Friday's Frugal Food: Another Dinner from Leftovers and Odds & Ends

Yesterday was one of those extra busy days - back-to-back appointments, afternoon floor duty at the office,  end-of-the-day appointment, and finally a 7 pm committee meeting. There wasn't enough time for a "real" dinner, but I hadn't eaten lunch and was really hungry. Typically when I have evening meetings, I'll just heat up something leftover and eat before I go out. But it was pretty slim pickins - or "slim chickens" as we say in our house - in the fridge.

But even with no obvious leftovers - like some roasted chicken, a pot of soup or stew, or the remains of a casserole - there are usually a few things stowed away in food savers that can up to a meal. Here's what I used:

• a package of 3 zucchinis from the past-their-prime shelf at the SuperFresh
• 1/4 large onion
• 1/3 of a box of orzo
• about a cup of left-over, home-made spaghetti sauce
• fresh parsley
• fresh thyme left over from a spectacular pork dish
• 1/2 a cucumber from the same source as the zucchini
• 1/4 of a head of iceburg lettuce, another Frugal Find at the grocery store

Here's what I did:

• sliced the zucchini and onion  (I would have added garlic, but we had run out)
• chopped about 2 tbsp. of parsley
• stripped the leaves from 4 stems of thyme
• sauteed the zucchini and onion in a little olive oil until nearly carmelized
• added the parsley and thyme
• cooked the orzo in salted water per the package instructions (about 9 minutes)
• added the cooked orzo to the sauteed onion and zucchini
• added the spaghetti sauce to the orzo-vegetable mix and heated thoroughly
• adjusted the seasoning with a little salt and pepper

Then I made a quick salad of cucumber and lettuce and topped it with a little of Nadine's Salad Success vinaigrette.

Done. My husband added some red pepper flakes and grated locatelli cheese later - he ate after I did because, really, 6:30 is just too early for dinner. The dish wasn't particularly pretty, but it was tasty. And I used up foods that might have gone too far past their usefulness if left in the fridge much longer.

Here's a break-down on how much this nutritious, filling and reasonably flavorful meal cost:

• zucchini                  .45
• onion                      .20
• orzo                        .33
• leftover sauce         .50
• olive oil                  .20
• cucumber               .20
• lettuce                   .30
• salad dressing         .25
• locatelli                  .50    
• pepper flakes          .05 
• parsley and thyme   .20
• So the whole meal - dinner for two - cost just over $3. Not bad.        

Friday's Frugal Food: Eggs - Versatile, Delicious and Cheap

I love eggs...in almost any form except raw, and for some odd reason,  egg salad. For me, eggs are just about the perfect food. They are on my Top 10 List  of Frugal Foods.

Before I go any further, I want to make it perfectly clear that, though they are incredibly inexpensive, I do my best to avoid eggs from chickens raised using confinement farming techniques. I look for, at the very least, eggs from free-range chickens. But that just means they aren't kept in cages their entire lives - most rarely, if ever, see the light of day. Better are eggs from pastured chickens, which means they have a chance to run around a bit and scratch in the dirt for bugs. The best eggs, I've found, come from flocks of "happy chickens" raised on small farms or even by amateur poultry enthusiasts.

I buy eggs from my friend Lorraine who keeps about 15 chickens in her backyard. The chickens live in a hen house with an outdoor enclosure where they are protected from predators like hawks and foxes. But when Lorraine is home, they often run free in the yard. Each hen lays about one egg a day, and Lorraine sells the eggs to friends for $1.50 a dozen. While the eggs are not technically organic, the chickens that produce them eat healthy food, and aren't fed antibiotics or other chemicals that are typically given to birds raised on factory farms.  Lorraine's chickens get kitchen scraps and leftovers too - they especially like spaghetti, I'm told.

Because there are a variety of chicken types (Rhode Island reds, Aracunas, Bantams and others) the size and color of the eggs range from jumbo and brown to petite and white, with some medium size blue-green eggs among them. But one thing every egg has in common is outstandig freshness and  flavor.

Eggs are jam-packed with nutrition, offering about 6 grams of protein a piece, along with 13 essential nutrients incuding vitamin A, B, D, E and K. A cup of chopped eggs (I'm guessing that's about 2 large cooked eggs) has 34% of the protein the DV (daily values in nutrition) an adult requires, along with a DV of 25% for Vitamin B12, 41% for Riboflavin, 60% for Selenium and 23% for Phosphorus. Eggs, especially pastured eggs, have about 106 mg of Omega-3 fatty acids per cup and about 211 calories.

At about 13 cents a piece, the eggs I buy offer an incredibly inexpensive source of all these nutrients.

Eggs can be boiled, baked, poached, fried, scrambled, deviled, curried (one of my mother's signature dishes), and turned into quiches, frittatas, omlettes and stratas. Besides being an essential ingredient in many baked goods, eggs are used as a binder in meatloaf and meatballs, like the one's my friend Nadine makes, Roman-style rice balls and in many kinds of croquettes. The allrecipe.com website has 600 recipes for egg main dishes. There are thousands more that use eggs just as one of many ingredientes.

Do you have a favorite egg recipe? Have you had the opportunity to compare eggs from "happy" chickens to factory-farmed eggs? Please share.

Super-Cheap Clean-Out-The-Fridge Soup

With the sun out, all those mountains of snow are beginning to melt. It's beautiful, and the weather is mild. But when the sun sets, we know it's still winter. And during the winter, soup is always on the menu. Right now, the fridge is full of odds and ends, bits and pieces, a little of this and some of that. So we're going to make Super Cheap Clean-Out-The-Fridge Soup. Here's how:

First, we'll see exactly what ingredients are available. In the fridge, there are 6 carrots, 3 onions and 2 scallions that need to be used ASAP. There's also a quart of corn leftover from the 2 quart bag we defrosted earlier in the week for another meal, and some leftover coconut rice (though that might not be a good match with anything else). In the freezer there are lots of other goodies: chopped celery, kale, beet greens, Swiss chard and some edamame. And we'll pull some canned beans, or maybe dried lentils, a jar of home-made tomato sauce and half a bag of egg noodles from the pantry.

If there's time, we'll stop at the grocery store to pick up some chicken stock. But in a pinch, water will do, maybe with a little wine to add some flavor.  We'll use about 6 cups of liquid - a combination of water, tomato sauce, wine and stock. The proportions don't matter that much - though probably not more than a cup of wine.

The next step is to chop the carrots, onions and scallions. These are added to the thawed chopped celery in the soup pot with a little olive oil. If I had a couple of bacon pieces, I would dice them and fry up the pieces, then use the bacon fat instead of or with the olive oil to sautee the vegetables.

When the onions are transparent, the liquids go in...a total of about 6 cups, but no need to be exact. After bringing the mixture to a boil, I'll reduce the flame and add some of the greens (I'll use kale or chard or beet tops, but not all together). Since the greens were only blanched prior to freezing, they'll need to boil gently for a bit (maybe 15 or 20 minutes) until tender.

Once the greens are cooked, I'll add a the pasta. If the pasta is left-over rather than uncooked, I'll add it just before serving so it can heat up without getting mushy. The can of beans will go in just prior to serving as well so the beans are nice and hot but don't get over cooked. If I'm using dried beans or lentils, I will allow the required cooking time.

If there is any leftover meat - bits of chicken, pork, beef or sausage, these too will be tossed in, earlier rather than later so that the meat flavors can mix with the vegetables. For more flavor, I'll add herbs like fresh parsley (there are usually a few stray pieces in the bottom of the crisper drawer - no matter that they have seen better days), a bit of dried thyme, marjorum and tarragon. Then salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, I'll make some toasts from stale bread spread with a tiny bit of olive oil or topped with a bit of grated cheese to use as croutons. Or if I'm feeling a little more ambitious, I'll make corn bread with the leftover corn, some cornmeal, flour and a bit of cheddar cheese.

Mmmmmm. Delicious. And cheap!

Do you have a few super cheap meals in your bag of frugal tricks? Please share.

Friday's Frugal Food - Kudos for Cabbage

Cabbage is a wonder food. Seriously. It's filling, nutritious and versatile. And it's usually very inexpensive.

Cabbage can be buttered, baked, braised, boiled, pickled, stuffed, fried, wilted, scalloped or used raw. It is an ingredient for salads, soups, main dishes with meat, vegetarian main dishes and appetizers. The cooks.com website offers 175 recipes for cabbage dishes. And that's just one site.

And did I mention, cabbage is cheap?

A member of the Brassica family, cabbage is a close relative of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, cauliflower and kale. Types of cabbage include Savoy, Chinese, red, green and Napa.

All cabbages are low in calories (about 19 per cup), high in dietary fiber and offer various amounts of vitamins A, C, K, B1, B2 and B6. Cabbage is also a source of folate, magnesium, potassium, manganese, protein, thiamin, calcium, phosphorous and copper.

And then there's the fact that they cost next to nothing.

Our personal cabbage dish repertoir includes stuffed cabbage (rice, ground beef, herbs & spices, egg & bread crumbs baked in a tomato sauce); cole slaw (with a vinegar-based dressing as opposed to mayo); pork loin on braised red cabbage (made with onion & apples); choucroute (lots of pork products with potatoes and braised green cabbage); corned beef and cabbage (ok, I've never made it - but my husband's version is fabulous); various soups made with cabbage; and vegetarian stir fry with bok choy (a Chinese cabbage) as the main ingredient.

A simple side dish I make when the fridge is almost bare and we need something filling and cheap, is sauteed cabbage and onion, pictured pre-saute above.  Here's how I do it:

roughly chopped cabbage  (the photo is of about 1/2 a small Chinese cabbage)
1 roughly chopped onion
1 tbsp oil (I typically use olive oil, but it's not critical)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
a pinch of red pepper flakes
salt & pepper to taste

Heat a saute pan, add the oil and reduce heat to medium. Add the cabbage and onion and saute, stirring often, until the cabbage is limp and the onion is translucent. Lower heat and stir in vinegar. Add pepper flakes. Season to taste. Turn up heat again to make sure everything is nice and hot. Serve.
This is enough for generous servings as a side dish. It's easy to expand to serve more.

At a typical 69 cents a pound for cabbage, it's one of the most economical (and healthful) ingredients you can have in your kitchen...a truly frugal food.

Do you have a favorite cabbage dish? Please share.

Using Home-Grown Herbs Adds Big Flavor For Little Money

Last week I made several onion quiches for a couple of open houses at listings, and for a party. The filling was really simple:  onions, a little olive oil, eggs, salt, pepper, and a bit of finely grated locatelli cheese. But what really added flavor were the herbs I used - fresh parsley and rosemary and some dried tarragon, thyme and sage. The parsley was straight from the grocery store, but I plucked the rosemary from the sorry-looking plant pictured here. The other herbs I picked fresh in the fall and dried in paper bags before putting them in jars for storage.

Most herbs are very easy to grow, take up very little space, will grow happily in pots and cost next to nothing if you start them from seed. Even if you buy small herb plants, the cost is low.

Many herbs are perennial - they come back year after year. Thyme, marjoram, sage, tarragon, oregano and mint are reliably perennial almost everywhere. In warmer parts of the country, rosemary, which I've grown from cuttings, gets as big as an azalea in my father's southern California garden, while I struggle to keep my rosemary alive in the sunroom when it's cold outside her in southeastern PA.

Cilantro, dill and parsley are typically grown each year from seeds, though technically parsley is a biannual. That means it will come back a second year to set seeds. But the leaves taste best in the first year, so I treat it as an annual.

As my gardening group plans and plants our garden in the weeks to come, I'll be reporting on what we're doing. In the meantime, I hope you'll share some of the ways you use herbs to "spice" up your meals.