Archive for June, 2011

Black Bean Casserole at the Food Stamps Cooking Club

June 24th, 2011

 

Here is a Black Bean Casserole that's ideal for your Sunday Best!

Beans have been a major topic this week and a recipe came to my attention for black beans I could not wait to share with you Club Members!  Here it is:

2 cups chopped onion

1 minced cloves of garlic

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup prepared red salsa *The Kitchen Police will not arrest you if you choose green salsa.  Use what you like.

1 fresh pepper-choose red or green or yellow

3 cups cooked black beans

3 cups canned whole tomatoes, juice and all

2 cups frozen corn kernels

salt, pepper to taste

2 cups water

*Prepared in a soup pot as as, you will have a delicious soup.  For the casserole, just prepare as follows:

Add 3 cups cooked pasta.  *The cook gets to decide what KIND of pasta: bow ties, elbow macaroni, rotelli would work well.  Place in casserole dish, top with 1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese and bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven until it is thoroughly heated.

Besides being easy to prepare and easy on your food budget, this would travel well to a pot luck or to a neighbor who might need a meal because of a hospitalization.  It’s appropriate for Sunday dinner when a van load of your cousins  show up at meal time because it’s the end of the month, too!

This casserole is quite filling but you might want a little something sweet to polish off your meal.  This is a rerun; I made up a bowlful this morning and boy was it yummy:

Chia Pudding

1/2 cup white chia seeds  *Black ones work well, too

1/4 cup honey

1 can coconut milk

dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla *or almond or mint or whatever YOU like

Mix together, cover and store in the fridge.  If you leave it alone, the seeds will float to the top and stay there.  You can stir it periodically to mix the seeds, but who has the time for that?  grin

At serving time you can pair it up with canned or fresh fruit or berries as a topping, or serve it as is.

This recipe doubles or triples beautifully, depending on how many toes sit around your table.  It makes a great snack and I’ve been known to eat it for breakfast, as well.

The mail continues to delight us: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  and we welcome all the new members who have flocked to the Club House lately.  ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?  (yes!)

If you hold an EBT card for WIC or SNAP or if you are using Farmers Market Coupons; if you have goods from a food pantry or food commodities, this blog is devoted to YOU.  We truly hope we are helping you manage your food budgets in this tight economy.  Maybe you are just a frugal shopper/cook; we aim to help YOU as well!

What’s so interesting is that YOU help US more than we ever could help anybody.  Your support, your comments, your emails, your links, your recipes–this is all so wonderful and we deeply appreciate every one of you.

One of the Club Members popped by yesterday and-bless her heart-she promised to get us the recipe for a BEAN CAKE that she says is amazing.  Well, I’m down with THAT.  Better get my baking stuff out…

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly


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Bean Talk at Food Stamps Cooking Club

June 22nd, 2011

 

If you are talking BEANS, I am hearing BLACK BEANS!

The bean does not exist that Mother Connie does not love.  I recall with fondness the many kettles of White Northern or Navy beans my mother cooked every Monday she washed clothes as she used the old wringer washer!  Bits of bacon or ham went into the bean pot, as did shreds of carrot and pieces of onion.  They soaked on the counter top every Sunday night and when supper time rolled around they were paired up with crusty cornbread!  We could depend on eating beans and cornbread every wash day, which-of course-was traditionally Monday.

SIDEBAR:  Could you live YOUR life, knowing that Monday was always to be laundry day?  END SIDEBAR.

Through the years, Mom often cooked lima beans, even though my dad groaned his displeasure.  She also made baked beans with weiners, back in the bygone days of CHEAP NATURAL CASING HOT DOGS!  And of course, she was big on bean salads of every stripe and color.

Mom talked about a childhood that was-shall we say austere?  She and her sister both remembered being hungry at bedtime on a regular basis.  Wash day was not the only time they saw a plateful of beans!  Grandma did well to have enough dry beans to make meals with, especially because meat-and money and food-was mighty scarce.

Neither Mom nor my aunt were never ill as youngsters, so what little food they did have to eat nourished them well. Mom was 86 when she made her transition…she still had her own teeth!  Maybe mineral-rich beans were all right, after all!

Beans provide color and variety; fiber and texture.  They are a staple all around the world.

My Inbox held a wonderful recipe for chickpeas and grains this morning.  I was thrilled about it until I found out that recipe was not meant for sharing.

SIDEBAR:  HUH?  No sharing recipes?  What’s that about?  And if it is not for sharing, why was it in my Inbox?  NO FAIR! END SIDEBAR.

Let’s just say again that beans and grains make a complete low cost protein and let that stand.  If you and your family favor a certain type of bean and you have a favorite grain, I would strongly encourage you to mix and match and come up with your OWN recipe.

SIDEBAR:  If/When you DO that, feel free to put it into our Inbox for sharing.  The email address will appear below!  END SIDEBAR.

Beans lend themselves to salads, side dishes, entrees and snacks.

Chef Shawn Bucher reminds us that RE-FRIED beans are really “smashed” beans.  I found that comical.  When I read that, my mouth watered and I pined for little tortillas with a dab of re-fried beans, topped with a dollop of sour cream.

Any variety of cooked beans-canned or home cooked-adds interest to stir fry dishes, soups, salads, or even sandwiches.  Have you mashed any beans and used those “smooshed” beauties as a sandwich spread in lieu of mayo or butter?  They can be run through the food processor, along with sandwich meat or eggs and flavored with a dash of vinegar, some pickle relish and a bit of salad dressing, oil, or mayo.  Used this way, they can fill lettuce cups or be a sandwich spread.  This is ideal for lunchboxes!

People who have food commodities are likely to have beans on the shelf in their kitchens.  The same is true for users of a food pantry.  If you have an EBT card for WIC or SNAP; if you have Angel Food Ministries foodstuffs or you are a coupon clipper, you are very likely to have a stash of canned or dry beans around.

On the other hand, if you just like being very careful with your food dollars you are very likely to have a variety of beans to make your home cooked meals interesting and economical.

We are eager to hear from all of you about the way YOU use beans.  Just send your info to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com !  WE LOVE MAIL!

We also l0ve having new Club Members!  We have a brand new batch, so treat ‘em all with love!  Please make all the new kids feel welcome here.

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly

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Lotsa Food; Little Cost: Food Stamps Cooking Club

June 20th, 2011

 

Beans are inexpensive and nutritious!! These are red beans, as any fool can plainly see!

+

 

Rice is plentiful, nourishing, and probably sitting on your shelf!

EQUALS: A complete protein!

 

Ah, but you knew THAT, didn’t you?  And no doubt you are acutely aware that beans and rice are considerably less costly than beef these days!

The problem gets to be that the “end times” – of the month , that is – get to be tricky when it comes to making interesting, low cost meals.  It’s too hot to cook.  It’s too hot to eat but three squares are required every day. Those meals are necessary no matter how tired you are, or how hot is is, or how skimpy your food budget might be!

If you are using public assistance for your food budget you know all too well what the message is.  And you are sick to death of beans and rice, rice and beans.

How about if we re-frame the way we look at rice and beans?  What if we “built” a cool summer salad from rice you cooked and stored in the fridge?

SIDEBAR:  You KNOW how Mother Connie loves to cook once and eat twice..or more!  END SIDEBAR.

You really don’t need a recipe.  You could add some chopped vegetables to your rice: celery, onion, cucumber, peppers, carrots, radishes, zucchini, whatever you like-or whatever the kids will eat LOL.  Then dump in a can of drained beans you picked up for a song with a coupon or what they had at the food pantry.  You might dress the whole thing up with your own “signature” dressing.  Make up something like vegetable oil, salt and pepper and lemon juice; jazz it up with some dried herbs from your pantry.  Perhaps basil, oregano, cumin.  The choice is yours!

Rice is often included in the bundles available from Angel Food Ministries but rice is not the only grain you could use for this.  Bulgar wheat would work.  So would my personal favorite, quinoa.  You don’t need to limit your bean choices, either.  And they don’t have to be canned.  Dried beans, like grains, can be cooked and used as needed by storing them in the fridge.

SIDEBAR:  If you cook dry beans, soak them but do not salt them before you cook them.  If you do, they will cook up hard as stones,  END SIDEBAR.

You can stretch a summer salad like this by adding chopped lettuce to the salad before serving it.  Cutting the lettuce just prior to serving is wise, as shredded lettuce has a tendency to turn brown on the edges.

A simple and inexpensive home made pudding would top off this easy-do summer meal.  Or, fresh fruit would be nice if you are lucky enough to have some!

Next time we can talk about creative ways to add beans to your summer menu!

How do YOU manage combining beans and grains?  We LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from you at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  and we thank you ALL for your participation!

There are new faces around the Club House and boy are we glad!  It’s great to have a place to hang out with people who understand where we are coming from.  Those who use food pantries, food commodities, EBT cards from SNAP or WIC-those who are suffering in this terrible economy need to know there is loving support for them.  No judgments.  No sales pitches.  Just an understanding and listening ear and some free advice about keeping food costs at bay.  Not all of us are users of public assistance…some of us just pinch every nickel until the buffalo bellows! grin  And we do love people!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly

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Creamy & Dreamy for Food Stamps Cooking Club

June 13th, 2011

 

Looking yummy…could ANYTHING make this dish more appealing?

It feels soooo good to be back in the Club House with all of you!  Thank you for your patience in the absence of your fearless leader and welcome to all the MANY new Members!

During the break that was mine I had occasion to discover a new product.  Being the daughter of a grocer gives me a healthy curiosity about any new item.  Those of us who stocked shelves greeted new products with delight but shuddered to figure out where anything new would FIT.  We already had more products than shelf space!

SIDEBAR:  Sound familiar?  I know our kitchen cabinets groan sometimes…END SIDEBAR.

The new kid in town is “cooking cream.”  I was suspicious the moment I saw the colorful packaging.  My very first thought was, “And just WHY would I need cooking cream?”

When I did some grocery shopping I looked for the stuff in the dairy case.  Sure enough, EVEN IN OUR TINY TOWN, it sat among the cream cheese and there were 3 flavors.  I looked at the cute package and perused the label.  Yes.  Just as I suspected.  JUNK in that trunk!  Nothing in the ingredient list struck me as necessary to the new “Plate Graph” the USDA just released.

Then I canvassed the pros.  I asked Chef Shawn and Chef Josh what they thought about cooking cream.  I could not hear them laugh via email but their amusement over such an unnecessary product came through loud and clear.  These two are all about good food for little money so they were not shy about saying that we need not use the silly stuff.

So, kids, the bottom line is this:  if you think your dish needs  something creamy, think of sour cream or a home made white sauce, with or without cheese.  Don’t stoop to using non-nutritional, costly packets or cooking cream or anything else commercial.

Our email account has been busy: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com, for which we are grateful.  WE LOVE MAIL.  We do not love spam. :(

Since June is in full swing, our attention is beginning to turn to the offline cooking class!  We eagerly welcome your ideas.  This IS YOUR CLUB, after all!

With warmer weather here to stay we hope you are eating big salads with lots of home grown greens and other veggies from your gardens or Farmers Markets.  Carol has a dynamite suggestion for shopping Farmers Markets…she only shops with ONE vendor.  She and the vendor have a relationship based on loyalty and trust and she gets great value for her food dollars.

Maybe you use food commodities or food from a food pantry…If you are shopping at a Farmer’s Market or using Angel Food from Angel Food Ministries or you are an EBT card carrying user of SNAP or WIC – or if only you love to be frugal and s t r e t c h your food budget dollars as far as possible, we hope this cheery little spot in cyberspace is helpful to you and yours.

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

PS:  In case you missed Mikemax’s comment here it is again!  This is VERY exciting news!

“My friend Mary is visiting. Her husband is president and weekly volunteer at a community food pantry in Oregon. She told me about a cookbook a young girl wrote for her Girl Scout Gold Award (similar to Eagle Scout for BSA). It features low cost recipes using products typically available at food pantries. She tested every single recipe and Mary says they are good! She is going to try to get me a copy and I will share the recipes and any words of wisdom therein.”

YAY, Mikemax!  YAY, Mary!  Good on YOU!

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