Dining out is costly; however, that doesn't mean you can't have similar good food at home without that cost.  Mission - Restaurant-style baked potatoes is a good way to demonstrate how you can still have a great baked potato at home and save a lot of money.  Most restaurants charge $2 or more dollars per side dish; however, if you catch the right sale, you can purchase a 10lb bag of russet potatoes for $2 or less.  This week at Aldi, I was able to pick up at bag 10lb bag of potatoes for $1.59!  Talk about a deal. In the past, I have bought potatoes and forgot about them - they go bad, I throw them away.  What a vicious cycle of waste!  In an effort to eliminate this unnecessary waste and continue our mission to not dine out, I decided to make my own "restaurant-style" baked potatoes at home tonight to go with our BBQ Beef Ribs.  These potatoes are super simple and delicious!  You can have these as a side dish or as a main entree. 

Here's what you'll need.

Super Simple Restaurant-Style Baked Potatoes
4 baking potatoes
Kosher salt


Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees.  Next, wash your potatoes and scrub them clean with a vegetable brush.

While the potatoes are still moist, sprinkle the entire skin with kosher salt.  Place directly on oven rack and bake for approximately one hour or until potato is tender and skin is slightly crisp.   To help keep your oven clean, lay a piece of foil on the rack below the potatoes as they will likely drip moisture as they cook.

Tonight's dinner mission, try something new.  For the something new, I decided to pick up some beef ribs after recently happened upon a conversation online. Falling off the bone succulent ribs sounds astounding and I thought the next time I made my grocery shopping list I wanted this menu item to be on them.  Lucky for me, while shopping at Aldi's, I happened upon a great deal.  $2 off Boneless Beef Ribs.  For $6 for 1.6 lbs of beef ribs ($1.50 per person), I knew it was meant to be, so in the shopping cart they went and now I just had to dream up how to cook them.  I decided the safe way was BBQ since this is my first time working with this cut of meat.

Here's what you'll need

Crock Pot BBQ Beef Ribs 
1 1/5 pounds beef ribs, boneless
1 bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 quart beef broth

Begin by placing your ribs in a crock pot.

Many years ago, we had a Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grille in town. One of my favorite items on the menu was their Almond Crusted Chicken Finger Salad.  I've wanted this salad many times over the years; however, the restaurant closed and now that would mean a very long road trip several states away to get this salad and sadly that's just not going to happen.  So tonight I decided to make an attempt to make my own version of this meal. 
Here's what you'll need

In a warm, cook bacon according to manufacturer's recommendations.

In a shallow dish, mix one egg with 1 Tbsp water.  Dip chicken breast slice in egg mixture to coat, then in almond/cornflakes mixture to form crust.

It's been years since I've had this salad so I don't know how close to Dick Clark's American Bandstand this recipe is; however, it was very tasty!

Tonight's dinner was soup and needed something to accompany it so I thought cornbread was the way to go.  I had all the ingredients in my pantry and didn't take long to make.  I'm sold!  I've been wanting to try to make cornbread in my cast-iron skillet too so I went online and found a recipe on Food Network that sounded perfect. I substituted buttermilk with 2% milk because I didn't have any buttermilk and this still tasted great.

Here's what you'll need

Cast-Iron Skillet Cornbread
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
8 Tbsp butter, melted
1 1/3 cups milk

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  The instructions of the recipe said to place your cast-iron skillet in the oven to heat it; however, I was short on time and skipped this step.  To be honest, I don't know if it would've made a huge difference because the cornbread came out perfect.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.The edges of the cornbread should be slightly golden brown.

Tonight's dinner mission was to make some warm comfort food on this dreary day.  So I decided to use up the roma tomatoes I had bought last week before they went bad and make a chowder I have had on the menu for a few weeks, but for one reason or another I haven't made.  I had found this recipe on Gluten-Free Godess website and thought it sounded amazing.  I tweaked the recipe slightly to accommodate my daughter's tastes because she doesn't like spicy foods.  This soup has a lovely sweet flavor with mild spices.  If you like your soup to have more "heat", you can add a 4 oz can of chopped green chilies. 

Here's what you'll need

Fire Roasted Corn Chowder with Chicken, Cilantro, and Lime
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
2 chicken breast, cooked and chopped
3 roma tomatoes
3 cans fat-free chicken stock
1 14 oz canned tomatoes with mild green chilis
1 14 oz can coconut milk
1 10 oz pkg fire roasted corn or 3 ears of corn fire roasted on the grill
1 large sweet potato, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & Pepper
Cilantro
Lime juice
Agave nectar

This recipe can use left over cooked chicken from a previous meal.  Tonight I used two frozen chicken breast that I thawed din the microwave and chopped.  I sauteed the chicken in a non-stick pan to cook it prior to adding it to the soup.

Chop your vegetables so they are ready to add when needed.

In a large stock pot, add olive oil and spice to the pan.  Heat for about a minute to infuse the flavor into the oil.  Add garlic and onions and sautee about 2 minutes to soften.

Add tomatoes, fire roasted corn, and sweet potatoes to the onion mixture.  Stir to combine.

Add chicken stock and stir.  Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes until vegetables are soften.

Add coconut milk reduce temperature and simmer an additional 10 minutes.  Do not bring to a boil. 

Add 2 tablespoons of lime juice (I used the kind that comes in a plastic bottle), drizzle with agave nectar, and top with fresh chopped cilantro.

Tonight's dinner mission was to make homemade pizza.  What a better way to give the pizza your own flare than to make your own pizza sauce.  Making homemade pizza sauce is simple and may taste better than store bought sauce.

Here's what you'll need



Pizza Sauce
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp garlic salt
3/4 tsp oregano
3/4 tsp basil
1 tsp salt

In a small sauce pan, empty the contents of the crushed tomatoes.  Add spices and simmer on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or until sauce is thicken.

Spread on your favorite pizza crust.

Tonight's dinner mission was to make a pizza.  Being a thrifty and resourceful cook, I decided to use my baking skills and make my pizza dough from scratch.  Although purchase an already made dough or mix is a lot easier, homemade pizza dough is so good. 

Here's what you'll need



Pizza Dough
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp dry milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp dry active yeast
1 Tbsp oil
3/4 cup warm water

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, dry milk, salt, and yeast.  Use a fork to mix together.

Add oil and water, mix to begin forming dough.

Knead dough until is an elastic ball is formed and smooth.

Cover with a clean towel, place in a warm location, and allow to rise for about one hour or until double in size.

Tonight's dinner mission was to make a home-style pizza with homemade dough and sauce.  This process is a longer than purchasing a frozen pizza and popping it in the oven; however, the results are much better.


Here's what you'll need



Homemade Pizza
1 homemade pizza dough
1 to 1 1/2 cups homemade pizza sauce
Pepperoni
Ham
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, sliced
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by cutting up your vegetables.

Turn pizza dough out onto baking sheet.

Tonight's dessert mission was to continue to use up the apples we picked at the orchard.  We had a ton of apples and I hate to see them go bad.  So I decided to make an Apple Brown Betty for dessert.

Here's what you'll need

Apple Brown Betty
6 apples
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/3 cups rolled oatmeal
6 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine oatmeal and melted butter in a small bowl and set aside.

Wash and peel the apples. 

Top with oatmeal.  Place in oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

Serve warm.  Goes well with vanilla ice cream :o)

Tonight's mission was to create a meal with ingredients that survived the refrigerator's demise.  We still have produce that was good so I wanted to use it up as quickly as possible since we already lost a lot of dairy and condiments.  I decided this zucchini would make a great side dish to go with the steaks I bought.  This is super simple and very cheap to make.

Here's what you'll need.

Sauteed Zucchini
1 large zucchini
Salt
Pepper

Cut your zucchini lengthwise down the middle and slice into thin half moon shapes.

Place in a non-stick cooking spray and season with salt and pepper.