Rut-terless Meals While Trying to Drop a Few Pounds

The portion I should have stopped at.

Let's face it. Dieting healthy eating, can be tedious. I struggle with meal planning in general, but add that a) my go to meals have historically been carb and fat laden comfort foods, and b) I don't want to make separate meals for myself and the other members of my family, and I can easily get in a low cal rut. I've partially combatted this by starting my meal first with the bulk of the meal being steamed vegetables, and filling in the sides with the main meal. But that has me feeling unfulfilled. 

I've been scoping my recipe's and trying to reinvent them as healthier options. Last night's option was my mom's Rice Hotdish. This is a simple dish of just rice, water, soy sauce, hamburger, and onion baked in the oven. I decreased the soy by 1/2 to just 1/4 cup, added ginger and garlic, used a whole large, onion, four carrots, three stocks of celery, and only 1/2 pound of hamburger. I had a zucchini lurking in the crisper so that went in as well. With this, I've cut the sodium, cut the fat, and upped the vegetables. It has sort of a stir fry taste. I ate too much though and the scale showed it this morning-comfort food after a tedious, but stressful day. I might have been the extra snack last night of hummus on bread with cheese, again, when not hungry. I guess that's the point of daily weigh ins.

My go to lunch last week was a big batch of black bean, corn,and tomato salad. I had bell peppers and onion left from the pizza so those went in as well. It made a big batch, and by Friday, I was at my last bowlful. To help with the boredom, I ate it slightly different each of the four days, adding the last of a jar of green olives one day, broken multi grain chips (left in the bottom of the bag) another, and served with a side of cottage cheese on the other two days. I'll take a break but will revisit it in another week as I have all the ingredients on hand.. 

I love steamed vegetables, but even something I enjoy gets dull. I've tried to perk them up with using different herbs and spices. Oregano, basil an parsley  elevated the simple California blend a couple times last week. A little ginger with some steamed carrots I did to go with the rice hot dish boosted the flavor a touch. 

I've been having a bit of peanut butter with banana slices or a clementine with a eight almonds (a mere 50 calories) for an afternoon snack. The nuttiness, even though I'm using a small amount of PB, helps my snack feel more substantial. Friday on a work break, I sliced an apple with an ounce of sharp cheddar cheese-just about an ounce. 

Historically, my weight loss down fall is over eating and eating too much of the wrong kinds of food. While I am feeling more successful, hitting the three week mark, I am worried about my boredom level and getting in a rut, that then gets me mindless eating.(second portions when I'm not even still hungry.) If you have hints that work well for you, please share. If there are any good healthy food bloggers, real people with crazy busy lives, please recommend them in the comments.

Culinary Wish List

Good and happy Friday to you all. The end of the week could not come soon enough, though a lot is on our plates this weekend. Thanks so much for the kind messages-we all have these kind of weeks, and the empathy is appreciated. We're juggling two sets of wakes and funerals, DD2 battling a stomach and respiratory bug, my wonky knee, and all three of us with head colds. We've also had three days of bitter cold. Though, we are not getting buried in snow like other parts of the country. Last week was supposed to be my Friday off, but I swapped for this week, but I still have some work to complete, and I left my phone at the office (I hope). I need to be in contact this weekend as I'll be out of town for show choir, and DH will be in town, leaving for one of the services, and then going back. I will be showering in a bit, and making the trek after rush hour to get my phone, and turn around and come home again. I'm trying to think of any errands I need done in St Paul on route so it is not a completely wasted trip, but can't think of any. I might shoot a message to my friend who works from home to see if she might want a coffee break. I haven't seen her since the Thursday after Christmas, and that would make the trip worth it.

Long digression to get to my real post. I had arranged to brown bag lunch with a colleague when I got back from a morning meeting. We rarely enjoy the company of lunch with another person, and I was looking forward to a little fellowship.She called while I was on route as everyone decided to order Thai food, and did I want in on it? Yes, please! There ended up being eight of us, with more food than humanly could be eaten. I brought half of mine home, and DD2 had a big portion as she was perking up, proclaiming it the best. I'm eating the last for breakfast. I had Pad Thai, and it was so good. Thai food is on the list of food I've never tried making, but now will be on my wish list to try. It wasn't super expensive, considering the amount of food, but at $11 for basically, chicken, noodles, a few vegetables and peanuts, I have to figure this out for home. I will add though, the 30 minutes of sitting, relaxing, and laughing with my colleagues was worth every penny.

Looking to broaden our evening and weekend meals, I can think of other well like foods, that I've never tried or mastered. Pasty's, the little  meat and vegetable filled pastries, would be just the thing to pull out of the freezer, if made ahead, on our crazy nights. Or we could be enjoying variations like a calzones, and fill with pizza ingredients, or what a former Somali coworker would make, sambusa's, filled with spinach and lentils. I'm lumping these together, I know, but I've never tied any sort of filled pastry, main dish or desert. I'll do the roll up kind, but not ones that could be made ahead. Pot Pies! I've never made a real pot pie at home, despite my family liking even the Banquet frozen varieties. UK food bloggers will write about Shepherds Pie, or Shepherdess Pie, something I think my family would enjoy, but I've not tackled.

There's food in our basic diet, that I still buy the store variety, though I know most of the world makes it from scratch. I bought DD1 a hummus cook book for Christmas, but haven't made it myself. es hummus can be low cost enough, but for basically smashed chick peas and seasoning, I must be paying 3-4 times more than the ingredients cost.Going another step, I've not made falafel at home either, but keep telling myself I will.

Keeping in mind that making curry was a new venture for me before a year ago, what else do you think I should be a staple in our meal rotation? Who has resolved their culinary curiosity and made something new to them lately? Does anyone have an fool proof methods or recipes for any of the foods I mentioned above?

Use It Up Soup and Pizza Sunday

 Yes, I know it is now Tuesday morning. I meant to write about my little kitchen successes from Sunday, sure to save me a little money and hassle tonight and tomorrow, but forgot yesterday morning in my fund raiser exuberance. Tuesday and Wednesday are my most stressful days.Tuesday always, just because! No fresh new week, most of the work week still to come, and Wednesday's are just crammed full. Still tired from the fun parts of the weekend. I knew I had to tackle the refrigerator before many things went bad. Try as I might, I still have not conquered food waste, but it is a work in progress. 

First was to take care of four small chicken breasts, cooked Thursday but not put back in the freezer in smaller portions. Two went into a medium batch of wild rice soup, also using two of my starting to look sad carrots. That worked for lunch, plus soup leftovers for DD2 before or after violin today. The other two were also cut up, but placed in the freezer ready to go in a hot dish or alfredo sauce for Thursday.

The rest of the carrots, plus a soft onion went in the crock pot with 8 cups of water, 6 stock cubes, and a heaping teaspoon of pepper. Later I diced a couple potatoes to throw in. I had a bag of fresh broccoli florets that got shoved to the back of the refrigerator.  I steamed them, then through those in too. Later, when the vegetables were soft, I whizzed it all with the hand mixer to thicken it up, still keeping loads of broccoli chunks, added  four ounces of shredded cheddar, and voila, cheddar broccoli soup for Wednesday night supper. I think I'll make some drop biscuits to go with them. 

After working at the meat raffle, I still needed something for supper. We didn't eat the second soup as we had the wild rice for lunch. DD had made herself pasta and jarred sauce on Saturday, leaving 1/2 a jar. I had small size packet of pepperoni in the pantry, another small soft onion, some wilting spinach, and made my own flat bread no rise pizza crust. It was delicious, and stuffed the three of us full. 

I had to send DH to the store earlier for cheese for soup and pizza, but Cobornes had Kraft packages for $1.98, with a buy 6, get $3.00 off. Mot too shabby. I'm cheese stocked again. He also grabbed six Roma pizza's for $10, perfect as no school Wednesday-Friday this week and we are bound to have an extra kid or two around. Other deals included 3 for $5.00 post cereal, a loaf of bread, two packages of deli meet, and buy one get one instant oatmeal packets, spending around $33.00 for fill in groceries. 

I salvaged/used up:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 soft onions
• 5 soft carrots
• 1 about to go bad broccoli
• wilted spinach
• 1/2 jar of pasta sauce 
• and DH ate the last pork chop (that maybe should have been thrown-fingers crossed no illness) for lunch Monday

I'm getting four meals from these ingredients, plus leftovers. Granted, I threw a few things, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been in the garbage.  I am ahead of the game for a few meals as well now. We just had quick sandwiches on Monday as DD had a concert and I had a couple more appointments later afternoon. What success have you had recently in the kitchen? Who's tamed the food waste beast?

(Sorry for no pictures-I had them posted, but then was getting a linking error so just deleted them.)

Packing the Protein

Despite my daughter's claim that there is no food in the house, we actually still have an ample store of food-real food that needs to be prepped, then cooked, before noshing. Where my impromptu meals, drinks, and happy hour appetizers budget for April was blown, I am doing really well in the grocery department. I had wanted to stay under $550 for groceries and household, I believe I am commendably under, with room to do better. I did not do well keeping receipts and tallying exactly, partially because DH is notorious for shopping "deals" without a concept of a budget, or a concept of meals needing to be prepared from said grocery items, and food just sort of shows up. In spite of that, I did a quick scout of where purchases were made, and think I might be sitting between $450-$500 with just four more days in the month.  This includes an expensive purchase of a new SD card and jump stick for DD#2 for school. The jump sticks had two, so that will save another purchase later-if I remember where I put it when the time comes.

I did an inventory and am trying to build meals around what we have. I've also been trying to research and extend my repertoire of meals with plant based proteins. My sister drew DD#2's name for Christmas. Helping to support her vegetarian diet on a budget, she gave my daughter a crock pot and a recipe for international crock pot vegetarian recipes. Most are bean based of some sort and those that are not bean based are lentil based. There is a healthy dose of root vegetables in the recipes as well, helping to add a heartiness to the dishes. I've read her cookbook before she moved and have been scouting online sites. In my early stages of research, I've determined I'll follow recipes loosely-more use them as guides than disciplined amounts and methods. I've generalized a few comparison that I think will help me continue to expand using plant based proteins in place of meat. 

Chickpeas/garbanzo beans-use in place of chicken or turkey
Red or black beans-use in place of beef or pork
Navy or white beans-use in place of pork
Spices-use generously!

I've never cooked with lentils, so will need to do more research on preparing. I've heavily relied on canned versions, but want to use more raw dry beans to both boost the overall grocery savings and reduce the additives. As we are slowly but surely heading into warm weather which means cook outs and salads and food that is easy to pack up in coolers and either cook or reheat in a crock pot, I need to think about dishes that can be made ahead. I also have a family of meat hungry men, steeped in midwestern scandinavian (bland or barbecue sauce laden) pallets. Critics to be won over! Ideas are welcome. 

I'm not attempting to go vegan or even vegetarian, so for now, there will still be plenty of eggs and dairy in my cooking, and meat, but more sparingly. Watch my progress in future posts and I'll archive those that are a success in the Sam in the Kitchen tab. 

Pantry Cooking for a Cause

While hunger is a year long problem in communities, messages at Christmas time combined with increased charitable drives sheds more light on the needs of families and individuals.  For families already on the margin, add extra days home from Thanksgiving for school kids and potentially two weeks off from school in December, families not able to utilize the school lunch program will be making some meal stretching decisions. With another mouth to feed in the house in December (two more for a week), I can see that our groceries will rise pretty rapidly. 

DD#2 is a vegetarian, but she has also become a pretty creative, while being thrifty cook, blending cheap pantry staples, with a few fresh ingredients. She made a couple meals for us this week, that I feel no doubt could have been served in a hipster cafe, but for pennies on the dollar.  While the rest of us like a little meat, we can easily fill our tummies with her meals. With her home, we also have an extra cook in the house, so lessons the need, or want, for takeout or restaurant meals on the fly. I have this idea of tracking a few of her meals, and looking up comparable restaurant meals. After calculating out the difference, I want to add up the difference between the restaurant priced meals and our pantry staple home cooked meals, and add that difference to our end of year regular donation to the local family service and food shelf organization.  

I have some ideas to get into the act as well, drawing heavily upon recipes from a few recognized chefs such as Jack Monroe and assorted other talented folks, and of course will credit and link when anything is borrowed or referenced. Recommendations are greatly appreciated. I'll add recipes from myself or daughter as I can get them pulled together on the recipe page. I'll start with two this week, because one, we didn't succumb to the mid week mindset that we are too busy to cook, let's pick up take out instead, and two) we originally thought we were going to go out last night, but changed our minds when we looked at the abundance of activities ahead of us for the month.

DD's Tomato and Zucchini Risotto fed the four of us to stuffed, with a healthy leftover portion for a lunch the next day. She learned this recipe from her new found Italian brother M when they were all poor students in London.  They did not have the money for cafe or pub meals, but would pool their collective cooking resources together to make international family meals.  She has been wanting to make this for a while, but it make so much, and is best served fresh, she waited for a cold winter night with all of us home  Here is my estimate of what it cost:

 Rice $ .50

Tomato Sauce  $ .89

Canned Tomato $ .59

Two zucchini  $ .89

Medium yellow onion  $ .15

$3.03 not counting assorted garlic powder, olive oil, and Italian seasonings.  Let's put a  50 cent allowance for those, and call it $3.53 for four people (not counting leftovers), $ .86 plate. 

August Special at D'Amico and Sons was a tomato and garlic Risotto at $12,99, with bread.  I'll deduct $1, generously for the bread, and call it an even $12, for DD's coming in at a savings of $11.14. or $44.56 for the family.

My Spinach, Cheddar, and Mushroom Souffle, served with roasted Italian potatoes, and a pantry shelf box of Uncle Ben's broccoli cheddar, and our own bottle of Red Wine, made a very gourmet and chi chi Friday night meal.  

8 Eggs  $1.50

1/3 bag spinach  $ .60

Can Aldi's Cr of Mushroom $ .49

4 ounces shredded cheddar (what was left in a 1 # bag) $ .82

8 ounce sour cream  $ .50

5 small russet potatoes $ .50

Rice  $ .89

Wine from wine club, so just putting 1/3 our monthly membership fee (high estimate because we have tastings every month, with appetizers, plus other special events.) $17

Grand Total for four (no wine for DD#2-just so that is on record)  Meal only $5.30, meal per person $1.43, wine for two (DH passed) $8.50

As I couldn't find anything specifically comparable, which makes this more of a home run meal because it isn't same old, I'll use a modest Omelet plate as comparison.  I found low cost from $8,99 to up to $12.99, which included sides of potato and toast, so comparable sides. A low range bottle of red was at least $22.00 a bottle.  My savings, using $10.99, mid range for omelet comparison, was $9.56 per person, $38.24 for family plus $5.00 for wine, so $43.24.

While financially, I might not be able to do every meal, the entire family, as a donation, this will give me a nudge to forgo an extra meal out of the house, in exchange for giving more to people who need the basics so much more than I need a restaraunt meal. How about you?  I'm reading a lot of creative ways people are stretching their own means in efforts to be more generous to others, from donating the second buy one get one, to pledging donations for every pound lost between now and New Years. If you are on the receiving end, here's hoping your opportunities expand, and you feel the love and support of your community, friends, and families.  We are all in this thing called life together. 

Speaking of clever and creative shoppers, pop over to Sluggy's Site for her December Gift Box give away.  Read farther back in posts and you will see how she has mastered not just shopping for her family, but has been able to be generous to the needs of her community.  Hat's off to  you Sluggy!