Budget MOTW - Zucchini Lasagna & Curried Salmon
I'm sorry! I know I've been MIA, particularly with my recipes lately! I'm going to focus a lot on remedying that! In fact, I have a new idea to give MOTW a face-lift!
Money is something that I know is a point of distress for a lot of graduate students, am I right? So, when I find a really great recipe or combination of recipes for the week that fall on or below my $50 a week shopping budget, you'll be the first to know!
So, this week I'm kicking off my budget MOTW with two great recipes!!
Now before I get to the recipes, I want to tell you about my shopping process. I have some go-to meals and snacks. In fact, the only thing that I really switch up during the week is my dinners!
Breakfast: Shakeology
AM Snack: Fruit (usually banana or an apple), sometimes I have greek yogurt too
Lunch: Kale salad with protein (hard boiled egg or chicken)
PM Snack: Veggies (Celery or Cucumbers) + Hummus
Dinner: Varies
**Optional after dinner snack: Greek yogurt**
So before I go to the store, I take stock of what I have.
For breakfast, do I have almond milk and coffee and tea to mix with my Shakeology?
For my snacks, do I have fruit? Do I have veggies and hummus?
For lunch, do I have my kale? Do I some sort of protein to mix in? Do I have oil and balsamic vinegar for my dress?
And for dinner, I pick out my recipes and build my grocery list around what I don't have for that recipe.
Then, it's off to the store! Today, what I got at the grocery store was this!
- Kale (2 bunches)
- Celery (1 bunch)
- Hummus (1 container Kroger private selections)
- 1 lb lean ground turkey (93% lean)
- Frozen mixed veggies (for both recipes) - 3 different kinds (peppers and onions; vegetable soup mix; mirepoix mix)
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes, canned
- 2 more zucchini (i already had one)
- 15 oz fat free cottage cheese (slightly cheaper than ricotta)
- 24 oz of skim mozzarella cheese
- 1 lb of salmon chunks with skin (cheaper than salmon filets)
- Curry powder (recipe called for green curry paste, but I couldn't find it in the grocery store)
- 1 gallon of Silk coconut milk
- 1 box of minute brown rice
After all was said and done (and rung up) - my groceries totaled $38.06 after Kroger Club savings! That's less than $40 for a weeks worth of groceries!
Now to the recipes!
Firstly, a recipe from my good friend Rachel's new cookbook, 30 Quick, Easy Meals which can be found on Amazon in both a hard copy and a kindle edition pdf! It's a GREAT cookbook, especially for people who are on a budget AND are short on time! So, today, from that cookbook I will be cooking Curried Salmon over Rice!
What you need:
What you need:
- Salmon
- Frozen veggies
- Curry powder (or curry paste if you can find it)
- At least 14 oz of coconut milk
- Brown rice
Basically, these recipe was so delicious and so easy to make! I was surprised! I've never made curry anything before. In fact, I've never even eaten curry before. But everything in this just sounded so great. Basically, here's the gist...
- The recipe called for a salmon fillet, but as I mentioned above, buying the salmon chunks was cheaper! I sauteed these skin-side down for about a minute. They should still be pretty raw.
- Take the skin off of the salmon pieces and break them into bite-sized chunks
- Mix your salmon and frozen veggies (I used mainly the the peppers & onions and the mirepoix mix) with curry powder.
- Add coconut milk and let simmer until the sauce thickens.
- Cook the rice while curry is simmering.
- When it's the thickness you want, you're done! Ladle some curry mix over your rice and you're good to go!
This recipe was delicious! And it's just a teaser of all the delicious, quick recipes that are found in Rachel's cookbook! I HIGHLY suggest you check it out here!
Secondly, we've got a recipe that has become a favorite in my challenge groups--ZUCCHINI LASAGNA! For my fellow Italian peeps, this is a GREAT way for you to get your pasta fix without all the carbs associated with pasta dishes! This is a recipe that I adapted from Skinny Taste's Zucchini Lasagna Recipe.
Now, fair-warning, this recipe is a bit labor intensive. But, I'm telling you, the taste is SO worth it!What you need:
- Ground turkey
- Frozen veggies (or fresh) *optional for meat sauce*
- Herbs and seasonings for sauce *optional*
- Crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
- 3-4 Zucchini
- Salt (for zucchini preparation)
- 15 oz cottage cheese or ricotta
- Parmesan cheese
- Mozzarella cheese (for sprinkling between layers and on top)
Firstly, I tackled the sauce! This is a great thing to start with because it's going to simmer while you prep the other components.
Basically, the great thing about meat sauces is that you can put whatever you want in it! Meat sauces are super flexible like that! You want beef? Great. Peppers? Great. Hate peppers and want tons of garlic and onions? Awesome. Corn? That's great too!
Start by sauteing the ground turkey until there's no more pink. I ladled out the majority of the fat, but left a little bit in there for sauteing the rest of the veggies.
Then mix in your frozen veggies. Whichever ones you'd like! I stuck with the pepper & onion mix, as well as the mirepoix mix that I used in the last recipe. I then added the crushed tomatoes, basil and italian seasoning to taste, as well as a bit of sugar to bring out the natural sweetness of the tomatoes. Let simmer for at least 20 minutes so all the flavors meld together.
Now onto the zucchini...
Prepping the zucchini is by far the most labor intensive part of this process. You're probably think, why the heck would that be? Don't you just need to slice into strips and go?
Well, actually, no. Zucchini are very watery veggies. And, what we need to do is dry them out as much as possible or else you're lasagna is going to be more like soup than lasagna.
So, after you've sliced everything into strips (and they don't have to be perfect...as you can tell mine aren't)...salt them! Salt will help bring out the juices, which you can then dab off. Salt them and let them sit for at least 10 minutes. Blot off any excess water.
Then, grill them, again blotting off the excess water after they've been grilled.
While you're zucchini are grilling - make your cottage cheese mixture by combining the 15oz of cottage cheese with your parmesan cheese. Set aside for assembly...
Now, you can assemble your lasagna! During this time, I also preheated my oven to 375F.
Basically, this part is super easy! Kind of messy, but definitely easy!
Start with your meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.
Layer zucchini on top of that.
Then your cottage cheese mixture.
Sprinkle with some of your mozzarella cheese.
Then layer some more zucchini.
Repeat this process until you run out of ingredients, and then top with mozzarella cheese!
I don't really think that pan size matters for the lasagna. Basically, if you want really thick lasagna, use a smaller pan. And a larger pan if you want your lasagna to have less layers.
After you've assembled your lasagna...bake covered for 45 minutes. Do not forget to cover! I totally did at first and it will save you some mess if you remember to cover your lasagna now!
After the 45 minutes have elapsed, uncover your lasagna and continue baking for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on top.
After baking, if you have the patience to wait and not dig in immediately, let your lasagna rest for 10 minutes. It will hold its shape better when you cut into it.
While I was waiting for my lasagna too cook, I tackled some other miscellaneous meal prepping tasks. This is a great time for that!
So, what did I do?
Ripped up kale for my kale salads
Chopped celery for my afternoon veggies and hummus
Hard boiled eggs for my lunch salad protein
Cooked and diced up a chicken breast for salad protein.
All my meals are essentially ready to be eaten! All I have to do is some assembly! Super easy!
And now, I'm done for the day! I'm sitting on my couch watching Harry Potter...haha.
Happy Meal Prep Sunday!
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