Frugal Kitchens 101 - Small Kitchen Appliances

Like many modern homemakers, I have a plethora of small kitchen appliances.  Unlike some, I tend not to get small kitchen appliances that are single purpose.  This is actually interesting as I was gifted with a waffle maker for Christmas and just bought a high power juice extractor, both single purpose small kitchen appliances.  However, these are specialized single use appliances for specific tasks that I know of no other way to get the same results without the appliance.  Ok, I do know how to make juice manually with a reamer but that is limited to juicing citrus fruits.  At some point I would love to buy a steam juicer for home canning juices but for the most part, the only way to make a wide varieties of juices at home is using a juicer.  There are manual waffle makers available, closer to what you would use for camping although they could be used on a regular stove top, I think.  At any rate, small kitchen appliances come at a cost.

Small kitchen appliance use electricity and while it might not be much because they are seldom in use for more than a few minutes, they still use electricity.  The second problem is small kitchen appliances take space, either on the counter or in storage.  I now have 20 small kitchen appliances of which only two have earned their place on the counter.  Surprisingly, I do not have a breadmaker, cotton candy machine, chocolate fountain or any of the other gimmicky small kitchen appliances.  Most of them help immensely with entertaining and bulk cooking.  They are not fancy but they are high quality.  Of those 20 small kitchen appliances, only three would be an immediate, not even blink an eyelash, this minute replacement.  All are invaluable small kitchen appliances that save me both time and money while giving me consistent good results.  They are:

• Kitchen Aid stand mixer - We raised four kids and I can't tell you how many times I wished for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer but funds were tight when the kids were young.  I splurged on a KA stand mixer about 10 years ago.  It is my kitchen work-horse!  I use the KA pretty much daily, often multiple times in a day.  Additional KA attachments let me use the KA for grinding meats, making pasta, shredding, slicing and straining foods.  This save us a considerable amount of money by not having purchase pre-made, store bought versions and it also us to avoid the food additives in store bought versions.
• Keurig single brew system - This is one small kitchen appliance that earns its keep on our counter.  It is used daily and often multiple times.  It is a God send when entertaining!  The Keurig K-cups range in price from 35¢ to 79¢ depending on where they are bought.  While this sounds expensive, we can easily offer our guests gourmet coffee without having to slip to the coffee shop where the price of a cup of coffee ranges between $1.25 to $3.50 but I've been told some specialty coffee shops charge more.  We have the re-usable My K-cup filtering system so can use regular ground coffee at a current cost of 8¢ per cup.  This is a nice extra that insulates you from not being able to find K-cups as what happened with the Melitta One:One single brew system.  Since we bought the Keurig, we don't get take-out coffee on a regular basis so we are saving right there.  We are further saving because we only brew what we need so there is less brewed coffee wasted.  It is especially convenient being able to make only one cup without having to make a whole pot of coffee.
• FoodSaver vacuum sealer - This appliance, despite the low cost, saves me so much money I wouldn't think twice about replacing it!  It has saved us countless dollars by eliminating freezer burn as well as keeping home dried foods at their peak of flavour without moisture or insect damage.  It protects our valuables and important documents from possible water damage when boating and I use it to seal original genealogy documents in acid-free holders.  I've used it to make home made ice packs, protect skeins of wool from silver worms, make boil-in-the-bag ready meals, as well as in many crafting projects.  

My New Bella High Power Juicer Extractor

There are a multitude of small kitchen appliances on the market.  Some are fluff, single purpose appliances that may or may not save you money.  In general, if the small kitchen appliance is not gimmicky, at some level it will save you money along with time while enhancing what you can cook in some fashion.   Sam's Club has a limited selection of small kitchen appliances.  By limited, I mean there really are only a very few to choose from and not the common ones like toasters what some consider daily use small kitchen appliances.  You will definitely save on the purchase price, likely ending up with a higher end appliance than you could find elsewhere but at a lower cost.  I bought my Kitchen Aid Professional HD stand mixer there with a savings of almost $200.

I am very pragmatic when it comes to small kitchen appliances, especially those single use ones.  I have wanted a juice extractor for years but really couldn't justify another appliance to find space for if it wasn't going to save me money or enhance my cooking in some manner.  Well, we were at Sam's Club a couple of weeks ago and they had a Bella High Power Juice Extractor on sale for $49.98 so for that price I decided to buy one.

The Bella high power juice extractor has a 1,000 W motor for juicing hard vegetables fast. It has a wide feed tube for quick and easy juicing with easy to clean dishwasher safe parts.  The 1 L juice pitcher has a splash free lid and there are two speeds for hard or soft fruits and vegetables.

The juice extractor is extremely easy to use.  Simply set up as per instructions then wash the fruit or vegetable you want to juice.  Fruits with pits (eg. mangos, peaches, cherries) should be pitted.  Fruits other than citrus do not need to be peeled.  Fruits containing starch (eg. banana, papayas, avocados, figs and mangoes are not suitable for the juice extractor as the will not yield a clear juice.  Bananas will also clog the micro-mesh screen.

The juice goes into the pitcher or if making a smaller amount you can use any glass that will fit under the spout.  The pulp goes into the pulp basket.  Do not throw this pulp out as it can be dried then used to make fruit or vegetable powder helping you increase your cooking diversity.

For the most part, a juicer is a single use small appliance with the sole purpose of making juice.  While the waste pulp can be frozen or dried for other uses, the goal is making juice.  That is one reason I did not buy a juicer earlier.  At the same time, a juicer makes small quantities of juice at a time while being a fair amount of work to clean.  For those with small kitchens, a juicer will take up more room than a stand mixer on the counter.

A juice extractor does not save you money unless you grow your own or have access to a free source of some fruits or vegetables.  A juicer does result in a healthier product that has not been subjected to heat for preserving.  Nor has it had salt, sugar, artificial flavourings or colours, or harmful preservatives like sodium benzoate.  The enzymes are still active in freshly extracted juice (aka better for you).  You can juice just about any fruit or vegetable, even herbs so you can make something at home that you can't buy.  I've have recipes that called for cucumber juice.  The only way you can make that quickly is with a juicer although you could set up an old fashioned strainer if desired but it will take several hours to collect the juice.

Juicing allows you collect the juices then use them in cooking, baking and jelly making.  If I wanted to make a juice for jelly it could take a half of a day or more to collect the jelly but a juice extractor reduces that to just a few minutes.  You can easily make home-made versions of the new and popular fruit and vegetable combination juices.

Pictured are carrot, celery and pineapple juice.  Now, I did save money on the carrot juice because 3 lb of carrots that were on sale for 97¢ gave a yield of 1 L carrot juice (less than the cost of store bough) and carrot pulp for drying to be made into powder, a win:win deal.  The celery juice is really a speciality juice you would be hard pressed to find in grocery stores.  It can be used in baking, cooking, drank as is, blended with other fruit juices or froze into ice cubes to flavour drinks later.  The celery was $1.49 but I got a unique product that I would either make off season when celery is on sale or use in season local or home grown celery.  Pineapple juice is not a cost savings it is a quality savings.  I paid $1.99 for the pineapple so I know store bought pineapple juice is cheaper but it has been subjected to heat for preserving meaning enzymes have been killed and there is a flavour change.  The freshly extracted pineapple juice is far superior in flavour to store bought canned pineapple juice.  Use it in baking for a wonderful punch of flavour that can't be beat!

An Easy Dinner - Home Canned Condensed Tomato Soup

The Gnome family continues to battle a very bad strain of cold.  That means we are relying on a lot of healthy, home made comfort foods.  One of those foods of course is soups because you can pack in a lot of nutrition to help heal the body.  At the same time, a lot of the ingredients not only help clear mucous but are just down right comforting.  Home canned condensed tomato soup is the perfect substitute for the store bought condensed soup and it doesn't have BPA, preservatives or anything artificial in it.

I made 30 - 500 ml jars of home canned condensed tomato soup in September 2012.  The problem is and I knew it then that there was no way that would be enough condensed tomato soup to get us through the winter.  So, I have been using it sparsely.  Still, one of the best ways to enjoy this soup is as a soup.

A couple of days ago, I opened two jars of the condensed soup then added about a cup of milk and warmed it up.  More milk could have been added but I like the deeper flavour using less milk.  I garnished the soup with a bit of fresh Parmesan cheese along with plain crackers for my husband and crackers with cream cheese for me.  The entire comfort meal cost under $1 for two people with left-overs.  That is not bad on the frugal side but more importantly it scored big time on the comfort level!

Mom's Surprise (Mix & Match) Casserole

I can't believe it is February already!  Much of January has seen us dealing with one of the nastiest cold strains either of us has ever had.  My husband's started just before New Year's and he still has a cough.  Mine has been a bit more problematic with complications so I'm still under the weather. While good, healthy and nutritious food is important any time  it is especially important when you are sick to help your body heal.  That is the time you want to pack in as much extra nutrition as possible.  We have been relying heavily on casseroles, home-made/home canned soups, and salads to get us though.

Of note, everyone knows to avoid dairy if the illness includes a gastrointestinal upset.  However, leafy green salads should also be avoided in this case as they make digestive system work harder.  The alternative way to get your leafy greens if you have a gastrointestinal upset is through juicing once you are well enough to be off of clear fluids.

I have been making a casserole that goes mainly by Mom's Surprise Casserole since I was a young bride, before we even had kids but the dish was actually named by out kids later.  I have several versions of it because it constantly changes by what I have on hand.  This casserole is basic comfort food, a great way to pack in extra nutrition and it is very frugal to make.

Have you seen those charts in the women's magazine's that give you a choice of meat, vegetable, starch and extras to make different versions of the same dish?  Well, Mom's Surprise Casserole is exactly the same except I've never taken the time to make a chart.  Here's a bit of an idea of what I mean for choices:

• ground meat - beef, chicken, turkey, venison, pork
• vegetables - corn, potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans or whatever vegetable strikes your fancy
• soup - any kind of condensed soup (I prefer using my home canned soups), vegetable soup, smooth soups
• topping - cooked macaroni, cooked rice, mashed potatoes
• cheeses - your choice of any cheese you like; I like to add a soft cheese (eg. cream cheese, yogurt cheese or Cheez Whiz) stirred into the pasta until melted before topping then adding shredded hard cheese after topping.  This is a great way to use up those little bits of left-over cheese!

To get you started, here is the way I made the ground beef based casserole earlier this week.  Note that this is a bit higher in fat for extra nutrition and calories as well as adding to the creaminess.  Extra fat is necessary when healing from certain illnesses like a cold as it helps your body absorb fat soluble nutrients.  Also of note, while it does look like the casserole in the picture is overflowing with melted cheese, the overflow is actually bubbling home canned tomato soup. 

Mom's Surprise Ground Beef Casserole

source:  Garden Gnome

2 lb ground beef

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 c each cooked cubed potatoes, carrot medallions, whole kernel corn, sweet peas

1 L (quart) home canned tomato soup

½ c milk

2 c dried elbow macaroni

1 c cream cheese

2 tbsp butter

½ half & half

1½ c shredded cheddar cheese

Bring salted water to a boil then stir in the macaroni.  While the macaroni is cooking, brown and drain the ground beef.  Spread it evenly over the bottom of 9 - inch X 13 - inch oven proof casserole dish.  Clean, slice and brown the mushrooms.  Spread evenly over the meat.  Wash, cut and steam the potatoes and carrots.  Spread evenly over the mushrooms.  Mix the frozen (no need to thaw) corn and peas together then spread even over the potatoes and carrots.  Drain the macaroni then mix well with cream cheese, half & half and butter.  Divide the shredded cheese in half.  Spread half the cheese over the thus far assembled casserole.  Top with the macaroni mixture.  Mix the tomato soup with the milk and pour the tomato soup evenly over the top.  Top with the remainder of the shredded cheese.  Place the assembled casserole dish on a baking sheet to catch any drips as it will have a bit of overflow.  Bake at 350°F until bubbly and cheese topping is golden brown.  Remove from oven and serve.