LOK Cooking Challenge - June/July

The latest LOK Cooking Challenge ends today and being the procrastinator that I am...I just completed it! LOL

This month's challenge is to provide a 3 course meal (appetizer, main, dessert) for 4 with ingredients purchased soley at a dollar store. You can't use anything from a cold case, only shelf stock.

I spied a can of Old El Paso Chickekn Cheese Enchilada Flavor Soup and thought...that would probably make a good base for a rice dish. I bought a can to take home for a taste test. It was a hit! It had huge chunks of chicken and veggies, perfect for a base. Eileen loved it so much she begged me to buy more so we can take it camping. So the challenge was on.


My purchases... $14.75
2 El Paso Chicken Enchilada Soup
2 sliced carrots
2 tuna salad kits
pouch of tuna
lg can diced tomatoes
rice
jar marinated garlic vegetables
bag of dried cranberries and golden raisins
orange marmalade
mango perserves
sharp cheese spread
chocolate frosting

Let me just say....Cooking for 4 is HARD! I'm now convinced Tom and I will be empty nesters with multiple freezers jampacked full of leftovers. I'll be making up care packages for everyone who stops to visit. It was so hard to gauge how much rice was needed for a main dish for 4. And the veggies, I kept thinking...that's not enough!

Appetizer



I had two options in mind when I bought my appetizer ingredients. I definitely wanted the jar of marinated garlic vegetables. It was what I was serving with it that I was wishy washy about...Tuna. I was leaning toward tuna cakes but I'm not a huge hot tuna fan. I decided to put out both options. So I took the tuna on crackers picture, crushed up the crackers into the tuna salad and added the additional pouch of tuna, formed it into patties and fried...tuna cakes!



Personally being the country bumpkin that I am, I'd opt for the super easy tuna salad on crackers, it wasn't half bad. It also made the meal a $1 cheaper (didn't need to buy the pouch of tuna). Most of the kids who were up when I did this liked the tuna cakes. They were so so on the marinated veggies which is fine by me...I'll eat the whole jar myself!



Main Dish



The veggie portion of this challenge gave me fits! Knowing that the rice dish was bland and orange/yellow in color I thought canned asparagus would liven up the plate. Thing is...I needed two cans to be what I deemed a reasonalbe serving. Can I serve hot asparagus without any butter or flavoring? Then I spied the canned veggies that were 2 for $1. Hmmm some glazed carrots might be yummy. Won't help me on the presentation but as long as it's good. I thought I grabbed an apricot perserves to glaze the carrots with, I grabbed the mango one instead. It worked, made it intersting and everyone liked it...Sean LOVES them!



I simmered a half pound of rice with 2 cups of water, 2 cans of soup, juice that I drained from the diced tomatoes and half the can of tomatoes. Being the cheese freak that I am, I didn't think the soup gave the dish enough cheese flavor to it. To fix this I decided to add a container of cheese spread to the dish near the end. I opted for sharp cheddar since I was making the dish on the mild side. The pepper jack or nacho might've been a better choice for this dish but the sharp worked out ok. This made TONS of rice for 4 people. It might have even been too much for my family as a side dish. People liked it well enough here (I had some as I wrote this out)

Dessert



I knew the base of my dessert was going to be pound cake. What I didn't know was what I'd serve on it. First I picked up a package of vanilla pudding cups to make trifle. Then a pouch of cherry dessert was in my hand (like cherry pie filling), then a can of lemon pudding, I decided to do something totally different then what we're used to. So I went dried cranberries and golden raisins plumped up in an orange marmalade glaze with melted chocolate frosting drizzled over it. I didn't want to be repetitive with the glazing but thought it was different enough in taste to be ok. A few of my kids aren't raisin lovers so they didn't go gaagaa over it. I liked it a lot and it served the purpose of why I made it...it was different then our normal.



I'd say the challenge was a success. Everything I made was liked well enough by enough people in the house to be ok to serve as a meal. I'm pretty sure I won't be running to the dollar store to get our next meal though.

Other entries...

Anne's
Michelle's
Annie's