Thai-style Banana Curry

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:
2T oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced finely
1 red pepper, sliced*
1 small onion, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced*
1 peach, cut into big chuncks*
4 oz creamed coconut (can substitute 1 can coconut milk, lowfat if desired, but reduce other liquid)
3 tsp curry powder
Salt (can eliminate if using stock)
Black pepper
Red pepper flakes
1-1 ½ cups water/vegetable stock
1-2 bananas, sliced

Directions:
1. Saute the garlic in the oil for one minute then add all the vegetables. Stir fry until softened.
2. Add the peach, coconut, and sprinkle with curry powder and seasonings. Mix thoroughly.
3. If using creamed coconut, add the water slowly as the coconut melts into the curry. If using the milk, wait until the dish has cooked a bit, and add the liquid slowly until you reach the desired consistency. It should be creamy and will thicken as you cook it.
4. Cook on low heat for a few minutes then add bananas. Cook for another few minutes.
5. Serve with rice.

TIPS:
*these ingredients can be exchanged. Make your curry with your own favorite veggies/fruits, or whatever you have lying around. Peppers, broccoli, carrots, pineapple, mango would all work lovely.

To add chicken or tofu, just add it in the beginning after the garlic and stir fry for a few minutes before adding the veggies. I added shrimp for a low-cal, high-protien meal.

You can use lowfat coco milk for a lower-fat recipe.

This is a really fast dish to prepare. I just cut the veggies and toss them in as I’m done slicing them. That way the peppers and onions cook a little longer than the zucchini and the fruit.

Portobello Mushroom Pasta

Adeline ate mushrooms and red peppers tonight! She didn't care too much for the mushrooms (which is fine because that leaves more for me), but she LOVED the peppers.

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package bowtie pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 pound chopped portobello mushrooms

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook farfalle pasta until al dente. Drain.

2. Meanwhile, in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat cook the garlic, mushrooms, red bell pepper, and zucchini until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir frequently.

3. Stir in red wine vinegar.

4. Toss cooked pasta with mushroom mixture.

5. Top with grated Parmesan cheese. Serve warm.

Black Bean Lasagna

I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be having lasagna until Charlotte stopped nursing. It was sad, but it was better than a screaming baby. I can alter a lot of recipes and omit the cheese, but removing the cheese from lasagna doesn't leave you with much. As I was preparing my menus for the week, I asked Sean if he had any requests. Black bean lasagna.

I hate saying no to a dinner suggestion because that means I have to think of something else myself. I figured I would give it a shot. It actually turned out to be really good! My old recipe was:

INGREDIENTS
* 9 lasagna noodles
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
* 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 (16 ounce) can refried black beans
* 1 cup canned tomato sauce
* 1 1/2 cups salsa
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
* 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
* 1 cup ricotta cheese
* 1/4 cup sour cream
* 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
* 1/4 cup sliced ripe olives
* 8 sprigs fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Coat a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray, and place over medium heat. Saute onion, red bell pepper, corn and garlic until tender. Stir in black beans, refried beans, tomato sauce, salsa and 1/4 cup cilantro. Cook until heated through and slightly thickened; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine cottage cheese, ricotta, sour cream, shredded Monterey Jack cheese and remaining 1/4 cup chopped cilantro; set aside.
4. Coat a 9x13 inch casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange 3 of the cooked lasagna noodles in the bottom of the dish, cutting to fit if necessary. Spread with 1/3 of the bean mixture, then 1/3 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers twice more.
5. Cover, and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Garnish with sliced black olives and sprigs of cilantro.

I omitted the cheese and added some extra refried black beans and salsa. It was actually really tasty! I think when I can eat dairy again I will cut out some of the cheese to make it slightly lower in calories.

Curried Chickpeas

Tonight's dinner was a hit, at least in my mind. We had Curried Chickpeas. Sean doesn't like cauliflower, so I think I will modify it a bit next time that I make it. I think I'll substitute potatoes and then use pureed cauliflower to keep the veggies (ssshhhh... don't tell Sean!). Why did I like this so much? #1 - it was tasty. #2 - Addie ate all of it! She even picked up the cauliflower and said "trees" and popped it in her mouth. "Trees" is what she calls broccoli and she won't touch it, so I was very surprised that she labeled this as "trees" and still gave it a shot.

I usually make my most labor intensive meal on Sunday nights, that way Sean is here to watch the girls for me. The recipe looks kinda involved (for my style of cooking), so I chose to make it tonight. I really should have saved it for a different night, it wasn't hard to make at all. I used frozen cauliflower rather than fresh to save time chopping. I also left out the ginger because I don't care for it.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed/minced
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 bay leaf
19 oz. can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, chopped
head of cauliflower, chopped and steamed until tender
1/2 cup light coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Saute onion until translucent in oil in a large saute pan.
2. Add garlic, ginger, and tomato and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add water, spices, and bay leaf to the pan and mix well.
4. Add chick peas to pan. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove the bay leaf.
6. Add the cauliflower and light coconut milk and mix thoroughly.
7. Taste the chick peas and add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve over brown rice.

Shopping Day

I've been neglecting this blog recently. These past few days we've been eating a lot of leftovers, so I didn't feel that there was anything really worth posting about. We did go to a birthday party on Saturday; it was a pizza party so that allowed me to stretch out last weeks groceries one more day.

This week our meals will consist of:
Curried Lentil Pot Pies
Black Bean Lasagna
Pear Sandwiches
Hearty Lentil Stew
Portobello Mushroom Pasta
Curried Chickpeas

My total came to $45.98, but it turns out I need to go back to the store to buy some Turmeric (I thought we had some, but I was wrong). I also think we will probably need to go back sometime mid-week to get more fruit. So I'm guessing I'll probably spend another $10. Not too bad. I did have two splurges this week. The first was portobello mushrooms, $4.24, but I figured that we weren't having any meat this week so it was a justified expense. I also bought some goats milk. I heard that some kids with MSPI can tolerate goats milk, so I'm going to give it a try. It was $3.14 for one quart, so it's not something I will get often, but if she can tolerate it then I can start using it in baking. Or maybe I'll make some yogurt, I've been craving yogurt like crazy recently! I'll let you know how it goes!

Dora Vegetables

While strolling through the frozen aisle looking for spinach Addie suddenly got very excited and started saying, "Dora snack! Dora snack!" I looked around and couldn't figure out what she was talking about. I continued my spinach search. "Dora snack! Dora snack right there!!" I followed her finger and sure enough there was Dora plastered on the front of a bag of broccoli. It was $2.50 for the veggies, way more than I normally spend for vegetables, but Addie isn't a big veggie eater (there's a bit of an understatement) so I figured I would give the "Dora snacks" a shot.

Tonight we had salmon and veggies. Dora veggies for Sean and Addie and plain broccoli for me (darn Dora veggies had milk and soy, go figure). Anyway, Addie helped me make dinner and she was very excited to cook the Dora vegetables. She helped me stir and kept saying, "Dora vebbles! Addie cook Dora vebbles! Mmmmm, yummy!!" Finally, dinner was ready. Addie flew to her chair faster than I've ever seen.

"Dora vebbles! Dora vebbles!!" I hardly had time to dish it onto her plate when she shoveled the first bite into her mouth. Oh the face!! She hated it, you could tell. But oh how she wanted to like it. She chewed slowly. Swallowed. "Mmmm, yummy." She was trying to convince herself! Sean and I were trying so hard not to laugh. She kept eating, though, and she seemed to hate it less and less with each bite. When all was said and done she ate about half a cup of veggies which is AMAZING for Adeline. I'm going to have to invest in some Dora stickers. I'm thinking Boots green beans, Swiper carrots, Tico squash...

Cranberry Veggie Rollups

As promised, my fabulous use for leftover Cumin Beans & Rice. I didn't get a good picture of the finished meal, so instead I'll post one of Addie assembling her wrap... she really likes carrots. The ingredients sound a little odd, but this is seriously my favorite meal right now. I make mine without the cheese.

Ingredients:
Leftover cumin rice
Tortillas
Broccoli
Carrots, shredded
Unsalted corn, drained
Shredded cheese (I used Swiss, but I'm sure another type of cheese would work as well)
Whole cranberry sauce

Steam the broccoli until it is tender, but not overcooked. Place a tortilla in the center of a precut square of saran wrap and fill with the rice, broccoli, carrots and corn. Top with a bit of cheese and cranberry sauce (actually, I like to be pretty liberal with my cranberry sauce). Wrap and save in the fridge, freezer, or warm in the microwave right away. 25 seconds for warm ingredients, 45 if cold.

Cumin Beans & Rice

I don't really have anything exciting to say about this recipe. I don't know how I could really cut costs either (except to use dry beans, but that's too much work for me). But stay tuned for tomorrow nights dinner... find out why I always make a double batch of this!

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tb olive oil (I used oil spray)

2 tb cumin powder

1 1/2 cups white rice (you could use brown; increase cooking time)

1 can (~15 oz.) beans- kidney, black, navy, garbanzo, etc

2 tb chopped fresh cilantro

1 3/4 cup vegetable broth

Directions:
Saute onion and garlic in oil (or spray) until translucent. Add the cumin seeds, cook on medium-high heat for one more minute. Add the rice, cook another minute. Add the vegetable broth, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover, and simmer until rice is cooked (about 15 minutes for white rice, 45 minutes for brown). After the rice mixture is cooked, add the beans. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes on low heat. Add the chopped cilantro, and serve!

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes

Dinner tonight

We had pizza tonight. This was my "easy" dinner for the week. I usually try to save my easier dinners for the weekend, but today was crazy and I looked at the clock and it was suddenly 5:00.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Bag of frozen veggies

Cheese

Only half of the pizza has cheese. Surprisingly I don't miss it at all... but I guess when you go two months without pizza anything tastes good. I need to find an easy recipe for pizza dough, that would probably cut the price of this dinner in half.

Shopping

Once a week I do "big" grocery shopping. Today was the day. Our meals for this week will be:

Cumin Beans and Rice
Cranberry Veggie Rollups
Mushroom Barley Soup
Blackened Salmon
Caramelized Onion and Spinach Pasta
Pizza

I usually plan for 5 or 6 meals; the other one or two nights are either takeout or leftovers. Since my goal is to cut our food budget, I'm going to plan for 6 nights and stick with leftovers rather than takeout. I will post recipes later in the week.

My grocery total came to $53.51. I thought it was going to be more. I was hungry when I was shopping, so I got several items that weren't on the list. These included: Swedish Fish, stuff to make rice krispy treats, Goldfish crackers, and a box of crackers w/cheese... $10.36 worth of junk. That's okay, I usually always get some sort of crackers for Addie, the rice krispy stuff will last a long time (I got the giant bag-o-cereal), and the Swedish Fish? well... okay, that was a bad choice.

Some thoughts about my shopping this week:
- I didn't have to buy any meat. We really only eat fish and chicken, and we usually only eat it once or twice a week. I buy a bulk freezer pack that lasts us awhile so I still have a little bit of Salmon and chicken in the freezer. I will need to buy more meat next week, so I'll have to take that into consideration.
- I bought a few bulk items that I won't have to buy for awhile: flour, sugar, eggs. Eggs sure have gotten expensive recently, is it like that everywhere or just here?

*******Last Week*******
I also wanted to throw in a little note about last weeks shopping. I'm not officially counting it since I don't have the receipt anymore, but I just wanted to document it. I spent a little over $60. I went to a more expensive store that I usually don't shop at. I stocked up on fruit, we have enough apples for at least a week and a half. I splurged on expensive apples and some asparagus. But I didn't have to buy meat, so that helped me stay around $60.

Making Bread

Doesn't this look yummy? I have found the perfect bread recipe. It takes practically no time or effort to make!

Pretty much every bread has some sort of soy or dairy in it. The only bread I have found that I can eat is $4.00 a loaf (a small loaf) at Whole Foods. I really like bread so I have been trying my hand at making it myself. I really enjoy making bread - somehow it just tastes better when you have made it yourself. Plus, it makes your house smell really yummy! But I don't like all the time that it involves. Mix the dough, kneed the dough, let it rise, kneed it again, rise some more, then finally bake it. I thought about buying a bread machine, but hear from so many people that they never actually use theirs. Since this whole thing is about saving money I decided against it.

This is my new "everyday bread." I tried to calculate the price per loaf today while I was at the store. A bag of sugar is less than $2, a bag of flour is less than $2. I can probably get at least 10 loaves out of each bag of flour and even more out of a bag of sugar. The yeast is probably the most expensive item at $3 a jar, but I get at least 10 loaves out of each jar. So each loaf of bread is well under $1.

Some changes I made to this recipe --
- I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour to make the bread a little lighter.
- I only cooked it for 30 minutes instead of 45.

What it's all about

Recently I've been thinking about how we can be more healthy. Because of Charlotte's allergies I have had to read labels really carefully. You know what? I don't like what I am reading!

Our food bill has also been rising lately. Mostly this is because I have been shopping at Whole Foods for dairy/soy free products. These products are pretty much all "convenience" foods - bread, spaghetti sauce, cereal, etc. Most of these products I can make from scratch. I found that I can cook a lot of items from scratch and that it really doesn't take that much time or effort. So I thought I would post my journey to a healthier, cheaper kitchen -- both to share this information with you and also so I can keep track of my recipes and spending.