Four Easy Tips for Getting Started on Low Cost Meals

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.

Images courtesy of The English, Garden, The Flying Pig and Eathy Finds.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with an Amaretto Icing

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!

Which ingredients do you like to swap?

Happy Day of The Dead

One of my favorite parts of fall is that you have three days of holidays in a row. Once the excitement of Halloween has past you still have two days of Day of the Dead to celebrate. For those of you who live in places that don’t observe Day of the Dead, or El Día de los Muertos,  it is a two day holiday that takes place on November 1^st and 2^nd. The holiday is more widely celebrated in Mexico and Latin America as a time to commemorate friends and family who have passed.  It may be called The Day of the Dead but it’s more of a celebration of life and the relationships that people form. Peter and I don’t go all out for Day of the Dead but I love the pressed sugar skulls, bright flowers, and delicious Day of the Dead bread. Yesterday, we drove all over Austin on a quest to buy some of this bread. We found it in two places but my favorite was at La Mexicana Bakery. The  bread is honestly my favorite part of this holiday, especially since you can only buy it on two days of the year.  In my Google search to find a loaf in Austin I came across a recipe from Chow to make some of your own. Now that we have this, I’m sure that Peter and I will bake it year round.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon anise seed
• 1/2 ounce (2 packets) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 teaspoons water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine sugar, salt, anise seed, and yeast in a small mixing bowl. Heat milk, water, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter is just melted; do not allow it to boil. Add milk mixture to dry mixture and beat well with a wire whisk.
2. Stir in eggs and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and beat well. Add remaining flour, little by little, stirring well with a wooden spoon until dough comes together.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured wooden board and knead until it is smooth and elastic, and no longer sticky, about 9 to 10 minute . Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow it to rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces. Cut 3 small (about 1-ounce) balls from each half and mold them into skull-and-bones shapes. Shape large balls of dough into round loaf shapes, and place skull-and-bones on top. Place bread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise another hour.
5. Brush loaves with egg yolk mixture and bake. Halfway through baking, about 20 minutes, remove loaves from oven and brush again with egg wash and sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Return to oven and bake until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about another 20 minutes.

Visit Chow for this great recipe and thousands more! How do you celebrate Day of the Dead?

Image courtesy of Lucinda Hutson.

Food Heads

There is something completely endearing about shops and restaurants in old little houses. Peter and I visited Food Heads on 34th for just this reason. The little house makes you feel like you’re going over to a friend’s for lunch but the food is always guaranteed to be good. I strongly recommend the chicken sandwich. It’s a warm little bit of heaven in between two delicious pieces of bread.

If you’ve never tried this restaurant then you should definitely give it a chance. But be warned, you may end up wanting to eat there every day–trust me, Peter and I did until we realized that it wasn’t the most affordable lunch choice.

Image courtesy of Spacekadet.org