By now, you should all know that I'm not one for measuring ingredients when I cook. I do things by taste and fragrance...as well as by appearance.

Like all moms, I also don't have loads of time to prepare fancy homemade meals from scratch. I do cook our meals from scratch, but I just don't spend hours making them. Who has hours to cook when you have young children, right?

One of Hubby's favourite dishes is Fettucini Alfredo. I came up with a ridiculously easy recipe to have supper on the table in less than 30 minutes. I kid you not.

Ingredients:
-box of fettucini noodles
-a bit of flour
-a bit of butter
-a bit of milk
-salt and black pepper
-1 cup shredded mozarella cheese
-1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
-minced garlic
-chopped basil or parsley
-shrimp (I put about a cup of cooked shrimp)

Directions:
1. Cook noodles as per instructions on the package.
2. In a pan, melt butter and cook the flour to make a roux. Add milk and make sure the roux is not lumpy. You can also add the garlic at this point.
3. Add shredded cheese to the mixture. It's important to make a roux, otherwise your cheese will end up clumpy and not sauce-like.
4. Season with salt and black pepper.
5. Cook shrimp last, because it takes no time at all to cook shrimp.
6. Once pasta is cooked, drain well.
7. Add pasta to Alfredo sauce and make sure to coat the noodles well with the sauce.
8. Garnish with chopped basil or parsley.

Serve with a nice salad. I like serving this with salad greens and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Oh! Check this out! Some very exciting news for me and I'd like to share it with you!!! :)

I was too lazy tired uninspired busy to cook supper last night. I think I may have even been moaning about having to cook 99.9% of our meals.

Don't get me wrong. I love cooking. I really do. It's just that sometimes I don't feel like it. Ever have one of those days when you wish someone else would do the cooking? That's how I felt yesterday. If only I had a personal cook. If only I could just get take-out. If only we could go to a restaurant. If only. Ha! It's not busy season on the Island yet and the closest restaurants that are open are about 15-20 minutes away by car! Plus, we're trying to be wise with our money.

I hadn't done groceries. I was waiting for next week to do our big groceries, since we have to be in "the city" for Little One's Neonatal Follow-Up. Plus, Hubby wanted me to work on a project which we're entitling "Project Live Out of Your Fridge". Basically, we are to use up everything in our fridge and pantry before we buy more groceries. Gah!

Armed with next to nothing in the way of ingredients, I grabbed some whole wheat Farfalle.
While I cooked the bow-tie shaped pasta, I tried to think of what else I could use. Making use of my meager supplies, I took some butter, flour, cheese, garlic, coarse black pepper, and milk. I made a quick and easy roux (the same one I use to make my homemade Alfredo sauce or cheese sauce for homemade macaroni and cheese).I also sauteed some garlic and spinach and added a can of flaked tuna to the creamy cheese sauce. I drained the pasta and in a pan, I gently coated the pasta with the cheese sauce, tuna, and spinach. I garnished the dish with garlic bread crumbs, chopped parsley and green onion. I served the dish with salad.

Little One and Hubby thoroughly enjoyed their meal. Not bad for something I just threw together from the top of my head. Super cheap and super easy too.

Farfalle - $1.99 (on sale and I used less than 1/2 the package) $0.50 for this dish
Tuna - $1.29 $1.29
Cheese - $4.99 (on sale and I only used 1/6 of the block of cheese)$0.70
Milk - $4.99 (used less than 1/2 a cup) $0.10
Green onion - from my freezer and originally from a friend's garden
Garlic - $0.69 (only used 3 cloves) $0.06
Bread crumbs - made from leftover bread crusts $0.02
Flour $0.01
Butter $0.02
Parsley - from my kitchen herb garden

I'm estimating that this meal cost me around $2.70 to make. Considering we had all the ingredients and I used only a fraction of each ingredient, it would be a fairly cheap dish to make.

**Hmmph. I guess Hubby is right. It is possible to live frugally and make due with what one has in the fridge and pantry.**

...on a Tuesday, and posted on Wednesday!

It's been another crazy busy week and my posting skills leave a lot to be desired.

My lovely (and stunningly gorgeous!) friend, Maria has been posting Meatless Monday posts every week. She's inspired me to do this too. The intention and desire to participate in Meatless Mondays are there, but I haven't totally been 'with it' lately. I've got a lot on my plate these days and for the most part, I go around my days running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I know. Gross visual, but that's how I've been feeling these days.

Anyway...

Many of you know that I spent seven years as a vegetarian (part of which, I was vegan). I ended up marrying a beef farmer, but we don't eat much meat. The truth is, meat actually grosses me out. Well, the thought of meat grosses me out. I can appreciate a good salmon, chicken, beef or pork dish, but raw meat makes me gag. I see visions of Bambi and Lisa Simpson's lamb whenever I handle meat (Incidentally, that just happens to be my favourite Simpson's episode ever!). I just have to *not* think about the animals who gave their lives for us in order for me to cook or eat meat. Psychologically twisted? Perhaps.

Prompted by my husband, I decided to see if I could cook by emptying the contents of our fridge. You see, farmers are pretty frugal and practical folk. We're conducting an experiment. Can I prepare meals for a week without going to the store to buy anything? We shall see.

Today's meal just happened to be a meatless dish. In a non-stick pan, I cooked up some firm tofu and chopped up green onions. I sauteed them with a bit of oyster sauce and sesame oil. I then added some rice noodles and cooked down some spinach at the end.
It was a surprisingly yummy dish for something that was just thrown together. Since I just made this recipe off the top of my head, I think I'll call it "C's Super Easy Tofu and Rice Noodle" dish. Our 17 month old daughter just loved it! She couldn't get enough of the tofu or rice noodles! She ended up eating her bowlful AND part of mine!
*Note: Not only is tofu a super healthy and good for you food, but it's also a frugal chef's best friend. A bit of tofu can go a long way AND it is super cheap and very versatile.