Life's Accidental Journey: Food

Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Monday, July 12, 2010

Dehydrator Flax Seed Crackers

We genuinely try, in our home, to avoid sugar. Now I know this looks hypocrital considering the post of just a few days ago showing all the sugar for the bake sales. And truthfully, we are hypocrits. We do *try* to avoid sugar. But the irony of this is that I love to bake sweets. And people seem to really like my baking. Cake and cookies and various candies seem to bless people in ways differently than flax crackers do.

Don't ask me why.

I'm not saying that we don't eat the sweets that I make on occasion. Because that would be beyond hypocritical. And a lie. But...as a general rule, I'm really blessed by a family that likes more nourishing foods as a general rule.

So even though I can dip Nutter Butters in white chocolate bark with the best of them, the flax crackers are something I make much more often. I just don't photo them as much because they're not half as cute.

**Recipe written below pictures.

This is the flax seed before it's ground. I grind it in a coffee grinder designated for stuff like this.

And this is what it looks like after about 20 seconds. I use 2 cups of whole flax seed for this recipe. My grinder is small so I have to do it 1/2 cup at a time.

I use my Blendtec blender for this recipe, but you could maybe use any quality blender if you chopped the foods a little smaller. Here I have one can of diced tomatoes and half of a medium/large onion. I then add about 1/2 cup Braggs. You could certainly substitute soy sauce I'm sure.

Here I've added about half a cup of extra virgin olive oil and a LOT of garlic. I buy it prechopped in those huge containers at Sams and I probably used 5 or so Tablespoons. I also added about a cup of water. And a whole jalapeno from the garden.

Here is 2 big handfulls of raw, organic spinach and a handful of shredded cheddar cheese. I also added about a heaping tablespoon of coarse ground pepper.

Here it is blended.

Now most of the flax cracker recipes that I've seen say to add the water to the ground flax first. I have issues with this. It "gels" and then I have a really tough time incorporating the blended vegetables. YMMV.

When you first add it to this smallish amount of ground flax, it seems awfully thin. You're gonna want to add less of the liquid vegetables. Don't. Because as you can see in the photo below...

...it thickens up. Here I'm spreading it on my Excalibur Dehydrator paraflexx sheet. One batch of flax paste makes 4 full sheets of crackers. Approximately 200 crackers.

I spread it as thin as I can get it to go which varies depending on how thick the concoction has become. The thinner pieces have a texture more like chips. The thicker pieces, more like crackers. It's a win/win. And then I score the paste to make it easier to break into bite sized pieces when it's dry.

I then barely salt and heavily pepper the paste and pop it in the dehydrator for a couple of days at 115 degrees. After several hours, asap, I remove the crackers from the paraflexx sheets to dry them evenly on both sides.

And this is what they look like when they're done. I literally cannot keep enough of these made to satisfy everyone here. I usually make a batch ever single day. They are really very, very good. And spicy.

Dehydrator Olive Oil and Black Pepper Flax Crackers

2 Cups whole flax seed, ground
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 large onion
1 whole jalapeno pepper with seeds (optional)
1/2 cup Braggs liquid aminos (could probably substitute soy sauce)
Lots of garlic, I use appr. 5 tablespoons diced (to taste)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-2 tablespoons of coarse black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
2 handfulls raw spinach

Grind flax seed and put in a large bowl. Set aside. Add other ingredients to a good blender (or possibly a food processor but realize that the mixture will be moderately thin and may leak) and process until it's all liquid. Pour over flax meal and mix well. Spread thinly on dehydrator sheets (I set my dehydrator at 115 degrees)and very lightly salt and pepper (to taste) and dehydrate for several hours. As soon as possible, peel the sheets off the crackers and continue to dry for 48 or so hours total.

This is a tease of my homemade protein bars. When I make them again I'll try to get some pictures and post a recipe.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Reasonably Healthy Lunch Ideas

My middle daughter, Julia, was 13 last year. She decided that she would NOT carry a lunch box to her co-op. Now since she only went one (full) day a week, I didn't make too much of it. I'd send her some (healthy) peanut butter spread on crackers and a water bottle. Just making sure she had a big breakfast and supper on that day.

This year she is going 3 days a week. All day long. Something had to change. I talked with other mothers and we brainstormed a few things. All are more than agreeable to my middle (and now youngest as well) daughter.

First, there is no need for a lunch box. I pack a small cooler for them both together and put it in the co-op kitchen. Whenever they get hungry between classes, they can just go grab what they want from their personal "refridgerator". And they don't have to lug anything around.

And here is some of the ideas we've come up with to fill it. Bear in mind that the girls only have 15 minutes between each class, so the snacks have to be pretty small.

*Half sandwich (we call these "bendovers" cause you "bend" the bread "over")
(Preferably some type of minimally processed meat on a whole grain bread.)

*Big huge pickle (cut into spears cause the girls have braces now...I buy them in those huge glass jars that they have at Sams)

*Box of raisins

*String cheese

*Whole grain crackers (with or without non hydrogenated peanut butter)

*Fiber One Bars

*Non-sweetened applesauce cups

*Non-sweetened fruit cups

*Yogurt

*Nuts

*Organic chocolate milk

*Bottled Water

~~~When the weather turns cooler I plan to put a thermos of something warm as well. Homemade soup or chili. Or even just some hot chocolate.

They do have a use of a microwave at the co-op but there time is so limited that I don't think they'd have time to use it. Especially if there were someone ahead of them. So that's why I've not included things that need to be warmed or heated.

I'd love to hear others ideas!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Green Smoothie, The Cost Breakdown

(Ok, I hadn't intended this to be a Frugal Friday post, but I'm just so excited about the cost savings that I just had to share!)

Every morning I make 2 pitchers of green smoothie. That's a GALLON of the stuff. Each day.

I got the idea from watching the Green Smoothie Girl video, though I don't use her exact recipe. Look her up on YouTube as well! She is amazing and inspirational. And I have bought her basic recipe collection and highly, HIGHLY recommend it. I ~~will probably join~~ have now joined her 12 Step Program as well.

To make my green smoothie, I use:

Baby organic spinach

Collard greens

Flax Oil

Stevia

Carrots

Apple

Banana

Frozen Fruit

Crushed Ice (from my refridgerator)

Water

I do have to go shopping (at Sam's) at least once a week now, which I don't particularly enjoy. But it's really not out of the way for me as my girls have a co-op that is literally a mile or so from the store. If I had to drive farther, I'd have to factor in the cost of gasoline and at this point that would significantly add to the total.

At Sam's I can get:

Baby Organic Spinach, 1 ½ # - 4.78 (makes appr. 4 smoothies)

Collard Greens, 2# - 3.27 (appr. 8 smoothies)

Baby Organic Carrots, 5# - 5.44 (appr. 28 smoothies)

Fuji Apples, 5# - 6.48 (appr. 18 smoothies)

Banana, 3# - 1.32 (appr. 8 smoothies)

Frozen Mixed Berries, 3# - 7.68 (appr. 6 smoothies)
OR
Frozen Mixed Fruit, 6# - 8.56 (appr. 12 smoothies)
OR
Frozen Strawberries, 6# - 8.44 (appr. 12 smoothies)
OR
Frozen Blueberries, 3# - 9.43 (appr. 6 smoothies)

The flax oil I buy is Barleans and it's $29.99 or less (on sale) locally and it lasts about a month.

The Stevia is $8.99 (or less on sale) locally and a box lasts about a month.

Whew!

So now, how much does it cost to make each smoothie? (Prices rounded up)

Spinach - 1.20

Collard Greens - .41

Carrots - .19

Apples - .36

Banana - .17

The Frozen Fruit can be as little as .70 or as much as 1.57. With the average being 1.07

The flax oil is appr. .50 and the stevia is appr. .30

So that would make the *average* cost of a full half gallon of green smoothie to be:

$4.20

But remember, I make 2 of these a day. So MY daily cost is $8.40. Or $252.00 a month.

This was very hard on my frugal mind at first. Even though I realize how important nutrition is, the total cost was hard to swallow. But for some reason, we didn't seem to be spending any more money a month. We actually seemed to be SAVING money and I didn't really understand at first. And then I realized a few things.

+ This is a meal (breakfast for me and my daughters, lunch for my husband) for 4 of us daily. This saves at least $6 a day. Or $180 a month

+ After much research, we no longer take a multi vitamin. We just don't feel like it's necessary with all of this great raw nutrition we're getting. So that saves $45.00 a month.

+ Coffee has lost much of it's importance to me. So instead of buying an expensive whole bean, I'm just getting some cheap grocery store coffee and drinking about half of what I was before. This is saving over $30.00 a month.

+ We're buying *MUCH* less meat a month. Much, much less. My husband is a HUGE meat eater and it's amazing how much less he's eating now. We're easily and conservatively eating less than half the meat we did before. This is not a deliberate thing. This is just what's happening. This is EASILY saving us $40 a month.

+ Our sugar cravings are gone. Really pretty much totally gone. So we're not making nearly as many sweets as we were before. Saving probably $15 a month.

So, if the cost a month for the smoothie is:

252.00

Minus the fact that it's a meal replacement brings the total to:

72.00

Minus the multi-vitamins:

27.00

Minus the coffee savings:

+ 3.00

Minus the meat savings:

+ 43.00

Minus the sugar cravings:

+ 58.00

So there you have it. By my making this smoothie, we're actually AHEAD by appr. $58 a month. I am absolutely not exaggerating this. If anything I'm being conservative.

As an example, I will frequently buy very ripe bananas for about .10# and freeze them, reducing the banana cost in the smoothie. Also, our fresh strawberries are coming in and that significantly decreases the cost of the smoothie right now. And the peach trees show great promise this year. Along with our blueberry bushes, grapes, blackberries, and apples for next year. Also carrots and spinach can be grown to further reduce the cost (we're trying carrots this year and I'm hopeful that my husband will put up a cold frame box for spinach this fall).

But having said all of this, I would do it even if it DID cost me an extra $252 a month. Because how do you put a price on health? And maybe more importantly, teaching your children healthy eating habits?

For more frugal inspiration, be sure to visit Crystal's Blog!

Green Smoothies, BlendTec, etc

Mrs. Gunning asked about the BlendTec Blender that is found on Green Smoothie Girl's Site in a comment and I thought I might answer it in a post in case others are interested as well.

I did buy the blender. I checked eBay and other sites high and low for specials but found that it's just a product that people don't seem to sell once they get one. It's always discouraging AND encouraging as I shop for a product to find that I can't purchase it used much more cheaply than I can new. It means that it's a good product. (And I'm going through the same thing now wanting an Excalibur food dehydrator. They cost as much used as they do new. Sometimes more!)

I ended up getting mine from Everything Kitchens. They were running an email special and I got it a *little* cheaper. The sale runs through May 31 if anyone is interested.

Mrs. Gunning also asked if I'd used it to grind wheat. I have not. I have a BlendTec wheat grinder and grind a lot of wheat at a time with that. However with a grain mill you can't grind oily grains. Like flax seed. So I have used it to gring my flax seed. And it works perfectly. It does seem to cloudy the carafe a little though, so keep it in mind if that bothers you. I've also used it to grind Quinoa. I found a recipe on Green Smoothie Girl for Quinoa cookies. They are not very sweet and they are high in protein and the whole family likes them. I've had no trouble at all grinding the Quinoa.

So I'm sure that the machine would grind wheat as well. Just bear in mind that you have to grind a smaller amount at a time than you can in a grain mill.

We've been drinking the green smoothies for a little over a month now. One of my husbands friends, who is all into health and nutrition, saw my husband drinking one and asked about it. He bought himself a blender and called up in a day or so saying that he feels like he's drinking "life". The stuff is pretty amazing. And surprisingly great tasting. I'm going to do a seperate post on the cost later today.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Frugal Friday Another Banana Tip

We don't really have issues here about wasting food. I like to think it's because my expectations have always been that it's disrespectful to waste, but the truth could just as easily be that we're all good eaters. We like food.

However there are exceptions. Like when the bananas at the market are HUGE and no one wants that much banana in his/her cereal. So we might try to get someone to share. And there were times that if no one would, we'd simply forgo the banana.

Well, no more.

We simply slice off as much of a banana as we'd like to eat. Right through the peel. This is what was left of this particular banana.

After a day or so this is what the end looks like.

To use the rest of the banana, we simply slice a very small sliver off.

And the rest of the banana is as beautiful and fresh tasting as ever!

For more frugal ideas be sure to check out Crystal's Blog!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Frugal Food

Having stared at the computer for 15 literal minutes this morning trying to come up with a weekly menu, I know how daunting menu planning can be. Why is it sometimes it's as easy as breathing? Something I look forward to doing? And other times it's frustrating and nothing sounds good or right or like it goes together.

Back in a minute, I've forgotten (yes, really, forgotten) to start the homemade rolls for supper tonight. Ugh.

Okay, back. Anyway.

I've definitely felt the pinch with grocery shopping too. Times when I've needed to spend as little as possible at the store and yet still not compromise nutrition.

Andrea has asked for our help. She needs to feed her large family of hearty eaters for as little as possible. And that's something that a lot of us could benefit from, especially at this time of year. The problem is, she lives nowhere close to me and I'm not sure that the things that I can find cheaply here are the same things she can find cheaply there.

So the only thing I know to do is to post ideas instead of menu's and/or recipes.

My husband is a meat eater. He'll tolerate a meatless meal about once a week, and after that he just isn't happy if there is no meat for supper. But there are ways to work around that. My recipe for Cheesy Chicken Casserole only takes one can of chicken and it feeds our family for 2 nights. If I wanted to plump up the casserole with more stuff, I'd throw in an extra can of vegetables. I buy them at A*ldi's for 39¢. I get the chicken for less than $2 a can at Sam's. The whole dish costs me about $5.50. And that's for 2 suppers. My younger girls don't eat a lot, but even if you only got one meal and then lunch the next day...that's pretty good for a meat meal.

Tuna Patties is another good one. You feel like you've gotten a big piece of meat, but the reality is that it's pretty frugal. It cost me about $4 - $4.50 to make the huge pan of 12 patties depending on how cheaply I can get tuna (I found it on sale at Target last week for $1.58 for the huge family size pouches of 12oz). I don't know if you can tell, but these patties are bigger than the palm of your hand and about 3/4 or so inch thick. Now, of course you'll have to serve this with some side items. But for a meat dish, this is pretty reasonable.

Meatloaf is a family favorite here and fairly economical. It costs appr. $9 to make the big meatloaf. It feeds my family of 5 for 3 nights (2 of the nights being sandwiches). I can make a huge bowl of instant mashed potatoes for less than $1. Homemade rolls to eat the first night and use with the sandwiches the next 2 nights for less than 50¢. Throw in a green vegetable of choice (we used canned turnip greens...we're southern you know. :) Add more breadcrumbs and spices if you need to stretch it farther.

You can also use the meatloaf recipe to make about a gazillion meatballs. Cook them up and then freeze them. They're *fabulous* on cheap spaghetti.

Also, being from the south, we like beans and cornbread. And beans and rice. I try to have one bean only (meaning no meat) meal ever couple of weeks. I'll make a huge crockpot full of beans. Pintos. Small red beans are really good. Black beans. It doesn't matter. The first night we have either beans and (brown) rice or beans and cornbread. (Any leftover rice is eaten, sweetened and with a touch of milk/cream and dried fruit, for breakfast.)

The next night, I'll brown some ground beef with homemade taco seasoning and we'll have beef and bean burritos. All you have to add is cheese (though lettuce, onion, peppers, sour cream etc is good too). Then I freeze whatever is leftover (and there *will* be leftovers) in cup sized containers. The next I'm pushed for something quick for supper, bean burritos it is! The kids love it.

Another one of Andrea's readers suggested pasta, which is always a good idea. Another good idea is Rice a Roni. A couple of boxes of this is simple and easy. Top with a couple of meatballs or just a bit of chicken (pulled from a whole crockpot chicken or one breast sauteed in a bit of oil will feed my whole family with the rice a roni dish for less than $6)

Baked potatoes are really good and fairly cheap. They can be topped with just about any leftovers you have or even a can of cheap chili and a handful of cheese. Oven potatoes work the same way and are usually a crowd pleaser.

Whew! Okay, I'm gonna stop now. If I can find a way to make this more coherent, I will. And I'm sure I'll think up more stuff.

If you have any great frugal meal ideas, please share them. I know I get in a rut and it's great to have other ideas!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Tuna Patties

Recipe (and trust me, I use the word loosely) follows pics.

I start with several small, or 3-4 big packs of light tuna. Of course you can used canned as well. I found these packs on sale Buy-1-Get-1-Free. I've also heard that you can substitute canned Salmon, but have never tried it that way.

As per most of my concoctions, chop some onion. This is about a cup.

Throw in a handful of Parmesan cheese.

A cup or so of breadcrumbs

This is the special ingredient. A couple of tablespoons of this makes them nice and spicy. Of course, use which spices you like.

A handful of shredded cheese (they do not taste cheesy at all, this just tends to make them moist and can certainly be omitted)

A tablespoon or so of chopped garlic or to taste

Dump in the tuna (and not shown but needed, 1 large egg)

I have no idea why Worcestershire is so good in this, but it is. I use a few shakes.

Mix it all together

Spoon it out on a greased pan.

Douse liberally with olive oil (this gives it a crunchier exterior)

In the oven at 425 for about 15-20 minutes. I then turn on the broiler to brown them a bit.

And this is the finished product

Preheat oven to 425

Recipe:

7 single serve packs of light tuna (or possibly equal amounts of Salmon?)

1 cup of chopped onion

½ cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup (or more) bread crumbs

2 T Greek seasoning (or whatever you like)

½ (or so) cup of shredded cheese

1 T chopped garlic (or to taste)

1 L Egg ***Not pictured, but needed to bind ingredients***

1 T (or so) Worcestershire

Mix and shape into patties, place on greased baking pan. Douse with olive oil. Cook for 15-20 min. at 425. May need to broil for a minute or two afterward to brown a bit.

Serve with homemade tartar sauce (and my girls like to add ketchup, like with fish sticks?)

***These are actually very, very good fried. Just mix them up as directed and then fry in small quantities in a skillet with an inch or so of med/high hot oil until golden brown (several minutes per side). But be warned, they splatter and pop hot oil like nobodies business. That's the only reason I bake them now. I can't stand the oil splatters.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Nothing to See Here

The schedule is going pretty good. I've not had any big changes so far but I did fail to schedule a time to clean the top of the fridge. That is the dustiest place for some reason. And it's visible when you walk down the stairs.

Today the sun it out. WooHoo! It's been rainly and cloudy and muggy for so many days that I thought my hair might start to grow mold. Really (almost). The humidity here in this valley can at times be over the top.

I failed to mention that a few weeks ago my bread machine died. Yes, the lovely $5 monstrosity. The machine actually still works, but the rubber piece that holds the kneading bar in came out and when I attempted to wash it out, some little teeny springs came out?

This same bread machine that I paid $5 for is now going used on eBay for like $100. And they're old and you can't buy parts for them anymore. So I decided to go with another one. I'll post about it when it comes. My family really misses the homemade bread.

At Stephanie's Blog she'd mentioned a while ago about some Celtic Sea Salt.

We've typically bought salt from a little natural store downtown, but it's not convenient at all. So I finally broke down and got the kind that Stephanie recommends.

I've not tried it all yet, but the salt and pepper in the grinders are pretty unbelievable.

Best get the day going.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

My Family's Favorite Meatloaf

I've been meaning to put this up for a while. I think I could literally make this meatloaf every single week and have no complaints.

Recipe follows pics.

You start out with bell pepper and onion. I only had a small bell pepper from the garden. It worked out fine. Just throw in as much as you have/want. This is probably about 3/4 cup of bell pepper and 2 or 2 ½ cup onion. I like it chopped fairly small.

Dump it into a big mixing bowl with about a cup of Parmesan Cheese.

I add basil, parsley, oregano, and chopped garlic. I don't measure, but if I had to measure I'd say roughly a tablespoon of each spice and 2 T of garlic. I also add a big splash of something wet. I like a seasoning called Allegro. But Worcestershire is fine too. (A big splash equals about 2 T I would estimate.)

Spray a baking dish. This one is odd sized. About 9 X 11. Any size will do. It just changes the cooking time if the meatloaf is thicker.

Add a good squeeze of some type of mustard.

A big squeeze of ketchup (maybe 1/2 cup).

A couple of eggs.

A couple of cups of breadcrumbs.

Appr. 2 lbs. of your favorite hamburger meat. Note: I really don't think the leanest works well in meatloaf. We use ground chuck.

Appr. 1½ C shredded Cheddar cheese.

Mix it up GENTLY.
This makes such a HUGE difference in the finished product. If you don't want it dense and heavy, mix it gently. Then gently shape it into your sprayed pan. (Excuse the gloves. I just have to.)

In another small bowl, pour in 8oz or so of tomato sauce and about ½ cup ketchup.

Add a big splash (appr. 2 T) vinegar.

Add in about 1/4 cup of sweetener (here I'm using Splenda)

Mix it all into a nice sauce.

Drench the uncooked meatloaf with this yummy sauce.

And after a mere 75 (or so) minutes, you have your finished meatloaf.

RECIPE:

Preheat oven to 375°

1 Large Chopped Bell Pepper
1 Large Chopped Onion
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 T Dried Basil
1 T Dried Oregano
1 T Dried Parsley Flakes
2 T Chopped Garlic
2 T Allegro or Worcestershire Sauce
2 T Mustard
½ Cup Ketchup
2 Large Eggs
2 Cups Breadcrumbs
2 lb Ground Chuck
1½ Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Gently mix all of this together and pat it into a prepared dish.

Tomato Topping:
8 oz. Tomato Sauce
½ Cup Ketchup
2 T Vinegar
¼ Cup Sweetener (Sugar/Splenda)

Mix well and top the raw meatloaf. Cook meatloaf uncovered for approximately 75 minutes or until the meat reaches an internal temp of 165°.