It seems like every year after a hectic and sometimes expensive holiday season, I find myself thinking about January on a budget. I came across a book in the bookstore called $5 Dinner Mom and it got me thinking and set me on the path of getting creative with my food budget.

So here’s a sneak peek into some of the things i’m doing.

The first thing I did when I got home that night from the bookstore is hit the web. Thanks to all the bloggers of the world just about anything can be found online. Including the $5 Dinner Mom’s own blog and website.

I thought making dinners on $5 sounded like a great challenge albeit totally unrealistic. However, I was game to give it a try and off I went. So far this month I can honestly say that nearly all my dinners have been made for $5 and certainly all under $10.  I’ve been lucky though. I scoured my pantry and freezer and determined what I had on hand. Then found recipes that would use what I had with me only buying minimal ingredients. I have to say it didn’t take me long to blow through my pantry supplies and things are running dangerously low. (except for rice and canned fruit. Now I gotta find something to do with all that canned fruit because I don’t think my family will eat it. Don’t even know why I have it. lol) Now the real hard part starts. Resupplying the pantry and still making dinners on a budget.

Now a big part of making this adventure successful is taking the TIME to plan. There in lies the real challenge of my plan. With a full time day job and a writing schedule that rivals many full-time writers, I don’t have a lot of time. Good thing one of my goals for the new year is a strict schedule which hopefully leaves me a tad more free time.

So far I’ve been winging the meals but alas it’s time to start planning a weekly menu. Time to pull out the magazines and cookbooks and looking up recipes on line.  One of my favorite places to find recipes is at allrecipes.com

One new to me recipe I discovered after seeing it mentioned online several times was the Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff. It was far tastier than I expected and believe it will become a regular here in our household. To make my life easier I altered the recipe by only using light ingredients (light cream cheese and the Healthy Request chicken soup) and by putting frozen chicken in the crock pot. (I easily broke it into chunks after it cooked) Easy Peasy.

Tonight we are trying the Beer Braised Beef from one of the Cooking Light 5 ingredient cookbooks. (I cannot recommend those highly enough. LOVE LOVE LOVE my 5 ingredient cookbooks) Yes, this recipe would cost a little over $5 but I already had the steak, the tomatoes, the onion and the molasses was provided by a dear friend who lives nearby. YAY!

I’m including the recipe below. FYI I’ll be serving this with mashed potatoes and baby carrots. (yep had those on hand too)

Beer Braised Beef

1 Cup chopped onion
Cooking Spray
1lb boneless top round steak, trimmed
1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1/2 cup light beer
2 T molasses
1/4 t salt

1. Place onion in a 3-3 1/2 quart electric slow cooker coated with cooking spray.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Add steak; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Place steak over onions in cooker; pour tomatoes and beer over steak cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until steak is very tender.
3. Shred steak with 2 forks in slow cooker; stir in molasses and salt. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Yield: 4 servings

If nothing else, I’ve managed to utilize what I had and now have a clean pantry. Maybe you’re like me. You look at the pantry which seems stuffed yet you can’t find anything to make. Now i’m off to get some writing done so I can hunt up the good grocery deals. (i.e. Super Wal-mart, Super Target, Aldi’s)

Eliza