Cheap Chinese

What do you do with one pork chop?   This was my quandry.  It was a meaty boneless chop, and I decided to make an Asian dish.  Didn't get around to cooking the rice until late, but I did fry up two  pieces of bacon and scramble an egg.  I had a few chicken scraps that I had leftover from a rotisserie chicken, what our supermarket calls Five Buck Cluck, because on Thursday, it's reduced to $5.00.  
We had some mushrooms, celery, various kinds of onions, and I bought some green beans for 99 cents a pound, the remainder of which will be used tomorrow.  Cooked up the rice and started sauteing.    And slicing and chopping.  Started to smell really good.  Added some sesame oil.  Parboiled the beans, yada, yada.  Made a nice salad of romaine and oranges.   Concocted some broth from the pork chop frying and the bottom of the chicken container.  Thickened with a bit of cornstarch.  Added a dash of Chinese hot pepper sauce and some soy.  Final touch was the bacon, egg and a few sliced almonds.  Yum!  Enough left for lunch. 


I saved a few mushrooms to put into the Swiss steak tomorrow.   We do eat well, but I am finding it difficult to buy a week's groceries for under $100.00.  We are all stocked up on frozen items now, and have some meat in the freezer.  Plenty of pasta and canned soups.   Company coming for a week the first of the month, so some extras have been purchased.  Still . . 


Round steak on sale for $3.39  per pound.  I  pound it, flour it, and saute it in some canola oil.  Add an onion, the mushrooms (remember the mushrooms), an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce, some dried marjoram, and plenty of salt and pepper.  We'll have asparagus, green beans, mashed potatoes and a salad.  Good deal on romaine today.  My sales slip said I saved $35.00.  Not too bad.  


It's a struggle, isn't it?  I spend a lot of time looking at the specials and planning menus.  Of course it pays off in the long run, but the effort isn't fun.   We splurged on fresh rhubarb.  I'm taking an upside down rhubarb cake to a party on Saturday, and we'll have some rhubarb cooked with strawberries, raspberries and cranberries.  


In Europe in the summer, esp. in Germany and Austria, there's a red fruit dessert called "rote gruetze" or red groats.  Very healthy and nutricous.  We never find red currants here, but we concoct our own take on the dessert and it's invariably delicious.  


I worked in the garden today.  Almost 80 degrees and a beautiful day.     The beds are ready for planting, and I'm doing just that tomorrow:  mesclun lettuces, spinach and dill.  The lilac that took a direct hit from a big oak during Hurricane Irene is looking pretty good.  My wild ginger is spreading and the heath has bloomed all winter, a first.  Crocus blooming and daffodils ready.  Forsythia coming soon.  I never remember a spring this early.  Somebody steals the suet out of the bird feeder every night.  Ants in the house.  Spring!  




The Cheeseparer


The orange cat constantly escapes but is pretty good about coming home soon. 

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