A Personal Victory

Okay, this is another recipe. But this is pretty exciting for me, because I find recipes like this one to be somewhat intimidating. I'm not sure why, but I've just always been afraid to try Asian recipes because they seem more intricate than others. However, I found this recipe and tried it out, tweaked it, and made it again a few months later.

Holy crap. It was so delicious.

I LOVE Pei Wei's Mongolian Beef-- Every time I go there I order it, and it's just so delicious. That's what I was going for with this recipe and I feel rather proud that I got extraordinarily similar results.

(As a bonus, this dish was incredibly inexpensive to make and I got plenty of leftovers. I froze the leftover sauce.)

Here is what you'll need:
A medium skillet, filled with about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil
1/2 Tsp ginger, minced (you can buy fresh and freeze the rest)
1 Tbsp garlic, chopped
8 oz white mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tsp vegetable oil
1 lb flank steak, cut against the grain into bite-sized strips
1/4 cup corn starch
 2 large green onions, chopped

(While you're making the sauce and beef, cook your rice however you like it. I usually cook 1 cup dry rice with 2 cups water and a splash of olive oil to keep it from bubbling over.)

First, heat 2 tsp. of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat.  Don't get the oil too hot. Add ginger, garlic, and mushrooms to the pan and in about 2 minutes add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce using a whisk for smoothness, then increase the heat to medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat. 

Next, put the cornstarch on a plate and coat your steak strips. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes while your large pan of oil heats-- this will help the cornstarch stick. Once the oil is hot and the beef has sat, start frying it in the oil-- don't crowd the pan. As the pieces cook, flip once. When they're done, pull the beef and set the strips on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain the oil.  

When your rice and beef are done, serve with green onions and sauce! Personally, I think it tastes best with the beef on top of the rice, topped with the sauce, and sprinkled with chopped green onions. 

The last step: feel proud and brag to your friends. You're welcome.

When It's Chilly Outside...

It's time to make chili inside!

That's exactly what we did about two weeks ago (yes, it's taken me a while to get to posting this). We made homemade chili and it was an incredibly simple recipe. I know there are a lot of different ways to make chili, like with chicken or turkey, there's spicy and mild, there's even white chili. But we just made good old fashioned beef chili and added a few things for our specific tastes.

You'll note several crucial things about this picture. First, we ate our chili with biscuits instead of cornbread. Something about chili and biscuits just seems heartier in a stick to your ribs, give you high cholesterol kind of way. Second, I took this picture with little to no warning for Eric. Third, he will probably be a little less than thrilled that I ended up posting it. But the most important is that he is so excited to try this chili that his tongue is escaping from his mouth to get to the bowl. I know, that's pretty impressive.

Here are the ingredients for the chili:

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp ground oregano

1 tbsp paprika

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp chili powder

2 pounds ground beef

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 can Rotel

1/4 cup finely chopped onion 

The easiest way to do this is to start by browning your meat, onions, and garlic (minced) in a large pot. As they cook and brown up, combine the oregano, paprika, cayenne, and chili powder in a small bowl and set aside. Once your meat is cooked through, drain off any excess fat and then sprinkle the spices over the top. Add your tomato sauce (you can double the amount of sauce if you prefer thinner chili) and Rotel and stir it up well. Let this simmer for about 15-20 minutes. If the chili gets too dry for your taste, add 1/4 cup of water as needed. 

When it's all simmered and delicious and you just can't wait any longer, serve it up! We like to keep things simple by adding a little cheese on top, but you can add salsa, cracker crumbs, whatever you like. Enjoy!

Brag to Your Friends

In the theme of my money-saving posts this week, I am going to show you another thing I have started doing to save cash when I cook: I make my own chicken/vegetable broth. I tend to just call it "scrap" broth because it's made from all the vegetable and chicken scraps that I save over a period of time. Basically, I don't ever buy the sodium-rich broth from stores anymore, I find a use for my scraps before I just toss them, and I get to brag about how that makes me a gourmand. Gourmand?

About how that makes me all gourmet and stuff.

This is actually a SUPER easy thing to do, you already have the stuff for it anyway, and it's great especially in the Fall when soup season begins.

Basically, the starting point is a plastic baggie in your freezer where you will start placing all your leftover scraps. My scraps usually consist of things like leftover chicken bones from roasting, corn cobs, bell pepper tops, onion peels, broccoli stems, carrot and bean ends, celery stalks, potato peels, squash ends. Pretty much any vegetable is usable.

I save up my scraps in my freezer until I have two baggies like this:

When you're ready to make some broth, empty your two baggies into a large pot and add enough water to cover, plus about a half inch more. What I like to do next is add a few of my favorite herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme. Set the heat on your stove to medium-low and let the pot simmer for about an hour and a half.

When your broth is done simmering, take a slotted spoon and remove all the large scraps. I like to put them into a plastic bag before putting them into the trash to help control the smell.

Next, get a measuring cup and a small strainer. You'll strain the broth into a measuring cup (it's easier to pour into a storage container) and then place the storage container in the fridge. Let the broth sit overnight.

Letting your broth sit overnight allows any remaining fat or fine herb particles to solidify on the surface so it can be removed before freezing. The next day, you'll restrain the broth back into a measuring cup to remove all the extras. Then, pour the broth into either ice trays or muffin trays to go into the freezer.

TAKE NOTE of how much broth fits into your freezing trays so you know how much you have for future use. I usually let my broth freeze overnight so it's thoroughly frozen. Once it's frozen, pop the broth out of the trays and place cubes into freezer storage baggies. Mark the baggies with the quantity of broth and the date it was frozen. Use within 3 months in soups, sauces, and anything else to add healthy, virtually free flavor and nutrients!

Menu and Shopping List

As promised, I have taken inventory of our latest trip to Aldi and decided to share the menu we based our list off of, as well as the shopping list itself and the cost of our purchase. Keeping track of where you shop and how much you spend is such an easy, yet effective, way to track prices for things you buy regularly, and it can help you get organized when it's time to head back to the store.

For the next few days and the following week our menu consists of meals that can easily be used for leftovers; we try to incorporate at least 2 or 3 of these during every 2-week period. It's just so much easier to have hot lunches that require minimal assembly, and it keeps us from having to spend extra money on sandwich meats and other lunch foods. Anything that gets leftover that we're not ready to eat right away goes into the freezer, and we save those for busy (or lazy) nights.

Here is what our menu looks like for this week and next (I'm going to include a full 2-week menu to give you an idea of a realistic, easy, affordable and delicious meal plan):

Sun: chicken-fried steak, macaroni and cheese, broccoli
Mon: burrito bowls (like at Chipotle)
Tues: BBQ pork fajitas and rice
Wed: spinach-alfredo pasta with sausage
Thur: honey-mustard chicken cutlets, leftover macaroni and cheese, honey beer bread and broccoli
Fri: lemon-dill salmon, baked potato, squash
Sat: chicken penne pasta with white wine tomato cream sauce

Sun: We're going out to dinner! (We try to plan for these meals as well)
Mon: spaghetti and meat sauce
Tues: homemade chicken-noodle soup (this makes a large batch)
Wed: leftover chicken-noodle soup
Thur: homemade chili, biscuits
Fri: cajun chicken pasta
Sat: any leftovers we haven't eaten yet

As you can see, there are some meals that are really quick and easy (like spaghetti and meat sauce) and some that are more labor-intensive, like salmon. We plan these meals around my class schedule since my classes are all at night and we try to eat dinner before I go to class instead of after, which would put us at the table at 10:00 p.m.

Now, here is a disclaimer: we had about half of the ingredients we needed for these meals before we went to Aldi, so our purchase consisted of a lot of other elements like fruits and meats for future menus. Here is what we bought! (And what it cost)

Milk
2 bags of tortilla chips (we go through these like nobody's business)
2 1/3 lbs. ground beef
1 package of 5 pork chops
1 bag of frozen chicken breasts
broccoli
yellow squash
3 small cans tomato sauce
4 roma tomatoes
1 package of strawberries
1 package of blackberries
1 bag of salad
1 avocado
unsalted butter
1 bag of onions (about 5 small ones; they freeze well)
1 bottle of dried parsley flakes (great for adding to pastas and soups!)
honey
2 boxes of white cheddar macaroni and cheese (for when we're too lazy to make the homemade version)

Our total: $45.00!

Basically, we are able to complete our menu for the next few days and the whole next week, plus we now have extra pork chops and chicken on hand--- for less than $50. While that isn't a terribly "cheap" amount compared to the extreme couponers out there, it's a big deal for us. We base our menus off of what we already have, so the extras we bought today are going to help us build our meals and save us from buying more later.

Bottom line: On average, Eric and I can eat very well (hello, we're having salmon!) for 2 weeks for about $50-60.

Like I said, check out your local discount grocery store-- you'll be amazed at how doing this can empower you to be able to eat what you want AND save your money.

One of THOSE Blogs

(I swear I'm not turning this into a home/cooking blog. BUT.)

Several months ago I started posting a series on how to establish and use a budget for your household, based on a living situation that roughly resembles a college student. I've been working on maintaining a fairly strict budget for over a year now, with some specific goals: I want to save enough money each month to build up a nice little savings egg, and I also want to allow myself to spend enough each month to eat well and afford little extras like coffee or a new sweater.

One of the biggest areas I've been working on to maintain my budget goals is grocery spending. Luckily for me, I live one block away from a well-known, deep discount store called Aldi. You may or may not have heard of this place, or even shopped there, but I seriously encourage you to find a location near you if this is a place you've never heard of. I can find almost everything I need at Aldi. Some things like produce and lean meats or specialty meats/fish I look for at the regular grocery store. But most other things like cheese, pasta, canned goods, butter, and milk are things I get at Aldi.

Almost every single time I check out I approach the counter thinking that I've either met or gone past my spending goal for the trip (I tend to impulsively grab multiples of things I'm purchasing since I'm there)-- and almost every single time I am literally astounded at how CHEAP my purchase is.

Eric and I are planning to go shopping this week. We have planned our meals for the remainder of this week and next week and we're going to shop for all of our ingredients. I'm going to be posting my meal plan as well as my shopping list (and the final cost). Hopefully you'll get some delicious meal ideas and some inspiration-- it IS possible to eat well and save money.

In addition, I'm planning to post a few other things that I've started doing over the last year to save money and live healthier, so be sure to come back and check out what I've got up my sleeve!

Pork Chops and Special--- Er, Applesauce

My birthday dinner rocked my socks clean off. Eric made Greek-style porkchops and fresh, homemade applesauce. Here are the recipes and some photos! Enjoy.

For the applesauce, you'll need:

3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a combination of good cooking apples like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
 4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

First, put all of your ingredients into a large pot and cover it. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Take in the beautiful view of your significant other while you wait, like so:

After it's simmered, turn off the heat and remove the cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Here comes the fun part: Mash it up! You can use a potato masher or a pastry cutter or the flat end of a meat mallet or whatever you want! The ingredients will be soft enough that this shouldn't be a tough job.

You'll notice that our applesauce is pink. This batch was made with the peels on, which we have discovered is NOT an ideal method. On the upside, it was pretty to look at and you can pick the peels out while you eat. Once it's all mashed, it's ready to serve, either hot or cold. Any leftovers can be frozen!

We had this delicious, flavorful applesauce alongside the Greek-style porkchops. It was incredible.

For the porkchops you'll need:
2 thicker-cut pork loin or 2 boneless pork chops
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon oregano flakes, crushed
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients and marinate your pork chops. You'll want to do this for at least a couple of hours, but ideally, get them soaking and leave them overnight.

After your porkchops have marinated, grill them over medium heat for about 8 minutes on both sides, until they're cooked through. Serve with all the juices you can muster for ultimate flavor. We enjoyed our porkchops with applesauce and macaroni and cheese, along with a side salad and champagne!

(You'll notice the pretty "Melting Pot" logo on the champagne flute-- those are from our first Valentine's Day date! It was a really special birthday dinner.)

Birthday Food

This week Eric spoiled me with some AMAZING...

Incredible...

Other-worldy food.

On my birthday morning he made me homemade donuts! If you have never had homemade donuts, you are seriously missing out and you need to make these right now. Seriously, stop what you're doing and make these. For my birthday dinner, Eric also made me some mouth-watering Greek-style porkchops, along with macaroni and cheese and ::homemade:: applesauce!

As part of the celebration, I will be posting some of these recipes for you to try out and enjoy. I cannot stress how incredible these meals were, and I cannot get over the fact that my boyfriend took that much time and effort to come up with that menu and make those meals just for me. Things have been a little rough lately with the job situation and money situation, and school is incredibly demanding, so being spoiled on my birthday and being able to appreciate each other has been a wonderful birthday gift in itself.

Let's start with donuts!

You'll need:
Pillsbury Grands biscuits (in the tube-- we do it upright)
vegetable oil
a deep skillet
a circle-shaped cutter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
(this recipe makes 8 doughnuts)

Pour enough oil in your skillet so that it's about 1-1 1/2 inches thick. While it heats over medium heat, take your biscuits out of the tube. First, flatten one biscuit with your hand until it's about 1/4 inch thick. (There is no need to flatten with effort! Just enough to say it's flat.) Next, take your circle-shaped cutter-- we used a shot glass-- and cut a circle out of the middle. You'll do this for each biscuit.

 Now, you'll start frying! The oil should be hot enough that the dough starts frying immediately.

You'll fry the doughnuts AND the doughnut holes. The best part is watching the doughnut holes turn themselves over in the oil! The round doughnuts won't do this, so you'll need to flip them over once the bottoms are golden brown.

This will only take a few seconds, so pay attention!

Once both sides have fried nicely, you'll remove the doughnuts and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb the excess oil.

To make the glaze, place the powdered sugar in a small bowl and add the milk and vanilla. Mix with a fork until smooth. When all the doughnuts are fried and you're ready to eat, pour a little glaze over each one. And get ready to have a tastegasm.

Stay tuned for the pork chop and applesauce recipes!