I'm a cook!

         

(Please forgive me for the plethora of lame-o post lately. In case you didn't know, I'm knee deep in thesis work, so right now, somethings gotta give.)

You know the OBG can bake, but did you know she can cook too? I can. For the most part. When I'm motivated enough. And I have someone to cook for. And I have a decent kitchen to cook in. And I have money to buy ingredients. And I'm not spending most of my time going insane over a thesis.

Okay, so it's been awhile since I've actually cooked, but my point is, I can do it. I'm particularly fond of my sandwich creations. I mean, a grilled salami, pickle and mozzarella sandwich sounds good, right? RIGHT? Well, it is. How 'bouts a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich with pineapple and garlic? Anyone? No? Awe, you guys have no sense of adventure.

Thankfully, there's a ton of people over at Allrecipes who enjoy my Mayo-Free Tuna Sandwich Filling recipe. (see what I did there?) You can find my published recipe here, but for your convenience, I'll post it below as well:

Mayo-Free Tuna Sandwich Filling

(photo by Allrecipes member, Jessica.)

1 can (16 ounces) albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked
1 tablespoon red onion, diced
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
1 tablespoon diced green chili peppers
2 tablespoons red pepper hummus
black pepper, to taste

1. Mix tuna, hummus, onion, oregano, rosemary, green chili pepper, and pepper in a bowl. 
2. Serve on whole-grain bread with melted cheddar
3. Enjoy!

Of course, you can adjust the recipe to meet the needs of whatever you have on hand or to your personal preferences. Check out the suggestions made by the reviewers of the recipe for some ideas. Here's the nutritional info for the recipe prepared as written above, minus the bread and cheese.

Let me know if you tried it out, if you made any changes, and how you liked it (or didn't)!

Quick food budget challenge update...

So far I've been able to stretch my $60 worth of groceries over 11 days, averaging about $4.15/day. I'll be hitting the grocery store again tomorrow, and I have my menu all planned out for the next two weeks. Hopefully I will have just as much success this time. I still have food left over from my last shopping trip that I intend on using in my upcoming menus. Here is what's left:

2/3 pkg. English muffins
1/4 tub organic yogurt
1 12 oz. bag frozen corn
1 10 oz. pkg. frozen spinach
1/2 box organic chicken stock
1/2 container quick-cook organic oatmeal

Unfortunately, I could have gotten at least another day out of my $60 shopping trip before hitting the grocery store again, but one of my housemates got pretty overzealous while cleaning out the fridge and pantry and tossed some of my leftovers and a grapefruit. Last shopping trip seemed to be all about skillet meals. This time I'm feeling like some Mexican might be in order.

My food budget challenge...

In an attempt to eat better and more economically, I am inspired to shop and meal plan more wisely by one of my favorite foodie bloggers, Poor Girl Eats Well (a blog I have been following for almost a year now). PGEW is well known for her $25 Shopping Cart, and while I applaud and admire her ability to exit a grocery store having spent only $25-ish, I am by no means delusional enough to think that I can accomplish the same mind-boggling feat. I, instead, will be working with a $60 shopping cart (which does include a $15 case of beer, a purchase that is entirely necessary as I continue to work on my Master's thesis). I'm not entirely clear on how many meals PGEW manages to create from her $25 trips, but I imagine her pantry is much more well-stocked than mine, thus resulting in fewer necessary purchases. My mission now is to see how far I can stretch my $60 worth of food. Here's what I managed to purchase:

12-pack of Rising Moon - $14.99
2 pkgs. English muffins (one for the freezer) - $5.00
1 32 oz. tub organic yogurt - $3.59
1 12 oz. bag frozen green beans - $1.67
1 12 oz. bag frozen corn - $1.67
2 10 oz. pkgs. frozen spinach - $2.00
1 16 oz. bag frozen sliced peaches - $2.50
1 box microwave popcorn (another thesis-writing necessity) - $3.49
1 15.5 oz. can black beans - $0.89
1 32 oz. box organic chicken stock - $2.59
1 18 oz. container quick-cook organic oatmeal - $2.50
1 14.5 oz. can diced organic tomatoes - $1.50
1 13.25 oz. box organic whole wheat penne - $1.67
1 pkg. chicken sausage - $3.99
1.27 lbs. ground turkey - $3.09
5 grapefruit - $2.99
3 apples - $2.34
1 red onion - $1.04
3 tomatoes - $2.81

It's been five days since my shopping trip, and I have to say I am quite proud of my ability to create quick, tasty, and most importantly, cheap and filling meals. I'm a little over a third of the way through my supply of food (and the beer) and I am quite happy to report that I have been eating very well every day for an average of $5 a day (I already had couscous and farfalle on hand and did not include these in my cost calculations)! I was also able to whip up a batch of my favorite Black Bean Chili (a whopping $1.28/serving!) and freeze 2/3 of it for a rainy day (or more likely a snowy one). At this rate, I estimate my shopping cart to last me at least another five days! Hooray for me!

I am quite enjoying this challenge and since I don't intend on having any kind of livable income for at least another 7 months, I imagine this type of meal-planning and budgeting will be something I continue with down the road.

Quick Cookin'

I'm currently broke. I mean BROKE. In an attempt to save money yet still eat well, I've been making my own meals at home. Peanut butter and jelly is a classic, favorite stand-by (for all three meals and a late-night snack), however, one can only eat so much peanut butter. I recently picked up a tub of quick-cook oatmeal. My sister serves this to her sons every morning, so I figured it was good enough for me too. I was sort-of right. Plain oatmeal is bland, boring and slightly gross so I started looking for ways to dress-it up. I tried jelly, peanut butter,(leftover from the abandoned pb&js), brown sugar, applesauce and various other combinations, but I just couldn't get excited about my morning oatmeal. Then, during one of my daily perusals of the Allrecipes website, I can across this recipe for Pumpkin Oatmeal and I thought, okay, I like walnuts and honey and maybe I can get on board with pumpkin in my oatmeal, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I discovered that pumpkin puree is near impossible to find this time of year. Instead, I picked up some walnuts and frozen blueberries and created a super delicious oatmeal recipe of my own! I call it Blueberry Cobbler Oatmeal and it has restored my love for a morning bowl of warm oatmeal!

Blueberry Cobbler Oatmeal
3/4 cup quick-cook oatmeal
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1 1/4 cup water

Mix together in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Stir and enjoy!
(I'm sure milk could be used in this recipe, but I've never been a fan of milk in my oatmeal and so I use water)

An enjoyable snack

On this cold, humdrum Saturday, I decided to experiment with a recipe I recently discovered on allrecipes.com, a website I frequent daily on my quest to find interesting and healthy meal options.

Vegetarian Chickpea Sandwich Filling (a.k.a. hummus) was quite enjoyable but required a bit of tweaking. Because of my egg allergy (oh, how I love you, the incredible, edible egg, but oh, what horrible things you to do me) I substituted the mayo with plain, lowfat yogurt (Stoneyfield Farm is my fave). Lacking celery and onion, I added some finely diced cucumber. I found the recipe to be bland and added a tad bit of celery salt and a healthy dose of garlic powder. I smeared a couple of tablespoons onto a whole wheat pita, tossed on some artichoke hearts, rolled it all up and served it with some grapes and cukes, and viola! A tasty, healthy snack.