eG Foodblog: Ling - eating on a (very small) student budget

[mags]

Now wait a minute, Linq. Cheesecake? Stuffing? Turkey and gravy? Tofu pudding?

What happened to that forlorn can of sardines and all the (gulp) Jello? Not to mention the dying broccoli.

[Toliver]

Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries and possibly squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper spray.

* To a can of refried beans, add...

I make Poor Man's Burritos...no meat but just about everything else added to the beans, all wrapped up in a tortilla (which are amazingly cheap...especially the corn tortillas) and are usually very filling.

[PopsicleToze]

For inexpensive meals, stock up on pasta. One of my favorites -- slice some fresh garlic and cook in olive oil until it just starts to brown. Eat with spaghetti topped with fresh chopped parsley and garmesan cheese. Good parmesan isn't inexpensive, but it takes an inexpensive dish to new heights with just a few gratings of the stuff. (Also, Pasta Alfredo.)

For an easy inexpensive lunch, make an Italian bean and tuna salad. Drain liquid from 1 can of white beans and 1 can of tuna. Mix in bowl with a few tablespoons of mayonnaise, olive oil, some sliced onions (first soaked in red wine vinegar), some capers, and whatever fresh herbs you have on hand -- chopped fresh parsley is fine and about $0.50/bunch. Season to taste. Serve on its own or over iceberg lettuce.

Also, check out your market for specials on chicken leg-quarters (leg and thigh combined). We get them all of the time for about $0.29/lb -- but you have to buy 10-lb package -- only $2.90. You can make thousands of great dishes with chicken thighs/legs.

P.S. Enjoying your food blog.

[Schneier]

Ramen noodles. Throw away the seasoning packet, and flavor them yourself.

Bruce

[bloviatrix]

It is also a good idea to watch for fresh signs of bear activity and know the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings.

     

      Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries and possibly squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper spray.

Oh man, you just brought back a repressed memory from childhood.

We used to go hiking in the National Parks and take a lot of Ranger-led treks. One summer I developed an expertise on animal droppings which I decided to share with my classmates when I returned to school in the fall.

I still haven't recovered from the abuse.

[Schneier]

I still haven't recovered from the abuse.

Adolescence is rarely pretty.

Bruce

[Ling]

Wow, thanks for all the great meal ideas! I'll have to remember to pick up some pasta from the bulk bins later.

(And omigod, Chef Hawksworth replied to my thread....!! )

No school today (I managed to arrange my schedule so I only have classes on MWF) so I'm at home studying for my midterm. For breakfast, I had a glass of diet Pepsi (I've been out of milk for about a week) and a big cup of Chinese green tea. Also, I had 2 slices of Dempster's whole grain toast (defrosted in the microwave, then toasted). I had to eat it dry since I don't have butter at home. (Don't have peanut butter or jam either. In fact, I haven't bought "extras" in the past few months.)

The loaf of bread came from Dempster's Discount bakery, which is like a wholesale place next to where I work. They have an area in the back for all the bread that's going to expire in a day or two, all marked down to 69 cents a loaf/package regardless of how much the original price is. They have buns, and tortillas there too...basically anything they sell that's about to expire. It was my greatest find over the summer. I buy a couple loaves at a time and stick them in the freezer.

[Ling]

We drove past Whistler into the Pemberton Valley is search of Pine Mushrooms or other wise known as The Matsutake.

Aren't Matsutake mushrooms quite expensive? I think I remember Ming Tsai saying that on his show. I didn't know you can just pick them in the wild!

[d.hawksworth]

Yes .....very expensive.....hence going out to find them myself!! Plus it's a great way to burn off the second helping of Turkey!!!

They grow only in the wild and are in abundance in BC!!!

DH

[tammylc]

Also, I had 2 slices of Dempster's whole grain toast (defrosted in the microwave, then toasted).

I find that I get fine results just throwing my bread directly from the freezer into the toaster.

Enjoying your blog, BTW, although it makes me want to send you food....

[Malawry]

I try to stick to a small budget for my household, and I usually succeed. It helps that I have the time to make good food, and a chest freezer for storing it.

I buy dried beans in bulk and cook them and package them in Ziplocs for the freezer. Cheaper than canned and just as convenient.

I make vegetable stock, buying large quantities of onions, carrots and celery and cooking them down.

I buy fish and veg from Asian markets. I save fish bones and make stock out of them. Knowing how to fabricate your own fish can save you a ton of money since you can buy the great stuff at the Asian markets. Asian markets are incredibly cheap on veggies and some fruits.

I buy frozen shrimp and fresh salmon from Costco. Also canned tomatoes, pasta, tuna, large blocks of cheddar and mozz that I can cut up and freeze, unsalted butter and a $2.50 quart of cream ($6 at a regular supermarket!). I stretch that salmon a million ways...make gravlox, cut some sandwich steaks for the freezer, and roast or grill some for dinner...leftover salmon is good in salmon cakes. The frozen cheese makes baked pastas, homemade pizzas, etc simple, quick and cheap. Not for cheese trays or when you want to impress, but good for family eating.

I shop my farm market weekly and plan meals based around what's available and cheap. Most of the food is costlier than the supermarket but also far better quality. Farmers let me buy in bulk for discounts so I put by my own jams from flats of fruit, and I get large quantities of tomatoes and apples for tomato sauce and applesauce far better and cheaper than anything available in the store.

We don't eat any meat or fowl at home. I have learned over time that it takes a while to learn how to stock my larders, and how to optimize my planning so food rotates in and out of the freezer and such without turning. I've gotten pretty good at it. I think it's a lot harder to eat on the cheap when you don't have time to plan though, it's the time I have for jobs like cooking beans and stocks that frees me up to combine in easy cheap meals on a weeknight.

[Ling]

had 2 diet pepsis, a hardboiled egg, and a bowl of (dry) fiber1 cereal for lunch. now must run to 1st student's house. should be faster than waiting for the bus.

[Ling]

Dinner was essentially whatever I could shove in my mouth in under 5 minutes (in between students).

Opened a can of chilli and nuked it: 2 minutes

Ate a handful of cashews while waiting for the chilli to heat.

Downed that big bowl of lukewarm chilli in 3 minutes, and was out the door again.

After work, I headed to Safeway to buy some groceries. Hothouse red peppers were on sale for $1.49/lb., and I bought some onions too. The 24 count packs of fat-free cheese was buy one get one free, so I added that to the basket. And 1 L of skim milk.

Thinking of trying the South Beach Diet for a week to lose the couple pounds I gained from the last few days of gluttony. :) It's similar to Atkins, but more carbs are allowed, and fatty cuts of meat are not encouraged. No counting calories either.

[Schneier]

So tonight's dinner was Pine Mushroom Broth with Bok Choy, Pork, Green Onions, Soba noodles ( .79c ) I think the total was $6 for two !! absolutely delicious !!!!

Although a lot more if you calculate your hourly wage into the equation.

On the other hand, a lot less is you deduct the pleasure of what sounds like a wonderful afternoon foraging.

Bruce

[Ling]

I only got a few hours of sleep last night because I spent an hour or two pouring over old InStyle and Vogue issues. Finally got to bed a little after 1am, after snacking on a few BBQ chicken wings I found in the fridge. Woke up at 6am to make breakfast--scrambled eggs (3), that old piece of brocolli, and some luncheon meat (roast beef). Sprinkled a godly amount of salt over everything too--as directed by my cardiologist to help raise my blood pressure a little. Drank a big cup of tea (orange pekoe) with sugar and milk. That was a pretty big breakfast...should tide me over until my first break at school.

Edited October 15, 2003 by Ling (log)

[d.hawksworth]

we won't talk about the fuel cost!

DH

[alacarte]

Ling, thanks for the blog.

What are traditional Canadian Thanksgiving foods? Is there anything that's different from American Thanksgiving foods?

Thanks!

[tammylc]

Ling, thanks for the blog.

What are traditional Canadian Thanksgiving foods? Is there anything that's different from American Thanksgiving foods?

Thanks!

I'm not Ling, but as a Canadian (ex-pat) I thought I'd chime in. Thanksgiving at my house was pretty indistinguishable from American Thanksgivings I've been to. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and an assortment of vegetables - sweet potato, turnip, corn, carrots (with brown sugar and butter), parsnips (also given the brown sugar and butter treatment), peas, whatever. Pumpkin pie and usually a cheesecake for dessert.

The one thing I'd never had or even heard of before I moved to the US was the quintessential Durkee's French Fried Onions green bean casserole. But the onions were available there (I know because my stepmom used them in some recipe she'd found in a cookbook), so perhaps that was just something that my family hadn't picked up, as opposed to something Canadians don't do as a general rule.

[Toliver]

The one thing I'd never had or even heard of before I moved to the US was the quintessential Durkee's French Fried Onions green bean casserole.

Perhaps you Great White Northerners were spared the Campbell Soup/Durkee's advertising hype. Which is odd. You would think they would have blanketed every square inch of the continent with that recipe. I'm sure the oversight will be corrected and soon all Canadians will be eating the ubiquitous casserole, as well.

[Schneier]

The one thing I'd never had or even heard of before I moved to the US was the quintessential Durkee's French Fried Onions green bean casserole.  But the onions were available there (I know because my stepmom used them in some recipe she'd found in a cookbook), so perhaps that was just something that my family hadn't picked up, as opposed to something Canadians don't do as a general rule.

I'd never seen that at any Thanksgiving dinner I've been to until I moved to Minnesota.

But we also served our sweet potatoes straight up.

Bruce

[Ling]

I didn't know about the green bean casserole topped with french fried onions, and smothered in cream of mushroom soup until I saw it on that FoodTV show, Top 5. I think the category that night was "Food Trends of the 70s" or something like that.

I actually don't think it sounds that horrible. I like cream of mushroom soup occasionally, and how can crispy fried onion pieces be bad?

For lunch today, I had 3 hardboiled eggs (brought to school in a tupperware container), and I ate an Atkins bar (Peanut butter flavor--haven't tried them all, but this is what I like best so far) on the bus ride after school (surreptiously, of course, since we're not supposed to eat on the bus). Had a few minutes before work, so I went to Safeway to buy my student a treat--Sour Patch Kids from the bulk bin. I also bought a small handful of nuts for myself. The bill (for both the nuts and the candy) was only $1.00. Ate the nuts while walking to work. My student (Alex) didn't do his homework for the third week in a row, so I gave the Sour Patch Kids to his older brother Anthony (whom I also tutor, but on a different day). Alex cried and I felt bad, even though his mom always tells me to be more strict with him.

Then, during the last few minutes of class, I caved and told Alex I would bring him a treat tomorrow if he finished his homework. Why do kids have to be so darn cute.

[Ling]

Ling, thanks for the blog.

What are traditional Canadian Thanksgiving foods? Is there anything that's different from American Thanksgiving foods?

Thanks!

Hi! Like tammylc said, I think Canadian Thanksgiving fare is similar to what's offered at an American Thanksgiving table.

I'd have to add that I'm Chinese, and this was our first Thanksgiving dinner with more traditional Thanksgiving food. In years past, my mom roasted a turkey and made sticky (glutinous) rice as stuffing (both inside the bird, and another huge wok full of it since it's so damn good). Also, other Chinese side dishes that you would find at any big dinner (like braised shitake mushrooms, egg "pockets"--tiny egg crepes filled with seasoned meat, Chinese roast pork, etc.)

For Christmas, I think my mom and I will both cook so we can have the best of both worlds! I want to make the sausage stuffing again, but I missed the sticky rice and other sides over the weekend.

[Suzanne F]

Sticky rice for a T-day stuffing sounds great. Don't think I'll have to do it this year, but the next time, I will. YUM. The best food is when we accept all the different traditions and make them our own.

While I hate the idea of "treats for good performance," you're right to tell Alex that he's got to do his homework first. Cute has nothing to do with it. Do the work, and you'll get paid. Don't do it, and you'll go hungry (so to speak).

[SethG]

The one thing I'd never had or even heard of before I moved to the US was the quintessential Durkee's French Fried Onions green bean casserole.  But the onions were available there (I know because my stepmom used them in some recipe she'd found in a cookbook), so perhaps that was just something that my family hadn't picked up, as opposed to something Canadians don't do as a general rule.

I'm a U.S. native, and I never heard of it until last week. I even entertained the notion that the dish was invented by Sandra Lee.

I still have a hard time picturing what french fried onions from a can taste like.

[Suzanne F]

Pretty good, for canned fried onion rings.