Posts Tagged ‘cooking with rice’

Food Stamps Cooking Club: Is It HOT Enough For Ya?

July 19th, 2010


 

This girl is so happy because she helped her mother clean out the refrigerator and discovered there was a box of popsicles in the freezer compartment!

 

If you took the opportunity to opt in to the Food Stamps Cooking Club’s series of tips, you know about the “ritual” of clearing out the fridge on Wednesdays.  It’s become routine here that the big ole box gets emptied, wiped down-scrubbed thoroughly on some Wednesdays-and tidied.  That way no food will be wasted because it got shoved to the back of the unit and became a science project.

Last Wednesday was no exception.  The fridge was all sparkly and even had a fresh box of baking soda, ostensibly to soak up unpleasant odors.  The only problem was that there WAS an unwanted, unidentified aroma that was not a good thing.

When Renita and I were on the phone I happened to open the door and I complained loudly and bitterly into Renita’s ear.  She had the solution:  “Try folding some newspapers into fours and slip those onto the shelves.”

Now, why hadn’t I thought of that? It worked like a charm right away, I might add. Thanks, Renita.

This story is true and it is meant to reinforce to you how much all of us Club We members need one another.  Some of us are users of SNAP.  Others who come by here depend on WIC or Angel Food Ministries.  Some folks depend on food pantries, food commodities, even Farmers Markets.  We all crave comfort food and most everybody aims to be good stewards and shop wisely and frugally.  These are the reasons why this blog exists and since we are all in this together, we had just as well pitch in and SHARE ideas.  I know you all are filled with creative solutions to all sorts of household and kitchen dilemmas.

Please, won’t you leave YOUR comments, hints and tips here?  You are also welcome to send your ideas to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com.  Oh, how we love mail!  Almost as much as we love your comments!  Thanks, people!

I bumbled onto a yummy salad combo I wanted to share with you:

KIDNEY BEAN SALAD WITH RICE

1   can kidney beans, drained or 2  cups home cooked kidney beans

4  medium eggs, hard cooked; peeled and diced

1   small onion, peeled and diced

1  rib of celery, diced

1  cup of cooked rice-any type you like best

1/4  cup pickle relish

2  tablespoons prepared mustard

vinegar-enough to moisten *My fave is Rice Vinegar but use whatever you have on your shelf.

mayo or salad dressing-enough to moisten

salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a good sized bowl and mix gently.  Serve over a bed of greens.

This salad reads like a potato salad but has personality and packs a protein wallop.  The beans and the rice give a complete protein.  AND IT IS ECONOMICAL, quick to fix and delish!

Experiment with the seasonings, if you feel adventurous.  Your bunch may appreciate a sprinkle of turmeric or a dash of ginger for a touch of heat.  If you want to add a little more color you could use some red pepper bits or pimiento. This is a good dish for kids to get involved in creating.

You would be well advised to keep a container of cooked rice and/or cooked beans in your refrigerator for adding them to stir fry meals, casseroles, or for use as side dishes for any menu.  These items are wonderful meal stretchers and work as a team to provide complete protein at very low cost.

Here’s hoping you are enjoying your summer with your family and that we’ll hear from you soon!

Connie Baum

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: What’s in the Fridge?

April 6th, 2010

Unless your kitchen is as modest as this one, you probably have a 'fridge...

Have you ever come home after a hectic day, realized you did not thaw the beef you meant to use for dinner and hung on the door of your fridge, making every effort to find something that would please every palate at your table? If you can’t relate to this scenario you must have servants!

Here’s what happened at our house.  LIFE.  We got so busy with whatever it was we were so busy with and when our tummies growled-THAT’S when I realized I was so busted.  I had to come up with something and I had to do it in a teeny, tiny time frame.

Here’s what I made: A Rice and Veggie Dish

I’m a big fan of cooking once and eating twice so I grabbed the container full of already browned and seasoned ground beef  ‘n onions.  I put broth on to boil so I could cook rice.  You could use any kind of rice and you could cook it in water, but I was blessed to have wild rice and broth on the shelf.  My second choice would have been brown rice.  As the rice cooked I chopped some carrots to add to the mix.  Next came the frozen peas.  The kitchen was smelling divine by this time and I had inquiring minds poking their heads in, wanting to know.

So the veggie count was way up:  Onion, carrots, peas, and a green salad with lettuce, radishes, cucumbers and a sprinkle of fresh corn.

It all came to the table with home made brown bread and real butter.  It made for a very nice meal.  Tabletop conversation was top notch, too.  Makes for ideal meals and wonderful memories.

It’s a funny thing about good food.  It just ruins your appetite.

Even if you are using food pantry foods or food commodities, you want to bring zest and excitement to your family table!  Same is true if you use SNAP or WIC or Angel Food Ministries or if you use none of the above!  Some people simply enjoy squeezing the buffalo on every nickel til the buffalo bellows.  Cool.   Whatever your motivation, we are here to support you and let you know someone cares and that you matter.

Club members are thoughtful and some of you have emailed foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  to express your views.  Some of you actually post your comment in our comments section.  We love both and encourage you to continue to share your tips, recipes, ideas and experiences.

If you enjoy this blog, you may enjoy Mother Connie’s rants about health and healing on Mother Connie Sez or The Healthy and Wealthy You.  If you are in the market for some additional income to your family’s coffers you might be interested in what appears on Work At Home Freelancing or Rapid Cash Marketing.

In any case, we hope you are well and happy and will pop in whenever you can.

Connie Baum

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

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Number of Members is Climbing

February 6th, 2010

USA: Food Stamps Users Numbers are Climbing!

More peeps on food assistance?  More users of SNAP, WIC, and food commodities as well as food pantry foods?

THAT’S NOT NEWS!  THAT’S REALITY!

Our question is:  Who ya gonna CALL?  HINT: Food Stamps Cooking Club! Angel Food Ministries!

People are hurting.  Parents are worried and hungry.  Children deserve to know there will be food on their family’s table!

That’s where THIS little band of merry makers comes in.  The Food Stamps Cooking Club is, as our faithful followers are keenly aware, is a soft place to fall.  It is a place where frugal foodies and people who need to know how to become more frugal in order for their food dollars to do the most good can hang out and share.

We are not alone in our effort to help people live within their means, regardless of what those means are!  There is a cute little newsletter that’s been coming our way called “Living On a Dime” and a recent issue included an entire menu designed to celebrate Valentine’s Day with flair.  Here’s what Tawra Kellam had to share with her readers:

“CHEESY RICE AND TOMATOES

3 cups cooked rice
3 Tbsp. oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups cooked or stewed tomatoes
2 cups cheese, shredded
1 tsp. salt
dash of pepper

Cook rice if uncooked. Sauté in a pan with oil, onion, celery and green pepper. Add tomatoes, rice, cheese, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Serves 8.”

This budget friendly and healthy foods recipe came from Living On a Dime. We appreciate all Tawra does for so many.

We deeply appreciate all the mail you send our way, too: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com   All our Club Members have so many good, thrifty, creative ideas and are so generous to share.

Comments fuel our fire, too.  You can leave yours at the end of this post, if you please.

“Joining” the club is as easy as dropping your name and email addy in the box on the upper right hand corner of this page.  There are no meetings or dues, so there’s no pressure!  grin  We do send along messages-a series to begin with-followed by infrequent broadcasts.  We were happy to connect with members who may have missed seeing fresh posts when we encountered techy issues.  Doncha hate when that happens?

Please feel free to share us with those in your sphere of influence.  You may also like to know that we have other spots on the Web which deal with issues of health and making money at home.  If you like what you are reading here, you may like to drop by these blogs, too:  The Healthy and Wealthy You and Mother Connie Sez. If you are interested to add income to your household you might find these spots helpful: Rapid Cash Review and Work at Home Freelancing.

Connie Baum

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Cooking Tips?

August 12th, 2009

Do you love cooking tips?  If you are a foodie the chances are they are right up your alley.  When Wednesday’s Lincoln Journal-Star arrives I reach for the Food section and search the pages for kitchen helps and food notions.

Today’s food section disappointed me a little, though, because one of the tips suggests the use of the microwave oven.

It’s easy to understand that you are busy and tired when it’s time for the evening meal and you want things to go together quickly.

However, with a little advance planning, you can save a lot of hassle and time and make inexpensive meals on the fly.

First, let me explain why I frown on microwaves.  They emit terribly toxic and deadly electromagnetic frequencies that can cause the brain LITERALLY to fry!  This is not a dramatic exaggeration; this is scientific fact and I’ll be happy to direct you to the scientific data if you send an email requesting that information.  Our email address for the Club is foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  and we are always happy to hear from our members.

Another disadvantage to nuking food is that it completely destroys the food value because it rearranges the molecular structure of the food.

So called “experts” will insist that cooking the food in the micro is best because it uses no water.  True, water destroys nutrients, as does heat, but top of the stove cooking  or baking in a conventional oven never rearranges the molecular structure because electromagnetic pollution is not a factor.

Let’s talk a bit about planning.  It’s always a good idea to think ahead when it comes to meal prep.  This applies to users of SNAP-Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food commodities; even food pantries, Farmers Markets, Angel Food Ministries or the goods from your backyard gardens!

Here’s how it works for me:  When I finish breakfast and cleanup I consider what we’ll eat for lunch and dinner.  If it requires frozen food to be thawed, I lay that in the sink or put it into the fridge so it can begin to help me make the next meal. And by the way, I lay it on a plate so drips are not an issue!

Look over your pantry goods to see what might be done ahead, too.

After dinner, when I clean up the dishes and kitchen, my routine is to think ahead to breakfast.  I set out the pot for cereal, for example, and measure the water for cereal, the cereal itself and I set the coffee to brew the next morning.  I even set the breakfast table.  Until I began to do this, I never realized how simply and peacefully our days could begin.

It is at this time I think about the meals for the next day.  What might I need?  Do I need to soak some beans?  Shall I soak some rice in order to facilitate speedy meals?  How about cooking some eggs to have on hand for snacks and quick dishes?  I have other work to do.  As much as I enjoy cooking, I want to make meals in as little time for as little money as possible.

If I purchase instant rice, as an example, there are two factors at work.  One, cost-it’s too expensive to buy instant rice.  Two, there is little to no nutritional value to instant rice.

However, if I have a bag of brown rice I have amped up the nutrition and if I soak it overnight it cooks quite quickly when I need to use it.  Furthermore, I always cook twice as much as I’ll need so it will be instantly ready for use in another way.  For example:  we might have brown rice as a side dish tonight; tomorrow morning we can have an instant cold breakfast that has ‘stick to your ribs’ staying power!

When it comes to beans, they need to soak, too.  Dry beans are so much more economical than canned and when you think ahead, dry beans become just as convenient to use as canned.

I made a wonderful bean salad this week, using dry beans.  It cost almost nothing, it assembled quickly and here is how I prepared it:

MOTHER CONNIE’S BLACK BEAN SALAD

2 cups of cooked black beans

4 hard cooked eggs, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 ribs of celery, chopped

DAB of salad dressing – enough to moisten the ingredients

DRIZZLE of pickle juice or rice vinegar – any vinegar will do

1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded;spinach or leaf  lettuce will work well in this salad, also

Combine everything into large bowl, toss together and serve to hungry people!  It will fill their tummies make them smile.

Thanks again to all of you who have sent those in your circle to Food Stamps Cooking Club to be included in our occasional mailings.   We hope you feel free to send us your questions or your own cooking tips:

foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com

We are grateful for your support of our partners, too.

The world will be a much better place because all of you are in it!

Connie Baum

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Cooking With Commodities?

May 26th, 2009

The fact that we are all here for the Food Stamps Cooking Club virtual meeting means that we have survived another holiday weekend!  Here’s hoping your festivities met or exceeded your highest expectations!

Whether you are preparing meals using grocery items from SNAP-Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program aka food stamps or your food comes from a food pantry or food commodities I believe I have found something you will enjoy serving to the people who put their toes under your table.

The topic of food is a common one whenever people congregate so while we waited for our Toastmasters International meeting to begin, Velda Koehler and  I discussed that very thing!

Here is one of Velda’s favorite meal ideas:

Rice and Spinach


1 cup of rice

3 cups of liquid-water will do; broth would be acceptable, if you have it

Cook the rice in the liquid until tender and fluff with a fork

Add two cups of fresh spinach, washed and stems removed OR 1 can of spinach, slightly drained.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

When the spinach is heated through and wilted, the dish is ready to serve.

This recipe can easily be doubled if your brood is larger or your gang has heftier appetites.

Easy variations: Add chopped onion, sprinkle cheese over the top, or add any canned vegetable your family enjoys.

As a compliment to this rice dish, a bean salad would complete the protein and would eliminate the need for a meat, so if you are short on meat AND time, this will fill the bill for you!

The Food Stamps Cooking Club is open to any member who is interested in food, saving money, and eating with good health in mind.  Our membership list is growing and that is because of YOU, dear members, and the fact you are sharing by sending those in your circle of influence to Food Stamps Cooking Club and they are joining!  THANK YOU!

Our partners have food and other ideas to help you in many ways.  We hope you have time to visit them and see what might help your family in various ways.  Some can assist you with your food preparation and planning; others can help you boost your family’s income.

Plans are being laid for our Fall Cooking Class so watch your Inboxes for more details about that event.  For those of you who can attend in person, we will be rolling out our virtual red carpet.  For those of you finding geography an issue, we will include you in special ways!

Are there topics you hope we’ll cover on this blog? Do you pine for knowledge about things we can include in our cooking class?  You all are welcome to submit your thoughts to us at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com .

Connie Baum

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