Budget Bytes: September 2010

nutty caramel corn
$1.23 recipe / $0.21 serving

Ahhh, I love Fall! Pumpkins, gourds, costumes and lots and lots of goodies! I found this recipe the other day and knew that it would be perfect for getting me in the mood for Fall.

I added some honey roasted peanuts for a little extra "oomph" but you could use any nuts you'd like or no nuts at all. I even saw a recipe that used chocolate chips! I chose honey roasted peanuts because they are tasty, were a good price ($2.49 for the container) and seemed like they would go great. If you use a larger nut like cashews, chop them roughly so that every bite will get some cashew without having to add a ton to the recipe.

The recipe calls for chili powder and cayenne which I thought would be a fun twist. Mid-recipe I realized that I was out of chili powder so I just used cayenne. I added about 1/4 tsp but next time will increase it a bit. If you don't want the spice, just skip it and you'll have a great, basic caramel corn!

nutty caramel corn

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singapore noodles
$8.40 recipe / $1.40 serving

Singapore noodles. They didn't originate in Singapore (theory is they're Cantonese) and they were popularized by Chinese restaurants in Europe. How is that for a hodgepodge history?

Well, I'm going to blame this one on Anthony Bourdain too. I've been streaming No Reservations on Netflix lately and the other night I watched the Singapore episode. My mouth started to water when I saw him slurping a soup bowl full of rice vermicelli and a searingly hot pepper sauce. YUM. I'm in love with both rice vermicelli and hot sauce. So, I started Googling recipes.

Most of the recipes I found featured curry powder, which honestly, I could take or leave. I used it today because I had some but also price checked it at the store and saw that it was selling for about $5 a bottle. That's wayyyyy too much. If you have a decently stocked spice cabinet, you can probably just make your own. Here is a good basic recipe although there are many variations (google it). My curry powder is a mild version so I just added some cayenne to make it hot. If you don't want to use curry, this dish would be equally as delicious seasoned with just the soy sauce blend that is added at the end.

To make this recipe economical, use whatever vegetables you can purchase at a good price. The best buys at the store today were bok choy, bean sprouts, carrots and green onions. Other possibilities include: nappa or regular cabbage, bell peppers, yellow onion, mushrooms or jalapenos. You can also add fish, pork or chicken for added protein.

Special Note: This recipe makes a TON. The photos below are of a half batch that I made because I am going out of town and didn't want a lot sitting in my fridge. The recipe is written for a full batch. I plan on making a fresh half batch in a few days to use up the rest of the ingredients.

Singapore Noodles, Rice Vermicelli

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rice pudding
$2.74 recipe / $0.69 serving

What happens when you're craving something sweet while watching Anthony Bourdain travel around India? You start googling saffron rice pudding recipes.

I found a few recipes that I liked (this one, this one and this one) but since I'm still working off of what I have in my pantry, I couldn't follow any of them exactly but instead used the ingredients and techniques as inspiration.

I had plenty of sliced almonds and a bag of purple raisins that I've been desperate to get rid of. So, instead of the more traditionally Indian golden raisins, I used boring old American style purple raisins. I wasn't disappointed after tasting it, though. Also, to my dismay, I realized that I did not have cardamom like I thought I did. Instead I went with a blend of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Again, that's more like an American style rice pudding but I'm trying to use only what I've got. I liked the technique of toasting the nuts, raisins and rice in the butter (or ghee) before adding the milk so I did that with mine. I also loved the idea of adding a bay leaf so I threw one in there. It was good.

I had some jasmine rice on had so I used that for a little extra subtle flavor. YUM. I will always be using jasmine rice for rice pudding from now on.

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chicken chili verde
$9.15 recipe / $1.14 serving

I'm still in the process of feeding off of the stores of "left over" items in my pantry and freezer. I had two split breasts (bone-in, skinless) in my freezer, left over from the Caldo Xochitl, that I knew would make a good hearty meal (or two.. or ten).

Chili Verde was calling my name. Chicken Chili Verde to be exact. What is it? Chicken, beans, green chiles and lots of mexican spice! The only thing that separates this from regular chili is the tomatoes and maybe the seasoning ratio. Regular red chili has tons of cayenne and some cumin where as chili verde has tons of cumin and just some cayenne. Topped with super creamy monterrey jack cheese and fresh cilantro, Chicken Chili Verde is hard to beat. This is definitely going to go on my "must cook again" list.

Because I was an irresponsible cook and didn't separate my chicken breasts before freezing, they were completely frozen together and I had to use both. This yielded a SUPER meaty chili. If I was hard pressed for cash, one breast would have done the job and cut the price considerably.

You can make this recipe in half the time if you use canned beans instead. I'm still having a hard time using a can opener with this injured wrist so I went for dry beans that come in an easy, tear-open bag. Plus, as we all know, dry beans are about 1/3 the cost of canned. Directions for the canned bean version can be found at the end of the post.

...then half way through cooking the recipe I realized that the green chiles were also in a can. ugh. So worth the pain, though.

Chicken Chili Verde

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no-knead bread
(take 2)

Here is the update on the no-knead bread, as promised. I baked the bread on a baking sheet today instead of the stone and it came out fantastic! Instead of making a loaf, I made 6 small rolls.

Prior to making the slits in the bread, I made sure my knife was super sharp and coated well with flour (that super wet dough is sticky and makes slicing difficult). I cut an X shape into each roll and went really deep. I cut about half way through the roll! There is so much moisture in this dough that the steam makes them poof up quite a bit while in the oven. Despite the slits being so deep, they had completely expanded and filled out 15 minutes into the cooking time. The rolls looked like little poof balls with four little points where the slits used to be.

Thanks to all of the readers for giving great suggestions and advice for this method! If you've got more, keep it coming! Redforever made a good point about the rising time. I had let my dough rise for almost an hour before but since I was using refrigerated dough, the first half of my rise time was probably used just to get the dough up to room temperature! So, if you're making your bread with refrigerated dough, you may want to let it rise longer. I did notice, however, that because the dough is so wet, it never really gets BIG during the rise. The big expansion comes in the oven. You can see the effect in this video.

no-knead rolls

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no knead bread
$0.54 recipe/$0.27 loaf

***Scroll to the bottom of the page to see what I've found to work best after multiple experimental batches since the original post.***

I've had a science experiment going on in my kitchen over the past few days and I'm finally ready to reveal the results. I've been making a batch of No Knead Bread. You'll see why it was such a science experiment in a bit...

If you do any sort of perusing the web for recipes then you've surely seen 5 minute a day no knead bread recipes. Although I'm sure this method has been around for centuries, it has recently been popularized by the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I've been skeptical of the method and have wanted to try it for some time. After all, how good could the texture be with no kneading? Well, it's INCREDIBLE! No joke. The texture is right, the crust is superb and because I let my dough sit in the fridge for two days, it had a great sour dough flavor.

No Knead Bread

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chunky split pea soup
$4.75 recipe / $0.79 serving

In effort to use up some of the things stored in my freezer and pantry, I took a quick survey of what I had available. I had a left over ham hock from making Collard Greens, a bag of chopped celery and bag of chopped carrots from when I made Garden Tomato Soup. Although it's still over 90 degrees outside in Louisiana, I know fall is starting to creep in for many of you. One of my favorite soups EVER is split pea. I love it so much that I even go ga-ga for the kind that comes out of a can!

Making it from scratch was a sinch, especially since I already had the carrots and celery chopped and ready. Plus, since I had all this stuff in the freezer and fridge, all I had to buy to make this soup was a bag of peas and a potato. Yeah, this week's grocery receipt was SMALL.

If you want a savory, soul-warming, tummy-filling dish to escort you into the cooler weather, give this chunky split pea soup a try. Oh, and I suggest you make a batch of big, crispy, homemade croutons to throw on top, like I did.

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homemade croutons
$1.95 recipe / $0.24 serving

I made these croutons to go on top of this delicious soup that I made (recipe to come) but I can't keep my little fingers out of the bag! They're so good that I can't stop popping them straight into my mouth. I distinctly remember having this same problem at a restaurant that I worked at where we made our own croutons out of focaccia bread. There would be a big 'ol container full of big, garlicky, olive oil permeated croutons and I couldn't stay out of them. I mean, why are people so obsessed with potato chips when croutons exist? And if you make them right, they won't slice open the top of your mouth like the store bought kind.

Anyway, there are two methods to making croutons: in the oven or in a skillet on the stove top. I usually make them in the oven but when I saw the skillet method I had this crazy idea that it would be easier and less messy. Not true. Stirring those croutons around in the skillet resulted in lots of bits and pieces of bread and seasoning spilling out the sides and unevenly toasted chunks of bread. In the oven everything toasts evenly and it's just so much less messy.

The pictures and instructions below are for the skillet method but if you want to do it in the oven, simply set your heat to 350, coat the bread chunks in oil and whatever seasoning you'd like and bake them until they're golden brown and crispy. That's so much easier, what was I thinking?

homemade croutons

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naan
$1.27 recipe / $0.16 serving

And now for the much anticipated Naan recipe!

If you're unfamiliar with naan, it is basically just an Indian style flat bread. Okay, maybe it's not "just" flat bread. This stuff is AMAZING. It is soft, pillowy, full of lovely bubbles and so extremely versatile. You can eat this along side of a meal to sop up gravies and juices, you can make flat bread sandwiches with it, top it with tomato sauce and cheese for a quick personal pizza, use it in place of tortillas for quesadillas... the possibilities are endless!!

This recipe is so quick, easy and delicious that it is most definitely my new favorite yeast bread recipe. I can't quite get enough of it. My favorite way to eat it so far is to use it for my breakfast quesadillas or to just melt some mozzarella in it with a slight sprinkle of garlic powder... oh, it's divine!

Big props to The Novice Chef blog for posting the original recipe. I looked at so many recipes before making naan and this was the simplest, most delicious looking recipe that required me to buy the fewest number of ingredients (just the yogurt!).

homemade naan

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dal nirvana
$3.39 recipe / $0.57

Things are a little tight this month so I made a resolution to use up all (or a lot) of the food that I have in my pantry and freezer. Sure, I should always be doing this anyway but exciting recipes always seem to entice me into trying (and buying) new things.

Anyway, I have two huge bags of lentils (a.k.a. "dal") sitting in my pantry that have been waiting for their day in the spot light. I saw this recipe for Dal Nirvana over on Steamy Kitchen and it looked so scrumptious that I had to try it. The best part is that the ingredient list is mostly items that I already have. Indian recipes are tricky because they usually include ingredients that I don't have nor have I ever heard of! This recipe, on the other hand is different. It's simple, it's delicious, it's super filling and I'd happily eat it every day.

I served the Dal with some simple, steamed jasmine rice and homemade naan (Indian flat bread). The recipe for the naan will be up in a couple of days... it turned out AMAZING!

Dal Nirvana

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cinnamon raisin bagels
$0.94 recipe / $0.09 each

I know it may seem like I'm a super woman who does everything herself (read: sarcastic) but I get busy and stressed out just like the rest. The other day I was SO tired in the morning that I couldn't even bring myself to take the Veggie Pasta Bake out of the fridge and scoop some into a container to take for lunch.
Pretty pathetic, right? So I ended up buying a bagel and cream cheese for lunch and I paid an astounding $1.70 for it. That's just too much for a little old bagel. Too much!

So, I came home and decided to do some therapeutic baking. I baked my own batch of bagels, 10 total, for less than a dollar. $0.09 per bagel is way more my speed.

I split the recipe in half and made half cinnamon raisin and half sesame seed. The cinnamon raisin turned out so good that I decided to dedicate the whole post to them. If you want plain, sesame or any other topping bagel, just leave out the cinnamon and raisins then add your topping prior to the final bake. Further instructions will be in the step by step photos.

One more note: Most recipes just say to boil then bake the bagels but I remember having trouble with my bagels getting soggy and disintegrating in the water while boiling. So I started broiling my bagels briefly prior to boiling so that they wouldn't turn into goo. Just broil the bagels for one minute on each side before boiling then they'll still have that nice chewy skin AND hold their shape. It's up to you whether or not you want to add the broil step; no one else across the world wide web seems to have had the dissolving problem.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

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veggie pasta bake
$9.62 recipe / $1.20 serving

I found this recipe over at Polywig while doing my daily browse through food-photo sites. The photos made it so enticing with all of it's vegetables and melted cheesy goodness... it instantly went onto my "to cook" list.

This week I was in the mood for a hearty pasta dish so I pulled this one from the list. It's pretty tasty and I've been eating it happily for the past couple of days but it's not exactly mind blowing (not like the Asian Sticky Wings or anything). I'd probably rate the recipe a 7 out of 10 but I still wanted to post it because the recipe has good bones. You could add any number of things to transform it into a truly spectacular dish. I might, for instance, add a can of tomato sauce next time for a little more saucy tomato punch. If you're into canned "cream of" soups, that would act as a great binder and bring everything together nicely too.

Oh, and BTW, Whole Milk mozzarella is absolutely crucial. Most mozzarella that you see in the store is part skim and truly has only part of the flavor as a result. Whole milk mozzarella is usually packaged in a square block, not a long rectangle like most cheese blocks. Don't be tempted to substitute.

Veggie Pasta Bake