Meal Prep Monday: Chipotle and Chorizo Black Beans and Rice

I've taken on an extra day at work, so Mondays are my only day off for the time being. Meal prep is more important than ever when time is short! I don't want to spend time packing lunch every day, and I don't want to grab something fast but expensive, so making up a big batch is how I am spending my day off.

This week's breakfast and lunch prep includes: 

- Pumpkin pie oatmeal 

- Chipotle and Chorizo Black Beans with rice (recipe below) 

- Roasted carrots with onion and cumin

- Cucumbers 

Chipotle and Chorizo black beans

This was a throw-together recipe using my Instant Pot. It's really cheap, easy, super flavorful, and hands-on time was less than 10 minutes. Omit the chorizo, or use the soy version, for it to be vegetarian.

1 T cooking oil
1 onion, diced
1.5 c. dry beans, sorted and rinsed
2-14 oz. cans of tomatoes with green chiles or chipotle, undrained
15 oz. can of corn, undrained
5 oz. can of tomato paste
1 bay leaf
Spices - to taste, what you have available, this is flexible!
about 2 T garlic powder
about 1.5 T cumin
about 1 T smoked paprika
about 1.5 T oregano
about .5 t cinnamon (I really like this addition to chili flavored beans)
1 T chipotle in adobo, finely minced
12 oz. Mexican chorizo

Saute onion in cooking oil until translucent. Add spices and fry up a minute or two, until fragrant. All the rest of the ingredients except chipotle and chorizo go in next, followed by water to cover it all by about an inch. Use the bean setting on the Instant Pot. If the beans aren't fully cooked, do another 10 minutes at pressure.

In a separate pan, fry up chorizo, breaking apart into small bits. Add the chipotle and fry another minute or two. Combine the chorizo and chipotle mixture to the bean mixture. 

Putting it all together

A scoop of each beans and rice, with a side of carrots and cucumber salad - yumminess ready for a busy week, at about $.50 per serving!

Meal Prep Monday: Many Ways with Ham

This week, our prepped meals feature the ham I bought after Christmas, when they were marked down so much the stores were practically giving them away.

Step 1: Bake the ham. While the ham was baking, I took advantage of the already running oven. This saves both time and resources, using the same hot oven for multiple meals, even ones we're not eating right now.

I tossed in a few sweet potatoes, still in their jackets and straight on the rack. These would go into our lunches, below. Step 2: Prep breakfasts Next, I made up a batch of high-protein muffins for breakfasts with a coupon score - $.75 for a package of Birds Eye Steamfresh Protein Blends, California Style bean, grain, and veggies, mixed with 4 eggs ($.14 each) to bind it all together. This made 6 muffins at $.22 each. I'll add free oranges from the neighbor's tree, and each of the three kids will have breakfast of 2 muffins each for $.44. If I found more coupons for this mix, I'd definitely make these again, but I'm not likely to pay full price for the mix. I also used the time to make a batch of oatmeal in the Instant Pot, with applesauce and apple pie spice.

Step 3: Prep lunches with cooked hamOnce the ham was finished baking, I packed lunches for my spouse and me: a variation of this ham and pineapple dinner  with sweet potato and diced jalapeno for heat, peas on the side, and ham and pineapple fried rice, peas included. Dried fruit and some candies from a holiday gift basket round out the meals. These are each under $.50 a serving.

Step 4: Pack up the hamWith breakfasts prepped and lunches packed, I went to work feeding the freezer with meals for future weeks, so we don’t burn out on ham eating it all at once! A little ham gives a lot of flavor and really stretches, so most of it was diced to add to soups and casseroles. This is one of my best money saving tips: serve meat as an accompaniment rather than an entree.

We ate ham, green beans, and cornbread for Sunday dinner, have packed lunches with ham, and there are 9 packages of diced ham for upcoming meals, so our 11 lb. ham made for 11 meals for 5-6. I'll be using the rest of the packaged ham, one a week for the next 9 weeks, to make:

• Western Quiche - a pie tin filled with spinach, potato, diced ham, onions, and ready for the addition of whipped eggs.
• Beans with ham and collard green soup, following the beans with sausage and greens method.
• Creamy potato soup with ham
• Split pea soup using the ham bone
• Mac and cheese with ham and peas
• Broccoli, ham, and rice casserole
• Sliced ham for grilled ham and cheese sandwiches
• Another round of the ham and pineapple dinner - it's tasty!
• The rough bits were added to a pot of green beans and cooked until the beans were soft and hammy. We had them for dinner but have another batch for another night. Yummy!
  

Chickpea Deviled Eggs for Packed Lunches

One of the ways we're able to keep our food cost low is by cooking at home from scratch as much as possible. Packing lunches gives us healthy food ready to grab and go, and packing a week at a time is just sensible time management for me. Usually it takes more cooking and effort, but this week we have a holiday so I'm packing for 4 days instead of 5, and I'm using up using up leftovers from the work event and the pot luck over the weekend.

Ready for the week ahead!

Two of my meals are shrimp fried rice, cherry tomatoes, and a piece of chocolate. Starling doesn't like shrimp (more for me!), so he's having the next meal four times instead.

We had a lot of the delicious Mediterranean veggies leftover, enough for six hearty lunches.  I made up a batch of chickpeas and boiled eggs in the Instant Pot for chickpea deviled eggs. A few pieces of pita, the rest of the baba ganoush, wedge of lemon, and a cookie round out the meal.

Chickpea Deviled Eggs

12 boiled eggs
1 c. cooked chickpeas
2 1/2 T tahini sauce (would also work with mayo instead)
2 T lemon juice
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
salt to taste
Paprika to sprinkle on top (optional)

Slice cooked, peeled eggs in half. Scoop out the yolks gently and set aside the whites.

Combine yolks and remaining ingredients. Mash together until you reach a smoothness you desire; you may need to add a tablespoon or two of water if it's too thick. You can leave it a bit chunky if prefered - that's how I do it. Spoon the mixture into the egg whites.

Sprinkle with paprika if desired.

New Year's Chili

Happy New Year!

There are traditional New Year's foods around the globe, but one speaks to my frugal heart: beans. Said to symbolize coins or wealth, they're an excellent (and inexpensive) choice for entertaining.  I made a huge batch of chili, enough for our dinner table with friends and family, leftovers for our family's lunch the next day, and extras for a friend.

The recipe below stretches the most expensive ingredient - meat - with three kinds of beans, and the optional toppings on the side let diners choose how they want their bowl. I used my Instant Pot pressure cooker, but I've added variations for the stovetop or slow cooker as well. The recipe below serves about 20 for about $.55 per bowl (not including toppings), and is easily halved. 

I've included my prices, including beans and spices bought in bulk, but as always, your prices may vary. 

Chili for a Crowd

4 T vegetable oil ($.40)

2 lb. ground meat (I used a mix of ground pork and ground beef) ($4.98)

2 c. dry pinto beans ($.50)

2 c. dry kidney beans ($.75)

1 c. dry black beans ($.37)

2 medium onions, diced ($.50)

1 green pepper, diced ($.50)

1 stalk celery, diced ($.10)

3-14 oz. cans diced tomatoes ($1.50)

1-14 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles ($.50)

1-5 oz. can tomato paste ($.41)

Seasonings - to taste, adjust for your liking and availability ($.35)

2 T chili powder 

1 1/2 T cumin

1 T smoked paprika

1 T garlic powder

1/2 T dried oregano

1/2 t cinnamon

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse, drain, and prepare dry beans. I cook beans, unsoaked, in the pressure cooker, covered by 2 inches of water, on the Bean setting. You may instead soak overnight and cook on the stovetop. Drain cooked beans.

2. Heat oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Add diced onion, green pepper, and celery. Cook until onion is translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Add seasonings and tomato paste to the vegetables and fry, stirring frequently. Once fragrant, add meat and cook until no longer pink, breaking into small pieces.

3. Combine beans, meat mixture, and tomatoes into the Instant Pot, large stovetop pot, or slow cooker. Stir together. The mixture will release more liquid as it cooks, so don't worry if it looks a little dry, but feel free to add a splash of water if the chili doesn't look moist.

Pressure Cooker: Use Beans/Chili button.

Stovetop: Bring to a light boil, then turn down to simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 

Slow Cooker: Set for low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours. 

4. Serve with toppings! Our favorites include:

• Sour cream
• Grated cheese
• Cilantro
• Green onion
• Diced white onion
• Corn chips
• Sliced olives 
• Lime wedges
• Hot sauce

What are your New Year's food traditions? And what are your favorite chili toppings? 

When life hands you a giant can of marinara sauce

In early November, I bought two food-service sized cans of marinara sauce for $1.99 apiece at the Grocery Outlet store. With 24 servings each, the cans would easily provide us with 6-7 meals at $.08 per person. What a score!

While we could easily have the sauce plain with pasta, I wanted to bulk it up a bit and build up the flavor. What I ended up with is a flavor-packed sauce that is the frugal base of at least 9 meals.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

1 lb. hot Italian sausage $2.99

1 lb. mild Italian sausage $2.99

½ lb. pepperoni, diced $1.50

4 medium onions, diced $1.33

6 zucchini, shredded $2.00

A handful of fresh basil from the garden $.00

6 lb. 11 oz. can of marinara sauce $1.99

Total cost $12.80

$12.80/9 meals = $1.42 per meals

$1.42 per meal/5 servings = $.28 per serving.

This is the sauce that does not end. It just goes on and on my friend...

Pasta

We’ve used this sauce on pasta, naturally, for a dinner ready in under 15 minutes. (I've added a label for meals ready in under 15 minutes, so as I add to this blog you can look up quick, cheap dinners.) I added another shredded zucchini, trying to use up the ones given to us by a neighbor whose garden overproduced. Our neighbor's zucchini came after I made the sauce, so I bought the ones in the sauce. With a serving of pasta costing us about $.20, that was an easy and filling $.48 dinner. We have two family members who are gluten free, and I buy gluten-free pasta for them. I cook it in the boiling water first, pull their pasta out, then cook ours, so there is no cross-contamination in the water. Their pasta costs a bit more, ours a bit less, so the $.20 is an average for the meal. It would be cheaper using all wheat spaghetti.

Soup

I made a big batch of pizza soup with white beans using my favorite beans with sausage and greens method. About a pound of cannellini beans ($.82) were cooked in the Instant Pot/pressure cooker along with a diced onion ($.25), celery ($.10), and carrot ($.06). Once cooked through, I added the pasta sauce ($1.42), an extra can of diced tomatoes ($.50), a package of frozen spinach ($.99) and a cup or two of water to get the consistency I wanted. I simmered everything together for about 20 minutes so the flavors could meld. The huge pot of soup cost $3.64 for at least 15 servings at about $.24 each. We had it for dinner served with cooked pasta, for lunch the next day, and it was in the fridge to take a bowl when someone was feeling a bit hungry between meals.

Pizza

On a night that the kids were at their dad’s, we made a pizza with homemade dough. Homemade dough comes in at $.35 per pizza. About 2 oz. shredded mozzarella is about $.38. Meaty sauce is $.54 for two servings. The $1.27 pizza served 2 of us at $.64 each.

Shakshouka

With another portion of that batch, I made shakshouka, poaching eggs ($.20) on top of the sauce, bubbling in a pan over low heat on the stovetop, and and serving with toast made with homemade bread ($.12)  A hearty splash of hot sauce gave it a nice kick for about $.01, and we were up to $.60 for a filling breakfast. If you've never had eggs poached in tomato sauce, I highly recommend it as a simple method with big flavor!

*****

We still have a few batches in the freezer for more pizza-flavored meals. I read a suggestion of adding hard cooked eggs to spaghetti with marinara and, being a fan of hard cooked eggs, that is next on my to-try list! Another unopened can of marinara sits in the pantry, ready for another round. How should I doctor up the next can of sauce?  

Beans with Sausage and Greens

I have made dozens of pots of this soup from a recipe originally found in the cookbook “Pressure Perfect,” by Lorna Sass, and tweaked to fit my flavor preferences over the years. You’ll find that variations come up over and over in our menu plans. It’s hearty, flavorful, and easily adaptable to what’s seasonally available and what’s on sale.

Plus, it stretches a more expensive ingredient - the sausage - to feed a crowd! While Lorna's recipe says this serves 4-6, we frequently get 10+ servings out of this when served with rice, pasta, or potatoes, and almost always for less than $.50 per serving.

This is not so much a recipe as a method. The ingredients are all variable and you can substitute almost everything and come up with a satisfying dish. Change out the greens, beans, and sausage for a different soup every time. Add extra vegetables. Add herbs and spices. Make it vegetarian by removing the sausage. The possibilities are endless. A few of our favorite combinations are kidney beans, andouille, and collards; Mexican chorizo, black beans, and spinach; cannellini beans, Italian sausage, and kale; and lemony lentils, chicken artichoke sausage, and spinach.

I make this in a pressure cooker, as the original recipe is written. I've added a stovetop and slow cooker variation below, and recommend that you soak your beans overnight if you use these methods. I personally prefer using an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker for cooking dry beans without needing to soak overnight.

Beans with Sausage and Greens

1 lb. fresh or frozen greens, such as kale, collards, Swiss chard, or spinach

1 lb. sausage, divided

1 lb. dry beans, soaked if using the stovetop or slow cooker method

1 1/2 c. chopped onions

2 stalks celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

2+ cloves of peeled garlic

1 T olive oil (to prevent foaming in a pressure cooker)

1 Bay leaf (optional but enhances the flavor)

salt and pepper to taste

2 t vinegar - cider and red wine work well

If using fresh greens rinse them well. Remove the leaves from the stems. Trim tough ends and discard. Thinly slice ribs and stems. 

If using frozen greens, defrost and strain of excess liquid.

Dice a quarter of the sausage. Set aside remaining sausage. 

Put beans, sliced stems from greens, diced sausage, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, oil, and Bay leaf into a large pot and cover with water by about 2 inches. 

• Pressure cooker method: Lock lid in place and set for beans. When the cooking is complete, test that the beans are tender. If not, return to pressure for another few minutes. 
• Stovetop method: Bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Do not let them come to a high boil as this will make for a mushy consistency. Read package directions for cooking time, as some beans will cook quickly (20 minutes for lentils) and others take more time (such as chickpeas or pintos, which take several hours.) 
• Slow Cooker Method: Cook on low for 3-6 hours. (If using kidney beans, boil on the stove for 10 minutes before adding them to the slow cooker.)

If your sausage is not pre-cooked, pan fry it until cooked through. If using a hearty green like kale, collards, or Swiss chard, steam with water over medium-high until tender, using the same pan as your sausage to pull up any flavor left in the pan. You don't need to precook tender greens like fresh spinach, or frozen greens.

When the beans are cooked, remove the bay leaf. If the soup is too thin, mash some of the beans against the side of the pot. Add the cooked sausage, greens, vinegar, salt, and pepper to the soup. Let heat through at least 15 minutes so the flavors can combine. 

Serve with rice, pasta, or potatoes if you want to, or as is with a crusty piece of bread to dip. Delicious!
 

Weekly Menu Rotation

There are lots of methods for menu planning. Some people go to the store and buy what looks good, then plan their menu around their purchase. Some sit down with the sales flyers and plan based on the weekly sales before going to the store. Others make a plan a week or a month ahead, regardless of sales or current taste. All of these have their place, but none quite work for me. 

What works for me is using the Pantry Principle, which I learned about in The Tightwad Gazette, a newsletter about frugality that ran in the 1990's and (while a bit dated) is worth a read in book form. Author Amy Dacyzyn explains: "The basic premise is that you stockpile your pantry (and/or kitchen, freezer, basement, closet and/or the space under your bed) with food purchased at the lowest possible price. The sole purpose of grocery shopping becomes replenishing your pantry, not buying ingredients to prepare specific meals."

This shift in mindset has made the biggest difference in my food budget!

My menus are based on pantry staples, and then I shop sales to maintain those staples. I will stock up on an item when it hits a rock bottom price, even if I don't need it that week. Then I have enough on hand to make my meals with the least expensive option and I am not compelled to spend more for the same item when it isn't on sale.

My weekly menu rotation is flexible enough that I can plug in something I find on manager's markdown while shopping, but rigid enough that I don't come home after work wondering what's for dinner. It's a balance that works for me. 

Here's our weekly rotation: 


Sunday - Something Special 
I do meal prep for the week on Sunday evenings. I cook something like a roast chicken or meatloaf on Sunday nights, and then pack leftovers up for lunches throughout the week. I also make a big batch of steel cut oats to have for breakfasts throughout the week, boil eggs and cut veggies for snacks, and pack lunches. A solid two hours of prep on Sunday evening makes the rest of the week smooth sailing! 

Monday - Meatless
I make a big pot of beans and we start eating them Monday night, often with rice. Rice and beans are the rock stars of the frugal kitchen! Bean leftovers are then incorporated to bulk up other meals throughout the week. 

Tuesday - Tacos
Simple, fast, cheap and we never get bored of tacos! 

Wednesday - Whatever's On Sale 
I generally grocery shop on Wednesdays, when there's an overlap of two weeks' sales flyers and my local Mexican market has a meat special of the day. Dinner is whatever meat special I've bought, or more of Monday's beans, spiced up in a new way.

Thursday - Fish
My spouse, Starling, has dinner with his family on Thursdays, and he doesn't care for fish, so it's a perfect night for the kids and I to enjoy a meal featuring canned tuna, sardines, or salmon, or fresh or frozen fish found on sale.

Friday - Leftovers
Having a specific night for leftovers has proven an absolute necessity to avoid food waste. On any budget, wasted food is money in the trash; on a tight budget, money in the trash is not an option! 

Saturday - Soup
We eat soup year round. Chili, stew, chowder - it's all hearty and filling, and a good way to feed a crowd affordably.

Do you menu plan? What method works best for you?