PP Kitchen: February $10 Cook Once/Eat Twice Challenge

[Gaelen]

By request, a kitchen challenge for February.

The $10 Cook Once/Eat Twice Challenge

In this challenge, there will be a list of weekly specials from today's supermarket circulars, along with the prices per piece or per pound.
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it ;), is to select from those specials and a limited pantry (canned and dry-bagged items only) the items you'll need to create two separate recipes. The extra challenging part is that while you've got some extra time right now, later in the week you'll need to minimize your prep. So in this challenge, you'll cook once/eat twice.
There's no time limit on the prep or cooking time for the original recipe, but the second recipe

must derive from the main ingredient(s) prepped for the first recipe, or leftover from the first recipe
must require no more than 30 minutes prep to get it on the table
Challengers have:

a $10 budget to choose items from the list of supermarket specials--the $10 must produce two recipes
free choice of anything either canned or dry packaged in their pantry
the option to add to their pantry any one single item that isn't listed and isn't canned or dry bagged, as long as you deduct from your $10 budget what you'd pay in your area for the smallest unit of that item typically sold
Nothing chosen from your personal canned or dry-packaged, long shelf-life pantry counts against your $10 budget for the two recipes. However, if it needs refrigeration for storage, it doesn't qualify as a 'pantry item.'
Butter, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil are 'freebie' pantry items for this challenge.
Neither the first nor second recipe has to be a 'dinner' -- and both recipes don't have to be for the same type of meal. Both or either recipe can be recipes that work at any meal--but each recipe must provide at least 20g protein per serving.

Optional item example: Eggs will not be in the supermarket specials shopping basket this week. If you want to add eggs to your recipe, you may add them as your one optional pantry item, but must deduct the cost of at least 1/2 dozen eggs from your $10 budget. Why a half-dozen cost when you're only using one egg? Well, typically you can't just buy one egg--but you can usually buy a half-dozen. Yep, recipe contest rules can be *really* arbitrary. ;)

Cook once/eat twice example: For recipe #1, you make a basic roast chicken and vegetables, which you pair with a salad for Sunday dinner. Mid-week, when you can look that chicken in the face again, you cut the leftover chicken off the bone and layer it with canned poblano peppers from your pantry, coleslaw mix and sour cream from your shopping basket onto pappadums from your pantry to produce chicken quesadillas--an 'eat twice' recipe that's on the table in under a half-hour.

The two recipes each:

have to serve four people
are each limited to a maximum of 10-13g ECC
must each provide at least 20g protein per serving
No winners or losers here--this challenge is just about getting creative with supermarket specials, and minimizing your cooking time while making good use of what's on sale in local markets at this time of year. February can be a challenge in itself to find something 'different' to eat...so here's to sharing some supermarket coping skills!

I'm going through my supermarket circulars right now and will add the "Supermarket Specials" for the shopping basket choices to this post by this afternoon...

MyTown Grocery Weekly Circular
The following items are specially priced today through Feb. 28th at your virtual MyTown Grocery. You have a budget of $10 in grocery specials to create two recipes, where the main element is cooked once but eaten in two separate ways.

Where the advertised price is per package or each, average amounts that the package contains are also listed and you must purchase the entire package or at least one unit of the item. Where the price is listed per pound, you must purchase a minimum of 1/4 lb. or 4 oz.
How are YOU going to spend your $10 today, and what two recipes will you make?

DAIRY/VEGETARIAN AISLE

cheddar cheese, extra sharp, 8 oz. chunk -- $1.65 each
monterey jack cheese, 8 oz. shredded, bag -- $1.65 each
fresh ricotta cheese, whole milk, 32 oz. tub -- $2.99 each
half and half (store brand), 16 oz. (1 pint) -- $0.69 each
small curd cottage cheese 4% fat, 16 oz. tub -- $1.79 each
smoked mozzarella cheese -- $2.99/pound
sour cream, 16 oz. tub -- $1.00 each
SoySlender Splenda-sweetened soymilk (1g ECC per cup), 1 quart vanilla or chocolate -- $1.29 each
tofu, extra firm store brand, 16 oz. package -- $1.79 each

MEAT AISLE
Pork

fresh shoulder picnic pork roast, on the bone, avg. 5 lbs. -- $6.45 each
all pork sweet Italian sausage links, 3 lb. package -- $5.97 each
Hilshire Farms smoked kielbasa, 1lb. rope package – buy one $2.99, get one FREE
thick sliced pepper bacon -- $3.29/pound

Chicken

fresh chicken thighs with skin, on the bone (approx. 4 thighs/lb.) -- $0.99/pound
whole roasting chicken (approx. wt. 5 pounds on the bone) -- $3.50 each

Beef

bottom round beef roast (approx. wt. 3 lbs., trimmed to 1/8” fat) -- $5.97 each
90% lean/10% fat ground sirloin -- $1.99/pound (minimum order 3 lbs. but more than 3 lbs. can be packed to order)


SEAFOOD COOLER

frozen haddock fillets, wild caught -- $3.99/pound
fresh green lipped mussels, 2 lb. bags, approx. 25 count/pound -- $2.98 each
frozen tilapia fillets, 2 lb. package (approx. 8 fillets) -- $6.49 each

PRODUCE SECTION

bagged baby spinach, 1 pound -- $1.39 each
bok choy, $0.79/pound
green bell peppers (approx. 3” diameter and 4” tall) -- $1.00 each
Minneola tangelos (large--about 4” diameter) – 50 cents each
white mushrooms -- $1.99/pound
sliced cremini (baby portobella) mushrooms, 8 oz. package -- $0.99 each
yellow cooking onions -- $0.79/pound
whole green beans -- $1.29/pound
parsnips -- $1.39/pound
daikon radish -- $1.39/pound
red or green cabbage (your choice, entire heads cut to size in produce department) -- $0.48/pound
celery, small head (approx 12 stalks) -- $1.00 each
carrots, small bunch (approx 6 one-inch diameter x 7 inch long carrots) -- $0.79 each
fresh shelled pecan halves -- $5.99/pound


PREPARED & FROZEN FOODS

Whole Rotisserie Chicken, roasted w/lemon and garlic, avg. 4 lbs. on the bone -- $4.99 each
Jennie-O Rotisserie Turkey breast on the bone, approx. 3 lbs. turkey meat -- $7.99 each
store-brand frozen vegetable combinations, no sauce added, 16 oz bag (about 4 cups) -- $1.65 each (your choice of combo #1 = green beans, red peppers, mushrooms; combo #2 = broccoli, cauliflower, carrots. Each combination has approximately 5g ECC per cup)
store brand frozen vegetables, no sauce added, 16 oz. bag (about 4 cups), your choice of cut green beans, chopped spinach, chopped broccoli, cauliflower florets -- $0.79 each
frozen unsweetened whole strawberries, 16 oz. bag (about 4 cups) -- $2.29 each

[kevinpa]

Gaelen, you could save yourself some typing by adding an online link to a stores weekly specials page like the example below of a store in my area. Just a suggestion. :)

http://gianteagle.inserts2online.com/pageLarge.jsp?pageNumber=1&startPageNum=1

[Mitra]

I think I need to move. A chicken costs me over $20! I like the idea for the contest, though - and I usually try to get at least two meals out of a main dish. Last week we had roast lamb at the weekend with veggies, then I roasted some aubergine slices, made a tomato sauce, and minced (ground) the leftover lamb with some spices and a bit of egg to make meatballs for two more meals. (Won't work for the competition, because the lamb cost more than $10.) The last roast chicken was recycled with preserved lemon and green olives.

Looking forward to getting lots more ideas.

[Gaelen]

Kevin, Mitra...I took a spin around some of the online ads, but decided that to keep things on a level playing field, I'd compile a list of typical seasonal specials from the five circulars in my local paper and several national US chains. That way Mitra doesn't have to cope with the $20 chicken, people who live near a warehouse store (Costco) or a big chain get a taste of life where those things aren't so common, and the cost of living differences across the country don't affect us here in the cyber kitchen.

Mitra, enjoy your $3.50 virtual roasting chicken. ;)

[maxlharris]

Okay, this strikes me as the perfect opportunity to go with a classic cook once, eat twice dish, Cuban Roast Pork / Cubano sandwiches. Recipes when I figure it all out, but this is like tailor made, with <65% of the budget for the pork and a bunch of pantry items.

Later. Have to entertain DW.

[Gaelen]

I've thought of a couple variations...from the frozen spinach, mushrooms and ricotta cheese, half and half and frozen berries, I'd make spinach bread, from which I'd make spinach and mushroom lasagne first, and then with some canned salmon from the pantry, I'd make salmon 'pie' with a berries and cream desset.

Door number two would be the ground sirloin, spinach and mushrooms made into meatballs on the cooking day, which I'd serve with pantry barbeque sauce and a spinach salad on the first meal, and which I'd add to a Tuscan pumpkin and meatball soup for lunch the next day.

I'd also like to come up with something wonderful with the sausage, but I'm still thinking about it.

[Gaelen]

Okay, I decided to buy:
2 16-oz. bags of frozen chopped spinach @ 79 cents each = $1.58
1 32-oz tub of ricotta cheese = $2.99
1 pint of half and half @ 79 cents = $0.79
1/2 lb. of white mushrooms @ 1.99/lb. = $1.00
1 small head of celery @ $1 = $1.00
1 bunch carrots @ 79 cents each = $0.79
1/4 lb. yellow onions @ 79 cents/lb = $0.20
1/2 lb. daikon radish @ $1.39/lb = $0.70

and I bought a 'wildcard' item: 1 dozen medium eggs @ 69 cents/dozen, to bring my total grocery basket to $9.74.

With that, I'm going to use miscellaneous dried herbs and Italian seasonings, one 15-oz. can of salmon, one 15 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice and garlic salt from my pantry.

First, I bake a double recipe of spinach bread, a flatbread based on a Suzanne Somers' recipe:


* Exported from MasterCook *

Spinach Bread

Recipe By : Gaelen/PAS, adapted from a Suzanne Somers recipe
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time : ~ 45 min.
Categories : breads, noodles

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
32 ounces frozen chopped spinach -- 2 bags
10 eggs -- beaten
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Thaw and squeeze the spinach dry. Then mix in salt and pepper to taste, and the dried herbs. Stir in the beaten eggs until well combined.

Butter a 10" pie plate and spread about 1 cup thinly into the bottom only of the pie plate.
Cover a large 11 x 15 baking sheet with sides with parchment paper, or oil a large baking stone. Spread the remaining mixture (about 3/4ths) onto the baking sheet, no thicker than 1/4 inch.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until firm. Let cool and using a spatula go
around the edges and start to pry it up. It will be a little hard at first
but then it will get easier once you get the sides started. It will come
out in one piece. Leave the 'crust' in the pie plate to cool.

Per Serving : 8g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber

The pie crust will serve four, and the rectangle will slice into wide flat strips that fit into a baking pan to make 'lasagne' noodles for four to six. Each serving of 'noodles' or 'crust' will add 8g protein and 1g ECC to the lasagne or the salmon pie.

Recipe #1 is spinach 'noodle' lasagne:
Once the noodles are baked, I layer them with half the ricotta cheese (two cups) mixed with 2 tablespoons each of dried Italian seasonings and dried basil, 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion, one can of diced tomatoes in juice, drained, and one cup each of chopped mushrooms, shredded carrots and daikon radish. It makes two layers of spinach noodles, two layes of cheese and two layes of veggies ending with the veggies on top. Over all, I pour a white sauce made from one cup half and half, four tablespoons of melted butter and 1 tablespoon of flour.

Bake at 400 degrees F. for 45 min. or until bubbly around the edges and browning on top. Serves 4-6, depending on how hungry you are. I've never done counts on this, but since the serving sizes of all the veggies come in under 7g ECC, and the 'noodles' are only 1 g ECC, and each serving of noodles adds 8g protein to the 56g protein in the ricotta cheese, each serving (for six) is at *least* 20g protein+, and for four each serving is around 30g protein.

Recipe #2 is a simple salmon pie mixture:
1 15 oz. can of salmon, drained and flaked
1/2 cup each finely chopped mushrooms and finely chopped celery
1 teaspoon dried tarragon

Mix together and layer on the spinach 'crust' in the pie plate. Dot with butter, and bake at 400 degrees for 25 min. or until golden on top.

While pie is baking, chop the eggs you hard-cooked while the crust was baking. Melt two tablespoons of butter with 1 tablespoon of flour, and when flour is golden, stir in 1/2 to 3/4 cup half and half. As white sauce thickens, stir in 1/4 teaspoon of dried tarragon and the chopped hard cooked eggs. Serve sauce on top of the individual slices of salmon pie...

Again, I've never counted for this recipe, but there's plenty of protein, and the ECC per serving (for four) is under 10g.

I'll run the recipes through Mastercook later today.

[SherryJ]

You TOTALLY impress me, Gaelen! :cool:

Sherry