Help me eat up my veggies!

I picked up another Garden Fresh Box from the Guelph Community Health Centre yesterday - check out these delicious looking vegetables! All this for only $10.  What you see above is a “small” size. It looks like it will be more than enough produce for the rest of the month.  

Meal planning is very different when you are handed a big box of vegetables.  You need to come up with meal ideas based on what’s in the box.  I like the challenge, and I like knowing that my meals are based around fresh, local, seasonal vegetables.  Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with so far, based on these ingredients:

• Corn and jalapeno soup
• Curried root vegetable soup (using the potatoes and carrots in the picture, as well as the sweet potatoes and summer squash I have in the fridge)
• Warm spinach and chickpea salad with sundried tomatoes
• Kebabs with homemade tzatziki sauce (using the garlic and cucumber)
• Salad of cucumber, green pepper, tomato and green onion with tzatziki
• Potato salad with dill
• Corn on the cob with lime and hot paprika
• Rutabaga and apple casserole

If you have any ideas of other food items I can make with the ingredients you see here, feel free to share! In particular, I am interested to know what I could make with the rutabaga.  Other than the casserole, I’m pretty much clueless. My only other idea is to make English Brown Pickle (Branston Pickle) which I used to eat adoringly in Somerfield’s “cheese plougman’s” sandwiches when I lived in England.  But these require quite a bit of work in addition to several ingredients I don’t have.  So any ideas you have are more than welcome.

In addition, I have no idea what to do with the red kale.  Normally I would put it in a stir-fry, but after all my soups and salads are made, I won’t have many other ingredients left over for a big stir-fry.  What are your favourite recipes using kale?

If I can’t figure out a way to eat the kale quickly, I will likely freeze it, along with some of the spinach. Although it’s difficult to tell from the photo, that is one massive bag of spinach!   There is a good description of how to freeze greens at pickyourown.org. 

Finally, the little ziplock bag you see is full of chickpeas and what I believe are mixed beans. They are beans with little sprouts attached.  Apart from soaking and then cooking these beans and mixing them with some kind of rice dish, I’m clueless.  Do these beans all require the same amount of cooking time?

I can’t wait to hear your suggestions!

Saver Queen’s summer salads

This past winter, my main trick for eating healthy and tasty food on a budget was to make a lot of hearty and yummy soups.  Now that spring and summer are here, I’ve moved on to salads.  Making salads that combine protein and veggies are easy. A few combinations and you have yourself an entire meal! The best part? It’s an incredibly frugal way to eat nutritious foods.

I found this one by googling for barley and discovered a great recipe from Whole Foods (see below).

Ingredients

3 cups water 
1 cup pearled barley 
1/2 cup chopped green onions 
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper 
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped 
1/3 cup basil leaves, chopped 
2 tablespoons mint leaves, chopped 
1/4 cup avocado oil or canola oil* 
1 clove garlic, minced 
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

In a saucepan, combine water and barley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until barley is tender, 40 to 45 minutes. Drain barley and set aside. 

Place green onions, red pepper, parsley, basil and mint in a large bowl. Add cooked barley and toss to combine. 

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, minced garlic and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then drizzle over barley salad, stirring to combine well. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature or cold.

Saver Queen’s adjustments

I lacked lemons, green onions, red pepper and basil, so I subbed in green pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes and just used mint, parsley and bottled lemon juice instead. I also used olive oil instead of canola.  The recipe has 4g of protein per serving, which is not bad for a vegetarian dish! I have served this before with salmon, but it would also work well with a few other salads. 

I love digging out staples hiding in the pantry, like barley, lentils, and dried or canned beans, because they can usually be combined with whatever veggies you have around to create a great dish.  These frugal staples are not only cheap, they are tasty and nutritious.  It’s a great way to pull together a light, meatless summer meal that’s easy on the budget.

What’s your favourite summer salad?

Homemade junk food, part one: Pizza Pops

As I mentioned in part one of my series, How to cut your grocery bill in half, I try to avoid buying processed foods or junk foods. Instead, I enjoy making them at home.  Last week I fell off the wagon many times and resorted to fast food and coffee on the go; this was mostly due to a hectic schedule that involved traveling out of town.  Last weekend I resolved to do some cooking and baking to help myself to stay on track.

Eating a healthy diet means that every so often I run up against insurmountable cravings for salty, fatty, late night snacks.  One of my favourite guilty pleasures are Pizza Pops, or miniature frozen calzones.  Last weekend, I decided to try making them myself.  I’m not sure what the cost-per-unit is; but if you purchase your baking supplies at a low cost, buy cheese on sale and pick up affordable veggies like green pepper and mushrooms, these little snacks can end up being incredibly affordable indulgences.

The recipe I  used was from Recipe Zaar:

Ingredients

CRUST

• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 1/2 cups flour

SAUCE

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup fine diced onion
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 3 tablespoons water

Saver Queen’s tip: Add a pinch of salt.

Directions

1. Mix yeast with 1 cup of flour. Add all the rest of the ingredients and beat well.
2. Knead in the rest of the flour. I am not sure of the amount of flour here as I do it by feel of the dough. The dough should be soft and elastic, not too dry.
3. Let rest 15 minutes.
4. Cut into 10 balls and roll out into 6″ circles.
5. Top with equal amounts of sauce on half of the circle leaving 1/2″ at edge clear for sealing purposes.
6. Add your choice of fillings. I love pepperoni, mushroom and cheese. Pinch edge well to seal.
7. Prick tops and you can also brush with an egg wash mixture.
8. Bake on cookie sheets at 350′ for 30-35 minutes.

Saver Queen’s tip: remember that you can stuff these with lots of fillings, because the bread expands, leaving a large pocket inside.

These freeze really well. Package them in individual ziplock bags or wrap in plastic.  Then, simply re-heat them for about 15 minutes at 375′ on a baking sheet, or preferably, a pizza stone.  If not heated all the way through, you can also microwave them for 20 or 30 seconds, but they lose their nice crispy crust. These make a great late night snack!

How to cut your grocery bill in half (Part two)

In my last entry, I noted that a great way to reduce your grocery bill is to simply reduce your intake of highly processed foods. The second most important thing that you can do is reduce the amount of food waste you produce.

If I want to know how much I am really spending on food, I calculate the cost on a per-serving basis.  If you make sure to use every bit of what you buy, your per-serving cost lowers dramatically.

In general, I have a few tips for reducing edible food waste:

Learn about the best ways to store and preserve your foods. For example, herbs and salads last much longer if they are washed, dried, and then stored in the crisper, in-between pieces of paper-towel. 

Plan meals around what you have in the fridge.  Even if you feel like you can’t possibly pull together a meal based on what you’ve got, forage through your freezer, pantry and refrigerator and think about what you might be able to make with those ingredients.  Look at it like a fun challenge.  By planning meals based on what you’ve already got, you will reduce the number of trips you take to the store. For example, usually find carrots, potatoes and baking supplies are still hanging around when almost everything else has been eaten - this means a hearty supper of soup and dumplings can still be arranged.

Check your fridge frequently to see what is on its way out.  By monitoring expiration dates and checking your fruits and veggies regularly, you will catch foods before they go bad.  I recommend doing this before you decide what’s for dinner.  In other words, do this every day or as often as possible. 

Use any foods that are past their prime, but still edible, in soups, stocks, stews, casseroles or in other creative ways you can think of.  

An example: On Friday, before I left the city for a weekend to go to a wedding, I surveyed my kitchen.  There were three beautiful tomatoes that had already ripened and were unlikely to last the weekend.  Similarly, I had a full bag of mushrooms that were just started to go bad.  I decided to turn the tomatoes into a really lovely bowl of tomato soup (pictured above) and use the mushrooms in a mushroom and barley soup I had been wanting to make.  Neither was difficult to make, and they provided a meal before we left and upon our return.

For more suggestions on how to reduce your edible food waste, check out my earlier posts:

How much should your food really cost?

Reducing waste and eating well for less

And now for the tomato soup recipe:

(Please keep in mind, this was just done on a whim, without a recipe.  So please feel free to improvise, taste and modify as you go along.)

Ingredients

12 vine-ripened or roma tomatoes, seeded and cut in halves or quarters

4 cloves garlic

2 red peppers, cut into strips

2 onions, sliced

4 cups water (approx)

1/2 cup cream

olive oil 

s&p

parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Cut the tomatoes into halves, or quarters if larger tomatoes, and scoop out their seeds. Then place in a large roasting pan, along with the garlic, onions and red peppers.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Put in 400 degree oven and roast until the tomatoes start to caramelize and turn colour (approximately 30 minutes.) When done, empty contents in blender and puree until smooth. Then add to a large pot at low-medium heat and simmer.  Thin with water, adding slowly and stirring to get the consistency right.  Simmer gently until heated through and flavours have melded together.  Remove from heat, add cream and stir.  Add more s&p if necessary.  You may also want to add a little extra olive oil and parmesan cheese, and/or parsley if you desire.  (The picture above shows all three.)

This tomato soup was unbelievably delicious.  And while it’s not the cheapest recipe (tomatoes can certainly be expensive, especially when out of season) it is an example of how to use up ingredients around the house.  This soup can also be used with imperfect or bruised tomatoes.

How have you prevented food waste this week?

How to cut your grocery bill in half (Part one)

I’ve heard some friends ask recently how to cut back on their grocery bill.  I have many ideas, so here is the first of a series on how to trim back your grocery bill.

Choosing the right store, stocking up on sales, and using a local food box are great ways to start. 

But it doesn’t just matter when or where you shop, it matters what you buy. And maybe even more importantly, what you don’t buy.

 
The best way to cut back on your food bill is to eat a simple but healthy diet of rustic foods and foods made from scratch.  The more processed foods you buy, the more expensive your bill.

Here are a few of the foods that  I consistently buy when I go shopping:

- Local & cheap veggies including potatoes, carrots, celery, broccoli, aromatics and apples.  These kinds of foods are versatile, affordable and easily turned into hearty meals.

- Beans (dried are the cheapest but we also buy cans because of the convenience factor) as well as dried lentils and canned tomatoes that can be turned into soup bases, curries, pasta sauce or pizza sauce.

- Rice

- Whole grain crackers 

- Dairy (I usually have coupons for milk, yogurt, butter, sour cream and certain cheeses) and eggs.

- One or two cheap cuts of meat

- Baking supplies

What I don’t buy (and make from scratch, instead):

- Bread, pitas

- Snacks, such as hummus, guacamole, salsa,  granola bars or dips

- Muffins, cookies, desserts

- Sauces & Salad dressings (such as curry sauces, pasta sauces, gravies, cooking sauces, etc)

- Canned soups, chicken or vegetable stock

- Junk food (chips, chocolate, pop)

- Cleaning supplies

Eliminating processed foods, especially the ones I mentioned here, such as the junk food, deserts, and pre-made sauces that have high mark-ups, can save you money right away. 

This cabbage & white bean soup recipe, described below, is the perfect example of a rustic, homemade meal, complete with homemade bread. Thanks to 101 Cookbooks for this easy, cheap and very tasty recipe! It’s one of my favourites!

Rustic Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
a big pinch of salt
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups stock* Saver Queen’s note - use a homemade stock for a super-cheap soup, or buy beef broth instead!
1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons

Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning - getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is (varying widely between brands, homemade, etc).

Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes - it’s o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times.* Saver Queen’s note: I recommend cooking at a lower temp, or else the potatoes might burn.

Serve drizzled with a bit of olive oil and a generous dusting of parmesan (or blue!) cheese. Serves 4.

What do you buy and what don’t you buy when you go to the store?

Spicing things up

On Friday, I received a nice surprise: a big box of spices showed up at my door from The Spice House.  Well, it wasn’t a total surprise.  Josh and I ordered a great big bunch of spices there earlier this week.  As you may or may not know, you can order fine quality spices online at affordable prices.  The Spice House is Alton Brown’s store of choice, which is why we decided to give it a try.  The shipping was expensive - almost $30 US - so I’m not convinced that it is the most frugal option ever, but I was certainly impressed with the quality of the spices.  I decided that since I am cooking more and more at home, I should enjoy the flavour of real spices, not the tasteless, stale and pre-ground kind you find at the grocery store. 

Now that I have my spices I need to figure out how to make a frugal spice rack.  One option is to make an Alton Brown style spice rack by attaching velcro to the spice jars and to the inside of a cupboard.  Or I suppose I could display my beautiful spices in cute jars.  Any suggestions of where to find affordable spice jars or spice racks? Or perhaps you have a good idea about how to build your own spice rack?  Please share!

Reducing waste & eating well for less

I realized that until my Fresh Box arrived, we had only spent $155 on the last four weeks of groceries (less than $39 a week).  Now granted, I had been absent for one week while on vacation.  Josh also bought his lunch quite a number of times.  But apart from that, we ate really healthy, delicious meals at home and almost never went for out to a restaurant.

How did I manage to feed two people on $155 a month?  I chalk it up to stocking up on basic and versatile ingredients, being creative in the kitchen, cooking with inexpensive foods, and reducing waste.  I have been aiming to produce zero edible food waste since writing What Are You Wasting on February 25.  Apart from a few cilantro leaves and half a baby eggplant that got tossed against my will (after which I promptly listed of all ways I was planning on using that eggplant) I achieved my goal.

Here are some ways I reduced waste during the last several weeks:

• Froze parmesan rinds, basil roots and even cauliflower greens for vegetable stock
• Used up cilantro stems in a cilantro chutney
• Made a chicken and vegetable stock 
• Used up stale pitas by making them into pita chips
• Discovered that shriveled ginger is fine, when the edges are peeled off

Because I want to eat really delicious, nutritious food, I worked hard to come up with great meal ideas using only the ingredients we had. This led me to try some new tasty recipes, like curried cauliflower soup, green lentil and vegetable curry, vegetable barley and red bean soup, homemade pizza from scratch (with a variety of delicious toppings) quiche with goat cheese, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and bacon, whole-wheat pasta with vegetables and parmesan, salmon-potato cakes,  carrot-ginger soup (I doubled the ginger and doubled the flavour this time) and deserts such as eggless oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, lemon loaf and apple crisp.  Although I was pleased with how much I saved, I was actually even happier about the fact that I am learning how to cook good food and am experimenting in the kitchen.

Other ways I reduced waste:

• Rewashed ziploc bags (thanks for my readers’ tips on how to dry them)
• Repurposed an empty tea box into a cute gift box
• Discovered that you need far less dish-detergent when your water is soft; I have reduced the amount of dish-detergent I use in the dishwasher by almost half
• Cut the amount of laundry detergent I use by about half, upon realizing that it really does not make a difference
• Learned how to put our Drobo to sleep during the day, so it doesn’t use so much energy when not in use (I’m convinced this thing wastes a ton of energy, since it’s constantly whirring and is always lit up.)
• Reused tea bags (I found that each tea bag is good for at least 2 cups of tea.)
• Josh fixed our dryer (it was taking forever to dry the clothes) and he cleaned out our vacuum cleaner too, resulting in less energy waste
• Used the dishwasher for small items and handwashed large items, to avoid excessive use of the dishwasher

What is your favourite tip for reducing the waste of food, electricity or other resources?

Medicine or tasty snack? Homemade candied ginger does it all

Ah, ginger.  It’s a wonderfully cheap way to add delicious flavour to almost any dish.  Chopped and added to hot water, it makes a calming tea.  And it prevents nausea, even when traveling. 

I enjoy snacking on ginger candy - not just because it tastes great, but because it helps to aid digestion and soothes an upset tummy.  Unsurprisingly, when I discovered that good old Alton had a recipe to make homemade ginger candy, I had to try it.

After all, it makes good economic sense.  Ginger is unbelievably cheap; we bought a pound of it for about $2.00.  And sugar is also plentiful in our house.  And that’s it - those are the only required ingredients.

I love that the leftover ginger sugar can be reserved and added to coffee or on top of ginger snaps or other cookies.  Nothing goes to waste here!

Here is Alton’s recipe for Candied Ginger: 

Ingredients

Nonstick spray
1 pound fresh ginger root 
Tip: Buy ginger that is as young as possible.  How can you tell?  It will have a much lighter, yellow colour and will probably be smaller as well.  Ours was a bit older, (darker brown) and subsequently had a stronger taste.  The younger your ginger, the better (and more mild) the taste.
5 cups water
Approximately 1 pound granulated sugar

Directions

Spray a cooling rack with nonstick spray and set it in a half sheet pan lined with parchment.

Peel the ginger root and slice into 1/8-inch thick slices using a mandoline.

Tip: You do not need a mandoline.  Sure, it might be handy to have, but if you have to go out and buy a lot of equipment, it kind of defeats the purpose of making homemade candy, doesn’t it?  I prefer to use what we have, and so Josh and I simply took turns cutting the ginger with our best Japanese chef’s knife into thin slices.  It worked!

Place into a 4-quart saucepan with the water and set over medium-high heat. Cover and cook for 35 minutes or until the ginger is tender.

Transfer the ginger to a colander to drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid.

Weigh the ginger and measure out an equal amount of sugar. Return the ginger and 1/4 cup water to the pan and add the sugar. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar syrup looks dry, has almost evaporated and begins to recrystallize, approximately 20 minutes.

Transfer the ginger immediately to the cooling rack and spread to separate the individual pieces. Once completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Save the sugar that drops beneath the cooling rack and use to top ginger snaps, sprinkled over ice cream or to sweeten coffee.

I had to laugh when Gravol came out with their “Gravol Ginger natural source” pills.  Why would anyone pay for processed medicine when you can go straight to the source?  This is certainly the most enjoyable way (not to mention frugal) way to quell your nausea. In fact it’s incredibly pleasant to eat when you feel fine!

The fresh box: how to get local produce at a great price

image courtesy of fork & bottle

Last week I ordered my very first Garden Fresh Box.  I am so excited to have discovered this opportunity.  While I knew a friend who used to take advantage of this, I never investigated it myself, and now I wonder why I waited so long to take advantage of fresh, locally grown produce at a great price.

The Garden Fresh Box Program is a non-profit, fresh produce buying service created to help people access fresh fruits and vegetables and support our local farmers. Here’s how it works: You place your order in advance for a big or small box of veggies and/or fruit.  You must do this before the first Friday of every month.  Two weeks later you pick up your box of food.  Yes, you must pick it up, but there are 17 locations in the city.  Luckily I happen to live right down the street from the nearest pick-up location.  

Here’s what comes in a sample large box of veggies, for $15:
 

Pretty good deal, especially considering you are supporting your local farmers.  To learn more about where you can buy local, fresh food in Waterloo Region, check out Foodlink. But if you don’t live in the area, don’t fret - there are similar programs run all over the country.  If you’re in the Toronto region, check out Food Share or visit Green Ontario for other fresh box delivery programs. 

Alternatively, join a food co-op or consider community sustainable agriculture.  If you live in the states, you can find one near you at Local Harvest or learn about community supported agriculture in your region.

If you live in Ontario, check out the community supported agriculture directory.

I can’t wait to get my fresh box! 

A spin on salads

Among the items I pass up at the grocery store include salad dressing.  It’s one of those condiments that are overpriced and easy to make at home.  Although you can make all kinds of fancy dressings, I tend to stick to the basics.  About a 1/4 cup of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar, some salt and pepper, and finely minced garlic.  I frequently save time by grating the garlic with a small grater.  This shortcut is Gordon Ramsey approved, so I figure it’s okay.

It’s easy to find things in your baking cupboard to add pizazz to an otherwise boring salad.  Sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, walnuts, chopped dates, dried cranberries, raisins, and various spices can be used in any combination that you desire.  A light sprinkling is all that is needed, so it’s a relatively frugal way to turn a simple meal into something special.

Here are a few combinations I love to add on top of a spring mix (mesclun) salad:

• Toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, chopped dates, blue cheese
• Roasted beets, walnuts and blue cheese
• Diced mushrooms and green onions

If you want to purchase a lot of mesclun salad, you may want to consider the cost of making it yourself.  To prepare it yourself, you may want to buy ingredients such as:

• Arugula
• Radicchio 
• Endive

To keep your salad fresh, wash it as soon as possible, dry the leaves in a salad spinner, and the wrap in paper towel.  Cover in a plastic bag and keep in your  crisper.

What is your favourite frugal tip for enjoying fresh salads?