THE YEAR-LONG PANTRY CHALLENGE 2016

The freezers and pantries were full and restlessness about meal preparation began to brew within.  How to make meal prep more interesting? It was December 5, 2015 when Old Mother Frugal made the commitment to a year-long pantry challenge. 

The concept of the “pantry challenge” was to not be wasteful and use what’s on hand, only purchasing those items that were “must have” to the shopping list.  Some pantry challenge participants shop weekly, others shop monthly.  For Old Mother Frugal, always on the prowl for a great sale, shopping took place more often than weekly.

Items considered by many as “must have” could include perishable items such as fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, bread, milk and orange juice.  Some omit bread from the list and bake their own. With an ample supply of canned or frozen vegetables (either homegrown or purchased from the store), participants omit fresh vegetables from their shopping list.  As you can see, the “must have” list becomes quite personalized based on a variety of factors.  Time and pantry items on hand were two most popular determinates to the challenge.

Reflecting on the year, it has been a series of culinary challenges.  Dusting off an old bread machine, a loaf of bread was made for the first time in twenty years.  It had flaws but was edible. Homemade flour tortillas made its way into the meal prep rotation.  Some delicious homemade burritos came from this culinary pantry challenge. Yet to be conquered… pizza dough, but it’s on the list.

Another component to a pantry challenge was nothing went to waste.  All leftovers get used in some capacity, even if that means carrots were pureed and added to waffle batter.  A little cinnamon and nutmeg, raisins if desired, and suddenly carrot cake waffles were on the breakfast table!

Old Mother Frugal tried yet again to grow a summer vegetable garden.  Results were mixed.  Half dozen zucchini were harvested from the little plot of land.  Teeny-tiny potatoes, a dozen cherry tomatoes,  half dozen mini-eggplant, maybe three edible larger tomatoes.  Deer and squirrels were my albatross.  Old Mother Frugal could not survive on her home grown garden. 

It seems that zucchini flowers, those beautiful large yellow blooms were edible.  An online search pulled up a mixture of cheeses that one would use to make stuffed shells. Harvesting five blossoms, they were stuffed and baked for a light yet delicious lunch one summer afternoon.

If Old Mother Frugal thought she was frugal before, the budget just tightened up a bit. Unless food was at rock bottom prices as in “haven’t seen it in years” kind of sale, it was not purchased. Meats were only replaced once there was nearly none left in the freezer or met the criteria of the aforementioned sale. This philosophy carried throughout the entire year. A bonus of this pantry challenge was that the monthly food budget began to shrink. 

The monthly budget at the end of 2015 was $160/month for two adults.  At the start of the New Year decreased to $148 each month.  As months went along, it became evident that the budget could be slashed yet again to an average of a little over $100/month for two adults.  Some months were more, some months were less.

It was shortly into the New Year when “ugly” produce and fruits were actively and intentionally added to the grocery cart.  That would be those items tagged and bagged for quick sale and heavily discounted in price.  They were usually ripe and ready to be used or frozen.  For Old Mother Frugal this not only saved money but kept some good food out of landfills.  The year didn’t begin with saving food from the landfills but it is a shopping practice that will continue for Old Mother Frugal.  Food doesn’t have to look perfect when bought to taste wonderful at the table.

At mid-year “Feeding the Nations” put out a global initiative for another type of pantry challenge. Could one eat rice and beans for one meal Monday thru Friday during a specified week?  Money was donated to the organization in the amount of what one would have spent on groceries for that meal by eating rice and beans.  Up for the challenge, lunch became the “rice and beans” meal.  A few days of soup; a couple days of black bean burgers and before long the week of rice and beans lunches had come to an end.

There is an organization in England called “Love Food, Hate Waste” which has a world-wide community of followers.  Their mission is the name of their organization.  Nothing more need be said, right? An educational resource of being not wasteful with food, it kept this one person accountable to the task at hand and food out of landfills. 

Due to a variety of special dietary considerations, one may read this and think it not possible to eat frugally.  If one does not waste the food that one has, one has successfully eaten frugally.  Old Mother Frugal looks to the New Year to continue the journey of frugality with food.

With a series of “new to me” cookbooks purchased at local thrift stores, new culinary themes with a frugal bent are in store for next year.  And maybe… just maybe… that homemade pizza dough that has eluded Old Mother Frugal will finally be conquered, at long last.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip:  During this holiday season, save bones from your turkeys, your lambs and your hams to make broth.  Ham bones can be used a second time mixed with beans and water for flavor. Before you discard food as trash, give it another look.  If you can’t use it now, store in the freezer for use at a later time.  Broths freeze well and can be used to make soups or to cook rice or beans for added flavor.  Once a week, empty out your refrigerator, place leftovers into a pot of water and simmer it down for a soup.  As it cooks along, add salt or pepper as needed. You’ll never eat the same soup twice!

                                      CARROT CAKE WAFFLES

                                          LEFTOVER PICKLE JUICED CUCUMBERS

                                         BREAD IN THE SHAPE OF A TURTLE

                                         APPLE SLICES DRIED IN THE OVEN

                                         POP TART made w/LEFTOVER PIE CRUST

                                         REFRIED BEAN w/CHEESE BURRITOS
                                     

                                                   PIZZA TURNED CALZONE

                                         PICKLED WATERMELON RINDS

                                          HOMEMADE POTATO PEROGIES 

                                      

                                     STUFFED ZUCCHINI BLOSSOMS

                                         CRUMBLED CAKE BECAME TRIFLE 

                                                   CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI MUFFINS

                                                    HOMEMADE NOODLES
                                 

             
                                          REGROWING CELERY

                                         HOMEMADE KETCHUP AND BBQ SAUCE

                                          FRUIT FLAVORED WATER

                 

                                     LOAF OF BREAD FROM BREAD MACHINE

                                     

                                      HOMEMADE RICOTTA 

 

                                     HOMEMADE FLOUR TORTILLAS                       

 

EASY AS M-Y-O

Several mornings a week, Old Mother Frugal has oatmeal for breakfast. 

It’s not the oatmeal that one would grab from a brand name box and pull out a pre-made envelope of oatmeal goodness.  It’s the “from scratch” kind of oatmeal cereal. 

Buying in bulk from the wood barrel is more economical than the cardboard round canister boxes or the boxes containing 10 envelopes. Bulk oatmeal goes on sale for .50/lb and the landfill is spared the waste.

On those several mornings, the same activity is repeated as days before, beginning with "where is the 1/2 cup measuring cup". Invariably, it's never the first one to be spotted in the drawer.  Several measuring cups are flipped over in the drawer until there are no more cups to flip.

Next, grab the oatmeal and measure ½ cup for the pot.

Now, hunt for the cinnamon on the spice rack. Round and round the spice rack goes.

Much like the measuring cup, it’s never the first spice to be spotted on the carousel of flavor.  There is pumpkin spice…apple spice…all spice…nutmeg….finally, cinnamon. Some mornings, those other spices are quite desirable.  This particular morning, it was all about the cinnamon.

Walk over to the pantry for walnuts or pecans or slivered almonds.  Decisions, decisions. Next, brown sugar.  Lastly, decide on some type of dry or fresh fruit or no fruit at all to add to the oatmeal

At this point, the pedometer registers 10,000 steps from walking in circles and battle fatigue has set in from too many decisions executed for a bowl of breakfast. 

Time to stop reinventing the wheel.  Time to implement a “make-your-own” oatmeal packet for breakfast and stop this insanity!  Today is that day.  Armed with five small containers and a small pot, it’s time for MYO Cranberry Cinnamon-Pecan oatmeal cereal.

Into the pot…

-       1 cup water*

-       ½ cup oatmeal

-       Sprinkle cinnamon

-       Chopped pecans

-       Dried cranberries

-       Pinch brown sugar

-       Optional 1tsp vanilla*

Fill the pot and the five containers with the dry ingredients.  When ready to cook, add the remaining two liquid* ingredients and enjoy an insanely relaxing bowl of breakfast cereal.

Sound the Bugle! Any container can be used for a MYO project such as this….Ziploc bags, jars or plastic containers.  Use whatever you have in your kitchen. This will save you time and save you money from purchasing pre-made cardboard boxes containing 10 envelopes of oatmeal cereal.  

                                  Cranberry Cinnamon-Pecan Oatmeal

A SHORT KITCHEN CONVERSATION

When Mother’s Little Helpers were young, we frequently had leftovers from dinner because stages of appetites varied back then.  It was hard to project whether any given night would be that “eat me out of house and home” night.

Old Mother Frugal had her challenges feeding her male offspring. Keenly observing them, their habits reverted back to infancy.  The males fed every 2 hours and then slept for 4 hours. Awoke, fed and slept. Such was the circle of their life.

In an earlier blog post, there was “Some Assembly Required” because there was never anything to eat in the house.  Food was there…it just wasn’t being handed out through a drive-thru window, all nice and tidy and ready to eat.

At times pre-assembled meals did appear in the refrigerator for snacking, however repulsive the process was to one of the Little Helpers.

You see, Old Mother Frugal could not discard any seasoned meat.  Secretly rinsing off the seasonings under cool water, the now unseasoned meat would become the ingredient to a different recipe.

One day, my secret was out as one of the Little Helpers witnessed the transformation of last night’s dinner into today’s pre-assembled snack for the refrigerator. Taco meat was being rinsed under running cool water.

“GROSS”!!!!

[Mother’s Little Helper spoke few words; nothing’s changed to this day].

“Well then don’t look”.

[Old Mother Frugal spoke more words; nothing’s changed to this day].

Mother’s Little Helper walked away. Upon opening the refrigerator door several hours later, lasagna roll-ups had made their appearance for consumption.  Nice and tidy and ready to eat.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Tip: Avoid food waste. Even the smallest amount of leftover food can find some usefulness in another recipe. If you are not going to transform leftovers or use them within 2 days, store them in the freezer. Below is how one pork chop and small amount of leftover chopped broccoli became a pork fried rice dinner!

A MODERN DAY MS. MUFFET

Do you know Little Ms. Muffet?  She was the little girl in the nursery rhyme of the same name.  The origin of Ms. Muffet remains unclear, with a few urban legends chronicling her authenticity back to the 1600s.

Although Ms. Muffet’s origin may remain an unknown, the two knowns in this nursery rhyme are “curds” and “whey”.  Curds are a solid cheese-like substance and whey is a milky liquid.

Over the Labor Day weekend, Old Mother Frugal channeled her inner Ms. Muffet.  After a little bit of research…the internet can be a wonderful thing….she got off her tuffet and into her kitchen for the creation of a milky solid and a liquid by-product.

Yes, the creation of butter and buttermilk! 

Having used heavy cream to make homemade whip cream for a chocolate cream pie the week before, an inch or more of heavy cream remained in its container.  Like the internet, boredom can be a wonderful thing. 

The pantry contained the two key ingredients for butter: a hand-held mixer and the aforementioned carton of heavy cream.  In a matter of minutes, a solid was appearing and a liquid began to formulate in the same bowl.  It was butter and buttermilk.

At the completion of the mixing process, 2 generous tablespoons of butter remained at the base of the bowl immersed in one-third cup of buttermilk. The two were then separated at birth: one in a square of cheese cloth, the other into a measuring cup. 

The butter was molded and pressed into a small finger bowl while the buttermilk remained in the refrigerator until used in a batter of blueberry pancakes.  Old Mother Frugal had indeed become a modern day Ms. Muffet.

SOUND THE BUGLE!  When using heavy cream to make whip cream, place a metal bowl in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. If you don’t have time, you can still successfully make whip cream by skipping this tip.  To one cup of heavy cream, add 2 TBS of sugar.  Using a whisk or hand-mixer, begin to mix.  Be careful not to over mix or you will make butter. If you make butter, the liquid by-product is buttermilk. This can be refrigerated and used within a few days, in any recipe calling for buttermilk.

IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

They’d been hanging around way too long.  The last of the chosen. They were like the little children who were selected last in a game of tug-of-war. Are they going to be durable enough to withstand the heat and produce for the team?

As time passed, white sprouts began to appear and something had to be done with them. These woefully wrinkled, soft baking potatoes.

The white sprouts were potato “eyes”. Looking at their eyes through four eyes, they were no longer suitable as an edible vegetable. Old Mother Frugal decided to cube the potatoes and plant them in the garden.  Let’s see what happens!  At best, a crop of potatoes will be on the table for dinner.

[If you have read previous posts on this blog that would be the same garden that seems to feed the deer and the squirrels every summer].

Weeks passed before greenery popped up from the soil. Stalks eventually appeared with the green leaves.  Since potatoes grow beneath the soil, surprises awaited this frugal farmer.

A few lessons were learned from this frugal experiment. 

First, allow plenty of space for potatoes to grow.  Allow more time for potatoes to develop into larger potatoes.  Lastly, think twice before throwing food away. It may live to grow another day. 

A crop of a dozen small potatoes were harvested, cooked and served on Old Mother Frugal’s kitchen table this summer.  All from one potato with too many eyes.

Sound the Bugle!  When potatoes sprout, the starch in them converts into sugar. Research has suggested that if the main part of the potato is still firm, remove the sprout as it has most of its nutrients intact and can be eaten. However, if the potato is shrunken and wrinkled, it should not be eaten and consider planting it in your garden, sprouts facing upward!

                                              A CROWDED GARDEN

FIRST HARVEST

A PAINT AND PASTA PARTY

Old Mother Frugal was hosting grandparent camp for a few weeks this summer at the home of two grandchildren. 

They are a busy and curious two-some and they love to get involved in meal prep. 

Whether waffles or pancakes from scratch, cookies or cupcakes, they were in the bowls with both hands and whisks to pour and stir…and splash....and stir...and splash.

Needing an afternoon “activity”, their parent’s pantry contained all the ingredients to make homemade pasta.  Flour and olive oil in the pantry, eggs were in the refrigerator.  It had the potential to be messy but with an early enough start in the day, there was plenty of time for clean-up before their parents arrived home from a hard day at the office and none the wiser at what their kitchen looked like earlier in the day.

Having gathered all the ingredients, all that was left was to find a rolling pin and a floured surface to make the pasta.  Old Grandmother Frugal's Little Helpers to the rescue! A rolling pin was part of the play kitchen equipment and a plastic cutting board was the perfect surface to mix flour, egg and olive oil.

The one thing that was not calculated into the equation was the tactile sensation of hand mixing flour, egg and olive oil by the little helpers.  It never occurred to Old Mother Frugal that previous meal prep involved utensils that were not their hands: a fork…a whisk…a measure cup.  Hands were, apparently, out of the question. Once they realized hands were involved, they decided to pivot.

Instead of pasta, they wanted the Hello Kitty “paint with water” pictures.  Dinner that evening was indeed a team effort.  Old Mother Frugal was in charge of pasta, and Old Grandmother Frugal's Little Helpers were in charge of the décor.

Sound the Bugle!  Homemade pasta is easy to make and does not require expensive equipment: a rolling pin and a floured surface.  Place ¾ cup of all-purpose flour on a clean, flat surface. Make a well in the center of the flour. Add 1 egg and 1 TBS olive oil.  Bring the flour slowly into the center of mix with the egg, keeping the flour wall intact. Continue this until all the flour is mixed into the egg/olive oil.  If too wet, add flour a little at a time. Knead a few times until dough ball is smooth.  Roll out the ball of dough until very, very thin on a floured surface. Using a pizza cutter or knife cut slices of pasta to your desired width.  When all the dough is sliced, place pasta into a pot of salted boiling water and cook al dente.  Use these with spaghetti sauce, in chicken noodle soup or any recipe that calls for noodles such as a tetrazzini or lasagna. So inexpensive. Mangia!

                                        

BAKING WITH FLOWER

Old Mother Frugal began scratch cooking when Mother’s Little Helpers were young children.  It provided them with hand-eye coordination skills, academic skills about fractions with measuring cups and it was a fun activity for quality time with them.

One of the earliest lessons for each of them was baking with flour.

Initially, they thought flour was that fragrant smelling plant with petals growing outdoors in nature.  It came as quite a surprise for them to learn about the other kind of flour.  The one that when water was added to it, became pasty like glue.

However, it wasn’t until adulthood that Old Mother Frugal herself learned about cooking with their type of flower. The kind one can pick while foraging.

If you are not familiar with foraging, it would be gathering food provisions, usually plants or fruits, found outdoors growing in nature.

Old Mother Frugal grew up as a city girl and existing outdoors with nature was not a concept endearing to me. This could explain my previous blog entries about my failure as an unproductive farmer.

However, foraging intrigues the frugal cook within me.  Although still too timid to trust anything found in the woods provided by Mother Nature, recent foraging in my own garden, at the recommendation of a friend, proved to be a successful experiment in meal preparation. I could identify the item; no harmful chemicals were sprayed on them and they were ripe for picking.

They were zucchini blossoms!

A quick Google search on zucchini blossom preparation revealed a delicate meal could be served in less than ten minutes.  Old Mother Frugal had the ingredients in the pantries such as ricotta, parmesan cheese, black pepper and nutmeg. They take 3-5 minutes to bake in the oven at 375 degrees. 

Since they came from my own garden, they were free and most importantly, they were delicious!

SOUND THE BUGLE!  Today’s tip: Be open to offer your palette new tastes. When trying to maintain a frugal budget, free food can offset a month when there is more month than money. 

STALKING OUT THE GOODS

Old Mother Frugal can’t grow dirt.  That sums up my farming abilities. 

Growing one's own food is a frugal way to keep food costs low while also knowing a little something about what went into the food production. It’s healthy and sustainable. Yet year in and year out, it’s a talent that just has left me void of produce.

In the past, Old Mother Frugal has been known to save and freeze vegetable scraps for vegetable stock. A new purpose has been brought to my attention.  Some vegetables can be regrown!

For example, take celery but more specifically, the base of the celery.

Typically, one chops celery about 2” from the base and may take the base and freeze it for stock or toss it as trash. However, if the base sits in a bowl with about a half inch of water, over time it sprouts new leaves and grows roots. At the point where roots are seen, the celery base can be planted outdoors and it will grow tall celery stalks once again.

Who knew?  Just think how many shoppers just toss potential celery stalks in the trash.

Another “easy to regrow” vegetable is the potato.

When your potatoes start to sprout “eyes”, quarter the potato and plant it with the eyes faced upward.  Plantings should be approximately 9” apart. If you plant in spring, by autumn there should be potatoes below the surface of your garden. There are over a dozen of these potato plants now in Old Mother Frugal’s garden.

This technique of regrowing vegetables can be applied to green onions and lettuce as well.

Whether or not these plants will yield any edible produce remains to be seen. In the meantime, celery and potatoes are “eyed” a little differently in the kitchen now that they can regenerate into new plants. Being a frugal cook, it costs nothing to reuse and regrow these vegetables. Now that fits into Old Mother Frugal's buy once, use twice philosophy!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s Tip:  Celery leaves are a flavorful addition to many meals.  They can be included in chicken salad or tossed into a salad or added to soup. If you are one who would discard these flavorful goodies, try using them in one of these meals. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the flavor.

 

GONE BOWLING

When the youngest of Mother’s Little Helpers was in grade school, he had a fascination for bowling. 

Something that began as a summertime fun at the local bowling alley turned into an after-school activity when the school year began that Fall.

Like any sport that he played, he went after it will great gusto and became pretty good at it. Instead of driving to the soccer fields or baseball fields that year, we drove to the bowling alley on Saturday mornings.

Memories of a trophy that were half the size of my little bowler remain with Old Mother Frugal to this day as “bowling” has crept into my cooking cuisine.

Rice bowls, that is!

Have you heard of them? In place of taco bowls where one would use a flour or corn tortilla as the vehicle for serving a taco in a bowl, the ingredients are served over rice.

The bottom layer of the rice bowl is, well, rice. Pat cooled rice on the bottom and along the side of a bowl.

Then start the process of layering taco ingredients with seasoned beef/chicken/pork or refried beans topping the rice. If you start with meat, next add beans . If you start with beans, next add meat. Then continue with your favorite topping such as tomatoes, cheese, guacamole, shredded lettuce, sour cream and/or olives.

What makes this dish so versatile is that you can use whatever taco ingredients you have on hand as there is no set recipe for its success. Each family member can create their own favorite rice bowls allowing Mother’s Little Helpers the opportunity to make their own meals.

Score some points with your family and give this idea a try!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: To line the rice along with bottom and sides of the bowl, slightly wet your fingertips so that the rice does not stick to your fingers and interfere with your ability to press the rice into a bowl formation.

                                     BOTTOM LAYER OF RICE BOWL