Category Archives: Food

From favorite recipes and appliance reviews to restaurants and entertaining tips, you’ll find it all here at the Families.com Food Blog!

Dinner for $5: Sloppy Joes with TVP

It is getting harder and harder to prepare low-cost and nutritious meals for our families for less than $5 or even $10. That is why I am excited to have created this easy recipe that everyone in the family loves. The best part? It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare and uses exactly two ingredients, not counting water, plus the buns or rolls to put the mixture on. This recipe is so cheap, that you can add a side salad or vegetables and still come in under the $5. It fed my family of five, including two members of … Continue reading →

Crockpot Recipes: Strawberry Banana Cream Oatmeal

Whenever I can, I try to serve a hot breakfast to my family. It isn’t always easy, since each of my children have a different school start time. Weekday recipes that can be prepared ahead of time are always a help. So are ones that can stay warm and ready when needed. This way, the kids can serve themselves or just eat breakfast when they get up. This crockpot recipe yields a nice creamy and comforting breakfast on a cold day. It is also wonderful for someone who has the flu, since it is soft on the throat, easy to … Continue reading →

Oatmeal Raisin Whoopie Pies

Whoopie Pies are big here in Pennsylvania. These little cakes that include yummy cream are indulgent yet homey. The generally accepted notion of the name “Whoopie Pie” is thought to come from the exclamation of Amish children who would open their lunch boxes to find these cakes and then yell “Whoopie!” Getting the Whoopie Pie shape perfect can be a pain if you don’t have a Whoopie Pie mold, but who needs another tin to store? Likewise, they can be a little labor intensive, since the cake and the cream are made separately. Try this version instead, which has oatmeal … Continue reading →

Easy Corn Bread and Honey Butter

This easy corn bread recipe is convenient, you’ll never resort to boxed corn bread mix again! Double the recipe for two batches. It will be just as easy to prepare, but you’ll have an extra one to freeze for later. Yes, this easy corn bread even freezes well. For best results, serve it warm with butter or honey butter. The recipe for honey butter appears below. You get both recipes today. Yum. Easy Corn Bread Ingredients: 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup corn meal 1/4 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1/4 cup vegetable … Continue reading →

Budget Recipe: Taco Pasta

This budget recipe started out as a crockpot meal, Taco Bake, that I mentioned in one of my previous posts: Meal Planning When You are Busy. The recipe came from a slow cooker cookbook. I followed the directions exactly, with the exception of shortening the cooking time, but even that didn’t fully rescue the dish. While it was very flavorful, I found that the pasta did not hold up well in the crockpot with the other ingredients, becoming too mushy near the center and too hard and uncooked on the edges. I decided to keep the flavor (well enhance it … Continue reading →

9 Meal Ideas for Leftover Chicken

The prices on whole roasting chicken has been pretty good lately, so I have been finding myself buying quite a few chickens for our meals. My family likes roast chicken, so it isn’t usually a problem, except for the leftovers. They can get a little boring after a while. That is why we usually have one meal of roast chicken (I vary the seasonings), and then use the leftover chicken in new dishes, some of which I can freeze.   Here are my favorite ways to use leftover chicken.   Chicken Pot Pie: You can use a butter crust, shortening … Continue reading →

Freezer Pizza Dough

Make your own pizza dough, pop it in the freezer and have it available any time you like. The best part? You’ll be saving tons of money over the year in pizza costs, and with pizza dough from your freezer, you can make enough to cover everything from a busy weeknight meal to a kid’s birthday party. Now that is economical! Freezing this pizza dough recipe actually make the dough easier to work with, so you will make perfectly round pizzas with no tearing each time. You can also work the dough into a square pan or a rectangular jelly … Continue reading →

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Who could resist Hostess Cupcakes with their curly swirls of bitable icing over rich chocolate frosting that covers the deep chocolate cake that hides the gooey creamy filling? Don’t you want to just take a bite out of them right now? Sigh. Let’s take away both the guilt (well, a little of the guilt) and the expensive prices on eBay and make some homemade Hostess Cupcakes. You’ll eliminate the preservatives and be known as the best baker on the block. I have to tell you that this post required a lot of hard research. I had to make sure that … Continue reading →

Homemade Hangover Cures

Need a homemade hangover cure for yourself or friends and family? Take your pick, here is the latest advice on what to do to cure a hangover, as well as some classic hangover cures. Please note that the best way to avoid a hangover is to not overindulge in alcohol. Also, this blog is informational only and not intended to provide medical advice. Milk Thistle Hangover Cure This year, New Years Eve partygoers are stocking up on capsules of milk thistle as insurance against an achy head that results from too much drinking the night before. Once used centuries ago … Continue reading →

Chicken Enchilada Bake Recipe

Tonight I was shopping at our local grocery store when I had a sudden craving for an old recipe that I used to make with much frequency, but for some reason fell out of including it in our family menus. I’m not sure why, since it is a delicious and relatively easy to prepare recipe. The cost of it is very low, too, but since I haven’t made it since 2006 or so, I no longer have the exact calculations on price. You can bet, though, that it will definitely be part of our menu this week. As soon as … Continue reading →