Food of Eating +1

Geeky Deals: Cheap Dr. Pepper

2008-11-17T11:10:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know that Dr. Pepper 2-liters are on sale for $.79 each at Walgreen's this week! I managed to get them for much cheaper, since they have Excedrin on sale for 2/$12 (and I printed out 2 $2 off coupons) plus they give you $3 worth of Register Rewards, which can be used like cash on your next Walgreen's purchase.

So, i went and bought the Excedrin last night (I get migraines and needed it anyway) and got the $3 Register Reward. Then, I went today and bought 4 Dr. Pepper 2-liters, which totaled $3.16-$3 in Register Rewards+tax= $.22! I got 8 liters of Dr. Pepper for $.22. How awesome is that?!

Make sure to check your weekly store ads folks, it can definitely save you money!

Equipment Guide: Cellfire

2008-10-30T23:22:00.003-04:00

Hey folks! I found a new way to save money through the Southern Savers site we discusssed yesterday. The product is called Cellfire and it lets you send coupons to your cell phone, which can then be displayed on the screen for the clerk when you check out. Of course, it only works with their partner stores, but since they include Kroger, Gamestop, Sears and a bunch of fast food restaurants, you're certain to get some use out of it. Go to their website here to check it out.

One more thing: you can also load coupons onto your Kroger Plus discount card, if you don't have a cellphone that works with Cellfire. All you have to do is hand over the card like normal, and the coupons work automatically.

Recipe: Mashed Potatoes

2008-10-29T23:05:00.002-04:00

This one's really simple guys, but also really tasty. Mashed potatoes form an important part of several other recipes we'll be covering in the future, so I felt it was important show you how it works now.

Ingredients:

4 or 5 medium potatoes (or more smaller ones or less larger ones)

3 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup of milk or a couple splashes of heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Here's how it works:

1. Wash and peel the potatoes (some people like to leave the peels on, but I don't like the
texture).

2. Cut the taters up into bite sized pieces

3. Dump the chunks into a pot and cover them with water.

4. Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

5. Drain the contents of the pot through a colander (one of those bowl looking things with the
holes) and dump them into a large mixing bowl

6. Using a hand mixer on a slow setting, mix the ingredients until smooth. Try not to over mix, or the potatoes will come out gluey.

You can spice the dish up a bit by adding garlic, cheese, or any number of different ingredients. Experiment a bit. The mashed potatoes are delicious on their own, but they offer a great opportunity for creativity.

Equipment Guide: Southern Savers

2008-10-28T23:15:00.003-04:00

Hey folks! Sorry about the lack of updates recently. Life gets in the way sometimes, but it should be smooth sailing from here on out!

Today's Equipment Guide covers a site a recently discovered called Southern Savers. Every day these good folks post sale items, coupon codes, and deal summaries for a variety of grocery stores. From the name you can probably guess that they focus on southern grocery stores, but one of the main foci (plural of focus!) is Kroger, which is a nationwide company.

Check it out!

Tomorrow: More Recipes!

Equipment Guide: Breadmaker

2008-10-09T16:01:00.002-04:00

Note: Sorry guys, your humble chef has been stricken with the flu for the past several days. I apologize for the interruption in service.

So, you want to make pizza, but are discouraged by the time and effort it takes to make dough? You like hot, warm bread but are far too lazy to go through all the steps yourself? Good news! Man has invented a solution: the bread maker!

Man, I never new how useful one of these bad boys was until i got one for myself. I mean, sure, I liked homemade pizza and all that jazz, but making dough is just so much darned work! Now, with the bread maker, you just throw all the ingredients in the bread pan, hit a few buttons, and you're done!

Personally, I love hot, homemade bread, so that's what I use it for most often, but as I mentioned above, its perfect for homemade pizza dough, calzones, banana bread, rolls, buns or any number of recipes that require you to make dough first. You can even use it to mix dough for chicken pot pies!

Cost: I got my bread maker for about $40. You can probably get one cheaper if you shop around at consignment shops or the Goodwill. Once you have yeast and flour, you can make all kinds of dough and bread for literally pennies!

Iron Rations: Chicken Breast

2008-10-02T10:47:00.004-04:00

Iron Rations is another new segment here on Food of Eating, +1. Iron Rations will feature, quick, easy, lazy-as-hell meal ideas, rather than full recipes

Sometimes, you get home from work, or gaming or the gym (HA!) and you're tired, hungry, and feeling lazy. Obviously, easy recipes have their place (one of them is here!) but sometimes you don't feel like dealing with measurements, multiple steps, or tons of dishes to clean later on.

One solution, my friends, is the world's greatest convenience food: frozen chicken breasts

These bad boys have literally hundreds of uses, but one of my favorite lazy meal tricks involves them and yesterday's topic, the George Foreman Grill.

Here's the deal:

1. Come home, pull out one of the chicken breasts. Pop it in the microwave for a few minutes on the defrost setting.

2. While the meat is thawing, plug in your George Foreman and let it heat up.

3. Once the meat is thawed, plop it down on the George Foreman for approximately 5 minutes. Cut into the breast. If there's any pink left in the center, leave it on the grill for another minute or so, then check again.

4. Once the pink is gone, remove it from the grill, add it to a plate with some canned or frozen veggies, sprinkle on some seasoning (I like Seasoned Salt or Lemon Pepper Seasoning) and enjoy!

See? That took a total of about 10 minutes, and the only dishes you dirtied were the grill and a few utensils. This is one of my favorite quick dinner options, because its tasty, easy, and actually pretty good for you.

Cost: A bag of store brand frozen chicken like the one in the image is about $7, and you get approximately 10 breasts to a bag. That means your meal set you back about $.70, plus whatever veggies or salad you had on the side.

NOTE: Do NOT leave any pink in the middle of your chicken. Pink in a steak is good, pink in a chicken breast is a recipe for a failed fortitude save and a visit from the Salmonella Dragon. Also, wash your hands after each time you touch the raw chicken. See above.

Equipment Guide: George Foreman Grill

2008-10-01T22:38:00.002-04:00

If you're a bachelor of any sort, odds are you probably live in an apartment. One major problem with apartments (cooking wise) is that in most areas it is illegal to use a gas or charcoal grill on the premises.

The solution?

This bad boy:

The George Foreman Grill is a life saver to bachelor's everywhere. Since you can't use a real grill, this will help fill the void.

Burgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts, even whole steaks can be cooked on one of these grills, inside, and perfectly legally. The inside part is especially handy for the geeky among us, who are known to burst into the flame upon contact with bright sunlight.

Clean up is pretty easy too. Since all the cooking surfaces are non stick, you just use the little plastic doohickey in the box to scrape the surfaces clean, wipe down with whatever kitchen cleanser you have laying around.

The George Foreman has one final advantage, especially important in these uncertain financial times: its cheap. You can get a grill big enough to cook a small steak or a couple burger at once for about $20 bucks.

One warning: The Teflon on the cooking surfaces eventually wear out. I had to replace my grill after about 2 years, but at $20 a pop, that's not terribly taxing.

Recipe: Red Beans and Rice Soup

2008-09-30T19:47:00.005-04:00

Hey guys, back again.

Here's a really simple recipe that requires mostly off-the-shelf ingredients.

Red Beans and Rice Soup

Ingredients:

1 small onion, chopped
1 box Zataran's Red Beans and Rice (low sodium, if you can get it)
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
Creole seasoning
1 package smoked or hot sausage (the kind in one long, curvy link) chopped into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon oil (olive, vegetable, whatever you have laying around)
4 cups water

Directions:

1. Drop the oil into a medium sized pot, then add the onions and cook over medium heat until they soften
2. Add sausage, continuing to cook on medium for about 5 min
3. Sprinkle on Creole seasoning. I like to add enough for a light layer over the sausage, but you can add as much as you like. Just keep in mind that most creole seasoning is mostly salt.
4. Add tomatoes, water, and Zataran's.
5. Bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, so that its just bubbling
6. Put on the lid, and let the soup cook for approx. 30 minutes. Make sure to stir every now and then.
7. Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. You'll burn your mouth if you try to eat it any sooner.

And that's it. Now you have a thick, hearty, tasty soup. This is especially good on a cold or rainy day. This recipe keeps really well, so if you want to save effort, make a double batch and freeze what you don't eat!

Cost: $3-$4 for creole seasoning (which you can use to make this recipe a couple dozen times) $1.50-$2.00 for the sausage (try to find it on sale) approx. $.50 for the onion, $.60 for the tomatoes, and $2.00 for the Zataran's. That's about $9.00 initially, for about 3 or 4 meals. After that it gets even cheaper, about $5, since you'll already have the seasoning.

EDIT TO ADD: The sausage I mentioned above looks like this:

Action Plan: Leftovers

2008-09-29T18:00:00.004-04:00

So, you're lazy. Its okay, I am too. Cooking takes time, and effort, and ordering out is easy. Expensive, but easy.

One way to reduce the amount of time and effort one spends cooking is leftovers. Now, I know, most of us spent our childhood dreading leftovers and everything they stand for, but hear me out.

Leftovers can turn the effort you spend cooking one meal into three or four meals over the course of several days.

Here's what you do: See that recipe you're interested in? Double it, or make it twice if that seems more reasonable. Then, take whatever's left over after you've finished eating and divide it up amongst several microwave safe containers. I like to use Glad-Ware or the store brand equivalent because its freezer, microwave, and dishwasher safe, yet cheap enough that losing one isn't the end of the world.

Now, if you plan to eat everything in the next couple days, stick everything in the fridge. If your plans are more long term, use your freezer instead. Then, next time you need a meal, just pop the container in the microwave, heat it up, and enjoy!

Leftovers tend to get a bad rap these day, but some foods like soups, chili and stews can actually taste better after a couple days in the fridge, as the flavors have time to blend together.

A few words of caution, now that I've lauded leftovers from here to Star City. Some foods, like pastas, rice, and other starches do not keep well, either in the fridge or the freezer, so be careful. However, if you make spaghetti (the topic of a future post) just make sure to only make as much pasta as you need and mix the sauce and pasta together as needed. Then you can refrigerate or freeze the sauce to use later with fresh pasta.

So, cook once, food for a couple days. Pretty good deal, eh?

Equipment Guide: Supercook.com

2008-09-26T14:05:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! Welcome to the first installment of "Equipment Guide" where I'll be talking about appliances and resources that have made feeding myself easier.

I found Supercook.com through another blog I read called The Simple Dollar. Trent, the blogger over there, recommended it as a way to save money. However, I use it as a way to be lazy!

Here's how it works:

First, you tell Supercook all the ingredients you have in the house. Then, it searches online recipe databases for recipes that you can make using only what you have at home. It will also make suggestions if you only need 1 or 2 more ingredients. For instance, if you were trying to make yesterday's salmon recipe and you put in salmon, olive oil, parsley, and basil, it would tell you that all you needed to buy was lemon juice to finish the recipe (Supercook assumes you have salt, pepper, water, and sugar laying around).

Since the program eliminated all recipes that you lack ingredients for, you're guaranteed to be able to cook dinner without going to the grocery store. In fact, sometimes I use the suggestions as a shopping list, knowing that I only need to buy corn starch or Italian dressing to cook dinner, rather than buying a whole new meal.

Cost: Free!

Recipe: Baked Salmon

2008-09-25T20:18:00.004-04:00

Hey guys! Here's the first recipe here at FoE+1, and its actually what I had for dinner tonight!

If you have a Kroger grocery store near you, they will, on occasion, drastically mark down their seafood when the expiration date approaches. I try to check every time I'm there just in case this happens. Since salmon is normally pretty expensive, whenever I find it on sale like this I'll buy at least 2 or 3 fillets. Since they average around 2 lbs. each at $1.99 a pound or so, you can get some real value out of your purchase if you make use of your freezer when you get home.

After you get back from the store, cut the fillets in half, wrap each half in aluminum foil, put it in a plastic freezer bag, and then stick it in the freezer until you need it.

Since this recipe calls for two 6 ounce pieces of salmon, all you need to do to make it is defrost one of your fillet halves in the microwave (take the foil off first!) or the fridge, cut it in two and voila, you're most of the way there!

Here's the recipe:

Two 6 ounce pieces of salmon fillet (bought on sale!)
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 tbls lemon juice (from the bottle is fine, but if you've got a lemon laying around, go ahead and use it)
1/2-1 teaspoon salt (omit if you're trying to cut back)
1 teaspoon pepper (fresh ground if you've got it, but from the shaker is fine)
1 teaspoon dried parsley (1 tbls fresh, if you've got it)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon minced garlic (I use pre-minced, but that's 2 cloves if you want to do it yourself)

1. Combine all the ingredients except the salmon in a bowl and stir
2. Place salmon in an oven safe dish (I use Pyrex), then cover with mixture
3. Marinate in the fridge for one hour (less, if you're in a hurry) and flip it over every now and then.
4. Get about 12-18 inches of aluminum foil and fold up the sides, forming a kind of trench. Place the fillets in the center of the foil, pour the marinade over it, and then fold the foil into a packet.
5. Place the packet into the baking dish, pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees, then bake for about 40 minutes.

When you pull the dish out of the oven, use tongs or a fork to open the packet and let it cool for a few minutes. You'll have a pair of tender, flavorful salmon fillets ready to eat! Heat up some frozen or canned veggies (I like corn), toss up a salad if you like your roughage, and you have a meal!

You can serve two with this dish, or if you're single, you can save the other fillet for lunch the next day. Sometimes I'll just reheat the fillet and the veggies, but other times I'll pull the fillet apart and use it to make salmon salad for sandwiches.

Salmon salad is easy if you've ever made a tuna sandwich. Just substitute the chopped up fillet for the can of tuna, add mayo, relish, and a little salt and pepper, toast some bread, and you've got lunch!

Cost: approx $1.50 to $2.00 per meal ($2 worth of fish, a few cents worth of oil and herbs, plus whatever you serve it with)

This recipe does take some time to prepare, but most of that is spent waiting for the marinade, which leaves plenty of time to read comics or watch Babylon 5 :)

Note: I found this recipe here, using a tool called SuperCook, which is coincidentally tomorrow's topic!

Food of Eating +1, intro

2008-09-25T11:31:00.001-04:00

Greetings! I'm your host, Adama. I enjoy games of all sorts (be they board, war, computer or otherwise), comic books, and being generally geeky. I also enjoy eating. A lot. If you met me, you could probably tell. I'm also a bit lazy and very conscious of the rising cost of food.

So, taking all that in, I've decided to create this new blog to help geeks, bachelors, and the generally lazy feed themselves on a budget, and without much fuss. I've been cooking for a myself since high school (not always with great results) and so far I've managed to give myself food poisoning only once, and have had zero heart attacks. So I think I'm doing pretty good.

I'll be using this blog to post recipes, chronicle my successes and failures in the kitchen, and dispense what small advice I have on food and appliance shopping. Also, if there's a huge sale or food related development, I might get off my butt and do a little typing about it!

I plan to update on a fairly regular schedule, but those of you who've read my other blog, Dispatches from the Arrowcave, know that I'm not always on top of that. The good news is that while I don't read Green Arrow comics everyday (if only) I do tend to eat at least once, so I won't have to stretch for new material!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!