Cabbage and Sparerib Soup

Forget all those other recipes out there.  This is the one that rocks!  Cheap, too.  Soooo tasty.  My only changes.  After the rub, I saved the garlic and some of the rub that didn't adhere and cooked it with the cabbage and onions.  I can't tell you how delicious this soup is.  Just try it.    Don't cook ALL the garlic but two or three cloves, otherwise, you'll have garlic soup. 

We like it with rye bread, a salad and some fruit for dessert. 

New York Times recipes seldom let you down.

Cabbage and Sparerib Soup from the New York Times

Grocery Shopping Considerations

Making out the weekly shopping list is work, but a little thought will take you a long way towards nutrition and saving money. 

Marble Cake from an old German recipe (Marmorkuchen)

Considerations:  store specials, weekly budget (ours always decreases as the month progresses) nutrition and weight control.  Other considerations are food in the pantry or freezer and time.  These considerations are always a balancing act.  We shop mostly at two stores, the one where we shop weekly and the nearby one where we run into get bread and milk when running low.

Sometimes we make a run through Aldi, Walmart, Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.  I like Aldi for it's excellent coffee, Walmart for its prices on granola bar and canned soup (Select Harvest is minimally processed and tastes wonderful.) 
Whole Foods is good for hard-to-find produce and other items, and Trader Joe's for cheese, crackers and some produce.  We also shop Ocean State Job Lot for pasta, jam, capers, and stuff like artichoke hearts.  You can't be sure of finding what you need, but if you do, the price will be terrific.  Ocean State always has the Red Mill brand at good prices.  We also love the Danish reduced sugar jam when its available. 


This week we needed to be frugal as well as weight watching. (The pictured cake is one of the reasons for diet week). I started Monday's dinner with a 12 ounce ham steak from the freezer with 1/2 head of caulifower and a nice salad.  We kept a few ounces of the ham out for the next days breakfast of eggs, ham, tomatoes and onions all cooked up together. 


The next night I made the South Beach Diet White Chili with on-sale chicken breasts.  We had a big skillet of homemade cornbread which served us well for three days.  In addition to corn meal, it had scallions, cheese, jalapeno and frozen corn in it.  Made with buttermilk.  Yum!  I do love good corn bread.  Always use stone ground corn meal and cut down or eliminate the sugar.  Use more corn meal than white flour.  Now you're cookin'. 


We had a second meal of the chili, always better the next day.  Salad of orange slices and avocado with the chili.  Yowza!  Have dropped 2  pounds already, what with 2 workouts and a walk. 


Tonight we're having curried cauliflower (the other half) and garbanzo beans.  Fried apples.  The rest of the cornbread.  


Tomorrow a Dr. Oetker's pizza, (from the freezer) so yummy and just the right size for two light eaters.  Saturday I'll buy a few Asian veggies for a stir-try of steak and veggies.  There is one small strip steak in the freezer.  I always have rice and Asian spices around.  I'll buy a few mushrooms and a broccoli spear or two.  None of these meals are difficult or time-consuming.  We like trying new recipes like the vegetable curry.  Try to include one or two vegetarian meals into your week.  And at least one "meat as flavoring"  like the stir-fry steak.  


If you shop the weekly specials with an eye to what is already on  hand, you'll be surprised how some lovely menus can come together.  The planning takes time, yes, but you can do it during commercials or while waiting for the soup to boil.  Go thru your recipes.  Try new foods with new ethnicites.  Eat cheaply and well.  


The Cheeseparer

Winter is the Time for Cheap Eats

Along with snow, cold temperatures, icy roads and sidewalks, wet boots and mittens, winter offers possibilities for eating on the cheap.

First there is soup, made-from-scratch soup: pea soup, bean soup, lentil soup, chicken and noodle soup. Soup with sausage, soup with cabbage. Dark chili, white chili. Yum! Don't stop there, think of hearty stew! Nourish yourself and your family.

Beef stew, pork stew, goulash, coq au vin, and my god, there's pot roast! And ribs! When meat is on sale, stock up, especially the BOGOs. The Russian dish, bigos, is a winter dream as is the Russian soup, Shtshi. (google it!) Those Russkies know a thing or three about hearty winter fare.

Most of these dishes make a big pot or casserole and won't break the bank if you consider the number of portions and the fact that all you need is maybe a salad and some homemade bread. If you feel lazy, make biscuits out of Bisquick. Be creative. Corn bread is great with chili. Find the 300 year old recipe with no white flour and no sugar. It rocks!

Shop the specials! The photo is Boeuf Bourgignon, AKA Burgundy Beef, an excellent and reasonable choice for a dinner party. I cut up a roast that was on sale instead of buying the more expensive cut of meat. A dish for 8 cost about $20.00 including the wine. I only needed noodles (cheap) and a salad (red leaf lettuce and home made dressing) to complete the meal. Dessert was a home made mocha cake that I only had to buy a small bar of chocolate and some yogurt to make. Look around the pantry and use what is on hand.

Appetizer was bacon-wrapped breadsticks, another cost-paring choice. We have noticed that the burgundy cheese balls coated with almonds are almost always cheaper than anything else at the cheese counter. They're tasty, too.

Eating well is the best revenge. Cook from scratch. Less salt, less chemicals and better taste.

The Cheeseparer