farmer's market

I know I've written about the farmer's market before, but I just went yesterday and got inspired all over again.

I got two ears of fresh corn (picked that day) and two of the tastiest white peaches I can recall eating, for a heaping total of $1.50. All these goodies were from a farm about 10 minutes down the road from us called Applecrest Orchards. I am right in the middle of planning an apple-picking trip there with the rest of my family--and of course, I will be visiting their farm stand while we're there. :D

delicious dish

Ripped off from my beloved Mommie, of course--who better to steal tasty recipes from???

1 link (1 lb) of turkey kielbasa (just as yummy as the pork stuff but MUCH less fatty)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 cup rice
about 1 tomato can's worth of added water (at least for my rice, which is proving to be somewhat incorrigible about water quantities and cook times)

Throw it all in a skillet and simmer it until the rice is tender.

DONE!

And it's ridiculously good. You wouldn't even believe it. Bo was feasting delightedly on the grains of rice I gave him, because they were so tasty he thought they must be meat.

check your ingredients list

I was VERY offended to find that some pudding mix that I bought had aspartame in it! This was after I had specifically chosen the "regular" one that was sitting right next to the "sugar-free". WHY would you use artificial sweeteners in the one that's already sweetened with sugar?? (It's probably cheaper, one would assume.)

Anyway, aspartame is one of the items that pregnant ladies are specifically not supposed to eat. Good thing I read pretty much everything that's in front of me, and my eyes wandered over the ingredient list while I was mixing up the pudding!

a small flaw in my plan

The food I made to save is too enticing--I had some for dinner tonight. :P

and for an encore this morning

Pancakes with fresh blueberries swirled into the batter. :D

Tonight I believe I may make sloppy joes!

WHY I cooked enough for a small army

I'm freezing meals for when we have a new Critter to tire us out and distract us from any real food prep! :)

I am very pleased with myself for thinking of this --much better than relying on take-out, or just eating toast all day or something. :)

a cooking frenzy!

Tonight I made giant batches of beef stock, beef stew, chicken stock, chicken pot pie, and followed it all up with a loaf of delicious soup bread (made with beef stock instead of water). I am soooooooooooo tired! I think I was in the kitchen for at least 3 hours straight. But I probably made enough to feed me and Alex for the better part of a week. :D

EDIT: I forgot to mention the jello (with blueberries from the farm down the street) and the mac & cheese that ended up being dinner!

bread experiment

I was getting sick of the tiny bit of sweetness that shows up in my Favorite loaf of bread, so I decided to try a batch with NO sugar added.

Well, it really didn't rise much, ultimately, even though I gave it more time. I did know that the sugar is there to feed the yeast, so I'm not too surprised. It tastes good anyway --it's just about 1/2 the size of usual loaves!

baked macaroni & cheese casserole

This is the best mac & cheese in the WORLD and makes a giant casserole. It used to feed my whole 5-person family when I was growing up, with leftovers!

1 box (16 oz.) elbow macaroni --$1.20
8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated --$2.00
2 tbsp butter or oil --8 cents (vegetable oil)
1/4 tsp salt --negligible
2 tbsp flour --2 cents
2 cups milk --50 cents
1 sleeve saltine crackers --43 cents
Total: $4.23

That's less than $1 per person.

If anyone wants me to start posting recipes instead of just ingredient lists, I can totally do that, but for right now I'm mostly excited about the prices (and how low they are)!

gorgeous bread!

I have a favorite bread recipe, which I make pretty much whenever the weather's not too hot. I prefer making bread at home to buying it in the store anyway. I made this today:...and then in the spirit of what Alison and I have been talking about, I got to wondering whether/how economical it really is to make my own bread. I did a bunch of research, and here's what I came up with:

1 package yeast --67 cents
1/4 cup warm water
7/8 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt --1 cent
1 1/2 tbsp sugar --2 cents
1 tbsp vegetable oil --4 cents
3-3 1/2 cups flour --56 cents

Whole loaf: $1.30
Comparable loaf from the store: $3.89
Saved: $2.59!

Even if you're just getting a loaf of Wonder Bread, it's $3.19. I'd much rather have mine!

new project

Alison and I were talking sort of casually about how it's a good Wife's Job to cook tasty yet frugal food, and how neither of us has been particularly good at it, but that I'm working on it. I told her I would see what I could pass along to her for the tips that I've learned, and it turned into a kind of big discussion....

Now we are on a mission to lower her grocery bill while getting her tastier and healthier menus! No problem, right? :)