Not too shabby...

DIY asian potstickers!



So the other day when my good friend was over I was perusing the isles of a local natural foods store for quick dinner ideas when a bag of frozen pot stickers caught my eye. $2.50 for fifteen potstickers, which boasted tasy ingredients such as ginger and mushrooms. The price seemed acceptable (though obviously not as cheap as making them at home), but when I flipped the package over I found there was 750mg of sodium PER SERVING. Uck!



But homemade potstickers must be super complicated and take LOADS of time, right? All that dicing and frying. Well....yes. You're right. Unless you make them my cheating way.



DIY Asian Potstickers

1 c broccoli slaw OR any of the following, diced: peppers, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, cabbage $.85

2 green onions, snipped $.10

1/2 block of tofu $.75

1 T soy sauce

1 tsp grated fresh or ground dried ginger

1 tsp Thai fish sauce (optional)

1tsp Mirin (sweet Japanese wine) OR maple syrup OR honey

2 c flour $.20

1/2 c warm water

Total cost: $1.90 - with sides of rice ($.40) and steamed veggies ($1) - $3.30

Number of Servings: 4 generous

Cost Per Serving: $.83

To Make:

1. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and add the water. Combine roughly using a flat spatula, then wash your hands and knead the dough by hand until it forms a non-flakey ball. This may take up to 5 mins of continuous kneading. If it still seems too dry, add a tsp of water, then re-knead for another minute or two. Likewise, if it seems too wet, add a dash of flour and re-knead. When the dough has formed a coherent ball, cover it with a damp paper towel (or kitchen towel, if you prefer) and allow it to sit at room temperature.
2. To prepare the dumpling filling, place the broccoli slaw or the diced veggies of choice in a microwavable bowl. Add the tofu (diced) soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger, and mirin/honey/maple syrup. cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a microwave-safe plate and microwave 2-3 min on high (depending on the oomph of your machine).
3. To make the dumplings: remove the dough from its resting place beneath the towel and knead it once more for good measure. It should have a texture similar to firm molding clay. Speaking of molding clay, use your hands to roll out the dough into that so familiar "this child is not destined to be an artist" shape - a "snake." Your snake should be about 10" long and 2-3" in diameter. Cover again with the damp towel.
4. Lightly flour the working surface and slice a 1" thick round off the end of the dough "snake." Using a rolling pin or heavy glass (or, if you're lazy like me, your fingers), roll the dough out into a circle about 4-5" in diameter. Then take a SMALL spoonfull of filling and place it in the middle of the dough, pushed to one side. What you want to be able to do is fold the dough in half over the filling - like a taco - and still have borders of the circle to press together. THE KEY TO GETTING DUMPLINGS TO STICK TOGETHER is to get the dough edges you are trying to join together only slightly wet. That's why I use a spoon to get the filling into the middle, so that my hands are dry when I pull the dumpling together. Here's a step by step using square wonton wrappers, but you get the idea: http://indirectheat.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-pork-dumplings.html
5. To cook the dumplings you can do one of 3 things: Boil them (Chinese way), steam them (Japanese way), or fry them (the "I have a lot of time and/or am not too hungry" way). I chose to steam them, because I have a vegetable steamer and why the heck not! If you use a steamer, take a piece of paper towel soaked in oil and rub it over the steamer surface, because these dumplings can be sticky. Steam, boil, or fry in oil until the skin appears translucent rather than white - about 5 mins.
6. To serve, mix soy sauce with honey or maple syrup. Possible sides are white rice and steamed veggies (bok choy, broccoli, spinach, whatever's on sale).

Don't be afraid - this recipe looks complicated, but once you've tried it you'll get the idea of how to adapt it to your ingredients and your kitchen. It took about 1hr the first time I did it, but it now only takes me 40 mins. 40 mins for healthy, cheap, homemade asian food?! I'll take it! I'll take two! ;-) Good luck.

Clean out the fridge - it's cornbread casserole!

Since I have been procrastinating on actual cooking for the past week (read: 100+ degree temps and mostly salads or grilling) I was left with an odd assortment of food in my fridge yesterday.

sour cream
eggs
cheese
green onions
applesauce
cottage cheese
butter/other condiments

in the freezer I had a full package of ground turkey and some odds and ends for frozen vegetables. No bread/taco shells/wraps....hmmmm. Here's what I came up with after raiding the pantry for a box of cornbread mix. (and its not too unhealthy!)

Clean out the Fridge Cornbread Casserole

1 box cornbread mix $.50
eggs for cornbread mix $.20
water for cornbread mix
1/2 lb ground meat $1
1/2 c frozen diced onion $.10
1/2 c frozen diced peppers $.12
1/2 c frozen corn $.10
1/2 can diced tomatoes (mostly drained) $.37
1 tsp diced garlic (fresh or dried)
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sugar
2oz shredded cheddar cheese $.27
1/2 c salsa $.50
sour cream (optional)
1 green onion (optional)

Total Cost: $3.16
Servings: 4
Cost Per Serving: $.79

To Make:

Way #1

1. Combine corn mix ingredients and bake corn bread in a bread machine or oven.
2. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add the garlic, meat, peppers, onions, and corn. Cook over medium heat until the meat is browned.
3. Add drained tomatoes, sugar, and chili powder. Cook about 5 min, simmering, to allow flavors to combine.
4. Slice corn bread and place 2 slices in the bottom a bowl. Spoon skillet mixture on top. Garnish with shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream/snipped green onions if desired. Delish!

Way #2

1. Combine corn mix ingredients in a mixing bowl, set aside.
2. Lightly grease an 8x8" (ish) baking dish. Add ground meat, peppers, onions, corn, tomatoes, garlic, chili powder, and sugar to the bottom of the pan.
3. Spoon the corn bread batter over the top of the meat mixture in lumps. sprinkle cheddar cheese over everything.
4. Bake 20-30 min at 375 degrees, or until the cornbread is bubbly and lightly browned (no longer doughy).

Thrifty Tips

• When using corn bread in this type of setting, it is not necessary to add the milk called for by most corn bread mixes. There will be enough flavor and fat from the meat that it won't be missed.
• Meat in this recipe could be substituted with a can of beans, decreasing the price slightly and increasing the fiber content.
• Once the meat or beans mixture is cooked, it can be frozen in a ziploc bag and thawed to enjoy another time. Double the recipe if you have the ingredients so you don't have to cook one night next week!

Not too challenging raspberry scones.

Scones have always been a nemesis of mine, specifically because they require skill in the art of "cutting in butter." You know, like all those recipies in Gourmet magazine or your grandma's cookbook, that sound scrumptious and not too bad until you reach the step "Working a little at a time, cut 1 stick of cold butter into the flour mixture until it forms a coarse crumble." If you're like me, that's the point at which you put down the cook book and pick up the brownie mix box.

Let me assure you, your days of fear, like mine, can be over after you try this recipe - specifically because it lets you cheat with other liquids.

Not too Challenging Raspberry Scones

1 3/4 c white flour $.20
1 1/3 c quick or old fashioned oats $.17
1/3 c sugar (increase by 2T if coconut is unsweetened) $.08
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 c shredded coconut $.25
1/4 c (that's 1/2 stick) butter, refridgerator temperature $.25
3/4 c milk $.23
1 T lemon juice
1/2 c fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries, or diced peaches $.37 (for frozen storebrand blueberries)

Total Cost: $1.56
Number of Servings: 8 (slightly smaller than cafe serving size)
Cost per serving: $.19

To Make:

1. Combine dry ingredients in a LARGE bowl (the largest you have is probably good) using a flat spatula.
2. Remove butter from fridge and plop the half stick right into the bowl of dry ingredients then, using a pastry cutter or two sharp knives (that's right, I'm that hard core) cut the butter in half, then in fourths, and so on until you lose track, tossing the mixture periodically to coat the chunks of butter in flour. If you work this way, they won't stick to one another (or the knife) and will get evenly distributed. You want the pieces of butter to look like little tiny peas mixed into the flour when you are all done.
3. Now the fun part. Add the milk in three or four strips across the top of the flour mixture, so it will combine easier (throw the lemon juice wherever you want). Using the flat spatula, combine the ingredients until the dough is a little mushy. I have learned that the rule with any dough is to err on the side of too wet - it is easier to evenly add a small amount of dry, rather than wet, ingredients to adjust the texture.
4. Push the dough off to one side of the bowl and add a small amount of flour to the bottom of the bowl. Then, coating your hands in the flour, knead the dough, adding small portions of flour into the bottom of the bowl and working it into the dough until the dough no longer sticks to your hands and feels elastic.
5. Gather up the dough into as smooth a ball as you can make, and transfer it onto a greased cookie sheet. Pressing from the top center of the ball, flatten it out into a 12" diameter circle. Lastly, take your berries and press them into the top. If you are brave and have frozen berries, you could add them at the end of your kneading, but fresh berries will just squish, not look very pretty, and alter the consistency of the dough. You could brush with oil or egg wash at this point if you want the shiny top to your scones.
6. Bake, uncovered, for 20 min at 375 degrees F (or until puffy and lightly browned on top)

Why I Love This Recipe: It sounds complicated to make (mostly because being concise is not my strong point) but once you've tried it, you'll realize it's quite simple. This morning it took me 20 min of prep and 20 min to bake. I did the dishes while it was baking and voila! Scones were done/kitchen was clean. Also, if you use skim milk, this is a very low fat, relatively low sugar scone recipe. No egg, only 1/2 stick of butter is on the skinny side for scones, so you can eat one for a snack without feeling guilty!

Frugal Tips

• Free is good! We picked our raspberries out of a friend's yard, for free - but that's not the only place we've gotten free food from recently. When a client brought in an Edible arrangement to my internship site last week and no one wanted the last few pieces of fruit, I brought the whole arrangement home. Why? Well, the fruit made a nice accompainment to breakfast the next morning, but the greens in the arrangement (kale, the same stuff the put in the seafood case at the supermarket) were washed and boiled in a delicious curry I made the next night.
• Baked goods are a secret place to make the "meh" fruit really shine. You know the "not the best but still a good buy" rack in the corner of the produce department? Pears, peaches, and berries that have seen better days may not be the best to eat out of hand, but will make delicious baked items where their flavor, rather than their texture or appearance, counts. Baking fruit also intensifies the natural sugars, to make imperfectly ripe fruit perfectly tasty.
• If you're like me and live in a place where central air conditioning (or window air conditioning) is still a pipe dream, don't delay when baking. I made these scones right after eating breakfast and turned the fan on while I went out for a bit. It's the afternoon now, and I haven't suffered any heat stroke yet!

Dinner for the frighteningly hungry.

The other night I was at work until 6pm. As I was about to head out the door on my 50 minute commute home, I realized there was nothing to cook for dinner. I mean, we had plenty of rice and pasta, but nothing for protein and nothing much for vegetables. No problem - I asked a co-worker for directions to the nearest grocery store and started out. I was so hungry that dressing up frozen pizza seemed like a good option.

Of course, the grocery store "right down the road" turned out to be more like 15 minutes down the road, and then being a holiday weekend the store was packed, not to mention unfamiliar in layout and selection. I must have stood in front of the frozen pizzas for nearly 10 minutes, before realizing that:

1. $7 is a LOT of money to spend for a frozen pizza of dubious quality.
2. Apparently there is a law which dictates all frozen pizzas must contain AT LEAST 600mg of sodium and 9g of fat per serving.
3. There is no such thing as a non-organic (aka non-expensive) frozen pizza that does not have brown chunks of meat with unnamed origin on it.

After wandering around the store for another 15 minutes, my frugal side got the better of me and I finally selected a 4lb bag of frozen chicken breast on sale for $3.99, and a can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes for $.79. At the time I reached the highway and called Andrew to let him know I was headed home, my stomach had begun to digest itself. Andrew, who knows more about me than he lets on, suggested he could make something to go with dinner before I got home. I swear that boy is heaven sent. Here's the resulting, pretty tasty dinner, which was ready 15 minutes after I walked in the door.

Chicken "parmigiana" for the Frighteningly Hungry

1lb chicken (any large cut could work, but the breast was nice) cut into grillable sections) $1
1/2 of a 15oz can diced tomatoes $.38
1/2 c pasta sauce (garlic or garden veggie - whatever you have around) $.30
1/2 c random veggies, diced small (we used olives, peppers, and spinach)
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1T olive oil
1/4 c shredded mozzerella cheese (or mix, but cheddar might taste odd) $.15
1 c rice (preferably cooked by a helpful spouse ;-D ) $.17

Servings: 4 (modest) or 3 (for the frighteningly hungry!)
Total Cost:
Cost per Serving:

To Make:

1. Boil water to cook rice per package instructions
2. Heat a countertop grill (highly recommended in the summer) or skillet. Place olive oil in a shallow dish and drag the chicken through it to coat both sides (this is ideal for the grill, as too much oil makes a bigger mess to clean up after). Grill or pan fry chicken in a covered pan for 5-10 minutes, or until it feels firm when compressed with tongs/fork - chicken that is still raw in the middle has a lot of "give" to it, but cutting it open to check doneness multiple times will allow the moisture to leave the chicken.
3. While the chicken is cooking, place pasta sauce, sugar, spices, random veggies, and diced tomatoes (partially drained) in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with a microwave safe plate (if you are afraid of microwaving plastic wrap) or plastic wrap and microwave 2 minutes or until it boils - we all know how unstandardized microwave cook times are! Peel back the cover a little, stir, and microwave for another 1-2 minutes or until it boils again.
4. To serve, place fluffed rice (topped with some parsley, salt, and pepper, or butter-replacement of choice) on a dish, top with a piece of chicken. Spoon tomato mixture over chicken and sprinkle 2T of shredded cheese on top.

Frugal Tips

• Ok, so maybe this is for those who are frugal with their time, but contrary to what your mother may have told you, frozen chicken breast can be placed directly on the grill or covered pan without thawing. The key is the grill with a top and bottom, or pan with the lid. Yes, the outside will cook before the inside, but if you keep it in an environment where the moisture cannot evaporate out as the inside catches up, it cooks just fine without drying out. Time saver? Check.
• Adding a bit of white sugar to tomato based sauces helps take the acrid taste out of them - a common problem with homemade dishes.
• To make this"stretch" further, add more sizeable veggies to the sauce - such as mushrooms, chunked up summer squash, or broccoli. Microwaving it all together assures that the nutritional value of the vegetables is not lost in boiling water. Then dice the chicken and mix it with the tomato mixture to be served more like stirfry over rice.