Couple of Meal Pics

Tonight's Dinner

My oatmeal Breakfast this week.

Two Very Different Meals

Today, we had two events to attend. At lunch we had a potluck for our CSA farm. We've been to a few of these in the past. Some years, they are packed. Some times, there are only a handful of people. Today, there were about 15 people.

It was nice and fun to meet fellow CSA members and just chat. There were some interesting folks. I would say there was one snotty woman who dumped the salad with chicken back onto the serving plate. I guess she's a vegetarian. Personally, I would have said "oops, this has meat", and not "oh, there's chicken in there...can't have that 'kids, you can't eat that okay? None of that!" And she made a comment about eggs later. Really, it was rude, and truthfully, that was the only item that had meat on it.

We took the potato salad. There was a cabbage slaw (with chicken), a couple of pasta salads, brownies, fresh strawberries, cucumber and tomato salad, and a fruit tart. Nice and tasty and all very fresh.

Then tonight we had our anniversary dinner. Now, I love eating out. I used to do it quite a bit. But then I spent several years (5?) fat. Once I started losing the weight, eating out fell by the wayside. I also got into frugality, and started being shocked at how much money you can spend eating out. I started cooking, and then meals out were just...disappointing. My food is better. On one hand, when you eat out, you want to order something that you wouldn't make at home. On the other hand, I *like* salad.

So, to celebrate our upcoming 13th anniversary, I decided to pick a *nice* place. I figured if I was spending $35 on a sitter, I might as well enjoy the dinner. I narrowed down the options and selected a new-ish place known for it's local ingredients, with the added bonus that Anthony Bourdain recommended it - he was in town to do a show and ate there.

Oh. My. God. No, I didn't take pictures, but it was easily the best meal I've had in a decade. Worth every penny of the...well, let's just say it's almost the same amount as my July grocery budget.

Appetizer: grilled flatbread with hummus and olives (bread was awesome)
Starter: spouse: fois gras with fresh donut and apricots. Me: arugula salad. My salad was good but the fois gras was so incredibly buttery it was amazing.
Dinner: spouse: fried quail with roast potatoes, corn, and fresh sausage. Me: lamb carnitas with cannelini beans. Wow.
Dessert: spouse had mango sorbet. I had a couple of bites, very fresh and mango-y.

I have to say that I'm sure my belly is going to probably revolt tomorrow. That was more meat than I've eaten in the last two weeks. I could barely walk out of there. Of course, the heels were part of that. Man, I just can't wear them. I have a blister already. Bummer.

Anyway, it was a wonderful anniversary dinner. Nick had fun playing at his friend's house (who also babysat for us). And hopefully I don't feel the effects too much tomorrow.

Potato Salad

I love potato salad. It's one of the first "recipes" that I had that I used successfully for years. It came from my mom and involved italian salad dressing and mayo. Pretty good.

I also found a good recipe in a Pampered Chef cookbook that added sour cream, which made it fluffier.

Now, though - while I like mayo, I try to avoid it in potato and pasta salads. I used the directions for how to cook the potatoes from Pampered Chef, because I like the consistency.

Potato Salad
2 lbs potatoes, peeled if not organic, diced into 1 inch cubes: 0.54
1 lb fresh green beans: 1.69
6 large radishes, cut in half lengthwise and sliced (about 1 cup before slicing): 0.50
1/4 c. green olives, sliced: 0.50
fresh parsley (from my garden)

dressing
2 cloves garlic, minced: 0.10
1/4 c olive oil: 0.44
1/4 c tarragon vinegar: 0.40
1 Tbsp dried onion flakes: 0.10 (you can use real onion, like red onion or green onion)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano: 0.05

Total: $4.32 for about 7 cups, or $0.62 per cup

Mix dressing ingredients in a measuring cup. Set aside.

Peel potatoes (if desired) and dice. Put a large pot of water on to boil with several cups of water and a steamer basket. Once boiling, add the potatoes, reduce heat to maintain boil, and cover. Steam for 14 minutes.

When done, test for doneness with a knife. Drain and rinse in cold running water to stop the cooking.

Meanwhile (or after, I usually do this a day ahead, so I do it in series), bring a pot of water to boil. Trim the ends of the green beans. Drop beans into boiling water and boil 4 minutes. Drain and rinse to cool. Cut the beans into 1-inch lengths. Add to the potatoes. Add the dressing and toss ingredients together.

When beans and potatoes are fully cool, add the radishes, parsley, and olives.

Options:
It's also pretty good with sun-dried tomatoes.
You can add real onion if you like. Or celery. I'm not a fan of celery in potato salad.
I generally make this with red wine vinegar, but I ran out. Hence the tarragon.
Sugar snap peas are a good alternative to green beans.

Red Flannel Hash

Get thee to a bookstore, or Amazon, and order yourself Vegan Brunch.

Yum.

I added an ear of leftover corn.

It was delicious.

And only $0.39 per cup.

Who'd have thought to add beets to fried potato hash??

We also had a salad with walnuts, strawberries, and blue cheese.

Grocery Summary 1st half of 2009

Well, here's my summary for the grocery budget. The plan was to alternate months. Odd months, $160/month. Even months, $300/month (had planned on $400, but that turned out to be high). This does not include the pre-paid $850 to the CSA, which runs mid-Jan through mid-Nov. It also doesn't include the $4 I spent on seeds two years ago, that we planted this year. (nor does it count the soil, square foot gardening bins, etc.)

Jan: $159.77
Feb: $297.92
Mar: $145.65
Apr: $278.47
May: $160.35
Jun: $300.51

Total: $1342.67, plus: $467.50 for the 5.5 months of CSA
Total: $1810.17

This is food only. No soda (we've cut way back). No wine. No TP, shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning supplies. Just food.

My favorite frugal food resources

I have been interested in, and blogging about, frugal food for quite awhile now. If you look on the side, you can see some of my favorite healthy and/or frugal food blogs. It's something that I've worked on for years. I'm the one reading about folks $1 a day challenge, $30 a week cooking, and challenges on living on food stamp budgets.

For me, it all started with The Complete Tightwad Gazette. But it's moved on from there.

So here are a couple of other good resources. Both of these sites have e-books that you can purchase (and I have). They are very good books that teach you how to shop and/ or cook more frugally and healthfully.

http://www.groceryshrink.com/index.html

Angela has a huge family and does an amazing job with feeding them for less. Her book is filled with tips on how to keep a price book, shop properly, and cook from scratch.

http://cookforgood.com/index.html

The cook for good website gives meal plans, grocery lists, and recipes that show you how to feed your family for just over a dollar a person per meal. While I generally feed my family for this amount already, I'm always on the hunt for new recipes, tips, and inspiration. And I definitely got them here!

Zucchini Fritters

Been getting squashes from the CSA and from a coworker. These were tasty - made 10 of 'em, ate them all in one sitting (three of us).

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/zucchinifritters.html