A week after inviting readers to join me in saving money with the From Scratch Budget Challenge, three have taken me up on it and we’re pocketing the cash from not shopping for a week.
First in was Word Bandit, who is a vegetarian and buys only organics. Like me, she loves a sale at the market. She made the hummus recipe I posted in 2007 and if you can take your eyes off her Vita Mix, do note the dry garbanzo beans in her photo. Just this morning that recipe drew an indignant comment from someone objecting to the use of canned garbanzos. I replied to cook them then. (The problem is what….?)
Tess, of Tess’s Japanese Kitchen, is learning to cook Japanese food so it’s no surprise she had the ingreidents on hand for her luscious-looking Raccoon Miso Soup. No, raccoon isn’t one of them. Veggies, daikon and brown and white miso are among the ingredients and her recipe includes the story behind the dish. I love that sort of thing.
It’s not only women who are cooking with what they have. Philip stepped up to the plate yesterday and if you visit his blog you’ll see this fabulous and serious cocotte in his header image on some pages and food on others, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he comes up with. He’s a fellow cat lover and of course, the challenge does not include kitty food. He’s also a fellow political junkie.
I’m staying on the challenge for another week; I was too ill for two days last week to even eat much, let alone cook. When I did, I made the stuffed chicken thighs I posted Monday and I used bacon in a very unusual way in another recipe to come. A favorite spinach side dish is on today’s menu before my bag of baby spinach goes bad. I’d mentioned this dish in the early days of From Scratch and linked to the recipe at Fine Cooking but unfortunately, it is now one of the recipes available only to site subscribers, so I’ll pass along my adaptation. I’ve made it for years.
If you’d like to save some money too, check out the original post, which includes all the details about the challenge and the flickr group I set up. And thanks to Word, Tess and Phil!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Who would’ve thunk it!?!?!?! I made the front page of FS!
I look forward to experimenting with the Raccoon miso soup–and thanks to Tess for sharing.
Re: the Vita Mix. Well, I actually included it in the photo because you don’t have to purchase those over priced jars of tahini if you have a VM. Just measure the raw sunflower seeds and then throw them in with everything else. The VM does the rest of the work.
A big investment up front (though mine was a gift), I’ve saved a lot of money on nut butters and all kinds of gizmos with this thing. If you’re obsessive about trying to get your fruits and veggies in every day, it can’t be beat. You can pretty much pulverize anything frozen or raw in just minutes or less. Though real chefs may wince at just tactics, for those of us just trying to take care of ourselves, it’s amazing. A pint of frozen blueberries bought on sale, an almost overripe banana, and a bit of water on high speed, and you’ve a sweet healthy smoothie in less than a minute.
Great challenge. Thanks, ella.
Word Bandit’s last blog post..Rostropovich: YouTube Find Of The Week
Hi, Word! You’ll see that Tess’s soup has a gelatin product. I’ll bet she can offer some ideas about getting around that or whether it would work at all.
I enjoy nut butters from the processor, so I understand. And I really don’t give a fig what “real” chefs might think because they have staff to shop, prep and clean up after them. Very different situation. (And I’m a believer in buying kitchen items that last, whether it’s cookware or small appliances. They do pay for themselves when the endless replacing is eliminated.)
Happy cooking!
Yum, it’s good to read about some of the things folks came up with. I almost did it, with one cheat—tortillas. Otherwise, I had everything on had to make black bean and tofu enchiladas with green chiles and rice. Mmmm!
MusEditions’s last blog post..First Gila Monster of the year—It must be Spring!
It is fun – hey, the tortillas aren’t really a cheat and the enchiladas sound delicious! Join us if you wish.
I have a butcher’s cut (a flat iron steak, in this case) marinating for fajitas. I rarely see those cuts so I bought it and squirreled it away in the freezer. I had to make up a marinade so I hope I did it justice. It’ll be a skimpy fajita with what I’ve got on hand. Oh, well!