Saw a bit on Good Morning America today showing a family who spend less on groceries for 6, in a month, than I do in two weeks. They cut coupons and price shop. As Matt pointed out, what do they spend on magazines and newspapers to get all these coupons? In our own case, the only coupons we seem to get are for things we don't use or eat anyway, or how much laundry detergent can two people use? It didn't say what they buy generally, but the mother described buying chuck steak and grinding it yourself. No problem there except she mentioned including all the fat - not so healthy a choice. I rarely buy stuff which has been prepared which one often gets coupons for and which
may be less expensive. North America seems to live on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - I have seen people with shopping carts absolutely loaded with the stuff. Yes I know, not everyone buys it, but.... We prefer to try and buy foods in bulk from the wholesale stores, so we can freeze it or make up dishes and then freeze them. We also put all our change in piggy banks although since we moved into an apartment, we don't save so much because our quarters (25 ¢ coin) all go to the laundry money.
Talking of coins, that was something confusing when we first got to Canada, I went out to buy a
newspaper from a box one day and it told you how many dimes and quarters (or whatever the combination was) were required, I hadn't a clue of course. Turned out that you have quarters, dimes (10 ¢) nickels (5 ¢) and pennies (1 ¢) - these days we have Loonies ($1 coin) so called because its reverse side has a loon on it and Twonies ($2 or two Loonies).
This picture taken from Life in the Minivan Lane. We can't save Loonies either because we use them for the laundry too.
I promised crèpe fillings today and here is one.
Cheesy Ham and Mushroom Crèpes
Serves: 6
Source: Cooking Light - May 1994
Photo from Cooking Light.
Ingredients: 1 tsp margarine
1 cup chopped onion
4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (12 oz.)
3/4 cup plus
2 tbs evaporated skimmed milk, divided
1/2 cup beer
1 tbs cornstarch
1-1/4 cups lean ham (6 oz)
1 cup (4 oz) Swiss cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
12 Basic Crepes
Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet. Add onion and saute 2 mins. Add mushrooms, saute 2 mins. Add 1/2 cup milk and beer, cook 3 mins.
Combine cornstarch and 2 tbs milk in a small bowl, stir well and add to skillet. Bring to a boil and cook 1 min stirring. Remove from heat, stir in ham, 1/2 cup cheese, salt and pepper.
Spoon 1/4 cup mixture down center of each crepe and roll up. Place seam side down in a baking dish or individual gratin dishes. Sprinkle remaining cheese evenly. Drizzle remaining milk over crepes. Cover and bake at 350 for 15 mins. Uncover and bake another 15 mins or until thoroughly heated.
Have a great day.
Saw a bit on Good Morning America today showing a family who spend less on groceries for 6, in a month, than I do in two weeks. They cut coupons and price shop. As Matt pointed out, what do they spend on magazines and newspapers to get all these coupons? In our own case, the only coupons we seem to get are for things we don't use or eat anyway, or how much laundry detergent can two people use? It didn't say what they buy generally, but the mother described buying chuck steak and grinding it yourself. No problem there except she mentioned including all the fat - not so healthy a choice. I rarely buy stuff which has been prepared which one often gets coupons for and which may be less expensive. North America seems to live on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - I have seen people with shopping carts absolutely loaded with the stuff. Yes I know, not everyone buys it, but.... We prefer to try and buy foods in bulk from the wholesale stores, so we can freeze it or make up dishes and then freeze them. We also put all our change in piggy banks although since we moved into an apartment, we don't save so much because our quarters (25 ¢ coin) all go to the laundry money.
Talking of coins, that was something confusing when we first got to Canada, I went out to buy a
newspaper from a box one day and it told you how many dimes and quarters (or whatever the combination was) were required, I hadn't a clue of course. Turned out that you have quarters, dimes (10 ¢) nickels (5 ¢) and pennies (1 ¢) - these days we have Loonies ($1 coin) so called because its reverse side has a loon on it and Twonies ($2 or two Loonies). This picture taken from Life in the Minivan Lane. We can't save Loonies either because we use them for the laundry too.
I promised crèpe fillings today and here is one.
Cheesy Ham and Mushroom Crèpes
Serves: 6
Source: Cooking Light - May 1994
Photo from Cooking Light.
Ingredients: 1 tsp margarine
1 cup chopped onion
4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (12 oz.)
3/4 cup plus
2 tbs evaporated skimmed milk, divided
1/2 cup beer
1 tbs cornstarch
1-1/4 cups lean ham (6 oz)
1 cup (4 oz) Swiss cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
12 Basic Crepes
Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet. Add onion and saute 2 mins. Add mushrooms, saute 2 mins. Add 1/2 cup milk and beer, cook 3 mins.
Combine cornstarch and 2 tbs milk in a small bowl, stir well and add to skillet. Bring to a boil and cook 1 min stirring. Remove from heat, stir in ham, 1/2 cup cheese, salt and pepper.
Spoon 1/4 cup mixture down center of each crepe and roll up. Place seam side down in a baking dish or individual gratin dishes. Sprinkle remaining cheese evenly. Drizzle remaining milk over crepes. Cover and bake at 350 for 15 mins. Uncover and bake another 15 mins or until thoroughly heated.
Have a great day.
Loonie Twonies, heheh. I love loons (diver birds, yes?).
ReplyDeleteOne of the recent issues in the UK is the huge amount of food that people buy, don't actually use and end up just throwing away. Yes, it's a shocking waste. But what gets me is how so many people seem to be doing it ... especially when so many of the people I know are having to budget more carefully than usual these days just to keep the larder stocked at all.
I find that shocking, too. It's terrible that we in the west waste so much food when there are children dying of starvation in other countries. We have our priorities badly out of kilter.
ReplyDeleteWe don't seem to have developed slang names for decimal currency here in Oz. It came in in 1966, and the old names for coins did not carry forward. Threepence used to be a "trey"; sixpence a "deena"; a shilling a "bob" (same as in the UK) and a pound a "quid", also as in the UK. I think there were slang terms for 5/- and 10/- but I can't remember what they were. Old timers when I was a kid would still call five bob a "crown" sometimes. But there was no half-crown coin in Oz in my lifetime, so that expression wasn't used. But these were all just popular names and never gained the recognition of being used in writing as terms such as "dime" are in the States and Canada.
5/- was called a crown in England, but not often. Usually it was referred to as 5 bob or 10 bob. I'm not sure if they have terms for their current coinage or not. A quid is still a quid though I believe. Ru??
ReplyDeleteYes, Loons are diver birds and they make the most wonderful sound which is exciting to hear first thing on a misty morning echoing across the glass still lake.
You talk about waste, you want to see what gets wasted here, not everyone gets a doggie bag so piles of food gets chucked out. When we first emigrated it used to stagger us. If you go to an all you can eat buffet, people pile up their plates and then don't eat more than a quarter of what they took, then, if you please, they go back again.
Jo --
ReplyDeleteShopping with coupons, or rather getting a discount with coupons, is also a habit here. It's not something I go in for. Also, I always rip the packets apart trying to open them so the coupons are destroyed.
The piggy banks are cute. I do not collect anything now. I used to, but I've found that I've "grown out" of my collections.
Jo, this crepe sounds really delicious.
Marilyn
Forgot to say: doggie bags do not exist here in France.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
Re Doggie Bags, as far as I remember, in France they don't pile up your plate so that it is practically overflowing. Here you can more or less guarantee that any plate of food you receive will actually be enough to feed at least two if not three people.
ReplyDeleteYes, the crèpe is delicious.