Eating Asian the Frugal Way, Congee

Congee.
One way to incorporate frugal zen into your food bugdet, is to explore ethnic foods. If you have access to a farmer's market or an ethnic market like Asian or Mexican, you can often purchase cheap ingredients and make fantastic meals. Most of my ancestors come from Europe, but my husband was born in Bangkok, Thailand. It is really easy, almost imperative, that I add Asian dishes to our menus. My mother-in-law has taught me some really good dishes, but some of my favorites are the cheapest and easiet.

Congee is actually a Chinese name for this Asian common breakfast or dinner. It can be found at Dim Sum houses in China town here in Chicago. Most Thai's I know eat this for breakfast or a late night snack, but I love it for a quick, nutritious, filling dinner.

Rice. The most important part of a Congee Dinner. I either use left over rice or uncooked rice. Place rice in a saucepan and add way too much water. It will turn out soupy, and that is what you want. It's actually a rice porridge, but I don't like the way that sounds, so I use the Chinese name congee. If I have 2 cups cooked rice, I would add 2 cups water and heat to boiling. I might or might not add more water depending on the consistency desired. There is no right or wrong consistency, I like mine a little less soupy than my husband does. I usually cook it to the consistency that I like, and then add a little hot water to my husband's bowl when I serve it.

Accompaniments. Served with the congee are an assortment of protein and veggies. I usually make a three egg omlette cooked in olive oil. When I am preparing the eggs, I add a tsp of fish sauce, or nam pla, but if you don't have access to it, a little salt will do just fine.

Immediately after the omlette is finished cooking, I throw 1/4 to 1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts into the omlette pan. I don't turn off the heat, and toss the peanuts around the pan for 1 or 2 minutes until they just start to brown and you can smell the peanuts cooking. As soon as the peanuts are browned, pour them into a bowl. Don't let them burn. BE CAREFULL!!! These are very hot.

I also serve some preserved asian vegetables. I get these little cans at my local asian market, but if you can't find them, parboiled green beans, cooked carrots, or another cooked vegetable would be just fine. Note: if you can't find pickled veggies, add a little soy sauce to the congee. The brine from the pickled veggies gives a nice salty flavor that you will otherwise miss.

Another thing we like to eat is dried shredded pork. It looks a little like dryer lint, but it is really good with congee. It is sweet and a little salty and after rehydrating in the congee has a nice tender chewiness to it.

To eat your congee, place small bits of egg, veggies, pork, and a few peanuts in the bowl. Some people like to mix, but I usually don't and add more as I go.

This is actually quite filling, and it is very inexpensive to serve. The little cans of veggies usually cost 75cents or less, the dried pork is about 2 dollars - and it will last a while, you won't eat it all in one meal, and the rice, eggs and peanuts are nominal.

Enjoy!!!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

In an effort to add more fiber to my diet, this weekend I made a hearty breakfast that included whole wheat pancakes. To purchase a premade mix is crazy, especially if you have the ingredients in your pantry, and if you do, they are oh, so easy to make.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour (I use my bread flour)
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 heaping tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Put the above in a large bowl and mix together.

In another bowl mix;
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tblspoon honey
1 tsp vanilla

Heat a skillet over medium heat until drops of water do the "Hot Skillet Dance". Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, don't overmix. Sometimes I add a little extra milk, but this batter is meant to be a little on the thick side. Pour batter onto non-stick skillet. We like 3 -4 inch pancakes, but make the size that you and your family enjoy. These pancakes won't bubble like regular flour pancakes do. The bubbles don't "pop" so I watch the first batch closely and turn when the pancakes stop looking shiny and the edges look a little brown. After the first batch, I can better guage the time for turning.

Sometimes I add a tablespoon or 2 of flaxseed to the batter. The seeds give a nice nutty flavor and a little crunch.

Serve warm with syrup, powdered sugar, jelly, fruit, or plain. Plain or with blackberries are my favorite ways, these pancakes really have a great flavor.

Enjoy!!

Washing Storage Bags

I wash storage bags. I struggled for a long time trying to find the best way to dry my bags without making me and my family crazy. I used wooden spoons in my dish rack, clothes pins on a line, my son's power rangers action figures (only kidding, but it might work!).

One day, I happened to have a chopstick in my dish drainer. It was the perfect height for drying the bags and it didn't take up a bunch of room in my dish drainer. "Hey", I thought, "I have a bunch of these that I saved from Chinese take out. How can I make this more user friendly?" So, I went out to my garage and I found some scrap wood. I used leg from a broken stool and cut a small square from a piece of scrap. Next, I found a drill bit that was a similar size as the chopsticks. I drilled 8 holes in the stool at about a 45 degree angle around the leg. I attatched the square of wood to the stool for a base, popped in the chopsticks, PRESTO, a free bag dryer!! A thick rubber band that once held broccoli is used for storing the chopsticks while not in use.

Look around your house. You don't need to use a stool leg, any leftover 2 inch dowel or closet rod would work. Chopsticks are easy to find cheap or free with a meal.

This is a real easy way to creat something very useful with little to no money, just a little imagination and elbow grease.

Pork Chops and C.S.A.

Today, we are having pork chops, mashed potatoes, and spinach for dinner. This summer, we frequented a farmer's market just south of our home. We found this family who raises free range pigs and sells them periodically throughout the year. We ordered 1/2 hog from them and it was delivered in October. Since we are fortunate enough to have an extra freezer, this has been an excellent way to incorporate organic food into our diet in an inexpensive way. This is the best pork I have tasted in a long time. They raise them organically, and if I may age myself, it tastes like pork used to taste like before it became the "other white meat".

This family also owns a CSA. CSA is "consumer supported agriculture". Here's how it works. Usually a small farm owner wants to grow more crops organically. He or she options a CSA. Consumers pay an up front fee at the beginning or well before the growing season of 300-600 dollars depending on how much of a "share" they want. The farmer uses these funds to support his farm and the consumers get a "share" of the produce that is grown throughout the season. A share is usually picked up weekly and consists of a portion of whatever is ready to eat. In the spring a share might consist of a lot of greens. Mid-summer a share would consist of tomatoes, cucumber and other summer vegetables. Late summer-early fall would be squash and root vegetables.

It's a great way to eat organically while not putting a huge dent in your budget and at the same time supporting local business and agricuture.

On the down side, if for whatever reason the farm does not produce a lot, drought, freezes, floods, you don't get a refund for non-production. But I look at it this way, it's good for the environment. If I support a local organic farmer, if he has a bad year but is still getting local support, he won't sell to the BIG agricultural farm that will use pesticides, fertilizer and hormones that eventually will leech into the ground water and thus into my family's food supply. I win either way.


I have posted a link to a good site to search for a CSA, farmer's market or co-op near your home. Purchasing organically grown, in-season food is a great way to feed your family. Not only are you not consuming hormones and chemicals, but you are reducing your carbon footprint because your produce did not ride in a truck cross country to get to the grocery store.

So, tonight, we are eating pork chops. Pork chops that were not fed hormones or given antibiotics, pork chops that did not ride in a truck to get to my table, and pork chops that taste really, really good.

Our hallway art gallery

My son's fall art

Semi-framed Wall Map

My son's work in a black frame with black mat.