Lemon Pepper Tilapia and Potato Wedges ~ Eating well on a BUDGET

I love fish, I love fish so much that I once ordered cod from IHop.... no it wasn't a good idea. Naturally I think that tilapia is yummy, I like how quick and easy it is to pan fry and its not too incredibly expensive, I think I paid $11 or $12 for a 2 lb. bag of individually wrapped fish.

We have a pretty strict food budget and I'm trying to stay within my budget but still eat good food. In the previous post you can see what my meal plan was for the next two weeks. It completely covers dinners for the two weeks and most of the lunches and breakfasts although I do plan on spending about $25 or so to stock up on milk, bread and cereal because we go through these quickly. I'm hoping to make this a series of the yummy meals I prepare on a daily basis. I hope to just give you an idea of what can be made with a well stocked pantry.

Lemon Pepper Tilapia and Rosemary Sea Salt Potato Wedges

Ingredient's
Frozen Tilapia Fillets
Lemon
1 tsp. coconut oil
lemon pepper

2 large Russet Potatoes
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp dried rosemary

I started with the Potatoes because they take 40-45 minutes to bake in a 400 degree oven
Rosemary Sea Salt Potato Wedges:
Rinse any dirt off of your potatoes, cut into wedges about a 1/2 inch thick, pour olive oil into a large bowl add salt and rosemary, drop cut wedges into bowl, toss/stir to season. Bake in a single layer on a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper. I did sprinkle some fine salt over the tops of all of them before baking in a preheated oven (400 degrees) for 40-45 minutes. Turn the wedges over at about half way (20 minutes) to cook evenly. Serve warm with favorite sauce.

Pan Seared Lemon Pepper Tilapia
Run unopened tilapia package under some cold water for 30 seconds or so, it helps get it out of the package easier. Heat a nonstick pan on the cooktop, add coconut oil. Place tilapia on the frying pan, cut lemon in half and drizzle half of the juice on the fish. Sprinkle lemon pepper on top of fish. After about 3-4 minutes get a spatula and flip the tilapia over and cook other side for the same amount of time. I like to season both sides with lemon pepper but its just a personal preference. A cooked fish will no longer have a pink line (it will be brown) in the middle and it is flaky, if you need to cook it longer then do so. Enjoy!

Menu Planning Binder : Getting Organized

 Two nights ago I finally got around to budgeting the next several months out. It took me at least an hour and a half to get to the month of March, but it is such a relief to know where all of the money needs to go each paycheck.

 Last night I figured out my dinner menu for the next two weeks and created a grocery list based on sales between our two local stores to get everything I need. Today I went and bought everything and did a pretty good job in that I had $75 budgeted for groceries and I only went over by $2. At least several of the things I bought will last for more than just the two weeks and will add to the next several weeks dinners.

When I'm really organized I make freezer meals, and they make the world such a better place :). Smiths and Kent's had fresh chicken for 1.79 lb, so I picked up $8.31 of chicken breasts and made 5 freezer meals and saved a breast to split in half for Sundays parmesan chicken. Only one of the freezer meals is on this weeks rotation so the others will be there for the next couple weeks when I choose to make them. (2 Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken, 1 Honey Garlic Chicken, 1 Café Rio chicken, 1 Chicken Gyro meat)

My husband has just about a lifetime supply of binders filled with old school stuff, I think this one had a criminal justice class from 2006 when we were first married. I threw it all away... why we even moved with it is beyond me. Now it is my "Menu Planning Binder" complete with calendar pages until June. I found this super cute printable calendar here Miss Tina Digital Art and it works perfect for my monthly dinner menu.

If your curious as to what I have planned for the next two weeks or so here is a list of what we will be eating, starting tonight.

 

Ham and Cheese Sliders

Sloppy Joes

Crockpot Parmesan Chicken

Hawaiian Chicken

Taco Soup

Tilapia with rice

Crockpot Vegetable Lasagna

Navajo Tacos

Hamburger Helper

Teriyaki pork

Fettuccini Alfredo

Cheesy Potato Soup

Burritos

Pizza

Spaghetti

 

 

If you hate meal planning here is a link Free Time Frolics  to a great page that helped me create my menu and give me a list to pick from for the next couple weeks.

 

 





Chickens like walnuts

 These crazy little scavengers have taught me several things about what a chicken likes to eat. Aside from the obvious bugs they have really enjoyed all of the walnuts my neighbors trees have dropped into our yard. When I let them out to roam I sometimes walk over to where there are unopened nuts and step on them to crack them open for my birds.

 Other random things I have taken out to them are dry baby food cereal that I've mixed with some water, spinach that has wilted in my fridge, the left over carcass of our Christmas turkey, dry oats that I found weevils in, and almost any of our left over food as long as it didn't contain chicken.

 Its nice to know that the walnuts are being put to some good use. I personally don't care for them even though they are really good for you. My son is allergic to walnuts so I can't even sneak them into food like pie crusts if I really wanted to.

What random things have you discovered that your chickens like to eat?

My Chicken Coop this Winter

This is my chickens coop this winter, it isn't the prettiest thing but it is super functional. The coldest that I've noticed it has been is around -8 degrees here in Brigham City this winter, but I haven't had a problem with frost bite yet.


 I have a whole bale of straw in their covered run area to keep the ground comfortable for the girls.

 On days they have to stay in there coop all day I throw a handful of oats into their run and they enjoy hunting in the straw for the oats.

 I have a total of 6 hens, they share an actual coop that we bought that was meant for only 4 hens, but that is why we added the additional covered run area so they wouldn't be so crowded.

 If we had left it as it was they would have been at each other all day because there really isn't that much space for them to all be out of the coop at once in the original coop and run. I attached a hook to the underneath of the coop to hold their hanging feeder. It gives them space to eat around it and keeps it off of the ground.

 We don't have electricity in the coop, so at least three of the girls have molted this winter and only two of the girls have layed all winter long. My two best layers are they white leghorn and my golden sex link, both are pictured (slightly) above. All of my chickens except two lay different colored eggs, I have only two of the same breed, buff orphingtons, and they have not laid all winter along with my easter egger and my black hen.

 I've put random pieces of old stumps and branches in the pen for them to perch on and also a ladder-ish piece that I screwed together with old pieces of fencing we had lying around.

 they have all been really healthy and I haven't noticed an extreme pecking order problem, they know their ranks but nobody is loosing feathers over it.