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?

What are you wasting?

I just discovered a wonderful blog called Crunchy Chicken.  The author has been running an exciting Food Waste Reduction Challenge, encouraging all of us to reduce the amount of edible food that we throw away or compost, by keeping track of the waste we are producing.  It got me thinking about the things I have been doing recently to decrease my food waste, and my grocery budget as well.

Here are some ways that I reduced waste in the last couple of weeks.

I made a big list of everything I could possibly make with what I had.  The list turned out to be surprisingly big!

I turned little leftover crumbly bits of cheese into a delicious cheese dip.

I saved stale bread and turned it into bread crumbs.

I salvaged a homemade pretzel recipe gone amok and turned that into bread crumbs also.

I chopped up veggies that were about to go bad and froze them for a veggie stir-fry.

I butchered my own chicken wings, freezing the undesirable parts for chicken stock.

I preserved my salad and herbs better so they would last longer.

I used leftover chickpeas in a pasta dish.

I froze the bits of leafy bits of celery and sprouted garlic for a stock.

I finally used up the old blackened bananas that I bought at 50% off in banana bread and shakes.

I used up the lemons that were about to turn in salad dressings and in a lemon loaf.

I used up other veggies that needed to be eaten in a shepherd’s pie.

I found a more efficient way to store my leftover bread bags and vegetable bags.

I used the netting that the oranges, avocados, garlic and onions came in for an art project.

I noticed that an orange was about to go bad, so I simply squeezed it using my antique juicer and made freshly squeezed orange juice.

I made a batch of granola bars that didn’t quite work out, but saved it and ate it on top of yogurt, instead.

I used up soy milk that was about to go bad by putting it in shakes and in my coffee (I had run out of milk and cream).

I made a fish chowder to use up fish and veggies that weren’t being eaten. 

I used frozen veggies on a pizza when I ran out of fresh vegetables.

I started washing out mini-yogurt containers and saving them to hold paint when painting (they are best for watercolours, btw).

Josh made cookies using up some baking supplies, since we both refused to buy store-bought cookies

I think I may start noting how much food goes to waste in our house.  I would be interested in seeing how much we waste and thinking of new ways to cut back our waste even more.

What did you do this month to reduce waste?

My search for the perfect frugal snack: A mystery solved

By jove I did it! As most of you know, I have been searching for a homemade snack that satisfies my cravings.  My latest pretzel endeavour didn’t go over so well so I’ve been hunting for a tasty alternative.

Finally, I found a delicious snack that satisfies deep junk food cravings, and costs, well, nothing! It’s easy to make and uses up leftovers - that’s my favourite kind of cooking!

The answer? The homemade cheese spread.

First of all, let it be known that I love cheese. I mean it’s really the cow’s gift to humankind. So when Alton Brown (yes, I realize his name has come up quite a bit on this blog, but I spent last weekend on an Alton Brown bingefest, so forgive me, please) provided a recipe for his favourite cheese trick - a homemade cheese spread - I was intrigued. 

You know all those cheese bits you have lying around? The teeny chunks leftover from cheese platters you served at parties, or in my case, just bought for yourself to enjoy? Maybe the rinds of parmesan that didn’t get eaten right down to the nub, or the extra mozzarella that didn’t make it on the homemade pizza? Those crumbly little bits from old cheddar, too awkward to slice into sandwich? These lost little cheesy bits can be saved from them from their destiny of winding up, undigested, in the garbage can.

How, you ask? It’s easy!

Simply gather these bits and throw them into a food processor. If you have any particularly hard cheeses, such as parmesan, grate it first. (This is important because otherwise it will stay in a clump.) If you have a pound of cheese, add 1/4 cup dry white wine (I actually added a little extra), 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter (I added a little more, once again), some parsley, and one small clove of garlic. Blend in the food pro until smooth. Presto, you have yourself a delicious - and I mean delicious - cheese spread.

I love this because it uses up the old bits of cheese, along with any leftover wine you have (as Alton points out, it’s quite common to have leftover wine from a wine and cheese party, but it’s also easy to find that you have just a little extra wine in a bottle.) Since it uses up these extra ingredients that might otherwise go to waste, you’ve got yourself what is essentially a free snack.

My only suggestion is to eat while it’s fresh.  Alton says that you can refrigerate for up to a week.  I refrigerated for a few hours and, while it was still tasty, the texture was too firm - the cheese cracked - and the flavours seemed to diminish a little.  

What to serve it with? If you have a leftover crusty bread or baguette, follow my recipe to make baguette chips -they are ever so satisfying and perfect for a spreadable cheese. Plus, if you make them because you are using up leftover bread that has gone stale, you are once again using up a product that will otherwise have a date with the trash can.

Don’t forget to save your plastic containers. This leftover container from spreadable goat cheese fit the bill perfectly.

Eat and enjoy!  After all, not only are you saving money by eating in and using up ingredients instead of consuming expensive, store-bought snacks, you are relishing real, pure, good food.  The flavours of good quality cheese and wine will definitely satisfy the craving for a rich, flavourful snack.  This outshines a $3 bag of chips any day.

The unsuccessful hunt for a tasty homemade snack

Snack foods are expensive.  If you want to trim down your grocery bill, snack foods are a great place to start.  Not only are they filler foods, loaded with preservatives, sodium, and well, all kinds of crap, they are unbelievably over priced.  I just saw a sale from a nearby grocery store showcasing chips that were being sold, two for $6.  When did $3 get to be a good price for a regular sized bag of chips?

But we all need some junk food now and then.  Besides, the winter months bring increased movie watching and board game playing, which pretty much require a plate of snacks within reach.  I’ve written on my favourite homemade snack foods before in the post “Snack Happy” in which I share my secrets on making salsa, hummus, guac, Babaganoush, microwave popcorn and more.  But salsa is expensive to make these days because tomatoes are out of season, and avocadoes are not cheap either.  So I’ve been on the lookout for tasty, cheap homemade snack recipes.

On the weekend, we took the plunge to try out Alton Brown’s pretzel recipe.  This was fun.  Rolling out long pieces of dough and twisting them into pretzel shapes, how could that not be fun?  In the end, though, it didn’t work out.  Yes, the pretzel dough itself was tasty.  The process was fun and fairly simple.  But two major errors were made.  One, we didn’t roll the dough thin enough. We were supposed to roll each pretzel stick into 14″ pieces but just estimated on the length of our pretzels, and, once I realized we were only rolling them to about 11 or 12″ pieces, it was too late.  As you can see, they turned out looking like bread sticks, which made the pretzels just a little to thick to enjoy as a light, crunchy snack.  

Furthermore, we improvised using organic sea salt, which was chunky, almost like rock salt, instead of “pretzel salt” - yes, there is such a thing.  Apparently kosher salt is far too fine.  Unfortunately, our salt was far too crunchy.  One bite would have you puckered in a salt overdose; another bite would be bland and boring.

Not satisfied with seeing anything go to waste, the pretzels are currently sitting in an open faced container, which will then be transfered to the food processor to form a nice pretzel crumb coating for a lucky piece of chicken or pork.

The recipe could be salvaged with thinly rolled pieces and proper pretzel salt.  So if anyone wants to give it a go, be my guest.  (We may even try it again another time.)  

In the meantime, please share:  What is your favourite recipe for homemade snacks?  I need something to replace the crunchy, salty goodness of the over-priced potato chip.

Wingin’ it in the kitchen - on a budget

Eating vegetarian is a great way to cut back on your grocery bill amongst rising food costs.  Swapping meat for dried beans, lentils and tofu is a strategy that will not only stretch your grocery budget, it will provide nutrition, can lead to weight loss, and if you are not used to eating vegetarian, experimenting with veggie cuisine will lead you to discover exciting new flavours in the kitchen.

But if you are going to eat meat, cheap cuts such bone-in chicken, like drumsticks and wings, are economical choices.

On Saturday, Josh and I hit up our local farmer’s market, this time remembering to bring our cloth bags and coffee mugs to fill with fair trade coffee. One thing I love about our new home is the proximity to the market - only a 5 minute walk. There we bought 10 large chicken wings.  While chicken wings are normally quite cheap, we paid more for ours because they were from a local organic farm, however the wings were deliciously meaty. 

Chicken wings are much less expensive that boneless, skinless breasts, but if you are concerned about consuming dark meat and skin, with a higher fat content than white meat, simply try to balance your meals with vegetables and whole grains.  If you are restricting your meat consumption, a little dark meat here and there won’t hurt you.

The recipe below for chicken wings is also a lot healthier, not to mention cheaper, than eating out at a pub or even home deep-frying.  We used Alton Brown’s no-deep-fry recipe.  Think that baked chicken wings inevitably sacrifice flavour and crispiness?  They do not!  Our wings came out perfectly - fully cooked, with nice crispy skin on the outside, and delicious, juicy, moist meat on the inside.  Far better in fact, than any deep fried wing I’ve ever eaten.

The wing process is pretty easy and all the prep work can be done in advance if you are looking to serve these for a party.  Essentially, you butcher your wings, steam them in a basket for 10 minutes and set them in the fridge for an hour. Then, you bake them in the oven for 40 minutes and coat. The steaming is a valuable technique that eliminates a great deal of the fat, and prevents smoking in the oven.

I recommend that in addition to following the recipe below, courtesy of the Food Network, you watch the show - Alton does a great job of showing how to easily butcher a chicken wing, and besides, he’s cool.

My only complaint was that we did not have any hot sauce, so we opted to create our own concoction using butter and barbeque sauce.  Our sauce turned out much runnier than it really should have been.  We put an extra dish of sauce on the table for dipping. 

Ingredients

• 12 whole chicken wings
• 3 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.

Remove the tips of the wings and discard or save for making stock. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter in a small bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

A delicious, healthy meal for less than $1.50

Okay, so you’ve all heard me rant and rave over the popularity of so-called cheap convenience foods, arguing that meals can be made for the same price or less than the cost of a box of Kraft Dinner.

In order to prove my point  offer some helpful suggestions for those of you interested in cheap, healthy alternatives, I thought I would share with you a few meals I’ve made recently that have cost less than $1.50 a serving.

I love eating food that is frugal, simple, easy to make, but full of flavour.  I like taking short-cuts in the kitchen, and I especially love making use of what I already have.  If a recipe calls for something that requires a new trip to the store, forget it.  I prefer to make one trip a week, give or take, and just make the best of what I’ve already got.

Here is one meal I made this week, with a little mild experimentation on my part, as an attempt to use up foods in the cupboard and fridge, without sacrificing taste or nutrition.

The prices will vary depending on where you live. I have included the price I paid for the ingredients, divided by the quantity it yields.  Remember that cheap meals are made cheaper by creative shopping.  Stock up on the great deals, search the flyers, use coupons, buy in bulk when practical, and buy generic.  

1. Curried chickpeas & tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas - 69¢ (Cheap Tip: buy dried chickpeas and save.)

1 can diced tomatoes - 79¢

1 cup Basmati rice - 50¢ (approx.)

1 green pepper - 89¢

1 onion - 10¢

1 garlic clove - 3¢

spices - 1 tbsp curry, 1 tsp coriander, large pinch kosher salt, pepper, ginger - 10¢

Directions

Cook the rice according to package directions.  Drain about 90% of the liquid out of the can of tomatoes and rinse the chickpeas. Pour the tomatoes with liquid and chickpeas into a large saucepan; add spices. Cook on a medium-low temp and let simmer for about 15 minutes, allowing the mixture to reduce.  Meanwhile, sauté the onion and peppers until done - I like them slightly crunchy - and then add to the tomato/chickpea mixture.  Instead of green pepper, you could add broccoli, red pepper or whatever veggies you prefer. (I used green pepper because it was what I had.)  Add minced garlic and veggies and stir. Season with the above spices to taste - you may want to add more as you go.  After the mixture has reduced to the point where there is only a little liquid in the pan and chickpeas are a nice bright colour, you’re done - just add on top of the rice. Easy, huh? 

Makes 4 portions.

Total cost: $3.10, - or 78¢ a portion.

2. Cucumber salad

This side dish is a pleasant addition to the Curried Chickpeas & Tomatoes above.  

Ingredients

1 English cucumber - $1.79 

1/2 cup plain yogurt - 54¢

1 garlic clove - 3¢

Spices - large pinch s&p, 1/2 tsp coriander, pinch cumin - 9¢

Directions

Cut the cumber lengthwise and then widthwise in order to make thinly sliced triangles.  Mix with the yogurt, along with minced garlic and spices.  You will have to season to taste as my spices are just estimates (I taste as I go along).

Makes 4 portions.

Total cost: $2.45 - or 61¢ per serving.

Added with the Chickpea & Tomato dish above, the meal comes to $5.55 in total or $1.39 per person.

What is your favourite frugal meal? Have you priced out the serving cost? 

Free Yoga Mat

Get a free yoga mat with four proofs of purchase (receipts) of Astro Zero Yogurt, either family size or 12-pack.  

Right now you can find coupons on the back of the 12-packs, including two $1 off coupons for Astro yogurt! 

As I mentioned in Saver Saturdays, Astro Yogurt is on sale right now at No Frills (check flyerland.ca to see No Frills prices in your area) for $2.99.  If you use the $1 off coupon from your first pack, each pack becomes $1.99!  Packages of Naturegg also have 50¢ Astro yogurt coupons hidden inside (check under the lid before buying).

See Finding in-store coupons for more tips on where to find great coupons.

There are no apparent shipping & handling fees, making this a genuine free treat!

How to have your own pub night at home

On Friday, Josh and I decided to avoid the cold, stay inside and save money. But that that didn’t mean we didn’t feel like going to the pub.  So we re-created the scene at home!  Our menu:  veggies with blue cheese dip, chicken fingers, crispy bread chips with two dips - guacamole & hummus.  (And beer. but we didn’t make that ourselves.)

Here is a step-by-step guide to how to have your delicious pub-food that is far healthier, tastier, and cheaper than the real thing!

1. Veggies with Blue Cheese Dressing

Chop up a variety of veggies - we used the old pub standby, carrots & celery.  No further instruction required.  I used Martha’s dip recipe - it was unbelievably good!

Ingredients

Finding in-store coupons

As I’ve mentioned before, a great way to get good coupons is in grocery stores and on the products themselves.  Shopping at Zehrs last week (which was a big mistake, by the way - I couldn’t believe how expensive that place was in comparison to Food Basics) I did find many great coupons.  Keep an eye out for these goodies:

1. The Foodland Ontario calendar - find it in the Ontario produce section (I found it near the squash).  The calendar has recipes and a coupon in the back for 75¢ off Gay Lea sour cream.

2. Save 50¢ off Welch’s grape juice

3. Save 50¢ off 2 Knorr dry soups

4. Save 50¢ off Yoplait Source yogurt

5. Save 50¢ off Mott’s Fruitsensations

6. Save 75¢ off Egg creations egg whites

7. Save $1 off Astro yogurt - available on Astro yogurt 12-packs

8. Save $1 off Astro probiotic yogurt drinks - also available on Astro yogurt 12-packs

For more tips on how to find great coupons see earlier posts:

Coupon tips

Zen and the art of coupon clipping 

Did you spy an in-store coupon or coupons on product packaging lately?