Frugal Mania

The scent of fresh bread always reminds me of my grandmother’s kitchen and Sunday afternoon meals after church.  That undeniable scent holds the memories of some of the happiest times in my life so it is no surprise that I am a huge bread freak and I will eat it in just about any form you can imagine. 
This recipe yields some of the most delectable garlic cheese biscuits I’ve ever had, and the best part is that they are inexpensive and simple to make.

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Today’s frugal recipe comes to you courtesy of a very sweet lady at a local farmer’s market I visited over the weekend.  It sounds so delicious that I can’t wait to make it myself!

Cornbread is such a localized food.  It is made differently in different parts of world – and even different parts of the country.  Even here in the Southern United States, every household has their own way of making the delicious stuff.  Cornbread is an excellent frugal food idea because it is deceptively simple to make and costs very little.  The big plus is that almost everyone loves it!

Mexican cornbread is something I didn’t really even hear about until a few years ago when a co worker emailed me her mother’s recipe and it sounded so delicious that I made it with dinner that very night.  I’ve been addicted ever since!

Mexican Cornbread

• 3/4 cup self-rising cornmeal
• 1/2 cup corn (fresh is best if you have it)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers or (3 tablespoons of jarred jalapenos)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten slightly
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar (I rarely add it at all)
• 1/3 cup milk (I use nonfat powdered milk)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1.  Oil a heavy baking pan (or a cast iron skillet, preferably) and place it in the oven while it preheats to 425 degrees.

2.  Mix all ingredients until just blended.  DO NOT over mix!

3.  Carefully remove the pan from the oven (the oil should sizzle) and pour the mixture in.

4.  Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until the top of the cornbread has reached a rich, golden brown color.

Salads are a weekly occurrence in my house, both because I need to cut my fat intake and because I truly love them.  That familiarity can bring with it a sense of boredom from time to time, so I make at least a hundred different dishes that fall under the category of salad.  The recipe that follows is my latest creation and it has taken the lead in the constant race for my favorite, largely because it is so simple.

What follows is my basic recipe, which changes on a regular basis based entirely on what fresh produce I have available to me at any given time:

INGREDIENTS

• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• green leaf lettuce
• tomatoes
• red onion (which is actually purple)
• carrots
• celery
• radishes
• salt and pepper

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS

• sunflower seeds
• sliced hard boiled egg
• canned tuna

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash and break lettuce into bite sized pieces in individual salad bowls.
2. Into a small sealable container, cut tomatoes, red onion, carrots, celery and radishes into whatever size is best for you.  I cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch chunks, slice the onion quite thin, slice the carrots, celery and radishes.
3. Drizzle vegetables with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Cover container and shake lightly to coat.  Allow mixture to stand for at least 15 minutes to marinate.
4. Drizzle lettuce greens with olive oil.
5. Spoon vegetable mixture atop the lettuce and add any optional ingredients you might want at this time.
6. Serve!

This is truly delicious, in fact I made it for a late night dinner last night and it is quite satisfying without anything that is bad for you at such a late hour.  The preparation time is minimal and the result is delicious!

I’m toying with some regular features for Frugal Mania and Mondays are going to be known from now on (I think) as “Frugal Menu Monday”.

My plan is to make sure that at least once every week I include information and instructions that will allow you to create at least four new complete frugal meals each month.

For the record, the only reason I chose Monday is because ‘Menu Monday’ sounded better than ‘Menu Wednesday’.

For this week’s meal, we are going to do a simple breakfast food from scratch.  It is far better for you and will save you tons of money too! 

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My name is Michael and I am a frugal snacker.

I actually have quite a sweet tooth but I am just not comfortable spending tons of money on frugal snacks, so I have to do what I can to save where I can because sometimes I just get that hankering that I can’t avoid. It is at those times that I am thankful for learning some sneaky frugal snack tricks.

There’s no better sweet to me than a gummi bear, but they can be expensive. Please don’t tell me that Wal-mart sells a big back for a dollar - just don’t. Yuck!

How about making your own? It sounds much more complicated than it is and they are truly wonderful! Here’s the best recipe I have found for making your own homemade frugal gummi bear snacks:

INGREDIENTS
1 small packet of Jello (or the generic equivalent)
7 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup of cold water

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Before you put it on the stove, mix all of the ingredients in a pan thoroughly.
2. Heat the dough-like mixture over low heat until completely melted.
3. Carefully pour the melted mixture into small candy molds and put it in the freezer for a few minutes, until you can easily remove the candy from the molds.
4. Pop them out and store them in zipper baggies - that is if you don’t eat them all!

For variation more similar to commercial varieties, make two or three different flavors and mix them together in the baggies. You can also spritz the formed gummis with water and sprinkle with ascorbic acid for sour gummi flavors!

Paula Dean stands for everything that I am against.

She cooks everything with a pound of butter (which at least is better than margarine), adds everything but the kitchen sink to everything she makes, and I see her face on everything from toasters that make incredible breakfast egg sandwiches to thick cut peppered bacon taunting me from the meat aisles of the local Sam’s Club.

She infuriates me but the fact is that I love her. Adore her, in fact.

I am making it my personal mission to take her recipes apart and turn them into plates full of deliciousness that have all the taste with less fat and for less money. That will make me the anti-Paula I guess, but there’s no denying that she is the Queen of Food Network and I am but a lowly princess relegated to reigning over my own kitchen and sharing the occasional triumph with my lovely readers here on Frugal Mania.

The first on my list for reconstruction is a recipe that my new roommate told me about after he returned home from being out of town for a few months. Now I should tell you that this roomie won’t eat anything that isn’t a hot dog, fast food burger or candy. Or Absolut, but that’s a story for another blog.

The recipe in question is for Paula’s Deep Fried Mac and Cheese and even I have to admit that it sounds pretty darned delish. I will work my frugal kitchen magic and report my findings back here soon!

This should prove to be really interesting. I just wish I had a video camera in the kitchen so you could see how comical my trial and error efforts can be.

It is time for Michael’s Frugal Penne Carbonara!

Carbonara is an absolutely delicious pasta dish that is usually made with a pork cheek that has been salted and cured (it is called guanciale which sounds much better than ‘pork cheek’). My version uses good ol’ bacon and I have to admit that it is pretty darned good regardless of how many little Italian (pronounced ‘eye-talian’ here in the south) women are going to be up in arms over it.

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My name is Michael Nolan, and I’m a breadaholic.

There, I said it. It’s been four days since my last real homemade bread experience – a banana nut bread that made me want to cry it was so good – and I have been a slacker ever since.

Okay, when I went to the store a couple of days back I saw a beautiful ciabatta bread at the bakery and yes, I bought it, despite my frugal nature. I haven’t even touched it. (more…)

I am a picky eater – there is no denying that. Add to that the fact that I make every effort to save money on my food and you run into a problem when it comes to creating a recipe.

There is nothing more satisfying than a good bowl of potato soup, and while there are thousands of ways to make it, many of them can be quite expensive. I started working on my own recipe a few years back and finally came up with the right mix of frugality and flavor.

Without further ado, let’s get cookin’!

INGREDIENTS
• 8 – 10 medium potatoes
• 2 cans (or one large can) cream of chicken soup
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 1 packet Ranch dressing mix
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Peel and slice the potatoes about ¼” thick.
2. Place potatoes and ranch dressing mix in a large pot and cover with water.
3. Bring pot to a boil and allow to boil until tender. Reduce heat to low.
4. In a bowl, mix chicken soup with ½ cup of milk and add to the pot.
5. In the same bowl, mix the sour cream and the remaining cup of milk and add to the pot.
6. Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
MICHAEL’S NOTES
Don’t bother spending the money on name brand soup or ranch dressing mix. Any time you are adding ingredients to a pot of soup or a stew, you are wasting your money if you don’t go with the store brand.

As for the sour cream, give the homemade sour cream recipe mentioned in this post a try.

There is a popular misconception these days that plants exist for the sole purpose of being pretty. Houseplants are great (as long as you remember to water them), but they do not have to be just something to look at.

An herb garden in your kitchen is not only attractive; it is also cheap and extremely cost effective. If you doubt this fact for even a moment, take a quick look at how expensive fresh herbs are the next time you go grocery shopping. I can’t understand why anyone would pay two or three bucks for a tiny packet of fresh herbs when they could grow their own for about the same cost.

I bought a rosemary plant at a clearance sale and dropped it into the ground outside my mother’s house. That was three years and countless recipes ago and still the plant is nearly three feet tall and just as fragrant and beautiful as ever.

So, you don’t want to deal with the headaches of having a full-fledged garden. You can grow delicious cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket on your front porch. Not only will it look great, it will add a home grown flavor to your favorite salad.

The fact is that there are tons of hybridized vegetable plants these days that are made specifically for growing in containers. Why not have a few plants on your porch that actually earn their keep for a change?
Don’t hand me the tired old excuse that you don’t have a green thumb. The only difference between someone with a green thumb and someone without one is that one of the two have taken the time to educate themselves.

Search engines are easy to use, and information for neophyte gardeners is plentiful on the ‘net.

No excuses, get out there and grow something!

The single best money saving (and thus frugal) tip I know is one that I grew up with. I always saw it as common sense and only came to understand it as frugal in recent years when I discovered that not everyone lived this way.

The trick starts with meal planning, but it goes deeper than just making a list of meals for the upcoming week and shopping accordingly. It involves selecting meals that can be prepared ahead of time and frozen. When I make lasagna, for example, I always make two and one goes straight to the freezer.

If you start planning meals that way, you will find that you can prepare higher quality meals that generally cost more to make and involve a lot more prep time, without wasting your precious time or money.

Here are my favorite make-ahead meals, all four of which can be easily prepared on a tight budget:

• Spaghetti
• Chili
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Vegetable Soup

In addition to complete entrees that can be prepared ahead of time, there are several other time saving methods I use in the kitchen that I find indispensable:

• Brown hamburger meat with chopped onions and peppers and freeze them in 1-pound portions. The next time I want to make chili or spaghetti I take it out, thaw and add it right to my sauce on the stove.
• When I bake poultry, I shred the leftovers and freeze them in containers. They hold up well and are quick to thaw for a barbeque chicken sandwich, chicken salad, or great tacos or burritos.
• Make a big batch of pancakes and/or waffles (the recipe is basically the same) and freeze them. They will thaw in a flash in the microwave (pancakes) or toaster (waffles), ready for a quick and hearty breakfast anytime.

If you would like my recipes for anything mentioned here, please just ask. I’d be more than happy to share them (and actually plan to do so over time). You can always check out the Frugal Mania Recipe Archive page for other great meal ideas on a budget.

Vinegar has been around for centuries and although relegated to the confines of the kitchen in today’s society it has enjoyed a great number of uses of which there are many you may never have heard of.

In that vein, I would like to share my top 10 uses for vinegar you never knew:

1. Wiping down your walls with a strong vinegar solution will eliminate mildew and the collection of dust.

2. A solution of vinegar and water in a spray bottle will make a strong and impressive window cleaner, just without the cost and artificial coloring. If you replace the paper towels with old newspaper, your windows will be streak free.

3. Soaking fish in vinegar before cooking will make them more tender and flavorful.

4. Soaking tough raw cuts of meat in vinegar will make the meat more tender.

5. Vinegar applied to the skin can relieve dry, cracked and chapped areas quickly.

6. Rubbing vinegar into your pet’s fur will remove the odors left over from a chance encounter with a skunk.

7. Adding vinegar to your laundry’s rinse cycle will eliminate any residual soap and brighten your whites.

8. Cold vinegar will take the sting out of sunburn and can also prevent incidental burns from blistering.

9. Make your own sour cream by blending together 1 cup of cottage cheese with ¼ cup of milk and a teaspoon of vinegar.

10. Keep cheese fresher longer by storing it wrapped in a cloth soaked in vinegar (keep it in a sealed container, of course).

The word organic seems to conjure mental images of high dollar produce at your nearest Whole Foods market, but in reality organic food truly is the best for you.

Now I need to add to that statement by saying that in order to be truly organic, food that is grown should be grown without the use of any chemical-based (or otherwise artificial) pesticides, fertilizers or other such additives. These foods are grown using completely natural methods - in other words, letting Mother Nature do what she does best and trusting that the resulting produce will be tastier, healthier and well worth the effort.

It can definitely be costly to buy organic. Yeah, I realize that you are nominating me for the Understatement of the Year award at this point, but it had to be said. Still, it is entirely possible to eat a healthier organic diet and still be frugal. In fact, you can do so for around seven bucks a day and you don’t even have to take my word for it - an article at MSN Health & Fitness not only tells you so, they detail how it can be done! This is the first time I have been so absolutely impressed with an article of this type in the mainstream media, and it is handled clearly and realistically.

To be fair, writer Lynn Welsh did write an article for a local Madison, WI newspaper a couple of years ago that also included some excellent tips on this subject, but the former is far more detailed.

Accept the fact that if you want to accomplish this lofty goal you are going to have to make some definite dietary changes. Less meat, poultry and seafood, more beans and rice and other vitamin-rich items.

Reading this article has given me the desire to start working on a new project that I think will be incredibly helpful to fans of Frugal Mania. It is going to be a lot of work on my part but there will be little doubt that it will bring about the opportunity for more people to live a healthier, more frugal lifestyle without resorting to random hit-and-miss frugal living tactics.

I’ve already said more than I should have about it at this point, so you’re just going to have to wait to find out what I’m talking about!

Tuna salad is a perennial favorite for many families.
It can also be simple and inexpensive to make and enjoy. Here is my own personal recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can, chunk light tuna in water
• 2 Tablespoons, mayonnaise
• 1 Tablespoon, yellow mustard
• 1 hard boiled egg, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons, onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons of sweet relish
• salt & pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Drain tuna and add to a small bowl.
2. Add chopped egg, onion and relish and mix well.
3. Add mayo and mustard and stir well to mix thoroughly.

SERVING OPTIONS

• Tuna Salad Sandwiches: There’s nothing better than two slices of wheat bread, some fresh sliced tomato and a good helping of tuna salad.
• Tuna Salad Salad: Take a bowl of your favorite salad greens, toss in some carrots, celery, tomato (or anything else you like), add a touch of homemade dressing (like my simple balsamic vinaigrette) and a scoop of tuna salad. Simple, delicious, healthy and frugal!
• Tuna Melt: Two slices of bread, a slice (or two) of cheese and tuna. Make it in a pan like you would make a grilled cheese and you have a warm and delicious quick meal that is sure to please.

MICHAEL’S NOTES
When I make tuna salad I usually make a double batch so that I have enough for two sandwiches and a salad proper. That means I have prepared three lunches for myself at one time which can be a tremendous time and money saver. Another added benefit is that already having something ready and waiting in the fridge means that I am far less likely to skip a meal (which I do way too often anyway). Skipping meals can lower your energy and your productivity as well as leading to inevitable overeating later.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It isn’t too late to jump on the Coupon Train - click here to find out more!

I can’t think of anything I like better than fresh, homemade chicken salad, and most people seem blissfully unaware that it is one of the simplest and most inexpensive delights in the kitchen. Here therefore, is my own personal basic chicken salad recipe:

Michael’s Chicken Salad
INGREDIENTS
1 cup, chicken, finely chopped
3 Tablespoons, mayonnaise
1 piece, bacon, crumbled (or 1 Tablespoon bacon bits)
2 Tablespoons, celery, diced
2 Tablespoons, purple onion, diced finely
grapes, cranberries, apples or raisins
salt & pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Empty chicken into a small bown.
2. Add celery and onion and mix well.
3. Add mayo and stir thoroughly to mix.
4. Toss in bacon bits, sliced grapes, apple chunks, cranberries or any other similar extras (even strawberries!) and fold in until just blended.

MICHAEL’S NOTES
There are tons of variations for chicken salad. Sometimes I forego the mayo in favor of balsamic vinaigrette. Sometimes I add vegetables and fruit that others might think is just crazy. Blueberries, for instance, are absolutely delicious, as are fresh herbs - whatever is on hand at the time, but usually rosemary, basil and chives. Give it a try and whatever you do, don’t let your ideas be limited by what you see in any recipe (especially one of mine). Recipes should exist only to serve as guides from which you can create your own individual masterpiece!

Another absolutely delectable option is the addition of curry seasoning. That simple alteration, a short stint in the microwave and a bed of rice make for a meal I could eat every day of the week.

For links to all of the frugal recipes posted at Frugal Mania visit the Frugal Mania Recipe Archive.