Crock pot, Healthy, Main Dishes, Slow cooker, Vegan, Vegetarian

Almost Work-free Curry

January 21, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

Curry is one of my favorite meals ever, because you can make it in a crock pot and basically do no work, or in a sauce pot and also do almost no work! I’m sure that there are curry recipes which take many exotic ingredients and hours of preparation, but for a basic recipe, and an American palate, curry is super simple.

This curry incorporates chickpeas, sweet potatoes, and other aromatic vegetables for an amazing, nutritious, tasty recipe. I used basically a jar of salsa starter that I had canned earlier in the summer, but you can also use frozen veggies, or fresh diced veggies. This is very filling, especially if served over rice. If you must have meat, feel free to also add some pork or chicken or beef.

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, drained
1 medium sweet potato, diced
1 medium white or yellow potato, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 can crushed or diced tomatoes
Optional: 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp red chili pepper, 1 tbsp garam masala

Step 1: Dice up the potatoes and throw them in a sauce pot or crock pot. Add the diced tomatoes and vegetables. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer and cook 20-25 minutes. (Or set to low and cook 2-4 hours).

Step 2: Open the chickpeas and drain. Add to the pot, along with any spices you want to use. Cook just until everything is heated through, if using a crock pot, add about 30 minutes before serving. If desired, boil some rice and serve with the curry, or you can serve with flat bread.

Dips and Sauces, Healthy, Less than 5, Main Dishes

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Rolls

January 19, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

You know how sometimes you just want to make a meal that looks really nice and impressive, but you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen? No energy or time for that today. Well, here’s a great recipe that can easily be customized, takes less than 5 ingredients, and in under 30 minutes you have a very nice dinner that other people will think took all day!

For these rolls, you can use any thin cut of meat. Try pork chops or a thin flank steak. Even a firm white fish fillet would work. You can then stuff it with any types of vegetables, kraut, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. (See my stuffed pork chops for an example).

For this particular recipe, I thawed some boneless skinless chicken breasts, and then cut them in half down the center. Then each half I put between two sheets of wax paper, and pounded them thin with a rolling pin. You could use a meat cleaver or heavy glass as well. The thinner they are, the faster they cook and the better able to roll them up they will be.

Ingredients:

2 thin slices chicken breast
1/2 cup spinach leaves
2 slices white American cheese
Optional: yogurt-dill sauce

Step 1: Pound the chicken thin, or use very thin cutlets. Lay the chicken flat, and layer on the cheese and spinach. Wrap the chicken around itself into a roll, secure with a toothpick if needed.

Step 2: Set the oven to 350, and place the rolls in an oven-proof baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Optional: top with *yogurt-dill sauce.

Step 3: Bake for 30-35 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked.

Serve your lovely rolls alone, or with whatever side dishes you like. I made some rice and cranberry sauce, and let me tell you, chicken and cranberry sauce is an awesome combo!

To make the dill sauce, the recipe is below. This topping is great because it is so simple, and so versatile. Spread it on sandwiches, add cucumbers to make tea sandwiches, use it on chicken, pork, or fish. Try different herbs too, to change up the flavors.

*Yogurt-Dill Sauce:

1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Enjoy!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:48]

Administrative, Finances, Healthy, Informative, Main Dishes

Pantry Challenge – Week 2

January 17, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

To read earlier posts on this challenge, why I’m doing it, and how the first week went, go here:

Welcome to 2016!
Pantry Eating Challenge – Week 1

This is week 2 update. Things are still going well. I have to fight the urge to go grocery shopping almost every day, which I know makes me a total weirdo. 🙂 I went to the store twice this week, once for bananas, and then again because we were almost out of milk, yogurt, kefir, and fresh vegetables. I still hadn’t used the asparagus I bought last week, but we went through milk faster than I thought we would.

What did I buy this week?

Dairy		Fruit/Veg
Yogurt	3.9	Bananas (8)	0.6
Kefir	8.37	Blueberries	1.49
Gallon milk	2.69	Can pineapple	0.99
		Spinach	1.49
		Org. bananas (6)	1.82
TOTAL	22.34	Cucumber	0.99

The first store trip was just for the organic bananas, and I picked up a cucumber as well because I knew I had a little bit of dill left from 2 weeks ago. Mixed with plain greek yogurt, it made an awesome topping for lemon pepper fish. The second trip was Thursday, and I absolutely love that ALDI is on the ball with healthy offerings! They now have many items from their own label which are gluten-free, organic, natural, etc. They offer some of the best prices around.

Yogurts and bananas are a staple we go through pretty quickly. The blueberries, to be honest, were an impulse buy because they were on sale and looked so good!! And they really were, totally worth it. Then the spinach was another staple item, and we were almost out of milk & kefir. The pineapple was another impulse, because it’s high in vitamin C and I anticipated making smoothies at some point. Or potentially another batch of cranberry sauce, because I still have about a pound of raw cranberries in my refrigerator.

The menu from this week included:

Jan 9 – Leftover seafood linguini
Jan 10 – Steak, rice, & steamed broccoli
Jan 11 – Lemon pepper breaded fish with cucumber dill yogurt and mashed potatoes
Jan 12 – Quinoa & red beans
Jan 13 – Beef roast, chopped potatoes & carrots, asparagus
Jan 14 – Shrimp fried rice
Jan 15 – Leftovers

Breakfasts included oatmeal with dried fruits & nuts, whole wheat English muffin with almond butter & jam, smoothies, or a fried egg sandwich on whole grain toast. The bread products were purchased on super sale a while ago and in the freezer, as were the beef roast, steaks, white fish, and shrimp. Potatoes can last for months at room temperature away from light, and carrots can last several months in the crisper. Even if they start growing eyes or hairs, they are still edible.

Quinoa is a very healthy seed, and a whole grain. I chose to use quinoa instead of white rice for the red beans, and it was a perfect match. The beef roast I pulled out of the freezer and thawed in the refrigerator a day before cooking. Fried rice is always a good choice, because you can add pretty much any vegetable ever, so it’s a good way to use up what’s about to expire and also you can spread out a smaller amount of meat to feed you several meals. I used a pound of shrimp here, and the bag I purchased was two pounds, so I still have one more pound of shrimp in the freezer.

You’ll also notice that I incorporate leftover nights often, as well as taking leftovers for lunch. I often make lots more than we need for one meal on purpose, because then I just pack it into single serve tupperware, and we have another meal just waiting to be heated up. This makes packing a lunch super easy, and on days when I don’t want to cook dinner, we already have several different options available from the past couple of days. Leftovers are an awesome way to cut down on the time spent cooking, as well as save yourself some money too.

Let’s see how this week goes! Halfway there…

Breads, Comfort food, Finances, Fish, Healthy, Informative, Main Dishes, Vegetarian

Clam & Garlic Pizza

January 14, 2016 BudgetEpicurean 1 Comment

One of my favorite parts about living in New England is the abundance of seafood. I wrote Tuesday about seafood linguini, and today is all about clam pizza (don’t worry, I actually made and ate them on separate weeks. Unless seafood every day is appealing to you, in which case rock on).

Seafood is pretty darn healthy for you on the whole, be it lobster, clams, shrimp, crab, or any other shelled ocean dweller. Clams are a good source of several nutrients and minerals, including magnesium and manganese, phosphorus, potassium, copper and selenium, and a very good source of Vitamin B12. Read More Here. They are also naturally low in fat and high in protein.

These clams were from a local farmers market (if you’re local to New Haven, check out the City Seed network of markets). I met the woman who captains the boat that harvested these guys, from the river and bay less than an hour from my house. She showed me photos of the boat, the other deck hands, and a typical day’s haul.

She also explained the difference between several different types of clams, mostly size and thus what types of recipes they are best for. Of course I don’t remember most of it, but the point is it was super cool to meet the actual person who obtained the food I was planning to eat. I got this baker’s dozen of clams for only $5 too.

Once I saw the clams, I knew I had to have them. And once I had them, I knew that clam pizza was gonna happen. If you’ve ever been to New Haven, or even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve heard about Pepe’s Pizzeria, and their famous White Clam pie. It was named the best in the country! I am not arrogant enough to claim that I can make it just like Pepe or better, but I wanted to at least give it a shot.

This woman also gave me some good advice on how to open and cook them, since this was my first time cooking with fresh clams. A nice trick is to freeze them for an hour or so, then thaw them in a pan over medium low heat. This makes them pop open really easily. Or you can thaw them on the counter, just make sure to use a container to catch all the flavorful juice they release! That’s good stuff.

The next step of this pizza was making the dough. I could have bought it pre-made at the store, but I wanted to be all Suzy Homemaker and do it all from scratch. Turns out, pizza dough isn’t even that hard to make! And you can make a double batch, and keep half in the refrigerator or freezer to use again later. This may become a regular weekend project now.

Ingredients for Pizza Dough:

2 tsp yeast
3 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tsp sea salt

Step 1: Put the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and mix to dissolve. The water needs to be just warm, not too hot to kill the yeast. This is called “activating” the yeast. It wakes up and starts eating the sugar. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.

Step 2: In a large bowl, or stand mixer, mix the yeast with the flour, rest of the water, oil, and salt. Mix until the dough is sticky yet pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Let it sit at room temperature 1 hour, so go do laundry or watch a TV show or run errands.

Step 3: Punch the risen dough down, mix for a few minutes. Let it rest again for 1 hour. (This is kind of an all-day project, but with very little hands-on time. Plenty of breaks to get stuff done, and you don’t have to babysit the dough in between.) Either cut the dough in half for two smaller pizzas, or spread it out on a pizza pan (for round) or cookie sheet (for rectangle). Heat the oven to 400 F.

Step 4: Spread your dough, and poke a few holes in it with a fork to prevent big bubbles. Bake the dough for 5-7 minutes, until lightly browned. Then top with whatever you like, and bake another 5-7 minutes, until toppings are warm, browned, and/or gooey.

For my topping, I mixed clams, garlic, and olive oil for a pungent dose of flavor. While the oven was heating, I took an entire head of garlic and cut off the tops. I drizzled a tbsp or 2 of olive oil over it, wrapped it in tin foil, and baked it at 400 for about 15 minutes. This cooks the cloves, turning them soft and brown and mellowing the garlic flavor. Mix this with oil and chopped up clam, and you have heaven in the making.

Ingredients for White Clam Pizza Topping:

Dozen clams, chopped, with juice
1 head of garlic, baked, mushed with a fork
2 tbsp olive oil + 2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
Sprinkle of sea salt
Dash of Italian seasoning
Optional: 1/2 cup Parmesan or mozzarella

Step 1: Cut the top off the garlic, drizzle with oil, & wrap in tin foil. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes. Squeeze the cooked garlic into a bowl, and mash with a fork. Add clams, clam juice, oil, lemon, salt, and seasoning and mix well.

Step 2: Take your dough, and spread the toppings all over it. Sprinkle again with salt or seasonings, or a squirt of lemon if desired.

Step 3: Optionally, sprinkle on a handful of shredded parmesan or mozzarella cheese. Bake in a 400 oven for 7-10 minutes, until heated through and cheese is melted.

You can serve with extra lemon wedges for sprinkling over the slices. This is garlic and seafood heaven! It smells amazing, and tastes even better.

Oh, and I had only used half the dough on the clam pizza, so I took what vegetables were hanging out in the refrigerator and also made an awesome Brussels sprouts, beet, mushroom, and onion pizza!

Pizza dough you make yourself is delicious, and far more healthy than a packaged box full of leaveners, preservatives, flavorants, and who knows what other chemicals. When you make things at home, you know exactly what goes into them, save yourself some cashola (because it is almost always cheaper to make things from base ingredients than pay the convenience fee of someone else making it) and can add a little love too. 😉 That’s what my grandma always said, and I think she’s right.

How about you? Ever made pizza dough at home? What’s your favorite pizza topping?

Fish, Healthy, Main Dishes, Pasta

Seafood Linguini Bonanza

January 12, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

If you are already a lover of seafood, oh boy do you need this recipe in your life! If you are unsure, trying to incorporate more seafood into your diet, or have someone who does not like seafood and you want to convince them, you also need this recipe in your life!

Seafood is super for your health, mussels & clams provide some of the highest sources of zinc and certain other minerals of all protein sources, is quite high in protein yet low in calories, and a source of omega-3 fatty acids. You should of course educate yourself as to the source of your seafood, and you can read more on the nutrition facts here or here.

Well, isn’t seafood expensive? you may ask. I can’t afford to eat that stuff. you may think.

False.

Let me explain.

The components of this recipe include: mussels, shrimp, and white fish (in this case, catfish). All of these ingredients came out of my freezer (since I am doing my January restricted budget/eat from the pantry challenge), and all together cost about $6. Here’s the secret: always shop sales!

The catfish nuggets I grabbed when they were manager’s special, meaning they had to be sold that day, or else, for less than $2. Just pop it in the freezer, now you have fresh fish whenever you want it. The mussels were on sale, close to $6 for a 2 pound bag, and I used one pound. The other pound is in the freezer waiting for the next recipe. And the shrimp? Also on sale, under $2 for a 12 oz bag.

The other ingredients include fresh onions & garlic & dill, all to be had for a buck or two. Whole wheat pasta, 0.88 on sale. Olive oil, salt, these I always have on hand. And a secret ingredient, stuffed cherry peppers! These were left in the refrigerator and I didn’t want them to spoil, so into the pasta they went! And I must say, it was a wonderful addition, the peppers added just a touch of bite.

Ingredients:

1 pound linguine pasta
1 pound mussels
12 oz shrimp
1.5 pound white fish, such as catfish or tilapia
5-6 hot peppers
2-4 cloves of garlic
2-3 green onions
2-3 stems of dill (optional)
2 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 small white onion
Salt & Pepper

Step 1: Either steam the mussels by heating, covered, until they all open, or freeze them and then thaw in the frying pan, this causes them to open. Cook mussels for 7-10 minutes. Add 2 tbsp olive oil and the shrimp, cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the white fish, cook until easily flaked with a fork.

Step 2: Remove the seafood to a plate and keep warm. Add peppers, garlic, and onion, and cook until softened. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and simmer the pasta 8-10 minutes, until al dente.

Step 3: Add the cooked, drained pasta to the pan, along with the rest of the olive oil, vinegar, and the seafood. Mix well to coat the pasta in the seafood juice and oil. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Dice up the fresh dill (or other herbs) & sprinkle on top.

You could also use parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, or rosemary. Feel free to substitute other types of shellfish or seafood such as cooked lobster meat, crab, clams, or scallops. Whatever is on sale! 😉

Administrative, Finances, Informative, Main Dishes, Review

Pantry eating challenge – week 1

January 10, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

So for the New Year, I decided to try a cook-from-the-pantry challenge. See this article for full details, but pretty much the plan is to cook mostly from what is already in my house (fridge, freezer, pantry) and $20 per week for fresh produce & dairy.

How’s it going so far?

Pretty darn well, actually. I’ll try to keep posting updates every Sunday on how the previous week went, and at the end summarize the whole month. But for the first week, things are going along as normal. Here’s the week’s menu:

Jan 1 – Pork roast & sauerkraut (leftover from day before, and it’s good luck on New Years Day!)
Jan 2 – Chicken & rice soup
Jan 3 – Chicken quarters & rice & broccoli
Jan 4 – BBQ spare ribs & baked potatoes
Jan 5 – Crock Pot Turkey Chili
Jan 6 – Seafood linguine (recipe coming Tuesday!)
Jan 7 – Pork chops w/apple chutney, mashed sweet potato, and cranberry sauce
Jan 8 – Spinach stuffed chicken rolls, rice, salad

You get one bonus day because Jan didn’t start on a Monday. 🙂

For breakfast, I have had smoothies using frozen fruit & fresh, wheat English muffins (from the freezer) with almond butter & jam, and cereal (cold and hot). Lunches are most often leftovers from one of the dinner meals, and one day this week I had a caprese sandwich for lunch out with some coworkers.

Oh, how am I doing with not shopping? That part is a little harder… as you may know, I’m a sucker for a good sale, and have no qualms snagging them and stocking up when I find it. Well, that’s a no-no this month, I have to make a strict list of only fresh veg and fruits we want or need, and stick to it. For me, this is the toughest part of the challenge so far. So, what did I buy this week?

Dairy		Fruit/Veg
Kefir (2)	5.92	Bananas (5)	0.96
Org. milk 1/2 gal	3.5	Spinach (12 oz)	1.49
Heavy cream	1.69	Kiwi (4)	1.49
		Asparagus (1 lb)	2.69
		Romaine (3)	1.99
		Avocado (2)	1.98
TOTAL	$23.30	Raspberries	1.59

Yup, I went over budget by a little more than 3 dollars… but honestly that’s still pretty good, given on average I spend $100 per week on groceries.

The cream was so I could make our own coffee creamer, (we are trying to get away from packaged, processed chemicals as much as possible) and organic, grass-fed milk is way more expensive than factory milk. But it is a choice we are making, to be healthier all around. The same goes for adding kefir to our diets, to get more gut-healthy probiotics.

The fruits will mostly be eaten as snacks and in lunches, and added to smoothies. The spinach & romaine will be salads to go with things from the freezer & pantry, and compliment any frozen veg. I already have. The fiancee eats a banana per day for breakfast, and both the asparagus & raspberries were on sale, how could I not buy them?!

Well, that’s it for this week, stay tuned for next week!

How about you guys, ever done a no-spend or low-spend challenge? Do you think you have more food in the house than you think you do? Could you go a month without grocery shopping as usual?

Dessert, Holidays, Less than 5

Birthday Dirt Cake

January 7, 2016 BudgetEpicurean 1 Comment

As a kid, I was always given the choice of what cake to have for my birthday. Sometimes I’d pick chocolate, sometimes white cake, sometimes pie. And then I discovered dirt cake.

Dirt cake is aptly named, because it looks like dirt. It is essentially just chocolate pudding topped with crushed Oreo cookies. But the combination looks very much like mud and dirt, especially when the finishing touch is added: gummy worms. Trust me, kids love it! Kids of all ages. 🙂

Give it a try and see how easy to make it is. I had it as a young kid, and late into my 20s I still request it.

Ingredients:

2 packs chocolate pudding (or homemade)
12 or so Oreo-style cookies
Optional: gummy worms

Step 1: Make the pudding according to directions (or if you’re ambitious, make it from scratch) and chill.

Step 2: Put the cookies in a sealable plastic bag, and crush with a rolling pin or your fist.

Step 3: Top the pudding with the crushed cookies. If you wish, add gummy worms, or other candies to decorate. Enjoy!

Administrative, Finances, Informative

How to Clean & Organize Your Freezer

January 5, 2016 BudgetEpicurean 2 Comments

Though at the time I did not time this clean-out purposely, it will be a huge help as I complete my January pantry-clean-out challenge! (Read the full details of the challenge here).

Anyone who has a large freezer knows that it can be hard to keep it organized. The freezer tends to accumulate random bits of meats and beans, half-cans of items, extras of meals we prepared previously, and somehow have forgotten it exists. Even if you already use a freezer to help prevent food waste, if you don’t know what is inside and it ends up freezer burned and in the trash 8 months later, that defeats your goal in the first place.

A regular freezer deep clean is a great way to keep in mind what you have, what you need, and how much space is still left. I have a bad habit of majorly stocking up on good sales, so that my freezer tends to always have very little space. This creates a jenga-effect, and also obscures my view of what is towards the back or the bottom. By cleaning it out & re-organizing at least every 6 months, I pull the things in the back towards the front, and remind myself of what needs cooked soon.

Step 1: The first step in cleaning out a freezer, whether standing or chest, is to pull out everything. Just make a big pile on the floor. I promise, in the few minutes it is out of the freezer everything will not thaw.

Step 2: Take this pile of food, and begin to organize it. For example, I put all meats on one side of the freezer, and all frozen veggies and fruits on the other side. You could categorize by the shape of the package, by ready-to-cook meals versus ingredients, whatever makes sense for you.

Step 3: Now look at your nice, empty freezer. Are there random puddles of frozen icky stuff? Are there a few loose peas rolling around? Now is the time to bust out the cleaning solution and a few rags, and scrub it up nice and clean. Starting fresh always feels great!

Step 4: Return everything back to the freezer, nicely organized. You can, if you have the time, write down all the contents prior to putting them back. Whether on paper or in a note on your phone or an email to yourself, having a list of everything can be SO helpful when you are meal planning later. Whether you do or don’t write it down, the final step is to put all the food back into the freezer in a more organized way.

And now sit back, relax, and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment!

These same steps can be applied to the refrigerator and the pantry as well. It is so helpful to go through this process once or twice a year at least, to keep fresh in your mind what types of foods and how much you have on hand. This way you can take advantage of sales as they happen, and keep your savings by using up the items you buy.

Going forward, it is helpful to have a permanent organization system. This will be different for each person/household/family based on what you eat and how often. Maybe you can keep a written notebook, where you cross out items as you use them each week. Or you could try a dry-erase board, where you add or remove items as you use them and re-stock. Or if you’re the digital type, you could have an online document that keeps a running list. Use whatever works for your style.

Do you have any freezer organizing tips or tricks? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Administrative, Holidays, Informative

Welcome to 2016!

January 3, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

Happy New Year dear readers!

Time goes by so quickly, does it not? Now is the time to reflect back on 2015, and look ahead to 2016. What good things happened last year? What do you want more of in your life this year? Now is the time to assess what worked and what didn’t, and what changes need to be made to make your life more of what you want it to be.

As you reflect on the past 365 days, assess all the areas of your life: health, finances, and relationships.

HEALTH

Health can include your general fitness level, your diet, how often and what types of exercise you do, your visits to any doctors or dentists. Do you see a general practitioner for a once yearly physical exam? Do you see a dentist for cleanings every 6 months?

Take an honest look at your diet, your snacks, “grazing”, portion sizes. No one will know but you so there’s no reason to not be honest. How closely does your current diet over the past year reflect your ideal eating habits?

What steps can you take to improve this year?

FINANCES

Finances should cover how much you make from your main job and/or business, income from other side jobs or seasonal jobs, income from investments, as well as outgoing money.

How much do you spend per year, per month? What do you spend your money on? Can you lower any fixed expenses, negotiate a better payment on your cell phone, rent, utilities, or a better bank rate if your credit improved? Can you take on a side job, baby sit, start a blog?

I recommend hitting the library and taking out finance books, or reading finance blogs. There is a HUGE wealth of information out there to help, no matter what your situation. Whatever the problem, credit card debt, school loan payments, default, bankruptcy, divorce, or just general money management, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

RELATIONSHIPS

As for relationships, this spans everything from work to friends to family to spirituality. And most importantly, your relationship with yourself.

If you have family members with whom you do not have a good relationship, ask yourself why. What can you do to mend those relationships? Do you need to forgive, or ask for forgiveness? Do you need to show compassion or interest?

Are you happy with your current friends? If not, think of ways to bring the kind of people you want to be around into your life. Maybe you could join a book club or sports group, or hang out in libraries or take a dance lesson.

Do you love yourself? Do you know what makes you happy, and take the time to do those things? When you are fulfilled and happy and joyful, you are more able to give and love others.

My 2016 Resolution?

I have decided I will challenge myself to not buy any pantry staples for the month of January. At first, I thought about trying to live solely from what I already have in the house, but then after discussing with Mister Epicurean, I realized we need certain staples that basically must be bought fresh. Mostly yogurts (which he goes through about 7-10 per week), milk/creamer, and fresh veggies. I can rely heavily on frozen and canned produce this month, but I do like having fresh salads and adding things like avocado to burritos.

Therefore, the challenge this month would be to meal plan and cook out of my freezer & pantry, and to have only $20 per week of “fresh” foods budget. Our average food budget monthly is $400, so to cut that down to 1/5 is pretty great! Of course, that $400 usually includes “stock up” purchases, such as when canned beans were on sale last week for $0.49, and I bought a case.

This challenge has several purposes:

Help clear out space in the freezer & pantry
Evaluate what I buy too much of, or not enough of
Challenge my creativity in making meals
Save us significant money on groceries

By doing a pantry-clear-out challenge, it will help me to realize I have a lot more food hiding in plain sight that I thought. We all have those half-boxes of pasta, a can of corn shoved behind something else, some spices or condiments bought for a recipe but never used, or used once. Now is the time to reach back into all the dark corners of the cupboards, and down to the bottom of the freezer, and see what can be used.

This month will also help me to see what I have stocked up on far too much, and what we use more often than I thought that I could consider stocking more of. For example, if I think I have more than enough canned tomatoes, and we run out by week 2, I will know that going forward. Or if I count 20 boxes of pasta to begin with, and at the end of the month we still have 19, then I should probably stop buying so much pasta when it’s on sale.

The final two points go together well, in that creativity saves you money. Like I mentioned earlier, the half-used ingredients? Figure out a way to combine them into one meal, and you have not only saved food from being throw out (which creates waste, takes calories out of the food system in a way that helps no one, and is basically like setting dollars on fire), but you also have created an almost-free meal. If you never used those ingredients, they would be wasted. Instead, you have eaten again for the same amount of money you already spent & had in the house.

So, this is the challenge, which started on Jan 1st. No stocking up, no matter how good the sale, and only $20 per week maximum towards fresh dairy & produce. I won’t even be buying any meat, I will be using what I have in the freezer. Good thing I just recently cleaned it out & reorganized.

Wish me luck!

How about you, any goals for 2016? Any Resolutions for this year? Feel free to share your goals & progress!

Administrative, Holidays

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years!

December 22, 2015 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

Wow! 2015 has really flown by. I believe I speak for the majority of the north east if not the USA when I say; how in the heck is it nearly Christmas! Totally snuck up this year. The spring-like weather, while totally amazing, don’t get me wrong, I love 50/60s in December, has us all in a kerfluffle over it not feeling… well… Christmas-y. Those who now or have always lived in warmer climates may not agree, but to those of us who are used to white Christmases, it is not quite the same feeling when it’s dreary & raining…

Also it seems like this year has had a higher than usual number of negative events. Almost every person I talk to has had an illness, a job loss, or a death in the family. People have not even decorated, grocery shopped, or bought gifts yet, let alone wrap them!

Amidst my own personal battle with what turns out to be an atypical sinus infection and a job transition, I have at the least accomplished gift-buying, but sadly neglected my writing. What seems like years (though in reality has been just over two weeks) of sore throats, incessant coughing, complete lack of sleep, and stuffy nose was caused by rude little bacteria, not the virus I suspected. Though prudent in my desire to not abuse antibiotics, turns out in this case I needed it! I am slowly on the mend, but about to get even busier. So forgive me, but I will be taking a break from the blog for the holidays.

As such, please enjoy this lovely anthology of holiday articles past!

General Christmas/Holiday articles:

Christmas Cooking & Baking:

Gift Ideas & DIYs:

You will find plenty of last-minute, frugal, and/or DIY gift ideas for everyone from your artistic aunt to your rugged hunter cousin, recipe and cookie ideas to delight and nourish the family and friends, and plenty of history and reflections to ponder in your few precious moments of down-time.

And don’t forget the most important part of the holiday season: Love! The love of friends and family, the love of community and neighbors, and love for yourself. May your holiday season be restful, rejuvenating, and filled with love and laughter.

Merry Christmas dear readers! See you in 2016!

Budget Epicurean

Almost Work-free Curry

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Pantry Challenge – Week 2

Clam & Garlic Pizza

Seafood Linguini Bonanza

Pantry eating challenge – week 1

Birthday Dirt Cake

How to Clean & Organize Your Freezer

Welcome to 2016!

The fusion of food, fun, frugality, and curiosity.