It has been quite a while since I last posted "From our Kitchen" so I thought I'd write one in lieu of our normal "Weekend Update". It works out well because Jay and I did quite a bit of cooking this weekend. I'd also like to add that these recipes happen to be low cost AND pretty healthy!
Saturday night we were browsing our newest copy of Cooking Light and decided to try
Balsamic Pork with Shallots for dinner. It was great because we already had everything in the house that we needed (yes, even the shallots believe it or not). Instead of pork tenderloin, we used pork chops which worked out quite well. It was delicious and is definitely something we will cook again.
While Jay was chopping and sauteing the shallots, I decided to make
Lemony Hummus and
Fresh Whole Wheat Pitas. I knew we'd be spending some time at the pool on Sunday afternoon & that we'd want a yummy afternoon snack. Again, we had all the ingredients on hand, so it was very inexpensive to make and healthy too!
Note for anyone wanting to make this at home: we did not have any bread flour, so thanks to Google I found that I could make it by adding 1tbsp. of gluten flour (yes, we actually happened to have some at home thanks to Jay) per cup of all-purpose flour. Both the pitas and the hummus were delicious and hit the spot after a few hours in the sun!
My yummy homemade pitas
Tonight, I made black bean soup for dinner. I love black beans and knew that we had everything we needed to put together a good batch. I tried
this recipe and found it ok, but not fabulous. I found it a bit thick and therefore did not use the cornstarch. I also substituted carrots for red bell pepper and threw fresh cilantro on top for extra flavor.
Black Bean Soup (Pre-Blend)
Of course after I ate tonight, I got a call from Jay asking about dinner (he's coming home at 10). I tell him about the soup and he nicely asks if I can blend it for him. I caved in & spiced it up a bit with some salsa which added a nice element. Next time I think I'll try blending more (but not all) and add some more spice to it. Or perhaps I'll try a new recipe :)
During these scary economic times, I am grateful that Jay and I are able to keep our expenditures to a minimum when it comes to food. Yes, we still go out to eat a couple times a week, but when we are at home, we keep costs down with a few main tips:
1. Buy meat on sale and freeze it. Jay is awesome at spotting a good deal so when he comes home with several pounds of ground beef, pork, or chicken, we have a little assembly line to package it up into dinner-size servings in freezer bags.
2. We write our "menu" out each Saturday or Sunday before going grocery shopping. We check out what meat is in the freezer and build our meals around that.
3. We get our veggies at the local fruit/veggie stand (where prices are lower and produce is fresher) before we go to the grocery store.
We save a lot of money each month by following these few rules and don't feel like we are sacrificing at all! The great thing about all the healthy meals and snacks is that I can justify eating desserts like this! Gotta go before it melts....
On a completely different note, my husband seems to have acquired a new collection in the quest for the perfect Mexican coffee. Our favorite so far is from Sunflower market and reminds us of our honeymoon in Playa del Carmen. The others, not so much. Check out what is taking up some serious real estate in our freezer nowadays.
And since we are on the topic of coffee, I just had to post this pic that I took a couple weeks ago. It made me giggle when I came home from work one day. Jay had some serious ingenuity when looking for something to close up the coffee bag. Rubber bands? No. Tape? No way. Bobby Pin? Perfect! Love him :)
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