Category Archives: Cooking

Luxury on Less Tip: Sample fine wines without spending a fortune

My husband and I are wine enthusiasts. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not big drinkers. But we love to sample wines. With some meals, there’s nothing quite like a glass of wine to complement it.

When consumed in moderation, red wine is also proven to have a wide array of health benefits, including increased cardiovascular health, lower risk for certain cancers and obesity, decreased effects of aging, and even a longer lifespan.

It’s possible to find many fine wines for under $10 a bottle, but even $10 is too much to spend on something as frivolous as wine when you’re on a tight budget. We do occasionally use some of our entertainment budget to pick up a bottle for special occasions or date nights at home, but it’s a rare treat.

Our favorite way to sample wines is by visiting local wineries. With several scattered throughout most states, it’s possible there’s a full scale winery right in your backyard. You can use this winery directory to find one near you.

Most wineries offer 100% free tastings. You can sample various wines and learn about how to pair wines with meals and taste like a connoisseur. Many also offer free tours of the facility, which can be a fun way to spend an afternoon. They often have beautiful grounds where you can stroll or enjoy a picnic.

If you do find a wine that you particularly enjoy, you can pick it up with confidence since you’ve already tried it and you know you like it. If you don’t budget money for entertainment, or you’d rather not spend it on wine, then you can leave the winery after a lovely day with some knowledge about fine wine without spending a penny.

If there isn’t a winery near you, another option is to host a wine tasting party. Everyone chips in a bottle, so everybody can try a little taste of a wide assortment of wines. It’s a classy way to spend an evening with friends without busting your budget. Cheers!

Help! My grocery bills are ridiculous!

On the advice of Kacie at Sense to Save, I’m participating in Menu Plan Monday this week by posting my meal plan for this week. I’m hoping I might get some tips on how to lower our ridiculous $75-$90 a week grocery bills. Any advice is welcome and appreciated!

Blackened catfish fillets with rice pilaf (We bought 1/2 pound of fish on sale for $4.99/pound. The rice pilaf is just rice cooked in homemade chicken stock with onion, garlic, and seasonings added.)

Balsamic pork roast tenderloin (We had a tenderloin leftover from last week. We bought it on sale for $2.99/lb. and used it for two meals last week, too.)

Tacos with refried beans (Ground beef on sale $2.99/lb.)

Taco salad (We only use 1/2 pound of ground beef for tacos, so we’ll use the leftover taco meat for this.)

Roasted chicken with potatoes (The whole chicken we bought cost $6, and we’ll use it for two meals this week and a gallon of chicken stock.)

Chicken Alfredo (Made with homemade Alfredo and leftover roasted chicken.)

Homemade cheese pizza (Homemade pizza sauce and crust. The most expensive part of this meal is the cheese, which we buy in bulk at $5 for 2 lbs. because we make pizza once a week.)

I painstakingly plan these meals out based on the sales at two separate stores, and I try to use everything up and stretch things out. I’m really frustrated by our continually high bills. We don’t buy extra snack foods, and we eat leftovers for lunch.

We do buy whatever fruit is on sale (this week strawberries, blueberries, and two peaches). The grand total for fruit was $5.25.

I realize my meal plan is meat heavy, which is why I want to try to plan more vegetarian meals to cut down the cost. Our goal is to cut costs on groceries to $60 or less per week while still eating healthy, tasty meals. Any tips?

Note: We spent about $75 on this week’s meals, which is our average grocery bill. The other $15 of our grand total went toward bulk purchases that will last us a month.

Frugal cooking tip: Making homemade chicken stock

We use chicken stock for a lot of meals, especially in the fall and winter during soup season. But it can get pretty pricey since store bought chicken stock costs anywhere from $2 to $4 a quart.

Since we also like to roast whole chickens (we get two to three meals out of the meat), we decided to stop wasting the rest of the chicken and start making our own stock. It’s not difficult, but it is time consuming. However, it’s worth the time.

We pay about $6 for a whole chicken, but I’m not sure how to calculate the cost of the carcass since we get 2-3 meals out of the meat. Beyond that, you’re paying for the produce, which costs under $3 total according to my calculations. Not too bad since this recipe yields 1 gallon of stock. (You could probably actually stretch it out to 2 gallons. We only make one gallon because our stock pot is too small to hold 2 gallons of water with all of the ingredients.)

We adapted this recipe from Good Eats, but we’ve made some changes to simplify it. We’ve also omitted several ingredients. Feel free to try the Good Eats version if you’d rather get the recipe from a pro!

Ingredients:
3 to 4 pounds of leftover cooked chicken carcass
2 whole garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Several sprigs of fresh thyme
1 to 2 gallons of water

Chop the following ingredients into large chunks:
1 large onion
3 to 4 carrots, peeled
3 to 4 ribs of celery

Place the ingredients in a large stockpot. (Tip from Good Eats: Use a steamer basket placed upside down on top of the ingredients to prevent everything from floating.) Then add the water.

Cook on high until it begins to boil. Turn it down to medium low and simmer gently 6-8 hours. Skim the surface of the stock with a spoon occasionally to remove the “scum” that builds up on the top. You’ll periodically need to add more hot water to keep the ingredients covered as the liquid cooks down.

After 6-8 hours, the bones should be brittle and easy to snap in half. That’s how you know it’s done. Strain the stock into another pot, and throw away the carcass. Let it cool before transferring it to quart-sized Tupperware containers. (We like to store it by the quart so we can thaw only what we need. We also like to split one of the quarts into 1-cup portions so we can use the stock for smaller recipes like rice pilaf without thawing a whole quart.) Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, there may be some solid fat on the surface. Skim it off and the stock is ready to use. You can store it in the refrigerator for a week or several months in the freezer. If you choose to freeze it, just place it in the refrigerator the night before you need it to let it thaw.

Note: Always boil homemade stock for 2 minutes before using it to kill any bacteria.

If you don’t want to devote 6 hours to cooking stock, Tyler Florence from the Food Network has a shortened stock recipe that involves poaching a whole chicken for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Then you just remove the meat to use for another dish, and the remaining broth is similar to chicken stock. We’ve never tried this recipe because we prefer to roast the chicken. Roasted chicken is much tastier and moister than boiled chicken. But if you try this recipe, let me know how it works out!

Saturday Grocery Round up

We had quite a day. It started with our research at the farmers market and the co-op. We didn’t make any purchases at either, because we were waiting to see what our best best would be. Ultimately, we decided to stick with trips to multiple stores to get the best deals.

Today was particularly intense, because we were out of a number of staples that we buy in bulk (coffee, mozzarella cheese for homemade pizza, and black peppercorns). Those are all pretty pricey because we buy enough to last us a little over a month. We also bought a whole chicken that we’ll roast for dinner tomorrow night, then use the leftovers for chicken Alfredo later in the week. We use the carcass to make a gallon of chicken stock.

We went to two grocery stores and Costco for the coffee and cheese.

Our grand total? Still a depressing $91. Sigh. I feel like I’m failing miserably at bringing our grocery bill down to $60 a week.

I know it’s time to make some drastic changes, but I’m just unsure of what my next step should be. Unfortunately, grocery store coupons don’t help us much because the only processed foods we buy are cereals (I do use coupons for that when I have them) and pasta. The rest is produce and fresh meat.

I know that cooking without meat is a big money saver, but we don’t have many vegetarian meals in our repertoire, and the ones we do have require expensive produce like grape tomatoes. Next week we’ll try to come up with some menus that don’t require us to purchase additional meat. We have some chicken breasts on hand in the freezer, but we usually buy some kind of meat each week. I think cutting out the extra meat will help, but I’m just afraid that our meal plans will begin to lack variety.

Anybody have any delicious vegetarian meal ideas to share?!

We can’t afford exclusively organic produce after all

Earlier this week I wrote about how we were considering buying a share in a co-op. This morning we woke up bright and early to do some research. OK, so it was actually more like 8:30, but that’s early for us on a Saturday.

First, we headed to the local farmers market. This wasn’t our first time there, but this is the first time I paid close attention to the prices for produce. I was pleasantly surprised … on some of the items.

The prices were pretty close to what we pay at the grocery store. Some of the specialty items, like jalapeno peppers, were a little more expensive (they average $1.99/pound at the grocery store, and we saw them for $2.99 at the farmers market), but for the most part the farmers market prices were the same or only slightly higher per pound than the grocery store.

We had a lovely time. The farmers market in Wilmington is set up right on the Cape Fear Riverwalk. Dogs are even welcome, which is a definite plus for us. While it was fun today, I still don’t think the farmers market is practical for us as a weekly alternative to the grocery store.

Both of our primary grocery stores are within a mile from our apartment. The farmers market is a bit of a drive to the other side of town, which means additional fuel consumption.

Not only that, but I don’t want to be limited to shopping between 8:30 and noon on Saturday mornings. It’s crowded and hectic and a little too much of an ordeal for weekly shopping. We enjoy going there occasionally and will definitely buy produce when we go, but some weeks I just don’t want grocery shopping to be a big production, you know?

I forgot my camera today, but here’s a picture of the Riverwalk. It’s pretty, but not really practical for weekly shopping trips, especially when it’s packed with people and produce stands.

Although the prices seemed similar at the farmers market, I was basing my comparison on the average prices per item at the grocery store. We can’t expect to see deeply discounted sales at the farmers market like we do at the grocery store each week. We plan our shopping lists around the sales, so overall I do think we’d pay more.

Next we headed over to the co-op to get some questions answered. I expected the co-op prices to be higher, but I wasn’t expecting them to be twice as much across the board. I got some information about ownership, and I wasn’t impressed by the list of discounted items. It’s a static list that they only update once every six months. Members receive a discount on about five items for each department. The only produce on the list was carrots, onions, apples, bananas, and pears. Even with the discount, they were still more expensive than grocery store prices.

The member appreciation days when they offer a 10% discount are only held twice a year, and the patronage refund is only issued if the co-op has a particularly profitable year. In this economy, my guess is that our chances at a patronage refund are slim to none.

It was a lovely store, and we might go back occasionally to treat ourselves to specialty items that we can’t find in the grocery store, but buying produce there just isn’t realistic for us at this point. I’m pretty disappointed because I was excited at the prospect of buying organic produce, but at this point in time an exclusively organic grocery list is a luxury we can’t afford.

We’ve got to focus on saving and paying down our debt. If we can get our finances in order now, then someday we’ll have more money to commit to the causes that we care about.

We’ve decided to make a compromise. We’ll continue to do our part for the environment in ways that won’t double our produce costs: driving as little as possible, recycling, reducing our plastic bag consumption, and buying organic produce at the grocery store when the price is right. Someday I hope we’ll be in the financial position to go completely green, but it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer.

The best methods for freezing foods

One of the tactics we’ve been using to reduce our food budget is buying certain items in bulk, which is often cheaper per pound than smaller portions. But what’s the best way to freeze the excess so it won’t go bad before you eat it?

Good Eats, one of my favorite Food Network shows, covered the topic of freezing last night. Full of scientific facts about what happens to foods when you freeze them, the show gave some helpful hints for the best ways to freeze meats, vegetables, and fruits to ensure they’ll taste as good when you thaw them as they did fresh.

According to the host, Alton Brown, commercially frozen food is flash frozen. This is the best way because when food is frozen slowly, like it is in the freezer in your kitchen, big jagged ice crystals form inside the food. These jagged ice crystals perforate the cell walls and damage the food as it thaws. With meat, the perforated cell walls cause the flavor-filled juices to drip out as it thaws. For delicate fruits and vegetables, the result it a mushy gross mess.

Freezing food as quickly as possible to as low a temperature as possible leads to smaller ice crystals, less damage to the cell walls of the food when it thaws, and better flavor.

Obviously most of us don’t have access to commercial flash freezing equipment. However, one logical way to freeze your foods more quickly at home is to freeze in smaller portions.

Meats

For instance, if you buy a large cut of beef, butcher it and cut it into small, equally sized portions before freezing it. The smaller the portion, the less time it takes to freeze, and the better the food will taste when you thaw it. Once you’ve cut the food into smaller pieces, refrigerate it for an hour to chill it down before freezing.

If you buy a whole chicken or turkey, the best way to freeze it is to first cut it into smaller pieces. If I planned to roast it whole, I would probably just freeze it whole anyway, even if it’s not the best way. Sometimes simplicity is more important. But you get the point.

Vegetables

Vegetables are a little more complicated. Have you ever frozen a vegetable and discovered that it was a brown mushy mess after it thawed? According to Alton Brown, this is because the water is the only part of the vegetable that actually freezes. Everything else turns into a syrupy super-concentrated goo that never completely freezes. Chemical enzymes that aren’t affected by cold spring into action and begin decomposing the food while the large ice crystals from slow freezing break down the cell walls. The result is a brown, mushy mess.

To prevent this, Alton suggests blanching your vegetables, like peas, in boiling water for one minute and immediately shocking them in an ice bath for another minute to neutralize the enzymes. Dry them thoroughly, then lay them out in a single layer on a sheet pan and and refrigerate them for an hour before transferring the sheet pan to the freezer.

Freezing them on a flat surface allows each pea to freeze individually and much faster than if you lump them all into a mass. Once they’re completely frozen, you can store them in a Ziploc bag or Tupperware. (This method also works for blueberries, just don’t boil them first.)

Fruits

These enzymes are also responsible for the gooey mess that results from slow-freezing fruits. However, fruits are too delicate for the boiling method.

For fruits, like peaches, Alton suggests grinding vitamin C tablets with paprika and sugar, cutting the fruit into smaller pieces, then coating them in the powder. Put the powder-covered fruit into a Ziploc bag, remove as much air as possible, and freeze it flat. The vitamin C effectively neutralizes the enzymes and prevents the gooey mess without compromising the flavor of the fruit.

The episode also offers a ton on helpful advice on freezer organization and tips for proper storage of frozen foods. If you want to catch a rerun, it will air on The Food Network Saturday, August 16 at 10 p.m.

What freezing methods work for you?

Will joining a grocery co-op bust my food budget?

I love the idea of a grocery store co-op. Cooperatively owned by community members, these stores sell local produce that is organic and free of pesticides. Not only does shopping there support local growers, but it reduces your carbon footprint by reducing the emissions created by the huge semis that transport produce to grocery stores from distant locations.

I used to shop at the local co-op occasionally when I was in college, but I never became a member. The produce was fresher, tastier, and better quality overall. But it was quite a bit more expensive.

While they do sell packaged organic and specialty foods, those items are way overpriced, so we only plan to shop at the co-op for produce. But we’re trying to reduce our grocery costs, and even with the discounts, I’m afraid that we’ll pay a lot more for our produce.

I think this is a really important cause, healthy produce is important to me, and I understand that local farmers can’t compete with the prices of larger distributors. So I’m willing to pay a slightly higher price for the quality and the cause, but we can’t afford to completely bust our food budget to shop there.

The membership dues are $30 a year. That fee entitles us to the member discounts, including select items at 25% off every day. They also send additional discount coupons in the monthly newletter and periodically offer member appreciation days for a 10% discount.

We’d also have the opportunity to volunteer a few hours per month to receive additional 12% discount days, and we’d receive an annual patronage refund dependent upon how much we spend. I can’t find any hard numbers on the co-op’s website or through my research on what kind of refund we could expect, so I’m assuming it’s not much.

We’ve decided to go there this weekend, check out the prices, and ask some questions about the discounts and the patronage refund. This is something we’d like to do, but not if it’s going to drastically increase our grocery bill.

We’ve shopped at the local farmer’s market before, and I’ve considered that as an alternative. I like the produce, and I think the experience is fun overall, but I don’t think it’s practical for us on a weekly basis. It’s kind of far out of our way, so I feel like our additional fuel consumption is offsetting some of the benefits of shopping there. It also forces us to get up and dressed on Saturday mornings earlier than we’d like, and the vendors there only take cash (which I find inconvenient because I generally don’t carry cash).

In addition to the costs, I’m also concerned that we might be joining a little late in the season. We live in a warm climate with a long growing season, so we can probably expect to see local summer fruits and vegetables at the co-op for at least another month or two. But what about the fall and winter? I would hate to pay our dues now and then have to wait through the fall and winter to start buying produce there.

Do any of you shop at a co-op or belong to one? What are your thoughts?

Luxury on Less Tip: Porterhouse steaks for two

When we see Porterhouse steaks on sale for under $10, we usually buy at least two and freeze them.

One Porterhouse steak easily feeds two people. We cut the NY strip steak away from the filet mignon and cook them separately. I usually eat the filet, and my husband eats the larger strip steak.

They make wonderful, elegant at-home meals for date nights at a fraction of the cost of eating out at an expensive steakhouse. And they’re just as delicious.

Today we bought two Porterhouse steaks for $5.60 a pound. Both filets and New York strip steaks typically cost at least $12 to $15 each at a steakhouse … sometimes a lot more depending on how fancy the place is. At $5.60 a pound, we’re getting two steaks for under $3 each! You can’t beat that price, and it’s such a nice treat to have a fancy steakhouse meal at home.

Saturday Grocery Round Up

Another week of shopping the sales at two different grocery stores, and the results are still inconclusive. We spent $88 this week, which is about what we’ve spent per week in the past at just one store. Yikes.

However, we did stock up on some meat (a pork tenderloin at $2.84/pound that will serve as three meals and two Porterhouse steaks at an amazing $5.60/pound that will serve as two separate meals). In the past, we’ve spent closer to $100 on weeks when we purchased meat, so this could be a slight improvement.

I’m disappointed that we’re not doing better, but I’ve decided to put in more effort to find manufacturer’s coupons. This is a learning process, and I’m trying not to beat myself up too much this early in the game.

I did discover another great use for the price book today, though. When I ordered 3/4 a pound of turkey at the deli today, the guy told me about a crazy deal. When you buy 1 pound of turkey, you get a half-pound of deli American cheese, a bag of tortilla chips, 4 deli-style sub rolls, and a 2-liter bottle of soda.

So you’re telling me if I add an extra quarter-pound of turkey to my order, all of that is free? OK, I’m sold.

Since I wouldn’t have bought any of that stuff if it wasn’t free, I asked the cashier to double check the receipt before I paid to make sure it came off. He assured me that it did. But when I got home and started adding entries to my price book, I realized that the cheese had not been discounted. It was only $3.25, but that’s not the point. I only took it because I was told it would be free with the turkey, so I wasn’t about to pay for it.

When I went back to the store, they were happy to give me a refund … but not without telling me that it “wasn’t really their fault.” The deal was for yellow American cheese and the nice guy at the deli had sliced white American for me. The fact remains that I didn’t order either. He was kind enough to inform me of the deal, and he gave me what he believed was free. Just because he was mistaken doesn’t mean I should have to pay for it. Whatever, I’m happy to grin and bear their excuses as long as I get my refund. :)

Before I started studying my receipts for my price book, I might not have looked that intently and probably would have missed something like that. Just one more reason I’m glad I started a price book!

Living Well on Less

Simply Frugal. Simply Healthy. Simply Happy.