Fat Frog Diary

I don't need to add anything to this recipe, but I did. I added some cooked cubed pork I had left over from another meal and needed to use up. I started this recipe in the morning.  This was another one I made in the Instant Pot. I cooked the dried chickpeas on high pressure for 25 minutes, with about 4 cups of water. Most of the water had been absorbed when I did an NPR (natural pressure release.) I drained the rest and set the chickpeas aside.  I sauteed the onion, garlic and celery in the olive oil in the Instant Pot, then added back the chickpeas, potatoes, tomatoes, water, pork, and spices. I then set the Instant Pot to slow cook, covered without locking pressure, and walked away for a few hours. One hour before I planned to serve, I stirred in the pasta. The aroma was glorious! 

  Drop Cookies Plus Variations I'll apologize in advance for the shabbiness of the image. This is one of my stand-by recipes I used when it was 7 PM and one of my daughters "remembered" to tell me she'd volunteered me to make cookies for her class the next day. <Insert panic mode here.> Thank goodness someone gave me one of those red-checked Better Homes and Gardens Cookbooks. I've collected and used those cookbooks most of my adult life.  Notes: 1. Any meltable candy can work for the Gumdrop Variation. I've used caramels, Rollos, cut up Tootsie Rolls, and smashed Heath Bars in desperation. Save those Jolly Ranchers and Dum-dums from Halloween! They are great smashed to bits with a hammer inside a plastic bag.  2, Remember the peanut, coconut, pineapple, pecans, and even the raisins may cause allergic reactions if serving to strangers. An allergy check is always a wise move.  3. Keep a roll or two of parchment paper handy for cookie baking. You can d...

  Homemade Spice Blends from AllRecipes.com I love spice blends I make myself, and not just because I save a ton of money. I know what's going into my spice blends and can make adjustments if needed. For instance, I'm slightly allergic to rosemary and both my roommate and I can't stand cilantro. These adjustments are important to us, since they truly affect our enjoyment of food.  These links below are my go-to recipes for some of my favorite spice blends, plus a few I'm dying to try too! Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks?  Homemade Spice Blend Recipes (allrecipes.com)   Homemade Seasoned Salt Recipe (allrecipes.com) (1) How to Make Pumpkin Spice (Pumpkin Pie Spice)! - YouTube   4 DIY Spice Blends | Recipes (tasty.co) In a previous recent post on September 12, I mentioned making your own blends to keep around in Ziploc snack bags. Well, I'm correcting myself. I have an alternative place to store your single-use or small batch seasoning blends. Pop one o...

  Sweet Quick Bread Mix Not only does this make a great "shelf special", it's a gift you can give with a few additions and a card.      Recipe Notes:  Preheat oven to 325F. To make the bread, use 3-1/2 cups of the mix. Add 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, 1 tsp of vanilla or other flavoring, and enough liquid like juice, milk, or water to moisten. Keep in mind that your add-in like pumpkin, banana or zucchini may also have moisture inherent to the add-in, so you may want to hold off adding liquid until after you've included your add-in. Nuts may be rolled in the powder mix before beginning the recipe to avoid them sinking to the bottom. On average, most sweet breads take about an hour to bake in a standard loaf pan.    Personal Notes: As seen in the picture, the possibilities are varied and may be adjusted to fit what's seasonally available. Carrot-Orange loaf in the spring, Zucchini Bread in early summer, Pumpkin Bread with Pumpkin Spices...

 SLOPPY JOE SEASONING MIX and PANTRY GOOPS This one is a good one for keeping handy in the pantry. There will always be nights when you can barely manage to shuffle into the kitchen to cook a meal for yourself, much less something nutritious and filling for anyone else in your household.  While the recipe for the seasoning mix says to create a foil packet and label it, I recommend instead a small snack-sized Ziploc bag.  That way you can create several bags at once to keep on hand for those nights when you might be able to manage something quick and easy in the electric skillet.  Now, let's take this concept of "dinner on the shelf" a step further. Why buy boxed products to make up a dish full of chemicals when you can have your own ready on the shelf?  Think of the different boxes of dinner "options" available in the grocery aisles. Most of them are a starch (pasta or rice) in one container, a seasoning packet made of seasonings appropriate for that particular ...

RUSSIAN REFRESHER This delicious hot drink was the thing to give your friends and family in a fancy jar set  back in the 1970's. I loved it as a kid, and my mother was happy to make a big batch every fall.  Tang can be purchased via Amazon using this link:  Amazon.com : Tang Jumbo Orange Naturally Flavored Powdered Drink Mix 2 Count 63 Oz Canisters : Grocery & Gourmet Food My choice for the lemonade mix is Countrytime Lemonade, but you can decide based on what's available to you.  Please note that I personally substituted instant tea for 1 cup of the orange drink mix (aka Tang.)  Get creative with this, especially for any tea drinkers in your friends and family. What if you sealed this in a fancy jar and included it with a fun and fanciful tea set for a host(ess) gift or housewarming? 

 ONION SEASONING MIX Love this! I hate paying extra for a box of two envelopes of onion seasoning mix when I use this several times a month at minimum! If you can't find the Bon Appetit Seasoning, try this: Simply Organic All Purpose Seasoning . I've also substituted Bea Monde seasoning in a pinch.  So easy! Save a bottle from the recycle bin to keep it in. I keep mine in a pint jar. Yes, I use that much! Each foil bundle saves me so much time and money. 

 What makes a recipe qualify to call itself by that illustrious title of the Versatile and Time-Saving Casserole? A casserole contains the following basic ingredients. 1 cup of aromatics such as onion, carrots, celery, peppers, and/or mirepoix. 3-4 cups of cooked protein or beans 2-3 cups of cooked carbs (pasta, rice, couscous, potatoes, chips, etc.) 1-2 cups of vegetables 1-2 cups sauce or binder (condensed cream of soups, white sauces, cheese sauce, gravy, sour cream, ricotta, tomato sauce Seasonings to taste 1 cup topping such as breadcrumbs, cheese, snack chips, nuts, etc.  This is the basis for almost every "dump and go" casserole ever invented. Even the layered casseroles like lasagna follow this rule. Stir the first six ingredients together in a large bowl, spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray, dump in the mix from the bowl, sprinkle on the topping, and bake at 350F for about 30 minutes.  Why do you think grandma loved this type of recipe? Because so much of...

You can actually make it with any flavor of Jell-O. It's worth the time and trouble when you're craving ice cream!

While waiting for the first of my two surgeries, I'm on a liquid diet. Now, the doc has an interesting definition of "liquid" which includes semi-solids like Greek yogurt, and vegetables processed to a semi-solid state. Not bad at all, when you consider the options include delicious "cream of" soups. I'm a big fan of vegetable soups, so this is not a hardship. Especially when you have these two great options for soup base, in addition to a powdered consomme I found in the international section of my favorite grocery store. This first one is my favorite for pure flavor! I can even substitute beef broth or vegetable broth, since both are also available. Now that's versatile. And now for your choice of vegetables and seasonings. Now think of the mix and match possibilities. Believe it or not, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes go together. Leeks go with onions, or go it alone if you're feeling adventurous. I'm from the deep South, so I know ...

Saucy Pork Chops Note: Please read all the recipe first.  I've made this recipe since the early 80's. Any recipe that survives that long in my recipe box is delicious, cheap, and easy to make. While the recipe calls for boneless pork chops, use what you have in the pork family! I've made this with slices of pork loin, bone-in pork chops, and even slices of a pork roast too big to serve as one meal when we were poor as church mice. (I have joked I could serve this sauce over a brick and my husband would have eaten it.) If you have a mandolin, use it for the onion to get the thinnest slices possible. If you use a food processor or a knife, you'll just get thicker slices. It won't ruin anything. Splurge a little and use a good brand of cream of chicken soup. The off-price brands are often gray-ish in color, and we do eat with our eyes first. Equipment: Mandolin, food processor with slicing attachment, or chef's knife Electric skillet or stove top skillet...

Originally, we lost this recipe in a move. Then along comes Google and we found it again! Saved, thanks to the internet. This has been our favorite for twenty years, and we see no reason to change. Lena Austin http://www.lenaaustin.com/ http://depravedduchess.blogspot.com/

My grandfather was born and raised during the Great Depression. Consequently, he was one of those incredibly frugal men who lived well below his income because he "didn't need much." He drove a POS car until it became a classic, then an antique, then he sold it for ten times what he'd bought it for. He even had his own garden until he was too old to tend it properly, but his neighbors all had gardens and felt sorry for the lonely old widower and brought him extras from their gardens for free! When he died, he left my Mom a small fortune. One thing grandpa did very well was save money on food. He rarely threw anything out. He composted his organic garbage right back into his garden, washed out his cans and took them to a steel mill that happily bought all his cans long before "recycling" was even a word. Even his soups were recycled. Grandpa kept several containers stacked neatly in his freezer. Three were for cooked meats he shaved off the bones and save...

Mayonnaise and Salad Dressings are some of the staples of the American dieter’s repertoire. Without a salad for lunch or the ubiquitous tuna sandwich, the American dieter is lost in a sea of pre-packaged and tasteless frozen dinners.   Perhaps the most feared alternative is –oh, the horror!—raw vegetables with nothing to flavor them but the forbidden cream cheese or peanut butter. However, the mayonnaise available on most grocery store shelves has many flaws, not the least of which are high carbs and an overwhelming amount of unpronounceable chemicals and preservatives. There is an alternative. Surprisingly, it’s easy to make one’s own mayonnaise with a few simple spices, two eggs, two cups of cooking oil, and two tablespoons of an acid liquid such as vinegar or lemon juice. By combining these ingredients in various ways, the humble mayonnaise can become a sublime catalyst to elevate even the humblest salad to stardom. The same thing has happened in the salad dressing marke...

When you know how to make Cream Puffs, there's a world of things to do with them.  Cream Puffs ½ cup butter or margarine 1 cup water 1 cup all-purpose flour ¼ t salt 4 eggs In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add water. Bring to boil. Add flour and salt all at once; stir vigorously. Cook and stir till mixture forms a ball that doesn’t separate. Remove from heat; cool slightly, about 5 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon after each addition for 1-2 minutes or til smooth. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons 3 inches apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake in a 400F oven about 30 min or til golden brown and puffy. Remove from oven; split, removing any soft dough inside. Cool on a wire rack. Fill with whipped cream, pudding, fruit mixtures, or ice cream. Makes 10. 279 calories, 11 carbs without filling. I recommend using Dream Whip and your food processor for a fast “CHEAP” filling, both monetarily and carb-wise. Also, certain pudding and cream cheese ...

While I think these are good, the author swore they were addictive and that's why she gave them the name. I'll grant they are a treat, and the batch I made served me lunches for quite awhile. I recommend cutting off the wing tips and throwing them immediately into a small crock pot of water, celery tops you've saved for this, onion, a little salt, pepper, and a little poultry seasoning for easy homemade chicken broth. Then make the wings and know you've not wasted a bit of your precious money. After the broth has cooked, strain out the used veggies and bones. Let it cool in a bowl on the counter, stick it in the fridge, skim off the fat that hardens at the top, and measure into one cup increments. Store in the freezer until needed. I put them in 1 quart ziplock bags and freeze in square storage containers. That way, I can remove the storage containers after they're hard, and they still stack nicely in a corner.

Yeah, I've posted this one before, but this bears repeating. This is a fast and easy quiche with no crust. You can mix and match the meat, cheeses, and veggies to anything you want! My fave substitution is a classic-- make this into Quiche Lorraine by substituting pre-cooked (you do bake your bacon and save it, right?) bacon and Swiss Cheese. Don't be afraid to toss in some frozen veggies! I've been known to raid the freezer for the remainder of a bag of frozen green beans, a few broccoli tops, and about a cup of bell pepper strips for stir fry. This is one of those recipes that also makes a superb leftover for the lunch box. While I do prefer mine warmed in the microwave for a minute, it doesn't have to be. Cool the pie in the fridge overnight, then cut into 1/6 slices. Wrap them up in foil or zip-top bags, and freeze. I gave up making just one pie at a time. I make two and take the remainder of the second one as lunches for later days. If you need more similar rec...

I was surprised to learn there are people in the world who don't know how to make this ubiquitous lunch food, or worse, who stir together canned meat, mayo, maybe a little instant minced onion, and call it good. Then again, I used to be one of them, until I found this recipe and made it, just to be different. I will never go back to plain old chicken salad ever again! I found Nirvana. Then I looked at the variations. YUM-OH!

Who says life must be dull and flavorless? Who says we can't have delicious low carb desserts? Whoever THEY are, they're WRONG! Dead wrong. I use and recommend both DaVinci Sugar Free and Torani Sugar Free Flavored syrups. http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=2926001&prrfnbr=3048730 Both can be found on the links section of this blog. Come on!! Are you craving ice cream or yogurts? You can have a very reasonable substitute in flavoring cottage cheese and plain yogurt. Go ahead. Mix up a pina colada yogurt using pineapple and coconut syrups and adding a sprinkle of Splenda.Add nuts. Almonds are low carb, too! Do you miss your Starbucks? Why don't you mix your own? I can have a sugar free White Chocolate coffee anytime I want using the syrup. Did you know whipping cream has even less carbs than milk? Go ahead and indulge in that morning brew. Just make it yourself and pocket what you didn't spend at Starbucks. Flavored teas? S...

In the same way as my comments on Feb 4 concerning mayonnaise, the same thing has happened in the salad dressing market. The so-called "diet" dressings can be higher in sugar and carbs because they're supposed to be lower in fat. Yet at the same time, the "regular" dressings are so loaded with chemicals and preservatives as well as carbs, the choices are very limited unless you like vinaigrettes. I happen to like creamy dressings, though I've learned that dipping my fork into a small cup of 2 T of dressing (average serving size on bottled dressings) and then stabbing a forkload of salad means I get a much tastier mouthful than pouring the dressing over the top and hoping it's still around when I get to the last fork full. Imagine having fresh dressings to dip your veggies into, and I don't mean just for a bowl of salad. Imagine taking a small sealed container of this with some celery, green pepper strips, and fresh broccoli when you need a snack. Y...