We did very well last week. We stuck to our meal plan and didn't have to dash off to the supermarket for anything extra, unless you count an extra half-gallon of organic milk to satisfy Baby B's milk addiction. (There are worse addictions, I think.) We even squeezed out another day before I had to go shopping, because one night we were invited to a barbecue, so that was a free dinner. It was a rather nasty one, but beggars can't be choosers. Baby B, to my middle-class horror, adored her rubbery cheeseburger and clamored for more. I'm sure nothing in it was grass-fed or organic. Again, beggars can't be choosers.
I ended up using up some things that I'd planned to keep for another week. For example, we ate all the tortillas, because it transpires that we don't actually want to eat steel-cut oats with yogurt and fruit every morning. Some days we made scrambled eggs and served it in a tortilla, like a breakfast wrap. For this reason, we also used up most of the 18 eggs I'd bought. Then there were a few things we didn't eat all of. Several romaine lettuce leaves were left over, so I gnawed on them for a rabbit-like late night snack. We also didn't use one of the zucchini, which went bad in the refrigerator. I was annoyed that I hadn't noticed it, since I could at least have put it in the freezer to use for making stock.
This week, I spent only $52.78 on groceries, or $7.54 per day per person. But this isn't the real cost, because I already had several ingredients that I didn't need to buy. Some were things left over from last week's shopping: I still had 2.5 lbs of carrots, half a head of celery, about a cup of rice, and several servings of steel cut oats. I also had some of the ingredients lurking in corners of my kitchen: I discovered a pound of ground grass-fed beef in my freezer, which probably cost at least $7; I also found a bag of frozen green beans which were on the verge of getting freezer burn; and I already had staples such as garlic, oil, pepper, and cumin. So the true cost of this week's meal plan is probably $15 more than I actually spent.
The Meal Plan:
Breakfasts: steel cut oats with yogurt and fruit, OR scrambled eggs/omelettes/boiled eggs/etc.
Lunches: bean and cheese burritos, carrot and celery sticks, apples or oranges or nectarines.
Snacks: raw fruits and vegetables
Dinners:
1) Almost-Foolproof Roast Chicken with basmati rice, slow cooker refried beans, and steamed broccoli.
-> reserve 2 cups of leftover cooked chicken for use in anothe recipe
-> make slow cooker chicken broth overnight for use in another recipe
2) Moussaka, using sliced boiled potatoes instead of eggplant because I couldn't find an eggplant today. Side of steamed green beans.
3) Sausage-tomato-spinach risotto.
4) Shrimp fajitas.
5) Chicken-broccoli calzone.
6) Leftover moussaka with a side of steamed broccoli.
7) Leftover sausage-tomato-spinach risotto.
THE GROCERIES
Vegetables and Fruits
5 lbs onions: $2.48
1.5 pounds potatoes: $1.17
10 oz fresh spinach: $1.38 (I could get frozen cheaper, but sometimes the quality of frozen is variable)
1 red bell pepper: $1.48
1 avocado: $0.88
2 heads of broccoli: $1.68
4 bananas: $0.62
2 lbs nectarines: $1.98
2 lbs Fuji apples: $3.16
2 lbs navel oranges: $1.96
Bulk
1.28 lbs arborio rice: $2.15
1 lb sugar: $0.52
1 lb pinto beans: $0.87
Dairy
1 gallon Organic Valley whole milk: $5.96
Nancy's low fat yogurt: $2.43
Sargento reduced-fat shredded Mexican cheese: $2.68
Meat
1 whole chicken (that claimed to be approved by the American Humanitarian Society..hmmm): $7.18
3/4 lb Italian turkey sausage: $2.68*
3/4 lb broken shrimp meat, pre-cooked: $3.18**
Misc.
Guerrero whole wheat tortillas, 11ct: $2.48***
1 14oz can store-brand diced tomatoes: $0.63
Red Rose tea bags, 100ct: $3.34
1 container store-brand table salt: $0.44
*This was less than half price because it was the day of its expiration date. I figure that they put these dates pretty early to be cautious, and that it'll be fine if I throw it in the freezer today and defrost it when I need it.
**Very pleased with this discovery. I used to get peeled, deveined, pre-cooked shrimp as a bit of an extravagance, because Baby B adores shrimp. But today I discovered, on a lower shelf in the seafood section, something called "broken shrimp meat" that appears to be smaller or less attractive specimens of shrimp that probably taste just the same as the expensive ones. They were less than half the price! Definitely loving this idea.
***I won't be getting these again. Once I was home I realized they contained palm oil. We are far from being perfectly conscientious shoppers, but we do try to avoid palm oil because of the danger to orangutans. Baby B is a friend to all the animals, and she is particularly fond of orangutans, so there it is.
Observations: while I was pleased with my spending, I could have done this for less. I bought a few things that weren't super-cheap, such as the red bell pepper. We could spend so much less on milk if we got non-organic, but I'm squeamish about that. Again, we really don't have to eat meat every night, but ever since my brush with gestational diabetes, my blood sugar has been a bit weird and I tend to do really well if I make sure I have enough protein and not too much starch.
Other observations: I want to figure out a way to eat this cheaply without having so many leftovers. We tend to be a bit repetitive in our eating habits because we don't really care that much if we eat the same thing several times in a week. But we want Baby B to be an adventurous eater, and to do this we'll need to expose her to more variety from week to week.
Dinner recipes:
Homemade "refried" beans (which aren't refried at all)
I know canned refried beans can be bought for fifty cents and taste just fine, but this is even cheaper and it tastes so much better that I am loath to buy the canned ones ever again.
Exceedingly complex instructions! Throw the following into your slow cooker:
1 onion, chopped medium
2 cups dried pinto beans (no need to soak)
4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 to 1.5 teaspoons salt (start with the smaller measure, then adjust at the end to taste)
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cups water
Cook on high all day. It's fine to go out to work for nine hours, it won't boil dry! Next, simply strain the beans, reserving the liquid. Mash the beans with a fork, adding the cooking liquid little by little until you get the consistency you like. Taste and season. This makes loads--enough for dinner plus lunches for two for a week.
The sausage-tomato-spinach risotto is an adaptation of this amazing Smitten Kitchen recipe. I can make it more cheaply, however. Here are my ingredients:
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
A canful of my homemade chicken broth
3 cups water
1 tablespoon oil
3/4 lb turkey sausage
1/2 an onion
1/2 cup leftover wine (if you don't have this, I honestly can't tell the difference if you leave it out)
Salt and pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
5 oz washed, sliced spinach
1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese
[...I leave out the butter]
...and you proceed as in the Smitten Kitchen recipe. It would probably be nicer with Parmesan, but I don't have any of that.
Shrimp fajitas
I adapted this from a Skinnytaste.com recipe. A couple of changes: I substitute cumin for chipotle chile powder because that's what I had; I left out the lime and cilantro because Baby B doesn't like those. Don't be put off by the name "Skinny Taste"--the author is an amazing cook and all her recipes work. I detest recipes that don't work.
I don't make homemade guacamole for this, but I top them with slices of fresh avocado.
Chicken-broccoli calzone
Making calzone is one of my favorite activities. It impresses guests and it's really quite easy. Here's how:
Prepare 1 recipe of my all-purpose bread dough. Follow all instructions up until the second kneading. (You could also use bought pizza dough, but that's more expensive.)
Preheat your oven to 430 F, or about 220 C.
Cut one head of broccoli into small pieces (they don't have to look attractive) and put into a pot with an inch or so of boiling water over high heat for about 5 minutes or until the broccoli is steamed, but still has a bit of bite to it.
Get your leftover chicken from the other night and cut it into small cubes.
Now get your bread dough, divide it into four pieces, and roll each into an 8-inch circle on a floured counter-top. Divide the chicken and broccoli equally between the pieces, and top with a generous pinch of shredded cheese. Fold the circles in half and pinch up the edges to seal them, then roll them over for extra protection. Place the calzone on a baking sheet covered with foil or parchment paper. Poke a couple of small air vents in the top with the tip of a knife. Bake for around 15 minutes, or until the tops and bottoms of the calzone are lightly golden brown.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Week's meal plan, August 22 2013
I plan to post several of these in my quest to streamline my grocery shopping while continuing to provide my family with nutritious breakfasts, lunch and dinners.
This week I spent $68.03 on groceries, so around $10 a day to feed three people. The true cost of this week's meals would be somewhat more, because I already had a few staples in my pantry: oil ($5.68), balsamic vinegar ($3.48 on sale some time ago), and onions left over from a 5-pound bag ($2.68) that lasted me several weeks. Into all this I also have to add my privilege of owning a car and living relatively close to a very good budget supermarket.
The other issue here is the repetitiveness of what we tend to eat. Breakfasts are often the same thing over and over again. This is because I'm usually so bleary-eyed in the mornings, I don't much care what I eat as long as it keeps me full until lunchtime. (For this reason, I can't eat cold cereal or toast, because I'm ravenous and grouchy by about 10.) Steel-cut oats are a bit annoying to cook, but with a bit of night-before preparation they aren't too time-consuming, and they keep me going. (When I had gestational diabetes and had to take my blood sugar after meals, I found that steel cut oats barely raised it at all. Hooray for low-glycemic foods!)
I didn't factor in lunches for Baby B because she has hers at daycare. Mr. B and I are happy to eat the same thing every day for a week.
Dinners: I tend to make a lot of something that reheats well so we can have it twice. I also "recycled" the black beans to use for enchiladas. If you don't like leftovers, this meal plan isn't for you. If you don't like chicken, it isn't for you. But I think I've struck a pretty good balance: four non-vegetarian dinners, three vegetarian ones, plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
The Meal Plan:
Breakfasts: steel cut oats, yogurt, sliced bananas for all of us.
Lunches: chicken salad wraps, carrot and celery sticks for Mr. B and me.
Beverages: water for all of us, choice of water or whole milk for Baby B.
Snacks: carrot and celery sticks, raw almonds.
Dinners:
1) Non-Disgusting Black Bean Stew with basmati rice and steamed broccoli.
2) Chicken-zucchini curry with basmati rice and salad.
3) Chicken and black bean enchiladas (using leftover beans) with salad.
4) Whole wheat spaghetti with tomato sauce, with sauteed zucchini.
5) Leftover chicken-zucchini curry with basmati rice and steamed broccoli.
6) Frittata with red bell pepper and broccoli.
7) Leftover chicken and black bean enchiladas with salad.
THE GROCERIES
Vegetables
4 zucchini: $2.22
3 broccoli crowns: $2.65
2 lb bag of carrots (will last several weeks): $0.98
1 head celery (will last two weeks): $1.71
4 tomatoes: $1.96
4 bananas (we tend to split these between us at breakfast time): $0.50
1 enormous head of romaine lettuce: $1.68
1 red pepper: $1.68
Dairy
Organic Valley whole milk, 1 gallon: $6.68
Nancy's fat free yogurt: $2.43
Sargento reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese, 4oz: $2.68
18 eggs (this will last a couple of weeks): $2.09
Cans/Bottles/Misc.
Taste of Thai light coconut milk: $1.48
Taste of Thai red curry paste: $2.04
El Pato enchilada sauce (large can): $1.40
Tamari soy sauce: $3.14
La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortillas (giant package that lasts us for two weeks): $6.98
Store-brand 28oz can crushed tomatoes: $0.98
Best Foods mayonnaise, large jar: $3.50
Bulk
Pecan pieces (0.54 lb @ $5.30/lb): $2.86
Dried black beans (1.31lb @ $0.99/lb): $1.30
Dried cranberries (0.59lb @ $3.49/lb)
Raw almonds (0.61lb@ $5.78/lb): $3.53
Steel cut oats (1.48lb@ $1.49/lb): $0.93
Basmati rice (1.6lb @ $1.49/lb): $2.38
Whole wheat spaghetti (1lb @ $1.00/lb): $1.00
Meat
Giant package of boneless, skinless chicken breast containing 4 huge pieces: $7.19
TOTAL: $68.03
Observations: I was pretty pleased, but I could have managed on less. The coconut milk and curry paste seem a bit extravagant, but it does make loads of curry sauce so you can make a huge curry that lasts two meals. Plus, there's something very satisfying about curry. Even Baby B will eat it (I know this is not typical of American toddlers). Likewise, I could have made my own enchilada sauce for less using spices etc that I already had in the pantry, but I'm a busy working mother and I have better things to do. Ditto the mayonnaise. My grandmother would be horrified at my using "bought mayonnaise," but I really do detest making my own. I know everyone says it's sooooo easy, but I always botch and curdle it in spite of all the handy hints everyone tells me. Besides, I do make my own spaghetti sauce, so I can polish my halo over that one.
The red bell pepper seems like a bit of an extravagance too, but we all have our faults. Next time I might save money by buying only the cheapest vegetables and then "splurging" (hah!) on brown instead of white basmati rice, since it's only 30 cents more expensive per pound. But I think I did pretty well on whole grains on the whole, and white basmati is at least pretty low-glycemic as rice goes.
Things I'm very pleased with: that romaine. I didn't weigh it, but it's positively gigantesque. It's enough for several dinner side salads, plus extra to put in our chicken wraps. I haven't the heart to look up its nutritional value, but it's green (green is good, right?) and I'm sure it's more nutritious than an iceberg lettuce. Also, steel-cut oats are...a steal (get it, get it?).
RECIPES
Breakfast for 3: measure 2/3 cup steel-cut oats into a pot. Cover with 2 2/3 cups boiling water and bring to a bubbling boil. Turn off heat and leave the pot overnight. In the morning, it will be miraculously cooked and all you need to do it heat it up. Serve with 1/3 sliced banana per person and 1 generous spoonful yogurt. (Variations: you can add any kind of fruit, or nuts, if you have them.)
Lunch: wraps with this amazing chicken salad from Smitten Kitchen. I use pecans instead of walnuts because they're cheaper, and leave out any ingredients I have, and substitute cheaper ingredients for the expensive ones. (I detest tarragon, so I will never have tarragon vinegar. I use whatever kind I have, usually the ultra-cheap old white kind that I also use for household cleaning, and it tastes just fine.) I add a handful of shredded romaine to each wrap, then roll them up tightly in plastic wrap. I cut up lots of carrots and celery in advance so I have a couple of days' supply, and put nuts into little plastic bags (which I wash and reuse, because I'm parsimonious like that.)
Dinners:
1) Black beans here. Half a cup of basmati rice typically fills us up; cook according to package directions. Steamed broccoli: cut 1 broccoli crown into small pieces, including the stems, which are perfectly edible. Place in a pot with about an inch of water; clap the lid on; bring to boil over high heat and leave it there 2-3 minutes. If you are feeling extra-thrifty, save the water in a container in the freezer to use later for stocks.
2) Chicken curry: cut one of the chicken breasts into small pieces and saute over medium heat in a large frying pan. Remove from pan. Now add 2 zucchini, sliced medium, and cook until slightly softened. Meanwhile, whisk curry paste together with coconut milk. Add chicken back to the pan and pour milk over the top. Serve with basmati rice and a salad made of shredded romaine and sliced tomatoes topped with a dressing of 1 tsp. (olive) oil and 1 tsp. (balsamic) vinegar, though any oil and any vinegar will do. This makes two meals.
3) Chicken and black bean enchiladas: this is probably the most time-consuming dish of the week. First, poach a chicken breast. You can do this by covering it with water in your frying pan, and simmering it for ten minutes on each side. Remove it from the water (keep the water in a container in the fridge! You'll use it as chicken stock tomorrow night!) and shred it using two forks. Mix your shredded chicken with a cup of leftover black beans from the other night, half a cup of enchilada sauce, and half a cup of grated cheese. Spread 1/2 cup of the mixture over about 6 tortillas (or more if you have more mixture). Roll up the tortillas and nestle them snugly together in a 9x13 baking dish. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle a further cup of grated cheese over the top. Bake at 350F covered in foil for 20 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbling in an attractive manner.This makes two meals for three hungry people. Serve with a salad the first time and steamed broccoli the second time, to mix things up.
4) Spaghetti and tomato sauce: first, prepare your sauce, several days in advance if you like (it takes a while to cook). I love this recipe, although I typically halve it and don't add garlic or fresh basil, as I don't feel it needs it. (By all means add them, or the dried versions of either, if you like.) I also add finely chopped celery at the same time as the carrot, because I love a good mirepoix. Even halved, this recipe makes enough for two meals, so freeze half of it in a container when it's finished. You can use last night's chicken-poaching water for the stock. Boil your spaghetti; stir-fry two sliced zucchini over medium-high heat in a frying pan, adding whatever seasonings you like. Serve the spaghetti with a ladleful of sauce and a pinch of grated cheese, and the zucchini on the side. This meal is more vegetable-rich than
5) Vegetable frittata: cut up a red bell pepper and a crown of broccoli, including the stems. Saute in oil in a medium-sized, non-stick, oven-proof pan until the vegetables are slightly softened. Preheat your broiler. While the vegetables are cooking, whisk six eggs together. Pour the eggs into the pan and cook over medium heat until the eggs are slightly set on the bottom. Sprinkle whatever grated cheese you have left over the top and place the pan under the broiler for five minutes until the eggs are set and the cheese is melted. Cut into wedges and serve.
This week I spent $68.03 on groceries, so around $10 a day to feed three people. The true cost of this week's meals would be somewhat more, because I already had a few staples in my pantry: oil ($5.68), balsamic vinegar ($3.48 on sale some time ago), and onions left over from a 5-pound bag ($2.68) that lasted me several weeks. Into all this I also have to add my privilege of owning a car and living relatively close to a very good budget supermarket.
The other issue here is the repetitiveness of what we tend to eat. Breakfasts are often the same thing over and over again. This is because I'm usually so bleary-eyed in the mornings, I don't much care what I eat as long as it keeps me full until lunchtime. (For this reason, I can't eat cold cereal or toast, because I'm ravenous and grouchy by about 10.) Steel-cut oats are a bit annoying to cook, but with a bit of night-before preparation they aren't too time-consuming, and they keep me going. (When I had gestational diabetes and had to take my blood sugar after meals, I found that steel cut oats barely raised it at all. Hooray for low-glycemic foods!)
I didn't factor in lunches for Baby B because she has hers at daycare. Mr. B and I are happy to eat the same thing every day for a week.
Dinners: I tend to make a lot of something that reheats well so we can have it twice. I also "recycled" the black beans to use for enchiladas. If you don't like leftovers, this meal plan isn't for you. If you don't like chicken, it isn't for you. But I think I've struck a pretty good balance: four non-vegetarian dinners, three vegetarian ones, plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
The Meal Plan:
Breakfasts: steel cut oats, yogurt, sliced bananas for all of us.
Lunches: chicken salad wraps, carrot and celery sticks for Mr. B and me.
Beverages: water for all of us, choice of water or whole milk for Baby B.
Snacks: carrot and celery sticks, raw almonds.
Dinners:
1) Non-Disgusting Black Bean Stew with basmati rice and steamed broccoli.
2) Chicken-zucchini curry with basmati rice and salad.
3) Chicken and black bean enchiladas (using leftover beans) with salad.
4) Whole wheat spaghetti with tomato sauce, with sauteed zucchini.
5) Leftover chicken-zucchini curry with basmati rice and steamed broccoli.
6) Frittata with red bell pepper and broccoli.
7) Leftover chicken and black bean enchiladas with salad.
THE GROCERIES
Vegetables
4 zucchini: $2.22
3 broccoli crowns: $2.65
2 lb bag of carrots (will last several weeks): $0.98
1 head celery (will last two weeks): $1.71
4 tomatoes: $1.96
4 bananas (we tend to split these between us at breakfast time): $0.50
1 enormous head of romaine lettuce: $1.68
1 red pepper: $1.68
Dairy
Organic Valley whole milk, 1 gallon: $6.68
Nancy's fat free yogurt: $2.43
Sargento reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese, 4oz: $2.68
18 eggs (this will last a couple of weeks): $2.09
Cans/Bottles/Misc.
Taste of Thai light coconut milk: $1.48
Taste of Thai red curry paste: $2.04
El Pato enchilada sauce (large can): $1.40
Tamari soy sauce: $3.14
La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortillas (giant package that lasts us for two weeks): $6.98
Store-brand 28oz can crushed tomatoes: $0.98
Best Foods mayonnaise, large jar: $3.50
Bulk
Pecan pieces (0.54 lb @ $5.30/lb): $2.86
Dried black beans (1.31lb @ $0.99/lb): $1.30
Dried cranberries (0.59lb @ $3.49/lb)
Raw almonds (0.61lb@ $5.78/lb): $3.53
Steel cut oats (1.48lb@ $1.49/lb): $0.93
Basmati rice (1.6lb @ $1.49/lb): $2.38
Whole wheat spaghetti (1lb @ $1.00/lb): $1.00
Meat
Giant package of boneless, skinless chicken breast containing 4 huge pieces: $7.19
TOTAL: $68.03
Observations: I was pretty pleased, but I could have managed on less. The coconut milk and curry paste seem a bit extravagant, but it does make loads of curry sauce so you can make a huge curry that lasts two meals. Plus, there's something very satisfying about curry. Even Baby B will eat it (I know this is not typical of American toddlers). Likewise, I could have made my own enchilada sauce for less using spices etc that I already had in the pantry, but I'm a busy working mother and I have better things to do. Ditto the mayonnaise. My grandmother would be horrified at my using "bought mayonnaise," but I really do detest making my own. I know everyone says it's sooooo easy, but I always botch and curdle it in spite of all the handy hints everyone tells me. Besides, I do make my own spaghetti sauce, so I can polish my halo over that one.
The red bell pepper seems like a bit of an extravagance too, but we all have our faults. Next time I might save money by buying only the cheapest vegetables and then "splurging" (hah!) on brown instead of white basmati rice, since it's only 30 cents more expensive per pound. But I think I did pretty well on whole grains on the whole, and white basmati is at least pretty low-glycemic as rice goes.
Things I'm very pleased with: that romaine. I didn't weigh it, but it's positively gigantesque. It's enough for several dinner side salads, plus extra to put in our chicken wraps. I haven't the heart to look up its nutritional value, but it's green (green is good, right?) and I'm sure it's more nutritious than an iceberg lettuce. Also, steel-cut oats are...a steal (get it, get it?).
RECIPES
Breakfast for 3: measure 2/3 cup steel-cut oats into a pot. Cover with 2 2/3 cups boiling water and bring to a bubbling boil. Turn off heat and leave the pot overnight. In the morning, it will be miraculously cooked and all you need to do it heat it up. Serve with 1/3 sliced banana per person and 1 generous spoonful yogurt. (Variations: you can add any kind of fruit, or nuts, if you have them.)
Lunch: wraps with this amazing chicken salad from Smitten Kitchen. I use pecans instead of walnuts because they're cheaper, and leave out any ingredients I have, and substitute cheaper ingredients for the expensive ones. (I detest tarragon, so I will never have tarragon vinegar. I use whatever kind I have, usually the ultra-cheap old white kind that I also use for household cleaning, and it tastes just fine.) I add a handful of shredded romaine to each wrap, then roll them up tightly in plastic wrap. I cut up lots of carrots and celery in advance so I have a couple of days' supply, and put nuts into little plastic bags (which I wash and reuse, because I'm parsimonious like that.)
Dinners:
1) Black beans here. Half a cup of basmati rice typically fills us up; cook according to package directions. Steamed broccoli: cut 1 broccoli crown into small pieces, including the stems, which are perfectly edible. Place in a pot with about an inch of water; clap the lid on; bring to boil over high heat and leave it there 2-3 minutes. If you are feeling extra-thrifty, save the water in a container in the freezer to use later for stocks.
2) Chicken curry: cut one of the chicken breasts into small pieces and saute over medium heat in a large frying pan. Remove from pan. Now add 2 zucchini, sliced medium, and cook until slightly softened. Meanwhile, whisk curry paste together with coconut milk. Add chicken back to the pan and pour milk over the top. Serve with basmati rice and a salad made of shredded romaine and sliced tomatoes topped with a dressing of 1 tsp. (olive) oil and 1 tsp. (balsamic) vinegar, though any oil and any vinegar will do. This makes two meals.
3) Chicken and black bean enchiladas: this is probably the most time-consuming dish of the week. First, poach a chicken breast. You can do this by covering it with water in your frying pan, and simmering it for ten minutes on each side. Remove it from the water (keep the water in a container in the fridge! You'll use it as chicken stock tomorrow night!) and shred it using two forks. Mix your shredded chicken with a cup of leftover black beans from the other night, half a cup of enchilada sauce, and half a cup of grated cheese. Spread 1/2 cup of the mixture over about 6 tortillas (or more if you have more mixture). Roll up the tortillas and nestle them snugly together in a 9x13 baking dish. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle a further cup of grated cheese over the top. Bake at 350F covered in foil for 20 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbling in an attractive manner.This makes two meals for three hungry people. Serve with a salad the first time and steamed broccoli the second time, to mix things up.
4) Spaghetti and tomato sauce: first, prepare your sauce, several days in advance if you like (it takes a while to cook). I love this recipe, although I typically halve it and don't add garlic or fresh basil, as I don't feel it needs it. (By all means add them, or the dried versions of either, if you like.) I also add finely chopped celery at the same time as the carrot, because I love a good mirepoix. Even halved, this recipe makes enough for two meals, so freeze half of it in a container when it's finished. You can use last night's chicken-poaching water for the stock. Boil your spaghetti; stir-fry two sliced zucchini over medium-high heat in a frying pan, adding whatever seasonings you like. Serve the spaghetti with a ladleful of sauce and a pinch of grated cheese, and the zucchini on the side. This meal is more vegetable-rich than
5) Vegetable frittata: cut up a red bell pepper and a crown of broccoli, including the stems. Saute in oil in a medium-sized, non-stick, oven-proof pan until the vegetables are slightly softened. Preheat your broiler. While the vegetables are cooking, whisk six eggs together. Pour the eggs into the pan and cook over medium heat until the eggs are slightly set on the bottom. Sprinkle whatever grated cheese you have left over the top and place the pan under the broiler for five minutes until the eggs are set and the cheese is melted. Cut into wedges and serve.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Avocado and Orange Salad
Having said I don't like salads, there are actually one or two that I find perfectly heavenly. This one is great during the elusive part of summer when avocados are in season and ultra-cheap. Oranges cost mere pennies at my local supermarket, and I can get a huge head of romaine lettuce for a dollar that lasts us all week. The only dressing is freshly squeezed orange juice. It sounds a little odd, but it's perfectly delicious on a hot day. I sometimes eat this as a main course, because it's pretty filling all by itself.
Ingredients
3 cups washed and dried romaine lettuce, sliced
1 orange, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
The juice of another orange
1 avocado, peeled, de-stoned, and sliced or diced as you like
1/3 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped**
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese***
Mix the ingredients gently in a large bowl. Pour the orange juice over the top. Serve.
Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side dish
*I heard years ago that you were supposed to tear lettuce apart with your hands, but I have heard more recently that this bruises the lettuce and that it's much better for both the taste and the nutritional content to slice it. To be honest, I can't tell the difference. I find it quicker to slice the lettuce with a sharp knife, so that's what I do.
**Or pecans. I used whatever's cheapest because I like them both.
***If you don't care for feta, use any kind of crumbly cheese.
Ingredients
3 cups washed and dried romaine lettuce, sliced
1 orange, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
The juice of another orange
1 avocado, peeled, de-stoned, and sliced or diced as you like
1/3 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped**
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese***
Mix the ingredients gently in a large bowl. Pour the orange juice over the top. Serve.
Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side dish
*I heard years ago that you were supposed to tear lettuce apart with your hands, but I have heard more recently that this bruises the lettuce and that it's much better for both the taste and the nutritional content to slice it. To be honest, I can't tell the difference. I find it quicker to slice the lettuce with a sharp knife, so that's what I do.
**Or pecans. I used whatever's cheapest because I like them both.
***If you don't care for feta, use any kind of crumbly cheese.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Quinoa tabbouleh
A very long time ago, when I was a student, I dated a boy from Iraq who took me to all sorts of Middle Eastern restaurants. It was there that I developed my lifelong love of tabbouleh. Recently, I had the urge for some, but didn't have any bulghur wheat, which is supposed to be the star ingredient. Happily, I had quinoa, and the results tasted so much better than the bulghur version that I've made it with quinoa ever since. (There are those who say--rightly--that we shouldn't eat so much quinoa, because an unintended consequence of its popularity in the West is that it's now too pricey for many Bolivians to eat. One thing we can do is to seek out American-grown quinoa. Another is to consume the Bolivian-grown stuff in moderation.)
Ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa (this doesn't look like a lot, but cooking it makes it expand to four times its size)
1/8 cup lemon juice (you can get this out of lemons, or use one of those lemon-shaped plastic squeezy bottles, I won't tell)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 a teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1 green onion, sliced very thinly (substitute a handful of chives if you don't like green onions)
1/2 cup parsley, chopped very finely (using a pair of scissors can speed this up)
1 English cucumber, peeled and cut in half lengthwise with the seed scooped out, cut into small cubes
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
Boil the quinoa in a large pot of boiling water over high heat for 15 minutes, or until the grains have gone translucent around the edges. Drain and allow to cool.
Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Mix the cooled quinoa with the green onions, parsley, cucumber and tomatoes in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for two hours, then serve.
Serves 2-3 as a main course, 4 as a side dish.
Optional extras: you can put pretty much any raw vegetable you like into this. Finely chopped carrots, radishes, or peppers would all be good.
Butter Chicken
Mr. B and I were, in times past, great fans of the South Beach Diet and the low-carbohydrate lifestyle. I love carbs, and have never met a carb I didn't love, but there's a reason farmers feed cattle grains. Before our wedding, Mr. B and I both lost copious amounts of weight by cutting out virtually all carbs, and amassed a gigantic folder full of low-carb recipes that we printed out from various websites and blogs. One of these was a brilliant recipe for butter chicken that we loved and ate again and again.
The main problem with this recipe was that you can only really eat it if you aren't having carbs. It had an entire stick of butter in it, as well as peanut oil and a cup of cream. As part of a South Beach/Atkins/whatever lifestyle, it was perfectly fine; with sides of rice and naan, it was belt-splitting.
Now that we're too broke to restrict carbs (all those bacon-and-eggs breakfasts and hunks of meat for lunch and dinner really do add up), we wanted to have butter chicken again, in perhaps a more healthful manner. So I devised a lightened-up recipe which still tastes great, if less creamy, and makes wonderful leftovers.
It's true that there are lots of ingredients, and I promised you that I wouldn't give you any recipes that had a million ingredients that you didn't necessarily have. I tend to have a lot of spices in my kitchen, because I can get them cheaply at a local Asian market. However, not everyone has a useful shop like this, and spices can be terribly expensive if you buy them in those little jars from the supermarket. So if you don't have all the things I've listed, it's fine to skip them all but the cinnamon, and replace the others with 2-3 teaspoons of curry powder and a modest shake of cayenne pepper.
Ingredients
1 onion, chopped medium
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger*
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper**
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts (or 4-6 skinless, boneless thighs if you prefer dark meat)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can coconut milk (I used reduced fat)
Salt and pepper
1/2 to 1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt, to taste (I used fat free)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves)
Slice the chicken into small bite-sized pieces, and cook them in a little oil in a large pan over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, or until it is cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Place 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and the butter in the pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook it, stirring often, until it's soft and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
Add all spices, the garlic and the ginger and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the tomatoes and coconut milk, and cook, stirring occasionally, for around 20 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the chicken to the sauce and cook, stirring, until the chicken is heated through. At the last minute, stir the yogurt, season again if necessary, then stir in the cilantro.
Serve over brown basmati rice with a side salad.
Serves 6 (or 2, with leftovers for a couple more meals)
*I keep a piece of fresh ginger in the freezer and grate bits off when I need it. You don't even need to peel the ginger when it's frozen, because the skin sort of sloughs itself off when you grate it.
**I tend to like curries hotter than this, but I tone things down these days because my toddler can't handle the sort of spices that make your scalp break into a sweat.
The main problem with this recipe was that you can only really eat it if you aren't having carbs. It had an entire stick of butter in it, as well as peanut oil and a cup of cream. As part of a South Beach/Atkins/whatever lifestyle, it was perfectly fine; with sides of rice and naan, it was belt-splitting.
Now that we're too broke to restrict carbs (all those bacon-and-eggs breakfasts and hunks of meat for lunch and dinner really do add up), we wanted to have butter chicken again, in perhaps a more healthful manner. So I devised a lightened-up recipe which still tastes great, if less creamy, and makes wonderful leftovers.
It's true that there are lots of ingredients, and I promised you that I wouldn't give you any recipes that had a million ingredients that you didn't necessarily have. I tend to have a lot of spices in my kitchen, because I can get them cheaply at a local Asian market. However, not everyone has a useful shop like this, and spices can be terribly expensive if you buy them in those little jars from the supermarket. So if you don't have all the things I've listed, it's fine to skip them all but the cinnamon, and replace the others with 2-3 teaspoons of curry powder and a modest shake of cayenne pepper.
Ingredients
1 onion, chopped medium
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger*
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper**
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts (or 4-6 skinless, boneless thighs if you prefer dark meat)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can coconut milk (I used reduced fat)
Salt and pepper
1/2 to 1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt, to taste (I used fat free)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves)
Slice the chicken into small bite-sized pieces, and cook them in a little oil in a large pan over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, or until it is cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Place 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and the butter in the pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook it, stirring often, until it's soft and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
Add all spices, the garlic and the ginger and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the tomatoes and coconut milk, and cook, stirring occasionally, for around 20 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the chicken to the sauce and cook, stirring, until the chicken is heated through. At the last minute, stir the yogurt, season again if necessary, then stir in the cilantro.
Serve over brown basmati rice with a side salad.
Serves 6 (or 2, with leftovers for a couple more meals)
*I keep a piece of fresh ginger in the freezer and grate bits off when I need it. You don't even need to peel the ginger when it's frozen, because the skin sort of sloughs itself off when you grate it.
**I tend to like curries hotter than this, but I tone things down these days because my toddler can't handle the sort of spices that make your scalp break into a sweat.
Spicy Salad Dressing that makes salad bearable
For a person who claims to like healthy eating, I have to admit that I don't terribly like salads. I adore steamed vegetables and vegetable dishes like ratatouille, but salads often make me think of something I'd give my pet cow for lunch, if I had a pet cow. That was before I discovered salad dressing.
We didn't have salad dressings in my house when I was a child, because my father couldn't abide them. I thought for my first two or even three decades that I hated salad dressing too, so if I ever had a salad, it had nothing on it. I still don't much like commercial salad dressings, which tend to be full of weird ingredients and have sugar, which mystifies me because the last thing I want on my salad is sugar. A French friend taught me to make a decent olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing with marjoram that I liked well enough, but it wasn't until this year that I discovered this wonderful spicy dressing that goes well with any salad. Now I think salads are tops and eat two enormous ones a day.
Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar*
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha
Mix together in a measuring cup, pour over salad. Easy!
My idea of a good green salad is having something leafy (romaine lettuce, baby kales, baby spinach leaves), something crunchy (julienned carrots, sliced celery, sliced radishes) and something soft (tomato segments, sliced avocados). But any raw vegetable would do.
*Red or white wine vinegar would be fine too; whatever you have.
We didn't have salad dressings in my house when I was a child, because my father couldn't abide them. I thought for my first two or even three decades that I hated salad dressing too, so if I ever had a salad, it had nothing on it. I still don't much like commercial salad dressings, which tend to be full of weird ingredients and have sugar, which mystifies me because the last thing I want on my salad is sugar. A French friend taught me to make a decent olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing with marjoram that I liked well enough, but it wasn't until this year that I discovered this wonderful spicy dressing that goes well with any salad. Now I think salads are tops and eat two enormous ones a day.
Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar*
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha
Mix together in a measuring cup, pour over salad. Easy!
My idea of a good green salad is having something leafy (romaine lettuce, baby kales, baby spinach leaves), something crunchy (julienned carrots, sliced celery, sliced radishes) and something soft (tomato segments, sliced avocados). But any raw vegetable would do.
*Red or white wine vinegar would be fine too; whatever you have.
Moussaka
When I was a student, I had two Greek housemates who introduced me to foods I hadn't tried before, such as patstitsio and moussaka. I'm afraid I can't remember exactly how they made moussaka, so I've invented my own version of possibly dubious authenticity. I remember nostalgically the giant vats of heavenly Greek olive oil they used to bring back after Christmas, the like of which I cannot get here. I also remember the incredibly loud conversations in Greek that they had in the kitchen. At first, their raised voices and wild hand gestures made me think they were having a very bitter argument. Eventually, I intervened and asked them what was the matter. They blinked a bit and told me they were having a perfectly calm discussion about the books they liked. I think they thought I was very Anglo and uptight.
Another doubtless inauthentic touch is how I pre-cook the eggplant. I thought for many years that I didn't like eggplant, because it seemed slimy in texture, and took absolutely gallons of oil to cook in a frying pan. Then I figured out that you could actually bake it in a fraction of the amount of oil, where it would cook beautifully and not at all slimily. If you don't like it like this, by all means cook it in a frying pan.
Ingredients
extra virgin olive oil
1 large eggplant
1 pound ground lamb (if this is ferociously expensive, I'd substitute lean ground beef; other cheaper ground meats such as pork and turkey would not, I think, be right here)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 can crushed tomatoes (passata, that is)
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Sauce ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 a teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk, warmed*
1 cup grated cheddar
1 egg
salt and pepper
Preheat your oven to 360 Fahrenheit (180 Celsius).
Slice your eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds. Brush them on both sides with olive oil (or spray them with cooking spray) and lay them in one layer on a large baking sheet lined with foil. Bake for up to 30 minutes, or until soft.
While the eggplant slices are baking, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onion has softened slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the ground meat and brown it, breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon, until most of the pink has disappeared.
Stir in the oregano, cinnamon, and the first measure of flour, and cook for about a minute. Add the crushed tomatoes and heat until the mixture boils and thickens, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer into an 8x8 baking dish (you'll want one with reasonably tall sides. If you don't have one like this, use a larger dish).
While the meat mixture is cooking, make your sauce. In a medium pot, melt the butter, add the flour and nutmeg, and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. Add the warmed milk, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly until the sauce starts to thicken. If the sauce is lumpy, whisk thoroughly to break them up. Remove from the heat and add the grated cheddar, stirring until it's melted. Add the egg and beat with a whisk.
By now, the eggplant should be ready. Remove it from the oven and layer slices of it artfully over the meat mixture in the baking dish. Pour the cheese sauce over the of this and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is lightly golden brown.
Serves 6. Keeps well in the refrigerator, reheats well.
*The reason you warm the milk is that it makes the sauce less lumpy. By all means use cold milk if you can't be bothered warming it, but you may have to whisk more vigorously to compensate.
Self-Crusting Quiche
I adore eggs, and I adore quiche. The only problem is the crust. I used to think I couldn't make pastry, but it turned out I was just cutting the butter too small; once I figured out how to leave bigger bits in there, it went much better, but you're left with the problem of how unhealthy it is. White flour, masses of fat. I could solve this by making it with whole wheat flour, but that never tastes very good to me, and you still have masses of fat. Then I figured out how to make a self-crusting quiche, which drastically reduces the amount of both fat and white flour. Fabulous!
Ingredients
1 onion, cut in half and then sliced into rings
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon peanut oil (or any other kind of oil)
1 medium sweet potato
1 cup milk (any kind, but I haven't tried it with non-dairy milks so I can't promise it would work)
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup small broccoli florets and chopped stems
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (I used reduced fat)
Salt and pepper
First, caramelize your onion. Melt the butter in a cast-iron frying pan* over medium heat, then add peanut oil. Cook the onions, stirring, until they are completely soft and delicately colored (not browned). It takes an unbelievably long time to do this. Some recipes lie and say it takes 15 minutes. It actually takes more like 45, but you can do other things while they caramelize.
Such as: peel the sweet potato, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and boil it for about 10 minutes, or until it's soft but not a mushy mess.
Cut up the broccoli and steam it in a small pot with about an inch of water and the lid on over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.
Beat the eggs, milk, flour and baking powder together with a whisk. Season as much or as little as you like. Stir in the grated cheese.
Now preheat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (or 220 Celsius). Oil an 8x8 baking dish, or spray with cooking spray. (You will save yourself a great deal of washing-up if you use a non-stick one, but it will work in a dish of any material.)
When the onions are caramelized, add the garlic, and cook, stirring, for about a minute or until the garlic is a little more fragrant than in its completely raw state.
Add the onions, sweet potatoes, and broccoli to the egg mixture and stir gently. Pour the mixture into the baking dish.
Bake for around 30 minutes, or until the center is set and the outsides have formed a soft crush around the edges of the dish.
Serves 4, or 2 plus leftovers for lunch the next day.
*Non-stick is also fine, but there's something about cast-iron that produces very pleasing results. No idea why.
Ingredients
1 onion, cut in half and then sliced into rings
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon peanut oil (or any other kind of oil)
1 medium sweet potato
1 cup milk (any kind, but I haven't tried it with non-dairy milks so I can't promise it would work)
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup small broccoli florets and chopped stems
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (I used reduced fat)
Salt and pepper
First, caramelize your onion. Melt the butter in a cast-iron frying pan* over medium heat, then add peanut oil. Cook the onions, stirring, until they are completely soft and delicately colored (not browned). It takes an unbelievably long time to do this. Some recipes lie and say it takes 15 minutes. It actually takes more like 45, but you can do other things while they caramelize.
Such as: peel the sweet potato, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and boil it for about 10 minutes, or until it's soft but not a mushy mess.
Cut up the broccoli and steam it in a small pot with about an inch of water and the lid on over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.
Beat the eggs, milk, flour and baking powder together with a whisk. Season as much or as little as you like. Stir in the grated cheese.
Now preheat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (or 220 Celsius). Oil an 8x8 baking dish, or spray with cooking spray. (You will save yourself a great deal of washing-up if you use a non-stick one, but it will work in a dish of any material.)
When the onions are caramelized, add the garlic, and cook, stirring, for about a minute or until the garlic is a little more fragrant than in its completely raw state.
Add the onions, sweet potatoes, and broccoli to the egg mixture and stir gently. Pour the mixture into the baking dish.
Bake for around 30 minutes, or until the center is set and the outsides have formed a soft crush around the edges of the dish.
Serves 4, or 2 plus leftovers for lunch the next day.
*Non-stick is also fine, but there's something about cast-iron that produces very pleasing results. No idea why.
Seedy Herb and Olive Flatbread
This is a variation on my basic bread recipe. I first had it in a posh restaurant, and spent an obsessive couple of weeks trying to figure out how to make it. This is a great thing for bringing to potlucks and dinner parties, because it's dangerously delicious, impresses everyone, and costs very little money or effort.
Ingredients
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dried yeast (or one of those little packets)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/3 cup pitted black olives, sliced
2 1/2 to 3 cups bread flour
half a stick (2 oz or around 50 grams) salted butter, melted
1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seed kernels
Whisk the first three ingredients together in a large bowl. Leave for ten minutes in a warm place until the yeast starts going into fluffy bubbles.
Sprinkle the salt over the mixture and add the olive oil, dried herbs, and olives. Give it a stir.
Now add 2 1/2 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a ball of sticky dough.
Turn the dough out onto a generously floured counter top and knead the dough for around 5 minutes, adding the extra half-cup of flour little by little to stop it sticking to the counter. You know you've kneaded it enough when the dough is smooth and satiny-textured and doesn't stick to the counter or your hands.
Sprinkle the salt over the mixture and add the olive oil, dried herbs, and olives. Give it a stir.
Now add 2 1/2 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a ball of sticky dough.
Turn the dough out onto a generously floured counter top and knead the dough for around 5 minutes, adding the extra half-cup of flour little by little to stop it sticking to the counter. You know you've kneaded it enough when the dough is smooth and satiny-textured and doesn't stick to the counter or your hands.
Wash and dry your bowl, then coat the inside with a little oil. Place your dough in the bowl, cover the bowl with a clean towel, and leave it in a warm place until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Depending on how warm the warm place is, this can take as little as 30 and as many as 120 minutes. If your oven has a bread proof setting, you can put it in there. Make sure that you use a metal or glass bowl if you do this.
When the dough is risen, knead it again briefly to get some of the air out. Shape it into a large, flattish loaf, around 8x10 inches. Place it on a baking sheet that you've covered with baking paper. Leave it in a warm place until it's approximately doubled in size.
Heat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (220 celsius). Lightly brush the top of the loaf with olive oil, and put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
When the dough is risen, knead it again briefly to get some of the air out. Shape it into a large, flattish loaf, around 8x10 inches. Place it on a baking sheet that you've covered with baking paper. Leave it in a warm place until it's approximately doubled in size.
Heat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (220 celsius). Lightly brush the top of the loaf with olive oil, and put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
While it's baking, melt your butter in a small pot and cook the garlic in it for 30 seconds or so on medium-high heat until it's fragrant. Remove from heat.
Now take the bread out of the oven, and flip it over using tongs. Using a bread knife or another large sharp knife, cut about 10 deep slashes in the surface of the bread, lengthwise. You don't want to cut the bread into pieces, but the knife should go around halfway through the loaf. It doesn't matter if the loaf loses a bit of height; it's supposed to be a flat bread.
Pour the butter-garlic mixture all over the loaf so that it runs down into the slashes. Sprinkle the sunflower and pumpkin seeds all over the top of the loaf. Put it back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the seeds are golden brown but not burnt.
Almost-Foolproof Roast Chicken
I used to think roasting an entire chicken was this mysterious and extremely difficult thing that a dolt like me couldn't manage. Then I discovered meat thermometers, and they changed my life. I acquired one by marrying Mr. B so I've never had to buy one, but I've seen second-hand ones for a dollar at thrift stores. Or you can get new ones for around $5. I wouldn't bother with the fancy $30 ones. I dislike spending $30 on anything that can't perform magic tricks.
I know there's supposed to be some formula about minutes in the oven per pound of chicken, but I have never mastered this. Here's what I do.
Preheat your oven to 425 Fahrenheit (220 Celsius). Position the oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
Take one medium-sized chicken. Not one of those giant, genetically-engineered monstrosities,* but not a titchy little one either. Lay it, breast side up, in a large roasting pan. Pull out the giblets and add them to your stock pot. (Or just throw them out. I won't tell.) Season the chicken with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and perhaps a sprig of fresh rosemary or a few good pinches of the dried stuff. That's it. That's all you have to do to it while it's raw.
Optional extras:
1. Some people coat the chicken in oil or melted butter before seasoning it. I don't think this adds anything amazing to the flavor, and it's more fat. But do it if you like it.
2. Some people get a lemon or lime, make four or five deep cuts in it, and stuff it in the chicken's cavity. It's supposed to make it tenderer. I'm not sure if this is true, but it certainly gives it a nice lemony taste.
3. Some people put stuffing in the cavity. I don't much like stuffing, so I don't bother. Mr. B likes stuffing, but he doesn't like the sort that comes out of chicken cavities, so he makes it in a dish. I do not have a recipe for this.
4. If you prefer the skin crisper and the overall texture less fatty, you can put a shallow rack inside the roasting pan and lay the chicken across it so the fat all drips down. You could, if you felt particularly enterprising, put some cut-up potatoes under this rack, which would then cook deliciously in chicken fat and juices.
5. You can more or less roast any vegetable you like alongside your chicken. Some ideas: cauliflower, cut into large florets; big chunks of zucchini; cubed butternut squash; sweet potatoes and yams; quartered onions; etc. Spray them with a little cooking spray and sprinkle some salt, pepper and/or dried herbs on them if you wish.
Once you've done everything to your chicken that you need to do, put it in the oven for between 1 1/4 hours and 1 1/2 hours. Start checking after one hour with your meat thermometer. When the thermometer reads about 170 degrees Fahrenheit, you're done. If you don't have a meat thermometer, you're supposed to be able to tell that it's cooked by stabbing it with a skewer and observing whether the juices run pink (not cooked) or clear (cooked). However, I have had results ranging from raw and bloody to revoltingly dried-out when I did this, so I love my thermometer.
Carve (look this up on YouTube, I'm not going to tell you how to do it because I lack both skill and the powers of description) and serve to your grateful family, with sides of roasted vegetables and/or a green salad. I like the thighs and drumsticks. Mr. B will only eat the white meat. Baby B eats whatever I give her, and sneakily feeds anything she doesn't want to to the dog.
*Since I can't stop this middle-class urge I've got, now's the time I'm supposed to tell you to get an organic or free-range bird, because not only is it kinder to animals, it's supposed to taste better. I admit, I can't tell the difference in taste when it comes to chicken. (Grass-fed beef vs. corn-fed, definitely. Chicken? No clue.) The bit about humane treatment of animals is, however, undeniable. I can get a $6 chicken that claims to be "cruelty free," whatever that means, from my local budget supermarket. I can get an organic one the same size for three times more from the health food co-op we belong to. I have my doubts about the provenance of the budget bird, but we simply can't afford to eat organic chicken very often, and I want Baby B to get her protein, and chicken is incredibly cheap and nutritious. I hope to atone for this some day when we are richer.
This said, I recently observed that you can buy one of those rotisserie chickens for about $5 at the same budget supermarket. The chicken is the same size as an uncooked one, but you save a dollar and the money you'd have spent running the oven. The only problems are (1) that it might be a battery chicken that's full of rubbish and has lived a miserable life, and (2) that it's covered with unhealthy additives and preservatives. Full disclosure: sometimes I buy these on hot summer days when I want chicken but the thought of roasting one makes me feel quite ill, or on cold winter nights when I'm tired and hungry and can't be bothered.
I know there's supposed to be some formula about minutes in the oven per pound of chicken, but I have never mastered this. Here's what I do.
Preheat your oven to 425 Fahrenheit (220 Celsius). Position the oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
Take one medium-sized chicken. Not one of those giant, genetically-engineered monstrosities,* but not a titchy little one either. Lay it, breast side up, in a large roasting pan. Pull out the giblets and add them to your stock pot. (Or just throw them out. I won't tell.) Season the chicken with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and perhaps a sprig of fresh rosemary or a few good pinches of the dried stuff. That's it. That's all you have to do to it while it's raw.
Optional extras:
1. Some people coat the chicken in oil or melted butter before seasoning it. I don't think this adds anything amazing to the flavor, and it's more fat. But do it if you like it.
2. Some people get a lemon or lime, make four or five deep cuts in it, and stuff it in the chicken's cavity. It's supposed to make it tenderer. I'm not sure if this is true, but it certainly gives it a nice lemony taste.
3. Some people put stuffing in the cavity. I don't much like stuffing, so I don't bother. Mr. B likes stuffing, but he doesn't like the sort that comes out of chicken cavities, so he makes it in a dish. I do not have a recipe for this.
4. If you prefer the skin crisper and the overall texture less fatty, you can put a shallow rack inside the roasting pan and lay the chicken across it so the fat all drips down. You could, if you felt particularly enterprising, put some cut-up potatoes under this rack, which would then cook deliciously in chicken fat and juices.
5. You can more or less roast any vegetable you like alongside your chicken. Some ideas: cauliflower, cut into large florets; big chunks of zucchini; cubed butternut squash; sweet potatoes and yams; quartered onions; etc. Spray them with a little cooking spray and sprinkle some salt, pepper and/or dried herbs on them if you wish.
Once you've done everything to your chicken that you need to do, put it in the oven for between 1 1/4 hours and 1 1/2 hours. Start checking after one hour with your meat thermometer. When the thermometer reads about 170 degrees Fahrenheit, you're done. If you don't have a meat thermometer, you're supposed to be able to tell that it's cooked by stabbing it with a skewer and observing whether the juices run pink (not cooked) or clear (cooked). However, I have had results ranging from raw and bloody to revoltingly dried-out when I did this, so I love my thermometer.
Carve (look this up on YouTube, I'm not going to tell you how to do it because I lack both skill and the powers of description) and serve to your grateful family, with sides of roasted vegetables and/or a green salad. I like the thighs and drumsticks. Mr. B will only eat the white meat. Baby B eats whatever I give her, and sneakily feeds anything she doesn't want to to the dog.
*Since I can't stop this middle-class urge I've got, now's the time I'm supposed to tell you to get an organic or free-range bird, because not only is it kinder to animals, it's supposed to taste better. I admit, I can't tell the difference in taste when it comes to chicken. (Grass-fed beef vs. corn-fed, definitely. Chicken? No clue.) The bit about humane treatment of animals is, however, undeniable. I can get a $6 chicken that claims to be "cruelty free," whatever that means, from my local budget supermarket. I can get an organic one the same size for three times more from the health food co-op we belong to. I have my doubts about the provenance of the budget bird, but we simply can't afford to eat organic chicken very often, and I want Baby B to get her protein, and chicken is incredibly cheap and nutritious. I hope to atone for this some day when we are richer.
This said, I recently observed that you can buy one of those rotisserie chickens for about $5 at the same budget supermarket. The chicken is the same size as an uncooked one, but you save a dollar and the money you'd have spent running the oven. The only problems are (1) that it might be a battery chicken that's full of rubbish and has lived a miserable life, and (2) that it's covered with unhealthy additives and preservatives. Full disclosure: sometimes I buy these on hot summer days when I want chicken but the thought of roasting one makes me feel quite ill, or on cold winter nights when I'm tired and hungry and can't be bothered.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Chicken broth
My love of free things is surpassed only by my love of making huge amounts of money. The latter doesn't happen very often, so I must content myself with the former. Homemade chicken broth is one of those things that's not only economical, but much better than the bought version. I make mine in a slow cooker, but you can easily make it in a large pot over low heat, as long as you keep an eye on it to make sure it isn't drying up.
You can add pretty much anything you like to this recipe. My thrifty refusal to throw out vegetable scraps* leads me to keep a large bowl full of them in my freezer, alongside chicken carcasses and those giblet things you pull out of the cavity of a chicken before you roast it.** After we've eaten roast chicken or some other chicken dish involving bones, I take the bones off people's plates and put them in the bowl too--boiling them will kill the germs. I usually wait until I have three Ghosts of Chickens Past piled up in the bowl before I pull out the large of my two slow cookers and dump everything in. The mixture usually includes onion skins, celery leaves and ends, carrot peelings, mushroom stems, and bunches of parsley and other fresh herbs that were about to go bad and needed using up.
There is no strict recipe or ingredient list to this. Simply get your chicken carcass(es) and your vegetable scraps (no matter if your broth doesn't have vegetables, by the way--the carcass on its own will make a perfectly good broth) and place them in the slow cooker. Cover them with boiling water, and cook all day (or all night) on low until you have a lovely rich broth. Let it cool inside the slow cooker, then strain the broth into a large bowl. Discard the bones and vegetable scraps.
Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator to chill. After a while, all the fat should rise to the top. Skim it off and discard it. Then again, some people love fatty broth for its richer taste, so by all means leave it in if you prefer.
The broth will keep for 4-5 days in the refrigerator, but if you like, you can decant it into little containers and freeze it. Some people use ice trays so that they can easily throw a cube or two of broth into a recipe.
*I would love to have a compost heap, but Mr. B has begged me not to on account of the wildlife problem in these parts. He detests raccoons and all their furry friends. I tried to negotiate a worm bin or a Bokashi, but he wouldn't budge.
**You can get giblets and things like chicken hearts and so on for mere pennies in some supermarkets, and you could add these to your stock pot. I stand by my motto that "offal is awful," but it makes good broth.
You can add pretty much anything you like to this recipe. My thrifty refusal to throw out vegetable scraps* leads me to keep a large bowl full of them in my freezer, alongside chicken carcasses and those giblet things you pull out of the cavity of a chicken before you roast it.** After we've eaten roast chicken or some other chicken dish involving bones, I take the bones off people's plates and put them in the bowl too--boiling them will kill the germs. I usually wait until I have three Ghosts of Chickens Past piled up in the bowl before I pull out the large of my two slow cookers and dump everything in. The mixture usually includes onion skins, celery leaves and ends, carrot peelings, mushroom stems, and bunches of parsley and other fresh herbs that were about to go bad and needed using up.
There is no strict recipe or ingredient list to this. Simply get your chicken carcass(es) and your vegetable scraps (no matter if your broth doesn't have vegetables, by the way--the carcass on its own will make a perfectly good broth) and place them in the slow cooker. Cover them with boiling water, and cook all day (or all night) on low until you have a lovely rich broth. Let it cool inside the slow cooker, then strain the broth into a large bowl. Discard the bones and vegetable scraps.
Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator to chill. After a while, all the fat should rise to the top. Skim it off and discard it. Then again, some people love fatty broth for its richer taste, so by all means leave it in if you prefer.
The broth will keep for 4-5 days in the refrigerator, but if you like, you can decant it into little containers and freeze it. Some people use ice trays so that they can easily throw a cube or two of broth into a recipe.
*I would love to have a compost heap, but Mr. B has begged me not to on account of the wildlife problem in these parts. He detests raccoons and all their furry friends. I tried to negotiate a worm bin or a Bokashi, but he wouldn't budge.
**You can get giblets and things like chicken hearts and so on for mere pennies in some supermarkets, and you could add these to your stock pot. I stand by my motto that "offal is awful," but it makes good broth.
Easy white bread
Since I am trying to set a virtuous example for my toddler, I mostly use whole grains in my baking. There are, however, some times in life when only white bread will do: fancy brunches and afternoon tea parties when you want to impress people, not to mention those evenings when you're feeling particularly cold, grouchy and discouraged and just want to eat white bread, darn it! I can easily eat quarter of a loaf of this fresh out of the oven, each wedge topped with a sliver of cold, salty butter, or dunked in a little bowl of olive oil. It's perfectly heavenly.
I first learned to make this kind of bread when I was an undergraduate. Having discovered that a diet of oats, plain macaroni and frozen peas was a little lacking both in nutrition and in deliciousness, I started teaching myself to cook out of various library books. My first attempt at bread was a little odd, but tasted pretty good, so I persisted. Then all my friends found out about it and kept hanging around at my house in the hopes that I'd make some. I like to be liked, even if it's just for my baking, so I've been a big bread baker ever since. This is about the easiest kind of yeast bread there is, and doesn't require any fancy equipment such as bread makers, loaf pans, etc.
Ingredients
1 cup warm water*
2 teaspoons active dried yeast**
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or any other kind of oil; olive tastes best)
2 1/2 to 3 cups bread flour***
Kosher salt, sea salt, or reasonably finely ground rock salt
Dried or fresh rosemary.
Whisk the first three ingredients together in a large bowl. Leave for ten minutes in a warm-ish place, or at least a place where there aren't any cold drafts, until the yeast starts going into fluffy bubbles.
Sprinkle the salt over the mixture and add the olive oil. Give it a stir.
Now add 2 1/2 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a ball of sticky dough.
Turn the dough out onto a generously floured counter top and knead the dough**** for around 5 minutes, adding the extra half-cup of flour little by little to stop it sticking to the counter. You know you've kneaded it enough when the dough is smooth and satiny-textured and doesn't stick to the counter or your hands.
Wash and dry your bowl, then coat the inside with a little oil. Place your dough in the bowl, cover the bowl with a clean towel, and leave it in a warm place until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Depending on how warm the warm place is, this can take as little as 30 and as many as 120 minutes. If your oven has a bread proof setting, you can put it in there. Make sure, obviously, that you use a metal or glass bowl if you do this.
When the dough is risen, knead it again briefly to get some of the air out. (It will make a satisfying whoosh.) Shape it into any shape you like: one large flat loaf, two long skinny loaves, lots of little bread rolls, etc. Place it/them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush the bread with olive oil and sprinkle a few generous pinches of salt and rosemary over the top. (Oregano, basil, or thyme would also be good, or you could stud it with olives, slivers of sundried tomatoes, etc.) Leave the bread to rise again until it's doubled in size. (It doesn't matter if it's not really double. It'll still taste all right.)
Heat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (220 celsius). Bake the bread for 15-20 minutes or until it's golden on top and slightly golden underneath. Small rolls will bake faster than a large loaf.
If your oven is useless and doesn't cook the undersides very well, you can turn the loaf or loaves over using tongs and bake it for another five minutes until it looks healthier.
You should probably let the bread cool slightly before you and your friends wolf it, but this never really happens around here.
*Lots of bread recipes will tell you sternly to measure the temperature and give you dire warnings about what too-hot or too-cold water will do to your yeast. I have figured out that unless your yeast is several years old, it's virtually impossible to ruin it altogether. If you're worried, aim for water about the temperature of a baby's bath. If you haven't bathed a baby, just think lukewarm.
**Or that fast acting stuff, if you want. It really doesn't matter in this particular recipe.
***Otherwise known as high grade flour or high gluten flour. You can use plain flour and it will still come out fine, but the extra gluten in the bread flour improves the texture of the loaf.
****There is no particular technique to this. Any kind of kneading will do. You can look it up on YouTube if you're really anxious, but you can punch, fold, or squish to your heart's content. It's amazingly cathartic when you're in a bad mood, because you can pretend it's someone's face. If you are exceptionally lazy and dislike scraping bits of sticky dough off your counter-top, you can actually knead it inside the bowl.
I first learned to make this kind of bread when I was an undergraduate. Having discovered that a diet of oats, plain macaroni and frozen peas was a little lacking both in nutrition and in deliciousness, I started teaching myself to cook out of various library books. My first attempt at bread was a little odd, but tasted pretty good, so I persisted. Then all my friends found out about it and kept hanging around at my house in the hopes that I'd make some. I like to be liked, even if it's just for my baking, so I've been a big bread baker ever since. This is about the easiest kind of yeast bread there is, and doesn't require any fancy equipment such as bread makers, loaf pans, etc.
Ingredients
1 cup warm water*
2 teaspoons active dried yeast**
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or any other kind of oil; olive tastes best)
2 1/2 to 3 cups bread flour***
Kosher salt, sea salt, or reasonably finely ground rock salt
Dried or fresh rosemary.
Whisk the first three ingredients together in a large bowl. Leave for ten minutes in a warm-ish place, or at least a place where there aren't any cold drafts, until the yeast starts going into fluffy bubbles.
Sprinkle the salt over the mixture and add the olive oil. Give it a stir.
Now add 2 1/2 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a ball of sticky dough.
Turn the dough out onto a generously floured counter top and knead the dough**** for around 5 minutes, adding the extra half-cup of flour little by little to stop it sticking to the counter. You know you've kneaded it enough when the dough is smooth and satiny-textured and doesn't stick to the counter or your hands.
Wash and dry your bowl, then coat the inside with a little oil. Place your dough in the bowl, cover the bowl with a clean towel, and leave it in a warm place until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Depending on how warm the warm place is, this can take as little as 30 and as many as 120 minutes. If your oven has a bread proof setting, you can put it in there. Make sure, obviously, that you use a metal or glass bowl if you do this.
When the dough is risen, knead it again briefly to get some of the air out. (It will make a satisfying whoosh.) Shape it into any shape you like: one large flat loaf, two long skinny loaves, lots of little bread rolls, etc. Place it/them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush the bread with olive oil and sprinkle a few generous pinches of salt and rosemary over the top. (Oregano, basil, or thyme would also be good, or you could stud it with olives, slivers of sundried tomatoes, etc.) Leave the bread to rise again until it's doubled in size. (It doesn't matter if it's not really double. It'll still taste all right.)
Heat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (220 celsius). Bake the bread for 15-20 minutes or until it's golden on top and slightly golden underneath. Small rolls will bake faster than a large loaf.
If your oven is useless and doesn't cook the undersides very well, you can turn the loaf or loaves over using tongs and bake it for another five minutes until it looks healthier.
You should probably let the bread cool slightly before you and your friends wolf it, but this never really happens around here.
*Lots of bread recipes will tell you sternly to measure the temperature and give you dire warnings about what too-hot or too-cold water will do to your yeast. I have figured out that unless your yeast is several years old, it's virtually impossible to ruin it altogether. If you're worried, aim for water about the temperature of a baby's bath. If you haven't bathed a baby, just think lukewarm.
**Or that fast acting stuff, if you want. It really doesn't matter in this particular recipe.
***Otherwise known as high grade flour or high gluten flour. You can use plain flour and it will still come out fine, but the extra gluten in the bread flour improves the texture of the loaf.
****There is no particular technique to this. Any kind of kneading will do. You can look it up on YouTube if you're really anxious, but you can punch, fold, or squish to your heart's content. It's amazingly cathartic when you're in a bad mood, because you can pretend it's someone's face. If you are exceptionally lazy and dislike scraping bits of sticky dough off your counter-top, you can actually knead it inside the bowl.
Chile verde
This is a rather exotic recipe for me, since where I come from Mexican food isn't really a thing. I hope any Mexican readers of this blog will not go into fits of laughter over the inauthenticity of it all.
Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs. pork loin (we used to use tenderloin until we figured out loin was cheaper and tasted fine)
2 tablespoons canola oil (or any other kind of oil)
1/2 cup flour
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth*
3 teaspoons bouillon powder (any kind; chicken is fine, or garlic/herb)
1 can diced tomatoes and hot peppers**
1 4oz can diced green chiles***
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon fresh cilantro (coriander leaves), finely chopped
salt to taste
Cut the pork into 1-inch cubes and put them in a bowl with the flour, coating them on all sides.
Heat the oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the pork cubes, cooking until the meat is browned.
Add the other ingredients, bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low heat for 2 hours or longer. Season to taste while cooking.
Serve with any or all of the following: a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkling of grated cheese, a flour or corn tortilla for scooping. Garnish each bowl with a sprig of cilantro if you're trying to impress guests.
Serves 6. We are only two plus a toddler, but this makes great leftovers. I expect it would freeze well, but we don't like freezing things, so I do not claim to speak from experience.
*I make my own in my slow cooker. If you can't be bothered with this, the bought stuff is fine.
**Mr. B says Rotel. I say I can't tell the difference between that and the generic kind that are half the price.
***Or you can use the fresh ones, if you can get them.
Non-Disgusting Black Bean Stew
I adore most beans, but I'm not usually terribly fond of black beans. There's something about their sticky sludginess that reminds me of tar. This recipe, however, converted me. It's utterly delicious. I can eat vast quantities of this, and so can my family. The wine and the balsamic give it an acidic edge that completely cancels out the cloyingness of the beans. Note to self: adding booze improves everything.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups dried black beans, rinsed but not soaked
1 large onion, chopped fine
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
1/4 cup wine (red or white, whatever you have*)
2 tablespoons Tamari**
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Put black beans, onion, oil and water in a large pot and bring them to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover, and simmer until the beans are cooked, probably 75 to 90 minutes, or longer if your beans are ancient and have been sitting in the back of your cupboard since the dawn of time.
Add the wine, Tamari, and balsamic vinegar, stirring, and the salt, tasting to check if you've put in enough for your liking. (Woe betide you if you put in too much. Add more booze; it might help. If it doesn't, drink more booze and you'll mind less.)
Simmer uncovered until the mixture reduces to the consistency you like, or add more water if it's too thick.
Serve by itself in a bowl, or over rice. I'm told basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than other types of rice, and I believe everything I read in health magazines, so that's the kind of rice we usually eat. (I also think it tastes better than any other type of rice, so I can be virtuous and enjoy myself in one go.) If you believe (rightly) in having a side of vegetables, steamed broccoli goes well with this, or you could make a green salad.
Serves 8 in one sitting, or keeps two adults and one toddler going for days on end. Keeps very well in the refrigerator.
*And please do feel free to get the most awful bottle of $4 plonk you want. Then again, you may want to spring for something nicer if you like to take a swig out of it while you're cooking.
**Or plain soy sauce, since it's cheaper and this is, after all, a frugality blog.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups dried black beans, rinsed but not soaked
1 large onion, chopped fine
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
1/4 cup wine (red or white, whatever you have*)
2 tablespoons Tamari**
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Put black beans, onion, oil and water in a large pot and bring them to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover, and simmer until the beans are cooked, probably 75 to 90 minutes, or longer if your beans are ancient and have been sitting in the back of your cupboard since the dawn of time.
Add the wine, Tamari, and balsamic vinegar, stirring, and the salt, tasting to check if you've put in enough for your liking. (Woe betide you if you put in too much. Add more booze; it might help. If it doesn't, drink more booze and you'll mind less.)
Simmer uncovered until the mixture reduces to the consistency you like, or add more water if it's too thick.
Serve by itself in a bowl, or over rice. I'm told basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than other types of rice, and I believe everything I read in health magazines, so that's the kind of rice we usually eat. (I also think it tastes better than any other type of rice, so I can be virtuous and enjoy myself in one go.) If you believe (rightly) in having a side of vegetables, steamed broccoli goes well with this, or you could make a green salad.
Serves 8 in one sitting, or keeps two adults and one toddler going for days on end. Keeps very well in the refrigerator.
*And please do feel free to get the most awful bottle of $4 plonk you want. Then again, you may want to spring for something nicer if you like to take a swig out of it while you're cooking.
**Or plain soy sauce, since it's cheaper and this is, after all, a frugality blog.
Green breakfast smoothie
This doesn't sound very appetizing, but it's delicious and a painless way to get a few of your daily servings of fruits and vegetables out of the way before you even get dressed. You can't even taste the spinach or the grains. You don't have to add the grains, by the way, but if you do, this smoothie is filling enough to keep you going until lunchtime. The banana adds enough sweetness that you don't need any sweetener unless your teeth are considerably sweeter than mine.
Ingredients
1/2 cup almond milk (dairy, soy, rice, coconut or any other kind of milk would be fine)
1/4 cup unsweetened yogurt (I used fat free, but any kind would be fine, including non-dairy)
1 tablespoon oat bran (optional)
1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (optional)
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries*
1/2 cup frozen pitted cherries*
1/2 a frozen banana**
1 cup packed baby spinach leaves (or coarsely chopped grown-up spinach)
Very complicated instructions: place all ingredients in food processor or blender, whiz until smooth. Decant into a tall glass.
Serves 1.
You could use just about any fresh or frozen fruits you like in this. Some of my friends add a scoop of protein powder to make it extra filling, but I've never found one that didn't taste vile.
*These are incredibly cheap in the freezer section of my budget supermarket, but your mileage may vary. Alternatively, you could buy these fresh in summer. Freezing is optional unless you prefer your smoothies very cold.
**I detest overripe bananas, but my bananas are always going overripe. So I cut them in half and freeze them specifically for this purpose. You don't have to freeze them if you don't want to, of course.
Ingredients
1/2 cup almond milk (dairy, soy, rice, coconut or any other kind of milk would be fine)
1/4 cup unsweetened yogurt (I used fat free, but any kind would be fine, including non-dairy)
1 tablespoon oat bran (optional)
1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (optional)
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries*
1/2 cup frozen pitted cherries*
1/2 a frozen banana**
1 cup packed baby spinach leaves (or coarsely chopped grown-up spinach)
Very complicated instructions: place all ingredients in food processor or blender, whiz until smooth. Decant into a tall glass.
Serves 1.
You could use just about any fresh or frozen fruits you like in this. Some of my friends add a scoop of protein powder to make it extra filling, but I've never found one that didn't taste vile.
*These are incredibly cheap in the freezer section of my budget supermarket, but your mileage may vary. Alternatively, you could buy these fresh in summer. Freezing is optional unless you prefer your smoothies very cold.
**I detest overripe bananas, but my bananas are always going overripe. So I cut them in half and freeze them specifically for this purpose. You don't have to freeze them if you don't want to, of course.
Baked Mexican omelette
This is a great recipe for feeding a lot of hungry people. I have no idea if a Mexican person would burst into scornful laughter at this, but this family of wimpy gringos likes it. I typically make something like this if I'm hosting a brunch, because it feeds six hungry people and eight slightly less ravenous people. The ingredients are moderately cheap, the recipe is very easy, and for some reason it tends to impress guests. You can cut it in squares and eat it the way it is, or scoop it into warmed corn tortillas.
Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cottage cheese (I used low fat, any kind would do)
1/2 cup sour cream (ditto)
1 cup grated cheese (any kind; I used cheddar)
1 cup salsa (any kind; I used a mild one because of Baby B's sensitive taste buds)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 celsius)
Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray, or coat with oil.
Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then gently stir in the sour cream, cottage cheese and salt.
Spread the salsa evenly over the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the salsa.
Pour the egg mixture over the cheese.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the eggs are set. For some reason, it sometimes takes up to 10 minutes longer. Don't panic. Everything is fine.
(Optional extra: Mr. B, who adores meat, always wistfully says that this would be better with some crumbled cooked sausage meat in it. I don't especially like meat at breakfast time, but I'd eat it that way for dinner.)
*I can't particularly tell the difference between full-fat and low-fat dairy products. I don't use the low-fat ones in baking, but for most cooking they seem to work. I don't, however, recommend fat-free hard cheeses, which taste like a nasty hybrid of cardboard and rubber.
Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cottage cheese (I used low fat, any kind would do)
1/2 cup sour cream (ditto)
1 cup grated cheese (any kind; I used cheddar)
1 cup salsa (any kind; I used a mild one because of Baby B's sensitive taste buds)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 celsius)
Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray, or coat with oil.
Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then gently stir in the sour cream, cottage cheese and salt.
Spread the salsa evenly over the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the salsa.
Pour the egg mixture over the cheese.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the eggs are set. For some reason, it sometimes takes up to 10 minutes longer. Don't panic. Everything is fine.
(Optional extra: Mr. B, who adores meat, always wistfully says that this would be better with some crumbled cooked sausage meat in it. I don't especially like meat at breakfast time, but I'd eat it that way for dinner.)
*I can't particularly tell the difference between full-fat and low-fat dairy products. I don't use the low-fat ones in baking, but for most cooking they seem to work. I don't, however, recommend fat-free hard cheeses, which taste like a nasty hybrid of cardboard and rubber.
Toasted muesli
I was brought up on this stuff, and I vastly prefer it to its sugary American cousin, granola. I can't handle too much sweet stuff in the morning, and this is perfect--healthy, filling, full of fiber and vitamins and minerals, and best of all, deliciously toasty. If you wanted to take it one step further, you could turn it into bircher muesli, though it's fine as is. This recipe makes enough for a few weeks of family breakfasts if you eat 1/3-1/2 a cup a day.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup buckwheat groats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seed kernels
1 cup almonds (I used whole, but blanched or slivered would work too)
1 cup chopped brazil nuts (or any other kind of nut you like; pecans would be great)
1 cup sesame seeds
5 cups rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind)
Dried fruit of your choice, chopped into small pieces if necessary (optional)
1/4 cup ground flax seed, (optional)
Heat a wok or large frying pan on medium heat. Add olive oil, buckwheat groats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seed kernels, almonds and brazil nuts. Cook, stirring constantly, until the seeds start cracking and popping, a little like popcorn but not as violently, for about 5 minutes.
Add the sesame seeds, turn the heat down to low, and continue stirring until the sesame seeds start to change color, about 5-10 minutes.
Add the rolled oats and stir. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, for another five minutes.
Take the wok off the heat and let the muesli cool. When it's completely cooled, add any, all, or none of the optional ingredients.
Serve with milk or unsweetened yogurt, plus some fresh fruit if you like. I like this with blueberries in summer, and stewed apples in winter.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup buckwheat groats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seed kernels
1 cup almonds (I used whole, but blanched or slivered would work too)
1 cup chopped brazil nuts (or any other kind of nut you like; pecans would be great)
1 cup sesame seeds
5 cups rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind)
Dried fruit of your choice, chopped into small pieces if necessary (optional)
1/4 cup ground flax seed, (optional)
Heat a wok or large frying pan on medium heat. Add olive oil, buckwheat groats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seed kernels, almonds and brazil nuts. Cook, stirring constantly, until the seeds start cracking and popping, a little like popcorn but not as violently, for about 5 minutes.
Add the sesame seeds, turn the heat down to low, and continue stirring until the sesame seeds start to change color, about 5-10 minutes.
Add the rolled oats and stir. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, for another five minutes.
Take the wok off the heat and let the muesli cool. When it's completely cooled, add any, all, or none of the optional ingredients.
Serve with milk or unsweetened yogurt, plus some fresh fruit if you like. I like this with blueberries in summer, and stewed apples in winter.
Whole grain apple pancakes
Update: please also see this alternative version, where I used steel cut oats instead of rolled oats.
These are a big hit with Baby B, my 20-month-old daughter. They're also about as healthy as you can get a pancake to be. I can almost kid myself that they're healthy because the flour is 100% whole wheat. The ground flax seed holds everything together beautifully so you don't need the higher gluten content of white flour. You can add oat bran and wheat germ to make them extra fiber-rich if you feel like it, but no big drama if you don't.
Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind, not the quick kind)
1/4 cup ground flax seed*
1 teaspoon oat bran (optional)
1 teaspoon wheat germ (optional)
3/4 cup milk (I used skim, but any kind would be fine, including non-dairy milks)
2 eggs
2 apples, grated with the skins on**
2 tablespoons brown sugar (you could leave this out to be extra healthy, but I find it improves the texture)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Half a stick of butter (2 oz or ca. 55g), melted
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Mix the rolled oats, flax seeds, oat bran (if using), wheat germ (if using), sugar, salt, cinnamon, milk, and eggs together with a fork.
Stir in the grated apple and the melted butter.
In a separate small bowl, mix the flour and the baking powder. Tip into the wet ingredients and stir with the fork until just combined. Don't overmix or the pancakes may be rubbery.
Melt a tablespoon of butter in a cast-iron frying pan over medium-high heat. (A non-stick pan is fine too, but I'd steer clear of a stainless steel one.) Using a 1/8 cup measure (or a large spoon), drop up to five spoonfuls of batter onto the pan. When little bubbles start to appear on top, flip them over with a spatula and cook the other side until it's a light golden brown, pressing down on the pancakes with the spatula to flatten them slightly.
Test out one of the pancakes before you take them all out of the pan to make sure they're cooked in the middle. The first lot may not be any good, but don't despair, this recipe makes a lot of batter and you'll have plenty of chances to make better ones.
Serve unadorned, or with butter, or maple syrup, or a dusting of icing sugar, or fruit, or...anything you like, really.
Serves 6
*This might not seem like a particularly frugal ingredient, but I can get a pound of it for absolute pennies in my budget supermarket's bulk aisle. You can get it pre-ground, but it tends to go rancid fast, so I buy the whole seeds and grind small quantities in my coffee grinder.
**You could peel them if you really wanted to, but I'm too parsimonious to waste anything edible.
These are a big hit with Baby B, my 20-month-old daughter. They're also about as healthy as you can get a pancake to be. I can almost kid myself that they're healthy because the flour is 100% whole wheat. The ground flax seed holds everything together beautifully so you don't need the higher gluten content of white flour. You can add oat bran and wheat germ to make them extra fiber-rich if you feel like it, but no big drama if you don't.
Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind, not the quick kind)
1/4 cup ground flax seed*
1 teaspoon oat bran (optional)
1 teaspoon wheat germ (optional)
3/4 cup milk (I used skim, but any kind would be fine, including non-dairy milks)
2 eggs
2 apples, grated with the skins on**
2 tablespoons brown sugar (you could leave this out to be extra healthy, but I find it improves the texture)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Half a stick of butter (2 oz or ca. 55g), melted
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Mix the rolled oats, flax seeds, oat bran (if using), wheat germ (if using), sugar, salt, cinnamon, milk, and eggs together with a fork.
Stir in the grated apple and the melted butter.
In a separate small bowl, mix the flour and the baking powder. Tip into the wet ingredients and stir with the fork until just combined. Don't overmix or the pancakes may be rubbery.
Melt a tablespoon of butter in a cast-iron frying pan over medium-high heat. (A non-stick pan is fine too, but I'd steer clear of a stainless steel one.) Using a 1/8 cup measure (or a large spoon), drop up to five spoonfuls of batter onto the pan. When little bubbles start to appear on top, flip them over with a spatula and cook the other side until it's a light golden brown, pressing down on the pancakes with the spatula to flatten them slightly.
Test out one of the pancakes before you take them all out of the pan to make sure they're cooked in the middle. The first lot may not be any good, but don't despair, this recipe makes a lot of batter and you'll have plenty of chances to make better ones.
Serve unadorned, or with butter, or maple syrup, or a dusting of icing sugar, or fruit, or...anything you like, really.
Serves 6
*This might not seem like a particularly frugal ingredient, but I can get a pound of it for absolute pennies in my budget supermarket's bulk aisle. You can get it pre-ground, but it tends to go rancid fast, so I buy the whole seeds and grind small quantities in my coffee grinder.
**You could peel them if you really wanted to, but I'm too parsimonious to waste anything edible.
Welcome!
Welcome to The Penurious Kitchen, a blog of cheap, healthy recipes for austere times.
In spite of the title, I'm not in total penury. I've often been broke, but I've never been truly poor. It drives me nuts to hear other middle-class people say they can't understand why poor people can't eat more healthily, because "I had a $20 food budget and lived on beans and rice when I was at university." Sure they did, but university doesn't last forever, and when you have an education, there's at least some promise that you'll one day have a middle-class lifestyle. I'd be lying if I said I'd ever experienced real poverty; I've never had to choose between paying the electricity bill and buying food. I've thrown both on the credit card more times than I'd care to admit, but I still have the privilege of a bank that will give me credit.
That said, you'll find plenty of beans and rice here because I adore them. One of the reasons for starting this blog was that so many recipes that claim to be frugal are anything but. The top things that drive me bananas about recipes are:
1) They require a vast collection of equipment that I don't have. I don't have a stick blender. No one as clumsy as I should ever, ever be allowed to own a mandoline (unless we're talking about a plucked string instrument). While a lot of my recipes use a slow cooker, that's about the fanciest thing I ever use. All my recipes can be made with just a few pots and pans, a sharp knife, a chopping board, some measuring cups and spoons, and one or two other useful bits such as a grater and a sieve.
2) They require dozens of fancy ingredients I don't have, such as spices I'm not going to use again. The recipes I'm going to post here use ingredients that you can use up in other dishes. If I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'm going to post weekly meal plans as well so you can see how I do this.
3) They don't work. Is there anything more infuriating to a frugal cook than wasting ingredients on something that doesn't turn out the way the recipe promised it would, doesn't taste good, or, in some cases, is inedible?
The recipes I'm going to post here are ones I've made several times over and tweaked to make sure they won't be abysmal failures. I'm not going to claim that they're impossible to mess up, because you can always mess something up, but they don't involve hours of sweaty labor followed by crushing disappointment.
They are also cheap to make, and taste good. Most of them don't take a long time, but the ones that do--roast chicken, slow-cooker recipes, breads--can be done when you're at home doing other things, such as running around after an energetic toddler, because they involve long stretches of doing nothing. (In the case of the slow cooker, you can usually throw everything in it and go out all day, then come home at night to a house that smells heavenly and a ready-to-eat dinner.) I tend to plan a week's worth of recipes at once and buy just the ingredients I need. I don't buy in bulk, nor do I freeze meals, because I don't much like the taste of previously-frozen casseroles and I don't tend to use many of the things you can buy in huge amounts. I'm not a snob about cans and frozen vegetables, but I try where possible to buy fresh, seasonal ingredients. Living as I do in a rural area, it's also possible for me to eat locally produced foods cheaply, though I don't go out of my way to do this unless it's the same price or cheaper than buying things from the budget supermarket.
Being irredeemably middle-class, I really would like to eat only organic foods, but on our austerity budget, that simply isn't going to happen. I do buy organic milk and yogurt for Baby B because she consumes vast amounts of both and I don't trust conventional dairy farmers not to pump their products full of rBST and hormones, but where I live these only cost pennies more than the non-organic versions. I can buy cheap, non-organic but grass-fed meat from a shop run by the local university's agriculture department, and fresh free-range eggs are easy to come by cheaply. I buy organic fruits and vegetables when it's possible to do so without spending more, but I figure the benefits of eating non-organic produce outweigh the downsides of pesticide and GMO exposure.
So how much do I actually spend? Well, these days I set myself a strict budget of $100 a week to feed Mr. B, our toddler Baby B and me for a week. We don't go out to eat, but we're avowed foodies, so eating well matters to us. Before we had a child, my budget was $140 for the two of us, in other words, $10 a day each; the amount seemed reasonable to me. But then came Baby B, and not only were there daycare fees, medical bills, and all the usual baby expenses, but a soy formula habit that cost up to $90 a week. (I intended to breastfeed and I really, really tried. Then catastrophically failed, for reasons I won't go into, hence the soy formula.) So something had to give.
For a while, when we were really poor and hungry (Mr. B doesn't get paid in summer), I got our food budget down to $45 a week, but we found that we were eating so much starch and so little protein that we put on a lot of weight and couldn't fit into our clothes. Since upping the food budget would cost less than two brand-new wardrobes, we did that. How do we keep things cheap, then?
1) We buy vegetables and fruits that are in season. Usually, this coincides with being cheaper.
2) We buy cheap cuts of meat and make them into stews. We eat a lot of chicken. We rather like canned fish.
3) We go to budget supermarkets that have bulk bins. Staples such as rice, oats and pasta are about ten times cheaper than the packaged alternatives.
4) We only buy what we need, sticking to a strict shopping list, so we don't have a pile of vegetable rotting in the refrigerator.
5) One night a week, we eat something really cheap. Homemade soup and bread, a vegetarian dinner, etc.
6) We make things from scratch. Canned beans are cheap, cooking the dried ones yourself in a slow cooker is even cheaper and takes hardly any electricity.
7) This may seem too simple even to mention, but we make packed lunches. I used to despise packed lunches, but I've found ways to make them bearable. All of which I'll share here.
Well, I think that's about all for an introduction! Let the cooking begin......
In spite of the title, I'm not in total penury. I've often been broke, but I've never been truly poor. It drives me nuts to hear other middle-class people say they can't understand why poor people can't eat more healthily, because "I had a $20 food budget and lived on beans and rice when I was at university." Sure they did, but university doesn't last forever, and when you have an education, there's at least some promise that you'll one day have a middle-class lifestyle. I'd be lying if I said I'd ever experienced real poverty; I've never had to choose between paying the electricity bill and buying food. I've thrown both on the credit card more times than I'd care to admit, but I still have the privilege of a bank that will give me credit.
That said, you'll find plenty of beans and rice here because I adore them. One of the reasons for starting this blog was that so many recipes that claim to be frugal are anything but. The top things that drive me bananas about recipes are:
1) They require a vast collection of equipment that I don't have. I don't have a stick blender. No one as clumsy as I should ever, ever be allowed to own a mandoline (unless we're talking about a plucked string instrument). While a lot of my recipes use a slow cooker, that's about the fanciest thing I ever use. All my recipes can be made with just a few pots and pans, a sharp knife, a chopping board, some measuring cups and spoons, and one or two other useful bits such as a grater and a sieve.
2) They require dozens of fancy ingredients I don't have, such as spices I'm not going to use again. The recipes I'm going to post here use ingredients that you can use up in other dishes. If I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'm going to post weekly meal plans as well so you can see how I do this.
3) They don't work. Is there anything more infuriating to a frugal cook than wasting ingredients on something that doesn't turn out the way the recipe promised it would, doesn't taste good, or, in some cases, is inedible?
The recipes I'm going to post here are ones I've made several times over and tweaked to make sure they won't be abysmal failures. I'm not going to claim that they're impossible to mess up, because you can always mess something up, but they don't involve hours of sweaty labor followed by crushing disappointment.
They are also cheap to make, and taste good. Most of them don't take a long time, but the ones that do--roast chicken, slow-cooker recipes, breads--can be done when you're at home doing other things, such as running around after an energetic toddler, because they involve long stretches of doing nothing. (In the case of the slow cooker, you can usually throw everything in it and go out all day, then come home at night to a house that smells heavenly and a ready-to-eat dinner.) I tend to plan a week's worth of recipes at once and buy just the ingredients I need. I don't buy in bulk, nor do I freeze meals, because I don't much like the taste of previously-frozen casseroles and I don't tend to use many of the things you can buy in huge amounts. I'm not a snob about cans and frozen vegetables, but I try where possible to buy fresh, seasonal ingredients. Living as I do in a rural area, it's also possible for me to eat locally produced foods cheaply, though I don't go out of my way to do this unless it's the same price or cheaper than buying things from the budget supermarket.
Being irredeemably middle-class, I really would like to eat only organic foods, but on our austerity budget, that simply isn't going to happen. I do buy organic milk and yogurt for Baby B because she consumes vast amounts of both and I don't trust conventional dairy farmers not to pump their products full of rBST and hormones, but where I live these only cost pennies more than the non-organic versions. I can buy cheap, non-organic but grass-fed meat from a shop run by the local university's agriculture department, and fresh free-range eggs are easy to come by cheaply. I buy organic fruits and vegetables when it's possible to do so without spending more, but I figure the benefits of eating non-organic produce outweigh the downsides of pesticide and GMO exposure.
So how much do I actually spend? Well, these days I set myself a strict budget of $100 a week to feed Mr. B, our toddler Baby B and me for a week. We don't go out to eat, but we're avowed foodies, so eating well matters to us. Before we had a child, my budget was $140 for the two of us, in other words, $10 a day each; the amount seemed reasonable to me. But then came Baby B, and not only were there daycare fees, medical bills, and all the usual baby expenses, but a soy formula habit that cost up to $90 a week. (I intended to breastfeed and I really, really tried. Then catastrophically failed, for reasons I won't go into, hence the soy formula.) So something had to give.
For a while, when we were really poor and hungry (Mr. B doesn't get paid in summer), I got our food budget down to $45 a week, but we found that we were eating so much starch and so little protein that we put on a lot of weight and couldn't fit into our clothes. Since upping the food budget would cost less than two brand-new wardrobes, we did that. How do we keep things cheap, then?
1) We buy vegetables and fruits that are in season. Usually, this coincides with being cheaper.
2) We buy cheap cuts of meat and make them into stews. We eat a lot of chicken. We rather like canned fish.
3) We go to budget supermarkets that have bulk bins. Staples such as rice, oats and pasta are about ten times cheaper than the packaged alternatives.
4) We only buy what we need, sticking to a strict shopping list, so we don't have a pile of vegetable rotting in the refrigerator.
5) One night a week, we eat something really cheap. Homemade soup and bread, a vegetarian dinner, etc.
6) We make things from scratch. Canned beans are cheap, cooking the dried ones yourself in a slow cooker is even cheaper and takes hardly any electricity.
7) This may seem too simple even to mention, but we make packed lunches. I used to despise packed lunches, but I've found ways to make them bearable. All of which I'll share here.
Well, I think that's about all for an introduction! Let the cooking begin......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)