Gourmet in the Garden

Hello Beautiful!  Who knew you could make such a glorious looking salad with greens harvested mostly from your back yard? Our friend Oliver does! This 7-year-old gourmet garden guru taught our Kid's Cooking class the other day and taught us all a thing or two... or three! 

Just look at that poise! 

Not just delicious, but exceptionally nutritious too, this wild edible salad delights the eyes and taste-buds, and leaves you feeling healthy and fresh!

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Oliver guided us confidently through the salad preparation, teaching appropriate knife skills   (watch those fingers!), and how to safely identify the plants we used.

This vibrant dish included wood sorrel, pink and white clover, dandelion flower, wild onion, violet leaf, lettuce, chickweed, multi-flora rose, and ground ivy! We dressed it with a little salt, pepper, elderberry syrup, and organic sunflower oil. Yum! 

 

Our Kids Cooking classes are an incredible opportunity for kids and adults alike to learn new kitchen skills, taste new foods, and gain confidence. You might be surprised by how much even very young children can absorb just through observation. One of our regulars surprised us the other day by demonstrating how to properly cut a leaf from its spine without even being prompted! It appears that we have an army of new kitchen gurus on the rise! 

A little helper watches attentively in class 

Our little gourmet garden guru helping our two interns use the salad spinner 

Not everyone is accustomed to eating salad, especially ones with such unusual ingredients, but with Oliver's enthusiasm and charm, we got samples out to our pantry patrons, and many were surprised by how much they enjoyed it!

This young man was wary at first, but was surprised and delighted when he finally decided to taste Oliver's wares. Even after several minutes had passed, he was still marveling at the wonderful taste he held in his mouth!

Sound like fun?

Join us Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:15-5:00 pm to take part in our next culinary adventure!

See you there!  

Growing Salad Greens Indoors

Growing Salad Greens Indoors

You can grow your own fresh salad greens indoors all winter long, including spinach, chard, leaf lettuces and mesclun green mixes!    

Start with containers at least 4 inches deep.  Fill container with a potting mix to at least 3 inches.  Plant seeds 3 inches apart.  Plant spinach and chard seeds ½ an inch below the soil.  For lettuce seeds, place seeds on top of soil, and sprinkle lightly with soil, until just covered. 

Place your container in a warm area (like on top of the fridge).  Cover with plastic or mist often with water until the seeds sprout.  Then remove plastic.

Next, place container in a sunny, south-facing window, or under a florescent light.  If using florescent lights, be sure to keep the lights 6 inches above growing greens at all times.  Any further is too far, and closer could burn the leaves or make them too warm (salad greens like cooler temps).  Keep lights on for 12 hours a day.

Fertilize weekly or bi-weekly with a weak solution.  Good organic fertilizers to use indoors include liquid seaweed and compost tea.

Your greens will be ready to harvest in about 30 days.  Snip the base of the largest, outer leaves, and be sure to leave at least 4 inner leaves to continue to grow.

We will be demonstrating how to grow salad greens indoors this week on Tuesday from 12-2pm, and Thursday from 2-5:30pm.  Drop on by!

Chicken Salad, and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Chicken Salad with Grapes and Walnuts

Not much in the way of good specials this week. I’m starting to sound like a broken record that way, aren’t I? Don’t blame me; blame the stores. Or the drought. Take your pick. Anyway, here’s what I found.

Kroger has milk on sale, four half-gallons for $5.00, or $1.25 each, or $2.50 per gallon. Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna is two cans for $1.00, or 50 cents a can. Cheese is $2.99 for twelve to sixteen ounce packages, which at $2.99 a pound is a good price for the 16-ounce packages, and okay at $2.99 for 12 ounces, or $4.00 a pound. Chicken drumsticks and thighs are 99 cents a pound, which is more than the leg quarters at Walmart, but a good price if you specifically want only drumsticks or only thighs. You’ll end up with more meat per pound with the thighs than you do with the leg quarters, so the price per pound of cooked meat may not be all that much different. Green beans and red potatoes are both 99 cents a pound. Do you know whether they are available at the Farmers Market yet? Don’t forget you pay half price at the Farmers Market if you have food stamps. Red seedless grapes are 97 cents a pound. Seedless cucumbers are 99 cents each. Prices are good through Wednesday, June 4.

Marsh has boneless skinless chicken breasts in the family packs for $1.99 a pound. 12-ounce bags of Iceberg Garden Salad are 68 cents each, but you have to buy at least $30.00 of other stuff to get it at this price, and you’re limited to two. Some barbecue sauces are 49 cents for 18 ounces, after $1.00 off if you buy five of various things. Prices are good through next Wednesday, June 4.

IGA has corn on the cob three ears for $1.00, or 33 cents each. This price is good through next Sunday, June 1.

Aldi has pineapples for 89 cents each again, and cantaloupe and one-pound boxes of strawberries for $1.49 each. Mangos are 49 cents each. Kiwis are 69 cents for a 3-pack, or 23 cents each. Organic baby carrots are $1.29 per pound and organic grape tomatoes are $1.49 for a ten ounce box. These are both pretty good prices for conventional-raised produce. Boneless skinless chicken thighs are $1.49 per pound. Nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt is $1.79 a quart and assorted varieties of 6-ounce cartons of nonfat yogurt are 39 cents each. Pollack (a basic white fish) fillets are $4.49 for two pounds, or $2.25 per pound. Prices are good through Tuesday, June 3.

The weather this past week has made me really ready for summer! And that means, among other things, lots of salads. It’s just too hot during the summer to do much cooking. And no, it’s not that hot yet, but I still feel like salads. So that’s what I’m going to be talking about today. Main dish chicken salads. I scanned the ads before I started working on the recipes, but I missed the boneless skinless chicken thighs at Aldi for $1.49 a pound, and instead used the boneless skinless chicken breasts at Marsh for $1.99 a pound. You can use the thighs instead of the chicken breasts. It won’t hurt anything.

Chicken salads start out with cooked chicken, usually chicken breasts. You can cook up a bunch ahead of time so you don’t have to cook it when you make the salad, like in BASIC GRILLED OR ROASTED CHICKEN BREASTS. After all, the idea is to avoid cooking when it’s hot, and cooking the chicken at the last minute sort of defeats the purpose. Or, if you don’t have any pre-cooked, you can make some POACHED CHICKEN FOR SALADS. Of course, you can use other cooked chicken, too. Like ROASTED CHICKEN LEG QUARTERS or STEWED CHICKEN LEG QUARTERS or GRILLED CHICKEN. Or leftovers from cooking a whole chicken, either roasted or THE BEST WHOLE CHICKEN IN A CROCK POT. Or whatever other cooked chicken you have on hand, including canned chicken, though it tends to be pretty expensive, especially compared to chicken you cooked yourself.

However you choose to cook it, you can figure on two cups of cooked chicken from a pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts or boneless skinless chicken thighs, one cup of cooked chicken from a pound of whole or split chicken breasts with skin and bones, one cup of cooked chicken from a pound of chicken leg quarters, and about a cup and a quarter from a pound of chicken thighs with skin and bone.

The first recipe is a simple CHICKEN AND SESAME SALAD. You can use either the whole chicken breasts, which you cook and then take off the bone, or boneless skinless chicken breasts. Since it’s the boneless skinless ones that are on sale, let’s use them. See my earlier post comparing the two options. Using the boneless skinless chicken breasts, a batch of this will cost about $4.40; using the boneless skinless thighs it will cost about $3.90. You have a couple of options for finishing off the meal. Some fruit is always good with salad (or just about anything else!) and there are several kinds on sale. Take your pick. Or you could add some CRISPY WON TON STRIPS to the salad. In fact, you could do both, if you chose one of the cheaper fruit options.

Don’t tell the guys, but variations on the next salad, CHICKEN SALAD WITH GRAPES AND WALNUTS, was a classic at ladies’ luncheons, back in the days when ladies had luncheons. You can still serve it for that, in which case a batch will serve eight. You should figure on it serving four, though, for a family supper. It comes to about $6.00 by itself, because of the grapes and walnuts, so there’s no room in the budget for anything else. I’m not sure what else I’d serve with it anyway. You don’t want fruit again for dessert. The original recipe called for serving it with crackers, bread, bagels, etc. and without the lettuce. You could do that if you wanted to, and keep it under $1.50 per person, if you’re ok with serving cracker, bread, bagels, etc. If you use the boneless skinless thighs, it will cost about 75 cents less.

Or you could make your chicken salad the way I usually do. I love looking at cookbooks and finding recipes on the internet. I have literally thousands of recipes that I have copied and stored on my computer, plus at least 12” of recipes that I have printed off the internet, and well over a hundred cookbooks. And that’s after I gave away seven or eight big boxes of cookbooks. But, in spite of all those recipes, I seldom cook with recipes. I usually keep things really simple. Like in this recipe for CHICKEN SALAD A LA MAW. Well, I had to call it something, didn’t I? I can’t give a cost for this since there’s no recipe and no set list of ingredients or quantities. But I figure it’s pretty cheap, unless you use a lot of nuts.

  

For other ideas for chicken salads, check out the SALAD UN-RECIPES and LEFTOVER CHICKEN SANTA FE SALAD. And don’t forget about chicken taco salads, too.

Brassica juncea! Wait, what?

It's that time of year again when the greens are thriving in the gardens. To be specific, mustard greens or Brassica juncea, if you are getting technical. These types of greens are prevalent among Indian, Chinese, and Japanese dishes and known for their distinct thin leaves. They are incredibly easy to grow, making them ideal if you are new to gardening.

Here are some common questions about mustard greens. 

1. How do you identify mustard greens? 

There are many varieties of wild mustard greens, however all of them are edible. 

The western varieties include frilled-oval leaves & mustard spinach (similar to the green leaves of spinach) 

There are over 50 Asian and Chinese mustard green varieties. The most readily available variety is Mizuna, which have bright green fern-like leaves.

2. Are they really that good for us? 

Compounds within Mustard Greens include antioxidants (Vitamin C, E, & A), anti-inflammatory properties (Vitamin K), and with regular consumption, support Cardiovascular health (aids in lowering cholesterol). If you are interested in learning more, click here! 

3. How do you prepare mustard greens? Have any cooking tips or simple recipes? 

First step, wash/soak those greens! An easy washing recipe to use is combining water, vinegar, baking powder, and lemon juice and allow the greens to soak for 10-15 minutes. To eliminate any dirt or residue that may be on the greens. 

Next step, cooking. 

To maintain the healthy compounds of Mustard Greens, the best cooking technique is to sauté (using 5 Tablespoons of either chicken or vegetable broth and sautéing for 5 minutes or so). 

Note:

- Young Mustard Greens have less of a bitter taste, making them ideal for salads

- To store, place greens in a plastic bag and keep in the refrigerator. Be sure to remove as much air as possible! 

Click on the recipe below for a simple dish that was prepared at MHC for patrons to sample. 

Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas and Mustard Greens 

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

Grilled and Roasted Chicken Breasts and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Kroger has several things that are a good price if you buy “any five.” It’s really easy with a deal like that to buy something you don’t need to get in your five items. Don’t do it! You usually end up paying more than you would if you just bought the items you do need without the discount. At least that’s the way it works for me. Saving money can be really expensive! But on to their sales… Kraft salad dressings are 99 cents for a 16 ounce bottle. Kraft cheese is $1.99 for 5 – 8 ounce packages, which is a good price for 8 ounces but not for 5 ounces. Oscar Meyer lunchmeat is $1.99 for a 1 pound package. It’s going to be heavily processed, but it is convenient. All of these prices are assuming you buy “any 5” of the various sale items. They’re all $1.00 more if you don’t buy 5. There are also a few things that are on sale even if you don’t buy 5 items. Split chicken breast, drumsticks or thighs are 99 cents a pound. Cottage cheese and sour cream are $1.99 for 24 ounces. Butter is two pounds for $5.00, or $2.50 a pound, and you don’t have to buy two to get that price. These prices are good through Wednesday, March 26. There is also a four-day-only sale, with prices good only through Sunday, March 23. Among these sales items are five half gallons of milk for $5.00, or $1.00 each, or $2.00 per gallon. You don’t have to buy five gallons, and there is a limit of five gallons. Asparagus is 88 cents a pound.

Marsh has pork chops in the family pack for 99 cents a pound. Grapes – red, white or black seedless or red with seeds – are $1.48 a pound. Anjou and Bosc pears are $1.49 a pound. Jumbo cantaloupes are 3 for $5.00, or $1.67 each. These prices are good through Wednesday, March 26.

IGA has split fryer breasts for 99 cents a pound. Turkey sausage is $1.99 for a one pound package. “Jumbo size” lemons are two for $1.00, or 50 cents each. Ambrosia apples are $1.49 a pound. “Red ripe tomatoes on the vine” are $1.49 a pound. Some Kraft products are buy-one-get-one-free. Some cheeses $2.99 for two 5 to 8 ounce packages. That’s a good price for the 8 ounce packages, at $2.99 a pound, not good for the 5 ounce packages. Planters peanuts are $3.49 for two 1-pound jars, or $1.75 per jar, and peanut butter is $2.79 for two 15 – 16.3 ounce jars, or $1.40 each, also on the buy-on-get-one-free sale. These prices are good through Sunday, March 23.

We’re back to chicken breasts this week. IGA and Marsh both have split fryer breasts for 99 cents a pound. They’re bone-in and skin-on, so that’s something to consider when you see the price. By the way, I’ve been wondering how the price of split fryer breasts and boneless, skinless fryer breasts compare. The result of my little experiment was that it really is cheaper to buy the split fryer breasts and do the work yourself. Of course, the ones that are already boned and skinned are quicker and easier to use. I use both.

Figure that about half the weight of the split chicken breasts will be in the boneless, skinless portions, so if you need a pound of boneless skinless chicken, you’ll need to start with two pounds of split chicken breasts. Between 8 and 9 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast will yield a cup of diced, cooked meat. Let’s call it 8 ounces, so 1 pound of split chicken breast will yield about 1 cup of diced, cooked meat. More or less. That’s about 99 cents per cup of cooked meat this week, plus you get the bones, the skin, and some meat that’s left on the bones after you cut off the big chunks.

Twice as Nice: 25 Chicken Breast Recipes for Today and Later, by Sandra Liu, is one of the free books I found for the Kindle. (If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download Kindle for PC onto your computer. Unfortunately, the library doesn’t have Kindles and doesn’t have the Kindle software on their computers.) The idea behind the book is that you can buy chicken breasts when they’re on sale, grill or bake them, then cut them up and freeze them to have COOKED CHICKEN STRIPS available whenever you need them. They’re a lot cheaper that way than buying the precooked strips of chicken breasts. The book tells how to grill or roast them, how to cut them up, how to freeze them, and then gives 25 recipes using the cooked meat. 

To find recipes for the cooked chicken breast strips, I did a google search for “grilled chicken breast recipes.” One site that came up was the Tyson website, which included almost 90 recipes using their precooked chicken breast strips. I’ve included one of them. Of course, I adapted it to use your own home-cooked chicken breast strips instead of Tyson’s!

Let’s go back and start with the raw chicken breasts. Let’s start with six pounds of them, since you frequently have to buy them in the family packs to get the best price. First, cook them with the bone in and the skin on. (You could cut the meat off the bone before we cook it, in which case you’d pull the skin off, too. It comes out pretty much the same either way, and some people don’t like handling raw chicken.) Then you pull the nice crisp skin off of the meat and save it for a treat. Next, you cut the meat off the bones, trying to get it off in one big chunk, but not scraping the bones to get every bit of meat off of them. You put the bones in a pot of water with some vegetables and seasonings and make some soup for four people. And then use the meat you cut off in two main dish recipes for four people each. That’s twelve servings from $6.00 of split chicken breasts.

Let’s start with SIMPLE CHICKEN VEGETABLE SOUP, and its cousins, CREAM OF CHICKEN AND VEGETABLE SOUP, CHICKEN VEGETABLE EGG DROP SOUP. How much will this soup cost? It depends, of course, on what you end up putting in it. I figure that the broth and the meat and free, because I include the entire cost of the split fryer breasts in the cost of the chunks of meat that I cut off for other things. Let’s say 2 onions, 4 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 8 ounces of frozen peas, and 8 eggs. That’s going to be about $2.85 for four big servings of soup. Let’s call it $3.00, or 75 cents per serving, just because I like things that come out nice and even. You’d want to add a salad or something if you were having this for supper, but for lunch I just have a big bowl of this type of soup and call it good.

I figure $1.00 for breakfast and $1.50 each for lunch and supper, or $4.00 a day to keep my costs down to the average food stamp benefit per person received in Indiana. I don’t have the exact figure, but the latest I’ve seen is just under $1.40 per person per meal, or just under $4.20 per day per person. Since this soup is only about 75 cents per person for lunch, that leaves an extra 75 cents for other meals that might go a bit over $1.50 per person, or for special meals where you want to splurge a bit.

Now to a few recipes using those chunks of meat you cut off the bones in big chunks, and then sliced. I didn’t really intend to when I started today’s column, but I seem to have ended with Southwestern or Tex-Mex recipes. The cooked chicken breast doesn’t have to be used only in Tex-Mex recipes; it can be used plain, or in Italian dishes, or Thai dishes, or curries, or just about anything else. The recipes that I ended up using today just happen to be more or less Southwestern. 

Like SOUTHWESTERN FRITTATA. The frittata will cost about $4.00. Add half a cup each of sour cream and salsa to top it off (two tablespoons of each per serving) for another 60 cents. Serve it with a quick fruit salad of one cup of halved grapes and half a cantaloupe for $1.25 and you’ve got a good brunch or lunch or even a light supper for just under $6.00, or $1.50 per person. Or sauté a couple pounds of asparagus in butter with some garlic and serve that instead. Or serve salad. Or a salad and a pound of asparagus. There are lots of ways you can use that other $2.00 on side dishes to accompany the frittata.

LEFTOVER CHICKEN SANTA FE is different than I usually .give, with corn, beans and tortilla strips. The mixture of chicken, black beans, corn and cheese can be used in many ways. Add it to a salad, or to a wrap, or a burrito, or rice, or you could even make soup out of it. As a salad, it comes to about $5.50, not counting the tortilla strips. I have no idea how much they cost, though I do remember when I bought a big bag of plain corn tortillas for Mom they didn’t cost very much. You should be able to make plenty of TORTILLA STRIPS for the salad and stay under $6.00 for the meal, if you make your own. Making your own ITALIAN DRESSING helps keep the cost down, too. 

Tomato and Zucchini Salad

(based on a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook, 1997)

1 large tomato, roughly chopped

1 small zucchini, thinly sliced

2 T sliced green onion

1 t snipped fresh basil

2 T Italian salad dressing

2 T crumbled feta or shredded mozzarella

Combine everything but the cheese and toss well. Top with cheese.

Caesar Style Salad

(based on a recipe in The Sunset Vegetable Cook Book, 1973)

1 small bunch broccoli (about 1 lb)

1 small head cauliflower (about 1 lb)

1 small zucchini, thinly sliced

2 large carrots, thinly sliced

1 small green or red bell pepper, seeded and diced

CAESAR DRESSING or 1 c commercial Caesar dressing

3/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

Cut flowerets off broccoli stalks, then cut flowerets into bite-size pieces.  Trim and discard base of stalks; peel stalks and cut diagonally into slices.  Cut cauliflower into bite-size pieces. In a large bowl, combine veggies, add dressing and mix well. Add Parmesan right before serving. Will keep a couple of days dressed, but add the cheese at the last minute.

Steak Salad

Leftover LONDON BROIL, thinly sliced across the grain

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Other vegetables of choice (sliced onion, fresh corn, cucumbers, shredded carrot, etc.)

SIMPLE VINAIGRETTE, made with olive oil, vinegar (balsamic if possible, or red wine), garlic, oregano, extra mustard, and no honey

Make a bed of lettuce on individual plates, then layer the steak and vegetables. Drizzle with dressing. Or toss everything together with the dressing, which is a lot easier and gets the dressing better distributed but doesn’t look as nice.

Taco Salad

Taco salad is another main-dish salad that's made with whatever you happen to have on hand and feel like using. You can add additional toppings, if you like - salsa, jalapenos, olives, etc.

1 lb ground beef

1/2 onion, chopped

Taco seasonings

1 head lettuce, shredded or chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

Grape tomatoes, halved

4 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

1 c sour cream

Cook ground beef, the first half onion, and the taco seasonings in a heavy skillet. Set aside. Divide the lettuce among four bowls. Top with the cooked meat, the remaining half onion, the grape tomatoes, cheddar cheese and sour cream.

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.

Grilled Chicken Banh Mi Salad

(based on a recipe in Sunset Magazine, July 2012)

(bánh mi - a classic Vietnamese sandwich)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1-1/2 lb total)

4 T hoisin sauce, divided

½ t Chinese 5-spice powder

1 T reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 T vegetable oil, divided

2 T lime juice

1 T Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce

1 cucumber, seeded and cut into 2” matchsticks

1 medium carrot, cut into thin matchsticks

4 oz jicama, cut into matchsticks (optional – or use daikon or radishes or zucchini)

1 red Fresno or red jalapeno chile, halved lengthwise and sliced

½ head iceberg lettuce, shredded

Cilantro, Thai basil, and mint leaves

Heat grill to medium. With a sharp knife, halve chicken pieces horizontally almost all the way through, then open up like a book. Put chicken in a bowl and add 2 tablespoons hoisin, the five-spice powder, soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon of oil, tossing to coat.

Grill chicken, turning once, until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes, then slice diagonally into wide chunks.

Mix remaining 2 tablespoons hoisin and 1 tablespoon oil, plus the mayo, lime juice and fish sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.

Divide the shredded lettuce among 4 plates. Add cucumber, carrot, jicama and pepper, then with the chicken. Drizzle with the lime dressing and top with the cilantro, basil and mint leaves.

Mint Watermelon Salad

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

1 T lemon juice

1 T olive oil

2 t sugar

6 c cubed seedless watermelon

2 T minced fresh mint

Whisk the lemon juice, olive oil and sugar together in a small bowl. Combine the watermelon and mint in a large bowl, then drizzle with the lemon juice/olive oil mixture and toss to coat. 

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese

From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 4 medium beets ­ scrubbed, trimmed and cut in half
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 (10 ounce) package mixed baby salad greens
• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra­-virgin olive oil
• 2 ounces goat cheese

Directions:

1. Place beets into a saucepan, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until tender. Drain and cool, then cut in to cubes.
2. While the beets are cooking, place the walnuts in a skillet over medium­low heat. Heat until warm and starting to toast, then stir in the maple syrup. Cook and stir until evenly coated, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice concentrate, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make the dressing.
4. Place a large helping of baby greens onto each of four salad plates, divide candied walnuts equally and sprinkle over the greens. Place equal amounts of beets over the greens, and top with dabs of goat cheese. Drizzle each plate with some of the dressing.

Panzanella Bread Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Olive oil
• ¼ cup Olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons Balsalmic vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves
• 6 cups day old Italian bread, cubed into bite-size pieces
• 5 medium red tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cucumber, peeled, and sliced
• 1 red pepper, diced roughly
• 1/2 cup pitted and sliced green or kalamata olives
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl toss bread with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.
3. Lay out on a baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool slightly.
4. While bread is in the oven, whisk together 1/4 cup olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
5. Gently toss together the vinaigrette, bread, and vegetables. Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

Homemade Croutons

You’ll be making tossed salads for every meal, just so you can eat more of these delicious croutons. They go great in soups, or as stuffing, AND it’s a great way to make use of stale bread!

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4-6 thick slices of bread (can be stale) cut into cubes
2 teaspoons of finel chopped fresh herbs (such as thyme, dill, oregano, etc)
salt to taste

Heat oil  in a large skillet, over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add cubed bread. Cook stirring often, until brown all over.  Add herbs cook 1 minute, then remove from heat. Sprinkle with salt.
When cool, store in covered container at room temperature for up to one week (if they last that long!)

Chicken Salad a la Maw

Dice or shred some cooked chicken. Add some chopped hard-boiled egg if you want to and you have any handy. Add some mayo and a bit of sugar or sweetener, and maybe some lemon juice. (That’s because I grew up using Miracle Whip and sweet pickle relish, and I don’t use either one any more. If you use Miracle whip instead of mayo, skip the sugar. If you use sweet pickle relish, skip the sugar. You might still want a bit of lemon juice. Or not.) Mix it all up. That’s the basic chicken part. Now add some veggies if you want. Some shredded lettuce and/or some thinly sliced celery. Maybe some chopped tomato or halved cherry tomatoes. Or small amounts of a bunch of whatever you have on hand that sounds good. Thinly sliced green onions are good in it, too. Mix the chicken and the veggies together, unless you’re just using lettuce, in which case you can either mix it all together or just put the chicken mixture on top of the lettuce. Chopped walnuts or pecans or slivered or sliced almonds or toasted sunflower seeds are good either mixed into the salad or sprinkled on top.

Chicken Salad with Grapes and Walnuts

(adapted from a recipe at food.com)

3 c diced cooked chicken

1 c finely chopped celery

1 c seedless grapes, halved

1 c chopped walnuts (about 4 ounces or 1/4 lb) (optional)

1 small minced onion

1/2 t salt

1 t Worcestershire sauce

1/2 c mayo

1 t lemon juice

Combine chicken, celery, grapes, walnuts and onion in a large bowl. Mix well. Combine salt, Worcestershire sauce, mayo and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix well. Add mayo mixture to chicken mixture and mix well. Chill for about an hour. (If the chicken was cold to begin with, you don’t need to chill the salad.) Divide lettuce among four plates or bowls and top with chicken mixture. Or add the lettuce to the chicken, celery, grapes, walnuts and onion, and then add the dressing to the chicken and lettuce mixture and mix well.