Grain Gain: Another pantry post this week

One of our local supermarkets has been reorganizing, and they put a bunch of odd (mostly organic and health-food) items on a clearance table. We picked up some fancy packages of tea, snacks, and rice, all for half price. 

This is organic arborio rice, which is lovely, but not something we use a lot. 

I was browsing online and found a recipe for "risotto mix in a jar" at Food.com. While not authentic or anything, it did sound like something we'd eat. I bought a package of sundried tomatoes to chop into it.

The only real problem was getting bouillon powder that didn't have MSG (that's an issue for us), but I did find some at Bulk Barn. Anyway, short version, I used up the whole bag of rice (I increased the seasonings to make it work). That filled six sandwich-sized Ziploc bags.

I cooked up one of the packages for dinner (along with fish sticks, corn on the cob, and leftover salad). It made a big bowlful: looks like we're having risotto leftovers tonight.

We also got two packages of "Ancient Field Blend," which we haven't tried yet. One of the suggested recipes for this blend of grains and sprouted lentils is veggie burgers, which you make by cooking up the grains and blending them with squash and a few other ingredients. (Helpful hint when you buy something unfamiliar: see if there's a website with directions or recipes.)

I do have a bag of frozen squash, but I have other plans for that (probably cooking it into puree and then making muffins). But that recipe made me think that this grain blend sounds like it's going to be pretty heavy-duty, maybe more than we typically want as just a carb side dish. And some of those grains might not be the taste-testing favourites around here, though they're undoubtedly nutritious; so disguising them a bit with seasonings would also be a good idea.

And what that made me think of was the Hillbilly Housewife's Taco-Style Lentils and Rice, which was first posted by Miss Maggie, the original HH. We used that recipe quite a bit over the years, such as when vegan relatives came for tortilla night. Anyway, I haven't tried using the ancient-grains blend yet instead of straight-up lentils and rice, but I'm planning on doing a test run soon. If we like it, I'll put some small bags of grain and seasonings together, like the risotto mix, and keep them in the pantry.

Another way to use up a protein-packed grain blend like that might be to cook it as Crockpot Cereal, something I learned from my friend the Deputy Headmistress, a.k.a. Wendi. Again, it's something I think you'd have to experiment with, perhaps adding some kind of sweetener, dried fruit (like cranberries), or other flavouring. I'm not sure how well wild rice would go over at breakfast, but maybe it would be delicious. A test run is probably a good idea.

A third way I think it would be good, especially in the fall, would be using some of the cooked mixture to stuff an acorn squash. (Not with taco seasoning, although that could work too--but maybe with onions and celery, as you would for wild-rice stuffing.)

Well, anyway, we haven't cracked open those packages yet, but I will do that soon and let you know how it goes.

Frugalities, 2024 Style

In the early years, our blog had a lot about cooking, homeschooling, crafting, clothing our family, and generally living life on a tight budget. It feels like this might be a good time to start up some of those posts again.

Part One: Peppers

What actually kicked that off today was a stop at the grocery store, where we were looking for canned soup on sale. Although we often buy store-discounted meat and bakery things, I've never been a big fan of the last-chance vegetable cart, mainly because of the inevitable cloud of fruit flies. But as I walked by it today, I noticed a big bag of red and yellow peppers for two dollars, and, from what I could tell, they all looked pretty solid, not mouldy or black. We had already picked up a bag of "Crunchy Taco" salad mix, to have alongside some chicken, and I thought at least some of the peppers (if there were enough good ones in the bag) would go well with that too.

Actually, all the peppers were just fine, so I chopped them all up. The bowlful on the left is for tonight's dinner, and the two small trays were ready to go into the freezer. (Small trays because we didn't have enough room in the freezer for one big one.)

And here's what we ended up with a couple of hours later: one quite-full medium Ziploc bag full of peppers, for chili or stir-fries or whatever.

So, the point of all that is: never say never when you're looking at the discount stuff.

Part Two: Plums

This little carton of yellow plums wasn't discounted. Plums are coming into season, and they should have been great, but their texture was poor, and the nice sour yellow-plum flavour wasn't there.

Well, if I wasn't going to waste two dollars' worth of peppers, I wasn't going to throw away several dollars' worth of plums, either. I browsed around online, and settled on a really simple recipe: cooking them down with a bit of sugar, spice, and lemon juice. I got rid of the worst ones, cut the rest in half, took out the stones, and put them in a pot with the sugar etc.

Here's what I ended up with: a couple of cups of cooked fruit and syrup. It's not too sweet, which I like. What will we do with it? Maybe have some over ice cream, and then put the rest in a freezer bag. We could eat it fresh, but we have a couple of other things to eat up as well, so this might be better frozen and used later.

Part Three: Pizza

Since we're talking about food anyway, one of our favourite cheap meals is homemade pizza. We make a pound and a half of very basic dough (in the bread machine), divide it in two, stretch the pieces out on a baking sheet, and top with canned sauce, cheese, and anything else we have around, including salami and grilled chicken. We don't have a fiery oven or a fancy pizza stone, just a good baking sheet and 425 degrees for twenty minutes. 

And there are usually enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

So, there's a snapshot of the Treehouse kitchen these days. I hope to post a few more frugalities soon.