Cass Cooks, Too!

posted by Cass on Dec 24

Hi there! I’m just popping in tonight to let you know about a foodie giveaway on my craft blog. I’m giving away a Progresso Perfect Recipe basket or three, and you can find out how to enter here. Enjoy!

posted by Cass on Dec 9

So, one of the things we ended up with was turkey ham. Now, I like turkey ham, but I do not like the rind on it, so I always peel mine. Just sayin’. YMMV. Here’s what I did with mine:

oh, wait, no picture. Sorry, let’s move on.

You will need:

• turkey ham
• pasta, such as rigatoni, radiatore, shells or macaroni
• pasteurized processed cheese, like the kind that is bright orangey yellow, and comes in logs, you know the one
• butter
• flour
• milk
• pepper

Peel and dice your turkey ham. Set is aside. Start your pasta water. When it comes to a boil, add the pasta, cover it, and turn off the burner. It will be done at the time indicated on the box to boil it, but it won’t ruin if you have to leave it sit a few minutes longer. Yes, seriously. Just trust me, ok? It’s a buck’s worth of pasta to run an experiment that will save you a bunch of money over the lifetime of pasta cooking ahead of you

Now then, while you are waiting on the pasta, slice up a third of a large block of that cheese, melt a half stick of butter in a large pan, and then add a quarter cup of flour to it and stir it. You are about to make cheese sauce. Once the flour and butter are mixed together, add some milk and the cheese to the pan. Stir it constantly, and do NOT let it come to a full rolling boil. If you do, it will stick and burn and be nasty. No need to ask me for specifics on that, it was a long time ago, and details are fuzzy.

So, heat your milk, cheese and butter/flour, and stir until it becomes sauce. You can control the thickness by adjusting the amount of milk you add. I can’t help more than that, because I just use “some”. And then, if it is too thick, I add “more”. Gotta love cooking with Cass, right?

When the pasta is done, and the sauce is as thick as you like it, mix it all together. I also like to add broccoli to mine, but sometimes the people I live with revolt, and they wish to not eat broccoli in everything. Peasants.

And that brings us to the December Angel Food menu. I do hope you are taking advantage of this woneerful resource. This month, $30 will buy.

1.5 lb. Choice Cut Beef Roast
2 lb. Breaded Chicken Tenders
2 lb. IQF Chicken Breast
1.5 lb. Pork Chops (4 x 6 oz.)
1 lb. 80/20 Lean Beef Patties (4 x 4 oz.)
28 oz. Salisbury Steak Entreé
1 lb. All Meat Hot Dogs
1 lb. Carrots
1 lb. Green Beans
1 lb. Rice
24 oz. Steak-Cut Fries
32 oz. 2% Reduced Fat Shelf Stable Milk
7.5 oz. Mac and Cheese
14 oz. Chicken Broth
7 oz. Corn Muffin Mix
Dozen Eggs
Dessert Item

We will be getting four boxes, and I am pleased to say that I mostly just but staples and breakfast foods at the grocery store any more, along with sale meats which included ribs, ground chuck and boston butt this week.

So, you can expect recipes for:

tacos
homemade bbq
beef roast
fried chicken
hamburger casserole

and who knows what else in the coming days.

posted by Cass on Nov 19

You know, …….. just imagine me sitting here astounded, because I am. I’ve been watching the price of grocery store food go up a few pennies per item for several months now, and wondering and worrying about how I am going to stretch provisions to make sure we don’t have leftover month at the end of the food.

Do you know that there are people who live in gated communities in my area, who are relying on food from charity organizations to eat? This morning, my husband went to pick up commodity foods. The doors opened at 9, he was there at 9:30, and they had already run out of three of the 4 promised meat items. How can this be in the richest country on earth?

I’m listening to news about how Washington is bailing out banks, and getting ready to hand over money to car makers, and the banks are still foreclosing on homes, and the auto makers are still paying their CEOs annual fortunes, and I am beginning to get angry. No, that’s wrong, I am not beginning to get angry, I am angry. Who is going to bail out the American family? My husband and I are both looking for work, I’m scraping every cent I can together to try to get my phone turned back on, and yet……. the government is giving more money to the very people whose piss-poor decisions and greed got us into this fix in the first place. And I am wondering what I can possibly do about it. How can I help you, my reader, make your food dollar go a little further?

I’m left rembering what I said I was going to do a couple of weeks ago: focus on recipes that use items from Angel Food and now, commodity food. And whatever I can find cheap or on a real good sale.

Now, I am begging and borrowing internet right now, and don’t even have my computer. I’ve asked a friend to try to repair the display on it so I can use it away from home. But I am going to figure out a way to cook, take pictures and upload them so you can “see what I am talking about” when I post a recipe.

In the meantime, I am at the library and the machine here doesn’t take sd cards. In fact, it still takes the little floppies. I haven’t seen a floppy drive in a very long time. There isn’t even a usb port. Really. Which brings me to another question– can we get the government to supply updated computers to local libraries?

Ok, back to the food! Next time I post, I’ll tell you how to make something that involves turkey ham.

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posted by Cass on Nov 5

Today, let’s talk about milk and pancakes. Sounds yummy, right? Now, I quit buying milk a couple of years ago, when Drama developed a sudden and alarming allergy to it. If you’ve never had the privilege of watching your calm, placid 2 year old break out in hives and then start banging her head against the wall in agony, let me tell you, you haven’t missed anything desirable. It’s horrible. Anyway, back to the milk. DaBaby loves it and I bought it for her after she was weaned until she turned two and then switched to dried milk, and only for cooking.

Lately Drama has had a few incident free encounters with milk some without breaking out, but I still wasn’t buying whole liquid milk because of the cost. After all, it’s 4 bucks a gallon! That’s outrageous— Except that I allow a budget of $4 a pound for cheese and such. A pound of cheese is 16 servings, and that breaks down to a quarter per serving. There are also 16 servings in a gallon of milk, so the cost per serving would be exactly the same. And the kids like it! And as Ranee points out in her post on frugality, buying milk may help reduce my food budget in other areas. (By the way, spend a few minutes checking out Arabian Knits. Lots of tasty recipes, a bit of knitting and almost as many cute kids as I have.)

So that’s the milk. Let’s move on to the pancakes! Here’s the recipe:

1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. rolled oats (oatmeal)
1 tbsp. oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

The original calls for brown sugar, but I like to use white, because I have a hard time gettiing the brown sugar to un-lump and mix in after it sits a bit. And sit it does. Here’s why: I make up several batches at once. My family eats a double recipe of this, so I put

1 cup flour
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
and 1/2 tsp salt

in each of 3 or 4 containers. Then when we want pancakes, I soak the oats, then add the contents of the packet, the eggs and the oil. Mix, cook, enjoy with jelly or syrup or honey. You know, I bet these would be awesome with milk

posted by Cass on Oct 21

I got a great deal tonight, and I want to share the goodness with you. The fact that I will get an egift card when people participate has very little with my pleasure in sharing my good fortune. Ok, maybe a little bit, but only a little, I promise.

First, go here. Set up an account. You don’t have to love the gecko, or even give him money, you just need the account. After you register, you will eventually get an email. It will have a link to a $25 gift certificate to Omaha Steaks. Go pick up that number, but be aware it can take up to several hours for the email to arrive.

Once you have that number, go to Omaha Steaks and enter your email address. In turn, they will give you 12 free burgers with any order. Click “Redeem here” under the picture of the burgers on that same page, and start shopping. I ordered 12 more four ounce burgers for 14.99. Then I applied my $25 gift certificate, and paid a whopping $3.98 by paypal, (shipping is crazy high, so use that gift certificate to cover it) and I will have 24 hamburgers on my door step next Wednesday.

Let me do the math real quick….. 24 burgers, $3.98, that’s less than 17 cents each, roughly four and a quarter cents per ounce. Go get yours before they wake up!

posted by Cass on Oct 6

Boy, am I glad this week for a full pantry and freezer. Times are tough all over, and we didn’t have much money for restocking this week. That’s not a huge issue, because I’ve been shopping the good deals, and also, there is still a lot of food left from Angel Food. A little milk and oatmeal, and I can eek us out for another week, and we can eat well without taking out a personal loan for food.

Learning to shop frugally is an ongoing adventure for me. Right now, we are spending between five and six hundred dollars a month. 6 months ago, we were regularly spending between eight and nine hundred. I’ve shaved the equivalent of a auto loan payment off our grocery choices, just by making better decisions in the store. We are eating healthier and we are eating a better variety, and we are doing it for less. I’m really happy with that, and I haven’t even started using coupons yet! I said yet, because I do plan to start using them as soon as I make myself sit down for a few minutes and figure out how to start getting my hands on the Sunday paper for less than 2 bucks a week.

You may notice some repeats on this weeks menu. There were several nights last week where we had something off the “official” menu. Both of my older girls like to cook, and so if they have something they want to make, I let them do so, as long as we have the ingredients. This week’s menu is a little more rigid, since we will be using up the tail end of the frozen foods. That’s ok, because I will be going shopping this coming weekend. I don’t know exactly when, since we have football all day Saturday, and I have church on Sunday morning and I am singing in a talent show on Sunday night. Anyway, here’s the menu:

~pintos (these are already cooked and the famfam says they are delish. I started them before I left for the day yesterday, just adding a large can of diced tomatoes, about half a cup of dried cilantro and a bit of salt to a pound and a half of pintos, then cooking all day in the crockpot.)

chicken on a can
ribs
chicken and pastry
fried catfish
burritos

Hey, here’s an question for ya. How do you think the recent bailout will affect food prices? I know at first glance it seems like the two are unrelated, but I’ve found that everything effects food prices in one way or another. Is the government’s 700Billion dollar attempt at saving the banks a good thing for the people? Or do you think more families will be needing debt consolidation just to afford the basics? And if they do need it, will they be able to get it with the tighter strictures on lending?

posted by Cass on Oct 1

I told you on Monday to expect a post on Angel Food Ministries soon, and here it is. We used them for the first time this past month, and I am totally impressed. We’ll be using them again, that’s for sure! We bought two boxes and here’s what we got for 60 bucks:

2 pounds of pinto beans
2 bags of pizza poppers
7 pounds of chicken bites
2 pounds of ground turkey
2 pounds of broccoli
2 bags of french fries
2 pork tenderloins
4 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast
2 boxes of mac and cheese
2 boxes of chicken flavored rice mx
2 boxes of oatmeal cookies
2 boxes of shelf-stable milk
3 pounds of steak
8 cheddar-beef brats
2 dozen eggs

There may be more that I am forgetting, but I really don’t think the price can be beat, and the quality is excellent! We had the steak last night, and it was so tender that some of the pieces came apart from their own weight as I was putting it on the grill. I got read to cut mine at the table, and it just shredded apart.

I don’t know how we’ll use all of this, but I definitely see chicken and noodles, chicken and pastry, chicken and dumplings and chicken and rice in our near future, all made with the chicken bites.

And next month? We’re doing it again, and the boxes will include:

1.5 lb. Ribeye Steaks (4 x 6 oz.)
4.5 lb. (Avg) Split Chicken Breast Family Tray Pack
26 oz. Heat and Serve Meatloaf and Brown Gravy
1 lb. Chicken Breast Fajita Strips
1 lb. Boneless Center-Cut Pork Chops (4 x 4 oz.)
1 lb. Fully Cooked Meatballs
1 lb. All Meat Hot Dogs
1 lb. Frozen Sliced Carrots
1 lb. California Blend Vegetables
1 lb. Pasta
28 oz. Marinara Sauce
48 oz. Hawaiian Punch
32 oz. Borden 2% Reduced Fat Shelf Stable Milk
12 ct. Corn Tortillas
One Dozen Eggs
One Dessert Item

We’ll get two boxes again, and we may get one of the “special” boxes as well. If you are trying to stretch your food budget, I seriously recommend Angel Food. As we go through the month, I’ll let you know more about how we used some of the different foods!

P.S. The french fries are also good. We had some with the corndogs I picked up BOGO at Piggly Wiggly on Saturday.

posted by Cass on Sep 18

I just want to let you know that I am indeed back, and glad to be home. I installed a few plug-ins this morning to make our user experiences a bit more friendly. On the outside, it’s mostly comment related: you can now click a button to subscribe to comments for any post, and also clickable smilies. Love me some smilies!

Internally, there are a couple of comment ones, and also Zemanta. I love me some Zemanta almost as much as I love clickable smilies. Which I also have in here. See?

Hahahahahahah.

And yes, next time, I will talk about FOOD.

posted by Cass on Aug 20

Did you know you can buy groceries from Amazon.com? Me either, until the other day I was looking for this picture so I could show some people what I was talking about. But, yes, you can. And the prices are even reasonable. And eligible for free super-saver shipping. Yeah, crazy, huh? You can even subscribe and have your Jello desserts show up automagically every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months. And you get a discount if you do that. The downside is that it’s a bulk buy–you have to get five boxes at a time. I know, it’s a real hardship, isn’t it?

posted by Cass on Aug 14

So, I showed you my menu, right? And yesterday, practice was cancelled, so I got to go to the grocery store. Now, last month, we ate pretty good, and I spent about $700 on groceries. Last night, I spent $400 on what I hope to make last 2 weeks. I wasn’t even able to get all the stuff on my list, for crying out loud! Remember that flood a while back in the midwest? I saw those fields covered in water, and I mentally said “Oh, crap!!” because I knew what was going to happen, and Lo! Behold!! It has come to pass!!! Groceries have increased at least 25%, and when you are feeding this many people, that is a crisis.

And do you understand that I am not talking about luxury food items like ice cream and chocolate chips????? Those prices are about the same, but the flour and sugar and meats and dairy are insanely high.

And have I mentioned that my husband drives for a living? I knew that we weren’t quite keeping up with the Joneses and all, but I’m finding it hard to understand how meeting our basic food, clothing, shelter and transportation needs has put us in a financial crisis. How do you get Debt relief for basic recurring life expenses?

Well, I don’t know what to do about clothing, shelter and transportation, right off hand, but I know what we are going to do about food. I had been making a clear separation between lunch foods (usually cheaper dishes with less meat) and dinner meals (more meat, spendier ingredients), and in order to make that food I bought last night last $400 worth, that has to change. We’ll be eating lunch and dinner meals for dinner, and lunch will be leftovers or a sandwich. And we will be eating the leftovers. All of them. Because we can’t afford not to!

It’s just smart financially to not be wasteful! The first step to financial prudence is to be wise in how you utilize your resources. After all, it’s hard to invest if you spend all you have on necessities. And how do you plan for the future if every bit of your energy is spent trying to make it through the today?

But enough gloom and doom! This means that I get a chance to share some pretty frugal cooking ideas with you. Let’s start next time when I tell you just how far 2 pounds of dry beans can go. You’ll need one pound of chub sausage, and 2 pounds of either pintos or blackeyed peas (or a combination), and a hunk of salt pork. You should be able to purchase that for less that $10, but you’ll also need rice and tortillas. And sausage patties or links. If you can afford them. They aren’t necessary as rice and beans together form a complete protein. However, adding sausage patties, rice and tortillas will only cost you another $10, for a total of $20, and you’ll get several meals from it. If you are feeling really extravagant, or already have rice and tortillas on hand, pick up some cheese and sour cream.

ETA for you yankees:

A “chub” is a roll of sausage. And a good substitute for salt pork is bacon ends.

Thanks, Ang. for pointing out the geo-differences.