New Blog: Scratchy Mama

Anytime Gourmet is going away. Please follow me on my new blog, Scratchy Mama, all about cooking from scratch and living frugally.

Essentially Delicious

Sickness has hit our house hard these last few weeks. It started with me, then my son got it, and then my husband. I won't go into detail, but let's just say we were all a little tired, cranky, and sick of it (no pun intended)! Finally after almost three weeks, we are all feeling healthy.

While we were all trying to rest and get healthy, we watched a lot of shows on Amazon Prime on our tv, one of these being Essential Pepin. Jacques Pepin shares recipes from throughout his life, from simple dishes like quiche to complicated and expensive things like tuna tartar. I love watching him cook and learning about so many simple French (and American and other) recipes. I was so inspired that I had to buy his book (Check it out below using my Amazon link)! I know he is a very famous chef and makes it look easy on tv, so it may take me a few tries on some of his recipes, but I can't wait to start trying them out.

As Jacques would say, "Happy cooking!"

The bad B words: Bleach and Bromate

Did you know that the only reason flour is bleached is because it's faster than waiting for it to age and whiten on its own? And there's another evil "b" word - bromate. Most people don't know why bromate is added to flour or to even look for unbromated flour.

Here are some facts:

• Flour will whiten as it ages, but companies don't want to spend the time waiting. That's why bleaching flour began.
• Bleaching removes the nutrients from flour, so they are added back in after the bleaching process. In other words, you may as well take a vitamin if you want the nutrition from bleached flour.
• Potassium bromate is added to flour to reduce the mixing time, strengthen the dough, and allow for higher rising. It allows dough to stand up to commerical bread hooks and other commerical baking tools, however...
• Bromates are potential carcinogens (cause cancer). In theory, the bromate should be baked out of the bread as it cooks, but if it's not baked long enough or at a high enough temperature, some bromate will remain.
• Cake flour is always bleached, but if you use unbleached all-purpose flour, sift it once or twice, and remove 1 tablespoon per cup, you will end up with amazing cakes. No bleach necessary!

My conclusion: avoid both the B words. And it's not hard to do! I researched online and found on Amazon (of course) unbleached unbromated flour for only $0.66/lb. Not much more than my brother-in-law, a bread baker, can get from a commercial supplier.

I love Bob's Red Mill products, and here's another one. You have to buy four 5-lb packs of flour, but for someone who bakes regularly, that'll be gone before you know it!

If you just happened to buy a giant bag of bleached flour, don't fret. Just try this kind the next time you buy it. Happy baking!

Keen-wa bueno! Quinoa Salad with Chicken

Every time I hear the word quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), all I can think about is the XBox game Civilization Revolution. This is embarrasing, but I played it for about a week straight. I wanted to beat it at every level... never quite achieved that and now we've sold it. Anyway, some of the characters spoke made-up languages, and one lady would always say "keen-wa bueno!" For some reason this stuck with us, and when we first discovered quinoa, that's all we could think about. After eating this for dinner last night, that's what I wanted to say, "Quinoa, bueno!", because it is so good and refreshing. A nice change from the heavy food we've been eating this past month. 

Quinoa is so delicious and so good for you. Even though people commonly think it's a grain, it's actually a seed. That's why it looks like it's sprouting when you cook it.

One of my meals on my menu plan for the week is this quinoa salad. I basically made it up and it's not really much of a recipe since I used store-bought dressing, but I wanted to share how delicious (and healthy) it was. As far as cost goes, quinoa itself isn't super cheap, but for 1 cup (3 cups cooked), it cost me about $1.50. I think I can find it cheaper, and it's actually on sale this week, so I plan to get some more.

This salad would serve 4 - we are eating again tonight as leftovers. Here's the cost breakdown:

quinoa: 1.50
chicken (1/3 of Costco rotisserie): 1.70
cucumber: 0.35
radishes: 0.35
tomatoes:0.75
dressing (about 1/12 bottle): 0.30
parlsey: 0.50
spinach: 0.50
TOTAL: 5.95

For a healthy and filling meal, I think that's not bad! You could make it meatless to save even more - and since quinoa is a complete protein, it would probably still be very filling.

Quinoa Salad with Chicken
This is a loose recipe, so feel free to add any other veggies you have on hand, feta cheese, or olives if you want!
Serves 4

1 cup dry quinoa (3 cups cooked)
Cooked chicken pieces, chopped
1/2 - 1 cucumber
Small bunch radishes
3-4 tomatoes
1/2 bunch parsley
Greek dressing to taste (store bought or try this recipe)
Salt and pepper
Handful of spinach per serving

Rinse quinoa thoroughly using a mesh strainer. In a saucepan over medium-high, add about 1-2 tsp olive oil. Add quinoa and cook for a minute or two until some of the water is evaporated. Add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, and cover. Lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand, covered for 5 minutes. Let cool.

Dice all vegetables into bite-sized pieces and chop parsley. To get rid of some of the water in the tomatoes, dice them then lightly salt them and put in a mesh strainer over a bowl. Let stand for 5-10 minutes.

Once quinoa is slightly cooled, toss with all veggies, parsley, chicken, and about 1/4 cup dressing. Taste, and add more dressing if desired. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until cool.

To serve, place a handful of spinach on each plate/bowl, then top with some of the quinoa salad.

 

Hopefully you say "Quinoa, bueno!" after you've tried it. :)

 

Eating Gourmet for $50 a Week

 

We have been on a budget ever since my husband lost his job a few years ago (Praise the Lord he has a full-time position now!). We have found that using cash has helped us not to overspend on groceries, eating out, and other things. Our grocery budget was $300/month a while ago, but with food costing more, we raised it to $350 or sometimes $400/month. We don't really eat out ever, so this is pretty much all the food we eat in a month. As we were looking where to cut our expenses so we could finish paying off our debt, I thought there just had to be a way to spend less at the grocery store. We really only buy what's on sale and occasionally make an impulse buy, but we don't eat expensive pre-made or processed foods, and we don't really have snacks around, so how could I spend less? I think/hope the key is menu planning. My goal for the new year is to plan our menu for the week every week before going to the store. I'm sure many of you do this already, but I haven't been good about it.

After looking at the sales at the stores nearby and what I have in the house, here is my first dinner menu for 2013. Lunches are pretty simple since my hubby takes the same PB and honey sandwich, apple, and carrots (whole carrots, not baby carrots, which are a rip off) to work every day. Breakfasts are eggs or oatmeal or both and fruit. My goal is to keep it under $50/week including stock-up items like flour and the Costco peanut butter we buy.

Monday: Bacon-wrapped meatloaf (Pioneer Woman recipe) with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli

Find the recipe at Pioneer Woman. I'm halving the recipe since it's just two adults and leaving out the Parmesan but otherwise keeping everything else the same.

Tuesday: Leftover meatloaf sandwiches on good white bread with green salad

Wednesday: Baked chicken taquitos, cilantro rice, and salad

I've found that Costco rotisserie chickens are the way to go. For $5, I am using it for 3 meals this week!

For the taquitos, I'm not sure how I'll make them exactly (I'll post the recipe next week). All I know at this point is that I need to use up my corn tortillas and I will use some of the rotisserie chicken and cilantro in the filling.

Thursday: Quinoa salad with chicken

Cooked quinoa, seeded and diced cucumbers and tomatoes, any other veggies I have on hand, chopped parsley, cooked chicken, Greek dressing (I'm using store bought).

Friday: Asian chicken with broccoli and rice

I usually make this up using one or more of the following sauces: fish sauce, hoisin sauce, dark and regular soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, ginger, and garlic. It turns out really good if you use chicken that's already been cooked and just throw it in at the end. Cilantro over the top can sometimes add a nice freshness.

Check back next week to see how I did!