Planning your meals and not wasting food

Design*sponge grocery planner

Bon Appetite 7 habits of highly effective grocery shoppers

I'm getting ready to head to Brooklyn, I have a bit of food that I brought from Ithaca but really I want to start over. I want all new spices except for the newest spices I have. I have some flour and basics, but really I just want to treat it like I'm living in Italy again. Buy food, cook it. Buy food, cook it. make left overs, have some pasta. Buy food, cook it.

I will be much more active in this job than my past jobs, so I need to account for that when bringing lunch. I also will be working in areas that will most likely not have salad bars and delis with tasty sandwiches... so I really need to make sure I bring hearty foods that keep me going. I'm a little concerned about getting bored (food wise). I may end up getting a microwave for th job site if there isn't one there, so I can eat warm food. I'll try the food thermos again but it doesn't stay HOT it ends up being just warm. Cheap foods are beans and rice... together they create a complete protein... cheaper than meat! Salads will be good too. I will be packing lunch everyday, dinner 2 days a week and a snack everyday. I'd like to go to some yoga classes, trying out different studios. With my classes 2 days a week it doesn't make sense to get an unlimited pass for any yoga studio because there are at least 2 days a week I won't be able to go. For now I'm going to try to stick to a few classes a week.

My new job starts Monday, and I have class that night. We are being fed lunch on Monday which means I don't have to figure out lunch until Tuesday. It's hard to plan a meal when I don't know when I'm moving in (Sunday night, tomorrow, hopefully). And I have nothing in the fridge :P

Cheers to a new job, moving forward and personal growth. May this be the best year yet.

Pantry

I'm finally using the last of the pasta I bought at Costco, hooray! To get more variety in my diet I am going to try eating different grains now- focusing on rice and Asian style dishes. I got a brick of tofu with which to experiment. I didn't know you were supposed to press it until KE showed me when he prepared tofu for dinner one night. I don't recall eating a lot of tofu growing up, so I'm not very familiar with how to prepare it. (Specifically how to get it to be like the tofu I've had at restaurants.) Tofu is one of those mystery ingredients I want to learn about. With winter break approaching I am getting excited for the culinary experiments - especially while staying with KE. Somehow it's easier to cook for 2 than for one... especially when you don't like left overs (like me).

I also purchased some Thai curry paste and a can of coconut milk. I'd like to try to make a curry dish with rice, veggies and tofu. I read in my big-ass sauce book about making a Thai curry and it's pretty simple, so long as you have the ingredients. In looking at what to make for my pre-thanksgiving I was evaluating my pans and I think I need a new 2-QT saucepan. I use it frequently and the non-stick coating is scratched pretty badly. I'd like to get a nice stainless steel one. I got rid of all my other nonstick pans and while cleaning them is a little more work, I like not worrying about flakes of teflon in my body :)

Tomorrow is Pre-Thanksgiving, I'll be sure to report our menu and how it went! (There's only 3 of us and my mom and step dad aren't picky, so I'm going vegetarian, and it will not be a feast, to prevent us all from overeating, a family tradition.)

Eating well on a downsized budget - NYTimes article

Eating well on a Downsized Budget By JANE E. BRODY, March 2, 2009

"So let’s welcome back to the American table meals made from potatoes, eggs, beans, low-fat or nonfat yogurt and milk (including reconstituted powdered milk), carrots, kale or collards, onions, bananas, apples, peanut butter, almonds, lean ground beef, chicken and turkey, along with canned or frozen corn, peas, tomatoes, broccoli and fish. For nutrient-dense beverages, Dr. Drewnowski suggests 100 percent fruit juice blends and fruit-and-vegetable juice blends."

yay, I have and have been eating most of these things!

Latkes to warm my cool fall apartment

The air is cooling off and it's been a bit windy today, time to close the windows! I am debating weather to bake or fry my latkes, olive oil is good for you so if I don't use too much it's probably ok. Having the oven on would heat up the house a bit though... hmmm... I'm going to make the mixture first and the decide how best to cook them.

Latkes (how I make them!):
3-4 russet potatoes
1 onion
2 egg
1 clove of garlic, pressed (or diced as finely as you can get it!)
4ish Tbsp white whole wheat flour
salt to taste
olive oil for frying

1. Clean potatoes and grate with a coarse grater into a big bowl. Sprinkle with salt, let sit while you do the dishes. Come back and squeeze out excess water from grated potatoes.
2. cut onion into small pieces (I like smaller pieces, some people probably like bigger slices of onion. Just don't make them too big or it will be hard for the latke to stay together during cooking.)
3. Stir together egg, garlic and onion in potatoes, add a little salt. Slowly add flour, but don't let it get too dry!
4. Using two spoons or your hands, form little pancakes, don't make them too thick or the centers will be undercooked. If you are frying and the latkes are a little too thick, you can put a lid on the pan and sort of bake them while they fry. Or if you want to bake them make them pretty thin and then flip them over part way through cooking (as suggested by this google search result for baked latkes).

Serve warm, with apple sauce, or sauerkraut, or slices of fresh apple, or sour cream, or salt!

Kitchen ballet or sea scallop dinner.

2 oz whole wheat spaghetti (1/8 of a box) $1.50 or so for a box of spaghetti
1/3 head of broccoli $2 for a head
4 sea scallops ($10.99/lb I got 8 for just under $4, about 50 cents a piece at Wegmans)
1 clove garlic
olive oil
Parmesan cheese
ground black pepper

(wish I had: fresh lemon juice)




How to do it seamlessly (a kitchen ballet if you will...):

Start water for pasta, put pasta in when boiling. Dice clove of garlic and broccoli. Heat up saute pan with olive oil, put broccoli into the pasta water, put garlic in saute pan. When oil is sizzling, set sea scallops in (make sure there is oil right where you set them). Pull broccoli out of pasta water with your trusty kitchen tongs, shake off water and plate. Flip sea scallops, hear them sizzle. Check that pasta is done (hopefully it is by now). Pull out of pot with tongs (or strain if you must) and let water drip off a bit before plating. Sprinkle Parmesean and pepper onto broccoli and pasta, plate scallops, grab toasty garlic bits and put on pasta and/or broccoli. If you have lemon juice (why, oh why, didn't I buy at least one lemon yesterday on my 2.5 hour grocery shopping trip!?) put it on now (you lucky so-and-so). Dive in!!!!

Smoothest meal I ever made!

A couple pieces of dark chocolate for dessert (though I probably should have waited a little bit before eating them!) I'm also realizing I need to get wine. Red and white. Probably in a box so that it keeps longer because I never finish a bottle of wine on my own (though I would if I made sure to cook with it, I was told that red wine makes homemade tomato sauce even better!)

dinner: other half acorn squash and mustard lover's deviled eggs

My dinner was the other half of acorn squashed, baked with maple syrup and butter. Then when I was still hungry an hour later... I hard boiled some eggs (thank you Joy of Cooking, they came out to perfection!!!) and made my mustard lover (mayo hater) deviled eggs. Very very, incredibly simple.

Hard boil eggs (take eggs out of fridge, put in pan, cover with 1 inch of water, bring to big bubbled boil, turn off heat, cover and let sit for 17 minutes (covered!) Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and run under cold water, or set in bowl with cold water. Tap egg on a plate to loosten shell alll over. Breaking it up into little pieces (while still attached to membrane below). Then peel off off the shell and membrane. Hopefully it comes off smoothly, it did for me today!! I always love when that happens. Then! Cut the peeled egg in half the long way, dump egg yolks into small bowl, mix in a couple heaping teaspoons of dijon mustard, mix together, put back into eggs sprinkle with paprika and eat! (There's no serving here when it's just you!)


Wash down with a beer :)


My dessert is a little bowl of frozen blueberries, I love the texture of frozen blueberries!

TO prep for tomorrow and the rest of the week I put some frozen berries in a bowl in the fridge to hopefully thaw a bit for tomorrow yogurt. Yogurt with only frozen berries (as opposed to just fresh or fresh and frozen) was too hard and thick to make in the blender, hopefully this will help. I'll find out in the morning!

I also made some blackbean salsa chili, a recipe given to me by my friend Erin who made it up. It is fantastic! satuee 1 onion + 1 cove garlic, pour in 1 jar salsa, 2 cans beans, sprinkle with some frozen corn. Proportions are up to you. Serve with cheddar cheese and blue corn tortilla chips. I like to sprinkle the cheese on top and then dip my chips, Erin likes to put cheese on the bottom of the bowl and then put chips in and crunch them up. So for meals the rest of the week I have leftover spaghetti sauce (to be eaten tomorrow before it goes bad!), black bean chili, yogurt, a cucumber, possibly spinach (it was starting to smell a little funny), too many lemons and 2 granny smith apples. My goal is to not need to go to the grocery store (or go out to eat) before I head back to Brooklyn again on Thursday evening. I think I can do it!

Cheers to frozen blueberries and beer!
Time to do some homework, good night!

I said no outloud, in my head

to cookies! My instructors on tuesday and thursday provide snacks to keep students from passing our or eating inedible berries on plant walks. Today I told myself not to have them because I will feel gross after eating them and they won't help me to reach my fitness goals. I stuck to the food I brought foe myself today minus one big pretzel stick.



Breakfast:

Remainder of vanilla yogurt

Plain yogurt (switching because of added sugar in vanilla flavor)

frozen blueberries

Frozen blackberries



Tossed in blender eat with sprinkling of grapenuts



Lunch;

Pretzels

Fresh tomato eaten straight-up

One ounce seriously sharp cheddar



Dinner:

Tbd when I get home but will definitely include the other half of the acorn squash!



I have also decided to get a pedometer- I have been climbing the hill every morning and tromping back every afternoon and I'm quite sure I'm putting on some miles over the week. Oh and this morning I was down two pounds! That makes healthy choices a little more encouraging when you see numeric results!

Simple but tasty dinner: brocolli and acorn squash.

Broccoli appetizer and squash main course:

Cut acorn squash in half, scoop out seeds and strings, place face up in pan drop in a pat of butter and some maple syrup and bake at 400 degrees for an hour.

While that's cooking and you are hungry and waiting:
Chop up some broccoli and parboil it (I won't be steaming anything until I get steel wool to clean my steamer sized pot) (get your water boiling, drop in the brocolli, then strain before it starts to lose it's bright colors! Toss with juice of half a lemon and fresh ground pepper and eat while waiting for acorn squash!



It's like dessert, with the butter and maple syrup. Sooo tasty! Probably could have cooked just a little less to avoid the extra burning... but still, tasty!

I'm contemplating documenting all my meals with at least a description of what I ate. I think it will be interesting to follow (for me at least!) especially in regard to my interest in slimming down. I've also been cooking at home way more than I did in Brooklyn, I think in part because I miss Brooklyn food and have been disapointed with everything I've gotten here and just wished I'd waited 'til I got home to make something that I knew would be good! I have several cookbooks to work from, and several I'm eying. Wish me luck and feel free to leave comments, especially encouraging ones!

Again, Acorn squash... so good


Addendum: Plus a bottle of Brooklyn Lager, my carbs of choice :)

How to use the last 2 zucchini and 3/4 of an onion?

Spaghetti sauce! A quick dinner and the long simmer time gave me plenty of time to do my reading homework!

3/4 onion
2 small zucchini
1 clove garlic
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 oz. spagetti noodles

1. Chop the onion into tiny pieces (or whatever size you like really- I like my onion small, I really don't like big chunks of onion, layers still nestled together, in my spaghetti sauce)
2. Saute the chopped onion and garlic until the onions are light brown and translucent, toss in the zucchini and saute for a bit until they start getting light brown spots and pour in the can of chopped tomatoes.
3. Keep at a simmer for 45 minutes, stir occasionally- don't worry, all that liquid will cook off- you'll see!
4. Prepare pasta according to the directions serve on a small plate with warm sauce and some grated Parmesan on top!
5. So tasty :) enjoy!

Tips:

• measure your pasta on a digital scale. It keeps portion sizes under control, which saves money because you are getting all the servings out of a box of pasta rather than half the servings :P
• You could probably put pretty much any vegetable in this sauce. I've used carrots in the past, celery would probably be good. Chunks of squash perhaps? Anything that sounds good sauteed with tomato!
  

Side notes!

I realized today that it's been 2 weeks since I went out to eat/ got take out. I think I'm going to try the whole month- with the exception of when I go visit Brooklyn these next two weekends. If I can just eat at home I will save a lot of money. Especially if I don't over purchase and make sure I use everything I have! The list of the contents of my fridge is slowly shrinking but I really need to be more careful next time I go grocery shopping. I need to start meal planning!

Also, I planted some dill and leafy greens and one of them sprouted today! My basil is slowly coming back to life, I think I will bring it inside so I remember to water it more often. My mint is growing again! Also need to bring that one inside.

And I love my new cast iron pan. I also bought a cast iron dutch oven!! Very excited to use it to make stew when it starts getting colder!

Happy cooking!

What to do with broccoli stems and other bits of veggies?

I followed the advice of a friend on facebook and also this video tip from Chow and popped them in a bag int he freezer. I should have some decent vegetable stock this upcoming soup season!

A day at home

I made scrambled eggs with spinach and cheddar for... brunch :) And then I sauteed 3 little zucchini and a tomato and mixed with rigatoni for dinner, making enough to have it as a cold pasta salad tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm having a little get together. I just got here but I met my neighbors and a friend's girlfriend and invited them all over for a little potluck! Not sure what I'm making yet, but I want to make something using things I already have (of which there is a list on the fridge, to remind me NOT to go grocery shopping again, because I love shopping for groceries!)

(the little asterisk means it's in the freezer)

One of the things I did today was watch the rest of project runway season 5, disc 3 (still have some catching up to do, and I don't have cable... or a TV, so I'm always a season behind!). So I started draping with fabrics I already have. I'm so not allowed to buy anything except for notions I need to finish a garment! So I played with some draping, not sewing anything yet- I have a few patterns I want to make and I'm still a little intimidated by draping and making patterns from draping because I'm all self/book taught and in the past it hasn't gotten me too far with draping... hopefully that will change!

Pretty elementary, but mostly fun to work on! (Though I really should have been reading, grad school is a lot of work!)

About to come back from a summer of uninspired meals

Grad school is about to start. The budget is still smaller than I'm used to but the desire to eat well has grown exponentially because I just saw Food Inc. It was infuriating, frustrating , though provoking and inspiring. I'm going to try to eat on a budget but eat well. I've already decided that I want to reduce my sugar intake and no HFCS so this will mean some alterations to recipes and seeking out alternative sweeteners. I already know about honey, agave and applesauce but I'm also thinking about how I read that most recipes had a lot of excess sugar in them. So I'm going to try to wean myself off sugar, eat well and still within budget. The most encouraging part is that I will have a whole fridge and freezer to myself so I look forward to trying some preservation techniques.
I hope that anyone who reads this blog regularly or in passing will leave encouraging comments and think about how they are voting with their money.

Brooklyn Homestead is online!

We are selling chocolates through Etsy! Please take a look at our shop, Brooklyn Homestead.

I'm so bad with leftovers. and produce. and things that get moved in the fridge

I just found out about this neat website StillTasty which tells you how long foods really last in the fridge or freezer. Opened or unopened, dependent upon the packaging. This is excellent news because I have a tendency to forget about things. Probably the most helpful thing you can do, armed with this website, is to write what date you opened packages of things like cheese with longer freshness periods.

Everybody should at least peruse this site to get an understanding of expiration dates and how long to keep that one food that doesn't look bad but has been open for a couple weeks...

A snack approach to lunch

This is the snack plate approach. Or the bulk food approach, however you care to approach it. Today I have been munching on organic animal crackers purchase din bulk at the food co-op and now for "lunch" I am having a green bell pepper (cut up with my small Swiss army knife in the bathroom while precariously balanced on the edge of the sink), a handful of snow peas (washed by filling the bag with water, sloshing it around and then dumping it out a couple times, and a small carton of organic blueberries. Staying at KE's two nights in a row which his tiny and packed fridge makes bringing lunch difficult (have I mentioned the lack of a kitchenette at work? It forces creativity within boundaries, for example: room temperature or Thermos capable foods. The best dinner we had in recent memory was one where simple ingredients were cooked just enough and seasoned just a little and brought out the delicious flavors of the essence of good ingredients. It was like the snack approach, just cooked!

I picked up these things while grabbing groceries for last nights dinner (a stir fry of onion, red pepper, yellow pepper, snow peas fried tofu and white jasmine rice). I'm not that into stir fry so I just kept my mouth shut and let KE make it how he pleased. It was delicious and quick! His trick was to (tell me to) get firm tofu (extra firm if you can) then put it on a plate and cover it with another plate and set a squash on top of it to squeeze out excess water. Then fried in a bit of oil and added to the stir fry. It was delicious, I never though I'd like tofu that much, I expected squishy cubes like in miso soup. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised that you do like something you didn't think you liked!

Planning for the week

Trying this planning thing again...

Saturday:
grocery shopping, make cookies for Sun and fresh pasta for Wed
eat Pad Thai leftovers for lunch
for dinner grilled cheese and roasted pepper and tomato soup (pkg)

Sunday:
fruit and yogurt and granola
smoothie
snacks at party
make soup for the week
veggies

Monday:
cereal breakfast
Sandwich: deli meat (if it's still good), avocado, cucumber, mustard
bring apple snack and cookies

Tuesday:
yogurt and fruit breakfast
take soup for lunch
bring apple and peanut butter snack

Wednesday:
cereal breakfast
sandwich for lunch - chicken, avocado or cheese, cucumber, mustard
dinner: pasta with fresh pesto and smoked salmon (with KE)

Thursday:
smoothie breakfast with oats in it
soup for lunch
leftovers/ frozen stuff for dinner
plan meals for the next 5 days

A Tuesday night dinner

This was the most awesome meal I've had in a while. The best part is how simple it was!

Seared bay and sea scallops (picked up at the farmer's market on Saturday)
Sauteed snow peas with one clove of chopped garlic in olive oil
Steamed acorn squash with salt, pepper and butter.

Overall prep time was less than 30 minutes. Cooking instructions for the squash were located on a sicker on it. Cut the squash in half, seed it, and make cuts on the back with a knife (4 or 5). Pour 1/4cup water onto a (deep) plate and set the acorn halves face down. Cook in microwave for 8-10 minutes (we did 8, then checked).

For dessert we had sme ice cream. It was a fresh, quick and fantastic meal!

Home Cooking Challenge: week 1

Bringing lunch everyday last week worked pretty well. I ate well (a lot of veggies!) and I ended the week with a slice of pizza. I managed to make breakfast all but one morning (last minute decision to go to KE's on Tuesday night didn't really have time to plan for what I was going to do for breakfast). And the purchase of pizza fridge night because I wanted to have time to work on my baby quilt project.

Now that I'm in a week without that goal, I have purchased breakfast once and lunch twice (counting today) and I miss my homemade lunches. I know where the ingredients came from (more so than from the restaurant anyhow). I did finally make chocolate chip cookies this weekend and they were phenomenal and now I am working on selling them. (They won't be up until at least this upcoming weekend however, please check again!)

Last night I went to half of the Moth show about penny pinching. The stories were entertaining, though a couple felt like a stretch for the theme. It was interesting to hear one guy's story about a Christmas without gifts. I only stayed for half because it is ridiculously cold outside right now and I have been trying to go to sleep at a reasonable hour so that I can wake up early and have "me time" before work. Returning home we were greeted by a sink of dishes left from the hotpot party on Saturday that hadn't been cleaned yet. Let me tell you peanut butter sauce left in the sink for 2 days smells horrible. After washing, twice, the smell still wasn't out. I poured some vinegar (and baking soda!) in and we'll see tonight how it smells!

Off to buy lunch and wish I'd brought it. Tonight I'm free and I plan to assemble some lunches for the rest of the week.

My weakness

I have such a sweet tooth and it seems to be highly active lately. When 4pm rolls around you know I'm searching my desk for stray sweets I might have forgotten. This is an issue I've been having with the home cooking challenge- I haven't made sweets to bring to work for my afternoon pick-me-up! Therefore tonight I will make chocolate chip cookie dough, however cookies are not baked until the following day. I guess an apple will have to do tomorrow... maybe I can put some chocolate on it. Or perhaps it's time to go on a sugar fast- 2 years ago for lent I gave up foods with sugar added to them. It was great! I still ate sweet fruit and things, and I didn't feel deprived I actually felt lighter and cleaner. I think lent just started, I saw ashy foreheads yesterday and there were mardi gras beads at the Oscars party I went to... time to do a little googling!

Follow up: Lent did indeed start on Ash Wednesday... Maybe I'll start a late lent. 39 days! Or maybe 38... I've been wanting cookies...

Dijon Potato Recipe and Lunch!

I've been bringing salad this week, take a peek!


ingredients: mixed greens, cucumber, snow peas, grape tomatoes and avocado
(I'm sure my salads seem boring to those of you who like dressing... I'll have dressing one of these days and also give you the recipe for the dressing I make!)


Dijon Roasted Potatoes

4 red potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 c Dijon Mustard
1 tsp dried rosemary (or fresh if you have it!)
salt

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees
2. Chop up washed red potatoes into about 1 inch chunks and put in large bowl
3. Dollop mustard on top of potatoes, pour olive oil over and crush dried rosemary between your hands and sprinkle in (or pick off fresh rosemary leaves and sprinkle in.
4. Stir til all the potatoes are nicely coated) and pour into 8x8 baking pan. (I line with foil for easier clean up. Parchment paper might work, or just clean it off with a sponge and elbow grease.)
5. Bake in oven for about 45 minutes, more if they aren't soft. They should be super soft with only the skin for resistance. If some are hard and some are soft, bake it longer, the little burned bits of mustard are sweet and delicious.