Chicken barley stew

It is so windy, cold and rainy today – a perfect day for soup.  With the threat of snow in the forecast I knew it was time for some warm comfort food.

Tonight Abby and I tried this chicken-barley stew recipe from the book Family Feasts for $75 a Week.  It was a real cheap meal for me for many reasons: 1) I had most of the ingredients in my house and the ingredients I did have to buy (carrots and cabbage) were very cheap,   2) I doubled the original recipe to make sure the vegetables didn’t go bad before I could use them preventing waste, and 3) by doubling the recipe I made sure that we have lunches for the next two days until my weekly planned shopping trip.

Barley in soup continues to absorb liquid, if this happens you can always add more chicken broth when you reheat to thin it out again.  The recipe below is for a double batch of soup with some seasoning modifications I did because the flavor was bland to me when I followed the recipe exactly.  I don’t measure seasonings so I listed the suggested amounts from her recipe.  I used probably 1.5-2x as much seasoning and I added pepper and some salt.  I don’t usually add salt to food but this soup needed it to me.   I also didn’t have any fresh parsley, I bet that would have added some nice flavor.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  The chicken was Abby’s favorite part because it came out so moist. 

 

Chicken Barley Stew

16 cups of chicken broth (4 quarts)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1#)

2 cup pearl barley

4-5 ribs of celery chopped

6 carrots chopped

2 cups finely slivered green cabbage (I used about 1/3 of a head)

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley

1)Bring broth to a boil in a large soup pot.

2) When broth is boiling, add all ingredients to the pot.  Return to a boil, then partially cover pot and reduce heat to medium-love.  Let stew simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

3) Ladle into bowls.  Garnish with parsley before serving.

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

It’s fall in Wisconsin, the nation’s largest producer of cranberries, and I have been longing for anything with cranberries or pumpkin in it.  Sundays when I’m not working I like to make a special hot breakfast for my family.  This weekend I made a vegetable strata and found a recipe for cranberry pumpkin muffins that I tweaked to decrease the fat, cholesterol and sugar.  This recipe cost me less than $2 to make because I only had to buy cranberries and pumpkin.  You only need about half the can of pumpkin so I was able to make a double batch for no extra cost.

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice ( if you don’t have this combine nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin (about half a can)

1/2 cup applesauce (I use unsweetened)

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl combine the first four ingredients. 

 In a mixing bowl, combine the oil and sugar; add the pumpkin and applesuace and mix well.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until moisted.  It makes a thicker looking batter.

Fold in the cranberries.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups 3/4s full.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Price Book

I’ve read or skimmed several low budget cooking books and the two books I liked the best discussed developing a price book.  A price book is a small notebook you keep in your purse to help you find the best deals on the items you purchase the most.  This has been really helpful to me in determining where I am going to do my grocery shopping.

How to get started:

1) Get a small spiral notebook.  Something I wish I had done differently is found something with tabs so that the items would be in alphabetical order or by food category.  I am thinking about rewriting everything in a new more organized notebook.

2) collect grocery recipets you have around the house and/or sales fliers. 

3)Make the headers. On the top of the page write the food item (example: Strawberries).  Then the headers for your columns: date of purchase, store, brand,  total price, unit (the size), and finally unit price.

4) Determine price per unit.  Take the total price you paid and divide by the size of the product.  Most food items I buy are in ounces, but diapers I do by # of diapers in the box.  Many products are sold in different sizes depending on the brand.  Determining the price per unit allows you to see what the price really is.

 Here is an excerpt from my page for strawberries:

Strawberrries

9/18 PNS   $2.50   16 oz   .16/0z

9/6  Aldis   $2.29   16 oz   .14/0z

9/30 Target  $1.97   16oz  .12/0z

9/24  Woodman’s  $2.99  16 oz   .19/oz

 I was suprised to see Target had the lowest price.  I had never bought groceries there before.  Using sale fliers can help you track prices at stores you don’t usually shop at.

5) Dedicate time to update your book.  One book I read suggested keeping one day a week as your “quiet day” to plan meals, cut coupons, and look through fliers.  She’s a stay at home with a detailed weekly schedule to maintain her home.  On this day she doesn’t do any cleaning beyond daily dishes, etc.  Family Feasts on$75 suggests a goal of 15 minutes a day to updating the price book.  That’s what I have been trying to do but 1 hour a week can provide you the information you need.

It may sound daunting or tedious, but this tip has helped me see in writing changes I have made and how they are adding up.  Give it a try, it will only cost you the price of one small notebook.