Lunch Making for Dummies and other Awesome People

I make Mike's lunch every.single.day.

I can remember as a young girl I would always look forward to the day when I got to put together cool little lunches for my husband and children. Now, after taking care of a baby all day, cooking dinner, straightening up, and finally sitting down, it's like, "ARE YOU KIDDING, I STILL HAVE TO MAKE LUNCH????". I can't wait until I can just buy a bunch of awesome stuff for lunches like fresh mozzerella and proscuitto, but until that time arrives, I have figured out how to do it on the cheap, cheap, cheap!

I used to really worry about variety and all that other sheez, but since the Great Budget Crunch, as long as it's delicious and healthy, I don't mind sending him with the same thing 4/5 days in one week. People sometimes bring the same lunch to work for like, years, right? So a few days won't kill him (this is how I sleep at night). Before I read about the dangers of using the microwave, I used to send him with leftovers everyday. He was eating dinner-quality lunches while I ate oatmeal all day. ANYWAYS! Let me share my lunch-packing techniques with you.

Main Dish

The goal here is to have mostly everything prepared every time you go to put together a lunch. I do a number of different things to make sure this is the case.

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad

about $1.50/day

(you can make 1 lb. of this on Sunday night, and be done with it for the rest of the week)

I like to make an Italian Dressing and mix it with half light mayonnaise, then add some grated Romano cheese. Toss in a jar of roasted red peppers ($1.99 from Trader Joe's), some green olives, some diced celery and onion, and some steamed frozen broccoli. That's going to cost you about $7.50 for the week. That's $1.50 a day.

Sandwiches on Whole Wheat Rolls

$.24-$1.95 each

I bake 15 Whole Wheat Rolls every 2 weeks. I then freeze them

wrapped in foil in a freezer bag. Every night, I take one out, and put it in the oven on 350 for 5 minutes to defrost it, make a sandwich and re wrap it in the foil I froze it in. Very inexpensive roll fillings include peanut butter and/or jelly, butter, salami and cheese, cream cheese and tomatoes, or just cheese. You could also make your own hummus from dried beans (organic - $1.75 about) and spread that with some field greens.Other (still cheap) options include tuna salad and cold cuts. These rolls cost me $.15 to make, which means from the bare minimum of butter to cold cuts and cheese these sandwiches run from $.24-$1.95 each. That's really, really cheap. If you're not into making your own bread, which you will be after I show you how to do it next week, just buy big bags of rolls or sandwich bread when it goes on sale and individually wrap and freeze them. You could freeze little packs of 2 slices each, and then thaw as needed. No more stale/moldy bread!

Salads

$2.00 - $2.50 each

Salads are a great cold option for lunch. A 16 oz. container of organic baby greens at Whole Foods costs $6.99 and will last you a week. Just make a salad dressing in the beginning of the week (like my Spring Spinach Salad dressing), and bring it in a little container alongside the greens. You could also buy a pound of chicken breasts and grill them on Sunday night, and throw them in, as well. Add walnuts and raisins in lieu of chicken, if you prefer, or a handful of cooked beans!

This salad will cost you between $2.00 and $2.50 a day depending on whether or not you add walnuts, raisins, chicken, or beans.

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Those are just a few of your options, but I think that salads, sandwiches, and pasta salads are a good way to start. You can rotate between the 3 every week, or change your sandwich every week, to keep it fresh! Stay tuned for my post next week where I'll discuss peripheral lunch items like cookies, muffins, fruit, and veggies!

If you're like most people who buy lunch, you probably spend between $5 and $10 dollars a day on lunch. That's $1,300 - $2,600 a year. My way costs between $500-$650 a year! That's a huge savings...what I'd do if I were you, is start bringing my own lunch and up my 401(k) contribution. Or you could just save it up and go on vacation or something. That's a $700-$2,000 savings every year! Damn...Imagine what you could save if you did it for 5 years! Wow.

Benefits of making your own lunch:

• You save a LOAD of money
• You know what's in your food
• It's way healthier
• You save a LOAD of money

Enjoy your lunch :).

P.S. My baby Dylan got his first tooth today/last night!!!

Low(er) Fat, Whole Wheat, Chocolate Chip Nibbles

OK, so here's the deal with this one. The first time I used this base recipe, I tried to halve the recipe to a third. Turned out I thirded all the ingredients except for the flour. So, the next time, I was really committed to doing it right, so that I could report the recipe to all of you readers. Well, this time, I added HALF the butter I was supposed to add. BUT the cookies turned out pretty damn good, so I was like, "well, whatever, they're low fat, whole wheat, and delicious". I'm not going to lie, though, if you like your cookies to spread out and get nice and flat and chewy, these aren't for you. HOWEVER, if you don't mind a thicker, less buttery cookie, these are perfect. THAT BEING SAID, you could add an extra 1/4 c. of butter (1/2 stick) and they would probably spread and be nice and greasy like the ones you remember (I'm not judging you, add the butter if you need to...JUST KIDDING, I am judging you - make them healthy!)

Just be warned, the dough is REALLY crumbly. You really have to heat it with your hands and press it firmly into a ball. These don't spread too much, just kind of puff up. They're little nibbles.

So, here goes nothing!

what're these two trouble-makers up to?

(p.s. these are made from the dough I set aside in the fridge...they still came out awesome. They were even more crumbly than the first batch, but the heat from my hands helped me shape them into balls.)

Organic-ish LFWWCC Nibbles

(Low(er) Fat, Whole Wheat, Chocolate Chip Cookies)

makes 4 dozen - feel free to half if needed!

2 c. Whole Wheat Flour (organic - $.46)

1 c. All Purpose Flour (organic - $.25)

2 t. baking soda ($.02 - triple check you're using SODA not POWDER)

1/4 t. salt (<$.01)

1/2 c. butter (1 stick - $.70)

2/3 c. brown sugar ($.38)

2/3 c. white sugar ($.10)

2 eggs (organic - $.60)

1/2 t. vanilla extract ($.08)

1 c. chocolate chips ($.80)

Total for about 4 dozen small cookies: $3.40...That's $.07/cookie and $.85/dozen. You'd pay a lot more than that at the store, and these are so quick and easy to make!

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream softened butter and sugars until light and fluffy. If you don't have time to let your butter soften, just slice it really thinly into your mixing bowl.
3. Add eggs one at a time. Wait until one's incorporated to add the next.
4. Add vanilla. Mix.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk both flours, baking soda, and salt.
6. Add to wet ingredients and stir until the dough comes together. It will be crumbly. That's because we cut the fat so much. When you press the balls together, they'll be fine.
7. Stir in chocolate chips.
8. Shape cookies into balls, and press together the way you would a meatball. It may take some finesse, that's just the price we pay for delicious lower fat cookies!
9. Arrange on sheet leaving 2 inches between them.
10. Bake for 10 minutes. They should still be quite soft in the middle, but baked around the edges. They'll harden up a bit once they're out of the oven!
11. Enjoy :).

scrimpyTips:

- I baked half, and put the other half in the fridge. I plan to bake them the way you would regular store bought cookie dough. This way, we can have a few fresh cookies whenever the mood strikes. I find that when you bake a huge batch of cookies, unless you have people to give them away to (and screw THAT, I'm not giving away my cookies! OK, I gave my friend Crystal ONE, but that's because she's special), they get very hard before you can eat them all. Using this method, we'll have fresh ones every time!

- You can use more chocolate chips. I just found that since the dough is crumbly to begin with, adding too many chocolate chips can make forming the dough balls a bit tricky.

- These would be great with some walnuts added in! You could even sneak in 1/3-1/2 c. of ground flax seeds. I've done that before and it's a great way to add omegas to your cookie.

So there you have it, my friends. A recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies using half the butter of the average recipe. I really hope you love them as much as we do ;). If you'd like them more buttery, just add an extra half stick of butter (1/4 c. - $.35).

What's tricks do you guys have to healthify your baked goods? I'd love to hear your comments!

(30...well, 35) Minute Meal Thursday!

Hey all! Cooking while Dylan is awake is always a challenge, so I usually wait until he goes down at 6 to prepare dinner for Mike and me. However, with the time change and the summer coming up, we've been trying to keep him up later, so that we can enjoy him more. This means I'm stuck cooking dinner while he's awake (unless I've prepared it throughout the day, which I sometimes d0). There are tons of meals you can throw together in 30 minutes on a weeknight that are both satisfying and healthy. The following recipe for lentils and rice is a great example of that!

Mike and I eat dinner around 7 or 8 because it's enjoyable to sit and relax once the baby's down. With the baby staying up later, quick meals are great because I can put them together in almost no time at all, and still be eating at a reasonable hour. A little aside: Mike and I started eating later when we started putting Dylan down at 6, but it's turned out to be a great little change to our routing. Eating dinner later causes us to be too full to snack all night, saving us calories and money! Nice.

I found this recipe online, but I think lentils take a little longer to cook than 30 minutes...I guess we'll see...I'll tell you the result after the recipe, because I'm writing this while it cooks. How do I know it will be good? No clue, but I'm sure it will be. Hopefully.

Lentils and Rice

makes 8 servings

1 lb. lentils (organic - $2.39 - WFs)

1 t. salt (<$.01)

1 1/2 c. dry brown rice (organic - $1.20 - WFs)

1 medium onion ($.07)

4 medium carrots, finely chopped, about 2 c. ($.64 - organic)

2 cloves garlic ($.04)

1 1/2 T. olive oil ($.36)

1 t. salt (<$.01)

1 dash black pepper ($.01)

1/4 t. red pepper flakes ($.02)

1 t. dried basil ($.06)

1 T. red wine vinegar ($.06)

1 t. salt for brown rice water ($.01)

Total is $4.88. That's mostly organic and serves 8 people. Lentils are also amazing for you. That's $.61/serving, which is so cheap for an organic meal.

1. You're going to need 2 pots of boiling water. One medium-large one that can accomodate 1 pound of lentils. The other pot can be smaller, it's for the rice.
2. Fill one pot with 10 c. water and the other with 3 c. water 1 t. salt, set both on high.
3. When the water boils, add the lentils to the big pot, and the rice to the small pot.
4. Turn lentils to medium heat and rice to a low heat.
5. Simmer the lentils until tender (about 35 minutes) and the rice until cooked (about 30 minutes).

To make the vegetables:

1. Chop onion, and finely chop carrots and garlic.
2. Add 1 1/2 T. olive oil to pan over medium heat.
3. Let oil heat, and then throw the carrots, garlic, onion, basil, 1 t. salt, dash black pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried basil.
4. Cook until onions are translucent and carrots are tender. Leave a top on if possible, as this keeps the moisture in the vegetables.
5. When lentils and rice are done combine them with the vegetables and add about another 1 t. of salt, or to taste.
6. Serve and enjoy!

This is a great recipe. It's delicious as a vegan or vegetarian main dish or a side dish to meat or fish. We ate it as a main dish with a small spinach salad. Taste before serving and add more salt if necessary.

scrimpyTips:

- This is great for a cold lunch salad.

- This can be made with barley and short pasta.

- Mushrooms would be really great in this. I may buy some and add them in tomorrow.

- This is a good make ahead, just prepare the rice and add premade lentil-vegetable mix.

Sorry this is a 35 minute meal. It's worth the extra time, though! Let me know what you think :).

7 Potatoes, 7 Eggs, 2 Ways, Part 1

Yum, yum, people! SO, today I realized I had 7 large baking potatoes. In the fridge, I also had 7 eggs (okay, I had 11, but just bear with me for the sake of the story). Originally, I was going to make a potato chowder for Freezermeal Friday, but I am not so sure how potato soup freezes, and of course I didn't want to steer you wrong. So then I thought, "Oh, I'll use half the potatoes for soup, and we'll eat it in the next few days, and with the rest I'll make something else". Then I realized I didn't have any carrots or celery (this never happens, I was out of town!), so soup was out of the picture.


I finally settled on potato salad and potato and egg pie.

Potato Party Salad

serves 6 as a side dish

5 large baking potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs, $.75 Haymarket)

3 T. chopped white onion ($.03 Haymarket)

1/3 c. mayonnaise ($.25)

1 1/2 T. Dijon mustard ($.13)

1 t. salt (<$.01)

1/2 t. black pepper ($.03)

2 hard boiled eggs (organic - $.60)

1 T. white vinegar ($.01)

Total is $1.81 for about 2 lbs of potato salad...not bad!

1. Peel and chop potatoes into large cubes (I halve, then quarter then chop a few times, resulting in about 12 chunks per potato - I don't have my camera so I can't share the pictures with you, sorry...)
2. Put them in a large pot and cover with cold water. Cover and bring to a boil.
3. Boil until fork tender (the fork goes in and out easily, and they are beginning to get a little soft...I would take them out when they're right about where you'd eat them)
4. Drain. While they're still in the strainer, cover with a dishcloth for about 5. This allows the steam to go back through the potato resulting in a great consistency. The Barefoot Contessa taught me this one!
5. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, and onions.
6. When potatoes have sat under the towel long enough, pour a T. of white vinegar over them.
7. Toss the vinegar-y potatoes with the mayonnaise mix.
8. Chop hard boiled eggs and add to salad, mixing to combine.
9. If you'd prefer more dressing, just add more mayonnaise by the tablespoon full, and add another teaspoon of mustard for every tablespoon of mayonnaise you add.

scrimpyTips:

- This is pretty much a pantry recipe, I keep all these ingredients on hand.

- This would look pretty with some chopped green onions sprinkled on top, and would be perfect to serve at a brunch!

- This is good served alongside a salad or sandwich for a dinner entree.

- This is a good microwave free lunch dish.

- You can add extra eggs, or omit the eggs entirely.

- You can add chopped celery if you like that, too.

scrimpySnack of the Week!

UPDATE: I was kind of tripping out. I wrote this recipe excluding the crumb topping, but I just ate another one, and they're pretty damn good with the topping. I'm updating the recipe and the prices to include the crumb topping - but I reduced the butter because there was too much.

Good Sunday Morning, everyone! I'm here to share the scrimpySnack of the Week. I like to write these recipes on Sundays, because that's the day when I bake Mike's lunch snacks for the entire week. If I make a dozen, I'll usually freeze half, and have the second half ready for me when I don't have a chance to bake something, or we're starving and have no other decent snacks in the house.

This week's snack is Whole Wheat-ish Organic Blueberry Muffins. The recipe makes 8 muffins, and I don't see why you couldn't double it. This recipe is a compliment to Thursday's post about using frozen fruit and vegetables.

Whole Wheat-ish Organic Blueberry Muffins

makes 8

3/4 c. whole wheat flour ($.08 - stop and shop!)
3/4 c. white all purpose flour ($.11 - WF...a bit more expensive)
2/3 c. sugar ($.20)
2 t. baking powder ($.08 - please triple check this and don't use baking soda on accident!)
1/2 t. salt (<$.01) (excuse the formatting from here...I'm stuck with a messed up keyboard - trust me it's worse for me than it is for you)

1/3 c. canola oil or other vegetable oil ($.26)

1/2 c. milk or yogurt (organic - $.19)

1 egg (organic - $.29)

1 cup frozen blueberries (organic - TJs - $1.08)

1 T. flour ($.01, to toss blueberries in so that they don't sink in the batter)

2 T. sugar + 1 t. cinnamon + 1 T finely diced butter + 1 T. flour = crumb topping ($.20)

Total is $2.51/8 crumb topped muffins...$.31 each

1. Preheat oven to 400 and prepare muffin tins by greasing them or putting in muffin cups.


2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.


3. In a measuring cup, measure oil and add the egg. Then fill with yogurt or milk to make 1 cup. You should need about 1/2 c. That's how much I needed.


4. Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients and stir slowly until JUST combined. If you over stir muffin batter, you will make your muffins tough. So, stir them as few times as absolutely necessary.


5. Toss the blueberries with the flour. This is done so that they don't sink. This batter is so thick that they won't sink, anyways...but I also do it to keep the blue color from bleeding too much (even though it still will a bit). Toss anything that you plan to put in a muffin in flour first so they don't sink.


6. Fold in the blueberries carefully and spoon the batter into cups.


7. Sprinkle with crumb topping, or just plain sanding sugar, or nothing, if you'd prefer.
   
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Mine took 25. The picture is of my muffins, with the too buttery topping. They are a little dull looking because of my camera and the wheat flour which makes them a bit brownish.

Anyways, these are awesome and delicious. Like, SO delicious.

scrimpyTips:

- You can use all white flour, I just used half and half to up the healthy quotient. You could also add 1/4 c. of ground flax.

- You could use a mixture of brown and white sugars.

- These can be frozen.

- You can use milk, soy milk, buttermilk, or yogurt. I used yogurt and they're really moist!

- These would obviously be even better with fresh blueberries. Those would be a hell of a lot more expensive though! Props to Trader Joe's for coming through with the 12 oz. bag of frozen organic blueberries for $2.69.

scrimpySnack of the Week

Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone!

I'm sick, so I'm sorry if I sound a little bit stuffed up. Just ask me to repeat anything you can't understand (oh my god HA HA HA!).

Every Sunday I try to make a delicious snack to go in Mike's lunches. Sometimes it's banana bread muffins and sometimes it's cookies, and then other times when I'm lazy he just gets 2 pieces of fruit. This Sunday, I came across a recipe that's great for two reasons.

Reasons this cookie recipe is great:

1. It's delicious
2. It uses vegetable oil instead of butter which is convenient if you:

1. Don't have any butter (on the off chance you have MOLASSES but not butter...)
   
2. Have a dairy allergy or something else like that

Molasses Crackle Cookies
(Oh, and another cool thing about these is that they actually crackle on top and look really pretty...next time I will try rolling them in confectioner's sugar...on that note, is it "confectioner's sugar", "confectionary sugar", or "confection sugar"? From now on I should say C. Sugar. OK solved.)
Makes 32 cookies (enough for 2 days...they're pretty good)

2/3 c. vegetable oil ($.58)
1 c. sugar ($.31)
1 egg ($.29 - organic)
1/4 c. molasses($.42 - organic - TJs)
2 c. flour ($.30)
2 t. baking soda (not powder...quadruple check this PUH-LEASE) ($.02)
1 t. cinnamon ($.06 - CVS)
1 t. ground ginger ($.06 - CVS)
1/2 t. ground cloves ($.06)
1/3 c. sugar ($.10)

Total: $2.20 (that's $.07/cookie (Seven Sent Cookies, like Heaven Sent, just Seven Cent!) The molasses makes them a little more expensive than some other cookies...)

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine oil and sugar then add egg and molasses.
3. In a separate bowl sift together (or just whisk together if you are LAZY - like me sometimes) flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet.
5. Roll into nice sized balls (ha)...about 1 1/3"-1 1/2" and then roll those balls in sugar (HA).
6. Place them with about 3 inches in between each other on the cookie sheet (they are going to flatten out and spread...hopefully...)
7. Bake for 10 minutes, or until they're crackled on top.
   
8. Let them sit on the baking sheet to get hardened a bit, and them remove them to a plate to cool.
   
9. Store them in an air-tight (preferably glass with a plastic top) container. I stored them like this and they have stayed really soft and chewy. Trust me, I just had 4. They're still good to go.

scrimpyTips:

- I found that when my oven got a bit too hot, around 360ish, they crackled better, so I don't know...you may want to put your oven a TAD bit higher than 350. My first batch came out the least crackled, and the subsequent batches came out better...
- If you don't have ginger or cloves, you could easily omit them. Granted, they wouldn't be AS good, but they'd still be good, just a little different.
- If you only have one good cookie sheet, put the dough in the fridge in between batches.
- These would be great with soft vanilla ice cream in between them.
- These make great Christmas cookies

Haymarket Pita

Haymarket pita is a great value:

• They have no fat and 10g of protein
• They are made in West Roxbury. That's cool
• They freeze well. Just take one out, and put it over the burner on your stove (not ON it) for a few seconds, and then switch sides. Or pop it in a 350 oven for 5 minutes.
• They cost $1.50
  

The first official scrimpySnack:

Haymarket Pita Chips

1/2 Package pitas from the Halal market in Haymarket ($.75)

2 T. Olive oil ($.24)

1 T. salt (or a little less, to taste) (I'm really a fan of Kosher salt, but I think that plain iodized sticks better for these) ($.01)

This recipe is very flexible (so am I!). Preheat the oven to 350. You want to cut the pita with a sharp knife (stack 3 for incredible speed!) into strips, and then cut those strips into bite size pita pieces (about 1"x2"). Or you can go the other route with it and do wedges. Whatever works for you. Put the pieces in a large bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil and half the salt and toss with your [CLEAN] hands. Spread them on a baking sheet (lined with aluminum foil or a Silpat sheet so that they don't stick) and if you would like, sprinkle them with the rest of the salt. Bake them at 350 for 15 minutes or until light golden brown and crunchy.

And the grand total is......$1.00 even. I live for moments like these. Since this recipe will make 6 servings, that's $.17/serving! That beats a $1.00 (pssht...at least!) bag of Stacy's any day.

Pack them into individual baggies, and bring them to lunch as a great snack. You can also dip them in a variety of delicious dips.

I think I will also try to make a sweet version of these using cinnamon and sugar. I'll get back to you as soon as I figure it out. Not like there's much figuring out to be done. I'm assuming I'll use vegetable oil instead of olive (or better yet, melted butter...) and cinnamon and sugar. Watch for the recipe!