Thriftism

Curry can be hit or miss for a lot of people, but a well done curry can be amazing! While you can curry pretty much any food, we decided to take a look a budget friendly cooking that is also tasty. This lentil and potato curry is both affordable and delicious, not to mention rather healthy as well. To make this a vegan recipe, substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock.  Watch the recipe! Printable to letter size paper Embed

Eating on a budget can often seem restrictive and can lead to a food rut (eating the same meals over and over and over...). Spice up your meal plan this week without breaking your budget or your diet. Chicken tortilla soup packs a punch of flavor and is sure to leave you feeling satisfied while using budget ingredients. Bonus, it weighs in at around 340 calories per serving and is very simple to make. For a printable recipe, nutrition information, and 2019 recipe cost, scroll down. What You Need 2 Tbsp    Olive Oil 1.5 Cup   Diced Onion 1 Cup     Diced Celery 1 Cup     Diced Carrots 4 Cloves Garlic 1 Cup     Diced Tomatoes 6 Cups   Chicken Broth 8            6-in Corn Tortillas 6 Cups   Tomato Juice 1.5 Lb    Shredded Chicken 2 tsp      Oregano 2 tsp      Chili Powder ~1/2 tsp Salt & Pepper C...

It might be freezing outside, but you can be warm and healthy with this easy to make squash soup. Butternut squash makes a tasty soup and it is an great meal or side. There aren't many ingredients, but it is sure to go over well with even picky eaters. Not to mention it packs a load of nutrients into each bowl. What You'll Need:  1 Med Butternut Squash (4 Cups) 4 Stalks Celery 1 Yellow Onion 3 Carrots  2.5 Cups Water 2.5 Cups Chicken Bouillon Garlic to Taste 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream Step 1) Bake Squash Bake squash at ~350 for 45 minutes. Check out our how to cook squash  post or video if you need help.   Step 2) Cut/Cook Vegetables Cut celery, onion, and carrots into small pieces. The size isn't a big deal, but we will be blending later so judge according to your blender/food processor capabilities.  Put the vegetables in a stock pot or cook in smaller batches if need be. Boil under soft.      ...

Fall is here and with it comes an abundance of squash. Its all over the stores and if you've grown squash, you probably have quite the stockpile now. Today we are specifically looking at spaghetti squash. This one is a bit different than other winter squashes such as butternut or acorn in that, like the name suggests, it is stringy. There are almost endless recipes for spaghetti squash, but for all of them you will need a cooked spaghetti squash. You can either bake it or microwave it. This post will cover how to bake your spaghetti squash. What you'll need Spaghetti squash Olive oil Knife Baking sheet Tin foil (Optional) Spoon Begin by using a butchers knife to slice the stem off the squash. Continue by cutting your squash in half. Preheat oven to 350. Next you will want to scrape all the seeds and pulp out of the center. Be sure to save the seeds as roasted squash seeds make an excellent snack or if you plan on growing squash again next spring. See our pos...

Is there anything better than grilled chicken? Maybe not once you add some fresh cilantro and garlic. This quick and simple recipe is sure to be a new favorite if you're already a fan of cilantro and can easily be adapted to an appetizer if need be.  This goes great with fresh greens (lettuce, kale, spinach) and potatoes, but would taste amazing with just about anything. Try using fresh garden veggies for optimal taste this summer! What you'll need: 1 Chicken Breast (~1lb) 3 Tbsp Fresh Cilantro or 6 Tbsp Dried Cilantro 8 cloves garlic 1/3 Cup Tomato Sauce 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar 1 Tbsp Cider Vinegar 1/2 Cup Raisins Food Processor 1.Combine all ingredients except the chicken in your food processor. Pulse until a fairly smooth sauce is formed. 2. You will now need to cook the chicken. Grill Chicken on medium heat. Apply half the sauce over chicken once you have flipped it the first time. Another option is to marinate the chicken with half the sauce before...

Love baby red mashed potatoes? Add garlic and they get even better. This incredibly easy recipe offers you an affordable restaurant quality side to serve at your next family meal. Saving money never tasted so good! What you need: ~8-10 baby red potatoes Pot to cook potatoes 3 Cloves Garlic (or equivalent powder, but I prefer fresh.) 1/2 tsp Salt 2 Tbsp Butter 5 oz Milk Potato Masher or Food Processor Start by rinsing your potatoes. You want to mash sure the skin is nice and clean if you plan on eating it. Potato skins have a great array of nutrients and make a wonderful addition to your diet, but you can peel your potatoes if you prefer. Cut/Quarter your potatoes and add to your pot. Add enough water to cover potatoes and boil for ~20minutes. You can check if they are done by using a fork. If there is little resistance they are done! Hence the saying  "Stick a fork in me, I'm done." Now if you have a potato masher you can add the rest...

Spring has sprung and Easter is around the corner! Such a fun time, filled with bright colors, candy, family, and more. It can also be a scary food time -- candy filled with corn syrup and other artificial ingredients, eggs dyed with petroleum products, and thousands of empty calories to name a few issues. I can't stop you from overindulging on your ham dinner, but I can help out reducing some of the artificial ingredients you're putting at your table this year. Colored Easter eggs have long been a staple at Easter time, whether you hide them for a Easter Egg hunt or put them out as decoration. Coloring Easter eggs is also just plain fun! That is until you start looking at what is in that dye you are using. Yellow 5, Red 40, blue 2.... Does that sound like something your body can digest well? If you dig a bit deeper you find that these colors are actually petroleum based and are known carcinogens. Yet we use these on food we are feeding our families. This year you can ...

Happy Summer! We are finally having warm, actually HOT, weather. With it being over 80 almost every day last week, it was far too hot to eat warm food. There was no way I was going to cook anything after working out in the garden for hours. Salads have proven to be my savior on sweltering days, so there may be lots of different salad recipes coming out soon. J To begin my salad adventures, I've chosen one that feeds my buffalo sauce addition. Side note: buffalo sauce can be combined with just about anything and taste even better! If you're like me you don't have a whole lot of time during the week between work and housework and still trying to do some fun things in there too. That's why I try to cook all of my food on the weekends to reduce wasting that time during the week. If there are any ingredients on my salads that need to be cooked, I do it ahead of time and freeze them or store in the refrigerator if possible. For my chicken salad-I have a ...

 Bean Burgers that Taste Like the Real Thing   <$0.30/serving With all the nice, or at least not freezing, weather we have been having lately, I start to get my summer cravings. In the winter it tends to be soup, chili, anything hot… Spring and summer veer more towards fruit, steak, salads, and one of my favorites- burgers. I absolutely love homemade hamburgers. However, these are not very cost friendly right now. The cheapest hamburger I could find was $4/lb which can easily turn your meal budget upside-down. So I started exploring for some option to get my burger fix without blowing the budget and guess what, beans are super cheap. Beans and rice seem to fit into many of my solutions, but they really work. I was able to make these burgers for less than $0.30/burger, buns and lettuce included! Anyway, these bean burgers actually taste and have consistency similar to a real burger. I won't tell you they are exactly the same, because I don't think that is...

 Rice crackers are a great alternative to wheat/gluten containing cracker that you usually find in the store. They definitely have gluten-free options, but lets face it, nothing is going to be as cheap as homemade rice crackers when you're making your own flour.I know I have brought up my grain mill quite a bit, but I really think the grain mill is awesome. Also, rice is one of the cheapest things you can buy at the store. I think it was around $4 for a 5lb bag. This is where the grain mill comes in handy--rice flour is NOT dirt cheap at the store. Grinding rice flour is really, really easy as is only takes one pass through rather that a couple with the harder items like garbanzo beans. These crackers are one of the easiest recipes I have ever made and is consists of 4 ingredients (plus spices if you flavor yours). 1.5 Cup Rice Flour 2 t Baking Powder 1 T Olive Oil 1 C Boiling Water Seasoning to Taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix your flour and baking powder ...

 Today is a pretty big day for us- we are celebrating our 4 th anniversary! Last night I decided I should bake a cake because obviously there is no better way to celebrate than by eating cake right? At least that's how my mind tends to work. However, we've been trying more and more to switch to gluten free products. This isn't out of necessity but for the health benefits accompanying the switch. Bleached flour for example has basically no nutritional value and will still add calories to your baked goods. So I decided that since we got a grain mill earlier this year I figured we could switch out the regular flour for garbanzo bean flour. Garbanzo beans provide loads protein and fiber along with calcium, magnesium, and iron to name a few good things about them.  Enough about the health benefits, everyone knows beans are good for you and I wanted to make a slightly healthier cake.  If you read the grain mill article you'll remember I said you should grind A ...