Fat and Crafty.com

One of the reasons I like teaching the meal planning and grocery shopping class is that it makes me reassess what we are doing to see if I can make any improvement. The grocery shopping section has become critical because while were still doing fine with our bimonthly budget its become pretty clear that one of the places we shop  isn’t working as well for us, and that we need to take a second look at it.

My basic suggestions for grocery shopping are

1. Shop big if you can.
2. Explore specialty shops
3. Don’t split your budget too much.

Shop big if you can.
If your budget allows it, and it’s something you use regularly, stock up! Two stores that help me do that are Cash and Carry and Costco.

Costco
Costco is like a supersized grocery store. They are able to bring together a good wine section, meat, bakery, grocery, pharmacy. Items come in a “warehouse consumer” size. Meaning that  the manufacturer is aiming at the consumer level market. They do carry some goods for  businesses and have whole stores aimed at business services, but overwealmingly the experience i have in the normal costco is that they are aiming at the families.

What’s good at Costco?
For us it’s ground beef, pork tenderloin, lamb, big bags of spinach, dairy, eggs, some spices, chicken base. They also have a range of organic items at a good price. They also make the best rotissere chicken, so I can often be convinced to pick up a couple. What do I avoid? We used to by our chicken breasts there, but they now come individually wrapped , and thats just a waste when you go through the bag as quickly as we do.

What do we avoid at Costco?
Many of the canned goods will get a pass, as will the frozen entrees. They are nice to have on hand in a pinch, but they arent something that often ends up in the cart.

An example? Last time we hit costco I got  a half gallon of half and half for 3.00.

Cash and Carry/ Smart and Final
 This is basically a store that caters to restaurants.   You are welcome to shop there as an individua though, and you just might be surprised by who you meet also see shopping there. I often run into the owner of a local barbecue joint whose food i love. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me.  Many of the goods will have two prices on the shelf, an item price and a case price, be sure you have the right price before you put it in the cart.

What’s good at Cash and Carry?
Flour in 25lb bags, potatoes and onions, milk, butter, cheese, sausages, chicken, seafood, chicken base, ramen, instant oatmeal, canned tomatoes and chili.

What do we avoid?
Produce for the most part. The Cash and Carry by us has an odor in the produce section and its never that great unfortunatly. But each Cash and Carry varies, and yours might have good produce, our old one did.

An example? A giant can of crushed tomatoes for 2.50.

Sam’s Club.
We don’t shop at Sam’s Club. Not because Walmart is evil, but because it doesnt meet our needs. We don’t have a club card there, and the one time we went and wandered the aisles things didnt look promising enough to invest. Too much focus on processed goods, not good enough basic prices for us.

(What is Chicken Base? Chicken base is a condensed chicken stock, 1tsp -1 cup. Its a great stock substitute. )

Exploit Specialty Stores.
Ethnic Markets, Grocery Outlets, Farm Stands and  more.

Ethnic Markets
In Chicago this was the local hispanic shop around the corner from the place on Sheridan drive. In Seattle it’s HT Market, or Ranch 99. Each store has its own personality and its pros and cons. The first thing to do is to visit them when planning an ethnic meal. Why pay a specialized $3 for a lb of rice noodles at Safeway when you can get them for .99 at HT Market? At an ethnic market you will find much higher turnover of your specialty items. 

I won’t even go into whats good here, because it really varies. We’ve been happy with produce, canned specialty items, noodles, rice,  juice boxes and meat. Not always at the same place, and not always on the same trip.

Grocery Outlet
Grocery Outlet is one of those places that I was hesitant to shop in, yet I’m a total convert.  They get in goods  that have been discontinued or are regional items that arent made in a quantity to earn shelf space at a store anymore. It takes a good eye to assure that you are not getting something that is out of date, but beyond that you’re able to find some treasures. Annies Vegan Burritos, Martinelli Apple Juice, and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream are all things that have come home with me. There is a tilt towards the processed, but if it satisfies a craving for “weekend cereal” I’m not going to complain too much.

Veg Stands
We have this throughout the Seattle are. Little produce stands who carry a few dry goods, but mainly fresh veg. You have to be careful to keep an eye on the quality, but beyond that you’ll get a good deal. My local grocery store offers apples for $1.50-$2.78 a lb. On sale they came down to $.78. The Veg stand is between $.69 and $.99 regularly. If you want to know where it comes from you have to ask, but beyond that they are great to add to your store listing.

Bread Outlets
in Seattle these are Orowheat stores that offer bread at a discounted price. Usually when its nearing the date. We stop once a month or so and add it to the freezer.  They also carry a small selection of canned goods and general groceries. Sometimes its soup, cougar mountain cookies, chocolate peanut butter, or the occasional coffee cake. its a nice resource to have.

Butchers
This is one i’ve yet to do,  but  it’s worth looking into. We’ve got a nearish locker meat place that we’re going to check out in the future. Butchers down in Pike Place Market occasionally have good prices, and it never hurts to check whats in your neighborhood.

Where i shop infrequently.
Farmers Markets
While I love farmers markets, when we go its as an entertainment and usually out of my extra spending money. The prices are always a bit higher and  if we’re watching the budget i cant get enough to feed all of us.  Shopping in season helps, and there are exceptions but for the most part farmers markets are out my reach. ($7.99 for a lb of green beans? Its great that someone will pay it, but I can’t)

PCC/Whole Foods:
From the start  PCC and Whole Foods are out of my price range. Again, there are exceptions, buit for the most part we just dont go there.  The sales can be good, the bulk section can be great, the produce is always beautiful, but the price tag usually has it out of my budget.

Trader Joes
For the most part Trader Joes has good prices and good food, however they are not sustainable at my family size. We can take advantage of some of the dairy and canned goods, but the meat section and frozen seem to be targeting a smaller household size.

Don’t split your budget
With all these places, the worst thing you can do is try to go to all of them at once. Instead  pick one every couple of weeks, and stock up  a bit. The exception being the veg stands, those its good to squeeze into your shopping regularly.   All of these stores are special and may need to be used with a standard grocery store visit as well. When planning your shopping, plan for your needs. Don’t go chasing after sale items if its going to cost you more in gas and time then the savings will be.

So how does this work for me?
Every other week we hit Cash and Carry and Central Market (It’s somewhere between a Safeway and a Whole Foods) We hit the bread store monthly, and the other stores about once a month or every other month. We’ll start to see more variety now that our dollar isn’t going as far.

Can you smell that? Oh sorry, they’ve not invented Smell-o-net yet. (That’s probably a good thing come to think about it. ) I’ve been home working on homework most of the day and decided that I’d throw a little bit of productivity towards the kitchen. Aron and Leah are coming home after celebrating their anniversary in Seaside OR. They’ve been gone since Friday, and it will be nice to have them back.  Patrick and Miss Bit who went off to the pumpkin patch today and have spent the day frolicking with friends. (the things i have to miss because of homework) 

So I’m welcoming everyone home tonight with Roasted Garlic Soup, fresh wheat bread, and twice baked shortbread.(  Dinner will be a sausage pasta dish, but thats not cooking quite yet).  There is something magical about the aroma of a kitchen in progress. Yesterday while we were out in Portland  a friend borrowed our kitchen to do some canning, her kitchen is out of commission right now. It was amazing to come home to the spicy scent of green tomato relish permeating the kitchen.  We have a few jars she left us, and I can’t wait to figure out how to use it. (What do you do with green tomato relish?)

What a great way to end the weekend though, a warm house, good food, and family back at home.

We’re a larger family at this point, so this post hits closer to home for me.
First of you are a large family, think big! Thing of stocking up on sale items when you can, keeping a full pantry, and  making dishes that are big. Big Chili’s, big stews, big roasts, big pans of pulled pork, big batches of mashed potatoes etc.  As a larger family you can capitalize on your size and make things that would be too costly in a small amount.

Use your Crockpot. Don’t think of it just as something that you use when you are headed out of the house. Why get the stove going to bake a roast when your Crockpot will do the same and is more efficient?
Need crockpot recipes? Check your library, or check this blog. (365 days of Crockpot cooking)

Let me say, if you are working to lower your costs  you need to consider doing more from scratch.  Note, I said consider, not do. You need to sit down and calculate what the ingredients cost and what the labor involved will cost you

Not everything is cheaper, but  you’ll be surprised by how much is. Additionally by working from scratch you are able to have a handle on quality better.

Tilt your thinking towards “making from scratch” It dosnt have to mean you getting up every morning at dawn to make the bread. Instead it might mean keeping  a bucket of dough in your fridge based on the 5 minute a day artisan loaf. it might mean looking at a favorite quick bread recipe, premixing the dry ingredients and keeping them as a mix in the pantry.  (We do this with our cornbread recipe)

With a small family you can get by with packaged goods occasionally, as a large family, it makes no sense to  buy and make 2-3 packages of rice mix when you can just make a real rice pilaf.  If you’re making it, why not make some extra and toss it in the freezer?

So for a larger family my biggest suggestion is to think big, cook from scratch, prep ahead what you can, and keep your meal plans pretty simple. When you”re cooking you’ll find that you are able to embellish adding spices,  or adjusting your technique to change things up a little.

Next up? A guide to Grocery stores, and why shopping sales isn’t always the best idea.

Small families have special challenges. Smaller food budget, smaller food storage and so on.    With a smaller family its  easier to justify  eating out, and making less effort.I’ve been there.”Oh it’s just me, I’ll just pick up some pad thai on the way home”

Cookbooks offer suggestions, one I remember from  when I was single said “Make a pot of rice and a pt of stew over the weekend, then eat it all week long.”

BORING! I do not want to eat the same stew/soup/curry all week long.  Just because your family is small doesnt mean you can’t have variety in your diet.

I don’t even suggest making meals and freezing them in small portions for yourself. If you make a big pot of chicken noodle soup and freeze it into say 20 portions think of how long it will take you to get through them. Thats a serving of chicken noodle soup  almost every other week. Can you store that much? Can you stomach that much sameness? Instead I suggest the building block approach.

Building blocks

Pick a few basic items, and make large quantities to freeze. The key here is basic items.

Make tomato sauce with no meat, and only lightly seasoned.

Make chicken “soup” with just chicken and a few basic vegetables.

Make Beans and freeze them.(the texture won’t be the same, thats true,  but it will work for things like refried beans or chili with beans)

Make plain rice and freeze it.

Bake potatoes and freeze them.

Basic veg: chop and freeze. Garlic, peppers, onions.

Now what?

Now that you have these basics frozen  combine! Seriously. You made a basic chicken soup so that you can add roasted garlic and rotissere chicken and have a roasted garlic chicken soup. Or maybe you added a matzoh balls. Or you took the plain tomato sauce added chili spices and served it with the beans for a basic chili. Pour it over the baked potato and you have dinner. The rice you froze? When added  to the chicken soup with a little beaten egg and some lemon you have greek lemon soup.

This way when you write out your plan for the week, you know what  you have in stock in the freezer and can plan your meals out of them. This may sound like it takes a lot of freezer space, but it doesnt have to. If you plan out to make chicken soup for dinner one night, you can get started on a big batch portion out 3/4 of it for the freezer and eat one portion.

If you can:

Look into other food storage methods beyond freezing. Either canning or dehydrating will add to what you can store without eating into your freezer room. Or consider a small chest freezer. Friends of mine who live in an apartment have literally added the freeze to their dining room and tossed a tablecloth over it. Others built a little wheeled cart for it so it could be moved easily.

Planned overs:

When planning dinners out, do plan on making a little extra to incorporate in a different meal. Making steak? Grill a second one for a steak salad. Making pork chops? Cook 2 and chop the second up for fried rice. Extra tomato sauce becomes meatball subs.  I’m sure you get the idea.

Team up:

By all means team up with someone else if you can for grocery shopping. Some of the best deals that I’m able to score do rely on purchasing a larger quantity of food then one person can eat. For example, one of my regular stores is a resteraunt supply  grocer. They carry potatoes in big 50 lb sacks. These are the big baking potatoes you get at Outback Steakhouse and other similar places. For $13 I get a whole 50 lb sack. At my other regular grocery store  potatoes run $1.49 a lb. So for the price of 10 lbs I get 50.

But it’s not a deal if you don’t use it. So when I stumble on a deal like that I’ll put a call out to my friends. Anyone want to split a bag of potatoes? The deal gets better if I’m getting less for a lower price and can use them all.

So in summary: Prep ahead, plan ahead and shop with a friend.

Part four will cover specific information for larger families.

I recently taught a class for Seattle Free School at the Broadview Library about meal planning and grocery shopping and wanted to share the information to my blog audience as well. Meal planning will be put forward in four sections, the introduction found here , part  2 for meal planning basics for everyone, part 3 for smaller families, and part 4 for larger families. Grocery shopping will  be its own post. Feedback is always welcomed.  General information on the teaching aspect and how it went is at Seattlejo.com here.
Meal Planning Basics

Square one, a place to start.

This is the most simple element of grocery shopping. Simply I take a notebook or excel spreadsheet and write down the days of the week,  and what the date is like this.

6-Oct Monday

7-Oct Tuesday

8-Oct Wednesday

9-Oct Thursday

10-Oct Friday

I recccomend that this list is at least 2 weeks long, and have even gone as far as a month. This does not need to coincide with your grocery shopping days.

From there, I lable the dates that I’m going to be out. For my family size it means that I may ask someone else to make dinner, I might have a crock pot meal going, or we may order out.  For a smaller family it might mean a planned leftovers night, a planned crock pot meal for when people do get home, or again, eating out. Then I begin labeling with meals  that I want to make.

This is where it gets tricky. How do you know what you want to eat?  I remember reading once that the average person eats the same 20 meals over and  over. Regular repeats. While thats not bad, one of the benefits of meal planning like this is that you get to add some variety into routine, and are aware of your ruts.  So first, look at your cravings. Ask your housemembers what they want to eat. Think about what you want to cook.  Look at cookbooks, recipe websites for inspiration, meal planning services, even what your favorite restaruants serve (see the links at the end of this post for what inspires me). These are all inspirational items you can make.

Still need more help? One trick I’ve used in the past is to  theme each day, and go from there.  Here is an example of what I’ve done.

• Monday : Soup/Sandwich/Salad. During the winter this is soup and sandwiches, during the summer its salads as well. A soup and salad doesnt have to be grilled cheese and tomatos soup, but it could be. It could also be Pho and Vietnamese sandwiches, it could be meatball subs and minestrone, or cuban sandwhiches with a chopped vegetable salad. So many options for interpertations here.

• Tuesday: Vegetarian. This means pulling out recipes that omit the meat. Pasta with garlic and olive oil, pancakes with fresh fruit, veggie burgers, tofu pad thai, beans and rice.

• Wednesday: Comfort foods.  Chicken pot pie, Tuna casserole, roasted turkey breast with all the trimmings, meatloaf and mashers, sheperds pie and so on.

• Thursday : Meat. Your meat is predominant on your plate for this meal. That means pork chops, steaks, baked chicken, pot roast, and so on. Obviously some of what goes in this day could go in comfort foods.

• Friday : Take out. No we arent ordering take out, we’re making take out. I make a great pad thaii, lemon chicken , and sweet and sour pork. I love making pizza at home. With the pizza crust recipe from Joy of Cooking, I can make a big batch  freeze it and have pizza crust at the ready.

• Saturday :Grill. Whether its a grill pan or out in the yard saturday is great day for grilled chicken, burgers, fajitas, grilled veggies and so on.

• Sunday: Cooking Class. On Sundays I have the most time available for cooking projects. So I’ll pull out a cookbook and learn more complicated techniques or pick up a skill I didnt have before. This is how I leared hollandaise sauce for eggs benedict, and its how Miss Thing learned to make her famous chicken katsu.

So now you’ve done it, you have a list that looks like this

6-Oct    Monday    Meatball Subs  and Caprese salad

7-Oct    Tuesday    Pancakes with fruit

8-Oct    Wednesday    Tuna Noodle Casserole

9-Oct    Thursday    Pork Chops with stuffing and corn

10-Oct    Friday    Okonomayaki and Chicken Katsu

11-Oct    Saturday    Grilled Chicken with rice and zuccini

12-Oct    Sunday    Homemade Spaghetti with garlic bread and broccoli

13-Oct    Monday    Turkey Strudel with Vegetable Beef Soup

14-Oct    Tuesday    Potato stuffed perogies, roasted beets

15-Oct    Wednesday    Hedgehogs, Green beans

16-Oct    Thursday    Kielbasa with roasted potatoes and fresh spinach salad

17-Oct    Friday    Sweet and Sour Pork, rice,  broccoli with garlic

18-Oct    Saturday    Smoked Turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

19-Oct    Sunday    Make your own pizza day

Even if you only shop every couple of days because of your fridge space, this gives you a plan of attack for those trips. You will know that you can buy a larger package of Pork and freeze half of it to cover two meals. You’ll also know what you are adding to the pantry for future meals.

Next time you sit down to plan use this same list. You’ll know what you’ve just eaten so you don’t repeat and you’ll know what you liked for items you want to repeat.  No matter if you use the large family plan, small family plan or a different plan over all. Plan it out.

Sources of inspiration

Recipe sites

Food Network,

Cooking Light,

Epicurious

Meal planning places.

Month of Meals,

Zone Seattle ,

Dancing Women,

Lucky Palate,

Delicious Planet ,

Tumeric’n more,

Julia’s Indonesian Kitchen.

Dinner’s Ready

Dream Dinners

Sites that plan for you

Saving Dinner

Relish

I recently taught a class for Seattle Free School  at the Broadview Library about meal planning and grocery shopping and wanted to share the information to my blog audience as well. Meal planning will be put forward in four sections, this introduction, part  2 for meal planning basics for everyone, part 3 for smaller families, and part 4 for larger families. Grocery shopping will  be its own post. Feedback is always welcomed.  General information on the teaching aspect and how it went will show up in Seattlejo.com shortly.

Meal Planning, an introduction.

This is not meal planning for dummies. Not because you need to come into this class with previous knowledge but because I don’t consider anyone a dummie for not knowing this. My mom was great about teaching me how to cook. From the time that I was three  I was in the kitchen. Mom taught everything from the family kolatchkies to her spaghetti sauce and chili. By the time I was a teenager, I was able to make meels on my own at home. But no one ever sat me down and said “Here is a budget you need to feed 3 people for 2 weeks, and here are the allergies you are cooking around.”  Even if you had that happen in class in highschool, thats still a simulation, and as we all know, real life is different.

Why am I qualified to “teach”? Because i’m experienced. Part of the beauty of Seattle Free School is that you don’t need to be a certified instructor, you just have to have enough expertise to feel like you can share.  At this time, I’m feeding a family of 6 for a total of $500 a month. That includes breakfast, lunches and dinners.  It works out to about $83 a person a month and we’re feeding 4 adults and 1 child, and 1 teenager. I’ve done this or a variation of this for the past 5 years. 

Why plan meals?
It all comes down to three basics, health, time and money.

• Health : Planning meals is healthier because you know what you are eating. You can plan indulgencies, and you know what is going into your diet. Even if you arent planning a “diet” meal plan, you’re going to do better then eating out all the time.
• Time: Having a plan means there is less of the “What am I having for dinner” dance each night. There is less incentive to stop by the local thai place to pick up dinner (adding to health there)  Planning ahead means you are cognizent of what you are cooking and the time involved.
• Money: Planning saves money because you are eating out less, you are working through your pantry foods regularly and you don’t have to stop at the grocery store for every meal. Stopping at the store for every meal is crazy expensive.  I stop to pick up items for 1 meal and it runs me $40, but shopping for 2 weeks worth of dinners runs me only $250.

You’re never going to eat all your meals at home. You’re never going to avoid eating out entirely, but having a plan will help!

Part two will cover some planning basics, including a discussion of different planning methods.
Part three will cover specific information for smaller families
Part four will cover specific information for larger families.

It’s October already! Time to start thinking of holiday crafts, holiday cookies, holiday fruitcakes, holiday cards! I’m going to be working on a mock up of our holiday card for the year before I set to making 50 or so of them.
In the meantime, there has been stamping.
I’ve made thank you cards, and Halloween cards
 

20 of the Thank you cards got packed into a card box given to church for a fundraiser. 20 Thank you, 10 Birthday, 10 Holiday, 10 Sympathy cards. They went for the price asked for, though I think they were valued a little low at $30 for 50 cards.

On the needles:

I’m still working on the Maple Syrup sweater, but have slowed down. I know I need more yarn and am just unsure about when I’ll be able to order it.
I’m also working on socks, as they are the perfect portable project as I bus back and forth to Bothell. I’m to the point where I know 2/3 of the sock pattern by heart.