Blog.EmealsForYou

(from www.emealsforyou.com/Cooking on a Budget/entree - Shells and Sausage)

Shells and Sausage

So we are walking around Findlay Market, the nation’s oldest outdoor farmers’ market, and I see a great basil plant for $1.25. I love to have fresh herbs growing in our yard and basil is one of those that I always plant, well my wife plants them, I cook I don’t plant. Now I am thinking, “what can we have to eat using some of this basil?”. Nudging around the kitchen I find a couple of sweet Italian sausages in the freezer and start the pot of water on the stove for some pasta. About 12 minutes later we are having this wonderful lunch that was both quick and cost effective.

For those of you operating on a tight budget you have to learn to use the ingredients found in your pantry and frig and avoid that trip to the store to pick up just a few things that turns out to be $65 worth of things you didn’t know you needed. Let’s look at the total cost for this lunch:

the basil - $1.25 and now I have it for the entire summer

1Tb oil - $?

2 sweet sausages - about $.75 (6 for $2.25 on sale)

1 medium onion - $.15

2 cloves garlic - $.10

1 can dices tomatoes - $1

.5 tsp hot pepper flakes - about $1.50 but you will have lots leftover

2 Tb grated cheese - $.25

1/2 lb pasta - $.50

Total = $5.50 for a great lunch or casual dinner. Add more pasta, there will be plenty of sauce and make this even more frugal feeding 4.

Now that we know the why and have determined who we will share this party with; let’s move on to the all important “food” decisions. Many factors go into deciding what kinds of foods you will be serving, or if you will be serving food at all. First and foremost is the budget. Unless money is not a factor in your life it is important to set a limit on how much you want to spend on this party. While limiting, this will also help to focus you better on the decisions you make moving forward.

“What can I bring?”, this statement usually is spoken by those invited when you inform them of the party. Decide in advance if you want to have some help with the food or not. I personally prefer to “do” the party myself, thus keeping my party theme clean and not having to find a place for the wonderful nachos someone brought to my Julia Child revisited Paris Bistro meal. If you decide to let your guest bring food; have an answer ready as to just what they can bring. I find that asking them to bring a bottle of wine usually works in this situation.

So now let’s decide on the menu. Based on the number of people coming, the time of day or night and how many plates and flatware you have; you can begin to set the menu. My wife and I are currently planning a small gathering of the new neighbors for a cocktail party. Our theme is the Kentucky Derby. Based around mint julips, we have chosen to have a couple of hors d’oeuvres , four to be precise. As it is a cocktail party we don’t have to consider seating arrangements. If you are planning a sit down meal, how many can you get comfortably around your table? Think also about serving pieces, once you make the food you have to get it to the table and present it in an attractive manner. If you are planning a rather large group event take the time before the big day to set all the serving pieces out on the table to make sure they fit or you have a plan “B” to handle this. For the large formal buffet we had in NJ a few months ago, my wife, my good friend, Jean, and my mother-in-law planned the table setting. I was strictly in charge of the food. It was extremely important that I know what went where; as I was responsible for getting it all out, quickly and in the right spot. We actually drew a template with the serving pieces and the food that went on them specified. I know, it sounds really anal but when crunch time came I was able to get all the food in the right place in a very short time.

A few do’s and don’t’s to consider. Do write your menu down, in fact print it and put it on the frig. When our kids would come home from college for a holiday the first question they always asked was, “is the menu posted?”. To them this signified that we were looking forward to their arrival and a good time was at hand. Do try to stay within budget both on the food and number of guest, a very crowded room and a “screaming” wallet don’t make for a good time. Do plan on enjoying your own party; after all this is why you are going through all this planning. Do plan on how all this will get cleaned up; DO say yes to a friend who offers to help clean up.

Don’t “try” new dishes when 20 people are coming; most of us can’t pull this off, stay with what you are comfortable with. Don’t make this into a competition. Don’t worry if you run out of something, “stuff” happens and probably if you don’t make a big deal out of it no one will notice.

One final Do, Do try to keep your sense of humor throughout, it just may save the day!

Feel the Power - . As an added benefit for those who are members of the emealsforyou clan we have included a guide to using our emealsforyou.com site to make planning and executing the party easier in the category section called “Feel the Power”.

(from www.emealsforyou.com Meal Plans/Theme Meal/Veggie - 14 Across…Healthy)

Black Bean Burritos

Warning, this post gets close to being a Rant. Beyond the cost savings of planning and cooking meals for your family there is the “healthier food” aspect to consider. Take for instance the Black Bean Burrito shown at the bottom left side of this post. Even if you don’t like or think you don’t like black beans you have to give me it looks pretty appetizing. This is especially true when you compare it to the “Taco Hell” burrito above the made-at-home burrito. Is this, the one on the top, what you want your family eating a couple of days a week? Think of all the time you will save on “wash day” not having to get the grease stains out of the kids’ shirts, ’cause you know it is impossible to eat a greasy taco in the car without a little spillage.

I knew the “Taco Hell” burrito was going to be bad for me; knew it like you know it is going to rain just after washing your car. What I didn’t expect was just how bad. Here are the numbers: The bean burrito has 350 calories but more importantly 1190mg of Sodium, just under half your daily recommended amount. If you step up to the plate to the Grilled Stuft Burrito- Chicken, as I did; then you are looking at 640 calories with 2160 mg Sodium; add a diet coke and you are over the limit.

The made-at-home bean burrito comes in at 192 calories with only 293 mg of Sodium.

Planning and cooking at home allows you to take charge of what you are eating. You can control the ingredients; want less salt, just read the label on the beans and buy the no or low sodium brand. Want low fat, get the low or non-fat sour cream. Don’t like white flour buy the whole wheat tortillas. See, it is about just re-directing your hand in the grocery store to foods that are better for you; and if it is better for you, you will feel better about feeding it to your family.

Planning meals for your family takes time. The upside is that if you plan your meals you will benefit many times over in time savings down the line and more importantly save money. An adjunct to this is your family will really appreciate the food you are serving them. We all have gone to the grocery with little forethought on what we need to buy; the result of this is a cart stacked to the gills with “stuff”. Upon arriving home we find that we didn’t really buy anything that made sense from a “feed the family for a week” mindset. So now it is back to the store, more time and money wasted.

www.emealsforyou.com has the solution for you. We provide hundreds of recipes and meal plans for you, complete with an engine that will scale these to the number you are feeding. Once you have made your choices we will print the all important shopping list, designed to follow the flow of your grocery sections.

Want to take advantage of the weekly sales at your grocery; no problem. Get the sales fliers from the groceries in your area. Go through them and see what food appeals to you. Log on to www.emealsforyou.com and go to Recipe Finder. Choose those foods that appealed to you and see the recipes associated with them. Choose those recipes, send them to your favorites box, scale them, and using our easy shopping list function, print the list. This allows much more freedom of choice; easing your mind and saving you money. Think how easy it would be to save just $3 per month, that’s the cost of a membership to emeals and as they say, “the rest is gravy”.

A crowd at Coachella awaits
photo by Dave Bullock/eecue

As you now know why you are having the party let’s take a look at the guest list pros and cons. A number of considerations will determine the guest list. The type of function will dictate how many and who you invite. How many people can you actually fit into the space? If this is going to be a sit down function; how many can you accommodate at your table. Do you have adequate chairs, place settings, glasses?

Guest lists are like doors in a funhouse. Open one door and there are four more to pick from. The simple question of who do I invite invokes the second question; who don’t I invite. If I invite them can I still invite “them” or if I invite them how can I not invite all of them? Let’s step back here and realize we are adults. Pick a number and stick as closely to that number as you can. You will have to draw the line somewhere and you might as well get it over with early on. Don’t beat yourself up because Aunt Joan has her nose out of joint, she probably would find something to dislike even it you did invite her.

Next week we will choose the food, plan the serving and show you how a walk-through could make your life much easier.

Homemade Mozzarella

(from www.emealsforyou.com/Appetizers/Homemade Mozzarella)

I’ve always wanted to make my own mozzarella so when my wife found a company, Golden Age Cheese , that sells the curd needed; I thought, “what the heck”. I ordered 4 lbs and with shipping it was around $30. The cheese curd comes in a “cold pack” and arrived a few days after I ordered it. It may be frozen in the “curd state” or frozen after you have made the mozzarella.

Making mozzarella is both easy and fun. It would be fun to have a party and make this with the guests. A word of warning, this is probably not something you want your children to do as the temperature required for the curd to change to cheese is very hot. To make the cheese you simply heat a large quantity of water, add the curd, stir and then form into balls. Yeah, that simple and it is soooooo gooooood.

Golden Age Cheese recommends you add salt to the water. We tried it with and without salt. For those who are on a reduced sodium diet and probably are used to no salt; you will find it okay without the salt. I would suggest you use some lemon juice and olive oil poured over the top. For the rest of us, Michael Chiarello of NapaStyle, suggests you “put enough salt in the water to almost gag you when you taste the water. We made it pretty salty although nobody gagged.

The photo shows how we served it with the Oven-dried Tomatoes oven-dried tomatoes. It was a huge hit; gauged by the fact that it all disappeared instantly.

Homemade Mozzarella

Add salt to water and boil; pour into a very large bowl or pot. Add curd and stir until cheese begins to form long strands. Grab some of the strands and kneed into a smooth ball. Pinch the end and place the ball in cold water.
May be frozen at this point.

(more recipes and meal plans available at www.emealsforyou.com)

(from www.emealsforyou.com Meal Plans/Special Occasion Planner/ Theme Meal Plans/Party Dessert Tray

So you want to have a party. Whether an intimate dinner party for two or a large gathering, the basic steps are the keys to success or failure. Maybe that is a little strong. Success would mean the attendees tell you what a great time they had, and really mean it. Failure is probably a mess in the kitchen, a hole in your wallet and a headache with the little voice in your head saying, “Boy that was fun, not!”

Let’s begin the planning phase by deciding just why you are having the party. Are you celebrating a promotion, graduation or event? Maybe you are having a party just “because” you feel like it. Step one , once you have determined the why, is the theme. This will effect the rest of the planning. Formal or casual, drinks, drinks with finger foods, a buffet or a full blown dinner, all considerations to be made before you take that big step forward and begin to “talk-up” the party. A word of caution here, don’t tell anyone about the party until you pick a time and date, in fact pick a couple as a fall-back position.

Next week: The Guest List.

Feel the Power - this section is designed to help those members of the emealsforyou clan use the emeals site to make the party planning a little easier. It has been brought to my attention that while the downloadable Users’ Manual explains the “How to” it doesn’t necessarily provide the “Why would I”. I will try to do better in the future. Log on and go to the Meal Plans section; choose the Create a Meal Plan Button. now name your party. Next it is off to the Recipes to take a peek at the Appetizers, Entrées and Desserts to get some ideas for the party.

Mother’s day is May 11th and we have an idea for those who are stumped as to what to get mom. Why not a gift certificate to emealsforyou.com? In honor of moms everywhere we have created a discount off our regular membership. When you enter MOMDAY-27 in the Sponsoring Identifier box on the membership form we will subtract $6 from our regular membership fee. Then send us an email and we will send you a gift certificate for you to present to your mom.

Why not buy yourself a membership as well. Use the same code and we will deduct the $6 from the membership fee of $36 making your cost $30.

(from www.emealsforyou.com Meal Plans/WOW (Watching Our Waists)?Healthy, Good and Tasty)

Pan-seared Salmon

I had to give a cooking lesson the other day. My brother-in-law (henceforth known as MBIL) asked if I would show him some easy recipes that he could cook. MBIL is a rocket scientist, he actually worked for the people who make the solid fuel boosters for the Space Shuttle. I mention this as it significantly effects how one has to approach the teaching lesson, that one would be me.

I cook basically like my grandmother cooked, a little of this and a pinch of that. On the other hand an engineer wants to know how much of this and that. As I explained how hot the pan had to be to get started, when the oil begins to smoke, he wanted to know what temperature that was. Then he stated that a study had been done on non-stick pans and they may give off toxic fumes when heated to high temps. Okay, good point I guess. BTW most studies state that the pan has to be heated above 600 degrees and most stoves can’t reach that temperature. Then he said his new high-end pans had a warning to not over-heat them. I put the salmon in the smoking pan and began to cook.

Did I mention that MBIL has a new camera? He not only wanted to learn to cook but try out his new toy as well. So when I flipped the salmon in the pan; yes I pulled the pan back, pushed it forward and then flicked my wrist and the salmon floated in the air, did a back flip and landed in the pan, he missed “the shot”. (for those keeping score again, yes that is a run-on sentence) Did I mention I was cooking in my mother-in-law’s kitchen?

MBIL asked if I could do that again, you know for the camera. As I had four 11/2 lb salmon filets to cook, sure why not. Every time I began to flip the salmon my mother-in-law would walk into the room and I had to try to avoid flipping the salmon onto her stovetop, resulting in yet another missed shot. Talk about pressure! Bottom line here is I didn’t miss the flips, he missed the photos and my mother-in-law liked the salmon. BTW this is one of his photos, the non-flip one.

This salmon took only about 8 minutes total to prepare. I have made this numerous times and always have several people ask me just what I did special to the salmon to make it taste so good. Well, it is simply as stated below, salt, pepper, olive oil and a very hot pan.

It’s all in the planning: Disaster Avoidance 101

We are pleased to announce our newest category: Tips, Techniques and Ideas; designed to provide helpful insights into cooking, entertaining and just “plain old life situations”. Our newest blogger, Teresa will post on table settings and decorations; along with an occasional entertaining post. I will continue to provide some “how-to” assistance; hopefully taking some of the drama out of cooking but leaving in all the romance.

I will admit it, for years I was a closet planner. I always convinced myself that I just put dinners together without much forethought; kind of spontaneously without much of the combustion. Well now that I am older and maybe a little wiser I find I have to actually put my planning down on paper instead of keeping it all together in my head. This may account for the cranberry sauce now making it to the table on Thanksgiving as opposed to finding it in the frig two weeks later.

Planning a large party or an intimate dinner for two requires the same steps to guarantee success. The more you think through it the less stress you will have in the final product. In the next several weeks we will explore all the aspects of planning; from inception through cleanup. As an added benefit for those who are members of the emealsforyou clan we will include a section called “Feel the Power”; a quick guide to using the emeals site in planning. Using the meal planning and shopping list functions I was able to plan, shop and prepare a formal dinner party of 9 and a formal buffet for 35 with just a single trip to the market.

Next week’s post: Planning the guest list, timing and theme. I hope to see you back here.