'Tater Fried Chicken and Butternut Fries

This was a very tasty, very easy meal that I was able to use a seasonal veggie for. I'm always looking for new ways to use vegetables because my husband is not a huge veggie fan, so anything I can do to them to spruce them up and make them appealing to him is welcome! He ate these puppies up, too. You're going to want a little bit of extra prep time for the fries because butternut squash is a pretty tough one to cut open. It took me about 25 minutes to get the fries ready, so just be prepared.

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs (2.40)

1 Butternut Squash (1.13)

1 pack of instant mashed potatoes (.54)

4 tbs butter (.20)

2 tbs olive oil (.10)

1 tbs seasoned salt (.05)

Step 1: Cut up your butternut squash into preferred fry shape (peel the outside, first). The easiest shape to cut a butternut squash into circles but I'm a little crazy and like to have a good shoestring shape.

Step 2: Put the fries into a bag, add your olive oil and some seasoning and shake it up. Put them onto a cookie sheet and into the oven at 375 degrees for an hour.
Step 3: Melt your butter, dip each leg into the butter and then run them through the instant potato mix. (I know, my pictures are backwards)

Step 4: Stick them in a baking dish and put them in the oven at 375 degrees for an hour.
And you're ready to serve! Ours got packed up and taken to work so that my husband could enjoy dinner with us. It was very yummy!

Total cost of meal: $4.42

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

First, I need to apologize for the huge blog hiatus. I am not normally this much of a procrastinator...BUT...my semi-mobile almost 8 month old has been keeping me so busy when she's not napping that when she is I'm using those little moments to do all kinds of other things. I THINK I've got her new schedule down and should be able to post my recipes more frequently. I'll also make sure to get the Frugal Fridays back up and running starting tomorrow!

This meal was SO YUMMY! I look forward to making it on cooler days because I think it'll be received even better (though, it's hard to have it received much better than it was). I'll definitely use it as a "company" dish because it made WAY too much for just hubby and I, definitely could have fed 4 more people with it easily.

Ingredients:

3 potatoes boiled and cubed (on sale 1.30)

4 oz of cream cheese (.45)

8 oz sour cream (1.00)

3/4 cup of all purpose flour (.10)

3 strips of bacon cooked and cut up (.30)

6 cups of milk (1.00)

1/2 cup of cheddar cheese to top (.55)

1/3 large white onion (.10)

Step 1: Cube your potatoes before boiling. Place them in a pot of boiling water and let them be for about an hour. Pull them out once soft. Mash potatoes when done (add just a bit of milk to them to get them to mash a little better).

Step 2: Combine milk, sour cream, cream cheese and mashed potatoes together in a bowl and then place them in a pot on medium heat.
Step 3: Brown onions and also cook up the bacon (set aside for use later).

Step 4: Add the onion to soup and let soup simmer for about 30 minutes.
To serve add a bit of bacon and cheese on top. Enjoy!

Total cost of meal: $4.80