Budget Epicurean

Budget Epicurean: April 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Tilapia and stir fry

So I am still in a spending hiatus where I do not spend anything. Therefore for dinner I had to take stock of my pantry, fridge and freezer, and come up with something healthy, easy and quick. In my apartment I had:
Tilapia: 5.99 for 6 fillets = $1/fillet
Wild rice: 1.29 for 1 microwave serving
Frozen stir fry veggies: $1 for 16 oz bag

Other miscellaneous ingredients:
Red Thai curry spice = $3.50 for a bag full
Lemon juice: $1 for 12 oz. bottle
Vegetable oil: $9 for a gallon 

In a medium frying pan, put 2 tilapia fillets straight from the freezer, with 2 tbsp. olive oil and about 4 tbsp lemon juice. Simmer on lowest heat covered for about ten minutes or until fish turns white and bottom browns. Flip once, sprinkle a pinch of spice onto the bottom. Add more oil or lemon juice if needed. Simmer another 5 minutes or so to brown the top. Always keep covered and don't burn it. Remove to a plate and keep warm.
Steamed the rice in the microwave for 2 minutes. In the same pan, add 1 more tbsp oil and a cup of frozen veggies. Cover and steam for about 5 minutes or until veggies thaw and soften. Add in the rice, mix well. Serve 1 fillet over half the stir fried rice.

Total: $2 (2 fish fillets) + 1.29 (rice) + 0.20 (1 cup of veggies) + ~0.10 (spices and liquids) = $3.59 for 2 servings. Not bad!


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Friday, April 20, 2012

Picnic potato salad

I have a picnic coming up this weekend, and I also am in the middle of a 2-week spending fast (meaning I can't spend anything) so I had to come up with something that I already had all the ingredients to in my house. After asking friends for ideas and some searching on Allrecipes.com, I decided on potato salad. I personally don't even like it much, but I've never made it and it seemed easy. Plus I had all the ingredients already. Once made, I tried it, and it was actually pretty darn good. Maybe it will change my mind about potato salads.
Ingredients:
about 5 cups peeled, diced potatoes
3 hard boiled eggs
1/3 c lemon juice
1/4 c oil
1 1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp ground mustard
1/2 c Miracle Whip
1/4 c Ranch
2 ribs celery, diced
1/2 med onion, diced
1/2 c shredded carrot
1 tbsp salad seasoning
 First step is to peel and dice the potatoes. Then boil them in a large pot while you dice up the rest of the vegetables. Once the potatoes are soft, drain. Mix all the liquids and spices in a large pot.
Put the potatoes in with the Miracle Whip, Ranch, spices, etc and mix well to coat. Add the other diced vegetables and the diced hard boiled eggs. Mix well.
 Finished product. Put in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. Hopefully everyone at the picnic will like it!

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Monday, April 16, 2012

Kidney bean and quinoa burgers

Well, this one came from a combination of boredom, hunger and a determination to not go to the grocery store this week. I had half a can of kidney beans in the fridge, and some googling brought up this blog's recipe: http://sweetbeetandgreenbean.net/2009/02/04/kidney-bean-and-quinoa-burgers/

So of course I made my own version of it.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup kidney beans
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp olive oil
Garlic salt, burger seasoning, Nature's Seasoning, and cumin

Step 1: Add the chicken stock to the quinoa and microwave for 10 minutes. Then add the rinsed and drained kidney beans, and microwaved another 10 minutes.
Step 2: Mash the beans and quinoa together, and add the spices, flour and olive oil.
Step 3: Put some oil in a frying pan, shape 4 patties from the mixture, and fry them for about 5 minutes per side, until golden brown.
Step 4: Drain the patties on a paper towel, and man they are delicious! 

You seriously need to try this. I put a patty on a slice of whole wheat bread with baby romaine and grilled bell peppers. Seriously, try it!

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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Meatless Mondays

This is a trend, I'm not sure when it started, but basically you devote one day per week to a fully vegetarian day of meals. Typically Monday, but it can be whatever day you choose. This trend has several very strong positives:
1. Meat is more expensive than grains and vegetables, therefore eating less meat saves you money
2. Meat is more of a burden on the environment to produce. It costs much less to grow one crop of grain or vegetables versus raise a bow or pig and butcher one pound of meat. You save water, energy, and the grain that would have been fed to the cow for one meal can now be fed to you directly instead.
3. A whole food vegetable based diet is MUCH healthier overall for you. Lowers cholesterol, makes losing weight easier, decreases cardiovascular disease and hypertension, etc. Look it up for yourself, or watch "Forks over Knives". I'm not saying go cold turkey vegan, but adding in more fiber-filled fresh fruits and veggies plus 100% whole grains can never be a bad thing.
Mostly because of the health benefits, I've decided to try to incorporate one day a week as a meat-free day. No guarantees, but I have also been making a conscious effort to add in more whole foods to every day. So today I pulled off a meat-free day without even realizing it. All the recipes can also be found on my Sparkpeople account (which has some great nutrition and exercise tracking tools! I highly recommend it).
Here's an overview:
Breakfast: 1 small slice of banana bread and a Tropical Fruit Smoothie. Mango, pineapple, banana, orange juice. Delicious and refreshing, plus it is portable. 2 minutes in the blender and I can take it with me to lab.
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2070630

Lunch was a large salad consisting of a few romaine leaves and a handful of spinach tossed with 1 plum tomato, 1/2 cucumber, 2 tbsp sunflower seeds and Italian dressing. I had a side of Quinoa & Veggies:
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2037213

Snacks: At work I brought a baggie with 1 cup of cantaloupe and 1/2 cup of baby carrots. They also made popcorn in honor of National Libraries Week, so I had about 3 cups of popcorn.

Dinner: I had soaked white navy beans overnight and had leftover Easter ham and made myself some Ham & Bean Soup: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1950535 . At only ~150 calories per cup, you can have a bowl for dinner and another as a snack when you inevitably get hungry a few hours later!

The whole day covered all the major food groups, provided lots of fiber and nutrients, and was under 1500 calories, my ideal calorie range to maintain or lose weight.

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Monday, April 2, 2012

Balsamic glazed lamb chops with salad and steamed veggies

Well, Spring Cleaning finally reached my fridge and freezer today. I like to go through weekly just to look and see what I have, what needs thrown out, but once every few months or so I deep clean it, digging all the way to the back to remember what's under those 5 bags of frozen corn, and re-organizing. That's how I found the lamb chops I had forgotten about. My family purchased a lamb whole and had it butchered a few months back, and were nice enough to give me a few chops to take to school. Well, since my boyfriend detests lamb in all forms, I hadn't thought of it in quite a while. But he's at work, I just worked out and was starving, and pulled this gem out of the freezer! Put the 3 chops on defrost in the microwave while I showered, and loosely based my recipe on one from Allrecipes.com. Total time in the kitchen, about 20 minutes. Total spent: $0 (because I had the ingredients all on hand. If I'd had to purchase them all, it would probably be ~$25). That's the way I roll. =)
You will need:
3 lamb chops
Spice mix (I made mine from rosemary, dill, sage, and mint)
1/4 medium onion
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth
~4 redskin potatoes
Handful baby carrots
1 tbsp Country Crock
Olive oil
(Also, salad and whatever toppings you like if you want)

The veggies I wanted to steam, so I got a big pot of water boiling right away, with some salt in the water. I diced up the potatoes into chunks and the baby carrots just threw in whole. Let those steam the whole time I was cooking the lamb.
 Then I put about 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, and added the defrosted chops. Cooked a minute or two, turning once. Basically until they were nicely browned but not totally charred. I like a little bit of pink.
 This is the salad I made to go with my meal. I happened to have some cucumber, olives, a roma tomato, and 1/4 of an avocado. Threw in a handful of romaine, toppings, and some Italian dressing. YUM.
 These are the chops once cooked. They were oozing juice! Tasty.
 Then add the onion to the pan. Cook a minute or two, until translucent and soft. Add in the chicken broth and balsamic. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get any lamb drippings mixed in. Let this simmer until about half the liquid boils off.
Once the potatoes were soft when poked with a fork, I took the veggies out and mixed in 1 tbsp Country Crock, sprinkled with Nature's Seasoning and some sea salt. Holy. Crap. Steamed baby carrots are like candy! And the potatoes with them were a perfect pairing.
Once the balsamic is reduced to your liking, pour it over the chops. It smells SO good!
 Then dig in! Such a delish mixture of flavors and textures. I served myself on smaller plates, so the portion sizes were perfect. I also have 2 lunches put away for the week now. A very productive Monday if you ask me. =)

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