Grocery Run

Originally, when I started this blog I had 3 growing kids at home and I shared tips on saving money at the grocery store and cooking from scratch.  I stopped doing that as the kids moved out, but now, with the shortages and high prices we are seeing at the grocery store I thought I'd get back to my roots. I still cook from scratch most of the time. But instead of having 3 growing kids at home it's just me and my husband.  And I now work full time, so meal planning and prepping in advance is key to our getting a healthy dinner on the table in a timely manner.  Years ago, I rarely had leftovers.  Now, I have leftovers that I can turn into a meal for another night or we pack them up for lunches.

I did a fairly big grocery run last night.  My last really big trip to the store was back in December, just before Christmas. I've been popping into the grocery store to buy a few things here and there since then. I've tried to keep those trips down to once a week and under $30. 

I did well until Tuesday night. I had to stop by the store to pick up snacks for the staff meeting on Wednesday. It was late. And I was hungry. I picked up 3 bags of Snickers and 1 bag of Reese's. And a 4 pack of Coconut Milk Yogurt. And 2 bottles of Vitamin Water.  Really, I didn't get that much. It filled one plastic grocery bag. It cost $36.  That's a lot of money for not that much stuff.

This trip was mostly about restocking the produce. Back in December I bought a meat bundle from our local butcher. We are still slowly working our way through the bundle, and I do not need to restock any meat at this time.

Potatoes - both sweet and russet

Onions 

Celery 

Winter Squash (uncut) Butternuts and Acorns

Baby Kale and Spinach mix

Broccoli

Cabbage

Brussels Sprouts

Apples

Oranges

Bananas

Lunch meat

GF Sandwich Wraps

DF Cheese 

DF Butter

Eggs

Coconut Milk

Corn Flakes

Peanut Butter Chips 

1 can of full fat coconut milk

*Note - the produce section at my grocery store has a seconds display where you can purchase produce that is "on the edge" of going bad.  If I find anything on my list here, we tend to eat it fast or freeze it so we can eat it later. 

All told, I spent close to $85.

I bought the biggest bag of apples, sweet potatoes, russets, and onions that I could find.

I bought a very large container of lunch meat and froze half for later.

An 18 pack of eggs.

I put as many Brussels Sprouts as I could possibly fit into a bag.  I really love roasted brusels.

I found 2 uncut butternut squashes, but I couldn't find any acorn squash.

When I checked the seconds display, I found a HUGE bag of lemons on sale for $1.50. So I picked those up, too. Stay tuned, because I'll share what I do with those next week.  I have very big plans for those lemons later today!

Hopefully, the produce will last us through most of the month and any trips that I have to make to the store will continue to come in under $30.  

How'd you do with your groceries this week?

Groceries

We spent only $150 on groceries this month.  What exactly did we eat?

We do tend to eat fairly low on the food chain as it is.  We will eat some meat, but not a lot.  This is a great time of year for soups, and we have eaten a lot of soups. 

Punjabi Style Black Lentils, from the Smitten Kitchen.  Needless to say, I kept the dairy OUT of the recipe.  Still, an excellent meal!  The leftovers from this went to work with me for lunch as is for several days.

Meatloaf.  I made a double loaf.  The leftovers were divided into 2 more meals:
1) Chili
The leftovers from the chili went into 2 meals: tacos and baked potatoes.

2) Cauliflower Baked Ziti from Delish.  Again, this was a very large dish, so it provided leftovers for lunch.

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash Rings
A popular favorite in our house.  We're still working our way through the last of the bushel of winter squash that I picked up in October for $15 at the Farmer's Market.  We never have leftovers of this wonderful creation in our house.

Beef Stew
I made it following the recipe in the Insta Pot book.  It was beyond wonderful, and tasted better than it does when I make it in the crock pot and leave it sitting all day.  The leftovers served us for lunch over the weekend.

Baked Chicken
Another Instant Pot find.  I saved off the broth to make chicken soup.  The chicken itself was one very tasty dinner.  And one very tasty chicken salad.  And the rest went into a pan with some BBQ sauce to make pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches.  I served that with what I think was the last of the bushel of sweet potatoes we picked up in the fall from the Farmer's Market for $20. 

Lentil, Mushroom, and Sweet Potato Pie
Another winner! I found this one on The Kitchn's Website.   And yes, with this the last of the sweet potatoes were gone.  And then husband volunteered at the food pantry over the weekend.  At the end of the event, all of the produce needs to be given away or thrown out.  Long story short, we've now got even MORE sweet potatoes to work our way through....

Pancakes
For Shrove Tuesday.

Ratatouille
This used up the eggplant and other awkward "what do I do with this" vegetables from the produce box we got from our favorite farmer.

And then... husband stopped by to pick up eggs from one of our favorite farmers and came home with a 50 pound bag of white potatoes that he paid $20 for, and a 20 pound bag of onions that he paid $10, and a bag of the vegetables that are quickly turning bad- this farmer sells them for 50 cents a bag.  That's right, 50 cents a bag.  It's a big bag and it has a hodge podge of vegetables in it and weighs about 2 pounds, maybe more - and you get what's in the bag.  No swapping out.  I made a fabulous vegetable soup from that bag.  But now I've got a huge bag of white potatoes to work my way through! 

I think you get the idea - we cook with what's readily available as much as possible.  I'll stock up on big things as they go on sale.  And keep in mind, I'm cooking for 3 now, after years of cooking for 5  - and 2 of those 5 people were teenage boys who were active in sports!  I'm practically drowning in leftovers every time I cook because I am still cooking in the quantities I was cooking in when the boys still lived at home.

Grocery Expenses for the Week

Granted, we're only feeding 3 people and not 5, but sometimes, it's harder to keep expenses down when your feeding a small number of people after years of feeding large numbers of people!  My goal for this year was to keep our expenses for groceries under $250/month.  When you keep in mind that I also have to find food that is gluten, dairy, and soy free, it seems reasonable to keep expenses that high.

Grocery Trip: $75
I picked up 2 packages of chicken breasts: buy one, get one free.
I also picked up sweet potatoes, white potatoes, onions, bananas, celery, and a bag of dried beans.
2 quarts of veggie stock.
1/2 gallon of cashew milk.
1 pound of GF oatmeal.
Frozen Vegetables.
Coconut Milk Yogurt,
5 pound bag of frozen fruit.
And a few other odds and ends.

Here's what we made with it:

Root Vegetable Tagine with Kale:
https://feedmephoebe.com/tagine-recipes/

This very filling recipe provided us with dinner Sunday night and lunch for 2 extra days.

Smoothie Fruit Bowls
My tummy has been acting up for the last month.  This month, my goal is to eat foods that will nourish and heal my GI Tract.  (It's a Celiac Flare-Up.  Not certain where the contamination came from, though.)

Have you had a smoothie bowl?  You mix the yogurt with some fruit and juice, and then pour it into a bowl with nuts, seeds, berries, and other goodness on the top.  I used what I had on hand, so my bowls were made with coconut milk yogurt and pineapple, and topped with coconut, dried mixed berries, pumpkin seeds, and sliced bananas.  So much goodness!

White Chicken Chili 
One of my favorite chili dishes.  I like to take a break from the tomato every once in a while!  This was another huge pot of soup, with leftovers for lunch for several more days.  Both daughter and I take our lunch to work, and reheat it there.  It's always a treat to have some leftovers!

Quinoa Acorn Squash Rings
http://tastefulventure.com/roasted-acorn-squash-with-cranberry-walnut-quinoa-stuffing/

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
Made in the Insta-Pot

Spaghetti 

I had lots of leftovers this week!  We finished most of them off today around lunch time.  I still need to make dinner for tonight - but I'm not terribly hungry right now!

How did you do with your grocery shopping this week?

Chicken Tikka Masala

We made the most amazing dinner last night!  I found this recipe for Sheet Pan Tikka Masala on the Smitten Kitchen a while back.  I had pinned it to Pinterest, but never actually tried it.  Yesterday was the day.  I was looking for something quick and easy that would have enough vegetables in it to make me happy. 

This was perfect!  I put the chicken in the marinade before I left the house for the day.  I came home, and the hardest part of preparing this meal was cutting the cauliflower.  15 minutes later, this tasty meal was in the oven.

Oh my stars, this was absolutely amazing!  I made a vegetarian pan for daughter - I kept half of the marinade out before I added the chicken.  I tossed her veggies with the sauce and put them in her own separate pan.  I pulled it out of the oven as she walked in the door from class.  That girl was so, so, so happy that she had such a warm and healthy dinner waiting for her.  And I was happy that it took next to no time to put it together.

If you're looking for a quick and easy meal, look no further! 

You'll find the link here: https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/04/sheet-pan-chicken-tikka/.
The recipe is at the bottom of the page.  Scroll down to the bottom to find it, but take the time to read the article in between.  There's a lot of information in there that's worth reading!

Lemon Cake

I made this for daughter's birthday last week!  It was much better than I was expecting!  Surprisingly, the biggest expense in this dish wasn't the lemons.  When I took my cruise past the discount produce shelves at the grocery store, I found a bag of six lemons for $1.50.  Well hello!  With those lemons, I was able to make a delightful cake!

Lemon Cake Recipe

2 cups Bob's Red Mill One to One Gluten Free Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice

Glaze
1 lemon, cut into thin slices & seeded
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Oven 350*

Mix dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar.  Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.  Add the lemon juice and zest.  Alternate adding the flour and the milk into the batter, stirring until just blended together.

Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan.

Bake in a 350* oven for 30-35 minutes.

While the cake is baking in the oven, bring the water, sugar, and lemon slices to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove the lemon slices from the water with a slotted spoon, and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.

Remove the cake from the oven, poke the cake all over with a toothpick,  and pour the syrup mixture evenly over the cake.

We topped the cake with powdered sugar and the lemon slices.

You can top it with icing, or leave it plain.

Roasted Veggies and Saffron Rice

I was searching for something to use up a large quantity of produce and decided to stick them on skewers. I love the saffron rice our local Mediterranean cafe makes, so I attempted to replicate it. The resulting rice wasn't even close to theirs, but it was still really good!  If you've got a boatload of produce and access to wooden skewers and a grill, these roasted vegetables are a filling dinner!  Cooking them outside on the grill will ensure that your house stays cool during these last hot days of summer!

Roasted Veggies and Saffron Rice

Rice- 

1 cup rice, uncooked

3 cups water

2 vegetable bullion cubes

5 threads Saffron

Mix all ingredients together in a large saucepan. (Make sure it has a lid.). Bring to a rolling boil. Stir well, cover, and lower heat to low. Simmer, covered for 20 minutes. 

Roasted Veggies

In season produce, cut into chunks

(We used patty pan squash, heirloom tomatoes, red onions, bell peppers)

Wooden skewers

Black pepper (we used a 4 peppercorn blend in a pepper grinder)

Grape Seed Oil

Soak skewers in water while chopping vegetables. 

Thread vegetables on wooden skewers. 

 We put our threaded skewers in a 9 x 13 inch pan as we finished. As we finished one layer of skewers, we sprinkled that layer with Grapeseed Oil, and then ground pepper over top until it "looked good". 

Once all the skewers are threaded, grill on medium high heat, turning as needed. Remove from heat when the veggies are sizzling & the onions are translucent. Your standard for when the veggies are done will be different from mine. I like my vegetables to still be a little crunchy. 

Serve immediately over rice. 

Note- I threaded the skewers first, then started the rice while husband grilled the skewers. Everything was finished at the same time. Total time, prep + cooking = 1 hour. 

Making Jelly

I previously posted this on my "Mom's View Blog" on June 23, 2011.  As soon as my kitchen sink is up and running, I will be making a big batch of jelly!  I've been waiting to do this since strawberry season began!  Enjoy this memory (and hopefully some jelly!)

Note - This post contains Affiliate Links.

I spent yesterday making several batches of jelly. I love making jelly. There is nothing that compares to the taste of a home-made batch of jelly. And when you open one of those jars up over the winter, oh the taste of that jelly beats anything you can buy at the store by a mile.

I've been making jelly for several years now. I thought it was overwhelming when I first heard about it, but it's actually one of the easiest preservation methods out there. You don't have to pressure can, and if you have a deep enough pot (or short enough jars) you can do this at home. I bought a canning rack at Wal-Mart for a few bucks a couple of years back, and I put this into my deep soup pot. It's a flat metal disc that sits on the bottom of the pan and keeps the jars from sitting directly on the heat.

You do need fresh fruit. Nothing moldy, or even questionable.  Think of it as a beauty contest!  Only the finest looking fruits go in!  I like to go pick our own at one of the pick-your own farms in our area. You need 4-5 cups of berries per batch, and it's more cost effective to pick it yourself and pay the bulk price. You'll also need a box of pectin. I use Sure-Jell- it's what our grocery store carries. The key to remember with jelly is to follow the directions in your pectin to the letter. I can not stress that enough! You must follow the directions to the letter! Jelly making and canning food for long term storage is not the time to experiment with a recipe! The recipes have been developed to inhibit the growth of molds and other frightening organisms that live in preserved food. Changing up the recipe could also endanger the lives of those you love. (Now, isn't that a cheery thought?)

Having said that, let's move on to the fun part!

Assemble the jars.  I use any jelly jar I have in the house!  The lids have to be new every year.  You can not re-use the lids!  (The lids are in the boxes)  You CAN reuse the bands- the hollow circular lid parts.

The directions say to crush the berries by hand with a potato masher.  I used to do that, but I've found that the blender does just as good a job.  It still leaves me with fruit chunks, but they are smaller and more evenly sliced.

Cooking the jelly.  Nothing compares to the taste of cooked jelly!  This is where I used to make my big mistakes when I first started jelly making.  I'd dump all of the sugar and pectin in and then bring it to a boil.  It would never jell, and would remain runny.  THIS is where you have to read the directions!  A portion of the sugar, and the box of pectin is added at the start.  The rest of the sugar is added once the jelly comes to a full boil.  Then, you bring the mixture to a full, rolling boil again.  Stir constantly! Once you can no longer stir down the boil, boil the mixture for exactly one minute, and then remove from the heat.  (Again, check your pectin and follow the manufacturer's instructions on the length of boiling time.)  I always use Sure-Jell, and that is the boil time for that particular brand.

The jelly has been put into jars.  I wipe the jelly off the rims, put the lids on, and then screw on the bands.  Since that big jar on the left isn't completely full, that one isn't going to be canned.  I'm going to put that in the refrigerator for us to eat tonight!

Everybody into the hot tub! This is called the "Water Bath Canning Method".   Once the jars go in, one inch of water must cover the tops of the jars in order to ensure a good seal.  The jars hang out in the water for a while.  Again, check the directions for the length of time they stay in the hot tub.  Times vary according to the fruit you are using.

Finished jelly!  About an hour from start to finish..  After the jars have cooled, check the seals on the lids.  Press down on the center of the lid.  If the lid bounces back, or pops, the seal is not complete.  You will have to refrigerate those jars and eat them first.  Make sure you label your jars with the item and the date.  I always write on the lids- it's a visual cue to myself to let me know that I've already used the lids and can't use them for canning again.  I store leftovers in mason jars in the fridge, and put an old (clean) lid on the top.  I feel better putting leftovers into a mason jar than into a plastic container.

And THAT is how I make jelly!  If you're looking for more canning recipes, I recommend the Ball Blue Book of Canning. 

Beefaroni

Beefaroni has always been one of my favorite go-to recipes.  It's on the table in less than 30 minutes, with a minimum of slicing and dicing.  This is one of the recipes I had to teach oldest child how to make while he was home over break. 

If you want to make this vegetarian, substitute in your fake meat of choice for the ground beef.

Beefaroni 

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 can chopped green chiles (these are the small cans)
1 (14 ounce) can of the bean of your choice, drained and rinsed
1 (14 ounce) can of diced tomatoes
1 (10 ounce) bag of sweet kernel corn
1-2 tsp. each of the following (season according to your taste)
cumin
chili pepper
basil
oregano

1 cup macaroni noodles (I use gluten free noodles.)
Extra water on hand, to thin beefaroni as it stews.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and onions.  Drain the fat and return to heat.
Add the green chiles, beans, tomatoes, and corn to the mix, stir well.

Add the seasonings, and stir again.

Bring mixture to a boil.

Add the one cup of macaroni, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

STIR OFTEN, adding water to the pot as needed to keep the macaroni from sticking to the pan.  I usually end up adding about a half cup of water, 1/4 cup at a time while it's stewing.

Remove from heat and serve.

Sweet Potato Fries

Middle Child made an awesome batch of Sweet Potato Fries over the weekend, and I wanted to share the recipe.  They were so good!

Sweet Potato Fries

Set oven to 350*
1 large rimmed baking sheet
3 or 4 sweet potatoes, cut into fries - your choice of size - big ones, matchstick ones, little ones, just cut them down
Pepper in a Pepper Mill (we use a 4 peppercorn blend)
Chipotle Powder
Kosher Salt
Olive Oil

Place cut potatoes on the baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with the peppers and the salt.
Bake in a 350* oven until done, stirring occasionally.  (About 20-30 minutes)
When the potatoes are soft, they are done.
Keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Short Cuts to Home Cooked Meals

Everyone knows, it's healthier and cheaper to make your own dinner from scratch every day.  Meals for a large family easily come in under $20.  BUT - everyone also knows that making meals from scratch can be time consuming.  When you're hungry and in a hurry, that doesn't bode well for a home cooked meal.

Everything cut and measured for dinner.  Just dump and go.

If you're willing to invest a couple of hours over a weekend, you can easily get yourself ahead of the game, so that dinner is quick and easy, even when you get home from work and have to turn right back around and be out the door in an hour for soccer practice.

These are simple and easy tricks that I've been doing for years, long before the internet was a "thing". Now that our kids are grown and we have more time, I still find myself prepping for the week ahead of time because most nights, I really don't want to chop a bunch of vegetables.

Go shopping early on the weekend, and get your vegetables for the week.
By early, I mean early - before 9 am, if possible.  If you frequent farmer's markets, you know that earlier is better as far as finding the best produce.  The same goes for the grocery store.  Get out there early so that you can get your weekly shopping done and get on with your day.

Pre-Prep as much as you can.  This means you need to have some idea of what you'll be eating for dinner each night.  If you're not certain what you're going to eat each night, pre-prep the vegetables you tend to use over and over again.  Mince the garlic and store it in an airtight container.  Same goes for onions, celery, and bell peppers.  Each one gets stored in it's own container.

Cook once, eat twice.  This is my mantra.  There's a movement out there called "Once A Month Cooking".  Basically, you give up two days a month to prepare all of your meals for the month.  One day is for shopping, and the second day is for prepping, cooking, and freezing.  I remember when I did once a month cooking.  It was nice to have all the food ready to go, but I was exhausted at the end of my two days.

Peppers are cut, spices are measured.

On Sunday, roast two chickens.  (The oven is going to be on anyway.)  After dinner, pull the chicken off of both carcasses and put them into freezer containers in the serving you will use for a recipe.  The bones go into a stock pot - either to make soup for another night during the week, or to make broth to freeze and use later.

Are you making a lasagna or casserole for dinner?  Make two.  Serve one for dinner, and then freeze the other one for another night.

If I know what I'm making for dinner, I will cut all of the ingredients and assemble them together so that all I have to do is dump it into the pot and cook.  I've even gone so far as to measure all of the spices and put them together in a container to make assembly go faster and easier.  (I've been known to leave post it notes on the veggies so the husband or kids can start it.  See those peppers?  I left the ingredients and cooking instructions on a post-it note on top of the container.)

For my lunches, I'll assemble salads in a mason jar a couple of days in advance.  I've found through trial and error that you really don't want to assemble one of those salads more than three days out - they get a little wonky after that.

Crock pots are wonderful resources.  Put food in, 8 hours later, you have a meal.  But if you're like me, cutting food on my way out the door can be overwhelming.  Enter crock pot freezer meals.  Assemble all of the ingredients in a bag, and freeze.  Pull it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the night before, toss it into the crock pot first thing in the morning, and dinner is DONE.

3 prepped meals, ready for the freezer.

You can follow my Freezer Cooking Pinterest page here. 
My Slow Cooker Pinterest Page is here.

For our dinner tonight, I pulled a package of pre-cooked shredded chicken and pre-cooked black beans out of the freezer.  I am going to mix them up into two separate pans of enchiladas.  One vegetarian and one meatatarian (without cheese).  I'm planning on having rice on the side.  Last night, while I had time, I mixed up the spices for everything into separate little mason jars.  I'll dump the spices directly from the mason jars into our protein mixtures.  Since we are gluten intolerant, we'll use corn tortillas.  I'll be serving this with a light salad of some kind.

What do you do to help speed up dinner preparation in your house?

Vegetable Quinoa

I'm working my way through the backlog of stuff that we have in the freezer.  I want to eat through as much as we can so that I can defrost it and get it ready for the garden goodness I will have coming my way this summer! 

I have an odd combination of veggies, meat and some Chipotle Chiles in Adobo sauce.  I had bought a can of the chiles for a who knows what reason when I was still spaced out on drugs from my colonoscopy, and I ran them through the food processor and made a paste out of them.  I froze what I didn't use in tablespoon size heaps on a cookie sheet, and then stored them in a plastic baggie.

This particular night found me staring at the bag of frozen chile piles and a bag of "southwest blend" veggies.  The blend included black beans, corn, onions, and pablano peppers.

As I was foraging around in the cupboards, attempting to figure out what this could become that wasn't another batch of chili, I hit upon a bag of Quinoa.

We make a Quinoa Pilaf on a fairly regular basis.  What if I tried making a "Southwestern" pilaf?   I was hungry, so it was worth a shot.

The result was fantastic.  We really enjoyed the flavor mix.  Didn't even have any leftovers!  (I'm going to have to make this again so that I can get a picture to add!)

Southwestern Vegetable Pilaf
2 cups Quinoa, rinsed
3 cups vegetable broth  (or water and a couple of broth cubes)
1 bag of Southwestern Vegetable mix frozen vegetables
2 TBSP of Adobo Chile mix

Bring quinoa and broth to a boil, add the Adobo Chiles, lower temperature and cover, simmer for 20 minutes.  Stir occasionally, and add extra water to keep Quinoa from sticking to pan as necessary. 

Add more water to the Quinoa if necessary to keep it moist and not sticky, then add the bag of frozen vegetables.

Stir it all together.  It should take about 5 minutes for the vegetables to warm up enough to eat.

Enjoy!!!

Pizza Dough Recipe

This is from the recipe book I gave to oldest son for his college graduation.  I am currently copying recipes out of this book for the younger two children.  I had him bring the book home for break just so that I could copy all of the recipes out!

This is a yeast dough, and requires raising time.  Be prepared to spend a couple of hours getting the dough ready for dinner!

Pizza Dough Recipe

Pre-Heat to 425*F

2 1/2 - 3 cups flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 cup warm water

In a large bowl, combine 1 1/4 cups flour, yeast, and salt.

Stir in warm water and oil.  Knead until smooth and elastic,working in the flour as you go.

Cover dough and let rise until double - about one hour.

Punch down dough, divide in half.  Cover and let rise 10 minutes.

Put dough onto cookie sheet or pizza pan.

Cover ad let rise 30 minutes.

Bake in a 375* oven for 20 minutes.

Cover with sauce, cheese and toppings.  bake an additional 10 - 20 minutes.

Gluten Free Pizza Dough Recipe

I use this recipe that I found at Bob's Red Mill. (External Link to Bob's Red Mill.)

The dough is very sticky, and unlike wheat flour, you need to keep your hands WET to keep the dough from sticking.  It's a really, really good recipe!

Split Pea Soup

Finally, the weather on the East Coast is getting chilly, and soup weather has begun!  We needed to use up the ham bone from Christmas, along with a few of the odds and ends that we had left. (celery, onion, carrots left over from the Christmas Day veggie tray)


Split Pea Soup
6 cups water
4 chicken bullion cubes
(see my recipe for bullion cubes here.)
2 cups split peas. dried
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp thyme
1 Bay leaf
1/2 tsp pepper
1 ham bone, make sure it's got meat on it.  If it doesn't have enough meat, chop up some leftover ham and add it.

• In the slow cooker, add all of the ingredients listed above.  Add the split peas, and make sure that the ham bone is snuggled down in the beans.  If the water does not completely cover the soup with two inches to spare, add more water.  For every extra cup of water, add another bullion cube.
• Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
•  Stir well before serving. 

We served this with homemade gluten free cornbread.

A wonderfully warm way to start the new year?

Butternut Squash

You might remember that I bought a half bushel of squash earlier this fall.  I haven't made as much
progress working my way through that pile of orangey goodness as I would like.  But, this week, I made some headway - I took out 2 Butternut Squash.  We roasted them up for dinner one night this week.

Making them was easy-peasey.  The squash caramelize in the heat of the oven, and the taste is sublime.  We've got some serious winter squash love going on this week!

Roasted Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes 
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Set oven to 350*.
*Note - peeling a raw butternut is difficult to do.  Don't expect to use a potato peeler.  I used the butcher knife to chop the ends off, and then cut the squash in half lengthwise.  I then cut each half into inch long strips, used the knife to peel off the rind, and then cut the strips down again into one inch cubes.

Oil a rimmed cookie sheet with a quarter cup of olive oil.  Add the butternut squash, and salt and pepper to taste.  Toss everything together, making sure all of the cubes are equally coated.

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the squash pierce easily with a fork. 

Italian Wedding Soup

Have you ever had this soup?  Meatballs in soup... yum.  Making it though, is a problem for me.  We all know that I am a lazy cook.  I like to get things on the table in a timely manner.  If I have time over a weekend, I'll gladly make a huge batch of meatballs and freeze them.  This way, I can make certain they're gluten and dairy free for my family, and then we can use them in meatball subs, spaghetti, and soup.

However, I was not really in a spot where I could make a huge batch of meatballs.  I wanted to get a quick, tasty soup that would feed a crowd on the table.  I took some shortcuts.  I didn't make the meatballs.  Since I didn't make the meatballs, I don't know if I can actually call this Italian Wedding Soup.  There's no pasta in this soup, either.  Like I said, it was a quick and easy dinner for a crowd.
But gosh, it was really good!

Italian Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound Italian Sausage
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp basil
4 carrots - peeled and cut into chunks
4 stalks celery - sliced
1 onion - diced
4-5 cloves of garlic - diced
32 ounces of chicken broth (Or use enough broth or bullion cubes to equal 32 ounces of broth.  8 broth cubes or 4 bullion cubes)
32 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
16 ounce an of cannellini beans
1 1/2 tsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1 large bag of spinach, rinsed



In a dutch oven, brown the sausage, breaking up the large chunks of sausage as you go.  Add the oregano and basil while the sausage is browning.  Remove sausage from heat and drain on a plate covered with a paper towel while the rest is cooking.

In the pan, cook with a drizzle of olive oil the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic until the veggies are soft.

Once the veggies are soft, add the chicken broth, tomatoes, beans and Balsamic Vinegar.

Bring to a boil, and then let simmer for 15 minutes.

While the broth is simmering, roughly chop the bag of spinach.

At the end of 15 minutes, add the spinach and the reserved meat/spice mixture.  Heat until the spinach wilts, about 5 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Can You Cook From Scratch? A Challenge...

This is actually a serious question.  Given a bag of rice, an onion, 1 pound of raw meat of your choice, and say, a carrot and a stalk of celery, can you make that into an edible meal that will feed several people?  Or just yourself for several nights?

Oldest child is in Graduate School right now.  He's a smart cookie, no doubt about it.  But what is he known for?  The fact that he can cook a meal from scratch.  Where some of his peers are spending $100 or more a week for easy to make stuff in boxes and bags, he's making his own food, and he's spending less than $30 a week on groceries.  He uses his slow cooker on Sunday to make food that feeds him for the rest of the week.  He will keep out one or two servings, and then he freezes the rest in single portion sizes.  He's got a very decent selection of dinners at this point in time that he pulls from every night.  When he was home for Thanksgiving, he told me that he frequently rounds out his dinner with a salad.

What kinds of food does he make?  Well, there's a good question.

He's made a Moroccan Chick Pea stew that comes from a recipe we found on Mother Earth Living.  He told me he usually doubles the recipe, and sets the garbanzo beans out the night before to soak, and then makes the rest of the recipe the next morning.  He's taken this to a couple of potluck meals this semester, and returned with an empty pot both times.

He makes pancakes from scratch.  Flour, sugar, eggs, etc.  He mixes a double batch, and freezes the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

When he was home for Thanksgiving, he was the one who began stewing the leftover turkey carcass to make a turkey stock.  Since he was the one who made the stock, we let him take it back to school with him.  Instead of making broth cubes, he took back 2 big mason jars full of turkey stock.

So, back to my original question.  Given a bag of rice, an onion, a pound of raw meat of your choice, a carrot and a stalk of celery, can you make an edible meal?

Spices?  Use only what you have on hand in your cupboard.  No going out to get something extra!

What would you make?  I'm really curious.  Post your ideas below.  I'll post my ideas tomorrow.

Smoked Cuban Sandwiches

That pork roast yielded yet another awesome dinner.  Smoked Cuban Sandwiches.  Technically, this wasn't a smoked roast, so I guess this would technically be called a Roasted Cuban Sandwich?  This made a fantastic quick dinner on a night when we had to be out at meetings within 90 minutes of husband arriving home from work.  I use gluten free bread.  I have a few brands that I am absolutely in love with, and I used my favorite thick, crusty roll for this recipe.  I also used the George Foreman Grill to smash the sandwiches down.  It melted the cheese, heated the bread, and made a minimum of mess in my kitchen.  (Important on a night when you have to be out the door 90 minutes after you walk in!)

*Note- because of hubby's dairy allergies, he used fake cheese on his sandwich.  We compromised on the grill and brushed olive oil on the outside of our sandwiches because he didn't want butter tainting his sandwich.  I really don't mind it that way!)

We served this with a salad and roasted potato wedges.

Roasted Cuban Sandwiches

Several slices of pork roast, COOKED and cut to the thickness you like
Ham (I had leftover from the last ham we had that I thawed out just for this sandwich)
Crusty rolls or bread
Mustard
Cheese of your choice - most people use Swiss
Pickles
Butter (or Non-Stick Cooking Spray, or Olive Oil)

To assemble:

Slather mustard on the bread.

Layer the ham, cheese, and pickles inside of the bread.

Press into a heated George Foreman Grill (or use your outdoor grill, with a brick on top of the sandwich to make it flat.)  Heat until the cheese is melted.

Frugal Friday

This Post Contains Affiliate Links.

Tiger and I enjoyed a glorious afternoon outside on Tuesday.

My apologies for the lack of posts yesterday and the late post today.  It's been a very crazy couple of days!  I had decided that I was going to schedule everything yesterday, and get it all over with at once.  So, not only did I go to work, I got my hair cut, went to the dentist, saw a Personal Trainer (Who's taking over now that I am finished with Physical Therapy.  I feel I can be stronger, and a Trainer will help me get there.)  AND, we're leaving this afternoon to go visit oldest son.... And we needed to do laundry and pack last night.  Very, very long day!  I have links to a couple of recipes - which I've scheduled to be posted tomorrow.  If you click on them today, they might come through as active links... I'm not certain.  I don't know how Bloggers' Algorithms work in that situation.  I guess we'll find out, won't we?

I've been working on my stories from teaching.  I don't know if I'll get them all into a finished book by the end of the month, but I've had a blast revisiting old stories.  When I was teaching, I kept a journal of the things that the kids said and did.  Going back and re-reading the stories has been great.  Some of the stories will never make a book, though.  What's really funny is realizing that the kids I taught when I first started teaching are now in their 30's.  Not quite so little anymore!  


Discounted Produce Rack  $5

Have you ever checked out the discounted produce rack at your local grocery store?  The produce on this rack is all edible and safe to eat, but it's not "perfect".  Our society tends to only want "perfect" food.  Much of the waste that occurs in the grocery industry occurs because perfectly good, not aesthetically pleasing produce is thrown away.  Grocers have recently begun putting this produce out on racks at a deeply discounted rate.  I heavily frequent this rack.  The produce is either eaten within a day or two, or else I freeze it for later.  (If I could eat wheat based bread, I would be cleaning up on rolls and bread in the day old racks.)

2.5 pounds over-ripe bananas                 $1
5 Bartlett Pears that were dented            $1
2 big Portabella Mushrooms                   $1
3 Green Peppers that were turning red   $1
1 pound Kale  (that's a lot of kale)          $1

Hotel Deal

This sounds ridiculous, I know. We are headed up to visit oldest son this weekend.  We used E-Bates to book the hotel, and have signed up for the bonus points program.  We will be earning a little cash back on the hotel stay, and the nights we spend this weekend will be added to the total towards a free night's stay.  (Plus, we get to see the oldest kid!  That's the BEST part about this weekend!)


Cook Once, Eat Twice (or more)

Pork Roast, coated with Zesty Lemon spices.

I made a pork roast on Sunday.  I baked it in the oven in a cast iron skillet, and let me tell you, that was an amazing roast!  We had well over half of the roast left, and I knew then that we would have a couple of meals!
We had two extra meals from that roast, for a total of 3 meals.

Pork Fried Rice

Roasted Cuban Pork Sandwiches




Electricity Hogs

Now that the kids are all out of the house, we've been attempting to track down the biggest electricity hogs in our house.  A couple of years back, we switched our lights to LED's, which took our monthly electricity usage down. We turned our water heater down, and we dry many of our clothes outside.

But we still have several things in the house that have been keeping our bill up.  This month, we've been going after the "phantom" energy hogs.  Turns out that the television is a pretty big hog.  We keep the television, DVD player, etc, plugged into a power strip.  This month, we started turning the power strip off when we go to bed at night, and turning it on if we sit down to watch tv after dinner.  Turns out that having that power strip - and all of those appliances that depend upon the "instant on" feature for us to use our remotes - use much more energy than we had thought.  I've been following our energy report online, and while I don't yet know the final total for this month's electricity usage, I can already see that we are using less energy now than we were this time last year.

You know, every little bit helps when you're saving money.  I'm beginning to suspect that this might be more than "a little bit" by the time we add up the savings over the course of a year.

Grocery Stores

Remember when I told you a couple of weeks ago that we'd had a new Super Walmart open in town?  Well, our existing grocery stores decided to fight back this week, and they sent out some pretty nice coupons.  I'm plotting my trips carefully.  I'm going to focus on buying stuff non-perishable items.  I can always use razors, shampoo, deodorant, etc, and it will be nice to get an extra discount on those items! 

Frugal Friday

This has been a stellar week.  I discovered a Pennsylvania Dutch Farmer's Market down the road from where I work.  The prices were phenomenal, but my BIG FIND of the day was the bulk foods store within the market.  Next time I go back, I'll be better prepared with a list of the spices I need.

Pennsylvania Dutch Farmer's Market:   $7

3 cloves of garlic, 3 red beets, a huge box of ginger, a bag of spinach, and a bag of sweet peppers.
I refilled our ginger jar with this box.  It was a perfect fit!

Cook Once, Eat Twice

This is a nifty little strategy where you cook one big meal or roast one night, and then use those ingredients to make meals on other nights.

This past week, we roasted a chicken and made a big pot of vegetable soup.

From this combination we made:

1) Chicken Pot Pie with left over chicken and the rest of the vegetable soup.

2) Spinach chicken salad with leftover chicken and the spinach from the Pennsylvania Dutch Market.

3) Chicken Broth with the bones of the carcass.  Several hours in the soup pot later, and I had a batch of chicken broth that I turned into broth cubes to use later in recipes.


Laundry

Now that the weather is cooler, it's taking longer for the laundry to dry on the line outside.  Regardless, I'm still drying clothes outside.  I put the wash through at night, after the rates drop, just before I go to bed.  This week, I've been running the laundry outside in the dark.  I have the clothes on hangars, and I've been taking them out and hanging them up by flashlight.  It takes me a good 10 minutes to do, but that spot gets some fantastic morning sun.  Since it's fall and the sun has shifted, it's not getting that afternoon sun that REALLY gets the clothes dry fast.


Snacks

Hands down, one of my favorite snacks is Cranberry Walnut Power Balls.  I found the original recipe here on Common Sense Homesteading.  I've modified it a little bit for my own taste.  I don't like walnuts, so I use chopped pecans instead.  Another problem is that I can never find mini chocolate chips.  So, I use the soy free, dairy free chocolate chips so that the girl can eat some, too.  You know I use gluten free oats in the recipe.




Spice Mixes

We are out of taco seasoning mix.  Rather than buy one of those expensive little envelopes that have some questionable ingredients, I make my own.  I follow this recipe that I found here on All Recipes.  I use an old spice bottle to hold the spices in.  A full bottle usually keeps us in spices for 6 months.


Salad Dressing

I'm thick into the middle of a diet, and that means lots and lots of salads.  Unfortunately, I love salad dressings.  They are expensive and full of additives that I really don't need.  I found a great recipe on All Recipes for Italian Dressing.  I really like this recipe, as I mix up a large quantity of dried herbs and store them in my cabinet until I'm ready to use them.  When I need some dressing, I mix a couple of teaspoons of the spice mix into vinegar, olive oil, and water and shake it well before serving.  (I especially like the fact that I can keep the sugar in, use a sugar substitute, or use absolutely no sugar at all - it's MY choice!)

Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I am into my "acquire turkeys" mode.  Our grocery stores run a promotion that allows you to get a turkey for free if you've accumulated a certain amount of grocery points.  We're working towards our first free turkey.  I like to see if I can track down at least 3 turkeys to cook with over the course of the year.  Good thing we have a big freezer!

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

You know, 25 pounds of tomatoes doesn't actually seem like all that much until you begin processing it all... trying desperately hard to preserve them before they fall victim to spoilage.

There's been Caprese Salad.. sliced tomatoes, mozarella, and basil all covered with a drizzle of olive oil.

We've made BLT Pasta, all of the ingredients of a Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich, but mixed into a bed of gluten free pasta.

And then, the tomato madness continued with Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce.  One of the easiest recipes I've ever worked with.  You can find the recipe on here on Mother Earth Living's  website.

The actual process was laughingly easy.  Slice tomatoes into chunks.  Put them in a big 9 x 13 inch casserole dish coated with olive oil.  Slice onions into strips and place over top.

Chunky tomatoes!

 Once again, I put my mini food processor to work, and added the olive oil, peeled garlic, and herbs to the bowl and chopped them up finer than I would ever be able to manage by hand. 

 I put them over top of the tomatoes and onions (I stirred them  up here.) 

Bake them at 350* for an hour, and look at this amazing goodness that comes out of the oven.  Stir it with a spoon, and the tomatoes break apart into chunks.  This tastes amazing as it is, served over pasta or straight up on a slice of toasted French or Italian bread.

After eating a couple of pieces of bread slathered in chunky tomato sauce, I ran the rest through the blender to make this into sauce.  I froze the rest of the sauce into quart size freezer bags.  I saved out this one jar so that we could have it for lunch tomorrow after church, and serve it with a wonderful summer salad, full of goodness from the farmer's market.