Hillbilly shoppin' and cookin'

Well, going with the pantry method of keeping the kitchen stocked, in the interest of saving as much cashola as possible (that is, making the amount of grocery money I have budegeted to spend last as many weeks as I possibly can) I have been getting inspired at hillbillyhousewife.com, as I mentioned before.

I thought I was frugal, but there was so much fat to cut! Now, granted, I have lots of meat I'd bought on sale in the freezer still, but today, planning on cooking all from scratch but NOT planning on mixing my own milk from dry milk powder, I only spend $57.00 for food. That's for six people for a week. Many basics we are stocked up on like oats, and meat and flour and sugar, etc.

I also learned that I can make really yummy split pea soup: sautee an onion, rinse and sort the split peas, add them and eight cups of water. 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. cardamon, 1 tsp. sambhar masala spice. Bring to boil and simmer until tender and...you know, split-pea-soupish. Yuuuuuumy! I was worried about it tasting not so good without any boullion or meat, but it was really good.

Later this week I'm gonna try making salmon patties. I'll blog about how those turn out.

Comments

Bohemimom said…
Hm. I'm really liking the whole pantry cooking. The only problem with the Hillbilly site is that alot of the recipes call for beans or bean-like food items. K is unable to eat beans, or anything with a seed or hull, due to his malady. He is very upset as he loves lima and butter beans. But I wondered if you had any suggestions. I know it's a long shot since beans typically are kind of a meat substitute, but I thought I'd give it a shot... Or maybe can the beans be smashed or mixed up? Hm.
Anne said…
sorry never heard of sambhar masala is there an english translation? if kids eat this then i can handle it!
Anne said…
oh i did a search.. there is green cardamon and black cardamon. sigh...
I really like the hillbilly site.
I`m hoping to incorporate more of it in my weekly budgeting and recipe-planning :-)
Alana said…
I get my spices bulk from our local food coop and they are fairly inexpensive that way. The cheapo spices like italian spice blend and garlic powder I get for fifty cents a bottle. More down home than gourmet.
Alana said…
Oh, and lightfinder...no suggestions on the beans. I"m just now experimenting with eating beans again myself. I handled the split pea soup OK.

And I"m happy to report I have perfected the art of biscuit making. My ones this morning for brunch were pretty much just like McDonald's. (Lame, when fast food biscuits are the standard, but man, a sausage egg biscuit from there is my favorite thing ever, and now I can reproduce it here at home and boycott the borg.)
Mimi said…
I have perfected the art of biscuit making. My ones this morning for brunch were pretty much just like McDonald's.

Are you going to share the recipe?
My personal fast food biscuit faves are KFCs sad to say.
Alana said…
Ha Ha ha, on the pea sorting.

there is no recipe on the biscuits, there is only a zen like state of mind. Come to my house, I teach you, grasshopper.
Mimi said…
there is no recipe on the biscuits, there is only a zen like state of mind. Come to my house, I teach you, grasshopper.


If you throw in a glass of sweet tea, I'm so there ;)

Would that I lived close enough to come see (and taste) them.