Ubiquitous Must Have #1

NDF.

What is it? I've written 9 of these, and the last one is some horrible, unreadable enigma! Kidding. It's Nonfat Dry Milk.

Why I love it:

1. Shelf-stable. Make as much as you need.
2. Versatility. Same product is a glass of milk one second, a Splenda aid the next, and then a thickener the next minute.
3. Low in calories.
4. Cheaper than milk because it's dehydrated.
5. Comes in a box, usually with cows on it. I like the idea of boxed milk, alright?
   

So, if you hate skim milk, I really think that you'd make your peace with NDF. The flavor is concentrated, so if you dislike the texture & taste of skim (watery, bluish), you can reconstitute the milk by reducing the amount of liquid you'd normally use, or increase the amount of powder. Normal ratio is 1 cup of water to 1/3 c powder. Let's say you used the 1/3 c powder, but just 1/2 c water. You'd get this nice, creamy, sweet tasting milk by altering the ratio. You could swap out a lot of added calories in a recipe in addition to adding calcium and vitamins as well.

I use it for:

• food base: smoothies, puddings, lattes
  
• coffee creamer
• soup thickener
  
• ***Fat free whipped cream***
• milk, duh
• in recipes

The whipped cream trick is really neat; I hope to have video on that soon.

NDF, my favorite 3-letter abbreviation right after NPH. Y'know, Neil Patrick Harris...ubiquitious and a must have in his own right, I guess.

Foodprint: Quickies

I'm patting myself on the back for this one. Last, last, last week's breakfast was rice & beans with eggs. I took a pre-seasoned, reduced sodium of course, rice & beans mix, baked it up, and stashed it in the fridge. For breakfast, I scooped out 2/3 cup of beans, and then about 3-4 egg whites (pourable equivalent is 1/2 cup) and microwaved it.

For my hard work, because it does require some stirring and very, very, very complex...um....button pushing...I was rewarded with a hearty, cheap, tasty breakfast.

I had enough rice to take this breakfast as a lunch the following week! This time, I used whole eggs, and same method. (Note: you can microwave whole eggs, out of the shell, but poke the yolk before doing so, or otherwise, the egg's on you in so many ways.)

Sometimes you really can marry convenience to a healthy lifestyle if you don't mind making an adjustment (cooking ahead of time, using pre-packaged items). And if you don't like eggs, you could probably do a Hoppin John (rice, beans and bacon) or a nice soup with the mix.

PS...I Love You

I read a Weight Watcher article about 7 Ways to Eat Smarter. The first tip was to sneak veggies into your dishes. I was all, "I do that already! That's great! But why is it sneaking?!?"

Theory: we shy away from vegetables for so many socially primed reason we don't even realize how awesome they can be.

This is where I will yap about salad PS..I Love You.

Pasta Salad: The Next Generation.

Yesterday I did a "cabbage in the straw" quick fix. Cabbage in the straw is a 30-min meal recipe from Rachael Ray. Basically I matched thin whole wheat spaghetti up with shredded green cabbage. I paid just 1.59 for the cabbage, which is 3x as much as I paid for the pasta.

Yup. I paid 39 cents for the pasta. Coupons baby!

The point is...aside from bragging...pasta and vegetables come in such a large variety and many of them are very, very, very cheap. Or, can be made very, very affordable. If a box of pasta costs let's say 2 bucks. Eventually it goes on sale because of it's shelf life (gotta clear inventory) or you have a coupon. Now, it's affordable. It's very, very, very affordable when you stretch out an 7-8 cup serving box of pasta with vegetables.

So, back to dinner: I took one of my splurgers, pesto, and added it to my quick fix. You can can also stretch out pesto with a ubiquitous item, chicken stock. So, literally my dinner costs me under $2 a serving. Maybe 3 when you add the pesto.

What is also great about pasta salad is that you can flavor transfer, so you're not eating the same ol' salad. You can match like shapes with like with like such as thin spaghetti with shredded cabbage, floret vegetables (broccoli or cauliflower) with elbow noodles (macaroni), spherical with spherical (gemelli w/ beans). Or, jsut go against the grain and mix it all up. You really have a great tabula rasa with pasta salads. You can get gluten free mixes or whole grain if you don't do white starch or looking to up your nutritional profile.

Go where no man has gone before people. Yes, I made a star trek reference. Shush and make me a salad.

Urge to splurge - Part II

So, last time on MacGuyver...

So without listing what foods I think you should have as splurges -- because the whole point of this site is for you to decide -- I will give examples of my own splurge worthy items as inspiration.

So, technically it's a list but it doesn't include specific foods. Yay technicality!

I splurge regularly. But that's because I can, I love to, and I don't eat out to frequently because this currently fits my needs & lifestyle. So I shell out $$$ for certain items. And they are...

• Treats! If I love it, I should have it, and just set aside a bit of cash for one or two of my favorites to have on hand. Sometimes, having a treat is the healthiest thing you can do. Just not every day, and every meal. Treats can be anything, fancy cookies, artisan breads, select cuts of meat, whatever you deem a treat is a treat.
• Nuts! I had some curried nuts from a Farmer's market, and they were awesome. I bought them for company. But, instead of serving the whole container, I put it into two cute little bowls along with other snacks, and served them. I still have half of a container left. And, if I like, I can freeze them. And I liked the idea, so I did.
• Oils! A ubiquitous item for starters and other oils like sesame or peanut, can be very valuable and splurge worthy because a little bit of oil can go a long way.
• Cheese! Specifically, a nice aged cheese like parmesan, or my current favorite, Peccorino. I can grate it over eggs, salads, pasta, mac & cheese, pizza...sometimes, I just eat a sliver. And, when it begins to mold, you can actually just shave/slice the mold off and the rest of the cheese is okay. For germa-phobes or those serving others, you can usually buy the cheese wedge in various sizes, as it is often sold by weight, so grab a smaller wedge.
• Weird Fruit! I like sundried tomatoes (not packed in oil) and avocados. Avocados can actually be prepped and frozen to be used in recipes were they're usually cooked. Sundried tomatoes can be rinsed, dried and stored in the fridge to last for months without a spec of mold. Certain fruits just have odd staying power and great flavor. You have to discover which weird fruit suits you.

Urge to splurge - Part I

Healthy eating is usually synonymous with ZZzzzzzzZZZZ.

Or $$$$.

For ZZZzzzzZZZ...wake up. If you choose to eat dull, bland foods, of course it's a chore. Wake up and be creative, but really let's explore the other issue for a sec.

The $$$ because nonfat foods are often harder to produce. Or, ingredients used to make healthy foods require labor intensive production. I was watching Bizarre Foods last night.; the amount of time, labor and process to yield cashews were just ridiculous. But, cashews are sooo good, so I deem it worth the money, especially once you know the effort it takes to get it.

Sometimes spending some cheddar on good cheddar can solve both problems. You just have to do some prep work to do it. Here are some guidelines:

• What am I buying? If I don't know what is, I'll seek info and see where I can use it. I love cookthink.com for this very reason.
• Shelf-life...freezing things does wonders for shelf life...the longer the items last, the better the cost/time ratio.
• Flavor. Your food should nourish you, yes, but it can also taste awesome. These things are not mutually exclusive.

Many of my ubiquitous items, so far 4-10 are up on FLNI. A lot of them take these guidelines into consideration, making them excellent staples for your kitchen and your diet.

More to come on this topic......tune in, same bat time, same bat channel.

Healthy Obsessions

Frozen vegetables. Not very exciting. I know...

It's like your first run to the library, pre-DVD. There's all this knowledge and books and it's freeeeeeeeeeeee. You get to take it home for nothing. Vegetables are like that. Only, you can't loan them out. But, they're low calorie, some nearly calorie free, and you get all these health benefits for next to nothing.

Lately, I've been noticing coupons for Green giant vegetables. They have a steamed variety similar to Bird's eye Steamfresh as well as having a "Just for one" variety. They also go on sale frequently, so coupon + sale = healthy food for 1-2 bucks.

I like using the lightly seasoned ones with pasta, easy and nutritious.
It's also portable, you can take the box or bag to work, and if you have a microwave, you have fresh veggies all you have to do is add some lean protein (last week I snagged canned tuna for 50 cents) and you're good to go.

It would be awesome if vegetables had their own card. I'd use a veggie card. Only, the vegetables can't be "used" and on loan. That would not be awesome.

Trading Post Basics

Remember the Oregon trail?

Ahh, they days were you were supposed to be learning to type, word process or research, you were on the Oregon Trail, finding fruit with Indians (there were no Native Americans in 2-bit land) or caulking your wagon across the river and watching all your friends die of cholera and dysentery? Fun times!

Remember the very start of the game? Where you had to ration out supplies and goods? Basically, let's go back to that. This is a simple cash & calorie saving idea that EVERYONE can do, from chef to foodie.

Talk to the people that make your food. I went to the farmer's market in Jamaica last Friday, as well as the Friday before. I picked up yellow tomatoes, and some Crispin (a.k.a. Mutsus) apples to try out. I was also checking out some baby pears and local greens, but I passed on buying them.

I really dug the Crispins, so I went back. I'd spied the baby pears I from the week before and the farmer noticed this, and remembered me from that other Friday. Since I'd asked him questions and bought some goods before, he let me try the baby pears for free. He originally offered me one, but I ended up with four.

Now, before you run off to become BFFs with your local corner store guy, be mindfl that this won't happen each time. They need to sell their food to live, and stuff. However, I find that I get really good fruit when I talk to my produce guy. I have 2 regular ones I visit. They like that I actually buy stuff, that I often come back for more stuff, and that I tell people their stuff is good. In exchange, I get good, well priced seasonal fruit and monthly samples.

What's also cool about talking to the people is that you get it straight from the source. If you want something in particular, they'll be happy to tell you when they'll have it since you come back. You'll also be rationing out because you're buying what you need -- I love strawberries, but I won't buy 4-5 cartons if I can't take them home easily.

My main fruit man is on the corner of Parsons & Jamaica Avenue in Queens. I call him my little strawberry man because he once told me he only gets strawberries as sweet as him. To this day, I cannot get him to repeat that message to anyone else, because I used it once to help him with a sell. Heh.

Cent Dreams, Oh mercy, mercy meeeeee

Did you ever think you could link dollar stores with a better diet?

I really, really like a bargain. While I was teaching myself to cook, I didn't realize that I had a lot of these items already in my home and that using them could lead to healthier eating. If I didn't have the item (the whisk, for example), I could go out a buy one. Healthy eating can be very affordable, you just have to be creative with it.

These are my top ten 99 cent store items.

(This is a long post, if it helps, imagine me as Dave Letterman, but cuter and non-adulterous.)

1. Vegetable Peeler - Self-explanatory. But, the real bargain here is "ribbons." You can take any tuber, root or oblong vegetable and cut cool patterns around them. Or, even better -- make "noodles". Veggie peelers are awesome at making zucchini ribbons, cucumber noodles, orange curls. This can not only add more veggies to your meal arsenal (spaghetti + veggie shreds), but bulk out your meals, too! More on this in posts to follow.
   
2. Grater - I love my microplane, but it took me FOREVER to find it. Now that I have it, I'm actually reluctant to use it. I continue to use my hand grater. I can lay it on top of my mini food processor or a bowl, and grate & zest to my heart's content.
3. Kitchen Shears - Long before I had my mediocre knife skills, I had my kitchen shears. I can open things, duh, but also rough chop vegetables, and other items so that they're evenly sized. It also reduces the number of knife nicks to my fingers. Yay!
   
4. Paring Knife - Good for paring, and also for quickly slicing small items like grape tomatoes or strawberries.
5. Basting Brush - Get a couple of these. You can use one traditionally, with marinades. You can use another one for egg washes. And, the last one, use together with bonus item to coat your metal pans with minimal oil, but with widespread flavor.
   
6. Whisk - Great for whisking together an omelet, or meringue. Incorporating air into certain foods adds not only volume, but cool texture effects. And, the air is free!
   
7. Cutting Boards - Acrylic is a must for food safety. Wooden, so you can chop all your fresh items without ruining counter tops. It's your own little workspace.
   
8. Plastic bags - These make me a little sad because they aren't eco-friendly. But, they're so cheap and useful. I use them for marinating, porting food, storing food, salad in a bag and portioning out food.
   
9. Measuring cups - If you bake, you want to have these. Generally you want a set w/ 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 & 1 cup measures. It's a good way to learn the (volume) of portion sizes. The more you use them, the more use you get from them. I leave a set on the counter for everyday use -- 1/2 c cereal, c of pasta, etc -- I recommend buying 2 sets.
   
10. Strainer - That thing that looks like a hairnet. Or a fisherman's net. Anyhow, this is a great bargain. You use it for straining pasta, and what else? I use my strainer to dry my washed produce, and strain out excess liquid from canned goods. How about as a grease guard? The flat ones are often sold that way (splatter covers), and can be used a strainers for small amounts of food. What about as a steamer? A large, metal strainer can actually sit on top of your pot, covered, and effectively steam your food. Just make sure if your using it for cooking or with heat, get a large enough metal one that can sit nicely on top of your pots.

BONUS: Mister/Spray bottle. You can buy in this in the cleaning/plant section. Or, if you use any of those spray salad sprays, save that bottle, wash & rinse completely and load it up with your go-to oil. I keep olive oil in mine. I keep it in a dark place so the oil does not turn rancid. This came to me when I wanted to make a stir-fry, but my wok is all copper, PAM is not that woks friend, and as much as I love PAM, it does leave a residue (lecithin may be the culprit) if not washed from your cookware completely.

So, it was a top 11. I sneaked that last one in there, but you get the idea. These are items I use frequently, and while at first it seems cumbersome, it really becomes a breeze when you decide to improve your food attitude.