Starting Out Savvy » Tasty Treats

Kale Chips

Jamie Lee — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:00:38 +0000

This weekend we finally experimented with kale chips. I’d never eaten one but saw them popping up again and again and decided that they were worth a try. I washed the kale, tossed it in grape seed oil (I prefer grape seed to olive oil when cooking because of how each handles high heat.), added a touch of salt and baked them for 15-25 minutes at 350 degrees. I know 15-25 minutes is a huge window. The first batch I made I used a lot less kale. It shrunk down so much that I piled the second batch pretty high. Basically you want the chips to cook until they are crispy but not burnt.

The result: at first we thought they were great, but as Peter and I snacked on the after taste became overwhelmingly kale-y and we got burnt our pretty quickly. The funny thing is that the next day we went over to a friend’s house for dinner. Guess what she brought out for an appetizer?! The difference was that she squeezed lemon on the kale before baking and it really cut down on that kale taste. I think we’re still a bit kaled out, but if we decide to make them again, we’ll definitely be adopting her lemon trick for our recipe.

Have you ever cooked kale chips? Do you love them or hate them? Let us know!

Best. Scones. Ever.

Jamie Lee — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:16:33 +0000

Baking scones has always come across as one of those intensely challenging tasks. I’ve heard so many horror stories of messy disasters that I never quite felt up to the challenge, but recently I came across a recipe that made me give it a try. I think I was seduced by Joy the Baker‘s witty writing style, coupled with my desire for something new and delicious to take to work for breakfast.

The result:

Peter and I decided that these were the best scones we’d ever eaten, except for maybe the ones we had in London, but regardless, that says a lot. Unlike cakey scones that are so common at bakeries around here, these turned out fantastically airy and delicious. I even substituted the refined sugar for rapadura and they still turned out like little bites of heaven.

If you’re interested in getting the recipe, then you can find it here. For those of you who don’t already follow Joy the Baker, I highly recommend it. Her writing style is fantastic, her photos are beautiful, and she always makes recipes feel so simple that even I leave the site with a new ambition is to become a baker.

What baked treats have you stumbled upon lately?

A Healthier Take on Spinach and Artichoke Heart Dip

Peter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:00:15 +0000

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!

A New Twist on Bisque

Peter — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:00:53 +0000

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!

Have fun cooking!

Burgers You’ll Love

Peter — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:00:27 +0000

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!