Everyday Recipes

10/05/2026

10/05/2026

3 Ingredient Mounds balls

10/05/2026

Ham Cheese Roll

10/04/2026

The cheapest pot of soup you can make that still feels like a real supper. Potatoes go in early, frozen vegetables go in last, and the whole thing takes forty minutes.

Hamburger Vegetable Soup ❤️

6 ingredients · ready in 40 minutes · feeds 8

You'll Need
Ground beef, 1 lb — $5.50
Yellow onion, 1 — $0.70
Potatoes, 4 medium — $2.00
Frozen mixed vegetables, 1 bag — $1.50
Diced tomatoes, 1 can (15 oz) — $1.00
Beef broth, 6 cups — $3.00

Steps
1. Brown the beef with the chopped onion in a large pot and drain the fat.
2. Add the diced potatoes, the tomatoes with their juice, and the broth.
3. Bring it to a boil, then simmer 20 minutes until the potatoes are nearly tender.
4. Add the frozen vegetables and simmer 10 minutes more.
5. Season with salt, pepper and a bay leaf if you have one, and fish the bay leaf out before serving.

Good To Know: The frozen vegetables go in at the end on purpose. Put them in with the potatoes and by the time the potatoes are done the vegetables have gone to mush.

10/04/2026

Old-Fashioned Goulash ❤️

7 ingredients · ready in 40 minutes · feeds 8

You'll Need
Ground beef, 2 lb — $11.00
Yellow onion, 1 large — $0.70
Tomato sauce, 2 cans (15 oz each) — $1.00
Diced tomatoes, 1 can (15 oz) — $1.00
Elbow macaroni, 2 cups dry — $1.20
Beef broth, 2 cups — $1.00
Shredded cheddar, 2 cups — $2.98

Steps
1. Brown the beef with the chopped onion in a large pot and drain the fat.
2. Stir in the tomato sauce, the diced tomatoes with their juice, and the broth. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and a teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
3. Bring it to a boil, then stir in the dry macaroni.
4. Cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring once or twice so nothing catches, until the pasta is tender.
5. Off the heat, stir in half the cheese and scatter the rest over the top. Cover for 2 minutes to melt.

Good To Know: This is American goulash, not the Hungarian stew — different dish entirely, same name. It thickens overnight into something you can almost cut into squares, and plenty of people prefer it that

10/04/2026

4-Ingredient Apple Hand Pies ❤️

4 ingredients · ready in 35 minutes · makes 8

You'll Need
Refrigerated pie crusts, 1 package (2 crusts) — $3.50
Apple pie filling, 1 can (21 oz) — $2.68
Egg, 1 large — $0.30
Sugar and cinnamon — $0.25

10/04/2026

Bake the crust on its own for eight minutes before anything goes on it. Skip that and the bottom stays pale and raw under all the toppings, which is how most breakfast pizzas go wrong.

Sausage Egg And Cheese Breakfast Pizza ❤️

5 ingredients · ready in 30 minutes · feeds 6

You'll Need
Refrigerated crescent rolls, 1 can — $2.00
Breakfast sausage, 1 lb — $3.98
Eggs, 6 large — $1.80
Milk, 1/4 cup — $0.15
Shredded cheddar, 2 cups — $2.98

Steps
1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Press the crescent dough out onto a sheet pan, pinching the seams closed, and bake it alone for 8 minutes.
2. Brown the sausage, breaking it up small, and drain it.
3. Whisk the eggs with the milk and scramble them softly. Pull them while they still look slightly wet.
4. Scatter the sausage and eggs over the par-baked crust and cover with the cheese.
5. Bake 10 minutes more, until the cheese has melted and the crust is golden underneath.

10/04/2026

Pumpkin batter is thicker than regular pancake batter and it catches faster, so keep the pan at medium and give them the extra minute. Rushed on high they go dark outside and raw in the middle.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes ❤️

6 ingredients · ready in 20 minutes · makes 12

You'll Need
All-purpose flour, 2 cups — $0.20
Canned pumpkin puree, 1 cup — $2.28
Milk, 2 cups — $0.60
Eggs, 2 large — $0.60
Vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons — $0.20
Sugar, 2 tablespoons — $0.10
Pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt — pantry

Steps
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice and 1/2 teaspoon salt together.
2. In another bowl whisk the pumpkin, milk, eggs and oil.
3. Pour the wet into the dry and stir just until it comes together. Leave the lumps — overmixing makes them tough.
4. Let the batter rest 5 minutes while the griddle comes up to medium.
5. Cook about 3 minutes a side, until bubbles come up through the top and the edges look set.

10/03/2026

All the taste of chocolate chip cookies and none of the scooping, rolling, or baking three trays one after another. It goes in one pan and comes out as twenty-four squares.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars ❤️

6 ingredients · ready in 40 minutes · makes 24

You'll Need
Butter, 1 cup, melted — $2.50
Brown sugar, 1 cup — $0.70
Sugar, 1/2 cup — $0.25
Eggs, 2 large — $0.60
All-purpose flour, 2 1/2 cups — $0.25
Chocolate chips, 2 cups — $2.48
Vanilla, baking soda, salt — pantry

Steps
1. Heat the oven to 350°F and line a 9x13 pan with parchment, letting it hang over two sides.
2. Beat the melted butter with both sugars, then beat in the eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.
3. Stir in the flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt, just until it comes together.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and press the thick dough into the pan.
5. Bake 25 minutes. The middle will look soft and underdone — take them out anyway.

Good To Know: They have to cool completely in the pan before you cut them. Warm bars tear apart and the chocolate smears across the knife. Lift the whole slab out by the parchment and cut it on a board.

About $6.78 for two dozen.

Cookies or cookie bars in your house?

10/03/2026

Baked, not fried, and the crust still goes crisp because the sauce doesn't touch it until the last ten minutes. That timing is the only difference between good chicken parm and a soggy plate.

Baked Chicken Parmesan ❤️

6 ingredients · ready in 45 minutes · feeds 4

You'll Need
Boneless chicken breasts, 4 — $6.50
Breadcrumbs, 1 cup — $0.80
Grated parmesan, 1/2 cup — $1.50
Marinara sauce, 1 jar (24 oz) — $2.50
Shredded mozzarella, 2 cups — $2.98
Egg, 1 large — $0.30

Steps
1. Heat the oven to 400°F. Pound the chicken to an even half-inch thickness.
2. Mix the breadcrumbs with the parmesan. Dip each breast in the beaten egg, then press it firmly into the crumbs.
3. Set them on a greased sheet pan and bake 20 minutes.
4. Spoon marinara over each piece and cover with the mozzarella.
5. Back in for 10 minutes, until the chicken reaches 165°F and the cheese is browned and bubbling.

Good To Know: Pound the chicken even or the thin end is dry by the time the thick end is cooked. The sauce goes on at the end on purpose — put it on at the start and the crust you just built turns to paste.

About $14.58 for four.

Chicken parm over spaghetti, or on a roll?