Frugal Feeds | Shopping Guide

Shopping is one of the most complicated parts of frugal living. Here we will discuss techniques for you to employ that will give you the best opportunity to save money while buying fresh, wholesome food.

First, you want to become acquainted with your store's bulk section. Bulk sections have bins that carry pasta, rice, beans, baking items, cereal, dry fruit, snack foods, dry mixes and nuts. They often have large bottles of bulk spice too. The bins, containers or bottles will have a label telling you how much that item costs per pound or ounce.

The price can look really low, like .10/ounce or really high like $21.00/ ounce. The prices vary so extremely for two reasons. One is that the items have different weights per volume and the other is that some items are hard to get and more people want them than they can sell to. The weight of an item makes a big difference though. When you buy a cup of raisins it is going to weigh a lot more than a cup of potato flakes.

When you choose the bulk item you want you can put as much or as little of that item into the bag as you need. By doing this you only buy the amount that you wish to use. If your store has customers that buy in bulk regularly you will be getting your goods cheaper and fresher than the boxed items in the aisles. Where I live most of the bulk bins are filled with Bob's Red Mill products. Buying Bob's Red Mill in the bags on the shelves generally costs 25% more per ounce than it does in the bulk bin. Check it out yourself by picking an item in the bulk section and note its price per ounce. Then go to the aisle section where you normally buy your items and look at the tag on the shelf under the product. Most stores list, in small print, on the shelf price tags how much an item costs per ounce. If it lists it per pound, just divide by sixteen and you will have your ounce price (or alternately multiply the bulk price by sixteen to get the price per pound). Exceptions to this are bulk items like Oatmeal that are subsidized by the government and generally cost the same for most of the manufacturers whether they are bulk or aisle items, unless you are buying organic.

After looking at the prices per ounce you decide to buy the bulk items. How do you do it? The way bulk sections work is that you pick up a plastic bag from the bulk area and a blank twist tie tag. On the item container will be a bulk bin number. Usually the number is four digits long but organic bulk items are usually five digits long. Write the item number on the blank twist tie tag and fill your empty bag with as much of the product as you need. Some bins have tongs, some have scoops and some have levers that you pull down to release the contents into your bag, be sure the bag is held tight to the opening of the lever type of bin. Close the bag and tie with the twist tie tag. The cashier will type the twist tie tag item number into the register and be able to ring up your purchase that way. There will be scales in the bulk area that you can use to weigh how much of an item you have put into the bag.

Many store have liquid bulk items too. In that case there will be empty jugs, jars or bottles in the bulk area. Write the bulk item number on a blank twist tie tag and twist the tag to the handle or neck of the jug, bottle or jar. Nutbutter machines also are found in the bulk sections. For these there are tubs that you can fill with as much as you want. Usually you will also see a special black waxy pencil attached to the machine. You are to write the bulk item number for the nut butter on the lid of the tub in that case. At home, using a funnel, pour your bulk items into jelly and canning jars. The jelly jars are great for spices and the wide mouth canning jars are great for everything else. Put the lids on the jars and attach a label. Use sticky dots, like the ones they use to price items at a garage sale, to note the day you bought the bulk items--that way if you don't use something up super quick then you will know that you need to replace it within three months of buying it.

Not everything is sold in the bulk section so you will want to go to the canned food aisle and canned broth aisle next. You will need tomato sauce for a great many of your dishes so buying four 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce is a good start. Canned broth is more expensive than homemade, and doesn't taste as good, but not everyone can make a gallon of broth from scratch each week. Most dishes call for broth so having a gallon of broth, or four quarts of broth, is a good start. Buy all of these with Low Sodium labels. If you find that a recipe needs more salt you can always add it yourself, but if the manufacturer uses more salt than you need you can't take it away. Plus several dishes require that you boil the broth until it is evaporated by half of the original amount for a richer flavor, but if it already is salted then the half evaporated broth will be too salty. (Canned tomatoes can have far too much sodium in them so by getting low sodium tomato products you give yourself the control over how much sodium your family is getting).

After hitting the dry and canned goods aisles you will want to head over to produce. Pick your produce, wrap with a paper towel if the produce is damp, and place in a plastic bag. Produce is usually sold by the pound. There will be scales in the produce area that you can use to weigh how much of each item you are getting. I will do a post later that will tell you what to look for in each type of fruit and vegetable for freshness.

The remainder of your shopping should be meat next, then milk, eggs, dairy, then frozen foods.

So how do you know how much to buy and what?
At the beginning of each month you will want to go through your cabinets, pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Look at all of the ingredients that you have. Write down how much you have left of items that you use regularly. Then write down the items that you have some of, but not alot of. Next you will need to write down the things that you don't have in your cabinets or pantry that you use constantly throughout the month. Compare the lists and figure out what you are going to need for the month, broken down by each week.Write up something like this:

Here is a typical American family of four example:

Week One, 7 days, 21 meals, 84 servings

Breakfast--quick breads, cereal
Lunch--Soup and salad
Dinner--pasta 2x, Mexican 1x, Asian 2x, Roasted Meat 1x, Vegetarian 1x

You want to think through each meal. What does that meal include? How much of an ingredient do we need to buy without buying extra? Here is an example:

We eat a pasta dish twice a week. For a family of four we need 1# of pasta for each of those meals. 1# of pasta multiplied by two servings per week multiplied by four weeks is 8 pounds of pasta, or 128 ounces a month. Half of that pasta needs to be medium sized pasta shapes for the casseroles.

At least one dish per week is sauced with a tomato sauce so I use four cans of tomato sauce a month. I will need four 15 ounce cans of Muir Glen No Salt Added Tomato Sauce.

To season the tomato sauce I need to get 1 Tablespoon of Italian seasoning a week, or 4 Tablespoons=1/4 cup so I will need 1/4 cup of Italian seasoning for the month.

I use half of a pound of meat in the pasta so I will need to add 1 pound of meat for two pasta dishes.
I can only buy 1 pound of fresh ground beef if those pasta days are both going to occur within four days of when I buy the meat. But buying the meat in one pound packages is not the way the stores sell at the best price. You can freeze ground beef very nicely so if you buy the 4 pound bulk pack of ground beef, just divide it into 4 pieces and then divide each of the 4 pieces in half. Put each of the pieces into individual quart freezer bags. Put on the label that it is ground beef, what the date is and that it is half of a pound in weight. Put all but one of them into the freezer and put one of them into the refrigerator. The hard part about storing your meat in the freezer is that you will have to pull out the 1/2 pound meat from the freezer and put it into the refrigerator one day ahead of making each recipe all month, or know how to defrost it properly in the microwave.

We like cheese on our pasta so I need to add 1/4 cup cheese for each serving. 4 servings per meal multiplied by four pasta meals means I need 4 cups of Parmesan cheese for four pasta dishes in one month. If I buy the dried out cheese that is sold on the shelves, I can buy all of that Parmesan at the beginning of the month. But, if I use the fresh cheese in the refrigerated section I need to buy no more than two weeks worth or it can start going stale or moldy.

One of our pasta dishes each week is a casserole. The casserole is made up of leftovers and pasta. I need a medium sized pasta to mix into the casserole. Rotini, Ziti, Fusilli, Egg Noodles, etc.

The casserole dish needs a sauce. I will need broth, flour and fat for the sauce. 2 cups of broth per week. 2 Tablespoons of flour per week. 1 Tablespoon of fat per week. If I want to add herbs and seasonings I will need at least a Tablespoon of those each week. So, since all of these things can stay good for a month in the cabinet I will need:

2 quarts of broth
1/2 cup of whole grain flour
1/4 cup of oil
1/4 cup of dried herbs

So, that covers two meals per week. Consider what your meals will be for the week, and what you can expect it to be for the month. Buy in bulk all of the items that you know that you will use. Then, if it is on sale, buy a months worth of the canned items you know that you will use. If it isn't on sale just buy what you need for that week. Maybe later in the month it will go on sale and you can buy what you need for the rest of the month. Buy the produce that you will use for no more than four days. If you buy a weeks worth of produce some of that produce is going to spoil and get tossed out. Buy the milk, eggs and dairy that you will use for a week. Buy the fresh meat that you will use for the next two days. Buy the frozen foods you will use for the next month. Go to the store every two days for fresh produce and meat. Your family will be eating fresher food and you will be able to specifically buy items that work with what you have for leftovers and what is in your pantry. Plus you will see the items that go on special and stock up as needed.

Here is the shopping list for one month's worth of pasta meals:

8 pounds pasta (128 ounces), half of it in medium sized shapes, Rotini, Ziti, Fusilli, Egg Noodles
4 fifteen ounce cans Muir Glen No Salt Added Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup Italian seasoning
4 pounds of ground beef, divided into eighths, 7/8 placed in freezer bags in the freezer
4 cups Parmesan cheese, or two cups of fresh Parmesan cheese, refrigerated
2 Quarts low sodium broth
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup oil or fat (olive oil, nut butter, corn oil, butter)
1/4 cup dried herbs


Sometimes though you can't find what you need at your local store and will want to shop online. In that case, here are some resources for getting the specialty foods at frugal prices:

Auntie Andies Grocery and Kitchen Wares: www.frugalfeeds.com
For Thai food go to http://www.importfood.com/
For organic dry goods go to http://www.bobsredmill.com/
For dry beans go to http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/
For just about all of your organic and unique pantry needs go to http://www.barryfarm.com/
For dry pastas go to http://www.hodgsonmill.com/
For low sodium tomato products go to http://muirglen.elsstore.com/

For low sodium broths go to www.pacificfoods.com/where-to-buy/buy-our-foods-online

That's all for this time.

Frugal Feeds | 16 Delicious Variations on Medium White Sauce--Your food will never be boring again!

Today we will look at the next thickness of white sauce. White sauce number 2 is the standard sauce thickness. It is what we most commonly expect from a creamy sauce. It sticks to the spoon a bit, has a great body and luscious mouth feel. It is used for creamed or scalloped dishes, mock hollandaise, gravy, creamy sauces and chowders. Once you learn this one you will have an abundance of dishes at your fingertips. It makes a lot of different basic sauces!

For this Base White Sauce #2 you will want:

2 Tablespoons fat
2 Tablespoons starch
1 cup liquid, usually 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper

You will need a whisk, a pouring cup and a saute pan.

In a medium sized saute pan over medium-high heat (usually 7 on the dial), melt the fat. Sprinkle the starch over the melted fat and whisk it until it is smooth, bubbly and fully mixed. Allow it to cook for five minutes. You have just made a Roux.

Using about one third of the liquid at a time whisk it into the Roux--fat-starch mixture.

Have the liquid fully whisked in before adding the next third of liquid. By this careful process you end up with a sauce that is free of lumps.

Add remaining liquid and fully whisk in.

Once all of the liquid is whisked in--drop the temperature to medium low (usually a 4 on the dial) and let it simmer until it thickens slightly. Add the seasoning to taste and serve.

This makes 1 cup of medium, number two, base White Sauce. Basic White Sauce #2 provides you with 90 calories and 30% of your daily fiber.

Here are some ways to use that to make a lot of different sauces.

For Brown Sauce, browned flour in fat and add low sodium beef stock. Add 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce.
For Mushroom Sauce 1, use brown sauce and add 3/4 cup sliced, sauteed mushrooms and 1 teaspoon summer savory.
For Mushroom Sauce 2, do not brown flour, use reduced fat cream instead of stock, use white pepper and do not add savory.
For Cheese Sauce, toss 1/2 cup low fat grated cheese with 1 teaspoon flour. Add a few Tablespoons at a time to White Sauce 2 that is kept warm over a low burner. Stir until it melts before adding next Tablespoons of cheese. White wine or dry mustard are great additions.
For Mock Hollandaise whisk 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, 2 egg yolks and 2 Tablespoons butter and add to warm White Sauce 2.
For Chowders add 1 lb. cooked lean meat (or 2 cups vegetables or 2 cups seafood), 1/4 lb. diced, cooked, drained lean bacon, 1 1/2 cups diced, cooked potato and 1/4 cup minced onion, to 4 cups White Sauce 2. Heat through, add black pepper to taste.
For Creamed Dishes add 1 1/2 cups vegetables or minced/sliced cooked meat to 1/2 cup White Sauce 2. Serve over toast.
For Au Gratin Dishes top with 1/2 cup toasted bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated low fat cheese to the Creamed Dish and place under broiler briefly to melt the cheese.
For Cream Gravy use butter for fat, lean cream for the liquid, add 1/2 pound cooked, drained, lean pork breakfast sausage and 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper. (highly caloric and uses expensive ingredients, use this sparingly)
For Foamy Egg Sauce make White Sauce 2. Beat one egg until foamy and whisk in 1 teaspoon of the White Sauce. Whisk egg/sauce mixture into remaining White Sauce and simmer briefly.
For Veloute Sauce, use strong low sodium chicken broth for liquid. Place chicken broth in a saute pan and bring to boil. Boil until the amount of broth has reduced by at least half. This is your strong broth.
For Chaud-Froid Sauce, soak 1 Tablespoon plain gelatin or 3 Tablespoons Agar Flakes or 2 teaspoons Agar powder in cold water for fifteen minutes. Add to the hot Veloute Sauce. Allow to cool.
For Poulette Sauce, whisk 2 two egg yolks and 1 cup cream. Add to white sauce. Bring to temperature and whisk in 2 teaspoons butter--one at a time until fully incorporated--add a few Tablespoons lemon juice and some minced parsley. High in calories, use sparingly.
For Bechamel Sauce, use a 1/2 cup 2% milk and a 1/2 cup low sodium stock for the liquid.
For Onion Sauce use low sodium beef stock for the liquid and add 1/2 c. sauteed onions.
For Sauce Supreme use low sodium chicken stock and add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and 2 Tablespoons parsley.

When you add cheese, cream, butter or meats to the recipe it adds calories and fat. When you add vegetables it adds a small amount of calories but greatly increases the nutrients and fiber. Use egg whites when it calls for eggs and you will reduce the calories and fat, but it will also reduce the creaminess.

See, once you get this one under your belt you will have a lot of variety available for your meals!

Frugal Feeds | 9 Recipes for White Sauce Creates Endless Diversity in your Dishes

Understanding white sauce will open up a tremendous amount of options for your recipes. Although called a sauce, and in some cases used as a sauce, white sauce is actually more of a binder. Think of it as either a thin, liquidy glue, a standard white glue, a paste or a caulk. When thought of in these four terms it is closer to how we use it.

Today we will focus on white sauce number one--thin, liquidy glue.

For White Sauce #1 you will need:

1 T. fat--olive oil, coconut oil, nut butter
1 T. starch--white whole wheat flour, whole wheat flour, whole oat flour, 3/4 T. brown rice flour or 3/4 T garbanzo bean flour
(Pan browned flour makes it less thick but more flavorful.)
1 c. liquid--2% milk, plain milk alternative, low sodium broth, wine, juice or water
1/2 t. seasoning--salt, pepper, herbs, spices, low fat cheese, bacon

Makes 4, 1/4 cup servings, or about one ladle-full each


For the Traditional White Sauce #1 that works out to be:

1 T. olive oil
1 T. white whole wheat flour
1 c. 2% milk
1/4 t. salt

You will need a whisk, a pouring cup and a saute pan.

In a medium sized saute pan over medium-high heat (usually 7 on the dial), melt the fat, if using coconut oil, and bring to a low simmer. If using nut butter add a bit of water to the nut butter before bringing to a simmer. Sprinkle the starch (white whole wheat flour) over the simmering fat and whisk it until it is very smooth, bubbly and fully mixed. Allow it to simmer for five minutes. You have just made a Roux. Using about one third of the liquid (2% milk) at a time whisk it into the Roux--fat-starch mixture.

Have the liquid fully whisked in before adding the next third of liquid. By this careful process you end up with a sauce that is free of lumps.

Once all of the liquid is whisked in--drop the temperature to medium low (usually a 4 on the dial) and let it simmer until it thickens slightly. Add the seasoning (salt) to taste and serve.

This is the sauce you would use for making a thin white sauce for left-over chicken, a cream-of-something soup, a creamy wine sauce, and a bechamel. One serving of White Sauce #1 gives you 70 calories.


For the White Sauce #1 using Corn or Potato Starch:
Melt the fat in the pan. In a bowl whisk together the liquid and the starch until fully smooth and lump free. Add liquid to pan, whisking regularly. Add seasoning and allow to thicken.


For the Thin White Sauce for Chicken
Change it up from plain white sauce to something different every time.
Things to change:
Add mustard (be sure it doesn't contain vinegar, lemon or other acid or your sauce will curdle) or use mustard powder
Add some grated low fat cheese once you remove the sauce from the heat, and stir to melt
Add Summer Savory
Add Rosemary
Add Thyme



For the Cream-of-Something-Soup
Recipe, as it is, is one serving for a soup. To make it a family sized four serving soup change the ingredients to:

4 T. fat
4 T starch
4 c. liquid
2 t. seasoning

This change to the serving size for Basic White Sauce #1 makes each serving of Cream of Something Soup provide 281 calories and 16% of your daily fiber.

Veggie Soup: Add leftover cooked vegetables at 1/2 cup per person
Broccoli Cheese Soup: Add 1/2 c. broccoli and 1/4 c. shredded low fat cheese per person--add the cheese after you remove it from the stove but before you serve. Stir until melted through.
Cream of Mushroom Soup: Add 1/3 c. sauteed mushrooms and some garlic to taste.
Cream of Tomato Soup: Whisk in 3 c. tomato puree, 2 T. tomato paste and 1 tsp. black pepper.
Cream of Potato Soup: Add 2 diced, cooked, medium sized potatoes and 1/2 cup crumbled bacon or imitation bacon bits.

Adding vegetables increases the nutrients. Adding cheese increases the fat and calories.

 
For a Creamy Wine Sauce:
You will need to replace at least 1/2 of your liquid with red or white wine, depending on how strong a wine flavor you are seeking.

For a Creamy Bechamel Sauce:
You will need to replace 1/2 of your milk with low sodium beef or low sodium chicken broth, depending on how strong a meat flavor you are seeking. Low fat broth reduces the calories in the White Sauce #1 recipes.

You now have a simple sauce that can be used to enhance flavor, mask left over meats, add variety to dishes or to take small amounts of left overs and turn them into filling soups. Add a few croutons from last week and the taste and texture will be outstanding.

Tomorrow we will cover White Sauce #2.

Frugal Feeds | Delicious French Toast Sandwiches

Now that you have the hang of French Toast, lets take it past breakfast. First up, keep the custard dip on the sweet side. But, instead of serving with powdered sugar or syrup, add a slice of lean ham and a slice of Gruyere between the still hot French Toast, or place a slice of each on the open sandwich and broil briefly to warm. This is your basic sweet Monte Cristo.

Now, lets change it up. This time, when you make the custard dip, don't add brown sugar or vanilla. Prepare the French Toast as usual on the griddle. When all are cooked, remove from griddle and turn griddle down to low. Spread a slice of lean ham with mustard and place a slice of low fat cheese on top. Place the ham/mustard/cheese on a slice of the French Toast and top with another slice of French Toast. Place back on the griddle. Put a lid over it and cook until the cheese is melted--less than five minutes. This is Croque-Monsieur.

You have two basic recipes here. Do them a few times and then try making them your own.

For the Monte Cristo try adding any of these to the sandwich--turkey, low fat breakfast sausage, different low fat cheeses, fat free cream cheese, cranberry sauce, preserves, no meat, several lean meats, a fried egg, apple slices, pear slices, cooked berries, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, or a sweet mustard.

For the Croque-Monsieur try adding any of these to the custard dip--grated cheese, different mustards (without vinegar or lemon in them or the custard will curdle) or powdered mustard, different herbs, different spices, some beer or some white wine. Or just prepare it as it is and add different lean meats, low fat cheeses, A-1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled peppers or sauteed mushrooms to the cooked French Toast slices.

So, you have a lot of variations now available to you. Lets think this through. You go to your kitchen and you have some stinky cheese, some dried up ham slices, stale bread, an egg and some milk. Sounds pretty depressing for lunch--but if you make a custard dip, dip your bread, cook it, put the stinky cheese on first, then the ham, top with another slice of French toast, cover with a lid and let it steam under that lid for less than 5 minutes you will have a delicious sandwich from things that you would have normally thrown away.

So, next time you see a tablespoon of preserves in the jar, now you have a plan for it. That bit of sauteed veggies that isn't enough for a whole dish? Make a Croque-Monsieur. The great thing about these sandwiches is that you can make different sandwiches for each member of your family, have each serving look similar, and be using up small amounts of odd leftovers--and they will thank you for such a fabulously yummy meal. :0)

Frugal Feeds | French Toast Five Ways

Using up stale bread is a staple of frugal living. So, to continue on yesterdays theme I am going to continue talking about what to do with that left over bread.

French Toast is broken down into a few simple components--

1. Bread that is unpalatable as it is.
2. Something that makes the texture of that bread palatable.
3. Something that makes the taste of that bread palatable.

The bread does not need to be French Bread. It can be any bread. But what makes French Bread make great French Toast is the chewy crust and airy, absorbent body. When thinking about turning that stack of unpalatable bread into French Toast consider the breads current components. Then consider what you will want to do to modify that bread so that everyone in your household is not only willing to eat the bread, but actually eagerly anticipating its yumminess.

The Basics--Traditional French Toast Custard Dip
To moisten your stale bread you need a custard dip. The traditional dip consists of egg, milk, vanilla and sugar. You can enhance this a million ways and modify it with different qualities of the basic ingredients. Using cream or skim milk makes significant differences. Using egg whites, tofu or bananas in place of the eggs makes a huge difference in texture and flavor. Pure vanilla, artificial vanilla, vanilla beans, orange flavor, almond flavor, no flavor--all result in totally different tastes. Brown sugar, syrup, stevia, all make a difference. Really, once you learn the basic custard dip you can make it as different as your imagination allows--but take it a step or two at a time and see what you like. Changing too many things too fast could result in recipes that don't work very well. Experiment, but do it a few things at a time.

My Version of the Basic Traditional Custard--For 8 thick slices

2 Eggs, beaten
1 cup 2% Milk
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract


So, lets look at a few different types of common bread and how we want to modify them:

Day old French Bread--Slice at a diagonal into 1 inch thick ovals. Use a straightforward custard mix. Serve with Honey, Maple or Fruit Sauce. French Bread with the custard is traditional and tastes great. No need to doll it up.

Day old Sour Dough Bread--Slice as above or, if it is pre-sliced sandwich style, consider whether the slices are too large and if so, cut in halves. Sour Dough is naturally tangy so you are going to want to make that work to your advantage. You can do the traditional custard but it will just taste good enough. Lets make it great by removing the milk from the custard and replacing that with half apple juice and half apple sauce. A bit of cinnamon is nice too. Now when your family eats this they won't need any sugar or syrup and will enjoy a Green Apple French Toast.

Stale Plain Jane Bread--If the bread is soft or soggy toast in the oven for 10 minutes or until dry. Then, modify the traditional custard by reducing the milk by 1/3 and adding 1 pureed ripe banana. The more over-ripe the banana the better the flavor, so use up the one that looks the most unappetizing. Add a pinch of nutmeg. Serve with Maple syrup and toasted pecans. Creates Maple Pecan Banana French Toast.

Stale Wheat Bread--Modify the traditional custard by reducing the milk by 1/3 and adding 1/2 cup pureed berries. I puree my berries with a stick blender. If there are a lot of seeds, like blackberry or raspberry puree would create, then strain through a wire mesh strainer. Creates Berry French Toast.

Stale Raisin Bread or other moist sweetened bread--Eliminate the brown sugar from your traditional custard and reduce the milk by half and add cinnamon. Makes Cinnamon Raisin French Toast.


Cooking it--
I prefer to use my large griddle and set the temp at 350 or medium. I set up the work area in an assembly line. Stack of bread next to bowl of custard next to the griddle. When the griddle has reached temperature I butter it lightly. Then I dunk the bread, roll it around in the custard and then put it right on the griddle. I repeat until all 8 pieces are on the griddle. I cook them until they are well browned on both sides and no longer steaming. The lack of steam indicates that the interior of the toast is fully cooked. This can happen very quickly with sandwich sliced bread or may take quite a while for thick, not too dry, bread. Adjust your temperature accordingly. If you think the center will cook quickly, you can raise the temp a bit. If you think the center will cook slowly, lower the temp. That way the exterior can brown and not burn.

French Toast freezes just great too. When it is cooled just set it on a cookie sheet in the freezer for the day. That night place into freezer bags, label and close. If your freezer might give it a strange taste because of frost in the space you can also just put straight into the freezer bag, foregoing the cookie sheet but the pieces may stick together and you will get ice crystals inside the bag. To eat just place in a 275 degree oven for 15 minutes or until warmed through. (You can also microwave them but the texture isn't great.)

Frugal Feeds Begins

Lets start off with an oldie but goodie that really takes little effort and will give you a dish full of food at the end of the month.

Get two gallon sized zippered freezer bags. Label one Sweet Bread Ends, the other Savory Bread Ends. Put today's date on it--or just an indicator like First Monday of the Month. Put it in the freezer. Now, for the next 30 days every time you get to the end of a loaf of bread, add the ends to the bag. Have hot dog buns that didn't get used up? Add them to a bag. A bagel gone stale--Bag it. Italian bread from Spaghetti night? Just make sure that if it has any garlic that it goes into the Savory Bread Ends bag, not the Sweet Bread Ends bag. Any bread part, piece or more that is in danger of being thrown out for not being used--put it in the bag. Raisin bread to the sweet bag, Cheese bread to the savory, etc...


30 days have passed and you have 4 cups or more of bread and no idea what to do with it.

(You can scale this easily--if you have one cup just use 1/4 of the recipe quantities. If you have 2 cups, use 1/2. 3 cups, 3/4ths.)

Here are some starters:

Take it out of the freezer in the morning and let it sit on the counter, in the bag, until it defrosts. Usually about an hour. Once it is defrosted cut it all up into cubes. Big or small is up to you and how you want to proceed with it.

I am going to give you two recipes. Very simple recipes that you can build on.

Recipe #1 Croutons

The first is for croutons--now, don't go running off just yet. The croutons are made so that you can make other recipes with them too, not just for crunchy salad stuff.

Place your oven rack squarely in the center row of your oven. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Take two cups of the savory bread cubes (or half), place in large bowl and toss with salt, pepper and a bit of dried herbs to your taste. You can also add 2 Tablespoons of oil for crispier croutons, but it isn't necessary. Spread one layer thick on a walled cookie sheet. Straight edged cookie sheets will cause them to slide off after baking. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. If they are small croutons 15 minutes may do the trick. Larger ones may take 30 minutes or more. Check that they are crispy all the way through. You want them to be thoroughly dried because you want to be able to keep them on hand in the cupboard for an easy dish without thawing.

Now, they are ready to be used for your salad--but they are also ready to made into stuffing, bread crumbs and crispy toppings for casseroles.

To make into Stuffing take 1/4 cup celery, 1/4 cup onions and a teaspoon of dried sage and saute in 3 Tablespoons low sodium broth in a medium sized pot until the celery and onions are glossy and a bit soft. Add 2 cups of Savory croutons and 1/4 cup low sodium broth, stir well, put a lid on it and remove from heat. It is ready to be served in five minutes.

OR

To make into Bread Crumbs, pulse the croutons in a food processor.
To make the bread crumbs into Crispy Topping, just before use, add 1 Tablespoon dried Parsley and 2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle on top of the casserole 15 minutes before casserole is to be finished baking in the oven.

Recipe #2 Bread Pudding

Place rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a small casserole with cooking oil or grease with butter or coconut oil.

Add 2 cups of sweet or plain bread cubes to the casserole. In a large bowl make a custard slurry. 

Combine: 
1 1/2 cups 2% Milk
2 beaten Eggs or 3 beaten Egg whites
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Pinch of ground Nutmeg
1/2 cup of leftover fruit. 

Mix together thoroughly. Pour slurry over the bread cubes. Make certain that the cubes have all been doused with the slurry and press down top edges slightly so that the surface of the bread is fairly even.
Bake for 45 minutes. Tips should be browned, center set.
 
The fruit can be over ripe bananas, frozen berries, raisins (soak raisins in hot water or hot juice or hot brandy for 10 minutes), peaches, pineapple or a mix of leftover fruit. Melons need to be seeded, cubed and pureed and then cooked until half of the liquid is evaporated and it is more like a jam that you swirl into the slurry after you have added the slurry to the cubes. If no fresh, frozen or canned fruit is available, a few Tablespoons of preserves works too, but I recommend swirling that over the top after you have added the custard slurry as well. (You can add it to the slurry but the fruit flavor is constant that way, while if you add a swirl it is a nice contrast from bite to bite).

The slurry above, minus the fruit, also makes a decent French Toast Batter. Although adding over ripe Bananas is yummy also. Just make sure they are pureed before hand.

Here is the best thing about these recipes. They are plain Jane, simple. Easy to remember but also easy to modify. Too sweet? Change the sugar. Too little fruit? Add more. Want more spices, you know what to do... It really is difficult to make these not turn out right because they taste pretty good just by themselves, so if you add to them it helps. And, it makes them yours. Just don't add too many things too fast or you might increase your cost of the item and make it taste too mixed up.