One of the most expensive parts of the holidays is preparing food. Here’s a few inexpensive recipes that won’t put a dent in your budget.
Pumpkin Muffins
- 1 box of spice cake mix
- 1 can of pumpkin puree
Combine both ingredients in a bowl and mix it. If the texture is still thick you can add in a bit of apple sauce. Then bake it according to the cake mix directions.
You can easily make Pumpkin Cookies with this same recipe. Just place a spoonful of mixture onto a baking sheet after spraying it with oil. Then bake at 350º for about ten minutes.
Easy Brownies Made w/ Cola
- 1 box of brownie mix
- 1 can of cola
Mix both ingredients together and bake according to the directions on the brownie mix. No other ingredients are needed as the coke actually provides all that is needed to make the brownies!
If you want to spruce up the recipe, you can always add nuts, or make your own powdered sugar/cream cheese topping.
Squash with tomato sauce
- 3 yellow squashes
- 1 can of tomato sauce
- 1/2 a package of shredded cheese
Slice the squash into thin slices and saute it in a skillet with a small amount of butter until it’s tender. Next, add in your tomato sauce and let it simmer for about five minutes. Finally add the cheese to the top and let it melt. Eat immediately.
You can add more squash and tomato sauce according to the amount of people you’ll be serving.
Empanadas
- 1 can of large biscuits
- 1 lb. of hamburger
- 1 can of chilies diced
- egg for egg wash
Cook the hamburger until it’s done. Next, add in your green chilies and whatever seasonings you want to add. Let it simmer for about five minutes to distribute the taste of chilies. Then set it aside to let it cool.
Roll out your biscuits dough to a larger size without thinning out the dough too much. Add a spoonful of hamburger mixture or two into the center of the rolled out biscuit dough. Then fold over the dough, creating moon shaped pocket. Seal the edges with an egg wash and then brush the top of your empanadas with the same egg wash.
Bake at 400º for about twelve to fifteen minutes. For this recipe, you can vary the ingredients according to taste.
Being frugal at home by stretching your dollar doesn’t mean sacrificing taste. You can still have delicious things for a fraction of the cost.
Wow intresting always looking for new recipies will try them out 🙂 thanks!
Do you know if it can be diet cola on the brownies?? That is all I have in the house….
Yes,Christy! 🙂 You can use diet soda! It seems too easy,doesn’t it? And it was easy before I found out about the soda! lol
Yes Christy,
You can indeed use diet coke. Diet coke is all I drink. As a Weight Watcher member I’m always looking for fast and easy things to do since I work in the mornings and am on the run.
It was mentioned on the Freebie Facebook page other things you can use, like flavored sodas. The carbonation in the th sodas cause the cake/brownies to rise. Someone mentioned something else they use in their brownie mix too, but i can’t remember what is was ugh!!
If you want a better topping you can always mix yogurt (of your choice) with coolwhip low-fat or no-fat and you have a great topping for the brownies or cake.
Let me know if it works for ya.
Okay if you clicked on my name and got a blog not found, you can click on my name now and it should come up.
Melissa
Some of the above recipes are Weight Watcher recipes and the others are mine. 🙂