Good news, Bad news... April Fool's Day

This was a weekend full of errands, and the week ahead is full of commitments.

Good news: I replaced my spare (and an old tire with a HUGE hole) with a new tire... for a decent price, in less than an hour on Saturday morning that I spent reading in a sunny waiting room. Bonus: I turned down a free yet totally ugly baseball hat.

Good news: made a HUGE drop-off at Goodwill.

Good news: donated excess pantry goods, cosmetics and toiletries to students. Free stuff! Out of my house and into theirs. Score!

Bad news: pollen count and blooming trees make for allegens floating into my sinus passages in mad amounts.

Bad news: I must take my new/old car into the Honda dealer to replace all power brake hoses.

Good news: I will get reimbursed for the $450.00 I paid out in 9.12 for replacing only one hose, due to same recall. Huzzah! And the replacement hoses will be replaced for free! Double Huzzah!

Bad news: my nights will be full of students' plays through Sunday... no time to myself, or for class prep or grading or anything else... wait--is that bad?

Bad news: I've got one extra class and two meetings this week on top of all I'm doing...

Good news: I'm getting paid for the extra lecture. Oh, and I'm showing a movie in one class on Thursday...

Good news: I returned 3 out of 4 items ordered from a catalog to the store in town (no mailing charges), and found 3 better items, using a coupon to save mailing costs again. A pretty equal trade, but I am coming out of it with more useful, better-looking items.

The best news is that I found a clothing steamer. Yes: "found" one. I had been thinking about buying one to use instead of an ironing board, but couldn't really justify the expense. However, one of my fellow tenants who was moving put his out on the curb. I took it home, washed it out with vinegar and green cleaner, and tried it out last night. Great news: it works, and steamed the wrinkles out of four shirts in practically no time. I found the model online and it has mixed reviews... which might be why it was out on the curb. I'll see how long I can make it work. But it was free!

Simple and frugal: Lemony Chicken Scaloppine

This is another meal that is easy to plan and cook with only a few ingredients, most of which I keep in my pantry. It is a quick and delicious meal from the cookbook The Pleasure of Cooking for One by Judith Jones.

Originally, this is pork scaloppine, made with pork tenderloin. I changed this up to chicken, because it is simple to use boneless chicken breasts for this particular recipe. Substitute 1 breast for 1-2 people, or 2 breasts for 2-4 meals, depending on your appetite and whether you combine this with a salad, vegetable side dish and a light dessert. It is in fact a wonderful low carb/high protein meal with a fresh and delicious flavor.

Last night I cooked this is a slightly different way, again adjusting for in-house ingredients. I was out of fresh lemons, so substituted blood oranges for the sliced fruit and the juice. I added one orange for each breast (I'm looking at 3 meals). But I was also pointed in this direction by a bottle of blood orange infused olive oil I bought a little while ago, that I substituted for the plain olive oil. This added only another layer of the orange flavor, and mostly cooked off.

In addition, I sprinkled a 1/2 to 1 tsp. of cumin over the cooking chicken to off-set the sweeter flavor of the blood orange.

The final product was just as delicious as the original, but with a new flavor. I could also have used navel oranges and plain olive oil as a third choice. Tangy and bright, this left me with several options for this dish I have used several times to wow guests. So simple, so quick to make, this is a crowd-pleaser. Again, something you can quickly whip up from pantry ingredients, inexpensively.

This recipe alone is a reason for having a couple of shallots in-house.

Simple and delicious: Pantry Applesauce

I had leftover apples and I made applesauce.

Really delicious cranberry applesauce. Yum. Here's a similar recipe: http://bit.ly/XPHcBY

Again, this was all out of the pantry, refrigerator and freezer. This is a great recipe for leftover apples and/or cranberries, and will keep frozen (I put it in Ball jars) for a month. Made it for pennies, and it produces something like 10 servings. Great for a side dish or a dessert.

What a week! Stomach Flu and Simple Meals

Since Friday I have been battling with what feels like stomach flu, or a really, really strong case of nervous digestion -- which I often get during a tense or important project.

On and off since Friday afternoon I have been "ugh." With a lot of sleeping afterwards.

This morning I cancelled my classes for the day (My U does not take Prez's Day off) and slept late after sending a 6 am email/textmail broadside to students. Kind and sweet thoughts came back from them, but I was uninterested for a few hours. Then lay there bleary while Jack kept me warm and safe by lying on top of me.

Since I've been locked in the house since Friday -- except for a friend's b'day brunch Saturday -- I am bo-red with everything when awake. The house is clean, I've watched all of Season 1 of SCANDAL on Netflix and part of Season 2, and I am caught up on my email. The fridge is full of the week's meals. The dishwasher is empty and clean. The garbage and recycling are out, gone, taken care of. I am well enough to walk around just not well enough to feel 100% able to do usual things.

Now what? Bleah.

Maybe I should add what I cooked this weekend, despite everything:

• Roasted red pepper and eggplant spicy spread -- which, with the addition of a couple of lean, cooked chicken breasts, becomes a delicious dinner casserole
• roasted my own red peppers (on sale), bought eggplant (on sale) and everything else from the Pantry or Freezer (have 6 bags of roasted red peppers for future dishes, too)
• Quinoa and black bean salad with lime-chili dressing, a very healthy carb and protein side dish/main dish that's good cold or slightly heated (all Pantry)
• Cranberry-orange breakfast oat bars (all Pantry but orange)
• Pink grapefruit-blood orange-navel orange fresh squeezed juice every morning, bought with bargains in the citrus area, 'cuz they're in season
• Hard-boiled eggs, for quick protein

I also poached a salmon steak with Old Bay and lemon, which will be good for 2-3 dinners (all Freezer and Pantry). Still finishing off the chicken soup, too.

The up-side of this was last week I spent about $25 on groceries, since I only needed fresh fruit and vegetables. Not even dairy. This week, I'll need to replenish the dairy as well as the other stuff, so it should run me a little more. Plus cat supplies. Those tiny cans are crazy expensive, plus treats.

Simple Pleasures: Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is one of the easiest and most satisfying soups to cook at home. It is also great for frugal cooks, because you don't need fancy stuff to make a delicious pot of family delight. Even better if you have a familiar family recipe, handed down from Grandma or Great-Grandma.

I made a big pot this past weekend, using what I had on hand after looking at about ten different recipes on Epicurious, my favorite cooking site. Here's what I got by scanning the recipes:

• First choice, cook on stovetop or in slow cooker.
• Second choice, basic chicken soup, Asian-inspired chicken soup, Latin-inspired soup, gumbo-like soup, or broth. This is about seasonings and thickness.
• Third choice, noodles or rice or pasta or nothing.
• Fourth choice, beans or nothing.

That's it.

Your chicken can come from rotisserie-chickens, leftovers, frozen breasts or thighs, raw or cooked. It's all in the timing and convenience for you.

Most recipes add lots of vegetables, but I prefer to limit myself to celery and carrots. No beans, pasta, rice or noodles. I add heat: fresh ginger, red pepper flakes, lemongrass (if I've got it), and sometimes jalapeno peppers. I also add 1/4 to 1/2cup of white wine and sometimes 1 cup of chicken broth, mixed with about 5 cups of water.

You can increase the nutritional value by adding a can of chickpeas or a half-cup of white beans; you'll also increase the number of servings. You are automatically lowering the sodium count (compared to Campbell's or Progresso) by making your own and adding only a pinch of salt while cooking. You're also eliminating fat by using either only white meat or mixing it up dark and white while removing all the skin. And for anyone with wheat or dairy or corn allergies, this is exclusive of all those ingredients -- although you can add them.

This time of year, too, with flu and colds everywhere, chicken soup is a great choice for people well and not so well.

New frugality and the Pantry Challenge, February 2013

Having realized that the Congressional delay on solving the budget issue (a.k.a. "Fiscal Cliff") has resulted in a reduction of my monthly paycheck of $400 (#*%@!), I am definitely working this  month as a Pantry Challenge.

Good pantry:

The good news is that I have a ridiculously stocked pantry and freezer, due to my greed and fear of waking up in a world with no more grocery stores. Or something like that.

Bad pantry:

Thus far, I've been able to make the following without adding anything but on-sale produce last week and for this coming week:

• lentil soup, using lentils & canned tomatoes from the pantry, bacon from the freezer, and seasonings (including red wine) from the herbs/spices cabinet;
• chicken-artichoke lasagna, without the lasagna noodles, so really a kind of chicken-artichoke casserole, using chicken breasts from the freezer and a can of artichoke hearts from the pantry;
• poached pears, using same red wine, spices, and three on-sale pears;

• chicken-eggplant-tomato stew, a variation of Mediterranean cuisine incorporating on-sale eggplant and freezer chicken (whole chicken cooked in crockpot and used in this dish, plus lunch salads, omelets, and more to come all this week);
• blueberry-oatmeal breakfast bars, using frozen berries, bulk oatmeal,  milk and an egg (all on-hand);
• soup from boxes, based on sale I mashed up a month ago, where my favorite organic box soups were discounted; potato-leek, carrot-ginger, butternut, potato-garlic.  

Since each of these dishes (including the boxes) produced 3+ meals, the cost is minimal (especially if everything is on-hand) and life becomes simple, even on nights when I come home exhausted from battling for the life of the mind (harder than it sounds!).

My goal is to spend less than $40/week on my groceries: that doesn't sound unreasonable, but in fact thanks to impulse shopping and the greed-fear combo, I usually end up spending $15-$20 more per week.

I'd rather not.

So now I'm on the prowl, so to speak, with my groceries. This week, I spent $30, which is great, but partly because I put back everything I already had -- even if it isn't abso-poso fresh -- and determined to man up about what is already in the pantry-fridge-counter.

I'll keep you in the loop.