Friday, September 17, 2010

Italian Night on a Budget

Hubby has been quite the cookbook reader lately as we've agreed to split up the dinner cooking. One of us cooks and the other one does the dishes. I think that's more than fair, no? :)

Last week Hubby made his own version of Giada's Tomato Vegetable Casserole, and it was delicious! Simple and tasty: roasted vegetables mixed with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. We heated up a loaf of crusty bread to dip in EVOO and balsamic vinegar, and enjoyed some Two Buck Chuck Chardonnay on the side.


A heavenly mix of EVOO/BV - delicious flavor and healthy fats. I never have butter on my bread anymore!

Budget grocery shopping tip: Look for the bakery clearance rack at your local grocery store. I found this huge artisan loaf on sale for $1.99! The bread usually has a sell-by date of the current day, but you can wrap the bread in aluminum foil and freeze it until you're ready to eat it, and it will be fine. It's a great way to get something gourmet at a fraction of the price.

Look at the seeds on that bread. Yummmmm.


I also used one of our wedding gift cards to purchase demitasse cups and saucers so we could make espresso with our new coffee/espresso maker, so we enjoyed decaf French Roast espresso shots after dinner. It felt so European and was super fun.


Ciao e buona sera!

5 comments:

  1. I really like Italian food because I can usually feed a bunch of people for like 2 dollars a person or something outrageous like that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful meal!!

    I love the espresso and the beautiful demitasse cups...My husband and I were just "arguing" about this last night :) he doesn't like coffee and I want him to enjoy a leisurely coffee or espresso with me after dinner. I may have to show him your photos! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Angie - it was more like, I'll make the espresso while you sit and watch TV and I blog...lol :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks wonderful! I love your cooking and dishwashing trade. It's so much more fun to make dinner when you're teamworking it :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I had to look at this when I saw this post. Date nights for us to are now at home. So much cheaper but also a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...