Healthy Cheap Food

Yesterday we went to the store. My husband does a lot of writing and sometimes needs to do some research on the topics he writes about. It’s not usual for him to buy research material at the store from time to time.

I was a little shocked yesterday. He has writing job about candy. He came up to me in the store with a bunch of candy bars and I tried to remind him about his diet. All he did was smile and put them in the cart. He looked at me and said, research! How can you argue with that? Sometimes he reminds me of a little kid.

I find it sad how many people are talking on the news about the world food crisis. Some of the crisis can be blamed on biofuels or bad weather, but that doesn’t apply to rice. There is simply not enough land to grow enough rice to feed people.

That’s where rice substitutes come in. If people could reduce their rice consumption by eating alternatives, then there would be a bigger supply of rice available on the market. Unfortunately, try telling millions of people that they need to change the only staple food they now. Imagine telling people that they need a little variety in their diet when the word food and rice are the same.

My boys just love to eat Mac and Cheese. It’s a cheap food to make up generally, but just the other day I found a way to make up Mac and Cheese more cheaply.

We buy elbow macaroni in bulk. It’s cheap, it stores well and it’s very versatile. I make up my cheap mac and cheese by making up the macaroni noodles and then frying up some beef. I mix the two together and put them in a bowl. At this stage, I add cheese sauce. You can use cheese whiz or whatever. The cheese goes far so the cheese portion of the recipe is in fact the cheapest.

All you need to do is serve it up. Tasty and yummy.

It seems like every time I go to the stores, prices have gone up! It seems like there is no end in sight. I think the politicians are lying about this 4% inflation thing. I know prices have gone up a lot more than that and it is really starting to affect our budget.

In order to fight the high price of food, we are doing a lot more cooking inside. We have really done a lot of eating outside the home, but now we are really focusing on doing as much cooking at home as we can. It seems like we just continually are tightening our belts.

Maybe it’s time I really get down to opening up a real business of my own to augment our income. I am serious.

I was doing some reading on Tomato Juice the other day. It turns out that has a lot less calories than many other types of juice. In fact, it packs a very good vitamin wallop.

I started drinking tomato juice on a thrice weekly basis a few years ago. I really think that drinking tomato juice has really improved my health,though I didn’t think so at the time. It just took me a bit of time to get adjusted to the taste of tomato juice, never mind that I have been eating things with tomato sauce for most of my life.

I learned a lot about making great BBQ when I was teaching in Thailand. I really think that Thai BBQ is the best BBQ and nothing really compares to it. I am surprised that Thai food restaurants here in the states haven’t picked up on it and started offering it.

American BBQ is ok, but the recipe I learned for BBQ pork is awesome. It’s a secret recipe, but I can say that it includes lemon grass, soy sauce and sugar, among other ingredients. I marinate the pork overnight so that the meat really takes in the flavor of the marinade.

We cook it by grilling the pork on skewer sticks over a charcoal grill. It sure does taste good. Maybe I should open a BBQ Pork stand?

We normally do not go out to eat very often. It’s an expensive luxury that seems rather wasteful. I much prefer cooking at home where I can better control the quality of food that my family eats, but we like to splurge from time to time.

This splurge meant going out for pizza. It’s been awhile since the last time we went out to buy pizza, but it’s always a family favorite. We ordered a family sized pizza as always. When the pizza arrived at the table, I was a bit shocked. It seems like I remember the family sized pizza being a lot bigger.

I don’t know if it was a joke or an attempt at cost cutting. I know I’d prefer seeing a slight increase in prices while keeping the sizes the same. All of us went home a bit hungry and I ended up having to make up sandwiches anyways. What a loss.

The other day, my husband decided to take me and our son out to eat at a local Thai food restaurant. We hadn’t gone out to eat Thai food in a long time and I was craving it. After spending time in Thailand, I got to where I really liked to eat many different types of Thai food. I had so much anticipation going out to eat Thai food here in the states.

When I ordered the Som Tum, I was very disappointed. It was made American style, not Thai style. It just wasn’t the som tum, it was many other dishes. It seemed to be like the recipes were changed to what they thought the American public wanted to eat and maybe they are right. Me, I like Thai food and I was disappointed.

One of my favorite economical meals, which is also a comfort food, is a home made chicken (or turkey) and noodle dish. The ingredients used in the recipe are basic and are usually contained in most home pantries.

When I roast a turkey I always boil the bones (carcass). After boiling the bones, skin or whatever from carving, I strain the broth through a strainer and then either refrigerate or freeze the broth for use at a later time.

The noodles are quite simple to make. First have your broth and chicken heated in a good size pan or Dutch oven pan. The ingredients called for are eggs, flour, salt and water. I put 3 eggs in a medium sized bowl; whip the eggs to blend well. Then I add about I cup of water and blend well again.

At this point add enough flour/salt to the egg mixture to make a very stiff dough. Flour a pastry cloth or dish towel very well (this process can take flour) and using a rolling pin, take a small ball (about fist size) and flatten out very thin with a rolling pin. Sprinkle flour on the rolled dough, roll up into a roll. Use a knife to then slice off ½ inch slices from the roll. Unroll the slices and immediately put into boiling broth. Continue this process for the entire dough.

Stir the noodles in the broth after placing each into broth. Boil the broth and noodles for about 20 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper to taste. Very good served over mashed potatoes. Canned broth and chicken can also be used.

This tastes great! Try it and let me know how you like it!

I know that in times past, people have started victory gardens in order to save money on their monthly food bill. The term victory garden comes from World War II. People were encouraged to save money and save food by growing their own food. This meant that more food could be devoted to the war effort and inflation could be kept in check.

Victory gardens were a big success and have been used many times since. That’s why I think it’s a good idea to use them now. With inflation accelerating and pushing food prices higher, I think it’s better to grow your own food if you have the space. Why pay the supermarket such high prices when you can grow them yourself?

You can grow a garden if you have a large yard, but you also grow a container garden if you just have a patio. Just plant some tomatoes, pole beans and some herbs in some cut out milk jugs and you are set. You can be taking care of a portion of your family’s food budget.