A summer salad: Tasty, Healthy, Cheap

This recipe makes a huge bowl, so tasty and good and even good for you. Fresh veggies add mouth and eye appeal, and a home roasted chicken adds even more taste and flavor.

I give it three stars!

Southwestern Chicken and Pasta Salad

Dressing:
2/3 cup vegetable oil 2 limes, juiced
2 TB. Southwest Seasoning 2 tsp salt (I used a little less)
1 ½ t. minced garlic

Salad:
16 oz. rotini pasta (any tubular pasta will do)
1 ½ cups whole kernel corn (I used 2 ears fresh and cut it off the cob)
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup red bell peppers, diced (1 medium)
¾ cup green onions, chopped
1 cup tomatoes – any kind of fresh will do

Recipe calls for 4 boneless, skinless breast halves sautéed in olive oil and sprinkled with the Southwest seasoning, but I used a roasted chicken (the breast, thighs and a little bit of other meat from the bones). Tear or chop chicken into bite sized pieces.

Mix dressing and set aside.
Cook pasta in lightly salted water. Drain and set aside. If you are using fresh chicken breasts, sauté them in oil with Southwest seasoning while the pasta is cooking. Otherwise, remove meat from bones of purchased roasted chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, combine pasta, corn, beans, bell pepper, green onions and tomatoes with the cooked chicken. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Prep time 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 20 minutes (for the pasta)

Serves 6-8 as main dish.

Southwestern Seasoning is from Penzeys. Mix your own Tex-Mex spice mixture if you like or order the original from www.penzeys.com

Yours in frugality and flavor,

The Cheeseparer

Paring Cheese in the Summer

So, we've revved up the smoker for salmon and kielbasa, a BOGO. This weekend we're entertaining, and I'm grilling a pork roast with a special slaw.

The lettuces, spinach and herbs from the garden have been paying big dividends, and the tomatoes are growing like weeds.

Corn is getting cheaper. Potatoes were on sale and I made a bistro potato salad with yukon golds and some onion. My husband gave me a slicer (Mandolin) that makes ultra thin slices and it's fab for onion and cukes. Makes the salads so suave looking. And thin slices use less of the vegetable.

I'm going to make Cuban sandwiches with he leftover pork. You need pork, ham, swiss cheese, crusty bread and pickles. A little garlicky mayo.

Ocean State Job Lot had all manner of picnic stuff today, so I bought paper plates, napkins, toothpicks, and plastic platters for another party. Water, too. The table will look lovely and summery with cheap stuff.

The Job Lot always has a lot of customers these days. No wonder. If you pick your recipes, and buy the store specials, you can always eat well at home. Grow your garden. The rewards are not just cheap produce, but the joy of gardening, and the relaxation of this kind of work. Believe me, it's so worthwhile.

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.

The Colonel's Beer Butt Chicken- With Attitude

Whole chickens were 99cents a pound this week. It's grilling weather. Read on.

The Colonel's Beer Butt Chicken
1 - 3 to 5 lb. whole chicken3 - 12oz cans of beer (Your favorite kind)Seasonings: Any, All or None of the following
· Salt
· Pepper
· Garlic
· Soy Sauce
· Cajun Seasonings
· Hot Sauce
· Lemon
· Seasoned Salt
· Lemon Pepper
· Poultry Seasoning
· Cayenne Pepper
· (Basically use what you like.)
Open one of the cans of beer.......DRINK. (Fun already, huh!) Wash chicken well andremove giblets. Drain. Now rub your choice of spices inside and out. Open the second canof beer.......and insert it into the Southbound end of a Northbound chicken. Youknow, where the chicken's sun don't shine. The beer and the chicken will beable to sit upright on your grill, and that's the position you want. Cover and barbequethe chicken over a low flame (about 350 degrees) for 2-3 hours.
Wiggle the joints of the chicken's leg to check doneness. When the leg wiggleswithout any resistance, the bird is done. Remove the can of beer from thechicken. The beer should be evaporated down to a half a can of beer or less.
Enjoy your dinner with that last beer (if you're not driving) and BBQ sauce onthe side. Also goes great with baked beans and potato salad. Yum!!
Copyright © 1997, Colonel St. James

The Colonel's Homepage

Road Warriors

No doubt about it, travel isn't cheap, but there are always economies, large and small that will pare some dollars off your trip.

We're driving from Boston to NYC on Tuesday. For two, with the price of gas down and an economical car, driving is still the cheapest. We park on the street and observe the NYC rules.
We also stay with a friend, which will shave at least $600 off the trip for hotels. If we had to pay for a hotel, we probably wouldn't go. Our friend also serves breakfast and one dinner. We take her to dinner one night and split the meal on the third night. She has a museum membership, so we get into MOMA for $5.00 each intead of the regular rate.

We'll also save $20+ dollars taking our lunch. I'll broil/bake a chicken breast on Monday. We make sandwiches, take potato chips, cookies, fruit and something to drink. A commuter cup brimming with coffee. The chicken, chips, cookies and fruit were all on sale. We have soft drinks in the fridge left from a house guest.

You get the idea. A trip that would cost over $1000.00 is accomplished for a couple hundred. I take busses or the subway whenever possible in Manhattan. More savings. If the distances aren't too great, walk.

When you're looking at the weekly specials, consider what you may already have in the freezer/pantry and plan your meals. This cuts way down on the weekly groceries. You do shop the specials?

I found a cheap pizza stone at the Williams Sonoma outlet which will make doing our own pizzas even easier. Homemade pizza rocks. It's not dirt cheap, but if you shop for sales in the grated cheese section, you'll do all right. Italian sausage is on sale frequently. Pepperoni can be purchased in SMALL quantities at the deli. No need to buy huge amounts. Tomatoes and broccoli were on sale today. Hey, that's a good topping. You keep pepper flakes on hand, don't you? Spices, while costly, add so much interest and flavor to food.

I buy ALL my spices on line at http://www.penzeys.com/. Once you're a good customer, they send freebies with each order. You can also order very small or very large amounts, depending on your level of use. I grow sage, chives, oregano,mint,dill, cilantro,parsley, and basil. Nothing beats tomatoes with thin slices of fresh mozzarella and chopped basil with a little EVOO. Once tomato season is here, all you buy is the EVOO (from Ocean State Job lot) and the fresh mozzarella. Yum!

Can hardly wait for summer. It's 72 degrees south of Boston today, and I'm going to plant spinach and beets today. Get that garden going. Create your own compost. Coffee grounds encourage earthworms, something my mother taught me.

Pare that cheese!

23 Houseplants

How did I ever accumulate so many houseplants? I just counted twenty-three. We are wintering the geraniums over, which I've done for five years now. Saves buying new ones in the spring. I started with a beautiful hanging geranium which I couldn't bear to part with when autumn and the frosts came, so I hung it indoors. Cut it back and kept it fed and watered. It even surprised me by blooming a bit. The next year I either rooted cuttings or brought all the geraniums in. To a plant, they lived.

This year a friend told me to take cuttings of his coleus. I now have a great plant to put outdoors this spring, bushy and colorful. I kept the scented geranium indoors for two years. Houseplants attain sentimental value, particularly when one arrives on the heals of illness. I have a sansevaria that came that way and is 27 years old. It even bloomed once.

One Christmas cactus is even older. I rescued plants from offices when people left or were laid off. Maybe you can tell where this is leading. With a little (but not much) work and forethought, you can have lots of cheap plants, free plants. And this blog is all about cheeseparing.

Another thing I do is take some of the plants outdoors in the summer and put them on the porch. They really thrive in the moist New England air with some (not full) sun and frequent waterings.

This week I'll divide my dianthus, and I've already found a home for some of the divisions. A tray of seedlings are growing in the kitchen window. Last year we had the most fantastic heirloom beets. This year the garden will be geared more toward veggies except for a few big pots of flowers. A seed packet of nasturtiums always pays dividends.

It's always interesting to see what reseeds itself from year to year. If you aren't doing some gardening, even indoors in pots or containers, you're missing the boat. Food, flowers, nuturing and relaxation. What could be better?

The Cheeseparer

Cheap Vacations

The Cheeseparer has been paring cheese, vacation-wise. First in Washington, DC and then in Europe? Europe, you say? How can you pare cheese in Europe?

You can use frequent flyer miles if you have them, which is what we did. We flew off-season, and enjoyed some nice spring days in Germany. Who knew?

You can visit relatives if you have them, which is what we did. You can limit purchases to stuff that is cheaper in Europe, which won't be much, but we can home with a few treasurers: jam, mustard, plastic notebook sheets. Well, that's about all.

You can find hotels out of town where you can stay for 79 Euros including breakfast. No hair dryer and "Tricky Ricky" soap and shampoo (I am not making this up) but a big room and a good breakfast with the chickens crowing and the sheep bleating. How cool is that?

We found good buys on meals, too. A bratwrust in Thuringer on the street fills one up for the rest of the day and is cheap. If you need a bouquet to take your hostess, that is even more reasonable.

Of course if you have no miles or relatives, it would be best to stay home or whatever. We're having chicken and vegetable soup tonight. There are numerous good quick breads that can be made from Bisquick. We will also eat a fruit salad which is moderate and healthy. Don't ever discount your health.

I do hope you're going to plant a garden this summer, even if it's only a few patio tomatoes and some pots of herbs. We'll discuss this in more detail in a few weeks.

By the way, I actually stood in the kitchen where the photo for this blog was taken.

The Cheeseparer