Making Casseroles Cheaper and Healthier

Since the weather has turned chilly and I've turned, well, pregnant...I've been craving comfort food, especially casseroles. The only problem (well 2 to be exact) is that casseroles can often be more expensive than some of our regular meals and way less healthy! Both problems typically stem from several cans of expensive, none-too-healthy cream soup called for in most casserole recipes.

My solution: make my own recipe for white sauce to use in place of each can of white sauce! For the most part, it works wonderfully.

Here are the directions, super simple.

Melt 2 TBS Butter/Margarine in hot fry pan or griddle.
When fully melted, mix in 2 TBS flour (I use whole wheat or ww pastry and it works fine, just changes the color of the finished product) until smooth.
Immediately add 2 or so cups milk and continue to stir (with wisk if possible) until mixture thickens. Add salt/pepper to taste. This makes the equivalent of 1 can of cream of _____soup.

If you really need the flavor of the particular can of soup (cream of chicken for example) you can do one of two things: either use one can and one subs. of white sauce or add some bouillon in with the milk.

I use the white sauce with some of our favorite recipes such as (with mods of course):

Chicken Tortilla Casserole (recipe to come)
Tetrazinni
Tuna Noodle Casserole

Another couple tricks I use for increasing the health and financial value of the casserole are making my own bread crumbs from stale/leftover bread for the topping and adding vegetable puree or shreds to the binder. Since we have so much pumpkin right now, I have been adding that to recipes like Shepherd's pie.

Does your family enjoy casseroles? What are your favorites?

Our little pumpkin and her daddy

Check out the cute purple coat from Grandma Karen! I love how she looks all bundled up in it, especially with the fleece hat from a garage sale. So cozy!

Peeking outside at the squirrels

I was finally able to capture one of the many sweet daddy-daughter moments.

Yesterday's Pumpkin Fun

When I brought up the topic of homemade pumpkin goodies made from fresh pumpkin with my husband, he was beyond enthusiastic. I think he drooled a little:)

This weekend I found a decent deal on a medium sized orange beauty. I forgot to take pictures until after I butchered it though. Yesterday the pumpkin-cooking and baking commenced! Here is what I did and what I plan to do with the remaining pumpkin:

Scooping, scraping out those tasty little seeds (so good for you too!)

All clean! Notice my precious to the left:)

I microzapped 1/4 of the pumpkin so I could make waffles sooner (15 minutes on high) and crocked the rest for several hours. I think I might try the oven and microwave if we get another.

Finished pumpkin seeds...yum! I cleaned and dried them most of the way, then brushed melted butter, salt, cayenne, and pepper over them evenly. Baked at 325 degrees for 30 minutes with our dinner: Shepherd's Pie!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Waffles. The pumpkin wasn't super noticable in these, but they have a nice spice and texture. They used up some of the abundant milk we have too!

I am going to make pumpkin bread today, and some sort of peanut butter treat. Something about being back into our normal routine and grey Pacific NW weather makes me want to bake. If my baking turns out, I will make sure and share:)

Menu Plan for Oct. 13th, 2008

Breakfasts: Zucchini Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Muffins, Pumpkin Pancakes, yogurt

Lunches: Leftovers

Snacks: bananas, cottage cheese, apples, yogurt, homemade granola, PB&J, chees and crackers (the snack list has gotten much longer since morning sickness hit:)

Dinners:



Monday: Shepherd's Pie

Tuesday: Teryaki Chicken and Veggies over Brown Rice

Wednesday: Southwest Salad



Thursday: Tacos (roll up the leftover beans, cheese, lettuce and corn from the Southwest Salad in homemade tortillas)

Friday: We usually have Whole Wheat Cheese Pizza! our every friday night tradition!




Saturday: Tuna Melts on the Road

Sunday: Corn Chowder with Sourdough bread from the freezer

Visit Laura at Orgjunkie for more menu plan inspiration!

Super Savings Saturday: Walgreen's and Albertson's

Over at Money Saving Mom, check out where everyone is getting the best deals!
Pictured above are the Walgreen's deals a week ago. Some of the best deals shown were the free Hebert's chocolates, free Altoids and by using the $5/$20 coupon I was able to use some register rewards and a few dollars and received $8 in RR back!

Albertson's was full of good deals again last week! For $42, I got all of the above (I know its hard to see everything) but included are some pricy things like several pounds of cheese, 5 lbs of hamburger, 21 packets of tuna, 4 packages of dark chocolate chips, juice, organic tomatoes, and Newman's own sauces. Not pictured is the free whole wheat french bread and the spicy veggie burger's.

Menu Plan and morning sickness

Here is our menu plan for the remainder of the week, including last nights casserole, which was a hit with all of us.

Breakfast: Whole Wheat Zucchini Muffins with Dark Chocolate (so good!) and eggos with apple butter from my sis-in-law Cathy.

Lunches: Leftovers

Dinners:

Thursday: Creamy Chicken Tortilla Casserole based on this recipe (I doubled it and brought a meal to a church friend who had surgery) with salad and chips

Friday: French Bread Pizza (more free bread from Albertson's) so I will be topping that with pre-made spagetti sauce, cheese and a little hamburger (pre-cooked from the freezer)with carrot sticks and dip

Saturday: Chicken Rice Casserole, loosely based on this recipe. I will be adding a rice mix instead and some zucchini. Served with acorn squash on the side.

Sunday: Quesadillas and salad


Morning sickness is worse this time around. The only reason I am pretty sure this is the case is that last year with M I had a desk job and plenty of time to dwell on my feeling yucky whereas this time I am chasing a toddler and constantly busy so I am not dwelling on it. The time change and weird eating our travel days (coming back from Indy) didn't help much. This morning I barely made it to the kitchen to grab some yogurt to calm my crazy stomach!

A friend from Bible study is letting me try out some "sea bands" to try out (they target your wrist pressure points and are supposed to help with sea-sickness or morning sickness in some cases. Too soon to tell. Another Bible study friend recommended ginger, which I haven't tried yet. Small meals helps, but its a fine line with eating the right amount at the right time.

Other than that, things are going well and this Saturday I will be about 8 weeks along! I still have to figure out Dr./midwife stuff since we have a new insurance through Daniel's workplace and it seems confusing. I am hoping to find someone who will support a v-bac (vaginal birth after caesarean) this time around. I live on the Kitsap Penninsula (at least for a little while longer)! So if you know of anyone, let me know!

We're BAaack!

We had a wonderful time catching up with the family and friends in Indy this past week (end for Daniel). The one thing that I always hate is the unpacking/cleaning that comes with the aftermath of a trip! It was really bad this time--we had a bloody nose situation that left our only bedding a stained mess and got about 13 tons of mail. The cool thing was that I got a ton of free samples in the mail!

Here are some pics from our trip that Grandma and Grandpa Crosby shared with us.

Auntie Cathy and cousins checking out the elephants

Watching the show with the cousins

M and her daddy's childhood purdue doll.

At the zoo, checking out the animals.

Bye Bye Zoo!