Menus and Utilization of Product

Just because I went to culinary school doesn't mean that I don't struggle just as much as everyone else does to come up with new and interesting ideas for meals. I am constantly looking through cookbooks, magazines and websites to find ideas that I can then tweak for my own personal tastes and budget. I also try and utilize ingredients in multiple dishes so that nothing goes bad in our fridge and I in turn save money. Here is our current menu for this week as an example.

Monday 1/23 - Clay Pot Ginger Chicken with Spicy Broccoli over Brown Rice

Tuesday 1/24 - Kentucky Hot Browns (Open-faced Sandwiches with Roasted Turkey, Bacon and                                    Mornay Sauce) with Green Salad

Wednesday 1/25 - Chicken Cacciatore with Peppers, Olive and Capers over Polenta

Thursday 1/26 - Chicken Cottage Pie

Friday 1/27 - Flank Steak with Swiss Chard Gratin with Walnut Panko Crust and Roasted Tomatoes

Saturday 1/28 - Bowtie Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes, Cream, Peas, and Bacon

Sunday 1/29 - Ramen Noodles with Chinese Sausage, Spinach and Cashews "Momofuku Style"

Here is what I mean when I say utilization of ingredients. Take Tuesdays meal for instance; instead of buying all-natural, organic sliced deli turkey, which is extremely expensive, I buy a whole kosher turkey breast, brine it myself and roast it. What is a brine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine. I use half the turkey breast for Tuesday's dinner and the other half for sandwiches the rest of the week. Not only have I saved money but I also control the amount of salt and make a somewhat boring ingredient delicious without the use of preservatives, nitrates or nitrites. What are nitrates and nitrites? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrate.

The cheese in Tuesday nights Mornay sauce and the cheese in Friday nights Swiss chard gratin was Gruyere, which tends to be quite expensive. In fact cheese in general always throws my budget for a spin. I buy one cheese for two dishes and make sure no one in the house snacks on it. If you buy cheeses with big flavor you'll get the most for your money. I also always keep Pecorino in the house. It tends to be less expensive than Parmesan and you'd never know the difference in taste.

Ok, next lets look at the chicken in Wednesday and Thursday nights dinner. I almost always buy whole chickens. Why pay someone else to cut a chicken apart? Rephrase why pay a lot for someone else to cut a chicken apart, when you can do it yourself in five minutes. I will post a video shortly of how to correctly and efficiently break down a chicken, but in the case of these two meals I roasted the chicken whole. A whole organic chicken runs me about $2.29/lb X 5lb chicken = around $12.00. $12.00/ 2 meals $6.00 for organic chicken meat per meal. You can't beat that. You'd be surprised how much meat is on a whole chicken and the addition of other ingredients makes using organic possible. Don't always make protein the star. In many cases it can be a great side-note.

Both Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays meal contains about 4 tablespoons each of heavy cream. Group meals together with similar ingredients. What are you gonna do with heavy cream once you've used 4 tablespoons of it. This is where people waste money. They buy one ingredient for one meal and then have no idea what to do with the rest of it. Always have a plan!

Tuesday and Saturdays meal each have bacon. Bacon bought, bacon used.

Use inexpensive ingredients to boost flavor. Example: The ginger in Monday nights meal. Ginger has huge flavor, lasts FOREVER in your freezer and is cheap. Or the olives and capers in Wednesday nights dinner. Olives and capers have such a unique flavor, last almost forever in your fridge, tend to be pretty affordable and a little goes a long way. Have a picky eater...? add these ingredients at the end.

Last but not least check out ethnic markets. Practically all the ingredients for Sunday nights dinner were from an Asian grocery store. Real, authentic Ramen noodles, dried Chinese sausage even the cashews were a bargain. Soy sauce that actually tastes like...well soy sauce. Sesame oil that tastes like...well sesame. Spend money on ingredients that will last a long time. Keep a well stocked pantry...which I will go into detail about in my next post.