Thursday, March 12, 2009

My favorite frugal dinners

Pita bread hummus dinner
Pita bread recipe
1 1/4C water
2Tbsp oil
2tsp yeast
1 1/2C white flour
1 1/2C whole wheat flour
2tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 475
Place the ingredients in the order given in a bread machine and set it to the dough cycle. Add more flour if the dough seems too wet. When the cycle is finished, remove the dough to a floured counter and punch it down. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape them into balls. Place the dough balls on a greased baking sheet and cover them with damp paper towels. Let the dough rise for 20 minutes. Grease a second baking sheet and set it aside. Working with one dough ball at a time and keeping the rest covered, gently stretch each ball into a flat round about 6 inches across. Place 4 on each baking sheet. Bake one sheet at a time on the bottom oven rack for 4 minutes. These pitas are best consumed right after baking.

Delicious Hummus recipe
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained.
1/4C tahini (sesame seed paste)
juice from 1 lemon
3Tbsp water
salt to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Serve with pita bread!

Cooling cucumber salad
1 English cucumber, peeled and diced
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
salt to taste
2Tbsp olive oil
1-2Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Place cucumbers and tomatoes in a large bowl. Add the salt, oil and vinegar and mix well together. Serve with pita bread and delicious hummus for an awesome dinner!

Chinese stir fry recipe
1 1/2C cooked shrimp
2C broccoli florets
2C shredded cabbage
1C shredded carrots
1C sugar snap peas
2 large zucchini, cut into long spears
3 scallions, chopped
1Tbsp minced ginger
sauce ingredients:
3Tbsp rice vinegar
1Tbsp corn starch
4Tbsp soy sauce
1Tbsp roasted sesame seed oil
1Tbsp brown sugar
Mix together sauce ingredients in a small bowl
Heat 2Tbsp oil in a large wok or dutch oven. Add the broccoli and cabbage and zucchini and stir fry for 4 minutes. Add the carrots, ginger, shrimp, scallions and snap peas and stir fry for 2 minutes. Drain any accumulated liquid from the pan and return to heat. Stir sauce ingredients and add them to the pan. Stir fry for about 1 minute, or until sauce visibly thickens and begins to coat the vegetables. Remove from heat and serve over hot rice.

These are my 2 favorite frugal dinners. I hope you enjoy them!

3 comments:

The Frugal Engineer said...

I love hummus, too! I actually just had it for lunch today.

I make a similar recipe, but I add more garlic and some cayenne pepper (1/2 tsp for 2 cans of beans). I buy lemon juice in bulk and add 1/2 cup plus 2 T to the 2 cans of beans.

Instead of the water, have you ever tried just adding some of the liquid from the canned garbanzos?

Frugal Liz said...

The liquid from the canned beans is a little too salty for my taste. The cayenne pepper sounds pretty good! I'll have to try that.

Mary said...

I also love hummus, but I've never thought of making it myself. It doesn't sound too hard. It's good with raw veggies like carrots, too.