Beef Stew Over Rice

Yesterday I made beef stew over rice. I've made it before using different ingredients and seasonings but I think I finally found my zen. Of course nothing trumps venison chunks but ground beef gets the job done.

While making it I got to thinking, why rice? Do people really know WHY everyone says to buy rice? Well no. I only know because I mom told me and she's the author of Poverty Prepping, so obviously she knows.

Rice is the thing you should buy for any reason. It keeps forever if you keep it dry, white rice anyway. Brown will go bad after a few years because it has oils in the skin. Those oils are incredibly good for you, but if you're looking for longativity get white.
It also lasts long in the fact that you don't need much to make a meal. 1 cup of uncooked rice makes about 4.5 cups of cooked rice (don't quote me on that).
Rice also fills you up quicker and keeps you full longer. For poverty households, that's key. Because you don't want to make meals that are cheap but don't fill you up or keep you full, then you would just have to make more food more often.
In addition to those three factors rice is cheap or expensive depending on where you buy it. At Walmart a 5 pound bag is about $7 (depending on the time of year) and at Costco a 25 pound bag is $8. A 10lb bag at Walmart is roughly $15. A 50lb bag at Costco is $18. So you really need to watch the price where you buy it. If you, or anyone you know has a Costco card I would highly suggest you buy it there.

Costco can be a double edged sword sometimes though. You buy these larger sizes or value packs thinking you're getting a deal, but if you don't keep track of the prices at other stores you can be sucked in by the idea of larger is cheaper. For instance at Walmart a great value brand box of toasted oats is 18 cents per ounce on the large box, but only 15 cents per ounce on the small box. Obviously the mentality of larger is cheaper doesn't apply to all things. Another instance being orange juice. If you buy the plastic 1 gallon jug you're paying more per fl oz than if you buy the small white card bored (looking) jug.

So the morel of the story is to always keep track of prices and buy things that don't go bad quickly, last a long time in usage, and fill you up.

Update

I haven't written in a while so I figured I'd just do a general update.

My husband has another tooth that he bit something hard and chipped a few days before his other tooth was polled. So we've been dealing with his healing wound and the chip. Now that the gum is healed enough to eat on it's easier but it's been hard for me to make food thats soft enough to not hurt either side. Which kind of threw off my 30 day challenge, but It's been going well otherwise.

This last weekend we took a trip over to Idaho and spent Saturday at Silverwood (a six flags theme park). It was pretty cheap because they're having a food drive for the local food bank. So the tickets themselves were only $25.99 compared to the almost $40 for the usual prices. It was myself, husband, and son. My parents, two brothers and one wife. My other brother is single right now otherwise he'd bring a plus 1.
It was really fun. A nice break from reality.

My sister had her baby last week too. She went to the hospital on Friday when we were visiting my parents and gave birth Sunday Sept. 9th. Her blood pressure was so high they induced her but she was still a bit early so things just took a while to really get started, then there were other complications with the birth. But they're both just fine. He weighed 6lb 10oz, nice head of brown hair. Very alert for a newborn.

We also had two brothers and one wife over a few days ago. My single brother took us all out to Pizza Hut, then we spent until 1 AM playing Apples to Apples.

So as you can tell we've had a busy couple weeks. I had time to blog but it was usually in the late evening while in bed, and I don't like uploading mobile.

Now that things have calmed down for a bit I'll start posting about food again.

To the Haters in The Review Section

When I do read the bad reviews it's usually people who didn't understand the point of the book or the audience I'm trying to reach. People with actual culinary training point out cooking wrongs I make, or rich people try to tell me that I'm wrong to use cheap walmart pots and pans. Or they hate on the fact that my mom reviewed my book (while making it known the whole time that she IS my mother). And they point out that I've reviewed my moms book (while making it known that I'm her daughter). Then they call us unprofessional for having reviewed each others books. Well, I finally replied, and heres what I wrote:

I refrain from reading the comments on my books because I know some will like it, and some wont. A Trend I notice however is that the people that leave bad reviews are the ones who know more than me or have more culinary training than I do. The thing is I'm an 18 year old teen mother living in a trailer park in a city population 30,000. My family has never had any amount of money over the poverty line so I've been eating and cooking poverty food all my life. You may say to buy the best your money can afford when it comes to pans and such, well guess what? I did. $18 and it hurt us financially but we needed more than the one pan I had to begin with that I had cooked every meal we'd eaten in for almost a year. 

Who do I write for? I write for my sister who has three children under the age of 4. Does she have the time to thaw the frozen meat before cooking it? No I don't think so. And yes, culinary experienced cooks might cringe. But it doesn't turn out bad. It tastes great, and to have meat is a treat for someone as poverty as my family. I cook for my brother who's 22, just married, and just now living away from home. Making dinner to him is calling ahead and picking up the take out. When they decided to start cooking by themselves they knew nothing. Her parents didn't cook, my brother never cared about the cooking process that my mom or I did. So when I write, I write for him. 

I never belittle my readers. I write as though I'm talking to a friend. To me, it's one long email to my brother, sister, or even my mom who's tired of the same old recipes she's been making for years. If I could delete one comment it would be the person (whom I do NOT know) who wrote with all the caps and lols. It's fine to not like what I've written in the book, but please understand that other people have different lives than you. This might be a holy grail for some even though it's a waste of time or money for you. 

Lastly, my mom. She has never hidden the fact that she's my mom, any comment she leaves she leaves it on the idea that you can take it or leave it. The reason she defends my book is because some people think that it's something it's not. It's not a book for the middle class, or the lower class. It's a cookbook for people with nothing. Obviously I would love a good set of pans, but it's just not practical for me, or for anyone else in poverty. We get by on what we can. why do I mention walmart so much? Well because I shop there so much. Where else can I get the exact same thing for a fraction of the price? Sure there's other stores, you can shop anywhere. I simply told the readers where I got mine. 

And yes I post on my mothers reviews, but have you read her book and then the reviews? She has the same problem I do with reviewers. She wrote a poverty prepping book all about how to stock up on food while poverty. Of course someone better off would have the money to buy the fancy freeze dried food and such, but it's for the poverty portion of the world. If you have a better way, than write a book about it and leave it at that. It's just sleezy to hate on someone else's book about a subject you've written about. Let the book speak for itself.

In conclusion, My mother and I do review each others books, and reply to reviewers who have gotten the completely wrong idea about the book in question. But we don't just troll each others review section. I will post a review on a book I've read regardless of the author. And If I've read the book and see someone posted a review that is completely out of place for the content in the book, than I will comment.

I have never claimed to be a professional. If I was than I would charge a lot more than .99 for my cookbooks. I'm just an average poverty american trying to help others in my situation. and for those of you not under the poverty line, disregard the poverty aspect and please just enjoy the recipes. If you don't want to use walmart cheese, you don't have to. If you'd rather use an expensive ingredient rather than a cheap one, go ahead. Essentially, this is a cookbook. the rest is a bonus for those of you who need it.

Case Lot Sale and More

Yesterday my Kroger store started their case lot sale. It usually lasts a few weeks so I didn't rush out to go on the first day. Usually they have the same basic things so I knew already what I wanted to buy.

On the bottom left is a case of 24 small cans of tomato sauce for $4.80.

On top of that is a case of 24 cans mandarin oranges for $14.16.

Bottom middle is 24 cans of diced tomatoes for $12.00.

On top of that is 24 cans of fruit cocktail for $18.96.

Bottom right is 24 cans of black beans for $13.68.

And on top of that is 24 cans of peaches for $18.96.

Ordinarily I get pears instead of the other two fruits but I still have quite a few left from last case lot sale where I got two cases of pears and the case of oranges, which I'm a few cans from out of.

I also would have got a few cases of cup-o-noodles but all they had was shrimp flavored left. 

While I was out I went to walmart and got a few essentials, as well as a few extras from Kroger.

5.5 LB slab of ground beef that I will be portioning out in 1/2 LB amounts and freezing.

Huge bag of cheddar cheese.

18 ct eggs.

24 cans of chicken.

Case of mountain dew, don't judge it's for my hubby.

At Kroger I got a large bag of mozzerella cheese.

A container of sour cream.

And a case each of regular cola and vanilla cola, store brand.

This, plus what I already have in my stock, will last me a LONG time. The parishables of course will last less time, but the cases of food will last and last. 

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

I feel safe to admit that I have an addiction, well more like obsession. When I was little I lived in Kentucky and while there I had some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was so amazing. There was almost more cookie dough than ice cream, the ice cream tasted slightly carmel-y, and the chocolate chips were small enough to not be so hard they break your teeth.

Since moving to Montana I've tried to find one that's as good. The problems are plenty. Some have huge chunks of chocolate in them that are so hard from being frozen you just about can't eat them. Some have barely any cookie dough in them. Every time I go to buy ice cream I buy a different brand of cookie dough ice cream and I'm always met with sub-par quality.

I wasn't going to mention it on here since I'm sure no one else out there has such and obsession, but when I was explaining the different brands to my husband he suggested it. So when I buy a new carton I'm going to review it on here. Just for fun. Remember, you don't have to read every post I make. ;)

Pulled tooth, Junk Food, and Fried Rice Again

So My husband had his tooth pulled last thursday and it ended up being more than a simple extraction. The dentist couldn't get it out so he had to cut it in a few, more manageable, pieces. But then when he tried to get those out they shattered. He ended up cutting the gum and surgically extracting the pieces and sew up the hole. So my husband has been on some hefty pain meds and antibiotics this week. He also hasn't been able to eat anything solid until yesterday. For the week I was making him things like instant mashed potatoes and milk shakes. Nothing too healthy. And for myself I wasn't going to make a whole dinner just for myself, so I've been eating burritos and hotdogs and whatnot.

I did find the worlds biggest hotdogs. Well not really, but the biggest available at walmart.

Just for reference, I wear a size 7 wedding ring.

So, after almost a week of junk food my husband told me he felt up to some solid food so I went back into my cozy corner of experimenting with my fried rice recipe. And this time? I nailed it. One down, many to go. 

So heres my pans. Frying the rice and reducing the sauce.

And heres the final product. Tucked away to go with my husband to work for lunch.

So now that I've perfected my fried rice I probably won't mention it on here for a while. I'm doing a 30 days of new meals challenge that I will feature in my next cookbook. I was going to start it on the 1st of this month but with my husbands tooth it wasn't possible. 

Also on a side note, Fridays I go to see my parents and I don't usually cook, so I won't be including any friday meals.