Kitchen Quick Tips - Keep Brown Sugar Soft

Soak a piece of terra cotta.  Place brown sugar in a sealed container with the soaked terra cotta and cover tightly to keep the brown sugar soft, ready to use.

My Version of Starvin' Guy Chicken Pie

Over the past couple of weeks while on crutches I managed to watch a few shows on Food Network Canada.  It was a bit of a treat while icing my ankle and knitting the most testy ever afghan pattern.  I pretty much gave up watching television during the day a few years ago so don't indulge as much as I used to on the food channel.  Greta and Janet Podleski of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry made a healthier version of individual chicken pot pies called Starvin' Guy Chicken Pie that sounded too yummy not to try making it.  I made my version of their dish last night for dinner.

Greta and Janet's recipe is based on using a large rotisserie chicken.  This is one of the very few take-out foods that I consider frugal in terms of cost and time.  A whole, raw chicken here costs about $10 in the stores and they very seldom go on sale which explains why we buy chicken pieces rather than whole chickens most of the time.  Whole chicken from the farmers costs us $8.  We can buy rotisserie chicken at Sobey's and Wal-mart for $7.47 but once it gets past 5 PM, Wal-mart marks them down to $5.  Since I needed the chicken for dinner, I ended up paying full price.  It was still a good deal.

I deboned the rotisserie chicken cutting the meat into bite sized chunks and reserving the bones that would be added to my bag of frozen chicken bones for making chicken stock later.  Not only would this chicken make a delicious, low cost and healthy meal, it would also go towards making home canned chicken stock for the pantry. 

Greta and Janet's recipe did not specify how many cups of chicken, only to use a large rotisserie chicken (light and dark meat).  I ended up with about 3 cups of prepared chicken. 

We have dealt with the same local butcher shop that my husband's parents dealt with.  They have good quality meats, lunch meats and cheeses as well as a specialty Dutch foods section.  What I really like about buying there is I can buy according to my need.  Greta and Janet's recipe called for grated Swiss cheese.  Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, the grocery store here did not have chunk Swiss cheese.  This is rather normal as it is a smaller community.  The butcher shop came to my rescue.  The cheese ended up costing $17 and I only used a piece about 1 inch wide off the end of one of the pieces for this recipe.  However, cheese doesn't go to waste here so I'm sure the rest will get used up without a problem.

I started tweaking the recipe to eliminate a bit of measuring and using what I had on hand.  What I did keep was their very low fat added for cooking.  Their recipe called for measuring the onion, celery and garlic but I just guestimated for my version.  None of these would add extra calories or fat so a little over their measurements wouldn't hurt.  I used homemade poultry seasoning and home canned turkey stock which lowered the price per serving.  My home canned turkey stock is defatted as well.  I would have used home canned creamed corn but am completely out so had to buy a can.  I also used a frozen mixed vegetable blend (peas, corn, carrots, green beans, Lima beans) as I didn't have just plain frozen peas and carrots on hand.  Rather than make individual chicken potpies as they did, I made one large one saving a bit of time in the process.

While I modified the filling, I kept the biscuit topping the same (refer to link to recipe above).  I will note that the biscuit topping was very much on the wet side and difficult to work with!  Here is the recipe for the filling as I changed it:


My Version of Starvin' Guy Chicken Pie Filling
recipe by: Garden Gnome

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
2 cloves garlic
8 oz package sliced mushrooms
¾ c frozen mixed vegetables
1 tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp poultry seasoning
2 c home canned turkey stock
1 c cream-style corn
1 c 2% evaporated milk
3 tbsp unbleached flour
½ c grated Swiss cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3 c rotisserie chicken

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in ceramic coated (or non-stick) fry pan.   Add onions and garlic.  Cook until onions are just turning translucent.  Add celery and mushrooms.  Cook until mushrooms are tender.  Stir in mixed vegetables, thyme and poultry seasoning.  Mix well.  Stir in stock and corn.  Let the mixture simmer for about 2 minutes.  In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and milk together then pour into the vegetable mixture.  Continue cooking and stirring until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat.  Stir in the cheese, parsley and chicken.  Pour the mixture into an oven proof baking dish.   Cover with dough of your choice.

One of our kids warned me that Greta and Janet's recipes are very flavourful bordering on intensive.  We did not find that to be the case with this recipe and in fact we both found the recipe to be on the bland side.  The filling was a definite keeper but needs a bit of tweaking.  It could definitely use a bit of pepper, more garlic and I would use fresh lemon thyme rather than dried thyme.  In fact, Herbes de Provence would work rather nicely in this recipe.  Both of us agreed that a stronger flavoured cheese like Asiago would have added a bit more spark to the filling.  I would be tempted to use a small grated potato as the thickener in place of the flour as well. 

The biscuit topping was an utter failure!  It looked lovely but that's it.  I was expecting flavour but there really wasn't any.  Even though the dough was horrid to work with and that can be easily remedied, the flavour was very much lacking even though I used the flesh from sweet baked potatoes with that bit of extra caramelization.  It was missing the pizzaz!  Perhaps a pinch of nutmeg or even garlic or onion would brighten the flavour.   The nice thing is, their recipe gave me a healthier way to make the filling.  Even though it does need tweaking it is still an excellent starting point.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Homemade Convenience (1)

We live in a very busy world with a lot of demands coming at us from every direction.  The food industry recognized this problem back during WWII when many women went into the workforce.  They began perpetuating the myth that convenience foods like commercially canned foods and tv dinners saved the busy homemaker time because these foods eliminated the prep time necessary for home cooked.  About the same time the budding fast food industry came on to the scene further perpetuating the myth of convenience.  What neither the food or fast food industry told the consumer is their convenience foods were chuck full of artificial food additives, sugar, salt and fat.  In addition to being unhealthy or at best borderline unhealthy, these foods were expensive and yet the consumer bought in to the myth thanks to the every growing bombardment of advertising.   There is absolutely no reason why you cannot make your own homemade convenience and guaranteed it will be at a fraction of the cost of store bought.  The reason you save a considerable amount of money is because you are using the raw ingredients then assembling yourself.

Equipment Needed:

• freezer containers - Aluminum trays (Sam's Club or dollar store) are ideal for freezing casseroles and side dishes.   Plastic freezer containers are quite inexpensive ranging from the Ziploc style containers to stronger Rubbermaid containers.  Zipper style freezer bags are cheapest when bought in bulk at Sam's Club - 8¢ per bag compared to 40¢ in the grocery stores and 30¢ per bag for vacuum seal bags.
• mason jars/glass jars - Mason jars can be bought new or found for free through your local Freecycle or Craig's list.  Glass jars can be recycled from any food you buy in glass jars or put the word out to your family and friends that you need jars with lids.  If you need the larger 1 gallon jars, ask at restaurants.
• plastic bags - By far, vacuum sealing foods for the freezer protects them from freezer burn better than any other sealing system.  The cheapest source for vacuum bags is The Sweet Attack.
• specialty equipment - The following will help you create your homemade convenience:  BWB canner (free - $20), food vacuum sealer ($50 to $100), and food processor or attachment for KitchenAid stand mixer ($20 to $60).  It will help to have larger volume stock pots as well that you can likely find at yard sales or thrift stores for $2 to $5 but you only need one or two.  Ideally, you will buy a pressure canner ($70 to $250) as well BUT many of the foods that are pressure canned can also be froze.

Homemade convenience can be though of essentially duplicating what you are already buying (eg. cake mixes, cookies, canned beans, canned soups, breaded frozen fish sticks or chicken pieces, rice or pasta mixes and frozen dinners.  Take a walk through your grocery store with a set of new eyes knowing most of the foods in the canned, frozen and baking mix sections you can easily make yourself, not only saving money but  the homemade versions are healthier for you because you control the ingredients.  Here are a few of my homemade convenience products and a few tips:

• inspiration - The biggest inspiration is knowing I'm saving money yet getting a healthier product.
• recipes - You don't need a lot of fancy recipes.  Refer to blogs like this one or Google for 'bulk cooking' or 'Once a Month Cooking' or 'OAMC'.  There are oodles of tried and tested recipes out there and don't forget many of your family favourites can easily be frozen.
• meal quick starts - When starting out with homemade convenience, focus on meal quick starts.  This will be family specific but some of mine are cooked meat or poultry in gravy, seasoned ground beef or pork, taco meat, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, breaded or coated anything (eg. vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, mushrooms, cheese),  side dishes, meatballs and that type of think.  While some of my meal quick starts are home canned the majority are frozen.
• mixes - Oh my gosh the food industry really charges through the nose for mixes.  In reality you are buying into the myth and paying for the packaging.  A cake mix that costs 99¢ contains about 10¢ worth of ingredients and you still have to add oil, water or milk and an egg or two.  In less than 15 minutes time you can easily put the ingredients for 10 cake mixes together at a cost of $1 or 1/10th the price of store bought.  The same can be said for homemade shake & bake coating, many seasonings like poultry seasoning and taco seasoning, as well as mixes like stove-top stuffing and rice-a-roni.  The beauty with most mixes is they can assembled so quickly so it is quite easy to have 10 cake mixes or 10 bread mixes sitting in your pantry in about 10 minutes time.
• cookies - The dry ingredients for cookies can be assembled as a mix or you can make refrigerator cookies.  These are similar to the store bought cookie tubes in the refrigerator sector but at a fraction of the price.
• sauces - Many store bought sauces can easily be made at home at a fraction of the cost of store bought.  A jar of my roasted tomato sauce costs about 20¢ compared to store bought at $3.99 and while I love the convenience of having it ready to use in the jar because I home can it, most tomato sauces freeze quite nicely if you don't want to can them.
• soups - I buy most soups to use as a sauce and by far the most purchased is cream of mushroom soup.  Aside of cream soups, homemade soups can be home canned (an easy and less expensive alternative to store bought) or they can be frozen.
• casseroles and ready meals - Many casseroles freeze nicely in aluminum trays for freezer to oven convenience.  Most quiche freeze nicely as does homemade tv-style dinners.  The beauty of making your own tv-style dinners is they are geared to your tastes and are considerably lower in sugar and sodium than most store bought tv-dinners.  
• rice, potatoes, beans -  All of these starches can be cooked in advanced then froze for later use.  Potatoes and beans can be home canned for dump and pour convenience.  A 2 lb bag of frozen french fries will cost you about $1.50 or 75¢ per lb but a 10 lb bag of fresh potatoes costs at it's highest price here $3.99 or 40¢ per lb.  Using a French fry cutter, that 10 lb bag of potatoes can easily be turned into ready to cook French fries for your freezer in about 15 minutes.  Freeze rice and beans in meal or recipe sized portions.
• snacks - Store bought snacks are expensive!  One of the best ways to avoid the expense is to switch to fruits with their own protective packaging.  Prepare carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepper slices and cucumber slices in advance then keep them in the refrigerator for a quick, yet healthy snack.  Homemade popcorn is always inexpensive and easy to make fresh but you can make it ahead then seal tightly for later use if desired.  You can do the same with oven baked potato chips.  Dehydrate fruit purée for fruit leather, and vegetables like zucchini for healthy vegetable chips.  Buy fruit on sale or grow your own then dehydrate to make your own trail mixes or granola.

Philly Cheese Steak

Years ago one of our quick meals was philly cheese steak.  M & M Meat Shops sold boxes of the prepared meat, thin cut and ready to cook for this delicious sandwich.  Unfortunately, they no longer sell the philly cheese steak meat so there are three ways to get it: slice it yourself, have the butcher shop slice it for you or buy from a restaurant supply.  The key thing about the meat is it is very thinly sliced.

My husband brought home philly cheese steaks for dinner a couple of nights ago.  A very good fried of ours and experienced restauranteur who's specialty is English style fish and chips has just opened a snack bar.  She is from England and oh my gosh you should taste her steak and kidney pies!

Philly cheese steak is a type of sandwich using very thinly sliced beef with a cheese sauce.  She makes the cheddar cheese sauce from scratch which is basically a thick white sauce with cheddar cheese added.  Sautéed green peppers and onion add a lovely flavour.  The filling is piled into a toasted hot dog bun.  She makes her philly cheese steaks very similar to the way I make mine. 

One of my kitchen splurge this spring is an electric meat slicer.  I have been convinced I need one of these for quite some time for custom cutting thin, uniform sandwich meat slices.   As kitchen appliances go, a meat slicer is not expensive.  Canadian Tire put them on sale for $69 a couple of times a year.  It is an extremely useful appliance if you are like us, using whole cuts of meat we cure and cook or simply cook rather than buying store bought.  The slicer will compliment my big kitchen splurge this year, a smoker!  I am so excited...