Quiche

     If you keep up with my blog, you know that I normally have my parents over for lunch after church on Sundays.  Today was a little different and it was just J.T., Otis, and I.  Since I wasn’t serving a crowd, I decided to keep things simple with a brunch inspired meal.  We ate quiche, fresh asparagus, which I picked up from the farmer’s market yesterday morning, and sweet potato banana muffins.  It was delicious and a nice break from our regular Sunday meal.  We have had a much needed, lazy weekend after a very busy week at work.  Yesterday we only ventured out twice, hitting the farmer’s market and Publix in the morning and Manna grocery during the afternoon.  We went to Manna to purchase local honey from Duncanville and left with three pounds of it!   J.T. and I both suffer from allergies, although J.T.’s allergies are normal and mine are just plain weird.  Let me first state that I have been to two different doctors about this issue and both are clueless.  When it is humid outside or about to rain my skin becomes very itchy, generally only my forearms, neck, ears, face, and scalp.  It is awful but I do not scratch because I have been told by my dermatologist that this could cause a rash.  When the itching becomes unbearable I take a prescription antihistamine, which allows me to sleep and puts me out of my misery.  I am not convinced that the antihistamine actually does anything to calm my allergic reaction.  I also have a prescription steroid cream, but this only helps temporarily.  While I am uncertain of my allergy, it is either an airborne allergy or some form of an allergic reaction to a chemical in one of my cleaning products or cosmetic items.  To make a long story short, I am in the process of eliminating as many possible culprits of my allergy from our house.  It is actually very similar to when we started our “real food” journey nine months ago.  This morning I ordered this cleaning solution for our household needs.   Many customer reviews of Branch Basics claimed that it helped with seasonal allergies and eczema (which J.T. struggles with).  Several weeks ago, I changed our laundry detergent to Molly’s Suds and we absolutely love this product, especially the smell.  My next big hurdle is tackling my cosmetic items, which is a giant headache.  Yesterday at Manna I picked up Everyday Coconut body lotion, a product my mother told me about a while ago.  After slathering myself in this lotion, my itching has decreased.  I am learning and just like I changed our food, I too can do this.  In the words of my brother, I have gone hippie. 

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil, plus additional for greasing the pie plate
• 2 eggs, preferably local
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup coconut flour

Filling:

• 5 eggs, preferably local
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped

Directions

1. Grease a 9-inch pie plate with coconut oil.  In a medium bowl whisk together the coconut oil, eggs, and kosher salt.  Stir in the coconut flour.  Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pie plate. Set aside.
2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper.  Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust.  Sprinkle the scallions on top.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Serves 4. 

Meal Preparation: Grocery Lists

    In a recent job interview, I was asked to describe myself in one word.  Without hesitation I replied “picky.” Throughout my life, my mother has consistently reminded me that I am a very picky individual.  I am picky about clothing, picky about men, and picky about food, just to name a few.  Over the past (almost) year of marriage, I have come to realize just how picky I am about purchasing our groceries and planning our weekly meals.  Honestly folks, I do not believe I can hand the power of the grocery list over to anyone else.  My grocery lists are elaborate and probably a wee bit over the top.  These lists are divided up by category and a price is listed for each item.  If a coupon goes with the item, the coupon is listed along with the price after the coupon discount.  A few days ago I shared my menu plan for last week and the upcoming week. Dinner would be a disaster each night if I did not have my grocery list and menu plan.  These two tools are my secret to getting dinner on the table every night between 6:00 and 6:30.  This plan works but it also takes work.  

    My weekly grocery list is based on two things: items that are on sale and items that we need.  I do not deviate from this list unless the store is out of stock.  If I must have the item, I try to find a substitute of equal price or I simply hold out until the next sale.  My detailed grocery list gets me in and out of the store in about 45 minutes.  This time frame includes checking out with coupons and our trip to and from the store.  It goes to show that being prepared saves time.  Most Saturday’s I have my husband with me to push the buggy and unload at checkout.  While he unloads, I am able to watch the scanner to make sure the prices ring up correct.  

    Speaking of price, most of you know that I have a weekly grocery budget of $60 a week.  This $60 covers every single meal we eat for the entire week.  For our little family of two, it provides us with 42 meals.  To be fair, I will divulge that I place a $50 order with vitacost once a month to restock pantry essentials, which breaks down to an additional $12.50 a week for food.  Even with the vitacost order factored into the equation, we are only spending an average of $1.73 a meal.  Most of the ingredients used in our meals are organic, local, or low pesticide level foods, so $1.73 a meal is a bargain.  

    I exclusively grocery shop at Publix because I love the clean store, the availability of organic products and their generous coupon policy.  We also go the farmer’s market every Saturday to purchase local eggs, beef, and pork.  I wish we could purchase all of our vegetables at the market, but right now it is not financially possible.  Frozen vegetables are a huge bargain over fresh and this keeps me going back to Publix for the majority of our produce.  I have shared before that I utilize southernsavers.com and iheartpublix.com for sale and coupon matchups.  These two websites are indispensable to me in the meal planning process.  I hope the things I have learned and shared are able to help someone else who wants to feed their family real food on a budget.  Below, I have listed my shopping list for this week’s meals.  When menu planning, I try to incorporate as my items as I can which I already have on hand into our meals.  This means nothing goes to waste and we are never overflowing with groceries, but we have enough.  

Meal Preparation: Menu Planning

    Menu planning is a topic that tends to scare most people.  Fast food and frozen dinners have become far too common in our society, because someone was too overwhelmed to sit down and plan a meal.  Since starting the whole 8 to 5 workday regimen, I have found that if I do not have a plan, things go bad.  I literally plan every aspect of our meals, including what needs to be defrosted or prepped the day before, to make dinner happen quickly when I arrive home from work.  My general rule is to stay one day ahead.   For example, I normally do prep work for the next day’s supper while our current supper heats up.  I have about 45 minutes from the time I get home to the time we eat, and we normally eat at 6 O’clock on the dot - because we are old folks like that.

     Typically I plan meals for six days out of our seven day week.  What about that seventh day?  Normally enough leftovers have accumulated throughout the week, so we are able to have a meal from those.  When all else fails, my backup plan is a bowl of cereal for J.T. and a bowl of oatmeal for me.  Don’t judge.  It is better than a drive thru.  For the six days that I do plan meals, I follow a general pattern.  First, I would like to point out that protein comes in various forms.  Eggs, beans and whole grains can be used as a main dish alternative to meat.  We are by no means vegetarian, but reducing our consumption of meat helps us stay within our weekly budget.  This wasn’t a difficult change for J.T. and I. Growing up, my mother served meat at almost every meal, but I would often get choked on the meat.  I believe that is why I always ate very little meat and preferred vegetables and grains.  Before J.T. and I got married he was eating ramen noodles and cereal, with the occasional meal out or Philly cheesesteak sandwich prepared at home.  

    We always start off the week with meatless Monday at our house.  In the winter I prepare more soups and in the summer I serve vegetable plates.  Tuesday is normally roasted chicken, but sometimes we have meatloaf.  A lighter meal is served Wednesday night.  J.T. is the orchestra director at our church and he has rehearsal every Wednesday evening.  We eat a little earlier than usual and J.T. prefers to eat less than he normally would.  Thursday night is another “meat” night.  We either have individual pieces of meat or meat chopped up and incorporated into beans, eggs, or rice.  BFD (breakfast for dinner) is served each Friday night.  It has become a Spann household tradition.  Since the addition of a waffle iron to our kitchen, BFD has become a breeze to prepare.  I make the waffles in advance and freeze them.  On Friday, all I have to do is reheat them in the oven for about 8 minutes while J.T. fries the eggs.  Saturday is our big leftover day.  This is a nice break because I generally spend much of the day prepping for the upcoming week.  I know Sunday is technically the first day of the week, but I normally view it as the last.  Each week, I invite my parents over to eat with us after church and meat is always served at this meal.  Pot roast and chicken piccata are favorites as well as meatloaf or roasted chicken.  This is by far our biggest meal of the week, with dessert served at the end.  Listed below is my meal plan for last week and the upcoming week.  These plans include meals and basic pantry staples (granola, crackers, etc.).  I try to space things out so that I do not have a lot to do in the kitchen on any one particular day.  Also, you will only see dinner menu plans listed.  I always make enough food to serve at least four people.  We pack up the leftovers and take them to work the next day for lunch.  I hope this shows you how to plan meals to be both cost and time effective.  This is a two part blog series.  I will be posting part II, the grocery list, within the upcoming week.  Stay tuned!