I had a great reminder of how well 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store works this week. We had a busier-than-usual week. In addition, I tried to spend very little on groceries. I spent a total of $100 for the week for our family of five… which for me is very little. This included all of our fresh fruit and breakfast items, but also the 14 items on the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store weekly shopping list.

This list includes:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Butter
• Shredded Cheddar cheese
• Mozzarella cheese
• Green Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Bread/Rolls
• Chicken
• Ground Beef
• Fish Fillets
• Tortillas

Combined with the Smart Ingredients that I have stocked in my cabinets, I love that there are so many things I can make, every night this week, using what I have. Tonight we are having Homemade Pizza and Pizza Salad (one of the very best from the 30 Spectacular Salads cookbook). Tomorrow is Chicken Fried Rice with peppers, onions and mushrooms, and the next day is Chicken Fajitas. Beyond that I’m not sure, but it’s nice knowing that I don’t have to plan and yet know that I will have everything I need to make dinner.

My weekly stock up was all fresh ingredients. While I may use some processed foods this week in my meals, the majority of what goes on my table is fresh. And even if you use some packaged shortcuts, know that if you are cooking a fresh meal you are still many steps closer to healthy eating than if you were eating out or wholly-processed pre-packaged dinner.

I was on a frugal cooking chat group for a while. I learned some very interesting tips and recipes for how to eat extremely frugal (who knew you could make burgers out of ramen noodles??). While I was entertained, I was also affirmed that my strategies were innovative and that 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store does frugal in a way that does not have to equal unappetizing or processed foods. If you are looking for a way to save money on groceries, or just to be able to make dinner every night without a trip to the store, try our book. It will pay for itself many times.

There are certain items that are plentiful and priced right at the grocery stores post-holiday. Stock up on these Smart Ingredients, and you have tools for dinner success that you can use throughout the next few months, and make many cheap and easy — and delicious — dinners.

Ham

What is leftover from the holidays is priced extremely well in stores right now, or even, buy one get one free. A great Cook Once, Eat Twice food, ham can be made for one delicious elegant dinner, with the leftovers used for many recipes including Ham and Cheese Muffins, Split Pea Soup with Ham and Ham and Swiss Baked Ziti (from the cookbook 40 Dinner Duos: Cook Once, Eat Twice.

Ham and Swiss Baked Ziti

Serves 4-6 (easily doubled)

• 8 ounces Ziti or similar pasta
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese (cut fine if you can only find slices or cubes
• 1 cup leftover ham, cubed
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Cook garlic in butter for 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Stir in flour and salt, increase heat and stir until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Add milk, heat to boiling and stir until smooth. Add mustard and cheese, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth.

Pour pasta into ungreased 2-quart baking dish. Add ham and cheese sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and Bread crumbs. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Shrimp

Used for cocktail around the holiday season, it is priced at less than half of what you can find it for at other times of the year. Stock up and freeze in 1-lb. portions for a great “Smart” dinner ingredient. See the “Recipes” tab on our website for recipes for:

Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Po Boy Sandwiches

Coconut Shrimp

Shrimp Etouffee

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos

Cream of Mushroom Soup

While I often prefer to make my own white sauce with mushrooms, I must admit canned Cream of Mushroom soup is an undeniable Smart Ingredient when it comes to easy weeknight dinners. When I need a quick or easy comfort-food dinner, I use it to make Ground Beef Stroganoff, Pot Roast in the crock pot, or Tuna Casserole. The excess from the holidays should be priced at half what it is the rest of the year. If this is an ingredient you use, stocking up at half price is a great way to shop “Smart”.

French’s Onions

These gems are a nice bonus to top casseroles, salads, burgers and at the holidays… of course… green bean casserole. With the holidays gone, nab a can or two you can use over the next few months.

Cranberry Sauce

The price of canned cranberry sauce has really gone up this year, so nabbing some at a holiday price is a bonus. I love cranberry sauce (fresh or canned) to make Cranberry Brie Pizza, Apple Cranberry Pie, Cranberry Brisket, Cranberry Meatballs and Cranberry Chicken. At a sale price, I will buy at least a dozen cans if this Smart ingredient, and know that it will add up to so many appetizers and dinners in coming months.

Happy shopping and stocking up!

If you’ve come to my demos, or are a loyal blog reader, you’ve likely heard me talk about some of these before. Today, I want to give you a recap of a few of my favorite Smart Ingredients and the ways I have been using them for great flavor and health impacts in my cooking. We’re also including Smart ingredients with all purchases from our website this week. . . and it’s Giveaway Time! (Read on for details.)

Vegeta

Vegeta is my favorite seasoning. It’s made from dehydrated vegetables, and has a fantastic flavor. I use this powder to season all my poultry, as the base for all of my soups and gravies, and to add great flavor to my mashed potatoes and rice pilafs, replacing 3/4 of the butter usually used for flavor and moisture.

Greek Yogurt

I keep Greek yogurt, such as this one from Fage, on hand all the time. I use it as a straight substitute for sour cream in dips, potatoes and fajitas, often to replace mayonnaise, and as an addition to many of my baked goods. If a recipe calls for buttermilk, I use equal parts Greek yogurt and milk to substitute for the buttermilk quantity (It’s much easier than keeping Buttermilk on hand, which I rarely use). When I am making biscuits or cake that call for just milk, I always blend the milk with the Greek yogurt for added creaminess and moisture. Greek yogurt not only has less fat, calories, and additives than sour cream, but a hearty serving of natural protein, which is great for any diet. It also has great flavor and is very filling.

Vinegar and lemon juice 

Making a potato or pasta salad this summer? Chances are that many of you will. And before you go to mix them up with mayonnaise or oil, try this: Immediately after boiling your potatoes or pasta, rinse in cold water until fully cool, and then douse in the juice of one lemon, or a half cup of vinegar. Stir to blend. This will seal in the moisture. Once you’ve done this, you will need less than half of the oil or mayonnaise you would normally use. In fact, we encourage you to use even less, and instead dress up your salad with fun vinegars, such as Sicilian Lemon Balsamic Vinegar or the Oregano White Balsamic Vinegar from the Olive Tap. Add to that your choice of fresh herbs such as rosemary, basil, oregano, parsley or dill, basic seasonings such as salt, pepper, onions and garlic, and fresh vegetables that add a flavor punch such as onions, peppers, cucumbers and more.

It’s time for some FREE Smart Ingredients. I know the Vegeta is hard to find. I hope to start offering it for sale on the Organizing Dinner website soon. In the meanwhile, for just this week, we are going to including an 8.8 ounce can of it, RED STAR yeast, and other FREE Smart Ingredients with any order from Organizingdinner.com. This includes cookbooks, cookware and cooking classes. Order by Friday, July 1st.

It’s also the end of the month giveaway time! Comment on this blog post to be entered to win a FREE copy of 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store. Our randomly-chosen winner will be notified via e-mail on Friday, July 1st.

Do you, like me, hope to get invited to many impromptu backyard barbeque and gatherings this summer?

Perhaps you’ve gotten to know me well enough through these blog posts to know that I dislike unnecessary trips to the store. One of the best parts about being invited to someone’s house for dinner, besides the good company, is that you don’t even need to think about dinner or its ingredients. But wait — you’ve got to bring something, right? Perhaps it’s an appetizer you volunteer. Then you discover you have no fresh veggies in the crisper, and recall you finished off your chips and salsa last night.

I have two “Smart” ingredients for you to keep on hand this summer are sure to fulfill any last-minute, or even well-planned-out appetizer.

The first is pre-made mini phyllo shells.

These will be in the freezer section. They are sometimes hard to find. Much more available is phyllo dough, from which you would have to make your own cups. They are doable, but fussy, and the pre-made cups sacrifice no flavor. SO, if you find the frozen pre-made cups, stock up, and here are some of the many ways you can put them to good use:

Cook the phyllo cups according to package directions. Then fill with:

• Goats cheese topped with your favorite chutney
• Goats cheese topped with roasted red pepper and fresh mango strips
• Brie topped with cranberry sauce or a rich jelly (toast for 3 minutes)
• A combination of equal parts cream cheese and Greek yogurt with a splash of vanilla or lemon extract, topped with our choice of fruit. These can, of course, double for a desert, and you can even substitute chocolate mousse for the cream.

• Chicken Salad with Sundried Tomatoes, Spinach and Feta from the 30 Spectacular Salads cookbook.
• Chicken Salad with Apples and onions from the 30 Spectacular Salads cookbook.

The second Smart appetizer base is RED STAR yeast, one of our often-mentioned favorite Smart ingredients.

A typical kitchen contains flour, salt, oil and water most days of the year. If you add to that yeast, you have the makings of a crusty bread that can be made in a jiff, sliced and toasted and topped with any number of toppings for an easy and delicious appetizer. The other day I was having an impromptu meeting at my house. I whipped up a loaf of French Bread from the RED STAR website. After I basted the loaf with water, I sprinkled it with garlic salt and Italian seasonings. When it was done, I sliced it, gave it a quick brush of olive oil, and toasted it for 4 minutes in a 350 degree oven. I topped it with cream cheese, and then the mushroom gratin (mentioned a few blog posts ago) I always keep in my freezer, combined with some roasted red pepper strips I had in the refrigerator. They were a huge hit, and the STAR of the show was the bread. Here are some other ways you can top your bread crustinis:

• Prosciutto and roasted asparagus
• Brie, granny smith apples and gorgonzola cheese (toasted for an additional 4 minutes)
• Fresh sliced tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and basil, drizzled with balsamic vinegar
• Fresh sliced tomatoes, avocados and goats cheese
• A mixture of 1 jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped, 4 tablespoons mayonnaise, 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup diced onion and a dash of hot sauce (toasted for an additional 4 minutes).
• A combination of Feta cheese, onions, balsamic vinegar and canned diced tomatoes, drained*.

* Canned diced tomatoes have a very long shelf life, and packages of crumbled Feta have a shelf life of more than 3 months (check package for expiration date). Add both to your Smart ingredients stash, along with some RED STAR yeast, and you will have last-minute appetizer fixings on hand all summer.

Going shopping when you shop Smart can be so stress free, you may wonder what you’re missing. You know that feeling of “what am I forgetting?” at the grocery store if you’ve forgotten your list? I was hit with that feeling during today’s shopping trip, as after being out of town for a week, and with a nearly empty fridge, I expected I would need a lot of things at the store. But I quickly realized those thoughts as I knew what they meant – there really wan’t much that I needed.

I grabbed a package of fresh mushrooms knowing I have ground beef in the freezer (from last week’s stock up) and every thing else I need to make salisbury steak. I grabbed avocados, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce, knowing that with them I can make many variations of tacos/tostadas with the chicken, shrimp, beef and tortillas I have in the freezer.

Then, because I had room to spare in both the cart and the budget, I added a brisket and cranberry sauce to my cart to make my favorite elegant meal, Cranberry Brisket, from the Cook Once… Eat Twice! cookbook.

When I got home to unload, there was plenty of room in the cabinets to unload my groceries — and I don’t have that much cabinet space. The thing is, after you really get into shopping Smart, and buying ingredients that you use over and over in many different dinners, you are buying a whole lot less of “this and that”. Believe me, “this and that” can take up an incredible amount of room in your cabinets and storage space. And because it’s only rarely used, it doesn’t move. When you buy Smart ingredients, you use them. And you’re buying less clutter, so your cabinets become naturally organized.

My Smart ingredients are mostly the things on the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store shopping lists (These can be seen, and printed, off the Smart Ingredients page of the website), along with a few of my favorite seasonings and frozen shrimp. Your Smart Ingredients can vary based on what dinners are a sure-fire hit for your family. What’s your family’s Smartest ingredient?

If you’re a blog subscriber you should have received a coupon code via e-mail for the new copy of the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store cookbook, including beautiful photos, extras and a fantastic new design by Studio One Eleven www.studio-oneeleven.com. If you own an original copy of the book, check out the Shop page for information on how to order a replacement copy at cost. Thanks Studio One Eleven, we love our new look!

I know it can make me crabby — the thought of all of my hard work calorie counting down the drain with a few bites worth of deep-fried-something. That’s why I looove it when a dish can achieve the same taste results when baked as it can when fried. With more grams of fat per tablespoon of oil than you’d care for me to mention, baking in place of frying saves you tons, tons, tons of fat calories. In this case, unneeded fat.

I usually come up with a recipe first, and then compare it to some of my favorite chef’s recipes for the same dish. I have long used my crab cake recipe, but recently came across Paula Deen’s Southern Crab Cakes Recipe. I wanted to give it a good assessment because Paula Deen knows flavor, and in my book anything with “Southern” in the title usually means it tastes geat. So, I was glad to peruse Paula’s list of ingredients to see if she used anything more exciting than mine. The only big differences were that hers called for a green pepper instead of celery (a fine exchange, I’d agree), and for deep frying instead of baking.

I decided to experiment. I made a huge batch of crab cake “batter” and went about seeing if Paula knew something I didn’t about the necessity of adding oil to flavor the cakes. I was delighted to discover that the taste of the fried cakes and the baked cakes was nearly the same! I thought for sure I was sacrificing flavor in place of fat in this case, and was proven wrong. Enjoy your crab cakes even more now that you know you can save the oil for the fire!

This recipe also uses crackers, which has just made its way onto the Smart Ingredients list. This week I got a box of generic saltine crackers for $1, and I used them, crushed, as a replacement for breadcrumbs in meatloaf, to make chicken and dumplings, and in last night’s crab cake experiment. When it comes to cutting costs and buying ingredients that go a long way, it doesn’t get much smarter than that!

Baked Crab Cakes

Ingredients

• Jumbo lump crab meat (approximately ¾ pound)
• 15 Ritz or Saltine crackers, smashed
• 1 egg
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• ½ cup diced celery
• ¼ cup diced onions
• ½ teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 teaspoon spicy mustard powder

In a large bowl, break apart crab meat with a fork. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Form into patties. Place on baking sheet or baking dish treated with cooking spray. Bake in preheated 350°F (180° C) oven for approximately 20 minutes or until edges are slightly browned.

Serve with

Dijon Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

• ¼ cup Dijon Mustard
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
• 1 teaspoon Hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons Mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons White wine (or white wine vinegar)

Combine all ingredients and blend well. Chill before serving.

Some great ways to serve crab cakes include over rice, or on a toasted roll topped with shredded lettuce and Dijon mustard sauce.

Congratulations Betsy Watz, our June winner of FREE Smart Ingredients, and a FREE copy of the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store cookbook. Betsy’s groceries will be delivered to her doorstep tomorrow morning, and a copy of the cookbook is in the mail. With the groceries she receives, she will be able to make any one of the recipes in the book — any night — with what she has on hand. Betsy, we all look forward to hearing how the best dinner plan around worked for your family.

In the meanwhile, what’s everyone planning on making for the holiday weekend? We realize that grocery shopping during holiday times is different than your “average” week, so for this week, take advantage of the sales, and don’t plan on overdoing it for your barbecue or family get-together. This is one holiday where simple, good old American basics are just what fits the bill, and the stores know that…. you should be able to find hamburger buns and all the fixins priced right. Also, berries are always priced right this time of the season. Check out the Recipes section on our website for Red, White & Blue Stuffer Burgers, Red, White & Blue Fruit Skewers and many other simple recipes that will make your 4th a success.

Who is busy this summer? Anyone? Ha! It may be busy going to the pool or the beach, but it’s still busy. And spending more time outdoors means we need to be even better at economizing our time in the kitchen. This was a very light grocery shopping week for me, picking up just $50 worth of food when I did a quick shop before my Father’s Day dinner. Since I stick firm to my “once every 7-10 days” shopping plan, it was time to head to the freezer. I stock up on chicken, ground beef and whitefish becasue they are a great base for many flavors, and because I follow the 70 Meals plan, I know I have the ingredients on hand to make any of the dishes in the book. Today I thawed some chicken breasts and made Chicken Fajitas. I absolutely love the flavor combination of the Italian Dressing and the taco seasoning in the 70 Meals recipe. I’ve already taken the ground beef out of the freezer to make some of my favorite stuffed burgers (Bacon Cheddar Stuffed Burgers and Salsa Stuffed Burgers) tomorrow, and the next day I’ll move on to Tilapia in whichever of the 10 recipes from the 70 Meals cookbooks suits my fancy that day. Check out the recipes section of our website for some of my favorites.

Because you’re busy doesn’t mean you can’t make dinner. It’s having the strategies and Smart Ingredients on hand to make it easy that makes it work. Are you a blog subscriber? If not, click on the green button on the top right to subscribe now, and be automatically entered in to win FREE Smart Ingredients and a copy of the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store cookbook. Click on the photo on the top right for more details.

The most important part of grocery shopping is to make sure you buy Smart Ingredients. What are Smart Ingredients?
Ingredients that add up. Do you know what I mean? Surely you have a lot of this-and-that in your cupboards. But do you, every night, feel like they can be mixed and matched to make dozens of dinners? I didn’t used to. Before I started Organizing Dinner, I knew I had a lot of stuff. But whenever I went to make a recipe, there seemed to always be something, some random fresh or packaged ingredient I didn’t have. I spent a few years figuring out ways to avoid the “never having the right ingredients” gap in my cabinets and fridge. What I discovered and solidified as the key to kitchen success became what I call Smart Ingredients. Ingredients that are easy and inexpensive to keep on hand, and when mixed + matched = dinner. Simple, fast, hot and healthy. Without a moment’s worry. Is it that easy, you ask? Yes. Join our blog and learn for yourself what to shop for and how to use it. Not convinced? Click on one of the subscription options at the right to subscribe, and become one of the lucky winners of the Smart Ingredients Test Kitchen who will receive free Smart Ingredients in the mail, along with the book that puts them all together in one shopping trip for 6 months worth of dinner “70 Meals, One Trip to the Store.” One winner will be randomly selected each month. When notified, we will arrange for a delivery of Smart Ingredients to your door. Use them, and hot, healthy, homemade dinner success will become a daily routine in your household. Also, each week you will gain smart shopping tips, weeknight dinner recipes, and kitchen organization tips.