What I would like to do with this blog is share my tips for getting good food less expensively. I think I might have a book along the same lines not too far into the distant future, but I have two blogs that aren't getting much use, so why not change this blog to a food blog. I certainly am cooking more than scrapbooking these days.
I am going to tell you about meal planning, couponing and where you might find some good deals with or with out coupons. I am also going to give you some of my favorite recipes that accomplish my goals, which are balanced healthy meals that taste great and don't cost a lot. Sometimes that means changing ingredients, somtimes it means just keeping your eyes open.
I also want to give you a little tip on where all my entries will be coming from. Menu planning. It's very important. Menu planning. I have several friends who do this, and they will agree, menu planning is the key to not spending too much money on food.
I have been menu planning for more than 15 years now, but with the financial problems my husband and I are having these days, I take it very seriously. So seriously that I keep track of it all on an Excel spread sheet. First column is what food I have. Next column, a list of dates. Third column, what's for dinner that night. I have a few other entries like the names of cookbooks i want to use, but it's that simple.
The rest of this blog post is my first example of what I want to share with you on how to cook good food without much money.
DO YOU LIKE ASPARAGUS?
So Does the 99 Cents Only Store!
One of the items in my pantry was an unopened bag of pasta elbows. Determined to use it, I came on a recipe for pasta with bow ties. Since I wanted to use elbows, I saw no reason why a simple change of shape would not work in this case. A purist might say that bow ties, with more flat surfaces on them, hold the sauce this pasta recipe called for better than elbows do. But, having elbows in the pantry and bow ties no closer than the nearest grocery store was a good enough reason for me to make the substitution.
The recipe also called for asparagus. When I saw this, I wondered "How will I buy fresh asparagus in December?!! Guess I'm going to have to leave it out. Even if I could find it, it would be a big expense for our tight budget. On the column in my menu planner that allows me to make notes, I wrote next to this recipe "omit asparagus."
But then we put up a Christmas tree. I have white bunting that I've used most years instead of a tree skirt, but my husband isn't quite as frugal as me. Since I wasn't sure which box of Christmas stuff I was storing the bunting in, he thought it was better for us to go to the local 99 Cents Only store and purchase a new tree skirt there instead of looking for the bunting at home. So, this year's tree is wrapped in lovely green felt instead of white bunting. The skirt is too small to tie around the tree stand. Not sure that was a good deal, and I am sure the $1 glass candle with the angel on it was entirely unneeded, but we definitely did find some good deals.
And one of them was asparagus! That's right, a standard-sized bunch of asparagus for 99 cents. In December. I am not sure if they still have asparagus since it was on Saturday we purchased this, but the lesson I have learned from this is to check the dollar stores! We also have Dollar Tree and an independent dollar store here in Jurupa Valley, the latter are both in the same shopping centers as Stater Brothers' grocery stores, so next time I go to either one of them, I'm making it a two-for-one stop.
Here's my take on the recipe. I'll call mine:
SICILIAN ELBOWS
Olive oil Olive is our favorite oil, for health reasons. You can buy all different kinds, but I only recommend two: Extra virgin and extra-light. Extra virgin has the most health benefits, but extra light really does taste better when you're baking. The original recipe called for a tablespoon, but I put in just enough to coat a 10" frying pan.
2 Tbsp of sun-dried tomatoes The recipe only called for 1, but I put in two for two reasons. One Tbsp just didn't seem like enough, and my sun-dried tomatoes are in a bottle of oil. They won't keep forever, so why not enjoy a few more while I can?
1/4 cup of white wine This recipe did not specify what kind of white wine. Some cookbooks will specify "cooking sherry" but that means buying a bottle of wine just to cook with. Why? Every standard sized bottle of wine has about four and one-third glasses of wine. What are you going to do with that one-third of a glass? Put some of it in the recipe!
1/4 cup of cooked asparagus I doubled this too. That left me half of the asparagus for another recipe that I'll share with you next.
2 cups cooked pasta I of course used elbows, instead of the bow ties called for in the original. I wouldn't recommend spaghetti or lasagna noodles for this but I think any type of small shaped pasta would work.
Salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese
Coat a frying pan with oil. Add sun-dried tomatoes and wine, simmer for one minute. Add the pasta, asparagus, salt and pepper, and toss like a salad. Top with Parmesan cheese.
With the other half of the 99-cent asparagus, I made this for lunch the next day:
GRILLED HAM AND CHEESE WITH ASPARAGUS
Six to eight thin asparagus spears
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Bread My cookbook recommended either a purchased baguette or following another one of their recipes from scratch for homemade baguettes. I could have done the homemade recipe, as a box of roll mix has been sitting in the pantry awhile. But my husband and I really prefer the texture of whole wheat bread most the time. And we always have that on hand! I actually had to purchase a new loaf in this week's grocery shopping. I paid an OK price there, but not long after I saw that Wal-Green's has it on sale for 99 cents! I purchased another to freeze, since bread is one of those things we always need. I will save the roll mix for a heartier meal.
3 oz cheese, sliced thin My cookbook recommended Taleggio or another soft cheese like Brie. I couldn't even find Taleggio in the grocery store, so I opted for what's in my refrigerator - cheddar cheese. I think it was still good, but if you like gooey cheese on your grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, Brie would be better. I personally think cheese that stays in the sandwich is just fine.
4 oz ham My cookbook recommended proscuitto, and sine I was craving the spicier taste of this Italian ham I went for it. Good thing Fresh and Easy had that! If you want to spare the expense of proscuitto, or can't find it, any sliced deli ham will work. Including the kinds whose manufacturers often give out coupons.
Grill the asparagus 3- minutes. Put the proscuitto on one slice of bread, top that with cheese, top that with asparagus. Grill the sandwich about six minutes per side, longer if you like a good toast.
I was given a panini maker as a gift for Christmas one year, so that's what I use to grill my sandwiches. That means you grill both sides at once and one side gets cool panini marks. But otherwise a frying pan works just as well.
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