How to Cut Your Grocery Expenses

To help you cut your grocery costs and still providing plenty for healthy, nutritious and tasty meals, there are basically only a few things to remember. All this is because we need to find way to have foods that are both tasty and nutritious without having to spend a lot to obtain them.

The cost of food. However, before you get into the details of how to lower your grocery bill, always define the costs of your food. Food costing is generally used by professional cooks to determine their budget for food for a given week.

Make a simple price book to determine which store near you has the best prices. The easiest way to do this is to identify the fifteen to twenty-five most common things you buy, then shop at a bunch of different stores and compare the prices on these items. The store with the lowest average price on the things you buy should be the store you shop at regularly. I was surprised when I did this test myself, because I discovered that the store I thought was low priced was far from the least expensive option on the stuff I actually bought routinely.

Make a meal plan. Plan out what you’ll eat a week in advance before you leave for the grocery store. Know the next seven breakfasts, lunches, and dinners you’ll have, then make sure you have all of the ingredients for them. If you don’t, add that ingredient to the shopping list (it’s right on your fridge, right?). 

Enjoy your shopping!

Cool Kitchen Tips the Green Way

A Greener Garden: Harvesting The Crop

The sun has been shining all over the country and with the recent heat wave your home garden should be producing more fruits and vegetables than ever. We've picked out a few of the most common homegrown crops and found out the keys to a good harvest.

Cool Kitchen Tips

Haven't you always wanted a wise old chef to invite you over for a sit down during which they layout a few of the most simple, yet effective, cooking tricks and tips. Well wait no more and take a peek at these old, yet true, cooking tips!

Pasta Pomodoro

Welcome to Italian 101. First up in this lesson is a common vegetable to Italian cuisine the tomato. Now in Italian you will say Pomodoro. Enjoy a quick and light meal with this delicious and classic sauce.

Mushroom Saute

I've been on a real mushroom kick recently. Those delicious fungi have really been tempting my taste buds. So I figured a quick experiment in saute land would be warranted.

Chicken & Veggie Potstickers

An order of five Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) generally ran me about fifty cents the last time I was traveling in China. During these cost efficient times I feel in love with the doughy balls of goodness and have learned to replicate them!

Source : The Chef Wannabee Newsletter 

 

Homemade Pasta Sauce

As summer rages in warmth and sunshine fresher fruits and vegetables also come and go so fast at the local farmer's market. With this season, let's also progress with new and rich vegetables and fruits to pick from. Here's another tip from Your Smart Kitchen Newsletter on how to make something homemade, this time they're sharing how to make pasta sauce with spring ingredients: 

Ingredients

• 9 medium size beefsteak tomatoes
• 1 (6 ounce) can Italian-style tomato paste
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 7 cups water
• 1/2 cup red wine (merlot)
• 3 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp dried basil
• Fresh oregano
• 1 tsp white sugar
• Pinch crushed red pepper

Preparation

Use a food mill to naturally process the tomatoes, milling and pureeing them. Chop the onion and garlic and saute in olive oil for 3-5 minutes in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water, Italian seasoning, basil, oregano, sugar, wine, and crushed red pepper. Adjust heat to a simmer and let be for 3-5 hours, stirring on occasion. Enjoyed best over al dente pasta and a side of garlic bread.


Thanks Nick!

How Can I Roast Thick Steaks in my Grill Pan

Like many of us, I too enjoy giving it a try cooking a new fish steak recipe that I come across. Most of my friends would tell me that perhaps cooking fish steak should already be easy for me by now. Yes it is - but not with a thick-cut of a fish steak! It is why I am always up for trying something new and here's what I learned.

Pan-roasting!

Trust me, the pan roasting method renders a moist and more flavorful fish when it comes to thick steaks, I did not stop until I learned the steps in getting that perfectly-seared thick steak. Like the usual way I prepare fish steaks, I first thawed the steaks and sprinkle with my own-made rub coating all sides of the fish. Take note to preheat your oven at this point to make things smooth..... oh by the way, preheat it to 400° F.

Pour any vegetable oil into a skillet, heat the oil and when it starts to "smoke" a bit, add the fish steaks. Give room to each steak so they individually cook without sticking to each other. ONE IMPORTANT THING: Crowding the fillets will result to steaming and not searing... so take note.

Give around 3 minutes before flipping over each of the steaks then sear for 3 more minutes. Carefully release the fish steaks from the pan and place skillet/pan into the oven and bake until your preferred doneness.

There goes our pan-roasted fish steaks for dinner.

Dutch Oven Cooking Both Inside and Out

We know that many Dutch oven recipes are all about rich meats and sweet foods, and no matter how we love them, we should realize that we can't go on like that all the time. With all the unhealthy ready made foods and modern easy ways of packaged food, we need to cut some of that back.

Dutch Oven Cooking Outdoors

Since we're now in the season of spring, beautiful sunny skies, light breezes and beautiful weather, it's just perfect to match healthy spring with healthy Dutch oven foods. I have in mind making sourdough bread, Jambalaya, fresh fruit cobblers, and wheat grain puddings. I’ve also thought I’d try some biscuits again and a Dutch oven tomato soup to go with it. I've thought of gathering the kids around and show them how I cook the food so they too can appreciate and learn a more nature way of preparing food both in and out of the dutch ovens.

Dutch Oven Recipe Ingredients at Home

Spring is the perfect time to experience the not-so-busy-days with kids at home. Dutch oven one-pot meals can be learned as a solution when you go back to the quick and easy cooking days when time to cook would be so elusive again. While one-pot meals come in various forms, they all have the common concept of putting a variety of ingredients into a single vessel and cooking them all together, which children would enjoy helping in.

There’s no fretting about getting the timing right so that your broccoli is perfectly steamed at the same time as the pot roast comes out of your oven medium-rare and the rice is ready to fluff, things which everyone would be so challenged. Perhaps best of all, rather than a sink full of dirty pots and pans to scrub after dinner, there is only one pot to clean, your Dutch oven.

Frying in a Dutch oven? Yes! You can learn one-pot meals from light stir-fries to hearty skillet meals to heavy casseroles made with cans condensed cream-of soup, and deep-fried drumsticks. I did them all in my Dutch oven, and what's even great is that I can do the cooking both indoors and outdoors.

Factors to a Wonderful BBQ

The design of your grill and the fuel source both play in the factors of grilling your foods. Regardless of what you use electric, gas, charcoal, or wood, if you know how to determine the intensity of heat at the surface of the grill,  you know how long it will take to cook your fish, and how much of the smokey flavor will be infused in it, your BBQ will come out superb.

Talking for myself, a stovetop grill or grill or a grill pan is what I find another best  the kitchen tool. I most of the time get a perfect BBQ with it.

I think its griller's surface with bars spaced no wider than 3/4 of an inch apart that made the difference. I always rub the grill with oil to help create a non-stick surface, or coat the fish itself with oil, butter, or mayo before placing it on the grill, or grill pan, and as simple as that we get good food. Pan-grilling sausages and veggies video to make you drool.

When cooking fish, it will most likely stick to a cold grill, so simply preheat the grill for about 10 minutes maximum (or wait until grill starts to give out a little smoke) before grilling fish on it to ensure that it won't stick. It will quickly sear and firm up on the outside, and flaky on the inside.

Different Ways to Tenderize Meat

There are a few ways to soften meat, but the most typical method is tenderizing by the process of cooking. Softening tough meat includes tenderizing with a pounder. A tenderizing mallet can be used to tenderize a cut of meat. A marinate of oils, vinegars, wine, beer, mustards, and spices can also be employed as tenderizing agents. Marinades also add to taste of the meat. So which way you find it best?

To me, stewing is my choice. It is great for tough cuts of meat and the chuck cut makes a more tasty stew. Stock bones which are cheaper can also be bought to enhance the stew.  The goodness of stock bones is not in the meat but in the essence that is in the bone. 

A Stewed Dish

 Braising is another method of tenderizing a tough cut of meat. This approach is preferred by may as it allows simmering in an appropriate liquid in order to break down the tough connective tissues within the meat. By just leaving the meat to simmer for hours, you can do things as you let the food cook.

Braising Meat