Posts Tagged Cheap

Weekend Breakfast Sandwich

Breakfast sandwiches are easily one of my favorite foods.   Maybe it’s because my parents would always make my sister and I egg sandwiches on italian bread when dinner that night was a bit too grown-up for our tastes.  Maybe it’s because I can’t get enough bread in my life.  Whatever the case may be, I love breakfast sandwiches and have them at least once a week.

In an effort to eat a mostly plant based diet, I have had little difficulty skipping meat, milk and cheese, but I love eggs.  I’m no where near perfect in my food choices, but I do my best.  I try to limit myself to organic, local, cage free and hormone free eggs.  Vegans, don’t leave!  I often make this sandwich completely animal free with slices of baked tofu (ala this post on vegweb) sprinkled with black salt (which gives the tofu an eggy taste) in place of the egg.  It’s still really delicious that way.

My breakfast sandwiches are usually quite basic and not worthy of a photo, let along a blog post, but my sandwich this morning was too good not to photograph.

First, heat a non-stick or better yet cast iron skillet with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.  Once it’s hot, place a thick slice of tomato in the skillet and let it sear on both sides.  It will just take a couple of minutes per side.  At the same time, put a few slices of faux bacon, soy sausage, or in this case some homemade seitan (don’t be scared, it’s really tasty) in the pan to get crispy.

Next, toast a bagel or english muffin (note: I am not a fan of regular bread for breakfast sandwiches- it gets too soggy!).  Smear it with some  hummus.  Yes, hummus on a breakfast sandwich.  It’s delicious!

Then fry up your egg or reheat some baked tofu.  I like my eggs mostly set but still a bit liquid in the center (nommmmm).  Place everything on the bagel, along with some salad greens and a thick slice of red onion, which gives your sandwich great color.  Voila!  A really simple breakfast that tastes like a million bucks.  Add a homemade soy peppermint mocha and call it Sunday morning :)   Enjoy!

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Homemade Granola Recipe

Granola is so easy and cheap to make.  It costs a ton of money at the grocery store, which boggles my mind.  I’m sharing my “recipe” for granola in the style of my bruschetta recipe from this post.

Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

  • Organic rolled oats
  • Almond butter or peanut butter
  • Maple Syrup
  • Vanilla extract
  • Soymilk
  • Oil
  • Cinnamon
  • Sliced almonds
  • Coconut
  • Dried fruit (I like cranberries and raisins)

Directions:

Preheat toaster oven to 350.  Place a big scoop of almond or peanut butter in a large mixing bowl.  Add a few tablespoons of maple syrup, tiny bit of oil, a capful of vanilla extract, and a few drops of soymilk.  You’re making the glaze here, so it should be sort of thick, but not too thick that it won’t easily coat the oats.  Next add in 3-4 handfuls of rolled oats, a handful each of coconut and almonds.  Add a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Stir until all of the oats are coated with some of the glaze.  Add more oats if the glaze pools at the bottom of the bowl.

Before baking

Before baking

Place in a baking dish, spreading as evenly as possible.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.  Watch it like a hawk, as it tends to burn easily.  Once everything looks golden and it smells divine, remove to cool.  Stir in dried fruit.  Store in an airtight container.

Baked granola

Baked granola

Notes:

I have found that granola is more a method than a recipe.  Don’t stress about the amounts of ingredients.  As long as you don’t completely saturate the oat mixture (it should not resemble cooked oatmeal at any point in this process), it’s going to turn out fine.

Experiment with the wet to dry mixture ratio.  Some people like clumpy, sweet granola, some people like it more crispy and individual pieces.

Have fun playing around with different flavor combinations!

Oats are really cheap, so even if you burn it or it comes out weird, you’ve learned something from the experience and aren’t out much $!

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Grocery Shopping for Healthy Foods

So almost everyone knows that they should be eating the least processed, most natural types of food they can find, but for one reason or another, a lot of people don’t do it.  The reasons are many, including: lack of knowledge of what constitutes those types of foods, budget constraints, availability of fresh foods, minimal cooking skills, etc.  Today I’d like to address the limited budget aspect of grocery shopping for healthy foods.

Why do I think I can talk to the wide world of the internets about grocery shopping on a budget?  Let’s just say that 3 years of private law school education isn’t even remotely cheap.  I’m also on a fixed income (can you call it income if it’s actually debt?) so I know a thing or two about stretching a buck.

Instead of droning on and on about this, I figured I would just lay my tips out in a list.  Here we go:

  1. Learn how to cook.  Like, really cook, not just opening a box of something and adding water.  It can be really fun, eating at home is cheaper, and the quality of foods is likely to be better.
  2. Buy fresh vegetables and fruit at a farmers market.  If you can’t afford organic, buy local!  It’s cheaper (less miles traveled) and it’s better for the environment and your community.
  3. Skip convenience/prepackaged/prepared foods.  Most are (by definition) heavily processed and contain gross chemicals and additives.   If you follow tip #1, you don’t need them anyway!
  4. Buy in bulk.  I’m a big fan of oats for breakfast, and I like granola in my yogurt, so I buy tons of oats from the bulk bins for a great price, and make my own cereals for wayyyyy less than packaged cereals cost.  Oats are really cheap anyway.
  5. Learn to like and make oatmeal.  It’s good for you, the organic version is not much more money, it’s quick, and cheap.
  6. Have a plan for the things that you buy. Just because something randomly looks good doesn’t mean you should buy it.  If something does catch your eye at the store and you would like to try it, decide what you will make with it and pick up the ingredients while you’re at the store.  That way, there’s less of a chance of it spoiling or collecting dust in your cupboard.
  7. Skip most of the middle aisles.  Sure you can find some canned beans, canned tomatoes, etc. in the center aisles, but you also find cookies, crackers, chips, and soda.  I think this might be the #1 place where I save the most money.  It’s not that I never buy these things, but granola bars, tortilla chips, and oreos are super expensive and give you next to nothing in terms of nutrition.  90% of the time it’s not worth it to me.  (The other 10% of the time I really frickin want those chips and salsa!)
  8. Frozen foods. If you’re a sporadic cook, buy frozen vegetables.  Fresh is definitely better, but if you don’t have a plan for using all of the portion you buy in a week or so, they will spoil and it’s a waste of money.  Frozen vegetables can be really cheap, too.  Also, if you like a certain bread and it goes on sale, stock up and place the extra loaves in your freezer.  Bread keeps really well in the freezer.
  9. Take advantage of sales. The grocery store where I normally shop doesn’t always have the best sales, but the quality of the food is good, and the prices on a lot of the things I like to buy are usually cheaper than other stores.  But today I hit the jackpot and there we’re a billion little sale signs out so I picked up some extra bread, sushi and arborio rice, and flour.  They weren’t on my list (gasp!) but they would be within the next few weeks, so since they were on sale, they went in the cart.
  10. Go to the store on off hours, if possible. Avoid Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Nuff said?

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2 Drinks

I love iced coffee, but hardly ever get it from coffee shops.  I usually make it with leftover coffee that I store in a pitcher in the fridge.  It can get a bit weak and bitter this way though, and I love really strong, smooth coffee.

The New York Times published a recipe for cold-brewed iced coffee that I saw on someones blog recently (I’m sorry, I can’t remember who!) that I had to try.  It’s super easy to make, but a little bit of a pain to strain (but would be simple in a french press).  I can see this method being awesome while camping or anyplace without a coffeemaker.  You can even heat it up for a hot cup if it’s not 85 degrees out. And it makes really great strong coffee that you can dilute to your preferred caffeination level.

Cold-Brewed Coffee in a Jar

  • 1/3 Cup medium ground coffee
  • 1 1/2 Cups cold water

Mix together in a jar.  Let sit at room temperature over night.  Strain through a coffee filter (or paper towel), repeat if necessary.  Mix equal parts coffee and water (change the proportion depending how strong you want your drink), add soymilk and sweeten, if you want.

EDIT: A very mysterious commenter asked if I could suggest something other than a jar to mix the ingredients in, and I got to thinking that a drink bottle would be a good substitute, maybe even better than a jar since it would be easier to pour through the filter (just be careful when adding the coffee to the bottle).  I use a peanut butter jar right now :)

This next drink came to me after I had one of those orange juice/san pellegrino concoctions that change my life.  Juicy and bubbly, it was nearly perfect.  Except for the price.  At $6 for a six pack, I’m going to have a hard time justifying that habit.  So here’s my poor mans version, and it tastes pretty good to me.

Fizzy OJ

  • Sparkling Mineral Water
  • Orange Juice
  • Lemon or lime juice

Pour a few tablespoons of OJ into a tall glass or champagne flute, if you’re that type.  Top with mineral water and a few drops of lemon or lime juice.  Garnish with a wedge of citrus fruit, if you’re even more of that type.  Super yum.

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3rd of July Eats

I talked Philip into having a pre-4th of July BBQ at his house on Friday :) I wanted to get a few friends together for some fun, but mostly I just wanted to cook for people!

Here was my part of the menu (there were burgers and dogs for those that eat that sort of thing):

Crack Salsa aka Cowboy Caviar w. Baked Scoop Chips

Crack Salsa!

Crack Salsa!

I posted the recipe here.

Marinated Vegetable Skewers (red and green bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, red onion marinated in balsamic vinaigrette, skewered, and grilled)

Vegetable Skewers

Vegetable Skewers

Veggie Burgers (Store-bought, thrown on the grill and topped with mustard, ketchup and relish.  Not fancy or even remotely homemade, but really tasty anyway)

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (cleaned portobellos, grilled gill-side down, then flipped and topped with a combo of cream cheese, tiny bit of blue cheese, lots of fresh spinach, and sliced artichoke hearts) This was AWESOME! I’m definitely going to make a vegan version w/ Tofutti cream cheese and maybe olives in the place of the blue cheese.

Festive Phyllo Shells with Custard and Berries (Store-bought phyllo cups, filled with a yogurt-custard and topped with sliced strawberries and blueberries) These were gone in minutes!

Bellini Champagne Punch (peach juice, ginger ale, raspberry ginger ale, triple sec, cheap sparkling wine, sliced peaches) Big hit- even with the guys!

Bellini Champagne Punch

Bellini Champagne Punch

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