Homemade ricemilk

In my never-ending quest to trim our food budget, I've turned my attention to ricemilk. We spend $5 per week on rice or almond milk, due to my younger daughter's dairy allergies. It adds up.

I came across a recipe for homemade ricemilk and thought, "I can do that!"

I used this recipe. I do not necessarily agree with the political sentiment of the blog, but I like how easy the recipe is.

I mixed two cups of brown rice and sixteen cups of water in a large pot. After bringing it to a boil, I let it simmer for three hours. For taste, I added 5 teaspoons-ish of salt and 1/2 cup of maple syrup. I ladled the mixture, spoonful by spoonful into a blender and cut it 50:50 with water. The ricemilk is stored in large mason jars.

My daughters don't like the milk as much as they like store-bought milk, but they will drink it and eat it in cereal. I could add more syrup, but I'd like to wean them off the sweet taste. I like it because we've saved a ton of money this way.

My next experiment will be making ricemilk in the crockpot, so I don't have to babysit the stove. Stay tuned!

Grown-up fish sticks

I just love Budget Bytes's blog. Her recipes are solid, delicious, nutritious and cheap. Fits all my criteria for a perfect meal.

Tonight we made grown-up fish sticks.

[Edited to add: I linked to the original recipe, but I wanted to make sure it was clear. This is Budget Bytes's recipe and I did not modify it at all.]

It was easy! In 30 minutes, I microwaved potatoes, made fresh bread, heated baked beans and fried the fish sticks. Here's what happened:

• Defrosted a package of frozen tilapia fish sticks in the fridge during the day
• Chopped the fish into halves and then thirds
• Dipped the fish into a flour/cajun pepper mixture, then into egg, then into panko, then into a hot, oiled pan
• Fried until golden. Flip and repeat. 

We tried this dairy-free tartar sauce. Essentially, I mixed mayonnaise, frozen dill, mustard and lemon juice and omitted the yogurt. It tasted like mayonnaise but was a good side.

Delicious!

Daily homemade bread from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"

I know I haven't posted in a while and I'm going to post more often. I'd say that at least two meals a week are ones I'd like to share; they are tasty, nutritious, cheap, easy to make ... or some combination of the above.

For my comeback post, I'd like to share my adventures with Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This book change my life! Those of you who know me IRL have probably heard me go on and on and on about this book. :)

Due to T's allergies,  I started scouring ingredients for dairy and soy. I started to buy bread at $5 a loaf on a weekly or twice weekly. It was way too much. I had heard about the book but when we visited my friend M, we ate bread fresh out of the oven and I was sold.

It truly spend only five minutes a day and I make fresh bread daily. For those who haven't heard for this took, essentially what I do is mix flour, yeast, water and salt together in a storage container. I let it sit out for two hours and pop it in the fridge. Then, when I want to make bread, I just pull off hunks of dough, dunk it in flour and place on a greased baking sheet. It bakes in 25 minutes. I don't clean out the storage container between batches and the remaining dough develops a lovely sourdough taste.

Let me share some pictures.

 Bread on a baking sheet (I tried to rotate the picture but it got lost somehow)

 

 Rosemary and roasted garlic flatbread (half-eaten). S's favorite. 

E took this picture. She loves the bread, especially fresh out of the oven.

 Bread in a container in the fridge. 










http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1616 is the basic recipe I use. I also make the flatbread and rye recipes.

Let me know if you want more baking tips or want to borrow the cookbook!

Shana

Homemade falafel and pita bread

I originally did not to post these recipes because I did not alter them to make them my own. They were easy, solid, nutritious, cheap recipes but definitely Budget Bytes's recipe. However, I decided to share them because they truly are wonderful to have in the recipe repertoire. 

Here a recipe for homemade falafel. Here is a recipe for homemade pita. Aside from the tomato and cucumber, the rest of the ingredients were in my pantry. It was truly a cheap meal.

I baked navy and garbanzo beans in the crockpot overnight on low for 8 hours. Look at the steam!

Edited to add: I used dried beans and cooked them first. You can certainly use canned beans, but I like the lower price and lower salt content of dried beans.

 

 I did not have oil to fry or cumin. I baked the falafel balls on a cookie sheet, omitting the cumin. They were OK. I think next time I will shape smaller patties and definitely make sure I have all the ingredients.

The pita was a cinch to make. I rose the dough in the morning and then stored it in the fridge until supper time. I did not even try to cut the pita in half.I just folded it over tomato and cucumber. Drizzling the pita with tahini sauce was just perfect!

See the camera cord?

This is definitely on my list of cheap and nutritious eats.

Slow cooker bean stew

This stew was easy, cheap and very nutritious.

I used homemade vegetable stock. I save vegetable clippings in a plastic freezer bag. When the bag is full, I cook it on low for 10 hours in the crockpot.

 

To make this soup:

• Strain the vegetable broth and dispose of the clippings.  
• Add a handful of beans. I used a handful of blackbeans and a handful of navy beans
• Add meat. I used a cup of cut leftover ham
• Add vegetables. I used a cup of chopped carrots, a cup of chopped celery, a cup of chopped parsnip
• Add salt, pepper and chopped garlic to taste
• Simmer on low for 8-10 hours

 

Delicious! Enjoy with homemade croutons.

Homemade pizza: nutritious, easy and cheap!

We made a delicious pizza tonight. I will definitely be making it again. Cheap, nutritious and the girls ate quite a bit of it. It was easy, but it did require me to prepare the pizza dough in advance.

This is the crust I used. I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour. To help the dough rise, I heated up the oven for a few months then turned the heat off. The dough rose in a warm environment. The house is otherwise kept at 65 F.

[Edited to add: I heated the oven for a few MINUTES, not a few months!]


Random toppings. Leftover ham from Christmas, canned pineapple, heated frozen pepper strips, chopped onions and mushrooms (not shown).

S's pizza pre-cheese. Sauce was random spaghetti sauce from the fridge.









Does this look like Kentucky?











 E wanted only pineapple. T and I could not eat the cheese. I don't know if these pictures help sell the pizza. :)









This was a cheap meal. The only purchases for this recipe were the pizza cheese and pineapple slices. Everything else was in the cupboard, leftover from Christmas or purchased for other meals too.