Breafast on the cheap

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but if you don't plan ahead it can break your budget.  This week I've been using my Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast.  I know you're probably thinking "WHAT, Thanksgiving and breakfast don't match." But I promise they do.  AND it's yummy.  I used leftovers of my scalloped sweet potatoes and made them into a mash.  Then you just smear it between two tortillas and cook it.  I melted some butter in a saute pan and "fried" it, but if you want you can use some cooking spray or bake it on the oven for 10-15 min.

When it comes to breakfast be creative.  You don't have to eat the typical breakfast foods for breakfast, make what makes you happy.  And if you love breakfast, great news you can eat it for dinner.  I love breakfast for dinner.  Waffles, pancakes or french toast easy and cheap.  So have a little dinner for breakfast and save the good stuff for when you're awake enough to enjoy it!

Week 3

Well I went grocery shopping for two weeks.  I've found that planning out a two week menu helps me to more effectivly use what I have.  I can make the rice, pasta, tofu, ect. go farther which meas that if something is a little expensive for one week I can make it worth it my spreading the cost over two meals.  This week I went to two stores and spent $38.42 and $20.04.  The two stores I went to were just my regular grocery store and a natural food store.  OK so you're pobably scratching your head at that one right, a natural food store aren't they really expensive?!?!?!  Well yeah, ussually they are more expensive, BUT the reason I go it for the bulk section.  I can get my rice, TVP, broth, spices, beans and pasta in bulk, buying in bulk means that you're cutting out the packaging costs and you get to buy what you need.  I can get a pre-packaged .5 lb bag of TVP for about $6.50 but if I buy in bulk it's $3.99 a pound.  I went to the health food store just to buy my bulk items but I always take the time to look at the produce.  This week I was able to get sweet potatoes for 99 cents a pound, a 3 pound bag of onions for less than I spend on one pound at the grocery store and purple potatoes for less than plain old russet potatoes.  Purple potatoes taste the same but I think they're pretty.  Feel free to roll your eyes at that, I did as I typed it.  :)

So it's starting to get cooler in Kansas, and it's pretty much always windy.  This puts me in the mood for soup, and guess what soup is cheap!  It's so easy to make a big pot of soup for dinner and have plenty for soup and more to freeze for next week.  This week I have two soups and chili on the menu.  Chili is another great cheap, hearty meal solution.  I use dried beans, just soak them overnight in your crockpot.  First thing in the morning out your spices, tomatoes and anything else in the crockpot and set it on low.  Let is cook until dinner time.  Since I don;t have anything to wory about at dinner time I'll make cornbread.  Cornbread is cheap and easy, even the mixes are cheap and tasty.  I stay away from Jiffy brand because it uses real lard, but if you don't care about eatting animal fat go for it.  I've seen Jiffy boxes on sale for less than 33 cents a box.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

I always try to make Thanksgiving as stress free as possible.  Breakfast is either the cinnamon rolls in a tube or cereal.  I love to cook but when I'm looking at a day of kitchen time I do what I can to make the morning easy.  Another of my tricks to a stress free Thanksgiving is to do as much prep as possible the day before, or the morning of since I'm slacking this year.

At my house we always have Thanksgiving dinner around 4:30 - 5 in the afternoon.  I have easy apps that I put out a lunchtime to keep us fed and give me time to cook the real dinner.  This year I started my morning by roasting chili's in the oven and making the cornbread for my stuffing.  Both of these things need time to cool before cooking with them and they're really easy.  A way to keep the cost down for stuffing, and the other 90 recipes that use stock, I make sure I have the dried bullion cubes they have the flavor you want but are much cheaper than the liquid chicken or vegetable stock.  Next I'll look at all of my recipes and set out a schedule for the day.  I try to do prep throughout the morning and early afternoon so that when cooking starts it's just a matter of popping things in the oven at different times.  I have a toaster oven that I use for the few small items that I need to cook at a different temp or won't fit into the oven. 

My policy is dessert first.  Dessert is always one of my most involved recipes and it requires a few different cooking and cooling times.  Since I'm making a cake this year I only have the one cooking time, but I'll need to let it cool before I can frost it.  Frosting will be easy but messy and can be left for when everything else is in the oven and I have reclaimed counter space.  And if something doesn't work out as intended, don't stress  be creative or just dump it.  If you don't have one of the side dishes or if you need to send someone to the store for a last minute side or frozen pie IT"S OK!  Thanksgiving is about spending time with your family, not trying to live up to Leave it to Beaver!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Thanksgiving, Part One

This was last year's Thanksgiving feast, minus the turkey and apps.  I love Thanksgiving and I tend to go overboard, I made all of that for the two of us...  AND we got a 17lb turkey, I don't eat turkey.  Yeah It's a compulsion.  I love cooking and the holiday's is the perfect time to cook.  No school and no one complaining about diets!

This year my original budget was $20, but I took some lose change to the bank and got another $20, so $40 for Thanksgiving dinner.  This was hard for me, last year our turkey cost more than that.  So I started by looking at what I have around the house, then based on those ingredients I started my menu.  I choose dished that would require only a few purchases.  I also tied to purchase ingredients that I would use in multiple dishes.  This cuts down on the bill and still makes a feast!  I mean come on people, it IS Thanksgiving the national holiday celebrating two of the seven deadly sins... sloth and gluttony.  Watch football, eat, nap, eat more, watch a movie, eat, go to bed, wake up and start process again with leftovers and shopping that starts at 5am.  We need a feast!

So lets move on to the feast; the last few years I've started to make a southwestern influenced Thanksgiving.  My husband and I are originally from Colorado and grew up eating some of the best Mexican food outside of Mexico.  Green chili's, Chipolte in Adobo, Cotija cheese, we love it all.  Unfortunately we now live in Kansas and I couldn't find good Cotija cheese so I'm using goat cheese.  The goat cheese and the brie are my two splurges, they also cost less then $10 combined.  When you plan out your menu decide how much you want to spend, then find the cost of the main components of your meal.  Doing this means that you can find money to have a much needed splurge.  I also make sure that we have a few apps, the meal and dessert.  To me it's just not a holiday with out all of that.

So here's the menu:
Apps:
Hummus and Pita chips
Brie en crute with pear and raisins

Meal:
Seiten Wellington (It's pronounced satan; yeah like that Satan, but yummy)
Mashed Potatoes
Caramelized Onion Cornbread Dressing
Chipolte Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Rolls
Wild Rice with Dried Cranberries
Pablano Gravy

Dessert:
Spiced Pumpkin Cake

I might make a few changes, chef's prerogative.  I'm debating adding another app or cranberry sauce.  Oh and all of this has only cost me $35.78, so I have enough to get a few more things if I decide too.  I will also have enough food to feed at least 4 people and have leftovers. 

Po'Boys

So after my last post you're probably wondering what the heck TVP is.  Well it is Textured Soy Protein, I know it sounds gross but if you do it right it tastes AMAZING.  One of those things is this Spicy Po'Boy.  I based it on this recipe from Annie's Eats.  It's a wonderful filling sandwich that is also very affordable.  I can get TVP in bulk at the natural food store for less than half of what I would spend on 1lb of ground meat; and the Red Hots (or any pepper) can be an affordable way to add flavor.  I can get 6 red hot peppers for $0.30.  The hoagie rolls I get at the supermarket are $2.50 for 6 rolls, this gives me enough for lunch, dinner and dunking in soup or serving with spaghetti.  I serve these with another healthy cheap addition, my homemade sweet potato fries and my favorite dipping sauce.
Spicy Po'Boys

Spicy TVP Balls
1 cup dried TVP
1/2 cup water
1/2 cube vegetable bullion
3/4 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1T oil
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Po'Boy Spread
1/2 cup light or fat free mayonnaise
2T relish
1/2 small shallot, minced

Sandwiches
4 Hoagie Whole Wheat Hoagie Buns
3 Red Hots (red jalapenos)

Heat water and dissolve the bullion.  Add the TVP and remove from heat.  Allow the water to absorb into the TVP.  Once the TVP is rehydrated add the Vital Wheat Gluten and the Spices, mix until the TVP is completely coated and the mixture is sticky.   Mix in oil.  Allow to cool enough for you to handle.  Once cooled shape into balls, about golf ball size, and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Once all the balls are formed baked at 400 degrees for 25-30 min or until the balls are golden and crispy.

For the sauce dice the shallot and put in a small mixing bowl.  Add the relish and the mayo.  Mix and place in the refrigerator until ready to assemble the sandwiches.

Before the balls are done baking julienne the peppers.  Cut the hoagie rolls for sandwiches, spread the sauce on inside of the sandwich and sprinkle in some of the peppers, add the TVP balls while still warm and enjoy!

This should make 4-6 sandwiches depending on how many TVP balls you put on each sandwich, I usually use 3 per sandwich.

Tips and Tricks 1

First let me say that I am not trying to turn anyone toward a vegetarian diet, but I will say not eating meat makes my job a LOT easier.  Rice and dry beans are quite inexpensive and allow for many different possibilities.  When I did eat meat that's where my weekly grocery money went.  But buy not eating meat I can afford some fresh vegetables and a few other items that I think are necessity, like flour and TVP (Textured Soy Protein). 

You may have noticed that my menu for the week did not include either breakfast or lunch.  I actually have a good reason for that, and it does include eating both meals.  When I make dinner I make enough for 4-8 people, this leaves plenty of leftover for the next days lunch and tupperware is much cheaper than McD's or the like.  Breakfast is also easy, no not the granola bars, I happened to have on had what I needed to make some very yummy banana nut muffins.  The recipe makes enough for 8-12 muffins depending on size, so they make enough for breakfast for two adults for two weeks.  Since the recipe uses wheat flour, bananas and applesauce they are healthy, low fat and filling.  This is also why I find flour a necessity.

So this weeks tips,

Forgo meat in favor of cheap high flavor veggies, like red peppers onions and sweet potatoes.

Always have bananas, flour and applesauce on hand.  They make for some yummy breakfast options.  Including an egg less french toast that I love.

Leftovers are great for more than dinner, have them for lunch the next day and you'll save money and calories.

Week 1

Since Thanksgiving is in two weeks I've decided to combine my first two weeks into one shopping list.  I'm using as much as possible from my pantry.  The hope is to have a little extra for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  I started my planning our menu for the two weeks.  I have a tentative menu for Thanksgiving as well.  If I have money left over I will alter the menu for Thanksgiving a little.  I write my menu from Saturday to Friday.  I usually go grocery shopping Saturday morning.  There seams to be plenty of managers specials and the adds from Wednesday are still in effect so I have had time to look at them for deals.

Step 1: I looked in the pantry to see what we had, and looked at grocery store adds to see what was on sale.  Luckily I take after my mother and had more than enough.

Step 2: Start compiling recipes that primarily use what I already have.

Step 3: Write the Menu

Step 4: Compile my shopping list

I've found that writing a menu and a shopping list are the easiest and most overlooked steps in sticking to a budget.  It was something I did even when I was employed.  It also helps if you have a busy schedule.  You can plan out your menu for the week to coincide with different events in the week.  I have class two nights a week, so for those weeks I always planned meals that I could make ahead and were easy for my husband to warm up, or the night before I would make plenty of something that was good as a leftover.

My menu for the next two weeks:
Sat: Spicy Broccoli Pasta                        Sat: Chickpea Cutlet Fritata
Sun: Spaghetti with Chickpeas               Sun: Vegan Fillet Mignon, Mashed Potatoes & Veggies           
Mon: Po'Boys and Sweet Potato Fries    Mon: Chili and Cornbread
Tues: Sweet Potato & Lentil Dal             Tues:  Black bean and Salsa Soup
Wed: Burrito Bowls                                Wed:  Cajun Black eyed Peas over Rice
Thur: Stir fry                                            Thur: Pumpkin Ravioli with Bourbon Cream Sauce and Wild Rice
Fri: Pizza                                                Fri: Leftovers

The shopping list:
Broccoli Slaw                                         Wild Rice
Chickpeas                                              Soy Milk
Bread                                                     Mayo
Hogie Rolls                                            Red Hot Peppers
Salsa                                                     Granola Bars
Frozen Veggies: Stir Fry, Side Dish        Canola Oil
BBQ Sauce                                           Applesauce
Sweet Potatoes

And I more than met my goal, $36.31 for two weeks!  Here's proof

                                (sorry the picture quality is so poor.  I was so excited I used my camera phone)

Of course when I got home I went to wash dishes and realized we're out of soap.  So back to the store for that, but I have $23.26 to use for that and Thanksgiving.  I'm a little shocked that I'm happy about a Thanksgiving budget of $20 since in previous years I haven't had a budget and spent well over $150 to feed the two of us.  Well time to plan a little menu for Thanksgiving, and I'll even get to have dessert!