My pantry project hit a snag as I discovered weevils in a bag of flour I just opened. I’m going to go through my pantry now and make sure they didn’t end up in any other grains or sugars.
I WAS going to make some blue cheese crackers. Stay tuned….
Looks like I may need to buy some flour. Hopefully not much else. 😦
UPDATE – I only found them in a box of grits. I’m not going to replace the grits because I have both cornmeal and polenta.
This is a very similar recipe to the Salmon Cakes I posted about last year. This was a quick recipe, including cooking time. Since I had a lot of almond meal, I decided to up the ante with my fish cakes and make them paleo and gluten free.
Minus the lemon, and egg which falls into the perishable rules of my project, everything was in my pantry and freezer, even the scallions (I had chopped scallions frozen and ready to go).
The cod I poached straight from the freezer in vegetable broth (vegetable bouillon and water) until slightly firm. You can do the same with fresh. I just don’t recommend creating raw cakes.
COD CAKES
Makes 4-5 cakes/2 servings
10 ounces Cod, fresh or frozen
1 Vegetable Bouillon cube
2 tablespoons chopped Scallions
1/2 cup Almond Meal (Flour)
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Vegetable Oil, for frying
Yesterday I had my first “major” trip to the grocery store since beginning The Accidental Pantry Project. I use the term major loosely because I did not need a lot of items, but I needed perishable things, as well as items for a Super Bowl party I am attending tonight, hence staying within the exceptions of the project (items that are requested by others).
This week I splurged a bit, since I have been trying to keep my food bills down – I went out to dinner twice with friends, went to a friend’s house for dinner, and I treated myself to a Chipotle lunch. I am really trying to limit going out to eat, both financially and that it’s usually not so good for you, but it’s also winter in New Jersey, so there really isn’t much else to do if you want to be social. My splurge probably added up to around $110. Being that I don’t have money coming in at the moment, I feel a little guilty. I promised myself about $100 a week for frivolous spending – eating out, coffee out, a movie, etc. – so I’m already over (for those who do not know me, I am notorious for beating myself up over little things).
Back to shopping, I hit up my local Stop&Shop. Since I am no longer with Whole Foods Market and do not have my employee discount to rely on (I really need to marry someone from there and get it back), I am opening my eyes back up to other grocers (you are still a guilty lowbrow pleasure, Aldi’s). Though few major grocery retailers out there have the atmosphere and aesthetics of a Whole Foods, in my opinion, the experience is not always as pleasant. At the same time, I can usually manage not to walk out with $300 worth of stuff (that pantry did not build itself) when I only needed milk and lettuce. What I like about Stop&Shop is that while you may need to dig a little, they have a huge organic presence in their stores, something I have grown used to the past few years as I am more mindful of what I put in my body.
Where does the $45 come in? Well, about half of that was stuff I needed, a quarter was splurge, and the final quarter was for my Super Bowl dish. I needed milk, Greek yogurt, produce (fruit and salad fixings), and coffee, so I figured it would be about $25. Then comes the Super Bowl dish. This recipe I am actually looking forward to. They are Bacon, Cheddar, and Jalapeno Pinwheels that I found on through another food blogger on Pinterest. The recipe sang to my project because I had everything I needed at home – bacon, cream cheese, cheddar – except fresh jalapeno and crescent roll dough. The dough is what did me in, and I may have to look for a copycat recipe to do it myself sometime. It was not on sale and $3.19 a can. I bought three as I am looking to double or triple the recipe (my friend is expecting 30+ guests for the party). So okay, I am really on track, spending a little over my estimated budget.
Then was my moment of weakness, the items that put me over the edge and I am confessing like an addict that just fell off the wagon – Cadbury Creme Eggs and Hershey’s Chocolate Spread. Two junk laden items that I cannot replicate because I am not a chemist, but are so sugary and chocolatey and delicious nonetheless. I do eventually want to test creating a similar spread to the Hershey’s stuff, but all the recipes I am finding online are more Nutella copycat than straight up chocolate. If you love lowbrow chocolate and need a fix, I highly recommend these spreads. They are relatively new and my newest junk food addiction. Unfortunately both of these treats were on sale, so it made it harder to resist, but also hard when the cashier rang me up for $45.36.
What can I say? The project is a journey…
Finally! I have counted all this “inventory” in my home. The last phase of counting and calculation took place this evening. I wanted to work on it earlier in the week, but since the Snowmaggeden bust kept me out of my home the day that I was best suited to do it, I got around to it tonight.
So, using the same loose formula I used for my dry goods (gifts have zero value, stuff from Whole Foods bought under retail with my discount, etc.), I calculated the freezer contents and my refrigerated condiments (i.e., perishable but long shelf life in fridge) came to about $240, so the grand total cost of all my food is $1140.
Since starting this project a little over a week ago, I have not gone grocery shopping for myself. The only exception is I stopped and bought a dessert as a hostess gift for a friend who was having me for dinner. I have gone out with friends to eat a couple of times, but otherwise, I have just been depleting my pantry. I will have to make a trip soon for some fresh produce and dairy, but I know I’m saving a lot of money being resourceful. Next phase, of course, is to figure out what I would spend on average in the past and how I am helping my current cause.
Here is what I have to work with from my freezer and refrigerator… Continue reading
Every time I make hummus I am reminded how foolish it is to buy it. The ROI on store-bought hummus simply is not there. There are plenty of things I can make that I can buy because of time constraints, or that my version is not as good, but hummus just does not fit into that category.
In about five minutes, less time that it takes to go to the store, you can have hummus. And of course, what I love, is I know exactly what I am putting in my body and I have control over smoothness, sodium, preservatives, etc.
For this version, I used tahini, lemon, parsley, and garlic, but you can experiment with all sorts of ingredients and mix-ins, but I recommend at least chickpeas and olive oil.
This is MORE than what you need for a simple hummus. From left to right – parsley, tahini, garlic, chickpeas, lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper.
HUMMUS
1 can (14.5 ounces) Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup Tahini
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
3 cloves Garlic
Juice of 1 Lemon
1 tablespoon Lemon Zest
2 tablespoons fresh Parsley
1/4 – 1/2 cup water
For a quick meal, serve with salad and pita bread or naan. For this dinner, I combined arugula and tuna with Curry Dressing.
COSTS:
$2.80 for 1 1/2 cups (12 oz.)
Chickpeas – $1
Tahini – $.75
Lemon – $.80
Olive Oil and Seasonings – $.25
No secret here – I love butterscotch chips. I also had an unopened box of No Pudge! Brownie Mix that was burning a hole in my chocolate craving, so I wanted to make brownies with the mix and use up some of my three bags of chips. Since making the Curry Aioli I was out of yogurt that the box’s recipe calls for. Surprisingly, I have no applesauce in the pantry, either, but I did have pumpkin and butternut squash. I decided to improvise and make little bites. So cute! (In my opinion…)
BUTTERSCOTCH BROWNIE BITES
Makes 20 bites
1 box No Pudge! Brownie Mix
1 cup canned Pumpkin
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Butterscotch Chips
Tip: Better to under bake a little than over bake, makes for an ooey-gooey treat! 🙂
Another fun aspect of The Accidental Pantry Project is that is creates opportunities to stretch some things into several meals. Tonight I made a super quick mac and cheese thanks to already having about a cup of cheese sauce on hand. Dinner took about 45 minutes including baking time. I mixed about three cups of whole wheat elbow macaroni with sauce, put it in a baking dish, topped with about 10 Ritz crackers and a quarter cup of shredded cheddar and baked at 350 for about 25 minutes.
So we had this major snowstorm bust here in the NYC metro area. I thought we would have been snowed in for a few days, so I took my pantry project on the road to my sister’s house. Since I live alone, figured it would be more fun to be snowed in with my nephews (who are 7 and 5) in a big house than cooped up in my apartment. Not wanting to lose steam on my project, I grabbed red lentils, chopped onion, super grains (a mix of quinoa, buckwheat, and millet), yogurt, and curry powder. I had a vision of Lentil Cakes with Curry Aioli, and it was going down at her house.
I am so happy I made this recipe “on the road” and had more people to feed than myself. My nephews would not go near the food (though they did stir the sauce), but my sister and brother in law were thrilled with the meal, especially how it got them thinking of ways they can vary this dish.
Even before we ate, we already did one variation, which was using the aioli as a base for salad dressing, and combining heads we created a simple, snowed-in feast.
The Meal – Lentil Cakes, Curry Aioli, Mixed Green Salad with Curry Dressing, Two Types of Naan (whole wheat and garlic), Apple Chicken Sausage, and a couple of leftover Pretzels
“Meatless Monday” Serving Suggestion – Open Faced Lentil Cake Naan-wich and Salad
LENTIL CAKES
1 1/2 cups dried red lentils
1/2 cup super grains
1- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
Olive oil, for sauteing
1 egg
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon pizza seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Note: Seasonings were what was on hand. The pizza seasoning was comprised of oregano, marjoram, basil, onion powder, garlic powder. Had I made this at home, I would have used thyme and marjoram. Feel free to season the mixture as you would like.
CURRY AIOLI (and dressing)
1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons curry powder
salt and pepper
extra olive oil and white wine vinegar (for dressing)
Whisk all the ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated. Aioli should be a nice buttercream yellow color. Taste and adjust seasonings as need.
To make a salad dressing, combine 1/4 cup dressing, 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, and 1-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar. Thin the mixture out with a little bit of water, to desired flavor and viscosity (I used about a tablespoon). Taste and season with additional curry powder, salt, and pepper if necessary. Toss with your favorite greens.
Today I figured out the value of the inventory of my pantry dry goods. I putzed around google and amazon for costs, and where applicable I used about a 20% discount on things I know I got at Whole Foods with my employee discount. Hence, the rough estimate really will not be all that rough.
The area that I really averaged an estimate, however, was spices. In terms of spice inventory, I am going to say the average spice in my cabinet cost $2.50. Most of those standard sized McCormick bottles out there go for about that price, but my spices range from free stuff I scored through work, trade shows, mom’s pantry and gift baskets, to some high quality stuff I splurged on (hello, saffron and vanilla). With 51+ spices, that’s $127.50, and I think that is a very fair estimate.
Looking ahead, I plan to omit spices from the exact cost factor in my recipes, similarly to how restaurants and food service establishments do when they cost out recipes. Instead, when I cost out recipes I will use a blanket seasoning cost estimate, which will probably be pennies per recipe, maybe $.03 – $.10. Think about it, let’s say I spent $3 on a 1.25 ounce bottle of Italian seasoning. The bottle probably has about 30 teaspoons of seasoning in it, so about $.10 per teaspoon. Some recipes will use a dash, some will use tablespoons. I’m going to drive myself crazy thinking about what I spent on that, and again, the financial aspect of this project is more of an exercise on money I am saving moving forward, not what I have already spent. Plus, and I know I’m beating a dead horse here, it’s more about creativity and making use of what is on hand.
So you want to know the full value of my dry goods inventory, what is has probably cost me? $904. The average cost of each individual item (218 in total) is about $4.16. This ranges from about 15 non-spice items that were definitely free, to pricey supplements that cost about $50 (hello, Green Vibrance). $904. I think that’s fascinating. I don’t even know how many meals and dishes and snacks I will create from all this, but knowing that I usually drop $40 – $100 when I go out to a nice dinner with friends, it is beyond foolish not to cook at home when you want to save money. Plus what I have to work with will not mean meals of ramen, plain spaghetti, and PB&J.
Next up in the project – freezer and fridge inventory, figuring out my average grocery costs before now, and figuring out on average how much I have been spending on food. Oh, and of course, what I have cooked so far. Stay tuned!
While I work on my on-hand food inventory and cost, I’m also doing the fun part of this project, which is getting creative with what I have to make some yummy food!
The latest experiment was making Auntie Anne’s Pretzels from a kit I bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. For years, an Auntie Anne’s pretzel has been my favorite mall fare – a quick snack to refuel on shopping excursions. Plus with cheese being my favorite food, I would also get a packet of cheese sauce to go with the pretzel. Granted, that cheese sauce was more of a chemically processed cheese food that could survive nuclear holocaust and will probably be sitting in my system years after I am dead, but it really was a satisfying snack.
On my own, I make a good cheese sauce because I love Bechamel, cheese, mac and cheese, etc. Depending on my needs I am not as diligent in the classic mother sauce preparation as I was in my youth. I still love the whole pomp and circumstance of an onion cloute and straining the milk mixture before blending it with the roux. But tonight was about snack time and pantry depletion, so shortcuts happened and the results (in my opinion) were still quite scrumptious.
I followed the instructions that came with the baking mix. It was pretty easy to follow, but the process was definitely time consuming, as is any sort of bread baking. From when I started to when I was snacking was probably about an hour and a half to two hours, and it yields a hefty number of pretzels. Much of that time is active time, too. Other than the half hour you allow the dough to rest so the yeast can do its thing, you are working a lot and quickly. I made the mistake of wanting to make my cheese sauce while the pretzels were baking, but the baking time was short and active, and I do not have the counter space to work around that.
Overall lesson learned – making the pretzels at home was fun and cost saving, but DEFINITELY not convenient and time saving.
Here’s my adventure, followed by the cheese sauce recipe
CHEESE SAUCE
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups nonfat milk (can use any milk, nonfat is what I had on hand), ideally warmed to room temperature
3 cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash each of nutmeg, white pepper, onion powder, Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon maple sugar (any natural sweetener works, again, what I had on hand and I love maple)
1 cup shredded cheese (I used Clothbound Cheddar and Landaff that were going to go bad if I didn’t use them)
RECIPE COST (for me based off my pantry items):
$9.85 for 10 pretzel servings and 4 sauce servings
$8, pretzel mix
$.40, butter
$.75, seasonings, sugar, flour
$.70, milk
$0, cheese (was from a gift basket)
The Accidental Chef 