The Pig and I

This was a pretty good week for me. I ate mostly a lot of leftovers, plus venison sausage. Thus, I wasted: NOTHING!

It was kind of chilly, and I wanted soup. Plus, I wanted to use some of the bulghur I have for something other than tabouleh or mujadarra. It's a pretty easy recipe, taking about an hour to make (and most of that is just letting it sit there while you wander off and get the laundry done). It's also got a clean, fresh taste with just a hint of spice. Hope you enjoy! 1 tablespoon each: butter (I used samneh here, but whatever), olive oil 1/4 onion, sliced 1/2 teaspoon salt splash rosemary vinegar (to make this, stick some rosemary sprigs in some vinegar and let it sit at room temperature a couple weeks) 1 teaspoon each: minced garlic, sumac , marjoram 1 15-ounce can stewed tomatoes, cut up a bit in the can dash cinnamon 1 14-ounce can chicken broth (use vegetable broth if you want this to be vegetarian) 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1 large handful bulghur (or 2 if you have baby hands like I do) 1 teaspoon salt Melt the butter in the oil over medium-low, then add the

Here's what I used up for the week. Not a lot of stuff, but that's okay. This is probably more typical for what I'll use each week, given that some days I spend the night with friends, and other days I'm home. 1/4 pound white, long-grained rice spelt some bulghur 1/2 the golden raisins

I hope you all are having a happy Christmas. I actually didn't do any shopping this week. There's nothing I needed, plus I knew I was going out of town (which is where I am now; out of town). This also helps compensate for the overage from last week.

This was a really bad week for me, in terms of waste. I wasted: 4 clementines (I went to open the 5 pound box so I could turn it all into juice, and 4 were rotted) 1/8 watermelon (this fermented before I got to it, which has no excuse other than laziness on my part)

I wanted to use up the last of the spelt today. Mostly because it tastes good, but secondarily because I'm trying to work through the stuff in the Cave. I wasn't really looking for a meal, so much as a filling snack, which meant that a salad was the way to go. By the way, is it helpful to you all when I put links that describe what might be considered exotic ingredients? Or do y'all not care one way or the other? You could use regular whole wheat in this in place of spelt, if you wanted to. I don't think there'd be a significant difference of any sort. Also, you could add some grilled chicken or tuna if you wanted some meat in it. Hope you enjoy! 1/4 pound spelt 1 teaspoon each: vinegar (I used tangerine-basil vinegar), orange blossom water water 1 carrot, diced 1 tablespoon capers 1/2 cup diced quick pickles 1/4 cup shaved onion juice of one lemon 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 teaspoons za'atar 1/2 teaspoon each: harissa , tomato paste 1 teaspoon pom

I think I might not be getting enough protein lately, so I decided to get into that bag of chicken to work on the problem. I also have some pesto left over from when Sarah and I made it at her house, and it seemed like a good idea to use the pesto as a sort of paste to marinate the chicken. I had this with rice, but I think it'd be equally good with pasta. Mainly I had it with rice so as to be able to use even more pesto. :) Once again, this is a pretty quick and easy meal. You could put the pesto on the chicken, then go to work and it'll be ready to cook when you come home. I just let it hang out in the fridge while I got some work done here at home. I had a lot of research to do in a pretty short period of time (because apparently I've turned into a massive procrastinator), so it was a good work day meal for me. As an aside, I cannot figure out if my neighbour's kid is taking singing lessons, or if they just listen to really bad music. A lot. Like, the same three s

Here's another simple meal. I got home recently after a long night, and needed some nourishing, filling, excessively salty and somewhat fatty food. So here's what I had. Hope you enjoy! 1 russett potato, peeled or not, but cut into cubes 1/4 large onion, sliced 1 tablespoon olive oil (mine was rosemary infused) 1 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar (or any other sort you like) 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon harissa (or other hot sauce) 10 ounces chili, homemade or canned (I used meat chili but vegetarian chili works too) cheese (optional) Heat oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients but the chili (and cheese), and bake for 45 minutes. Add chili (and cheese) and bake another 10-15 minutes. Serves 2. Also, I ate this with chopped pickles on top.

This week was not really good in terms of using food storage for me. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I had so much food outside the house that I didn't get the opportunity to cook a single thing (between eating up my leftovers so they wouldn't go to waste, and the actual eating out). So I used up... Nothing.

Oops. I went over this week. Only by about 3 dollars, which is fine since I'm usually under by more than that. But nonetheless, it still happened. Mostly because I decided I wanted some meat in the house, in the form of a large bag of chicken breasts. I like to keep those bags of chicken around because when I want meat, it's very convenient to just take a little out and go from there. Then the fruit section captured me. I had already mango and pumello so watermelon and blueberries seemed like the perfect way to round out the fruit salad I wanted to make. I used to always eat a bowl of fruit salad for breakfast, and I'd like to get back to doing that. But okay, I'm lying. The chicken isn't the reason I went over. The reason is that I had some potatoes and I wanted to bake them and put chili on them (and then I saw the least expensive can of palm hearts I've ever seen in my life). THAT is really how I went over. Regardless, here's the spending for the week. :)

This week I wasted: radishes Not really sure what happened here. I started with best intentions to make that wakame salad, but then life got in the way. When I went to do it, the radishes had turned into this sad, shriveled little mass of red and green. :(

Okay, I'm kind of a liar. This isn't really a cholent. I mean, I didn't add any rice or barley, and there's not much by way of meat. But whatever. It's close enough and was cooked the same way. I'm not really even sure why I was craving cholent, though I suspect it happened the moment I read "low 29F" on weather.com. Did you guys know I used to hate beans? I mean, seriously; I hated them like Pythagoras hated them (okay, that's kind of a lie too since I never thought they were evil). I'm not entirely sure what happened to me to change my mind, since I suspect the beans haven't changed a bit. But as you know, I've been sitting somewhere near 30 pounds of beans, this seemed like a good way to use up a bunch. I didn't have any raw meat in the house, so I just cut up some jerky instead. Plus, I could eat it for days and not be sad. 1 cup dry adzuki beans (little red ones) 1 cup dry lima beans 1 cup dry black eyed peas 2 carrots,

My second half of avocado survived long enough for me to make spring rolls. Are you proud I didn't chow it down without doing anything with it? These are really easy to make, and are perfect for on the go eating. I would normally serve these with a peanut sauce, but strangely I have no peanut butter. You can make a peanut sauce if you like for them, though. Then I thought I'd just make a quick sauce with hoisin and sriracha, but I was too lazy so I just ate them all plain. Hope you enjoy! 1/2 package rice or tapioca vermicelli, broken in half water salt 2-3 tablespoons sesame oil 1-2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1/2 sweet potato, roasted and sliced thinly 1/2 large avocado, sliced thinly and sprinkled with the lime juice juice of 1/2 lime 10 spring roll wrappers large bowl of very cold water Boil water with salt, then add vermicelli and cook for 3-4 minutes. Drain and add sesame oil and vinegar to noodles and mix well. Soak one sheet of spring roll wrapper in the cold

Dried guava Dried papaya Dried mango 1 package rice vermicelli lima beans 1/2 pound small red beans

It's a little weird when you realise you've got a house full of exotic ingredients but you're missing basics such as peanut butter. Does that happen to you guys ever? I'm glad I was made aware that I was missing this, though. Next time I make spring rolls I'll be able to make a proper sauce. This week's spending involved missing staples, stuff to make stew and a lot of junk food. On to the spending. HEB : $1.19 - eggs $2.99 - shelf stable milk (4 little ones, since I rarely need more than a cup at a time to make stuff) $2.07 - kosher salt $2.48 - triscuits (I was really craving triscuits with banana peppers again) $2.50 - ding dongs $0.69 - large mango (seriously? awesome deal) $1.45 - creamy peanut butter $0.69 - 1 can crushed tomatoes $0.68 - crystal's hot sauce $1.02 - salad mix $0.50 - cucumber $0.84 - potato Total: $16.41

Okay, so if you're anti-hunting, or sensitive about animals, this might not be the post for you. Just sayin'. Today is a special day, since you get two posts today ;) Over the summer, my friend Daniel walked into our class and said, "Hey Allie. How do you cook squirrel?" And there it started. A friend of his was moving and didn't want to move all the meat in her freezer. In this batch of meat is what he thought was 2 squirrels but which we now know was actually 4 of them. We had some discussion on the various techniques for cooking squirrel meat (I did actually have to research this, since it's not a game meat I'd eaten before), and then I forgot all about it. Until a week or so ago. For the final project in one of our classes, we were also having a potluck. Squirrel stew was brought up, and we went for it. Daniel came over and we made the stew. It made significantly more than either of us expected, actually filling the 6-quart crock pot. The broth we

This week, I wasted: 1 spring roll - Despite my best efforts, I just couldn't eat 10 of them. But now I know, and I won't make quite so many without planning to take them elsewhere for sharing.

You guys remember Presto Pasta Nights ? It's one of my favourite challenges, because it's so non-restrictive. The best challenges for me are the ones that leave you free to be as creative as you like. So this here (I have no idea why I wanted to say "so this here," but I just really wanted to) is my submission for the week (I know; it's been a while since I last did it). PPN is being hosted this week by Rachel at The Crispy Cook . She's got some tasty-looking stuff over there, so y'all should go check her out. So, you know those little pastas? The stars, and the ones that look like rice, and the mini-wheels? I really love those pastas. How I most love to make them, though, is like they're risotto. It's a lot faster and everything gets done in one frying pan. Which basically means a lot less dishes for me (especially when I just eat it while it's still in the pan). Anyway, I have a couple cans of clams, so I figured I'd use one for this si

I just can't seem to eat enough avocados for my happiness right now. Mostly I love to just mix them up with tomatoes, as you know, or eat them with a spoon straight from the shell. But sometimes I like to poke around in my fridge and see what's in there that might be good with the avocado-of-the-day (speaking of which, if enough of the avocado makes it, you'll be seeing some in spring rolls soon; if enough doesn't make it, you won't be). Today I found some beautiful artisan salami tucked in a bin in the fridge, and of course I always have several kinds of pickled foods. So I made this. It's really nice with the creamy, sweetness of the avocado, the firm-but-yielding fattiness of the salami and the salty crunch of the pickles. All made better with a little lime. Hope you enjoy! 1/2 large avocado, cubed 1/3 cup diced salami 1 pickle, diced (I used Arabic pickles this time) juice of 1/2 lime salt if desired (I didn't use it since salami and pickles are bo

This week, the following were used: Dried figs 5 pounds pasta (don't get used to this; it'll never happen again since I don't typically have athletes in my house)

Has anyone noticed that the new way of drafting posts on Blogger is a little spotty and weird? Or is it just me? I preferred the way it used to be set up. I know. Off topic. Turns out there's a Save-a-Lot by my new apartment, so I went in there to check it out and pick up some stuff. I like that things are quite inexpensive there, but I'm not fond of the severely limited choices. So I'm not sure if I'll keep shopping there, since I feel like I can get comparable prices at other supermarkets (so long as I pay attention to what's on sale and stuff) without relinquishing my ability to have more than one option for each item. Usually during my summer challenges (where the budget is far lower than it is now), I include eating out in my weekly money. Which basically means I don't really get to go out ever, unless someone is feeling generous enough to feed me in exchange for my company (which does happen, but not often enough for me to actually get to see my friend

I just can't say this strongly enough. Having a cyclist in your house is the most amazing way to avoid food waste. They eat EVERYTHING. The more, the better. Thus, this week I have wasted: NOTHING!!!

Okay, so j. requested a rice pudding, and I figure that since she's off her budget right now, it'd be the perfect time to throw a little saffron into the mix. Also, I had some dried figs laying about that I really did need to use up, so here they are (and look at that - me using stuff in storage!). Sorry for my lateness in posting this; I've had a couchsurfer staying with me and my need to be an almost decent hostess has gotten in the way of me posting. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup rice 1 3/4 cups water pinch salt 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads 1/8 teaspoon each: cardamom pods; pink peppercorns 1 1/2 cups milk 1/8 cup vanilla sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional) 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon rose water (don't use too much of this or it comes out tasting like flowers, and no one likes that sort of thing) 1/8 cup almonds, chopped 8 dried figs, cut into quarters Boil the water and pour it onto the saffron. Let stand an hour or so. Then combine it with the remainder of