As Easy as Mac-n-Cheese

Don't have time for dinner? Tired of box-meals?

Try these two -- they are as simple as boiling pasta and stirring in some good stuff. They are the 15 min., one-pan wonders that help your busy day go a little smoother. Enjoy!

Creamy Penne with Green Vegetables

1 box (5 servings) of penne whole grain pasta

4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 package)

1 Tb. onion powder

1 Tb. garlic salt

1 tsp. ground pepper

1 tsp. table salt

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 cup. chopped brocolli, peas, snowpeas, thin green beans, or asparagus (any combination you like)

In a large sauce pan, boil pasta in salted water (1/2 - 3/4 full). Place a colinder ontop of pan and steam your vegetables as the pasta cooks. In a seperate bowl, toss together parm. cheese, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. Lift the vegetables from the steam when fork tender (aprox. 7 min.), drain pasta when al dente (aprox. 10 min.). Combine all ingredients in the hot pan, stirr/toss until all pasta is coated. Serve hot, approx. 6 servings. Store covered in fridge for 3 days. *** while the pasta and vegis cook, you can sautee chicken breasts for a heartier meal. The whole grain and peas (legume) make a complex protein, so this is filling by itself as well.

Pesto Pasta and Fresh Tomato with Mozzerella

Pesto

3 cups rinsed basil leaves (1 sandwich bag full)

1/2 cup. olive oil

3 minced garlic cloves (1 1/2 Tb. garlic powder)

1/2 cup pine nuts (can substitute in almonds)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tsp salt

2 tsp black pepper

Blend together until spread is smooth. Store for 1 week in fridge, covered/sealed; or freeze in ziplock bag for 6 months. *I love freezing it flat, so I can break off bits from the pesto sheet and toss into hot pasta for a quick meal or side.

1 box pasta

3 garden fresh medium tomatoes (any variety), diced

2 ounces diced mozzerella cheese

2 Tb pesto

Boil pasta until al dente. Combine all ingredients in hot pan and toss until pesto is evenly coated throughout the dish. Serve hot or cold. Serves 6. Store covered in fridge 3 days.

Great Local Buys! 17-24th

Farmer's Market (Saturday 24, Merlin Olsen, 9am-1pm, cash or check)

Tomatoes: 50 cent-$1 lb (heirloom, cherry, Roma, zebra)

Snowpeas: $1/bag

Green Beans and Wax Beans: $2/bag

Basil: $1/bag *****pesto****

Parsley, broadleaf: $1/bag

Sweet Carots: $1/bag

Cantaloupe: $1 melon

Pumpkins (!): $1-$3/gourd

Onions, shallots, garlic: $1-$2/bag

Lee's

Broc. or Cauli: 69 cent/lb

Pineapple: 99 cent/lb

2 for $5 Keebler or Chips Ahoy Cookies

McCormick Grinders (pepper, salt, rubs): 2 for $3

Golden Grain Pasta Roni: 5 for $5

Barilla Pasta: 98cent/box

Acorn, Butternut, or Spaghetti Squash: 89cent/lb

Yellow Onions: 50 cent/lb

Bartlett Pears: 99 cent/lb

Smith's (two locations: off 400 n , off 700 n and Main)-- CaseLot Sale!

Del Monte Canned Fruit: 89cent/can (caselot price)

Kroger Canned Fruit: 79 cent/can

Libby's Canned Veg. (Corn, Beans, Peas): 50cent/can

10 for $1 Ramen

Kroger Cream Soup (great for casseroles, dips, soup) : 63 cent/can

Kroger Apple Juice: 4 for $5 (case for $10)

Quaker Rice Cake Minis: 10 for $10

Kroger Gummy Snacks and Toaster Treats: 10 for $10

Kroger 24 ounce Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Sour Cream: $1.99

99 cent/lb Zuch. or Yellow Crook neck squash

Kroger Candy Corn 10 for $10

M&M's, Snickers Party Bag: 2 for $4

Macey's

88 cent:applesauce and pudding cups 4pck, 2 packages of canister roll dough, Idahoan potato mix, Green Giant vegetables, Le Grand biscuit canisters, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper and Potato Helps mixes

$4 off COUPON when you purchase 8 General Mills products

68 cent/lb- Jalapeno peppers and Roma Tomatoes

A Fresh Market:

$4 off COUPON when you purchase 8 General Mills products

10 for $10 Red Peppers

Snack Ideas!

For 61 delicious (and healthy!) snack ideas for adults and kids, visit Real Simple at:

http://www.realsimple.com/health/nutrition-diet/healthy-eating/low-calorie-snacks-00100000063976/index.html?xid=weeklynews-09-07-2011

Welcome to bearallthings.blogspot.com!

This site is full of information to help college families live comfortably on a set (small) budget. The main page will have a weekly buying guide for locals deals, as well featured tutorials for seasonal products or sale food. Use the page tabs on the lower right to find past tutorials on storing food, planning menus, cheap recipes, and emergency preparation information.

Enjoy!

DIY Bottling (Fruit)

Fruit Havest!

September is the peak for orchard fruit harvesting in Cache Valley. Apricots have already come on, but you can still purchase them for less than the grocer in Perry, Brigham City, and at Cache Valley's Gardener's Markets (Merlin Olsen Park, 9am-1pm, and in Providence Square 3pm-6pm). Pears, peaches, grapes, and cherries are just coming in good prices. (I look for $20-$25 a basket for the fleshy fruit, and $1/lb for cherries and berries).

Before you bottle, inspect each jar for hairline cracks. The pressure and heat of sealing will crack or explode any unstable jar. Also, inspect your lids for any dents, smells, or uneven rubber seals. You rings should have no dents, rust, or discoloration as well. Wash and air dry your items, or steam sanitize them to avoid any food poisoning.

In a cold bath, rinse fruit thoroughly, half and pit, and place the fruit in the jars. (Pears and peaches should be skinned before cutting, a quick blanch loosens skin for ripe peaches and apricots, pears have to be peeled.) I leave my apricot skin on.

Push as many unblemished halves as you can into the jars; the heat of the sealing will soften and slightly cook the fruit, letting it float above the syrup so its important to place as much fruit as you can for tight fit for a more even preservation and less discoloration.

Over high heat, boil a simple sugar syrup until the sugar is dissolved. (For 7 qts or one batch, I had 8c white sugar and 16 c water). Some ladies to a 1:1 ratio for a heavy syrup. In a small saucepan, boil to sanitize the lids. In a bottling pot, fill 1/2 full with water and bring to a rapid boil. Trick: to avoid any glass from shattering in extreme temperature change, I fill a shallow pan with warm water next to the bottling pot and place the filled jars into it before I pour in the hot syrup.

Fill the jars with syrup (easier to dip a measuring cup with a spout into the syrup pan and pour over the fruit). Slid a butter knife or the end of a spoon along the side of the jar to wiggle any bubbles out of the pitted core, and top off the bottle with syrup. I fill the syrup up to the bottom ring of the lid-- Do NOT fill to the lip of the bottle. Syrup will boil and seep under the lid and prevent the bottle from sealing; so a little air gap is the goal.

After pouring the syrup, take a clean, damp rag and wipe clean the top of the bottle where the lid will be placed. If there is even a crystal of sugar, the lid will not seal, so it is the most important step in bottling. CLEAN, clean, clean! The lip will air dry within 30 sec.

Place the sanitized, hot lid on top of the glass bottle, then carefully screw on the lid without tipping the bottle (keep it the bottle level throughout the remaining steps to avoid breaking the dry rubber seal with the syrup).

Place all bottles in the rack and gently lower into the boiling water. Submerge the bottles in a rapid boil for 30 min.

After the boiling, gently take the bottles out of the water bath (without tipping) and place on a toweled table to cool. Trick: I place a towel over them as well to prevent a breeze from cracking the bottles and to prevent uneven cooling. After an hour, they should be cooled to the touch. Check your seal by pressing on the lids. They should be tight and firm; you'll know if they didn't seal if they make a metal popping sound (like a musical saw being flexed).

These should be good up to five years, but I rotate through mine every two years. So, last year I did peaches, pears, and beans; this year I'm still eating those and will make apricots, beats, and pickles. A special thanks to my Momma Lisa and sister, Courtney who team up with me on these bottling nights! Girl chat makes everything seem so much better. :)

My hats off to those pioneer women who did this on their own with two burners, inside, year after year!

three-cheese basil stuffed tomatoes

In honor of the approaching tomato season on the Rockies...

In Smith's, Lee's, and Macey's you can purchase Gossner's economy cuts of cheese for a dollar or two less than their shelf packaged items (these are usually the end pieces of loafs or mis-cuts found in discount bins). This is great for cheese you're planning on slicing or shredding, like white jack, pepper jack, munster, mozzarella, and Cheddars.

Purchasing tip: if you don't mind grating, buy the Parmesan and asiago cheese by the wedge. You'll most likely get 2-3 times the amount of cheese for the same price.

3-cheese and basil stuffing, 10 min. prep., 20 min. roast, serves 6

1 1/2 cup. ricotta (or about half a container)

1 c. shredded mozzarella

1/2 c. grated Parmesan

1 c. diced white (or yellow) onion

1 Tb. garlic salt

1 Tb. diced fresh parsley

2 Tb. diced fresh basil

1/2 Tb. salt and ground black pepper

3 eggs

Fork mash thoroughly to ensure an even spread of egg.

Slice off the stem end of 12 Roma Tomatoes, and spoon (core) out the seeds, juice, and ribbing. Be careful not to puncture the tomato sides.

Pour 2 Tb. olive oil into a glass pan and roll the tomato skins in oil to coat, coating the pan as you go. Stuff the tomatoes and set on side (or if you can, stand them on their blossom ends with the cheese facing up, side by side to fill the dish).

Bake at 350 F for 20 min. COVERED, or until the skins are roasted and start to peel away from the tomato flesh and the cheese is bubbling or golden brown.

Serve 2-3 tomatoes on a bed or salted or pesto pasta, or with marinara and long pasta with a green salad. Enjoy!

Through the 16th

What's great for Farmer's Market:

4 for $1 Summer Squashes

$2 free-range eggs (doz.)

$1/bundle fresh herbs (basil, chives, sage, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, marjoram, dill)

$1/bundle beets, green beans, pea pods, scallions, onions, and bags of lettuce/arugula mixes

25cent ea. the BEST honey-salted carmels EVER (Bees Brothers)

soon to come: tomatoes, basil, watermelon, gourds

Case Lot Sales!

now through September (when there are the BIG ones)

Macey's

2 for $1 canned corn, beans, chilies, soups, and apple sauce

88 cent canned fruit (lowest price for pineapple in Utah)

69 cent sweetened condensed milk, canned

39 cent tomato paste

$2.99 5 gal water jug -- lowest price of the year

$1.79 caro syrup

4 for $5 brown and powdered sugar, wf frozen concentrated juice

Smith's

10 for $10 Hamburger (tuna and chicken) Helper, Knoll's side helpers in rice and pasta

Mountain Dairy Mile $2.49/gal

99cent/lb green grapes

COUPON: $5 off when you buy 10 General Mills Items (Betty Crocker, Cheerios, Fiber One, Reese's, Trix, Nature Valley, Youplait, Phillbury)

2 for $1 wf sandwich meat

99 cent/lb lettuce green and red leaf

Lee's

99 cent WF loaf, white and wheat

79 cent/lb cauli and broc. -- one of the BEST years for flowerts! (snip and freeze in zip locks-- better than store bought frozen for soups, stir-fries, and casseroles in the fall and winter)

99 cent/ea WF steam-its frozen vegis

99 cent/lb Bartlett pears

79 cent/lb Roma tomatoes *** see our recipe of the week

59 cent/lb yellow onions

8 for $1 limes

A Fresh Market place

69 cent/lb Roma Tomatoes

COUPON: $5 off when you buy 10 General Mills Items (Betty Crocker, Cheerios, Fiber One, Reese's, Trix, Nature Valley, Youplait, Phillbury)

2 for $1 canned tomatoes, wf lunch meats, green peppers

89 cent/lb oranges