Frugal Foodie Find - Basket Overfloweth

Here I am again, recording another exciting week in my quest to reduce my food budget. I have much good news to report.

So while doing a bit of research on how to cut my food/everything budget in half, but to remain somewhat a food purist, I have learned a few invaluable things. Some were harder to put into effect than others, some take much more time or effort, and some prove to be delightful. One such thing that those wise frugal wizards recommended was joining a food co-op. I looked into this about a year ago in hopes of finding a place to buy more local or organic food. It seemed expensive and involved something called volunteer work. Wha? So I was on the hunt again willing to give it try. Enter Bountiful Baskets. A friend of mine told me that you could get a basket of produce for $15 - NICE. Upon further investigation they were looking to start offering organic produce. Even betta!



While I really try hard to buy organic for the family, there's no doubt it's just plain expensive. Even without my super budget in effect, I just couldn't shell out the money for all organic. I researched what items were the best to buy organic - grapes, peaches, lettuces. Anything with a thinner skin that could absorb more icky stuff. But even then I would go into sticker shock at the price of organic. So last Saturday I picked up my basket of nothing but organic fruits and veggies. Bountiful Baskets offers an entire organic basket for $25. They mentioned it would have less items than the non-organic, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I was overjoyed with strawberries, grapes, mangoes, bananas, grapefruit, cantelopes, carrots, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, kale, and spinach. I figured with the fruit alone I would have spent over $25 at the grocery store for organic.

So what does one do with a basket of surprise produce? Many things.



The iceberg lettuce actually had me more stumped than anything else. We usually eat the greener super flavorful lettuce. So I went old school and just made a simple salad with some home made ranch dressing on a wedge of it. Very refreshing and filling. The iceberg is actually lasting a while and is good on top of things likes sandwiches and tacos. Fruit salad has graced almost every one of Cambrell's lunches and I've enjoyed on top of my morning yogurt. Sauteed spinach went with our sesame orange shrimp, and another cantelope is waiting to be turned in to sorbet.

The best way to use up the tomatoes quickly, Pico de gallo.



It's quick, it's easy, it keeps well, and it's good on so many things. I used it here on top of grilled vegetable cheese crisps. These were insanely good and used up some more vegetables. Here's my recipe for Pico de gallo-

2 or 3 tomatoes seeded and chopped
1/4 small onion, diced
1/2 jalepeno diced (seeds removed if you don't want it so hot)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper
drizzle of olive oil

Mix everything together and eat it with anything.

There's a few things to keep in mind when joining a food co-op especially for produce. 1- Watch the price of your basket and compare it to the equivalent of your grocery store. Not all co-ops are a good deal. 2- Be flexible and open minded. You never know what you're going to get and you may in fact not like it. Just spread the love and give it to a friend and maybe next time you'll get what you want. 3- Have a good pantry supply so you'll have stuff to go with your produce and make impromptu dishes. 4- Use the most perishable items first no matter how much you want to eat up something else. You don't want to waste your savings.

Now every other week I have a basket of good for me surprises to pick up. I'm sure I'll have to do that volunteer thing at some point, but maybe I can milk this pregnant thing when the time comes. On the other hand who cares about a little elbow grease with yummy stuff like this.

Give Away Galore

So I whilst perusing the internet I noticed that many blogs like to give stuff away. I used to just read through these and say "that's nice." But I decided to give some a go, why not. I'm usually the person who could buy 10 raffle tickets out of 20 and never get chosen, while the person next to me will clean up.

Well I finally won something - 5 pounds of sausage. That's right folks, sausage straight from New York. Esposito's, the meat supplier for Food Network, gave away 5 pounds of sausage to one lucky person who posted a reply for an FN Dish web show. All I did was write about what I would do with the sausage if I got it. Low and behold I received an email and today I'm waiting for my delivery of Esposito's sausage. YUM! Maybe my losing streak is over.

So of course I'm gonna sign up for all I can get. Wouldn't you? So I clicked on over to check out some aprons (my secret love, shhhh). The Apronista is holding a giveaway for a super cool apron.



If I win this I really should hop over to a site for a dream vacation giveaway, or a house, or a space ship.

So I'll let you know how wonderful my sausage is when it comes!

Naughty Clean Fun

Check out this new site Food Porn Daily. It sounds very naughty, but it is most certainly better than your dirty little heads are thinking. It's just very good pictures of the most delicious looking food that you can scroll through.

I love pictures of food - good pictures of food and am just learning how exactly to capture those pictures. This site is put together by the folks at What We're Eating, and I believe Pinch my Salt. Both fun food blogs, with excellent photos.

I think the pictures at Food Porn Daily are to change, well, daily so check often.

Good Eaters

I hear a lot that my kids are good eaters and at first it makes it sound like they'll eat a book if you put it in front of them. Even though there are times when I think I've said "just eat it, it's good for you" beyond what I ever thought one human should use that phrase, I realize that they are, on the kid scale "good eaters".

When the first one was little Cambrell and I switched off working and taking care of him, so much of dinner time it was just me and the kid. I found myself asking the question "what do you want to eat?" This proved to be a profound mistake when things got hectic, or when we added another kid in the mix. He would eat some very unusual things for a tyke - shrimp, scallops, avocados, more fish. But he still was spoiled with the kid menu items, or whatever his little heart desired (within some amount of reason). So after the second came around I figured out that I had trained him to think that this was Burger King, and he most certainly could have it his way. We had to do a bit of retraining but now he knows that dinner is cooked once and we all eat the same thing. She's never questioned this method and is a sensational eater. She's got her oddities too that she adores - onions, peppers, pepperoncini's, tomatoes and more tomatoes. But these are good things.

Don't get me wrong they'd probably prefer a box of mac and cheese any day, (even to my oh so delicious home-made). So tonight I was a little taken aback at the rave reviews of my smoked salmon frittata. I know they like fish, but I wasn't sure the texture or taste would get past their kid finicky palettes. They thought it was ham at first, and #2 kept asking me for more bacon.



I gotta say that Pioneer Woman's recipe for Crash Hot Potatoes helped everything go down nicely. I used dill on the potatoes instead of rosemary. These potatoes took no time as I boiled them yesterday while I was cleaning up the kitchen floor.

The frittata took the same amount of time as the yummy potatoes getting brown in the oven. I sauteed some onions and peppers, then added my eggs beaten with milk, S&P, and more dill. Then after it set a bit I showered the eggs with my sliced up smoked salmon. If I wasn't worried that the kids my not like it I think I would wait until it came out of the oven to add the salmon. It did get a bit tougher, but the taste was good going through the eggs. I always lift some edges of my frittatas to let more egg ooze into place. When it's near set on the bottom but still goopy on top I put it in the oven, rather hot oven, for about 5-10 minutes. Sometimes I only need to place it under the broiler for 3 minutes. This would have been just divine with some goat cheese sprinkled throughout, but again I thought that would be asking too much of the kids. I love frittatas. You can put almost anything in them, and they're quick and reliable.

Check out what else the pregnant lady is craving.



I've gone through like a bag of carrots already this week. It looks impressively healthy, but I'm sure my homemade ranch dressing is knocking that down a few notches. I know my super fancy container is impressing the heck out of you too. I'm re-purposing, it's hip. Notice I also omit a photo of my other pregnant lady craving - Haagen-Dazs chocolate almond covered ice cream bars. OH sweet mother of all that is good and pure those rock. But carrots make me look better on paper.

Frugal Foodie Findings - How much is that?

After Cambrell and I sat down to actually evaluate the money situation and see where it is all going, it became painfully clear that we needed a budget. And that I spend a lot of money on food. Not like on fillet mignon, or caviar, just whatever I was feeling like at the moment. We needed a plan, a strict plan. As everyone seems to be feeling the rising prices I decided that I couldn't just set this limit on my food budget (which is now less than half of what I used to spend to feed the masses), but I needed research. So I decided that I would share with all of you - or the one person reading this - my findings. This isn't a lesson in bare bones mind you. I have extremely strict standards when it comes to food and frankly I'm not willing to give up a lot of them. I don't believe in consuming food for the sake of filling up, but that it is life enhancing to eat, on every level.

So first a lesson in what I won't buy. I refuse to go for cheap just because it's cheap. I prefer inexpensive. There is a difference folks. For example think about the words suit, hooker and sandwich. Now put the word cheap in front of those. Not functional, pretty or appetizing right? Now use the phrases inexpensive, fair price for a ..., or affordable. See the difference? I don't believe food should come cheap. If it does it is probably laden with high fructose corn syrup, nitrates and nitrites, fillers, hydrogenated fats or God knows what. I don't do that. Makes life harder to some, but I'm working through it. I also am dealing with my love that seems to not function at maximum capacity while eating gluten. So gluten free for some items, but no biggie.

I also love food! I love food at the height of seasons, or trying some new dish just to expand my abilities in the kitchen. I also feel entitled to try new and dangerous things because I may get hit by a bus with out ever tasting it and how tragic is that. So some of my posts will be about how I am going to deal with it. Hopefully we will learn things as I go off experimenting with how not to blow my money away, or no one ever will read this and I will find new ways to blow money.

Price books -
When I started frugal researching I came across some wacky, perhaps desperate things. I'm not saying there isn't a time and place for those, but I will sell my soul back to Starbucks before that time. But a reoccurring theme was price books. It sounds like an extremely daunting task and I suppose it could be if you got really in to it, but I decided to get one going. I made of list of things I always buy on just about every shopping trip. Then as I go to the store I know I will shop at I make note of the price. Then with some simple math I found out the price per unit. This is how you compare if you are really getting a deal say at the giant warehouse place. I'll tell ya I never knew how much I was really paying for some things. Good eye opener. Some stuff at the warehouse store is a great deal, and some things are the same. So now I go around to a few different stores after checking sales and my little book, but I'm saving money in the long run.

Next is my bulk store experiment. I got so excited over the price of garlic at Costco that I bought some. Now I think once you're in there the size of everything becomes relative and you aren't really getting the full grasp of how incredible the size of what you are about to buy is. So I came home with more garlic than one should ever need. I realized I had a potential storage issue at hand and was frantic about wasting all of this garlic.



This is just 2 bulbs, and I think I had about 15. So I found somewhere that said if you pre-mince the garlic and store it small containers in the fridge, it will keep very well. So we'll see. It certainly was a chore taking all the skins off billions of cloves of garlic, but at least I have a food processor.



I'll let you know if I still have garlic with flavor, or if I totally wasted a smelly afternoon and some cash.

So since all things can't be about work, and you need something tasty to make running around writing down prices all over town worth it, let's eat rice pudding. I adore rice pudding. It's very versatile, easy and homey. I think there is a place in New York that offers tons of rice pudding flavors. Ooh here it is. Oh man they even ship. Well that's most certainly not in budget so I'll make some. So I started out with this recipe. I liked that it used Arborio rice which is creamy on it's own, but this recipe started off with water too so less milk, less expensive. Then I remembered a rice pudding that I adored out of this cook book. It was a lemon lavender rice pudding and I was addicted to it. So I added some lemon rind to my milk to steep.



The lemon gives the pudding a perfect scent and flavor. I was out of lavender flowers so I just made this pudding strictly lemon. Rice pudding is like a wonderful blank canvas and I think that's why it works for any season. Being that it is summer I decided to top it with a sauce I made out of frozen berries and lemon zest. It would have been just as good with simple fresh berries, or for winter, pomegranate seeds.




So this was the recipe after I tweaked the original.

2 cups water
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup arborio rice (the one you make risotto with)
4 cups milk
Rind of one lemon (no bitter white part)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil the water with salt and pinch of salt in sauce pan. Meanwhile heat up your milk in a separate pan and add the lemon rind and sugar. Add the rice to the boiling water and let simmer slowly for about 10 minutes until most of the water is absorbed. Add the milk mixture to the rice and continue to simmer stirring occasionally. After about 30 minutes taste to see if the rice is cooked all the way through. Take off the heat when the rice is cooked through, but the milk is just near completely absorbed. It will continue to absorb more milk later and become thick, so you want to retain some creamy milkiness. Remove the lemon rinds and add the vanilla off the heat. Let rice cool then add your cream. I do this only to enhance the creaminess and feel of the pudding, but it is not necessary. Top with fruit or more whip cream, or whatever your fancy budget can afford.

**Update: The pre-chopped garlic isn't bad, but I don't know if it's worth all the trouble. I think this last container has lost some flavor so I have to use more anyway. At least it's not bitter - I was afraid it would become too bitter.

Lucky Me

So I got a package in the mail today. Just for me, nothing I ordered myself either. A gift for me! No birthdays, just an awesome gift. You see I have this immensely talented friend Leah. We have known each other since high school and try to still keep in touch. I actually moved to a different high school and felt so very displaced with out my 2 Leah's. We didn't go to the same colleges but have managed to keep in contact and see each other whenever in the nearest possible proximity. She is an amazing person and I am so happy that I still can talk to her.

She is an extremely talented artist and owns a gallery in Glen Haven Colorado where she sells her art and I believe the art of others. (I haven't gotten a chance to see her place yet). But now she has ventured in to a larger gallery space and has decided to add a little coffee and tea bar in it. So she called me for a bit of coffee advice and I we talked coffee for a bit. For that tiny bit of coffee talk she sent me this package.



Now a package from Leah is sure not to be just any package. The woman can do anything from paintings, to ceramics, to sewing, blown glass, and even plumbing. Seriously she's one of those people that puts her mind to it and can do anything, with amazing artistic talent. So there was some Leah's Espresso coffee which I am totally using tomorrow morning. I love the logo and packaging so much that I sort of don't want to use the coffee. I mean I went to high school with the "Leah's Espresso" girl - now she's on packaging. But this was the other treasure inside -



How wonderful is she? I'm so fascinated by my lady, she's beautiful. Look at her, there's even beads.



I am so excited about her that I can't find a place worthy enough for her. I really like the way she looks against my orange wall, but I hardly ever sit over there now that I work at home I'm on the other side of the orange wall. I sort of don't want her around where I work because I already have some nicky nacky things and I want her set apart. I want her somewhere just for me. She reminds me that I'm actually carrying life, not just a wiggling thing that sits on my sciatic nerve, or squishes my bladder to oblivion. But I get to carry LIFE. Then when I no longer am a blimp full of life, she will remind me of that blessing. Remind me of that brief whisper of a moment where it was just me and that life walking around together getting big.

This is more of Leah's stuff that I treasure -



Her work is so unique and gorgeous, but purposeful so it actually gets used. I have another one of her pieces that holds my tooth brush but I was too lazy to go and take a picture. She has an online shop, Spirits of the Rocks where you can order stuff, but if you are ever in Colorado near Estes Park I highly recommend finding her place. This is a link to the new shop site too. I'm sure it rocks and is packed with her creative touch. The town is gorgeous and has other fun stuff. I haven't been since Leah's awesome wedding, which was by far the funnest wedding I've been to besides mine.

So thank you Leah for making my week and giving me another wonderful unique piece. I really didn't do anything to deserve my beautiful lady. I can't wait to come and sit and drink your coffee with you.

Easy Peasy Summer

It's 2 weeks in to summer and I'm loving it. I know sometimes the kids are bored and cooped up, but I like it. I love surrounding myself with family and finding things to do around here. It's sort of like hibernating but backwards. We don't really leave the house in the afternoons due to heat and lack of A/C in the monster truck. So we veg inside, eat, clean, work, set up the kiddie pool and nap. I love naps. I've decided to take full advantage of naps before it's too late.



This is baby girl after a night at Mimi's - her first night away from both of us. It was eerie for me to have the house so quiet. Usually number 1 spends the night with one of the grandmas and we are left with only one wee one. It's too quiet then, but this was just creepy. Then I sunk deep in to how relaxing it was and we went out to eat then watched Arrested Development. Now that school's out the grandmas can come and steal kids at will. I'm so blessed that they like to do this. And now that we know wee one number 2 just gets super sleepy after a slumber party, but lets someone else put her to bed, it opens up another realm of freedom (if just briefly).

I've also tried to simplify my meal plans and shopping. Mainly for economic reasons, but also so I'm not cooking so much in the heat. I can't remember what I was watching, but they were talking about kabobs. I remember kabobs not having a ton of flavor and just being ok, but I thought perhaps this would be an easy thing to grill and use for left over cowboy beans. So I went to tinkering, and this was the result -



They were much tastier than some and I skewered the veggies separately so grilling was a breeze. I also skewered and grilled up some pineapple thinking it would be a good dessert, but it tasted so good with the meat that we didn't even think about dessert.

This is my marinade (I was sort of cleaning my fridge out of some Asian condiments that I know have been living there a bit). I think I had about 2 pounds of cut up stew meat for this amount of marinade.

3/4 cup Hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon red curry paste
1/4 cup Tamari sauce (this doesn't have gluten, but soy sauce does)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
2 cloves garlic smashed
ground pepper

It was lovely and would have been great in my cowboy beans if the masses didn't eat it all before I made my beans.

My other summer indulgence is by the way of pregnant lady cravings. I'm not sure that I wouldn't crave this if I wasn't pregnant, but this was all I could think about upon waking from my afternoon nap.



I've decided this may be the only acceptable way to eat corn on cob. I first saw this on Paula Deen. It was one of those recipes where I thought this is so odd that it's probably so good. It is! But I don't have the same technique. I tried adding all the yummy mayo and cheese before grilling, but I ended up trying to lick the foil of the goodies that came off and then getting nibs of foil in my teeth instead of corn. Yuck. I now I grill my corn in the husks with just a bit of olive oil rubbed on the cob. Then as soon as they come off the grill I brush them with mayo, then sprinkle on the chili powder and cheese. Baby girl loves this too. I honestly am creating my weekly menu on when I can grill these babies up again. I'm sure I'll find something else equally as caloric to replace this - ooh like this. I don't even really fancy s'mores but this looked too good. Smitten Kitchen is another addictive food blog with great food photos. I've got to stop finding these sites. I find too many things that I NEED to make. Take a gander and the wreck my kitchen gets in after a day of tinkering -



I think I used every piece of gadgetry I own that day. In my defense Cambrell was sick and I was juicing him my favorite tea (we can discuss this later) as well as whipping up something - who knows what. I try to clean as I go, but it never works out in the end. I know you're jealous of my glorious kitchen. I'm working out plans in my head for my dream kitchen. Do people really cook in their dream kitchens? Or do they look too cool to get dirty? Would I mess up this kitchen just for grub?



I'd sure like to try!