Feeding the Family Pohlmeier Style

In general, I serve all meals with a fruit salad made of whatever fruit we have on hand.   Also, almost all my meals are what could be considered budget meals.  I try to make most of our meals in the $5 range.  This is usually accomplished by stocking up on meat I find on sale and making the meat go further by adding fillers like beans to the main dish, especially any Mexican dishes. 

Comfort Food

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes
3 tbsp. butter
1 onion finely chopped
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
6 peeled potatoes, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. butter
Chopped Ham  (add as much as you think your family needs.)

Heat oven to 350.  Grease bottom and side of 2-quart casserole dish with butter or shortening.  Melt 3 tbsp. butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Cook onion in butter about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat.
Stir in milk.  Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.   Boil and stir 1 minute.  Spread potatoes in dish.  Mix ham in with potatoes.  Pour sauce of potatoes.  Cut 1 tbsp. butter in small pieces and place over potatoes.  Cover and bake 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.  Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Serve with salad, corn and bread.





Crockpot

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas 
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 sweet peppers, sliced
2 pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs
 ½ cup chicken broth, depending on preference
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cumin
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
Squirt of lime juice
Tortillas
Fajita fixings

Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot. Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. Give a nice quirt of lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or on High for 4-6 hours). When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve meat mixture with slotted spoon on tortillas with your choice of fixings.

Serve with Knorr Mexican Rice and Refried Beans.

Fast Fixin' (made in less than 20 minutes)

This is a great recipe to use with leftover chicken from the crockpot chicken fajitas.  If you are not using leftover chicken and cooking new chicken, I would suggest seasoning chicken with cumin and chili powder.  Obviously, if you have to cook new chicken for this recipe it will add time.  This is really a good recipe to use when you have chicken leftover from something preciously cooked.

Chicken enchiladas with  sour cream sauce

8-10 whole wheat tortillas

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

2 cups cheese.  I use 1 cup mozzarella and 1 cup sharp cheddar.

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 pan

2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese and beans.  Roll up in tortillas and place in pan.

3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute.  Add broth and whisk until smooth.  Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  

4. Stir in sour cream.  Do not bring to boil, you don't want curdled sour cream.

5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

6. Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.

Serve with  Knorr Mexican Rice or chips and salsa.

Ethnic (outside the box, not Italian or Mexican!)

Chicken Curry
3-4 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. bread crumbs
1 tbsp. parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. curry powder

Put chicken in bottom of 2 qt. casserole dish.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper/  Mix milk, soup, curry powder, mayonnaise and lemon juice.  Pour over chicken.  Top with parm. cheese and bread crumbs.  bake, uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes. 

 Serve over rice and with Naan

Naan
 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/naan/

(Let me know if the link does not work.  For the grill portion of the recipe, I use a George Foreman grill.)

Budget (dinner for less than $10)
Kielbasa Bake
1 lb precooked smoked sausage.  ( I usually use Hillshire Farm, or whatever is on sale at Kroger.)
Red Potatoes (I usually use 8-10 large size...adjust accordingly though for family likes and dislikes and size.)
1 onion
1 can green beans or fresh if they are cheaper.
Mushrooms
any other vegetables you have on hand...squash, zuchinni, carrots, etc.
Brown sugar

Butter a 13x9 in pyrex pan.  Cut Kielbasa into bite size pieces .  Slice potatoes, onions, squash, mushrooms, and any other veggies  into bite size pieces.  Add Green beans.  Sprinkle with Brown sugar.  Cover and cook for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender at 350.


Friday Meatless

Southwestern Egg Burritos
7 eggs (adjust for family size)
black beans
cheese
salsa
whole wheat tortillas


Scramble eggs.  Mix in black beans and cheese.  Add to toasted tortillas and top with salsa.


Serve with fruit salad and sauteed red potatoes.  We saute red potatoes in olive oil and garlic on the stove. 

Family Favorite

Meatloaf
 I use 2 pounds of beef
1 egg
I add to that (without measuring):
ketchup
mustard
crumble some crackers (I use saltines, but it's probably just as good to use oats, too)
parsley
Italian seasoning
 garlic powder
salt/pepper
Worcestershire sauce
cut up an onion


I mix it with my hands in a bowl.

I dump it in a corning ware circular baking bowl and bake for 1 hour at 350.

Serve with green beans, bread and mashed potatoes.

Hope you find this helpful!

Erin Pohlmeier