Crispy Chickpeas and Pumpkin Seeds
Recipes / August 29, 2019

Serves 2 1 1/2 cups canned chickpeas, drained 1/2 cup pumpkin or winter squash seeds 1 teaspoon butter, melted 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons any combination of ground spices* Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, better, salt, and spices in a bowl. Mix to coat every chickpea and seed with the spices. Spread the chickpeas and pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and turn the chickpeas and seeds with a spatula. Put the baking sheet back in the oven until everything is crusty and golden, about 10 more minutes. Let the chickpeas and seeds cool for 10 minutes. Scoop into a bowl and serve. My notes: This is the perfect snack: inexpensive, healthy, and tasty. Also, it’s so easy to make that my 13 year old made them himself. *One suggested spice blend is a half teaspoon each of coriander, turmeric, cumin, and cayenne pepper. We used a Penzeys spice blend. Adapted from Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day
Cookbook Overviews , Cookbook Reviews / August 23, 2019

Many of my friends and family have heard me complain about how hard it is to feed two teenage boys without going broke. Recently I found a couple of good sources for inexpensive recipes. I have been regularly using budget meal plans from the Budget Meal Planner. You can sign up for a free weekly email plan that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack ideas for $5 per person per day. I especially love this because it plans out the meals for the week and provides a grocery list. The recipes are pretty simple and usually quite good. In addition, I tried out Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. This cookbook by Leanne Brown includes lots of inexpensive recipes with estimated costs for serving. For example, you could make Pasta with Eggplant and Tomato, which my son made and was quite yummy, for $2.50 per serving or Broccoli, Egg, and Cheddar Empanadas for $.60 per serving. Brown says the she picked $4 a day because that is about how much money you would have per person, per day if you were on SNAP, also know as food stamps. I really admire her work on creating these recipes because it…

Back on Track
Favorite Things / August 20, 2019

So I ended up taking a lot of time away from the blog over the summer. I just don’t cook as much over the summer, for a variety of reasons, and we are often gone on the weekends when I would normally play around with new recipes. But I am starting to get the urge to share some new cookbooks and recipes with all of you, so I think it’s time to jump back in. I will continue to share recipes and other posts on the blog, but I hope to share more often on Instagram also. Sometimes I just don’t have time to write a whole post on a topic, but I can quickly share on Instagram. So please follow me @shannoncary (I know, so original!) on Instagram for more cookbook thoughts and updates on what I’ve been cooking. While my favorite thing is to try new recipes and read new cookbooks, I have been inspired lately to spend some time perfecting recipes. So I hope you won’t mind a few posts about me trying to get better at something, like making cinnamon rolls or pizza crust or trying out other tricky recipes that I usually avoid. One more…

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