Your Dishwater is My Broth!

Maybe I've finally gone round the bend but yesterday it occured to me, as I finished the leftover Thai Noodles that Leenie had made, that all that leftover peanut sauce stuck to the side of the bowl was going to go to waste. Granted the waste would be pretty minimal, but still it was waste. (Leftover leftovers?)

As I pondered the best way to rescue this residue, while at the same time questioning my own sanity, I put up a kettle for tea. When the kettle boiled, I decided to pour some into the bowl (it was metal) and whisk it around to get the residue. The result was about a quart of really tasty broth which I used in last night's lima bean stew. I was so inpsired, I even tossed the rest of the cheeze sauce from the weekend into the stew, rinsed the bowl and threw that "broth" in as well.

Thinking back, it seems so logical. I always put a bit of water in the jelly jars and give a shake to get the last bit of sweetness. I usually toss it into pancakes or something similar. I do the same with ketchup, tomato sauce, salsa...come to think of it, I do it with just about every container. Why hadn't I thought of it with serving bowls before?

Well now I did and we're both smarter because of it! I guess it just takes plunging financial markets to get my thinking cap on correctly. One warning, your significant other may not be as inspired by your brilliant use of leftover leftovers, no matter how tasty the end product is. I knew my kids would be grossed out by my tale but I was unprepared for the grimace Jim made as he pleaded with me to say no more. Geez, I even waited until bedtime before I tried to share. It's okay, you can tell me about it. I'll still think you're brilliant. It will be our little secret!

Happy Weekend to All!

Finding Ways of Finishing Foods Before They Go Funky Can Be Fun!

As we wind down this road of using what's already in the pantry, I feel compelled to confess that I just bought 25 pounds of spelt berries and 25 pounds of mung beans from our food cooperative. Put your eyebrows back down, I'll explain these somewhat unusual purchases.

I'll start with the spelt berries, they'll be used to make spelt flour, which I've been using more of lately. I read a great article about why it is more sustainable than wheat but now that I've gotten around to blogging on it, I can't find the article. Grrrrr! Anyway, it's cheaper to buy the berries than the ground flour. Plus it's slower to go rancid in berry form. I've used spelt in pancakes, muffins and quick breads with good results so far.

As for the mung beans, the nights are getting cooler and the days are getting shorter. The end of the outdoor growing season in the northeast is in sight. That means it's time to start thinking about the indoor growing season, sprout season. Mung beans are definitely our favorite probably because they are so substantial in size compared to other sprouts. If you're curious about sprouting, click here to see how my efforts have gone.

I concocted a pretty good dinner the other night in an effort to use up the last of the barbeque sauce. Did you ever notice that after a certain point things like barbeque sauce and mustard just sit in the fridge and mock you whenever you open the door to fit something else in? It must be an end of season thing. Anyway, on to the recipe, if you can call this loosely thrown together list of ingredients a recipe.

I sauteed two chopped onions in a little olive oil. Once they were browned, I poured a little water in the pan to deglaze it. Next I added some cooked chickpeas, about the equivalent of two cans, give or take. I topped this with the leftover barbeque sauce. Then I filled the barbeque sauce bottle half way with water, shook the daylights out of it and poured this over the chickpeas. No sauce was going to waste in my house!

To my horror, there wasn't really enough sauce to cover the chickpeas adequately. Plus barbeque sauce sometimes has such a strong vinegar taste it makes me gag. Fortunately, a bottle of ketchup came to the rescue. A few squirts later, there was enough sauce and the sweetness of the ketchup took the edge off the barbeque sauce.

I served this over whole wheat couscous, which I've decided I hate. No good reason why, I just hate it. Oddly enough, everyone in the house hates it too. We all used to like it, I can't figure what happened. In any event, we've all agreed to finish what we already have on hand, which is thankfully not very much. As for the chickpea concoction, everyone really liked it.

We've been experimenting with cookie recipes too. I still say the easiest way to make a so so meal yummy is to follow it up with a good dessert. To that end we've made our favorite molasses cookies, Coconut Chocolate Chews from Simple Treats (although we actually used carob) and Fudgy Cocoa Mint cookies from Cooking with PETA. I've been tucking a few into lunch boxes as well but I'm still no Jennifer McCann.

The Fudgy Cocoa Mint cookies uses 2 1/2 cups of finely grated zucchini. How great is that? Of course I didn't have mint extract and my mint plant is upstate so I used the almond extract that I've had forever. They came out very moist and delicious. No hint of zucchini in the final product.

Finally, a yogurt experiment update. My first try of coconut milk yogurt, using the coconut milk recipe from How It All Vegan, got thicker but not nearly thick enough. I'll try one more time before calling it a bust. In the interim, I must find a recipe that uses coconut milk. Any suggestions?

One last thought, what does a highly fashionable teen do with a pair of much loved sweats that are now too short? If you're Leenie, you cut them a little longer than capri length (look at her left leg), slit the side up to capri length and tie the ends together (look at her right leg). Instant high fashion. BTW, do teenagers use the word capris anymore or are they called something else...

Simple Pleasures

I'm just enjoying simple pleasures lately. That even includes simple cooking. I haven't been very elaborate in my meals but I've been very good at rolling the leftovers into the next meal. Here's an example, Sunday I made Cajun Black Eyed Peas with quinoa and turnip greens. Yesterday, I took the leftovers added in more turnip greens (a lot more turnip greens actually), increased the seasonings and used it as a side dish alongside veggie hot dogs. Leftovers got used up and I didn't have to think too much about what to cook.

Here's another simple frugal trick which I must have mentioned before but just in case I didn't, here it is again. I chop cucumbers from our CSA and put them into the pickle juice that's leftover when you finish a jar of pickles. After a day or two in the fridge they are very good. This is especially useful since we really like pickles on our hummus sandwiches.

I'm still working on the quilt and blanket although both are nearing the end. The edges are all done on the quilt. I'm dealing with all the hanging threads that machine sewing leaves behind. I should be starting to knot the quilt tonight or tomorrow. The log cabin blanket is a mere 2 1/2 sides from being done. I know, you want pictures. I still don't have my camera cord but I'll try using my cell phone to take them later.

Now I'm going to partake in another simple pleasure, reading. I'm on a Barbara Kingsolver kick. I just blew through and really enjoyed Prodigal Summer. Now I'm starting The Poisonwood Bible.

How to Be A Kitchen Magician with Bonus Bathing Suit Rant!

When planning yesterday's dinner, I had to accept the fact that a great number of leftovers remained in the fridge from earlier in the week. There was a kidney bean and beet concoction, some of the quickie chick peas (although none of the kidney bean spread), some BBQ chickpeas and bulgur too. I get to the point where I want to cook from a clean slate, so these leftovers had to go.

Into a bowl everything went. I mashed it all with a potato masher because I couldn't face cleaning the blender! I added a scoop of peanut butter, a handful of oatmeal and a bit of water to bind it all together. In just a few minutes, burgers were cooking away.

I made a simple cream of tomato soup to go with the burgers. Here's a tip, don't add soymilk, or any milk for that matter, to hot soup. It curdles and although it tastes fine, it looks icky. I covered this screw up by making some home made croutons to toss into the soup. They are so simple I'd hardly call it a recipe.

I heated a cast iron frying pan while I cubed some bread. Once the pan was hot, I tossed the bread in and sprinkled the top with onion powder and a bit of seasoned salt. The nooks and crannies of the bread hold the seasoning in without any added oil. Just let these toast up a little and you're done.

To really cover my screw up, I served the soup in cups with croutons on top, thereby covering the little curdles completely! No one noticed. In fact, Kyle asked to take the leftovers for lunch today.

So the fridge is devoid of leftovers and today we start from scratch...

Speaking of scratching, nothing makes me itch (or is it bitch?) more than the thought of buying a new bathing suit. Why must the ones we love wear out?? I hate it for all the standard female reasons. I often wonder if I'm the only one in the world with boobs that want a little support in my bathing suit. How come you can find bathing suits to tuck your tummy, slim your hips and cinch your waist but none are marketed to hold up your boobs as if you were still in your teens?

If anyone's got a great bathing suit website (you know, bathing suits for women with real bodies but not granny suits) let us know, I can't be the only one who's wondering.

Has anyone made a bathing suit? Share, we want to hear about it!

Doing the Friday Food Follow Up

I feel so brain dead by the time Friday rolls around. That's too bad because Friday is a time to look back on the week in food. It's a time to calculate the successes and failures of your cooking from the last week. It's an opportunity to use this new information to make the next week in food better.

Sometimes it's not about whether the meals tasted good or bad. Instead it can focus on too much repetition during the week (ie. if I have to eat that raspberry fig bar one more morning I'll kill someone!) or not enough (ie. who ate all the Thai noodles, I wanted to take them for lunch too!) or mismanagement of resources (ie. where can 6 loaves of bread go in just 5 days? Who's eating tons of toast again??).

Being successfully frugal in the kitchen requires paying attention to individual family members' needs, within limits. Personally, if I make a batch of muffins or quick bread I am willing to eat the same thing for breakfast, and even an afternoon snack, all week. The convenience of it already being made outweighs the boredom of repetition for me. It drives Jim a little batty. He can eat it for breakfast or he can eat it for snack but not both for 5 days in a row. His request for a little more variety isn't unreasonable especially when you consider that he is willing to deal with repetition on especially hectic weeks. Knowing this, I can plan better for the coming week.

The kids need more guidance in the kitchen and are most often the culprits in the missing bread because I ate a lot of toast mysteries. They all need reminding about what's an acceptable snack and what will throw our food planning into a tizzy if eaten. Mine get more of a say in the whole process if they're willing to help with the cooking.

Friday is also a great day to cull together the remaining leftovers of the week into one lovely, fridge emptying meal. My challenge is to create a meal from leftover pasta with sauce and tvp, split pea soup, some beets and their cooking liquid, some peanut sauce, some fennel with lima beans and couscous and three burgers that were made of leftovers themselves. Sometimes you can combine them and sometimes you just need to heat everything up and serve it buffet style.

I'm not entirely sure how I'll put these leftovers together but I'm leaning toward combining the pasta dish with the fennel dish, topping it with Fake Fake (a parmesan substitute that's a mix of ground walnuts, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and seasoned salt) and baking it in the oven. The split pea soup, beets and burgers could either become more burgers or another soup. I lean toward making it into burgers because that particular batch of split pea soup wasn't my best.

Does all this planning sound like too much work? Don't kid yourself, the time you save by not thinking about your food for the next week is negated by the elevation in stress level of standing before an open fridge, trying to figure out what's for dinner knowing you have to get your son/daughter to swim lessons in 1/2 an hour. I know because I've been there.

Leftovers Are a Busy Mom's Friend and They Can Be Your Friend Too

Yesterday evening I rounded up all the leftovers in the hopes of creating something that would use them all up without leaving any leftovers (except enough for Jim to take for lunch) of the new creation. (No matter how delicious anything is, it loses appeal when eaten three days in a row.) For any of you who are still eeky about combining leftovers, here's the technique I used.

I started by chopping the leftover pasta with sauce and egggplant into small, almost unrecognizable, pieces. Next I tore up the leftover bits of Easy No-Knead Crusty Bread into small pieces about the size of croutons and threw them in with the pasta mix. The remaining stuffing was next in the bowl (there wasn't a crumb of gluten roast left to add). The chickpea roll was crumbled, which broke my heart since the pastry shell had held together so well during cooking and serving, and added to the bowl.

I took a moment to mix this all together because the next two additions required tasting before actually adding them. I wasn't sure if the leftover chickpea and olive spread flavor would meld or clash with everything else. The easiest way to check this is to take a taste. I put a bit of the mix on a spoon and then added a bit of spread to it and tried it. It wasn't bad at all, so in it went. After mixing this around, I repeated the same tasting process with the leftover gravy. This also went well with the rest of the mixture so into the bowl it went.

Somewhere along the way, I had decided that this would become a loaf. To bind it together, I added in some flaxseed meal and a bit of water. I pressed the mixture into an 8"x8" pan and baked it at 375 degrees for about an hour. (I might have used a higher oven temperature and a shorter cooking time, but I had to run to the train station and I didn't want anything to burn.)

I've often said that serving something utilitarian like this loaf is best when paired with something fun. In keeping with that philosophy, I made baked French fries to accompany it. I also made a miso soup with shredded carrots and the last of the leeks. I love to have soup with meals this time of year.

I did wind up with just enough leftovers of last night's dinner for Jim's lunch today. For those of you wondering about proportions, interestingly, we ended up with almost equal amounts of leftovers of each of these things I used. Now the only remnants of Christmas left in the fridge are some winter squash puree (which will be used in muffins and pancakes this weekend) and some pumpkin pie (which probably won't last much past lunch time).

It seems I'm not the only one who views leftovers as ingredients. Omnivore readers will enjoy Melanie's post on the same topic.

Lumping Leftovers Together

Frugal living means looking at every meal as a potential ingredient for another meal. I hadn't realized how efficient I had become at this until I went away for a week and came back to discover a fridge full of leftovers. The obvious solution to leftovers is to use them as lunches. However, if you've had something for dinner and then for lunch the next day, do you want to be able to recognize it in that night's dinner? Probably not.

Here's an example of how it works at our house. One night last week I made chili. The next night I made a gluten stew. The following night I combined the leftovers of both and added acorn squash and some spices to create an entirely new entree that we served with quinoa. There were no leftovers of this. That's one of the goals.

The important thing to remember is, make sure you're combining flavors that will blend well. When I'm not sure about this, I've been known to take a little bit of each on a spoon and taste it.

If you begin to think of leftovers as the base of your next recipe, you'll discover two things. First, you'll get your leftovers under control. Second, you're cooking time is likely to decrease a bit. If you're keeping track, you might even discover your food bill going down, especially if you routinely through out leftovers.

Using What I've Got Veggie Wise

Wednesdays are such a hectic day for us. Its one of those days where everything seems to intersect. We've got swim team 6:00 - 7:30pm, lifeguard training 6:30-10:00pm, and knitting 7:00 - 9:00pm. We've pretty much gotten it down to a science but it still has us feeling like we're in perpetual motion. Thankfully, we've only got a few more weeks to go.

Dinner last night was going to be leftover pasta baked with some home made cheese substitute but when I went to get it out of the fridge I discovered a hungry child had demolished most of it after school! I had to make an alternate plan and I had to do it quickly. My solution was unorthodox but it worked out pretty well.

I took a bit of leftover split pea soup, mixed in the remaining pasta with sauce and added a bit of water to thin it out. I set this on the stove while I popped leftover veggie burgers into the toaster oven. (I had made the veggie burgers the day before using leftovers of a Garden Vegetable Borscht recipe from one of Sarah Kramer's books.) I enlisted a child to rinse and chop lettuce while another child made French dressing (vegenaise and ketchup mixed together). I scrubbed and chopped a few carrots to brighten the salad and add some nutritional punch. In 15 minutes we had a meal on the table and it was quite good, although nothing like what I had in mind. At least it used up some more of the lettuce!

Chile posted this recipe in yesterday's comments. Barring unforseen disaster, I'm planning on trying it tonight.
Lettuce & Peas Chiffonade
10 outer leaves of lettuce, stacked and rolled into fat tube. Cut into fine even shreds.
1 onion, diced
1 c frozen peas (may omit or substitute!)
Water
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs soy milk

Saute lettuce & onions in a little bit of water until lettuce is limp and onion is translucent.
Add peas and cook a moment.
Season and stir another minute.
Add soymilk. Stir and cook on low heat for 30 seconds.

Last night, I set up steel cut oats in the slow cooker. In the interest of adding both fruit and variety to our day, I chopped up two apple, with skin left on, added a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and tossed in a half cup of sunflower seeds. The smell this morning was divine and it tasted good too.

I put dried lima beans in the larger slow cooker last night. This morning I'll be adding in the ingredients for Cider Baked Beans from 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes, mainly because I have a lot of carrots and celery on hand and the recipe calls for it. How's that for menu planning?

In decluttering news, I was able to stop by the thrift store and donate everything from our closet organizing event. It felt so good to totally complete that job.

Would you believe I found a bag of the jar sprouting lids that I love for only $1.00. This will allow me greater variety in my sprouting or even continuous sprouting when my veggie stash gets low or boring!

We're Having Scallions for Dinner?

Wednesday is our CSA pickup, so Tuesday's dinner revolves around using up the leftovers of last week's CSA pickup. Today I was presented with a unique situation. There was nothing left in the fridge but four huge bunches of scallions and a watermelon. The watermelon was self explanatory but the scallions had me stumped. What could I possibly make for dinner using scallions as the vegetable???
The answer was either going to involve brilliance or idiocy.

I wound up making French Onion Soup using the scallions in place of the onions and it was delicious. I was shocked at how well it went over. I served it with toasted uncheese sandwiches. Of course I could have run out to the store to get a vegetable but part of being truly frugal is getting creative with what you've got. Besides I view it as a challenge.

Speaking of odd concoctions, for dessert I took leftover Mexican Rice Pudding from VwaV and mixed in a cup of flour, 1/2 cup oatmeal and 2 Tbs oil. I formed these into balls and cooked them in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes. The result was a tasty little cookie.

The Unmotivated Cook

I've noticed that after a weekend of intense cooking, I sometimes have trouble getting in the mood to cook dinner for a few nights after. I think its because I get caught up in projects that I didn't have time for while the massive cooking was going on. It also is linked to days where I don't get home until after 3pm and I have to immediately get involved in homework help.

I've always felt that if its 5pm and you've just begun to think about making dinner, you're in big trouble. Yet I've found myself in this position the last two nights. I've rebounded from it but it hasn't been easy. Today I'm taking no chances. I'm putting some red lentil soup into the slow cooker before I leave for work. I find if I have part of the meal cooked its easier for me to get motivated and fill in the blanks when I get home.

Last night I combined Sunday nights leftover split pea soup with Monday nights leftover pasta with sauce and the tomato juice leftover from Friday. I threw in a teaspoon of celery seed and wound up with a very delicious soup to go along with the veggie burgers that I made last night. Always test your combinations before dumping things together. I put a little bit of everything I'm considering combining on one spoon so I can taste and see if the flavors blend, or don't blend.

I used the veggie burger recipe from VwaV as a springboard. (I know I've said it before but this is an awesome recipe!) I had neither the time nor the ingredients to follow the recipe to the letter so instead I measured out the water, olive oil, tamari, mustard, spices (substituting garlic powder for the garlic and onion powder for the onion), and subbed ketchup for tomato paste. I whisked this together, added in the dried tvp and a few tablespoons of flaxseed meal. I microwaved it for 2 minutes, to get the tvp rehydrated. I used an ice cream scoop to shape these into equal sized balls which I pressed into burgers on a hot cast iron griddle.

I'm thinking about premixing the dry ingedients of these burgers together to decrease my kitchen time during the summer, or any other hectic time. My fear is that all the spices would wind up in the bottom of the container and you'd get some bland burgers and some overpowering burgers. Perhaps I'll do them in single batch containers.

The Guinea Pigs are Helping Me Get Organized

I'll bet you didn't know guinea pigs were that talented, but ours sure are! We've opted to use shredded paper as their bedding and its working out wonderfully but it requires a hefty amount of shreddings and we just don't get enough bills to provide enough for the weekly cage cleanings.

Last week I found myself uncontrolably drawn to several binders and file folders full of papers that I haven't looked at since I left my last job in 2000. A quick look through revealed what I've always suspected but have been too unmotivated to verify, it was all useless, outdated info. I shredded enough for this week and next week. I have to admit its rather addictive. Fortunately, there are plenty more folders of useless info just waiting for me to shred them.

Jim, who is not usually a lover of small animals, is thrilled by this added bonus brought on by the guinea pigs. Motivation truly comes in all forms!

In food news, I created an unexpected combination last night that stretched leftovers and was really tasty. I had equal amounts of Cold Thai Sesame Noodles and Oriental Cilantro Slaw leftover from the weekend. Both recipes have very similar ingredients, mainly peanut butter and cilantro, so I decided to try combining them.

First, I heated the slaw on the stove to wilt the cabbage. It had been a little tough and I thought this might improve things. Once the cabbage had wilted, I turned off the heat and added in the leftover Thai Noodles. I gave everything a good stir to combine and then served it warm. The results were different and very delicious. As I hoped, wilting the cabbage improved the toughness but still provided a little crunch.

My knitting project is coming along too. Its finally starting to look like a blanket. I'm really hoping that I have time to finish it before the baby arrives. At the rate I'm going, I need at least another 10 days. I may have to put in some extra time to get the job done. The really exciting thing for me is that the knitting is becoming more automatic.

A Leftover Casserole Creation

The weather is getting colder, it must be casserole time! I love casseroles because they are a great way to use up leftovers, they dirty only one pot and the heat of the oven warms the kitchen.

Earlier this week I combined leftover Vegan Sloppy Joe's with 2 large, uncooked, cubed sweet potatoes and put this mixture in a greased 9" x 12" baking pan. I topped this with some leftover mashed potatoes and a sprinle of paprika. I cooked it in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes, until the top was beginning to brown and the sweet potatoes were tender. I'd imagine you could cut your cooking time down if your sweet potatoes were already cooked.

The result was very much like a sheperds pie but with a tomato based gravy.