Happy New Year!

It's a new year and a great way to start fresh!

Try to pay off all those outstanding bills first and then try not to live beyond your means!

That means take 1/4 of your paycheck and put it away for rent/mortgage, give yourself a food budget for the week and stick to it (only buy what is on sale and REAL food not junk food), and put the rest into the bank.

Every Sunday go online and check the supermarket circulars for sales and print your shopping list. STICK TO IT! Best to stock up on frozen vegetables. Tortillas and bread freeze nicely too.

Condensed soup can be pretty handy in the kitchen to help make a quick meal. If it's on sale for $1 or less, buy it. I tend to buy Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken to use in recipes (sometimes even using the ones on the can)

Don't feel like you are living poor or unreasonable for doing this. Look at all those celebrities and reality "Housewives" (probably your neighbors too) that are going through so much financial trouble with large credit card debt, foreclosures, and living paycheck to paycheck. It's scary!

In a world where we live with technology and everyone wants the newest gadget, you can always find online someone who is selling their old one for a cheaper price than buying it new in a store.

Do your research.

If you are a slave to fashion and must buy a new wardrobe every season, you should DEFINITELY sell your old wardrobe FIRST before buying anything new. I know some people that buy more shoes than they have feet or occasions to wear to. Crazy!

Classic looks are best. They never go out of fashion and some pieces you can keep for a long time as fashion is a cycle and will come back again.

Men's wear hasn't changed in centuries and thus they can wear a classic suit until it falls apart.

Women on the other hand are a bit more fickle. You are best to buy and wear separates and mix and match, changing it up a bit with accessories like a scarf or necklace. Costume jewelry can be just as pretty as the real thing.

If you have a bunch of friends that also have a large wardrobe and accessories that they don't really wear anymore, you can do a closet swap. Everyone meets at someone's house for say, lunch or cocktails and brings a suitcase of items they want to swap. Everyone chooses an area in the room to present their wares and you all walk about trading one item for the other. In this way, you all get new items to wear. What ever that isn't swapped or taken is then either donated to charity for a tax deduction, or sold on ebay.

Recipe: Orange Fennel Salad

Did I mention I have a window garden?

It's mild here on the East Coast even now and I grew arugula from seed over the Summer (grows quite fast) and have a window box specifically for herbs (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme).

Gardening is quite relaxing and tending to one in Manhattan can really take the stress out of you.

Fennel was on sale for 99¢ a piece at Shoprite and oranges also on sale so I thought to buy them to make a salad. What a surprise when I found out that arugula was needed for most of these recipes and I didn't buy any. Luckily all I had to do was turn to my window...

Made this today for lunch. Recipe courtesy of Whole Foods.

Serves 4

Colorful and crunchy, the sweetness of the oranges in this salad is a tasty contrast to the sharp clean flavor of fennel. Save any juice that accumulates when you slice the oranges and use it when making the dressing, if you like.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons orange juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups packed baby arugula

1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

3 large navel oranges, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Method

In a small bowl, whisk together orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to make a dressing. Divide arugula among 4 salad plates. Toss fennel with orange slices and red onions, then arrange on top of arugula. Drizzle with dressing and garnish with almonds.

Nutrition

Per serving (about 9oz/258g-wt.): 260 calories (160 from fat), 18g total fat, 2.5g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 320mg sodium, 25g total carbohydrate (7g dietary fiber, 15g sugar), 4g protein

Thanksgiving is on sale now!

Perusing over the online versions of local supermarket circulars, I've noticed that Pathmark in particular has many items for 99¢ such as carrots, canned cranberry sauce, canned sweet yams, etc...

This is the time to buy and stock up now allocating a small amount each week for the groceries and saving the rest.

By the time the big holiday comes, you'll have many of the ingredients in your pantry ready and have bought them when they were on sale. Just look at the expiration dates on them items and buy the ones that will expire farther down the road.

If you have stocked up on more than one particular item, you'll have a full pantry to throw a wonderful Christmas or New Year dinner as well!

Recipe: Tricolore Pasta with Zucchini, Onion, Tomato Sauce

I grew a huge zucchini this summer and was trying to figure what to do with it. The reason it was so huge was because I plucked most of the flowers to fry leaving a few left to mature into fruit.

I have this fascination with different pastas and shapes and spied Barilla's Tri Color Fiori (flower) on sale for 99¢ at Pathmark recently. A box of pasta. A huge zucchini. A large bottle of tomato sauce in the pantry that I also bought on sale and a basket of onions. I decided to make a vegetarian dish for dinner tonight and interestingly enough, the color of the vegetables is echoed in the pasta.

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic crushed (I used a garlic press but if you don't have one, mince it fine)
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 zucchini diced
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• few grinds of fresh cracked black pepper

• 12 oz box of tri colored pasta (any shape you like)

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil (this is for the pasta).

2. In a large skillet over medium flame, heat the olive oil for a few seconds and add the crushed garlic. Saute for a few seconds to perfume the oil and then add the chopped onion.

3. Saute until onion is soft (about 5 minutes) then add the diced zucchini. Saute for about another 5 minutes (I like my veggies to maintain their integrity and not be over cooked mush) and then add 1 cup tomato sauce.

4. Stir to incorporate everything together.

5. Finish with sprinkling of salt and pepper and set aside off heat covered. The vegetables will continue to cook slowly steaming under the cover.

This can be served by itself as a vegetable side dish.














By this time, the water has hopefully boiled and you can follow manufacturer's direction on cooking your pasta. When the pasta is done, drain and toss with the vegetable mixture.


Garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top and a handful of grated Parmesan cheese.

This dish serves 4.

Recipe: Sweet Simmered Kabocha

I stopped in at Whole Foods to see what they had on sale and saw that Winter Squash was selling for $1.29/lb (although it rang up as 79¢/lb). I bought a nice sized Kabocha Squash (Japanese Pumpkin) since I've had it before in Japanese restaurants and it's so tasty but never cooked it myself. The cooked texture is creamy and starchy almost like a sweet potato, not stringy like a common orange pumpkin. Nice thing about Kabocha is that you can also eat the skin after it's cooked so no need for peeling it..

Here is a recipe courtesy of About.com's Japanese Food Guide, Setsuko Yoshizuka.

Kabocha is commonly simmered in Japan. Kabocha amani (simmered sweet kabocha) is the most popular kabocha dish. It's often served in a Japanese-style meal as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kabocha (1 lb.), seeds removed
• 1 cup water
• 4 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Preparation:

Cut kabocha into about 1 and 1/2 inch cubes. Peel kabocha skin around the edges. Put water, sugar, soy sauce, and kabocha in a medium pot. Heat on high heat and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low. Put a drop-lid or a sheet of aluminium foil on kabocha and cover with lid. Simmer kabocha for about 15 minutes, or until the liquid is almost gone.
*Makes 4 servings

Recipe: Campbell's Kitchen: Autumn Cabbage Rolls

This hearty and filling dish is an easy to make recipe that I found courtesy of Campbell's Soup.
Cabbage tends to be inexpensive usually going to a few cents per pound. When ground turkey is on sale, I buy it to make this or keep it in the freezer until I have everything ready to make this dish.

10 large cabbage leaves

1 pound ground turkey

1 small onion, minced (about 1/4 cup)

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Tomato Soup

1 slice stale or toasted Pepperidge Farm® Whole Grain 100% Whole Wheat Bread, crumbled

1 1/4 cups water

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 small onion, sliced (about 1/4 cup)

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

1 medium carrot, sliced (about 1/2 cup)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

• Place the cabbage leaves into a 4-quart saucepan and add water to cover. Heat over medium-high heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 5 minutes or until the cabbage is tender. Drain the cabbage leaves on paper towels.
  
• Cook the turkey and minced onion in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until the turkey is well browned, stirring often to separate meat. Pour off any fat.
• Stir the turkey mixture, soup, bread crumbs, 1/4 cup water and black pepper in a large bowl.
• Spoon 1/4 cup turkey mixture in the center of each cabbage leaf. Fold the cabbage leaves around the filling. Place the cabbage rolls, seam-side down, into a 12-inch skillet.
  
• Add the sliced onion, shredded cabbage, carrot and remaining water in the skillet and heat over medium-high heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 1 hour or until the filling is cooked through, basting the cabbage rolls occasionally with the pan liquid.
  
• Remove the cabbage rolls from the skillet and keep warm.
  
• Stir the lemon juice, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth. Stir the lemon juice mixture in the skillet. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Serve the sauce with the cabbage rolls.

How To Deseed & Dice A Tomato