$5 Challenge Recipes

Italian Dining for Two

This recipe — or some variation of it — is a mainstay in my home. With tomatoes and basil growing in the garden, it’s a cheap and quick weeknight meal. Using fresh, homemade pasta may take longer, but it’s just as inexpensive and makes this recipe go from yummy to amazing.  You’ll probably even have a few bucks left over for a bottle of Trader Joe’s wine!

Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil

• 8 oz Pasta
• Cherry Tomatoes (halved)
• Handful Fresh Basil, slivered
• 1/3 cup Feta Cheese
• 2 T. Olive Oil
• 1 Clove Garlic (My favorite: Coldwater Creek Farms)

Cook pasta (I prefer penne) according to directions. In a bowl, combine tomatoes, basil, half of feta, garlic in olive oil. Add hot pasta and toss with tomato mixture. Top with additional feta. Enjoy!

Company’s Coming…

This recipe, is a contribution to the $5 Challenge by Eating Well magazine, sounds like a great choice when people are coming for dinner and you can’t break the bank on groceries.

Almond-Crusted Pork with Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce

• cup coarse dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 large egg white, beaten
• 1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices

Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Set a wire rack on a baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray.
2. Place breadcrumbs, almonds, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a food processor; pulse until the almonds are coarsely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a shallow dish.
3. Place egg white in another shallow dish. Dip both sides of each pork slice in egg white, then evenly coat with the almond mixture. (Discard any remaining egg white and almond mixture.) Place the pork on the prepared rack and coat on both sides with cooking spray.
4. Bake the pork until golden brown and no longer pink in the center, 16 to 18 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, whisk honey, soy sauce and mustard in a small bowl. Serve the pork with the honey-mustard sauce.

Admit it: there’s nothing like whipping up breakfast for dinner. This breakfast (or brinner) recipe comes courtesy of Windy Hill Farms and includes nothing but local, hormone-free produce. It’s the simple recipes that can be the best ones.

Sausage with Egg

• 1 dozen Windy Hill Farms free-range eggs ($4.50)
• 1 pack (approx. 1 lb) Windy Hill Farms mild or hot breakfast sausage (approx. $5)
  Cook sausage on stove top, “chopping” it as it cooks.
  Drain sausage and return to pan, add 8 beaten eggs to sausage and cook
  * Exact amounts of sausage and eggs used to be determined by consumer – this recipe simply explains how we cook this for our family of 4

The juvenile part of me was left snickering by the name; the vegan-flirt in me was tempted by the ingredients. Thanks to Charlottean Rachelle Atkins for sending her recipe for Vegan Raw Balls. <giggle>