Good Food Doesn't Always Have to be Made

     My main goal of this blog is to inform you about good food at good prices. How to cook things right and make yourself feel good. Today I'm going to continue that. I normally talk about home made meals. About how packaged food is normally a lesser option when it comes to your health. I'm going to talk today a little about some packaged food. For good deals as well.

     Find some gems in your local area. It can be something as extravagant as an entire Asian market place where most of the labels don't even have English on them. To something as simple as an Hispanic woman selling fresh tortillas and Elote out of a small cart in front of her house. Fine a place like that. Try it once, make sure it's good. I know some of you are going to be a little shy about the random cart, but trust me. Keep your eyes on it, see how many people go there. Normally things like that don't last long if they arn't good.

     I love when we go up to Chicago and adventure all around. You find little shops like that. In my area I never thought there would be so many. I was wrong. Recently a small Asian shop popped up between my best friends house and mine. They sent out coupons for a free gift on your first visit. What did we have to lose? I headed out there with an open mind, our current Asian section of grocery stores was never very impressive. Sure enough we walked in and it was a small mom and pop kind of shop. The man working there was super friendly and still had a full accent. We browsed around a bit and some of the prices were super low. Like it was kind of crazy low.

     I ended up buying some Chicken pot stickers and a bunch of other things. The pot stickers were only about $4. I didn't think there would be a lot in there. So the other day I was home alone and decided to cook some up. The directions were in both English and Other various languages. I pulled out a hand full, thinking that would be half of the package at least, only to look back in and see that I hardly touched it. There are so many stuffed into one bag.

     This is what I made and it turned out to be a meal fit for two, I couldn't even finish the last rice ball. The meal maybe cost me a dollar? If that? I haven't gotten back into the pot stickers, but now they are looking good again. I'm going to have to go steam some up now. 

     Tips:

          *For sticky rice, make sure to use short grain rice, and Rice Vinegar (you can see it in the picture above)

         * For the sauce I mixed, water, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and some sugar together.

          

     Feel free to share some neat little local places you have with me, I'd love to hear about your adventures!

~Skadia, the steaming panther

Restaurant Review - Olive Garden

     Today I went out with my mother. We did some shopping, got me some new work clothes, and after a day of fun she was kind enough to treat me to dinner. Olive Garden used to be one of our go to mother daughter kind of places. My dad didn't care too much for it, so it was a special thing for us. Today we decided to check it out and after not going for a while here is my current opinion on the place.

     What is Olive Garden? Well you might be asking this right now, so how about a little background. They used to be a fairly classy restaurant that specialized in "Italian" food, much like how Panda Express is Chinese. They stretch across the United States and possibly elsewhere but location is not my cup of tea. (That's for sure peppermint.) The one I want to talk about is the one that is in Northwest Indiana. It is right off the highway and right in the middle of tons of shopping. It was a Monday at around 8 pm and while the parking lot was very small, there were plenty of space and a very short wait time. While there is no real dress code, it seemed like just about anything went. Including a child in just a diaper and overalls.

     The atmosphere was decent, it was fairly slow so it wasn't too busy. All of the staff was very friendly. The decoration around the place looked like an outdated Greek local joint that wouldn't actually be Greek food.

      The menu was very lack luster for me. They had one that had the current promotion on it (buy one take one) and then a second promotion one stuffed inside the menu. Most of their choices were various forms of pasta, meat, and sauce. Their dessert menu had more variety! I didn't really see anything for diets or vegans, I also really didn't look too hard, so maybe call a head of time to see. They also had an impressive wine menu.

     I will say this to begin with, I was personally not happy with the food. The soup (chicken dumpling) came out room temperature at best. The main meal itself was just bland. My mother got Alfredo and I got ravioli. Neither were memorable.

     Now I am going to take just a moment to talk about the staff. They were very kind, but very slow as well. For our order our soup got to the table before our drinks were even there. My mom throughout the meal asked for a few refills and it took quite some time for our waitress to get around to it. Now I can understand if the place is busy, but there were 7 tables in our section and only 4 were filled. Like I said, super nice and friendly, but slow.

     Now for the real thing on everyone's mind. Well how much is this going to cost? Well we went there for the buy one take one special. Buy one meal there, get a second to head home with you. Each came with soup or salad. The final total was about $35 total, for two people and 4 full meals. So not bad at all. If the special wasn't running, most plates run about $12-$15 each. Add drink, and tip. Normally we don't walk out of there without spending at least $50 for two people.

My overall opinion for this visit was indifferent. For the price and the deal it was worth it, even though the food didn't sit very well with me personally. For any other day, I don't think I would be going back any time soon. Not at the fault of the staff either. Just poor food quality. I don't mind spending money, but I at least want it well spent.

Rating:

Staff: 5/5 Super friendly!
Food and Presentation: 2/5 (we didn't die from it)
Ambiance and Decor: 3/5
Quality of Service: 4/5
Favorite menu item: Chicken Dumpling soup
Kid Friendly: They had coloring books and crayons.
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes.
Overall Rating: 3/5

Simple Summer Lunch

     With temperatures high some days near 100F, and my little hobbit hole doesn't have central air, lighting the oven on days like that, are just too much, cooking in general on those days are way to much. Here are a few of my favorite simple meals, with no heat required.

     Fruit! Normally summer time is when melons are in season and at their lowest prices. Watermelon is one of my all time favorite snacks/meals. You can even freeze it and use it in picnic baskets as added "cold packs".

     Sandwiches!  Another cool favorite. Lunch meat, cheese, chicken salad, even good old peanut butter and jelly. Bread is normally the cheep part of it but you can sometimes find some good sales. Also watch for store brands, they normally have individual serving packs for under a dollar each and you can make about two sandwiches out of one.

     Salad. Not the most exciting, but it's cheap. A head of lettuce normally is under a dollar and just add dressing. You don't need everything on it, but feel free to if you have things on hand! The other perk about salad is that it's filling. Some grocery stores even now have salad bars where you can buy it by the pound and they have just about most toppings.

     Now this last one takes a little bit of heat, but make a big batch one evening and you'll have them on hand. Egg salad. Slap that on some toast and it's a good quick meal filled with protein.

     What are some of your favorite summer meals or snacks? I'd love to hear for you all.

~Skadia, the melting panther.

Breakfast on a Budget

     Hey everyone, I talked about something serious in my last blog on how healthy food isn't as expensive as most people think. (Click here if you missed it! ) Today I want to show you how that shopping list transfers into daily life and meals. I did use a few items that I already had on hand, but only things you generally do, things like salt, pepper, egg. Anyway, on to some good breakfast!

     This is one super simple dish, it only takes a few ingredients and can be altered to suit your own taste very easily. So if you don't like onions, swap them out for mushrooms! See, that simple. Here is what I used personally. (I also added some Havarti cheese, but that's not healthy so I cheated and added it after the pic was taken.)

This is all I had, one egg, about a tablespoon of "chopped" up raw spinach a teaspoon of alfalfa sprouts, and a little bit of green onion (I also added some dried minced onions as well). This was for me a decent portion and while I'm not stuffed, I was full from it. However, if you want a little bit more, add a banana as a side. (Remember we got those too yesterday and they are normally fairly cheep.)

All I did was beat the egg with just salt and pepper. No added water or milk, just the egg by itself. You won't want this to be super fluffy like scrambled eggs, think more of an omelette. In fact this is inspired by a Japanese omelette.

     Get your pan warmed up, I normally set mine at about medium heat, maybe a bit higher. Make sure not to go too high because we will not be flipping this, so the egg will only cook on one side. If you are using two eggs or more you might have to do this in batches. Takes a bit more time and skill, but isn't too hard. Just repeat the process by laying the prior egg roll up at the end you start rolling the cooking one. (This will make a bit more sense in a moment! I promise!)  So go a head and put your beaten egg in your pan and add your "mix in's" on top of the egg. Don't mix it or mess with the egg! Just let it cook.

     As you can see to the left how it's almost like when a pancake is ready to flip. That's when it's done. Make sure you swirl the pan a bit. If you like your eggs a bit on the runny side, they can jiggle, if not, you want it to be pretty firm. It will continue to cook slightly after you roll it, but not much, so be sure not to overcook it!

     Now that your egg is all cooked, start rolling it! I find that a rubber spatula works best for this because it has enough flex to not break the egg. But just gently roll up the egg, below you can see how it looks with all that filling inside. If some spills out, that's okay, you can just toss it on top of the roll.

     That's it! You're ready to have a healthy breakfast. The cost of this total was only pennies. (one egg roughly $.17, the spinach maybe .05 worth, and the sprouts maybe .03) Not bad at all. Like I said this would be roughly one serving. You don't need to add meat because the egg and sprouts are a good source for protein but you can if you want. Even adding a banana to this wouldn't add much. (.49/pound you can have a whole pound of bananas and still not go over a dollar!) 

~Skadia, the money saving breakfast eating panther

Healthy Food isn't cheep! (prices you haven't seen yet)

Do I have your attention? Tired of spending too much at the grocery store? Of course you are, everyone seems to be now a days. Recently I was scrolling through facebook and I seen a post.... it angered me.

Wow. Just wow. Whoever posted this isn't the brightest, or they refuse to think outside the box. So just for my own entertainment I went out grocery shopping (well the fridge needed restocking too, but this sounded more fun.) and shopped for what I thought was healthy and would make me a few meals. Maybe not a full weeks worth, but more than one or two. 

I did stick to some personal rules, the post didn't buy meat, I didn't plan on buying any to begin with so that made it easier. My other stipulation was that it all needed to be healthy. Now I'm not saying top of the line organic, but no junk food on this run. Here is what I found out. 

I spent a TOTAL of $31.41 (thirty one dollars and forty one cents) So I am about at the same price for my food. However, I didn't buy just food either. I got some shampoo on that same bill, ($6) and a lint roller ($2). So that for food only drops my total down to about $23. So now I'm already $10 a head. But what did I get for so little money you ask? Because of course if $30+ only got those few items what could I even hope to get. Right? Oh so wrong.

I will also say that I did my shopping at Meijer, not Walmart or even Aldi so there is room to even save more. I did get some cups of noodles so those might not be considered healthy, but they are surely better than that McDonalds meal. So I'll even exclude those from this pile. 

What I got and how much it was:

Bananas (4 or roughly 1.25 pounds) for $.63 (sixty three cents)
A bundle of green onions for $.79 (seventy nine cents)

Just shy of a pound of Carrots for $.65 (sixty five cents)

Some cut up watermelon roughly one serving. $1.22

Just over a pound of sweet potatoes (2) for about $1.56

A package of Alfalfa Sprouts for $1.99

2 normal white potatoes for $1.34
A package of egg roll wrappers $2.69

3 Bell peppers (the green because they were on sale) for a dollar each, $3 total

One Zucchini Squash for $.58 (fifty eight cents)

A serving of snow peas (roughly 1/4 pound) $.69 (sixty nine cents)

A bag of baby spinach for $1.67

And last but not least an extra large bottle of coffee creamer, not the most healthy thing so I will remove it from my final numbers.

Total spent on healthy food: $16.81 

So I spent about half the same money, and got three full bags of food. Don't tell me this isn't affordable. I can roughly get about 4-5 meals out of this just by adding something cheep like rice or pasta. Again that's pennies per serving. This doesn't have to be hard, not at all. Just watch what is on sale. That normally means it is in season and the prices are low, and the produce is ripe!

~Skadia, the money saving panther.