2/25/09 Baked Fish and Chips

This recipe is the Fish N Chips in the February Rachael Ray magazine...NOT the one on her website....it is on page 72. For now, I am not going to type in the recipe, I am hoping they will add it to the website after this week so I can put the link here... if you are dying to try it leave a comment and I will get it to you somehow.

I couldn't get my sweet potatoes to look long and slender like in the magazine picture, but they still tasted good. I left out all parsely in this recipe, and it still tasted great!

This is a baked Fish n Chips instead of deep fried, and it cuts about 1000 calories or more out of it. How is that for healthy!

My husband hasn't come home yet, but I know he will like this. So this recipe gets 2 thumbs up!

Food Product Test- Archer Farms Apricot Currant

This is really a product test, not a recipe test...hey even perfect moms like me need a cooking break sometimes! >:)
I bought what I call a meal in a box at Target. It is one of the brands they carry, Archer Farms, and the meal is Apricot Currant with whole wheat couscous and chicken. It cost $4.99- what a deal right!
This meal was about as easy as it gets. Inside the box is a sauce packet, a can of chicken chunks, some dried fruit, and some couscous. You boil water, insert sauce, chicken, and fruit. Then you boil water and mix in the couscous.
Baby wouldn't touch this with a stick, but he has been that was about everything lately. We loved it and will probably continue trying these meals when we stop in at Target!

2/24/09 Spinach and Goat Cheese Pie

This is a recipe we have already eaten before, I am making it again. It is from THE GREENS cookbook:
1 recipe Tart Dough (or prepared tart crust)
1 bunch spinach
2 bunches scallions
3 T. butter
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 T. fresh marjoram or 1/2 t. dried
1 T. parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
5 oz goat cheese
1 c. milk
1 c. heavy cream
nutmeg
Remove stems from spinach and cut leaves into large pieces. Wash thoroughly in large bowl of water, using 2 chages of water if really dirty.
Trim the roots and most of the greens off the scallions, and thinly slice them. Melt the butter in a wide skillet, add scallions, garlic, marjoram, parsely and cook over med heat about 1 min. Gradually begin to add the spinach, handfuls at a time, as much as the pan will comfortably take. Let each batch of spinach begin to soften and wilt before adding the next. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and set aside.
Beat the eggs and yolks with half the cheese until they are fairly smooth. Then add the milk and cream, a scraping of nutmeg. 1/2 t. salt, and some milled black pepper.
(Prebake the tart dough as directions direct)
Preheat the oven to 375. Lay the spinach over the bottom of the partially baked crust and crumble the remaining cheese on top. Add the custard, then bake the pie until set and lightly browned, about 35-45 minutes. Let it rest 5 minutes before serving.

What can I say about this recipe- it is great! and healthy! I would serve it more as a breakfast or side instead of a main course though, not filling enough by itself to be a meal really. (yes, I would totally ruin a vegetarian item by pairing it with a bacon double-cheeseburger ha ha ha)
So...yes, we like it!

Update on Food Budget Saving

On 2/14 I posted:
"To get back on budget I am currently trying the following things:
buy less meat and cheese- more vegetarian meals
buy in bulk and divide the cost over the number of weeks it will last
get the Sunday paper for coupons (which I have yet to remember to take to the store)
buy all veggies and fruit at a low cost farmers market"
Here is my update:
-Our vegetarian experiment has failed...every time except one that I made it we are still hungry afterwards, and the leftovers never get eaten!...so I think our vegetarian will continue to be nice soup, salad, and crusty roll
-We are buying most of our meat and cheese at Sam's Club... it is expensive to get it all at once this way, but it usually lasts 3-4 weeks.
- I have saved a lot of coupons so far, and my mom even sent me some. But I am just not using them. I forget them at home, or I find a better deal buying something on sale or store brand. I am going to start looking into coupon websites to see if I can find any better ones.
- Our farmers market keeps raising their prices. They are still a little cheaper on the veggies, fruit and meat/fish, but not as much as they used to be. My husband wants to find another market to shop at, but I like the one we go to :(. So don't know what to do there.
Another update will come in a week or two!

2/23/09- Greek Baked Pasta

When it is time for something different, I grab a food magazine. So here is one from FOOD AND WINE... called Greek Baked Pasta. The recipe can be found at:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/greek-baked-pasta
I learned three things (again) making this:
1) don't skimp on things like marinara sauce when it makes up 50% or more of the recipe
2) don't get the husband to buy said marinara sauce, he will always buy the cheapest
3) don't get husband to go to store for a few extra items when he has his mind on "more important things"
I know this is kind of a blog about cooking cheaper, but come on. You want that sauce in your baked pasta to taste good right? My husband bought Kroger brand sauce, and I have to diss Kroger this time...sorry your sauce did not taste good.
And I will admit, my husband bought buffalo meat instead of lamb because Kroger was not selling any ground lamb that day. People, ground buffalo is nothing more than expensive ground beef. So if you can't get the lamb, first of all I wouldn't cook this recipe (unless you want to improvise with more spices). But if you do, use the ground beef! It is $3-4 cheaper!
Therefore this recipe was ok, but we gave it two thumbs down. Feel free to try it anyways with a mid-high range priced sauce and the right kind of meat because it would probably make a HUGE amount of difference.

2/22- $10 Rachael Ray- why it didn't work

I am not the type that usually likes recipes with fewer than 6 or 7 ingredients. But since I am on a budget and eating vegetarian lately, I thought I would try Rachael Ray's Baked Nestled Eggs recipe found on page 61 in the February Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine.
I am not going to post the recipe here, but it is basically red bell peppers stuffed with rice, onion, fennel, butternut squash, and cream with an egg on top. Baked.
Here are the reasons why we didn't like this recipe:
1) afterwards we were still hungry and went to Arby's- we don't know if we want to continue eating vegetarian or not since this always happens
2) the rice was not cooked evenly, or some of it was crispy for some reason
3) had to bake longer than recommended to get the egg to set
So this recipe got 2 thumbs down from 2 adults.

2/18/09 Vegetarian Rachael Ray

I wasn't sure how much Rachael Ray knew abuot vegetarian since most days she is whipping up steak or some other meat. Plus, when I first started cooking I had a very bad result in a bean burger recipe, so this recipe for Sloppy Veg-Head Joe made me nervous. But you know me, I decided to try it. Here is the link:
http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2038
This recipe was SO easy to make, and it made a ton. It most definitely serves four. I used serrano peppers instead of jalapenos thinking it would be mild enough for me to eat, but they were still hot for me.
I did manage to find some fire-roasted tomatoes, but I couldn't tell if they really made a huge difference. Crushed prolly would have been cheaper.
This recipe got 2 huge thumbs from my husband and one from me, so I guess that is 3 thumbs from 2 people lol.