Adding a little FLAVA FLAV

So how do you make cheap and easy meals taste expensive and complicated? Here are a few ideas:

(If you have a lot of cooking experience please skip over this since it probably comes second nature to you.)

- Aromatic vegetables: 

Onions, carrots, shallots, fennel, leeks, GARLIC, celery... Almost all dishes can be improved with some combination of the above. Saute or "sweat" (cover over low heat) them first for best flavor. Here is a great article that goes into greater detail. I always have at least onions, garlic, carrots, and celery in the house.

-Herbs and spices: (Want to know the difference? Read about it here.)

It's really easy to grow your own herbs. Just give them sun and good drainage. Most them like to have their roots dry out in between waterings, basil is an exception.) A lot of them are perennial and will give you years of nearly free flavor. You can even dry some for the winter or bring them inside during frost. I personally grow oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, and lavender. I used to have a much more extensive herb garden but I'm limited to an apartment balcony now. If you have the space, grow tons! They are easy, beautiful, smell amazing, and have lots of culinary and medicinal uses. Sigh... I miss my garden...

As far as spices go: buying in bulk is definitely cheaper, if you can't use it all split it with a like-minded cook. Keep your favorite spices on hand, but don't be afraid to try a new one every now and then. Variety is the spice of life... or variety is the spice of...spices. I'm not going to list all of the spices in my cupboard but will tell you one thing I do: I add cayenne pepper to almost everything I cook. We like a little kick. I find using spices helps reduce the amount of salt required.

- Alcohol:

I'm pretty new to this but have recently discovered that it is wonderful for making a simple dish taste special. White wine for chicken/white sauce, red for beef and red sauce. Beer is used for marinating meat and chili (never tried it, but hear it's delicious). There are tons of sauces that include harder liquor like brandy, vodka, and of course rum in baking. It's really not expensive when you consider how long a bottle lasts... if you only use it for cooking, that is. ;-) Here's a helpful chart about how long it takes alcohol to "burn off"if your wondering/concerned.

-Acids:

Similar to wine, acids like vinegars or citrus juices perk up sauces and bring out flavor in meat. Keep several types on hand. Juices I like to keep on hand: lemon, lime, and orange. Vinegars: white, apple cider, red wine, balsamic, and rice.

-Sauces:

Making canned/bottled sauce is something I've only dabbled in (barbeque and salad dressing are about as far as I've gotten). Store bought sauces may be cheating... but they sure are convenient and can can rescue a kitchen disaster or provide easy flavor to a good start. Some sauces I like to have on hand for cooking: soy sauce, barbeque, ketchup, mayo, several mustards, Worcestershire, Italian dressing, an a couple different hot sauces (I like Cholula, BeefyGeek likes Chipotle Tobasco.)

-Fat:

Don't be afraid of a little fat in your food. If you're cooking from scratch, chances are it's a lot healthier than restaurant or pre-packaged food already. You can use "healthy fats" like olive and coconut oil but they have a low smoking point so you have to be careful if sauteing or frying. Or even in the oven I have found... coating a chicken with a little olive oil before roasting... take out your smoke detector's batteries.  Again, a little goes a long way. You'd be surprised how much a pat of butter can richen up a skim milk "cream" sauce... is richen a word? Anyway... use a little first and you can always add more. Although they are technically not fats, I would include other high fat goodies here like cheese, olives, nuts, and high fat meats like bacon or pancetta. Using them sparingly as a garnish on a plain dish can really up the "yum factor"


Welp, that's about it for now. A super amateur home cooks "secrets" to flavorful home cookin'. What are your favorite ways to perk up your dinner?

40+ Quick Meals Using Ground Beef or Shredded Chicken

So the whole Menu planning thing on this blog was pretty short lived huh? I think I realized why. I'm more of a "pantry principle planner" than a specific day by day menu planner. What I mean by that is that I generally stock up and have on hand 90% of the ingredients for 90% of the meals that I make 90% of the time. Approximately. lol.

Beefygeek has recently started a new job that has him coming home at later, less predictable hours and this has sent me back to my go-to repertoire of quick, easy meals that I can make during nap time or with a baby crawling around my feet.

I've been complaining about how expensive my foodie blog habit has been lately, so I decided that I'll be the change I want to see. As epic as that sounds...

To help me, and maybe you... I've come up with a list of about forty meals that use either ground beef or shredded chicken (two of the easiest, cheapest, quickest to cook and defrost meats IMHO.) I'm going to keep this list on hand in the kitchen so I can quickly pick something for dinner when need be. Here goes:

Ground Beef (or ground turkey if you HAVE to. But most of these allow for draining and even rinsing the fat off before using. A few articles here and here.)

1. hamburgers
2. spaghetti
3. tacos
4. taquitos
5. burritos
6. enchiladas
7. quesadillas
8. sloppy joes
9. chili
10. shepherd's pie
11. meatloaf
12. stuffed peppers 
13. "stir fry" (basically just cook up the ground beef with onions, veggies, and seasonings and serve over rice)
14. omelets
15. pizza
16. homemade hamburger helper
17. meatballs
18. lasagne
19. Beef Stroganoff (never made it, but it's on the to-try list. I actually have some leftover egg noodles and sour cream right now...)
20. any casserole (there are probably at least fifteen variations here alone. just use Amy Dacyzyn’s good old Tightwad Casserole formula.) 
21. soup (Although I've honestly never made soup with ground beef; I found some interesting recipes online. If you have any go-to recipes, please share!)

Shredded Chicken

1. Chicken Pot Pie (I often top with biscuit dough instead of pie crust, it's just easier) 
2. Super easy pot pie variation: mix and cook sauce with meat and veggies on stove top and serve over rice or noodles
3. white sauce/alfredo over noodles
4. enchiladas (red or white)
5. white chili
6. chicken salad
7. add to PW's Sesame noodles
8. add chicken to lettuce salad, Cesar or otherwise
9. tacos
10. fajitas
11. burritos
12. taquitos
13. quesadillas
14. add to any rice-o-roni/hamburger helper type thing, either homemade or bought on sale!
15. chicken divan
16. sandwiches
17. pulled barbeque chicken
18. add to stir fried vegetables (not as good as freshly stir fried chicken but super fast if you're in a pinch)
19. wraps
20. any casserole (use same formula as ground beef)
21. about a million chicken soups (chicken noodle, tortilla, wild rice, vegetable... use soups like casseroles: to use up whatever is in your fridge)

I'm realizing Mexican food is super easy looking at this list lol! With some notable exceptions (lasagne being the most obvious) these are cheap and you probably already have the ingredients in your kitchen (or you should!) I'm going to go back through and link to some favorite recipes, just so i have them all in one place, but that's about it for now! What are your favorite uses for these quick proteins?

Tightwads and Martyrs Part II

After my mom's brilliant comment comparing thrifty housewives to Scottish rebels, I got to thinking more about the comparison... and decided it needed another post.

I saw a quote on one of the frugal blogs I follow that went something like this:

"Never sacrifice what you want most to what you want now."

Regarding tightwad-ery this is pretty simple: if you want to pay off your mortgage early you can't go out to eat every time you don't feel like cooking. As the frugal zealot says, spend your money on investment purchases (things that earn you money or that you can resell at full value) rather than on throw-away purchases.

But it also reminded me of another quote:

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
-Jim Elliot

The principle in the Christian walk is similar to the tightwad one. Forgo pleasures here and now in order to gain them 100 fold over again in heaven.

Wisdom is the same the world over. Whatever subject I study I see her there. Calling as she's always been calling...

²⁰ Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;

²¹ at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

²² "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?

²³ If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.

³² For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

³³ but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm."

Proverbs 1: 20-23,32-33

Tightwads and Martyrs

To have what we want is riches;
but to be able to do without is power.
- George MacDonald

One of the reasons we tightwads love being tightwads is because of the sense of calm it gives us, in the midst of difficult circumstances and uncertain future. Even without the large savings account and low/nil amount of debt that often accompanies tightwad-ery, there is a sense of power in knowing that you can live on very little and be happy.

As Christians we have this power on a deeper level. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10:28) This is why Martyrs have been able withstand hunger and cold and torture and death... "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinth 4:8-9) They can look at their tormentors and say, "What's the worst that could happen? What I treasure, you can't touch."... "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Phil 4:10-13)

And to quote Paul once more. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Phil 3:12 The reason why I think so much about fearless contentment is because I'm a worry-er and I don't wanna be.

Cabbage

My latest culinary adventure. Learning to do something with this super-duper cheap healthy winter veggie. Never having bought or cooked or tasted one, I was a little nervous. The only time I remember someone eating cabbage was the Bucket family on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. They ate cabbage soup. Every day. Because its cheap.

But it's delicious! Sweet and crunchy. It reminds me of raw corn, except less juicy.

So far I added it to soup and made coleslaw. Both successes. The changes I made to the coleslaw recipe: using half apple-cider vinegar, red onions, adding carrots, and cutting back on the sugar, (I picked this recipe because it was healthier than the creamy kind...a full cup of sugar kinda undoes that.)

That coleslaw is awesome.

New favorite tightwad site

Knock Off Wood

Make your own furniture for a half/fourth/tenth of the retail price.

I can't get over this blog. So awesome. Makes me wanna go to Home Depot NOW.

For instance, this table for $60:
















Which looks like this table for $600:





















That means that even if you messed up 8 times you'd still save $120...

Good food rules

Check this out, I like this guy's simple take on healthy food. I really like the answer that he gives about "not being able to afford it." EXCEPT... you can get organic dried beans for 2 dollars a pound, he says. But you can get regular for 70 cents a pound, if you don't don't have an allergy to pesticides, you should be good.

Here are some good ones:
-"Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car."
-"Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk."
-"Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
-"Don't eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce."
-"Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot...There are exceptions --- honey --- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food."

I hope you have been finding my hyperlinks... I don't think they get underlined. Okay, never mind, I just changed their color. Shoulda done that a long time ago....

Vegetarian Meal Ideas

Ok so... some of them aren't 100% vegetarian, but they're low-meat, which means cheap.

- Any variation of the breakfast for dinner thing. French toast is great 'cause it uses up old bread. Whole wheat waffles or pancakes are more filling than their white flour counterparts.

- Homemade Pizza! Oh soooooo good. Here's a easy dough recipe.

-Soup. I usually make this with homemade chicken stock, so it's not really vegetarian. But you make the stock using leftovers, so it's pretty much free. (freeze any meat skin and bones, onion skins, carrot and potato peels etc. then throw them in a pot with some water and spices, let 'em simmer for a while and ta-da! Beats the can off Swanson's any day.) Our favorite is lentil and potato. We also love black-eyed pea and green split pea (with a ham bone...)

-Grilled cheese (with or without the soup mentioned above.)

-Bean Chili. Not as good as with meat in my opinion... but passable and once again, cheap. Maybe I just need to experiment with it more.

-Beans and rice.

-Quesadillas. Just with cheese or a little bit of shredded meat.

-Anything with beans really. Buy some dried beans. You'll love the way they look an a shelf in your kitchen and you can add them to any meal to make it healthier, heartier and longer lasting.

-Fried rice. You can do strictly vegetables or add an egg and a few bites of chicken or ham.

-Quiche. This is one I haven't done yet, but the "frugal zealot" recommends it, and I'm gonna do it eventually...

-Another good low-meat meal I make is chicken with white sauce over noodles or rice. I make this when we're on our second or third day of the roasted whole chicken. I (or Jon... usually Jon 'cause I don't like doing it) pick over the last of the carcass, and use whatever's left. Most of the substance from the meal comes from the sauce, vegetables, and noodles. Or you can have it with biscuits and it turns into potpie! P.S. Learn to make a basic white sauce. You can do so much with it. No need to buy Campbell's Cream of Anything.

-Hummus! Not really a meal but I just have to mention it. Make it, don't buy it. Its such much better that its really a different experience than store bought. And of course, much, much cheaper.

That's all I can think of for now. Hope this inspires at least one person to buy some dried beans and learn to cook 'em! We American bean snobs miss out on a lot.