Posts

Showing posts from March, 2009

Pantry Stocking for Frugal Living, Part Four

Here's the fourth letter in the series: This is going to be a long one (probably the longest). I'll try to remember to break it up into categories. The main reason this section is so important is because it will fill your baking needs, and also will help you to avoid appetite fatigue. Appetite fatigue is where a person is so tired of eating the same thing all the time they would rather not eat at all. It not uncommon in serious, long-lasting emergency situations for people to choose to die rather than to eat Beans. One. More. Day. (or whatever it is they're eating constantly) While I know you are not living in that kind of extreme poverty, it's still something you want to keep in mind when you're figuring out how to stock your kitchen. If you're not feeling appetite fatigue eating at home, you'll keep eating at home instead of eating out and spending tons of money that way. Keeping you out of restaurants is the only reason I mention appetite fatigue. :) Anyw

Pantry Stocking for Frugal Living, Part Three

Here's the third letter in the series: Ok, next is meat. I'm working w/ meat right now so it's on my mind. I forgot to tell you - at the store, bring a calculator (or do it in your head) and keep track of how much you're spending as you go. Only bring in as much cash as you're ok w/ spending that day. Canned Meat: 10-12 cans of tuna (important). Look for the cheapest brand, and get it packed in water. While the oil-packed tuna has a lot of flavour and nutritive value, it's not as versatile to cook w/. If you see this on sale, stock up on it. One advantage of buying the "off-brand" is that it will still generally come in a 6 ounce can. Most name brands have reduced the size of the can to 5 ounces but are still charging the same amount or more. Spam. I keep on hand the individual slice packets. These are stupidly expensive, but can be nice to have at the house for rare occasions when you get weird cravings or you have a house guest who likes the stuff. I

Pantry Stocking for Frugal Living, Part Two

Part two of the economical eating series: Ok... This one should be a little shorter than the last. Price book: Many people (I actually don't do this, because I do it in my head, but it helps most people) will get a notebook and pen, then go to the store. What they do is write down the types of things they buy, or plan to buy, for their family, and then they write down the cost of the item (also the unit price, which is price per ounce, or per whatever). They will typically go to a few different store and do this. So the book might have an entry like this: White rice, long-grain : HEB : 10 dollars for a 10 pound bag unit price: $1/pound Randalls : 8 dollars for a 10 pound bag And so on. Don't go to a store you wouldn't feel comfortable shopping at. Even if they're a little cheaper, you won't go there anyway, so it doens't matter. Do consider looking at places like ethnic store (hispanic, asian and middle eastern stores often sell staples MUCH cheaper than america

Pantry Stocking For Frugal Living, Part One

A while back, I had a lengthy email exchange with a friend of mine. Like many of us, she was concerned about rising food costs and our troubled economy. Because I'd successfully done an experiment during the summer to see if I could eat for $9/week (with a previously well-stocked pantry), she was interested to know how my pantry was stocked and how I was able to eat so cheaply. This is pretty long email exchange, and since I am busy with lots of homework, I've decided to leave it in its original form (just my emails, her responses are not included for privacy reasons) with only minimal editing. I thought despite its length, that the information might be useful to some of you by introducing some new ways of reducing food cost, or just reminding you of some things you may have forgotten. In this email series, it first outlines how to stock the pantry well for minimal cost, how to stock your freezer, how to minimise food waste and then finally, the $9/week part (which is, admitted

Just Popping In

Hi. I just wanted to pop in and tell you guys I really haven't been cooking lately. Over spring break, P and I went to Dallas to visit our friend D, and we ate stupid amounts of meat. Since we've been home, I've been slammed with homework, preparing to be the dramaturg for a play on the 16th, getting things set up for my school transfer in the fall and baking. A lot. Usually, I make these ridiculous batches of bread dough, and I freeze most of the dough. But with Pesach coming along, I've been trying to bake it all so I don't have to throw it away. In terms of eating, I have to admit, we've been eating mostly foods I've canned before ( meat sauce mainly), simple pastas (though mostly w/ sauteed mushrooms and preserved lemons lately, as it's quicker). Or eating fast food. Oh, and I found some breaded chicken in the freezer, so we had "oven wings" and oven fries one day. Tomorrow I intend to make several salads (my parsley is bolting, so I

Purim Steak

Image
I don't use my own recipe for hamantashen, and I'm sure you've all been bombarded with recipes for them the last few days. So today, I post the Purim dinner we had. Steak and roasted vegetables. We got a big porterhouse to share, but I think this would work fine with individually portioned steaks as well. I totally forgot to take pictures of the steak until I'd cut it up for us, but you'll get the idea. Hope you enjoy! Steak/Steak Marinade: 1-2 tablespoons each: tahini, pomegranate molasses 1-2 teaspoons each: marjoram, sumac, aleppo pepper, salt 1/2 teaspoon each: ground galangal (or ginger), garlic powder 1/4 cup each: lemon juice, olive oil Whisk together the ingredients. Put marinade and steak in bowl or plastic bag and marinate for a couple hours. Turn once per hour. Grill steak. Serves 2. Roasted Vegetables 2 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces 1 stalk celery, cut into 1 inch pieces 8 new potatoes, cut into quarters (or eighths if larger) 1 small

Wanchai Ferry Cashew Chicken

Image
After two hellish days of trying to get caught up with all the homework I missed while I was sick, the last thing on my mind tonight was cooking (and yesterday I was so slammed, we ordered pizza and sandwiches). Enter the Wanchai Ferry stuff. I had two left: Sweet and Sour, plus Cashew Chicken. Nothing really is more disgusting to me than sweet and sour anything , so I'm trying to avoid it. Whenever I make it, you guys will be hearing P's opinions, not mine. :) Anyway, so I decided to make the cashew chicken one. Except I defrosted steak. So we had cashew steak tonight. It was good. Very good. But it didn't taste like Chinese food. It smelled like Chinese food while it was cooking (lovely notes of ginger and garlic), but the flavour of the beef drastically overpowered the flavours of the sauce. When I tasted just sauce, it was very nice. Same texture as the previous sauces I reviewed. But I think if you guys get this, use a mild meat, like, uh... chicken. :) With steak, it

Pumpkin and White Bean Soup

Image
Hello! Once again, I've been away for some time. Sorry for that. First I had the flu (for almost a week!), and then I've mostly been eating out or cooking some standard foods you guys have already seen (or at least seen variations of). Today though, I've made something new. After I made this pumpkin-ginger soup , I canned all the extra to use later. I'd actually kind of forgotten about it until I was peeking through the canned goods for some meat sauce to take to my biology report. There were a few jars of that soup, so I thought it'd be nice to recreate it into something new for us. Plus, I'd taken out a few tablespoons of pumpkin puree to use for something else I haven't made, so it seemed like a great way to use that up too. Hope you enjoy! 3 slices bacon, cut into small bits ($0.50) 1/2 yellow onion, diced ($0.12) 1 pint pumpkin-ginger soup * ($0.30) 1 - 1 1/2 cup cooked white beans ($0.15) 1/8 cup dried and reconstituted wood ear mushrooms** (op