The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook Giveaway
December 29th, 2009 / 3 Comments
Let’s end 2009 and begin 2010 with a giveaway!
How many of you are making a new year resolution to eat healthier? Or a resolution to keep a tighter budget? Or a resolution to eat out less?
To accomplish all those worthy goals, here is a book that is invaluable: The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook. Every meal plan in the book will feed a family of four for less than $5!
The author Erin Chase, better known as the $5 Dinner Mom, is the creater of 5DollarDinners.com, a one-of-a-kind blog that chronicles a mother’s quest to feed 4 hungry mouths for only $5 a meal with recipes that are not only frugal, but also fresh, healthy & yummy! She’s shared her recipes on the Rachael Ray Show, in Women’s Day Magazine, on FoodChannel.com, the Washington Post & many more. And her new book, The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook, will be included in a “best of the holiday” roundup on Good Morning America.
What I like about this book, besides tons of useful recipes for the ordinary cook like me, is the way it puts together the entire menu for the meal. For example, if you want to serve Pickapeppa Beef Stew for dinner (page 226 in the book), Erin also suggests serving corn on the cob and dinner rolls with it. The entire meal, not just the main dish, is less than $5!
Lest you think it’s a life of beans and PBJ, all the meals have meat, with the exception of the chapter on vegetarian meals. There is a chapter of fish and seafood meals too, so there is no lack of quality foods.
As expected, eating on a budget does require some planning. The book begins with three chapters on strategies – Strategic Grocery Shopping, Strategic Couponing, Strategic Meal Planning. There is a fun “What kind of shopper are you?” quiz that is useful in understanding our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to shopping habits. The chapters give practical ideas such as making the most of your shopping trips (my area of weakness), setting a food budget, and portion control (subtitled Portion Distortion!)
My daughter in college is living in a apartment with 3 other girls this year. It’s their first time living on their own without a meal plan on campus, which means if they want to eat, they have to cook! This book will be really helpful for them to not only live on a student budget at $5 a meal, but to teach them how to put together a balanced, nutritious meal. The recipes are simple enough to make without taking a lot of time away from studies to cook and clean pots and pans. If you also have children who live away from home, or children old enough to learn to cook at home, this is a good book for them.
Would you like to win a copy of this book? Here are the simple rules to enter the contest:
1. Comment on this post with the dish you make that your family likes best.
2. Get another entry if you tweet this post on Twitter with @RaisingKids
3. Get another entry if you link this post in your Facebook. Leave a comment here to let me know that you did.
Open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only. Contest will close on Wednesday, January 6, at midnight PST. Winner will be chosen randomly by random.org.
Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way except for the complimentary book for review. Receiving a free product does not influence my opinions about the product.
Comments
ooh am I the first entry?? My family loves shepherd pie, or the reverse version with the potatoes on the bottom. We are having it tonight for dinner! I will tweet and link this on Facebook if I can figure out how!!!Thanks Katy!
We love chicken, broccoli and pasta baked with cream of mushroom soup and cheese. We make a big batch and always have leftovers for lunches the next day.
I made this for the Bachelorette finale last season when my friend hosted a mommies’ night in party (so much fun!!!). Jillian Harris made her final selection in Hawaii between Kiptyn Locke and Ed Swiderski (final choice). I decided to make fried rice because in Hawaii, Spam is known as “The Hawaiian Steak”.
So, here is my method for some delicious fried rice.
Ingredients:
3 cups (dry) rice
4 eggs
1 can of SPAM (low sodium or lite)
1 pound small to medium shrimp
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 teaspoon fresh ginger (or few dashes powdered)
1 teaspoon garlic ((or few dashes powdered)
3 teaspoons butter (you may omit butter)
Olive oil (or any you have on hand)
Sesame oil
Soy sauce (low sodium or any kind is fine/we use Kikoman)
pepper
Prepare rice and refrigerate at least 2-4 hours, or overnight.
Whisk/scramble eggs and add pepper.
Dice SPAM into little square pieces.
Peel and rinse shrimp.
Chop veggies finely (I like to use our processor to make pieces very fine).
Turn large wok, or large pan on MED-HI heat. After pan is heated, put one teaspoon butter in pan and a dash of sesame oil. Coat pan with the mixture.
Fry the SPAM until crispy and put in large bowl.
Next, put one teaspoon butter in pan and a dash of olive oil.
Fry the shrimp till just pink and put in the bowl.
Fry the eggs and put in the bowl.
(Sometimes, I do the eggs first)
Now, fry the veggie mix. After 2-3 minutes add 1 teaspoon butter and the garlic and ginger. Mix frequently.
Put rice on top and break it up. Add soy sauce (will steam) and continue mixing the rice and veggies. (I am not sure of the amount of soy sauce… never measured it – sorry! but you want a consistent light brown color throughout)
Add contents of bowl and keep mixing … Serve hot and with soy sauce on side – Yum-Yum!
I tweeted and posted on my facebook!
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