Rice Muffins

In bold is the recipe I followed, in italics are the amendments I made to it.

1 egg (4 eggs)
1/2 cup liquid (1 1/2 cups milk + 1/4 cup apple juice+3/4 cup plain yogurt)
2 tbsp sugar (3/4 cup brown sugar)
2 tbsp oil (6 tbsp oil)
1 cup rice flour (2 cups rice flour + 1 cup gluten free baking mix)
2 tsp baking powder (2 tbsp baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt (1 tsp salt)
2 tbsp chopped nuts or fruit (1/2 can pumpkin, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1 tsp vanilla)

*Mix. Grease muffin tin (paper liners), bake at 425 for 17 to 20 min.

I really seem to have a problem with following recipes, but mine were really yummy.
Original Recipe courtesy of Bob's Red Mill Rice Flour.

Grocery Shopping Week #3

So Friday was grocery day, but I didn't manage to get the facts posted. I will post an estimate synopsis of our spending for this week. I don't have receipts on hand though, so I will have to estimate.

I spent about $50 on groceries. Then, as a special treat, I took the kids to taco bell (where they behaved angelically!) Taco Bell was about $7.00 I don't, which never seemed so expensive! Friday night Paul and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner. I think we spent about $10.00 including tip. (We used to order a large pizza so we could have leftovers, this time we went with a small).

The other food expense we acquired occurred on our camping trip this weekend (which I plan to post about on the other blog). We did not bring marshmallows or chocolate (although we did have graham crackers), so we bought some from the camp store. Paul doesn't remember exactly how much so I am guessing about $3.00. Although knowing camp stores, it could have been $20.00.

So 50 + 7 + 10 + 3 = 70. I am going to try to save most of this for our meat buying budget.

Also, I had an interesting conversation with Sammy's dietician about food stamps yesterday. It turns out that most of her patients are on food stamps (children of the poor are more likely to be malnourished). Well most of the mothers either can't or won't cook and do not plan ahead. So they buy all already prepared/prepackaged food. Then they run out of money after about two weeks. So they either don't eat or go to the food pantry for the rest of the month.

This is really sad. There must be a solution here. It is one thing when adults are the victims of their own foolish behavior, but it really gets to me when the children have to suffer.

Let the Apologies Commence

And just imagine that I'm apologizing throughout this post. >< I'm trying to get back into being more social, even if it's only online. I have a lot of backlog to go through, though.

Tonight's dinner is probably going to be something that involves:

Flatout sundried tomato wraps
Lettuce
Deli sliced ham and salami
Pepperjack cheese
Maybe a cucumber

I tried making myself a wrap at lunch, sans the lettuce, and while I was chewing away and watching the raptor gnaw on the bottom of her bowl (thus upending the Gerber granola stuff inside it onto her tray), I thought that it'd make a good quesadilla. Well, I'll see if the lettuce can stand up to that. Probably not.

No, baby playing with her food doesn't always inspire dinner.

Mmm, quesadillas.

Tomorrow is Slow-Cooker Day, so I'm thinking chicken and dumplings.

Chicken Rancher's Pie

My own variation on "Shepherd's pie"

Two chicken breasts cut up in small pieces
1 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup water
Whatever vegetables you might happen to have cut up.
Three cups mashed potatoes
Fajita seasoning to taste

Sautee chicken breast. Add veggies, beans, water, and seasoning. Simmer about 20 minutes until most veggies are soft. Spread chicken/veggie mixture in 9X13 pan. Spread mashed potatoes in a thin layer over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until top is lightly brown.

Naan

For all of you who love Indian flat breads:

4 cups flour
2 cups yogurt (plain)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together. Add liquid if needed. When dough becomes to tough to stir, begin kneading. Knead for five minutes. Let sit in an oiled bowl for about 1 hour. Divide dough into ten round balls. Preheat oven to 500 degrees or broil. Heat a frying pan with a small amount of oil. Roll ball of dough with rolling pin until flat. Cook in frying pan until slightly spotted on both sides. Place bread in oven for a few seconds until it begins to balloon. Remove from oven and brush lightly with butter. Repeat (I tried to have multiple naan in process at a time).

Week #2 Grocery Shopping

Week 2's grocery shopping led to a food bill of 83.61. There were some great sales here on brocoli, cauliflower and chicken breast. I really think we are doing pretty well considering that I bought $22.00 worth of chicken (which should last quite awhile).

We did spend $22.00 on food at the Johnny Appleseed festival, though. So with our little bit of surplus carryover from last week we have only about $10.00 left in the food budget. Paul is going out to lunch with a friend this Wednesday, so most of it will be used then.

I also told you last week that I had bought the large package of spinach. We didn't manage to use all of it, despite my best efforts to include spinach in nearly every meal. So today, before the spinach spoiled, I froze the remainder of the spinach. This week I will be sneaking broccoli and cauliflower into all of our meals.

Four-Bean Vegetarian Chili

Quick, easy - and it freezes well, so you don't have to eat the same meal for two weeks straight!

1 onion, chopped
2 T. olive oil
1 15 oz. can black beans
1 15 oz. can pinto beans
1 15 oz. can northern beans
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 16 oz. jar salsa
1 cup water
2 T. corn meal
3 T. chili powder
1 T. cumin

Saute the onion, then add everything else (drain and rinse the beans). Heat (with fairly constant stirring) until hot. DONE!

That's the recipe I was given...I like 'meaty' chilis, so I usually use less water, more corn meal, and a 'chunky' salsa, and have had people not realize that it's a vegetarian dish. Obviously, there are all sorts of other variations...add in fresh veggies - or even meat. Vary the brand, flavor or spiciness of the salsa. Change the type of beans. You get the picture - all sorts of fun stuff! Enjoy!

Oreo Truffles

"Can I be a contributor to this blog??? Pleeease!!! You all are making me hungry, and making me think of yummy recipes I want to share! Like super-easy (and super-not-so-good-for-you) Oreo truffles...Mmm..."

That was me a few months ago...and I haven't gotten around to sharing "the super-easy (and super-not-so-good-for-you) Oreo truffles" recipe yet. So here it is...

1 pkg Oreos
1 pkg cream cheese (reduced fat and fat-free won't work - it's got to be the really unhealthy stuff)
chocolate chips, melted

Crush all the Oreos. Mash in the cream cheese (I used a potato masher...) until it's all fairly smooth. Make small (truffle-sized!) balls out of it and place them on waxed paper. Then pour melted chocolate chips over them and let it all cool. YUM!

Note 1 - To give credit where credit is due, this recipe comes from 'my undergrad' (who has graduated and is in graduate school herself now, but who I will always think of as 'my undergrad')

Note 2 - According to 'my undergrad' - you are theoretically supposed to be able to spear the truffles on toothpicks and dip them in the melted chocolate. Experience has taught both of us that that is great way to end up with truffle in the chocolate, instead of chocolate on the truffle.

Next recipe I post? Probably my cheap, easy and hearty vegetarian chili...

$21 challenge tracking

Hey there everybody!
So since I go overboard on tracking Everything, why should this $21 challenge be any exception? :-)
Since this is only a 13 week trial for me, I'm keeping a little bit more detail than I would otherwise. Why? Just for the fun of it! And, surprise surprise, it's in the form of... A Spreadsheet!! Honestly, how many of you didn't see that coming?

What it tracks:
Individual grocery items purchased along with quantity and total prices. I'm of course in the Chicago metro area, so you can see how the price per qty compares to other areas.
It also prorates your cost per meal/week if, like me, you prefer to have a couple of meals outside of the $21 dollar challenge for whatever reason.

It's a live updated document so it will stay current as the challenge progresses. If you want to check it out feel free:
spreadsheet
Or, if you want a copy so you too can track your food in exquisite detail, let me know!

Other notes about the challenge:
I've realized that for the next several weeks I'll be living almost entirely off of food already in my pantry. So, this challenge will take awhile to become real for me. I figure that by week 5 or so the money will be a fairly accurate number. But I have ~4 pounds of pasta, ~5 pounds of rice, ~3 pounds of beans, lots of potatoes thanks to Sara, and a ton of little things like spices, cooking oil, salt, flour, sugar, etc... that I use in everything. So, I'll keep tracking and watch the number climb till it stabilizes.
Of course the other good thing about this is that by the time I'm ready to leave for Europe in December my pantry will be at a minimum. :-)

No bake cookies

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 stick margarine (I substituted real butter and that seemed to work fine)
1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup nuts (optional --I opted not)

Mix first ingredients together in a sauce pan. Boil for five minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in oatmeal and nuts. Glop onto wax paper. Let cool (refrigerate for faster cooling). Enjoy!

The consistency was something like fudge with oatmeal in it. I was thinking I might try this recipe and substitute crisp rice cereal for oatmeal sometime. I imagine there are a lot of things you could substitute.

Confession

After the rude discovery that I had driven clear across town for naught, I broke down and bought a coca-cola. Sigh...

So another $1.25 gone from the weekly budget.

Foolish and impulsive decisions make a big impact on this diet.

Chickpea Chapatis

1/2 cup dried chickpeas
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon oil
1 egg

Soak chickpeas for 6-8 hours
Drain and rinse chickpeas.
Place chickpeas and two cups water in a pan. Bring to a boil and let simmer until chickpeas are very soft (a couple of hours). Add water if necessary. Mash chickpeas. Blend mashed chickpeas with other ingredients. Cook mixture in a frying pan like pancakes (pour batter into heated oiled pan, flip when it looks like time)

Serve warm.

I haven't quite gotten the timing down for the flipping yet. But these are very yummy, high in protein, and cheap to make.

An evening out

Last night was a scheduled date night. So Paul and I hit the town with great gusto. Or something like that. We had dinner at our favorite little diner, where the food is good and the decor has not been updated since the 1970s (think paisley).

Our total dinner bill came to about $13 including the tip. Paul and I had a debate about how to count the tip for the budget (we left a $3 tip on a $10 meal). We decided to count it all (Paul's opinion), rather than my opinion that only the mandatory 15% should count.

After dinner we went for a walk in a nearby park until dark. Then Paul wanted to go to our favorite coffee shop to play checkers. Ouch!! All my scrimping and saving doesn't seem so valuable when you end up buying a tall blended chai for $3. Oh well. There's not much left in the budget for the rest of the week. So we may end up regretting our splurge. All in all we will say that our date was a $20 hit to the food budget.

So this morning for breakfast I fixed oatmeal, warmed up some leftovers. And topped it off with a plate of spinach.

Grocery Shopping

I took the kids to Meijer today. I was armed with list and a plan.

My total bill came to $110.73. Which you will notice is more than the $105 we are alloted. However, I had $39.22 worth of non food items listed on my receipt. After removing these my total is:

$71.51

What I did differently:

I bought a lot of dried beans. Normally I buy canned because of the convenience, but there is no doubt dried is a better value.

The only prepared food we bought was crackers. I couldn't possibly ask Paul to give up crackers.

I selected chicken drumsticks for $.79 a pound, passing by the boneless, skinless breasts at $4.79

I bought the Paula Red Apples instead of gala, because they were cheaper.

And I bought a smaller selection of vegetables, although not a smaller quantity. For instance, generally I might have bought a small package of spinach and broccoli. This time I bought a large package of spinach. I will have to sneak spinach into almost every meal this week to use it all. But if we don't use it, I can always freeze some.

And lastly, I didn't buy myself a drink in the checkout lane even though I was really thirsty. And I said no to all impulse buys. The only "junk" I bought was the diet sprite I got for Paul's father, who will be in town this weekend.

Tapioca Black Bean Pudding

1/2	cup	dried black beans
1	tsp	salt, divided use
3/4	cup	granulated sugar, to taste, divided use
1/2	cup	small tapioca pearls (see Note)
2	cup	, or 1 (14-ounce) can, coconut milk
1	tsp	sea salt, to taste

• Pick through and discard any shriveled beans. Cover with water; soak for 2 or more hours.
• Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add beans and return to a boil. Simmer covered over low heat until beans are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more boiling water if beans are drying up. When tender, stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup sugar and simmer a while longer for beans to absorb flavorings. (To save on time, substitute canned cooked black beans.)
• When beans are almost done, heat 2 cups of water in another saucepan. Rinse tapioca pearls in a fine-mesh strainer under running cool tap water until thoroughly wet. Drain and let sit a minute or two for pearls to absorb surface water, then add to boiling water. Reduce heat and stir frequently until pearls clear (8 to 10 minutes). If mixture becomes too thick, add a little more water to help cook tapioca until all pearls are cooked through.
• Make a coconut sauce by combining coconut milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan. Heat and simmer about 5 minutes to thicken slightly.
• When beans and tapioca are cooked, mix together and add coconut sauce. Stir to blend. Serve warm.
• Note: For a chewier texture, try larger tapioca pearls.

I haven't tried this yet. But I have a bunch of tapioca on hand that needs to be used. And I wanted to do something other than plain old tapioca pudding.

It looks like a good high-protein, cheap recipe.