Foodie With Family

My father has told me more than once that he has one huge regret about how he raised my siblings and me.  If he could go back and do it all over again, he would not teach us to love potato skins and the heels of bread loaves because he had to fight for every one he ate after he did.  Does he have any other parental regrets?  Who knows?  I stopped listening and started drooling after he said ‘potato skins’.  Sorry, Dad.

Ah the potato.  God’s perfect tuber.  I am eternally grateful to my Dad for selflessly showing me the delicious potato skin path through life.   Baked potatoes topped with butter, salt and pepper are a wondrous thing but they’re not the only thing baked potatoes can do.  Loaded Baked Potato Soup (shameless self-promotion alert), our family favorite baked potato bar, and twice-baked potatoes are all stupendous.  But the apotheosis of potato preparations, the be-all-and-end-all of potato eatery is the baked potato skin.  Fresh from the oven, crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, seasoned and cheese laden, the baked potato skin is what every little spud aspires to become.   Can you imagine anything more perfect than this?

Well, okay.  How about anything more perfect than this?

Every time I see a plate of 12 dinky potato skins for $6.99 in a restaurant*  I want to jump on the table and yell, “I can make four times that amount with four times the toppings for that same price!  Highway robbers!”

*You know, on those 2 nights a year we eat in a restaurant.  Maybe The Evil Genius would take me out more frequently if I stopped jumping on tables and haranguing the staff.

This is truly a wallet-friendly party food.  Out of the same batch of baked potatoes that you got your Loaded Baked Potato Soup you can get these stupendous Baked Potato Skins.  Let me lay out the plan for you.

• Night 1: Bake 12 potatoes along with whatever number baked potatoes you can eat with dinner.  Cool the 12 extra potatoes on the rack while you eat your dinner potatoes.
• Night 2: Hollow out the 12 cold potatoes as directed in the recipe below.  Use the potato ‘guts’ to make Loaded Baked Potato Soup.  Place your potato shells on a rimmed baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.  If it’s going to go beyond that, you can pop the shells into the freezer.  When they’re frozen solid, transfer to a zipper top bag and keep frozen for up to one month before using.
• Night 3 (or 4, 5, etc…): Make your Baked Potato Skins and accept the praise and adoration lavished on you for serving such a delicious and festive food.

And, hey!  Sunday is the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games start next week.  This is hard-core finger food time, people.  Whether you’re attending a party, hosting a party or attempting to become one with your couch, you need to make these.  They’re guaranteed to win friends and influence people.  At least it wins and influences me.

Hey there, handsome...

For a photo-free, printer friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Baked Potato Skins

Ingredients:

• 12 baked potatoes, cooled to room temperature
• 2-3 cups grated cheese (I prefer extra sharp Cheddar, but you can also use Monterey Jack, Colby, Pepper Jack or any combination of those cheeses.)
• 1/2 pound of bacon
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• a batch of Creamy Onion Topping (full post here, or printer friendly version here.)
• additional thinly sliced green onions for topping

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cut each baked potato into quarters, taking care to keep the skin as intact as possible. But don’t just cut them willy-nilly.  Take  a second to consider your potato.  Cut in half first.

Now look at your halves.  See how potatoes are generally oval shaped?  You want to cut those halves in half again, but cut them so that you’re cutting it through the longest angle of the oval so that your quarters will be relatively stable on the pan when you lay them down.  That would be front to back on the left potato half or side to side on the right potato half.

Use a regular soup spoon to carefully scrape most of the insides out of each potato quarter into a large bowl, leaving behind a shell of about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch.

I know some folks take more of the potato out of the shell, but I like my potato skins a bit more substantial.  Feel free to cut back on the amount of potato, just be sure to keep a shell intact or your potato skin will go floppy.  Not so appetizing sounding, is it?

When you have eviscerated all your potatoes divide your potato shells between two rimmed baking sheets.  Use the potato ‘guts’ to make baked potato soup or tightly wrap with plastic wrap, refrigerate and make soup within the next three days.

Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil evenly over the potato shells using about two tablespoons per baking sheet.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over the potato shells to taste.  Remember that potatoes love salt and pepper, so don’t skimp here.

Place sheets in the top third of your preheated oven.  Set timer for 10 minutes.

While the potato shells are toasting, turn your attention to the bacon.  Slice the bacon into 1/2-inch thick strips and slide into a large skillet over medium heat.

Cook until the bacon just begins to turn crisp.  Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Move the drained bacon to a cutting board and coarsely chop.

Remove potato shells from the oven and generously cover with the grated cheese, using about 1 cup per baking sheet.  Scatter the bacon pieces evenly over both sheets.

I used a mix of cheeses including copious amounts of white extra sharp Cheddar here. Because the potatoes were so hot when the cheese went on it began melting immediately. Whilst it appears these potatoes are almost naked I assure you they weren't. I wouldn't do that to a potato.

Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the bacon and return the pans to the oven.  Bake for 6-8 more minutes or until the cheese is melted.  If you like your cheese a little on the more toasty side -and I do- allow to cook an additional 2 minutes or just until the cheese is beginning to brown on top but is still gooey underneath.

Move baked potato skins to a platter.  If so desired, garnish with sliced green onions and serve with a bowl filled with the Creamy Onion Topping.

And boy, do I ever so desire.

Later this week, in keeping with our preparations for the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games there will be an epic barbecue smackdown wherein I take on…

Myself!

What will win?  My Carolina Style Barbecue Sauce or my Smokey Tomato Based Sauce?  Hmm?

Can we talk for a second?  I feel the need to tell you something. I love you.  Really, I do.  Let this soup stand as proof.  Because, baby, it is cold outside and this soup is going to warm you from your inside out.  From your toes on up to your nose.  If I could I’d deliver a big old tureen of this right to your door. (Yes.  I have a soup tureen.  Don’t you?)  Alas, I will have to settle for sharing the recipe with you here.

This Loaded Baked Potato Soup has everything a baked potato should have and more.  I guess you could say it’s all that and a bag of chips- minus the chips.  It starts, of course, with a mess of baked potatoes.  Why bother?  Baked potato soup is to regular potato soup what J. Lo was to the Fly Girls.*  Baked potatoes have an intense potato flavor -an earthiness- that boiled potatoes just cannot achieve.  And that intense potato flavor is perfectly complimented by Creamy Onion Topping, crisped bacon, sliced green onions and sharp Cheddar cheese.  I dare you to try not to like this soup.  It can’t be done.  I mean, really, look at it…

This soup calls to you whilst it bubbles on the stove top.  In fact, it sings.  It sings, “Don’t. Don’t you want me?  You know I don’t believe it when you say that you don’t need me… Don’t you want me baby?  Don’t you want me? Ooooooo-oh!”*

* I’m so sorry.  For some reason I’m very much stuck in a 80’s/90’s pop culture thing today.  It’s been all Human League, Thompson Twins, In Living Color, and whatnot today.  I think it’s because I read an article about Milli Vanilli yesterday.  Clearly I’m traumatized. And the J.Lo analogy is not as tortured an analogy as it might seem.  J.Lo was fine and dandy as a member of the Fly Girls, but she was a star on her own.  See?  I made it work.

But as if the soup wasn’t enough on it’s own, there’s another great reason to make it.  When you make this soup you are more than halfway done with the ultimate finger food for this Sunday (a.k.a. Superbowl Sunday, a.k.a. national holiday in my man-cave of a home.)  Making this soup leaves you in possession of a whole pile of potato skins.  So today I’ll teach you how to make the soup that’ll bring them to their knees and tomorrow I’ll show you how to make the potato skins that’ll keep them coming back for more! Sneak peak?  Why sure.  For you I’d do anything…

For a printer friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted; some of you may remember a posting from Beccy back in June when she shared I’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, I’ve had a couple of surgeries, some chemo, and radiation, which is now ongoing, and except for the cancer, I’m in really good health! During much of the recovery from surgeries and from the treatment itself, I’ve been feeling like I’m draggin’ my wagon, both physically and mentally. But things are much improved, and I’m happy to be finally sharing another post with you all.

This won’t include a recipe, but I did want to share some thoughts about feeling the pinch. Financially, that is. While we have excellent insurance, the deductibles and copays for all our visits to the medical world have taken a substantial bite from our budget, and that along with the fact that I’ve had to give up my part time job with the local library means a little less coming in. Fortunately, I’ve been able to find some ways of stretching the food budget, and I thought I’d share these with you.

First, I’m finally using up things from my pantry.  I told Beccy that I seem to still have the impulse for stocking the shelves the way I used to when we were feeding the kids before we entered the empty nest stage. I have enough rice, flour, brown sugar, dried beans of various sorts to last us through much of this year, but I find myself still picking up some extras when they are on sale. (Valerie, Just Say No!) I’ve been making myself stop when tempted to do that, reminding myself of the sagging shelves at home. (By the way kids, birthday presents this year will probably be jars of jams, jellies and preserves…I’m sure they are still good!)

Another thing I’m doing is trying to cook for two instead of 8 or 10. Leftovers are all right with some things, but not so attractive with others, and it’s nice to end a meal without having to add more dishes to the refrigerator with a bit of this and a dollop of that. Too many of those already in the refrigerator (okay, today’s the day I get rid of those…no comment from the husband, please.) Let me emphasize that I am NOT anti-leftovers—certain kinds make wonderful soups, casseroles, etc., but there are certain things that just are not better after a day or two in the refrigerator.

Eating from the freezer—much like using pantry items up, freezer items don’t stay nice forever, so it’s better to use these up rather than keeping them for ‘someday.’  I think part of my problem is I get a degree of security from seeing loaded shelves, and I want to get over that. There is enough food, and I can get more if I need it.

Another problem—false sense of deprivation. This kicks into play when you are gifted with or able to buy some special item that you don’t normally get, and you put it on the shelf, waiting for that special moment when you will get the maximum enjoyment from that item. What happens? The months, nay, the years(!) pass, that item gets pushed to the back of the shelf, and by the time it sees the light of day, you don’t even have the courage to open it, much less taste it.  Special foods?  Carpe diem! Seize the day!  Enjoy it now, for tomorrow may not come! (Sorry for the drama, but it works for me.)

One other very good and helpful thing is the S.H.A.R.E program. Beccy has mentioned Angel Food Ministries in the past, and S.H.A.R.E is much the same. It provides basic foods on a monthly basis for less than most of us would pay at the store.  The picture I’ve included in this post shows the foods that we picked up today, for a total cost of 43.90. This included their main box of food (25.00) which includes meats, fish, poultry, usually pasta of some kind and a few canned goods and/or mixes for quick breads, as well as 9 to 10 pounds of fresh produce. You are able to select separate items as well, and I ordered two more portions of the fresh produce ($14.00).  There is a 10% shipping charge ($3.90) and a $1.00 handling fee.   This month’s box included the following items:

5 lb. chicken leg quarters

1 lb. ground beef patties

1 lb. pork tenderloin

1 lb. tilapia fillets

12 oz. brown and serve sausages

12 oz. precooked cut up chicken

1 8-oz. shrimp, vegetable and pasta meal (For Jim, I’m not that into Shrimp)

12 oz. egg noodles

1 qt. wild mushroom marinara sauce

1 can cling peaches

1 can peas (erk, it’s been a long time since I’ve looked one of these in the eye)

4 oz. jar chopped garlic

6 grapefruit

15 oranges

15 red delicious apples

15 kiwi fruits

3 lbs carrots

3 cauliflower

3 3-lb. bags potatoes

3 2 lb. bags onions

They also offer a couple of organic items, usually some kind of meat or poultry, and a box of produce is always offered, 10 or more pounds of mixed fruits and veggies for $15.00.  I order these when the budget is a little more healthy, and the variety and quality is always excellent.

Where we live, here in the Northern U.P. of Michigan, it’s not that easy to find good fresh produce at these prices. Summer and fall offer better options, but we still can’t get the variety of meats and produce for this price. And it’s definitely enough for the two of us. And with my attempts to eat out of the pantry and freezer, there is very little we have to purchase at the store. Milk, eggs, cheese, a few more fruits and veggies (usually the ones on sale) and the odd baking supplies now and then seems to take care of what we need.

My goal for the next 3 months is to come in at under $100 for each month; in January, we spent just under $90.00.  In February we might go over a bit due to a larger order I’ll be making from our co-op that includes almond milk.  But we should be at least close.  I’ll be writing more about this later.

All that being said, I hope all our readers are enjoying these winter months.  I thought it would be nice to include a picture of our own status today–sunshine is abundant, sky is clear, and it is COLD.

Here is how things are looking for us right now at home.

I’ve talked a great deal about frugal foods and menu planning in my last few posts.  There’s no doubt about it, one of the most budget-friendly foods you can make is beans!  But that’s not why I’m posting this recipe today.  I’m posting it because it’s STINKIN’ AWESOME!  And because it’s cheap.  I thought you should know…

I also thought you should know that I successfully resisted the temptation to indulge in two cheap and easy beans-and-gas jokes just now.  But I digress…

My Grandpa was a man who knew his food.  He was also a very accomplished man; a former construction worker, professional musician and ordained Methodist minister. And among all of his achievements, this sandwich stands as one of his best.

At first glance, a sandwich composed of baked beans, onions and mustard may not sound like it’s going to rock your world but take a closer look.  The homemade baked beans are saucy and just a little sweet with a pronounced molasses flavor.  The onion rings are sliced paper thin and add just the right amount of pungency.  The tang, salt and vinegar bite of the yellow mustard acts as a perfect foil to the slight sweetness of the beans.  And on lightly buttered homemade rye?  Oh my.  It makes an extraordinarily balanced sandwich full of umami.  Yes!  A sandwich that for all intents and purposes should be anything but refined ends up effortlessly tickling the taste buds in a way that cooks over the globe strive for when they create much fussier food.  And there is a very good reason behind it…

Much of the greatest and most comforting food in the world is the direct result of poverty, hardship and privation.  Pho, stock made from chicken feet, fried rice, dumplings, pasties, coq au vin, cassoulet, marrow bones, beef jerky* and haggis* all sprang from a desire to use every single possible edible part of the animal and avoid all waste.

*I’ll take on anyone who claims beef jerky isn’t great food.  Me and beef jerky?  We’re like this.   I could easily eat my way through a pound all by myself. I accept donations of beef jerky.

Now haggis?  Haggis has its origins in poverty to be sure.  But I’ve heard it said that people’s enthusiasm for haggis is directly inverse to the amount of hand they’ve had in preparing it. The truth is that  I just threw that in because tomorrow is Robert Burns’ birthday. So for the most part, haggis is relegated to being stabbed annually on Burns’ Nicht.  I, for one, am a-okay with this.  Moving back on to tastier things…

It’s probably not too far a stretch to say that our country was built on baked beans.  The native population ate beans, the settlers practically survived on beans,  (That is to say that those who did survive did so with the material assistance of their bean-rich diet.) and nearly every single immigrant population who has joined us since has brought another version of beans or their preparation with them.  Baked beans are the original All-American Food.

And -cough, cough- I do believe that mine are out of this world.  They are the basis for the aforementioned Grandpa’s Bean Sandwiches.  Now you could throw canned baked beans on a piece of bread and I’m sure it’d be decent.  But to have the sandwich that -in my Grandpa’s words- would make your tongue slap your brain silly, you want to make my beans.  Oh yes you do.  Because it all starts with this.

My baked beans have a little something extra that turns them into something good enough to make your grandpa cry.  I bake little bits of spicy sausage into the beans as they bubble away in the oven.  At least it would’ve made my Grandpa cry.  He liked sausage.

You can easily turn these baked beans into a delicious vegetarian dish simply by omitting the sausage and replacing it with two tablespoons of olive oil and a handful of chopped mushrooms.

And boy howdy are these ever inexpensive!  Including sausage, the whole dish should run you no more than five dollars and it can feed you for days!

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Sausage Baked Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 pound dried Navy beans, rinsed and picked over to remove stones or dirt clumps
• 12 cups fresh water for soaking plus additional boiling water for cooking
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large cooking onion, peeled
• 1/4 pound spicy link sausage, cut into 1/2″ chunks
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder (or 1 Tablespoon prepared yellow mustard)
• salt and pepper to taste

Place Navy beans in a dutch oven or other stove-top and oven safe deep-sided heavy pan with a tight fitting cover.  Pour 12 cups of fresh water over the beans, cover, and place over high heat.  Bring to a boil and allow to cook for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to sit at room temperature overnight, still covered.

In the morning, remove the cover, add the bay leaf, stir the beans and return to a boil over high heat.  Lower the heat to medium and simmer for about 30 minutes or until beans are just beginning to become tender, adding more boiling water if necessary.  You’re not looking to get the beans totally tender, you just want them to be starting to get tender. They’ll finish cooking as they bake! Remove the beans from heat again and pour into a colander in the sink.  Fish out and discard the bay leaves.

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Evenly scatter the chunks of link sausage over the bottom of the pan you used to soak and cook the beans.  (Rinsing the pan between steps is unnecessary!) Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the molasses, brown sugar and mustard powder and then pour the hot beans over top.

Gently fold the beans and molasses mixture together.  Don’t beat the tar out of ‘em.  Be gentle about it.  Just fold…

Use a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to scrape the molasses coated beans into the pan over the sausage pieces.  Pour additional boiling water over the beans to cover them by about an inch.  Place pan, uncovered, in the oven and bake for about three hours.  Check the beans periodically to make sure they’re not becoming dry.  As soon as the beans are tender (This could be less than three hours or more depending on the age of the beans.  Just check them every now and again!) stir them so that you’re transferring the beans that were on bottom to the top and vice versa.  Raise the oven’s heat to 400°F and cook, still uncovered, until the sauce around the beans is thick and bubbly.  This should take about an hour.  Remove from oven, add salt and pepper to taste, cover, and allow to cool until they are a comfortable temperature to eat.

These beans are great hot, warm, room temperature or cold.  In short, eat them with dinner and then sneak them from the refrigerator at midnight.  I won’t tell.

Store leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.  They freeze and reheat well, too!

So what do you serve this alongside?  Roasts, sausages, hot dogs, hamburgers, toast, eggs, you name it.  But I do believe the best thing you could possibly do with these beans is whip up a couple of Grandpa’s Baked Bean Sandwiches.

For a printer friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Grandpa’s Baked Bean Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 2 slices hearty bread (I prefer rye.)
• 1 cup slightly reheated baked beans
• thinly sliced sweet onions
• prepared yellow mustard
• softened butter

This sandwich is as easy -and as good- as it gets!  Butter one side each of two slices of bread.  Spread the baked beans over the butter on one slice of bread, top with paper thin slices of sweet onion and a drizzle of prepared yellow mustard.  Lay the other slice of bread, butter side down, over the beans.  Slice in half and serve with pickles and a handful of chips, if life is good enough to you that you have them.  Sit back,  enjoy and remember that just because you don’t have money doesn’t mean you have to eat like it!

The winner of the Korintje Cinnamon giveaway is… (drumroll please!)…

“Kristin Kunoff

January 20th, 2010 at 11:06 am

I think my best money saving tip is buying frozen vegetables. I used to spend a fortune in the produce section and while my husband and I are both students, we need to save as much on groceries as possible. I do miss fresh veggies..some day we’ll have them again=)”

There you go, Kristin!  I can’t get fresh produce to your doorstep, but at least I can help you out on cinnamon.  Please email me with your address and information.  I can’t wait to hear how you use this!

Today’s post is Part IV of the “Saving Money in the Kitchen” series that began Tuesday.  You can read Part I here ,  Part II here and Part III here.

Wowza!  Who knew the response to being frugal would be so excellent?  I’m thrilled that so many of you are excited about stretching your food dollars to the max.  I feel like we’re all part of a super secret savings club.  I am fully aware how dorky that makes me sound, but really.  I love knowing I’m not the only one who gets a little shiver of joy when I save a few bucks.

I promised this post yesterday and I’m oh so sorry I didn’t get the chance, but I hope you find it was worth the wait.  To make it up to you I’ll share my recipe for my 5-Minute Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup.  No, it is not ketchup soup. *  Yes, it is done in about 5 mintutes.  It is so much better -and better for you- than any of that stuff that comes in the red, white and gold cans or their imitators.  And guess what.  It’s less expensive than that aforementioned national brand is when it’s on sale!  I kid you not.  Homemade, from-scratch soup that tastes superior to, is better for you than and is cheaper than the stuff in the store.

But first we talk savings…

*Ketchup soup is the enfant terrible of the frugal foods movement.  Let’s be real.  It tastes like what it is; watered down ketchup.  And honestly?  Unless you’re stealing the ketchup packets from a fast food restaurant (What are you doing in there anyway?  Those places aren’t really all that cheap!) it’s not going to end up being any cheaper than generic label or my homemade tomato soup.  And it’s wrong to steal.  So there.

Remember the list we’ve been talking about? The list I like to call “The Better Living List”?  I call it this mainly because I haven’t come up with a wittier name just yet.  I’m open for suggestions. To jog your memory, here’s the list again.

1. Know your preferences.
2. Keep staples on hand.
3. Know what you have on hand.
4. Plan your potential meals and make the most of what you already have available before you shop.
5. Know what you need beyond what you have to make those meals.
6. Build flexibility into your plan.
7. Build change into your plan.
8. Have a back-up plan.
9. Relax, dangit!  It’s food!

We talked about points one through five previously (You can read Part I here ,  Part II here and Part III here.) Today I’m devoting to points six through nine (and soup, but that comes later.)

Build flexibility into your plan.

This is, believe it or not, one of the most important things you can do to save money.  And it is a darned good reason to have that list of food likes and dislikes for your family. (Remember our list from Part II?) Here’s a scenario that has happened to me that shows why flexibility is important: I knew what was in my refrigerator and pantry and I had  planned my meals.  Most of my dinners meals for that week were fashioned around making a huge batch of taco meat at the beginning of the week; Tacos, taco soup, cheeseburger pizza, ground beef quesadillas with leftover soup, and spaghetti,  as well as a fish meal and a roast chicken for Sunday.  I arrived at the store armed with my menu plan and grocery list.  At the meat counter, I saw the ground beef was $2.99 per pound.  According to my plan and list I was going to purchase eight pounds.  Eight pounds at $2.99 per pound was $24.00.  Right next to the ground beef was a manager’s special of pork shoulder for $0.69 per pound.  Because I was flexible, I bought an eight pound porkshoulder roast for $5.52 and got the equivalent number of meals (shredded pork tacos, pork tortilla soup, barbecue pork pizza, pulled pork quesadillas and pulled pork nachos)  at a savings of $18.48.  That was almost $20 off the grocery bill right there.

So how do you build flexibility into your plan?  I tell you it’s all in the list.  The list of likes and dislikes and potential meals, that is.  When you run across those killer sales you can take a quick glance at your list to tell you whether it’s worth bringing home.  ‘Cause let me tell you something, no matter HOW cheap monkey brains were offered at my local store it wouldn’t do me a lick of good to bring them home since I would refuse to cook them let alone eat them.  (Okay, monkey brains?  Not so big a market for them here in Amish country, but you get my point.)  And my example above was a pretty straightforward one.  You can substitute slow-cooker braised shredded pork pretty easily for ground beef in most cases.  The trick is in teaching yourself to recognize substitutions when they’re on sale.  But  you should be ready to overhaul your menu plan in a more drastic way if you see something that you all like that is on mega-sale.  Having your list of potential meals handy helps you to see what you could replace on your meal plan to take advantage of sale items.  Be sure to write it down if you do change meals.  I have been known to forget the meals I dreamed up in the grocery store between the checkout and my car.  I know.  It’s sad.  Maybe I should eat more fish.

Build change into your plan

Make sure you add new meals occasionally.  Nothing will put me off a plan faster than getting bored.  If I’ve mentioned my fickleness once I’ve mentioned it a thousand times.  I need to have new, exciting foods semi-regularly.  Even if it’s just Beef Sukiyaki instead of Beef Stew one week it helps keep your love of food fresh.  When I was a kid, my mom had different ethnic foods for different nights of the week; Italian foods on Mondays, Filipino foods on Wednesdays, Mexican foods on Fridays, etc…  I love this memory.

Have a back-up plan

I’m not much of a ‘convenience food’ gal.  Truth be known, I don’t find convenience foods all that convenient.  I prefer the taste and nutritional value of simple home-crafted, home-cooked food.  But I’d be lying to myself and you if I didn’t say that you need to have something around to feed you all on those nights.  You know just as well as I do which nights those are.  They’re the nights that cap off the days where your alarm clock didn’t sound, you got the kids to school an hour late without a note, got a traffic ticket you couldn’t afford on the way to the office which also made you an hour and a half late.  Then you got home to find out the dog had gotten sick on your wool sweater that was unaccountably in the middle of the floor , your kids were ’starving’ and you had forgotten to take the ground beef out of the freezer to make dinner.  Those nights you need sanity more than you need food snobbery or a guilt complex.  For those occasions you need a jar or two of prepared pasta sauce, some dried pasta or frozen ravioli and a frozen loaf of garlic bread.  Just do yourself a favor and have them on hand.  Trust me.  It would be nice to live in a land where fairy godmothers dropped off locally-grown, grass-fed meat and organic vegetable laden care-packages on nights where you could barely drag yourself to bed, but we don’t.  And unless Alice Waters is your godmother, neither do you. So keep it real and make sure you have a back-up plan.

The back-up plan is the safety net that keeps you from chucking the overall plan altogether on those horrid nights.  Which brings us, finally, to…

Relax dangit!  It’s food!

I am totally serious.  I love good food.  I love it enough to spend a good deal of time thinking, talking and writing about it, cooking it, teaching people to cook it, and eating it but I don’t love it enough to make it a god.  What I mean by that is that my main goal is simply to keep my family well-nourished.  The ideal is locally and organically grown produce and grains, ethically raised poultry, seafood and grass-fed beef.  Reality for us often falls well short of that and I will not sacrifice my family’s mental or fiscal well-being to attain that ideal.  When allocating my food money, I choose the hills I’m going to die on (organic carrots, high fructose corn syrup, lettuce and celery) and the hills where I’ll execute a strategic withdrawal (potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and corn.) This is what works for us with the amount of money we have to spend.  You may have more or less than we do, so do what works best within the resources you have available and don’t feel guilty about it;  I’ve found my happy medium and I encourage you all to do the same.  Once you have decided on your priorities, just relax and enjoy the food.  Unless we’re talking about real food allergies or major health problems I really think we all need to take a deep breath and chill.  In other words, no ritual suicides if you fail to attain locavore* sainthood.

*Sidebar: This has been a growing topic of discussion lately.  There have been politicians, celebrity chefs and food bloggers all weighing in the subject and I’m really interested in getting your thoughts. Does ‘eating local’ matter to you?  I’d love to know why it does or doesn’t.

Tomorrow, I’ll cover the “No-no List” from Part II in greater detail.  (And I’ll name the winner of the Korintje Cinnamon giveaway!) But for now?  Let’s talk about soup!

This isn’t just any old soup.  This is magical soup recipe;  It takes five minutes, costs $1.50, and yields eight cups of creamy, silky, delicious, intensely tomatoey soup.  (Are you ready for my broken record routine?) There are no funky preservatives or additives and you can control the sodium without paying premium prices for low-sodium soup. That’s something I never understood.  How do you charge me more when you leave things out?  Hmmm…

Here’s the price breakdown (Just so’s  you know I’m not funning you.)

• $0.59 for a 48 ounce can of tomato puree
• $0.00 for 3-3/4 cups tap water (provided your tap water is potable!)
• $0.04 for 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch from a 1 pound box that cost $1.00
• $0.75 for 1 cup of Half and Half from a pint carton that cost $1.50
• $0.01 for 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt from a 1 pound box that cost $2.99
• $0.11 for 1/2 teaspoon of celery salt and a pinch of Italian seasonings from larger bulk containers.  (I love you, but I’m not determining how many 1/2 teaspoon servings of celery salt came in that 2 pound bag I got from the Amish bulk foods place. I’m making an educated estimation here.)
• That brings our grand total to $1.50 for the whole batch of soup.

To recap: eight cups of amazing tomato bisque made from scratch in five minutes for a buck-fifty.  Try it on for size tonight.  It’s cold out there, honey!

For a photo-free, I-go-on-and-on-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

5-Minute Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 (48 ounce) can Tomato Puree (You can substitute crushed tomatoes if you prefer more robust texture in your soup.)
• 3-3/4 cups plus 1/4 cup fresh water, divided
• 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 3/4 teaspoon Granulated Garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon Celery Salt
• a pinch of Italian Seasonings
• 1 cup Half and Half

Stir together the tomato puree, 3-3/4 cups water, Kosher salt, granulated garlic, celery salt and Italian seasonings in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.  When the soup is simmering, use a fork to combine the cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl or cup.  Stir the cornstarch until no lumps remain.  While stirring the soup vigorously, pour the cornstarch and water mixture into the pan.  Return to a simmer and continue cooking until thickened, about 1 to 2 minutes.  When thickened, remove from the heat and stir in Half and Half.  Serve immediately or refrigerate, tightly covered, for up to a week.

We like ours with grilled cheese sandwiches made on homemade rye bread, but it’s equally good with a handful of oyster crackers or as a meal starter.  Every now and then, when I’ve been extra good, I swirl a little heavy cream into my soup when I serve it.  Okay.  I really do it most of the time.  And I’m not necessarily really good when I do it.  But it’s cream!  Do I really need a reason?

Today’s post is Part III of the “Saving Money in the Kitchen” series that began Tuesday.  You can read Part I here and Part II here.

Although I intended to hit points four through nine today, I think I should stick with four and five.  Why?  Between the tips, recipe and giveaway I once again  had too much information to cover in one post but also my iron is low and I’m sleepy.  So I’ll have a steak tonight, lick a few windowsills, chew on a couple rusty nails and try to cap off the ‘Better Living List’ tips on Monday.  I’m sorry.  Was that a TMI moment?

Don’t forget.  There’s a giveaway at the end of the post.  We’re also making these today.

How about a closer look.

Oh yes.  We’re doing wild things with these…

Right.  I ate so many of these that I’m now on a heavy-duty sugar buzz.  Must.  Focus.  Let’s get back to the money saving, shall we?  Got your notebook and pencil handy?

Plan your potential meals and make the most of what you already have available before you shop.

In order to plan the meals you will make you need to do three important things.

• Determine how many days ahead you will plan.  I think it is best to start with a smaller time frame –say, four days to a week- and move up to longer periods rather than preparing two weeks or more in advance.  I learned this the hard way back in the day when I concluded that if most people could plan for a week, I’d quadruple the efficiency and plan for a month.  I spent scads of money, packed my refrigerator, and abandoned the plan within 8 days.  I was too fickle with my tastes to want what I thought I would want two weeks after planning it.  Shoot.  In that time I’d moved on from a French food obsession to a fixation on Mexican foods.  Can you blame me?  The point is that I wasted money (and food) by planning too far in advance.
• Look through your refrigerator, pantry, cabinets, or wherever you stash your food.  Take note of what you already have.  Now look at list of potential meals you already made based on your family’s preferences.  (You did make the list didn’t you?) Compare the lists.  Do you have almost everything you need for any of those meals?  Put those down as meals you’ll make in the next week.
• How many more meals do you need to round out the number you have in mind?  Did you account for breakfasts, lunches and snacks?  Don’t forget snacks.  I did twice.  It was ugly.  One time I simply forgot. Another time, though,  I thought I’d leave them off the list to help improve our diet and cut costs.  On the third day I buckled and ran to the store with all five kids.  I raced up and down the aisles throwing fruit snacks, granola bars, bags of chips, rice cakes, candy bars and dry cereal in the cart.  It did not end up improving us.  If you plan snacks, you’re more likely to eat one that is at least semi-healthy.  Carrot sticks or crackers with yogurt dill dip is friendlier both to your budget and your waistline than a bag of chips and a tub of French onion dip.

Now that you have the list of meals that you’ll have over the next few days you have some other things to consider.

• Do you have any evening or weekend commitments that would require quicker meals?  Put your fastest meals on those nights.  Try to be realistic.  Don’t put a meal that requires an hour and a half of work on a weeknight when you’re going to be whipped.
• Do any of your meals require steps that have to be done a day or two in advance?  Make note of that on your meal schedule.
• Do you have to pack lunches for anyone?  Make note of that and be sure to have them done the night before you need them.

Know what you need beyond what you have to make those meals.

Let’s say one of the meals on your list is broiled salmon with soba noodles, ginger scallion sauce and cucumber salad.  Hypothetically, you have the salmon in the freezer, soba noodles on the pantry shelf, and everything but the ginger and scallions and cucumber for the sauce and salad.   In this case, you simply need to add seedless cucumbers, ginger and scallions to the produce section of your list.  Which brings me to a sidebar.*

*You need a standardized grocery list template.  I keep one on the front of my refrigerator.  When I run out of something or realize I will need it, I write it on the list.  If the front of the refrigerator is too public for you, tape it inside a cabinet in your kitchen.  Keep it and a- pencil- where you can get to it easily.  The list I use is a simple table I put together years ago  in a word processing program, but you can just as easily scrawl five boxes on a piece of paper.  The boxes get the following headings: “Produce”, “Grocery”, “Dairy/Frozen”, “Meat/Deli”, and “Household/Miscellaneous”.  When I say grocery, I mean shelf-stable items like dried pasta, canned tomatoes, flour, sugar, etc…  The ‘Household/Miscellaneous” category is meant to hold all my cleaning supplies, paper goods, pet food, motor oil and other things that don’t quite fit into the food categories.  Here’s a picture of the running list that is currently fixed to my refrigerator.

Once I’ve come down from my sugar high and grilled and eaten this giant flank steak on my counter top, I’ll get cracking on why it’s important to build flexibility and change into your plans and why, almost above all else, it’s important to not take any of this too seriously.  But for now, I have a recipe and a giveaway to tackle.

First, I need to warn you a little about my homemade Twix cookie recipe.  It makes quite a few, yes it does. That’s not the problem.  The problem is that they’re little.  And when food is little I feel justified in consuming many, many pieces.  If we were talking about, say, little bitty salads this would not be a problem.   But we’re not talking about salads.  We’re talking about bite-sized golden butter shortbread cookies topped with real dairy caramel then dipped in a dark chocolate coating made with heavy cream and more butter, so help me God. Have mercy on my soul, they’re so very good.  This has been a public service announcement from Foodie With Family.

If you are a better human than I am, you’ll stash these in the chill chest for a day before eating them.  Don’t misunderstand, they’re good when they’re fresh.  They’re too good as my now-burgeoning backside proves.  But the depth of flavor they develop after sitting for twenty-four hours is astonishing.

For a photo-free, printer friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Homemade Twix Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ground vanilla
• one batch dulce de leche (homemade or purchased)
• 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 Tablespoon heavy cream

Cream 1 cup of the butter, salt, sugar and vanilla together until thoroughly combined. Refrain from eating this.  It’ll totally mess up your ratios…

Add the flour and blend until the mixture resembles moist sand with pieces the size of peas scattered throughout.

If you take a small handful and squeeze it, the mixture should hold together well.

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Lightly butter or spray a 36 mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Mound the dough mixture into each mini-muffin cup.  Or have your sous chef do it.  You can clean up their job later.  This stuff is like sand.  You can just flick it into the wells with your fingers.

Use a small wooden tamper or your hands to press down the dough.

When all have been firmed, carefully use the tamper to push a well into the center of each cookie.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden around the edges.  Do not over bake.  Remove the pan to a cooling rack and cool 10 minutes before removing.  You may need to persuade the cookies to pop out.  If this is the case, cool until they’re sturdy and use the dull end of a butter knife to apply pressure to one edge of the cookie.  It should pop right out of the pan.  Allow cookies to cool completely before filling.

When the cookies are cooled, fill each well with dulce de leche.  Place each filled cookie on a clean rimmed pan lined with a silpat or parchment paper.  When all the cookies have been filled, transfer the tray to the freezer for two hours.

Before removing the cookies from the freezer, put the remaining butter, heavy cream and chocolate chips in a microwave safe container.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds.  Stir with a silicone or rubber spatula and microwave at 10 second increments, stirring after each one, until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Remove cookies from the freezer and work quickly to dip the bottom half of each cookie into the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip away before replacing on the tray.

When they have all been dipped, return the pan to the freezer for thirty minutes.

If the chocolate has set up while the cookies were chillin’ like Dylan, microwave in 10 second increments, again stirring after each, until the chocolate is fluid and smooth.  Take the cookies from the freezer.  Drizzle chocolate over each cookie or pick cookie up and dip half of it into the chocolate.  You need to work quickly if you’re dipping the cookies as the dulce de leche will return to room temperature rather quickly which will make the process a great deal messier.  An impromptu poll of my Facebook friends revealed that a minority of them wanted the whole cookie dipped in chocolate.  I tried.  Really I did.  But it looked like a great lump of chocolate.  (And I ate them before I could photograph them.)

Store leftover cookies loosely wrapped in the refrigerator.  If you have ‘em.

Now the giveaway!

I want to help stock your pantry.  There are a few things that make life a little more pleasant when you have them on hand.  One of my favorites is cinnamon, specifically, Korintje Cinnamon. You may have seen teensy little bottles of this particular cinnamon sold at gold-standard prices at home kitchen gadget parties.  I was given a bottle once and there was no looking back.  This Indonesian cinnamon is sweet, fragrant and not-at-all bitter.  It’s a revelation if you’re used to the 99-cent bottles of uncertain age.  I want to give a full pound of Korintje Cinnamon from one of my favorite spice companies, Frontier Herbs.  It contains fully 3% oil.   It smells so, so good.  And one pound of this should keep you in cinnamon for a while!

So what are the rules?  It’s simple.  Leave a comment on today’s post telling me some of your money saving tips.  Don’t have any?  No sweat.  Tell me where you need the most help.  Is it menu planning?  Grocery shopping? Knowing what meals to make based on your family’s preferences?  How to get your dog to stop eating garbage?  (Well, maybe that’s my question.  If anyone can help there I’d greatly appreciate it.)  Is there any topic you’d like to see covered here on Foodie With Family?  One entry per person, pretty please.  Gots to keep it fair, you know.  I’ll draw a name next Wednesday when I complete the ‘Better Living List’ part of our “Saving Money in the Kitchen” series.

Today’s post is Part II of the ‘Saving Money in the Kitchen’ series which started yesterday.

When I sat down to write about saving money in the kitchen I expected to knock out a quick post with a few hints.  As I carried on I realized quickly that I had too much material to cram into one crazy, unfocused piece.  You know why?  I’ve spent most of my adult life refining my methods.

A little history is in order here.

It wasn’t just  my naturally, er, attentive-to-detail personality (My parents might call this a euphemism for stubborn and obsessive but this is my blog.  I’ll call it attentive-to-detail.) that inspired me to cut back the money spent in pursuit of good food.    I had five kids in eight years.  That alone required me to rethink how I spent money.   The fact that I decided I wanted to be home with my kids and that my husband supported that decision added yet another reason I needed to be careful with our food money.  We went from a two-income home where we ate what we wanted when we wanted to to a one-income home where I had to get creative to make sure we ate how we wanted to with what we had to spend.  If I didn’t change my ways, we would’ve been hungry, malnourished, cranky or all of the above.

There were growing pains, of course. But it occurred to me the other night that perhaps my growing pains could save someone else a little grief.  And that’s where this series comes in to play.

Using the categories of “Thrifty”, “Low-Cost”, “Moderate” and “Liberal”, the USDA calculates the amount of money families spend monthly based on the number of mouths they feed. A little research found that the money I spend each month to feed our family of five children and two adults was far below the USDA’s lowest projected amount on the “Thrifty” plan. I had known I was doing well with my food budget management, but I didn’t know I was doing that well.  This I had to share on Foodie With Family.

After doing the happy dance and bragging to my husband I started talking about my success with my friends.  Specifically, I started talking about this with my friend, Krysta. I told my her about my idea to talk about how little I spend each month on groceries.  Our conversation revealed that we both approach managing our kitchens in similar ways. Krysta kindly volunteered that I could divulge her family’s food spending habits. This could signify a couple things.  Either we both want to help people or we have very few personal disclosure boundaries.  Or both.

To refresh your memory, I spend $500 monthly to feed a family of seven and Krysta spends between $650 and $700 to feed a family of six.  No crying foul here.  Krysta lives in California and I live in New York.  If you live in California, that statement needs no qualification.  To clarify for the rest of us, California is a reeeeeeeeeeaaaally expensive place to buy, well, anything.

Some of the practices that we  share might seem counter-intuitive when you’re talking about saving moolah, but I promise you our numbers are accurate.  First, here’s what we don’t do.

1. We do not coupon shop. (Neither of us regularly buys the things that most frequently offer coupons. )
2. We do not use a lot of pre-packaged foods.  (This is part of why the coupons aren’t so helpful, but more on this later.)
3. We do not obsessively bargain hunt.  (Me not obsessively doing something?  It’s a break from the norm, I know.  I like to inject a little unpredictability every now and then.  Mostly on even numbered days.  But I digress…)
4. We do not buy low-quality ingredients.
5. We do not spend hours of time making this happen.

That’s a bunch of don’ts.  For now, and for lack of a better term, we’ll call that the ‘No-no List’.  I don’t know about you, but I work better when inspired than when told what to do.  (Maybe I’ve mentioned my authority problem?)   So that’s enough of what we don’t do for now.  I will get back to it.  For now, I want to focus on what we do do.

1. Know your preferences.
2. Keep staples on hand.
3. Know what you have on hand.
4. Plan your potential meals and make the most of what you already have available before you shop.
5. Know what you need beyond what you have to make those meals.
6. Build flexibility into your plan.
7. Build change into your plan.
8. Have a back-up plan.
9. Relax, dangit!  It’s food!

This is the ‘Better Living List’.  Let’s look at items ‘1′, ‘2′, and ‘3′ today.

If you’ve never really given any advance thought to what you’re going to eat beyond the current day, this might be a little outside your comfort zone, but stick with me.  The first time you sit down to do this it’s going to take a little time, but it’s worth it.  Grab a notebook and a pencil.  Here we go.

1.  Know your preferences.

• If you don’t already have a solid idea of what you and your family love in meals, snacks and food in general, take some time to learn.  You might be surprised.  List each family member.  Sit down with them and ask what their favorite foods are and what they like at meal times.  Ask them what they don’t like.  And make sure they’re honest.  This is going to save you grief in the long run.
• Based on the list of likes and dislikes, do a little brainstorming.  Do you see any dishes you could make that take advantage of the preferences?   Do you see any you should avoid based on the dislikes? Make note!  This does not mean you’re relegated to a life of fish sticks and tater tots.  You can be creative based on what they tell you.  Do you have a hamburger and french fries lover?  Try Salisbury Steak and Baked Fries with Gravy.

2.  Keep staples on hand.

• Look at the list you made of everyone’s likes and dislikes.  Look at the list of meals you came up with for the family.
• Keep shelf stable items on hand that go into those meals like beans, flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, onions, potatoes and more in your cabinets. Does everyone in the house love chili?  Keep canned beans, ground beef and onions in stock.

3.  Know what you have on hand.

• As important as keeping items on hand is knowing what you have. Having a flat of pureed tomatoes in the basement isn’t going to help you at all if you don’t use it.  Keep a list of what you have around or at least keep yourself familiar with what’s on the shelves.

That’s enough for one night.  You have some lists to make!  Take the next couple days to give this a real effort.  It’s really going to make a difference.

I’ll cover four through nine on our ‘Better Living List’ on Friday.  And oh, baby  I have a recipe to share with you.  Even with my $500 a month food budget, I make some killer desserts (Think Homemade Twix Bars.)  And there’s a giveaway.  I want to give you a little something for you to keep on your shelves.  …But I’ll tell you all about that on Friday!

Looks tasty, doesn’t it?  It’s crisp around the edges with the perfect balance of saltiness and creaminess in the center.  It’s nourishing.  It’s delicious.  It fills you up.  It only takes five minutes to make from start to finish. But you know what else dings my chimes about this dish? It costs $3.42 for four large servings.  And yes, that includes garnish.

And no, I’m not joking.

I sat down today prepared to write a little ‘how-to’ on saving money in the kitchen with a family favorite recipe thrown in to boot.  The keyword here was ‘little’.  An hour into writing, I realized there was no way to condense what is a way of life into one itty-bitty post with a recipe.  I have enough material to fill four posts and I will get to every bit of it.  I want you to come back for all of this.  Here’s the deal.  I know saving money in the kitchen isn’t exactly the sexiest topic.  I get it.  So I have a little incentive to offer.  But first, a question.

How much do you spend on food each month?  And how many people are you feeding?  You don’t have to tell me unless you feel so inclined, but just consider it for a moment.  According to the USDA’s Cost of Food reports (published monthly), my family of seven should be spending $804.40* per month on our food.

*This is calculated according to the ‘Thrifty’ food plan numbers given on the chart.  If I were to use the ‘Low’ food plan we would be expected to spend in excess of $1,067.  This trend continues on up through the ‘Moderate’ and ‘Liberal’ plans.

Here is my incentive.  I’m going to tell you what I spend every month on groceries.  I’m also going to tell you what another blogger buddy of mine, my dear friend Krysta a.k.a. Evil Chef Mom,  pays monthly to feed her family of six. Just one other question, though, before divulging our food budgets.  Would you agree, from all appearances here at Foodie With Family and over at Evil Chef Mom that our families eat pretty well?  You might even say a wee bit on the fancy-pants side occasionally?  I think that’s fairly safe to say, right?

I spend $500 a month.  I feed seven people and whatever friends or family happen to be hanging around at meal time out of that.

Krysta spends between $650 and $700 a month.  She’s feeding three, count ‘em, THREE teenagers, a pre-teen, a host of kids’ friends (also teenagers), and any family or friends who might be present at meal time.

We both make food good enough to share.

That puts me in at more than $300 under what the government believes is the least amount of money a family my size would reasonably spend per month in food.

Lest you should get the wrong idea let me tell you something important.  Neither of us coupon shops.  Neither of us obsessively watches sales.   None of us -ourselves, our kids or our husbands- feel deprived of the food we want or crave.  We are food lovers.

It’s really simple.  Really.  I wouldn’t lie to you!

Starting tomorrow we’ll go through a series of posts chock full of tips, tricks, and methods that can potentially help you save beaucoup bucks in the kitchen without sacrificing flavor or slaving away in the kitchen.  Unless, of course, you like slaving away in the kitchen.  The point is that it’s your choice.

Let me break down the food cost from today’s recipe:

• 2 cups of uncooked rice from a 25 pound bag.  The bag was $16.  There were 62.5 cups of rice in the bag. That translates to $0.51 for this recipe.
• 6 eggs from a dozen at a cost of $1.50 per dozen (from our own chickens).  The cost for the eggs was $0.75.
• 1 cup of shredded cheese from a 3 cup bag that cost $2.79.  The cost of the cheese for this recipe was $0.93.
• 1 Tablespoon of hot sauce from a bottle containing twenty tablespoons.   The bottle cost $2.99.  The hot sauce used in this recipe cost $0.15.
• 1 teaspoon of salt from a one pound box that cost $2.99.  The one pound box contained 283 teaspoons.  That puts the cost of the salt in this recipe at a fraction of a cent over $0.01.
• 2 Tablespoons of canola oil from a $1.00 jar that contained sixty tablespoons.  The cost of the oil is $0.03.
• 8 Tablespoons of salsa from a jar containing twenty two tablespoons.  This is the big splurge in our recipe.  Since the jar cost $2.79, the total cost of the salsa for the dish was a whopping $1.04.
• That makes the grand total for the whole recipe a bank-book friendly $3.42.  If you skipped the salsa you’d clock in at $2.38 for the whole entree.

This is great-tasting food, too.  You can make a whole batch of them, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and take a couple a day to work or school for lunch.  They reheat beautifully.  If you  need a little something extra, throw a handful of salad alongside.  Bang.  A complete meal.

There are more options.  You can mix in some leftover cooked meat or vegetables.  Wrapped in a piece of foil or a paper towel it’s a meal you can take on the road with you. No matter how you slice it, it’s going to be cheaper and more filling for the money than even the dollar menu.

Frugal does not have to look or taste like sacrifice.

Hang on.  There’s more to it.  It’s good for you.  It’s great for you.  The egg provides lean protein.  The rice provides a healthy carbohydrate.  The canola oil is non-hydrogenated. The salt is negligible.  On it’s own, it’s healthy.  If, however,  you compare it to fast-food or pre-packaged, processed food you’re going to come out leaps and bounds and miles ahead nutritionally.

How about it?  Are you interested?  Try the Savoury Rice and Egg Pancakes and then come back tomorrow.  This is going to be fun! I promise!

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Savoury Rice and Egg Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chilled leftover cooked rice
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheese, whatever type you have on hand
• 1 Tablespoon hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 2 Tablespoons Canola oil (or non-stick cooking spray)
• 8 Tablespoons salsa
• optional: thinly sliced green onion tops

Break up the cold rice in a mixing bowl (or in a resealable plastic bag) with your hands so that no chunks remain.

Crack eggs into the rice, add shredded cheese, hot sauce and Kosher salt.  Mix thoroughly.

If your mixture is too thick or dry, you can crack another egg into it.  Eggs vary in size, so this may happen occasionally.  So, gee whiz, add another $0.10 to the total if you need to do it.

Add just enough oil to a non-stick skillet to lightly coat the pan.  Place pan over medium high heat.  When the pan is hot scoop a scant quarter cup into the pan.  Use the bottom of the scoop to gently pat the rice mixture out to a thinner patty shape.  The mixture will not spread on its own.

Don’t crowd the pan.  This 12″ nonstick pan can comfortably fit four pancakes at a time.

Cook for about two minutes per side, or until deep golden brown on each side.

Transfer to a waiting plate and repeat with the remaining rice and oil until it is gone. Serve with salsa.  You can plate it up all perty-like if you want.  And I want.

I love tea.

Part of the reason tea charms me so is the power it possesses to transport me to another place or time.  Whatever the stress, boredom or weariness is that hangs over me, it falls away in the time-honoured ritual of brewing and sipping a cup of tea.  In the best circumstances this is an unhurried process.  Measure the tea into the strainer. Wait for the water to boil with a book in hand.  Gently pour the boiling water over the tea leaves and be amazed -for the millionth time- at the miraculous alchemy that turns humble water and leaves into ambrosia.

But even when conditions aren’t optimal for a quiet, contemplative tea brewing experience  -as happens more often than not in a home with five young sons- tea retains the ability to alter my mood for the better with its mere presence.  Having a cup of tea at hand is my insulation from what the world throws at me.

It is no exaggeration to say that the post-holiday level of noise and chaos around these parts has been, in a word, extreme. With the kids reluctantly returning to studies, the weather being consistently frightful, and the gentle glow of the festive start to the new year ebbing away, tea moves from the realm of luxury to necessity. Although the available time to tarry over crafting the perfect cuppa has dwindled my desire for drinking it has not. The solution is tea concentrate.

Get it?

Tea?

Solution?

Please forgive me.

Tea concentrate makes it possible for me to turn out a Chai Latte capped with whipped cream and dusted with fragrant cinnamon in less than two minutes.  My Chai Lattes rival the green about the gills mermaid’s at a fraction of her waterway robbery prices.

While I’m normally a loose-leaf tea girl, bagged Chai tea is one of my diversions.  If you don’t already have a brand that you prefer, I like Stash and Bigelow chai blends.  Use whichever brand you prefer.  If you prefer, you can use rice milk, soy milk, or almond milk in place of dairy milk both in the brewed tea and the prepared latte.

With a cup of Chai Latte in hand I can laugh while staring into the whites of our inevitable winter’s eyes.  I can tune out the sound of the boys wrestling two feet behind me.  I can tackle that pile of laundry in the basement.  Well, maybe I should have another Chai Latte before I try that laundry part…

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Chai Latte Concentrate

Ingredients:

• 12 Chai tea bags
• 4 cups cold, fresh water
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Place the tea bags, cold water and milk in a medium saucepan over high heat.  Bring to a boil.  When you reach the boil, drop the heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and squeeze the tea bags to extract as much flavor and liquid as possible.  Discard tea bags and transfer the Chai Latte Concentrate to a heat-safe container.  Allow to cool to room temperature, put a tight fitting lid on the container and store in the refrigerator for up to 12 days.

To prepare a Chai Latte:

When making the Chai Latte you have ultimate control over flavors, sweetness and creaminess.  If you like a richer latte, use chocolate syrup as your sweetener and substitute half and half for your milk.  If you’re watching your calories, use low-fat milk and stevia.  My own personal preference dictates a latte lightly sweetened with half agave and half sugar and made creamy with whole milk.  But see? This is another advantage of making it at home.  You can be as high or low maintenance as you want and no barista will give you the stink eye.

Ingredients:

• 1/3- 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2- 2/3 cup of Chai Latte Concentrate
• 1-3 teaspoons, to taste, of sweetener.  I use a combination of agave nectar and raw sugar

Optional for serving:

• Whipped cream
• Cocoa powder
• Ground cinnamon

Truthfully, doesn’t this just make you happy to see such a large container of heavy cream?  My soul cries with joy.

Pour milk and concentrate into a saucepan or a microwave safe measuring cup.

Heat just until steaming.  Pour into your serving glass and sweeten to taste.

Top as desired.  I give mine a tall cap of whipped cream…

…and a dusting of cinnamon.

Sip. Relax.  Repeat.