Real Men Do Eat Quiche! and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Aldi has grape tomatoes for 99 cents a pint and cauliflower for $1.29 a head. Don’t know how big the heads are. Red and green grapes are $1.78 for two pounds, or 89 cents a pound. 85% lean beef burgers are $8.99 for three pounds, or $3.00 a pound.

Marsh has ground chuck for $2.99 a pound in the family pack and bacon for $2.99 a pound. There’s a limit of two pounds of bacon, which isn’t surprising since that’s a great price.

Kroger has eggs for $1.25 a dozen (four dozen for $5.00). Cheese is three packages for $10.00, or $3.33 per package. The packages range from twelve to sixteen ounces. That’s $4.44 a pound for the twelve ounce packages or $3.33 for the sixteen ounce. It’s an ok price for the twelve ounce and a good price for the sixteen ounce. Broccoli crowns, Bartlett pears, romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, and tomatoes on the vine are all 99 cents a pound.

I wasn’t really checking prices at the Farmers Market on Saturday, but here are a few of the prices that I noticed. Some vendors had tomatoes for $1.00 a pound, and they went up from there. Zucchini were 75 cents each (I got a great big one at that price). Seedless cukes were 40 cents each. Eggplant was $1.00 each. Huge heads of cabbage were $3.00 each.

Don’t forget that you can exchange your food stamps for Market Bucks, which basically means you can buy produce, dairy, eggs and meat for half price.

Bacon and eggs are both on sale this week. Let’s work with that.

The problem with bacon is that it cooks down so much. It never really seems like a protein source; it’s not satisfying like meat usually is. It’s more of a flavoring. It does have a lot of flavor, though. You can take advantage of that by using all of the bacon. Save the bacon grease and use it later to fry or scramble eggs, use it to cook the onion and pepper for a Denver omelet, or use it pretty much any time you need oil to cook something. It adds a great flavor.

BLTs are great summertime food, when the tomatoes are garden fresh. When you don’t eat bread, you make BLTS’s instead. That’s Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Salads. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Just bacon, lettuce and tomato with a mayo dressing. And very good. A pound of bacon, a head of lettuce, a pound and a half of tomatoes, and a cup of mayo will run $6.03. You shouldn’t need anywhere near a cup of mayo, though, so it should stay under $6.00 for four big main dish salads. You can get other salad dressings for about the same price.

I like breakfast food any time of the day. Not cold cereal, but real food. Omelets or quiche or scrambled eggs. Things like that. I make a lot of quiche because it’s good, it’s easy, and it’s cheap. Well, the basic quiche is, though it can get pricey depending on what you put in it. My BASIC QUICHE recipe calls for six eggs, half a pound of cheese, and two cups of cream or milk. Using half and half, it comes to $3.35 and makes anywhere from four to eight servings. Let’s call it four. You could stop with this basic quiche (a blob of mustard is good in it and practically free) or you can start adding extras. A pound of broccoli would bring it to $4.35, leaving plenty of room for a lettuce and tomato salad while staying under $6.00. Or make six servings at 75 cents per serving ($2.90 for four servings) and add some grapes, too.

One of my favorite main dish salads is a big CABBAGE SALAD. I’ve talked about them before, and probably every time I do I give a different recipe. That’s because it’s so versatile. The base is cabbage and onion in a mayo dressing, but then I add eggs and/or cheese and/or meat of some kind (bacon, smoked sausage, ham, etc.) and/or sunflower seeds. Half of one of the huge heads of Farmers Market cabbage is plenty for four big servings. Add a third of a pound of bacon, half a pound of cheese, and six hard-boiled eggs and you’ve got a wonderful supper for four for under six dollars. Worried about all the cholesterol in that salad? One of the great things about eating low carb like I do is that you don’t have to worry about cholesterol. (There’s a lot of research that says that cholesterol is not an issue for most people who eat a low carb diet. If you are concerned about it, you should of course talk to your own health care provider.)

For more recipes using eggs in a starring role, check out the after Easter blog post and the EGGS category under the Cook tab.

Eggs keep in the fridge for a long time. I’ve kept them up to three months and they were still fine. Use your own judgment, but remember that the date stamped doesn’t mean that you need to use them by that date or toss them.

Eat well!

Mary Anne

Add Some Spice with Chorizo--weekly specials with Mary Anne

Aldi has strawberries for 99 cents a pound! Also seedless watermelons for $3.89 each. Iceberg lettuce is 69 cents a head. Tomatoes on the vine are 99 cents for a 24-ounce box, or 67 cents a pound. Frozen broccoli cuts are 89 cents for a 1-pound bag. They have a good deal on meat, too, this week, for a change. A 5-pound chub of regular (73% lean) ground beef is $10.99, or $2.20 a pound. These prices are good through Wednesday, May 24.

IGA has fryer wings for $1.39 a pound. Pork chorizo and beef chorizo are both 99 cents for a 10-ounce chub. That’s Mexican chorizo, which is raw, not Spanish or Portuguese chorizo, which is a hard sausage like salami or pepperoni. Smoked sausage and Polish sausage are both 99 cents for a 9-ounce package, or $1.76 a pound. Roma tomatoes are 99 cents a pound. Three 8-ounce packs of shredded cheese are $5.00, or $1.67 each. Six ears of corn on the cob are $2.00, or 33 cents an ear. Barbeque sauce is 99 cents for 18 ounces. Spicy mustard is 99 cents for 12 ounces.

Chorizo, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese. If that doesn’t just scream TACO SALAD I don’t know what does! The problem with chorizo, though – not that I’ve tried this particular brand, but other brands – is that it really cooks down a lot. All the recipes I’ve seen for making chorizo call for adding water to the meat and spices, and that may be what cooks out. At any rate, I find that you don’t end up with as much as you thought you would. Be sure to save the drippings and use them for cooking eggs. This is going to be just about the easiest taco salad ever. Just cook the meat and assemble your salad. No need to even season the meat, since you’re using chorizo.

The whole batch costs just under $5.75, or $1.45 per person if you make it into four servings. Let’s call it $1.50 for four servings, $1.00 for six. Or you could cut the cheese back to a cup (a fourth of a cup per person) and the sour cream back to half a cup (two tablespoons per person) and leave it at four servings for just under $5.00 and add a pound of strawberries for dessert. Me, I’d rather have more cheese and sour cream, but suit yourself. If you cut the corn from a couple of ears and added them to the salads, they’d definitely serve six, and you could leave the cheese and sour cream and still have strawberries for dessert.

I’m sure anyone who knows anything about Mexican food (or anyone from Mexico or the Southwest) would disagree, but it seems to me that chorizo turns up most often in CHORIZO AND EGGS. In fact, I just did a google search and came up with about 1,760,000 hits! This is how I make it.

Assuming $1.69 a dozen for eggs (have you noticed how the price keeps jumping around?) and using whipping cream (though you could use half and half or even milk), this will cost about $2.95. You could stop here and have this for breakfast, but it’s probably not enough for supper.

Let’s start with the $2.95 for the Chorizo and Eggs, and add a salad/dessert of half a pineapple and half a pound of strawberries. The fruit comes to another $1.25, for a total so far of $4.20. At this point it would be a good brunch.

There are lots of things you can do to make it a supper meal. You could add a salad of lettuce and tomatoes and dressing. You could top the eggs with some chopped tomatoes. Or salsa, though it’s a shame to use jarred salsa when the tomatoes are so cheap. You could make your own salsa. You could add some shredded cheese. You could make breakfast burritos if you wanted to include tortillas, though technically they’re bread so I can’t include them in my menus. At less than 60 cents for a generous serving of meat and eggs, there are lots of things you could add and still keep it under $1.50 per person.

Taco salad and chorizo with eggs are pretty much no brainers. You might not have thought of them immediately, but it probably didn’t take much to make you think of them on your own.  NEW WORLD PUMPKIN AND CHORIZO SOUP is a bit different, and it may not be something you’re familiar with.

I come up with a total cost of about $3.30 for this, but that’s estimating the cost of the cilantro. Aldi had packages of it when I was there yesterday, but I didn’t bother to check the price. Two ounces of cilantro is equal to one and a half cups, and the packages were three ounces, so that should be about two and a quarter cups. Let’s call it two cups, and we only need half a cup, or about a fourth of a package. I doubt that the packages cost more than $2.00, so 50 cents should be plenty. This makes about six cups if you use all of the broth, or four servings at 85 cents each. It’s a filling soup, but you’ll need something to go with it.

How about a tomato and cucumber salad to go with it? The soup and salad comes to $5.15, which leaves 85 cents, which is enough for half a pineapple. Or, instead of the tomato and cucumber salad, you could have a salad of lettuce, tomato, and fresh corn. You could add a few other veggies, too, if you wanted, but you wouldn’t be able to have the fruit.

Menus for a Week on a Budget, and Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

April 25, 2014

The sales aren’t great this week. IGA has ground chuck, in three pound or bigger packages, for $2.99 a pound. Honeysuckle fresh ground turkey, 93% lean, is also $2.99 a pound. Shredded cheese is $5.00 for three 8-ounce packages, or $1.67 each. Cauliflower and bunched broccoli are both $1.99 each. How good a price this is depends on how big they are. Prices are good through Sunday, April 27.

Aldi’s ad is unusual this week in that the only food shown is vegetables and one kind of meat. The rest is mostly yard and garden related stuff. Grape tomatoes are 99 cents for 10 ounces. Baby carrots are 79 cents a pound. Mushrooms are 89 cents for 8 ounces. Multi-colored peppers are two for $1.29. Cucumbers are 99 cents for a three pack. Prices are good through next Tuesday, April 29.

Marsh has sweet corn, ten ears for $3.00, or 30 cents an ear. Ground chuck in the family pack is $2.99 a pound. Chicken leg quarters in the family pack are 79 cents a pound. Johnsonville cooked brats or sausage is two 14-16 ounce packs for $6.00, or $3.00 each. Prices are good through next Wednesday, April 30.

Kroger has boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.99 a pound. Fresh green beans are 99 cents a pound. Eggplant is 99 cents each. Breakfast sausage is $2.79 a pound. Assorted cheeses are $3.79 for 12-16 ounce packages. A good price for 16 ounce packages, not so good for 12 ounce. Pints of cottage cheese are three for $4.00, or $1.33 each. Prices are good through next Wednesday, April 30.

It’s not a great bunch of sales this week, is it? Some OK prices on meat, but nothing fantastic. The vegetables at Aldi are the best of the bunch. Doesn’t really leave much room for budget cooking. However, that’s what we have to deal with so, so I guess there’s no point in complaining. Even though it does feel good to do so, sometimes.

I was trying to decide what meat to feature today, and nothing jumped out and said, “Use me! Use me!” I just talked about pork chops a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve talked about chicken a lot, and that’s as close as it comes to good specials this week. So I decided to do something different. I’ve been giving recipes and menus for about three individual meals per week, but there are 21 meals in a week. As I’m sure you know, especially if you’re trying to feed a family.

I decided that this week I’d give a whole week’s worth of menus, trying to keep it within the average food stamp benefit received in Indiana. I’m not sure exactly what that is, but the benefit actually received in Indiana was $132.46 per person per month in 2012 (according to the feds) and it was reduced by about 5.5% last year, so that would take it down to about $125.17, or about $4.17 per day, or about $29.21 per week. Since I’m going to do menus for a week and I’ve been assuming a family of four, that would be about $116.83. That’s as close as I can figure to the average weekly food stamp benefit actually received by a family of four after the cut last year. Anyway, that’s what I’m using as my goal.

So, here’s the deal. I would try to come up with a week’s worth of menus for a family of four, using this week’s ads and current prices for everything not on sale, and keep it below $116.83. And I would stick with my goal of eating just meat, eggs, vegetables, and dairy. No fillers like bread or rice or pasta or noodles or potatoes or beans or things like that. I had no idea when I started whether I’d be able to do it. No, that’s not really true. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to do it, given the dismal state of the weekly ads. At least, not without a lot of tinkering and cutting.

I was very pleasantly surprised. It actually came together very easily, which it doesn’t always do, even when there are great deals. I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to rely on food stamps, but I have done the Food Stamp Challenge several times, sometimes for real and sometimes on paper. Which is not, of course, the same thing as eating on a food stamp budget because you have to. Even on paper is seldom comes together this easily.

How did I come out? I’ll give you my menus and shopping list in a minute, but I’ll give the basics first. It came out to $105.90, or an average of $3.78 per person per day. That’s what I would have had to shell out at the store. For example, that includes a quart of half-and-half, even though I only need two cups this week. But mostly I used up everything I “bought.” I did go back and make some changes that way, so I didn’t end up having to buy a second jar of something if I only needed a couple of tablespoons. And I assumed that I had a few things on hand, like mustard and Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper that I only needed a little bit of.

One more caveat, and then I’ll get into the nitty gritty. I eat very low carb. I believe that it’s the healthiest way for me to eat. That doesn’t mean it’s the healthiest way for you to eat. I’ll leave that up to you and your health care professional. But these menus are based on a low carb eating plan. There’s no cereal or bread or potatoes or rice or pasta or noodles or so forth, but there are lots of vegetables and probably more meat than you’re used to. And definitely lots more eggs and fats! Don’t freak out about that. There is a lot of research that shows that dietary cholesterol isn’t a problem as long as you keep your carbs way down. I’m not a doctor or a dietician and I don’t give medical advice, but from what I’ve read, if you eat a lot of carbs, don’t eat a lot of fat. If you eat a lot of fat, don’t eat a lot of carbs. These menus are low carb and so it’s all right for them to be high fat. Just don’t add a bunch of bread or cookies or dried beans or whole grains or whatever to it and expect it to be healthy.

Okay, now to the menus, and a couple of recipes, and then a shopping list. I’ll tell you where I’m buying things, and if something isn’t on sale this week, I’ll tell you what I used for the cost and why. I didn’t go out and check the price of everything not on sale, but almost everything is on sale and the other prices are pretty current. Again, this is for a family of four for a week, and assuming that you are providing all of the meals. No school lunches, no skipping meals, no eating out, etc.

The menus include a lot more eggs and fat than you’re used to, but also a lot more meat and vegetables. And you’re right – very little dairy and no fruit. That’s intentional, and again, there’s science behind that, but that’s probably the hardest thing for people to accept about eating low carb. If you feel that you need to add milk, make it whole milk, and for fruit use melon and berries if at all possible. Cantaloupe are on sale this week.

There are only three recipes for the whole week, which is actually a lot more like the way I actually eat. I’m much more likely to throw a pork chop in a skillet and nuke some broccoli than I am to fancy things up with a recipe. So three recipes. First, JOE’S SPECIAL, which is a scramble of hamburger, eggs, mushrooms, spinach, onions, and, sometimes, parmesan cheese. It’s a classic from the 1930s or so from San Francisco. Second, HAMBURGER VEGGIE SOUP, which is exactly what it sounds like. Use whatever vegetables you happen to have on hand or are on sale. It makes lots. A dollop of sour cream is good in it, but then a dollop of sour cream is good on just about anything. And finally, SAUSAGE AND MUSHROOM QUICHE. A dollop of sour cream on top of this is good, too.

Now for my shopping list, showing you what I bought and where and for how much. (Remember, this is all on paper; this isn’t my real menu for the week. I’m using up stuff in my freezer and pantry and buying as little as possible this month.)

So that’s how I build a menu out of what’s on sale. It very rarely comes together as nicely and as easily as it did this time. And I know that there can be a world of difference between works out nicely on paper and what works out nicely in the kitchen and on the dining table! What makes it work is the eggs at 79 cents a dozen (if they’re back to their old price of $1.59 a dozen they’ll cost almost $5.00 more), the chicken at 79 cents a pound (though Walmart’s usual price has been ten pounds for $6.90, or 69 cents a pound, which would save over a dollar, even after buying the extra pound), and the great prices on the veggies. Pork chops for $1.59 a pound helps, too. If the ground chuck weren’t on sale, we could have gotten regular ground beef for around $2.50 a pound, so the sale on ground chuck is nice but not critical. And you’ll notice that I didn’t include any coffee (or tea, for me) or desserts or snacks. You may feel that these are important for you and your family. If you have kids (and I am assuming a family of four) then you may need to include snacks. It’s a far from perfect menu, but I hope that you can get some ideas of things that you can include in your meal planning process to help you plan healthy, appetizing meals on a budget.

Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs!

Due to time constraints (I was out of town until the wee small hours Thursday morning and this had to be in Thursday because MHC is closed on Friday), I won’t be able to work with what’s on sale this week. Instead, I’m going to be talking about what to do with leftover Easter eggs. Or things to do with hard-boiled eggs in general. They’re usually a cheap source of protein.

When I was a kid, I loved to decorate Easter eggs. And with four kids in the family, we needed a lot of them for our Easter baskets! And that, of course, meant lots of leftover Easter eggs. I assume that families have the same problem today. Whatever do you do with all those hard-boiled eggs? I don’t know why it is, but for some reason leftover Easter eggs seem more “leftover” than just a batch of hard-boiled eggs that you make up to have on hand.

You know the basics, of course. Egg salad sandwiches and devilled eggs, and eggs in potato salad and macaroni salad. But then what do you do? I’ll give a few “real” recipes, but mostly just some general ideas of things that you may have forgotten about or that you hadn’t ever thought of but that you’ll know what to do with.

First the general ideas…

Turn coleslaw or cabbage salad into a whole meal salad by adding some chopped hard boiled eggs and some bacon and/or cheese. Or some sausage cut into small bits. Some sunflower seeds are good, too. I usually shred the cabbage for a whole meal salad instead of chopping it. It somehow makes it seem more substantial. I have this a lot in the summer when I don’t want to cook, but it’s good any time of year.

Combine raw cauliflower, a bit of celery (optional), chopped hard boiled eggs, ranch dressing and sunflower seeds (optional) for another main dish salad. Use lots of eggs, since this will be the protein for the meal.

Add a chopped hard-boiled egg to a can of tuna when you make tuna salad. It stretches the tuna. It works with chicken, too. Or ham.

Make a Cobb salad, with lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, egg, and blue cheese. Or any combination of these. I seldom use all of them at once, though they’re all part of an official Cobb salad.

Make a chef salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, egg, cheese, and leftover meat. Add some olives if you like them.

Make a spinach salad with spinach, bacon, egg, onion, mushrooms, and hot bacon dressing or a sweet dressing.

Serve chopped eggs in white sauce over toast. Asparagus is good with it, too. Mom usually uses canned cream of mushroom soup instead of the white sauce.

Add some chopped eggs to soup as a garnish. Especially good with potato soup or a  green soup like cream of spinach or cream of broccoli.

Add some eggs to creamed spinach.

Or just use chopped eggs (especially the yolks) to garnish cooked vegetables like broccoli and spinach.

Peel them and throw them whole into a jar of pickle juice for pickled eggs. Or into the juice from canned pickled beets. Or add the juice from a can of beets to some pickle juice and add the eggs to that.

Chop the eggs and add them to fried rice.

Make your usual meatloaf, but before you bake it put some whole eggs down the middle. Put a layer of meatloaf on the bottom of the pan (it needs to be a loaf pan for this) and put the eggs in a row down the middle of the pan. Put the rest of the meatloaf around and over the eggs. The eggs need to be completely covered. Bake as usual. When you slice the meatloaf, there will be a slice of egg in each slice.

Scotch Eggs - Wrap each egg in bulk sausage meat so it’s completely covered, dip in beaten raw eggs, then roll in bread crumbs. (You can skip the raw egg and bread crumbs if you want.) Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 35 minutes, or until the sausage is done. Scotch Eggs are traditionally deep fat fried, but baking is easier. The picture from Betty Crocker shows them on a stick, like a cake pop sort of thing, which might please the kids.

Add chopped eggs to a white sauce and toss with pasta. Or Alfredo sauce instead of white sauce.

Make a sandwich with pumpernickel bread, mustard, sardines, and sliced hard boiled eggs.

Peel the eggs and marinate them for a few hours in 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sugar. (recipe from the Boston Globe via several people online)

Add eggs and vegetables to your favorite curry sauce. Or just make a white sauce and add some curry powder and use that as your curry sauce.

Make a “layered” salad. In a big bowl (glass if you have it, so you can show off the layers), put some chopped or torn lettuce. Then a layer of frozen peas, a layer of hard boiled eggs, another layer of lettuce, a thin layer of sliced green onions, a layer of halved cherry tomatoes (sliced regular tomatoes get too juicy), a layer of crumbled cooked bacon and a layer of grated cheddar. Mix some mayo with some salt and pepper and a couple of teaspoons of sugar and spread it over the top, sealing it all the way to the edges. Refrigerate overnight. You’re supposed to serve it from the glass bowl, but I find it works best to show it off, then mix it all up myself. Otherwise some folks get just lettuce and others get the good stuff. It’s a really flexible recipe. Sometimes it calls for broccoli or cauliflower, sometimes for sliced water chestnuts. I like to put some sunflower seeds in it, and some people use chopped or whole peanuts. Basically, just use whatever you have. You could mix some ranch dressing with the mayo for the topping, too, if you wanted to.

Hard boiled eggs are in most chicken liver pate recipes, too. Cook the chicken livers (in bacon grease is best, of course) and set aside. Cook some onions (again, preferably in bacon grease) until very soft. Combine the livers and onions in a food processor until mostly smooth. Add some chopped hard boiled eggs. You’ll probably need to season it too. Salt and pepper, of course, and sometimes a bit of Tabasco sauce. Or however you like your chicken liver pate. It’s good with cream cheese mixed in with it, too.

Add chopped hard boiled eggs to cooked green beans and some onion that has been cooked in butter with a bit of garlic.

Now for some “real” recipes…

RUSSIAN VEGETABLE PIE
DEVONSHIRE EGGS
EGG BALLS FOR SOUP
ESCALLOPED BACON AND EGGS
KITTENCAL'S DEVILED EGGS

SIMPLE EGG SALAD VARIATIONS (18 different salads!)
WHITE SAUCE
WHITE SAUCE MIX

Corned Beef (but no green beer) and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, and you know what that means! Besides green beer, that is. That’s right – corned beef. I thought I’d throw out some different ways of using it. Remember that I’m not including potatoes in my recipes or menus, which is why you won’t see them here.

But first, the specials. I was surprised to find that only Kroger has corned beef on sale. The veggies that traditionally go with it – carrots, onions, potatoes, and cabbage – are on sale some places, but not the corned beef itself. Or, at least, not at what I consider a real sale price. Marsh and Aldi both had it for $1.99 last week, but their “sale” prices are higher this week.

Kroger has corned beef points for $1.99 a pound, or flat cut for $2.99 a pound. Boneless chicken breasts are $1.89 a pound. Large eggs are $1.50 a dozen, which, I’m very sorry to say, seems to be a good price these days. I keep waiting for them to go down now that it’s almost Spring. Sour cream and cottage cheese are both three 16-ounce cartons for $4.00, or $1.33 each. Roma tomatoes are 99 cents a pound and whole cantaloupe are two for $3.00, or $1.50 each. These prices are good through next Wednesday, March 19.

As usual, Aldi has some great deals on produce. Baby carrots are 69 cents a pound. Mushrooms are 99 cents for an 8-ounce box. Red potatoes are 99 cents for a 5-pound bag, or 20 cents a pound. Onions are 79 cents for a 3-pound bag, or 27 cents a pound. (That’s the lowest price I can remember seeing in a long time.) Cabbage is 79 cents a head, which probably comes out to around 40 cents a pound, depending on the size of the heads. Could be 50 cents a pound, could be 20 cents. Salad mixes are 69 cents for a 12-ounce bag. Corned beef is $3.49 a pound for flat cut brisket. These prices are good through next Tuesday, March 18.

IGA has corned beef for $3.47 a pound. Idaho potatoes (russets, not red potatoes) are $1.47 for a 5-pound bag, or 30 cents a pound. Ham sausage is $2.77 for a 1-pound roll. Roma tomatoes are 97 cents a pound. Sirloin pork chops are 97 cents a pound in family packs. (See my column from a couple of weeks ago for ways to cook pork chops.) A lot of other pork cuts are on sale, too.

Marsh has corned beef rounds for $2.99 a pound or corned beef briskets for $3.49 a pound. Cabbage is 19 cents a pound.

In case you’re wondering about all the different kinds of corned beef this week, here’s a quick run-down on them.  Figure on about half as much cooked as you started with raw. So to get a pound of cooked corned beef, you’ll have to buy two pounds raw. To get twelve ounces cooked, you’ll need a pound and a half (24 ounces) raw.

Both red potatoes and Idaho potatoes are on sale this week. Either one can be used when making a corned beef dinner, though the red ones are more traditional.

Here are some things to do with corned beef, in addition to the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage (or, more accurately, Corned Beef and Vegetables, since other vegetables are almost always included). You can use leftover corned beef in them, or you can cook up a chunk of corned beef special to use in these recipes. And don’t forget corned beef sandwiches. Corned beef on rye, with Swiss cheese and mustard. Or a Rueben sandwich, with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing. If you’re planning on leftovers, remember that there’s a lot of shrinkage. You’ll need to start with twice as much as you need cooked.

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE SAUTE is sort of a corned beef and cabbage stir-fry. Sort of. With the larger quantities of vegetables, a batch of this will cost about $4.95 for the meat and veggies, and probably another 25 cents or so for the other ingredients, or about $5.30 total. I just make a meal of it, but you could add some of the cantaloupe that’s on sale if you wanted to, and still keep it to $6.00 for four people, or $1.50 per person.

I didn’t realize until I started working on this column that I don’t really use recipes when it comes to corned beef. I get ideas for things to do with the corned beef, but then I just go my merry way. Corned Beef and Cabbage Saute, above, is one example. CORNED BEEF OMELET is another one. For that matter, so is cooking the corned beef to begin with. Think of the following recipe as just a basic idea, and then use whatever you have on hand and like. I’ve never tried it, but sautéing some leftover Brussels sprouts with the corned beef and onions sounds pretty good to me. So does adding a good squirt or spoonful of spicy mustard. Or maybe some Thousand Island salad dressing, like in Reuben sandwich. Or whatever. Use your imagination.

When I make “omelets” I usually either make a scramble or I pour the eggs on top of the filling and cook it that way. Sort of like a frittata except I don’t broil it. I’m too lazy to bother with cooking the filling, then setting it aside while I cook the eggs, then putting the filling on the omelet and folding it. Suit yourself. It tastes the same either way. Making it into a scramble (cooking the filling, then adding the eggs and scrambling it all together) or making it into a frittata sort of thing (I need to come up with a name for this – how about a flat omelet) works better when you’re cooking for more than one or two people, because you’re not supposed to make an omelet for more than two people; you’re supposed to make separate omelets and that’s a hassle for everyone. So I’m going to skip the omelet bit and give directions for making a scramble or a flat omelet. Turning it all into a quiche would work, too, come to think of it. I’ll give directions for that, too. It’s all pretty much the same.

The CORNED BEEF SCRAMBLE and the FLAT CORNED BEEF OMELET both run about $3.90 if you use half and half, less if you use milk and more if you use heavy cream. It makes enough to serve four people for breakfast and maybe for lunch, but you’ll want to have something else to go with it if you’re having it for supper. Or at least I would. Coleslaw would go well with it, and with the cabbage and onions on sale you could make a big bowl of it for under a dollar. You’d still be able to get in some cantaloupe to go with it and keep it under $6.00 for four people, or $1.50 per person. With the extra cream and cheese, a CORNED BEEF QUICHE will cost about $6.00, but will make six generous servings, so it still comes out to about $1.00 per person.

I’ve never made CREAM OF REUBEN SOUP, but if I were to make it I would change the recipe quite a bit. I hesitate to give you my version, though, when I’ve never tried it. So I’m giving you both recipes. I can hardly believe I’m saying this, since I basically believe you can never have too much cream or butter, but it sounds too rich for me.

My version of the recipe, using cabbage instead of sauerkraut (just because cabbage is on sale and I don’t know how much sauerkraut costs), comes to about $3.65 and makes about eight cups. A pound of baby carrots and a pound of sliced Roma tomatoes, with some Thousand Island dressing for dipping them in, would go well with the soup and would keep the total cost under $6.00, or $1.50 per person.

Basic Quiche

6 eggs

2 cups cream or milk

1-2 teaspoons mustard (optional)

2 cups shredded cheese (8 ounces)

Put eggs, milk and mustard in blender and blend for at least a minute. Two or three is better. Add half the cheese and blend for another minute or so. Add the rest of the cheese and blend again. Pour into a 9x9 or 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. It will probably puff up and may fall, either before you take it out or after. That’s normal. Makes four to eight servings, depending on what you’re going to serve with it. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

If you’re going to add meat or vegetables, they need to be cooked and well drained. Put the meat and veggies in the baking dish and spread them around evenly. Pour on the egg mixture (to which you’ve added any other herbs or seasonings), then spread out the meat and veggies again if necessary. Bake as usual.

Good combinations:

Broccoli with cheddar or Swiss

Spinach with feta and parmesan

Hamburger with cheddar

Onion and green pepper with mozzarella

Italian sausage with mozzarella and parmesan

Breakfast sausage with onion, pepper, mushrooms and Swiss

Bacon, onion, mushrooms and Swiss

Use any leftover cooked vegetables and whatever kind of cheese sounds good with them.

Leftover chili (drained so it’s really thick) and cheddar

Cauliflower with cheddar

Zucchini, Tomato and Swiss Cheese Pie

(based on a recipe in Quick Vegetarian Pleasures, by Jeanne Lemlin, 1992)

1 T butter, divided

¼ c bread crumbs

1-1/2 T olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

3 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced

1/2 t fennel seed, crushed

1/4 t salt

Pepper

3 eggs

1/3 c milk

4 oz grated or sliced Swiss cheese

3 T grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Use half a tablespoon of butter to grease a pie pan, then sprinkle the bread crumbs over the bottom and sides.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute 10 minutes. Stir in the diced tomatoes and saute 5 minutes. Increase heat to high and mix in the zucchini, fennel seed, salt and pepper. Cook until the zucchini is barely tender, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and cool 5 minutes.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Stir in the milk, then the zucchini mixture. Pour half of the egg/veggie mixture into the pie pan, top with the Swiss cheese, then pour the rest of the egg/veggie mixture. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and dot with the remaining half tablespoon of butter.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Cauliflower and Egg Salad

2 c cauliflower florets

2 – 4 hardboiled eggs, chopped

1/4 c ranch dressing

1/4 c sunflower seeds (optional)

Combine everything and mix well.

Zucchini and Egg Casserole

(based on a recipe in Nourishing Traditions)

3 medium zucchini, cut into matchstick pieces (or shredded) (1 to 1-1/2 lb)

1 T salt (for draining)

2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced (about 12 ounces)

4 T olive oil

6 eggs

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

Juice of 1 lemon (2 T)

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Mix zucchini with 1 T salt and leave in a colander to drain for 30 minutes.  Rinse and squeeze dry in a paper towel.  Saute about 1 minute in the olive oil.  Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon and mash up with a potato masher. 

Saute the onions until golden and add to the zucchini.

Beat eggs with salt, pepper, lemon juice and saffron.  Stir in the zucchini and onions.  Pour into a well-oiled 9x13 Pyrex-type pan and bake about 30 minutes at 375 or until top is browned.  

Sliced Frittata with Tomato Sauce

(The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Cooking, by Linda Fraser, 2001)

For the frittata:

6 eggs

2 T finely chopped fresh mixed herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, tarragon, etc.)

     (or 1 T dried Italian herbs if you don’t have the fresh, but fresh are definitely best)

1/4 c Parmesan cheese (about 1 oz)

3 T olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the tomato sauce:

2 T olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 14-oz can chopped tomatoes (or 12 ounces fresh tomatoes, chopped)

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4c water

Salt and pepper

To make the frittata, beat the eggs with a fork, then beat in the herbs and Parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet (make sure you have a plate that is bigger than the skillet, because you’ll be dumping the frittata directly on to the plate, hopefully in one piece) until hot but not smoking. Pour in the eggs and cook, without stirring, until the frittata is puffed up and golden underneath. Take your large plate, which is bigger than your skillet, and place it upside down over the skillet. Holding both the plate and the skillet firmly with oven mitts, turn the skillet upside down over the plate. Ideally, the frittata will fall nicely out of the skillet and onto the plate. Slide the frittata off of the plate and back into the skillet, cooked side up, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes, until it is golden brown on the other side. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely. (If it doesn’t slide nicely on to the plate, just pick the frittata up off the floor or the counter and put the pieces back in the skillet, cooked side up, and continue. And don’t feel bad. There’s a famous (and true!) episode of Julia Child’s early cooking show in which she flips an omelet or frittata or something and it lands on the floor. It happens. And it’s a good reason to keep your floor clean!)

To make the tomato sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and cook slowly until it is soft. Add the tomatoes, garlic, water, salt and pepper. Cover and cook over moderate heat for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly before pressing the sauce through a food mill. You could use a blender stick blender, but the sauce wouldn’t be as smooth. Let cool completely.

To assemble, cut the frittata into thin slices, like noodles. Put them in a large bowl, add the sauce and toss lightly. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Don’t have a food mill or a stick blender? Borrow one from the Hub Tool Share Program! Just ask the next time you’re at the Hub.

Cabbage Salad

This kind of cabbage salad is sort of a cross between a chef salad and coleslaw. It's a main dish, cabbage-based salad with whatever kind of vegetables and protein you happen have and feel like using.

2 lb cabbage, shredded

4 oz onion (about 1/2 onion), finely chopped

2 carrots, grated or chopped (optional)

6 hot dogs, thawed, cut into fourths lengthwise, then sliced

6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

1/4 c mayo

1/4 c sour cream

1 T apple cider vinegar

Dash sweetener

1 t pepper

Combine cabbage, onion, carrots, hot dogs and eggs in large bowl and toss to mix. Combine remaining ingredients in small bowl and mix well. Add dressing to cabbage mixture and mix well. Four servings.

Variations -
Cooked and crumbled bacon, diced ham, or diced summer sausage instead of the hot dogs.
Shredded cheddar instead of or in addition to the eggs.
All mayo instead of half sour cream.

Eggs Baked in Zucchini

(The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas, 1972)

8 c BZM (Basic Zucchini Mixture)

4 oz onion, peeled etc. and finely chopped

3 T butter

3 T olive oil (doesn’t need to be extra virgin)

8 eggs

Salt and pepper

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the onion for a couple of minutes, then add the zucchini and some pepper, and saute over medium high heat for about 8 minutes, stirring almost constantly.

Butter four small casseroles, about 3 cups each. Divide the zucchini mixture among the casseroles and make two depressions in each casserole, big enough to hold an egg out of the shell. Break the eggs and put an egg in each depression. Sprinkle with a bit a salt and pepper and bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes, or until eggs are done to your liking.

Remove from the oven and place on individual serving plates. Spoon Hollandaise Sauce over each egg and serve immediately. Four servings.

Baked Peach Pancake

(based on a recipe in Healthy Cooking, June/July 2012)

2 c sliced peeled peaches

4 t sugar

1 t lemon juice

3 eggs

½ c flour

½ c whole milk

½ t salt

2 T butter

Nutmeg

Sour cream (optional)

Combine peaches, sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. In a large bowl, beat eggs until fluffy. Add flour, milk and salt; beat until smooth. Place butter in a 10” ovenproof skillet and put skillet in 400 oven for 3 to 5 minutes or until the butter melts. Immediately pour the batter into the skillet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until risen and puffed. Fill with peaches; sprinkle with nutmeg. Serve immediately. Add sour cream if desired.

German Pancakes

(from Bill Lohmann)

3 eggs

½ t salt

½ c milk

2 T butter

¼ c flour

Beat eggs until very light. Add salt and flour, beating continually. Add milk, while still beating. (A blender works well for this, since you can pour the ingredients through the hole. A small food processor would work, too, or a mixer. Or you can just do it by hand.)

Melt the butter in a large, heavy, oven-proof skillet. (Don’t have an oven-proof skillet? Wrap the handle of your skillet in a few layers of foil and it should work just fine.) Pour in the batter and place immediately in a 450 oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake another 15 minutes. The pancake should have puffed up and be golden brown.

Place on a hot platter and serve with applesauce, or powdered sugar and lemon juice, or powdered sugar and fresh blueberries.

Sliced Frittata with Tomato Sauce

(The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Cooking, by Linda Fraser, 2001)

For the frittata:

6 eggs

2 T finely chopped fresh mixed herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, tarragon, etc.)

     (or 1 T dried Italian herbs if you don’t have the fresh, but fresh are definitely best)

1/4 c Parmesan cheese (about 1 oz)

3 T olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the tomato sauce (or  use plain pasta sauce):

2 T olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 14-oz can chopped tomatoes (or 12 ounces fresh tomatoes, chopped)

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4c water

Salt and pepper

To make the frittata, beat the eggs with a fork, then beat in the herbs and Parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet (make sure you have a plate that is bigger than the skillet, because you’ll be dumping the frittata directly on to the plate, hopefully in one piece) until hot but not smoking. Pour in the eggs and cook, without stirring, until the frittata is puffed up and golden underneath. Take your large plate, which is bigger than your skillet, and place it upside down over the skillet. Holding both the plate and the skillet firmly with oven mitts, turn the skillet upside down over the plate. Ideally, the frittata will fall nicely out of the skillet and onto the plate. Slide the frittata off of the plate and back into the skillet, cooked side up, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes, until it is golden brown on the other side. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely. (If it doesn’t slide nicely on to the plate, just pick the frittata up off the floor or the counter and put the pieces back in the skillet, cooked side up, and continue. And don’t feel bad. There’s a famous (and true!) episode of Julia Child’s early cooking show in which she flips an omelet or frittata or something and it lands on the floor. It happens. And it’s a good reason to keep your floor clean!)

To make the tomato sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and cook slowly until it is soft. Add the tomatoes, garlic, water, salt and pepper. Cover and cook over moderate heat for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly before pressing the sauce through a food mill. You could use a blender stick blender, but the sauce wouldn’t be as smooth. Let cool completely.

To assemble, cut the frittata into thin slices, like noodles. Put them in a large bowl, add the sauce and toss lightly. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Don’t have a food mill or a stick blender? Borrow one from the Hub Tool Share Program! Just ask the next time you’re at the Hub.

Hamburger Quiche

(based on a recipe at food.com)

1/2 lb ground beef

1/3 c chopped bell pepper (it’s great if you have it, but just skip it if you don’t)

1/3 c onion

1/3 c mayo

2 eggs

1-1/2 c shredded cheddar or Swiss cheese

Salt and pepper

1/2 c milk (or cream)

Brown meat with onions and pepper. Drain fat. Meanwhile, blend remaining ingredients in a blender until smooth, for at least two minutes. (If you don’t have a blender, use a mixer, or just stir it really well with a spoon.) Spoon the ground beef into a 9” pie pan or into a baking dish and spread it evenly over the bottom. Pour the egg mixture over the meat. You may need to rearrange the meat a bit to get it spread evenly again. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.

Huevos Ree-os

Ingredients:

• 3 whole eggs
• 3 slices cheese (provolone, Swiss, cheddar, jack, etc.)
• 1 cup picante sauce
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• salt to taste
• 2 whole flour tortillas
• 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions:
Butter the griddle (or a skillet) and crack open the eggs on to it, with a sprinkling of salt. Turn heat to low. Cook the first side until it’s just firm enough to flip over to the other side. Once flipped, throw on some cheese and salsa/picante sauce.
Let the egg sit and cook slowly until the cheese melts, this should take 3 to 4 minutes. If you are using a skillet, you can cover at this point, which will speed up the melting a little bit. In the meantime, heat up some flour tortillas. Roll them up and put them on the side of each plate.
When the cheese is totally melted, throw two or three eggs on each plate. Toss on some cilantro, if you so choose.

Salad Un-Recipes

You really don't need a recipe for most salads. You just need a general idea of what to put in and a vague notion of proportions. Does it matter if a recipe calls for half a cup of shredded carrots and you got three-fourths of a cup from yours? Or if it calls for six hard-boiled eggs and you only have five? Of it calls for diced chicken and you have leftover shredded chicken, or even pork? Usually not. You mostly just put in what you have and what your family will eat. Does the recipe call for pickled beets and you know no one in your family will touch them with a ten foot pole? Then leave them out. It seldom matters.

So, with that philosophy in mind, here are some un-recipes for salads. They're good as written, but they're flexible enough that you can play with them without hurting them. Who knows - they may even turn out better!

Turn coleslaw or cabbage salad into a whole meal salad by adding some chopped hard boiled eggs and some bacon and/or cheese. Or some sausage cut into small bits. Some sunflower seeds are good, too. I usually shred the cabbage for a whole meal salad instead of chopping it. It somehow makes it seem more substantial. I have this a lot in the summer when I don’t want to cook, but it’s good any time of year.

Combine raw cauliflower, a bit of celery (optional), chopped hard boiled eggs, ranch dressing and sunflower seeds (optional) for another main dish salad. Use lots of eggs, since this will be the protein for the meal.

Add a chopped hard-boiled egg to a can of tuna when you make tuna salad. It stretches the tuna. It works with chicken, too. Or ham.

Make a Cobb salad, with lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, egg, and blue cheese. Or any combination of these. I seldom use all of them at once, though they’re all part of an official Cobb salad.

Make a chef salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, egg, cheese, and leftover meat. Add some olives if you like them.

Make a spinach salad with spinach, bacon, egg, onion, mushrooms, and hot bacon dressing or a sweet dressing.

Peel hard-boiled eggs and throw them whole into a jar of pickle juice for pickled eggs. Or into the juice from canned pickled beets. Or add the juice from a can of beets to some pickle juice and add the eggs to that.

Make a “layered” salad. In a big bowl (glass if you have it, so you can show off the layers), put some chopped or torn lettuce. Then a layer of frozen peas, a layer of hard boiled eggs, another layer of lettuce, a thin layer of sliced green onions, a layer of halved cherry tomatoes (sliced regular tomatoes get too juicy), a layer of crumbled cooked bacon and a layer of grated cheddar. Mix some mayo with some salt and pepper and a couple of teaspoons of sugar and spread it over the top, sealing it all the way to the edges. Refrigerate overnight. You’re supposed to serve it from the glass bowl, but I find it works best to show it off, then mix it all up myself. Otherwise some folks get just lettuce and others get the good stuff. It’s a really flexible recipe. Sometimes it calls for broccoli or cauliflower, sometimes for sliced water chestnuts. I like to put some sunflower seeds in it, and some people use chopped or whole peanuts. Basically, just use whatever you have. You could mix some ranch dressing with the mayo for the topping, too, if you wanted to.

There are lots of simple tomato salads. I cut them into bite-sized pieces and add a bit of mayo. Or some ranch dressing. Or a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. A medium tomato with any of these would make a good sized serving. They’ll dress up the plate more if you serve them on a lettuce leaf.

Sliced cucumber in ranch dressing is good. Or in sour cream, with or without dill. Or sliced cucumbers and onion in a dressing of equal parts vinegar and oil, plus some salt and pepper.

Kittencal's Best Deviled Eggs

KITTENCAL’S BEST DEVILED EGGS

(from a recipe at food.com)

I wasn’t going to include a recipe for deviled eggs because everyone makes them, but this recipe had 129 reviews and an almost perfect five-star rating. A few hints from me – First, cook more eggs than you’re going to need. Some of them won’t peel nicely or the white will tear. You can always add the extra yolks to the filling. Second, for fancy eggs, pipe the filling into the whites. Put the filling in a small plastic bag and cut a small bit off one corner. Being careful not to let it squeeze out the top, gently squeeze the bag to fill the whites.

12 hard-boiled eggs

1/2 c mayo (or half salad dressing and half mayo)

2 T milk (or half-and-half)

1 t dried parsley flakes

1/2 t dried chives (or 1 large very finely chopped green onion)

1/2 t ground mustard powder

1/8 – 1/4 t dried dill weed (that’s the leaves, not dill seed)

1/4 t salt, or to taste

1/4 t paprika, plus a bit more to sprinkle on the eggs

1/8 t pepper

1/8 t garlic powder

Slice the eggs in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and set the whites aside. Mush the yolks well in a small bowl, using a fork and leaving no small lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine. Spoon or pipe the egg yolk mixture evenly into the whites. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover tightly with plastic wrap until ready to serve. If possible, refrigerate the eggs for at least 5 hours to give the flavors a chance to blend and intensify. Actually, it would be better to make the filling ahead of time so the flavors can blend, but not fill the whites until you’re ready to serve them. If you cover the filled eggs tightly, the filling will stick to the plastic wrap.

Escalloped Bacon and Eggs

(from a recipe in Paper Plates to Silver Service, Young Attorneys’ Wives of Polk County, 1982)

1/2 c onion, chopped

2 T butter

2 T flour

1-1/2 c milk

10 – 12 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 c shredded sharp processed cheese

6 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

1-1/2 c potato chips, crushed (or you could use crushed Ritz crackers)

Cook onions in butter until tender; blend in flour. Add milk and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add cheese, stirring until melted. (You could use cheddar cheese, but the processed cheese melts more easily.) Place a layer of half the egg slices in a 10x6 pan. (An 8 inch square pan will work, too, or a 9” pie pan.) Cover with half the cheese sauce, half the bacon, half the chips. Repeat the layers. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.