Whole Goodness

Whole foods are generally considered to be foods which have not been chemically or genetically treated, foods that are natural and in the raw state, and have not been pared, polished, or otherwise processed. While organic foods are becoming increasingly popular, I have not included that criterion in the following article simply due to their greater cost. Some may argue (as I have with a certain cheese) that organic foods have value and thereby bridge the cost-to-savings ratio.

Perhaps one of the best ways to save money on the grocery budget is to buy foods whole. Savings are only part of that equation, though. Whole foods, in many cases, offer better flavours and, in some instances, higher nutritive values and/or improved quality over their processed alternatives.

Here are some examples:

• Spices: Nutmeg, peppercorns, coriander, mustard and allspice are a few examples of spices that can be bought in their whole form. The seed is nature's way of sealing in essential oils and flavonoids. By grinding or grating them, as needed, fragrance and flavours are significantly enhanced, and that does wonders for any dish they're seasoning. Some roots (e.g. licorice) and barks (e.g. cinnamon) also retain more of their goodness but can be hard to process without an electric grinder. A mortar and pestle work well for most seeds, nuts, and leaves, though, and allow you to control the grinding process for the perfect texture and/or consistency.
  
• Ground Meats: With all the recalls and salmonella scares over the last few years, we've begun buying whole cuts of grass-fed, free-ranged beef (and fresh turkey) and grinding at home. Our savings aren't significant, but we have greater peace of mind knowing the ground beef comes from one animal and does not include questionable-meat "trimmings." ('Grassfed' beef article & recipes) To save on the purchase of suet, we buy whole chuck, which has a good amount of fat. Any excess can be trimmed, but we seldom find that necessary. Another benefit of buying whole meats and processing them at home is that it allows you to apportion package sizes to suit your family's needs.
  
• Cheese: Pasta and pizza just wouldn't be the same without Parmesan. The popular processed varieties are easy to use, but their flavour, smell, and texture can be off-putting. We purchase blocks of Parmigiano-Reggiano – the "King" of cheeses – and grind or slice it as needed. Much like spice, this fresh-grated cheese has better flavour and fragrance. There is little, if any, saving when buying this brand over the processed but the culinary value, for us, is significant. That and fresh Parmesan actually melts on a pizza!
  
• Fruits and Vegetables: Probably one of the best ways to economize a grocery budget is to buy produce whole. Pared fruits and vegetables cost much more, suffer vitamin degradation, and many are chemically treated to enable longer shelf-life as most processed produce will spoil faster. (Ontario government: Minimally-processed fruit & veg, risk assessment) Processed fruits and vegetables are more susceptible to pre-purchase contamination, also. Whole produce may require a little more preparation time (re: paring and/or peeling,) but their trimmings have value in a stock pot or compost pile. Both "free" veggie stock and rich loamy soil have real worth, too.
  
• Coffee: Budget may be the last thing on your mind when reaching for that morning cup o' Joe, but this is another way to stretch your grocery dollars. Pound for pound, coffee beans are (generally) less expensive than most ground varieties. As with spices, the coffee bean is a tidy little flavour packet that, when ground fresh, offers significantly enhanced flavours...not to mention, caffeine punch.
  

Aside from budgetary issues, we buy whole foods because we prefer the taste and aroma. Purchasing fruits, vegetables and meats whole has also spared us from many of the Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria outbreaks in recent years.

If you're concerned about your food's goodness, consider purchasing whole foods. The economic gain will be a cherry on top!

Containment

One bane of shopping, for me, is packaging. Whether for food or household, need or want, nearly everything comes bagged, bottled, canned, clipped, encased, or otherwise contained. Usually in plastic and often excessively.

It's the plethora of plastic packaging that has me worried. Recent studies on the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) – used in plastics and for coating the inside of many cans (Toxic Nation article) – heightened consumer caution about certain plastics. Yet, even with this new restraint, bloated landfills still suffer daily infusions of plastic. Their durability is daunting, but the propensity for them to leach toxic chemicals is downright alarming, particularly when those plastics lay in landfills where they're sure to get plenty of sun and hostile weather. I wonder how much BPA already infuses water-tables.

In an effort to contain the problem, to apply thrift to this (largely unavoidable) consumerism, our household has adopted new purchasing habits, one of which is to scrutinize packaging. The less of it, the better. Un-packaged products get priority consideration but, sadly, that opportunity seldom occurs. Quantity and type of packaging material are then taken into account. Paper, glass and metal are preferred to plastic for both re-usability and recyclability.

Paper has many reuse options. Tissue paper is ideal for wrapping delicate items. Brown-paper, grocery-store bags are not only excellent insulators for frozen and refrigerated foods in transit, later they become "biodegradable" trash bags. Boxes can be used for storage or shipping. Cardboard is great material for certain crafts and easily recyclable. Over-sized department store bags, cut open, make good wrap for parcel shipping. I've even created a few sewing patterns with this sturdy paper product. Small bags work well for food ripening and storage. Contaminated paper, such as used butcher's wrap, is thrown away like its cellophane counterpart but, unlike plastic wrap, will eventually decompose. Computer paper and flyers, used on one side, is saved, cut into strips, and becomes "scratch pads."

When I was young, paper bags were commonly used in kitchen waste-baskets, with "sloppy" things flushed, or stowed in tin cans (which weren't recycled then) or empty dairy containers. Store-bought, waxed-paper bags were my mother's first choice, but brown-paper bags came in a close second. When I have them available I use the latter, but the former are no longer sold. Yes, our week's refuse would still go to the curb in a one large plastic bag – civic regulations insist they be used, even in curb-side garbage cans – and, yes, the kitchen waste-basket needs cleaning more frequently, but these factors don't diminish the possibility that, once a week, 6-10 plastic bags (the usual liner for household waste-baskets,) aren't exiled, evermore, to a refuse site. Unfortunately, paper bags are not used by many stores today, so it's difficult to keep enough on hand for regular use.

Jars are exceptional packaging with good re-use and recycling potential. Glass makes the perfect food storage container because, being inert material, it won't impart synthetic, "acquired," or metallic flavours like plastic or tin often do. They also make great vessels for reheating food: in a conventional oven on moderate settings; on stovetop in a saucepan of simmering water; and, in the microwave without the metal lid. Occasionally, "re-sealable" jar lids retain odours from their original contents and won't be viable for food storage...unless you like pickle-infused rice. I don't, so those jars are used for miscellany purposes: storing screws, string, socket safety-plugs, collections of unidentified keys, copious rubber bands and twist-ties, or just something to clean paint-brushes in.

Tin cans are especially useful for hot or cold items. If you save bacon or other meat drippings for cooking or bird-feeding purposes, and store it in the refrigerator, food-grade cans handle the dramatic fluctuations of temperature the best, and hot fats won't shatter or melt tin as it might do with glass or plastic. Just make sure the can's interior isn't plastic-coated.

When re-use isn't possible, most paper, glass, and tin are recyclable. There are a few municipalities which offer recycling for some plastics but, where we live, no plastics are recycled so we avoid them as much as possible. Sometimes, they're inescapable, though. That's when we look for re-purposing applications. The travel-sized shampoo and conditioner bought years ago were consumed long ago, but those bottles have been refilled, time and again, from our home supply. Dairy containers keep craft supplies sorted and dry. Remember, when reusing plastic containers, it's advisable they do not store edibles. Though it may seem impossible, our household has gone without plastic wrap for two decades. Paper, cloth, or glass has been used instead.

Bulk shopping is another way to reduce plastics. For example, buying meat in economy packs rather than two-portion packs saves more than money. Six (or more) Styrofoam plates and their wrapping are reduced to one platter and its wrap which are composed of significantly less plastic. Re-packaging at home will, of course, require other packaging material, but we use freezer wrap (a heavy brown paper, wax-coated on one side) which will decompose when discarded. We don't purchase any "individual-use" packets, preferring instead to buy full- or bulk-sized packages and apportion servings ourselves, thus eliminating the extraneous wrapping.

Ultimately, there are some products we won't buy due to excessive packaging. It's obscene to see a couple square-feet of plastic encasing a finger-sized thingamajig. Security and shelving efficiency are two reasons offered for this packaging trend. Whatever the reasons, our household boycotts these superfluously-encased items. If those doodads are too fragile, perilous, or costly, then I suggest putting them back into showcases. And, please Mr/s. Manufacturer, spare us the farce: don't boast about environmentally-friendly production plants and procedures while continuing to package merchandise in ominously enduring plastic.

And that's a wrap on my packaging rant!

What are your views on retail packaging? Do you have unique reuse ideas? Have you any empowering observations to share with fellow consumers?

Summer Cooking

Okay, call me crazy, but summer isn't my favourite season. I don't suffer scorching days and humid nights easily, and get especially frazzled when they stretch, one upon the next, for weeks on end. It's because of this, cooking – which I normally love doing – becomes a dreaded chore. Standing over the stove, adding even more heat to an already over-warm house, ratchets up my level of exhaustion. Hours later, that heat still lingers, too. I'd fast if summer didn't last so long.

For this reason, most of our summer cooking is done outdoors, on the barbeque. It's surprising just how much of the day's meals can be prepared on an outdoor grill. Ours is a propane model, which is not a favourite amongst many grilling aficionados but it works fastest and easiest as stove-top replacement. Even without using the side-burner, the grill top can function well as a cooking surface. Cast iron pans, grills, and griddles, as well as heavy-gauge metal pots and pans (with heat resistant handles) work well on the grill top, which happens to also be one of the best places to cook pizzas, in my opinion.

An added bonus of cooking this way is the economy of it. I stumbled upon this saving when comparing our household energy costs for the same months in other years when the stovetop was still being used. Energy costs had changed, obviously, so I evaluated the savings by kilowatt hours. The difference was significant. Then, I calculated the dollar savings and compared that with the total cost of propane refills over the same season, and found using the barbeque cost us about half of what our energy supplier would have charged us had we cooked indoors on the stove. The difference was so stark I actually did the calculations twice, just to be sure.

Not everything needs cooking, either. One of my favourite summer drinks, homemade iced tea, would normally require making fresh, hot tea, but can also be made using the sun's heat. Here's my version of "Sun Tea":

• In a 2-quart glass jar, use two (or more) teabags, depending on desired strength, immersed in a gallon of tap water (or filtered water, if necessary.)
• Add to this, half a lemon, sliced thinly.
  
• After sealing the jar, place on a doorstep, porch, or sunny window ledge, to "steep" under a hot sun for about five hours, minimum.
  
• When the tea has reached its desired strength, remove the lemon and teabags and add sugar, to taste, while the fluid is still hot.
  
• Stir until sugar is dissolved and then chill the tea thoroughly before serving.
  

Cheers to staying cool!

Road Trip Anyone?

With summer solstice just around the corner, vacations come to mind. Times being what they are, road trips may just be the thriftiest option for a summer getaway, too. They're wonderful adventures with many opportunities to stretch your travel dollars.

For us, savings begin before leaving home. About a week before any trip, we begin emptying the refrigerator of all fresh foods and leftovers – a sparsely packed fridge uses much less energy and we don't come home to UFO's (unidentifiable fungal organisms.) When leaving the house, we also close drapes and blinds on south facing windows; the house remains cool enough to allow the air conditioner to be shut off during our absence. In seasons when heating is necessary, the thermostat is turned down to the usual overnight minimum (approximately 15 Celsius.)

Once we're ready to hit the road, hubby checks the vehicle's fluid levels (engine oil, windshield washer, brake and transmission fluids,) and ensures the tires are at their correct pressure. The latter is particularly important for achieving good fuel economy. Running the vehicle's air conditioner will affect mileage so, when the heat isn't too intense, we roll down windows – lowered a few centimetres this cools the vehicle effectively with slightly better fuel efficiency than when using the air conditioner.

Aside from lodging, meals are often one of the most costly aspects of the road trip. With a little planning, this can not only be easier on the pocketbook, but offer great flavours and good nutritional value. Picnic lunches are fairly easy to scrape together: veggie and cheese sticks, simple salads, nuts and seeds, fruits and juices, all are easy to pack and prepare on the road. Bring a cooler to help keep food fresh and beverages cold. Ice can be bought at most gas stations. I bring along a small cutting board, a paring knife and a plastic bowl so I can wash and cut finger foods for each day's journey.

Another handy item is a water filtration jug, a spare filter and a sealable water jar. Keep the sealable jar filled with the filtered water and snuggled up against the ice pack so you'll always have cold water on hand. Insulated cups will keep beverages cold or hot once they're out of the cooler or thermos. Morning coffee, for us, is a must, so we pack a full thermos from home, which can then be refilled at most restaurants and some gas bar convenience stores, with more volume for less cost than two large cups. I also bring a small container of sugar and cutlery from home, so we have coffee for a few hours without having to stop.

Packing a picnic lunch really adds to the whole road trip experience, too. Those gorgeous highway "lookout" views can now be enjoyed with a nice meal. No waiting for restaurant service or food prep. A stunning setting and a good lunch quicker than any fast-food outlet can produce. And, if destination is more important than journey for you then, by packing a lunch, you don't have to stop at all to eat. The driver may snivel while others partake but, after a brief stop to rotate drivers, everyone gets to eat while safe-driving is maintained.

The only drawback with packing food is the possibility of spoilage. When travelling in a hot vehicle, even with the best cooler and ice, it's good to avoid certain foods which can easily spoil and cause serious illness or death. Salads with a mayonnaise-based dressing should top the avoid list. Salads with oil and vinegar base dressings travel much better. Eggs and meats can also cause dire sickness unless freshly cooked, specially packaged, dried, cured, or pickled. Though, you certainly won't catch me bringing pickled eggs on any road trip!

Once you've finished lunch you'll want to clean up. I bring a damp facecloth, one per person, and each in their own sealed bag. Some rest stops have water taps but, if none are available, the filtered water can be used to re-moisten the cloths as needed. I also pack a bar of laundry soap so the cloths can be cleaned each night. These cloths also come in handy when it gets too hot. Simply dampen and drape it around your neck to stay noticeably cooler.

If a limited budget is driving your road trip, remember that frequent stops gobble more fuel. Fluctuating speed, slowing for municipal speed-zones or simply leaving your vehicle idling while stopped, consumes more fuel. So, if you're looking for the best fuel economy, try keeping "pit-stops" to a minimum, and maintain a steady highway driving speed whenever possible.

Rags to Niches

The debate still continues over the use of rags versus paper towels. In our home, it's not a case of either/or. Both are used; rags far more often than paper towels, but the latter is on hand for specific purposes.

Sometimes, it's more cost-effective to dispose of towelling. For instance, I use paper to soak up oil from fried foods, or "mop" fats from stock – as we seldom fry foods and only occasionally make stock only a few towels per week are required. To use rags would mean washing them separately to avoid oily stains on other clothing – not very economical, nor environmentally friendly. At other times, is just safer using paper to clean up raw meat juices or spilled egg. Rags could easily contaminate other surfaces prior to their laundering, possibly causing dire illness. Disposing of an occasional towel lessens the risk so I'll continue using paper for this purpose.

Rags, however, are my first choice for most other household applications. Some people feel the "environmental cost" (EC) of laundering rags negates any advantage they might have over paper towels. In our home, rags are never washed separately, but with other "like" items (per their colour and/or soiling,) thus making those loads closer to capacity and thereby saving EC in the long run. It should also be noted that saving cloth from ending up in a landfill before it's been fully "consumed" must also have some merit.

All rags are not created equal, though. I once cut up an old sweatshirt to use for rags. The material – a poly-cotton blend – only pushed fluids around but wouldn't soak up anything...except oils. A-ha! I thought. Now, polyester blends are kept in a separate pile and used anytime there's a greasy mess to clean. Old towels and washcloths are perfect for polishing glass and plastic surfaces – after all, kitchen linens were made for this purpose. Old bath towels make the best soakers, for those larger spills like the dreaded toilet or bathtub overflows. Cotton-blend socks are fantastic additions to the rag bag. Worn on the hand(s), they work well for dusting or polishing small items. They're ideal shoe buffers and, when too soiled, instead of washing and perhaps ruining other laundry items, can be used as campfire "starters." Just make sure to store them in a closed tin, in a cool place, until needed. Just don't cook over that campfire until all trace of the "starter" has been burned away.

Second-hand cloth can be used for more than merely rags. I take old jeans apart and use the salvageable cloth to sew tote bags. Old pillowcases are used as storage bags and are particularly good for foods which require ventilation (e.g. onions.) "Retired" sheets could produce a dozen rags, but are used for another purpose. I cut them, across their width, into one-foot strips and then sew those strips onto the foot end of new sheets to extend their length – most sheets are just way too short for my liking! Nobody sees the mismatching foot end, and we end up with sheets long enough to fold over the top blanket.

As someone who sews, I also have a collection of remnant cloth. This doesn't go to waste either. Quilting is a possibility, but I've yet to learn that craft. So, to use those fabrics I recently made cosmetic pads with some leftover fleece sandwiched between two layers of poplin. Using a zigzag stitch, I sewed rows and columns, approximately 1-1/2 inches wide, separated by about 1/8 inch to allow cutting between them. These cosmetic pads have lasted several months now and launder well (though I put them in a "small-garment bag" to ensure the washer won't eat them.),

Ultimately, even rags become too threadbare for practical use. Don't throw them out yet, though. Laundered, they make excellent packing material.

Over time, this has become like a game: How else can second-hand cloth be of use? Do you play the Rag-time game too? Please leave a comment and share your cloth-recycling ideas.

Confessions of a Stocker

I admit it. I'm a stocker. It all started innocently enough with a simple home-made chicken soup, but quickly escalated to stocking rice pilaffs, wine reductions and seafood chowders. It's become an obsession. I can't shop for certain groceries without envisioning their stocking potential.

Ham – joint-in of course – makes a delicious stock for split-pea soup. A turkey is mentally stripped of its roasted meat, its carcass tossed in a stock pot with Mirepoix (onions, celery and carrots.) A whole fish or in-the-shell shellfish and I fantasize about Bouillabaisse.

But this is more than just another foodie obsession. Stocking is frugal activity. No, really! If you want healthy, flavourful meals on a budget, then stocking is the way to achieve it. Good stock not only enhances the flavour of meals, the natural gelatine has wonderful health benefits. Perhaps the most frugal aspect of stocking is that nothing goes to waste. Any leftover bones with a little meat on them can provide a few cups of stock that could later enhance some ramen noodles with veg. When vegetables age faster than they're eaten, they can be tossed into a stock pot together with some onion, celery and carrot, and brewed into a completely vegetarian stock – a light and flavourful addition to brown rice pilaf.

For beef stock, alone, I buy bone. However, the cost of good soup bones varies radically, so I make my purchase when the quality is highest – good amount of meat on or marrow in the bones – and when prices are lowest. Meaty beef bones need browning in a hot oven before being added to Mirepoix and water, and produce high amounts of gelatine. On the rare occasion I find a bone-in beef roast, the leftovers are sure to hit the stock pot, though usually produce less gelatine than soup bones.

Brown stocks are made from cooked-meat and bones and clear stocks are made with raw-meat and bones, the latter producing greater amounts of gelatine. A whole stewing fowl – excellent flavour for much less cost (and fat skimming) than a fryer – can make several cups of clear stock and be price-competitive with popular store brands. Turkey legs can be a cost-effective choice for making clear turkey stock. Recently, we found whole, fresh turkeys and were able to butcher them at home. The breasts became roasts, the best leg, wing and back meat was run through the grinder to become lean and hearty turkey burger, and the remaining carcass went into a stock pot. That bird yielded two roasts (which, bought separately, would've cost the equivalent price of the whole turkey,) six pounds of burger, and sixteen cups of wiggly-giggly gold: clear turkey stock.

I won't stock in summer, though – that season is steamy enough! But, once stocking becomes obsession, even summer can't stop the yearning. And, not just any stock will do. Nothing – and I mean nothing! – compares to home-made stock. Store brands may do, in a pinch, but their flavours and textures are bland. If you want superior taste and texture, then home-made stocks produce the rich gelatine most store brands lack. Gelatine not only carries flavour molecules on a silky, savoury base, it's rich in valuable nutrients. Without the gelatine, flavours are elusive and the texture watery.

Water, however, is the base of every stock and quality must be considered. If your tap water tastes funky, the stock will too. Filtering water can solve this problem, so plan ahead and have 12-20 cups ready. About a half-hour into the simmer, impurities in the meat and bone will rise to the surface in the form of foam. Gently skim this from the surface. This process can take a long while but, once impurities no longer rise, seasoning can be added according to the base protein or featured vegetable. Bouquet Garni, a collection of complimentary herbs tied together with string, provide aromatic notes and subtler flavours than most spices. Flavours intensify as the stock reduces during its cooking time and, while certain seasonings are important additions, they should be used sparingly or whole. For instance, whole peppercorns add a subtler flavour and less heat than ground pepper will. Salt is essential in drawing out flavours but, as stocks are primarily ingredients in other dishes, limiting salt when making them better enables adjusting that common seasoning in those future dishes.

Stock freezes well, too. Up to three to four months. Remember to label and date the containers and cycle your stock for maximum freshness.

Those containers of gelatinous goodness will come in handy on cooler summer days – that's when my craving for risotto hits hardest. I'm stocking up now, before summer's swelter sets in. I figure several containers each of turkey, chicken, and beef stock, should get me through the season's comfort-food crises.

Bulking Up

No, this post has nothing to do with Hans and Franz from Saturday Night Live. No weight pumping is involved, though that may depend on how literally you apply the following information.

In today's tough economic times, finding bargains is crucial to reduced home-budgets. But, bargain hunting is more than just coupon cutting and daily specials. Next time you're looking for great deals, check out the bulk-sized options at wholesale retailers. Buying in bulk can be one of the most resourceful ways to stay on-budget.

For examples of this, I chose five brand name (popular) items I buy regularly at a wholesale retailer to compare pricing. Here are those price comparisons (in Canadian dollars):

Product		@ Regular Store pricing	@ Bulk pricing
Toilet Bowl cleaner		1/2 cent per ml.	1/4 cent per ml.
OTC* Pain medication		11 cents per caplet	7 cents per caplet
Dishwasher detergent		$3.60 per litre	$2.30 per litre
Aluminum Foil		$1.81 per metre	21 cents per metre
Bar soap (sensitive skin)		$1.75 per bar	$1.38 per bar

*OTC = Over-the-counter

Similar comparisons also apply to food and other household products such as small appliances, stationery, and clothing. Some savings are not as great as others. The aluminum foil, for instance, offers far greater savings than the bar soap. The key to saving through bulk-buying is to buy only the products you use frequently and in significant amounts.

Some people won't buy in bulk for various reasons: 1) the initial cost at the check-out seems too high; 2) the space needed to store bulk purchases can be an issue for some; and 3) worry about spoilage. All these are legitimate concerns.

Speaking to the first issue, I'll just say that price comparison is the key. Not all bulk purchases are created equal. You'll need to do your homework to discover whether or not your bulk choices are truly a bargain. Generally, though, you'll obtain more products for less cost in the long term. Thus, a certain amount of fore-sight is required. However, you won't have to shop for those products as often – a real "plus" for our budget, as we must travel far to do our shopping and include fuel costs as part of the overall equation.

The storage-space problem is one I can easily relate to. I'm often tempted by spectacular savings to over-stock our home to the point of its groaning "Enough!" Impulse control is essential!

It's also just as important the watch "best before" dates, rotating home-stocked items accordingly. And, though it can be hard to resist certain bargains, I've learned to buy only what can readily be stored and used up in good time. That said, you'd be surprised how many nooks and crannies can be found to store things...

If spoilage is a concern, then that particular product may not offer good economy for your family. We have access to flour by the bushel, at well under half the cost of the 20# grocery store bags, but couldn't possibly use it all before it turned rancid. Nor could we hope to store that quantity. If most of the product spoils, little or no saving is actually gained.

So, when buying in bulk, remember these tips:

1. Check your stored items to ensure you won't buy too much (re: storage & spoilage)
   
2. Ensure you will be able use all of the product before its expiry date.
   
3. Use caution when buying items that spoil easily like fresh produce, dairy and other refrigerated foods (food spoils faster in an over-full refrigerator.)
   
4. Household cleaners and personal hygiene products have incredible shelf-life and, if you have the space to store them, can be excellent budget savers.
   

Now, I want to know, have I "pumped you up" to buying in bulk?