Here’s your challenge: make yourself and your spouse this decadent treat during the day and enjoy it in the evening, just the two of you, after the kids have gone to bed. You’ll get brownie points (mousse points??) for sure.

Now, while my husband and I did savor it after the kids went to bed I won’t lie and say it was romantic or anything. I was reading a Ram Charan book called “Know-How” and he was working on that solar-power project we took on recently for my business. But we enjoyed it nonetheless! Maybe you can be less nerdy than we were. . .

The recipe for this Chocolate Mousse is adapted from the Chocolate Mousse Piethat garnered a full four-fork rating from Epicurious. Four forks is tough to achieve so you know its going to be good! Here’s how I made it:

• 12 ounces of milk chocolate chips | $2 for 11.5 oz bag
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | $0.10 for 1 tsp of imitation extract
• pinch of salt | price is negligible
• 3 cups chilled whipping cream | $3.20
• 2 tbsp sugar | price is negligible

Makes about 6 servings

Total Cost per Serving: $0.88

Here’s What To Do:

Put the chocolate chips, vanilla, and salt into your food processor and process until it is all mixed up, about 30 seconds to one minute. Put 1 cup of the whipping cream into a pot and boil it on the stove. Then slowly pour it into the feed tube of your processor while the processor is running. Keep processing it until the chocolate is all melted and smooth. Put the mixture into a 9 X 11 dish and spread it out. Let it cool to room temperature. (This allows it to cool quickly since there’s a lot of surface area for it to cool in a big dish like that.)

While it is cooling whip up the remaining two cups of whipping cream with the wire whisk attachment to your kitchen aid (or whatever you use for rapid whisking). Put the sugar in there too. Whip it until it forms stiff peaks. By the time that is done the chocolate ought to be cool. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate (still in the 9 X 11 pan) until combined. Put it in the refrigerator and let it set - about 2 to 6 hours.

Scoop out the mousse and put it in some wine glasses for an extra touch of fanciness. Enjoy this super-cheap treat!!!

I got the idea from a roommate back in my days as a summer intern in college. She was second generation Chinese and boy could she cook. She mostly cooked Chinese dishes, all of which were super-tasty, but could also wow us all with her American cuisine as well. One time she even went out picked wild rasberries to top off a pie that she had basically just whipped together from what ingredients were on hand. That’s some major skill for a 20 year old and all the rest of us were definitely appreciative.

Anyway, she kept a recipe box with 3×5 cards. Everytime she made up a new recipe that she liked, she’d write down the ingredients and a few notes about how to cook it and file it away. She explained that if she didn’t then she would forget what she had done.

My system is not nearly as fancy. A lined sheet of paper torn out of a spiral notebook from about 5 years ago that is labeled “Food Ideas.” There’s 4 different colors of pen ink on there and a few scribbles from the kids.

Here are some of the things that are on my list:

• Jiffy apple-cin muffin mix - make the coffee cake
• Lasagna with shredded carrots in filling
• Cinnamon sugar toast
• Sauted veggies with basil and goat cheese
• Focaccia bread w/ roasted garlic and sundried tomato on top, goat cheese on side
• Re-fried bean and cheese burritos
• Fruit salad with yogurt, honey, and chopped walnuts on top
• Krusteaz pancakes
• Scrambled eggs w/ ham and cheese mixed in
• White cheddar popcorn cakes w/ peanut butter on top
• Blackberry Chicken (recipe in New Basics cookbook)
• Green bean casserole
• Fresh broccoli steamed w/ a little cheddar on top
• Bagels w/ strawberry cream cheese
• Chile from “Pasta, Grains,…” Cookbook
• Phad Thai - Box, quick fix
• Sandwiches: pesto, tomato, goat cheese, and prosciutto
• Smoothies - fruit, yogurt, oj, etc.
• Cous cous

I wrote those exactly as they appear on my list. What’s on your list?!

Croutons are a wonderful accompaniment to your home-grown salad greens this summer. And what better way to save money than to make them yourself?

This basic recipe for salad croutons is an easy and quick way to make them. Remember you can add or substitute ingredients to suit your taste. Since we are all about saving money here, I am going to follow the recipe and use the dried herbs. Fresh rosemary and/or fresh thyme would be a great addition but I don’t have any in the garden. If you have some growing on a windowsill this would be a great way to use it. Mental note: grow thyme and rosemary in my AeroGarden when I start it up again in the fall!

• 3 tablespoons olive oil | $0.48 (1 pint @ $5.11)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder | $0.08 (1 pound @ $9.91)
• 2 tablespoons Parsley flakes | $0.34 (1 pound @ $45.20)
• 1/2 bag of bread | $0.50 (1 bag @ $0.99)
• 1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste) | $0.007 (1 pound @ $0.55)

TOTAL COST: $1.41

You just cut the crust off of the bread and then cut up the bread into pieces. I like 1 inch cubes but you could do whatever size you like. Then put the bread into a bowl along with all the other ingredients. Mix it around. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 325 for about 10 minutes until golden brown or try popping them under the broiler for about 2-3 minutes. I prefer the 325 degree method during the summer so the kitchen doesn’t get so hot!

Makes about 12 ounces of croutons.

Cost Comparison: 5 ounces of garlic croutons from Fresh Express: $1.25

Verdict: Making your own croutons saves you about 1/2 off the price of store-bought, seasoned croutons.

Note: All prices are from Safeway.com, lowest-priced item

Well, let me tell you, those 72 commenters on there were on to something! Personally I can’t believe a single recipe that uses red beans and rice could even garner that many comments, but I guess people get passionate about their food. (And here I am writing a whole post on the dish so apparently I have become one of these types!)

Anyway, this is definitely a dish you should try out if you want something cheap, delicious, and healthy all at once. The only downside is that I had to start the cooking at 2:00 with dinner scheduled at 6:00. That’s because I was using dried beans instead of canned - they take about 2.5 to 3 hours to soak and cook. The wild rice takes an hour to cook. Then you put the beans, stock, onion, garlic, and sausage together for another good 45 minutes of cooking. So it does take a long time. But you do get A LOT of food out of this. I think we’ll be eating it for days on end actually.

I’ve looked up the cost of the meal using the Safeway.com site and here’s the breakdown:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil | $0.32 (1 pint @ $5.11)
• 1 pound sausage | $1.33 (Hormel Pork Sausage)
• 1 onion | $0.67
• 4 garlic cloves | $0.20 (1 head @ $0.50)
• 3 14/5 oz cans of kidney beans | $4.50 (1 can @ $1.50)
• 1 cup chicken broth | $0.40 (49.5 oz @ $2.39)
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning | $0.14 (3.18 oz @ $2.87)
• 3 cups cooked rice | $0.26 (white long-grain rice @ $0.62/pd)

TOTAL COST: $7.82 !!!

COST PER SERVING: $1.30

Now, the recipe says that it makes 6 servings and that is what I base the “cost per serving” off of (7.82/6) BUT for our family I would say this recipe makes more like 10 servings which would make the cost per serving $0.78.

Note: all prices shown are the lowest prices that I found for those items at Safeway. If you buy fancy rice or sausage the cost will go up but I still think it would wind up being a relatively cheap meal.

If we approach this pantry stocking activity with a modicum of sense and organization we can save even more money by ensuring that we don’t run out of items, that we have the time to wait until things go on sale or we find a great coupon, and so on.

To begin this organization effort, the following is a list of the things I would deem important to stock up on and keep in the pantry. Of course you will only buy these things when you can get your hands on a good coupon for them or a sale price that is exceptional. But starting with a list that you can tick off as you go should lend some order to this somewhat daunting task. To that end:

Pantry Items to Keep In-Stock

• Canned tomatoes, crushed or whole
• Canned beans, any variety
• Rice
• Flour
• Dried pasta
• Sugar
• Salt
• Canned vegetables
• Cooking oils such as: olive, vegetable, canola
• Vinegars such as balsamic, white, and red
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Oatmeal
• Chicken and beef broth (and/or bouillon cubes)
• Canned fruit
• Tuna
• Peanut butter
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Cornmeal
• Brown sugar
• Yeast (in packets if you can’t refrigerate it)
• Cornstarch
• Crackers
• Barley
• Dried beans, any variety
• Peas
• Lentils
• And plenty of your favorite spices

Worried about space? Some people convert their linen closets into pantries and put the linens in boxes under their bed. Some use racks in the garage or coat-closets in the foyer. If you are well-stocked you only need one of each item out at a time, making storage of the extras in the kitchen unnecessary.

Some of the dishes that come to mind that could be made from these pantry ingredients are: spaghetti with tomato sauce, home made tortillas with rice and beans, bread, stew augmented with whatever fresh meat and vegetables you might have on hand, and oatmeal cookies!

Whenever possible I buy minimally processed canned food. For the canned vegetables, for example, I might buy no salt-added, whole green beans. I figure I can always add my own salt and oil later if I want it.  Are there any items that you keep in your well-stocked pantry that I have left out? Please share!

So now I have to figure out what to do. I mean, it isn’t as if we are going to go broke or anything, it just is disheartening when you don’t meet your goal, you know?! The only thing I can do now is damage control. That means no more food purchases for the rest of the month, of course. I just went to the store yesterday and got 4 dinners worth of food and some lunch and breakfast stuff.

So I think I can stretch it out for the next 9 days. I’ll make that my new goal. The dinners I had planned are: spinach crepes (recipe here), beans and rice (recipe here), honey-lemon chicken (recipe here), and bbq lobster tails (recipe here). We also have a side of fresh green beans with almond-butter to prepare at some point.

Now, believe you me I realized that the lobster tails were going to be expensive but I didn’t know how much until I got to the store. $10 a piece, frozen! I only bought two. They aren’t a frugal item in the least but I bought them a) not knowing that we were over-budget and b) because I wanted to surprise my husband, who told me the other day that he’d never eaten lobster before.

As far as the recipes go, I have made the spinach crepes and honey-lemon chicken tons of times so they are both tried-and true favorites in my family. The beans and rice recipe will probably not get eaten by my kids but all 71 reviews for the recipe are good so I am confident that at least my husband and I will like it. We’ll see about the lobster tails!

On the drive home, as we rounded the corner into our own neighborhood I couldn’t help but experience a twinge of regret that our home is not as lovely. I do like to live here, and trust me I am not complaining, but it seems to me that everyone ought to be able to live in a nice house on the ocean. What an idyllic lifestyle my children could lead under such circumstances! I thought it might be good to note, however, that even with such obvious wealth coming in, that family still shops at CostCo, TJMaxx, Target, and the other discount stores. Isn’t that something?!

At any rate, their family circumstances are much different than ours (the father is never around and he is MUCH older than we are), but we certainly aim to strive for that kind of lifestyle. I honestly would not mind spending my money on such a home - it would definitely be worth it.

The recipe is quite easy, actually, and you can make it under the broiler or on the grill! Cut up chunks of zucchini (from 4 small zucchini), and one sweet onion. Halve some button mushrooms and wash some cherry tomatoes (make sure they aren’t from one of the areas affected by the salmonella outbreak). Finally, cut up some firm tofu into 2 inch cubes.

Marinate the veggies and tofu for 1 or 2 hours in 3/4 cup of lemon juice, 3/4 cup of soy sauce, 2 minced garlic cloves, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sesame oil. You can thread them on skewers and then put them on the grill or you can spread them out on a baking sheet and put under the broiler for 10 minutes, stirring once at the half-way point. If broiling, you might want to take the mushrooms, tomatoes, and tofu out at this point and broil the onions and zucchini for another 5 minutes if you don’t think they are done enough.

I served them in a big bowl all mixed together and people ate them with their fingers. Enjoy!

I also like Millionaire Mommy’s article called I Want More Money. It is one of those motivational pieces so give it a quick read! Another article featured in the carnival is called Associating with the Appear to be Rich Folks and is right down my alley with my other posts on image and wealth. There’s definitely something to the idea that the mere look of success can breed success by enabling more successful people to be drawn to you, etc. Have you ever noticed that people who are wealthy live in very clean homes? I often wonder if having a super-clean home is something they can afford or if it is something that helped them become rich in the first place (you know - having the discipline that goes with cleaning also with your job and finances). Whatever the reason, I do try to keep a clean home as I feel it does lift the spirits and that children can learn and grow and be proud of themselves in a clean environment. My 2 cents!

Additionally, I really like ConsumerismCommentary’s latest post on target date retirement funds. I agree with the idea that target date retirement funds are often too conservative. I hold my own retirement funds in 6 low-cost index funds, including a hefty proportion of emerging markets. That isn’t to say that this allocation would be right for other people, just that I don’t think people are best served by target date funds. That said, I guess a target date fund is better than plopping it all in the company stock or a money market fund.

Now, given that my 3.5 year old was in tow, you have to excuse that I bought a few items that I could have saved more on or done away with altogether (ice cream, wine, expensive steaks). Even though on today’s trip my child was something of a poster-child of good behavior you never know exactly how things are going to turn out so you tend to make some hasty decisions in order to get out of there as soon as possible.

There’s nothing like a parent with a baby or toddler to add some cash to the grocery’s coffers simply due to the fact that said parent is speeding around the store at break-neck speed trying to simply get the heck out of there before: a meltdown occurs on the part of the child, child needs to go to the bathroom, baby has to eat now, or parent has a meltdown.

So anyway, here are the items that I swapped:

My usual butter ($4) for a different brand ($2.50)

My usual liquid dishwasher detergent ($8) for the same thing in powder form ($4.50)

Did not buy the Fontina cheese on my list at all due to the price ($12 for a small bit!) but then bought a $12 bottle of wine completely spontaneously. No, that one did not make sense. Mmm…now I am wishing I had bought the wine and the cheese!

My usual name-brand 5 lb. sugar ($4) for generic ($2.50)

Instead of fresh pasta ($5/9 oz.) and fresh pasta sauce ($6/7 oz.) I got dried linguine ($1.25/16 oz.) and a jar of sauce ($2/26 oz.). Now that was a big savings.

I also bought a few items specifically so that I could use up the rest of the wild rice I had left over from the wild rice casserole a week ago. Tonight we’ll eat the wild rice mixed with a saute of onions, mushrooms, and celery. The kids are so full of all the fruit that I bought (grapes, strawberries, and oranges) that I doubt they’ll need anything more than this simple rice dish to fill them up. I know I won’t need anything more considering the milkshake I snuck in while they were at my 6 year old’s karate practice. Shh!