Cabbage Rolls

I had a hankering for these last week, and having some energy, I decided to get the ingredients and make them.  I also had a desire to start stocking my freezer with pre-portioned meals because lately my appetite has been up and down and sometimes I really don't feel like cooking.

Remember my epic cabbage roll day?  This is what I was kind of going for, only the cabbages at my local Wally World (where cabbage prices were the least expensive in my neighbourhood) were huge, so I only got one.  Turns out I could have used a second cabbage because I had enough ingredients to double the recipe.  Oh well.

This meal was interesting because I actually found a decent real butcher at Guildford Meats in the Guildford Mall.  Great find!  The butcher ground me up some fresh ground pork and even had something on hand called "bacon #2" which appeared to be the ends and scraps from bacon.  It was a great price so I got half a pound.

Again, I kept track of pricing.

3/4 lb ground pork = $2.67
3/4 of 1/2 lb of bacon #2 = $1.82
1 large cabbage (the sucker weighed over 4.5lbs!) $2.17
green pepper = $0.49
1 large can Heinz tomato juice $2.87
3/4 lb ground beef (1 lb = $3 at Wally World) = $2/25
rice, salt & pepper, and onions = I have no idea
total price excluding rice, salt & pepper, and onions = $12.27

I got 16 cabbage rolls, so that equals $0.76/roll or 8 servings at $1.53/serving.

I basically followed the method I got from Mr. Anchovy, which is outlined in the epic cabbage roll post.  Turns out I should have re-read that post before starting out because I had the same issue with mushy rice that I did that last time, and that really disappointed me.  Next time, par-cooked or raw rice!  Also, I found the tomato juice too thin as a sauce...Next time I might do a tomato juice-tomato sauce combination for a slightly thicker, richer sauce. 

All in all, not bad, but definitely needs improvement.  I was actually going to skip the bacon, but I'm glad I didn't because it adds such great flavour to the rolls.

My freezer is looking a little more full these days, which is a good thing!

Clam & Salmon Chowder

The other week I was lamenting on Facebook how difficult it is to live on a $50/week food budget, and one of my friends told me about two blogs she regularly uses that are focused on creating cheaper dishes for those on tight budgets.  I could live on $50/week if I wasn't buying baking ingredients all the time, though, but that's besides the point.  I'm not going without baking ingredients.  I am realizing how lucky I was in Rossland that my dad regularly contributed baking ingredients to my pantry since I baked things for him, too.  Ah well.  I do my best, and usually I succeed.

Anyway!  The two blogs I mentioned are Budget Bytes and Poor Girl Eats Well.  Budget Bytes is particularly interesting because the author does a comprehensive breakdown of her ingredient prices to get an accurate price per serving amount.  This inspired me to do some of my own calculating, just for interest's sake.

The other night I made a salmon and clam chowder for dinner.  The story behind the salmon is that I saw a package of ground salmon in the grocery store that looked perfect for a salmon burger.  But when I got it home to make the burger, I saw that the meat had not been ground properly and that is was in long thin shreds.  So froze it for a later use and decided to stick it into some clam chowder.

So here is what I used, the prices, and then the price per serving.  I got 8 servings out of this recipe and put half of it into containers for freezing.

2 cans clams @ $1.67 each = $3.34
half of one container of 10% cream = $0.86
carrots = $0.37
potatoes = $0.76
6 slices bacon (17 slices/package at $4.97/package = $0.29/slice) = $1.74
1 cup of whipping cream left over from another recipe = $1.39
fresh thyme left over from another recipe = $2 (approx.)
salmon = $2.79 (approx. - I didn't keep the receipt for this as I bought it a few weeks before I started keeping track, but this is what I remember it to be approximately)

total cost of chowder = $13.25
8 servings = $1.65/serving

Not bad, eh?  There is room for improvement, though.  But not bad at all.  And the chowder was good!

Cross Border Shopping & Lunch at Rancho Chico

Last week my dad and I went cross-border shopping to Colville, Washington, where there is a huge Wally World. Is Wally World the root of all evil? YES! Do I shop there anyway? YES - because I live on a very small budget, and the dollar was at almost 92 cents that day, so basically even with 10% added to the prices of the things I bought, I was getting a good deal. Here are some examples:

• 1 gallon milk (3.81L, so slightly smaller than the 4L jugs I buy at home): $2.34, which is about $2.60-ish CAD. The cheapest I can get milk for around here is $4.51/4L at Safeway, but usually I get it at the local overpriced grocery store (LOGS) for $4.99.
• eggs, 1 dozen: $1.32. For God's sake, the cheapest around here is $2.71/doz. at Safeway, but, again I usually wind up getting them at LOGS for $3.29.
• boneless, skinless chicken breasts: 5lbs for $15. There were 10 breasts in a package, so this works out to not only $3/lb but also $1.50 per breast. This is ridiculously cheap. I'm lucky if these go on sale around here for $4.99 - 6.99/lb, and even then, I don't usually buy them.
• whole roasting chicken: $0.98/lb. This is un-effing-believably cheap! Here, a good sale price on a piddly little fryer is $2.29/lb!
• ricotta cheese, 2lbs: $3.69. I pay maybe $4.99 minimum for half that amount here.

Not everything is cheaper, and you really have to know your prices in order to make this work out for you. Also, you do have to be aware of how much the limits are at the border. It's $20 for chicken, and about that for dairy products. And we've been dinged before, let me tell you. Apart from the limits, there is no duty on grocery items. If you go over your limit, at least on dairy, the duty is 300%. I stayed within my limits and I was fine.

Now, on to lunch. We always go to Rancho Chico because the food is great, the portions are huge, and the service is fast!

My dad had Arroz con Pollo - it was excellent. I've had it before and really enjoyed it.

I had the Chicken Chimichanga - which is what I usually get, because it's so good.

And for a sweet "dessert" they bring around these deep-fried tortilla thingies that have a simple syrup on them, as well as whipped cream and strawberry sauce - yum!

All in all, a great day out!