Collards and $ense

We don’t eat out. We don’t order take-out. We are alien New Yorkers.
 

It’s not that we loathe the myriad cafes dotting our Astoria neighborhood; we love them. There just isn’t room in our budget. Most of the time, eating home-cooked just takes a little extra work: pack lunches, make dinner, mix the occasional gigantic vat of pancake batter (see post 1). Then there are those moments when a small budget limits your social life. Going out with friends as a single person on a small budget is no easy feat, but multiplying the fun x 2 also doubles the challenge.
 

Next Sunday happens to be the birthday party of one of our very close friends. In the past, we have found ourselves at bars or restaurants with grumbling stomachs or just wishing we could order a drink. It’s not fun, plus it can be a little embarrassing, in this city of going out, to explain we’re not ordering because we’re “saving up” (read: broke). Oh, and the waitstaff doesn’t enjoy it either! Before I cut my credit cards into little shards, it was easy to just say “screw it” and break our budget.
 

Individually, we spend $50 or fewer per week on groceries, keeping our food money separate so we each get what we like. We used to keep the grocery budget at $35 each; our income hasn’t changed, but we reorganized things in order to be able to buy more organic, free-range, additive-free and otherwise greener food. Given our wish to have fun and to toast our friend next Sunday, I came up with a plan. We’d put $40 towards fun ($20 each, enough for a couple drinks or a drink and an appetizer) and combine our remaining money ($60) towards a week of communal meals.
 

Step 1: which separate groceries are absolutely necessary?
 

Him: bread, cold cuts, and mustard for lunches
Me: goat milk for my coffee
 

Step 2: what do we both like that’s balanced and healthy?
 

Dima is a big fan of cheese and meat (I think it’s the y chromosome). I enjoy them too, so we’ll build our meals around whole grains, cheese, and meat.
 

Step 3: what’s on sale at the 3 supermarkets, natural foods store, and produce stand we frequent?
 

Thank goodness for the internet age; I didn’t have to step outside my apartment to access the online circulars. Key Foods even emails me the weekly ad.
 

The Whole Foods ad isn’t too impressive this week, but between Key Foods and C-Town, these sales looked good to me: quartered chicken legs for $0.39/lb, 32-oz can of crushed tomatoes for $1.49, 5-lb bag of baking potatoes for $0.99, 16 oz of cottage cheese for $1.19, 2 8-oz cracker barrel cheeses for $6, and store-brand sandwich cookies for $0.69 a package.

Step 4: what’s on hand?
 

flour and other dry baking supplies
squash and lamb soup from last week (in the freezer)
olive oil and coconut oil
pasta, some whole wheat and some white
garlic
salt and spices
polenta (corn grits), barley, rice, dry beans, 1 can of beans, a couple cans of tuna
 

Step 5: what fits with the store sales and is relatively easy?
 

I just found a great recipe for apple and cheese turnovers, and a while ago I found and filed a low-fat pastry dough that uses cottage cheese in place of butter. (I love me some butter, but goat butter is outrageously pricy and also, the cheese is going to make the recipe fatty from the start). Missing ingredients: cottage cheese (on sale!), eggs, 6 apples, walnuts, cranberries.
 

Remember those $0.39/lb chicken legs? I think they’d be great roasted and sliced up in pasta with crushed tomatoes, dark leafy greens, garlic, olive oil, salt, and maybe some oregano. Missing ingredients: dark leafy greens, chicken and crushed tomatoes (both on sale!)
 

That takes care of breakfast (turnovers) and dinner (pasta). Dima has his lunch sandwich fixings planned into the budget. For me? I have access to a microwave at work, so I can always defrost some of the soup in our freezer. That $0.99 5-lb bag of potatoes could provide a cheap, filling carb. If I’m feeling souped out, I can cook one up and/or raid our small stash of dry and canned goods. Prosaic, but wholesome.
 

Step 6: what compromises are we willing to make in terms of organic/free-range/additive-free?
 

Well, we’ll have to compromise on almost everything; the eggs will be free-range and that’s it for the week. Not our favorite solution, but something’s gotta give if we’re going to have fun and stay true to our finances.
 

Step 7: make a shopping list and stick to it
 

Whole Foods
 

goat milk
unsulfured dried cranberries (the sulfur additive is bad for asthmatics; I raise my hand)
 

Sai Organics
 

eggs (cheaper at Whole Foods, but it’s located near my office and I need eggs today)
walnuts
 

Key Foods
 

32-oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 8-oz cracker barrel cheeses (one cheddar, one swiss to keep it interesting)
 

C-Town
 

$0.39/lb chicken legs up to $8.00
5-lb bag of potatoes
16-oz cottage cheese (whole 4% milkfat to cut down on additives, which abound in low-fat dairy products)
sandwich cookies
 

Produce Stand
 

6 apples
dark leafy greens
bananas and other produce up to our $60 mark
 

Step 8: send Dima on the great gathering mission while I work
 

This is when I usually get phone calls 5-10 minutes apart about ‘they didn’t have the sale item’ or ‘what do collard greens look like?’ I may roll my eyes after the third call, but communication is important for us to stay on track and on budget. Dima did a great job: he was able to find almost everything we needed at the prices I wrote down.
 

Monday is almost upon us, and the challenge intensifies. Check back soon for my first Grocery Roundup, Receipt Review, and more Cooking Adventures!
 

Tania

It was Tuesday night. I had half a 32-oz container of yogurt in my frig and it was turning sharp. Breakfasts for the week were in short supply. This is the story of Operation Pancake.

Particularly when money is scarce, wasting food doesn’t make sense. This yogurt happens to be quite expensive, owing to the fact that it is made from goat’s milk. (Side note: for the lactose intolerant, like yours truly, goat milk products can be easier to digest.)
 

As you might guess, this yogurt is something I have to plan carefully into my grocery budget. I usually use it up in my morning kasha or oatmeal, but the previous week I’d taken egg sandwiches with me on the subway–sick of balancing the container, spoon, and travel mug. Okay, and maybe a little sick of the sideways glances. I’m just being healthy and abundant, people!
 

On Monday, I noticed the yogurt was souring. Tuesday night, I rushed home with a game plan. I tasted the yogurt. Success. Too sharp to eat as is, but not yet gone: perfect for baking.

The brainstorm between Monday and Tuesday went something like this: what do I make that uses yogurt? what is breakfasty, filling, and portable? what do I already have the rest of the ingredients for? Pancakes it was.
 

I had a big tub of rolled oats and a huge bag of whole wheat flour. I had baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and the yogurt. All I needed was a carton of eggs, which there was room for in my budget. I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and picked up their cheapest large dozen (more on how to budget shop at Whole Foods later).
 

Next, I used my kitchen scale (actually a postal scale) to weigh the yogurt. There were almost 16 ounces left: half the container! Good thing I came up with a use for it. That much yogurt meant multiplying my pancake recipe by 5: quite an operation, but it also meant almost a whole week of breakfasts for me and my husband, Dima.

I could have saved more money by using whole eggs, but considering that pancakes are already high in calories and I was planning to eat them daily, I stuck to my original recipe. Here it is for 1 batch, by the way:

Tania’s Super Satisfying Pancakes

1/2 C whole wheat flour

1/2 C rolled oats (old-fashioned oats)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 egg whites

2 tsp mild tasting oil (canola or coconut works nicely)

1/4 C water

3 oz or about 1/3 cup plain yogurt

Heat a skillet or two on low and coat with cooking spray. Mix the wet ingredients in a small bowl; mix the dry (except oats) in a larger bowl, and then pour the wet into the dry. Mix until just combined and then fold in the oats. The texture should be thicker than normal pancake batter. These pancakes really puff up, so you may need to cook them a little longer than average to get the middle done.

Boy did this whole operation take a while, especially with our small stove and limited pan collection.

In the end, we had, count ‘em: 21 big, delicious, fluffy pancakes. Don’t they look glorious?

Of course, we weren’t going to eat 21 pancakes before they got stale, so most of them went in the freezer. Lacking storage materials, I ended up putting them all in the same freezer bag rather than wrapping them individually. Luckily, pulling them apart each morning wasn’t too difficult. Two minutes in the microwave et voila. I spread them with some peanut butter and added jam or sliced banana depending on the day.

Saving money sometimes requires some elbow grease, some patience, and rerouting your evening plans. I had intended to get in bed at 9:30 that night, but I stayed up until 10:30 because of the pancakes. A week of easy breakfasts was worth the hour of lost sleep.

Mission accomplished.