The Hub takes a bite of the Big Apple! - WhyHunger

As a part of Why Hunger’s Nourishing Connections Community Learning Project, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard (MHC) is engaged in a peer to peer learning experience with Neighbor’s Together (NT), a Brooklyn emergency food provider with a mission to alleviate poverty and hunger.   This past week, MHC staff Stephanie Solomon and Brandon Shurr visited with Neighbors Together for an in-depth look at their innovative advocacy work.

Beyond offering hot meals, NT has caseworkers on site to build community connections to available resources as well as community organizing around neighborhood issues of poverty and hunger.  MHC’s visit came just in time for us to attend a member meeting with discussions about New York state legislation that would potentially affect NT members.  They were preparing for NT’s annual Lobby Day, coming up in March, when members and staff head to Albany to advocate around issues of poverty and hunger.   We were extremely impressed by the cohesion of the community, and the strong voices involved in the member meeting.

We used the time with Neighbors Together to learn more about their membership model, and specifically, how they create space for members to engage in advocacy.  We also took time to learn about NT’s Leadership Development Series, which is an intensive leadership training focused on equipping participants with the knowledge and communication skills needed for community organizing.  Our visit with Neighbors Together fortified us with the background and inspiration needed to organize back in Bloomington.

In talks with NT back in August, MHC was inspired to begin our own community meetings, which we now offer monthly, to create a space for Hub community members to come together and discuss important pantry issues.  We call them our Hub Family Meetings, and already they have been a space where the Mother Hubbard’s community can come together and come up for solutions that make our programs more inclusive and in line with our vision and values.

While in New York City, we had the opportunity to visit two additional community-based organizations, the Brooklyn Food Coalition and the New York Common Pantry.  We were blown away by the success the Brooklyn Food Coalition had in advocating for changes in the nutrition quality of school food, and the focus on nutritional standards in the New York Common Pantry.  Our whirlwind week of visiting with innovative players in the New York food justice movement brought new vigor to our work with Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard.

Apples for Dinner

Apples at the MHC Food Pantry. Photo by Stephanie Langan

When we think of cooking with apples, we typically picture desserts like apple pie, or apple crisp, or even baked apples. But apples can find there way into savory dishes as well. 

Take for instance the Apple Carrot Casserole. Apples add a touch of sweetness to this nourishing, easy to prepare meal.

Or these recipes that combine apples and meat:

Honey Mustard Chicken and Apples
Spiced Beef with Apples
Maple and Apple Baked Chicken
Chicken and Apples with Creamy Sauce
Mustardy Pork Chops with Apples and Onions
Apple Beef Stew
Baked Yams, Apples and Canadian Bacon (or Ham)
Mulligatawny Soup

Apples can be used in side dishes, too, like

Applesauce

Laurel's Coleslaw

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

Celebrating Springtime, and Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

IGA has boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.69 a pound, leg quarters for 69 cents a pound, and legs (drumsticks) for 99 cents a pound. The chicken breasts are “previously frozen” so technically you shouldn’t refreeze them, but I always do anyway. Fresh green beans and Red Delicious apples are both ten pounds for $10.00, or a dollar a pound. That’s a particularly good price for the apples. Del Monte canned fruit is ten for $10.00, or a dollar a can, which may or may not be a good price. Frozen vegetables are ten one-pound bags for $10.00, or a dollar a bag, which is a very good price. Pollack fillets are $2.69 a pound, which is a good price for fish. Pollack is a mild white fish. Ground turkey is $1.99 for a one pound roll, as is turkey breakfast sausage. You might want to check the nutritional info. Some ground turkey has a lot of fat in it. The more fat, the more it will cook down and the less cooked meat you’ll have. Two pound (32 ounce) bags of shredded cheese are $5.99, which is $3.00 a pound or $1.50 for eight ounces, so that’s a good price. (I don’t know why I sometimes say that something is a good price. I wouldn’t be listing it here if I thought it wasn’t.) Prices are good through Sunday, April 13.

Marsh has sweet corn, ten ears for $3.00, or 30 cents an ear. Sweet potatoes are 79 cents a pound. Libby’s canned vegetables are 50 cents a can, but you have to buy at least ten items from a list of things. Frozen vegetables are 67 cents for a one pound bag, but only Thursday the 10^th through Sunday the 13^th. Lots of ham on sale for Easter. Prices start at 98 cents a pound for the Sugardale Prestige Fully cooked Hardwood Smoked Shank Portion, which is a water added product. Indiana Kitchen Heritage House Spiral Sliced Ham Hams are $1.28 a pound, limit of one and you have to buy at least $25 of other stuff. Marsh Honey Gold Half Spiral Sliced Glazed Hams are $10 or $20 off for a whole ham, but they don’t tell you how much they are per pound before the discount. That always makes me suspicious, though I’ve gotten some really good deals that way. You may need to calculate the per pound price yourself. Prices for hams go up to $2.39 a pound, depending on the brand, size, etc. With the exception of the frozen vegetables, all prices are good through Wednesday, April 16.

Aldi has hams on sale for Easter, too. (I guess IGA doesn’t this week because they’ll have new sale prices on Sunday.) Appleton Farms hams (a water added product) vary from 99 cents a pound to $1.69 a pound, depending on whether they are sliced and whether they are shank or butt portion. Eggs are 79 cents a dozen, which is a great price! The ones I bought a couple of weeks ago were $1.59 a dozen. “New low prices” are butter for $2.19 a pound and 99 cents for eight ounces of cream cheese. This may mean these prices will continue for a while. Pineapples are $1.49 each, four pound bags of oranges are $1.99, baby carrots are 69 cents a pound, asparagus is $1.49 a pound, and a ten pound bag of russet potatoes is $1.69, or 17 cents a pound. Strawberries are $1.49 a pound. Canned green beans and corn are 49 cents a can and cream of mushroom soup is 59 cents a can. Prices are good through Tuesday, April 15.

Easter menus aren’t as fixed as Thanksgiving menus. Ham and lamb are both traditional, and some people have roasted chicken or turkey. Here’s what I would probably have for Easter dinner, based on this week’s sales. If you don’t celebrate Easter, this would make a good dinner to celebrate Spring, instead. I’m assuming eight people for dinner.

Ham

Sweet potatoes

Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce (don’t worry – it’s easy if you have a blender)

OR

Green beans

Maybe a green salad, but probably not

Strawberry Pavlova or individual strawberry meringues (again, very easy)

Serve the dinner in the kitchen and give each person a full plate, rather than putting the food on the table and letting everyone serve him/herself. Each plate gets a slice of ham, a whole (but cut in half) or half sweet potato that’s already been buttered, and a pile of asparagus with Hollandaise sauce poured over it. The reason for plating in the kitchen is that there’s only about two tablespoons of the Hollandaise sauce per person, which is plenty because it’s so rich, but people might take more than that if they served themselves. If there’s any food left after filling the plates, you could put the extra on the table for seconds. Clear the table, and then serve the dessert. If you’re serving Pavlova, serve it at the table because it looks impressive whole. If you’re serving individual meringues they can be plated in the kitchen.

HAM - I’d check the price on the Marsh Honey Gold hams after the $10 or $20 off and see whether it was actually a good price. I’d probably end up with the Sugardale ham for 98 cents a pound, even though it is water added. Figure you get about 12 ounces of meat from each pound of ham (because of the bone). The bones will be about the same size regardless of how big the ham is, so you might as well get a big one and have lots of leftovers. If you get a ten pound ham, you can serve eight ounces of meat (about a cup and a half, if it were cubed) per person and use just barely over half the ham. Let’s assume you’ve got a couple of little kids and say you’ll use half of it. That’s $9.80 for the ham (let’s call it $10.00) and you’ll use half of it, so that’s $5.00 for the ham, plus another 25 cents or so for the cloves, or $5.25 total.

SWEET POTATOES – Six ounces of sweet potato per person would come to three pounds total, or $2.37 (let’s call it $2.40). A tablespoon of butter per person (I like lots of butter on my sweet potatoes!) would run another 55 cents, or a total of $2.95.

ASPARAGUS – Figure three pounds, or $4.50.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE – Figure 70 cents for the butter and 15 cents for the egg yolks (the other 15 cents are for the whites), or 85 cents total for the sauce. See the recipe below.

GREEN BEANS ALMONDINE – Three pounds of green beans is $3.00, plus 15 cents for the butter and 60 cents for the almonds, or $3.75 altogether.

STRAWBERRY PAVLOVA or INDIVIDUAL STRAWBERRY MERINGUES – The strawberries themselves will cost $1.50. The meringue (whether you make it in one big shell for the Pavlova or in individual shells for the strawberry meringues) will cost about 40 cents (you’re using the whites from the yolks you used for the Hollandaise sauce). The whipped cream filling will cost about $1.60. That’s $3.50 for the Pavlova or $1.90 for the meringues without the whipped cream. See the recipe below.

The total cost of the meal – ham, sweet potatoes, asparagus and Hollandaise sauce, and Strawberry Pavlova – will be about $17.30, or $2.20 per person for eight people. For the ham, sweet potatoes, green beans with almonds, and Strawberry Meringues (no whipped cream), the total cost will be about $14.10, or $1.75. These are generous, adult-size portions. If you’re serving kids, too, it will all go further, and the cost per person will be less.

What? Pork Chops Again?! and Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Kroger has 8-ounce packs of cream cheese ten for $10, or $1.00 each. I don’t think you have to buy ten to get that price. Butter is two pounds for $5.00, or $2.50 a pound. Chicken drumsticks, thighs, and whole fryers are 99 cents a pound. That’s not a great price unless you specifically want whole birds or just the thighs, but it’s not bad if you do. “Crisp broccoli” is three for $5.00, or $1.67 each. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say how big the “crisp broccoli” is, so there’s no way of knowing whether it’s a good price. I sure wish they would be more precise with their descriptions. Eggplants are 99 cents each and green beans are 99 cents a pound. It’s making me think of summer produce at the Farmers Market! Check the eggplant to be sure it’s fresh. If it is, and it’s a reasonable size, that’s a good price. Sweet potatoes are 99 cents a pound, too. Whole cantaloupe are two for $3.00, or $1.50 each. These prices are good through next Wednesday, April 9.

Marsh has red, white, and black seedless grapes and red grapes with seeds for $1.47 a pound. Family pack assorted pork chops are 99 cents a pound. And fresh tomatoes are 97 cents a pound. These prices are good through next Wednesday, April 9.

Aldi has strawberries for $1.49 a pound. Anjou pears are $1.49 for a two pound bag, or 75 cents a pound. Pineapples are $1.49 each and mangoes are 69 cents each. Fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.69 a pound in family packs. These prices are good through next Tuesday, April 8.

IGA has fresh fryer leg quarters in family packs for 59 cents a pound through Sunday, April 6. Dole Classic Iceberg Salad and Classic Coleslaw Mix are both 99 cents for a 12-14 ounce bag, but only on Friday, April 4. Large eggs are 99 cents a dozen, but again only on Friday.

Do you remember the column a few weeks ago when I talked about buying herbs and spices and gave recipes for three very different yet very similar fish soups? They all had fish, tomatoes, onions and green pepper, but the seasonings made them very different. I’m going to do something sort of similar this week. I’m going to start by talking generally about different seasonings for pork chops, and then will give the regular three recipes or so for pork chops and menus using them. Sometimes you don’t need a new recipe as much as you just need a new idea for varying an old standby with some new seasonings.

Herbs and spices that go well with pork.

Fruit that goes well with pork.

Vegetables that go well with pork.

Sauces that go well with pork.

I haven’t given any recipes yet, but I hope there’s something here that made a light bulb go off for you. While I don’t think you can get away with serving pork chops every night by just changing the seasoning, sometimes all it takes is a small change to make something acceptable instead of boring.

OK, now for some recipes and menus. The first recipe, creatively titled PORK CHOPS, is seasoned with tiny amounts of several Indian seasonings. Be sure to buy them in tiny little dabs at Bloomingfoods and not in the jars or cans at a traditional grocery store.

The pork chops themselves are going to cost about $2.00. Let’s say 25 cents for the smidgeons of spices - it only comes to a total of one teaspoon. If you use drippings, they’re free. If you use vegetable oil, it will cost less than 10 cents. Let’s call it $2.35 altogether. That’s so cheap you can spend more than usual on side dishes.

The original recipe says to serve it with applesauce (in fact, the original name is Pork Chops and Applesauce), so let’s go with that. You want unsweetened applesauce, and not very much of it – only about a cup, or a fourth of a cup per person. Let’s say 50 cents for the applesauce. Sweet potatoes would be good. Two pounds would allow an 8-ounce sweet potato per person. Just bake the sweet potatoes in the skins; they don’t need any butter or anything else. Add coleslaw or other cabbage salad for about a dollar and you’ve got a hearty meal for under $6.00, or $1.50 per person.

This next recipe, EASY MUSTARD PORK CHOPS, is super easy. The author describes it as a recipe for those days when just getting dinner on the table seems like more than you can do. We all have those days, don’t we?

The only significant cost here is the pork chops, which will run you about $2.00. The mustard, garlic powder, olive oil, salt and pepper won’t cost more than a dime.

If getting supper on the table is almost more than you can manage, you definitely won’t be spending any extra time on the side dishes. How about a couple cans of green beans ($1.00), half a head of lettuce cut in wedges (50 cents), two tablespoons of salad dressing per person or half a cup total (50 cents), with half a cantaloupe for dessert (90 cents). The whole meal can be prepared in less than half an hour for a cost of right about $5.00 or $1.25 per person, and no one will guess that it was that cheap and easy. Or have some broccoli instead of the green beans. It’s still well under $6.00.

The final pork chop recipe for SMOKEY CACAO NIBS ENCRUSTED PORK CHOPS. And just what are cacao nibs, you ask? Nibs are bits of cacao seeds that have been processed almost but not quite to the point of being ground for cocoa powder or made into chocolate bars.

I have to admit that I’m just guessing at the cost of the cacao nibs and smoked paprika. I haven’t bought them or checked the price in a long time. I’m going to guess about a dollar for the two of them. I think that’s probably high, but I don’t know. Let’s use that as an estimate anyway. The pork chops will run $2.00, the bacon grease would be free if you have it, or the butter would run about 35 cents. So let’s say $3.35 for the whole thing.

The picture on the blog shows the pork chops served with a baked sweet potato and something that I can’t identify. A pound and a half of sweet potatoes (six ounces per person, or about three-fourths cup) will cost $1.50, which leaves us $1.15 for something else. How about some fresh green beans (a little over half a cup of cooked beans per person) or, depending on how big the packages are, some fresh broccoli. Either way you should stay at right around $6.00, or $1.50 per person.

An old standby when it comes to sauce for pork chops (or just about anything else) is Campbell's Cream of Something Soup - Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken especially, but also Cream of Asparagus, Cream of Celery, Cream of Onion, etc. A can is likely to cost at least $1.00 and, like all processed foods, be full of chemicals and stuff that you don't really need. CREAM OF WHATEVER SOUP MIX makes a substitute for those cans of soup. (I guess recipes these days don't call for Campbell's soups as much as they used to. Back in about the 1960s, practically everything called for either jello or Campbell's soup. Usually not in the same recipe.)

And finally, a couple of recipes for pork seasoning mixes. You can make them up ahead of time and have them ready the next time you’re cooking pork chops, or other pork dishes.

PORK SEASONING MIX #1

MAGIC DUST SEASONING BLEND

Where's the Budget Ground Beef? and Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

This is a horrible week for specials! Or maybe it’s just the price increases that they’ve been talking about so much and I don’t recognize good prices. Here are the few things that seem like good deals to me.

Marsh has family pack chicken leg quarters for 79 cents a pound. Three one-pound packs of strawberries are $5.00, or $1.67 per pound. Frozen vegetables are $5.00 for two 32-ounce (two pound) bags. That’s $2.50 per bag, or $1.25 per pound. When comparing this to the price for other vegetables, be sure to check the size of the packages. A lot of them are 10 ounces these days, or maybe 12 ounces. These two-pound bags come out to 78 cents for 10 ounces or 94 cents for 12 ounces. The picture shows corn and broccoli; other vegetables may be on sale, too. These prices are good through next Wednesday, April 2.

IGA has “bunched broccoli” two for $3.00, or $1.50 each. It may be a good price, depending on how big the “bunches” are. Don’t forget that the stalk is good eating, too. It needs to be peeled, though. I use a knife to cut back the thick peel, then pull it off. Most of it comes off that way. “Tomatoes on the Vine” are 99 cents a pound. Frozen vegetables are ten 1-pound bags for $10.00, or $1.00 a pound. “Selected varieties” are at this price; the picture shows a bag of mixed vegetables. “Selected varieties” of canned vegetables are two for $1.00, or 50 cents each. Three 8-ounce packages of chunk cheese are $5.00, or $1.67 each, or $3.33 per pound. Shredded cheese is the same price. These prices are good through Sunday, March 30.

Aldi has fresh broccoli for 99 cents for a 1-pound package. If you shop there, you know that their produce is all prepackaged. I’ve noticed that some vegetables are a lot bigger than they say. You might be able to get a better deal if you can find a big package. Strawberries are $1.49 a pound. These prices are good through Tuesday, April 1.

Kroger has Anjou pears and Asian pears for 99 cents a pound. Are you familiar with Asian pears? They look more like apples, have brown skin and very crisp slightly grainy flesh. Ground turkey is $2.50 a pound.

It seems like all I ever talk about is chicken and pork, chicken and pork, with an occasion foray into fish or hamburger. I’m tired of chicken and pork! But then again, what else is there besides chicken, pork, beef and fish? OK, there’s also lamb (too expensive), turkey (done that one, too), duck and goose (also too expensive), venison (if you happen to hunt), and beef other than hamburger (too expensive). But from a practical standpoint, there’s not much except chicken, pork, beef and fish. The thing to do is to find different ways of fixing them.

Do you realize I’ve been doing this column just over six months now? The first column came out on September 3, 2013. I went back and did some checking and, if I’ve counted correctly (always a questionable assumption), I’ve given 166 recipes so far! A few of them are duplicates, but not many. Probably 150 is more like it. That includes 11 recipes for beef (6 corned beef and 5 hamburger – I thought there were a lot more for hamburger), 40 recipes for chicken (no wonder I’m tired of talking about chicken!) and 10 for turkey, 4 for eggs, 11 for fish, 40 for pork (17 for pork chops and roasts, 11 for ham, and 12 for sausage), 29 for miscellaneous things like tortilla chips and pumpkin pie, 13 for salads, 15 for soups, and 51 for vegetables! Yes, I know that comes to a lot more than 150, but some things fall into more than one category. Like chicken soup is both chicken and soup. Based on this informal and probably inaccurate analysis, it looks like I should see what I can do with hamburger, if it ever goes on sale again. Even at sales prices, though, it’s still too expensive to be much of a “budget” meat.

Hamburger isn’t on sale this week, but IGA has ground chuck for $2.99 a pound in the three pound or bigger packages. I guess that is on sale; I just tend to think that a sale price on hamburger should be under $2.00 a pound. Let’s go with the ground chuck. I’m going to try to keep my dinners to $1.50 per person, but I’m allowing myself some leeway here. I’m willing to go as high as $2.00 per person. That means cutting back on breakfast or lunch to keep the day’s meals at $4.00 per person or less, so I’ll throw in a couple of menus for them, too.

First, BREAKFAST. My breakfasts tend to be pretty boring; how about yours? Especially since I don't eat grains of any type, so no cereal, pancakes or waffles, toast, etc. I don't know how much cereal costs these days, but I'd guess that my eggs are probably cheaper than most name brand sugary cereals.

What’s a cheap LUNCH? How about a big bowl of soup or salad? Not just a bowl of lettuce, but lots of protein, too. And definitely not just a can of soup!

Back to the hamburger recipes. Cabbage rolls are very tedious to make. Or at least it seems to me that they would be. I’ve never actually made them because they sound so finicky. CABBAGE ROLL CASSEROLE gives you the flavor of traditional cabbage rolls without all the blanching and rolling and filling and so forth. A batch of this will cost about $5.00 and will make four big servings. If you want to serve something with it, how about some carrot sticks. A good dollop of sour cream on each serving would be good, too. These will keep it to $6.00 total, or $1.50 per person.

KANSAS CITY BEEF SOUP is full of ground beef and vegetables in a rich butter-and-flour gravy. 

It costs about $9.20 for eight servings, or $1.15 per serving. How about some carrot and celery sticks to go with. Or some wedges of iceberg lettuce with dressing. You can stay under $1.50 per serving either way. Using a can of vegetables instead of the frozen would save 50 for the batch. Or you could use two cans of vegetables instead of the frozen vegetables, which would make it even chunkier and would make the servings a little bit bigger and it would still cost about $9.20.

The final recipe, CHEESY BEEF AND GREEN BEANS, is super quick. The cheese makes it a little more expensive than the other recipes. It comes to $5.80 for four servings. They’re big servings, but you’ll still probably want something to go with it. Some iceberg lettuce with dressing would be good, or a simple cabbage salad or coleslaw. Or some fresh fruit. You could slice up a couple of pounds of the Anjou pears or the Asian pears. They would probably have to be sliced and shared because they will probably be too big for everyone to have a whole pear. Or some canned fruit would be good. Just be sure to get some that’s canned in juice and not in a sugary syrup. It should come to under $8.00, or under $2.00 per person, with any of these additions.

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. 

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.

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.

Pork Chops, and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

IGA has family packs of sirloin pork chops for 99 cents a pound. Select varieties of chunk cheese are $2.99 a pound (which is $1.50 for eight ounces, a common size for chunk cheeses). Select varieties of shredded cheese are three eight ounce packages for $5.00, or $1.67 for eight ounces or $3.34 per pound. “Bunched” broccoli and brunched cauliflower are both two for $4.00 or $2.00 each. I’m not sure what “bunched” means, and whether it’s a good price depends on how big they are. Tomatoes on the Vine are $1.99 a pound. IGA pasta is 88 cents a pound and 24-ounce cans of IGA pasta sauce are 88 cents each. These prices are good through next Sunday, March 2.

Marsh has strawberries, three one-pound boxes for $5.00, or $1.67 a pound. Not great, but better than they have been. Green or white asparagus (white asparagus is just green asparagus that was kept covered while it was growing so it didn’t turn green) is $1.77 a pound. Ground chuck is $2.79 a pound in the family packs. Whole boneless pork loins are $1.99 a pound. They average about six to nine pounds each, and Marsh will slice them for you for free. Sugardale hams are advertised for 69 cents a pound, but they were out of them last week and not giving rain checks, so don’t make a special trip without calling first. “Vine ripe” or Roma tomatoes are $1.49 a pound. 32-ounce (two pound) bags of frozen vegetables (the picture showed peas and green beans) are two for $5.00, or $2.50 each, or $1.25 a pound. These prices are good through next Wednesday, March 5.

Aldi’s best buys are, as usual, on produce. Avocados are 69 cents each. Roma tomatoes are 99 cents for 20 ounces, or 80 cents a pound. Grapefruit are 39 cents each. Bananas are 44 cents a pound. Cantaloupe are $1.89 each. If you like Mexican food, you might want to check out their ad at www.aldi.com. They have a lot of things advertised for making Mexican food, but I don’t know how good the prices for most things are. Just because they’re in the ad doesn’t mean that the price is anything special. These prices are good through next Tuesday, March 4.

Kroger has “medium size” fresh pineapple ten for $10.00, or $1.00 each. Asparagus is $1.28 a pound. Sour cream is ten 16 ounce (pint) cartons for $10.00, or $1.00 each. These prices are good through next Wednesday, March 5.

The pork chops are a good price this week, and they’re one of my favorite foods, so let’s work with them again. Don’t forget the other recipes for pork chops that have been posted here, too - 

Pork Chops (with Indian Seasonings)

Easy Mustard Pork Chops

Smokey Cacao Nibs Encrusted Pork Chops

Steamed Pork Chops

Pork Chops Bakes with Cabbage and Cream

Maple Mustard Baked Pork Chops

Mustardy Pork Chops with Apples and Onions

And hints for what goes well with pork -

Fruit
Vegetables
Herbs and Spices
Sauces

Sometimes I regret saying that I wouldn’t include “fillers” like potatoes and rice and such in my menus. Not because they’re cheap and make it easier to come up with complete meals at $1.50 or less per serving (which of course they are and they do), but because they go so well with some things. This recipe for CREAMY HERBED PORK CHOPS is an example. With all that gravy, mashed potatoes or rice would be great with it. But it’s not necessary! But it would be good. Sigh. 

Four pork chops plus the gravy should come to about $3.20. Serve it with a pound of the frozen peas ($1.25), a few sliced Roma tomatoes for color (60 cents for twelve ounces), and half a cantaloupe for dessert (95 cents) and you’ve got a big meal for $6.00, or $1.50 per person. Or have the pork chops and gravy plus a pound and a half of asparagus ($1.95 – you may need less, depending on how much of the stem you have to cut off), half a pound of sliced Roma tomatoes (40 cents) and half a pineapple (50 cents) for $6.05, which is just a nickel over my goal of $6.00 to serve four people. Use COPYCAT MONTREAL STEAK SEASONING to help keep the cost down - and so you don't have to buy a big jar of the seasoning when you just need a teaspoon. You can make a lot of different seasoning blends from just a few basic herbs and spices and really cut back on what you spend for seasonings.

I don’t cook with flour or breadcrumbs, so when I want to bread something I usually use either fine pork rind crumbs (I give them a whirl in my food processor until they’re very fine, though you could probably just put them in a plastic bag and roll them with a rolling pin. If you don’t have a rolling pin, a large round bottle works well. A wine bottle is just about the right size. It’s best if it’s full. If not, fill it with water so it has the extra weight. Just make sure it’s tightly corked! This works for making pie crust, too. Use ice water in the bottle, or chilled wine, when making pie crust. The chill of the bottle will help make your pie crust flaky.) or almond flour or coconut flour or just use all cheese. PARMESAN AND SAGE CRUSTED PORK CHOPS uses the traditional/normal way of breading pork chops with flour and bread crumbs, and adds some parmesan cheese to the mixture. The original recipe makes a point of using the real imported Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and fresh sage, but regular parmesan and dried sage will work, too, and cost a lot less.

The pork chops themselves are $2.00, and another 40 cents for the cheese (at Aldi, five ounces for $1.99), so let’s say $3.00 total for the four chops with breading and all. Cook a package of broccoli until it’s not quite done and then finish it off in the skillet, where it should pick up all the pan juices and nice crusty bits from the bottom of the skillet. I’m assuming you’ll use the whole package, though I don’t know how big the packages of “bunched” broccoli are. Finish up with either half a cantaloupe (95 cents) or a pineapple ($1.00). Or have some sliced tomatoes with the pork chops and broccoli instead of having fruit for dessert. Or have a pound and a half of asparagus instead of the broccoli. Or a pound of the frozen veggies instead of the broccoli, and you can have tomatoes with the meal and still have fruit for dessert.

Another way to fry pork chops or other meat is to coat the meat with mustard and let the mustard act as the “glue” that makes the flour stick to the meat, instead of using egg to do that. This recipe for SPICY MUSTARD PORK CHOPS does that.  This will come to about $2.75 or so, maybe a bit less depending on how much the flour costs. For some reason, I’m thinking a green salad would go well with this. How about half a head of iceberg lettuce, a tomato or two, some bits of broccoli and cauliflower, and some ranch dressing. Or whatever kind of dressing you prefer. A homemade oil and vinegar dressing with some extra mustard would be good. The salad should run about $1.00. Pick one of the frozen veggies from Marsh, for $1.25 for a pound. Green beans go well with pork, though I don’t much care for the taste of frozen green beans. That brings us to $5.00 for the pork chops, salad and a hot vegetable. You could leave it at that and have an extra dollar to spend on another meal sometime, or you could add half a cantaloupe (95 cents) or a whole pineapple ($1.00).

What Do We Do With the Veggies, and the Weekly Special with Mary Anne

Marsh has meat this week. Family pack assorted pork chops are 99 cents a pound. Hormel Cure 81 Spiral Sliced Half Hams are 99 cents a pound. Sugardale hams (water added) are 69 cents a pound. And they have iceberg lettuce for 99 cents a head. These prices are good through next Wednesday, February 26.

Aldi has some great buys on produce. Green peppers are three for $1.49. Mushrooms are 99 cents for eight ounces. Roma tomatoes are 99 cents for twenty ounces, or 80 cents a pound. Red potatoes are $1.89 for five pounds, or a little less than 40 cents a pound. Onions are 99 cents for a three pound bag. These prices are good through next Tuesday, February 25.

IGA has turkey breast for $1.19 a pound. Ten pound bags of chicken leg quarters are $5.99, or 60 cents a pound. These prices are good through next Sunday, February 23.

Kroger has their regular one-week sale and also a special four-day sale. The four-day sale ends Sunday, February 23. On sale for those four days they have milk for $1.98 a gallon (limit 2) and ten pound bags of russet potatoes for $1.98, or 20 cents a pound (no limit). On sale for the week ending Wednesday, February 26, they have iceberg lettuce for 99 cents a head and leaf lettuce for 99 cents a pound. Celery is 99 cents a head and Roma tomatoes are 99 cents a pound. Ragu spaghetti sauce of various types is $1.29 a jar after a 50 cent discount for buying six of various things. Split chicken breasts (including bone and skin) are 99 cents a pound. Various cheeses are $3.49 a pound. Cottage cheese and sour cream are $1.99 for 24 ounces. 

I’ve given recipes for all of the types of meat that are on sale this week, so I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to focus on the veggies instead of the meat. I’ll still give recipes and menus that come in at about $1.50 per serving for the whole meal, though, and they will all include meat. I just won’t limit myself to one kind of meat.

The first recipe, SMOKEDSAUSAGE AND PEPPERS uses Bar S Smoked Sausage that’s $3.99 for two and a half pounds, or $1.60 a pound, this week at Marsh. There are a few different kinds at this price. I’m going with the Polish sausage. In case you’re wondering why I say to cut the sausage on the diagonal, it’s because it makes the pieces look bigger! This will cost about $5.15 and will make four servings. You could add a lettuce salad and stay under $6.00. Or a can of fruit. Or carrot sticks and dip. Or you could add some more veggies to the sausage and peppers. Carrots would be good, or cabbage, or mushrooms.

One of my favorite vegetable dishes is MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS. It seems to go over well with guests, too. It goes with just about any kind of meat. Here I’ll pair it with pork chops. You’ll think this makes a huge amount, but because the mushrooms and onions cook down so much you’ll end up with a lot less than you expect. It makes four servings as a side dish. With the mushrooms and onions on sale, it will cost about $2.50. Add four 8 ounce pork chops for another $2.00, and a salad of iceberg lettuce, carrots, green pepper, and a diced Roma tomato for another $1.50, for a total of about $6.00.

And finally, PEANUT STIR-FRY. You can use whatever meat you want with this – IGA’s turkey breast or chicken leg quarters, or Marsh’s pork. It's the PEANUT SAUCE that's important here. Let’s go with the pork, shall we? Pork is so good in a stir-fry and goes well with peanuts, too. You can use pretty much any vegetables you have on hand. I just chose these because they’re on sale and the colors look nice together. Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower are good in a stir-fry, too, as are fresh green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, etc. Pretty much anything goes. This will come to a little over $5.00 and will make a lot. You shouldn’t need anything to go with it.

Isn’t it great when veggies go on sale? These are good, but I can hardly wait till summer!

Chicken Legs and Leftover Chicken

Kroger has boneless (and, I assume) skinless chicken breasts for $1.89 a pound and boneless (and, again, I assume skinless) thighs for $1.99 a pound. Bar S franks and bologna are 10 for $10.00, or $1.00 each. You don’t need to buy 10 of them to get this price. Honeysuckle 93% lean ground turkey is $1.99 a pound, limit of one, and you have to have a digital coupon. Canned veggies (tomatoes and beans for sure, maybe some other kinds) are two for $1.00 or 50 cents each. Anjou pears are 99 cents a pound. It sure seems strange to have fresh apples cost more than fresh pears. Organic sweet potatoes are 99 cents a pound. These prices are good through next Wednesday, February 19.

Aldi has eight ounces of mushrooms for 99 cents, broccoli crowns for $1.49 a pound, and onions three pounds for 99 cents. These prices are good through next Tuesday, February 18.

Not a very inspiring bunch of specials. In fact, I’m going to go with Walmart’s ten-pound bags of chicken leg quarters. They’ve raised the price to $6.90 for the bag, or 69 cents a pound, but it’s still a pretty good deal.

I’ve talked before about Walmart’s bags of chicken leg quarters. I’ve given recipes for cooking the leg quarters, but unless you have a big family, you may think that ten pounds is too much to cook at one time. I tend to agree with you, but, on the other hand, I hate to have open bags of chicken in the fridge. So I usually cook up the whole bag at once, which leaves me with lots of leftover chicken. Some of it I leave on the bone, but most of it I take off of the bone and use it in recipes that call for cooked chicken. Here are a few of my favorite recipes. A ten pound bag of leg quarters is usually about ten leg quarters, and each quarter yields about a cup of cooked chicken. These recipes will work with either ROASTED CHICKEN or STEWED CHICKEN.

Incidentally, there’s nothing that says you have to cook all of the chicken the same way. You could take out enough for whatever recipe you want to use for the legs as legs, and then cook up the rest for “cooked” chicken recipes.

When you’re trying to save on the food budget, it’s important not to waste anything. This goes for the bones, too. The bones from the chicken legs can be used to make CHICKEN STOCK, or BONE BROTH. Save up all of your bones in the freezer, and when you get a bunch of them (say, three pounds or more), make a big batch of stock and use it to make soup. Freeze the rest of the stock to use in soup later. The vinegar is to leach out the calcium and other minerals from the bones. You shouldn’t taste the vinegar in the stock or in the soups you make with it.

By the way, I include bones that I’ve chewed on. I make my stock in the slow cooker and cook it at least 24 hours. I figure that if there are any germs strong enough to survive that, they’re going to get me anyway! Out of consideration for the squeamishness of others, I wouldn’t use my chicken stock in a recipe that I’m serving to guests, and, unless they’re family, I wouldn’t use the bones that other people have chewed on. I’m sure they’d be safe and all, but I’m a bit squeamish, too.

I figure that the broth is free. Yes, there’s the cost of the onion, celery and herbs, but they don’t come to much. I make my broth in a 6-quart slow cooker and I usually get about eight pints of broth. That’s less than five cents a pint.

So far you’ve got the meat to use in recipes, and you’ve used the bones to make broth, but, if you stewed the chicken, that still leaves the skin. No point in wasting that, either. (If you roasted the legs, the skin should have puffed up and gotten crispy. I hope you ate it right away, because it’s much better freshly roasted.) Use the skin to make GRIBENES, or Chicken Crisps. They’re pieces of chicken skin that you’ve baked by themselves until they’re nice and crispy. They’re my very favorite chicken dish! I always figure that they're free, since I really bought the chicken for the meat, not the skin.

DOMADA, a West African stew, calls for both cooked chicken and chicken broth. In fact, it goes even further by calling for sautéing the vegetables in chicken fat! And why not? It adds another layer of flavor, as they say on the cooking shows.

A batch of this will make about eight cups and will cost about $4.80. It’s rich and thick and filling, and really doesn’t need much more. If you do want to add something to it, you could add a salad, or maybe some sliced pears, or canned fruit.

CHICKEN AND CABBAGE LO MEIN is a sort of a take on Chicken Lo Mein, but without the noodles. The traditional recipe is noodles, chicken and some vegetables. I use lots of vegetables instead. It’s something I usually make on the spur of the moment when I haven’t gotten anything out of the freezer, because the cooked chicken thaws quickly. You can use whatever veggies you have on hand. Broccoli is a good addition, or zucchini, for example. I like carrots, cabbage and onion because I usually have them and because they tend to be among the cheapest vegetables. This will come to about $4.25 for four big servings. Some sliced fresh pears would be good for dessert.

You probably have your own recipes to use the leftover chicken. You can use recipes calling for any sort of cooked chicken or cooked turkey, even if they call for chicken or turkey breast. I frequently use it in main dish salads and in main dish soups. The chicken freezes well, and so does the broth. Just be sure that you leave “head room” if you freeze the broth or it will break the container and/or force off the lid. 

A Valentine's Day Special

Kroger has whole chickens and chicken drumsticks and thighs for 89 cents a pound. Honeysuckle 93% lean ground turkey is $1.99 a pound with a digital coupon. Peeled baby carrots are 99 cents a pound, strawberries are two pounds for $4.00, or $2.00 a pound, and asparagus is $1.99 a pound.

IGA has seasoned ground turkey in one pound packages for $1.00.  One-pound bags of frozen vegetables are $1.00. Assorted pork chops are $1.59 per pound. These prices are good through Sunday, February 9.

Aldi has cantaloupe again for $1.49 each, and blueberries are $1.49 for 6 ounces. That’s almost $4.00 a pound, and I wouldn’t mention them except that they go so well with cantaloupe and Valentine’s Day is next week, after all. Cantaloupe and blueberries would make a good Valentine’s Day splurge, should you feel so inclined. Strawberries are $1.99 a pound, which again isn’t a great price, but would make a good Valentine’s Day splurge.

Marsh has boneless skinless chicken breasts in the family pack for $1.79 a pound. The pork combo packs (center rib chops, country style ribs and sirloin roast, all from the loin) are $1.29 a pound, limit two, with $25 in additional purchases. Not nearly as good a deal as the 99 cents a pound that they were just a few months ago, but not bad. Watch how much you pay for the “additional purchases,” or the extra costs may make the pork not such a good deal after all. Asparagus is $1.99 a pound, which isn’t great (it was $1.49 a pound at Kroger last week), and Red Flame seedless grapes (my favorite!) are $1.28 a pound. Hillshire Smoked Sausage in 14-oz to 16-oz packages are two for $5.00, or about $2.50 per pound. I’m not sure whether that’s a particularly good price. It may just seem like a good price because it really appeals to me today for some reason.

(Incidentally, that’s exactly why you should have a price book that lists the regular and sale prices of things you buy frequently or would like to buy if it is ever reasonably priced. It’s way too easy to justify buying something you want “because it’s on sale,” even when it’s not at a good price. I haven’t update my price book for several months, and prices have definitely changed over those months. That’s one of my goals for February, to update my price book, at least for the things I use most often and those I include in my recipes and menus here.)

How about a Valentine’s Day dinner for two this week, instead of supper for four? I’ll keep it inexpensive, but it will go over $1.50 per person. How does Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, asparagus, garlic bread (just make sure you both eat it!) and chocolate dipped strawberries sound?

CHICKEN FETTUCCINE ALFREDO is a snap to make and somewhat reminiscent of that romantic movie Lady and the Tramp. (Remember the spaghetti scene?) If you don't eat wheat, you can put the chicken and sauce over spaghetti squash, broccoli, zucchini, or other vegetables, or just eat it plain, adding a salad to make it a full meal.

Selecting and cooking ASPARAGUS is really a matter of personal preference. Some people like the very thin stalks. I prefer the big fat ones. Some people like the stalks cooked whole. I prefer it cut into bite sized pieces before I cook it. Some people like it boiled or steamed. I prefer it sautéed in butter, with maybe some garlic. I’ll tell you how to cook it the way I like it, but you can cook it however you like. A pound of asparagus serves two to four people. With everything else in this meal, and especially the rich Alfredo sauce, I’m going with half a pound for two people. Don’t forget that you have to cut off the tough end of the stalk, which may be a lot or it may be just a bit. You won’t end up with as much as you might think you will, because of that waste.

GARLIC BREAD isn't really necessary, of course, but nice to have. (And I have a bit of a problem thinking of garlic bread as a romantic food, but as long as you both eat it…) Try to get just one small loaf of French or Italian bread – something like a hoagie roll. Check the prices, though. Sometimes that single roll can cost as much as a whole loaf of bread! To save some time, you can serve the loaf whole and cold and you can each butter your own at the table.

Not much says Valentine’s Day like CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES! I haven’t priced them in stores recently, but I remember that they used to be a dollar each at a candy store about twenty years ago. What an indulgence! What a ridiculous price to pay for something so easy to make!

So how much will this dinner cost? The Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo will cost about $3.50. $1.00 for the asparagus. The bread, about 50 cents. It depends on the bread you get. Assuming fifteen strawberries per pound, they’re about 20 cents each, so let’s say another dollar for the Chocolate Covered Strawberries. Total for the meal, about $6.00, or about $3.00 each. More than my meals usually run, but it is for Valentine’s Day, after all!

Of course, that’s a bit deceptive, because you had to buy a whole pound of strawberries, and the rest of the asparagus and the Parmesan and the cream, which probably cost more than you would normally spend for things. But it’s still a pretty reasonable price for a romantic dinner for two.