Sandra's Money Saving Meals

This isn't usually a recipe reviewing site, but I thought those of you watching your grocery budget could use another good recipe website that makes healthy meals for little money.

Enter Food Network chef Sandra Lee. I'm not a huge fan of her show "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee". But her new show "Sandra's Money Saving Meals" caught my attention. According to the show's description, the show features incredibly budget-friendly recipes for every day of the week, all based on her triple A factor of accessible, aspirational, and affordable. During the show, Sandra also gives pantry stocking tips and supermarket shopping savvy.

I wanted to try Sandra's recipe for Black Bean Burgers. I needed to buy 2 cans of black beans (89 cents a piece), 1 onion (69 cents), and two Kaiser rolls (75 cents a piece) - everything else I had on hand. They were super delicious and relatively healthy! Black beans are a good source of protein, and much cheaper than meat. Not only was this a cheap, easy and healthy meal, but the other half of my bean mixture will be used in tonight's dinner for Black Bean Enchiladas.

Two dinners for under 5 bucks?! I'll take that!

Does anyone have other good websites or cookbooks they'd like to share for budget-friendly meals?

One Soup, Four Ways!

Yum! As I was reading through this month's SELF magazine, I fell in love with this concept of one soup, four ways! You take a box of roasted red pepper and tomato soup, like so:


Then, by adding different spices, veggies and meat, you have completely different meals! I love concepts like this - adding a few ingredients to make something new. Check out the old post from my favorite Women's Health article!

How about you? Any multitasking recipes you have? I'd love to hear them!

Brand v. Generic Faceoff - Tailgate Edition

After reading this Wise Bread post a few weeks ago, I was inspired to do a DIY taste test. Knowing that I'd be hosting a football party to watch the Oregon Ducks take on the Stanford Cardinal seemed like the perfect opportunity to host a tailgate edition of generic v. brand taste test. Frugal Femme and I figured out what we'd test that were typical tailgate snacks and we came up with soda, potato chips, onion dip, tortilla chips, salsa and pretzels. After not being able to find generic potato chips and soda being declared a "flop", we were down to four items.

The ballots

We had our participants (i.e. willing friends) take a blind taste test and rate which item they thought tasted the best. We asked them to add their comments on why they prefered Food A to Food B. Here's what our research determined.

The Faceoffs:

1) Safeway Brand onion dip v. Lipton onion dip -in a blind taste test, the participants preferred the Safeway brand 2 to 1 compared to the Lipton brand. The Lipton brand was "too overpowering" for one participant, and another prefered the Safeway brand because it had a "nice, mild onion flavor".

2) O Organics (Safeway Brand) white corn tortilla chips v. Tostitos white corn tortilla chips - Tostitos won, but just barely (by 2 votes). Some people said they prefered the O Organics brand because there was "more crunch", but Tostitos eked out a victory.

3) O Organics (Safeway Brand) mild salsa v. Tostitos mild salsa - the O Organics won by a hair (two votes). One voter said about the O Organics brand "you can tasted the individual ingredients" while saying about the Tostitos brand "tasted like processed tomatoes".

Eric enjoying the taste test!

4) Safeway Brand pretzels v. Snyders pretzels - our testers were tied on this one. We even had a self-described pretzel expert in our group and she could not tell the difference between the generic and store brand!

So what's the point? Well, besides having a fun taste test, knowing that overall generic brands taste just as good if not better in most cases could save you a lot of money when you're shopping for party food, or just your grocery budget in general. Clearly, we know that some things are worth the splurge for a brand (soda!), but you're not missing much else.

What about you? Are you buying brands because you think they taste better? Do you always buy generic to save some money? Are there some products you refuse to buy generic?

Slow Cookin'....

The slow cooker. A lazy person's kitchen accessory or a smart person's essential kitchen item? Since I love my slow cooker with all my heart, I will select the latter. My friends and I actually got in a debate - if you could only select one cooking source, which would you select from a grill, a stove/oven, or a slow cooker? While there's obviously merits for all of them (nothing tastes like a grilled burger or cookies fresh from the oven), I think the slow cooker is convenient, versatile, economical, and green!


For those of you who are new to slow cooking, welcome! Basically, a slow cooker cooks food at a constant and low temperature for hours, making food more flavorful. Ever notice how people sell things by adding taglines like "slow-cooked"? Yeah, because it's delicious. And it's also great because you can take 10-15 minutes chopping and prepping your food, throw it in the slow cooker, leave for work for 8-10 hours, and when you come home, your dinner is ready. How awesome is that?!

You can cook just about anything in a slow cooker, making it a super versatile piece of equipment to have in your kitchen. Just some quick glances at my slow cooker cookbook and here are some of the recipes: hot artichoke dip, butterscotch fondue, beef bourguignon (I'm sure Julia Child is not thrilled about this), Jamaican jerk pork sandwiches, pasta with sun-dried tomato sauce, rosemary chicken and potatoes, and decadent raspberry brownies! YUM!

A slow cooker also helps you get more bang for your buck in your grocery budget. You can buy cheaper, tougher pieces of meat, and put it in a slow cooker for a few hours. What you end up with is a tender, flavorful piece of meat (sorry vegetarians!).

And something I definitely love about slow cookers - they're an energy efficient way to cook. Now, this probably depends on a few factors - is your oven energy efficient? Do you have a low-wattage slow cooker? How long will you leave the slow cooker on? In most instances, your typical slow cooker is going to have a lower wattage than your oven. Surprisingly, it will even use less energy in 8 hours than an oven would in an hour! Check out this planet green post on the author's research on slow cookers v. ovens.

If you are interested in dusting off your slow cooker, the recipe book I love is Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes. Anyone else out there in love with their slow cooker like I am? Anyone inspired to give it a try?

Oh, and PS - dinner tonight: slow-cooked white chicken chili with corn bread muffins.

What's On the Menu?

For the most part, my husband and I are pretty healthy eaters. I get a lot of great recipes from Eating Well, Cooking Light, and Women's Health. As you probably know, it's more expensive to get fresh produce instead of canned or frozen, and you can greatly increase the costs when you buy organic produce. However, I don't consider produce a luxury - I consider it an investment in my health and well-being. And I just love unloading my cart - I have apples, bananas, lettuce, carrots...so colorful and it definitely gets me excited about eating well. I especially love unloading my bags from the farmers' market!

The worst thing about having all of the luscious fruits and vegetables in my house is they have a short shelf life, especially my organic produce from the farmers' market. Nothing is more sad than putting beautiful peppers in your fridge, forgetting about them, and a couple of days later, they're mushy. I have filled up my compost bags with more forgotten fruit than I care to admit, and I realized I had to do something to stop wasting money and great, healthy food.

My solution? A small dry erase board on my fridge. And how does that solve the problem? It serves as a reminder to me what EXACTLY I was going to do with those tomatoes. If I can plan even further ahead, I like to arrange my meals for the week in order of how long the produce will keep. Plus, I love it when friends come over and are impressed with my meals! Someone sees I have "blue cheese turkey burgers and sweet potato fries", we might get into a discussion of how to get the fries to be crispy rather than soggy. It's amazing how many good conversations I've gotten in because of my menu.

My menu for this week:

Besides remembering what to do with the food you buy, knowing how to store produce is key. Check out this article on how to store produce from Martha Stewart. What doesn't she know?

Is Bulk Buying Worth It?

Is bigger really better? My husband and I frequent Costco every few weeks to stock up on essential (okay, and maybe some non-essential) items. As I cram every storage space in my house with huge cereal boxes and 4 liters of ketchup, I ask myself "How much money am I really saving?" Here's what I found out:

The savings:

*My husband and I really like to get our proteins at Costco - steaks, chicken, and fish. They have a good selection, great quality, and they freeze well (which helps when you have two months' worth of meat). For instance, we buy a 6 lb bag of frozen chicken breasts for $18 ($3/pound). This week, my nearby grocery store is having a sale on the same brand's chicken breasts for $5/pound. Okay, score - I save $2 a pound! We eat A LOT of chicken, so that definitely adds up over the course of a few months.

*I think getting nuts at a grocery store is a total ripoff. Usually, they are in small containers and they cost a ton of money. At Costco, we get a 3 lb bag of roasted, unsalted almonds for $9; if I wanted the same amount at a grocery store, I'd pay double or triple. Normally an 11 oz canister of roasted, unsalted almonds costs around $5.

*We go through milk like it's going out of style. For 2 gallons of milk at Costco, I pay $3 ($1.50/gallon). At the grocery store, I've seen milk for $2.99/gallon, but occasionally on sale for $1.99. It's a little bit of savings for something we constantly go through, but it's like a jigsaw puzzle trying to figure out how to fit two gallons of milk in your refrigerator. Plus, they're a little odd-shaped and tricky to pour...okay, I actually might be talking myself out of buying them now.

*And it goes without saying that a Costco meal, while most likely very bad for your health, is a really good value. For $1.50, you can get a huge hot dog and a 20 oz. soda. Just eat a salad or something for dinner.

The tradeoffs:

*Obviously, you have to have a certain amount of space or storage to keep extra food or supplies around. If you're tripping over 50 toilet paper rolls, it might not be worth the couple of bucks you save.

*Food spoiling. I have learned my lesson not to buy produce at Costco unless I have a strict plan of what I'm doing with it. It sounds great to get a huge bin of mixed greens for salads for 1/4 of what you'd pay at the grocery store. But then, I get tired of salads after Day 2 and all that money I "saved" gets thrown in the composter. It doesn't count as saving money if you're not going to eat it.

*Limited brands or selections. Usually the Kirkland brand is just fine by me, but some people are really commited to certain brands that aren't always available at Costco. I love Yoplait yogurts, but they only have the 18-pack of strawberry and peach. I want lemon burst or key lime pie!

The moral:

*It isn't always better to buy in bulk. For my family, I like to buy fresh and frozen proteins to build meals around. It saves money, plus makes grocery shopping cheaper and easier knowing my proteins are already taken care of. But buying too much of other things will just end up taking up space in your pantry and you won't be able to finish it before it goes bad.

*Make sure to check the unit pricing to make sure you're getting the best deal. Just because something is at a wholesale club doesn't necessarily mean you're getting the best price.

*If you'd really like to cash in on the savings, see if a friend is interested in splitting some items with you. Maybe you won't use 50 batteries, but you could probably find a use for 25. Maybe you can split produce or bread or other items that have a shorter shelf life.

Who goes to Costco or Sam's Club out there? What products do you prefer to get in bulk? What do you think is a better buy at a grocery store?

10 Ingredients, 40 recipes

So as much as I love talking about saving money, I also love talking about healthy cooking and living. (Ehem, I did just make two dozen Funfetti cupcakes just so I could bake and eat a few, but never mind).

Anyway, one magazine I love is Women's Health. They are a great mix of nutrition, workout tips, relationship, fashion, etc. They had a wonderful article a year or so ago on how to use 10 ingredients (plus pantry basics) to make 40 different, HEALTHY meals! First of all, I love this article because it reminds me of good staples to put in my kitchen - things like red wine vinegar, breadcrumbs, tortillas, chicken broth, etc. These things (although probably not put together) are definitely a skeleton for dozens of meals. Add a couple of canned or fresh ingredients and you have a great dinner!

But what I love most about this article is that it takes the guesswork out of leftovers. You can prepare turkey the same way and have about 7 different ways to use that same prepared turkey in other fun dishes. And by using everything you have in your pantry, you're saving money at the grocery store (or at least you're not wasting food you don't eat).

Without further delay:

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/healthy-recipes-0