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 

The Frugal Cook's Garden

Gardening In A Small Spot

Of course you grow your own tomatoes, right?  Even a sunny balcony can grow great patio tomatoes.  A bit of alley, anyplace there's sun and soil or room for a container can be a garden.  I always grow great heaps of herbs.  Parsley, natch, cilantro, mint, oregano, dill, basil, sage, thyme.  All are easily grown.  Mint and oregano always prosper like weeks.  Dill reseeds itself every year.  Thyme keeps faithfully over the winter as does sage, which can be harvested until Christmas.  We also like to grow cukes and sometimes peppers.  I failed to grow tomatillos.  Chives are also reliable and add delicious flavor.  


We grew some nice mesclun this spring, which I always added to the salad.  Unfortunately, the critters ate most of the spinach.  We got a little.  Must have some healthy bunnies.  


Onward, 


The Cheeseparer

The Humble Meatloaf Always Pleases

This is slightly fancier than my mom's old recipe, but it calls for the topping of ketchup, mustard and brown sugar she always used.  I took this meatloaf, served cold, to a party last night and folks gobbled it up.  Nice and firm, it cut neatly and easily into small portions.  


I always buy ground beef at the butcher counter, because you can't be too picky.  85% lean yields a tasty meatloaf.  I used marjoram and thyme instead of the sage.  Pick the herb(s) you favor.  Used part scallions, part regular onion.  The cupboard yielded only panko bread crumbs, so I used that. 

Not only do you go to war with the army you have, you often cook with the ingredients on hand.  


This was the first dish I learned to make.  My dad learned to expect it when my mom couldn't cook.  BTW, I substituted cilantro for parsley, being too lazy to go out and cut parsley in the rain. 


Meatloaf tastes good with baked potatoes,  almost any veg. and a green salad.    Sauteed cherry or grape tomatoes (with garlic and herbs) are always a colorful side dish, should they be on sale.   Carrots, also give great color.  Remember, we eat first with our eyes. 


Here is where you'll find the recipe:  Better Homes and Gardens Meat Loaf
I think the recipe was around when God was a boy.   Enjoy.  


The Cheeseparer

Naan Takes the Cake

Home Made Naan

I made a spicy red lentil soup yesterday, and decided to try some home made naan bread.  Food processor needs parts, so I couldn't make the recipe I had picked out earlier.  Another recipe made 14 helpings and called for more flour than I had in the house.  Found this recipe on the food network: Naan Indian Flat Bread


I made it with poppy seeds, but next time (and there will be a next time) I'll do the garlic naan.  Pretty simple and the dough was not that difficult to work with.  Only one rising.  Also found a non-yeast recipe.  I didn't have any plain yogurt, so I substituted 1/2 sour cream, 1/2 low-fat buttermilk, and that seemed to work.  Tasted great.  You do need a cast iron skillet and make it on top of the stove.  No hot oven on a hot day. 


The lentils were red ones from Whole Foods.  Our supermarket only has the plain brown.  No French, no red.  
I served a salad and we were so full we didn't need dessert.    Enough of everything left for tonight, which is my writing group night, so I have to leave the house early. 


We're having soup week this week, always good for the loss of a couple pounds.  Also lost two during salad week two weeks ago.   I will post the soups later.  The lentil one is so old it may not be on the web.  Just the right amount of spice. You are basically making  your own curry powder.  


If you're eating on the cheap, paring that cheese, in other words, ethnic food rocks.  


Berries have been on sale and we've had good fruit salads, and they are soooo good on my morning Cherrios.  We try to eat whole grain cereal without much sugar.    Shredded wheat is the best and I have a coupon.                                                                    

South Beach Diet Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

With a cool breeze and a cool day, we stoked up the grill tonight for a South Beach Diet Recipe.  Of all the diets I've ever been on, this diet has the best recipes.  Tonight's consisted of boneless, skinless chicken breasts grilled with tons of veggies:  mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, and anise.  We also grilled two small ears of corn.  Veggies were tossed with a mixture of olive oil, parsley, garlic, basil and some fresh oregano from the garden.   Enough for two nights.  We're having strawberries later this evening.  We've already had orange juice, tomatoes, banana, and olives.  Lots of fruits and veggies.  Not cheap but the peppers and mushrooms were on sale, as was the corn and strawberries.  Do plan your menus around the newspaper specials and you'll save lots.  
Remember, fresh food is better for you than processed food.  Costs more and takes more time, but at least you're standing or walking in the kitchen and not sitting on your butt.  Think of the advantages. 


I was in Atlanta last week, where the kitchen contained nothing but "light" vanilla soy milk and a ton of bagels.  Some peanut butter and honey wheat bread.  I cooked potato pancakes, tacos and a cheese omelet.  I made it with Mexican eheese blend and Parmesan and it was dynamite.  Making your own tacos is totally delicious and healthy.  We ate some Indian food in Roswell that was spectacular.  Best Indian food I've had in years.  A little place with too few people.   Too bad.  


 We drove back from NYC yesterday and stopped at Wilson's Barbecue in Fairfield, CT.  Pulled Pork to die for.  Potato salad had no sugar, a huge plus, and the coleslaw was tasty.  But oh, that pulled pork.  Mega-yum!  


The Cheeseparer

Pork and Meatball Soup

I found this recipe in Saveur.  We got 4 servings out a half a pound of ground pork.  And they were delicious, too. 
Romanian Meatball Soup


The recipe calls for common, i.e. cheap ingredients like onion, carrot, celery, canned tomatoes, etc.   It also calls for 2 Tablespoons of paprika.  I use 1/2 t. hot paprika, 1 T. smoked paprika, and 2 t. regular paprika.  The hot paprika (be careful) gives the soup a lot of zing.  Red peppers were on sale at the market, so this was an excellent week to make the soup.  The rice gave the meatballs a nice texture.  We thought this was a keeper. 

Men Of A Certain Age

This post doesn't deal with frugality so much as keeping your life in order,  Lately, some men I know have died:  expectedly, unexpectedly, and sort of expectedly.  All of these elderly gentlemen were widowed or (most of them) divorced.    Guys, if you are over 70, toss the porn collection.  Get rid of the "conquest" scrapbook with nude photos of your past and present lady friends.  Your children do not want to see this when they clean out your stuff.  You probably have by far too much stuff that you should think about getting rid off.  Do it today.  If you must keep photos, put them in a password protected file on your computer.  Memorize the password. 

When you become old, don't collect more stuff.  Begin divesting yourself.  Get rid of all the junk.  You have too much.  My father (who did not have one of these funky "collections,") filed his junk mail.  Yup, a file cabinet with junk mail.  Haband slacks comes to mind.  Why?

My folks moved a lot, but they had eye drops dating to 1941.  Can you imagine?  Luziers cosmetics from when we lived in Denver back in the day.  A moth eaten mink stole.  Yucko!  In the heat of a Phoenix June, I got up at 4:00 a.m. and worked until 9:00 when it just became too hot.  Cleaning stuff out.  It was brutal.  At least, I didn't encounter evidence of anyone's sex life. 

Toss it!  Burn it!  Shred it!  We had a neighbor in Illinois, again an aging gent who threw his porn collection out with the trash--three days early.  It also discarded pocket knives, inner tubes and items attractive to young boys.  Every parent in the neighborhood had to look under their kids  mattress and in the back of the closet.   Do NOT put it out with the trash. Think of your neighborhood reputation.  You don't want to be known as "the old porn."

Stuff is just stuff.  It is mortal like us, and you can rid yourself of tons of stuff and still have too much.  We are in the process of cleaning our the home office in our basement.  No porn, but lots and lots of paper.  Lots of paper.  Maybe tons, I don't know.  It's disappearing, little by little. 

By all means if you like, hang on to the valuable antiques, the paintings, the gold jewelry.  Someone will want those.  Books, not so much.  Photos:  organize and label.  Except for the naked lady friends.  Discard those photos, pretty please with sugar. 

Now let's talk about something more fun.  Lake Tacos.  Tomorrow is tacos day.