Thursday Links: The Harry Potter Edition

I just finished Book 7, and holy moly was it ever good. When are we allowed to start discussing the plot openly? If it’s not until the movie comes out in 2010, I may explode. Anyway, today’s links are in J.K. Rowling’s never-ending honor.

Consumerist: 10 Tips That Will Make Sure You Stay Broke
This post is like Snape – dour but informative, with a strong possibility of it whacking you upside the head.

Chatham Journal/Consumer Reports: 10 Most-Hyped Kitchen Products and What to Buy Instead
More about kitchen design than cookware, this is nonetheless valuable information for the Molly and Arthur Weasleys of the world.

Frugal Babe: A Frugal Festival
For thrifty Muggles, FB is hosting this week’s Festival of Frugality (lucky #85), and Cheap Healthy Good got a super-nice write-up. Also worth looking into are Frugal Panda’s list of the Top 50 Frugality Bloggers, Freezing Milk Prices from Frugal for Life, and Mom Advice’s How Do You Organize Your Pantry and Cupboards?

Wisegeek: What Does 200 Calories Look Like?
Marvelous pictorial series depicting a 200 calorie serving for dozens of foods. Hagrid should look into this.
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Tuesday Link-o-rama

Get Rich Slowly: 16 Ways to Eat Healthy While Keeping it Cheap
I’m not sure how much I agree with tips 4 and 12, but guest writer Mehdi makes a bunch of good points. He does it concisely, too. Aces.

The Wednesday Chef: Housecleaning, or Three Recipes
Luisa cleans out her pantry, and nutritious deliciousness ensues.

Smart Money: Buy Organic Foods without Breaking the Bank
Must … print and attach … to refrigerator … Oh no … too many … recycling guides … and Christmas pictures … I've ... become … my mother …

Orangette: All So Pretty
THE CHEAP: Instead of blowing a wad on a foofy five-tier monstrosity, Orangette made her own wedding cakes.
THE HEALTHY: Pickled carrots!
THE GOOD: The pictures, the writing, and the sentiment are lovely as all get out.
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A Pot Full of Sauciness

There are approximately 6,600,000,000 people currently occupying Earth.

Of those, 6,599,999,999 have their own recipe for tomato sauce.

(The lone un-saucer is my sister, who prefers Prego from a jar and wouldn’t eat an onion if it was holding a Howitzer [a gunion?] to her head, begging to be devoured.)

Tomato sauce is a wonderful, aromatic fact of life – a healthy, delectable way of dressing up pasta while incorporating valuable vitamins and minerals into a diet. Though there are infinite adaptations using wine, seasonal vegetables, pork fat, olives, and much, much more, many sauces seem to be variations on the following:

1. Tomatoes, onions, olive oil, garlic, herbs.

2. Tomatoes, onions, olive oil, garlic, herbs, soffrito.

My understanding is soffrito (or mirepoix, or the 2:1:1 onions to carrots to celery ratio basic to lots of Italian and French cooking) gives tomato sauce depth, a touch of sweetness, and possibly magical powers. I love Lidia Bastianich’s version, since it’s rich, chunky, and full of pretty colors. (Unfortunately, she also uses ¼ cup of olive oil, which drives the fat content up considerably. In the near future, I’m going to try making it with half the oil, and will report back on what happens.)

Sometimes lower in fat and calories, tomato sauces without the soffrito can be equally as luscious, though they may have added sugar or herbs for flavor. This versatile rendering, a chunky, basil-y adaptation from Cooking Light, is one of those, and maintains its scrumptiousness without too many bells and whistles. Use it on penne, eggplant parm, bread, cheesecake, peanut butter and jelly – whatever suits your fancy.

P.S. It ranks a proven 6,340,662,940 out of 6,599,999,999 on a global scale. I checked.

Light Tomato Sauce
7 servings – ½ cup per serving
Adapted from Cooking Light.

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 28-oz. cans whole peeled Italian tomatoes, undrained
2/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
3/4 tsp salt, divided
1/8 tsp black pepper, divided

1) In a medium pot or small Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until almost tender. Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes, until garlic is fragrant and onion is tender.

2) Crush the canned tomatoes over the pot by hand, making sure you remove any chunks of stem. Pour in juice leftover in can. Bring everything to a boil.

3) Drop heat to low and simmer for about 80 or 90 minutes, until sauce is thick and/or the consistency you like.

4) Kill the heat and stir in the basil, salt, and pepper. Eat immediately with pasta, or refrigerate overnight to let flavors meld. You can freeze the leftovers, too.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per Serving
78 calories, 2 g fat, $0.50

Calculations
1 Tbsp olive oil: 120 calories, 14 g fat, $0.08
1 cup finely chopped onion: 56 calories, 0 g fat, $0.18
4 garlic cloves, minced: 20 calories, 0 g fat, $0.20
2 28-oz. cans whole peeled Italian tomatoes, undrained: 350 calories, 0 g fat $2.00
2/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil: negligible calories and fat, $0.99
3/4 tsp salt, divided: negligible calories and fat, $0.02
1/8 tsp black pepper, divided: negligible calories and fat, $0.01
TOTAL: 546 calories, 14 g fat, $3.48
PER SERVING (TOTAL/7): 78 calories, 2 g fat, $0.50
P.P.S. Apologies for no post on Thursday and Friday last week. There was camping to be done in Ohio.

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The Circular Game: Decoding Your Supermarket Weekly

Tuesday evening’s rolled around, and it’s time for some spur-of-the-moment food shopping. You saunter through the sticky sliding glass doors of your local grocery store, pondering what to purchase with the $15.09 you’ve budgeted until Friday. Then you spot it, lying prostrate and unused in a misshapen stack by the shopping carts: the Supermarket Circular.

Cackling like a maniac, you scuttle over to snatch the half-soaked, seven-page spreadsheet. You’re hunched over, madly scanning the deli section when it hits you: you have no blessed clue how to read this thing. Sure, there are pretty pictures, and yes, the numbers look tantalizingly low, but do you have to buy seven freakin’ jars of jelly to get the 7-for-$7 discount?

The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.

Just kidding. The answer is actually “no.” More often than not, that jelly is priced individually. Since this isn’t intuitive knowledge, like breathing or refusing a pit bull from a man with missing fingers, here are a few decoding tips for the Supermarket Circular, the mightiest of cash-saving weapons.

AT THE STORE:

If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Lots of circulars advertise sales like “Tuna: 5 cans, 3 bucks” or “10 boxes of Ronzoni pasta for $10.” The majority of the time, each item is individually priced, meaning you don’t have to dogpile ten cartons of penne to get the deal. Buy three and it’ll be $3. Buy six and it’ll be $6. Buy one, it’ll be $1, and you won’t have 144 extra ounces of pasta hanging around your cupboards.

Read the small print. Oftentimes, stores will list purchasing requirements in Lilliputian typeface at the bottom of an ad. You don’t see it until it’s too late, and then you’re stuck paying regular price at the register. Criminals here include caveats like: “With minimum purchase of $25,” “With club card only,” and “Limit one per customer.”

Look out for loss leaders. Normally depicted in giant photos on the front or back covers, loss leaders are priced at rock bottom to lure in shoppers. Frequently they’re perishables, daily menu foods, or other stuff you buy with some regularity - meat, fruit, vegetables, etc. Hands down the best values in the market, according to Womans Day, “if you make those two pages … the base of what you’re going to eat all week, you’ll save about 30 percent.”

Keep in mind not everything in the circular is on sale. As Consumer Reports informs us, “A mere mention of a product in a circular can boost sales by as much as 500 percent, even without a price reduction.” In fact, SmartMoney.com says, “Some stores raise prices on advertised specials.” If those on sale hot dogs still seem pretty expensive to you, they probably are. Keep moving.

Do the math. On smarter blogs, this is called “comparing unit prices,” but either way, it goes for all shopping everywhere. Just because a product is sold in bulk doesn’t mean it’s a better deal, even if it appears in the circular. In other words, if a 32-oz. olive oil is listed in the weekly at $10, and the 16-oz. version of that same item regularly sells for $4, the 32-oz. bottle is a rip-off. They’re tricking you into buying more product for more money. Tricksters.

Use your judgment. When you finally arrive at that bin of $0.01/lb chicken breast, take a good, long look at the quality of the meat. Is it gray? Does it stink? Is it housing a maggot colony? There’s a reason it’s on sale. Chalk it up in the loss column and move on. (Same goes for fruits and veggies.) However, if it’s pinkish, and still a day or two away from going bad? Stellar. Take it home and freeze what you don’t use immediately.

Bring the circular with you as you shop. Last week, I saw a 2-for-$1 deal on Goya beans in the circular at my local Key Food. When I got to the shelf, there was no indication anywhere they were on sale. Still, I picked up six cans, brought ‘em to Checkout, and sure enough, got the discount. I don’t know if a lot of supermarkets purposely obscure sales, but man, what a villainous ploy if they do.

Bring the circular with you to Checkout. Whether the machines register a wrong promotion code, or simple humans make simple errors, you will inevitably pay extra for an item on sale. If you’re using a circular to shop and suspect you’ve been overcharged, show the cashier. Are you correct? Sweet! You can bask in the glorious victory of the righteous. (Are you wrong? Boo! Apologize, smile sheepishly, and back away slowly.)

If you’ve got a coupon for an item in a circular, go ahead and try it. Waffles are on sale for ½ off. You have an additional $0.50 coupon. It’s worth a shot, right?

Try a raincheck. Not all supermarkets do this, but if a circular item’s sold out, you can try obtaining a raincheck for later. Those $0.88/lb green bell peppers will come in handy in September, you know.

OH - AND NEXT TIME, BEFORE YOU GO:

Look online. Circulars are increasingly accessible via la web, and chains are including all sorts of extras to entice you. Instant shopping lists, recipe suggestions, back massagers – whatever. The internet availability makes it much, much easier to compare prices between grocery stores, too.

Check to see if your market will match competitors’ circular prices. Rumor has it that some stores have a lowest-price guarantee, as long as you can prove it using another market’s circular. Print it up and bring it with you on your next shopping trip.

Start a pricebook. Are there products you buy with some regularity? Do they go on sale often? Using the online circular and your last receipt, start keeping track of sale prices. This way, you’ll know when something’s just a nickel off, or 75%. Snazzy!

Plan meals around what’s on sale. See: Loss leaders; Look out for. That $0.79/lb pork shoulder could feed you and/or the Marine Corps for a whole week.

Prepare to shop at the start of a new sales cycle. Lots of circulars go into effect on Fridays, and end the following Thursdays. Generally, the better-quality stuff will be made available at the beginning. Don’t wait.

And that’s our ballgame, folks. I specifically didn’t go into coupons or the Sunday newspaper supplement, since they’ll provide plenty of fodder for a future column. If you’re interested in examining either, I highly suggest CouponMom.com. Stephanie knows the score.

Sources:

• Green, Geoffrey M. and John L Park. “New Insights Into Supermarket Promotions via Scanner Data Analysis: The Case of Milk.” Journal of Food Distribution Research. Volume 29, Number 3. November 1998.
• Kadet, Anne. “10 Things Your Supermarket Won’t Tell You.” SmartMoney.com. August 2001.
• Moran, Gwen. “Hide and Seek Savings.” Womans Day. p. 98. April 2005.
• Nelson, Stephanie. “Grocery Store Savings Secrets.” Couponmom.com. 2006.
• Nelson, Stephanie. “Savings Programs Keep Money in Pocket.” The Augusta Chronicle. P. D02. January 2006.
• “Winning at the Grocery Game: How to Shop Smarter, Cheaper, Faster.” Consumer Reports. October 2006.

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Link With Me: Tuesday

Sometimes Tuesday feels like a pinko lefty commie liberal kind of day. In its honor, today's links are all New York Times, all the time:

New York Times: Summer Express – 101 Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less
“How to Cook Everything” guru Mark Bittman jacks it up to ludicrous speed. Quite a few suggestions hit the Cheap Healthy Good requirements (which are: inexpensive, good for you, and presumably way tasty).

New York Times: Did McDonald’s Give into Temptation?
Mickey D’s slides back on its effort to healthy-up the menu. One new Hugo, a 42 oz. soda selling in some markets for $0.89, contains 35 teaspoons of sugar. That comes out to about 12 tablespoons, which is 2/3rds of a cup. Gag.

New York Times: Limiting Ads of Junk Food to Children
GOOD: The government’s restricting junk food commercials aimed at under-12s, especially during kid-centric programming hours, i.e. Saturday morning cartoons.
BAD: The agreement’s ambiguous wording leaves a lot of leeway for ads to pop up in the middle of “family” shows, i.e. American Idol.
UP FOR DISCUSSION: Are the limitations even necessary? Are kids THAT vulnerable to suggestion?
PERSONAL OPINION: Without a doubt.

...and a follow up from Consumerist.


LATE ADDITION: Frugal Law Student is hosting this week's Festival of Frugality. Cheap Healthy Good got a mention! Woot!
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Refried Beans: Easy Like Beanday Morning

Refried beans: their very name suggests cardiac arrest.

“Beans. Those are healthy. Oh, wait - maybe not. It says here they’re fried. No, check that. They’re REFRIED. Does that mean they’ve been FRIED AGAIN? How is that POSSIBLE? GOD IN HEAVEN, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Relax. Despite their forbidding moniker, homemade refried beans are surprisingly low in fat, calories, and evil. In fact, their fiber content (about 7 grams per serving) will have your colon doing backflips. (Or buttflips. Or whatever it is that colons do when they’re happy.) Plus, I recently discovered that making them in your own kitchen is relatively simple and quick as hell.

At best, home preparations are a bit garlicky and just-barely past viscous. They shouldn’t run, but you shouldn’t be able to sculpt with them, either. The first time I tried cooking refried beans at home, I let too much water evaporate, and it resulted in a pasty, adobe-style substance not unlike what you might use to build a hut. Since then, the dish has become progressively easier for me to whip up, and has repeatedly proven superior to canned versions.

Listed below are two recipes: a super-basic one from the back of a Goya can, and a more complex version from Food Network’s Ellie Krieger. I found the restaurant-styleGoya beans to be less expensive and a tad less flavorful, while the Ellie beans are a little pricier/gourmet-ier/kickier, but either would make a delicious side for your next fiesta. Or you could eat ‘em all at once. But who in the world would do a thing like that?

(*farts incriminatingly*)


Ellie Krieger’s Refried Beans
3 servings – heaping ½ c per serving

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ancho chili powder, or other chili powder
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, preferably low-sodium, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup low-sodium chicken or veggie broth, plus more if needed
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1) In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft but not brown, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add garlic and chili powder, stir, and cook for 1 minute. Add beans and chicken broth and cook until everything is warm, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2) Mash mixture using either the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher. If needed, add more chicken broth for moisture. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per Serving
182 calories, 5 g fat, $0.54

Calculations
1 Tbsp olive oil: 120 calories, 14 g fat, $0.08
1/2 medium onion: 56 calories, 0 g fat, $0.18
2 cloves garlic, minced: 10 calories, 0 g fat, $0.10
1 tsp ancho chili powder, or other chili powder: negligible calories and fat, $0.04
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans: 350 calories, 2 g fat, $0.50
2/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth: 10 calories, 1 g fat, $0.38
Salt and pepper: negligible calories and fat, $0.02
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves: negligible calories and fat, $0.33
TOTAL: 546 calories, 15 g fat, $1.63
PER SERVING (TOTAL/3): 182 calories, 6 g fat, $0.54


Goya Refried Beans
3 servings – heaping ½ c per serving

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 14.5-oz can pinto beans, undrained
¼ onion, chopped small
1 large garlic clove
salt and pepper to taste

1) In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions, and cook until onions are soft and translucent.

2) While onions are cooking, combine beans and bean juice in a bowl. Mash with potato masher. Add to onion mixture when finished.

3) Cook everything until liquid has reduced a little, and the beans are the consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per Serving
168 calories, 4.7 g fat, $0.25

Calculations
1 Tablespoon olive oil: 120 calories, 14 g fat, $0.08
1 14.5-oz can pinto beans: 350 calories, 2 g fat, $0.50
¼ onion, chopped small: 28 calories, 0 g fat, $0.09
1 large garlic clove: 5 calories, 0 g fat, $0.05
salt and pepper: negligible calories and fat, $0.03
TOTAL: 503 calories, 16 g fat, $0.75
PER SERVING (TOTAL/3): 168 calories, 5.3 g fat, $0.25

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Turkey Meatloaf? That's Turkey Mr. Aday to You

Growing up, Ma’s meatloaf was a once-in-a-while meal – a rare occurrence on par with Haley’s Comet or the Mets sweeping the Braves at Turner Field. And this is a good thing.

Hard, dry, and made with more bread crumbs than beef, meatloaf wasn’t a dinner we looked forward to, like spaghetti or anything potato-based. And when Ma served it, our disgust was palpable. We made “yick” faces, diced it into microscopic bits, and hid the refuse under neighboring green beans, all in the futile hope she wouldn’t detect our duplicity and ground us for ten years.

Traumatized, I haven’t voluntarily eaten meatloaf since the ‘80s. Then came Ina.

Ina Garten, aka Barefoot Contessa, is the Food Network’s resident State-Department-Nuclear-Policy-Maker-Turned-Hamptons-Hostess. Her meals are largely impeccable, and even food Nazis dig her first collection of recipes, cleverly titled The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Hidden deep inside this tome, among pages and pages of high-fat, high-pleasure goodies, is Turkey Meatloaf. Moist, flavorful, and relatively guilt-free, it’s a paragon of loaf-based cuisine. I cook it fairly often, with a few minor changes.

First, since Ina’s recipes generally make enough for the Duke graduating class of 2007, I cut the ingredients in half. Second, I use Jill W's glaze, which came from favorite blogs, Words to Eat By. Third … there is no third. It’s pretty infallible as-is.

It should be noted, though - unless you use 99% fat-free ground turkey breast, calorie-wise, this is comparable to a lot of other meat loaf recipes. However, the fat is reduced by a third to a half, and the price can’t be beaten. Plus, you’ll have leftovers that will absolutely knock your socks off.


Barefoot/WtEB Turkey Meatloaf
10 servings - 1 slice each
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa.

1 large yellow onion, chopped fine
1 T. olive oil
1 t. salt
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
1 t. fresh thyme leaves (½ t. ground)
3 T. Worcestershire sauce
6 T. chicken broth
1 t. tomato paste
2 ½ lb. ground turkey [I use 1 package each of “lean” and of breast]
¾ cup plain dry bread crumbs
4 large egg whites, beaten
Cooking Spray
Glaze ingredients:
1/2 cup ketchup
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons cider vinegar (Don’t use Tablespoons – I did this once and my kitchen smelled like a Mott’s factory. - Kris)

1) Heat olive oil in a medium pan over medium-low heat. Add onions, salt, pepper, and thyme and cook until onions are translucent, about 15 minutes or so. Add  Worcestershire sauce, chicken broth, and tomato paste and stir well. Kill the heat and allow everything to come down to room temperature. [I put the pan in the fridge to speed up the process. - Kris]

2) Preheat the oven to 350. While onion mixture is cooling, line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. (Pamming is an unskippable step. - Kris) Set aside.

3) In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg whites, and onion mixture using your hands or a wooden spoon. Shape into a meatloaf and set on the prepared baking sheet. Combine the glaze ingredients and pour on loaf.

4) Bake for 90 minutes, or until temperature on a meat thermometer is 160 degrees and the meat loaf is cooked in the middle. (Mine took about 80 minutes. - Kris)

5) Serve immediately, or savor it for the next day. Either way works

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per Serving
269.3 calories, 9.96 g fat, $0.91

Calculations
1 large yellow onion: 125 calories, 0 g fat, $0.40
1 T. olive oil: 120 calories, 14 g fat, $0.08
1 t. salt: negligible calories and fat, $0.02
½ t. freshly ground black pepper: negligible calories and fat, $0.02
1 t. fresh thyme leaves (½ t. ground): negligible calories and fat, $0.10
3 T. Worcestershire sauce: 45 calories, 0 g fat, $0.45 total
6 T. chicken broth: 4 calories, 0 g fat, $0.20
1 t. tomato paste: 2 calories, 0 g fat, $0.03
2 ½ lb. 93/7 ground turkey: 1623 calories, 81.1 g. fat, $6.29
¾ cup plain dry bread crumbs: 360 calories, 4.5 g fat, $0.35
4 large egg whites: 70 calories, 0 g fat, $0.63
Cooking Spray: negligible calories and fat, $0.02
1/2 cup ketchup:160 calories, 0 g fat, $0.33
4 tablespoons brown sugar: 180 calories, 0 g fat, $0.09
4 teaspoons cider vinegar: 4 calories, 0 g fat, $0.07
TOTAL: 2693 calories, 99.6 g fat, $9.08
PER SERVING (TOTAL/10): 269.3 calories, 9.96 g fat, $0.91

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