Breakfast on the Rebound

My body needs breakfast. My kid's body needs breakfast. In the morning though, I am seriously challenged to organize all the bits and pieces of getting out the door properly prepared and on time. Breakfast is usually the first casualty. I am now on a campaign to reclaim breakfast.

My current usual habit is to grab a container of yogurt out of the frig, throw it, a package of peanut butter crackers or two granola bars, a diet soda (for caffeine) and a spoon in my bag and run for the car. My kid, however, grabs a package of a name brand "tart" type item as his sole meal for the day until he gets home from school. Am I a terrible mother or what? I have given up on the pack a lunch vs buy school lunch issue long ago. He will not have either and since he is at high school and out of my jurisdiction during lunch I have little control over that situation. I choose to pick my battles. I can have some influence over what he grabs for breakfast on the way out of the door.

In purusing other frugal websites, there are a lot of ideas out there for simple frugal breakfasts, but most seem to need to be freshly prepared in the morning (not going to happen here) or require pre-planning and baking (which I am not opposed to but by Thursday anything made on the weekend when I have time for cooking is no longer fresh or we are tired of it.) I have limited freezer space to store made ahead items as well.

I have my work cut out for me and I might have to make a few concessions to achieve a better breakfast habit. This is going to take some consideration, creativity, and obviously more than one post.

True Grits

Need a quick and hearty dinner in ten minutes?

Grab some smoked sausage, shrimp or left over ham (I use turkey sausage), quick cooking grits, shredded cheddar cheese, dried or fresh minced onion, onion powder, garlic powder, two bouillon cubes and some cajun seasoning.

Quickly slice the sausage thinly with kitchen shears into a saute pan. If you are using fresh onion, quickly dice up a handful and throw it in. Saute over medium-high heat 5-7 min.

Mix the grits in a covered saucepan per box instructions. Add boullion, salt, pepper, onion & garlic powders, and cajun seasoning to taste. Throw in a small handful of cheddar per four servings. Let it cook (about 5 min max.)

Add meat, scoop into bowls, top with more cheese.

The adaptability of the dish is as limitless as your creativity, left overs and taste.

Rachel Ray- Fast, Faster, Fastest

Rachel Ray has a new feature on her show where she takes a recipe and creates three versions to create the dish Fast, Faster and Fastest. These look promising for ideas. Check out her website (www.rachelray.com) or her show for more of these recipes. The dish I saw today was for Chicken and Dumplings. It did rely on pre-sliced mushrooms and store-bought prepared bisquits which would disqualify the dish as a frugal dish. If you worked it into your meal plan, including mushrooms in several dishes, preparing enough for several dishes ahead and storing them pre-sliced and reusing leftover scratch bisquits would bring this more in line with a frugal lifestyle.

Cool idea! See if you can create a faster version of your favorite recipe with a few adjustments or substitutions or rethink the technique. Condensed cooking!

The Ideal of the Condensed Cook

A Condensed Cook is anyone who aspires to create good food using as few resources as possible- money, time, energy.

I took up this endeavor a few years ago when, as a single mom on a limited budget, I was diagnosed with Lupus (SLE). This chronic condition required me to rethink everything I was doing around my home. After months of feeling exhausted and flu-like, I was forced to reckon with the reality that things were not going to get better. So not being one to give in easily and being determined to still live as normal a life as possible, I set about the streamline the running of my household, my finances, my schedule and most importantly, expectations.

One of the hardest areas to streamline was cooking meals. I grew up with a mom who was an old-fashioned Southern, make-it-all-from-scratch, and the-fancier-the-better cook. Dinner was not just an entree that would meet the food requirements, it was a three to four course meal. In streamlining, I have discovered that I can prepare nutricious meals and even holiday fare with simplicity.

This blog will be a sharing of those ideas, both new and existing, created and discovered (with the proper credit of course.)