Free, Cheap, Coupons, or Sale

As the title says, I rarely purchase anything that isn't free, cheap, on sale, or for which I have a coupon. I'm referring specifically to food. That's not to say I won't splurge on a specialty item from time to time, but for day to day consumption, that's my philosophy.

On January 12th, I wrote a blog, Dipping Dollar Does Not Mean Deteriorating Diet. Since that time, I have seen and heard innumerable complaints from people about how terrible food prices are and how they can't afford to feed their families. That was inevitable.

I won't turn this into any kind of judgemental commentary. It's far too easy to resort to saying, why don't those same people give up smoking, liquor, their trips to the dollar store for useless junk, or whatever their source of enjoyment might be. It's not about those things, and I don't think it's not necessary to give up much of anything. To me, as I mentioned before, it's all about effort and planning. There are many parts of this country and other countries where people would love to have our options and prices, when it comes to groceries.

Today, I gathered my coupons (clipped while watching people complain about food prices on t.v.) In my opinion, you should always do something valuable in addition to watching t.v. (another topic...I digress). I flicked through to check expiry dates and off I went to Walmart and Metro. Foodland has been erradicated from my list since they are a bit far and have also jumped their discounted produce prices to $1.49....who are they kidding? That's $1.50 in real money. Outrageous.

First stop as always, the discounted produce shelves. Saturday morning, the shelves were stocked. People ambled by, cursory glance, then pushed their carts past rapidly as if they'd just seen a toxic substance. In fact, they were snubbing their noses at the bargains as if they were frequenting an establishment other than Walmart. This isn't Whole Foods or some trendy juice bar in the Beaches people! (I don't care, I still call it the Beaches)

I was most excited to find a $1 package which included not only a very nice tomato, but also an English cucumber, a whole stem of fresh garlic, and a package of pearl onions. Once again, I also espied a $1 cauliflower and four green peppers for  $1.  Jackpot! After this essential first stop, I moved on through the aisles....bread $1 off coupon; rice...buy one get one free; dish soap, large size on sale for $3 and I had a $2 off coupon. And so it went until I was satisfied that I had retrieved the best bargains.

At Metro I did just as well....on a Saturday morning no less!  Mushrooms (the exotic kinds) for $1. Avocadoes (always available) 5 for $1. Woohoo....guacamole. (Not to be confused with whack a mole). The many packs of grapes were tempting but I decided they contain too much sugar and I'm not good with eating just a half dozen delicious, red, juicy, grapes. There were also the ever available, never ending carrots and potatoes...didn't need any today.

Sooooo.....my produce purchases for today look like this. Why not try my shopping method? As they say, "The Thrill Is In The Hunt". Now I'm off to create some meals for the week.

Here's a yummy sweet potato recipe I thought I'd share. Got it from a lady at a meeting I attend and it's amazing and simple. Sweet potatoes are often on the discounted shelves but even if not, they are kind of cheap and of acceptable nutritiousness...nutritiosity...nutriosis....er....vitamins content.

Zingy Baked Sweet Potato Fries for 2 people

Preheat oven to 425.

Wash sweet potato, cut off tails (the pointy parts on the ends) and cut into wedges. I use one sweet potato for two of us and I leave the skin on.  Feel free to use more (increase spice amounts) if you're super hungry or have people lurking around your house for dinner.

Get a baggie, Glad bag, produce plastic, or reasonable facsimile. Put in a tablespoon of olive oil, 1/4 tsp. cumin, 1/4 tsp. cinammon, a pinch of cayenne (or more if you like a burned throat), salt. Drop in your potato wedges and shake, shake, shake (the more you shake, the more calories you burn).

Place wedges upright on Pam sprayed baking sheet and place in oven for 20 minutes or so. Remove from oven and enjoy.

Currency, Cauliflower, and Columnists

I'm not certain at what point cauliflower became the standard by which we judged the current state of the Canadian dollar. I just know that it happened.

"Did you see that cauliflower is almost $8 a head. Shocking!"

Not only that, but jokes have been made about the lowly cauliflower. I heard one from my painting instructor about a couple who went to visit their loan officer at the bank so that they could put a deposit on a cauliflower.

Even I have been culpable. As my cousin and I compared the state of the loonie to the Euro, I felt I had a greater right to complain. I texted ...."Blumenkohl kostet bei uns über sieben dollar!" The lack of whatsapp response showed me that I had clearly won this argument.

So why the sudden interest in cauliflower? I mentioned it to hubby today. 

"Have you noticed that people complain about the price of cauliflower a lot lately? Do people in general, other than me, even like cauliflower that much? "

This was met with the usual shrug and a look that told me I had once again said something unremarkable. 

So tonight, when I saw an article by Vinay Menon in the Toronto Star, I felt validated.
 http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2016/01/22/cauliflower-is-disgusting-at-any-price-menon.html

I also felt sad. My idea, as have so many before this, had been usurped yet again. Immediately, I snatched up the Entertainment section of the newspaper, and ran to show hubby. This was front page entertainment news! Not only that, I had just shared this thought with him earlier today. Surely, he would remember and be excited by my insight and knowledge of cauliflower. The highly anticipated response came. "Hmm".

Hadn't he been paying attention? Didn't he realize this was the exact point I had made this very afternoon? 

I read the article. I disagree with the article. Not only do I enjoy cauliflower, I find that there are many uses for cauliflower. It is not as Menon states, " a grotesque vegetable nobody cared about". I care. 

In fact, I care so much that you can only imagine my excitement when I saw half price cauliflower on the sale rack at No Frills this week. People were just strolling past with their carts, not even noticing this bargain. How could they not see it? Not only was cauliflower on sale for $2.97, but there was half price cauliflower to be had. I immediately grabbed two heads and smuggly walked past all the oblivous shoppers. What a score...two heads for under three dollars!

Now, I would be able to create some of my favourite recipes...cauliflower potato salad without potatoes (cooks.com); cauliflower hummus; cauliflower rice; cauliflorettes on pizza (or as the crust); cauliflower cheese biscuits; and my son's favourite, cauliflower pancakes. Recipe for the latter follows.

Cauliflower lovers of the world, unite with me and enjoy.

Cauliflower Pancakes

2 cups cauliflower, lightly cooked (not soft or mushy and chop it into bits after cooking)
1 egg
1 1/2 cps milk
1 1/2 cps flour (wheat flour is more nutritious)
3 tsp. baking powder
finely chopped onion (amount to your taste)
3 tsp. softened margarine  
a shake or two of cayenne, salt, pepper

Beat egg. Add milk and spices. Add dry ingredients with margarine and onion. When smooth, add cauliflower. It should all stick together. Drop by tablespoon onto an oiled (Pam type spray or canola preferred) frying pan. I usually brown on each side then microwave to make sure they're done through middle without using more oil.  One pancake = 50 calories

I Yam Not A Pumpkin

I have a fond memory of this time two years ago. I was in a van in Germany with my cousin and  his family. It was quite late, so it was very dark as we wound through the narrow streets of the small towns. We were returning to their home after a weekend excursion to an Oktoberfest celebration. The car radio was on and the fatigued occupants of the vehicle were unusually quiet. Then out of the blue, my cousin's wife said something like "Wenn ich einen Kürbis hätte, könnte ich eine Kürbiscremesuppe machen." (If I had a pumpkin, I could make creamed pumpkin soup).

We all laughed. It was one of those types of comments which everyone has made at one time or another. We mull things over in our heads, then we verbalize a portion of our thought. It all makes sense to us, but does not quite register with everyone else. If there's a conversation going on at the time, it's often a non sequitur and clearly shows that we weren't listening since our minds were elsewhere.

So why did I mention the pumpkin cream soup escapade now? Halloween is over. Yesterday, I needed to figure out what to do with these pumpkins. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to replace my stand of flower pots with pumpkins for a festive fall decoration. I now have four pumpkins, albeit small ones. I was told that the little ones are "pie pumpkins" and good for cooking. I have learned not to believe everything I hear. Here's my story.

I looked on the internet and into a few cookbooks. I believed I had some delicious solutions for my pounds of pumpkins. I decided on recipes for pumpkin cream soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lasagna, pumpkin chili and pickled pumpkin. My day was planned. I retrieved the pumpkins and brought them into the house. I put water into the dutch oven to boil. I got out my favourite small but mighty knife. Uh oh.

I tried a  bigger knife, a cleaver in fact. Hmmm......

I gave up and checked the crisper, where I located some aging sweet potatoes and made this soup instead. After all, yams are orange too.

Sweet Potato Soup - (slightly sweet, slightly tangy, approx. 120 calories per bowl)

Peel and chop into cubes 2-3 sweet potatoes, drizzle with oil and bake in 425 oven for 20 min.
Dice 1 small onion, 1 piece of celery and 1 carrot, 2 cloves garlic and 2 tsp rosemary. Sauté in olive oil until onions are clear. Add 4 cups water and 2 cups chicken stock to sautéed veggies. (I used the boxed broth from the grocery store and tossed in a few pieces of leftover chicken). Add potatoes from oven. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to boil and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Use a blender and purée about a cup of the soup at a time until smooth.












Warning - Don't put too much liquid into blender at a time or it makes a mess as it spews out through the lid, splats on your walls and countertops and burns your hands. I'm not saying this did or didn't happen to me, since there is no actual photographic evidence. It's just a suggestion.

I put my puréed soup into the crock pot on low heat until we were ready to eat. Yum.