Wed 9/28: Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage

Karen had this urging about a month ago. She wanted Italian Sausage sandwiches. Tofurkey sells Italian sausage that she's never cared much for in the past, but she had such an urging. She bought a four pack and ate one and then the urging past. And the Italian sausage sat in our fridge waiting to be eaten. So I decided to do something with it.

I found this recipe somewhere online and saved it to my email and now I can't find it again. Strange. It was pretty tasty and makes a lot so that I don't have to cook tonight. This was the goal since we need to clean tonight since Daifeng is coming over for babysitting. I pretty much followed the recipe except instead of dried seasonings I used fresh oregano and thyme from Andrea's garden.

I served it with a side of sauteed zuchini and tomatoes seasoned with garlic, oregano, and thyme. It was pretty good though Doris only ate the noodles and not the sausage.

Baked Ziti Recipe

• Cook time: 55 minutes

If you don't have Italian seasoning in the pantry, use 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti (can sub penne) pasta
• Olive oil
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage or ground beef or pork
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or basil), minced
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 large jar of marinara sauce (about 32 ounces) or make your own tomato sauce
• 1/2 pound of mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 heaping cup of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

Method

1 Bring a large pot of water to a strong boil. Add about a tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water. Add the pasta and boil, uncovered, until the pasta is al dente—edible but still a little firm. Drain the pasta through a colander. Toss with a little olive oil so the pasta does not stick together while you make the sauce.

2 Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil into a large sauté pan on medium-high to heat. When the oil is hot, add the bulk sausage or ground meat. Do not crowd the pan (work in batches if needed). Break up any large chunks of sausage as it cooks. Brown well. Don't stir that often or it will be more difficult for the meat to brown. If you are using ground beef or pork instead of sausage, add a little salt.

3 When the meat is mostly browned, add the onions and stir well to combine. Sauté everything until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic, rosemary or basil, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Cook 1 minute, then add the tomato sauce and stir well. Bring to a simmer.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch casserole pan, then dot the surface with half the ricotta cheese. Ladle in some sauce with the pasta, mix it well and add the pasta into the casserole.

5 Pour the rest of the sauce over the pasta, dot the remaining ricotta cheese over the pasta, and sprinkle on top both the mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven until the top is nicely browned, about 20 minutes.

Yield: Serves at least 8

Ziti: $1
Sausage: $2.25
CSA veggies: $2
Marinara: $3
Mozzarella: $1.50
Ricotta: $1.50
Parmesan: 75 cents

Total: $12 ($4 per person)

Expensive, but it makes a lot.

Fajita Night

I wanted to make it taco night. I even bought the soy crumbles. But I couldn't find the refried beans or the hard shells, and with Doris in tow, I didn't want to do the searching. So it was fajita night. Inspired by our hot peppers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions from our CSA.

Karen made the salsa. She doesn't like how I do it. I'm not really willing to chop, chop, chop so I put it in the food processor and she thinks it's too soupy. Salsa included tomato, red onion, hot house pepper, cilantro, cumin, lime juice. We used multi-grain tortillas and filled them with black beans seasoned with cumin & chili powder, onions and peppers (bell and hot house) seasoned with cumin and chili powder and lime juice, sharp cheddar cheese, guacamole (avocados mashed with lime juice), salsa, and pepper sauce.

Doris for the first time ate a burrito. Usually she just eats the filling. She put beans, guacamole, and cheese inside a tortilla, rolled it up, and took bites. She didn't get the roll right and most of the filling fell out of the bottom and she mostly just ate tortilla, but she really liked it. I think it made her feel older. She also scooped beans, guacamole, and salsa with some Trader Joe's soy & flaxseed tortilla chips. It think it's safe to say she likes Mexican now.

CSA veggies: $2
Tortillas: 50 cents
Black beans: 89 cents
Cheddar: $1
Avocados: $2
Random seasonings: 50 cents
Chips: 75 cents

Total: $7.64 ($2.55 per person)

Finally, a good cheap meal again.

Monday, 9/26: Asparagus and Tomato Pasta

Doris and I went to the grocery store again. She really likes shopping. I find that she's like me - she loves cooking, buying, preparing food. She rode in the car shopping cart this time and told me as we were leaving "I always ride in the car at the grocery store." Too bad because I found her much less able to control that way.

I came home to quickly pull together dinner. Doris kept saying that she wanted chicken nuggets at the grocery store, so I promised her veggie nuggets for dinner. I boiled some 'butterfly' pasta with asparagus and when they were cooked, I drained the water and mixed in some chopped cherry tomatoes and half a jar of 4 cheese roma sauce.

Karen was working late so it was just Doris and I for dinner. I thought the concoction was quite tasty but Doris only ate the veggie nuggets. For some reason she wasn't into the butterfly pasta this time.

Karen brought home kit kats from her conference so I had a tasty dessert. She says I can't eat too many because they are for potty training rewards. We'll see.

Pasta: 75 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Asparagus:$3
Pasta sauce: $2
Veggie Nuggets: $3.50

Total: $11.25 ($3.75 per person)

I find that the total for each meal has been going up. Strange. I can't figure out whats different.

Sunday 9/25: Leftovers

We came home late. We were at Poplar Springs all day. Doris can't bring herself to leave the pigs. She loves the elderly pigs that don't move. She just lays next to them and gives them big hugs and says "Hey sweetie." I just love it.

We got home at 6:30 and needed to shower. We were all covered in pig mud, especially Doris. She laid down next to them!

So then I asked Doris which leftovers she wanted - curry or pizza - and she said "Both!" So she ate a piece of cheese pizza, panang tofu curry, and some canned fruit for dinner. I had a peice of cheese pizza Karen had a veggie burger leftover from the horse farm (we bought veggie burgers for the girls but they didn't touch it). We all split one can of pineapples.

Canned fruit: $3

Total: $3 ($1 per person)

Week 3 in Review

Sunday: Dinner in Car $3.17
Monday: Spaghetti & Chorizo Pancakes $11.20
Tuesday: Cappelini Pomodora $7.70
Wednesday: Pad Thai $10.35
Thursday: Leftovers $4
Friday: Charm Thai $30
Saturday: Pizza $0

Total: $66.42 ($9.49 per day)

Pretty impressive considering we busted our budget a few times

Thursday September 22: Leftovers

We had a late night. Open house at school. We didn't get home until 7:15. To tide us over, I bought us peaches on the way home from work and we each ate one before the meeting. We also each had a cookie. At home we had our leftover chorizo spaghetti. I put it all in a pan and sauteed it quickly to warm it. Then topped it with more olives and capers.

Peaches: $2
Olives & capers: $2

Total: $4 ($1.33 per person)

Saturday Sept 24: Pizza

We had a babysitting day. We took Olivia with us to the fall festival at Days End Farm Horse Rescue. We had to rush home because Kai was coming over at 3pm for an overnight babysitting. Thankfully we only had the three kids for a short time. Al came over to pick up Olivia and stayed for pizza. We ordered it from Manny & Olga's. Two large pizzas - one cheese and one mushroom & spinach. It was tasty. Kai really liked it. He said "Mmm, this is really good pizza." I also served canned fruit and Kai thought it was the best thing ever - apricots and peaches. He didn't like the pears. Al paid for the pizza, so that made the meal taste better.

Friday Sept 23: Charm Thai

We tried a new restaurant. It's very close. We went with our friends from Doris' school. They wanted to give us advice about potty training. We really liked the restaurant. Everything can be made vegetarian. You just choose your protein and tofu and one of the options. We got three dishes and I loved two of them. Panang Curry is always Doris' favorite and she absolutely loved it. Spicy eggplant and tofu was my choice and I was surprised at how good it was. And Karen chose Drunken Noodle, which I think I'm over. It's just so dry.

Anyway, I think we have a new Thai restaurant. Though we really love Larb Tofu which they serve at Thai at Silver Spring, so it's a toss up.

$30 ($10 each)

Now that I track how much we spend on meals, it really points out how much eating out costs. That's three times what we spend when we eat at home. Ouch.

Recipe Search

What are my favorite places to look for a recipe? If I'm searching for an idea for what to do with abundant CSA veggies, I go to my CSA website. If I'm looking for ideas for special dinners, I have three places I go, and these recipes have never steered me wrong. Whole Foods (lots of simple recipes, vegetable based with fresh ingredients, and heavily vegetarian), Vegetarian Times (all vegetarian and they don't usually rely on the fake meats like I do), and Martha Stewart (some of her stuff is really extravagant but not all of it, and it always tastes good).

Wednesday September 21: Pad Thai

**VEGAN**

Well, I wanted to make Pad Thai. That was my CSA's suggestion for what to do with my eggplant. Simple pad thai using jarred pad thai sauce from the grocery store. But Doris and I went to Giant and all of the pad thai sauce had fish oil in it. I've made pad thai before (last fall with my CSA eggplant) but I went to Whole Foods for the sauce. They had vegetarian pad thai sauce at Whole
Foods. But not at Giant. So plans changed. I made Peanut Satay. Doris helped.

I used the wok to fry the tofu. It actually went really well. I usually struggle with tofu sticking to my wok, but not this time. Put that aside and stir fried the chopped, peeled eggplant (1/2 large bell eggplant). Put that aside and stir fried zucchini, yellow squash, yellow pepper. When it was done I added the eggplant and tofu and topped it with the peanut satay sauce, mixed in some chopped peanuts (Doris helped me pound them with the kitchen hammer), and served it over basmati rice.

It was pretty yummy. We probably have enough left for another meal though Doris ate a lot of tofu so I'm not really sure. She was eating proteins last night - peanuts, tofu, yogurt. One of those nights.

Rice: 50 cents
Tofu: $4
CSA veggies: $2
Zucchini: 75 cents
Peanut Satay sauce: $3
Peanuts: 10 cents

Total: $10.35 ($3.45 per person)

Oops, I did it again. Busted my budget. It's turning into an expensive week.

Nut Loaf

This is the quintessential vegetarian meal. The stereotype. I've only eaten it once in my life before I made it. Catherine and Dale made it once and it was yummy. This is not their recipe. We were invited by Jessica a passover dinner. We have only ever celebrated Passover once before and it was at a group event at our church, so this was our first intimate Passover dinner. Jessica asked that we bring something vegetarian since Passover is not very vegetarian. The rules - no beans, no dairy. I wanted to bring something traditional that provided protein because I assumed there would be some side dishes that we could eat. I searched and searched and found it very difficult. Even nut loaf recipes contain lentils or cheese. Catherine and Dale's recipe was laden with cheese. Many websites said that they bend the rules for vegetarians. The nut loaf kept popping up as a choice. This is one of the few that I found that followed the rules. To save money, I substituted almonds for brazil nuts, but otherwise I followed the recipe. I used canned tomatoes and I think that was why it was a bit soupy. I served it with canned mushroom gravy. It was pretty good. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones that ate it.

Egg Curry

This has become our traditional Easter dinner. Another attempt to blend the two cultures, and it gives us something to do with all of those boiled eggs. It's fun to use the died eggs because they make the dish oddly colorful. Egg and potato curry is very traditional in Karen's family. Of course, I leave out the ginger.

Saag Paneer

One of Karen's favorite Indian dishes. I didn't learn it in my cooking classes so I'm always looking for a good recipe. Karen loved this the first time I made it but the second time not as much. I think the cloves I had were going bad because they really overwhelmed the dish. I'm going to give it another try. I use fresh spinach and I think that makes it a rather soupy dish but tastier. And of course, I leave out the ginger.

New Years Dinner

Another recipe clogging my email. I've started a tradition for New Years. I want to keep my family traditions alive, but update them for my blended family. I've decided to make New Years a fusion meal. The traditional southern meal that Granny made every year is black eyed peas (for peace), hog jaw (for joy), rice (for riches), collard or mustard greens (for money), corn bread (for prosperity), and pineapple upside down cake (for coins). The meal that I've settled on for our family tradition is curried black eyed peas, vegetarian bacon, basmati rice, curried spinach, corn bread, and pineapple upside down cake or banana pudding. It's taken me a couple of years to find the right curried black eyed peas recipe, but this one is really a winner. It's amazing how the curries go so well with the corn bread and facon.

Christmas Leftovers

I've been keeping these recipes in my email for a while. This seems like a good storing place for them. After hosting Christmas dinner, we were left with an overwhelming amount of leftovers. Not wanting to waste, I looked up some recipes.

This one was really good. Crispy Leftover Stuffing Hash with Sunny-side Up Eggs. Our guests for Christmas dinner made some really tasty and sweet corn bread stuffing. I usually don't like stuffing, which is often dry (at least when my mom makes it from a box). But this was amazing. Of course, we don't eat sunny-side up. I made it with fried eggs. Making little hash pancakes and frying them up gave it a nice crunch.

There was some confusion and we ended up with way too much cranberry sauce. Our guests made their own and we bought some orange cranberry relish at Whole Foods. So I made these Glazed Cranberry Cornbread Muffins. I substituted Jiffy Mix for fresh and really just used this as a guide. They were good but I think I was too sparing on the cranberry sauce. Next time I will really fill them up. Or I could insert it after wards like you do with pudding in a cupcake. Something to think about.

Shepherd's Pie is of course how to use up leftover gravy and mashed potatoes. This wasn't amazing but it got the job done. Of course, I substitutes veggie crumbles for ground beef. I can't recall what veggies I used but I'm sure they were frozen.

Tuesday, September 20: Capellini Pomodora

**Winner. Cheapest Meal of the Week**

Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended today. This doesn't affect my life at all except that it's not illegal to discriminate in yet another place in this country. That has to be a good thing.

I took the bus home tonight. It takes 1 hour and 15 min. Somehow I got home early. I was supposed to get off the bus at 6:05 but instead got off at 5:48. Beats previous bus rides where I didn't get home until 6:30.

I made Capellini Pomodora tonight. I was planning my menu for the week when I happened to get this recipe emailed to me from Whole Foods. I've always liked their recipes and they are always one of my go to sources for recipe ideas. it was a great way to use up tomatoes and basil. I doubled the sauce recipe because we like a lot of sauce. I left out the chick peas because that just seemed weird though I appreciate that they were trying to make a complete meal. We've had a bag of frozen vegetarian beef tips for months so I used that instead. I left out the garlic because we don't have any. I replaced the asiago cheese with parmesan to make it cheaper and simpler. I served it over bow-tie pasta because we had some in our pantry.

Doris was really excited about the bow tie pasta. She first told me that she was a boy because she was going to eat boy toy pasta. But then she saw the pasta and said it looked like butterflies, so we called it butterfly pasta from then on. She only really ate the butterflies and left the sauce.

It was a tasty meal. I really liked it. I never have thought to include balsamic vinegar in my pasta sauce but it was really good. I'll definitely be making this again.

pasta: $1
CSA veggies: $2
vegetarian beef tips: $4
parmesan cheese: 50 cents
balsamic vinegar: 20 cents

Total: $7.70 ($2.50 per person)

A little about our CSA

We love our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Spiral Path Farm. We pay a lump sum in the spring and for 6 months we are loaded with fresh, organic produce. They deliver to our farmers market which is just across the street from our condo on Saturday mornings. It's super convenient and fills our fridge with fresh produce. Besides the convenience, we chose our CSA because they include vegetables that we eat anyway. I've heard so many horror stories about CSAs that are full of produce that you've never heard of and it just leaves you scrambling and probably wasting food. We rarely throw out our food with this CSA.

We get the full share and split it with another couple. The cost is about $360 and that's where I get the estimate of $2 per day for CSA veggies. Amazingly cheap for most of the produce that we eat in a week. I wish they offered a fruit share. It's my only complaint. They offer an apple share, but that's not enough variety for me. We eat a lot of fruit, especially Doris.

Monday 9/20: Spaghetti and Chorizo Pancakes

Doris asked to go with me to the grocery store, so I've decided to start taking her every Monday. She seems to really like it. I let her pick things like what fruit to buy (she wanted Watermelon - we'll see how it tastes). She's really good at helping to figure out what we need. She makes suggestions of things we really buy, like orange juice and yogurt.

We got home a bit later than normal and I still needed to make dinner. We've had a soy chorizo package from Trader Joe's in our fridge for a long time so I decided it was time to eat it. Karen loves chorizo and buys it and then I have to figure out what to do with it. I made this dish that we really like. Spaghetti and Chorizo pancakes. It doesn't really turn out very pancake-y, but frying it in the pan make it a little crunchy which I like. I skipped the sundried tomatoes because Karen doesn't like them and added a fresh tomato at the end of cooking. It made it taste more fresh. I usually use dried sage but happened to have fresh sage from Andrea's garden, so that was a nice addition. I used green olives stuffed with pimentos. Usually we only eat black Kalamata olives, the expensive kind, because Doris loves olives but has discriminating tastes. But at the grocery store she said she wanted both green and black so I cheered a little cheer because the green ones are half the price of the Kalamata olives. I'm amazed that I know so much about olives. My girl has strange passions. I left out the chili because I forgot to buy it.

soy chorizo: $4
CSA veggies: $2
Spaghetti: 50 cents
Parmesan cheese: $3
olives: $1.50
capers: 20 cents

Total: $11.20 (3.73 per person)

Wow, that was one of my more expensive meals. Who knew. I'll have to remember that for the future. Good news is that it actually makes a lot and we will be eating this meal again later in the week.

Sunday 9/19: Dinner in the car

I'm having trouble keeping up. September is a busy month. I told Karen today that I'd love to quit my job and be a writer. Dreams, of course. I'd like to be a travel writer, a restaurant reviewer, a food writer, write about how to be cheap/save money, write about parenting/same-sex parenting, do book reviews. But instead I'm a statistician. It's less fun but it pays much better.

We spent last weekend at Andrea's beach house in Lewes, DE. We never actually made it to the beach. It rained a lot and we were traveling with two toddlers and a baby, so there was a lot of napping. Not our best trip to the beach, but oh well.

We ate our dinner in the car on the way back. Everyone ate leftovers. Karen had a left over brie sandwich that I ate half of for lunch and an apple from the Lewes Farmers Market. Their produce is so much cheaper than ours. We got a bag of 6 apples for $4. It would have cost like $10 or more at our market. Doris had an ear of corn and some box mac & cheese left over from lunch the previous day. I ate at home because I was driving. I had Doris' left over lunch mac & cheese from our restaurant visit - fancy mac & cheese that she didn't like - and half a tomato. I seasoned the tomato with white vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, and it tasted quite nice. I think I had the best meal of the three of us.

Apple: 67 cents
CSA veggies: $2
seasonings: 50 cents

Total: $3.17 ($1.06 per person)

Sunday 9/11: Spanish rice

**Vegan**

We have a lot of tomatoes. It's tomato and pepper season for our CSA and we have to get creative. I went to the store Sunday morning to pick up muffins and fruit for breakfast at the park for Doris and two of her best friends Owen and Raiyan and while there I picked up two boxes of Rice-o-Roni Spanish Rice. I remember last year making this with fresh yellow CSA tomatoes instead of canned and it was amazing, so much better than what it usually is. I didn't know it could taste this good, and this is my favorite rice. So I thought this would be a good way to use up some tomatoes.

I made the Spanish Rice with 2 cups tomatoes, 1/2 cup white onion, and 1/2 cup green pepper and it was the best I'd ever tasted. I was afraid to add all of those fresh veggies to such a wonderful tasting box mix but wow, so much better. Will definitely be making that again because it uses tomatoes and peppers!

For a side dish I made a vegetable medley and just through in whatever I had - zucchini, carrot, white onion, green pepper, tomato and seasoned it all with cumin and chili powder to give it a Spanish flavor. I also served one box of Quorn chik'n nuggets.

Doris helped cooked. Now she wants to do so every night. It slows me down a bit because I have to let her help and also keep her from getting hurt, but we both really enjoy it. She didn't eat the vegetables, but loved the rice and nuggets. She ate 7 nuggets - she really likes those things.

Rice $1.50
CSA veggies $2
Nuggets $5

Total: $8.50 ($2.83 per person)

Week 2 in review

The blog went on hold because of the holiday. Our friend Katie was visiting from Rochester and I didn't fill in the for the rest of the week. Here's what I have. It also means we spent a lot this week.

Sunday: Paneer Jalfreezi $8.10
Monday: Sandwiches $5.50
Tuesday: Pasta $14.25
Wednesday: Qdoba $10.75
Thursday: Hot dogs $4.70
Friday: Thai at Silver Spring $28
Saturday: Homemade Pizza & salad $13

Total $84.30 ($12.04 per night)

Not bad considering we blew the budget many times. Still close to our $10 target.

Hot Dogs

**Winner: Cheapest meal of the week**
**Vegan**

Last night we had hot dogs, corn, and a tomato-cucumber salad (with dill, red onion, and garlic). Doris ate 3 hot dogs. Karen is so concerned with choking hazards that she cuts the hot dog very tiny for Doris to eat. Doris had a huge fit because she wanted to eat the hot dog on a bun just like we do. She cried and cried and Karen said no. So Doris ate her whole hot dog and then said "I want another one and don't cut it." She put it on the bread, added ketchup and mustard, and ate it just like us. And then asked for another one.

Hot dogs: $2
Buns: $1
condiments: 20 cents
dill: 50 cents
CSA veggies; $2

Total: $4.70 ($1.57 per person)

Qdoba

Qdoba sends buy one get one quite often in our ValPak. Our neighbor usually raids the recycle bin in the mail room to get as many of these as he can because they are very valuable. We had one that was expiring on Wed so we went there for dinner after picking Doris up from school. We got two burritoes and ordered the cheap kids meal for Doris. Cheese quesadilla with a side of black beans and a juice box. And Karen got the corn salsa from her burrito on the side for Doris because Doris said she wanted corn. Doris did not eat any of it. She played a lot with the black beans and corn. She did drink the juice box, but that's it. For a girl that eats so well, I wish she would eat what other kids eat sometimes too. Karen and I had leftover burritoes for lunch.

$10.75 ($3.58 per person)