Cooking: Eating on a budget

Living on a budget is all well and good. But the grocery store is my downfall. I have had a general budget of $200 in my head for a few years. I saved our receipts for a month and we spend about $250 a week. Not terrible, but not great. I am trying to get that down closer to $175. Tricky because I refuse to buy anything but hormone free meat and non- Asian fish.  I try very hard to buy as much organic produce as possible. Summers are easy as I hit the local farmers market and while they are not certified organic on paper, most local farms are organic in practice.

I am on a mission. Part of it is restock my freezer, feed my family well and cheaply and find a way to save money.

 I have spent an average of $160 a week the past three weeks, so I am doing okay. I have figured out better the one dish that turns into two trick as well as that  my freezer is my friend. I bought meat today and froze most of it. I hope to be better at the make and freeze meal trick by summer when I can make fresh foods and freeze them. 

My girlfriend turned me onto Aldi. I was a total snob about Aldi,  but I am a convert. I spent $60 two weeks ago on things like cheese, snack crackers, tostada shells, blueberries (organic), carrots, frozen ravioli and more. I was a total cynic and now I am preaching!  I can't do all my shopping there, but what I can buy is cheap. I heard the one across the state line has wine. I like wine.

Life is too short to eat bad food. We are foodies to the core and while we are willing to sacrifice somethings, food is not one of them. 

via

Swann's Cheap Eats Menu

Swim banquet: I am taking  dessert

Balsamic chicken (crockpot)/ spaghetti squash with Parmesan and tomatoes/ roasted broccoli 

 Butternut squash and Kale Quesadillas

Whole Roasted Chicken/ eggplant Parmesan/ sauteed carrots

Nachos

Happy Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving from 5 Things For One Year...

Cooking: Seriously good salad

Kale is a mainstay of the Swann diet.

I love that I can buy it and it stays fresh for days.

We all love that it is  not "spicy" or " harsh" or any other word that has described food at our dinner table. Also, it is incredibly good  for you.

I plan on planting a winter garden with kale this year.

Cooking: Why eat out?

I always have a million blog posts running through my mind. 

Things I want to preach about...(people taking responsibility for how their kids behave, what they eat, how they shop, Monsanto), things I want to learn about...(how to have a better attitude, how to pray better, how to raise successful teenagers) and things that I do and find surprisingly good.

This past week, I made two really great meals. Well, three if you count what I ate and not the boring tacos I made for my family. Steve and I have gotten to the point that we rarely eat out. When we do it is often anticlimactic, as we find that most of the foods we love to eat, which are higher end at restaurants, I make at home. 

We eat better than a lot of our peers, mostly because we are cheap and we love food.

I lucked into two great deals on seafood these past 10 days and we have had Red Royal Shrimp (a treat if you ever can get them) and wild Alaskan salmon. Both were half price at Earthfare, which has wonderful meat and seafood. (I am not being paid to say that, I wish I was..ahem, Earthfare, ahem). 

This week we had tacos, shrimp and salmon.

I made my own shrimp boil and it was absolutely delicious. I usually use Zataran's shrimp boil, but as I am sure it has MSG in it, have ceased buying it.  I tweaked a recipe I found online and even Mr. Hard-to-Impress was indeed, impressed.

For the salmon, I threw three ingredients together and marinated the fish for about 45 minutes.  We love horseradish, so I mixed equal parts mustard, horseradish and Stubb's BBQ sauce (no cornsyrup) together. A little salt and pepper, and the salmon grilled up nicely. Delaney oohed and aahed over it, as well. Succeess.

Cooking is not hard, it just takes a little forethought. As a country with so many health problems caused from affluence, we could all use a little more home cooked, not out of a box meals.

Here is the recipe for the shrimp boil  I made. Try it once and you won't go back.

Happy Eating.

Shrimp Boil for 2 pounds of shrimp

• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbl. peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed
• 1 1/2 tsp. celery seed
• 1 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/4 cayenne pepper
• 1/8 cup kosher salt
• 4-6 bay leaves

To boil shrimp, bring 8 cups of water to boil, add spices. Add shrimp and cook til done. If cooking Royal Reds reduce cook time to half.
Rinse shrimp under cool water to cease cooking.
Serve with sauce of choice. We recommend Louisiana Hot Sauce brand cocktail sauce

Gratituesday: Really, good food

 This week's Gratituesday is about food and food memories.

I was telling my husband today about one of my birthday meals as a kid.

I am a notoriously picky eater. Not in the sense of  "plain food" or  "no spice" but in the "it must be good" food. I am not a huge fan of fast food, I don't like chain restaurants, don't eat meat or sandwiches (wet bread) and truly love "fresh food". Basically, I like what most people would consider high end food, at least when it comes to eating in restaurants.
Needless to say, we don't eat out much. 

As a kid, I was less picky. Although I really have never liked meat (except BBQ, I am a Texan after all)  or fruit punch. I loved sugar cereal, but my favorite breakfast was boiled eggs and grapefruit. Apparently I have been an old lady my entire life. We rarely at out and I loved pretty much any meal my mom made with the exception of two dishes,  liver and chicken and dumplings (wet bread).

When my mom asked me in the of 4th grade what I wanted for my birthday dinner, I said...

Lima beans and corn bread. Yep. Large lima beans and Martha White corn muffin mix. 

How low maintenance is that? 

I also wanted a KISS album. 

Loved this album

 

I love eating really good food. As a vegetarian, it is harder and harder to find it cooked well. Most people want to add bacon as a substitution for good flavor. That is cheating and of course, not acceptable to me.  When I find truly flavorful, well cooked food, I am over the moon. Especially if it is something that I really love and rarely find. Like giant beans. I ate these last week from a food truck and I was instantly back to that birthday so long ago.

 As someone who likes to eat,what food tastes like and how it makes me feel is very important. I am so grateful that my favorite restaurant has decided to have a food truck at both the Friday night concerts we loyally attend as well as the Chattanooga Market which we rarely miss. Terra Nostra gets me. They really,really get me. 

Cooking: We can solve it all

I have written before about how I think it is ridiculous that we are an obese society.

Monday, while I was clicking around on one of my favorite blogs, I found an old post that added another layer to my thinking about how cooking can fix our country's problem.

Cooking:What's a veggie to do?

I managed to work outside yesterday during the two hours that it wasn't raining or freezing. 

I am in the process of tearing up a brick path that has seen better days. Cathartic doesn't begin to describe using a sledgehammer to break loose the bricks. I see a future for myself in demolition. I can hire other mothers as my crew. 

We are in the throes of another cold front here in the south. 

Actually,  the entire country seems to be in the gripes of climate change. My sister, who lives in Ohio with her husband and kids, called me yesterday to tell me they were under a "winter weather advisory". That is code for "winter is never going to end." She hates it, but loves her Ohio born husband. That, my friends, is true love.

The view from her back door this morning, March 25 2013

As a good southerner, I am not too thrilled with the 37 degrees the thermometer is reading. After all it is spring break here in the scenic city. My kids have already been to see the movies they want to see,  been shopping, had two sleepover and it is technically day two of break. So  now, we are waiting. Waiting for the warm weather of last March and the promised warmth of Spring. 

I spent a little time yesterday researching what to eat.

 My name is Tanya and I am a vegetarian. It has been 18 years since I took the plant based path. Seriously, there should be meetings. When I was pregnant and when the kids were little, I would slip and eat a turkey sandwich. That stopped years ago. 

Now, I eat fish about twice a month and eggs almost every day.

As someone who is very into health and eating healthy, you would think I would know all the right foods to eat. For the most part, I do. But I have gained 7 holiday induced pounds and have been unable to take it off. I have resumed working out regularly, including more cardio into my routine and life weights four times a week. My metabolism is slowing down, I get it.  

Food seems to be the answer.

I enlisted the ever helpful Internets to help me figure it all out. Helpful? Not so much. 

 No one can seem to agree on what vegetarians should eat. 

Soy is bad, soy is good. Grains are good, grains are bad. 

Cook your food, eat it raw. Nuts are your friend.

I am now nuts. 

After avoiding grains, I am eating oatmeal for breakfast. 

Vegetarian chef salad  with almonds will be my lunch. 

Dinner, well, I guess it will be my good friend, Soup.  Blah, blah, blah.

Anyone else out there struggling with this?

Everyone else in my house has it easy. They eat the meat. 

Casa Swann Momma Needs Help Menu

• Mexican butternut squash and chicken stew/ Veg Mexican butternut squash stew
• Baked chicken legs/creamed spinach/ sweet potato fries
• Ellie Belle's birthday chicken fried rice/ birthday cake
• Zucchini lasagna/meatloaf (Ellie's second favorite)
• Taqueria Jalisco fish tacos