Guest Post: Iced Coffee to go

So, my sister Taylor wrote this guest post over a year ago, and somehow I have not actually posted it yet. So though another summer's nearly over, here's her story of how she makes iced coffee to go with less waste and less cost than buying it at Starbucks! 

Since I'm a guest blogger, I'll quickly introduce myself. I'm Steph's little sister (by 20 months) and I am currently starting my second year of medical school. Steph asked me to write a little bit about one of my wasteless practices. I've picked up a lot of her habits, but I came up with this one all on my own.

I wasn't a coffee drinker until my senior year of college. My biochemistry professor's soothing voice at 9:30 am was enough to necessitate a daily dose of caffeine. But I quickly realized that drinking hot coffee on the way to class was not an enjoyable adventure. My roommate drank the Starbucks bottled Frappucino Coffee Drinks, so I figured I'd give them a try. You could pick them up pretty much anywhere on my undergraduate campus that also sells hot coffee. They worked great, but they cost a pretty penny.

I realized that I could just reuse the glass bottles and use my own coffeemaker at home, saving time, money, and countless glass bottles. It's a simple process: just make a cup of coffee the night before you want to drink it, pour it in the bottle, add whatever else you like in your coffee (milk, sugar, etc.), and place it in the fridge UNCAPPED. In the morning, twist the cap on, give it a shake, and you're ready to enjoy.

They're better than the Starbucks made ones for many reasons:
-You don't have to spend daily $$$ in the store
-You can make whatever flavor coffee you want, Starbucks brand or not
-You can make them the night before, meaning they are fresher than the Starbucks version that have preservatives
-You can also make a bunch for the week, and keep your fridge stocked
-You can reuse the glass bottles over and over

I currently use Starbucks Veranda coffee with Coffeemate Fat Free Vanilla creamer, because that's what I like for hot coffee too.

Now that I'm in medical school, I've started using this method for my afternoon caffeine, because at least 2 doses are necessary. I still make them the night before, and then just stick them in my backpack to drink at the library. They portable, pretty spill-proof (keep them upright though), and they taste good cool/at room temperature if you can't keep them refrigerated.

I also do this with iced tea, I just use Snapple bottles. I don't recommend using the same bottles for tea and coffee, because you can't get them as clean as you want sometimes, so you don't want your tea to taste like coffee or vice versa.

I wish I was canning

At the beginning of the summer, I decided that canning was going to take up too much time, so I didn't invest in a canning kit and jars.  I figured I could freeze what I needed.

Well, I'm taking up half the freezer.  I was so used to my old roommate never using the freezer, I forgot what it would be like to seriously share it.  One of my roommates is also freezing food for the winter, and we're running out of space fast.  I'm not sure what we would do if our third roommate were using the freezer in any significant way.  She's moving in a few weeks, so she hasn't added much, but I could see it getting bad if three of us wanted to use significant amounts of space. 

But here's the problem.  I have 5 weeks left in my CSA.  In those 5 weeks, also I need to do the following things:

1. Finish the paper from my 1st-year project.  That WILL happen by Friday.
2. Finish the paper from my undergraduate project.  My 2nd-year project is with a group that is co-lead by of my coauthors.  She's apparently complained about this enough that my PI says my first month is just finishing this old paper.
3. Apply for an NSF fellowship (this assumes the shutdown is resolved before that deadline).  I have no idea what my research plan will be.
4. Grade 2 undergraduate midterm exams.
5. Take my own midterm exam.

I really, really wish I had learned to can this summer.  I did learn that after one or two long, rough tries at a complicated recipe, I can make it pretty efficiently.  I figure canning would follow the same thing.  But I've run out of time for trials.  I'll have basically 1 evening per week to cook.  That already takes several hours, especially if I invite a friend over for dinner, and the thought of trying to learn a new skill on top of it makes my head spin.  So I'm either going to have to start giving veggies away, or figure something out to keep from wasting them.

Grrr!

(p.s. my CSA list is the same as it's been for weeks, so I'm just not posting it)

CSA Week Something: Classes have started, but I made good pasta sauce

Argh.  Radio silence was due to vacation combined with a conference in Europe, and then having less than 24 hours between landing and my first class.  And tomorrow I start teaching!

This week, we got:

• Corn
• Tomatoes (1 large, 3 medium, 5 purple-y and 5 yellow plum ones)
• Cucumber
• Zucchini/Summer Squash
• Basil
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Bell Peppers
• (Chili Peppers) traded for a bell pepper and another squash
• Edamame
• Potatoes

 I did some major cooking last week, which made me happy.  A friend left the city semi-indefinitely and we decided to have a small get-together at my apartment, so I made lettuce soup and chicken, and she brought some food as well.  My share partner Chris took the cucumber, squash, basil, arugula, and potatoes.

After Tuesday, I made a couple big batches of food from Grandma's recipe book :)  First up was corn pudding - I boiled the corn on Wednesday, ate one ear, and sliced the kernels off the rest.  On Thursday night, I mixed the fresh corn with a can of creamed corn and made a half-size batch of corn pudding.

Also on Thursday, I made my Grandma's pasta sauce recipe.  My mom sent it to me last week, and I realized I'd gone hunting the internet and came back with a crappy sauce recipe, when I have a "Grandma's Recipe Book" sitting on my shelf from last Christmas, filled with trusted recipes.   So a much simpler recipe and 4 hours later, there's a lovely dish of pasta sauce in my freezer, ready for lasagna this winter.

I ate the tomatoes that didn't go into the sauce (the 10 smaller ones) with mozzarella cheese, basil from the plant I got from the CSA months ago, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.  So tasty, and so easy.

Finally, I started my freezer prep for the winter.  Or, well, I guess I started that before I left for vacation, but I'm now doing it consciously.  I LOVE bell peppers, and last year I learned to love chili, along with other dishes that need onions and peppers once they're gone from (or questionable at) the farmer's market.  So I freeze them.   I've got a couple containers of chopped bell peppers, and one of chopped onions, for chili and similar things.  This year I also decided to try freezing some thin strips of onions and peppers for stir-fries and omlettes, so I've got a container of those as well.  I could easily fill our entire freezer, but I think my roommates would not appreciate that.  I think the department freezer has some space, though....hmmm ;)

CSA Week 7: relative simplicity and late postings continue

This is actually about last week's share.   I'm at my parents' house this week, hence I'm discussing last week's veggie adventures while my friend Charity takes my half of the share this week.

Veggies from week 6 did not all get eaten.  I forgot to eat the tomatoes before they went bad.  And I hadn't eaten the lettuce, either, but I incorporated it last week.

Last week, we got:

• Basil
• Beets
• 6 Cucumbers
• 4 Squashes
• Lettuce (Green Romaine and Green loose-leaf)
• Swiss Chard
• Red Onions
• Green peppers

Lettuce soup made an appearance yet again - I had some left over from the previous week, so I made a giant batch and froze some.  I simultaneously like lettuce soup for simplicity and flexibility, but it's starting to get old, so I need to figure out something else because the lettuce just keeps coming.

I sauteed some squash, but most of the squash, cucumbers, and green peppers all got eaten raw, dipped in ranch dressing or garlic scape hummus.  It was a lazy week where veggies were concerned, and I didn't feel much like cooking.  It also helped me eat healthier at my desk, which has been a challenge lately.

My favorite dish of the week was roasted beets with ricotta cheese.  Even though the beets took much longer to roast than I had anticipated, that was a delicious lunch.  Cheese is tasty, but who knew it could be a very filling protein component to a meal? (Answer: probably half the internet, but I think the story of this blog is me figuring things out that half the world already knows).   And beets.  I've eaten beets before, all pickled, and though I liked them they were more accents.  As the center-piece to a meal?  SO. GOOD.  And super easy to cook, too. 

CSA Week 4: Socializing via vegetables

Everything from last week got cooked! Including very delicious roasted kohlrabi, thank you Miser Mom for inspiration :)

This week we got:

• radishes
• a cucumber
• 3 garlic scapes
• scallions
• a dill plant
• (lettuce) traded for another bunch of yukina savoy
• choose 3 mustard greens -  I picked yukina savoy, chard and kale

This week the share didn't include as much food compared to the first three weeks.  All the bunches of greens were pretty small, and two shared meals took out almost everything for the full share.  I cooked the radishes and made garlic scape hummus again for my vegetarian friend Sloane on Tuesday night. Then my share partner Chris and I sauteed kale & scallions and boiled yukina savoy on Wednesday to go with dill & basil chicken.  The cucumber is headed for a July 4th picnic today,  the lonely chard went home with Chris, and that's the end of this week's share.

When I signed up for the CSA, I planned on cooking with Chris some weeks, but didn't really think about sharing my veggies beyond that.  In reality, it has given me so much more than vegetables.  I've fed friends at least once, and typically twice, from every delivery.  And that's been a huge blessing in my life.

There's the frugality reasoning - even when I add a protein and grain I'm coming out ahead of a restaurant meal (frequently a friend will bring one or the other, so I'm providing even less).  But the primary reason I love sharing my CSA is that inviting people over for dinner lets me spend time with them.  As a somewhat-socially-anxious introvert, it gives me an "excuse" to ask someone to come over.  Sometimes its hard to call someone and say "hey, can we hang out?" unless I know them well and have something specific to talk about.  Saying "hey, can I feed you dinner?" feels like a lower bar somehow.  Plus, acts of service is a big way that I show people I care about them, so I get to love on my friends.  In return, I typically get quality time with them, a major way that I feel loved.  So not only is the CSA good for my health, its good for my heart too.

CSA Week 3: Almost didn't happen!

Everything from last week got cooked! Yay!

I went with my friend Abigail to the Cloisters Tuesday afternoon, but when I left, both downtown trains from there were running with serious delays.  For a while I thought I wouldn't make it, and my share partner Chris was unavailable.  I'm usually one of the first to pickup at 5:30, but this week I only made it with 10 minutes to spare before it closed at 7:30!

This week's share included:

• Romaine Lettuce
• Red Russian Kale
• Swiss Chard
• Bok Choy
• (One pot of cilantro) swapped for more Bok Choy
• Kohlrabi
• Broccoli
• Scallions
• Garlic scapes

Cooking occurred on Wednesday instead of Tuesday this week, both due to my train issues and because Chris and another friend, Maria, came to dinner on Wednesday. I made sauteed Kale and a new version of the lettuce soup from 2 weeks ago.

The basic lettuce soup recipe is still this one.  I used regular garlic instead of green, and scallions instead of onions.  I also cooked the rice longer, because it didn't get all the way cooked last time so the leftovers from the bottom of the pot had lots of little gritty bits.  Fully cooked rice plus less liquid in the end made for a thicker soup, but it was still really good.

My favorite recipe of the week is definitely White Bean and Garlic Scape Hummus.  Abigail pointed me towards it; it is filling and awesome.  I'm actually eating it with pita bread as I type this post. The recipe was simple and called for ingredients I had around; I used lime instead of lemon juice because my roommate left one behind when she left for the summer.

I boiled half the broccoli last night, and let the rest go.  There weren't any good specimens by the time I got to pickup, and this one was ok but wasn't going to last any longer.  Chris took bok choy and chard, and I've still got bok choy and kohlrabi to cook this weekend.  Anyone have good suggestions for Kohlrabi?  I haven't ever cooked it before.

CSA Week 2: More green leafy things

Quick update from last week: I've already failed in my goal to cook everything from the CSA.  Gingery garlicy stir-fried joi choi was delicious, and made over the weekend.  The scallions and some chard stalks went into an omelet yesterday morning.  But the radishes, alas, did not make it. 

This week's share consisted of:

• Bok Choy
• (Green Leaf Lettuce) swapped out for more radishes
• Green Onions
• Kale
• Radishes
• Swiss Chard
• and a little pot of Cilantro

My share partner Chris took kale, chard, and one bunch of radishes.  I kept the rest.

I have never cooked with radishes before, so the new experiences continue.  At pickup I thought I would cook 2 bunches, which is why I traded the lettuce in, but then I chickened out.   I made 'skilled-cooked radishes with pan-seared radish greens' with my bunch, which turned out to be way too tangy for my taste.  I think I could have handled either the radishes or the balsamic vinegar, but together it was a little much. 

I also made stir-fried bok choy.  One of my roommates is leaving for the summer, and she told me I could take some tofu she hadn't had time to cook.  I haven't cooked tofu before either, so I found a simple recipe for pan frying it in soy sauce.  Paired with the bok choy and some brown rice it was quite yummy. 

Green onions will go into meat sauce tomorrow.  There are probably better ways to use them, but I'm heading out of town for the weekend, so after dinner with a friend tomorrow I need something easily freezable.

CSA Week 1: New experiences

CSA time has finally arrived! Tuesday night was the first delivery, and I got together with my share partner Chris to cook some of our veggies (well, I cooked, anyway).  Lots of experimentation is involved - I'm not a tremendously experienced cook, and several of the items were new to my kitchen.

This week's share included:

• Joi Choi
• Lettuce
• Radishes
• Red Russian Kale
• Arugula
• Scallions
• Broccolini
• and a little Basil plant

Lettuce soup might be the best recipe find of the week.  I strongly dislike lettuce, and typically avoid it.  It appeared in the share, though, so I looked for some way to cook up my least favorite green.  The soup turned out quite tasty: light, herby, and very summery overall.  Not fabulous as leftovers, because the bits of lettuce & garlic are a little tough after reheating in the microwave.  It's also best warm, but not hot.

I also made baked chicken and sauteed Swiss chard with mushrooms to round off dinner.  Leftovers abounded.

The joi choi and the radishes will be cooked this weekend once I've eaten tonight's remainders.   Joi choi is a new veggie to me -  it's kind of like bok choi's big brother from what I can tell.  My CSA newsletter highlighted it as the 'mystery veg' of the week, and I'll be making the gingery garlic stir fry recipe they included.  I haven't decided what I'm doing with the radishes yet.

Boiled kale and assorted leftovers went home with Chris, and he took the broccolini and half the scallions as well.  The basil will be an addition to my burgeoning window garden.

Cooking all that was definitely an adventure.  I don't think I've ever made that many dishes (4 including the kale) in one night.  It was an enjoyable challenge though, even if it did take longer than I thought it would.  I had a lot of fun searching out recipes that were within my skill-set but went beyond boiling or steaming or sauteing.  I knew the CSA would be good for getting more vegetables into my diet, but I think it's also going to be good for my widening my cooking experience. 

Summer Goals

Classes are over; I've (mostly) recovered from the trial-by-fire final project from one of them.  After a research presentation on Wednesday and moving on Friday (!), I'll be set to roll into summer.  40 hours of research a week, and chilling out the rest of the time? Seems good to me.

Except I won't totally be chilling out.  I've got Things to do.  Here are my goals for the summer, both work and personal.  Some are lofty, some are mundane.  All are probably too general, but for now...

1. Work hard and efficiently at research.  This is why I'm here.  Subgoals:  Get the paper from my undergrad project submitted and through revisions (that depends a bit on collaborators and reviewers).   Get the paper for my current project finished by the time I go to a conference at the end of the summer (in France!)

2. Get my NY residency squared away and transfer all my mail, etc, up here.  I'm no longer a dependent on my parents for tax purposes, so I'm ready to transition away from MD being my primary residence.

3. Get my savings in order.  I set aside some money throughout this year, but didn't do anything with it besides stick it in the bank.  I have a mutual fund that is wanting for contributions, and I want to open a retirement account.  Subgoals: talk to HR since they sent me a letter about retirement plans, and research said plans.

4. Sort some personal stuff out that's currently keeping me from dating anyone, and some other stuff that's screwing up my relationship with my parents.  These might be the same stuff; I'm not yet sure.

5. Eat or preserve everything in my CSA share each week.

I plan on posting about 2, 3, & 5, for sure.  The CSA starts in 2 weeks; I'm probably most excited for that.  2, 3, & 4 are about me trying to figure out how the heck to be an adult.  Should be a fun Summer! :)

Food budget(ing)

At the beginning of January, I switched to an envelope system for my food spending.  I had planned to do this in the fall, but never got around to it.  I had given myself a $200/month budget for groceries and the farmer's market, and I figured I was probably in the ballpark.  At any rate, after my once-a-month grocery trip was complete I parceled out the remainder of the $200 for January into an envelope and tacked it to the wall.

And by halfway through January, I was below $20.  Oops.

I can say that I basically made it through that month without spending much more, but that's because I went on a ski trip with some other graduate students and paid for food there, not out of my 'grocery' budget.  I did commandeer all of the leftovers because no one else wanted to haul them home, but that's a small blessing.

I cut back in February and March, with ~$70-80 left over at the end of each month.  I only went to 4th St Food CoOp in February, and only to Trader Joe's in March.  Usually I go to 4th St and either TJ's or Whole Foods at the beginning of every month.  I also started out saying that I would be more careful at the market, and avoid some of the inherently expensive foods like baby spinach.

It worked, but almost too well.  The leftover budget from February and March will last me until May.  This despite buying greens frequently.  My overall market spending has gotten cut way back, which is promising from a budgetary standpoint and less-so from a health standpoint.  I really haven't been getting enough fruits and veggies.  It's getting better now as spring greens are coming in and there's a new, less-expensive greens stand at the market, but I wasn't able to motivate myself to spend a lot of time cooking winter dishes from the market. 

I got lazy about eating out, which I need to rein in for reasons both monetary and sustainable.  I also skipped meals a couple of times.  Unintentionally, but I'm still not really happy with that.  Hopefully as spring (slowly) gets in gear, I can get out of this food funk and back on the right track. 

To CSA!

I posted a couple months ago about waffling over joining a CSA.  After talking with a couple other women in my department and doing some research, I decided that I will be part of a CSA this summer.  It's not the one I thought I'd be part of - I chose a slightly more expensive one that supposedly has better quality food.  I also joined with a friend from church - so in the end I'm paying $12/week and I figure it will even out. 

The CSA I joined is run by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger.  They run several CSA sites around the city with sliding-scale membership fees based on household income.  I signed us up according to our combined stipends, which actually puts us at the top of 4 income categories.  They also offer a level for people buying shares with food stamps.

Part of the cost of membership is 4 hours of volunteer time.  I signed up to work two weeks of distribution, which will fulfill that.

The one thing that was disappointing about this CSA is that a half share means the full amount of food, delivered every other week.  You don't choose which set of weeks you're on - it's assigned by last name - and if you miss your week you can't just go the next week.  

That's actually why I scouted out a friend to split a share with.  In the end, I think it will be more fun to split with someone and share the experience.  And I think she's a better cook than me, so hopefully I'll get to learn from her too :)

Now when does my food get here?* ;)




*the first week of June. I'm just impatient ;)

To CSA, or not to CSA?

My favorite farm stand at the Greenmarket had CSA sign-up sheets out this morning.  I have one sitting next to me, blank and waiting.  I have to put a deposit down on Feburary 3rd.  But I can't decide whether I actually want to do this.

I'd order a half-share.  That's $260 for 26 weeks, starting the first week of June.  I'm also debating a fruit add-on, which would cost an additional $130.  So that would be $10-15/week.  I'm spending at least that much now on produce each week, so from a money standpoint this would be a good move.

On the one hand, I like the idea of being forced to try new things by having them on hand.  Particularly in the summer, when I'll have more time to cook and experiment, I think that will be pretty exciting.  Although I can see the week that the "featured item" is eggplant or hot peppers being an unhappy one.

On the other hand, I've heard from many other folks about getting way too much produce in their CSA box each week.  I'm one person, with very little food preservation knowledge at present.  There will be additional cost and labor.  I forsee that a CSA share would also involve me buying more freezer containers (at minimum), a dehydrator (likely), and possibly canning equipment (least likely, but apparently another girl in my department knows how to can so maybe...). 

Also, I don't have a good temperature-controlled space to store food in.  Our apartment tends to be very warm, but if we live a window open overnight the temperature drops by a lot.  So storing garlic and onions will be a challenge, since they barely last a month as it is, and potatoes and carrots usually don't last a week before they get soft and start rotting.

Decisions, decisions.

A New Source for Bulk Tea (and Coffee)

I've bought bulk tea in several places before: my local coffee shop, 4th St CoOp, and Teavana.  The first two have a limited selection, and the latter is very expensive.

So I've been wanting to check out McNulty's Tea & Coffee Co. for a while now, and I finally got down there before I left for Christmas.

(from the McNulty's website)

I was impressed when I walked in.  The store is small, but packed with teas.  The walls are lined with boxes of tea, but there are also dozens of glass jars filled with loose leaf teas.  It was like heaven. 

(from the McNulty's website)

Oh, and there's a ton of coffee behind the counter.

I bought a quarter of a pound of their China Keemun tea. It cost $4.  Teavana's "Capital of Heaven Keemun", which is hands-down my favorite tea, costs $18 for 2 oz.  McNulty's admittedly wasn't as good as Teavana's (it was missing the smooth sweetness that Teavana's has), but it was still alright.  For the 9x price reduction, I'm ok with it. 

While I can't personally comment on their coffee's quality, the gentleman behind the counter was very helpful in picking out some coffee to give my Mom for Christmas. I got her the El Salvador Las Colinas (fair trade) coffee, and she tells me that it's delicious.

How Tastes Change

I realized this week that the me of several years ago would be appalled if she could see what the me of right now was eating.

I remember being in elementary/middle school, and my friend Courtney's mom was one of those "weird" moms who made her kids eat the peanut butter that you have to stir every time because it separates.  Why couldn't she just let them eat JIF (my one true peanut butter love for most of my life) instead of that gross stuff?

Now I buy, and gladly eat with gusto, the plainest of plain peanut butter.  No additives but salt, thanks very much.  I eat my brand-name former love when I go home, and honestly? It tastes really weird now.

And beans.  I used to hate beans.  The texture put me off.  I would eat around them if they appeared in any more meaty dish, and avoid them altogether if they were the main attraction.  Then, about a year ago, I realized "hey, beans are cheaper than meat.  And healthier too."  Now I'm willfully dumping multiple cans of beans into this:

The amount of meat that I eat has been drastically reduced, and my diet has gotten a heck of a lot more varied.

There was a point in time where I stopped eating yogurt; I didn't like the taste of artificial sweeteners, but "natural" yogurt kinda grossed me out.  It was lumpy and you had to mix it up, and it tasted funny.  Then I discovered Greek yogurt, and after a transition phase where I had to mix fruit in with it for sweetening, came to enjoy the tangy sourness of it.  Now I buy tubs of plain yogurt from the farmer's market, and mix it with a little bit of honey or....

Granola.  I can remember actually gagging when I tried to eat yogurt and granola a few years ago.  The texture combination was so weird to me.  Then I tried some at Miser Mom's house at the beginning of the summer.  I have no idea what changed.  All I know is that I eat this at least 3-4 mornings per week:

Homemade granola! Me!

This is a long, looooong way from the girl who ate pretty much nothing but sandwiches and cereal if left to her own devices.  I pretty much never eat either of those things anymore, unless I'm at my parents' house.  Mostly for reasons of budget, but I'm also trying to choose healthier options.  And I really have no regrets.  Life is a lot tastier now :)

Corn Bread Muffins

I've mentioned before my love of Maki's Pumpkin Yogurt Corn Muffins, because they're tasty and freeze well.  Simple convenience food, and goes well with a lot of soups.

I made pumpkin turkey chili last week, and decided that pumpkin muffins wouldn't work.  Obviously, pumpkin+pumpkin is a little repetitive.  More importantly, my last can of pumpkin puree went into the chili; I won't buy more until after Thanksgiving, probably, because then it goes on sale.  So I got out Grandma's corn bread recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten

To make one pan (Grandma's instructions)

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
• Grease an 8x8" or 9x9"pan
• Combine dry ingredients
• Add milk, oil, & eggs with a few strokes
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until it begins to brown

To make ~18 muffins (instructions mostly taken from Maki at Just Bento)

• Preheat oven to 360 degrees F
• Line two muffin tins with silicone liners (I only needed a tin and a half for 19 muffins)
• Combine dry ingredients
• Combine wet ingredients
• Mix wet and dry ingredients with a spatula until just mixed
• Fill liners halfway
• Bake for 20-25 minutes

To freeze the muffins, allow to cool on a rack until they are about room temperature.  Then pack in a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and freeze.  To reheat, just microwave for 45-60 seconds if they're frozen, or 30 seconds if they've thawed in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Tastes like home :)

Once a Month Shopping, Take 2

Let's try this again.  Lessons learned from September:
1) Better planning is required to avoid mid-month runs to the store.
2) I do not remember to defrost things from the freezer.  (Food that can safely defrost in my lunchbox (soup & muffins) or that can defrost and cook at the same time (mini burgers) work well.  My mini packets of fish, which need to be defrosted before cooking, are basically untouched.)

In light of those insights, I'm changing my tact this month.  Once a Month Cooking doesn't work so well for me.  I will make more mini burgers, probably next weekend, and muffins as needed.  Aside from that, I'm looking at big, easy meals that will have a lot of leftovers.  I picked 5 recipes that make 4-8 servings from The Everything Healthy College Cookbook and Cheap, Healthy, Good's huge post of healthy one-dish meals.

My shopping this weekend basically consisted of procuring the dry ingredients for those recipes plus some pantry supplies. Quinoa, rice, cornmeal, brown sugar, lentils, spices, lots of oats, and lots of canned beans*.  And ground turkey because it was on sale at Whole Foods.  All in all, I think the cost was pretty acceptable: $37 at WF and $19 at 4th Street Coop.  Plus $4.50 getting to the Coop by subway, if we're being picky. 

One more lesson learned about the Coop: if something I want is on the out-of-stock list, I need to call them and double check.  Because I gave up and bought cinnamon from WF Saturday, and I had opened and used it by the time I went to the Coop yesterday.  Where a new jar of bulk cinnamon was sitting on the shelves.  I could have saved $5 there.

I also decided to try a one-to-one price check on rolled oats at the Coop.  I picked that one because I have a brand-name (I know...) container from the supermarket a few blocks away from me.  It's a small container, but cost me $4.39 plus tax.  So I took the container to the Coop, and got it refilled.  For $1.24.  Between that and the savings on some spices, I'm ahead even with the round trip on the subway.


*I'm aware that dried are cheaper and possibly tastier, but my aforementioned trouble remembering to defrost things means I doubt I will remember to soak beans.

Small Sucesses: Bulk Spices

After last week, anything would have been exciting, but this week I finally made it down to the 4th Street Food Co-op, which is in downtown Manhattan, about a 45-minute subway trip from me.  Why go so far? Because they are a full-on sustainable, organic, and bulk store.  Not just nuts, granola, flour, and sugar.  They had bulk spices, pasta, a bunch of different types of flour (whole wheat, gluten-free, etc), and shampoo and other household products.  I bought rolled oats and whole wheat pasta, plus three different spices.

The best part was I could use jars, not just bags.  At Fairway and Whole Foods, the bulk section was completely self-serve and there was no way to tare my bags, much less anything heavier like a jar.  At the Co-op, I tared my spice jars at the counter, and then took just what I needed from the bigger jars on the wall.  I didn't bother to tare the cloth bags I used for oats and pasta because they hardly weigh anything.  My love for this place means I'm living without cinnamon for a few weeks because they were out, and after paying so little for spices in my own jars, I can't bring myself to walk into a store and pay $4.

Did I mention the cost?  $7 $5.50 for spices, pasta, and a lot of oats.  I also bought soy sauce and a new storage jar, which took the cost up to $11.50.

And, if I'm being honest, it was great to go to a place where I didn't have to explain myself.  Where the cashier was appreciating the store anew after 6 weeks in another state where she actually had to buy food in packaging.  Where nobody commented on my bags.  Bulk is an absolute way of life in that little store. 

Freezer Cooking

After the sense of relief I felt when maintenance delivered the new refrigerator and I could actually keep dairy again, my next project was stocking the freezer.  The rather shallow freezer, but my roommate says she doesn't use it so I can use what space there is.

I started doing this last year.  Makes my life a little bit easier, to be able to grab lunch on the way out the door or have dinner mostly prepared way ahead of time.  In particular, it helps keep me from being tempted to go get takeout (which is more convenient now than it was in undergrad, except that produces a lot of trash and I have to spend real money and not dining dollars).  Right now, I've got 4 types of pre-prepared foods, plus some ground turkey that I pre-portioned and froze. 

My freezer! Top shelf has pyrex pans holding foil packets of fish and ground turkey.
Muffins in silicone liners on the door, compost bag, containers of soup concentrate and mini burgers.

I've made the first three items before.  Instant vegetable soup concentrate and pumpkin yogurt corn muffins make the base of a simple lunch - I usually add a greek yogurt for protein and maybe some fruit.  The recipe calls for wrapping portions in plastic wrap, but I've found that an ice-cube tray works just as well.  Once the portions of concentrate are frozen, I transfer them to other containers and wash out the ice-cube trays.  The muffins are really tasty; they get even better when made with plain greek yogurt.  Tangier and a little drier, but I like the contrast with the soup.

Mini burgers are delicious, a kind of cross between meatballs and hamburger.  In the past I've used meatloaf mix, but this time I just used ground beef from the Greenmarket: expensive but very good.  Probably higher in fat than your average grocery store ground beef which might be part of it...oh well.  They just need starch (rice, usually) and vegetables to make a meal.  Sometimes I mix them in with sauteed vegetables and marinara sauce to go with pasta.

All three of those recipes come from Just Bento, a website dedicated to healthy and tasty lunches.  Most of the recipes are Japanese or Japan-inspired and require cooking in the morning - I'm lazy and just hunt down the freezer recipes for lunches (occasionally I make one of the other ones for dinner though).  The soup/muffin/yogurt combo in particular is easy to grab out of the freezer/fridge in the morning.

My other recipe is an experiment that thankfully turned out very well.  The basic recipe is Lemon Caper Tilapia Packets from Once a Month Mom.  I didn't have capers and there wasn't any tilapia at the Greenmarket soooo...I bought flounder and just used parsley I had in the fridge.  I froze six prepared fillets and cooked one for dinner.  Turned out alright, a little blander than it's probably intended but still tasty.  The halved cherry tomatoes are my favorite part, I got good fresh red and yellow ones.

So with 12 servings of soup, 6-7 servings of mini-burgers, and 6 servings of flounder, that's at least 24 meals there.  Plus the pound of ground turkey and I'm not buying any more meat this month.  Vegetables are easy to get twice a week, and rice/bread are easily found in my kitchen to complete the meals.  Usually those two things require either a short amount of cooking when I want to eat them, or a long-but-mostly-unattended-time, which amounts to the same thing when I don't have much energy for cooking.

First round of shopping

I brought some leftover canned/jarred foods, baking supplies, and spices with me that I had in my apartment last year, but the last half-week I've been trying to stock up my kitchen with at least a basic array of goods.  It's been an adventure, and I've learned a few things.

The first lesson was that trying to shop for food after two straight days of cleaning, shopping for apartment stuff, and organizing with Mom and T was a really bad plan.  I wandered around Fairways and Trader Joes in something of a state of shock.  I know I'm an introvert, it shouldn't surprise me that trying to go out in public after two straight days with people would make my exhaustion that much worse.  So, updates on Fairways bulk section will come a different week.  For now, let's just say the rest of their store is expensive.  I don't know how I shopped there last summer.  I didn't spend any money there last week.

Trader Joes.  This was my main store last summer, because it's relatively cheap, it was on my way home from work, and my roommate adored it because her boyfriend worked there.  It's still convenient to get to by subway, so I went there last week.  However, now I realize that basically everything is packaged in plastic.  It's probably going to be a primary source of meat in the future, though, because, well, it's cheaper than anywhere else I've ever seen it.  In the end, I bought canned goods and a box of tissues there, to the tune of $14.50.

I also hit up the local farmer's market. I   I got green beans, peaches, apples, honey, a quart of milk, and bread for $18.  Most of that money went towards the honey and the milk, but the milk comes in a glass jar so I'll get a discount next time I go.  And it was good milk, so I don't regret that decision.  I also got some more produce (green beans, tomatoes, and bell peppers) yesterday for $6.50.

Finally, Whole Foods UWS.  My first bulk-buying experience.  Unfortunately, the bulk-bins are completely self-serve, there's no way to tare my own containers.  So I think I'll just have to take my lightest bags and pay a few extra cents :/  Still, I got nuts, granola, sugar, and quinoa for $14.34, and the trip overall cost me $47.07 for bulk items, a few herbs and canned goods, and local mozzarella.  The mozz was an impulse buy that was way more expensive than it needed to be and that I probably didn't need to get.

So my grocery/market spending last week: $76.07.  Definitely room for improvement, since my monthly goal is $200.  Restaurant spending was something like $40 (I didn't save all my receipts) for a grad student happy hour and three meals with a friend who was in town.  That's coming from my wants budget, and that's more than half of a week's worth of "wants", so...that should be reduced.