Ok I stole that from Daft Punk (which btw would be my dream concert if anyone ever felt like indulging me), but lately I’ve been looking at how to economize things in the kitchen a little without sacrificing flavor or freshness.

Why?  Cause we’re moving and setting up two households, and that’s a touch expensive.  And, yes, it’s not a bad idea either.. regardless of how much the fish counter screams at me in the market.  Fresh lobster whaaaaa?

So I armed myself with a Safeway card and deal-saver emails from Dave’s Meat & Produce and thought, why yes!  I AM economical!

And handcuffed.

At first it made me somewhat cranky to cook around Safeway’s schedule, I’ll admit it..  (plus I’m convinced they jack their prices just to put things on “sale”).  Regardless, I want to cook the things I love, snack on the things I like, and experiment with whatever the hell comes to mind.  Yes, I am an only child.  I’ll give you a moment to digest your shock.

But then…  the challenge seeped into me and it became fun.  What can I do with what you handed me?  And how do I work with some of this stuff?

So here’s what I’ve messed around with and learned this week:

–  You can make that “one awesome thing” from your favorite restaurant, or the thing you’re craving, at home…  healthier and cheaper.  Originally I ended up writing like three paragraphs about this so I’ll just split it into a separate segment 😉

–  Leftovers, in different clothing, are awesome.  How many times have you roasted a chicken and then gotten massively tired of eating chicken?  Aka some of it ends up in the trash.  Chicken tenders anyone?  Take cooked chicken pieces, egg, flour, egg, seasoned panko.  Into frying pan for literally 30 seconds.  CHICKEN FINGERS!!!  (yes I used breast meat and yes they stayed very moist.  Then again I roast a moist chicken.  If you suck at roasting chicken I take no responsibility for the result of your fingers, and encourage you to purchase a pre-roasted one from the store or well, get that fixed).

–  If you want to skin peaches (read: seasonal items), blanch them in boiling water for a minute then remove to an ice bath.  Skin peels right off.  Great for summer deserts, healthier than canned peaches.  This also works for skinning tomatoes, and for people that have an aversion to fuzzy fruit.

-Seasonal vegetables.  Ohh de lally.  Awesome, cheap at farmer’s markets..  money traps.  How many times have you bought something seasonal that you don’t usually work with and it ended up rotting in your fridge?  Every time you look at it you think, oh my pretty I need to do something with you, how exciting!  And the only trip it ends up taking is to the trash.  Remedy?  Commitment people.  Go ahead and buy it without knowing what the hell to do with it, but see it through.  Stop being a damn veggie abuser.  It makes angels cry.

–  If you don’t have thai basil (this is for my Asian food freaks), you can actually use regular basil and tarragon of all friggin things as a substitute!  Crazy!!  The fresh, not the dried.

–  If making gnocchi, after you rice the potatoes put them in the fridge until they’re completely cool.  They will absorb less flour and make light and uber fluffy gnocchi.

Yup.  You’re thinking HA!  When the fuck have I ever made gnocchi?  You’re out of your head.  Actually I’m not.  You know what gnocchi is?  Potato, egg, flour, cheese, salt.  Cook one, mash it with the rest, roll out, cut, boil.  OR you can make a ton of these and freeze them.  Either way, want a great way to easily feed the masses?  Here you go.  Want a kid-friendly recipe?  Bam!  Want something kids will love to make with you in large batches?  Yay afternoon project!  Want more info?  Lemme know 😉

–  Don’t refrigerate tomatoes.  Never knew that one, but judging by the amount of tomatoes I’ve brutally killed in the fridge, I feel massively stupid for not figuring it out sooner.

–  Beans!  Instead of buying canned beans, get the dried ones, cook them, and freeze in individual size packages.  You just have to soak them overnight and cook.  Alright and here I’ll be honest.  I did this, and the can of garbanzo beans I bought was a dollar, doing the math, the dried beans after they were prepared equaled to 41 cents a can.  Almost 60% savings!  But the two-day process of soaking, cooking, cooling, splitting into serving sizes, food saving..  and now I have all these friggin beans taking up space in my freezer..  was it worth it?  Eh.  No.

–  You can freeze fresh ginger and grate it straight from the freezer into dishes.  Nice.  Though I will caution you if using a lot, let it cook at temp in your dish a minute before tasting to determine if you need more.  Ginger exudes that stingingly succulent quality we all love at room temp, so don’t over-ginger your dish.  Heh heh so to speak.

–  Mexican chorizo is fresh, Spanish chorizo is dried.  Really only relevant if you’re a sausage freak, but now you can sound all smart when using it.

–  Noodle freaks.  I just bough a huge package of fresh udon noodles, split it into 6 serving sizes and froze them.  Automatic meal for less than buying the individual packages, and unlike the beans totally worth it, price and time-wise.

Usually my posts are about the joy of cooking and the crazy shit I encounter in pursuit of this wicked high.  If you want the whole story, it can be an expensive and phenomenally time-consuming hobby as well.  This is getting to experiment and learn in a different way, still trying my damnedest to break out of the box but not getting to pick what I’m breaking out with.  Which for me is infinitely harder.  And after I decided to pull my head out of my ass about it, deliciously rewarding 🙂