Musings of a barefoot traveller

One of the best ways to eat well on a budget is to plan out the meals for the week, so you buy only what you need at the grocery store, reduce food waste, and cut back on the daily stress of wondering what to prepare for dinner. If you are fine with it, cooking a bigger portion and eating leftovers for meals over 2-3 days save a lot of prep time (and stress, for me). Here are some general principles to help with meal-planning: 1. When cheap, buy in bulk  and store properly* . Look for what's on sale, or in season. During the Easter sales, I bought two turkeys and stored them in the freezer. Post-Thanksgiving is another good time to get cheap turkey. Rather surprisingly, I got a reasonably priced 3-lb bag of quinoa at London Drugs early this year, and am still cooking from it. Foods that last include: Dried goods, e.g. rice, flour, pasta/noodles, beans, lentils, quinoa Frozen foods, such as meats, seafood and vegetables. Frozen in meal portions, meats and seafood can last for ...

Whole turkeys were on sale before the Easter weekend, and with humane-certified birds available at Safeway for CA$1.47/lb, we hauled back two 5kg turkeys to store in the freezer while I pondered what to do with them. I'm no fan of high-density CAFOs  with their negative impacts on the environment and animal well-being, so if we do eat meat, we buy it from the farmers' market or those labeled as humane-certified. It does mean that meat is the most expensive protein in our grocery list, thus it is an occasional treat or supplement to our regular meals. In this case, I was pretty happy with the bargain price of $16 for a 5kg turkey. Cheap, but would it be edible? Turkey breast meat has a bad reputation after all. DH says that he sometimes needs to dip turkey breast slices in water in order to be able to chew and swallow them. I had good results with a roast spatchcocked chicken, so time to move on to a bigger bird! Steps with photos courtesy of Serious Eats . I used regular kitc...

There was a big box of pre-cut buttersquash at Harris Teeter going for $0.50, and I can't resist cheap veggies and fruit. After making squash stir-fry, and squash and black-bean chili, there was still ~3 pounds of the stuff left. Went out on a limb and decided to make dumplings out of them, seeing as how I had a pack of guotie skin in the fridge as well. And they were good! Ingredients: ~3 pounds of squash, cubed half an onion, finely sliced 1/4 head cabbage, finely sliced ~2 tbsp chili powder 1 tbsp spicy Szechuan sauce 1 tbsp Hainanese chili sauce 2 tsp soy sauce black pepper 1 pack dumpling/gyoza skin Heat ~tbsp vegetable oil in saute pan. At medium heat, saute onions till soft, add squash, stir for a couple of minutes. Add about 1/4c water, cook until squash partially soft, add cabbage, stir. Add all seasonings, more water if necessary and cook until everything is soft. Mash the squash in the pan (I used a potato masher). Remove from heat and let cool. Place ~1 1/2 tsp of filli...

From the Penang Nyonya A-Ma Secret Recipes cookbook: Assam Udang Ingredients: 600g prawns 1 tbsp oil 1 onion, shredded 1 red chili, shredded Seasoning: 1/2 tsp salt 3 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp plum sauce 1 tsp dark soya sauce 150g tamarind pulp, mixed with 200ml water, squeezed 1. Heat oil, saute onion and chili 2. Add prawns, stir well. Pour in seasoning, bring to boil, until sauce thickened. Telur Belanda 1. Fry eggs until yolk half cooked 2. Fry onion and chili, add eggs, pour in seasoning (sugar, tomato sauce, plum sauce, tamarind pulp water), bring to boil 3. Cook eggs until firm.

Recipe courtesy of mum :) Ingredients: -seasonal vegetables, can include cabbage (I think Napa would be sweet in this), cucumbers, carrots, mangkuang (jicama), longbeans, french beans, etc. -red chili peppers and shallots, finely minced -salt, sugar, vinegar -crushed peanuts Methods: -blanch veggies (except cucumber) in boiling water with salt and dash of vinegar -sprinkle salt on cucumber pieces -fry veggies with chili and shallots (pinch of tumeric optional), season with salt, add sugar to taste, more vinegar to taste -squeeze fresh limes if available -sprinkle with crushed peanuts TUCK IN!!

Haven't done a food update for some time, probably due to a lack of a camera (away in S'pore, sniff), and the fact that the people I cook for have been inhaling the food faster than I can think about recording images, hehe. Anyway, I've been making pumpkin soup on and off for a few years now, but have always been strangely dissatisfied with the final outcome, thinking the soups lacking in depth. Today though, I think I got a winner :). Yay for blenders! Erm, it's a beautiful orange colour, but no photos due to no camera. Here's the recipe though: Ingredients: 1 butternut squash, skinned, seeded and cubed 5 small redskinned potatoes, cubed 1 medium white onion, cubed 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained Generous amount of black pepper Dash of dried thyme Dash of dried oregano Salt to taste 2 dashes of heavy cream 1 tbsp margarine For stock, I used ~1/3 cup leftover chicken stock and 2 chicken breastbones + 1 mug water. If possible, use good stock or make your own! Method:...

昨晚终于煮了三菜一汤的晚餐. It was something that always seemed a little overly sumptuous for one person, so that's one of the advantages of having a roommate! There was chai-poh omelette, stir-fried mustard greens (tasted like old chye sim ) with garlic and mushrooms, steamed tofu with radish pickled in chili oil, and some egg drop soup leftover from 2 days ago. Really a lot of 'cheena' taste in there :). No photos, cos we were both too famished!

For some reason, I suddenly had a craving for delicate, trembly steamed egg. Made a batch to go with a bak kut teh dinner I had at Marianne's house a couple of weeks ago, but it turned out too fluffy- not the clear, unblemished surface I wanted, so tried again at home, this time using my bowl in a saucepan of hot water! Still not as flat as I would have liked, and the mushrooms refused to sink down to the bottom of the bowl, but not bad! It was just barely cooked, and still nice and trembly! Next up was baked pasta with spinach. The cooked pasta was mixed with tomato-based sauce, half a bottle of creamy alfredo, and half a packet of mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle more cheese on top and bake till everything sets together! Good for freezing! Then I went and bought myself a big bag of dried black eyed peas...I tried some canned ones before and they were really delicious! Made some minestrone with them (ate it all before I took photos! haha), but I still had 3/4 of the bag left. So some w...

Yup, since I'm back to living on my own, it's back to fending for myself in the culinary arena again....I miss my mum's cooking :( ... So this recipe calls for the chicken to be deep fried first, but I wasn't going to waste all that oil, so I seasoned them with sesame oil, soy sauce and magarine and grilled them at 450degF for 40min. One effect of that was that the chicken got so tender you could crunch through the bones :O. While the packet is labelled as Honey Paste, I couldn't find any honey in the ingredient list at all, while sugar is the first ingredient :). You could probably get the same taste with sugar, tomato paste and soy sauce. Stir fry together with onions, and if you have it, fresh ginger slices!