Couponing

There's been a lot about couponing in the media lately. After reading this article on slate.com, plus coming across Frugalista, a couponing blog associated with the Chicago Tribune, I was inspired to give it a try. I've curtailed our grocery spending a bit this year, but we still spend vastly more on groceries than the couponers I've been reading about. The Frugalista spends only $80 per week, and claims to buy organic fruits and vegetables! Plus she has two kids! It's amazing.

The problem is that most coupons are for the very most processed grocery products, which I don't usually buy. For my first couponing expedition, I found a deal on Kellogg's cereal at Target. The cereal was on sale, and if you also used Target coupons and manufacturer's coupons, you could get the cereal for practically nothing. I screwed up a little bit by handing the cashier the wrong coupon, but still, I got two boxes of corn flakes, a box of blueberry Special K, and a box of Smart Start for a little more than a dollar a box.

On arriving home, I discovered that the cereals contain high fructose corn syrup, plus other ingredients I find objectionable such as artificial coloring. Ugh. Mike said he was fine with eating Kellogg's cereal, and I've had some of the Smart Start, but overall I'm bummed out by it. Mike and I both like oatmeal, which is our standard cheap breakfast. According to my calculations, cheap quick oats cost about $.10 per serving. The 4 boxes of cereal have about 56 servings total, and cost maybe $5, so that's about $.09 per serving. Plus, I add stuff to my oatmeal, like raisins and chopped apple and maple syrup and milk. So yeah, the Kellogg's are a slight savings, but maybe not good enough to justify the crap ingredients. Not that cheap store-brand oats are exactly a high-quality ingredient, but at least they are plain.

For my second foray into couponing this morning, I went for a Catalina deal. If you buy $30 worth of a certain array of products at Jewel/Osco, you get a $15 coupon good for any future order of groceries. The Catalina-eligible products include Progresso soups (no vegetarian varieties), Scott paper towels, Betty Crocker cake mixes, Hamburger Helper, instant Knorr noodle and rice boxes, Breyer ice cream, Yoplait yogurt, Chex Mix snacks, Ragu, Wish Bone salad dressing, etc. None of these I particularly wanted, but I came up with a list of things that might come in handy:

Yoplait Grande plain yogurt
Scott paper towels
Gold Medal flour
Yoplait Yo Plus
Breyers natural vanilla ice cream
Ragu
Kleenex

Since most of these items are also on sale, it could be a very sweet deal, or even a moneymaker with judiciously used manufacturer coupons. Here's how my deal played out.

4 Scott paper towels @ 1.99 ea
Helmann's mayonnaise 3.39
2 Breyer's ice cream @ 5.99 ea
Gold Medal flour 3.79
3 Kleenex @1.29

This totals 30.99. Minus 11.90 of "preferred savings" (i.e., the items were on sale if you had a Jewel card) and one manufacturer coupon for .50 off Kleenex, plus tax: a grand total of $19.67. And then, I got $15.00 in Catalina coupons, which I immediately used on groceries I actually wanted. So the bottom line is I got that stuff for $4.67; not bad. Absolutely none of it I would have bought today out of necessity, but it's all stuff we will use. In fact, we usually buy Veganaise, Whole Foods brand ice cream, recycled paper towels if any, and whole wheat flour, but those things are incompatible with Catalina couponing, of course.

I had planned to buy some Yoplait yogurt, but they didn't have the big tubs of plain yogurt, and the Yo Plus packs contain gelatin. I also couldn't bring myself to buy Ragu. It's so gross, very high in sodium, sugar, and soybean oil. At least the varieties that qualify for this spectacular deal. There is some organic Ragu that I didn't examine too closely, as it doesn't qualify for the deal.

So, $15 Catalinas in hand, I went to buy my real groceries. If I would have bought just $15 worth of stuff and got it free, this might seem impressive, but I bought a lot of stuff. Here's what I got:

huge cylinder of store brand oats
2 big cans Hunt diced tomato
Organic Valley soy milk 1/2 gallon
Org. Valley 2% milk 1/2 gallon
brown sugar
2.25 lb. 8 o' Clock Bean Coffee ($11.49)
2 packs whole wheat spaghetti
Mountain High plain yogurt quart
organic ketchup
Barefoot sauvignon blanc (to use for cooking wine, $5.99)
big jar Smuckers natural peanut butter ($4.55)
5 lb. granny smith apples
2 lb. mushrooms
collard greens

Using my $15 catalinas, plus a couple coupons, all said and done it cost $39.78. My grand total for the day's shopping, $59.45. Not too bad, considering the "big ticket" items I got -- coffee, wine, peanut butter.

I think the verb "couponing" is amusing.

sweet potatoes and special sauce

This is my favorite roasted sweet potato recipe. The spice combo sounds a little strange, but works. I take the lazy way out and don't grind the spices separately -- I used whole fennel seeds because that's what I have.

With these, I make a special secret sauce consisting of: two to three parts plain yogurt, one part hummus or Annie's Naturals Goddess dressing, hot sauce to taste. I use Louisiana hot sauce. Shhh, it's a secret.

These unlikely components, eaten together, are delicious.

Elusive White Pumpkin Grain Salad

Here's an online version of my favorite grain salad from Charlie Trotter's vegetables book (it's also by far the easiest recipe in the book). The white pumpkin has been elusive for several years, but they are delicious. The seeds are tenderer than regular pumpkin seeds, which really need to be shelled before eating.

Tonight I made a version of this with brown rice, roasted butternut squash, toasted pecans, and olive oil. I like this better with one of the recommended oils, or walnut oil. The olive oil has too distinctive a taste. Still delicious, though.

pasta with braised kale

Molly Wizenberg has a column in Bon Appetit now. Last night I made one of her recipes from the column. It was perfectly good, but very basic, and relied on Parmesan cheese for flavor. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just didn't learn anything new. Also, I used whole-wheat penne instead of regular spaghetti, and left my half-cooked kale sitting on the stove for three hours while I went to volunteer. These little alterations can make a big difference.

I'm jealous of Molly, can you tell? I relate to her and there are some similarities in our pasts, but she is vastly more successful.

spaghetti with braised kale

I've often made a pasta recipe like this with tons more stuff -- cannellini beans, chopped tomatoes, canned artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, etc. etc.

braised winter squash

I've made this recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a few times (link is to a PDF). It's a good one, especially for dryer squashes like delicata.

2 lbs. winter squash, peeled, halved and sliced into ½ inch rounds
2 tbs. butter
2 cups apple cider
1 tsp. salt
Rosemary and pepper to taste

Melt butter in skillet with rosemary, after a few minutes add the squash, salt, pepper, and cider. You may need to add some additional cider (or water), enough to cover the squash. Bring to a boil and braise for 20-35 minutes until tender. At this point the juice should be reduced to a glaze. If not, raise heat for a few minutes until excess liquid evaporates.

Butterscotch Pudding

I made this butterscotch pudding recipe last night, with mixed results. Taste is delicious; texture not ideal. A little bit lumpy or grainy. Maybe I didn't whisk it enthusiastically enough? I wonder if I would have better results by leaving out the eggs.

I didn't use any whisky and forgot to put in the vanilla extract, but didn't miss these flavorings. Instead of dark brown sugar or cassonade, I used light brown sugar plus a couple spoonfuls of molasses.

Gorgonzola, Fig, and Spinach Pizza

The pizza was based on this Vegetarian Times recipe. I didn't use a gluten-free crust.

• 4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese
  
• 1/4 cup milk
• whole-wheat bread dough
  
• 1-2 cups spinach leaves
• 6 fresh figs, quartered
• handful chopped toasted walnuts
• sprinkling of pitted black olives
  

Preheat oven to 500°F. Mash cheese and milk together with spoon or fork until smooth. Spread cheese mixture on a rolled-out round of pizza dough. Top with spinach, figs, nuts, and olives. Bake on pizza stone until crust is browned and cheese is melty.

This pizza was kind of eh. The Gorgonzola and walnuts are nice, but the fresh figs didn't seem to cook enough. I almost think a drizzle of fig jam would be better, or maybe dried figs would give a more intense flavor.The pizza does need a caramelized fruit of some sort, but the fresh figs didn't deliver. It was kind of exciting that the Gorgonzola spread melted. I wouldn't have guessed it would.

We also made a commonplace pizza, with red pizza sauce, spinach, green pepper, and a mixture of fresh and pregrated mozzarella cheese.

I used cornmeal to keep the pizza from sticking to the peel, and it made a big mess in the oven, as usual. Maybe I use too much cornmeal--it tends to accumulate on the peel, blacken, and give off clouds of sooty smoke. It's much tidier to roll out your pizza dough on parchment paper, then slide the pizza in still on the parchment. Less authentic, but tidier.