How to eat when you're really broke (Link to original article and Commentary)

I am blatantly linking to this article on MSN.  I know, I'm actually reading an article on MSN?  It came from a link on Facebook to Lifehacker so I would say it has a good pedigree.  The article makes a lot of sense too.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money/how-to-eat-when-you-are-really-broke-weston.aspx
(Really, read this article.  It's very good.)

Too busy to read it?  Here's the Cliff Notes version:

If you are an America, you probably spend too much money per month on food.  You go out to eat too often and when you don't go out to eat, most of the food you buy is over processed, not nutritious enough, and goes bad in your refrigerator, freezer, or pantry before you eat it.

Here are their recommendations, and they are all common sense:

1. Eat mostly at home
I think about a grilled cheese sandwich.  In its simplest form, two slices of bread, a little butter, and two slices of American cheese.  If you make that at home it will cost you less that $0.40.  At most diners it's the cheapest sandwich on the menu at $2.00.

2. Skip the Processing
With all of my wife's allergies we have a general rule of thumb, if the ingredient list on the label has more than five items, it probably has been processed too much.

3. Demote Meat
Most dietitians recommend limiting meat portions to 3 ounces; I rarely follow this rule.  Most cultures use meat as a flavoring and not the main component of a meal.  If you purchase a pound of beef for $3.00 and have 2 - 8 ounce steaks, you have 2 - $1.50 meat servings.  That same pound of beef can be cut up and used into a stir fry where it can be turned into 8 - 2 ounce $ 0.38 servings.  OR skip meat altogether (Heavens NO!) for Lentils or Beans.

4. Promote Vegetables
Increase the amount of fresh seasonal and frozen vegetables.  But try to avoid canned since it normally has been processed with too much salt and sugar.

5. Go for the Grains
Whole grains are very filling, full of fiber, and fairly inexpensive.

6. Watch the Waste
Patrol your pantry.  Watch for dates.  Watch for rot.

7. Drop your Bad Habits
Reduce the amount of alcohol, tobacco, and soda you consume.  I think that would also mean no more lattes at Starbucks every day.

8. Get a Slow Cooker
Always a good idea.  I also recommend getting a pressure cooker/canner, especially if you have a garden.

9. Cook Once, Eat Twice
Make enough for left overs.  Good idea, but don't be afraid to take it a couple of steps further.  Growing up, my Mom's most successful diet weight-loss and financially involved cooking all day every other Sunday.  We would make 5 or 6 different main courses and then divided them into individual portions and freeze them.  With different schedules throughout the week, we could both have home-cooked meals that were healthy and economical.

10. Learn to Love Lentils
The article points out that lentils are fast to cook and are packed pith protein.  But other legumes are worth noting and cooking.  In fact if you have the pressure cooker I mentioned in #8, a pound of beans takes an hour to cook.  You can then can them yourself with less salt and processing than you would find at the supermarket.  The article also mentions brown rice taking 40 minutes to cook.  This is true, but you can take advantage of this by cooking things IN the rice, like lima beans or corn or chicken breasts or tomatoes, etc. etc.

11. Have Some Go-To Recipes
Ah! The ace up the sleeve.  I have several including the All purpose cream of the vegetable in the freezer soup and grilled cheese.  Or Shepherds Pie.  Fast dinner when you get home beats going out to eat.


Ya know what?  I think my article ended up being longer than the original!

Until next time, I wish you peace, love, and hollandaise sauce!

A post before dining...

So wasn't I just on a hiatus?

The stories of my return from hiatus were greatly exaggerated.

Life has a way of keeping you busy, but a guy's got to eat right?  So what do you eat when you are constantly on the go?  Fast food?  If you have to, you have to, but you can make some smart choices.

Let's take McDonald's as an example.  Without going into calorie counting and fat gram counting let's just assume from the outset that a Big Mac, Large Fries, and a Dr. Pepper probably have enough salt, fat, and calories to give your dietitian a coronary.

While you're at it, let's think about the cost..  That "Value meal" just ran you $6 or more.  What can you buy at the grocery store for $6?

• A gallon of milk and a sack of cookies. or
• A pack of hot dogs, buns, and ketchup, or
• A pound of carrots, o head of lettuce, a tomato. and some salad dressing, or
• Half a pound of Ground beef and hamburger buns, or
• lunch meat, cheese, and a loaf of bread, or
• 40 packs of Ramen noodles, or
• A can of white beans, a pound of brown rice, a pound of frozen spinach, and a ham hock, or

The list goes on and on, but your time doesn't, so here you are in the drive through at McDonald's.  You don't want to spend an arm and a leg, you want to eat healthy, you want to eat tasty, and you want to be satisfied.  The Value menu is actually a pretty good place to start.

Start with ONE McDouble, McChicken, or if they have it, 4 piece chicken McNuggets.  Most people really don't need more than that... not even a big 'ol Sasquatch like me.  Then, and this is the hard part:

Skip the fries.

That's right, skip them. "But they're so good!"  Sure they are with all of that starch, hot oil, and salt, even kitty litter would taste good.  Just wait until they're cold; they won't be quite as good then.  Plus, Fries are what I call "Empty Calories".  You really don't get any nutrition for what you are eating.  Instead you should order a side salad.  In fact, order TWO.

WHAT!  Rabbit Food?  Yes, a side salad.  McDonald's makes a very good side salad with mixed greens, grape tomatoes and carrots.  Best of all, almost everyone loves Ranch dressing, so get it with Fat Free Ranch.  The Newman's Own is very good, it doesn't taste fat free, I promise.  The packet of Ranch dressing has a lot in it; you can DROWN your salad in it.

What about a drink?  This is the tough part for me.  If you can do it, just get a cup of ice water.  Sure it's cheap, but so are you.  If you have to order a drink, a bottle of water, bottle of milk (bonus points for nutrition!), unsweetened ice tea, black coffee, or diet soda.

Is this health food?  Not really, but it is healthier food.  You are limiting your carb intake by having one small sandwich.  You are having green leafy vegetables which are full of vitamins and fiber.  Do eat everything you order., don't waste.  Eat slowly and eat with friends if you can.  This isn't "Diet" food, this is "Eating Healthier" and saving money to download an extra app for your phone.

So until next time folks, I wish you peace, love, and hollandaise sauce!  (which seems really weird since we've been talking about eating healthy - go figure)

Coming back from hiatus

I'm back folks from a brief break.

Life sometimes rears it's head and has to take priority.  So that's how things have been around here, please forgive me.  My dedication to bringing great food ideas to you has not changed, but the break was needed.

Bringing you up to speed:

What happened to the sourdough starter?  Day 2, the cat knocked the jar down to the floor.  Igor is in the trash I'm afraid.



The absolute essentials part II blog is almost done, I just need to add a little to finish it off.

I was getting ready to write a week's worth of blogs about rice, finishing with some important information about Food for the Poor.  But then the earthquake in Japan happened and all of the events that it spawned.  I have promised that I will write about the plight of Haiti, and I will, but I didn't want the message to be drowned out.

Sharon has another Guest blog ready in the wings, too.

My daughter is getting ready to graduate!!! Yippie!!!  So expect some great themed stuff there too.

Toastmasters has been gearing up too - A big HELLO to everyone from Toastmasters!

So we'll be back to the food shortly!  Thank you for your patience!

So until next time, here's wishing you peace, love, and hollandaise sauce!

Kitchen Essentials 1: The ABSOLUTE essentials

I recently had a conversation with a reader who was a little intimidated by some of the stuff we do around here.  The techniques are really not that advanced, even the occasional use of a double boiler can be duplicated with a wok and a saucepan.

My point with this blog has always been to make you think, not to intimidate you.  Please don’t be afraid of making good food.  You only need the most basic of implements to have the proper equipment to start your kitchen.  Fancy gadgets and expensive do-dads may be nice, but ultimately 90% of the time you use 10% of your equipment.  The rest of it will collect dust.  In my opinion, if it’s collecting dust it’s wasting your money.

With that being said, I did some rummaging around and came up with the bare essentials.  These are the items you need to have in your kitchen.  If you are just starting out, these should be the item you build up over your first few years.  Buy quality when you can, but money and necessity will always be the determining factor.  Don’t let some snob tell you that you shouldn’t get a pan because it didn’t cost you $800. That’s absurd.  Spend what you can afford to when you can afford to, but remember, the less you spend, the shorter it’s life span will be.  That $7 non-stick pan you buy for eggs in college won’t be around when you graduate, but at least you will have had the money to have bought the eggs to cook in it.

While you are at it, when you go shopping, don’t be afraid to check out Goodwill, the Salvation army, garage sales, or Craigslist.  If you are just starting out, there are things you will want new, like a non stick pan, but a colander or baking dish should be fine used.  And never ever pass up a deal on cast iron.

Let’s say you are starting off with NOTHING.  You are walking into your apartment / dorm / home / condo / extended stay hotel room / pop-up tent etc. and you have to start from scratch.

Start at your nearest discount retailer (Walmart, Kmart, Target, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, etc.) and look for a kit that contains several of the items you need.

Here's a list of items NO kitchen should be without broken up by "rounds"  What I mean by rounds are what you should buy each time you go to the store, assuming you were starting with absolutely zero and were starting with a limited budget.

Round 1 - the ABSOLUTE essentials:

These are the items that you can't survive without.

• Flatware: forks, butter knives, teaspoons, tablespoons

In addition to being necessary just for eating, these are used in preparation of food, stirring, ladling, cutting, flipping, shredding, etc.  Some cheap flatware sets are very appealing as they feature colorful plastic handles and often come with a cutlery holder or caddy. Unless the metal is forged stainless steel, these types of flatware sets may discolor and become pitted. Although the cost of these attractive sets is usually low, they don’t tend to last long and oftentimes the plastic handles become detached or break.(1)  That being said this is a starter set.  You are getting what you pay for and are buying this with the intention of replacing it in less than a year.

• 8” non-stick skillet

This is a good, small pan.  It is easy to clean because it is non-stick.  While you can't sear in it, you can still do almost anything in it: from eggs to vegetables to warming up cans of ravioli.  An inexpensive pan will scratch, so it's lifespan is limited.  To prolong the lifespan you'll want to use silicone spatula and avoid using metal in it.  This is a short term investment.  You will need to replace this pan in 12 to 18 months, however for your first kitchen or if you only cook eggs in it, this is a good pan to have.

• High Temperature Silicone Spatula

To help prolong the life of your skillet, you should use a silicone spatula.  A high temperature silicone spatula is usually only a little more expensive.  This tool is an excellent all around tool and usually under $2.  As your kitchen expands, you'll get more of these in different shapes and sizes to meet different needs and jobs, but for your first kitchen, one should be sufficient.

• Cutting Board

This is another piece of equipment that you will get more of as your kitchen expands.  For the beginning cook, you really need something just barely above disposable.  You can purchase multi-packs of flexible plastic, washable cutting boards for a small amount of money.  Flexible boards also have the advantage of being able to be used as funnels or scoops.  It's a good idea to have several different boards of different colors so that you can use one for raw meat, one for cooked meat and one for vegetables.

• Butcher Knife

A butcher knife should be comfortable to use. It should fit your hand well, feel sturdy, and provide a secure amount of space between the cutting surface and the area in which you place your hand on the handle. It should be heavier than other kitchen knives and should have good balance. In general the blade should be between six and eight inches long.  While there are many options available that offer good quality without a high price tag, you may prefer to choose a set that includes a butcher knife, steak knife, and other knives and may include a butcher block.

• Plastic Wrap

Plastic wrap is a kitchen essential?  Absolutely.  Plastic wrap can be used for many things, not just wrapping up leftovers.  If you want to flatten a piece of chicken,  place it between two sheets of plastic wrap and using the base of your skillet as a meat mallet.  For dry marinades, sprinkle or rub your marinade on your roast or chops, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.  Including Plastic wrap does not negate the usefulness or necessity of aluminum foil, wax paper, or parchment paper, but for prep and for storage, I think plastic wrap is the one to start with.

• Manual Can Opener

A manual can opener is about as simple a tool as you will ever need, and it also very commonly forgotten.  Personally, I dislike electric can openers. Manual can openers are usually dishwasher safe and if I don't have power available, it is still possible to open a can without difficulty.  Most manual can openers also have additional tools, like bottle openers, which make them extremely convenient to have around.

• Plastic Grocery Bags

Plastic bags tend to accumulate.  Many people just throw them away. There are many uses for these bags.  Of course you can use them for small trash bags, lunch bags, overnight bags, etc.  They can be re-purposed too.  Instructables has several great projects.  As small trash bags go though, they're great.  I usually keep one on the counter as I'm working to accumulate scraps, egg shells, etc.

 

From Instructables: Make Your Own Plastic Tote Bag from Recycled Plastic Bags

• Plates

My assumption was that you started with nothing.  So you could either go to Goodwill, the Salvation army, garage sales, or Craigslist for used, or you could get pieces or an inexpensive set from Walmart, Target, or K-mart.  You may also be near an outlet mall like Tanger where you may be able to find a kitchen store with low priced plates.

• Saucepan

The last item you absolutely need is a small (1 1/2 to 2 quart) sauce pot. A pot this size will allow you to boil water for a small amount of pasta, or eggs, or potatoes.  You could make a sauce or vegetables or even tea or coffee.






There you have it folks.  The ten most important items in your kitchen.  Tomorrow, Round 2.

Quick update on Igor:  A couple of stirs today...  but I didn't feed him.


Until next time, here's wishing you peace, love, and hollandaise sauce!



(1) http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-choose-the-best-cheap-flatware.htm

Adventures in Sourdough

I've decided it is time to raise my zombie army! I don't know if it's because I've listened to far to much of the Get It Done Guy, Stever Robbins, or if I have a hankering for brains. Maybe it is because everyone has been playing the Michael Jackson game on the Wii and I have been hearing far too much Thriller (and I know the Vincent Price rap by heart*).

Anyway, I'm going to start small. I think I'm going to start with bran instead of brain. But I need creepy... I know I'll start with an oozing slimy mass of goo! A gelatinous mass of yeasty bacterial power that will wreak havoc upon the world! Mwa-ha-ha!

Silliness aside, I want to give credit to Slice (all of their links to this project are below). I have wanted to make a starter for some time and they have given me the kick in the butt to try it. so here we go...

Meet Igor, the sourdough starter.

Igor was created with simple materials: A canning jar with a lid, Something to stir with, Flour, and Water

Did you notice that I didn't include yeast in the mixture? "Sourdoughs cultivated in different areas will result in different breads. Not only will the flavor be different, but the crust, crumb, and rise will be different. It's as far as you can get from the concept of nationwide mass-produced industrial bread."(1)

Igor is staring very small: One level Tablespoon on flour and one ounce of water, stirred in the jar and covered with plastic wrap. Igor is on the counter. I'll check back on Igor tomorrow and give you an update then.

Until then, Peace, Love, and Hollandaise Sauce!

For the entire collection of articles from Slice, check out the links below:

Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11

*Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize yawls neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpses shell
------
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller

(1) http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/how-to-make-sourdough-starter-day-0.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+seriouseatsfeaturesvideos+%28Serious+Eats%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
 

Taking Back Your Life is The Key to Happiness

I gave the following speech at Toastmaster's on 2/10.
The ideas I describe her are directly derivative from Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized: Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized Copyright 2005 Sally McGhee.  I am not getting any sort of payment for this, nor would I accept it.  I find their methodology very logical and it has benefited my career.  I would highly recommend taking their course and using their consulting services.  Check them out at www.mcgheeproductivity.com.

Are you happy? It’s a simple question. Are you happy? If you’re not happy, why aren’t you happy?


To answer these questions we need to start with a definition. What is happiness? For each person happiness means a different thing. So the question should be what does being happy mean to you? What makes you happy?


Charles Schultz said Happiness is a warm puppy. John Lennon said Happiness is a warm gun.

Abraham Lincoln said that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. With that in mind, I ask you is happiness even achievable? I think that it is.


Sometimes you can gain nuggets of wisdom from the most unlikely sources. For example, about a year ago a took a course at work called “Take Back Your Life”. This was a class about managing your Outlook Inbox. What does this have to do with happiness? On the face of it, absolutely nothing. But I took something away from this class that I didn’t expect. Today I’ll share with you with I learned and how I’m starting to apply this wisdom to my life.


Am I happy? No. But I’m on the path. The first step on the path is to identify the issues that are in my way. I need to know what kinds of issues I’m concerned about. What am I worried about every day? What keeps me up at night? Here’s a little exercise you can do. Take twenty minutes. Sit down in a quiet room at a table with a blank pad of paper and a pen. On that paper start writing down the things that you are worried about. There are no wrong answers.

Are you worried about your retirement? Write it down?

Are you worried about your blood pressure? Write it down?

Your child’s education? Write it down?

The economy? Write it down?

Afghanistan? Write it down?

Spiders? Write it down?

Groceries? Global Warming? Getting the Garden ready for Spring? Graduation? Write it down?

If you take longer than 20 minutes, that’s okay, this is your time. Writing down your fears and your issues does not get rid of them, it just identifies them. Once you have identified them them, you can better address them.


The second step on the path is to become accountable to yourself for the items you have identified. You have tools you can use for this. Take Back Your Life calls these tools the 4 D’s:

• Do It Now
• Delete It
• Delegate It
• Defer It

When you are managing your email, these become simple tasks.


Do it now - the request in the email will take less than five minutes, including answering it.


Delete it - no response required, maybe not even applicable


Delegate it - get it to someone that is either responsible for it, or that can get it done better or faster


Defer it - this will take longer than five minutes. Schedule work time to complete.


How can you possibly apply these to your life? In going through the Take Back Your Life course, they emphasize using your calendar to achieve a work / life balance. It’s recommended to combine views of your home and work calendars so that you don’t schedule work time on top of personal time.


I see your personal time is really two types of time: Personal project time and Down time. We all need down time. Down time is my favorite time of the day. It when I get to my favorite stuff:

I can spend time with my wife


I can play with my kids


I can watch TV


I can play on the computer


I can nap

Not my dog - from My Dog Violet (1)

I can do absolutely nothing


Basically, I can recharge


But you also have personal project time. Some personal projects are regular and recurring. These are known as chores:

Washing dishes


folding clothes



mowing the yard


paying the bills


taking out the trash


It’s the special personal projects you need to schedule personal project time for. Things like:

painting the house


filing your taxes


fixing your toilet


planning a party





The trick is to use the same tools that you use to schedule your work time to schedule your personal time. A pocket calendar is great, so is a BlackBerry, so is a 59 cent notebook. Just find a method that works for you and stick to it.


To see how the 4 D’s can apply to your personal life, let’s go back and look at that list you wrote of issues you were concerned about. These were the Items that were keeping you from being happy.


Look at each item on your list.


Can you Do it? In other words? Can you do it in five minutes, right now and cross it off your list?


Can you Delete it? Is it even doable at all? Becoming an astronaut would make me happy, but I’ve deleted it, or crossed it off my list.

Can you Delegate it? I sure would love to cure cancer. But I don’t have the time time to go back to school, become a doctor, and research the cure myself. Maybe if I delegate it to the American Cancer Society, but support their efforts, they can find a cure.


Can you Defer it? I want to open a restaurant. It’s going to take me more than five minutes, but I can do it. It’s going to take me some time to detail and plan the steps. I’ll set up an hour on my personal calendar to do some planning for this.


Once you’ve gone through your list you can now work towards fixing the things that make you unhappy. Will they clear up overnight? No. Will you become fabulously wealthy? Not without a lot of hard work? The important thing is, this system provides you the opportunity to identify the issues, a method to identify what you can fix, and the time to work on these personal projects at your own pace.


That sort of sounds like the Serenity Prayer (God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. )


Applied to real life, when issues come up from time to time that require your personal attention, you can also apply the 4 D’s to them. For example, if had an issue with your car you are probably already using this method.

If you’re low on gas, you’ll probably Do it now and go fuel up
If your transmission dies and your car has 240 thousand miles on it you’ll probably Delete it and junk the car
If your car needs minor repair, you’ll probably Delegate it to the local mechanic
If your car needs a new set of tires, you may decide to Defer it and schedule it for next payday.





Remember, The trick is to use the same tools that you use to schedule your work time to schedule your personal time. Use a pocket calendar, or a smartphone, or a notebook. Find a method to keep a calendar and keep it up to date. If you are comfortable keeping up with a checkbook, keep it with that. By taking control of your personal time and making it personally productive, you can take back your life.


What are the drawbacks?


You do need down time. You need to rest and recharge. Don’t let your personal productivity get in the way of that.


Do not over engage and do not over commit. Start small. As you see projects complete, add more.


Make sure your family and friends are on board and are helping. Unless they support what you are doing, you will be working alone.


My final recommendation is to be flexible. Ultimately with these projects, you are answering to yourself. Conditions change: weather, money, time. You need to be able to roll with it.

This evening, I hope I have given you a road map towards achieving happiness. There are a lot authors that have made a lot of money telling you how to be happy. I think that only you can discover what makes you happy and I hope through a little introspection, application of the 4 D’s, and some hard work, you can achieve happiness.


I quoted Abraham Lincoln earlier, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Am I happy? Not yet. But I’ve made up my mind to be happy.

Think Sideways is 95% a food blog... this is one of those other 5%. I hope you got something out of today's post.  More food next time!  Until then, I wish you Peace, Love, and Hollandaise Sauce!

(1) Not my dog... http://community.webshots.com/user/mydogviolet