February's Food Quest, Week 3: Ready for Shopping Olympics!

Man, I'm good. Usually I'm fairly modest, if I do say so myself, but I'm pretty impressed at how far under budget I was this week.

My back was up against the wall a bit, in terms of bringing the month's grocery bill under budget for February. Though my two previously weekly trips came in on target, two supplemental trips had me a bit over for the month. Usually my weekly trip gets us through the week, but I was fighting a cold mid-week and resorted to a prepared meal from Whole Foods and some other cold-fighting goodies.

Given that I was running slightly over budget with these extra trips, I needed to be at my frugal finest today. One thing on my side was that I still had frozen ground turkey from last week, so tonight I'll use that for a Bolognese sauce. I figured I'd just make one meat purchase to help keep the bill down. Pork chops were on sale again, and I remember wanting to try this Pork Chops with Creamy Cabbage recipe from Food & Wine. The week's menus will be rounded out with a vegetable & bean soup for Monday soup night; and I'll make enough filling for two nights of Black Bean Soft Tacos (to which we can add leftover pork if there is some).

Armed with that plan, I was ready for Whole Foods. I was quickly faced with a difficult dilemma when I passed a display stand with a quart of maple syrup on sale for about $4 less than the usual. We weren't out, but will be soon the way B. has it every day with breakfast. So I hesitantly put it in the cart despite it adding $13 I hadn't planned on. That was the only really unplanned purchase of the week, I stayed focused on the list and...was very excited at checkout when the tally came to $117, well under the $150 weekly target. I've made up for the extra trips, and have $7 to spare going into the final February shopping trip. A good thing, as I'm cooking for extras on Open that Bottle Night...stay tuned!

Fusilli with Lentils & Cheese, Paired with a Cotes-du-Rhone

There's a pasta recipe for nearly every day of the week in Pasta from Barnes & Noble Books (Contributing Editor Jeni Wright), but this Fusilli recipe is one I keep coming back to. Green lentils and generous amounts of cheddar cheese make this a hearty dish especially suitable for winter. A few variations I've made that work well include adding 3-4 cloves of garlic instead of just one, and cutting back on the cheese...I stir in 1 cup of the grated cheese to the pasta after it's cooked and save another 1/2 cup or so for the topping.

The hearty dish calls for a wine to match. I'm always first inclined to go with an Italian wine with pasta, and I'm sure something like Nebbiolo or perhaps a Valpolicella would work well (though vegetarian, the dish could be described as meaty; the only tomato is 1 tbsp of tomato paste). you could also But I had a bottle of 2007 Delas Saint-Esprit Cotes-du-Rhone that I thought might provide a nice earthy match. It had a nose of violets, big cherry taste and firm tannins. A bit tight when first tasted, opened up fairly well after about 15 minutes in the decanter. A decent mid-week wine and a reasonably good pairing for the dish

If this is the first Cookbook Wine Pairing (CBWP) posts you've come across and you're looking for the recipe, this intro post gives a bit more background. Plenty of recipes posted here on Cooking Chat, but the CBWP items seek to provide a reference for people looking for wine matches for things they are making from cookbooks and online recipes.

February's Food Quest, Week 2

Routine weeks, insofar as they exist, are a bit easier for managing the food budget. But once again, this week was a bit different for us, as we're going out of town for a short overnight trip early in the week, and have a visitor with us for most of the week. On top of having an extra person in the house, we had a lot of items to restock that can add to the tab--some of B's specialty allergy-free items, plus we had virtually no fruit to start the week. But following these strategies and meal plans, I was able to still have our Whole Foods bill for week come in exactly on budget, $150.

One tip for frugal cooking is to plan at least one meal around something that is on special at your local grocery store. This week, a sirloin roast got top billing on the sale sheet, but we had enough beef the past week or so. Then I spotted pork chops on sale, and thought would be my sale item to work with. I often get pork chops on sale and leave in the freezer for a quick meal, sometimes resorting to (gasp) prepared sauce in a pinch. But this week I'll be more intentional and make some version of my Cumin & Sage Rubbed Pork Chops with Onion Sauce.

I'll make these pork chops some time during the week. Tonight, I'll make this wonderful Seared Salmon with White Beans & Spinach from Stir. I love this technique for cooking salmon, and so does my son who tried it for the first time recently and really liked it. It's not on sale nor is it a classic "frugal" item, but I want to train B. to enjoy fish so want to have it again before he forgets he likes it! You do need to look beyond the per pound price when comparing a fish like salmon to meats, because with the salmon there is virtually no waste. Just over 1/2 pound or so does fine for our family, so it's not as pricey as it seems at first glance.

Using items on hand is another key frugal foodie principle, so I'll round out the week with two pasta dishes that utilize items on hand: Fusilli with Lentils & Cheese (using cheddar and carrot sticks we over-bought) and if I need a fourth dish, I'll have some frozen ground beef or turkey ready to use for a quick meat sauce with leftover canned tomatoes I've got in the fridge.

In addition to having a good plan, it also required standing firm and only letting B pick one extra item he wanted that wasn't on our list. If I gave into his special requests, I would have easily been $10-$15 over. Discipline is definitely key to staying on budget, and not a bad thing to be teaching.

Frugal Friday: Pasta with Pancetta, Peas & Onions

Ok, only the second Frugal Friday post here, and you may have already spotted a trend. Peas, onions & pasta are among the items still likely to be around @ week's end. But the starting point this Friday, when I realized at 7:45 p.m. that the leftovers from early week cooking had ALMOST gotten us through until Saturday, was the recollection I'd frozen a decent amount of pancetta I didn't need from a recent recipe.

I figured pancetta could add a nice flavor to a quick pasta dish, so I started browning that while I figured out what else I could toss in...

1/2 cup uncooked pancetta, coarsely chopped

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

3-4 cloves minced garlic

1 carrot, diced

2 cups peas, thawed if frozen

1/2 cup chicken broth

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

generous pinch or two of red pepper flakes

1/4 cup pecorino romano cheese, additional for topping

toasted nuts--I used almonds but I think walnuts would be better

10 ozs short pasta, I used elbows

Start boiling water for pasta. Heat a skillet, medium high, coated with some olive or canola oil spray. Add the pancetta, cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove the pancetta and set aside. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, lower heat to medium. Add the onions, cook for a few minutes then add the garlic and carrot. Cook for a few more minutes, then add the chicken stock. Add the peas after 2-3 minutes, stir in the Herbes de Provence and the red pepper flakes, and then cover loosely. Cook vegetables on medium-low.

Begin cooking the pasta after you add the peas. When the pasta is done, drain, stir in the remaining olive and add the cheese. Stir in the pea/onion mixture and add the toasted nuts. Ready to eat!

Wine Pairing: In the Frugal Friday spirit, this wine was chosen not for being an optimal match, but to retrieve it from the back of the fridge after languishing there for a few weeks. The 2008 Barbazzale Bianco Insolia from Sicily was a reasonably good match. It's lemony bouquet gave a hint of the citrusy taste to come. This medium-bodied white was certainly in the right ballpark for the dish.

February's Food Quest: Whole Foods, Not Whole Paycheck

OK, so commitments to save money might seem so, well 2009, but we did start the new year resolved to keep a close eye on our spending. Groceries are a key item I'm in charge of in the family budget, and it's kind of a fun challenge to keep making tasty, healthy food while hitting my target--which is $150/week.

Now, I'm not sure where our target figure stacks up compared to others, but a few points that guide our food buying habits:

1) We're committed to eating healthy as a family. For us, this means whole foods, organic and/or local as much as possible. We really try to limit processed food. At the same time, we want to enjoy our food--we put healthy and tasty about the same in the priority list.

2) Our 4 year old son has significant food allergies--egg, dairy and nuts. So we need to have confidence in the food labeling, and there are a number of specialty items that work well for his allergies that are pricier than similar items (e.g. Ian's Chicken Nuggets made in an allergen-free factory).

3) Points 1 & 2 lead us to do virtually all of our grocery shopping at Whole Foods Market (Woburn, MA). Of course, I know people like to call it "Whole Paycheck", but I'm convinced it's less about the cost of each item but that things there are so good, you can wind up spending more than you'd like if you're not disciplined about sticking to your list of needs.

In January I started closely tracking how I was doing with my $150/week food budget, and at the end of the month, and came in $4 under budget for the month! I figured a lot of people are still trying to stretch their pennies while eating well in 2010, and sharing my quest to stay on budget without scrimping on taste or health might be helpful.

So let me start by recapping February week 1, which got the month off to a pretty good start--my weekly shopping trip came to $144, but I did need to spend $18 mid-week to replace maple syrup (a daily staple for B. with his waffles) and some fruit...so need to make that up over the month.

I started by looking at what Whole Foods had on sale (their weekly fliers are downloadable on the local store website). Having already spent the $18, I wanted to take care not to build my plan around any pricey items like steak or salmon. I also noted that I have 3 nights in a row later in the week with evening meetings that will prevent me from cooking. So the goal will be to cook plenty of extras early in the week to carry us through.

Sausages were on sale, so I picked Rigatoni with Spicy Sausage for last night's meal. I had frozen some extra basil, which is OK for cooking in small quantities in a sauce, saving $2.50 or so by not buying fresh again. I'll get some chili going in the slow cooker today, and will make Fettuccine Prima Vera during the week (1 or 2 vegetarian meals per week is always good on the budget; I use soy cream instead of heavy cream on this so it's a bit lighter than some version too). As noted we were on target with the budget with this plan and the first meal at least also met the standards for tastiness! Stay tuned for more on February's food quest...