Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Cheap Eats: Day Three

Day three eats...

Breakfast:
Sara - Oatmeal with an apple and coffee (sound familiar?)
Ron - A quarter of a 4 egg mushroom frittata

Lunch:
Sara - Leftover kale and white beans from last night's dinner with a fried egg and an oatmeal cookie
Ron - Leftover chicken, split pea soup and brussels sprouts

Dinner:
Sara & Ron - Butternut squash barley risotto & some braised cabbage


I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet. I learned about barley risotto from Mark Bitman's Food Matters and I've made it with asparagus, mushrooms and now butternut squash.

I peeled and cubed the half of my butternut squash that was leftover after making butternut squash chips yesterday. Toss the squash in some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until soft. Sautee half of diced onion in some olive oil, when its soft add 1/2 cup of pearled barley, season with salt, pepper and sage (it's the only thing that grows on my windowsill). After about a minute start adding warm chicken stock (from the chicken we made on Monday) a cup or so at a time - like you would a regular risotto.  I pureed half of the squash and added that into the mixture while continuing to add stock. The whole process takes a bit longer then regular risotto but it gets so creamy and good and it's much better for you than regular rice! I topped it with the seeds that I scooped out of the squash and toasted in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper - they added a nice salty crunch.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on this! O and I are talking about possibly doing this as well. It seems like a great challenge.

Also- the photo of the risotto is GORGEOUS.

Donal said...

Love the idea here! And I love that recipe! :)

Cheers,

Donal
www.thegoodmoodfoodblog.com

eatingoodinthehood@gmail.com said...

Thanks MB - I'm starting to think that we got too many vegetables and not enough starch. I'll probably be heading to the bulk bins to spend our last $2.50!

Donal - thanks so much. I can't get enough of the stuff. You're blog is incredible, I'm adding it to my bloglines right now!

brandeye said...

this is a great idea to set a limit. i always wonder how our grocery bill is always around 100 a week, and we eat out a couple times a week too. looks like you are eating some delicious meals!

eatingoodinthehood@gmail.com said...

brand-eye, we eat out (or at least drink out!) a couple times a week too, I guess that's another reason to keep our grocery bill down. I think keeping our grocery bill around $60 a week will be easy for us after this, especially when I can use the goods in my freezer and pantry!

Anonymous said...

just letting you know that i've read the last few posts of yours and am liking what i'm seeing. plus, i'm originally from philly and, well, this blog tugs at my heart strings. i'm all for eating cheaply (or cheaper) and these meals all look fabulous (esp. the risotto)