsuMp4ID2c

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 30 2023