Overnight steel cut oats

I'm picky about my porridge. I won't eat the kind made from rolled oats, especially not (shudder!) those awful one-minute ones, which taste like glue. I adore the taste and texture from steel-cut oats, but there's no denying they're a lot more high-maintenance than the more quick-cooking varieties.

I've been searching for the perfect way to make steel-cut oats for some time. The key is advance preparation. In a pinch, you can simply make them 20 minutes before you want to eat: use one part steel cut oats to four parts water, bring to a boil, and simmer until the oats are softened and the water absorbed. But if you have 20 minutes to wait for breakfast in the morning, you're a more organized woman than I.

I tried a few times to make porridge in my slow cooker, but I didn't like it at all. The recipes always said the texture would be deliciously creamy, but for my taste it had just turned into glue. I like my oats to have a bit of bite.

This week, I figured out the perfect shortcut. You can prepare your oats the night before so that they cook gently in hot water and then cool down into perfectly cooked, perfectly textured porridge that you only need to heat up.

The trick is to put only three parts water for one part oats. Mix in a pot, stir, and bring to a boil. As soon as it's boiling, take the pot off the heat and clap a lid on it. Leave it overnight, and first thing in the morning, put it back on the stove over medium heat and let it heat through for a few minutes. Serve with the toppings of your choice--I like fresh or frozen fruit (it defrosts in the heat of the porridge) and a spoonful of plain yogurt. I grew up having milk and raw sugar on top, but my blood sugar can't handle sweet stuff in the morning these days. I'm told that the Scots are horrified by the thought of toppings on porridge. Oh well, I've only been there once.

Week's meal plan, September 27, 2013

Last week's meal plan went fine. Mr. B and Baby B loved the corn fritters. The black bean burgers weren't particularly exciting, so in my quest for the perfect veggie burger, I'm going to try another recipe this week. I've had some lovely veggie burgers in restaurants, but have yet to find a really good recipe, one that tastes good, has a pleasant texture, and doesn't send my blood sugar into outer space.

This week, I was taking stock of the ingredients I already had in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, and realized that I had enough food to make masses of meals without even going shopping. So I decided to use up some of them, and spend my grocery money on some things that were possibly a little more luxurious than what I normally get, just for fun. Not super economical, but sometimes a girl yearns for a sundried tomato and a bit of feta.

Contents of my pantry:

• 1 15-oz can Alaska sockeye salmon
• whole wheat rotini
• pinto beans
• black beans
• whole wheat breadcrumbs
• brown basmati rice
• white flour
• whole wheat flour
• rice noodles
• polenta

Contents of my freezer:

• 1 large chicken breast
• half a bag of green beans
• half a bag of peas
• 1/4 bag of corn
• small quantities of frozen fruits: mangoes, cherries, bananas

Contents of my refrigerator:

• 1 loaf whole wheat bread
• Half a jar of peanut butter
• various condiments: mayonnaise, soy sauce, fish sauce, etc
• eggs

So I decided to make the following recipes:

1. Roast chicken with sides of black beans and brown basmati rice, side salad
2. Rotini with leftover chicken, broccoli, sundried tomatoes and Asiago (from the Cook's Illustrated Best 30-Minute Recipes), side of peas and green beans
3. Veggie burgers with homemade whole wheat buns, with mayonnaise/tomatoes/spinach/etc
4. Salmon cakes with red peppers, green chiles, scallions, cilantro, and lime juice (also from Cook's Illustrated Best 30-Minute Recipes) with a side of cheesy polenta and a side salad
5. Some kind of stir-fry with sauteed chicken breast, rice noodles, spinach, peanuts, carrots, scallions, various stir-fry sauces (I seldom use a recipe for this kind of thing, it's more of an improvisation)
6. Linguine with red cabbage and feta, side salad
7. Leftovers (we always seem to have lots)

Lunches:

• Peanut butter sandwiches
• Raw vegetable sticks
• Boiled eggs
• Fruit

Snacks:

• string cheese
• fruit

Breakfasts:

• Steel cut oats with yogurt and frozen berries
• eggs on toast

Desserts:

• fruit "ice cream"

I spent $58.03.

Groceries:

Dairy:

1 gallon Organic Valley whole milk: 6.68

Nancy's low-fat yogurt: 2.43

Asiago (cheaper than parmesan and does the same sort of thing): 1.48

Sargento reduced fat Mexican shredded cheese: 2.68

Frigo reduced fat string cheese: 2.48

Athenos crumbled feta cheese: 4.78

Eggs: 1.30

Fruit and vegetables:

Frozen mixed berries: 1.88

sundried tomatoes: 2.88

broccoli: 2.02

1 red bell pepper: 0.88

1 head garlic: 0.38

10 oz spinach: 1.38

3 lbs nectarines: 2.96

3 lbs gala apples: 2.67

red onions: 2.19

3 lbs tomatoes: 2.98

5 limes: 1.25

scallions: 0.58

1 red cabbage: 1.47

2 lbs carrots: 0.98

1 head celery: 1.51

Bulk:

steel cut oats: 0.68

bulgur wheat: 0.29

brown sugar: 0.13

1 lb linguine: 0.93

unsalted peanuts: 0.30

Meat:
1 whole chicken: 7.72

Fruit "ice cream"

I don't buy ice cream much, because it's not especially healthy and we don't want Baby B getting used to the idea of sweet desserts. We have dessert every night, but it's either fruit or cheese unless it's a very special occasion. This, however, is probably about as healthy an ice cream as you can get. I don't have an ice cream maker, but you don't need one if all your ingredients are frozen and you have a food processor whose blade can handle it.

This isn't an exact recipe, but I was clearing out my freezer and found some bags of frozen mangoes, cherries, and bananas. I mixed about two cups of the fruit with 2 tablespoons of yogurt and whizzed them all  up in the food processor until they'd achieved the texture of ice cream. Baby B and I had it for an afternoon snack and it was joyfully received. If you wanted to be extra-virtuous, you could throw in a handful of raw or frozen spinach or kale, which wouldn't alter the taste, but would give you an effortless serving of your daily green leafy vegetable.

Cold-brewed tea

Like cold-brewed coffee, this is a wonderful way to use resources economically. Using eight tea bags, you can make a gallon of iced tea--far more than the eight cups of hot tea you could make with as many bags. It also tastes far better than hot-brewed tea cooled down, because for some reason the complex flavor of tea really comes out when you cold-brew it. Even if you use the absolute cheapest tea bags you can find. We use the Red Rose brand, which costs $3.31 for 100 tea bags. One pitcher of ice tea is enough for Mr. B and me for at least half the week, so we use 16 tea bags a week. As you see, that $3.31 goes a very long way.

For the container, we spend $7 and bought a large square glass jar with a lid and a sort of tap at the bottom for convenience. We keep it on a shelf of its own in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

1 gallon water
8 black tea bags (caffeinated or decaffeinated as you like)

Pour water into a large container, and immerse the tea bags in it. Cover and put in fridge overnight or until the tea is steeped to your liking. Remove the tea bags. Serve.

Cold-brewed coffee

One of the difficult things about eating economically is the problem of what to do about drinks. Well, obviously, we drink water. We both love drinking cold water. In the winter, I like drinking hot water, a habit I picked up in China. But we can't live on water alone, can we? We've completely cut out alcohol, on the grounds that it's unnecessary and expensive. We don't drink juice, because it's expensive and isn't very good for you--all the sugar from fruit with none of the fiber. Baby B is the only one who likes to drink milk.

We used to have a coffee habit that set us back $30-40 every week. That's all gone now. But who wants to live a totally caffeine-free life? No one who has a toddler, that's for sure.

I heard about cold-brewing coffee about a year ago and it sounded so eccentric--coffee beans into plain water?--that I was sure it wouldn't work. But then my mother-in-law made some for me, and I was hooked. Not only does it make a pitcher of delicious iced coffee that lasts me for a week, it also makes far more iced coffee than the equivalent amount of beans would make hot coffee. Yet another big win for the thrifty B family! We can get a pound of organic coffee beans for $5.68, and it lasts for weeks and weeks. Now, that sure beats the vast sums a lot of people spend at the inevitable Starbucks.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of ground coffee beans (you don't have grind your own, but I do because I have a coffee grinder and I prefer freshly ground beans)
1/2 gallon water

This really couldn't be simpler. Mix your beans with your water in a pitcher, cover it, and let it steep at room temperature for 24 hours. Drain it through a fine-mesh sieve into another pitcher, discard coffee grounds, and you're ready to go. Refrigerate the coffee once you've drained it.

I like to have this with unsweetened almond milk, a new discovery of mine. Not only is it higher in calcium and lower in carbs and calories than dairy milk, it tastes wonderful and it's $0.70 cheaper per half-gallon at our local supermarket.

P.S. I've heard of people heating this up in the microwave to make hot coffee. I don't think this would taste very good. If you want hot coffee, I recommend the old-fashioned way.

Spaghetti alla carbonara

I adore carbonara, and I'm quite picky about it. I despise versions with cream in them, which are cloyingly rich. Yuck! This version is a really good dish to make when you're feeling poor and hungry, because it's incredibly filling and tastes delicious too. The recipe is a variant on one my parents used to make when I was little. As far as I know, they never monkeyed about with wine or Parmesan, but I bet they'd like it if they did.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 to 1 cup grated cheese of your choice (I like a mixture of cheddar and Parmesan)
4 slices bacon
3 tablespoons white wine (optional)
1/2 lb whole wheat spaghetti (or white spaghetti)
1 tablespoon minced parsley
salt
pepper

Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook it in its own fat in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat until it's crisp. Deglaze the pan with white wine and let it simmer until reduced. (Skip this step if you don't have wine, it'll still taste good.)

Boil water in a large pot, and when it's boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon of salt. Pasta water should be salty like the sea--it's the best way to make the pasta taste good without over-salting the sauce. Add the spaghetti, and cook according to package directions. (I usually take it out 1 minute before it says you should, because I like pasta with quite a bite to it.)

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, parsley and cheese together with a fork, and set aside.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking water. Tip the egg and bacon mixtures into the pot and toss with the spaghetti--the egg will cook and the cheese will melt from the heat of the pasta. Season with a few generous grinds of pepper.

Whole wheat hamburger buns

This variant on my basic bread recipe may be a way to make yourself feel altogether healthier about eating hamburgers. I don't like those white plastic buns everyone eats with hamburgers, and these seem much more substantial. I haven't figured out a way to make completely whole-wheat buns that are soft enough, but a 50-50 compromise is better than nothing, no?

Makes 8 buns.

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)
1 1/2 cups white flour (bread flour has a higher gluten content, but plain will work too)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
Kosher salt, sea salt, or reasonably finely ground rock salt
1 tablespoon butter

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.

Whisk the two flours together in a medium bowl.

Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour mixture 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.) Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and shape the into buns. Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

Heat your oven to 430 Fahrenheit (220 celsius). Right before baking, throw a couple of handfuls of ice cubes into the bottom of the oven to help keep the buns moist. Bake the buns for 12-15 minutes or until they're golden on top and slightly golden underneath.

Take the buns out of the oven and transfer them to a wire rack. Melt the butter and brush the tops of the buns with it, then leave them to cool. (The butter helps them to stay soft enough for hamburgers.)