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top 20 from 2011

Wow, so 2011 went by fast, right? As I was scrolling through the recipes from this year I couldn't believe that I made some of these in 2011, they feel like ages ago!

People often ask me what *my* favorite recipes are, so I've decided to compile a list of my favorites from this year. Sure, I like everything that I post, but there are just some recipes that really make me say "WOW," some recipes that I'm just dying to make again. I tried to make it a list of ten, but that was pretty much impossible, so you get 20 instead.
If you haven't tried any Budget Bytes recipes yet, this list is a great place to start.

So, here they are, in chronological order:

1. Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This easy, almost no-knead cinnamon raisin bread is super easy and had me starting every day with a smile. A slice or two toasted with some peanut butter made for a quick, delicious, and filling breakfast. And it's got way less sugar than store bought cinnamon raisin bread.

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banana bread oatmeal
$3.67 recipe / $0.46 serving

I've had this recipe up my sleeve for about a week and a half now, but just haven't had time to post it... I've been enjoying this breakfast gem in secret all week!

After the half-way success of the gingerbread baked oatmeal, I decided that what makes a truly good baked oatmeal is fruit or vegetable puree (like the pumpkin puree in the baked pumpkin pie oatmeal). It provides thickness, body, and moisture. So, banana bread oatmeal, with mashed up bananas, was a natural next step. I basically just used the pumpkin pie oatmeal recipe and tweaked it to be banana bread flavored. I am happy to report, it was every bit as much of a success as the pumpkin pie oatmeal!

This baked oatmeal is moist, fluffy, thick, hearty and delicious. It tastes just like the best banana bread you've ever had and is 10x healthier (very little fat, lower sugar, and tons of fiber). It's just an all around win!

One more interesting thing about this oatmeal: it's nice and golden brown when it finishes baking, but as it sits in the fridge during the week it turns a little grey... but that's just the bananas oxidizing like a peeled banana would if it sat on your countertop. It didn't affect the flavor at all. So, don't let that scare you!

Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal

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quick chocolate pudding
$1.50 recipe / $0.38 serving

Quick! There's only five more days until the first of the year - the day when we all suddenly decide to be healthy and forsake all of those delicious sweets that have plagued us throughout December... So, here's one more delicious treat to enjoy before you close the door on the goodies. It's simple, delicious, and can be made into a million different flavors.

I remember making this pudding once when I was a child but had forgotten all about it until one of my readers emailed me the recipe and reminded me of its tasty simplicity. I just combed through my emails but couldn't find the one, so unfortunately I can't give a proper shout out :(

I made this pudding with 1% milk and it was divine. I also want to experiment with using less sugar because I'm not into super sweet things and I'm sure it would be just as good. If you want it extra rich, use full fat milk. I haven't experimented with soy or almond milk, but I suspect they will work swimmingly.

You can add a few drops of peppermint extract to make a chocolate mint pudding, eliminate the cocoa powder and add extra vanilla for a vanilla pudding, or add some other spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom. You can do so many different things with this. So many.

quick microwave chocolate pudding

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pineapple teriyaki
chicken meal
$9.97 meal / serves 4

With all of the stress of the holiday season, I needed something really simple to prepare this week. The pineapple teriyaki chicken, coconut rice, and tahini kale were all so simple to prepare, crazy delicious, and the flavors matched really well. So well, in fact, that I ended up mixing the rice and kale together and eating them as a single dish! I hope you enjoy this super simple meal as much as I did!

Note: I decided to half the chicken recipe to make the servings more closely match the side dishes. The chicken recipe halves really easily, just buy half as much chicken and half the ingredients for the sauce. You could just as easily double the sides and have enough to feed 8 or more. It's up to you!

This meal includes:

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Thighs (1/2 recipe) $4.97
Coconut Rice $2.91
Tahini Kale Salad $2.09
Total: $9.97

Serves: 4

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Dinner

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coconut rice (take 2)
$2.91 recipe / $0.49 serving

Okay, I'll admit, this recipe is a re-post. Savory coconut rice is one of the first recipes I made for the blog and it has been a staple in my house ever since. I wanted to repost the recipe for three reasons: 1) because it was part of this week's complete meal plan (will be posted tomorrow), 2) the first version was posted before I started doing step-by-step photo instructions, and 3) it's just so so so good that I don't want any new followers to miss it.

Seriously, when your coworkers all "oooh" and "ahhh" over the smell coming out of the microwave, you know you've got something seriously good. Not only is it seriously good, but it's seriously easy. If you have trouble getting rice to come out right on the stove top, invest in a rice cooker. They're fool proof, you'll use it a lot, and they're very inexpensive.

I usually use light coconut milk to make my coconut rice, but the store only had regular this time around. I have to admit, I prefer the light coconut milk. The light coconut milk gives all of the flavor without the oily residue.

Oh, and if you're wondering, this rice is not sweet. I know it's hard to disconnect coconut with sweetness, but coconut milk by itself is not at all sweet. It's just really creamy and good!

coconut rice

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pineapple teriyaki
chicken thighs
$9.94 recipe / $1.42 serving

Ever since making the Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Chicken Thighs, I've kind of fallen in love with baked chicken thighs. They're super easy, the flavor possibilities are endless, they're juicy and tender, and they're usually fairly inexpensive.

So this week, I whipped up a quick pineapple teriyaki sauce to paint the thighs with and they turned out really delicious. I experimented with baking some with skin and some without. They both turned out very juicy and delicious! The pineapple sauce held the moisture in the skinless thighs nicely. The thighs with the skin on were definitely prettier, but not any more moist.

I baked the thighs at 375 degrees until the sauce on top turned a nice golden brown. It ended up taking close to an hour so next time I think I'll increase the temperature to 400 degrees. With a small increase in temperature like that I don't think you'll be in danger of not having the inside cooked before the outside browns, and it should make the whole process a bit faster. Since I cooked at 375, I'm still going to write the recipe that way. I just wanted to present the option.

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Thighs

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tahini kale salad
$2.09 recipe / $0.52 serving

Kale is one of my all-time favorite greens and the best part is, it's usually fairly inexpensive! I've always cooked my kale, even if just slightly, to make it more tender and easier to eat. But this time, I wanted to experiment with eating it raw.

I've seen several recipes for tahini dressing and decided to combine my favorite parts of all of them. If you're unfamiliar with tahini, it's like peanut butter but made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. It has an interestingly smooth, yet slightly bitter flavor. Tahini is what makes hummus taste like hummus, rather than just chickpea paste. Tahini can be expensive, but luckily, you only need to use it in small amounts. You can find tahini either in the peanut butter aisle or near other mediterranean ingredients (olives, oil, vinegar, etc.).

This salad comes together in just a few minutes and, thanks to kale's hearty texture, it stays good in the refrigerator for quite a few days. Add a hard boiled egg, some tomato, cucumber, or avocado and you've made it into a meal!

Also, I made two batches of this, the first with a clove of garlic mixed into the dressing. While the garlic was awesome, it wasn't convenient. Don't add garlic unless you plan on not being around other human beings for at least 24 hours after eating the salad. Just a fair warning.

Tahini Kale Salad

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black bean burger meal
$17.28 meal / serves 6+

Planning an entire meal with "matching" dishes can be very challenging to the newbie. So, I'm going to let you in on my little formula and this meal is a perfect example.

I always start with the main dish and pick the sides to go along with it. I try to make both side diesh vegetables, one starchy and one not. If that doesn't work, then I'll do one vegetable and one "bread" like rolls or pasta. The other key to picking your sides is to try to hit all sides of the color wheel. You remember the color wheel right? Here's a refresher.

Anyway, this meal fits every part of that formula. I started with the black bean burgers because I love them. I picked sweet potato fries because they're colorful and "fries" go great with burgers. Since the sweet potatoes are kind of starchy, I wanted the second side to be all vegetable and an opposite color from the orange. Red cabbage slaw was perfect! And of course, make sure the "genre" of all of the dishes match. Don't pair a mediterranean salad with enchiladas... because that'd be weird, right?

Oh, one last thing: In the original Black Bean Burger recipe, I had to make the patties huge to fit the extra large buns that I bought, so I only got six burgers out of the recipe. If you make them normal sized, you'll probably get 8 and then this whole meal will make 8 servings.

This meal includes:

Black Bean Burgers $6.69
Spicy Sweet Potato Stix $5.62
Vinaigrette Slaw $4.97
Total: $17.28

Serves: 6-8

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shredded taco beef
$12.48 recipe / $1.04 serving

So, my appetite has been pretty wonky lately and all I've wanted to eat is burritos. I love a good burrito. I mean I LOVE them... and it's all to easy to waltz right down to the nearest burrito joint and pay $6-$8 for a super fancy burrito... and then another couple bucks for some chips and salsa... and then, you might as well get a margarita while you're there... and so the story goes. Before you know it, you're out $20 for one meal and you've just eaten way, way too much. Not good.

So, this weekend I decided to stock my freezer with some freezer burritos. Except this time, I wanted some shredded beef in there. So, Friday night I filled my slow cooker with some pinto beans and turned them into (not) refried beans the next morning. Then, the next night I tossed a big beef roast into the slow cooker with some spices and the next morning I had some incredible shredded taco beef for the burritos!

This taco seasoned shredded beef is seriously easy and you can put it on tacos, burritos, nachos, or just eat it bowl style like the taco chicken bowls that we all love so much! Who can resist slow cooked meat seasoned with taco spices? Not me, not me.

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chocolate gingersnaps
$4.33 recipe / $0.18 cookie

During the four weeks of giveaways, I posed the question, "What is your favorite Christmas cookie?" Classic sugar cookies were definitely the number one answer, but coming right behind behind were gingersnaps and snickerdoodles... two of my favorites!

I'm not a huge sweets person, which is why I like these chocolate gingersnaps. The semi-sweet chocolate and spicy ginger, nutmeg, and cloves help counteract that sugary sweetness. These cookies have a real BITE!

They're not the most inexpensive cookie (you can't beat a regular sugar cookie there), but since they're my favorite I decided to share them. My mom first introduced me to these cookies and I fell in love. I'm not sure where she got the recipe, but it's important to note that it's not my recipe. I don't know where they originated, but I'm just passing them along because they're too good to keep to myself!

chocolate gingersnaps

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cumin lime chickpeas
$3.79 recipe / $0.63 serving

Every winter, after weeks of eating hearty soups and stews, I start craving something really light and fresh. I just get sick of all of the super cooked down hot food. I want bright, I want it to taste like SUNSHINE. You know what I'm sayin'?

So today I threw together this quick salad with a couple of cans of chickpeas that I had hiding in the back of my pantry. It's really fast, easy, and bursting with fresh flavor!

Lime juice can sometimes have a slightly bitter bite to it, so if you're not into that or limes just aren't available in your area, this salad would be just as delicious with lemon juice. If you want to cut the price in half, cook your own chickpeas from dry. I haven't done it but I'm sure it's just as easy as cooking any other bean... especially if you cook them in the slow cooker!

Another interesting twist to this salad would be to add a touch of honey and chopped jalapeno. Unfortunately, I didn't think of that until just now as I was typing this. Someone try it for me and let me know how it is! Thanks!

Cumin Lime Chickpeas

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gingerbread baked oatmeal
$2.48 recipe / $0.41

Ever since the magical experience of the pumpkin pie baked oatmeal, I've been experimenting with other flavors and varieties of baked oatmeal. I made this one last week and while it wasn't quite as mind blowing as the pumpkin, I happily gobbled it up every morning and was a little sad when I at the last of it today.

This batch lacked the thick body that the pumpkin puree provided, but it did create an interesting gel-like molasses custard. If you've ever had impossible pie, it's a little something like that. The molasses, spices, and eggs kind of gel up into a sweet custard on the bottom. I liked it, but if you have texture issues with food, you may not... Just a fair warning! Texture aside, the flavor was awesome.

The other thing that I liked about this baked oatmeal is that when I poured milk over top, the molasses seeped out and flavored the milk in that yummy way that coco puffs and fruity pebbles do! Oh, childhood memories!

Gingerbread Baked Oatmeal

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4 WEEKS of GIVEAWAYS
week #4 [CLOSED]

In the continuing celebration of Budget Bytes reaching 10,000 RSS subscribers, I bring you Week #4 of the 4 Weeks of Giveaways!

I've had so much fun reading everyone's responses to the other giveaways, I'm a little sad this will be the last one (for a little while, at least!). Deciding on the last prize was a little tough, but I had to go with my gut.

I know not everyone likes the 'ol George Foreman grill, but I've found mine to be beyond valuable. Like any appliance, it's not great for everything, but it does some things very, very well. If you live in an apartment or just otherwise don't have a real grill, this little guy can be a life saver. I've grilled vegetables on it, made panini's, and it's my go-to piece of equipment for quickly cooking chicken.

I bought my old-school, little-bitty George Foreman grill well over ten years ago and it's still going strong. The model I'm giving away today is bigger, better, and redder! Ha! I hope it goes to someone who gets as much use out of it as I do mine!

Giveaway #3 - 72 sq. inch George Foreman Grill (Red)

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tandoori chicken dinner
$12.65 / serves 6

One of the hardest parts of beginning to cook for yourself is learning how to combine dishes to make a well rounded, satisfying meal without a bunch of leftover ingredients. So, I'm going to start my complete meal idea series back up!

This first meal is just a combination of a few of my favorite Indian inspired dishes. They're all easy, all super flavorful, and, of course, customizable. Because Indian food tends to be heavy on the spices, the list of ingredients from "my pantry" may seem long, but it's really just a bunch of spices. I don't expect everyone to have a spice pantry as well stocked as mine, so please be aware that you can substitute and improvise. For instance, if you don't have both garam masala and curry powder, you can use either one for both recipes and they'll still be delicious. Also, here is a simple recipe for mixing up your own garam masala spice blend.

Just one special note: the longer the chicken marinates, the better it tastes! So start it the night before or in the morning for best results! Also, buy family sized packs of chicken for the lowest price. Divide and freeze unused portions as soon as you get home from the store.

This meal includes:

Tandoori Chicken Kebabs (double batch) $7.95
Quick Curried Chickpeas $3.16
Yellow Jasmine Rice $1.54
Total: $12.65
Serves: 6

Tandoori Chicken Kebab Dinner

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slow cooker potato soup
$5.87 recipe / $0.73 serving

I've hesitated to make potato soup for quite some time because all I could think about is how creamy and carby it must be. Surely it's not good for me to eat that every day, right? Well, that's right... unless you make it like this.

I made this super delicious, veggie packed, low fat potato soup and guess what? It's also super inexpensive! That's what I'm talkin' about. To make this soup healthier, I left the skins of the potatoes on, added celery and carrots, and used 1% milk thickened with flour rather than cream.

This soup is so delicious that not only did I gobble down two bowls as soon as I was finished making it (tsk, tsk), but I didn't even bother to add the "toppings" that I had bought for it (cheddar, green onion, parsley). For that reason, I decided not to include any toppings in the price break down. It's good enough to stand alone. Besides, there are way too many topping options and everyone will probably use something different... you can do sour cream, cheese, green onion, parsley, bacon, smoked paprika, or nothing at all because IT'S ALREADY DELICIOUS.

slow cooker potato soup