There is a teeny piece of me that wishes I were a fashion blogger.
Says the girl currently wearing a nursing shirt with a hole in it and a pair of her husband's socks.
But whatevs.
It's just that I find myself wandering around the internet when David is at work, staring at these wonderful, cute outfits other people just throw together and thinking "wow. I could never do that. Never." It just wouldn't occur to me to mix those things together. Even when I'm doing my absolute best, I look neat and tidy and clean and put together, but not, you know, fashionable per se.
We brought home our new camera today!! Yay!! So far I have opened the box, wrestled it away from the toddler, figured out how to charge the battery and taken one picture; I have yet to figure out how to hook it up to my computer so be patient, pictures are coming.
Samuel is obsessed with the $2 pack of small, green soldiers that David brought back from the dollar store the other day. Seriously obsessed. He wants to 'play soldiers' all the time now; in fact it's overthrown cutting up paper with scissors, playing 'post office' and 'cooking' on the Cool Things To Play chart. The only thing better is cooking in the kitchen with mama and real food.
But is anyone else completely grossed out by toddler hands? Eww. Who knows what they've touched? And why oh why can you never completely get their nails clean? Really, children are disgusting creatures.
We have company coming over for supper on Saturday. Which means that there will be TEN people in this house eating supper! I've never cooked for this large of a crowd before, but I am notorious for making too much food so I think I'll be alright. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in my mind, I decided that we're going to have a baked ham, steamed peas and homemade mac 'n cheese. I'm really looking forward to hosting a crowd; one of the main reasons I agreed to the recent move is because a larger house means more opportunities for hospitality.
And speaking of food, I broke out the B@by Bullet today and made several trays of purees for Clara, the ravenous child-wolf that she is. Sweet potato and Honeycrisp apple, sweet potato and carrot, apple and pear, summer squash and tilapia and peas. A friend on FB asked me if I blended the tilapia, and yes, yes I did. I blended everything. In fact, I should have added even more liquid to the carrots because the puree was a bit too thick for Clara Bear. I also put a bit of olive oil in with the sweet potato and carrot, because I thought it might help boost some healthy fats in the drying winter months, but I think I'll skip that next time; it was quite olive oily.
I also tried the grain mill portion of the BB and made some organic brown rice cereal. We'll try that for breakfast tomorrow, shall we, Clara?
Terribly enough, today was Saint Nicholas' Day, and we forgot to give Samuel his gift. So we'll do that tomorrow. And hey! We can take pictures of it now! Yay!
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
5 Frugal Ways To Cut Back On Meat Even If You Love It
My husband's perfect meal is steak. Yeah, yeah, maybe something underneath the steak, but the steak is the main meal. But, we live frugally and with four people in the house, those steaks are not going to happen. Because neither of us ever ever wants to be a vegetarian, we eat meat almost every day, but HOW we eat meat has changed. It isn't the 'star of the show' necessarily, but it shows up all the same. And when we do eat a vegetarian main course, I've come up with a couple of great ways to help ease the transition, even for a steak loving husband like mine.
1) Use a little meat and a lot of X
The easiest way to do this is with ground meats, where you can add all sorts of 'other stuff' to the mix. When you make up your taco meat, you can add black beans or rice to stretch it farther. With chili, you can add TVP (textured vegetable protein - a dried soy product that's completely tasteless) that's been rehydrated in beef broth to the pot to stretch out your ground beef. In meatloaf, I add extra vegetables, or oatmeal, another egg, even some spinach.
You can also get your butcher to grind you your meat 'custom'. So, maybe 50% ground beef and 50% ground liver, which is substantially cheaper and higher in iron to boot.
2) Marinate or season in meat flavours.
I always cook my rice and other grains in broth these days, because it adds a meaty sort of flavour. My turkey casserole (which has maybe a cup of turkey in it, total, but can serve 6 people) has a tsp of poultry seasoning mixed in to encourage the tastebuds to think of turkey. Montreal steak spice is another good one to use in meatless dishes. And I always keep a small jar of bacon drippings in my freezer to saute my onions in when making stuffing or fried vegetables.
3) Add a stronger-tasting ingredient.
A strong-tasting ingredient helps mask the fact that meat is absent or only present in very small amounts. I have a great vegetarian lasagna recipe, for example, that uses pureed black beans in place of meat, but honestly you can't tell that the ground beef is missing because of the taste of the beans. Strong tasting vegetables are another good bet here - turnip baked with apples, squash with caramelized cranberry sauce, pasta tossed in melted blue cheese, potato latkes with sour cream and applesauce, french toast soaked in maple syrup and cinnamon sugar, roasted garlic baked potatoes. You get the idea - strong flavours.
4) Use cheese.
If the casserole is meatless, shred cheese on top. Melt cheese into spinach and fold up in phyllo pastry, make a cheese sauce and bake your cauliflower and broccoli in it, sprinkle on breadcrumbs and crisp up the top under the element for a minute. Get that cheese going, because everyone loves cheese.
5) Replicate texture.
I'm thinking portobello mushroom caps in place of burgers, chickpea falafel balls in your sandwiches, that sort of thing. I make a mean meatless stroganoff using button mushrooms and onions.
1) Use a little meat and a lot of X
The easiest way to do this is with ground meats, where you can add all sorts of 'other stuff' to the mix. When you make up your taco meat, you can add black beans or rice to stretch it farther. With chili, you can add TVP (textured vegetable protein - a dried soy product that's completely tasteless) that's been rehydrated in beef broth to the pot to stretch out your ground beef. In meatloaf, I add extra vegetables, or oatmeal, another egg, even some spinach.
You can also get your butcher to grind you your meat 'custom'. So, maybe 50% ground beef and 50% ground liver, which is substantially cheaper and higher in iron to boot.
2) Marinate or season in meat flavours.
I always cook my rice and other grains in broth these days, because it adds a meaty sort of flavour. My turkey casserole (which has maybe a cup of turkey in it, total, but can serve 6 people) has a tsp of poultry seasoning mixed in to encourage the tastebuds to think of turkey. Montreal steak spice is another good one to use in meatless dishes. And I always keep a small jar of bacon drippings in my freezer to saute my onions in when making stuffing or fried vegetables.
3) Add a stronger-tasting ingredient.
A strong-tasting ingredient helps mask the fact that meat is absent or only present in very small amounts. I have a great vegetarian lasagna recipe, for example, that uses pureed black beans in place of meat, but honestly you can't tell that the ground beef is missing because of the taste of the beans. Strong tasting vegetables are another good bet here - turnip baked with apples, squash with caramelized cranberry sauce, pasta tossed in melted blue cheese, potato latkes with sour cream and applesauce, french toast soaked in maple syrup and cinnamon sugar, roasted garlic baked potatoes. You get the idea - strong flavours.
4) Use cheese.
If the casserole is meatless, shred cheese on top. Melt cheese into spinach and fold up in phyllo pastry, make a cheese sauce and bake your cauliflower and broccoli in it, sprinkle on breadcrumbs and crisp up the top under the element for a minute. Get that cheese going, because everyone loves cheese.
5) Replicate texture.
I'm thinking portobello mushroom caps in place of burgers, chickpea falafel balls in your sandwiches, that sort of thing. I make a mean meatless stroganoff using button mushrooms and onions.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Chemical Pie
I made a 'mock apple' pie today. I am officially the anti-June Cleaver. It's all David's fault, really, because he said he'd made one once and that it actually tasted like apple pie.
It couldn't be true that this weird concoction of ingredients that included Ritz crackers, cream of tartar and sugar would somehow become 'apple pie'. Anyway, I made it. It doesn't LOOK like apple pie, but strangely it does taste quite a bit like it. If you can get over the sensation of eating Ritz crackers soaked in syrup.
I'm not posting the link. Google 'Chemical Pie' and 'All Recipes' yourself. It's just too close to a sign of the apocalypse for me.
Now if you're thinking "Good heavens, Amy! Chemical Pie? Do you not have any groceries, woman?" then it might not surprise you to know that today's big outing was to Le Grocery Store. I was trying to stick to my list, but got so easily sidetracked by such things as a giant vat of pickled beef navels (did not buy), and pre-made chocolate cookie dough on sale (did buy). I always seem to spend about $50 when I go to the store regardless of what I get; I wonder why this is? I just sort of wander through the aisles looking at stuff, partially because a childless outing is a Really Big Deal for me, and partially because I already know what I need to buy because I buy pretty much the same type of stuff over and over again. I always buy canned tomatoes. I always buy fruit. I always buy sour cream. Etc.
Maybe I'm predictable?
It's only taken me two and a half years to realize that if I go grocery shopping, and then I arrive home and it's supper time but I have not prepared supper, life goes down the toilet quite briskly. So today I made a pot roast in the slow cooker so that I could just come home, cheerily call out "come to the table, my dearest ones!" and eat. In my dreams. In reality supper is rather like feeding a zoo over here. I did get to eat the pot roast and vegetables, but only after nursing the baby to sleep, fielding a phone call, and nursing the baby back to sleep.
And tomorrow is a pot luck at the church. My intention had been to make a key lime pie. But I'm sick and I'm grouchy and tired. I want to sit on the sofa with my husband and drink a lot of tea and grouse about stuff and then go to bed. So instead I'm making cookies and calling it even; sometimes you're the baseball and sometimes you're the bat, you know?
Anyway, I'm going to go drink that tea. And have myself a pickled beef navel. Just kidding.
It couldn't be true that this weird concoction of ingredients that included Ritz crackers, cream of tartar and sugar would somehow become 'apple pie'. Anyway, I made it. It doesn't LOOK like apple pie, but strangely it does taste quite a bit like it. If you can get over the sensation of eating Ritz crackers soaked in syrup.
I'm not posting the link. Google 'Chemical Pie' and 'All Recipes' yourself. It's just too close to a sign of the apocalypse for me.
Now if you're thinking "Good heavens, Amy! Chemical Pie? Do you not have any groceries, woman?" then it might not surprise you to know that today's big outing was to Le Grocery Store. I was trying to stick to my list, but got so easily sidetracked by such things as a giant vat of pickled beef navels (did not buy), and pre-made chocolate cookie dough on sale (did buy). I always seem to spend about $50 when I go to the store regardless of what I get; I wonder why this is? I just sort of wander through the aisles looking at stuff, partially because a childless outing is a Really Big Deal for me, and partially because I already know what I need to buy because I buy pretty much the same type of stuff over and over again. I always buy canned tomatoes. I always buy fruit. I always buy sour cream. Etc.
Maybe I'm predictable?
It's only taken me two and a half years to realize that if I go grocery shopping, and then I arrive home and it's supper time but I have not prepared supper, life goes down the toilet quite briskly. So today I made a pot roast in the slow cooker so that I could just come home, cheerily call out "come to the table, my dearest ones!" and eat. In my dreams. In reality supper is rather like feeding a zoo over here. I did get to eat the pot roast and vegetables, but only after nursing the baby to sleep, fielding a phone call, and nursing the baby back to sleep.
And tomorrow is a pot luck at the church. My intention had been to make a key lime pie. But I'm sick and I'm grouchy and tired. I want to sit on the sofa with my husband and drink a lot of tea and grouse about stuff and then go to bed. So instead I'm making cookies and calling it even; sometimes you're the baseball and sometimes you're the bat, you know?
Anyway, I'm going to go drink that tea. And have myself a pickled beef navel. Just kidding.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Frugal slow cooker pulled pork
I can't believe I haven't discovered this before, considering the amount of time I use my slow cooker.
2 pork hocks (these are the ankles of the pig, they are often thrown away. I bought a pack of 2 large ones for about $3 but you could quite easily get a better deal. I'll be asking at my butcher.)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (the acid breaks down meat fibres to leave you with tender pork)
About 3 cups of apple peels
2 cups water.
Mix ingredients together and cook on high for about 5 hours or until pork is falling apart. Remove bones and skin. Pull apart pork and cooked apple peels under large pieces are broken down. Then add sauce of your choice.
We used Amazing Dad's Organic Barbecue Sauce, which is Canadian made to boot! We find it on sale all the time so it's actually pretty affordable at around $3 a tetra pack.
The apple peels were a last-minute decision on my part. I had turned a 10lb bag of (free!) apples into applesauce a week ago, and I thought ahead to wash the apples before peeling them so that I could keep the peels. I wasn't completely sure what to do with them, frankly. I ended up adding some to squash puree, and the rest to this pulled pork. The flavour was amazing!
This recipe gave all three of us sizeable portions and leftovers for the fridge.
How to make delicious pulled pork for under $5
2 pork hocks (these are the ankles of the pig, they are often thrown away. I bought a pack of 2 large ones for about $3 but you could quite easily get a better deal. I'll be asking at my butcher.)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (the acid breaks down meat fibres to leave you with tender pork)
About 3 cups of apple peels
2 cups water.
Mix ingredients together and cook on high for about 5 hours or until pork is falling apart. Remove bones and skin. Pull apart pork and cooked apple peels under large pieces are broken down. Then add sauce of your choice.
We used Amazing Dad's Organic Barbecue Sauce, which is Canadian made to boot! We find it on sale all the time so it's actually pretty affordable at around $3 a tetra pack.
The apple peels were a last-minute decision on my part. I had turned a 10lb bag of (free!) apples into applesauce a week ago, and I thought ahead to wash the apples before peeling them so that I could keep the peels. I wasn't completely sure what to do with them, frankly. I ended up adding some to squash puree, and the rest to this pulled pork. The flavour was amazing!
This recipe gave all three of us sizeable portions and leftovers for the fridge.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Zucchini Stuffed Chicken
We're having one of those meals I just love - a practically 'found food' sort of feast. Zucchini stuffed chicken with honey roasted squash. The squash was a gift, the chicken was almost half price, the zucchini was some of the frozen grated bags I put up last month, and the breadcrumbs for the stuffing came from the ends of the loaves that I've been saving in the freezer for just such a day.
Do you do that, too? Save bread, I mean. I started doing this a while ago. Every time I get to the bitter ends of loaves I toss whatever stale bits are left in a bag in the freezer. Before I use it I just toast in the oven a bit and then pulse in my blender a few times. Breadcrumbs! The only downside, and really for us it isn't a downside, is that unless you eat only one kind of bread your crumbs will be slightly different every time. I think they'll be some sunflower seeds this time around by the look of it.
And the recipe? It's my mother's and I remember it fondly from childhood. The stuffing is so good I could just eat it all on its own, frankly. Here you go:
Elegant Stuffed Chicken
4 chicken quarters
3Tbsp butter
2 medium zucchini (approx 1lb grated)
3 slices of bread
1 egg
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste.
Melt butter and cook zucchini until tender. Remove from heat and stir in torn bread (I use breadcrumbs here) and other ingredients. Lift the skin on chicken quarters and stuff. Place chicken on baking sheet and cook at 400F approx. 50 minutes.
Do you do that, too? Save bread, I mean. I started doing this a while ago. Every time I get to the bitter ends of loaves I toss whatever stale bits are left in a bag in the freezer. Before I use it I just toast in the oven a bit and then pulse in my blender a few times. Breadcrumbs! The only downside, and really for us it isn't a downside, is that unless you eat only one kind of bread your crumbs will be slightly different every time. I think they'll be some sunflower seeds this time around by the look of it.
And the recipe? It's my mother's and I remember it fondly from childhood. The stuffing is so good I could just eat it all on its own, frankly. Here you go:
Elegant Stuffed Chicken
4 chicken quarters
3Tbsp butter
2 medium zucchini (approx 1lb grated)
3 slices of bread
1 egg
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste.
Melt butter and cook zucchini until tender. Remove from heat and stir in torn bread (I use breadcrumbs here) and other ingredients. Lift the skin on chicken quarters and stuff. Place chicken on baking sheet and cook at 400F approx. 50 minutes.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
November 8th
Rich beef stew in the stoneware baker in the oven. Oh I love my stoneware; seriously I think I use it more than anything else in my kitchen. I'm even thinking of possibly hosting a Pampered Chef party just to get more stoneware. It's an addiction. I want this one, oh and this one, oh and THIS one, too.
You know what I'd really like? If price wasn't at all an option? This. Of course I will never be able to afford it, but oh...
Anyway.
The beef stew recipe came from an old cookbook from 1982 called Kitchen Technique: A Complete Guide to Practical Cookery. It's supposed to be the filling for a pie, but since we're eating as little refined white flour as possible these days, I skipped the pastry part and made it a stew. It went over really well for lunch.
Feel terribly productive this morning because I finished the quilted placemat I'd promised to make for someone, sewed on the felt monogram this morning, and mailed it off without a problem. I wish I had a camera right now so that I could have taken a picture.
I've also noticed how observant and prone to mimicking Samuel is becoming. I want to take advantage of this stage before it passes, and so we're trying little 'dates' to teach social skills. Today we went to a tea shop to practice how to behave in a restaurant. Samuel had a hot chocolate and I had a cup of tea and we just had a nice time. We talked about how once you're on your chair you don't keep hopping off, how if you spill something by accident it's ok, just use your napkin, don't fiddle with the sugar packets, etc. He was so attentive and sweet and even held the door for me. After our drink we went to look upstairs from the restaurant where they have a little art gallery, and when we came home that was the part that Samuel wanted to tell David about first; he'd seen pictures.
Our big vegetable pack that I ordered several weeks ago came in today. It cost $25 but I've split the cost (and the produce) 50/50 with a friend. The pack is 55lb of carrots, onions, cabbage, potatoes and squash, all locally grown. Another way we're cutting food costs! I also ordered us another freezer meat pack, which I'm very excited about.
Look at what I unpacked!
You know what I'd really like? If price wasn't at all an option? This. Of course I will never be able to afford it, but oh...
Anyway.
The beef stew recipe came from an old cookbook from 1982 called Kitchen Technique: A Complete Guide to Practical Cookery. It's supposed to be the filling for a pie, but since we're eating as little refined white flour as possible these days, I skipped the pastry part and made it a stew. It went over really well for lunch.
Feel terribly productive this morning because I finished the quilted placemat I'd promised to make for someone, sewed on the felt monogram this morning, and mailed it off without a problem. I wish I had a camera right now so that I could have taken a picture.
I've also noticed how observant and prone to mimicking Samuel is becoming. I want to take advantage of this stage before it passes, and so we're trying little 'dates' to teach social skills. Today we went to a tea shop to practice how to behave in a restaurant. Samuel had a hot chocolate and I had a cup of tea and we just had a nice time. We talked about how once you're on your chair you don't keep hopping off, how if you spill something by accident it's ok, just use your napkin, don't fiddle with the sugar packets, etc. He was so attentive and sweet and even held the door for me. After our drink we went to look upstairs from the restaurant where they have a little art gallery, and when we came home that was the part that Samuel wanted to tell David about first; he'd seen pictures.
Our big vegetable pack that I ordered several weeks ago came in today. It cost $25 but I've split the cost (and the produce) 50/50 with a friend. The pack is 55lb of carrots, onions, cabbage, potatoes and squash, all locally grown. Another way we're cutting food costs! I also ordered us another freezer meat pack, which I'm very excited about.
Look at what I unpacked!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
November 6th
The lot beside our house is vacant and grassy. It's also covered in yellow leaves. The lady who owns it, in the next house over, has hired/found someone to use a leaf blower on it and clear all the leaves away. He did this for over an hour this afternoon. The sound, never ceasing, of a leaf blower is driving me crazy.
******
Samuel skipped his nap. I don't know why, but every few days he goes 'nap-less' and it worries me more with each passing time. What if nap-less becomes the new normal? I can't handle that yet. I love my son, but I need that 1-2 hours of no Samuel time in the middle of the day.
******
-Pork roast is in the slow cooker, doing it's thang.
-About half of the quilts got aired on the line today - it would have been a shame to waste a windy, sunny November day!
-The bedding from our guests is washed and put away. I feel so productive getting this done as quickly as I did.
******
My mother thinks that the diaper rash that Samuel has is caused by uric acid. She says it will burn the skin; I'm going to strip all of the cloth diapers and put him in disposables in the meantime. A big of a drag, but if it clears up his bum I'll be happy.
I tried making a sauce for our pasta tonight that would only take the amount of time it takes to boil spaghettini. I sauteed a mushroom, half a small onion, two cloves of garlic and a bit of oil together and then added about 1/2 cup of pureed veggies, diced tomatoes and some olives. Then I stirred in a bit of sour cream. Samuel had thirds, so he must have liked it.
******
Moving related tasks accomplished today: washing all of the cleaning cloths leant to us by our landlady so that I could return them. Emptying another box of books onto our bookshelf in our bedroom. Breaking down the boxes and bagging the garbage related to the move and bringing them to the curb for garbage day. (This really helped empty the basement - getting rid of empty boxes.)
******
Samuel skipped his nap. I don't know why, but every few days he goes 'nap-less' and it worries me more with each passing time. What if nap-less becomes the new normal? I can't handle that yet. I love my son, but I need that 1-2 hours of no Samuel time in the middle of the day.
******
-Pork roast is in the slow cooker, doing it's thang.
-About half of the quilts got aired on the line today - it would have been a shame to waste a windy, sunny November day!
-The bedding from our guests is washed and put away. I feel so productive getting this done as quickly as I did.
******
My mother thinks that the diaper rash that Samuel has is caused by uric acid. She says it will burn the skin; I'm going to strip all of the cloth diapers and put him in disposables in the meantime. A big of a drag, but if it clears up his bum I'll be happy.
I tried making a sauce for our pasta tonight that would only take the amount of time it takes to boil spaghettini. I sauteed a mushroom, half a small onion, two cloves of garlic and a bit of oil together and then added about 1/2 cup of pureed veggies, diced tomatoes and some olives. Then I stirred in a bit of sour cream. Samuel had thirds, so he must have liked it.
******
Moving related tasks accomplished today: washing all of the cleaning cloths leant to us by our landlady so that I could return them. Emptying another box of books onto our bookshelf in our bedroom. Breaking down the boxes and bagging the garbage related to the move and bringing them to the curb for garbage day. (This really helped empty the basement - getting rid of empty boxes.)
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
What's for supper?
Today is 'fridge cleaning out day' around here. I know you know what I'm talking about. We get our meat order in on Thursday, and today is Wednesday. The farmer's market is on Friday, and today is Wednesday. The new specials at the grocery store start on Thursday, and today is Wednesday. Wednesday is the day we eat 'stuff'.
But Wednesdays don't have to be blah and boring. Even when you have nothing in the house...you still have something in the house, right? So here are my top five...
1. Ethnic Food
The trick with making ethnic food out of zero ingredients is to pick a country where the food is supposed to be slightly haphazard. I have two main 'nationalities' that I use when making an ethnic-style dish - Chinese and Indian. Now, none of these "recipes" are even recipes, or for that matter, Chinese or Indian food - but when I add the flavourings of those types of foods, then my dish becomes similar enough. For example, tonight we're having "Asian" food. It's not Asian food in the slightest. What it is is odds and ends from my fridge left over from previous meal prep: half an acorn squash, a small onion, half a green pepper, about a quarter of a cauliflower, the last lonely pork chop and whatever brown rice was in the end of the bag. That is not an Asian meal, but it tastes like one because I had some Thai seasonings and pineapple sauce to throw in with it. If I hadn't had those flavours available, the meal would have become an "Indian" meal, because I would have cooked it with a bit of milk and curry powder. Or if I hadn't had that, it might have been a stew with some of the thyme on my windowsill and a few bay leaves, salt and pepper. It's exactly the same ingredients, only the seasonings change.
2. 'Something With a Flatbread'
Flour, water, salt, baking powder and a bit of oil - that's all you need to make tortillas. And tortillas will literally make a meal out of almost anything. You can turn them into pizzas, you can make a quesadilla, you can make a wrap, or a tortilla chip or...well, whatever. Have you got beans? Or lentils? Or something like that? Cook them, puree them, spread the puree on your tortilla, season, add whatever else you've got, and heat. There's your quesadilla. A tomato is nice, or a can of mushrooms sauteed, or the last sad green pepper. Haven't got that? Have you got cheese? That'll do. Or tortillas cut into triangles and dipped into whatever you have on hand. That sad pepper, two wrinkly cloves of garlic and half a tomato? Thats's gold, my friends! Toss them in a bit of oil, bake on a baking sheet and puree them. That's dip for your tortilla chips. Or spread something down as a base and make pizzas! No tomato sauce? No problem - this is where Bechamel sauce really makes a stand. Creamy enough that you don't need cheese, and a very good vehicle for any dried herbs you may have.
3. A baked dish
Oh, pasta. I know you well. Boring though it may be, it's a great 'nothing in the house' staple. As is rice, or any grain (barley makes appearances in our house), or mashed potatoes, too. The concept is the same everywhere - you cook your starch, you layer it with whatever, you add a sauce, you bake.
4. Tomato-Based Dishes
When you have tomatoes, and a lot of them, but not a lot of anything else, you have a meal practically prepared. This is because cooked tomatoes form the base for so many dishes including sauces, chilis, soups and stews. The easiest of these is probably the basic vegetable sauce. Saute what must be sauteed, and then slow cook vegetables in tomato sauce for the longest time you have. A few hours at least. You can serve it over rice, or noodles, or on it's own. You can add chili spice, or steak spice and barbecue sauce and make sloppy joes. You could add meat, which is great if you have it. You could pureed it and make it into soup; you could even cook other stuff in it, like boneless, skinless chicken, or layers of zucchini, or pour it into cooked rice stuffed into peppers...
5. Stuff with eggs
If I didn't buy at least a dozen, and more likely two dozen, eggs every single week I honestly think I'd go nuts. Because an egg can be anything, anything at all. Mainly I use them in meals to form a strata - a layered omlette that includes bread. It's a question of layering bread cubes with, well, whatever, and then pouring a mixture of egg and milk overtop and baking it. Personally, I like it with cheese, but I'd eat a tire if there was enough cheese on it. As for the other stuff, well, a slice of bacon, a last piece of chicken, leftover rice, three cherry tomatoes, a piece of broccoli, half a can of beans, an opened bag of croutons, some chopped herbs and green onions, frozen corn...
Enjoy!
But Wednesdays don't have to be blah and boring. Even when you have nothing in the house...you still have something in the house, right? So here are my top five...
Meals To Make Without Any Ingredients
1. Ethnic Food
The trick with making ethnic food out of zero ingredients is to pick a country where the food is supposed to be slightly haphazard. I have two main 'nationalities' that I use when making an ethnic-style dish - Chinese and Indian. Now, none of these "recipes" are even recipes, or for that matter, Chinese or Indian food - but when I add the flavourings of those types of foods, then my dish becomes similar enough. For example, tonight we're having "Asian" food. It's not Asian food in the slightest. What it is is odds and ends from my fridge left over from previous meal prep: half an acorn squash, a small onion, half a green pepper, about a quarter of a cauliflower, the last lonely pork chop and whatever brown rice was in the end of the bag. That is not an Asian meal, but it tastes like one because I had some Thai seasonings and pineapple sauce to throw in with it. If I hadn't had those flavours available, the meal would have become an "Indian" meal, because I would have cooked it with a bit of milk and curry powder. Or if I hadn't had that, it might have been a stew with some of the thyme on my windowsill and a few bay leaves, salt and pepper. It's exactly the same ingredients, only the seasonings change.
2. 'Something With a Flatbread'
Flour, water, salt, baking powder and a bit of oil - that's all you need to make tortillas. And tortillas will literally make a meal out of almost anything. You can turn them into pizzas, you can make a quesadilla, you can make a wrap, or a tortilla chip or...well, whatever. Have you got beans? Or lentils? Or something like that? Cook them, puree them, spread the puree on your tortilla, season, add whatever else you've got, and heat. There's your quesadilla. A tomato is nice, or a can of mushrooms sauteed, or the last sad green pepper. Haven't got that? Have you got cheese? That'll do. Or tortillas cut into triangles and dipped into whatever you have on hand. That sad pepper, two wrinkly cloves of garlic and half a tomato? Thats's gold, my friends! Toss them in a bit of oil, bake on a baking sheet and puree them. That's dip for your tortilla chips. Or spread something down as a base and make pizzas! No tomato sauce? No problem - this is where Bechamel sauce really makes a stand. Creamy enough that you don't need cheese, and a very good vehicle for any dried herbs you may have.
3. A baked dish
Oh, pasta. I know you well. Boring though it may be, it's a great 'nothing in the house' staple. As is rice, or any grain (barley makes appearances in our house), or mashed potatoes, too. The concept is the same everywhere - you cook your starch, you layer it with whatever, you add a sauce, you bake.
4. Tomato-Based Dishes
When you have tomatoes, and a lot of them, but not a lot of anything else, you have a meal practically prepared. This is because cooked tomatoes form the base for so many dishes including sauces, chilis, soups and stews. The easiest of these is probably the basic vegetable sauce. Saute what must be sauteed, and then slow cook vegetables in tomato sauce for the longest time you have. A few hours at least. You can serve it over rice, or noodles, or on it's own. You can add chili spice, or steak spice and barbecue sauce and make sloppy joes. You could add meat, which is great if you have it. You could pureed it and make it into soup; you could even cook other stuff in it, like boneless, skinless chicken, or layers of zucchini, or pour it into cooked rice stuffed into peppers...
5. Stuff with eggs
If I didn't buy at least a dozen, and more likely two dozen, eggs every single week I honestly think I'd go nuts. Because an egg can be anything, anything at all. Mainly I use them in meals to form a strata - a layered omlette that includes bread. It's a question of layering bread cubes with, well, whatever, and then pouring a mixture of egg and milk overtop and baking it. Personally, I like it with cheese, but I'd eat a tire if there was enough cheese on it. As for the other stuff, well, a slice of bacon, a last piece of chicken, leftover rice, three cherry tomatoes, a piece of broccoli, half a can of beans, an opened bag of croutons, some chopped herbs and green onions, frozen corn...
Enjoy!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
This past week...
I think it may be fall around here! Or at least the beginnings of it. I have some very exciting news to share in the next little while, but in the meantime, while I process it...
Imagine for a moment that you are a single mother, or a single father for that matter. Imagine that you're quite quite poor. No, not 'I'm out of mayo and payday isn't for three days' poor; I'm talking more than that. Every day is a struggle. And even the most basic of things that I take for granted (may I assume, that YOU might take for granted as well, gentle readers?) are hard, hard, hard. Like diapers.
I came across this organization on Facebook today and I really felt called to share it. Cloth For A Cause is a Canadian non-profit that started in 2011 with the mandate to help low-income families cover their babies' bums without the sometimes overwhelming start-up costs associated with cloth diapering. I've been a big supporter of cloth diaper services for a long time now, as anyone who reads here regularly will know. But I haven't come across an organization here in Canada that does for it's clients what the equivalent agencies do in the States, until I heard of Cloth For A Cause.
Now, they're on Facebook, and you should 'Like' them. And you should go on the website and tell them on their very first blog post ever how neat you think what they're doing is. And while you're there, you should enter their free contest for diapers. And then...you should sit down and pray about it a little bit, and then get up and go grab a few of your diapers, or some sewing supplies, or maybe a $10 bill, and you should help.
I'll get off my soapbox now and go look through my own stash to see what will make it's merry way to the nearest depo.
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| Baked potatoes with green onions, roasted pork chops and acorn squash with butter, brown sugar cinnamon and nutmeg. |
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| New Country Living magazine and a cup of tea = chalk day. |
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| Sweet baby |
Imagine for a moment that you are a single mother, or a single father for that matter. Imagine that you're quite quite poor. No, not 'I'm out of mayo and payday isn't for three days' poor; I'm talking more than that. Every day is a struggle. And even the most basic of things that I take for granted (may I assume, that YOU might take for granted as well, gentle readers?) are hard, hard, hard. Like diapers.
I came across this organization on Facebook today and I really felt called to share it. Cloth For A Cause is a Canadian non-profit that started in 2011 with the mandate to help low-income families cover their babies' bums without the sometimes overwhelming start-up costs associated with cloth diapering. I've been a big supporter of cloth diaper services for a long time now, as anyone who reads here regularly will know. But I haven't come across an organization here in Canada that does for it's clients what the equivalent agencies do in the States, until I heard of Cloth For A Cause.
Now, they're on Facebook, and you should 'Like' them. And you should go on the website and tell them on their very first blog post ever how neat you think what they're doing is. And while you're there, you should enter their free contest for diapers. And then...you should sit down and pray about it a little bit, and then get up and go grab a few of your diapers, or some sewing supplies, or maybe a $10 bill, and you should help.
I'll get off my soapbox now and go look through my own stash to see what will make it's merry way to the nearest depo.
Monday, July 16, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Five
This summer cold I've acquired is a real whammy. I'm barely eating anything, and certainly not the heavy, cold-weather food that this challenge is insisting on. But I'm trying, friends, I'm trying.
Today's menu was:
Breakfast: Oatmeal pancakes, syrup, juice, tea, milk
Lunch: Leftover black beans soup with vegetables, biscuits, milk
Supper: Hot dog stir fry, rice, ice tea
Snack: Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea
Alright. I was very ill this morning so I didn't make breakfast. I'm sure the boys ate something, probably fruit. When I got up I ate the last of the tortillas.
Since I didn't make the black bean soup yesterday, I made soup today. We had it for lunch. Well, I did, Samuel and David had a sandwich because they didn't think I was cooking.
I made the hot dog stir fry for supper, and also those hoe cakes from earlier in the week that we had skipped. The hot dog stir fry was...um, not great. The hoe cakes were cornbread, fried in a lot of oil. With butter on them.
Anyway. Let's all hope that tomorrow I feel better. I think scallopped tomatos are coming up. Don't want to miss me some scallopped tomatos.
Today's menu was:
Breakfast: Oatmeal pancakes, syrup, juice, tea, milk
Lunch: Leftover black beans soup with vegetables, biscuits, milk
Supper: Hot dog stir fry, rice, ice tea
Snack: Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea
Alright. I was very ill this morning so I didn't make breakfast. I'm sure the boys ate something, probably fruit. When I got up I ate the last of the tortillas.
Since I didn't make the black bean soup yesterday, I made soup today. We had it for lunch. Well, I did, Samuel and David had a sandwich because they didn't think I was cooking.
I made the hot dog stir fry for supper, and also those hoe cakes from earlier in the week that we had skipped. The hot dog stir fry was...um, not great. The hoe cakes were cornbread, fried in a lot of oil. With butter on them.
Anyway. Let's all hope that tomorrow I feel better. I think scallopped tomatos are coming up. Don't want to miss me some scallopped tomatos.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Four
Oh, I'm sick. Coughing, hacking, grossness sick. And I get to eat re-heated rice with milk on it for breakfast.
Breakfast - Hot rice with milk, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, tea
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk
Supper - Black bean soup with carrots, celery and onions, cornmeal muffins, iced tea
Snack - Cinnamon toast, milk, tea
Alright. What the hey is hot rice with milk doing on there? I don't know one solitary person who has ever told me that 'way back when they were kids' their mama gave them leftover rice, reheated in the microwave, with milk poured over it for breakfast.
"Maybe it's a name for something else" I thought. You know, so far collared greens don't have anything to do with collars, and hoe cakes have nothing to do with hoes...maybe 'hot rice with milk' refers to rice pudding?
Well, actually, it does seem to be rice pudding. And so I soldiered on with it. Surprise, surprise, Samuel loved it; he ate his bowl, half of my bowl and then half of David's bowl as well. I also made a dozen muffins (apparently I was supposed to make these the other day and fill them with jelly?) and all but three of them got eaten after breakfast...clearly everyone is super hungry around here.
Not me, really. I'm gross and sick, but everyone else is hungry.
I wasn't able to make lunch, frankly, nursing and coughing were the sum total of most of my day's activities. But I did tell David that they had to eat Kraft Dinner for the meal, and so he made it for him and Samuel. Supper was black bean soup, which I couldn't stomach the thought of making, and so Samuel (who was too hot to eat anyway) had a bowl of cherries and a muffin, and I drank orange juice, ate popsicles and debated saltines.
Not a great food day.
Breakfast - Hot rice with milk, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, tea
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk
Supper - Black bean soup with carrots, celery and onions, cornmeal muffins, iced tea
Snack - Cinnamon toast, milk, tea
Alright. What the hey is hot rice with milk doing on there? I don't know one solitary person who has ever told me that 'way back when they were kids' their mama gave them leftover rice, reheated in the microwave, with milk poured over it for breakfast.
"Maybe it's a name for something else" I thought. You know, so far collared greens don't have anything to do with collars, and hoe cakes have nothing to do with hoes...maybe 'hot rice with milk' refers to rice pudding?
Well, actually, it does seem to be rice pudding. And so I soldiered on with it. Surprise, surprise, Samuel loved it; he ate his bowl, half of my bowl and then half of David's bowl as well. I also made a dozen muffins (apparently I was supposed to make these the other day and fill them with jelly?) and all but three of them got eaten after breakfast...clearly everyone is super hungry around here.
Not me, really. I'm gross and sick, but everyone else is hungry.
I wasn't able to make lunch, frankly, nursing and coughing were the sum total of most of my day's activities. But I did tell David that they had to eat Kraft Dinner for the meal, and so he made it for him and Samuel. Supper was black bean soup, which I couldn't stomach the thought of making, and so Samuel (who was too hot to eat anyway) had a bowl of cherries and a muffin, and I drank orange juice, ate popsicles and debated saltines.
Not a great food day.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Three
I'm just so pumped that I don't have to eat a bean ALL DAY!
Breakfast - French toast, syrup, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Batter bread, margarine, spinach, milk.
Supper - Creamed tuna and peas over rice, garlic toast, ice tea.
Snack - Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea.
We're running up against two big problems by Day Three. The first is that, with a few exceptions, the food I'm making is not food we would usually eat, and there's a good reason for that: we don't like it. I'm not a huge fan of french toast (eggy bread?) or pancakes, Samuel isn't a big bread eater at all, neither David nor I like beans or lentils especially, and David is missing meat terribly.
On the up side of all that, I think it means we're doing the plan well! This is, after all, an emergency menu. And with the exception of the pancakes on day one (and the orange juice allotment - I have no idea how two cans of juice is supposed to do four people for seven days!) every meal has given us so much food that not only could we easily feed four, but we're swimming in leftovers.
The second problem isn't one of preference, it's one of timing. These recipes take a lot of time. To make the refried beans from scratch would have taken me hours, which is why I used our leftovers from a previous night. I'm making bread every two days, where usually I can make it every four or five. Breakfast is taking 45 minutes to prepare from beginning to end, lunch over an hour and supper is being started the night before. I'm not used to cooking this way, nor do I particularly wish to become used to cooking this way.
Anyway, the french toast wasn't eaten by Samuel because 1) it was bread, and 2) it took so long to make it all that he ate before he ate, which ruined his appetite.
So, here we are at lunch again...spinach and something made out of cornmeal. Well, that's what Samuel and I will be having - David is on day three of eating the lentil and vegetable soup I made. It's almost done now! When he left this morning it was with a slightly forced smile, and he commented last night on how creamed fish didn't sound that bad for supper today, so I'd say he's holding up with his usual day three resilience to my crazy food schemes.
The batter bread recipe was difficult to understand for someone who has barely worked with cornmeal before. It said the meal would absorb the water, which to me means a paste is going to be the end result. But the cornmeal just sort of vaguely thickened the liquid - so I popped it back in the microwave for 30 seconds to thicken it up, and that seemed to work. The final product (which I cooked in a cast iron frying pan) was really very odd. The bread seemed to separate, leaving heavy cornmeal at the bottom, and a sort of salty custard on top. It was sort of like eating glue topped with mucus. Don't laugh, I have a whole pan of this stuff to eat. And let me tell you, it would have to be one heck of an emergency for me to make that again.
I didn't even try to give it to Sam, he had his share of the french toast, reheated. And I ate the last of the lentil soup.
And then...things just sort of fell apart for supper. I'd forgotten about the garlic toast, and had used the last of the bread for french toast this morning (though, with french toast for breakfast, cornbread for lunch, tortillas for snacks and rice for supper, did we really need another carb?) leaving me with no way of making garlic toast for supper. Since both of us had eaten leftovers for lunch, I forgot about the spinach (that we were supposed to eat earlier today) slowly puddling its merry way across my counters, and decided to make that with the creamed tuna. Which by the way was actually salmon, since that was on sale. Which made me forget about the peas! We sat down to rice, with creamed salmon (no peas!) and spinach.
It was pretty good, actually. I could see it working well on toast. Or biscuits. Or maybe mashed potatos.
Breakfast - French toast, syrup, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Batter bread, margarine, spinach, milk.
Supper - Creamed tuna and peas over rice, garlic toast, ice tea.
Snack - Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea.
We're running up against two big problems by Day Three. The first is that, with a few exceptions, the food I'm making is not food we would usually eat, and there's a good reason for that: we don't like it. I'm not a huge fan of french toast (eggy bread?) or pancakes, Samuel isn't a big bread eater at all, neither David nor I like beans or lentils especially, and David is missing meat terribly.
On the up side of all that, I think it means we're doing the plan well! This is, after all, an emergency menu. And with the exception of the pancakes on day one (and the orange juice allotment - I have no idea how two cans of juice is supposed to do four people for seven days!) every meal has given us so much food that not only could we easily feed four, but we're swimming in leftovers.
The second problem isn't one of preference, it's one of timing. These recipes take a lot of time. To make the refried beans from scratch would have taken me hours, which is why I used our leftovers from a previous night. I'm making bread every two days, where usually I can make it every four or five. Breakfast is taking 45 minutes to prepare from beginning to end, lunch over an hour and supper is being started the night before. I'm not used to cooking this way, nor do I particularly wish to become used to cooking this way.
Anyway, the french toast wasn't eaten by Samuel because 1) it was bread, and 2) it took so long to make it all that he ate before he ate, which ruined his appetite.
So, here we are at lunch again...spinach and something made out of cornmeal. Well, that's what Samuel and I will be having - David is on day three of eating the lentil and vegetable soup I made. It's almost done now! When he left this morning it was with a slightly forced smile, and he commented last night on how creamed fish didn't sound that bad for supper today, so I'd say he's holding up with his usual day three resilience to my crazy food schemes.
The batter bread recipe was difficult to understand for someone who has barely worked with cornmeal before. It said the meal would absorb the water, which to me means a paste is going to be the end result. But the cornmeal just sort of vaguely thickened the liquid - so I popped it back in the microwave for 30 seconds to thicken it up, and that seemed to work. The final product (which I cooked in a cast iron frying pan) was really very odd. The bread seemed to separate, leaving heavy cornmeal at the bottom, and a sort of salty custard on top. It was sort of like eating glue topped with mucus. Don't laugh, I have a whole pan of this stuff to eat. And let me tell you, it would have to be one heck of an emergency for me to make that again.
I didn't even try to give it to Sam, he had his share of the french toast, reheated. And I ate the last of the lentil soup.
And then...things just sort of fell apart for supper. I'd forgotten about the garlic toast, and had used the last of the bread for french toast this morning (though, with french toast for breakfast, cornbread for lunch, tortillas for snacks and rice for supper, did we really need another carb?) leaving me with no way of making garlic toast for supper. Since both of us had eaten leftovers for lunch, I forgot about the spinach (that we were supposed to eat earlier today) slowly puddling its merry way across my counters, and decided to make that with the creamed tuna. Which by the way was actually salmon, since that was on sale. Which made me forget about the peas! We sat down to rice, with creamed salmon (no peas!) and spinach.
It was pretty good, actually. I could see it working well on toast. Or biscuits. Or maybe mashed potatos.
Friday, July 13, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Two
Here's what our menu looked like today according to the meal plan:
Breakfast - Oatmeal, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk.
Supper - Burritos with homemade refried beans and homemade tortillas, iced tea, fried onions.
Snacks - Jelly filled muffins, milk, tea.
Alright, so the good news first. Before I went to bed last night I put a cup of steel cut oats in to soak with a handful of dried cranberries. This morning I boiled them, drained them, and served Samuel and I the cereal with milk and a little bit of syrup. We both ate it, and the leftovers got frozen to be tossed into muffins at a later date. I don't know if steel cuts oats were exactly what the HH meant, but they're what I try and serve for oatmeal...
On the other hand, with a giant bowl of oatmeal no one needed the toast, so I didn't bother.
We had a date for lunch, and so the lunch portion of the menu got skipped today. No big deal, I think, we've all eaten pb&j and KD before.
And that brings us to supper. I made refried beans using the leftovers from last night's bean, garlic, butter and kale meal using this recipe. I also made the tortillas, which were really surprisingly easy, using this recipe. I may never buy tortillas again! It is so incredibly hot that we just drank water and frankly, after making burritos from scratch I didn't even have the energy to fry a few onions.
David liked the beans, which was amazing! I liked them, too, but seriously I have eaten some form of legume for every meal in the past two days - enough already. Still, the recipe was amazingly simple and I imagine it will be a repeat for us. Samuel wouldn't touch the beans or the tortillas, so he ate an orange.
Tomorrow I'm apparently making french toast for breakfast! The boys should like that. And then batter bread for lunch? Batter bread? Um....
Breakfast - Oatmeal, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk.
Supper - Burritos with homemade refried beans and homemade tortillas, iced tea, fried onions.
Snacks - Jelly filled muffins, milk, tea.
Alright, so the good news first. Before I went to bed last night I put a cup of steel cut oats in to soak with a handful of dried cranberries. This morning I boiled them, drained them, and served Samuel and I the cereal with milk and a little bit of syrup. We both ate it, and the leftovers got frozen to be tossed into muffins at a later date. I don't know if steel cuts oats were exactly what the HH meant, but they're what I try and serve for oatmeal...
On the other hand, with a giant bowl of oatmeal no one needed the toast, so I didn't bother.
We had a date for lunch, and so the lunch portion of the menu got skipped today. No big deal, I think, we've all eaten pb&j and KD before.
And that brings us to supper. I made refried beans using the leftovers from last night's bean, garlic, butter and kale meal using this recipe. I also made the tortillas, which were really surprisingly easy, using this recipe. I may never buy tortillas again! It is so incredibly hot that we just drank water and frankly, after making burritos from scratch I didn't even have the energy to fry a few onions.
David liked the beans, which was amazing! I liked them, too, but seriously I have eaten some form of legume for every meal in the past two days - enough already. Still, the recipe was amazingly simple and I imagine it will be a repeat for us. Samuel wouldn't touch the beans or the tortillas, so he ate an orange.
Tomorrow I'm apparently making french toast for breakfast! The boys should like that. And then batter bread for lunch? Batter bread? Um....
Thursday, July 12, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day One
Well, breakfast was pancakes today. I went onto the HH website to see how she expected me to make my pancakes (my normal recipe uses apple sauce instead of oil and apple cider instead of milk, and I make it in a large pan in the oven, not on the stovetop). Problem #1: The recipes for this week aren't conveniently located with the meal plan, you have to go searching for them in her recipe index. I found what I assume was the pancake recipe, made it, and was a little shocked that this was supposed to feed four people since I only managed to get 8 small pancakes out of it. I mean, it fed us, but we weren't all that hungry, and Samuel ate three of them.
Maybe I used the wrong recipe? Maybe I was supposed to understand that she meant to double it?
Anyway, we went out to play and when we got back it was Samuel's naptime. I'd hoped to feed him lunch before putting him down to bed, but he was having none of it, and instead took a piece of bread and butter and a glass of milk to his room. I assumed these were acceptable, since the meal plan told me to give him 'cinnamon toast' for a snack and milk at lunch.
Problem #2 came up pretty quickly when I went to start the soup - this meal HAD no recipe. I couldn't find one. I looked through the lentil recipes and the soup recipes and it was nowhere, so I assume I am just supposed to know how to make lentil and vegetable soup from scratch on my own? Well, I skimmed the stock, heated it, peeled and chopped the vegetables (and this was another thing - how much of these vegetables am I supposed to use? What if I use too many carrots and run out of them for a later carrot recipe?) drained and added the lentils and went to make the dumplings.
There also was no dumpling recipe. So I had to Google 'dumpling recipe', and find one I could make with only the ingredients she gave me.
Problem #3 - No word of a lie this lunch took me over an hour to make. We all sat down to our soup at 2pm, none of us terribly hungry because we'd filled up on bread and butter while waiting for the soup to cook.
The soup I had made used 3 carrots, 2 onions, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cup rehydrated soaked green lentils, 6 cups turkey stock and 1/3 sweet potato. I know the potato wasn't on the grocery list, but it was in my fridge and I didn't want it to go bad. The dumplings used butter, flour, b. powder, milk, salt and seasonings. It was decent soup, nothing to write home about but certainly edible. I've made better dumplings. There was certainly a tonne of it left over, a least half the pot, so guess what David will be taking for lunch to work tomorrow. Or maybe I'll freeze it.
With all of that soup in our stomachs from lunch, none of us was really eager for supper, especially when I told David what it was. More beans. My friend Martha gave me a good idea, though, rather than cook the onions, beans and collard greens separately, why not saute them together, with a bit of that garlic butter I made earlier? That didn't sound half bad! (By the way, what on earth is a collard green? I bought kale - is that similar?)
I skipped making the hoe cakes for one reason only - we are swimming in food from day 1 over here. I rehydrated double the amount of beans and lentils, made 6 cups more broth than I needed, and have copious leftovers from the two meals I made. No need to make more food. But in the interests of the challenge, I will make them sometime this week.
Maybe I used the wrong recipe? Maybe I was supposed to understand that she meant to double it?
Anyway, we went out to play and when we got back it was Samuel's naptime. I'd hoped to feed him lunch before putting him down to bed, but he was having none of it, and instead took a piece of bread and butter and a glass of milk to his room. I assumed these were acceptable, since the meal plan told me to give him 'cinnamon toast' for a snack and milk at lunch.
Problem #2 came up pretty quickly when I went to start the soup - this meal HAD no recipe. I couldn't find one. I looked through the lentil recipes and the soup recipes and it was nowhere, so I assume I am just supposed to know how to make lentil and vegetable soup from scratch on my own? Well, I skimmed the stock, heated it, peeled and chopped the vegetables (and this was another thing - how much of these vegetables am I supposed to use? What if I use too many carrots and run out of them for a later carrot recipe?) drained and added the lentils and went to make the dumplings.
There also was no dumpling recipe. So I had to Google 'dumpling recipe', and find one I could make with only the ingredients she gave me.
Problem #3 - No word of a lie this lunch took me over an hour to make. We all sat down to our soup at 2pm, none of us terribly hungry because we'd filled up on bread and butter while waiting for the soup to cook.
The soup I had made used 3 carrots, 2 onions, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cup rehydrated soaked green lentils, 6 cups turkey stock and 1/3 sweet potato. I know the potato wasn't on the grocery list, but it was in my fridge and I didn't want it to go bad. The dumplings used butter, flour, b. powder, milk, salt and seasonings. It was decent soup, nothing to write home about but certainly edible. I've made better dumplings. There was certainly a tonne of it left over, a least half the pot, so guess what David will be taking for lunch to work tomorrow. Or maybe I'll freeze it.
With all of that soup in our stomachs from lunch, none of us was really eager for supper, especially when I told David what it was. More beans. My friend Martha gave me a good idea, though, rather than cook the onions, beans and collard greens separately, why not saute them together, with a bit of that garlic butter I made earlier? That didn't sound half bad! (By the way, what on earth is a collard green? I bought kale - is that similar?)
I skipped making the hoe cakes for one reason only - we are swimming in food from day 1 over here. I rehydrated double the amount of beans and lentils, made 6 cups more broth than I needed, and have copious leftovers from the two meals I made. No need to make more food. But in the interests of the challenge, I will make them sometime this week.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Prep Day
I love my food challenge weeks, I really do. I love trying to decide what I'm going to push myself to do. Is it going to be as simple as recording what we eat and snapping a photo for a week, or am I going to have to re-vamp our way of eating entirely, perhaps going vegan, or raw food, or dairy free?
Well, this week's challenge is a fun one, in my opinion. It's based on the blog The Hillbilly Housewife; she has an emergency menu that she claims can healthily feed 4 people for a week for $45. It's nothing fancy, but she claims it's filling and tasty, and that piques my interest. I did the Big Shop today to prepare for the meals ahead.
First off - my grocery bill was $76, not $45. Now, that being said there were a few things I bought that she hadn't asked for, and a few things she asked for that I didn't buy. Her menu plan assumes a bare pantry, and I am well stocked with spices, salt, flour, etc. so those weren't purchased. Instead, I bought some fruit, which is completely lacking in her meal plan.
There were also a few 'switches' made. In some cases it was a simple switch, for example she asked for canned tomatoes, but I bought fresh because I prefer them and they were on sale. In other cases, I 'upgraded' my ingredients; she simply asked for hot dogs, by which I assume she meant the cheapest there were, and I bought the natural hot dogs that are chemical free and cost three times as much as the cheapest no name brand.
Is this cheating? Maybe, but I abhor wasting food and I refuse to cook something (taking the time, hydro and money out of my allotment) just for the fun of it and with no serious intention of eating the finished product! In the long run, though, and after reading a lot of comments about the meal plan, I can also see that there isn't much of a chance of me reaching the $45 mark and having enough food. I know from past experience that I can, with a lot of squeezing, feed two adults on $50 per week. But I am nursing two children, David is working 40 hour weeks on his feet, and we walk everywhere, not to mention a toddler shares our table; these days I'm doing well if I can keep our bill at $75 per week.
We eat a LOT of food. Just sayin'.
This is all to say that I think the switches and so forth even themselves out. Yes, I bought fruit, but I didn't buy flour. Yes, I bought expensive hotdogs, but I bought cheaper beans, etc. And it came to $76. So there you have it.
I intended to start today with the challenge, but after a close look at the menu I realized that I was going to need a 'Prep Day'. Here's what we'll be eating tomorrow, then:
Breakfast: Pancakes, syrup, orange juice, hot tea, milk.
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable soup with dumplings, milk.
Supper: Pinto beans, onions, hoe cakes, collard greens, iced tea.
Snack: cinnamon toast and milk for children, tea for adults.
Can I tell you what immediately hits me like a tonne of bricks from that menu? The beans for supper. Just...beans. Beans soaked, drained and then boiled. Oh my goodness how do people eat just beans? Nothing on them? Like, nothing?
I also had to look up what a hoe cake was, and it so wasn't what I thought it was. It turns out hoe cakes are fried cornbread. I'm trying to picture in my mind what Samuel's face is going to look like when I present him with fried cornbread tomorrow. I'm guessing we'll be using that syrup again come suppertime.
My prep today, then, involved making a loaf of bread so that we can eat our cinnamon toast. I also decided not to use the bouillon that the Hillbilly Housewife suggested for her soup broth, and instead I'm making broth as well, from turkey. I've also been wracking my brain on what to do about those beans, because that is going to be really tough for me. I settled on a roasted garlic butter, and I've roasted three heads of garlic in the oven and put them in the fridge ready to go.
She suggests soaking your beans for a few hours, but with dried beans I prefer to soak overnight using this method from Keeper of the Home (and here's a great link as to WHY I prefer that).
Other than that, I think we're ready for tomorrow. Let the beans shine on.
Well, this week's challenge is a fun one, in my opinion. It's based on the blog The Hillbilly Housewife; she has an emergency menu that she claims can healthily feed 4 people for a week for $45. It's nothing fancy, but she claims it's filling and tasty, and that piques my interest. I did the Big Shop today to prepare for the meals ahead.
First off - my grocery bill was $76, not $45. Now, that being said there were a few things I bought that she hadn't asked for, and a few things she asked for that I didn't buy. Her menu plan assumes a bare pantry, and I am well stocked with spices, salt, flour, etc. so those weren't purchased. Instead, I bought some fruit, which is completely lacking in her meal plan.
There were also a few 'switches' made. In some cases it was a simple switch, for example she asked for canned tomatoes, but I bought fresh because I prefer them and they were on sale. In other cases, I 'upgraded' my ingredients; she simply asked for hot dogs, by which I assume she meant the cheapest there were, and I bought the natural hot dogs that are chemical free and cost three times as much as the cheapest no name brand.
Is this cheating? Maybe, but I abhor wasting food and I refuse to cook something (taking the time, hydro and money out of my allotment) just for the fun of it and with no serious intention of eating the finished product! In the long run, though, and after reading a lot of comments about the meal plan, I can also see that there isn't much of a chance of me reaching the $45 mark and having enough food. I know from past experience that I can, with a lot of squeezing, feed two adults on $50 per week. But I am nursing two children, David is working 40 hour weeks on his feet, and we walk everywhere, not to mention a toddler shares our table; these days I'm doing well if I can keep our bill at $75 per week.
We eat a LOT of food. Just sayin'.
This is all to say that I think the switches and so forth even themselves out. Yes, I bought fruit, but I didn't buy flour. Yes, I bought expensive hotdogs, but I bought cheaper beans, etc. And it came to $76. So there you have it.
I intended to start today with the challenge, but after a close look at the menu I realized that I was going to need a 'Prep Day'. Here's what we'll be eating tomorrow, then:
Breakfast: Pancakes, syrup, orange juice, hot tea, milk.
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable soup with dumplings, milk.
Supper: Pinto beans, onions, hoe cakes, collard greens, iced tea.
Snack: cinnamon toast and milk for children, tea for adults.
Can I tell you what immediately hits me like a tonne of bricks from that menu? The beans for supper. Just...beans. Beans soaked, drained and then boiled. Oh my goodness how do people eat just beans? Nothing on them? Like, nothing?
I also had to look up what a hoe cake was, and it so wasn't what I thought it was. It turns out hoe cakes are fried cornbread. I'm trying to picture in my mind what Samuel's face is going to look like when I present him with fried cornbread tomorrow. I'm guessing we'll be using that syrup again come suppertime.
My prep today, then, involved making a loaf of bread so that we can eat our cinnamon toast. I also decided not to use the bouillon that the Hillbilly Housewife suggested for her soup broth, and instead I'm making broth as well, from turkey. I've also been wracking my brain on what to do about those beans, because that is going to be really tough for me. I settled on a roasted garlic butter, and I've roasted three heads of garlic in the oven and put them in the fridge ready to go.
She suggests soaking your beans for a few hours, but with dried beans I prefer to soak overnight using this method from Keeper of the Home (and here's a great link as to WHY I prefer that).
Other than that, I think we're ready for tomorrow. Let the beans shine on.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Food Challenge Day Five
I had cold cereal for breakfast, and Samuel...
well, Samuel ate a muffin from Tim Hortons.
Blech for pre-made food.
And since once a week we like to go 'out' for a meal, we had lunch at A&W as a family on David's lunch break. Two mozza burgers for $6. Add a large fry and it feeds a family of four - provided only two people are really eating and a third eats a few fries and drinks the ketchup.
Usually on a day that looks as bad as this one does nutritionally, I would prepare something really healthy for supper. Unfortunately, today was the day I had planned to use up stuff that was sitting in the fridge and pantry. So, we had spaghetti and tomato sauce, and by spaghetti I mean various bags of pasta odds and ends that I'm too frugal to get rid of.
I also started prepping for meals for tomorrow, since David is back on nights again. Chicken quarters on low in the slow cooker and a bowl of dried cranberries rehydrating on the countertop...
well, Samuel ate a muffin from Tim Hortons.
Blech for pre-made food.
And since once a week we like to go 'out' for a meal, we had lunch at A&W as a family on David's lunch break. Two mozza burgers for $6. Add a large fry and it feeds a family of four - provided only two people are really eating and a third eats a few fries and drinks the ketchup.
Usually on a day that looks as bad as this one does nutritionally, I would prepare something really healthy for supper. Unfortunately, today was the day I had planned to use up stuff that was sitting in the fridge and pantry. So, we had spaghetti and tomato sauce, and by spaghetti I mean various bags of pasta odds and ends that I'm too frugal to get rid of.
I also started prepping for meals for tomorrow, since David is back on nights again. Chicken quarters on low in the slow cooker and a bowl of dried cranberries rehydrating on the countertop...
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Food Challenge: Day 2
Today's food actually started last night, because with church in the morning and two really young children, it helps to have your meals as prepped as they can be. I made our 'big' lunch (David works in the evening again, just like last night, so another large mid-day meal) last night, and it's shepherd's pie.
This is another meal that I don't make with a recipe. For this one I sauteed ground beef, onions and garlic, seasoned with ground black pepper and some kosher salt and into that mixed about 2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables, two cups of frozen broccoli, and half a container of the Philly cooking cream. Then I topped it with 1/3 of the bag of frozen hash browns and onto that poured half a can of cream soup mixed with about a can of milk and some grated cheese.
At the same time as I was prepping this, I made up a casserole for a sick friend; hers used the other half of the can of soup, mixed with milk, and poured over the sauteed beef (minus onions and garlic) and hash browns, with grated cheese on top. I'm always cautious to make my gifted meals a bit bland if there are children in the house because you never know what level of picky eater you may be dealing with!
Breakfast for Samuel was mandarin orange slices and the last breakfast muffin. David and I are notoriously bad at eating breakfast, so I doubt he ate anything, and I know I had a cup of tea. Once we finished lunch and everyone was down for a nap I made up another batch of muffins.
I started with my basic muffin recipe again, but this time I lowered the sugar even further, to 1/3 cup, and I changed the 2 cups of white flour to 1.5 cups of white and half a cup of whole wheat. I also added 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. I'll use these muffins for snacks.
David took the rest of the shepherd's pie for his break at work. We rarely have leftovers in this house. Samuel and I had a veggie plate with dip for supper.
This is another meal that I don't make with a recipe. For this one I sauteed ground beef, onions and garlic, seasoned with ground black pepper and some kosher salt and into that mixed about 2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables, two cups of frozen broccoli, and half a container of the Philly cooking cream. Then I topped it with 1/3 of the bag of frozen hash browns and onto that poured half a can of cream soup mixed with about a can of milk and some grated cheese.
At the same time as I was prepping this, I made up a casserole for a sick friend; hers used the other half of the can of soup, mixed with milk, and poured over the sauteed beef (minus onions and garlic) and hash browns, with grated cheese on top. I'm always cautious to make my gifted meals a bit bland if there are children in the house because you never know what level of picky eater you may be dealing with!
Breakfast for Samuel was mandarin orange slices and the last breakfast muffin. David and I are notoriously bad at eating breakfast, so I doubt he ate anything, and I know I had a cup of tea. Once we finished lunch and everyone was down for a nap I made up another batch of muffins.
I started with my basic muffin recipe again, but this time I lowered the sugar even further, to 1/3 cup, and I changed the 2 cups of white flour to 1.5 cups of white and half a cup of whole wheat. I also added 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. I'll use these muffins for snacks.
David took the rest of the shepherd's pie for his break at work. We rarely have leftovers in this house. Samuel and I had a veggie plate with dip for supper.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Food Challenge Day 1
I've been getting all nostalgic about the early days of this space being a 'food blog'. Pshaw, I'm no foodie. Ask my husband. But it was fun to try new recipes and challenges, I have to admit!
These days I cook what's easy and fast; just time-tested recipes that everyone likes. But I wanted to set myself a challenge again just to get the juices flowing. After I got back from the weekly grocery trip today I spread out my purchases and took a little video of them. This week, you can come with me, peek into the kitchen and see what I'm making each meal. I'm always up for frugal options, and we try and eat fairly healthy (fairly I said, not always!) but I also have come to peace with the fact that I need to use some convenience foods to make my life a bit easier.
For this week, the challenge is just to make food and record it; not to specifically make any one recipe. I'm also (with the exception of milk) not going to purchase any other food for meals this week. However I am going to use whatever I may have in my fridge/freezer/pantry in addition to my groceries, just because a) I would do this normally and b) this isn't a budget challenge like I've done before, I'm just curious.
Aren't you curious about what you really eat all week? Don't you find yourself on Friday thinking 'have the children really eaten pasta every lunch this week?' Do you also find 'forgotten' purchases in your fridge all. the. time.? Is it just me? Anyway, I'm expecting lots and lots of recipe sharing in the comments so don't let me down!
Tonight is a work night for David, and so we would usually eat our large meal early, and then Sam would have a snack before bed. I had already prepared supper earlier in the week and frozen it, so we had chili and I made breakfast muffins.
I don't use a recipe for my chili, but this one had black beans, diced tomato, green pepper, ground beef, mushrooms, tomato sauce and seasonings. The muffin recipe I used was this one. I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and added ground black pepper, 1/3 of a package of diced bacon, cooked, and an inch of cheese, shredded.
Samuel had a bowl of local strawberries, a fruit cup and a leftover muffin for his snack before bed and David took a few muffins and the last of the chili with him to work to eat on his break.
These days I cook what's easy and fast; just time-tested recipes that everyone likes. But I wanted to set myself a challenge again just to get the juices flowing. After I got back from the weekly grocery trip today I spread out my purchases and took a little video of them. This week, you can come with me, peek into the kitchen and see what I'm making each meal. I'm always up for frugal options, and we try and eat fairly healthy (fairly I said, not always!) but I also have come to peace with the fact that I need to use some convenience foods to make my life a bit easier.
For this week, the challenge is just to make food and record it; not to specifically make any one recipe. I'm also (with the exception of milk) not going to purchase any other food for meals this week. However I am going to use whatever I may have in my fridge/freezer/pantry in addition to my groceries, just because a) I would do this normally and b) this isn't a budget challenge like I've done before, I'm just curious.
Aren't you curious about what you really eat all week? Don't you find yourself on Friday thinking 'have the children really eaten pasta every lunch this week?' Do you also find 'forgotten' purchases in your fridge all. the. time.? Is it just me? Anyway, I'm expecting lots and lots of recipe sharing in the comments so don't let me down!
Tonight is a work night for David, and so we would usually eat our large meal early, and then Sam would have a snack before bed. I had already prepared supper earlier in the week and frozen it, so we had chili and I made breakfast muffins.
I don't use a recipe for my chili, but this one had black beans, diced tomato, green pepper, ground beef, mushrooms, tomato sauce and seasonings. The muffin recipe I used was this one. I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and added ground black pepper, 1/3 of a package of diced bacon, cooked, and an inch of cheese, shredded.
Samuel had a bowl of local strawberries, a fruit cup and a leftover muffin for his snack before bed and David took a few muffins and the last of the chili with him to work to eat on his break.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Under $4 Tuna Casserole
A friend of mine was telling me about this recipe she used for Kraft Dinner casserole. It was light on ingredients (and therefore on cost) and consisted of a prepared box of KD, a can of tomato soup and cooked ground beef. We don't eat a lot of canned soup, but we do eat a fair amount of Kraft Dinner (did I mention the cheapness?) and so I was intrigued.
I took her recipe and ran with it, and this is the result - a tuna casserole.
1 box Kraft Dinner. I used the white cheddar kind, and actually it isn't even 'real' Kraft Dinner, but the PC deluxe brand.
2 cups frozen mixed veggies, thawed and drained.
2 tins flaked tuna packed in water, drained.
Ground pepper and parmesan cheese.
Prepare the KD, but don't add the butter and put in a bit more milk to make it 'saucier'. Crumble up the drained tuna, and then mix together everything. Top with pepper and cheese.
I'm estimating that the tuna cost about 89 cents a can, the noodles about $1, the veggies maybe 50 cents and the milk and cheese negligible. So, what is that, $3.28?
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Goodbye (a one-act play with refreshments)
My friend Deborah, her husband Stefan and their daughters Capri and Payson are about to embark on one of God's greatest adventures: they've been granted their own ministry position and tomorrow they move to pastor their very first church. I know, because I've lived through the same upheavals and the same waiting games, just how big a deal this is. It won't stop us from missing them, though.
Deborah has a blog, as well, so I hope you'll pop over to wish her grace and happiness on her journey.
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| Cupcakes baked in mini ice cream cones instead of a 'goodbye cake'. |
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