I have had multiple inquiries as to what I cook all week long that ensures we are eating both healthily and frugally.
It is a good question, but because the answer is different every single week, I had to catalogue everything I cooked, and we ate over a week’s time to reflect what we ate before I could answer.
Monday: We normally don’t eat breakfast or at least not very often. My partner was hungry early, so he actually made himself a frozen pizza for lunch, one that we had bought on sale at the local Walmart. I ate a bit later, having made a chopped salad/salsa of sorts the day before from all the produce I had languishing in my vegetable crisper. I like to pull out the veggie chopper out, line up what I have and chop away. The uniformity of the vegetables, once cut, I find satisfying somehow. I put some aside for a stir-fry later in the week and added cucumber to the salad/salsa mix. I even threw in an avocado. After adding a drizzle of olive oil and some lime juice, I scooped up the tasty mix with pita chips.
Dinner turned to be a treat. We don’t go out all that often for dinner, but we were both craving our favorite Thai food, so we hustled ourselves down to the local Thai restaurant where they make Pad Thai about as spicy as it gets. I brought home roughly half of my food for a quick meal later this week.
Tuesday, I got a head start the night before by assembling dinner but more on that later. I also made my partner’s favorite home lunch, tuna salad, recipe below. Tuna is quick, tasty and packed with protein. Even better, I patiently wait for the smaller cans to go on sale because we honestly would not finish the contents of a larger can before it might go bad. My partner also had some canned soup which we always buy on special. For the record, he prefers my homemade chicken soup, but I usually reserve that for when somebody is under the weather, or it is very cold. Spring is about to hit so it is not really cold enough to warrant making that particular soup so he used up a can of soup also bought on sale. He likes the thick and chunky versions which heat up quickly and are consumed in one sitting.
Dinner I actually assembled the night before, and it is a nostalgic favorite in our house. I had plenty of leftover cabbage from St. Patrick’s Day, so I made one of my partner’s childhood favorites, stuffed cabbage leaves. My recipe is below and I particularly like it because it gives me a chance to make additional rice to reuse in in a couple of days for refried rice. I also defrosted some spicy sausage and a previously frozen baguette because my partner asked for spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow night. I always try and get a head start on the next days’ meals the day before which could mean anything from defrosting something to assembling a full entree. Anything I can do to get a head start generally makes dinnertime much less stressful. As for me, since I don’t eat red meat, I had the leftover Thai food and some cauliflower and cheese sauce that was in the fridge.
Hump day is usually viewed as a bit of a reward dinner night in our home because my partner does all the bedding laundry on Wednesdays. I humorously refer to our Wednesdays as, ‘The Laundry of America’ day. Because of this, I try and make something homey and cozy for dinner and that usually means spaghetti. Pasta has endless possibilities, stores practically forever without going bad and is a go-to choice for frugal folks. I like to defrost my homemade pasta sauce (if any is left) and pull frozen meatballs or sausage from the freezer that morning. I make meatballs in advance every so often with my visiting granddaughter because my partner swears our 13-year-old granddaughter helps to make them the best. With spaghetti and some garlic bread (I always keep smaller homemade baguettes in the freezer). This way, dinner is ready in no time. As for lunch, my partner had a hamburger from our frozen stash in the freezer and some air fryer fries while I finished up the rest of the tuna.
Thursday feels like the weekend is finally, almost, sort of, in our sights, so I always try and make something fun. One of the smartest frugal moves for food is to take advantage of what is locally fresh and widely available. Since we live near the ocean, that means a bounty of seafood. Now, not all seafood is cheap (crab, while a local specialty, I always find pricy) so I judiciously shop the specials. Seems for our area, shrimp and cod are always extremely reasonably priced. I pulled the frozen shrimp from the freezer and made battered shrimp with fried rice. On the weekends, I try and chop up all the veggies in my crisper that may go bad or simply that I have in excess. This is how I had two forms of veggie mixes. I literally just took the second one (without the cucumber) and blended it with soy sauce, sesame oil and cold rice in a hot, oiled pan to make fried rice. It’s a meal my partner raves about and while fried food obviously isn’t very healthy, we don’t indulge all that often. I usually round out this meal with a crisp green salad, if only to fool myself into believing we ate heathy that night.
Friday we typically scrounge for leftovers for a Friday lunch. There is always something in the fridge I can kluge together for lunch. This particular week we had a bit more stuffed cabbage leaves for my partner and I had a big salad. It was simple but delicious. For dinner, we ended up going out with friends who have been trying to get together for months although normally I would cull together leftovers from the week for at least the side dishes. For protein, I simply pull ground beef and take it from there.
Weekends we tend to start fresh. My partner will make or buy a very inexpensive sandwich for lunch and I will use up any cottage cheese or make a grilled cheese sandwich using some of the more exotic cheeses from my cheese bin. For dinner I go in the opposite direction and go for something a bit fancy. My partner watches the sales like a hawk for steaks and so I try and make a steak with baked potato and a vegetable side like cauliflower. Again, I always check out the fridge, see what is on hand and build my menu from there.
Sundays after a leisurely brunch which generally consists of eggs, sausage and toast, I always make a roast of some sort for an early supper. Occasionally, our local grocery store offers giant pork roasts for just a few dollars, and I can easily get 2-3 roasts out of one. Red meat roasts are more expensive, but we hunt the sales for those as well. I always put a roast in the slow cooker so by noon, the smell is heavenly, permeating the entire downstairs. With a savory roast, I pair it with mashed or roasted potatoes, gravy made from the juices of the roast, and another vegetable side. Again, depends on what is in the vegetable crisper. Recently I’ve had great success with roasted carrots, see recipe below. Carrots are super frugal, last a long time in the crisper, are really versatile and actually healthy for you which I hope sort of balances out the occasional fried food treat we indulge in.
The House Behind Perfect Tuna Salad
Ingredients
1 small can flaked tuna, we prefer water packed
1/2 or so of good mayo
1/4 cup diced onion (any type of onion will do)
1 hard-boiled egg, roughly chopped
Palmful of diced celery and celery leaves
4 small sweet Gerkin pickles finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Drain the tuna and flake in a mixing bowl. Mix in all the other ingredients and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving on toasted bread. Overnight is even better.
Rose’s Stuffed Cabbage Leaves
Ingredients:
6-8 large cabbage leaves, the outer leaves are best for this
1/2 to 3/4 pound ground beef
1 to 1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup diced onion, any type
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon each: ground onion powder and ground garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Tomato sauce of your choice, at least 12 ounces
Method:
Boil the cabbage leaves in salted water until tender, which takes at least ten minutes. Drain and set aside to cool slightly. Sauté the ground beef and drain, reserving a bit of the fat. Add the seasonings to the beef and mix well. Sauté and onion in a little of the beef fat until well cooked and golden. Let cool briefly before folding into ground beef mixture. Add the rice and mix everything well. Taking a large spoonful of the mixture, about a 1/3 of a cup, place in the lower quadrant of a cabbage leaf and roll up like a burrito. Place the roll seam side down in a casserole dish that has the bottom coated with 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce. After all the mix is rolled up (any excess can be frozen for future use or stuffed into tortillas), add the rest of the sauce. Bake in a 350-degF oven for 90 minutes. My partner likes this served with mashed potatoes (another childhood food memory, apparently) but I like a crisp green salad to offset the heavier fare.
Roasted Carrots
Ingredients:
4 large carrots, cut into finger sized blocks
1/2 cup butter
Heavy dash ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup hot honey
Finely sliced green onions for garnish
Method: Get a head start on the carrots by microwaving them in a little water for about 6 minutes. Dry well and mix with all the other ingredients. Roast in a very hot oven (400-degF) for about 20-25 minutes. Garnish with sliced green onions.
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the house behind 