Archives for category: frugal eating
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Making the Best of What You Have

May 17, 2026 //
2

I recently made homemade phyllo (or filo) for the first time, following instructions I found on YouTube. Every stage was easy until I got to dealing with the stacked sheets of thin dough rolled out to size. There was some sticking and crumpling, but I managed to use the phyllo to make eight triangles of spanakopita, following this recipe.

It is spring here in western Washington state and the local farmers market has had beautiful spinach. I was later than usual getting out the door yesterday because I had an episode of vertigo. I stopped at the health food store for feta and lemons, dreaming of the spanakopita I would eat this week.

Alas, when I got to the market, the farmer I like to patronize most had sold out of everything but dill and turnips. I scavenged around the market and loaded up on salad greens and radishes, a bunch of green onions.

On the walk home I began thinking about what I had in the house. I had andouille and chicken apple sausage and corn in the freezer. I had a small jar of sun-dried tomatoes. I had green onions, cilantro, a lime wedge and the feta I had just bought. I could make a respectable skillet of pasta with those things.

Tonight I did, and I’m eating bites of it between typing this up.

Amounts are loose when I cook pasta. I get out a big skillet with a glass top and start sautéing things in olive oil while the water heats for pasta. I cut two andouille sausages into half moons and added a few half moons of chicken-apple sausage that had been sitting in the refrigerator. I chopped up the white parts of two green onions, saving the green parts for later. When the sausage and onion were in the pan, I shook frozen corn over that layer and snipped four or five dried tomatoes into bite-sized pieces. When the pan started to get dry I poured a bit of water from my boiling pasta into it. I added crumbled feta — I had about three ounces. More pasta water, plus the al dente pasta. Then, at the end, I added the onion greens and some cilantro leaves, squeezed the lime wedge over it all and stirred.

It was a tasty dinner and there is enough left in the skillet for at least two more meals.

What else will I eat this week? Plenty of salads (I had salad for lunch). I’ve got at least one salmon fillet in the freezer. I can have that with a baked potato and some stir-fried bok choy. Or another salad. One of my students sent me her recipe for homemade granola and I made up a batch last week. That and yogurt or milk and dried fruit takes care of breakfast. I’ve got half a dozen eggs and frozen half bagels from the local shop.

I’ll make it through the week and hope to get up early enough to catch the beginning of the farmers market next weekend for more spinach. I found a couple of blocks of feta in the back of the freezer and one vendor has green onions each week right now. Fresh dill is in season and I always have radish greens (I chop them and mix them with spinach, a nod to frugality with no significant alteration in taste).

P.S. For those of you who followed the orange syrup chronicles, the latest thing I made with reserved orange syrup was baked rice pudding, using the orange syrup instead of adding sugar to the cooked rice, milk, eggs, raisins and orange peel. I seasoned it with cardamom — both fresh ground seeds and a dash of cardamom bitters to give it an Indian dessert vibe. It was utterly delicious, if a bit sweet — it’s hard to judge the sweetness before the pudding is baked. Next time I might add some chopped blanched almonds, furthering the Indian profile: for now I just toss a few raw almonds into each bowl of rice pudding. Using sugar syrup instead of granulated sugar means that the pudding takes longer to cook, perhaps twice as long. You want it to be firm before you take it out of the oven and I like to see some browning on the top.

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Categories baking, frugal eating, fruit syrups, fruit syrups, home cooking, pasta dishes, philosophy, savory pastries, Uncategorized

All Things Orange Syrup

May 7, 2026 //
0

On May Day when we were all boycotting spending and staying home I took the time to candy all of the orange peels I had saved in the freezer. I had enough to fill a stock pot.

After you blanche orange peel and scrape off the pith, you simmer it in simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water). When you remove the peel from the syrup, you have sweet, orange-flavored syrup left: I had about three pint jars full, which I stored in the fridge.

Now I get to play with orange syrup. The first thing I did was substitute orange syrup for maple syrup in my morning oatmeal. My current choice is oats cooked in milk flavored with dried cranberries, chopped candied orange peel and chopped almonds. A generous teaspoon of orange syrup sweetens a portion.

Last night I made a cup of cocoa. Instead of sweetening the cocoa powder with salt and sugar and adding milk, I covered the layer of cocoa powder with orange syrup and just a bit of milk to blend it into a paste before I filled my mug with milk. The cocoa was perfectly sweetened with just a faint taste of orange.

That got me thinking. I used to occasionally order a cafe borgia in a Taos cafe: espresso, orange and hot chocolate. What if I made eight ounces of my morning coffee and mixed it into pre-stirred cocoa powder and orange syrup? I made it for breakfast this morning and it was delicious. The proportion is eight ounces of coffee to six ounces of cocoa-orange syrup. Yum.

In the works are some sourdough scones, probably orange-rosemary. I plan to use orange syrup as at least part of the sweetener in the scones in addition to using candied orange peel and chopped fresh rosemary. I’m also going to try to titrate an orange glaze with orange syrup and powdered sugar, perhaps with sharp Eureka lemon juice added to cut the sweetness. I’m thinking a thinly drizzled glaze, rather than a coating (I don’t usually glaze or frost my scones).

When the current cut on my left middle finger heals completely and I can knead bread again, I will make some orange rolls, spread with butter and candied orange peel. I’ll put some butter and orange syrup in the bottom of the baking tray and add more syrup when the warm rolls emerge from the oven.

If I had any seltzer in the fridge, I would surely try the orange syrup in that. And if it gets hot enough for iced tea, I will sweeten glasses of it with orange syrup, rather than the plain sugar syrup I usually use. I am thinking of making iced chai tea instead of regular black tea, thinking the orange and the spices might play well together.

Do you ever candy citrus peel? If so, what is your favorite? And what is your favorite thing to do with orange syrup?

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Categories candied citrus peel, cooking, frugal eating, fruit syrups, home cooking, Uncategorized

“What’s in the cupboard” baked oatmeal

November 7, 2025 //
0

I like to make baked oatmeal. I make stove-top oatmeal too, but I like having breakfast made ahead for those mornings when I don’t want to fuss with anything beyond feeding the cat and making coffee.

The last time I made baked oatmeal I looked up a basic recipe that used four eggs because I only had four eggs left in the house. I flavored it like a carrot cake, adding to the oats, milk, eggs, soda, salt and baking powder, maple syrup, grated carrots, coconut, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and walnuts. It was delicious.

I was going to make it again, but as I was gathering ingredients my eye fell on a jar of apple butter (I have two from a baking box I used to subscribe to, alas put out of business by tariff shenanigans). It sounded like a good thing to add to baked oatmeal and already contained cinnamon and cloves.

When I opened the jar, I found the darkest apple butter I had ever seen, the color of a cup of strong coffee. I mixed it in with 2 and 1/2 cups of milk, four eggs, half a cup of maple syrup. I added freshly ground cardamom, ground ginger — forgot I had fresh ginger in the freezer — a teaspoon of soda, a teaspoon of baking powder, a scant teaspoon of salt. I added all this to four cups of rolled oats in a big bowl and then added a cup of raisins, a cup of chopped walnuts and three finely grated carrots — I like sneaking vegetables into breakfast.

I buttered a thirteen by nine oblong pan and poured the oatmeal mix into it. I had the oven on to 375 F because I was baking a salmon fillet on a bed of roast vegetables. I took my dinner out of the oven and reduced the heat to 350 F, letting the oatmeal sit on the counter to absorb liquids while I ate. After I wrapped my leftover salmon in foil and refrigerated it, I popped the oats into the oven and started doing dishes.

About thirty-five minutes later, I opened the oven. The baked oatmeal was very dark brown, raisins visible on the top. I took a table knife and scooped out a bit from one corner. The result was nice and moist from the apple butter and the taste reminded me of gingerbread, although there was no molasses or brown sugar in the mix. It must have been the long-caramelized apples.

Throwing preserves or other spreads into baked oatmeal is a good way to use them up should you find yourself with a lingering jar or a flavor that you don’t usually buy. Ditto for syrups, or even the liquid from canned fruit. To make a 13 x 9 pan of baked oatmeal, I use 2 and 1/2 cups of whole milk and 1/2 cup of maple syrup or honey for a total of three cups liquid, but you can use any kind of “milk” you like, or substitute fruit juices or syrups. Part of the fun is figuring out what flavors complement each other.

I cut a square of baked oatmeal every morning. It doesn’t need anything — you can pick it up in your hand and nibble on it — but I like to nuke it in a bowl with a fresh splash of milk for a warming breakfast on a cold morning.

Do you make baked oatmeal? What is your favorite flavor?

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Categories breakfast food, frugal eating, home cooking

Where did the sweet corn come from? Plus an amazing bread pudding.

May 9, 2025 //
2

I went to the farmers market today, as I do almost every Saturday, but I went to Safeway first because I needed tissues and dishwashing liquid and jarred salsa. I vaguely remembered that there was something on special that I wanted, so I cruised the produce section, and there it was: fresh corn, five ears for five bucks. I checked to make sure it had been grown in the U.S. — I don’t believe in importing produce from Mexico.

I last ate fresh corn in October, so I bought five ears and started thinking about what I would make with it, starting with pizza and pasta. I bought a small jar of sun-dried tomatoes to go with the corn. By next year I will be growing and drying cherry tomatoes again once I have a yard of my own.

The new crop in the market today was asparagus. I don’t like asparagus, so I passed it by. But there was a potato farmer so I bought a bag of red potatoes to supplement all of the spring greens: arugula, spring mix, bok choy, radishes. I’ve been eating radish greens lately, sauteed with pasta or in eggs, so I bypassed the bunches of turnips as well.

I picked up a dozen farm fresh eggs, brown and blue. For those of you keeping track, they cost eight dollars, so you can still eat an egg-based meal for two bucks.

I made pizza for lunch with pesto, mozzarella, an ear of fresh corn, feta and some sun-dried tomatoes. While it baked I made a salad of spring mix, arugula and a sliced radish. Then I had not one, but two modest slices of my chocolate beet cake with sour cream frosting, my reward for carrying a heavy backpack all morning.

Tonight I’ll probably eat pasta with Italian sausage, feta, lime, sun-dried tomatoes and more corn. I might throw in bell peppers, bok choy or arugula if I want more greens.

After lunch I found an old Facebook post of mine from today’s date. When I lived in California I bought strawberries, apricots, peaches and artichokes on May 3rd. Sigh. One of Kelly’s friends brought me a basket of strawberries yesterday and they are delicious, but stone fruit is a long way off and I don’t know if we get artichokes in western Washington at all. Two of the things I miss most about my native state is the variety of fresh produce available year-round and the quality of that produce. Here, however, we have utterly beautiful autumns with turning trees and springs full of lilacs, peonies and rhododendrons.

I started researching trees for a home orchard again: I don’t have a house and yard yet, but I will, and I will want to start some trees as soon as I can so that I will be harvesting my own peaches and figs again in a few years.

This morning I turned my gift of strawberries into strawberry cornmeal griddle cakes. I have been making this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for several years (My former partner loved strawberries).

Since I started this post, I have been completing cooking projects: I candied all of the orange peels I had saved in the freezer. I used a vegan vanilla cake mix to make cupcakes and frosted them with some of my leftover sour cream chocolate frosting.

This morning, I needed breakfast because I finished the strawberry pancakes yesterday. I had some milk that is on the verge of turning that I needed to use. I remembered that I had some bread in the freezer. I pulled out the bread, which turned out to be part of a loaf of challah. Good. I would use it to make a breakfast bread pudding with candied orange peel.

I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. I cubed the bread and chopped up orange peel. And then inspiration struck: what if I incorporated the last of my leftover sour cream chocolate frosting? Chocolate-orange breakfast bread pudding was born.

I made it the usual way: put the cubed bread in a bowl. I added the frosting to the bread before beating the eggs in the frosting bowl so as to dislodge all of the bits of frosting and incorporate them into the eggs. I added the eggs to the bread and frosting.

Then I made a mistake: I know to scald milk for bread pudding, but I skipped that step and just poured the milk over the bread, frosting and eggs. I added vanilla.

Then I tasted the custard — don’t do this if you are afraid of raw eggs — I needed to see how sweet it was since I don’t usually put frosting in bread pudding. I added a scant 1/3 cup of sugar and stirred everything together.

The result of my mistake is that my pudding resisted setting. After half an hour, I stirred the top layer back in to absorb more liquid and continued to bake the pudding. Because I did not scald the milk, my bread pudding took nearly an hour and forty-five minutes to bake. But it did finally set.

And OMG is it delicious! I am not normally a chocolate for breakfast fan, but the richness of the sour cream frosting and the chocolate and orange flavors are marvelous.

I didn’t measure the milk. I used three extra-large eggs because that is what I had. The bread was about a third of a loaf of challah. I would guess there was about a cup of frosting — maybe a generous cup. Candied orange peel to taste. 1/3 cup added sugar. A generous splash of vanilla. If you want a better guideline for proportions or ratios, consult an actual recipe for bread pudding — I usually just throw it together free-hand. Tassajara Bread Book has a good recipe for breakfast bread pudding But do yourself a favor and scald the milk! It will save you time and energy.

Stay tuned for next week’s adventures.

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Categories breakfast food, frugal eating, home cooking, Uncategorized

Seasonal Eating in Western Washington

April 27, 2025 //
2

My weekly trip to the farmers market is always an adventure: what will there be in the last week of April? After decades of farmers market shopping, farm box subscriptions and growing my own food in California, I had a pretty good idea what to expect in the markets there. I knew homegrown cherry tomatoes might be ripe on June 30, or Fourth of July and sweet corn would soon follow, but I have lived two states to the north for less than a year and do not know what to expect.

I’ll adjust, but I am not adjusted. The days have gotten long here and cavalcades of flowers are blooming: bulbs and shrubs and flowering trees: peonies, iris, tulips, lilacs, rhododendrons, cherries and plums. And yet the food crops are stubbornly behind sunny California or even foggy coastal California.

I got excited on Friday because the market newsletter had said there would be strawberries this week. I packed empty glass containers to carry them home in and got to the market just as it opened to be sure to get some.

I didn’t see any strawberries when I walked through the market. I stopped to buy radishes and spring salad mix and a loaf of whole wheat sourdough. I walked through a second time. No strawberries.

I stopped by the market booth. “The newsletter said you would have strawberries this week. Did the vendor not come?”

The woman in the booth looked at me.

“Strawberry plants,” she said, naming the vendor.

Oh.

I spotted some rhubarb. Perhaps it was dreaming of strawberries like I was.

I did not buy any rhubarb this week. Once, in an effort to try everything in a market, I bought a bunch of rhubarb and made all kinds of things with it. You can read about those experiments here. I may get so I crave rhubarb in the spring after a few years in Washington, but I am not there yet.

There are no root crops in the market except radishes. Where are the carrots, the spring beets, the new potatoes?

On my way out, I bought arugula with my last six dollars. I’ll be eating both salads and cooked greens this week: spring salad mix, arugula, radish greens, bok choy and the last of some savoy cabbage I bought some weeks back. The arugula farmer had cauliflower, but I do not like cauliflower (If I want some, I can get some next week).

Once home I cooked my last two beets: I will eat those in salads this week with walnuts, feta, various greens and a vinaigrette with pomegranate molasses (I found pomegranate molasses at the health food store this week and am delighted to have it).

I am beginning to long for fresh fruit. I have blood oranges, oranges, lemons and limes. I have frozen blueberries. I have canned sour pie cherries. I have dried cranberries and dried cherries and dates. I eat all of these things. If I were in California I would be feasting on strawberries by now. I can make wonderful cherry pie out of canned sour cherries. I can make candied orange peel and eat it in oatmeal with dates and cinnamon. I have jams and apple butter as well. I can make do.

The truth is I am tired of winter eating. I am glad of spring salads. And I wonder what we will have to eat next week in western Washington.

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Categories frugal eating, salads, seasonal recipes, Uncategorized

Frugality and Eating, Week Eight

April 4, 2025 //
2

I thought I had started this week’s post, but I can’t find a draft. I start the post on Saturday because Saturday is farmers market day. I’m still buying and eating Brussels sprouts and kale each week. Will I always eat Brussels sprouts and kale? No. When will I stop buying Brussels sprouts and kale? When there are other things at the market to buy. Today there was purple sprouting broccoli — I didn’t know what I would do with that so I didn’t buy any. Total spending: $17.00. I didn’t buy a treat today and I’m doing less cooking and eating the same things over and over because I’ve been busy with protests.

When I got home, I made kale salad with lemon-tahini dressing and ate shortcake and tea.

Saturday breakfast: baked French toast with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, mixed berry shortcake, black tea; dinner: pasta with Brussels sprouts and pesto.

Sunday I had a Zoom meeting after breakfast and went to a noon protest: I carried a bag of crackers, cheese, dried cranberries and almonds with me, but did not eat it there. I stopped off at the health food store on the way home for staples: half and half, frozen blueberries and dried sour cherries. Total spending: $23.04 Sunday breakfast: baked French toast with blueberries, coffee; lunch: crackers, smoked cheddar, cranberries, almonds, kale salad, mixed berry shortcake, black tea; dinner: homemade bean burrito with salsa and sour cream.

Monday breakfast: French toast with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza with arrabiata sauce, kalamata olives, roasted peppers and Italian sausage. After Monday lunch I wanted to use some shortcake biscuits, so I made them into faux scones with cream and jam: I split a shortcake and put it in the oven that was warm from baking the pizza. Then I whipped plain cream. I spread the warm shortcake with lingonberry jam and topped it with whipped cream. There is a controversy whether you apply the jam or cream first to a scone (or faux scone). I like the jam on the bottom — if you put the cream on the bottom of a warm pastry, it melts. I like biting through the cool cream into the jam and biscuity base. I wanted something different for dinner tonight, so I sauteed half of an Italian sausage, some orange bell pepper and scallions and added a couple of scrambled eggs. I ate that wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with a dash of Cholula and followed it up with an orange — breakfast for dinner, always an option if you like breakfast food.

Tuesday breakfast: last of the baked French toast with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, pizza, black tea; snack: shortbread with jam and cream; dinner: refried beans, salsa, corn tortillas.

Wednesday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, pizza, black tea, pumpkin blondie. I wasn’t hungry at dinner, so I just ate some almonds and dried sour cherries.

Thursday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, pizza; snack: shortbread with jam and cream, black tea; dinner: pasta with pesto and Brussels sprouts; snack: chocolate.

Thursday I stopped at Grocery Outlet for some basic supplies. Here’s what I bought: a gallon of whole milk ($3.99) five pounds of all purpose flour ($2.49), salami ($9.99), pizza crusts ($3.79), pasta ($2.38), lemons ($2.76), canned pumpkin ($3.79), canned sour cherries ($3.98) and toilet paper ($5.99). Total for groceries: $33.68.

Friday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, pizza (arrabiata sauce, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers and salami), black tea, coffee shortbread; dinner: pasta with pesto and Brussels sprouts; snack: candied almonds.

Another frugal week starts tomorrow with a visit to the farmers market, and a Hands Off protest and then I will tackle a new topic: in hard times What Do You Need to Be Happy?

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Categories frugal eating, home cooking, Uncategorized

Frugality and Eating, Week 7

March 28, 2025 //
0

I began my week of frugal eating on Saturday morning with coffee and baked French toast with blueberries to fuel me for a trip to the farmers market. Breakfast is one of the meals I reliably cook for myself: I am a morning person — by dinner time I often do not care what I eat. The other thing I will almost always do is make a bowl of salad every time I run out of it: because I have been eating kale salad, which is pretty much indestructible no matter how long it sits around, I usually make salad twice a week.

By Thursday last week I was out of greens and jonesing for them, so I bought two bunches of kale and one bag of Brussels sprouts. Total spent: $17.00. I had just run out of eggs, so I picked up a dozen farm fresh eggs for $7.00. Lastly, I stopped by Pane D’Amore bakery for my new Saturday lunch treat: a slice of focaccia and a chocolate-walnut cookie for $7.25 — I am particularly liking food-to-go on these busy Saturdays of demonstrations. On days other than Saturdays, I am likely to pack up salami, cheese, crackers, containers of homemade kale salad, nuts and/or oranges to keep me fueled while I stand in public spaces holding signs.

I was out all morning — at the bank, at the market, at Hollywood Beach for a native American water blessing ceremony and march. Once home, I ate my focaccia before running off to the library sale. The focaccia is filling and I rested and napped most of the afternoon and evening. I don’t like to eat heavily in the evening, so I nuked a bowl of Brussels sprouts, added a spoonful of pesto, followed that with a homemade pumpkin blondie for dessert and called that dinner.

Saturday meals: Breakfast: cardamom French toast with frozen blueberries, coffee; lunch: focaccia; dinner: Brussels sprouts with pesto, pumpkin blondie.

Sunday meals: Breakfast: homemade pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; Lunch: leftover homemade pizza with pesto, kalamata olives, roasted peppers; black tea with evaporated milk; Dinner: kale salad with feta, dried cherries, roasted almonds and lemon-tahini dressing.

Monday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza, half chocolate walnut cookie, black tea with evaporated milk; dinner: whole wheat burrito with refried beans, salsa and sour cream.

Tuesday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza with arrabiata sauce, feta, kalamata olives and roasted peppers, black tea, pumpkin blondie; dinner: burrito; snack: dried cherries, roasted almonds.

Wednesday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries; lunch: Brussels sprouts with pesto, homemade pizza, pumpkin blondie, green tea; dinner: homemade burrito; snacks: chocolate with nuts, roasted almonds, dried cherries.

Thursday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, roasted strawberry shortcake*, black tea; dinner: pizza, kale salad, whole wheat tortilla.

Friday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza, roasted strawberry shortcake, black tea; dinner: pasta with Brussels sprouts and pesto.

* If you should find yourself with underripe strawberries, you can cut them up, sprinkle them with a bit of sugar and roast them in a 350-degree oven to concentrate their flavor. You lose the raw character, but they taste better. I made the shortcake biscuits with 2 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of rolled oats, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup evaporated milk, a pinch of salt and 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Total weekly food spending: $31.25, including my Saturday lunch treat.

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Categories desserts, frugal eating, grocery shopping, home cooking, Uncategorized

Frugality and Eating, Week 5-6ish

March 22, 2025 //
0

I promised I would talk a little about creativity this week. Here goes: to create something you need to have a problem to solve, something you want to do. And then you have to make a decision to do it with what you have on hand. This is important: while it is nice to have a fine musical instrument or the best pigments or some other luxury (and there is something to having decent or even excellent materials), the creativity does not come from the excellence of your materials, it comes from your decision to bring something into being, which is generally because you want something.

For instance, back in 2018, I had an emotional response to the United States administration separating children from their parents at the southern border. My experience as a former MFT told me that this would be traumatic for the families and children. I wanted to say something about it. But more than that, I wanted to sing something about it because songs carry emotional weight and evoke emotional responses.

So I started imagining what a woman would say who was walking to the U.S. border. The song starts:

I walked a long way, longer than you know.
I walked a long way, carrying my pain and fear.
I walked a long way -- I had nowhere else to go.
I walked a long way to get here.

I knew I wanted to sing it in both English and Spanish to reach Spanish-speakers. Fortunately, I studied Spanish in high school and college. I found a local poet to help me put my English words into Spanish in a way that I could fit them into the tune. I hired my partner at the time, Mr. Johnny Harper, to produce both English and Spanish versions. I booked studio time. I hired back-up singers and a piano player and, through trial and error, I built the arrangement I wanted.

Then, as I have done with almost all of my recording projects I painted a watercolor album cover painting. I had to adjust the painting many times to get the color intensity I wanted. I had to photograph it and have it photographed many times to get the photos to reflect the colors of the painting. All the time I was shooting for something, aiming for something that I wanted.

The cooks among you are perhaps wondering what this has to do with frugal eating. It has everything to do with it. The ingredients I buy at the farmers market or Safeway or grocery outlet are the beginning of my creativity in the kitchen. I am guided by ingredients and by what I like to eat. For instance, I like home fries and I hate hash browns. This is an easy choice: I don’t make hash browns and avoid them in restaurants because I don’t like them — I turn potatoes into other things. If I didn’t like potatoes at all, I wouldn’t buy them.

So what did I buy this week? The farmer with the sweet potatoes comes to the market once a month, so I bought several sweet potatoes. The other vegetable vendor had savoy cabbage today — I bought some because at this time in the year it is wonderful to have a new vegetable to cook with. Then I bought a mixed bag of roasting vegetables, mostly to get carrots and Brussels sprouts, and two bags of kale because kale is still what is available for salads and I don’t mind it if I smother it in tahini, garlic and lemon juice. The sweet potatoes cost $11.50 and the other veggies cost $27.92. Big spender today.

I have another busy weekend and I needed to hurry back home quickly, so I bought myself an extravagant lunch of vegetarian focaccia and a chocolate-walnut cookie from Pane D’Amore bakery. That might just become my weekly lunch treat. Both items were excellent and I enjoyed the break from constant cooking. That set me back $7.25.

I don’t know yet what I’ll make with my ingredients, or when I’ll buy more. I still have borscht, bread, and kale salad from last week, so I won’t have to cook tonight. Saturday dinner: kale salad, leftover pasta. Snack: chocolate-covered nuts

Sunday breakfast: pumpkin polenta (polenta cooked in milk with half a cup of pumpkin puree, sweet spices and maple syrup, coffee; lunch: kale salad, dinner: sweet potato with salsa and sour cream; snack: chocolate-covered nuts

Monday breakfast: pumpkin polenta, coffee; lunch: kale salad, borscht, leftover fried potatoes, muffin; dinner: bread with cheese, roasted peppers, salami, Brussels sprouts with pesto; Snack: bread and jam

Here endeth the daily recitation of what I bought and ate last week: last Thursday, midway through this post, my laptop died. It took six days to replace it and have data transferred from the old to the new, interrupting my daily recording of what I ate and spent. I did spend $85.28 at Grocery Outlet on March 14, where I restocked on citrus, celery, bell peppers, green onions, garlic, chicken broth, whole wheat flour, pasta, pasta sauce, chicken meatballs, crackers, whole wheat tortillas, evaporated milk and sour cream. I also bought strawberries and whipping cream because it’s spring (probably should have waited longer on the strawberries, which looked good, but lacked flavor: I folded a few of them into a batch of strawberry cornmeal pancakes, which I ate with newly-purchased raspberry syrup and frozen blueberries). Total spent on food for the days covered by this post: $159.92.

Pretty soon I am going to go to the kitchen for Saturday’s breakfast of baked French toast: I made it yesterday with eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and a loaf of sliced cardamom-orange bread that I bought at Sluy’s Bakery in Poulsbo for $8.24 when I was in Poulsbo seeing to data transfer. During my day-long excursion there I bought pizza and salad for lunch for $12.02, hot chocolate and cappuccino to keep me going for $11.06, and a pecan roll for $2.20. I also brought food with me, which I ate for dinner: kale salad, salami, cheese and whole wheat crackers.

After breakfast I will go to the farmers market and start a new post covering what I buy this week. Or not: I started these frugal eating posts because I thought people would find it helpful to know how to eat well on little money, but maybe all of you already know how to do that, or maybe you all still have plenty to eat on. If you’d like me to continue the Frugal Eating posts, please leave me a comment.

P.S. “The Border Song” is still available on CD.

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Categories frugal eating, home cooking, Uncategorized

Frugality and Eating, Week 3

February 28, 2025 //
2

Saturday morning I began my day with the last of the tahini-beet muffins I made last week, a blood orange and a cup of decaf coffee with half and half. Then I walked to the bank, where I withdrew forty dollars, which I hope will be enough to cover this week’s grocery shopping.

I like having money in the bank — in fact, I feel uncomfortable if my business account falls below $200. Today it is at $65.00. I could have left the $40.00 in there, but I also like having fresh, healthy things to eat and I like supporting local farmers, especially the ones who bring vegetables to market in the winter.

I walked from the bank to the farmers market where I purchased two bags of kale for $10.00 for salads (I still have potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, garlic and a few Brussels sprouts from previous weeks). Then I stopped at the Pane d’Amore booth to look at loaves of bread. I can bake my own bread and sometimes do, but I have a busy week and did not want to commit to baking bread. I also have tortillas and ready-made pizza crusts on hand, plus a loaf of challah in the freezer.

The bread that called to me was the Oaty Oat bread. I bought a loaf for $7.25, making use of my .25 bag discount. Farmers market total: $17.25.

On my way home, I decided to stop at the health food store because they have a sale on navel oranges. I can eat them as snacks, juice them, make orange syrup or orange curd to enhance baked goods. I can make orange rolls for breakfasts or snacks or orange-cumin bread. I can add them to salads. I still have lemons, limes and blood oranges at home. I bought a four-pound bag of organic oranges for $8.99.

I have a white board in my kitchen where I list things I want to buy soon. I decided to stop by Safeway and get just those items: sour cream, red salsa and flour. I lucked out because all three of them were on sale. I bought unbleached bread flour — I had been looking just for unbleached flour, but unbleached bread flour was on sale for $3.17 for five pounds. Because I am not planning on making an angel food cake or delicate pastry this week, I bought the bread flour, saving myself more than two dollars (Regular flour ran $5.45 and was bleached). Safeway total: $9.77.

Home again, I unpacked my groceries and put them away, except for one bag of lacinato kale. I sat at my kitchen table removing the leaves from the central stems, which allowed me to rest from my load-bearing walk. When my glass bowl was full of kale I added the usual suspects: fresh-squeezed lemon juice, minced garlic, tamari and a heaping tablespoon of tahini.

By the time I had made the salad, I realized that what I wanted for lunch was a big salad and a slice of bread with jam. I dished a big bowl of kale salad and crumbled some feta into it to make it more substantial. I cut the end slice from the oat bread, cut the slice into two halves and spread one with some marionberry jam I had received as a gift and the other with lingonberry preserves from a past baking box (More on that next week).

What goes with bread and jam? Tea. I made a pot of Irish Breakfast Tea to take the chill off the afternoon. I buy loose tea from Canada — here is my tea rant for your reading pleasure.

Saturday dinner: Homemade burrito: tomato wrap, shredded greens, refried beans, sour cream, salsa (I’m trying to organize a protest about cuts to Social Security so I needed something quick); chocolate pudding.

Sunday: An early political meeting, three loads of laundry and a breakfast bread pudding made up of half a loaf of challah from the freezer, three eggs, a quart of whole milk, juice and zest of one orange, vanilla, nutmeg and a handful of sugar, baking at 350 F. Breakfast drink: mocha made from fresh coffee, leftover cocoa and half and half. Lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza. Snack: bread and jam.

Monday: Breakfast bread pudding with a handful of frozen blueberries, coffee; Lunch: kale salad with roasted almonds, homemade pizza, bread and jam, black tea with milk (hungry and cold today). Dinner: homemade burrito.

Tuesday: Breakfast bread pudding with blueberries, coffee with half and half. Lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza. Snack: toast with butter and jam. Dinner: homemade burrito

Wednesday: Breakfast bread pudding with blueberries, coffee with half and half. Lunch: roasted cashews from the bag (bad day, spent most of it in bed). Dinner: kale salad, homemade pizza

Thursday: Breakfast out: a friend treated me to breakfast to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Very frugal for me, not so much for her. Bonus: Chestnut Cottage where we ate gives you a free pastry on your birthday, so I snagged a cinnamon roll to eat tomorrow. Late lunch: kale salad because I ate a big high-calorie breakfast. Dinner: a few sections of orange and a lot of water because I was not hungry.

Friday: Breakfast cinnamon roll from Chestnut Cottage, coffee with half and half. While the cinnamon roll heated and the coffee dripped I shredded Brussels sprouts for a later salad and doused them with olive oil and lemon juice to marinate. Later I will add matchstick pieces of green apple, dried cranberries, roasted cashews and yellow mustard. Lunch: Brussels sprouts salad and oatmeal bread. Dinner: pasta with pesto and Brussels sprouts. Snack: two chocolate-covered caramelized almonds.

Note: I am not recommending skipping meals, nor am I skipping meals to save money: I am reporting to you what I actually do, what I actually spend, and what I actually eat in case it gives you some ideas about how to eat more frugally in challenging times. I promise you that I enjoy eating the food that I prepare — if I didn’t, I would switch it up and make something different.

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Categories frugal eating, grocery shopping, home cooking, teas and tisanes, Uncategorized

Frugality and Eating, Week 2

February 21, 2025 //
0

I walked to the farmers market this morning, seeking salad ingredients and possibly other vegetables for the week. I still have carrots, beets, potatoes and onions at home from last week (Don’t worry, I’ll have uses for them). Today I bought a bag of curly kale and a bag of Brussels sprouts: I can turn each of them into winter salads. Total outlay: $12.00, as opposed to last week’s $32.40 on fresh vegetables. Because my costs were so low, I felt fine about purchasing a treat, a small cherry-almond danish for $4.25. The vendor gives me $.25 off because I bring my own cloth bag, so I always bring my bag: I keep it in my kitchen and grab it whenever I go shopping. Market total: $16.25.

On the way home I stop at Safeway. My list has three items: Kleenex, malted milk powder and marshmallows (for cocoa). I couldn’t find the marshmallows, so I bought tissues: $7.99 for a four-pack and malted milk powder for $6.49. Yikes! But it’s February and I like to have a variety of drinks in chilly weather. There is no waste to malted milk powder. So I buy it. Safeway total: $15.19.

When I got home, the first thing I did was start stripping curly kale from its stems, putting small pieces into a glass salad bowl. Three-quarters of my kale filled the bowl with a little room to toss it. Then I went to work on dressing. Into a small bowl I placed a generous tablespoon of tahini, the juice of three small lemons — smaller than your average lime — a dash of tamari and one finely minced clove of garlic. I tossed all of that with the kale, covered it and refrigerated it to soften in the dressing. Next I quartered a blood orange and peeled it, separating the segments. I put the peels in a baggie in the freezer: I candy my own orange rinds — all it takes is water, sugar, rinds and patience — and I like them straight up and in baked goods (bread pudding, French toast, muffins).

While my kale marinated, I spied some whole wheat sourdough that I had let age too long. While I could still get a knife through it, I sliced all of it. I selected two half slices, spread them with mustard and turned on my oven to 350 F. I sliced three pieces of cheddar, topped the bread with them and popped it into the oven to melt — the oven heat will soften the middle of the bread and turn the chewy edges crunchy. When the cheese toast was done, I put one slice of salami over the melted cheese.

Next I dished a bowl of tahini-dressed kale, added three-quarters of the orange segments and a small handful of roasted almonds and sat down to eat. One hour of prep and I’m eating salad and a hot sandwich. Plus, I have a few prepped orange segments, sliced bread and kale salad for other meals.

Sunday morning I made the beet root-tahini muffins, adding dried sour cherries and substituting two small grated beets for the carrots. They came out a beautiful rose color on top, perfect for post-Valentine’s Day weekend. Next time I might try a mixture of carrots and beets, just because, but these are fine. While they baked I cleaned up, chopped potatoes for a fresh batch of home fries and put them to boil and made my morning coffee. Sunday afternoon I varied my toasted cheese sandwich by spreading the bread with pesto and skipping the salami. I had some more kale salad, a pot of black tea and half of my danish. Sweet potato, salsa and sour cream for dinner.

Monday breakfast: muffin, home fries, coffee. I popped six of the muffins into the freezer to see if that preserves them better than leaving them out all week (They do dry out a bit, but nuking them to warm them makes them soft again). Monday lunch: kale salad with blood oranges, cheese toasts and cheese and salami toasts. Snack: homemade hot cocoa with marshmallows (marshmallows a gift from my landlady). Monday dinner: more cheese toasts.

Tuesday breakfast: muffin, home fries, coffee. Tuesday lunch: kale salad with oranges, homemade pizza with pesto, roasted peppers, mushrooms. Tuesday dinner: sweet potato with salsa and sour cream. Snacks: handful of Cheeze-Its, muffin. Spending: $4.00 for organic half and half (I drink half and half in my coffee. Straus organic tastes better and lasts longer than other brands. When I can’t get half and half or run out at a bad time, I use evaporated milk).

Wednesday breakfast: muffin, home fries, coffee. Lunch: kale salad with oranges, homemade pizza. Snack: cocoa. Dinner: Yummy homemade burrito — refried beans, shredded greens, salsa, and sour cream; carrot sticks.

Thursday breakfast: muffin, home fries, coffee. Lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza. Snack: too many Cheez-Its (I had a fuck-it-all kind of day). Very late dinner: another muffin.

Friday breakfast: muffin, home fries, coffee. Lunch: homemade burrito. Snack: homemade cocoa with marshmallows. Dinner: I’m still recovering from yesterday, so I steamed a bowl of Brussels sprouts, added a spoonful of pesto, ate the last slice of homemade pizza and finished dinner with a muffin.

Week 3 begins tomorrow with a farmers market trip.

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Categories frugal eating, home cooking, Uncategorized
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