A Dessert Blitz!

Today I learned that Brits use the term "blitz up" in their recipes like we use "blend." It comes from the "blitzkriegs"--the Germans' bombings of London during WWII that left so much of the city in rubble. That satisfies both the food nerd AND the history nerd in me!

So here's our favorite Blitzed Dessert: the Smoothie. Our typical one always starts out the same. Pile into the blender:

- two heaping T of plain yogurt
- pineapple juice (I always save the juice from the cans of pineapple chunks I put in our girls' lunches)
- a frozen banana or two (buy the cheap, overripe bananas at the grocery store. Peel them and freeze them and voila--smoothie fodder!)
- some frozen strawberries (I haven't bought them in years due to this little trick: When I buy them in season and serve them fresh, I pluck off the green stem, and when I slice the top off the strawberries, I save all the tops and freeze them, using them throughout the winter to flavor smoothies! I've got four containers of strawberry tops in the freezer as I type.)
- anything else you like: applesauce (used this tonight!), peaches, apples, pears, blueberries, etc. Remember that the firmer fruits will sometimes make your smoothie have a slight grittiness to it.
- Our favorite add-in is KALE! Yep, just cut the leaves off the stem and pop a few into your smoothie. It will make it the most brilliant green (unless you've used a LOT of strawberries, in which case it will be more brown and not so pretty), and I've always thought they would make great St. Patrick's Day drinks although I've never actually been organized enough to make it happen.

This recipe (give or take) makes three or four 12 oz. glasses, or you can stretch it into more using smaller glasses.

How nice to drink a glassful of as many as six or seven fruits (and even a vegetable!) as one dessert. Makes a great breakfast drink, too, as the yogurt adds protein. Note--no added sugar!! Pineapple juice (or mandarin oranges & their juice) is very sweet. We actually add no sugar to ours even when we have no pineapple juice on hand. The bananas and strawberries are sweet enough.

So...grab your blender and blitz away!

Goodbye, Summer. Hello, Autumn Soups!

Sometimes, in the name of simplification, you have to stop paying attention. I didn't track our food spending at all this summer. We just kept on shopping at the Farmers' Market, eating fresh food as much as possible, and getting our regular stuff.

I confess I make too many stops at convenience stores. Even if I'm only buying powerbars, pretzels, and Diet Coke, it's still unnecessary spending. Today I bought a Starbucks regular coffee and a bottled mango juice for my girls. Still ran me over $5 and we skipped the sweets.

Fall is officially here. Over the weekend I made the first of my autumn soups, Butternut Squash Bisque. We were in Ocean City (I had a conference Th & F, and we piggybacked a little weekend away onto it!), and I brought the squash with us. It can be a challenge to cook in a rental kitchen--especially when it's a trailer on the bay side with fake wood paneling and a mustard-colored, leaky gas stove. But I persevered. I roasted the squash in the oven because I wasn't up for the workout required for chopping it raw. But roasting takes a LONG time.

Here's my basic recipe without the roasting part:
- Cut the squash into small cubes. Good luck not chopping off a finger--squash hides are tough!
- melt a stick of butter into a pot (indulgence!!) while you chop a large onion and a clove or 2 of garlic
- add the chopped onion and garlic, and cook until soft
- chop any additional root vegetables (I've added potatoes, turnips, and other kinds of squash)
- put all veggies in pot & barely cover with water or broth
- add marjoram, thyme, pepper, and sea salt (I am particularly generous with everything but the pepper. Do lots of tasting.)
- simmer until a fork goes easily through the veggies
- use an immersion blender to smooth the whole thing
- add some cream at the end and stir in.

(If you roast the squash ahead of time, all you have to do is add it at the blending point, although you'll want to simmer it with the herbs for a bit.)

Yum, yum, and triple yum. It's honestly our family's favorite soup, and making it just says "Fall is here!" to me.

Evelyn's Get-Your-Own-Quart Brussels Sprouts

If you need some encouragement to eat Brussels Sprouts, take some from my 7 year old, who ate almost a whole quart with her fingers while standing at the kitchen counter last weekend. Here's the recipe that did it:

1 quart Brussels Sprouts

1 T olive oil

a few dashes EACH of dried basil, thyme, pepper

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup (or so) of water

Slice the bottoms off the sprouts, then slice them all in half longways. Save the loose leaves that fall off. Heat the oil. in a large skillet. (I love cast iron.) Lay the sprouts, flat sides down, in the pan. Sprinkle herbs & salt. Cook for 2 minutes or so. Flip them all over (they should have some brownish coloring before you flip them.) Add the water--enough to let them cook w/out sticking--add more herbs & salt, then cover for 2-3 minutes to steam. Add the loose leaves for the last 2 minutes.

Sprouts are ready when a fork sinks in easily (but not TOO easily. You don't want them to be mushy.)

Serve immediately--and take some for yourself before your kids gobble them up. My husband was bummed he only got one last weekend. I wasn't policing them very well, especially once I got MINE. :)

March Madness WEEK 4: $133.17

Seems our March Madness has included some side-trips:

Eating Out/Carry Out: $33.59

The girls and I enjoyed Panera Bread...while Alan was meeting with the tax man. Somehow doesn't seem fair, even if he DID indulge in some Chinese takeout earlier in the week.

His/Hers Acts of Desperation: $17.37

He bought a six pack of Dogfish Head's Raison d'Etre. I stopped at CVS for a bunch of chocolate. All of both...is gone. It's just been one of those weeks.

Regular Grocery Store: $52.46

This included paper towels and toilet paper, along with most of the usual fare. I'll admit it's the second week in a row that I've bought strawberries--grown in Florida (and not unnaturally gargantuan), but not organic. It's just so fun to slice them for the girls' lunches. Our kids are really so amazing about not having any pre-packaged stuff in their lunches. (Our youngest has begged for "Pirate Booty"--apparently the newest "healthy" version of a cheese puff. They cost almost $30 for a pack of 12 4 oz. bags.)

Farmers' Market Fare: $29.75

Our milk and cheese, sugar snap peas, broccoli, apples, some pastries, and this week our oldest BEGGED for Brussels Sprouts. Did I really say that? It's true. And she would have eaten every single one if I hadn't intervened. I'll have to share the recipe.

March Madness Totals: $339.01

March Madness WEEK 2: $159.05

We don't usually shop like this, but when we do, it sure tastes good! Here are the breakdowns:

Birthday Food Splurges: $47.90

After Alan picked up our kids from school on his birthday, he took them to Zeke's, our favorite coffee shop, and spent $10 on pastries and a latte. I came home from work, he left for work, and the girls and I walked to The Hamilton Bakery (somehow I never heard about the coffee shop run w/daddy--but our girls ARE only 5 and 7!) and spent $17.90 on a small cake, a huge rosemary focaccia bread, and pastries for the girls and our babysitter. Later that night, Alan and I met at Vaccaro's in Little Italy. He dined on a sandwich & soup, and I shared his free dessert & coffee--which anyone can get when ordering on his or her actual birthday. (We didn't know this when we planned to go to Vaccaro's. Bonus!) We ate out on the town for a cool $20, including tip.

Farmers' Market Fare: $35.75

It was a gorgeous day to shop outside for our milk, cheese, organic mesclun mix, broccoli, apples, strawberries (from Florida) and another splurge--sweet potato bread!! It's almost like cake, and I still had the mindset of, "It's Alan's birthday weekend, which I should of course celebrate by eating way too many carbs."

Health Food Store Fare: $12.45

I love this place. The owner's a little prickly, but she'll bend over backwards for her regular customers. I can get organic herbs, spices, and dry goods from her in bulk, which keeps the costs down. This week I needed popcorn, oatmeal, rice, basil, and got Alan some wasabi peas. He loves food that sets his sinuses aflame.

Grocery Fare: $54.26

Two boxes of cereal, plain yogurt, butter, bread, pineapple, pasta, sauce, Italian sausage, chocolate chips, and some toilet cleaner. There were a few other items, too, but I didn't save the receipt--just wrote down its total. I also added the $20 we spent on 2 pounds of coffee and $3 for our 18 eggs we bought from the family at church that has chickens. GREAT eggs. I tell my kids it's because they were laid by happy chickens.

Miscellaneous: $8.75

Alan got a slice of pizza at the college the day he taught, and I had a powerbar and coffee on the road this week.

While the total would reduce by $50 or more if the b-day food & cleaning supplies were removed, I'm counting it all because that's what I normally do. I certainly didn't buy all HEALTHY food this week--but it was all made locally, and The Hamilton Bakery even grows its own organic wheat nearby. That's got to count for something on the healthy food scale. :)

Meals this week included pasta & sausage w/salad, cheese paninis w/salad, scrambled eggs & sausage, pasta w/broccoli, and a veggie & bean stir-fry over rice. The only complaint was from our oldest daughter, who said she didn't like having the same things in her lunch every day. I'll work on that for next week.

March Madness total so far: $205.84

March Madness WEEK 1: $56.79

It's week one in my experiment of seeing if you really CAN eat healthy without spending more money. Our basic guidelines include cutting way back on meat, processed/pre-prepared foods, and buying local.

So what did we spend on this week?

$21.50 @the Farmers' Market:

- $13 on 1 gallon of milk and 1 pound of cheese (I know, right?? But I love that the cows are hormone & steroid free and get to live outside!)

- $3 on a bucket of apples (more apple crisp, here we come!)

- $5.50 splurge on day-old pastries rounded out the Farmers' Market run. (I'm a softie when it comes to buying my kids treats at the market!! At least it supports local businesses!)

$27.07 @our local grocery store:

- 2 boxes of off-brand cereal, 1 box of hot cocoa packets, 1 box saltines (true health nuts would cringe)

- onions, potatoes, frozen peas, 2 cans of pineapple chunks (all non-organic)

- Branola bread, flour, and chocolate chips.

$9.22 on "special outings"

- my husband bought a $2.50 basket of fries on a gig this week, to which he added a tip. :)

- I took our 5 year old out for a one-on-one treat (true health nuts, prepare to cringe anew) at Dunkin' Donuts. I bought her a donut, gave a tip after the nice owner put an extra donut in the bag, and then bought a homeless man a cup of coffee. :)

- I bought myself a cup of coffee on Tuesday between work and my continuing ed course. A little get-me-through-the-rest-of-the-day treat!

Easily I could have trimmed $15 off the total by taking out the pastries, donut, fries, and chocolate chips (all of which are NOT healthy--hmmm...), and of course a lot of the food is not organic. But we're not going hard core austerity measures yet.

And keep in mind I'm not starting from scratch--there was food in our cupboards and frig when I went shopping this week. But I would think that applies to many of us. My recipes for the week include a vegetarian lasagna, jambalaya (using some sausage leftovers a friend gave us), and sweet potato chili that I made weeks ago and froze.

Week 1!

More March Madness Parameters

Since I'm a fan of keeping things simple, and there's no way I can do this if it's going to get at all complicated, there are going to be things on my "grocery" list that some people wouldn't consider part of their "food" budget.

Long ago, we had to simplify the number of line items in our budget, so our food budget includes anything purchased at the grocery store (toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc.) I do try to do a lot of cleaning with vinegar solutions or diluted castille soap (find some that has peppermint in it--your house will smell ever so faintly like a candy cane!), but I still buy regular toilet cleaners and laundry detergents. Those transformations will have to come later as we go on this journey.

On and off, we've included eating out in our food budget as well, depending on how much of our "entertainment fund" we used up before the end of the month. So I'll make sure to be clear if we are adding those meals--we have a lot of March b-days in our circle, including my husband, so I'll be sure to say whether or not we add those costs as we go.

It is March 1st! Here we go. :)

March Madness Parameters

March begins this week, and with it my commitment to track everything we spend on food. My hope is to discover that we really are spending a comparable amount on healthy groceries simply by making the changes mentioned in the previous post.

But I probably need to specify a few things. "Eating healthy" means different things to different people, and while I hope we'll continue to improve our nutrition and awareness, I should at least define what "healthy groceries" will mean to our family for this next month.

1. Buying fresh, Buying Local

While we'll buy most of our produce from the Farmers' Market, not all of it would get the FDA's "organic" stamp of approval, usually because of some small loophole. I'm ok with that. At this point I'm trusting our local farmers and enjoying supporting them.

I've been buying our milk and some cheese from the local dairy (I really like these people--and they'll deliver to your door!), but I've been buying butter, plain yogurt, and other cheese from the grocery store. I'm going to commit to buying HALF of our butter, yogurt, and cheese from the dairy this month. They aren't "organic", but only because they choose to medicate their sick cows.

We have a local natural food store from which we get a bunch of organic stuff in bulk: spices, herbs, popcorn, specialty flours, rice, and some treats our kids love (carob covered pretzels, jordan almonds...) I also get things like tahini and local organic honey there.

2. Keeping it Simple

We're avoiding processed foods and pre-packaged foods, but I'm still buying my Branola bread, flour, sugar, pasta, cereals, oils, and canned goods from the regular grocery store. I'll have to research what foods are most important to buy as "organic," or what foods to avoid. For now, our rule is simply going to be to limit our processed foods to 2 boxes of cereal and one box of hot chocolate packets per week. We do buy canned (non-organic) tomatoes, black beans, kidney beans, and pineapple, and some frozen (non-organic) peas.

Finally, I'll also share that my best friend, who recently took the Food Services Director job at a camp, has been bringing us leftovers. It's all homemade, although not organic at this point, and I admire her determination not to throw food away. One of the things that has always helped our food budget has been our willingness to accept others' leftovers. So I'll be sure to be up front about how much we're eating that we didn't purchase. (It's amazing how much food people will bring you when they realize that you're willing to use it! My parents welcome our use of the perishables in their frig when they go away--it's great! And they appreciate that the food is not being wasted!)

So there it is--we're still buying food from the regular grocery store that does not have an "organic" stamp on it. But we're steering clear of a lot of processed and pre-prepared foods, buying some organic produce and produce that's organically grown but not recognized as organic by the FDA.

Let the madness begin!

Three Steps to Eating Healthy without Spending More!

It's a common complaint that eating healthy is cost prohibitive. Healthy food often IS more expensive, but it is still possible to eat healthy without spending more money. (I'm not sure people really believe me when I say this--hence the challenge to myself at the end of this post!)

While our family's personal food revolution has happened slowly and without much organization, when I look back on how we got here, it boils down basically to three main changes. Keep in mind each of these took us a long time, and that the biggest commitment is in the details. But I'll go into those in later posts. For now, here are our personal three steps to affordable healthy eating:

1. Eat very little meat. This was a gradual transition for us. I honestly think it was years that my husband would half-jokingly poke at his dinner plate and say, "where's the meat?" on meatless nights. Now, MOST of our nights are meatless, and this has been a HUGE savings. We can get protein from eggs, dairy, nuts, quinoa, and those magical combinations--beans & rice, macaroni & cheese, and lots more. Our society tends to overeat protein anyway (a "bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit", while delicious, is way more protein than we really need.)

2. Cut back on processed food. We gave up pre-prepared meals, frozen burritos & pizza, etc., even the "healthy" versions. We'll still go through phases of buying tortilla chips, snack crackers, or granola bars, but if we want to save--we don't buy them. My friend Diana told me she'd read about shopping only the grocery store's outside aisles--produce, bread, dairy--and while I usually pop into the interior for baking supplies, cereal, pasta, and canned goods, that's a pretty good rule. We still give in, but if we want to save, I skip as much stuff as possible that comes in a box.

3. Buy local. Food is simply going to cost less if it doesn't have to be shipped, and if you buy it directly from its grower. A weekly farmers' market has been one of our MOST transformative changes. We're fortunate to have a year-round one nearby. We also joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that runs June-November, supporting a local farm that makes one of its drops walking distance from our city home. Again, the commitment is in the details. A week's worth of our CSA's produce can be very green, leafy, voluminous, and often unrecognizable to those of us who've only ever gotten our fresh food from grocery stores. We've learned to prepare and cook a lot of new kinds of things. Honestly, I'm amazed at how MUCH variety of fresh food there is, and how little of it is typically marketed and available to us. (Another post!!)

Eating local really can be cheaper, and definitely tastier. Food ripens more naturally when its grower doesn't have to pick it too early to ship it cross-country. It also means learning to eat with the seasons. I'm going to sound off my rocker, but there's something downright spiritual about one's appetite getting in tune with the rhythms of the earth's growing cycle, and learning to anticipate each season's edibles. (My husband would totally roll his eyes at that statement.) We've come to realize why our parents used to get oranges in their Christmas stockings: one's longing for citrus is heightened when it is too expensive and precious to eat every day. And during the brief growing cycles of foods like asparagus and rhubarb, I've learned to get to the farmers' market early.

Right now our cozy winter menu includes varieties of cabbage salads, creative root vegetable recipes, and fun with the apples that the local orchard still has coming to the market. (Re-reading that sounds so dull--but I honestly have so much fun cooking this stuff! I'm busy and thrive on limited options.) Tonight's dinner was a favorite--sweet-potato, turnip, and potato soup with just a little sausage.

Yes, we cook. But I have to say, even though I'm not terribly organized and I work full-time, I swear it can be done. We CAN eat healthy food without spending more money!

So to prove this, I'm going to challenge myself to a Budgetarian Fare March Madness. I'm going to keep track of everything we spend on food in March. Discipline and consistency are not my strong points, so this will not be easy, but hopefully it will keep me accountable--and honest, too. (My husband just called me out this morning for the Hostess Cupcake wrapper that was stuffed under the seat of the car...old weakness.)

And speaking of honesty, I should probably admit that just an hour ago, my husband and I shared a pint of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked while watching the final episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey. :)

$63.50 this week

I have no idea why budgetarian shopping is so fun for me. :) These winter months after the overindulgence and overspending of the holidays are a time for me to relish making simple fare with what's on hand.

Our priciest items are milk and cheese from a local dairy. They have a stand at the Farmers' Market, and would be considered organic if they did not medicate their sick cows. (They discard milk taken from medicated cows.) A farm has to jump through hoops for the government to label it "organic." I like knowing this milk has no growth hormones or steroids, and that the cows spend time outside. In so many US dairies, cows are NEVER outside, living 24/7 in dim, manure-floored, industrial-sized barns. I like thinking our milk comes from happier cows, just like our eggs come from happier chickens, who can run around outside, scratching in the dirt like they were meant to do. :)

Not everyone has easy access to a local, well-run dairy's products. Not everyone lives near a Farmers' Market. I know I'm fortunate. If we ever moved, it would be hard to leave these things, and leave the little owner-operated grocery store where I got the rest of my groceries at a great price (four reusable bags of groceries for under $40!) And I walked there.

Our choice to go more-organic has a lot to do with our easy access to these things, and with the fact that both Alan and I are on board with it. I am grateful that it is so convenient for us.

And finally, TIME. As someone who works full-time, I totally understand how much planning this can take. If I'm going to bake bread, it has to happen on the weekends (along with laundry, grocery shopping, changing bed sheets, and any special or family event.) My husband shares cooking and cleaning responsibilities, otherwise we could not live like this. It's not always perfect, but we truly enjoy the attempt!

Cooking Like Mother Hubbard

Her cupboards were bare. Ours are not bare, but they--and our frig--are not bursting in the typical way. We like it like that. We like to know what we have and use it up before it goes bad. I get a genuine kick out of using absolutely everything.

We're now into the third week of our version of Mother Hubbard cooking: buying only the bare essentials to boost what's already in the kitchen. Last week was especially fun, because it snowed Saturday and the Farmers' Market was nearly deserted. I bought only our milk, cheese, and the big $3 bucket of not-so-pretty-but-perfectly-delicious apples. (They have $1 big buckets, too, which are downright ugly. I'll make pies one of these weeks.)

Then to the grocery store, where $30 of groceries included: broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, frozen peas, hot cocoa, wheat thin, & two boxes of cereal (3 remaining processed food pleasures!), sausage, and a loaf of bread. Including the Farmers' Market, the week's groceries came to less than $50, thanks to what I already had on hand. Our weekly total also includes the $3 I spent on 18 eggs from the family at church that has free range chickens. How nice is that?

So here's what was on the menu this week:
- On Sunday I baked 3 rather bland loaves of whole wheat bread, using up the rest of my whole wheat flour. We ate it w/eggs I scrambled with cheese & salsa (had the salsa in the frig from football snacking)

- Baked potatoes with steamed brocolli & cheese, adorned w/leftover Sweet Potato Chili from last week

- Sausage with Roasted sweet potatoes, white potatoes, & onions, and peas (that same night my friend Diana came over with leftovers to share--several grilled chicken breasts, which we gladly added to the menu)

- Shredded chicken (see above) and sausage jambalaya with peas

- Pasta & sauce from a jar (both already in the cupboard) w/the rest of the sausage thrown in

- And for breakfasts, the girls ate the cereal (takes about 4 days to finish it), I ate peanut butter & jelly on bland bread, and then I used a loaf & a half of bland bread to make ok French Toast, and this morning I made Baked Oatmeal--a family favorite that I can prep the night before.

- The girls' lunches usually include things like bags of nuts, craisins or raisins, cheese-and-mustard sandwiches (their favorite), sliced apples, applesauce, carrot sticks, and boiled eggs. This week we added wheat thins to the mix. Alan and I eat dinner leftovers for our lunches.

Now I'm off to the Farmers' Market & Grocery store. Let's see if I can keep this week to under $50, too! I have to buy two kinds of flour, though, and I'd hoped to get some Tahini to make hummus, so the bill may be higher. We'll see!