Yankee 2.0 : food

No more dining out!

Anne Cross — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:50:00 GMT

I like to make pronouncements. It's easier for me to adopt or give up something altogether, rather than piecemeal. So my latest pronouncement is this: I'm not going out to eat anymore, unless I'm away from home and can't prepare something myself.

I'm a vegetarian, so my dining out options are limited. I'm also a really good cook (well, I like my own cooking better than restaurant cooking). I like to cook, I really really enjoy it. And lastly -- why should I spend $7.00 for a salad, when I can make a better one for about $1.50?

My final meal out cost me $20.00 - for an order of french fries (not very good and kind of burnt), an ear of corn on the cob (mediocre), a blah salad, and a really good dessert, plus tip. I would rather use that sawbuck for something special, so I was glad my farewell meal was only fair.

Now the challenge will be declining firmly but politely when friends invite me to go out to eat with them (not an everyday occurance, mind you, but once a month or so I probably get a local invitation to eat out). I love to entertain and will gladly host a big dinner party, but will hope I can get away with just saying "no thanks" to invites to meals away from home....

Do other people refuse to eat out on economic grounds?

Huge savings on Indian food

Anne Cross — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:38:00 GMT

Indian food is my very favorite cuisine. I have been visiting the Indian restaurants in my city since I was about 14 years old. I've been a vegetarian for quite a while, so Indian food is also a great protein source for me, as so much of it is vegetarian. This winter, after being on a waiting wist for a year, I took an Indian cooking workshop. It was GREAT! I learned how to make many of my favorite dishes as well as some new ones. I left with a cute round box of Indian spices as well as a big recipe pamphlet. I've been cooking up a storm since then.

I recently decided to have a big Indian dinner party for some friends and needed to stock up on supplies, so I searched online for "indian grocery store" and found one about 30 minutes away. My eyes were opened! The prices were so low -- bulk rice, lentils, dried beans, nuts (pistachios, cashews, almonds) -- all much less than at grocery stores. And then there were the frozen naans (Indian bread) for $3.00 for four (these cost $3.99 for one at the restaurants), and frozen paneer (Indian cottage cheese at $4.99 for a pound; I know how to make it myself, but it doesn't come out as well).

But the best find were the boxes of "masala" (which, as I learned at the cooking class, just means "sauce"); there are specific masala mixes for specific dishes. These cost $1.49 each, and each box makes about five large batches (each batch has four - six servings). So to make paneer masala, for example (my favorite dish), I would need a fifth of a $1.49 box of masala, a half of a .29 cent can of tomato sauce, an onion (50 cents?) and about half a pound of paneer ($2.50). For a total of $3.50 (plus rice, let's say 50 cents worth -- and call it a grand total of $4.00), I can make around four servings of one of my favorite foods on earth, rather than paying $9.99 (plus tip) at the restaurant for one serving.

The store also had lots of specialty pickles, and chutneys, and mango syrup (for mango lassis -- yummm), not to mention spices used in other cuisines -- cumin, cinnamon, cloves (just to mention the "C" family). And it was so inexpensive!

So frugal friends, I bet the same holds true for other ethnic cuisines. If you're a fan of Mexican, Afghani, Chinese or Vietnamese food, check and see if you can find a grocer that specializes in that food in your area. The savings can be dramatic, and you'll get to meet some people from the country whose food you love!

Frugal gardening tips

Anne Cross — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:35:00 GMT

Spring has sprung here in New England and the farmer's markets, farm stands, and greenhouses are displaying their wares. A friend just spent $200 in one day on plants -- all annuals! Yikes! Here are some tips to keep your garden costs low.

Plant swaps -- look in the newspaper or at the library or call your local gardener's association. This is a way to thin out unwanted or multiplied plants from your own garden and bring in some new ones. I have some lovely dead nettle that spreads like wildfire (or like dead nettle), ivy, hostas that multiply like crazy, and beautiful blue colombine. I thin out my patches of this and trade for veggie plants or whatever catches my fancy!

Charity plant sales -- if you can't get a plant for free, you can still get it for less than commercial nurseries want to charge.Look in the papers for fundraising plant sales -- especially from local gardening or botanical societies. You can usually buy the plant right from the grower and ask questions about care, etc. These plants always cost much less, are very healthy, and you're supporting a good cause.

All-perennials, all the time -- I used to find it so hard to remember that "annual" meant a plant only lived for one year. Maybe it's a slick marketing trick. :) Just get perennials for your garden. They are usually a one-time investment (although I do sometimes have perennials that fail to return over the winter), and they usually multiply, allowing you to cull your crop and bring the excess to plant swaps (see above). Non-food annuals seem like such a waste of time and effort to me. I guess i'm a lazy gardener, but I like to see my plants coming up each year without doing a whole lot of work, and without spending anything.

Go native -- Plants that are native to your location will do better than exotic non-native plants. You are less likely to have to replace native perennials than ones that have come from elsewhere. You can also likely find these on the side of the road, or in the woods (ferns, lilly of the valley, violets, etc.), where you can pick them if you know it won't harm the eco-system.

Plant food -- the only annuals I get are food-bearing plants: tomatoes, lettuce, squash, herbs, etc. Get these at swaps if you can (they're probably heirlooms, organic, etc.). If you're really frugal, or have a greenhouse (I live downtown and do all my gardening in containers), you can keep the seeds and grow your own heirlooms, too. The cost of one tomato plant at a charity sale is usually one or two dollars. So for an investment of less than $20.00, a person in New England can have a bountiful crop of veggies.

Craigslist -- Check the "Free" section on CL for plants. People often re-landscape and will give away plants to anyone who will come and dig them up. I've gotten (and swapped) great stuff here.

Free dirt -- If you need dirt (like I do in my container world), ask around of your friends with in-ground gardens. They will often share.

Containers -- I'm transitioning away from inexpensive and eco-friendly terra cotta pots, because they freeze, crack, and break over the winter. Even though I'm anti-plastic as a rule, I'm switching over to those lightweight styrene or plastic pots, because they last a long time. I have several that are ten+ years old. Also, be creative -- use old 5-gallon paint buckets (great for tomatoes), tin cans, or other non-breakable containers. Look for these at tag sales, too.

Compost -- our town gives away free compost, and one can certainly make one's own.

Happy gardening!

Soup is good for what ails you

Anne Cross — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:52:00 GMT

I've been making soup like crazy this fall/early winter. It's such an inexpensive way to make a big batch of food that will last for a long time. It's also very comforting in this New England clime, and it's nice to share with people who have caught the nasty cold that's making its way around these parts.

I've made a pledge not to throw food out, so as soon as some of my veggies start to look a little glum, I cook 'em up into a soup and add some of the split peas or dried beans (have to soak those overnight and then boil them up a bit first) for a hearty, protein rich batch of soup.

I'm a vegetarian, and I don't use bullion cubes, so to start all of my soups, I sautee onions and garlic in olive oil and butter in the bottom of my heavy cast-iron/enamel soup pot. When they're cooked up, I add dried herbs (my favorite combo is lots of thyme and oregano), and whatever other veggies I'm throwing in. When they've all been tossed in the oil and water, I cover the whole thing with water and bring it to a simmer, then throw in the dried split peas or reconstituted beans. I often roast a squash in the oven and then put it in the soup (has a really nice deep flavor when roasted).

Here in southern New England, we have lots of discount fruit and veg stands -- I stop into one near the dairy where I buy my farm fresh milk, and get a good week or two's worth of fruit and veggies for about $12.00 -- $15.00. Much of the produce is local, and some of it is a little banged up, but it's very good and about half the price of the supermarkets.

I made a batch of soup yesterday with onions, garlic, oregano and thyme, carrots (don't peel them, put them in whole), potatoes, roasted butternut squash, split green peas, and chickpeas -- it probably cost about $3.00 (plus the gas to cook it for about an hour), and I'll get four or five servings this week, plus another four or five at some later date, because I always freeze or give away half of each batch.

A delicious, and deliciously frugal meal.

"thrifty" commercials

Anne Cross — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:35:00 GMT

There I was, watching the Antiques Roadshow on my 10+ year old televsion (tuned in through rabbit ears, as I cancelled cable this summer), and when some boring sports item came on, I flipped to one of the other three channels I get. And thre I saw two ads in a row for food items that were being marketed as budget-friendly. Very savvy, Madison Ave -- and quick, too! Same day as the failed bail-out package.

The first ad was for Kentucky Fried Chicken and was called "The $10 Challenge." It featured a mother and two kids going to the grocery store to see if they could find the fixin's for a KFC meal for four for under $10.00 (presumably, that's what the bucket of dead chickens dusted in chemicals costs -- did I mention I'm a vegetarian?). Of course, they can't meet the challenge, so they gleefully go off to KFC to "save money." You, the viewer, are thus able not to have to do that hard math, and can just trust that the KFC meal is less expensive than buying real ingredients. I seriously doubt that this is true, but it's a marvelously clever (and deceptive) commercial and really gets the spirit of the times.

The second was for some frozen version of breaded dead chicken that you can cook at home. I think it might have been Banquet brand, but regardless, their tag line was something like "easy on the budget." (I was starting to fall asleep at this point, but was intrigued by the two "thrifty" commercials in a row).

So, the advertisers now want us to buy "thrifty" food that we don't need (and that isn't thrifty) rather than "luxury" goods (that aren't really that luxurious) that we also don't need. It's interesting the different bill of goods we're being offered -- garbage to put in our bodies, rather than garbage to put on our bodies (coach bags and the like) -- as the economy downshifts. Still, that home-made fried chicken (or tofu, as the case may be) will always be a better value.

Shopping like grandma

Anne Cross — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:18:00 GMT

When I think "Yankee", I think of my grandparents. My grandfather and his brother and cousins built a house that he designed out in the country. They dug their own well, built their own electric generator, and farmed the land. When something was broke, they fixed it. When it wasn't, they left it alone.

My grandmother had a love/hate relationship with this self-sufficient lifestyle. She was much more of a city girl, and drove her own Indian motocycle and then later her own Ford cars into the city to get out a bit and see people.

I often went grocery shopping with my grandmother. She always had a list, a "clicker" (so she'd know exactly what she was spending), and a stack of coupons. She also always started at the dented can/old produce areas in the grocery store and always went direct to the bakery to ask for their day-old bread.

I'm trying my best to shop like grandma these days. I have one of those clickers (found in my family effects -- it only goes up to ten dollars, so I have to remember how many tens I have...), but sometimes I forget to use it.. I do go to the old produce and "scratch and dent" area first, but I like to go to the farmer's market for my produce, so I'm not really spending a lot of time in the grocery store right now.

I did pick up some old green beans and an old butternut squash the last time I was at the supermarket -- 99 cents for two pounds of green beans (a couple of them were moldy, but the rest were fine) and 59 cents for the butternut squash -- it had two black spots on it that I cut off. Cooked 'em up tonight and savored the savings.

Homemade yogurt

Anne Cross — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:44:00 GMT

Made a two-quart batch of yogurt yesterday. I find my homemade yogurt deeply satisfying, and highly recommend it to frugal yogurt lovers.

I used to go through two to four quarts of store-bought yogurt each week. These cost $2.50 each for the store-brand to $4.50 for fancy Stonyfield organic. I always felt guilty about all the plastic it generated, and worried about not knowing how the cows were treated who produced the milk.

I buy all my milk from a local dairy (Smyth's Trinity Farm in Enfield, CT -- if I can give them a plug here), where I know the cows are treated well and not given any weird growth hormones or other things. The milk is pasturized, and the grass they eat is not treated with any chemicals. It comes in glass bottles, and this milk (and butter and cream) is out of this world, it's so good. After drinking fresh milk from the dairy, the store bought kind seems like a totally different substance.

So I finally invested in a brand-new yogurt maker, after months of looking for one on craigslist, ebay, and at tag sales and second-hand stores. I hate it when I can't find what I want used... I bought a "Yogurmet" two-quart model on amazon. It cost $50.00 (!!!), and was supposed to come with two boxes of starter, but it didn't so I got a $11.00 refund, so it really cost $39.00

The cost of one half-gallon of delicious dairy-fresh milk for two quarts of delicious homemade yogurt is $3.00. Three packs of starter cost $5.50, so the cost of the raw materials for my two quarts is about $4.85. Time -- well, it takes about half an hour to heat, then cool the milk, then you just set it and don't forget it in the incubator for about 4 - 5 hours. And there's electricity for the incubator (I assume very low usage) for those 4-5 hours. Eventually, I will try to phase out the starter and use a dollop of the last batch of yogurt for the live cultures, saving the $1.85 per batch.

All in all, there is some savings over the store-bought kind, and it's a great way to reduce plastic, support the local economy (by buying local milk), and know where your food comes from. Plus, it's delicious!

Lunch and the small business owner

Anne Cross — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Networking is a big part of being business for oneself. A lot of that networking seems to be lunch-based, at least in my area. I find a lot wrong with going out to eat. For one thing, I'm a really good cook, and there is hardly anything I find in a restaurant that is better than what I can make myself (except for Indian food). For another, it's so outrageously expensive. The fifteen to twenty dollars that it costs for two people to go out to lunch would feed me three meals a day for nearly a week. Plus, I'm a vegetarian, so most of what's available to me in many restaurants is pretty blah.

I often try to suggest an afternoon or mid-morning coffee break for networking instead (and try to get them to come to my office to have coffee from my Senseo machine that a friend gave me). I'll plead being so busy that all my lunches are booked for the forseeable future. I actually told one person (who I felt very comfortable with) that I am trying not to spend any money lunches and suggested that we each bring our lunch and meet on a park bench -- she agreed (and didn't seem offended, as we both munched on our sandwiches), so I might try that one with a few other people.

But sometimes, I just feel pressured in to going out to lunch with potential clients or contacts, and I feel like there's no escape. If I pay, part of it is a deductible expense, and if the other person pays I get a free lunch out of it, but I feel sort of resentful about the whole thing (the mediocre food, the cost), which is no way to do business.

I wonder how other people deal with the whole business lunch thing? I'm a new and growing company, so I really can't afford to snub any potential business. Any thoughts on how to get around this? Should I just suck it up and budget a certain amount per month for lunching?

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart...

Anne Cross — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:03:00 GMT

One of my favorite food staples are (is?) beans. I buy really inexpensive bags of dried beans at the supermarket (usually under one dollar per bag), soak 'em overnight, and have delicious protein (and fiber) for a week.

The other day, I went through my cupboard and found three partial bags of beans -- red kidney, navy, and mystery (the label was in Spanish, don't know quite what they were). I soaked them overnight, then boiled them up, put them in the fridge, and after they cooled mixed them up with some garlic and celery (okay, it was fridge clean out day), oregano, rice vinegar and olive oil and had a lovely three bean salad. It was a really nice summer treat -- and I'll have about eight meals out of it.

One of my resolutions is not to throw any food away that I buy. Sometimes I find intriguing things at the market, buy them, but then don't know what to do with them, so they go bad. I hate myself when I throw food away, so i'm trying to be really good about not tossing food and about not shoppping for more than I need. My fridge is usually pretty bare, but I always have enough to eat. I'm glad I got to use the celery, because that tends to be something that I buy more of than I need, then it has the tendency to go to waste. But it was great in this chewy fiberific bean salad!