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Turkey and Vegetable Rice Pilaf

2/8/2017

 
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Turkey and Vegetable Rice Pilaf
This is another very old recipe from back in the day when my husband and I were starting out and didn’t have 2 nickels to rub together. I think I still have the original recipe on a post card that I got from my sister. But to this day, it is still consistently one of the family favorites.
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Of course, in those days, I used smaller amounts since it was just the 2 of us, but with the teenage boys in our household, I had to learn to cook in larger quantities to satisfy their enormous appetites. This version of the recipe reflects those quantities. Feel free to cut the proportions in half if you are a smaller household. Or you can cook it as it is here, and freeze any leftovers to have for a dinner a few weeks down the line.
 
Another thing - this recipe is extremely versatile. So, quantities can easily be adjusted for more people, more or less meat, more/different vegetables, or more or less rice, etc. 

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Roast Chicken Dinner

1/17/2017

 
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I don’t think anything says Sunday dinner to me like a roast of some type does. It was the tradition every week in our house growing up, and I will forever associate it with family gathered around the table for the big midday meal after attending church and spending a leisurely morning reading the Sunday paper - the comics in particular.  
 
And there are few things easier and quicker to put together than a roast dinner.  All it takes is a bit of prep before everything goes into the oven for a couple of hours of cooking time, time which you can enjoy as you please.

The appeal of that free time while the meal cooks is a major reason I like to use squash for this meal. You can, of course, substitute any vegetable you'd like. But I like that squash can go into the oven along with everything else. I also love the color it adds to the meal. And, of course, I love how delicious this powerhouse vegetable is.  

Once everything is in the oven, the only remaining task to take care of before the roast and accompanying sides are ready to serve is making a nice, colorful, tossed salad. That only takes minutes, so for very little effort, you’ve got a wonderful, satisfying, and balanced meal your family will love.

As if that weren't enough, there’s even more to like about roasts. 

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Chicken with Spinach (Spanaki me to kreas)

8/29/2016

 
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Chicken with Spinach (Spanaki me to kreas)
This is a traditional Cypriot dish that you’ll find in many old cookbooks. Mama cooked it a few times when we visited on holiday in the summer, sometimes with lamb, and sometimes with chicken.

But spinach is a cool weather crop, so this is more of a winter meal in the hot climate of Cyprus.  One way around that problem, even here in cooler New England is to use frozen spinach, which is often cheaper than fresh and also saves some prep time.  

Of course, this is only a true budget meal if you buy the meat on sale. And, as I repeat over and over again in my blogs, that’s the ONLY way you should ever buy meat, except maybe for special occasions. And even then, with just a little bit of planning, you can usually find deals in your local market.

I typically won’t pay more than 99¢a pound for chicken parts or whole chicken. And sometimes I can get legs or backs for quite a bit less. I don’t buy wings because they are too boney, and you’re paying for that in the per pound price.

​Also, if I can get boneless chicken breast for $1.49 or so, I will stock up on that. 

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Mediterranean Chicken (or Lamb) Stew

5/6/2016

 
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Mediterranean Chicken (or Lamb) Stew
This original recipe calls for lamb, but I know as well as anyone that lamb is hardly a budget food. Still, my husband is Greek, so we do splurge on it sometimes for special occasions.

And buying a pricey leg of lamb is actually one of the few instances where I deem it worthwhile to visit more than one grocery store in pursuit of a deal. Unlike the very small savings that such extra trips usually achieve, the price difference for a big ticket item like this can sometimes be $20-$30 or more.

That’s well worth the 2- mile drive across town for me.

The last time I bought a leg of lamb, it was for Easter, and I was able to get a boneless one for $2.50 per pound which is about as cheap as it ever gets here in my neck of the woods.

Definitely not an every-week food item for my frugal tastes, but a pretty darned good deal for a special occasion. By comparison, the other stores were charging $6-$9 per pound. 

​Since a leg of lamb can be as large as 10 pounds (and sometimes even more), that’s a lot of savings --- exactly the kind you can get when you use a little pre-planning and check the store flyers before you grocery shop.

I knew the roast was bigger than we would need for Easter dinner, so I cut it in half and prepared one half for the holiday, and one half for this meal.  Of course, I could have also frozen the unused portion to use on a later date.

I recommend using this approach for ALL large cuts of meat: buy the big, budget size, but apportion it immediately into meal sizes, label, and date the packages, and freeze the ones you don’t need for a different meal. 
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But this recipe doesn’t have to be reserved just for special occasions. It can also be a regular Sunday dinner type of meal, too, by substituting more budget friendly chicken for the lamb.

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Mom's Chicken (or Turkey) Noodle Soup

12/29/2015

 
Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Unlike modern day meat-based soup recipes that often call for very pricey pre-packaged boneless meat, this soup recipe relies on the old-fashioned approach and makes use of leftover bones from a previous meal – such as that Sunday chicken roast or the turkey roast you made for Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Thrifty cooks have long understood the importance of getting all the mileage they can out of the food they purchase, which of course includes any meat they use. There was little waste in the kitchens of old, and cooks would make use of many things that we tend to throw away today.

​In the case of soup, in particular, it was never meant to be made with prime cuts of meat. Quite the contrary.  It was meant to stretch the food budget and avoid waste.

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Stuffed Grape Leaves (Dolmades), Made Easy

12/1/2015

 
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Grape Leaves, Unstuffed
UPDATE 6/10/18 - I tweaked this recipe a bit today when I cooked it for the first time in a quite a while. I am delighted with the results! You can find the details about the changes I made in the ingredients section of the recipe below. 
The original recipe for this meal came directly from my beloved Cypriot mother-in-law, Mama. Aphrodite was her given name, and she was very much a traditionalist in her approach to cooking. 

Among other things, that meant that she didn’t bother to measure anything, but threw a little bit of this and a little bit of that into the pot. It took a determined effort on my husband’s part to finally get the recipe from her.

​And even then, he only managed it because he insisted on being right next to her at the stove as she prepared it and stopping her at every step to write it down.

I remember well the two of them standing side by side in Mama’s old-fashioned kitchen, going back and forth loudly, but lovingly, in Greek. Her impatience at having to explain everything and his frustration at her seeming inability to be precise had the rest of us chuckling and shaking our heads affectionately.

​It’s a memory I shall cherish forever.

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    Hi, I'm Nancy, and I'm on a mission to help people eat and live well on a tight budget. In these uncertain times, it has never been more important to practice frugality. 

     In this section of the blog, I offer some meal plans and recipes, some old, some new, to help get you started on eating well for less than you think and keeping money in your bank account.

    I hope you find some of these recipes useful.  

    And thanks for visiting!

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