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.

Black Bean Brownies

CHOCOLATE BEAN BROWNIES

1 CAN RINSED & DRAINED BLACK BEANS
3 EGGS
3 TBS. OIL
4 TBS COCOA POWDER
A PINCH OF SALT
1 TSP. VANILLA
3/4 CUP SUGAR

MIX INGREDIENTS TOGETHER IN A BLENDER/ FOOD PROCESSOR UNTIL PUREE. POUR INTO A GREASED 8x8 CAKE PAN.
STIR IN SOME CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND NUTS
BAKE 350 APPX. 30 MIN
VERY DENSE CHOCOLATELY BROWNIE…

Currently they are still in the oven, so I'll post a review of the brownies later. If they are tasty I will be delighted, sense they are so easy to make and really cheap compared to most gluten free brownie mixes.

Secret Family Recipe

So I haven't had any interesting recipes to post for awhile. So I thought I would share with you about my baking experience this morning. We made Blueberry muffins according to our "secret family recipe". Here it is:

1 box Duncan Hines Bakery Style Blueberry muffin mix
3/4 cup milk (approximately)
3-4 spoons
2 chairs

Throw box into trash. Retrieve box from trash. Preheat oven to 400. Dump mix into large bowl. Help screaming children to pull chairs over to counter to stand on. Give middle child a time-out for knocking over baby brother. Add milk. Distribute spoons. Add egg. Help children stir. Put muffin cups in muffin pan. Realize that there are only four muffin cups, and grease rest of pan. Stop children from eating batter. Search for can opener. Drain and rinse blueberries. Add berries. Let each child eat batter on spoon. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Place muffin pan in oven. Remove muffin pan immediately. Sprinkle topping mix over muffins. Place pan back in oven. Set timer for eighteen seconds. When it beeps, reset for eighteen minutes. Remove all clothing and scrub self and children to remove muffin batter. Wipe down counters. When muffins are done baking, remove pan and set out of reach of children. No not there, they can reach it there. When muffins are barely cool enough not to burn children, let them have muffins. Realize it is time to leave to pick oldest child up from day camp, and hope she isn't to upset to learn that there are no Abigail muffins.

Oh yes, and apologize to husband when he gets home from work that the muffins are all gone. I think that Sammy ate at least six of them.