Meal Planning: Eating Well on a Budget

I am absolutely loving how our recent reduction in income has pushed me to be more conscience about our meal planning and I feel really proud about how well we eat with restricted means.  Granted, I acknowledge that I probably allocate a higher percentage of our income to food than other families in our tax bracket, but at $600 a month we eat very, very well and I don’t feel like we’ve had to compromise or go without at all to do so.  Fact of the matter is, if we were suddenly to find ourselves with twice our current monthly income, I would see no reason to change our spending pattern with regard to food.

This week’s grocery/household goods purchases came in at $156.22 and as usual was focused on organic, whole foods with – as always – a couple of splurges (fair-trade chocolate!!) thrown in.  Here’s what we have lined up this week:

Eggplant Cannelloni (Recipe Below!)

Hearty Veggie Burger with Yam Fries

Buddha Bowl

Miso Soup and Veggie Sushi

Potato and Cauliflower Samosas

Sweet and Saucy Salmon

Of course, we’ve made granola bars and bread with plans for muffins and cookies and brownies this week, too!

Eggplant Cannelloni

I first came across this recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine almost 10 years ago (really??) and the way I prepare it today is not too different to how it appears there.  I’ve made just a few tweeks with the addition of extra cheese, some red chili flakes, nutmeg, et cetera…  This is how we make it in our house:

Ingredients:

One large, beautiful, glossy eggplant carefully sliced lengthwise to yield 8 slabs ~1/2cm thick

4 vine ripe tomatoes – Cut into 1/8ths (I don’t bother seeding; you can, if you’d like)

1/2 head of garlic – cloves peeled and smashed

Generous amount of EVOO

1 tsp of dried oregano

Chili flakes and S + P to taste

Small onion

10 oz frozen spinach (feel free to use fresh!)

1/2 tsp nutmeg (more or less depending on your tastes)

500g ricotta cheese, moisture strained off

1 egg beaten

1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced

2 oz fresh parmesan, grated

2 oz mozzarella, sliced in eight pieces

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Baste both sides of eggplant slices with EVOO and place on cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, flipping 1/2 way through.  Eggplant should be nicely browned on each side, but not crisp.

{ sauce in the making }

2.  In a casserole dish, place tomato, garlic, oregano & chili flakes.  Douse generously with EVOO, S & P to taste.  Cover loosely with foil, place in oven and roast for about 40 minutes, removing foil half way through.  When done, put in sauce pan on stove on low and blend with immersion blender till you have a blended but still chunky consistency.

3.  While tomatoes are cooking, saute onion in EVOO till translucent.  Add drained spinach and continue sauteing until any residual moisture is gone.  Remove to bowl and allow to cool.

4.  In a second bowl, combine ricotta, egg, parsley, half the parmesan and the nutmeg.  When spinach/onion mixture is cool, add it as well.  Combine well.

5.  Spoon half the tomato sauce into the bottom of the casserole dish.  Then assemble cannelloni rolls.  Do this by rolling 1/8 of the ricotta/spinach mixture in each eggplant slice.  Place them into the casserole dish.

6.  When all 8 pieces assembled spoon remaining tomato sauce on top, top each one with a slice of mozzarella and the rest of the parmesan

7.  Bake covered for 20 minutes and uncovered for 5-10, or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.

8. Enjoy!

{ fin }

52 Weeks of Good Habits: Cutting Back the Caffeine

I’m worried it sounds silly that I am struggling so much with cutting back on my caffeine intake, but it is true:  somehow over the last 20 years, coffee has become such a major part of my life that a cup in my hand is as ever-present as the nose on my face.  It is part of my morning routine, necessary to focus when getting down to work, an element of comfort and leisure when it is time to relax…

However, recent revelations about my health have made this change essentially non-negotiable and so I am trying – beginning today – to reduce my consumption.  I’ve started by mixing my regular beans with decaf  in a 1:1 ratio.  So far, I don’t find the taste is compromised, so that is good. Over the next couple days, I’ll see what I can do about cutting back actual cups I am consuming.  Toward that end, I splurged on my favourite decaf tea this week so that I’ll have something satisfying to replace my coffee with…

Wish me luck!

Weekly Meal Plan: To Save or to Splurge?

So, the last couple weeks have been tough in many ways, not the least of which is financially.  With J working only 14 hours a week things are tight enough, but throw in extra expenses incurred from Nelly Loo’s injury and an expensive and unexpected trip to the dentist for Belly and, well, we’re having to tighten up a little more… Even still, I’m a sucker for a good deal, and ended up going a bit over budget on groceries this week, stocking up on some wicked sale items, some of which were staples (Unsalted Organic Butter for $2.99 and Organic Peanut Butter for $1.50 off) and others simply splurges I could not pass up even though they were not on my list (Mighty Leaf Tea was $4.00 off a box!!  Mangoes $6.99/Case!!)

Our typical grocery budget is $150 a week, and I had wanted to keep this weeks spending around $100.  I landed at $132.19 which is not too bad.  Furthermore, within our weekly meal plan, there are a couple of dinners I have planned to triple and freeze, so we’ll have a few meals saved for a rainy day.

Meals this week are as follows:

Vegetable Spaghetti

Refritos with Mexican rice and Avacado

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

Lentil Soup

Buddha Bowl

Fried Rice with Szechuan Cauliflower

I’ve also made cherry/orange muffins and pecan/coconut granola bars for snacks this week…