Random Thoughts on Healthy and Frugal Cookery

This evening, after sleeping for 16 hours, I awoke to that horrible "oh no! I didn't get to the grocery store!" feeling. I spent the long holiday weekend away, and then jumped into an insane 3 days of work. And I have a nasty coughing bug. So...the larder is a wee bit low - and sweetie is starving. We have no eggs, no butter, no flour, no bread, no tea (?!?!) and no defrosted meat (altho there are several rock solid turkeys in the freezer - LOL).

So what did we do? Well, I sent sweetie to the shops with a directive to buy tea and "something on sale for dinner". He arrive home with tea, a baguette, and chicken thighs - and severe case of sticker shock! I think I will be hearing lectures for the next week - but he has a whole new appreciation for our delicious (and approx .$0.50 per loaf) homebaked bread!! :)

While he was away, I stirred up a batch of polenta (I always try to keep cornmeal on hand - we love it for polenta, cornbread, and johnny cake) for tomorrow's breakfast. Grilled with a touch of homemade applebutter or dark maple syrup if will be a delicious and filling start to the day!

Then I popped our nearly nekkid turkey carcass into the stockpot with some celery tops and a roughly chopped onion. Whenever I buy celery, I start a new plant with the bottom and I freeze the tops for the stockpot. The stock will go towards a nourishing soup that will last all weekend. And it will be a healthy way to use up my carrots - which are starting to lose their snap.

Once sweetie returned home, the chicken thighs were immediately popped into a skillet with olive oil, garlic and spices. There were a few sweet potatoes left from our CSA box, so they all went into a large pit for a boil (we'll each have one tonight and then again for lunches tomorrow). My sorry limp romaine was elegantly sauteed with garlic and hot pepper after a quick google search for ideas.

Now, I know I'm very lucky that I had sweetie available to run to market and buy the chicken. In my single mom days, it wasn't always this easy - and that is why I make sure to ALWAYS keep certain staples in the pantry: flour, cornmeal, olive and coconut oils, dried beans, pasta, rice, oatmeal, canned tomatoes. Today, we were out of flour and oatmeal - its time to get 25lb sacks from Whole Foods. But in a pinch, we still could have had pasta marinara for dinner and polenta or cornmeal mush for breakfast :)

Now, its a big priority for us to have natural foods, so there are limitations built into our lifestyle. Its easier to buy a can of soup than to think ahead to the stockpot. And its easier to buy a loaf than to bake it. Our lifestyle isn't a choice everyone has - certainly not folks with limited cooking/storage space and limited time - and we are grateful for it.

What do you do to save on food costs while maximizing nutrition and taste?
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