Wallet-friendly Foods

Jalapeno and Bacon-wrapped Dove

2011-09-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

This one is pretty simple. I'll remind you that because this involves bacon, it is neither cost-effective nor healthy. It is however delicious. I'll give you the basic recipe that we used and then offer some variations because this recipe can easily be changed to fit your preferences.

Ingredients
Dove
Jalapeno peppers
Bacon
Toothpicks
Your favorite spices
Your favorite bbq sauce

Preparation
If you plan on using a charcoal grill, I suggest going ahead and getting your fire started. That way once you are finished prepping your wraps, the charcoals should be about ready. The amount of bacon and jalapeño will depend on how much dove you have. We cut the bacon strips in half, so half as many bacon pieces as dove. But you may want a whole piece, it's up to you.

Cut your jalapenos in quarters lengthwise and make sure to cut the veins/ribs out of them. The ribs and seeds are where all of the capsacin is stored. Capsacin is the chemical that makes peppers hot. Trust me, if you leave your peppers unaltered, they will be too hot. Once your peppers are quartered lay out one of your half-strips of bacon (or a full length strip if you prefer), and put one dove filet and one pepper slice on the end of it. Now roll up your strip until you reach the other end and put a toothpick through the whole thing. It may make your wrap more stable if you put the toothpick through diagonally instead of horizontally. It's really up to you. Just keep doing that until you run out of dove. We had so much dove meat, we actually ended up buying more bacon and jalapenos.

Once all of your dove wraps are finished, put them on the grill. Your timing will vary depending on if you're using a gas or charcoal grill. Either way follow the golden rule of grilling: Low and Slow. Low Heat/Flame and just let it go for a while. Keep an eye out for flare ups because bacon is fatty. You don't want it turning out like my chicken. Watch your wraps and when the bacon looks about halfway done, flip your wraps. Repeat and when the bacon is done the dove is too. Once that's done brush on your favorite bbq or mop sauce and let it go for another minute or two, then pull them off and enjoy. Obviously they will be hot so maybe let them cool for a couple minutes.

Two variations that I'm fond of are adding cream cheese between your dove and pepper, and using pickled jalapenos instead of fresh. The pickled ones are usually smaller and saturated so they will shrivel and char faster. Watch out for that, but it puts a little different flavor in that I like sometimes. One of these days I'm gonna pickled my own large jalapeno halves and try it like that. These can also be good without the dove honestly, but the dove makes it a little more substantial of a meal.

I'll add more pictures later, but I had to stop procrastinating and at least get this posted.

Happy Eating!

Red rubbed grilled chicken (or Ashes, Ashes, Josh Ruined Dinner)

2011-09-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

I ~~was inspired by~~ stole UseRealButter's All Purpose Red Rub recipe and made some myself. It smells good, let me tell you. I depleted several of my spices to make this delicious rub, so now I need to go to the grocery store to stock back up.

Pretty, right?

After making this rub, I threw a couple tablespoons in with 1/4-1/3 cup olive oil and massaged it onto some chicken leg quarters that cost me $1 per pound. Seeing as how I actually had the ingredients for the rub, this ran me a whopping $4.58 for 4 chicken quarters. That's about $1.13 per meal (my wife and I, for 2 meals).

My dog was not pleased that I was photographing by the window.

I let the meat sit in the fridge for an hour with the rub on it and then heated up my grill. The quarters went on at low, indirect heat for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I went to flip them and found that the side on the grill looked less than cooked. No char, no brown, just kind of warmed. Hmph! So after flipping them I turned the burners directly underneath the quarters on as well, on low setting. WRONG! At this point the fatty delicious skin side of the chickens was face down. Read another way, the volatile, incendiary, highly flammable side was close to the fire.

Once again, I torched the chicken. I'm done with chicken on the grill for a while. At least until I get my grill cleaned up instead of looking like a post-apocalyptic waste. I think done right this could have been a really good recipe. As it is I may cry myself to sleep. Hopefully the rice will help the meal. And maybe some ketchup.

Happy Eating. (for you not me)

Genius Poster

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Knowing the demographics this type of blog is aimed at I decided to set up a Pinterest account for it. No, I do not have to forfeit my Man Card for that. It's good inspiration and a good way to get people to see the blog. Get over it. Anyway, while adding things to my inspiration boards I stumbled across this:

credit: cressidabell.com

This is exactly the kind of thing I want this blog to be about. Simple, easy to follow, well organized recipes with ingredients and tools around the edges. It really is beautiful. If you really like it follow the link to the website and buy it. I am not an advocate of piracy, give credit where it's due and support people if you use their goods.

Don't worry I haven't forgotten the other dove recipe. I'm working on getting a few posts written up so they can be published on a regular schedule soon.

Bock-battered Dove

2011-09-10T14:10:00.001-05:00

I went hunting with my dad for opening weekend of dove season and somehow ended up with a ton of meat that nobody really wanted at the end. My dad helped me clean it all up and sent me home with the fillets making me promise to do something good with all of it.

Hunting your own meat is debatable when it comes to cost efficiency. Assuming you have a gun already, you have to buy a license (around $70 here for the combo hunting-fishing), ammo, and then have a place to go which can also be expensive if you don't have land or know anyone that does. But if you're a good shot you can use less ammo, and if you get animals through multiple hunting seasons it will probably pay out. Of course in my case, I ended up on the winning side because I got way more than my share of meat. Moving on.

We decided to split the meat in half preparation-wise, with half being fried and half being grilled. I won't claim either of these to be healthy, but the fried dove wasn't much money to make. So I'll put that one up first and then put up the grilled stuff with bacon later.

Bock-battered Dove

Most of these ingredients you should have (flour, milk/buttermilk, spices) as staples. The only thing you should have to get is the beer and the dove.

Time:

Marinate: 3-24hrs

Prep: 5-10min

Cook: varies with method

Ingredients:

Dove (as much as you've got)

2 bottles/cans of beer (We used bottles and had a little left in each. Any beer will work, but we used Shiner. Darker beers will give you more flavor, but they cost more as well.)

2 cups flour

3/4 cup milk/buttermilk

salt

pepper

other spices to your taste

container with lid large enough to hold dove (marinating container)

two shallow containers for battering (pie pans work well)

fryer or skillet with oil

If your meat is frozen, defrost it. The best way to defrost is to move your meat from the freezer to the refrigerator a day or two beforehand. This allows it to slowly thaw out as opposed to a quick thaw. You can quick thaw if you want (we did because we didn't plan well) but the meat stays more tender if you do it slowly.

Instructions:

1. Place meat in your marinating container and pour in 1 bottle or can of beer. If you have more meat you may need more beer.

2. Let the meat marinate for at least 2 or 3 hours. The longer you can wait, the more it will soak up, so the best would be to let it marinate overnight.

3. Heat up your fryer with oil or skillet with oil. You want it to be nice and hot for your meat.

4. Place buttermilk and remaining can/bottle of beer in one of your battering pans. Put flour and spices in the other pan.

5. If you've fried food before, it's the same process. Put a few pieces in the first pan with your milk and Shiner. Get them coated all over.

6. Move them to the second pan with your flour and spices. The first pan makes sure that the stuff in the second pan sticks. You could use water in the first pan, but that's not as tasty.

7. Once you've got a nice even coat on both sides, toss your birds in the fryer. Your time will differ depending on how hot your oil is and whether you are using a deep fryer or a skillet. If you’re using a skillet you will have to do one side at a time and then flip. Either way, you want the outside to be a nice golden brown and the inside cooked through. Dove is darker meat so it won’t look like a chicken nugget.

Our fryer kept going on and off so I don't know what temp it should be.

8. Do a few pieces of meat at a time. Dove pieces are small so just put however many you can handle at a time together. When they come off the skillet or out of the fryer put them on a plate under some aluminum foil or maybe in the oven so they stay warm while you cook the rest.

Special thanks to the Jordans for letting us get their kitchen messy and helping us cook and eat all of this food.

Happy Eating!

ps - If you don't have buttermilk, you can add a few teaspoons of lemon juice to normal milk (not your whole gallon, please!) and the acid will begin the curdling process. It won't make it spoil but it will make it work for buttermilk.

Tools!

2011-09-08T00:51:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad blogger, and for that I apologize. I started nursing school last week so I'm trying to figure out a schedule for doing school, studying and everything else in between. Rest assured I have not forgotten about you. In fact, this week we've tried several new recipes and I'm going to be working on a write up for each of them. We didn't get pictures for them sadly but I think we'll be making them again so don't worry, we'll get there.

While I've got you here though, I'd like to take a second to talk about your kitchen tools. It's important to have good tools, whether in the kitchen, the garage, your workbench or wherever else you need to work on stuff. When it comes to tools you can spend very little to very much, and the kitchen is no exception. I definitely recommend spending a little money on your tools. I don't buy the most expensive things, because usually at that point you are mostly buying a name. However there is something to be said for not buying the cheapest brand either. Usually a higher quality brand will cost you more up front, but will last a long time.

Depending on what you need you should do a little research and brand comparison. If you aren't going to use something very often, it may not be as important to have as high of quality. For everyday or common use items, I'd get something a little nicer. For example we have a Kitchenaid mixer, OXO serving-ware (tongs, ladles, large spoons, spaghetti spoon, etc.), and a Wusthof knife set.

You're probably saying, "I thought this blog was supposed to save me money, not be a marketing tool for Bed Bath and Beyond." Yes, you're right! Those brands are great but admittedly they are pretty expensive. Here are some tips on getting these things for less:

1. Get them second hand. Some of our serving-ware is stuff my wife got from her parents when she moved to college. They upgraded and she got the old stuff that was still quite good. And then we got married and her stuff became our stuff. Kitchen gadgets aren't always what people buy when they already have working ones, but if you know someone who is renovating, see if they have working appliances or other gadgets that are still in good condition. Craigslist or the classifieds (I assume people still use the newspaper sometimes?) are another good place to check. I just looked and found a $350 stand mixer that had supposedly been used once for $150. Jackpot! Use some common sense and check things out before you buy, but that's a good place to start.

2. Register for them. Most of our gadgets we got as wedding registry gifts. Find the stuff you like and register for it. If you've registered at multiple places, register for your kitchen gadgets at all the places. Most registry stores give you some sort of discount on the things you registered for but didn't receive after the wedding. Here's where registering at both places can really come in handy. If you got multiples of one item (say it was bought from both places) you can return it to one store and then use the credit to buy something you didn't get at a reduced price. Also if there are things you want that come individually as well as in sets register both ways. We did this for our knives (because they were NOT cheap) and several people bought us individual knives. We returned them, added some gift cards and bought the block at the reduced price. The trick is registering both ways, because only things that were legitimately on your registry get a discount afterwards. Of course you could ask for them for presents for other occasions as well.

3. Watch for them to go on sale. I know that seems like something I shouldn't have to say, but there I said it. Sometimes brands phase out a color or style, or a store is trying to clear out a previous version. Lucky for you, you're not all that picky about what it looks like right?

My dad always told me, "If you take care of your tools, your tools will take care of you." I didn't take that too seriously until I started buying (and rebuying) my own stuff. Some items make no difference if you put them in the dishwasher. I'm pretty quick to throw stuff in the top rack, so it's not near the heating element. Just rinse them when you finish using them so they don't get all caked in junk before you put them in the dishwasher. My knives though, are something I'm very meticulous about. Hand wash only if I can help it. I've seen a lot of knives get spotted and rusty from years of being put in the dishwasher and not drying well. And since I can't afford to go buy another set of what we got as gifts, I make sure to take special care of them (My wife thinks I'm a little obsessive; don't listen to her). Whatever your gadget is, it should come with cleaning and care instructions. I definitely recommend following those instructions, especially if you paid for decent tools. If you take care of them, they can last for years and years.

One more thing, and I promise I'm not being paid to say this: Cutco knives have an amazing warranty. I say this not so that you'll go find some kid selling Cutco knives, but in case you find one in a parking lot. My grandma found one in a parking lot one time, all rusty and jankity-looking. Cutco will resharpen any of their knives for you, and if they can't fix the knife they replace it. And the best part is there's no proof of purchase required (presumably so you can give them as gifts). So my grandmother found an abandoned knife, sent it in and received a brand new Cutco-quality knife. ALL FOR FREE. It doesn't happen every day, I just wanted to let you know so you didn't bypass one on the road.

Happy Eating.

Staples

2011-08-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

Staples are the things you rely on, they are the essentials you keep stocked in your pantry and they can be a life-saver. Staples can be ingredients or meals.

For example, staple ingredients would be things like rice, noodles, cans of beans, cans of soup, milk, eggs, butter, stuff like that.

Staple meals would be a general category like casseroles. A casserole is your best friend in penny-pinching times. A casserole needs three things: noodles or rice, some type of "cream of whatever" soup, and (if you have it) a meat or protein. Your casserole does not have to have a fancy name. Or any name. I don't know what we made last night but it was yummy. We took a package of egg noodles ($1.50), a can of cream of mushroom ($1?), and some frozen meatballs (package was $4, but we only used half) and made a meal. We both had a serving last night and put away about two or three servings of leftover. That comes out to about $1/serving. Not bad.

We added onion and garlic, but you don't have to. That's kinda the point. When you understand the basics of things you can create your own variations that are more to your taste or more to what's in your kitchen. You understand what can be substituted and can make do with what you've got. Keep your pantry stocked with things like noodles, rice, cream soups, beans, and your spices. Keep some produce that doesn't go bad quickly, typically in-ground produce like onions, potatoes, garlic. Keep milk, butter, eggs in your refrigerator because you use those for all sorts of things.

If you understand the principles of adding things together you don't need a fancy recipe. Granted, fancy recipes do taste awesome, but sometimes we don't need things to taste amazing every single night. Sometimes, the budget calls for some okay-tasting meals. That's what salt and pepper and condiments are for.

Another thing about casseroles or casserole-type foods is leftovers. Go buy yourself a multi-pack of Glad or Reynolds disposable/reusable tubs and save your leftovers. If you can't bring yourself to eat leftovers, then I suggest getting a better job. It's way too expensive to eat something new every dinner and lunch just for preference. I understand if you have a big family that polishes off everything on the table, but just to trash it all because you don't like leftovers? Come on. I often eat leftovers for my lunch the next day or two because I can't afford to buy lunch at the cafe at school every day.

Okay well I'm gonna go reheat some leftovers and have my lunch. Remember: keep your kitchen stocked with staples, know the basic parts of meals so you can improvise or create, and save your leftovers!

Happy Eating!

New Blog

2011-08-27T11:45:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Wallet-Friendly Foods! Our goal is to provide recipes and food ideas that don't cost an arm and a leg, but that are still fairly nutritious. We'll be doing lots of updates to the design/layout in the next week or so, so please be patient and enjoy the recipes.