Good FOOD AND SHOPPING TRICKS
that a bachelor has to get under his belt!BACHELOR GROCERY SHOPPING MADE EASY
A soldier parachutes into a new land, what does he need? A MAP! The colorful two page circulars mailed you by markets in your vicinity are your map and should be studied quickly over a morning cup of coffee. You will note that beef is on sale at 2.49 at one market, apples on sale 69c at another. That means you have two stops this week. You may see chicken 79c on sale, & you will spot that it says family pack (at least three pounds.) You will grit your teeth and purchase that bag of greatly reduced-price chicken. This means thirty seconds of extra work for when you get bag home, you take each thigh/leg quarter and stick in a plastic bag like you get your fruit in or your greens in, and freeze it. Then every time you want to eat dinner, two hours beforehand, you take meat out, set it on stove or in sink to let it thaw. Or at breakfast hour, put the bagged meat on a plate in the FRIDGE. Dinner time it's thawed. So do find the meat and produce sales!
Now, what is a sale price on any food? For that the smart soldier or parachute marine would have to know THE LOCAL CUSTOMS. The Posh market GELSONS thinks Beef at $7.99 is a hot sale and they throw that in their circular. Apples at $1.69 is their sale price. So I go to Elat, Jons, Q, the Lebanese, Armenian owned groceries, or SUPER MEX. Nobody beats the non-brand name non chain markets in price.
THE MARKETPLACE- You've lived in this new land called BACHELOR COOKING for a while now, since you left Mom and home but I'm betting you didn't notice the details of the bachelor landscape. You bought convenience food, frozen dinners, canned food. You usually toss apples, meat and vegies haphazard into your shopping cart, along with a few cans decorated with pictures of steaming bowls of tasty soup and you never looked at the price. You'd shell out a fifty and never think twice.
But eating healthily means you will pay 10$ for the same diet, by shopping a tad more carefully. Take the 40$ you save as it'll be that cash downpayment on an acre in the country. So it's time to study the local marketplace. What do rich people pay for apples at the POSH SUPERMARKET? $1.99 is usual. You never thought about it but you were paying six times the price of apples that are on sale in that ethnic market which sent you the circular. Now go back home and pay good attention to these technicolor ads that come in the mail and you will decode the circular.
DECODING! If you know what you pay for apples these days at the supermarket, the Circular will make sense. For instance, circular may show apples at 33c at some market called JOSE's or the PETITE LEBANON, or LITTLE TAIWAN or whatever. Those are the ethnic markets. You will have more ethnic markets about that do NOT send circulars. For me that would be the KOREAN market. Every time you go shopping, split your visits between THESE, rather than always the big super market. But you need to know what apples cost at the posh market. At Krogers, (Ralph's is name in SoCal), Safeway or Vons, they are 99c. an lb At Gelsons $1.99 a pound. That is a ridiculous price. The same apples are at the small, ethnic markets for 49c and on sale are 33c or even 25c.
LEARN THE LOCAL CULTURE- A soldier in a new land must investigate local trends, be up on what the natives do. When in the ethnic market, note the foods that you either like or might incorporate which Iranians or Asians have. In the case of Orientals, it's sea weed, brown rice, miso in different forms for spicing up your vegies/ broth they are simmered in into soup. Noodles (which if you have sinus probs, you really cannot afford to eat. Snifflers need no flour in any form.) Soy sauce, sesame oil, chile sesame oil, dried mushrooms, shitake usually,) These are the things that make plain vegies and meats really gourmet tasty! Sesame seeds, supreme example. You toast them once you get them at home. So you want to acquire them at asian markets where there is HIGH TURNOVER, ergo they are fresh and cheap.
MIDDLE EAST PALATE - NOW THE FOOD that arab or lebanese markets have, or iranian markets, best whole fat yogurt, 32 oz at 2$ so much cheaper than super markets. AND OLIVE OIL, 32 oz for 5.99. UNHEARD of at super markets. But once every few months it goes on sale at $3.99 for 32 oz. Buy two. BASMATI RICE a savory, nutty, popcorn flavored rice that will drive you wild. SESAME SEEDS are here and at oriental markets both. You heat them in a skillet, over the flame, 'til golden and popping, cool, grind in a 1/4 tsp. salt, with back of a spoon, then put the toasted sesame seeds in a spice jar with tight lid to keep in FRIDGE, ready for every meal, every salad, goes on top! WOW!
KOREAN MARKET has FISH flown in from Alaska and China, fresh. I get POLLOCK FILLETS, a bag of a half dozen, 1$ an lb on sale, 1.50 when not on sale. I get soba, buckwheat noodles, sesame oil, soy sauce and makechinese fish noodle soup in under three minutes. A filling meal for pennies.
When you buy l0 lbs of rice, and get bottom price, you gotta fridge 'em cuz you won't make rice daily. Double bag your grains so no fridge moisture gets in them. I even freeze grains when space allows Now, you found zucchini on sale for 50c an lb? Good, get two and that week, be prepared to think up TWO ways to cook 'em. One is miso soup. (onion, seaweed, dried 'shroom go in simmer water, then at end, dissolve a plug of miso in the water, after you turn heat off.) Again, hit the SOUP URL above.
If you know that tomatoes are 2$ a pound, you'll recognize that Tomatoes on sale shown in the circular for 33c are something you want! Maybe you will cook your zuchs in water, then set in a pan of tomato sauce with onion, garlic. Tomatoes do not keep long. They must be kept in a bowl out on kitchen counter. Ready for another meal occasion. But don't wait too many days. WHen tomatoes start to get soft, squish them into the garden, they grow!
The famed 99c store has vegies/ fruits (produce) now. It has milk, cream, sour cream, frozen meats, too. The 99c is a southwestern states corporation (NDN on the NASDAQ, very good stock, they are opening stores all over the world now.) Your own dollar store may not have produce and dairy and meats but all of them have cooking herbs & spices in generous bottles at 1/4 to 1/8th the price of super markets. Get a good mix of thyme, oregano & celery seeds (called poultry spice,) and a bag of garlic POWDER, paprika, celery seeds either ground or whole. YOU will USE THESE to make you own seasoning salt. Keep in shaker jar with tight lid. Remake it every time you run out from frozen stash of herbs.
OTHER THINGS at the 99c STORE: DATES are way cheaper here than at even Arab markets. BUT the DEGLET NOOR or especially, the MEJOOL (king of dates,) are worth the cash. I get those at the ARAB markets, IRANIAN, too. http://www.desertusa.com/magnov97/dates/nov_date.html
MEALTIME: Always balance meat with vegies. In every meal. Acidic nature of meat requires alkaline nature of vegies. Salads qualify as vegie course.
SALAD MANAGEMENT 101: TAKE an old, carefully washed out, empty SALAD DRESSING BOTTLE, slosh in olive oil, like 1/4 cup, cut in garlic pieces. peeled. cut in onion slice, add herbs and lemon juice, shake on salad. Make fresh every week. I LOVE real ranch Dressing. Get the envelope at store, add butter milk and mayo. Fab stuff. Makes you want that salad!
HEALTHFUL DESSERTS. Fresh fruit puddings with CREAMY DAIRY. I bought my blender for a buck at a garage sale. Into it I put Milk, yogurt, banana, dates, vanilla or rum or almond essence or maple essence, maybe some walnuts. Blend 'til I have a milk shake that is guaranteed to take your mind off other junkier sweets.
When huge, red papayas are on sale, I get one. Never fridge it. After you Cut off that day's chunk, drape a napkin over it and put up on plates inside dish cupboard. On top. Scoop out meat, from that chunk, leave the skin for compost pile, Put fruity red flesh in blender with dates, banana, lot of lemon juice. WHIZZ into a fruit shake.
ANOTHER DESSERT: On a plate, some dried fruit with nuts, coconut. Coconuts are a buck each. Freeze well. Once I crack one open I keep it frozen in the shell as the freezing loosens the flesh. Dessication factor doesn't bother me.
ARE WE TO DISCARD SUPERMARKETS? NO! Their sales are fabulous. I found a lb of Oscar Meyer wieners with the good garlic, paprika flavor the junk brands don't have, for only 99c! Last nite my zucchini, onions simmered with a wiener, when they'd cooked, I put in the miso, some tofu and stirred well. A whole meal of health costing pennies. So the supermarket bent shelf is a delight.You never know what you'll find there. Chili and beans, the best coffees. Pet food. Any can with a dent is marked half price. Beans and chili galore! Soups are 49c. Read the BENT CAN ARTICLE on making a meal out of a marked down, 49c can of something basic.
TRY THESE CUISINE TRICKS and you will eat for nearly nothing! Your health will improve but WARNING: gals who come for dinner will be very impressed and want to stay for fifty years of marriage.
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