First, I want to thank all of you who bother to visit here, occasionally or every day, and then take the time to comment. I know how busy your lives are and how many good blogs there are out there. Your comments are really helpful in figuring out just where I want to go with this and how it could be the most helpful. I am toying with an idea of having a topic for each day. One day would be eating better for less money as that seems to be a popular topic. I know that for me, making the meal is not the problem. Coming up with something interesting is. I have been coming up with meals for 37 years. It’s a lot of meals.
One of the tricks I use to stretch an otherwise rather pedestrian meal is to take a page from the Amish book and include one sweet and one sour at every meal. The rumor is that do 7 sweets and 7 sours but that isn’t true. We always have one of my home canned fruits (sometimes I cheat and use commercially canned pineapple ) and one pickle. I have a pantry filled with applesauce, peaches and pears and pickled beans, beets, carrots, mixed veges and, of course, bread and butter pickles. I also make a lot of biscuits. They take almost no time and I will often cut the lard into the flour in the morning so all I have to do is put in the milk and get them in the oven at dinner. In a real rush, I add a bit more milk and make drop biscuits rather than rolled. This is also a chore that fairly young kids can manage. Phoebe loves to cut out biscuits. I don’t make biscuits unless I am already using the oven for something else so it’s already hot. If I am making a stove top casserole, I would substitute dumplings for biscuits. I make a raised roll dough once a week. The recipe makes a huge batch of butterhorns and you only have to pull off the amount of dough you want and leave the rest in the refrigerator. This is good because butterhorns are so good and so rich, we will all eat too many if they are sitting there. Phoebe calls this curly bread because I make crescent rolls with the dough. Any good, basic cookbook has recipes for refrigerator rolls, muffins and biscuits. If you don’t have a basic cookbook, go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill and buy one. Don’t pay more than $2.00. I have my old Betty Crocker Cookbook that I got as a wedding present. It looks terrible, all spattered and stained, but I use it more than any other. It’ s my go-to wedding present for new brides.
One of the problems with giving out recipes is that I often fly by the seat of my pants. I substitute based on what I have to work with. What follows is one of those ” a little of this, a little of that” recipes.
Black Bean and Corn Burritos
In a hot skillet, brown some corn, canned or frozen. The amount can be stretched to feed a few more. Add some black beans. You will save money if you make these from scratch but I use canned a lot. Make sure you rinse them well. Now add a jar of salsa. I have my homemade salsa but any jarred will do. I use a mild one as my kids are not fans of too much heat. Next, throw in a bit of left over chicken. This a good way to use the last bits on a carcass as the chicken is not the star in this dish. I have made it once using a canned chicken. I didn’t care for it but I have also used my home canned chicken and it was just okay. I prefer the chicken to be a bit on the dry side for this dish and my canned stuff is really moist and tender. Now add some seasonings. I make batches of mexican seasoning and have those ready but in a pinch you could use a tablespoon of taco seasoning from a packet. This is pretty expensive and with the packaging and the additives, not something I would recommend. Heat up a flat bread and fill with the corn/bean mixture and top with some shredded Monterey Jack cheese. My kids love these and can make them up themselves. I can also make the filling in the morning and then just heat it up to fill the flat bread at dinner. This is actually better heated up. I love it for lunch the next day served with taco chips.
If I have to stretch even more, I make dessert. With some canned apples or cherries on hand and a jar of struessle topping in the pantry, I can whip of an impressive looking finish in just a few minutes.
January 22, 2010 at 8:31 am
I realized that I have a picky husband! It makes things a bit harder, and it also makes our meals boring. I”m going to have to have a sit down with my cookbooks and try and find quick and easy meals he likes. We got into bad habits living in town since he doesn’t keep regular hours. I’m the one finding it hardest to get out of the pre packaged habit!
Did you get the directions I sent?
January 22, 2010 at 8:35 am
kathy would you also share your mexican seasoning recipe? This sounds like a dish my family would love. Thanks alot.
January 22, 2010 at 8:37 am
I love the idea of a daily topic…eating well for cheap is a great idea.
I’d also love to read how you incorporate your home-canned foods into meals. It’s one thing to have a dozen quarts of canned tomatoes….it’s another thing altogether to know what to do with them.
I had to laugh at the “spattered and stained” cookbook comment…isn’t that how you tell which recipes are your favorite? You can go through my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and see exactly which recipes are house favorites!
January 22, 2010 at 9:55 am
I have to recommend an absolutely wonderful new cookbook – “Family Feasts for $75 a week,” by Mary Ostyn. Mary (of the popular “Owlhaven” blog) is a friend of mine via our Ethiopian adoption listserv. She is a mother of 10 (6 via adoption), and she knows how to feed a large family WELL for very little money. The cookbook is full of incredibly delicious recipes, shopping tips, frugal “philosophies,” etc. It has literally saved me hundreds of dollars, and my family has loved everything I’ve cooked from it!
Fun topic!
Kate
January 22, 2010 at 10:06 am
Older cookbooks are the best! My cousin gave us her sister in law’s 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook. Even though we never met Ange, we feel like we know her–we certainly know what her favorite recipes were and many are also our favorites. My 1963 version aready is using a lot of commercial mixes in recipes to make things “quicker”. but Ange’s cookbook is mostly “from scratch” recipes.
I think I’ll try you recipe for supper tonight.
January 22, 2010 at 11:17 am
Your blog is the first thing that I read when I take my coffee break at work each morning! It is like talking with an old friend. I have read several books about the Amish and I do recall the practice of one sweet and one sour at each meal. We canned a lot of pickled beets last summer but I always forget to put them out. Now I will think “biscuits and jam or honey for the sweet and beets for the sour.”
Have a lovely weekend!
January 22, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Okay, just found your blog and now I am hungry! What time is lunch?
January 22, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I use a similar combination with a slightly different assembly technique to make enchaladas (sp?), sometimes including sweet potatoes but usually omitting any meat.
We usually only eat sweets with breakfast but often have japanese-style pickles with main meals (my partner’s heritage). The japanese cookbook I got for Christmas talks about how traditional japanese home meals organize around principles of five — five colors, five flavors, five cooking techniques — which I note also allowing a variety of cheap ingredients to be reused and recyled without causing appetite fatique
or excessive consumption of salty or fried foods.
January 22, 2010 at 1:06 pm
I received a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for Christmas the year after I moved out of home into my own apartment because I was always popping home or calling to check Mom’s cookbook for some recipe or other. Then a couple of years later, I received another one as a wedding gift. That copy is still in it’s original wrapping (27 years later) because someday when mine has lost it’s cover and is falling apart I’ll have a replacement.
I did buy the new version for our daughters their last year in high school and I’ll be doing the same for our son.
Shannon: this is the recipe I use for making tacos, burritos, etc. The amount of cayenne can be halved or left out all together depending on how spicy you like things.
http://supermomnocape.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/super-cheap-homemade-taco-seasoning/
January 22, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I like the theme idea – and thanks for sharing about the one sweet, one sour method! I like it.
I’ve noticed the Japanese restaurants do something similar, we go to a place called Yoshinoya and they have “sets” – you get a beef bowl which is seasoned beef, onions and cabbage on rice, which is the entree so to speak, and then there’s a little side dish…I love the BSet which has pickled salad – like coleslaw with a vinegar dressing instead of a creamy “slaw” dressing. YUM!
January 22, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I got married in ’66 and one of my gifts was the Betty Crocker cookbook…we should compare splatters sometime! It is the first book I turn to…my kids tried to buy me the updated copy but it just wasn’t the same. I’ve taken to copying my favorite recipes in another notebook for the day when the prized book totally disintegrates!!
January 22, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I’m sorry I don’t always leave you a comment, Kathy. It must be difficult to blog without feedback.
I love your blog and you always give me something to think about. And I also love the idea of frugal cooking.
I spend a lot of time over at the allrecipes.com site and get super recipes there. I can print them and then write in other people’s comments or amendments right on the recipe. I file them in loose leaf binders and have quite a collection!
Another trick is following the Artisan Breadbaking in Five Minutes A Day. I usually have some fresh dough in the refrigerator and can make a healthy pizza or flat bread quickly. Nothing says home cooking like freshly baked bread.:)
January 22, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Many thanks to SuperMomNoCapes. I will sure enjoy going through your blog.
January 22, 2010 at 9:47 pm
I have my mother’s Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1954! In the bread chapter, the commentary states that white bread is just as easy to make as whole-wheat, but without all the “disadvantages” of heavier whole-wheat loaves. Dear me!
January 23, 2010 at 9:11 am
Isn’t it funny the differences in cookbooks/cooking now? I inherited a 1930′s Better Homes and Gardens (bluegreen cover instead of the red plaid) cookbook from my grandma…and the recipes are so different. It’s all what I’d describe as ‘rough cooking’…using whatever you have laying around to make something beautiful.
January 23, 2010 at 11:57 am
I just love reading your blog for whatever you feel like writing about. I feel odd requesting this-or-that topics, because then it makes me feel like a consumer, instead of just a bunch of folks hanging around the counter in a homey place.
Also, usually someone will already have said whatever I was thinking and I feel kinda dumb just posting ‘me too’ types of comments.
I’ve really enjoyed the mix of posts that are practical useful information types, and the ones that are more “things to think about” types. It feels eclectic, and I love eclectic!
January 23, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Hear, hear, Deb L. I too love eclectic and this blog!
January 23, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Thank you for all the great ideas. I enjoy your book and your blog. I’m curious about the jar of streusel topping. Is it made ahead with butter, already crunchy, or is it just the dry ingredients and you cut in butter or oil and bake?
January 24, 2010 at 7:48 am
Thanks for all of the responses. I make the topping with dried butter and add water at the last minute. I will not pretend it’s as good as from scratch with reall butter but it does make it possible to make up a dessert in a couple of minutes if I’m in a hurry.
January 24, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Here’s a recipe for cheaper than dirt minestrone.
8 cups chicken broth or water w/bullion
2 or 3 carrots
2 or 3 stalks of celery
1 onion
2 cups fresh broccoli
1 can kidney beans
1 small can tomato paste
1/3 pound of angel hair pasta or 1/2 cup rice
oregano, basil, salt, pepper to taste
grated cheese if desired
bring stock to boil, add vegetables cut into bite size pieces.
reduce heat,
let boil gently for 20 mins.
add tomato paste and pasta(snapped in half and half again) or rice
simmer 10 mins for pasta, 20 mins for rice
serve with grated cheese and corn muffins, biscuits or french bread
will feed a family of four with copious leftovers
good eats!
January 25, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Your post is serendipitous! I made black bean & pork something, tonight. Sauteed onions, R & G peppers, tossed in the beans I’d soaked & cooked, added a little rice & home canned pork, added “Black Bean Seasoning”… now what to do with this.
It was a bit to blah, by itself. Tastey, but didn’t “look” like a meal. I believe we will put it in tortillas, top with some salsa, cheese & sour cream, & call it good.
32 yrs of meal planning, for me, and the “planning” has always been the tougher part.
Re: cookbooks… My room-mates in college gave me “The Joy of Cooking” as a birthday present, waaaay back. As it was falling apart, in recent years, my kids bought the newest addition for me. It is missing its heart – THEY’VE TAKEN OUT THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR SKINNING A RABBIT! (Tongue in cheek – my dad showed me how – didn’t need it, but still!!) Found a used book seller on-line with a 1975 edition in great shape – bought it for $5!