My Thrifty Kitchen: Cilantro and Baby Food

The hubby did some grocery shopping for me today since we are still fairly snowbound and he didn't want to shovel the porch for me to leave the house. He doesn't mind climbing over the mountain of snow and ice that is my front walkway. I do. Cilantro was on my list. Much as I adore my Knorr Cilantro cubes, there are times when only fresh will do. I scheduled in a couple of meals this week which call for fresh cilantro. Even with two meals coming up, I would never manage to use the whole bunch. Since the closest grocery store is not known for its produce department, the cilantro is already a bit aged. I decided to preserve it for better days.

A few month's ago, Big Lots, one of my favorite spots as a bargain hunter, had a drug store sell out. I watched this system of containers for home made baby food. Once they went on sale for 75% off, I pounced. Normally I use ice cube trays to freeze small quantities of foods, then pop them out and store them in a ziplock bag. But these little beauties come with their own lid. How cool is that? Now I can prep the cilantro and store it in the freezer like that.

Of course, I could still pop them out and place them in a bag. I will do that when I have only a few cubes left. But I have been known to forget and leave broth or green chilies uncovered a few days. Now if that happens, the freezer burn will not set in. When my boys were little, I did make a lot of my own baby foods. These would have been wonderful.

So to prep the cilantro, I just chopped it up coarsely.

Then I packed the wells in the tray. I topped each off with some water. Added the lid, then into the freezer they went. So simple, and it saved me that amazing 50 cents worth of cilantro that would have gone bad. Hey don't tease me. Every penny counts!


These cilantro ice cubes will be fine added to soups or steamed vegetables. To use them in a casserole or sauce, I will just thaw them in a slotted spoon or paper towel.


I haven't gotten too much of my prep day cooking accomplished because I have been finishing up the newsletter for February. This one is featuring international recipes. I like to add in unusual meals every now and then so we don't get bored or feel deprived. It is also a fun way to celebrate the Olympic games coming up. We always love to follow those. Here's to the fun!

Italian Hobos

So far so good--we still have electricity here. The ice wasn't so bad afterall, but the snow just keeps coming down. The lights have flickered three times as I have been loading my photos for tonight's blog. I don't mind being snowbound a few days as long as we have electricity.

I wanted an excuse to heat up the oven tonight, so we had a hobo meal buffet. We all ended up with Italian themed foil packets. That's fine. The ingredients all went together really well. The basis of tonight's packets were chicken breast tenders, but these would be excellent with Italian sausage. The veggies we had to choose from: bell peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, onion, cauliflower and broccoli. We all went with garlic, onion powder and Italian seasonings, but you could add anything in the spice rack to suit individual tastes.



I reheated some leftover rice for the carby boy. That took almost no time. He also chose to pour jarred Alfredo sauce over the top of his chicken and veggies. Both guys also got a sprinkle of cheese, but I refrained, as I am cutting calories.




Now the kitchen is warm, stomachs are full and everyone got just what he wanted. We are all safe inside watching the snow and a Netflix movie. Two more reasons I really don't mind winter. Snow has a way of slowing our schedules down. At least here in Oklahoma where we don't live with lots of the white stuff for several months!

Cold Day, Warm Broth

The freezing rain is falling. A wicked winter storm is upon us. School was canceled and we are inside for the duration. (Well, the boy and I are safe--Hubby will have to be out in it, such is the life of a radio man) Having already had two cups of coffee this morning, I wanted something warm but not sweet. A cup of hot broth is prefect to ward off the chills of winter.

Last week I picked up a few cans of my favorite broth, College Inn Chicken with Herbs and Lemon. This is good stuff. I have purchased it at Big Lots for several years. It never seemed to be one those "one time only products." But when I looked on the company website for a photo, they didn't have it listed. Maybe it is discontinued after all. If so, head out to Big Lots and get some. The flavor, if you like lemon as I do, is so much better than regular broth.

Of course, if it is gone forever, it is still easy to add a shake of Mrs. Dash and a squirt of lemon juice to any canned broth. That way you can choose your sodium and fat content. Canned broth runs between 0 and 3 carbs per cup, with 5-20 calories or so. A pretty good nutritional bargain anyway you choose. College Inn does still have roasted garlic flavor and vegetable herb flavor. Both are slightly higher carb, but they sure sound good.

Hope and pray power stays on so I can keep you updated!

Fajita Time

I love onions. Wish they weren't so carby--but then I have read that they may not affect blood sugars as much as would be expected. There is just something about the smell of sizzling onions and peppers. Hope those blood sugars stayed down tonight. We didn't overdo it.

I just make my fajitas with some lime juice and a sprinkle of garlic and onion powder. That goes into a cast iron skillet so it can be really hot. I ate just the chicken and veggies. John had one low carb tortilla. I made a pot of rice for my carby boy, but I am thinking ahead and plan to add the rice to some chicken soup later this week. That will be good when we are frozen in.

We are facing storm warnings--not for much snow, but ICE. Right now I am not sure if I will have classes to teach tomorrow or not. Pretty sure Friday's classes will be canceled. That could be good or that could be bad. The last time we had an ice event of this magnitude, we were without electricity for a week. Brr. This time, it is supposed to get down to the single digit temperatures, though. If you don't see any updates to this blog, you will know we are all huddled around the fireplace. At least hot dogs on the grill are low carb.

Tomato Basil Chicken Three Ways

We are not exactly all on the same menu page around here. While I am completely accustomed to cooking a low carb meal and adding carbs to it for the carby boy, I am having to get even more prepared to make a lower calorie meal for myself as well.

Tonight's Italian dinner was good to go for all of us, with just a few additions here and there. I started off with some good fresh tomatoes and some frozen chicken tenders. By adding some cheese and broccoli, the meal was ready for my diabetic hubby. By adding some pasta, it was good for the boy. I got to eat the same meal without the cheese. That's working like a team.

Tomato Basil Chicken

12 chicken breast tenders
2 Roma Tomatoes, diced
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
3 Tablespoons chicken broth
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Thaw the tenders. The microwave works well if time is short. Sprinkle them with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Brown them in a skillet with the chicken broth or olive oil. When nearly done, add the canned and fresh tomatoes. Squeeze lemon juice over the chicken and stir before serving.


Christian's version with pasta


My version with no cheese

For Christian and John, I added shredded cheese and served the chicken and sauce over pasta. Christian wanted his steamed broccoli on the side. For John, he got the broccoli stirred in with the cheese and chicken. The broccoli was steamed in the microwave with a lemon and herb chicken broth. This dish is similar to my Chicken Cacciatore with Green Beans in the e-book, but the addition of lemon juice really does add a depth to the flavor.

Another dinner that was not too hard on the cook, and a fine example of how to make your favorites with different carb levels. Everybody's happy.

Buffalo Burgers

Wowsers are these good! We have eaten buffalo a few times before, but never on a regular basis. Gotta admit, these are worth the price. I picked mine up at the meat counter at Reasor's, a high end choice for me. About $6 a pound. That definitely breaks my usual limit. I am cutting my calories though, so I splurged for me. The guys still got our usual ground chuck since they are not interested in counting calories these days. A quarter pound buffalo patty comes in at only 124 calories. Ground chuck has over 100 more calories per patty.

The buffalo meat stayed very moist and flavorful, even though I simply pan fried it. The meat is naturally very lean, so this surprised me a bit. I took the photo in the pan so you could see how little fat was rendered.All I added was some garlic powder and onion powder. These are too flavorful to "mess up" with steak sauce or ketchup, just let the flavor shine through.

Buffalo are not endangered any more. We even have a couple of ranches here in my part of Oklahoma. I can buy steaks, roasts, even stew meat. Too bad these giants don't roam the prairies anymore. I think the natives of the Plains had some terrific food on their hunter gatherer menu! I will bring the bison, and let my herb expert, Neecee, do the gathering!

Mid Winter Grilling

Sunday is John's only day off. He offered to grill today, since we are enjoying a break from the cold. I bought lots of chicken, and seasoned the breasts up really well for the grill. Now, I have lots of smokey, seasoned chicken for future meals. Of course, hot off the grill chicken was our lunch today too.




Today's flavors were Lemon Pepper and Cajun Spice. After they cooled from the grill, I added them to labeled freezer bags.Now we will be able to enjoy that smokey grill flavor on weeknights and in the snow. Great idea for simple meals later. John grilled up some beef patties too. I am not crazy about reheated hamburger patties, but he loves them. He has even been known to eat them on late night snack raids. I think he makes extras, hoping I won't have them plugged into the menu plan somewhere. As long as he is limiting his carbs, I try not to say too much. I don't want him to feel deprived, or he might sneak out for something that would really send his blood sugars up.