Jamie Lee and I both like spinach and artichoke dip, but we agree that most of the time, the recipe is rather bland. It is one of those dips that tends to hide its mediocrity with an overwhelming richness. Generally, this richness results from a mixture of sour cream, mayonnaise, and cream cheese, all of which have a rather piquant flavor but little depth. So I thought I would make a version that did not skimp on flavor and had richness only when it would have a unique flavor to it. Mine has more actual cheese in it and should be baked in an oven.
You will need:
fresh mozzarella (3 golf ball size pieces)
1/3 cup gouda
1/3 cup good Swiss cheese
1/3 cup feta (we used low fat)
1 cup low fat cream cheese (preferably whipped)
8 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess liquid
12 oz. artichokes (1 can)
3 TB white wine
2 cloves garlic minced
To make:
Heat oven to 375
Puree mozzarella and divide in half
Puree rest of ingredients, except for spinach and artichokes
Fold the mixture in with half of the pureed mozzarella.
Roughly chop artichokes and spinach, then fold in with mixture
Spoon mixture into Pyrex dish
Cover mixture with remaining pureed mozzarella
Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly
This made the best spinach artichoke dip we have ever tasted. Be aware that this recipe makes a fair amount, and once you add bread into the picture, you are looking at a meal in itself, especially if you add a good green salad to the table. The other thing about it is that the presentation is more dramatic with the toasted cheese on top. The different cheeses in the dip itself give it a lot of complexity that you can set off nicely with a crisp white wine. Enjoy!
Tonight we decided to make an inexpensive meal that would give us some leftovers to take to work for lunch. Certain things work better as leftovers than others. In my opinion, pasta gets slimy and starchy, fish tends to get rubbery, and ground beef dries out. One option that stays relatively stable is soup, but be careful. Some soups keep better than others. Certain soups will solidify after cooling and no amount of further additions prior to reheating will save them. Also, certain vegetables like leeks, kale, or anything meant to be crispy on the first go will become anything but once the soup is reheated.
With these precautions in mind, good soups to make with leftovers in mind are vegetable based with some, but not tons, of dairy. For example, tonight I made a nice tomato bisque with a few chunks of gouda, some smoked paprika, a splash of half and half, and a spoonful of lowfat cream cheese. One thing that bothers me about most bisques is that the heavy cream used in the dairy addition is rich, but not terribly interesting in terms of how that creaminess tastes. Rich food should be worth the calories and the taste, not just the former! Making a soup with a few different kinds of dairy, in addition to a nice sharp flavor like tomatoes, really makes for a nice meal and one that is lighter than a heavy cream bisque.
After reading that roster of dairy, this may seem like anything but a high cost meal. However, the only thing we had to buy to make the soup were tomatoes, both fresh and canned, and the half and half, which we plan on using in another recipe. We had everything else, which brings me to a good tip on cooking, which is that you should use what you have. We bought a big wedge of gouda a while ago, and we had a chunk of it left. We like bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, so we always have some cream cheese in the fridge. Gouda, cream cheese, and half and half are all dairy, but each one has a certain taste that is nice on its own, but is also easy and fun to combine.
As for the rest of the recipe, it’s easy:
To begin, toss a big spoonful of minced garlic and a medium chopped onion into some hot olive oil. If you have a thin bottom pot, watch this mixture and stir it a lot until the onions are translucent. I then chopped four fresh tomatoes into big slices, about the size of a lemon wedge in a glass of iced tea, and tossed those in. To this I added about a half tablespoon of smoked paprika and some dried basil. While that heated up, I pureed three 14 oz cans of whole tomatoes in a blender and added this to the pot, along with two bouillon cubes (flavor on these varies a lot by brand, so find one you like). To this I added 3 cups of water
Then I let that mixture boil for about an hour, uncovered. I stirred it every now and then, but since there is no dairy in it yet, the soup can pretty much bubble on its own.
Then, add the chunks of gouda, the cream cheese, and the half and half. Lower your heat and wait for it to bubble just a bit, then stir it more frequently, maybe once every five minutes. Once dairy is in the soup there is a far greater chance the soup will scorch to the bottom of the pan, which you want to avoid!
I made some cornbread to go with this soup, but if making the soup is enough of a chore, just buy a nice crusty white or wheat bread. This simple tomato bisque is healthier than its relative which consists of nothing but pureed tomatoes and heavy cream. You could also add some other veggies to it if you wish; soup is nice to experiment with, because unless you do something really extreme, it will still taste pretty good. Just don’t go overboard on spicing it; you can always add more, but subtracting or downplaying a spice is not easy. And you want to preserve the taste of the fresh tomatoes you added.
It was so good that we accidentally dove right in before taking a photo!
As a couple, we face a particular dilemma. I eat enough food for two people, three if we are having crepes. We face a dilemma of making an inexpensive meal for four, because when we make dinner we try to cook enough to have some left over for Jamie Lee to take to work for lunch. So we need enough food for three people at dinner time (I count as two, don’t forget) plus one portion for the next day.
With these issues in mind, it is rather difficult to make a meal for under ten dollars. I tried eating less, but found I was spending more on cereal to eat before I went to bed, which defeated the purpose of trying to save money. We’re still thinking of ways to solve the problem, but one solution that we have come across involves using what we have in combination with some fresh items that we buy. This is a nice idea, because it allows us to be inventive about our meals without breaking the bank, as I am tempted to do every time I go to the grocery store. It’s a fun challenge and a nice diversion when we’re bored at work to think of what we can make with the stuff in our fridge or freezer. Combining what we have with fresh ingredients makes us avoid feeling like we are eating leftovers, which I HATE. I know it’s thrifty to eat leftovers, but come on. I feel like I’m eating garbage and nothing I do can get me past that.
Example! We had a large dinner party with a pasta dish as the main entrée. This dish had meatballs, but we did not use all the meat. Instead, we had about a half pound each of ground turkey and ground beef in the freezer. It had been in there for a while, but thanks to Ziploc, the meat was still in really good shape.
We added some shredded cheese from a few nights back when we made tacos to make some really good burgers.
What’s nice about this recipe is how surprisingly good the burgers were – they were very different from pure turkey or beef burgers. Turkey burgers are generally bone dry, especially on the grill, and beef burgers taste good (of course) but red meat is not the best thing for you. So this little combination gave us less red meat with all the moisture of red meat. These paired with homemade oven bakes fries made for a delicious dinner!
Looking for more tips on cooking for less? Try here!
I do most of the cooking at home and we try to make low cost meals be the rule. Doing so is good for two reasons. First, when we do splurge on something, like fresh tuna steaks, it is extra special. Second, it makes it easier on our budget to have friends over for dinner. Here are some helpful bits of information that can get you started on making low cost meals.
One of the easiest ways to make low cost meals is to invest in fresh herbs that you can grow in your home. Indoors or outdoors, most herbs are hearty and grow quickly. Having your own herbs saves lots of money at the grocery store. Herbs also drastically improve a dish. They don’t just look cool.
Recipes (especially stews and sauces) will often call for dried herbs and the best way to handle this side of cooking is to purchase a set of spices. It is pretty easy to find an eighteen spice set, which often comes with its own rack. It is especially helpful to get one of these if you are beginning to cook, because you will learn pretty quickly which spices you use the most, and can avoid stocking up on spices you will never use. We got one of our first spice racks from Costco. Then as we wanted to try new spices, we bought them in bulk, sometimes with a friend so that we wouldn’t have to worry about using the spices before they went bad and we could share the cost.
Unless you are roasting garlic, buying, storing, and cutting whole cloves of garlic wastes time and money. We bought a large jar of minced garlic and cannot tell the difference between the jar and the chopped garlic I have repeatedly labored over in the kitchen. Having worked in numerous restaurants, I can attest that they have all relied on this method as well, because chefs do not have the time to cut their own garlic for all the dishes they make.
If you are tight on cash, it is tough to get over the fear of cooking something that might taste bad, but you will save money in the long run. Start simply and make one dish repeatedly, and practice until you start to improve. The dish should be relatively cheap, like pasta with fresh tomato sauce, which does not require very many ingredients and can be made in small amounts.
Written on November 19th, 2009 by Jamie Lee2 comments
I strongly associate fall with pumpkins, simply because they’re everywhere. Children are taking pictures in pumpkin patches, people are carving them for Halloween, and Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie. With all of that pumpkin floating around, it’s a great time to put it to other uses. After reading somewhere that pumpkin can be used as a substitute for butter or oil, I couldn’t help but put that knowledge to the test. We tried it over a year ago with some sugar cookies that Peter and I like to make and the cookies have since become a staple in our household. Here’s the recipe:
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix all the ingredients together until the batter is consistent.
Wrap the dough in Saran wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters or flatten into small circles. Use cooking spray and extra flour to prevent cookies from sticking.
Bake cookies at 400 degrees on a greased pan for about eight minutes or until golden brown.
While the cookies are in the oven, start to make the icing. Pour a large amount of powdered sugar into a bowl and slowly add small amounts of amaretto until you reach a thick consistency.
Note: The amaretto dissolves the powdered sugar quickly, so it’s important to only add a little bit at a time to avoid a gooey mess.
The pumpkin in the cookies makes them fluffier than regular cookies. This recipe combines a childhood favorite with a more adult icing. Plus, they must have more vitamins than regular sugar cookies!
