Common Cuisine |

For the third week in a row, I went shopping yesterday with a plan and a goal. The plan was a list almost entirely made up of sale items, involving four stores. The goal was to spend less than $100. I really need to look at some old bank statements since I don’t have a clear idea how much I was spending on food each week before that. But I know that every single week I go over my goal, and I have a sense that it’s by $30 to $50 if not more.

THE PLAN
At Sam’s Club I got 3 lbs of bananas and 4 packages of english muffins (we go through about a package a week), for a total of $9.40. I also try to gas up my car there, but had just made an emergency stop the day before, so did not this time.

At HEB I bought some deli roast beef to get free deli cheese and spicy mustard. I got strawberries, green beans, asparagus and honeydew all on sale. I brought the green beans home, washed and cut off the ends, and will use them for snacks for the kids this week. I also picked up olive oil with a $1 coupon attached, and local coffee beans for less than the national brand. This is also where I picked up organic apples. Total: $37.92 except the receipt didn’t show the right discount for the cheese and mustard, so I went to the customer service desk and got $1.07 returned to me. I decided to call that my “Eagle Eyes” money and put it in a jar for a special occasion. Revised total: $36.85.

At Albertson’s I collected yogurt (their store brand is Justin’s favorite), crackers, Zatarain’s, bratwurst and deli turkey on sale, as well as sale cookies plus coupon giving me 2 packages of Fudge Stripes for $1.17 each. Next time, I’ll skip the turkey sale, as it was not in line with my standards. My standard in deli meat is to stick with the kind without fillers, such as Boar’s Head and Kretschmar. It doesn’t go on sale more than 50 cents a pound, but that is one of those areas I have decided not to compromise. Total at Albertson’s was $19.39.

I finished up at Kroger, where I typically save 10% with my Kroger card without trying too hard. This time the receipt showed a bottom line savings of 33%. I chose all items that were on sale, such as kiwi, limes, cherry tomatoes, butter gold potatoes, and cheese. I also chose this week to stock up on SunChips and granola bars on sale. I used a coupon to get a $2.99 toothbrush for $1.19. At Kroger, I spent $34.34.

THE GOAL
After adding it all up, I see I spent a grand total of $101.05 but taking into account my Eagle Eyes correction of $1.07, I squeaked in under my goal at $99.98! It was very encouraging to see that despite visiting four locations, I was still able to spend less overall.

Time spent shopping was about 2 ½ hours, including driving time (of at least 30 minutes). My toddler escort did pretty well, although he was laying down in the cart trying to fall asleep by the last stop. Time planning was not well organized as I was simultaneously clipping coupons, going through the sales flyers, meal planning and making my shopping lists. I estimate it took me about two hours to do all of that, but I think as I do it more frequently, I will develop a system. Once summer comes in a few more weeks, a friend and I are going to spend Monday mornings doing this project together, while our kids play together.

CONCLUSION
By carefully choosing sale items, I was able to save a lot of money while only using two coupons for a total of $1.75. As you can see, that was still an important factor as it kept me under my goal. But I definitely think I am on the way to developing a system with hitting the different stores, and planning meals from the sales instead of independently.

This shopping trip is only part of the equation. Now I need to stay out of the store for the rest of the week by managing the amount of food I have in stock. Then I need to do it again for the next two weeks in order to stay on budget for the month. It takes work to plan this much, but I feel like a valiant warrior when I save money for my family.

Let me start by sharing that for me, going green is about fulfilling the original mandate entrusted to all of mankind: Rule over the earth, and take care of it. Essentially, we were given the role of stewards of this planet. Someday, there will be an accounting for how well we used the resources contained here.

So, whenever I speak of going green, I am referring to my personal understanding that the earth is a resource, and I will someday be asked to account for my use of it. I use the word green because it seems to convey a universal meaning. In this instance, I think people can have many different underlying reasons for their conviction, yet we can all agree on the importance of intelligently occupying this planet on which we live.

I am sure many of my readers have already embraced the green lifestyle. I salute you. For whatever reason, I became environmentally conscious when I lived in California, where the dense population brings a constant awareness of consumption. And I was a recycling maniac when I lived in Salt Lake City, and had curbside pickup and city-owned bins for all recyclables as well as green waste. Not only that, I was given the option to purchase wind energy credits, and I did.

Living in the country in my my new home state of Texas has challenged my private activism, and somewhat cramped my sense of civic pride. I suppose it is easier to participate in any activity when the community around you supports that activity. Of course, the city itself does offer curbside recycling, but we are outside the city limits.

So, my “greenification,” if you will, has had to start over from the inside. Recycling is no longer just a matter of sorting the trash into two different piles. I did some research and found that there are a dozen places all over town that will each receive one or two types of recyclables. And they seem to all have different hours of operation. You do the math, but if I make several trips into town to recycle items, but use extra fossil fuel to do it, have I really made a step forward?

I decided to choose the one location that takes the best selection of items. I can take newspapers, plastic bottles, brown or clear glass, and any kind of metal food cans. In this new paradigm, I have to clean and sort each type of item, even down to the brown glass from the clear. It’s a bit more work, and also leaves me with multiple sorting bins.

Call me a complainer, but that’s actually a lot of work! And now that I know exactly what this valley has facilities to process, I am realizing that the plastics and glass I used to throw indiscriminately into the recycle bin probably never actually got recycled after all.

I still struggle with our country recycling program. When I get a carload, I can drive it all a half hour away to the facility. But the bins don’t fit well in the house, so I don’t get many carloads recently. I find it difficult to commit to all the sorting and storing when each item requires a separate trip outside to the garage.

I realize I need to recommit myself to going green. Just because it has become inconvenient, or because we live in a low population area, does not give me permission to abdicate the sense of environmental responsibility I feel comes from an authority higher than myself.

More than just a list of “100 ways to go green,” I will try to share practical ways each week that I am actually incorporating green ideas into my daily life. I think there probably are about a hundred ways that come first before I start considering high-cost ways such as building a windmill or installing solar panels. It seems to me that many food topics are related to green, or stewardship, issues. Some of the ways are small, some are large.

This week I present the first two ways I am making better stewardship decisions, to contribute to a greener planet:
1. I bought local lettuce at the farmers market, that did not need to be imported or trucked across the country.
2. We have started replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs. We discovered that our local energy company is offering a $3.50 credit per year on a compact florescent 4-pack! Seems pretty paltry, but after laughing about it we decided that at least it is a step in the right direction.

This week’s goal: get back in the groove of sorting and storing recyclables.

In light of my recent recommendations to spend smart, I am trying to put my own words into action. I have a responsibility to be a good manager of my household budget, and to provide a nourishing menu for my family at the same time. But I have got to tell you, as I try to become more conscientious about both nutrition and cost, I am encountering a bit of a pinch. Actually, quite a serious pinch. Nutritious, “real” food just costs more.

My first foray into nutritious cooking came about the time my first child began solid food. At first it was simple enough to buy a bag of dry peas, cook them, freeze them, and feed them to her. What you could buy in a jar for 60 cents, I could feed her for 10 cents.

At this point I was not even into organics. I began to spend more time around the edges of the grocery buying produce, dairy and meat, and less time in the center buying box mixes and prepared food. When I do shop in the main aisles, I conscientiously check the labels of crackers, cereals and the like, for protein, fiber, whole grain, and other nutritious features. I try to limit sugars, eliminate certain fats, and the like. In so doing, I now just buy known brands instead of whatever is on sale. But do you know what happened? Food began to cost more.

This past year I finally got on the bandwagon with organics. For those of you that still don’t get the big deal about organic food, see my thoughts on the matter. Now that I have added organic milk, butter, eggs, flour and apples to the lineup, I have increased my bottom line by about another $60 a month. All this in a time when food prices are rising at a faster rate than they have in 18 years, so all the other things I buy are now taking a bigger chunk of change than even a year ago. Yikes!

I have come to the point that I am ready to take back my grocery money. I need that money for other things! So I am developing a plan. Time will tell if it is a good plan, but you may come along with me on my journey.

Step One: Coupons
Yes, I am joining the ranks of coupon clippers. Don’t know exactly how well it will pay off for me, but I am going to give it a try for at least four weeks. Maybe another 8 after that, depending if I get any momentum built in the first four weeks.

Today was my first day of using coupons. I spent probably about three hours over the course of the past week, between collecting four weeks of papers from the local newspaper office, clipping, sorting, cross checking with the weekly circulars, and making my shopping list. I visited three stores: the two local groceries, and CVS. I could have visited two other stores, but had a toddler with me so I decided to limit myself.

I tried to purchase only things I would need within the next four weeks, that were on sale, and for which I had coupons. I purchased my organic milk at the further grocery, in full gallons instead of the half-gallons I usually get at the closer store. Saved almost a dollar a gallon. Got four boxes of name brand cereal for $1.25 each; that was great, too.

I used a couple of coupons at each grocery, but did better just buying things on sale with my shopper card. By the time I was finished I had saved 50% at one store. My usual average is 10%. But at the three stores combined, I spent an amount equal to my biggest stock-up shopping weeks. So I may have gotten a lot for my money, but saving money? Not this week yet.

So far I have a few conclusions. First, toiletries are the best item for coupons, and CVS is a great place to use them. CVS rotates pretty much all toiletries on sale sooner or later, so you can get what you want if you are patient. Plus they will have items for sale that give you credit back for spending in the store on a future visit. It is a self-perpetuating cycle. How cool is that? So I will definitely keep that in mind when it’s time to stock up. I believe some of the other major drugstores have this same program.

Second, I can do pretty well just by making my list from the sales circular. I am going to have to do that more often, coupons or no. I did very well today with focusing on sales. I bought 9 pounds of chuck roast for $18, it regularly would have been almost twice that. Convenient, since I am having a barbecue tomorrow.

My third conclusion is that coupons and sales are part of the answer, and it is worth my time to go through the coupons and make a plan to shop from the sales flyer. But they are not the whole answer. My organic and other quality brand choices are still important to me. This leads me to the second part of my strategy.

Step Two: Farmers’ Market
I am fortunate to live in the southern part of the US, where there is a Farmers’ Market year round. I have yet to make it to one, but I have been told that the prices are at least fair, and produce lasts much longer than grocery store produce.

I was unable to attend our local farmers’ market last Saturday, so I am eagerly awaiting this week’s occurrence. I also discovered that there is a store called “The Farm Patch” in the next town, that sells local produce and whatnot. I’ll get up there as soon as I can to check that out, but there is a limiting factor that frames both parts of this strategy.

Step Three: Go Green
All of this smart shopping means more driving. We live out in the country, and driving is a huge part of shopping. At the moment I do not have the option of switching out my vehicle for another that would hold my family and also be more fuel efficient. But with the rising awareness of my environmental responsibility, I have to evaluate both the cost and the impact of my intended course of action (save money and give my family better nutritional value).

I calculated that I spend $2.50 in gasoline every day when I go pick up my daughter from school, six miles away. The closest grocery is another four miles, with the above mentioned Farm Patch another 7 miles beyond that. I believe the gas cost would work out to about $6 for that trip. I really have to have a strategic plan in order to inclusively a. save money; b. buy fresh; and c. be environmentally responsible.

Can I do it? I hope so. It almost seems easier, with such a limiting set of parameters. I know I have lots of room for improvement in all three areas. Wish me luck. Any suggestions would be welcome as well.

Sunday I was initiated into another southern tradition, as we attended a crawfish boil. Had never heard of such a thing, but I was open to learn.

Let me insert parenthetically here that I grew up in the heartland, hundreds of miles from the nearest coast. I have lived in several states since childhood, but our move to Texas a year ago marked the beginning of my life in the South. Over the course of this year I have learned about brisket, kolaches, and fried everything, but I had not yet experienced the regional Cajun influence until this past weekend.

My years in California gave me a taste for seafood, so I figured I could handle this. Crawfish look like mini lobsters, and they are eaten by cracking them open and pulling out the meat. A crawfish the size of my hand yields a tiny piece of flesh about the size of the first knuckle on my pinkie. Seems like a lot of work for a little payoff, but it sure was entertaining.

These crawfish were cooked along with a bowl full of smoked sausage, potatoes, and 3” ears of corn. There were also mushrooms, onion, lemons and a bag full of spices.

I am not sure how I felt about the crawfish; it was cool as a novelty at first, but I only managed one piece of crustacean. I did, however, like the rest of the choices. Sausage is comfortably familiar to me.

I think the moment I lost my stomach for the whole business came about the time my children discovered the kiddie pool full of live ones around the side of the house. They played with the condemned creatures for over an hour, holding them, racing them across the lawn, holding them so they would fight one another. They were enthusiastically on hand for scooping them into the bucket to be carried over to the boiling pot. And to finish it off, they each requested and were granted permission to personally put one in the pot.

This actually reminds me of an incident from my own childhood. My family was in New Jersey one summer, along the coast somewhere. We stopped at a vendor and purchased a bag full of crabs. This idealistic nine-year-old was so excited that her parents had mysteriously decided these leggy friends would make an aquarium full of terrific pets. You can possibly imagine the horror I felt a few hours later, when, back at the campsite, my mom put them in a pot and turned the water on. I could hear their little claws scraping the inside of the lid, and then it stopped. I cried the rest of the evening, and to this day the smell of the ocean reminds me of that scraping sound.

So I am not sure if my problem was more with the seafood, or the casual attitude of my children for the lives being sacrificed in front of their eyes. To their credit, they also requested and received one each to bring home. I named those two Grace and Redemption, in honor of their second chance at life. We have not seen them since their release into the fish pond.

I hope that as I live here in the South, I continue to develop my taste for southern cooking. After several tries, I still prefer KC barbecue over smoky Texas-style; and I still prefer shrimp for my crustacean consumption. But after last Sunday, I feel much more well rounded, and am comfortable with my progress. At least my children are being exposed to cultural cooking!

In my search for less expensive food, I discovered that I can make pizzeria pizza in my very own kitchen! Not too long ago, I was shopping for an “It’s Not Delivery…” pizza in the freezer section. My family will tolerate freezer pizza only if it is a certain brand. We have our standards, after all.

It so happened that my brand was not on sale that day, and I was outraged at paying $6.89 for one when I normally buy at the sale price of 3 for $10. I thought, surely I can make a pizza from scratch for less than that!

So off I went in search of ingredients. Turns out I was right. For a net price of $5.10 (after dividing out the appropriate percentage of larger packages), I was able to get frozen dough, pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni and canned mushrooms.

Not only that, preparation only took 15 minutes longer than traditional frozen pizza. I just had to set out the dough far enough in advance to thaw. After that, the hardest part was getting the dough to stretch out to the perfect size and shape. I just let it rest while opening up the other ingredients, then came back for more pulling and stretching. The dough eventually came around to my way of thinking.

What I know about authentic pizza is this: the secret of good pizza is to bake it on a stone, with cornmeal to keep it from sticking, and to bake quickly at high heat. I didn’t have cornmeal so I used polenta. I thought it was a little gritty but nobody else noticed.

Despite how beautiful this pizza turned out, the real test was the taste. I had made this as a peace offering for the troops since Mommy was headed out the door for a playdate that night, and I was floored to come home and find not a scrap of it left. Two small children and two grown men with average food intake managed to polish off the entire thing. And to hear them talk about it afterward, apparently I am on to something good. I wish you could have seen the look in their eyes…

I think one could easily make this pizza without a recipe, but here is my formula:

• 1 loaf bread dough

• 1/2 jar pizza sauce
• 8 oz (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 oz sliced pepperoni
• 2 oz drained canned mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp butter
• garlic salt

Preheat oven to 475. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza stone. Stretch out the dough using a combination of pulling, throwing, and rolling pin, until it is just larger than the stone. Tuck the edge under.

Spread pizza sauce on dough, leaving an inch clear around the edge.

Reserve 1/2 cup cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese on sauce. Arrange toppings over cheese, then top with remainder of cheese.

Melt butter, then brush on edge of crust. Sprinkle garlic salt on buttered area, or over entire pizza if desired.

Bake 15 minutes until top is golden brown and bubbly.

Make sure you lick your fingers for every drop of deliciousness!