Beans!

So, last week I opted to use $5 of my $50/week budget to buy a 10lb bag of pinto beans. What a GREAT way to stick to the budget!

And this week, I blew it. $110 and counting. I knew it would happen someday...that there would be a day when I ran out of a bunch of things at once. And a day when I just got tired of the mental mathematics required to stuff all these items that I WANT into $50. But still, I did pretty good while it lasted, and I'm still going to pay cash for my groceries and try to stick to $50 starting next week.

Last night was bean night! How do you "dress up" beans so you don't feel deprived. Frankly, I LOVE beans, so that's not necessary for me. But the answer is "tacos!" with homemade corn tortillas. Homemade tortillas are so delicious, so awesome, and so easy. But a little time consuming.

I'm sorry that I have no new pictures. We were so hungry that we sat down and mowed through 13 of the 16 tortillas that I made in about 30 minutes. But here's an old picture of the last time I made homemade tortillas.

Sadly, as I was preparing peppers and onions, I realized the problem with a week where I don't cook for 2 nights in a row: a moldy onion and a half moldy bell pepper. Ah well, they go into the compost. I salvaged half of the bell pepper anyway.

Bean ingredients:

1 lb pinto beans, soaked: $0.53
1 bunch limp chard, washed, boiled 5 min: $1.50
to taste: dry onion flakes, garlic powder, salt, cumin, chili powder: 0.25

Drain and rinse soaked pintos. Cover with water. Cook pintos (I use a pressure cooker). Feel proud that you've cooked so many beans in the cooker now, that you don't need to get out your measuring cup for water.

Leave the beans in the pot when they are done and add spices and simmer.

In the meantime, chop the boiled chard and add it to the beans with the spices.

Peppers, onions, beef:
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.03
1 onion: $0.25
1/2 red bell: $0.40
Plus lost to moldiness: $0.65
1/2 lb beef: 2.50

Saute onions and peppers until soft (I usually start them covered on low and finish on medium to med-high), then add the pre-cooked frozen beef. I used 1/2 lb of grass fed beef.

Tortillas:
Buy masa. Follow instructions on the bag. It was probably $0.50 to 0.80 for 16 tortillas.

Toppings:
whatever you like. We used store-bought guacamole (haven't made it to the farmer's market for avos), sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese. But also good with cabbage, onion, cilantro, lime...
$2.53


Total: $9.19. There's a bunch of beans left and three tortillas.

Skillet pasta with lemon, onion, and fennel

I love skillet pasta and I made this on a Friday when I was trying to make the "sauce" without using a red-sauce or a cream-sauce. Just a broth-sauce.

Skillet pasta is great for Friday because it's not a ton of work if you are tired after a long week. I tried to have my son help me...he helps my husband cook a lot of the time. I guess it's "fun" with daddy and not with mommy. But mommy does a lot more chopping, a lot less mixing. He did weigh out the pasta for me.

Skillet Pasta with lemon, onion, fennel, and a ton of other stuff:
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.03
1/2 onion, diced: 0.15
1 piece fennel, chopped: 0.75. I don't like fennel.
10 oz frozen chopped spinach: 1.00
2 Tbsp rosemary/ italian herb blend: 0.25
1 clove pressed garlic: 0.05
1/2 c. dry white wine: 0.40

5.5 to 6 cups water
1 vegetarian bouillon cube: 0.38
12 oz pasta: 0.75
1/4 c. cream cheese: 0.25

2 cubes homemade pesto: 0.40
2 oz mozzarella: 0.13
1/4 c sliced olives: 0.30
1/2 c. frozen peas: 0.15
zest and juice of 2 lemons: free
S&P to taste

Total: $4.99 for 8 servings. $0.62 per serving. Most cookbooks would call this 4 servings. But that's why many of us are overweight. We ate this with steamed beets on the side.

Saute the onions and fennel in a large non-stick skillet until soft. Add the frozen spinach and cook until the water is mostly gone. Add the spices and the garlic and cook one more minute. Add wine and cook until the liquid is gone.

Add the pasta, water, bouillon cube, and cream cheese and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer (stirring occasionally) for 15 to 18 minutes, or until water is absorbed. I had a bit too much water and had to take the lid off.

When you've got your desired consistency, add the rest of the stuff that you don't want to over cook: peas, pesto, cheese, olives. Stir until well mixed. Finish it off with the lemon zest and juice.

This was SOOOO lemony and delicious. A little to salty, which is odd, since I normally undersalt things.

Red Cabbage Slaw

So, there's this red cabbage slaw recipe that I dream about. I got it in one of our CSA newsletters years ago and it was fabulous. And then, I lost it. I tried in vain to replicate it, but to no avail. And many google searches got me nowhere.

Then one day. I was going through my cookbooks. And in the back pocket of one of the "hometown" cookbooks, that has a pocket for recipe cards, I found two - yes TWO - copies of this recipe.

And here it is. Still fabulous.

Red Cabbage Slaw
1 small to medium head red cabbage, shredded
2-4 carrots, shredded
1 small onion, diced
1 medium apple, diced

dressing:
1/4 c. cider vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 T dijon mustard
1 T sugar

toppings:
1/3 c toasted walnuts
2 oz blue cheese

The recipe calls for only adding the walnuts and blue cheese when serving. I found that it's fine to add the blue cheese earlier, but definitely put the walnuts on last so they don't get soggy. Hence, this picture has no walnuts, because I haven't added them yet.

Sick again, budget update - and cookies!

Wow, third time in 3 months. I must have a lot of work stress. I haven't gotten sick this often in years. This time at least it's pretty mild. Yesterday was the worst day. I think I'm already recovering. Good thing, it's a holiday and I'm home alone with my child! We'll probably go out to see the butterflies today and have lunch with daddy. Hopefully the butterflies are still there. I've never successfully seen them in all my years here.

Well, here's the budget update. As of 2/25/11 (I know, we're not there yet, but that's when this week ends), I've spent $351.80. That's with my budget of $50 a week, at the end of 7 weeks. How did I end up going over? Simple. I have a couple of change purses full of coins. The advantage to spending cash is that I can actually USE my coins. That $1.80 is from coins. How does my pantry look? I've got a couple of pounds of pasta (whole wheat and regular), plus rice and quinoa. A pound of chickpeas, 10 lb of pinto beans, and plenty of flour for baking. I still have some frozen fruits and veggies, and lots of canned veggies (mostly because I don't like canned veggies. They are for emergencies. I get plenty of fresh at the CSA.) I still have 2.5 lbs of ground beef (local, grass fed free range!), and one large steak. Plus some salmon. We're doing just fine.

Feeling sick, and feeling sorry for myself, I wanted cookies. And my spouse, who hates chocolate, loves me enough to help me make chocolate chip cookies. These are basically off the back of the Ghirardelli bag. And are they delicious. Unfortunately, I ate 6. And then, the Girl Scouts showed up. I had exactly $9 in my wallet, and my family wasn't home. That was enough for two boxes. One of course, lemon for my spouse. The other, samoas, which are so atrociously expensive because I think you only get 10 in a box. In any event, there will be cookies going to work, and some are already in the freezer.

I also made soup for dinner. We bought these two buckets of "emergency rations" a couple of years ago (we get fires, mudslides, and earthquakes, though in 14 years, I have yet to feel an earthquake). They come in these little foil packets where you just add water. I periodically pull one out. They last 10-15 years, but I figure we should try them out once in awhile, and I bet they'd work for camping. They tend to be a bit grainy. So I took this soup one, added homemade turkey stock, a can of chicken (yes, a can, from TJ's), celery that I had blanched and frozen (I can NEVER finish a celery bunch), a couple of carrots, a package of ramen (no flavor packet), half an onion, a handful of fresh spinach, and some sage. It was pretty decent, and I served mine with some hot chili paste. My boss's trick when you have a cold - chicken soup with hot sauce.

Guide to a Cheap Night at the Movies

Impossible, you say? Not really.

Step 1: donate blood 3-6 times per year.
Step 2: forget about these "point" things they give you when you donate blood.
Step 3: get reminded when you make your next appointment.
Step 4: redeem your points for 3 movie tickets.
Step 5: Make Trader Joe's boxed mac and cheese with frozen peas for dinner (fast, easy).
Step 6: Go to the movies.
Step 7: decide whether you will be a rebel and sneak in your own food, or not. We paid for popcorn and drinks and parking. Total cost: $15.

Our normal movie night is at home courtesy of Netflix. But it's nice to go to the theater once in awhile.

Not sure how many posts are coming up. I think I am getting my third, yes third cold since Christmas. This winter sucks!

Grocery Budget Update

Well, I'm 5.5 weeks into my self-imposed $50/week grocery budget challenge, and here's how it's going:

Week 1: $35.84
Week 2: $34.83
Week 3: $34.68
Week 4: $26.49
Week 5: $45.21
Week 6: I have about $3 left to last until Friday night.

Now, from weeks 1 to 5, I had $74 in my slush fund. Which I decided was going to go to local, grassfed beef that my friend and her fiance bought in a big amount. Which is too much for them. So they are re-selling to me. I love the whole group buying/ cooperative buying thing, and I think I finally have found someone who I can do this with occasionally, yay! At $5/lb for ground beef and $13/pound for steak, it's not cheap. But really, high quality beef shouldn't be cheap. Anyway, that was $55 for 5 lb ground beef and one 2.3 lb steak. So, my slush fund now has $19.

On another note, my freezer and pantry are pretty bare. I've eaten through a lot of my beans and grains. A lot of my weekly budget goes to maintaining the level of dairy that is necessary in this house (which is low compared to some...we go through about 1/2 gallon of milk a week, for example). I can see that in a week or two or three, we'll have to ease the budget a bit. Today I have a grocery list for "the $18 I have left this week" and "things we have to get next week when we get the next $50." The last thing that I want to do is welcome my mother-in-law in March with an empty freezer and pantry, and tell her that Cheerios aren't in this week's budget. ;-)

Grass Fed Beef Burgers

1/4 lb each
Beef, steak seasoning
$1.25 per burger

OMG these were awesome. Leftovers tonight.

Beef from a local rancher, about 45 minutes up the coast.