Something Fishy, and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Kroger has meat on sale this week. Bumble Bee Tuna is 59 cents for a 5 ounce can. Boneless pork loin is $1.89 a pound. Don’t forget you can slice it into boneless pork chops if you want to. Ground beef (73% lean, in three pound chubs for $5.97) is $1.99 a pound. They also have celery for 99 cents a head and Roma tomatoes for 99 cents a pound.

Marsh has iceberg lettuce for 99 cents a head and frozen whole bone-in turkey breasts for 99 cents a pound.

Aldi has four-pound bags of oranges for $1.99. Strawberries are $1.49 for a one-pound box. Grapefruit are 39 cents each. Pineapples are $1.49 each. Bananas are 44 cents a pound. Cantaloupe are $1.89 each. Nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt is $1.79 a quart (32 ounces).

IGA has Roma tomatoes for 99 cents a pound.

I expected corned beef and cabbage to be on sale this week, but they’re not. Well, Aldi and Marsh both have corned beef for $1.99 a pound, but there should be better prices next week for St. Patrick’s Day.

The best deal this week is probably the hamburger, but it’s still pretty expensive when you consider how much shrinkage there is. Besides which, I can’t think of anything special to do with it and didn’t find any recipes that looked enticing. Anyway, you probably have lots of hamburger recipes of your own.

So it looks like we’re back to the Swai (catfish) fillets at Kroger. They still had them for $1.29 a pound when I was there about a week ago. That’s their regular price, and it’s about half the cost of the next cheapest fish anywhere in town. It’s easier to use fish fillets or steaks unless you’re making fish soup, but for the difference in price, I’m willing to fiddle with the nuggets.

When I lived in Northern California, I lived right on the coast. I could see the tops of the fishing boats from my office windows. Salmon was big around there, both with sports fishermen and commercial fishermen. I was fortunate to have some friends who were avid (and successful!) salmon fishermen, and I ate a lot more of it than I would have if I had had to buy it. My favorite way of cooking the salmon was my friend’s method of marinating it in soy sauce, brown sugar and fresh ginger. I suppose it’s sort of a teriyaki treatment. It works for other fish, too, as in this recipe for SWAI NUGGETS A LA HILDA AND HOWARD. I’m not sure how much the soy sauce, brown sugar or ginger cost, but I’m guessing that the total cost of this is about $3.40.

Something that Hilda used to serve with the fish was STIR-FRIED CARROTS, BROCCOLI AND MUSHROOMS. Unfortunately, none of them are on sale this week, but maybe you have some left from when they were? Anyway, the fish is cheap enough that we can have the veggies even though they’re not on sale. At non-sale prices, the vegetables will run about $2.50, for a total cost of about $5.90, or just under $1.50 per person for four people. 

If you’ve ever watched Chopped on the Food Network, or other shows of that type, you’ve probably heard that fish and cheese just don’t go together. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Scott Conant criticize a contestant for using fish and cheese in the same dish. Fortunately, we’re not on competing for $10,000 so we can do whatever we want! BAKED COD WITH BOURSIN HERB CHEESE calls for both Boursin (an expensive herbed cheese – see the copycat recipe to make your own) and Parmesan. If you make your own Boursin herbed cheese, this will cost about $4.50. Half a head of lettuce is about 50 cents, and say another 25 cents for some dressing. Half a pineapple would be another 75 cents, bringing the total to $6.00, or $1.50 per person for four people. Half a cantaloupe instead of the pineapple would be 95 cents, bringing the total to $6.20, or $1.55 per person.

As far as I can tell, I haven’t talked about one of my favorite ways to fix fish. Don’t know why I haven’t. It’s good and easy and cheap. It’s sort of like Fish Florentine, which is a fancy name for fish with spinach. There are two steps to it. Well, three, I guess. You make CREAMED SPINACH and you make TILAPIA WITH GARLIC BUTTER (except at my house it’s more likely to be Swai nuggets than tilapia fillets) and then you combine them to make GARLIC BUTTER FISH WITH CREAMED SPINACH. The fish will cost about $3.10 and the creamed spinach will cost about $3.00, so it will come to about $6.10 for four servings, which is just barely over my goal of $6.00, or $1.50 per person. Oh, well. If you use just 1 pound 15 ounces of fish, you’ll come in under $6.00. Chances are the packages of fish won’t come in at exactly two pounds anyway. The servings are big, and you don’t need anything to go with it. That’s the way I eat it anyway. Just a big serving of fish with creamed spinach.

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.

Cheese Strata

Feeds 6

Prep Time:  10 minutes
Cook Time:  45 minutes
Cheese Strata is a filling baked dish that is actually better with stale bread–perfect if your bread is getting old, or has been stored in your freezer.  It can use basic ingredients or you can load it with ingredients.  It also takes little preparation time.  You can prepare the strata and then refrigerate it to cook later if you’d like.
Ingredients:

• 12 slice of bread
• 6 slices of cheese or 2 cups shredded cheese
• Any vegetables you have, fresh or cooked. (Mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, salsa, and chilies all work well. If you plan to use crisp vegetables such as broccoli or bell peppers, you may want to sauté them first.)
• 2  2/3 cups milk
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Arrange 6 slices of bread in the bottom of a 9×13″ greased baking dish. Cover with cheese.
3. Create a layer of vegetables of your choice.
4. Top with remaining bread.
5. Beat together milk, eggs, salt, and mustard. Pour mixture over bread.
6. Bake 45 minutes or until golden and puffed.

Cheesy Beef and Green Beans

(based on a recipe from grace2882.wordspot.com)

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup chopped)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
2 14-oz cans green beans, drained (or about a pound of fresh green beans, cooked)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet, cook the beef and onion over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink and onions are tender. Drain. Stir in tomato sauce, green beans, garlic powder and chili powder. Cook until heated thoroughly. Add 1 cup cheddar cheese and stir until cheese melts.

Copycat Boursin Cheese Spread

(based on a recipe from food.com)

1 very small clove garlic, finely minced 

            (put it through a garlic press if you have one)

6 oz cream cheese, softened (2 3-oz packages, or ¾ of an 8-oz package)

1/3 c butter (about 5 T), softened

1/4 t dried oregano

1/2 t Italian seasoning

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Be sure the garlic is very finely chopped or you’ll end up with chunks of garlic in the cheese. (Yuck!) A food processor works well for this, if you have one. Otherwise, use a mixer or just keep smooshing it against the side of bowl until it’s completely smooth and the herbs are evenly distributed. The cream cheese and butter need to be soft, but not melted or runny. This makes about one cup. Use it in BAKED FISH WITH BOURSIN HERB CHEESE or use it to stuff celery sticks or to fill hollowed out cherry tomatoes, or spread it on crackers. It can be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen up to three months.

Savory Bread Pudding with Vegetables and Cheese

This version calls for kale and mushrooms, but you might try using spinach, leeks, green beans, corn, carrots, summer squash, or whatever else you have on hand. You could also incorporate chicken, ground beef, sausage, or other meat products—just cook them thoroughly before adding (perhaps by sautéing them with the vegetables in Step 3).
1 bunch kale
½ pound mushrooms
1 tsp fresh thyme, or ½ tsp dried thyme (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
Salt and pepper
¾ cup cheese, grated or diced (try Swiss, Cheddar, Jack, Gouda, Mozzarella, or your favorite)
½ pound stale bread, chopped into one-inch cubes
4 eggs
2 cups milk

1. Wash and chop kale and mushrooms (or the vegetables of your choice).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. In a frying pan over medium heat, sauté vegetables in butter or oil with thyme, garlic, or other herbs and spices until tender but still colorful. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. In a bowl, whisk together eggs with milk and add ½ tsp. salt.
5. In a large baking dish, combine bread cubes, cooked vegetables, and egg mixture. Stir to mix evenly.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until browned.

Adapted from Martha Rose Shulman’s recipe for the New York Times (January 31, 2012).

Ham and Cheese Sandwiches on the Cheap

(Note - this post was written in January of 2014, and is based on prices at that time. However, the basic ideas for making cheaper sandwiches are likely to hold all of the time. Even when not on sale, spiral sliced hams are likely to be a lot cheaper than deli ham, and slicing your own cheese will be cheaper than buying sliced deli cheese. Cooking and slicing your own roast beef and turkey breast will be cheaper than buying deli meats, too.)

Marsh has Hormel Cure 51 Spiral Sliced Hams for $1.29 a pound. True, there’s a big bone in it, so the meat itself probably costs about $2.00 a pound. Compare that to meat from the deli, which will probably run you anywhere from about $4.99 on up. The ham is sliced, which means you’ll get nice even slices, and a lot thinner than if you were slicing it yourself – or at least if I were slicing it myself! Cheese to go with the ham is on sale in various forms at most of the grocery stores. Aldi has 8-ounce blocks of several kinds of cheese for $1.79 each. Kroger has block cheese for $3.29 for 12 to 16 ounces. They also have some sliced cheese at $3.29 for 24 slices. Personally, I would go for the sliced cheese because the slices are thinner and more even than I could cut them, and they’ll go further. It depends on what kind is sliced, though. I’d rather have real cheese than a processed cheese. Even if I cut the cheese myself, it will probably end up cheaper than buying it at the deli counter. Beyond the meat and cheese, the last time I looked, Aldi had mayo and “whipped salad dressing” for $1.99 for almost a quart. I think it was 30 ounces instead of 32. A few different varieties of mustard were $1.19 a bottle, I think. When it comes to bread, remember to compare the price per slice rather than the price per loaf or the price per pound. Unless the slices are unusually large or small, two slices of whatever size you get will make a sandwich. If you go for a hoagie type roll, think about how many sandwiches – how many “servings” – you’re going to get from them, and compare the price to the same number of “servings” of regular bread. 

Dairy

Baked Fish with Boursin Herb Cheese

Broccoli, Spinach and Chicken Casserole

Buttermilk Substitute

Cauliflower and Ham Pudding

Cheese Crusted Chicken with Cream

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Chicken Lazone

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Mint and Yogurt

Coffee Can Ice Cream

Copycat Boursin Cheese Spread

Cottage Cheese Zucchini Pancakes

Creamed Spinach

Creamed Spinach

Creamy Herbed Pork Chops

Eggplant with Yogurt Sauce

Frozen Honeydew Smoothie

Garlic Butter Fish with Creamed Spinach

Ham and Whatever Else is Handy Quiche

Hamburger Quiche

Homemade Yogurt

Honeydew Smoothie

Horseradish Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

Mustard Sauce

Orange Ice Pops

Orange Milk Shake

Parmesan and Sage Crusted Pork Chops

Peach Smoothie

Pumpkin Pie

Quick Creamed Ham

Spaghetti with Creamy Spinach and Tarragon

Sparkin' Pie

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Strawberry & Blueberry Smoothie Deluxe

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Turkey, Broccoli and Spinach Casserole

Whipped Cream

Zucchini Parmesan