Happy St. Patty's Day!

I do love a good meal of Corned Beef and Cabbage.  Last year I didn't cook any because I was pregnant and had no energy.  This year I was nursing and had no energy...and there was that birthday party for my seven year old to pull off.

But I can't walk away from a good sale.  While cabbage was 39 cents a pound this week, I didn't buy any - we had WAY too many greens from the CSA, there simply wasn't room.  As it is, I didn't even finish the collards, carrots, beets, or turnips from the week.  I did buy a single package of corned beef.  I have this GREAT recipe for corned beef from a cooking class that I took.  At least, I think I still have it somewhere.  It involves boiling the corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and onions, then tossing the vegetables with a horseradish butter sauce.  The beef is then roasted with a mustard brown sugar glaze.

Yeah, I didn't have time for that.  But on Tuesday, I put the corned beef in the crockpot with some leftover chopped onion that came with the sandwiches for the birthday party, and a bunch of leftover baby carrots from the veggie tray.  I didn't have beer so I used water. 

It was pretty tasty.  Not awesome, but okay.  Didn't make very much though.

As far as the rest of the Irish dinner...I've been hankering for some Irish soda bread.  I got home early enough today that I decided to give it a try.  It was tough going because I had to bake the bread, make 2 batches of kale chips, then bake the chicken fingers...dinner was a bit late but it made it to the table about 20-30 mins after normal time.  So I got my Irish on, but on different days.  By the way, my ancestors are mostly German.

Next up: easter.  Ham is on sale...probably will buy one this weekend.  The rest of the week will be full of greens...collards (2 bunches), kale (2 bunches), lettuce, spinach...leafy leafy!

Crockpot beef bourguignon and braised summer vegetables

I used the vegetable recipe here. I was a little concerned about braising the green beans (used frozen), and having them be gray and not bright green. Which is what happened. But it still tasted pretty good, with lots of leftovers.

For the beef, I winged it. I just threw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot based on a couple of recipes.

Crockpot beef bourguignon:
<3 lb tri-tip: $16. You can eat the CAFO stuff if you like. I'm paying for grass fed now. Keeps me from eating too much beef too.
2 small onions: 0.50
2 8-oz pkgs cremini mushrooms, sliced: $3.38
1.5 cups red wine: 0 from my birthday party (gift)
1 T canola oil: 0.04
2 cloves garlic: 0.10
3 T flour: 0.01
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 tsp thyme: 0.05
1 bay leaf: 0.02

Total: $20.10 for ... at least 10 servings. Depends on how much you eat. I put the leftovers in the freezer for next weekend. $2.01 per serving

Tri tip

Tri-tip is a bit of a local phenomenon. BBQ'd tri tip is very famous here in Santa Barbara county. Alas, we don't have a grill. However, it's a roast, so it can be done in the oven.

I purchased the tri-tip on sale for $2.99/lb. It's on sale right now at 1.99/lb (this is really good). I would go out and buy some...but we really don't eat beef all that often. The beef we are eating now, I purchased in April.

The roast was a little less than three pounds at $8.34. It will provide about eight servings. (I'm guesstimating). That comes out to about $1.04 per serving. Certainly a little on the high side for us, but tasty.

I served this with guacamole and chips and roasted kale. Tips on the chips: it is almost always cheaper to buy tortilla chips in 2lb bags. But they go stale faster than we can eat them. Tip #1: put into a ziploc bag. Tip #2, because they will still go stale...bake at 300F in a toaster oven for about 5 min.

We marinated the tri-tip using this recipe (scroll down, it's the marinade #1):

http://www.askthemeatman.com/tri-tip.htm

and roasted in the oven at 425F for 45 min, until the meat thermometer read 150F. Let rest, covered with foil, for 15 min. Slice. The larger areas were pink (not my fave, but most likely "correctly done"), but the ends were perfect for me.

...and it's strawberry season! 6 pints for $6.

Burgers

Tonight we had the burgers intended for yesterday (had a big lunch, weren't hungry). Burgers, bean and corn salad, green salad, leftover potato salad.

Burgers:
1 lb ground sirloin (1.99)
2 T diced onion (0.05)
1 egg (0.12)
dry mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper (0.09)
bread crumbs

Total: $2.25 for 4 burgers, or $0.56 each.

The bean and corn salad was 2 cups kidney beans (cooked over the weekend), 1 cup corn from the freezer (froze it last year when it was plentiful), 1/4 cup diced red onion, a little jalapeno, and a vinaigrette with oregano and cumin, canola oil and white vinegar.

Kidney beans (0.40), corn (0.17), onion (0.10), jalapeno (0.03), vinaigrette (0.10), total approx 0.80, maybe a little extra for the spices, for 4 servings, or 0.20 each.

Lasagna

So Sunday was "The day of the lasagna". I'd offered to make dinner for friends who recently had a baby (boy, there are a lot of them). Lasagna is usually a 2-person job in my house, but my husband woke up sick. So, it was left to me. Luckily, my 2-year old took a 3.5 hour nap.

Lasagna (makes two 9x13 pans)
12 cooked lasagna noodles (0.70)
4 cups cottage cheese (3.49, on sale)
2.5 oz grated parmesan (0.60)
2 eggs (0.25)
1 bunch kale (1.00)
1 bunch chard (1.00)
1 lb ground sirloin (2.00 on sale)
2 small zucchini, diced (1.00)
2 carrots, diced (0.15)
2 green bell peppers, diced (1.33)
8 oz sliced mushrooms (2.00)
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes (0.70)
About 1-2 cups tomato paste, I eyeballed it (1.00)
italian seasoning, basil, salt, pepper, oregano (0.25)
2 T dried parsley (0.05)
1 large onion, diced (0.25)
3 cloves garlic, pressed (0.10)
3/4 lb mozzarella, shredded (2.25 on sale)

Total: 18.13 for two pans, $9.07 per pan, $0.60 per piece (15 pieces per pan).

Cheese layer:
1. Steam kale and chard. Cool. Squeeze dry. Puree in food processor. Move to bowl.
2. Puree cottage cheese in food processor. Add to kale and chard.
3. Beat eggs. Add to bowl. Add 1/2 cup grated parmesan and 2 T parsley. Stir together.

Sauce:
1. Brown ground sirloin. When beef is almost no longer pink, add onions.
2. When beef is fully cooked, add diced mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, and garlic. Add spices to taste.
3. Cook well until vegetables are cooked and the water has mostly evaporated. Add diced tomatoes and paste. Mix well.
4. Add water to the mixture until the right sauce consistency evolves. Should look like spaghetti sauce with a lot of stuff in it. Taste & adjust seasoning as necessary.

Heat oven to 375.
Put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of each pan. Layer 3 noodles on top of sauce in each pan.

Layer 1/4 of the cheese mixture on each of the two noodle layers.

Top with 1/4 of the sauce mixture on each of the two noodle layers.

Top with 1/4 of the mozzarella on each sauce layer. Add a little bit of parmesan.

Repeat layers (cheese, sauce, cheese).

Bake at 375 for 30 min covered with foil and 20 min uncovered. You can refrigerate the lasagna before cooking. If so, bake 35 min covered and 20 min uncovered.


We had this with cauliflower found at the produce store in the discounted section. $0.49 for a large head!

Cauliflower: 0.49
2 T olive oil: 0.21
Total: 0.70 for about 8 servings (1/2 cup each)


I also made a loaf of part whole wheat no-knead bread, about 6 cents per slice, with 3 cents for butter.

Grand total per serving: $0.87 per adult
0.18 for cauliflower
0.60 for lasagna
0.09 for bread

If I had any energy at all after cooking, dishes, toddler, I would post pictures of my food. Maybe someday.