Cheddar Cheese Chicken Casserole

I found a recipe similar to this one when I was in a "let's find out how many meals I can make with what's leftover in my pantry before going to the grocery store again" mood. I made the recipe work for what we had left and we LOVED it and it's now on our regular rotation.

(The pictures for this sweet number seemed to have disappeared from my computer but the recipe is just too good not to share, if I do recover the pictures, I'll post them ASAP)

Ingredients:

Cheddar Cheese Soup (1.19)

1 Cup Cheddar Cheese (.94)

2 Chicken Breasts (1.50)

1 Can of Green Beans (.57)

5 Slices of Turkey Bacon (.30)

Ritz Crackers or Bread Crumbs to top (.40)

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 1:

Fry your bacon to desired crispiness.

Step 2:

Take bacon out, let it cool. Drain your green beans and toss them into the same pan you fried the bacon in. Let the beans fry for a couple of minutes to soak in the bacon flavor. Crumble bacon when it has cooled.

Step 3:

In your cooking dish, spread the green beans on the bottom. Throw your bacon crumbles onto the beans.

Step 4:

Arrange your chicken on top of the beans, pour can of soup onto the chicken, cover that with your cheddar cheese and top it off with the ritz or the bread crumbs.

Step 5:

Stick it in the oven for an hour and then enjoy!

Total cost of meal: $4.90

Mojo Marinated Pork Chops and Steamed Green Beans With Bacon Accents

Ingredients:

3 Pork Chops--froze extra (2.67)

4 slices of turkey bacon (.15)

1lb green beans (.86)

1/2 cup of Mojo Marinade (.27)

Leftover Homemade Bread (Free! Included in the cost of another meal from the week)

Step 1:

Marinade the pork chops in the mojo for about 2 hours before you begin the cooking process.

Step 2:

Begin by frying your turkey bacon until you get the desired level of crispiness. We like it extra crispy so it takes me close to 10 minutes to get the desired effect.

Step 3:

Break up the bacon and set it aside.

Step 4:

Begin to steam your green beans. This will take about 15 minutes. If you're like me and don't have a steamer, you can make one very easily using stuff you already have in your kitchen.

Start with a pot with about an inch of water in it:

Put a colander on top of the pot and put the beans in:

Use the top that goes with the pot and put it over the beans and you've got your own make-shift steamer!

Step 5:

About 10 minutes into steaming the beans go ahead and grill your pork chops. I use our George Forman because we love the taste that we get from it but you can easily do it on the stovetop if you don't have one. I cook it on the grill for 3-4 minutes.

Step 6:

Drain the beans of any excess water and then dump them back onto the pan that you fried the bacon in:

Step 7:

Throw the bacon on top and turn the stovetop onto medium heat for about 3 minutes just to mix the flavors--you can also add salt and pepper to your liking.

Now you're ready to serve!

Total cost of meal: $3.95