Cheap, easy and nutricious food for kids!

As a single mother for years, I had to feed my kids on a tight budget. I had my kids before child support was a percentage of the other parent's salary. I got what we agreed to which was $275 a month for 3 kids and I didn't get that as often as I should have.

But, I always kept those kids well fed. I learned to cook many dishes that the kids liked and that were good for them. As a working mother, I also had to cook easy, quick dinners as well as nutritious dinners. These recipes fit the bill just fine.

All but the pickiest of children will like these recipes. If you have any economical recipes that are easy to prepare and tasty for the kids as well as nutritious, please feel free to post them in the comments below this post.

Easy Tuna Casserole

1- box of macaroni and cheese (prepared)
3/4- can of peas
1- 6 ounce can of tuna fish (drained of water or oil and then flaked with a fork)

Prepare the macaroni and cheese as directed on the box. Then, stir in the tuna and the peas. Mix well in the serving pan or bowl and serve just like that!

You could also sprinkle a bit of cheese on top of the casserole, or even some crushed potato chips. If your kids like tomatoes, dice a few and throw them in. You can personalize this easy dish for your family. It won't take anymore than a half an hour to make and the kids will love it!

I have to go to a meeting for work right now but later on, I'll add a couple of other quick kids recipes.

Grandma's Simple Southern Sausage Gravy

I know this blog is called "What's For Dinner" but occasionally I will post a breakfast recipe or heck, even a lunch recipe. I used to love breakfast for dinner so maybe this will be a dinner recipe. Whatever you call it, it sure is good. I used to watch my grandmother cook and I learned so much from that.

One of the best recipes that she ever taught me was something that I never saw growing up in Chicago...it was sausage gravy that you pour over biscuits. Of course, you can always pour it over toast, but down in the South, they use biscuits.

I have used this sauce as an Eggs Benedict sauce as well, pouring it over English Muffins, fried eggs and a slice of ham or a sausage patty. This recipe is very simple, don't make it tough on yourself. One pound of sausage will make enough gravy for 4-6 people, depending on how much they eat.

1 lb. pork breakfast sausage
3 heaping tblsp. of flour
About two coups of milk added slowly

First, fry the pound of sausage in a frying pan, crumbled up. Leave the fat in the pan when you're done. Once the meat is cooked all the way through, add the flour and stir it up until it's dissolved. Then, add the milk, a quarter cup at a time, stirring it into the flour/sausage mixture. Let it simmer until it's at the consistency that you like and then season with a bit of salt and pepper. It doesn't need much seasoning because the sausage is usually seasoned itself. But, a bit is always good.

Be sure that you don't use hot sausage, mild works the best.

Pour the sausage gravy over biscuits, toast or English Muffins and serve alone or with eggs. I fry an egg and put it on top of the gravy but you don't have to do that. This is a meal in itself and quite filling. I wouldn't want to serve it everyday, but a nice weekend morning is a great time for this meal. A true man's favorite, all of my husband's like this meal!

Meg Kelso

Beef Stoup....Even a wimp'll love it!

Even my wimp of an ex husband likes this recipe. Except for the onion, it has none of the "icky" vegetables that Mama's boys are so afraid of. When the sissy boy was still eating here, I had to grate the onions in a cheese grater so that he wouldn't see them. Sure, I would have preferred them chopped like a normal person, but while he was living here, I had to deal with my onions being invisible. If the fool couldn't SEE them, they didn't give him heartburn. So, I slippped them in on him. I should have slipped in some anti-freeze while I was at it.

For some reason, people think that soup is only good to cook during the colder months but I like it year round. It's always a great meal and one of the best ways to use a cheaper cut of meat or a leftover roast. One of my favorite soups is vegetable beef and my oldest son loves beef stew so I cook up a big pot of soup, take a big bowl out for myself and then thicken it for my son's stew. I have never seen a vegetable that couldn't be used in this meal but here is my basic recipe that you can add or subtract from to make it your own. The meat and vegetables can be cut into any size you like, but I prefer mine cut into large chunks. The meat and potatoes should be cut to the same size.


2 lbs. round steak diced
5 medium potatoes diced
3 large carrots sliced
2 small onions diced
1 1/2 cup frozen corn
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
1 large can diced tomatoes or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced
2 bay leaves
3 beef bullion cubes or 1 quart beef stock
1 teaspoonful celery seed
3 tablespoonsful soy sauce
3 tablespoonsful worcestershire sauce
2 envelopes of beef stew flavoring or brown gravy mix
salt and pepper to taste


Chop the meat and cook it in 1 quart of water with bullion or beef stock for two hours (if you don't add the quart of beef stock to the water, you may have to add another cup or two of water when the meat is done to cook the vegetables. Heck, you may have to add a bit more water later anyway, just to keep enough to barely cover the vegies.), covered and stirring occasionally at a low simmer. (You can certainly use a crock pot if you have one, but this is how we poor folk down here in the South do it.) Of course, if you're using leftover roast or meat that's already cooked, you only have to simmer the meat until it's tender.) Add everything else and stir. Simmer for another hour, tasting occasionally to check your seasonings.

When you get the flavor just right and you would like to make this recipe stew instead of soup, mix one cup of milk with 3 tablespoonsful of corn starch until corn starch is dissolved. Add to soup 1/4 cup at a time until it's as thick as you like it. Of course, you need to stir and wait about 5 minutes in between each 1/4 cup of corn starch/milk that you pour in to see if you really need more thickening. If you want to keep the meal as soup, add 2 cups of barley, rice or pasta if you like before serving.

Potato Soup Du Annum

I love soup and homemade soup is by far the best. It's economical and quite nutritional. My favorite soup varies from day to day, but all in all, I would have to say that potato soup is my all-around favorite. Here's a recipe for the best potato soup that I've ever tasted. You can toss just about anything in it, from leftover ham to bacon bits. Take the basic recipe and make it your own. By the way, I like to dice the onions but when I was married to an onion hater, I had to grate them in a cheese grater because if he saw the onion pieces, he would get heartburn. If he didn't see them, he didn't get heartburn.

6 medium sized potatoes
1 stick of butter
milk
1 medium diced onion
1 carrot sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 large celery stalk sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 cup of shredded cheese (I use sharp cheddar but you can use American or Colby)
salt
pepper
1 cup of leftover ham diced (you can always use a can of Spam if you want to)

Dice the potatoes into half inch pieces and put them in a dutch oven. Toss in the sliced carrot and celery and the diced onion. (If you have to grate the onions, don't add them until after you strain the water out of the vegetables.) Add enough water to just cover the vegetables and simmer them until fork tender. Don't boil them or you'll end up with diluted mashed potatoes. When the vegetables are done, strain about half of the water out, then add the butter and enough milk to barely cover the vegetables. You can always add more so try not to put too much in at first. Add the cheese and then about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Mix and simmer for about twenty minutes. Taste the soup to see if you need to add more salt or pepper. At this point, the soup may be a bit thin, that's OK, you can fix it later. Once you have the soup tasting right, add the ham or bacon bits or whatever meat you prefer. Of course, you don't have to add any meat at all, but this is the way that I like it. When you have the soup tasting how you like it, you can thicken it if you need to by putting three tablespoons of cornstarch into a cup, add a cup of milk and then stir that until the cornstarch has dissolved. Add that mixture slowly, a bit at a time, stirring the soup after every quarter cup or so. Before you add more of the cornstarch mixture, let the soup cook for about 5 minutes so that it has time to thicken. When you have the soup as thick as you like it, stop adding the cornstarch. Top each bowl with a bit of shredded cheese, chives, sliced scallions or bacon bits and serve with crackers.

Men CAN cook!!!

You never know what men can do when they set their minds to it! I've tried both of these recipes and they really are good. So, in honor of the men that bother to cook...this section is all of their recipes. When you find a man who is creative enough to cook and care what they're cooking, you can usually count on him being a great guy. So, these are their recipes:

Hi Meg,

here's one of my favourites.

I won't be specific with quantities, just use what you think.

Boil some pasta twists up and in another pan some new potatoes, canned if available.In a fying pan, add some olive oil, chopped celery, scallions (we call them spring onions), red pepper slices. Fry till cooked.

Drain a can of Tuna or two, mix with mayonnaise.

When the pasta and potatoes are cooked, drain and mix with the scallions, celery and pepper slices.

Serve and add a dollop of tuna and mayonnaise on top.

Hi Meg,

here's another for the kids,

they call it cowboy pie,

fried sausages, baked beans in a caserole dish with mashed potatoe and grated cheese on top.

How easy is that, but it's one of there favourites.


OK...here is another "man recipe". They don't have as much experience writing recipes as we do so they do it a bit differently, but I think you get the idea...this one sounds really good!

I like the easy Shepherd's Pie.Grease (olive oil) a baking dish, line it with mashed potatoes. Add a nice thick layer of cooked ground beef - sauteed onions and green peppers with it! - (raw ground beef makes for one greasy, soupy, inedible mess!), cover the layer with grated cheese - cheddar is good, but I kinda prefer Mozarella - then add a layer of mashed potatoes.I like to swirl the mashed potatoes to make the top look like meringue peaks. You can sprinkle the top with paprila and/or cheese for color. Then bake that sucker until the tops of the potatoes are brown and the cheese is bubbly. A medium oven is fine.Serve it using one of those pie slice servers. And try not to burn your tongue. Heheheee!

My Mother's Wonderful Lasagna

I don't know how my wonderful Irish mother came up with such a great recipe for this Italian dish, but she did. It's the best lasagna that I ever tasted. It's so good that I never order it at any restaurant, not even the best Italian places in Chicago. It even impressed my ex Italian in-laws and now my daughter makes it to glowing raves.

It takes a long time to make so when I do it, I usually make two trays and I even stuff some manicotti's with the cheese mixture. I used to freeze the second tray but my kids would take it out and eat it as soon as the first one was gone so now I just leave it out there and we all eat lasagna for a week and a half.

You can make this lasagna a vegetarian delight by omitting the meat and adding sliced carrots, zuchinni, red/yellow/green bell peppers, larger pieces of onions, artichoke hearts, peas, and/or corn to the sauce.


This recipe has three basic ingredients, the cheese mixture, the sauce and the pasta. I use the ordinary lasagna noodles but you could probably use any pasta that you want to use.

CHEESE MIXTURE:

32 ounces of ricotta cheese
2 lbs. of shredded mozzarella (leaving a cup aside for the top of each tray)
One large container of parmasian and romano cheese
2 eggs
2 tablespoonfuls of Italian seasoning
1 teaspoonfuls each of salt and pepper

Mix this all together in a large bowl and put in the fridge until you use it.

SAUCE:

(You can use your own sauce recipe here but if you'd like, this is mine and I find that it works best.)

2 pounds of ground
2 pounds of ground Italian sausage
1 32 ounce can of tomato sauce
2 32 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
1 medium onion diced
1 medium green pepper chopped up

1 tablespoon each of:
oregano
garlic
rosemary
thyme
parsely
Italian seasoning
sugar

1 teaspoonful each of:
celery seed
fennel seed
salt
pepper

2 bay leaves (to be removed before using sauce)
1/4 cup olive oil (if you don't have olive oil, don't use any other oil. This is for flavor, not for anything else.
1 jar of Four Cheese Ragu Spaghetti Sauce. (This sounds like you're cheating, but you're not. It's just an ingredient that assures a great sauce, not the sauce itself. My mother didn't use it but I do.)

Brown the meat, drain grease and then add sauces and seasonings. Simmer for at least an hour, tasting every 15 minutes to see if you need to add anything. Set sauce aside until you're ready to use it.

Boil lasagna noodles according to directions on the box. Always put about a quarter cup of olive oil in the water when you boil the pasta. For this, any oil will do but I prefer olive oil.

Pour a half cup of sauce into a 13X9 inch pan. Lay 3 pieces of the pasta on the bottom of the pan and then spread cheese mixture on that, the cheese spread should be about 1/2 inch thick here. Cover the cheese mixture with sauce and then begin again with another layer of pasta. Repeat this until you have 3 layers of everything and then cover with pasta, pour sauce on that to cover it and sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Let sit for a half an hour before serving. This should make enough for two 13X9 inch pans.

If I have extra cheese mixture, I stuff some manicotti shells and cover them with sauce and sprinkle that with mozzarella cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

I keep aside some sauce to cover the lasagna or manicotti with because I like mine saucy.

It's tough to make exactly enough of everything so you will always run out of something before the rest of everything is gone. That's OK, if you have extra sauce, that's good because you can use it for anything you want to use it for. Extra cheese mixture is good because you can stuff manicotti or mix in another type of pasta and bake. Extra noodles are another story. You could mix them with some olive oil and spices and serve like that, but I just toss them. You can freeze portions and reheat later. Bake them before freezing.

Serve this with a nice salad and whatever bread you like. I promise, people will rave about this recipe!

Pot Luck Macaroni Salad

Today is my birthday so I'm cooking one of my very favorite meals...baby back bar-b-qued ribs. I'm cooking them on my grill. I have this thing that is called a Chimney. You use it to start the charcoal without lighter fluid. It works every time and has the coals evenly white and ready to cook in a half an hour.

You don't taste the lighter fluid, just the charcoal. You take two sheets of newspaper, stuff it under the bottom of the large coffee can shaped thing. The coals are in the top part. You light the newspapers and within a half hour, you're ready to grill anything.

The nice thing about that is that you can have a second round of charcoal ready for cooking things that take a long time, like the ribs. The second can of charcoal is ashing over right now. I had the ribs bone side down when the coals were hot, then meat side down when they weren't so hot. Then, I'll cook them bone side down again when I put the second can of charcoal in the grill. Of course, when the coals cool down some, I'll cook them meat side down again for a while.

Those things only cost about 10-20 bucks and you never have to buy lighter fluid again.

Anyway, one of the things that I'm serving with the ribs is a macaroni salad with tuna. It's an easy, very good salad to have anytime you'd like a pasta salad to eat or to take to a potluck dinner. Everyone loves it when I bring it to any event and I always like to bring it because I love to hear people tell me what a good cook I am. I've made the recipe about as small as you can make it. It makes a good size serving bowl full and would probably serve 6 or more.

Boil 8 ounces of elbow macaroni. You can rinse in cold water for immediate use.

Chop 1/4 to 1/3 cup each of: onions-I use both yellow onions AND scallions (1/4 cup of each)

green pepper-You can always use red or yellow, I usually use green and tonight I used green because it was on sale, 2 for $1.00.

celery

1 teaspoonful of vinegar...whatever type you prefer

One teaspoonful each of salt and pepper

One 6 ounce can of tuna in water, not in oil

One tablespoonful of mustard, I use yellow

Mix all of that together. I mush up the tuna separately before I put it in the mixing bowl so the salad doesn't have big hunks of tuna. Then, I add Miracle Whip (actually the store equivalent, it works just as well), 1/4 cup at a time, stirring well each time after adding the Miracle Whip. After you have at least 1/2 cup of Miracle Whip in the salad, start tasting it after each 1/4 cup that you put in. Stop adding it when the salad is as moist as you like it. I use about 1 1/2 cup in my salad.

Some people prefer mayonnaise to the salad dressing, but I can't stand by the salad if you use mayonnaise. I'm sure it will be good, but I can't guarantee as many compliments at the church pot-luck dinner as you'll get if you make it exactly like I do. You can also add tomatoes if you like, I do it occasionally. To top the salad off, I slice up 3 heard boiled eggs and lay the slices all around the perimeter of the salad and then I sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of bacon bits over the middle, not on the eggs slices. The toppings are all optional, I didn't put any on my salad tonight because I'm putting most of my effort into the ribs which are still slowly cooking. Oh, by the way, this salad has to be refrigerated, of course.

PS Hi! I just went to Florida and while I was there, my father bought a can of crab meat (claw) and asked me to make it for dinner. I didn't know what to do with it so I decided to make this salad and use the crab meat instead of tuna...it was great.

The Amazing Mashed Potato!

Potatoes are one of my favorite things. I love them mashed, fried, hash browned, scalloped...you name it, I love them. This recipe (or group of them) are mainly about mashed potatoes and things that you can do with the leftovers. I use butter, but this is one of the times that margarine would work as well. Also, salt and pepper to your own tastes. I give general guidelines for those who are clueless in the kitchen, but you can always add more if you like.

4-6 medium potatoes (about 4 to 5 inches long, 2-3 inches in diameter).
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of whole milk to begin with, you can add more according to how stiff you like your potatoes.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Whether or not you leave the peel on is your business. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Most of the vitamins are near the skin, so if that's a consideration, there you go. I've read that baked potatoes make the best mashed potatoes but you decide what you like. Even if I am leaving the skin on, I do cut some parts off and I shave any areas that don't seem to get clean even after scrubbing and rinsing. If you boil the potatoes, first cut them into thirds and then cover the potatoes with one inch of water and bring to boil. Then, turn the temperature down to a simmer for about 30-45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes or so. That will avoid making potato mush, boiling has the potential to do that. Drain the water out of the pitatoes, put the potatoes back in the pot you boiled them in and mash them crudely at first. Add the stick of butter and mash some more. Then, add the milk. You may or may not need to add more milk. Add small bits at a time, you can always add more but you can't really take any out. (By the way, I have one purpose for instant mashed potatoes. I sprinkle them into my mashed potatoes if I accidentally put too much milk in them.)

OK, now you have your basic mashed potatoes. Remember to taste them often along the way to be sure that you have enough salt and pepper in them. Remember to try different consistencies, you can use an electric mixer for really fluffy mashed potatoes, a hand masher and a fork for chunky mashed potatoes...whatever you like best. If you find yourself (as I have, many times) without a potato masher, you can always use the bottom of a heavy glass/cup. A Pyrex measuring cup is good. Then, you just literally mash them. After you add the milk and butter, it should be mashed enough for you to be able to take a fork to it and finish the job.

Every single time that I make mashed potatoes, I make extra so that I can have one of my left-over mashed potato dishes. I have quite a few things that I can do with left-over mashed potatoes, but these are my three favorites:

POTATOE CROQUETS

1 cup mashed potatoes
1 egg
1/4 cup diced onions
fill a tablespoon about halfway with fresh chives (optional)
Salt and pepper
You may or may not like to add shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, or colby would do nicely) at this point.

Mash it all up, using your hands until everything is well blended. Shape the mixture into patties, dredge in a well mixed egg and then in bread crumbs. (This step is also optional although it does add a nice, crispy outside to the croquets.) Place coated patties into 3/4 inch of hot olive oil in a 12 inch skillet. Fry on each side for about 5 minutes each. Serve soon after preparing.

TWICE BAKED POTATOES

Begin with above recipe up to adding cheese. With the cheese, you could add a tablespoon of any of the following, or get creative and think of your own additions:

chopped green,
red or yellow peppers
chopped celery
bacon bits, fried or canned
You could pretty much add any chopped meat or fish to the potato mixture.
chopped tomatoes

You can add just about anything you'd like or a mixture of things. Some people may just like cheese or other single ingredient.

Blend the mixture together with your hands. Hopefully, you've saved a few potato shells from when you first prepared the mashed potatoes. If not, that's OK, you can buy small aluminum cups or ramekins. Put the mixture in the cup/potato shells. Cover the potato with cheese, salt and pepper or paprika if you'd like to. Place potatoes on a cookie sheet, whether they're in a shell, aluminum container or a ramekin. Put the cookie sheet in an oven pre-heated to 350 and leave in there for 30-45 minutes.

POTATO PANCAKES

1 cup mashed potatoes
1/4 cup of diced onions (optional)
salt and pepper
1/8 cup chopped celery (optional)
2 eggs
1 heaping fork full of flour

Mix all ingredients together. Mixture should be the consistency of a cross between pancake batter and Miracle Whip. If it's too thick, add milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. Pour batter into olive oil that has been warming while you were preparing the batter. These will be a lot thinner than the croquets so pour them slowly, about a half cup at a time, into hot oil. Make them as large or small as you'd like. Fry on first side for 5 minutes and then turn pancake over (carefully) and fry on other side for another 5 minutes. Take pancake out and set on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Multi-Purpose Meat Slop

This concoction is very handy to have around. You can take it and make meat loaf, meat balls, Salsbury Steak...a bunch of different meals. It's really just a basic meat loaf recipe that you can shape into patties and fry to make Salsbury Steak, roll into balls for meat balls or whatever you need it to be.

1 pound ground beef
1 large egg
1/2 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of chopped onions
1/2 cup of bread crumbs or three slices of damp bread
Salt and pepper...at least a teaspoon of each, more if you like more

After putting all of those ingredients into a large bowl, you add a few tablespoons of whatever you have in your fridge. Use about 3 of the following (or whatever you happen to have on your fridge door):

soy sauce
worcestershire sauce
any type of salad dressing
steak sauce
mustard
marinade sauce

Mix that all together and when you're done, it should be a bit softer than hamburger meat, but as easy to shape into balls or patties.

For meat loaf, bake it at 350 for about an hour. For Salisbury Steak, fry patties until they're no longer pink inside (then cover with brown gravy to serve). For meat balls, you can bake them at 350 for about a half an hour and then add them to the sauce.

You can use the same recipe, adding 3/4 cup of instant rice and stuff into green peppers or roll into cabbage leafs. Cover with tomato sauce and bake at 350 for an hour and serve with some pasta on the side and a salad or vegetable. When using the Basic Recipe for Italian dishes, you can add a few shakes of Italian spices to the meat, like oregano, garlic...whatever you like.