Mexican Soup Week

Last week we had several main dish salads.  This week we're doing soup.  I find salads or soups as a main course are wonderful for weight control.  We always have a salad with the soup and soups can be both nourishing and filling.  I've noticed that soups that call for 4- 5 cups of chicken broth can be less than frugal if you have to buy the expensive broth.  Make your own from scraps if you really want to save.  


Here are two yummy recipes for Mexican soups.  We enjoyed them both. Yucatan Style Chicken, Lime and Orzo Soup  
This soup is not sour in spite of the lime juice.  Leave in pith and seeds of the pepper according to how hot you like it.   We garnished with sour cream and used tortilla chips instead of bread.     It's very colorful with the tomato, cilantro and pappers.  


Here's another:  Black Bean Soup with Chorizo and Chicken     The chorizo flavors the whole soup, with mild hints of thyme and bay leaf.  We used our neighbor's thyme ("Pick some any time!" )    I garnished this soup with cilantro, too, for color and flavor.  No use having a whole bunch go to waste.  We put avocado in the salad.  It wasn't quite ripe when we brought it home, but a short stint in a plastic bag with an apple was all it took.  You do know this trick, don't you.  Apples emit a ripening agent that will help other fruits to ripen.

Work in the garden and a walk in the coolish June day.  Rewarded myself with watching soccer, golf and baseball.  And the soup!  

Yours in frugality, 


The Cheeseparer 

Living Large In Lean Times

The New York Times today has a review of Clark Howard's book, Living Large in Lean Times.     Lots of advice to hanging on to your money, and according to the review, some good, some weird.   It's been on the best seller list for a while, so you should have no trouble finding it, and maybe you can even get it used on Amazon, a practice I resort to occasionally, because I see MY book out there for sale, especially in MA where we live.   Sauce for the goose.  If  you have intimations of "saving money" as a New Year's resolution, you might want to dip into this book. 


We returned from the grocery store with the Christmas roast, an expensive business to be sure, but no more than the organic turkey breast.  We've having broccoli, salad, potatoes and apple cake for the rest of the dinner, so only the roast is pricey.  


I'm making rice pudding from the old Betty Crocker cookbook.  No eggs, and it cooks to a  creamy, dreaminess that is so comforting without breaking the caloric bank.  Not always easy to do.  Old Time Rice Pudding


 Every week you should be saving 15-30% at the grocery store using coupons and specials.  Try to do that.  And try not to do what I did today, and buy a roll of heavy duty foil when I had just bought a new one.   Well, it was on sale and we'll use it next summer.  Cold comfort.   Do you turn the thermostat down at right?   And also if you leave the house for the day?  I hope so.    Paring cheese is  in the details.  No bargains on cheese at all in the grocery store.  Trader Joe's is the place for cheap cheese.  You may not even need to pare it.  


Happy Holidays to all.  Here is a photo of my mother-in-law with the Christmas goose, years ago, back in Germany. 

Farmhouse Curry

Due to the power failure and having to cook all the defrosted chicken breasts, we missed a whole grocery shopping circuit.  This week the aim was to a) do a moderate diet week, calorie-wise and b) not break the bank.  So far so good.  Whole chickens were on sale for 99 cents a pound and I bought one and roasted it with cumin and citrus last night.  Most delicious with acorn squash and broccoli, all on sale.
Today I took the rest of the chicken off the bone, after putting aside a leg and a wing for lunch.  My curry is made with onions, an apple, fresh tomatoes, chicken broth and chicken (would you believe all on sale?) along with lots of spices including, natch, curry powder.  Our curry powder is hot! therefore I only use a fraction of what the recipe calls for.  In this case, 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons.  It still had a bit of heat.  Served with white basmati rice, sauteed bananas, and some leftover broccoli from last night.  Lots of lean meat and veggies, and great flavor with very little fat, not always the case.

This recipe is from The Artist's & Writer's Cookbook, a volume I acquired in the early days of marriage, and the particular recipe is by Anthony Powell, whom I later knew as the author of A Dance to the Music of Time.  The book is long out of print, but it turns up here and there in various used book places. Artists & Writers Cookbook at Amazon 

We have enough curry left for tomorrow, so I have got 6 entrees and 1 lunch out of a $4.00 chicken.  Not bad.  And both meals were delicious.  Later on in the week we have some lean porkchops and 2 baskets of Brussels Sprouts, then some steak tips with carrots.  Iceberg lettuce was also on sale, along with the pork chops and Brussels sprouts.  I'm trying a new recipe with toasted pecans and dried cranberries.  Sounds yummy.

In the morning when I come downstairs the house will still smell of curry.  Indian food rocks! 

The Cheeseparer

Valentine's Day Blast the Frugal Way

We spent $102.00 at the supermarket on Friday, including $17.00 for two beautiful bouquets of red and white tulips.


Eating out on Valentine's Day is usually a horor show--crowded, with bad service and nervous, overdressed couples.  We find it's much more enjoyable to go out before or after the event, or like yesterday, sit at the bar in Chestnut Hill at Paparzzi, drinking good pino grigio and eating carpaccio and focaccia, and fine Italian soup. 

 

You can see what we ate with our $ 102.00 which includes groceries for the rest of the week, too.  If we had gone out for this meal at a nice restaurant, I calculated we would have spent $175.00 for two with tip, tax, wine and four courses. (A salad of lettuce, artichoke bottoms, cherry tomatoes and cucumber is not shone.  I made everything from scratch, a labor of love, but hey, it's Valentine's day.  The crepes were delicious.  

If you have eggs, milk, flour and fruit you can do scrumptious crepes and cafloutis.  I used an on sale package of frozen stawberries and made a sauce with cornstarch, a little sugar, orange juice, orange liquor and a dash of brandy.  The crepes are filled with cream cheese (on sale) and powdered sugar.  The recipe made 12 crepes, which means we have three luscious deserts for  Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  

The stuffed chicken breasts are from Rachel Ray and there is enough for tonight and extra stuffing for some stuffed shells later in the week.  

The shrimp bisque was made with on-sale shrimp and their shells, and I splurged and bought leeks and a fennel bulb.  Again, enough bisque for three days and was it ever good.  I use cheap white vermouth when a recipe calls for white wine. 

Yes, I spent a good portion of yesterday in the kitchen, but having (delicious) food for 2-3 days is a good tradeoff.  Living cheaply does not mean living poorly.  Give your creativity free rein.  

Happy Valentine's Day and President's Day from The Cheeseparer

Cheap Trick

On Saturday, I saved $48.57 on a $93.36 grocery bill. 21 of the items were on sale. The savings broke down at $1.60 for coupons, Sales items $26.55, and BOGO savings $20.42.

Saturday's shopping involved several challenges. I only had $97.00 left in the grocery budget for the month. The store had some specials I needed to stock up on for houseguests arriving th second week in July. We needed meat for two meals.

I didn't buy any specials that I didn't need immediately or else for the guests. The guests have difficult to meat eating requirements. We don't even want to go there.

What we are eating. I had a package of chicken breasts, and we ate chicken piccata two nights, one night with grilled zucchini and lettuce from the garden, and the second night with corn on the cob and organic romaine hearts on sale at a good price. With the romaine, I could plan that I would use all the lettuce before leaving for the 4th of July weekend.

Last night we had petite sirloin on the grill, and I saved one of the steaks and a portion of a 2nd for steak salad (remember the romaine?) tonight. Cluster tomatoes were also on sale. Tomorrow I'm making a minestrone with Italian sausage, on sale two weeks ago. I bought zucchini and coleslaw mix for the soup, and one can of tomatoes.

Eating cheap does not mean forgoing food pleasures. Remember the steak! Cherries and blueberries were also on sale, and we had blueberry waffles yesterday morning and blueberry pancakes this morning. Sale bacon, of course. Some of the cherries went into a ricotta dessert last night. Tonight I may use the rest of the blueberries for a freeform tart. I'll be making the crust myself and baking some food processor bread tomorrow to go with the soup. I do hate to pay $4.00 a loaf for decent bakery bread. I can make the bread while dealing with the soup.

Thursday, en route to the holiday weekend locale, we're packing a lunch of chicken sandwiches on home made bread, cookies (on sale two weeks ago), chips, plums and coke on special last weekend. We'll eat better and faster.

Remember, eating cheap(er) doesn't mean yucko margarine and boiled cabbage. We had a delicious salad last weekend of cucumber, dill from the garden, and a dressing of plain yogurt and sour cream.

Menu planning and keeping a well-stocked pantry are your greatest helpers on the road to supermarket savings.

For instance, after the chicken piccata, we need capers. I'll haunt the job lot for a nice big jar at a fab price instead of paying through the nose at the grocery store. Capers (if you like them) add zest and flavor to a lot of dishes.

Everything is a balancing act between time, money, health and taste. It's a lot to consider, and you do have to plan ahead.

Yours in frugality,

The Cheeseparer

Do It Yourself Mother's Day Steak House Dinner

Ruth Chris' steakhouse has recently offered a three course meal for $99 for two people. Add the $40 for drinks, the tip and the tax and the transporation and parking and you've topped off at $195.00. And this is the bargain meal.

Mother's Day, like Valentine's Day is the worst possible time to go out to eat. Too may people, bad service, screaming kids--what's to like?

Have yourself a wonderful feed for $30.00. I kid you not. Rib eye's were on sale this week, and I got two BIG ones for $11.35. This morning I used a Pillsbury pie crust ($1.69) filled with blueberries and blackberries to make a lucious dessert ($6.97 for the fruit.)

Baking potatoes purchased a while back, a big bag for $3.00, so figure $1.00 for two big potatoes. That includes butter, bacon bits and sour cream (all bought on sale). Add another $1 for incidentals, and the total comes to $30.00.

We are eating like kings, and Mom just has to cook the asparagus in the microwave and toss a salad. Potatoes bake themselves and Significant Other grills the steaks. The dessert took about 5 minutes after breakfast. It is a free form tart with the berries, sugar, lemon juice, apple pie spice and a bit of instant tapioca thickener. Looks lucious. Actually, if the two of us went out for this it would probably cost closer to $250.00. But these days, we wouldn't.

I washed 8 sweaters and a pair of good slacks, thereby saving $46.00, which will be more than enough to get all my winter coats cleaned. The sweaters look great. I wash them on hand wash and block on towels to dry. I due these two each and dry them on the washer and dryer.

One has to be a little clever and a little creative and pare a bit of cheese. By the way, Trader Joe's has great prices on cheese, and some of their crackers, esp. the flax seed ones are sooo delicious. Discover your inner cheese parer.

When I was a young woman, a couple got married and the wedding reception was in the hotel basement or at the bride's house. Talk about cheap! Weddings, birthday parties, all sorts of events have gotten out of hand. We can still have fun and enjoy our friends while we spend a fraction of the money we formerly did. Build frugal habits for a lifetime.

Paring Cheese Tonight

The supermarket had breakfast sausage links for $2.89 a pound. I found a BOGO on cherry tomatoes. Two nice-sized potatoes left from the 5 lb. bag I bought a while back. We're on for dinner!

I make cherry tomatoes fines herbes. I still have my rosemary growing in the living room window, and I dried oregano from the garden. Add to that, dried chives, thyme and chervil with a couple of finely chopped scallions and some olive oil and we're good to go. The tomatoes brighten any table and are even good for you. What's more amazing they have FLAVOR!

The sausage I fried in a non-stick skillet.

For the potatoes, I chop a small onion and a clove of garlic and put that to soften in some bacon fat. Then I chop up the potatoes and add them to the hot grease. At the end, I beat up two eggs and pour on top the potatoes and cook until done.

This is a tasty meal and we have enough sausage and tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow, along with the English muffin I forgot to toast tonight.

This week the New York Times had an article about how people have gone back to such stalwart old favorites as cube steaks. Remember cube steaks? They had a recipe and I was salivating. I used to cook cube steaks when my kids were little. Hey, the kids are gone, but the idea was tempting.

Today, Shaw's in Mansfield had cube steaks--a generous package and it was a manager's special with $3.00 off. Couldn't resist. Looks like it will make two dinners. They had mushrooms for a dollar, so I grabbed a package of those, too, to saute and serve on the cube steak.

Cheap eats can be both quick and tasty. The cherry tomatoes would also be great with the cube steaks. And we have a nice acorn squash which wasn't cheap.

It's hard to save on produce, so one has to bite the bullet sometimes. I'll let you know how the cube steaks tasted.

We're been getting adequate beef (and therefore zinc) all winter, and so far, no one has been sick although we've been exposed plenty and we take public transporation. (see prior post)

Friday night the Green Line of Boston's MBTA was packed so tightly that if someone had sneezed, twenty-four people would have caught cold.

Wash your hands and eat some beef. It doesn't have to be a lot and it can be nice and lean.

The Cheeseparer

Don't Spend $400.00!

Todays New York Times had a hilarious article about people who never look at the price of anything suddenly trying to cut back on expenditures. They were clueless. One guy bought a $400.00 electric fireplace to save on his fuel bills. It barely heats anything. Someone else bought a gazillion heads of cauliflower trying to save money. Another person "frugally" eliminated her $12.00 soup purchase and bought $500.00 dog bed. Go figure.

I didn't even know there were $12.00 soups. Not where I shop. Cripes, I could live for a week on $12.00 worth of soup: goulash, onion and chili, and maybe some bean or pea thrown in. Soup is the cheapest thing you can serve.

To save, what you do is not spend money on anything that you don't have to. Nothing. If you discover that the cauliflower is $5.00 per head and you have carried 6 to the checkout counter, tell the clerk you only want one. Or none. Just because it is in your cart, you don't have to buy it. The man who bought the stove should have done a cost/benefit analysis. The woman with the cauliflower is supposed to be good at math.

I don't know.

Today I checked at the resale shops I take used clothing to, and the one wanted nothing until after Thanksgiving, and the other wanted nothing until after December. Wha? The economy must be so bad that everyone is taking old clothes to the resale shops instead of donating them.

Think I'll try EBAY or Craig's List. Really.

I bought all the sale items for ingredients I need to take my Thanksgiving side dish and dessert to our hostess' house. Amazing how much is on sale. I'm taking a Brussels Sprouts/Cauliflower side side and a pumpkin cheese cake with a marshmellow-sour cream topping. Both dishes are rich as Croesus and have some nutritive value, i.e. vitamin a, beta carotene, protein, calcium, well, you get the idea, as well as loads of fat.

It's cold out and we need an extra layer to keep us warm. That's what I keep telling myself. Have you ever noticed how skinny people are always cold? They must dread winter.

The Cauliflower woman has started a blog. EconoWhiner.com. Maybe we should all give her the wisdom of our experience.