Making Budget Foods and Recipes More User-Friendly: No-Knead, 2-Hour Bread

Pane veloce veloce -- Quick, Quick Bread -- a fast & easy no-knead bread

I realize that many of you, friends, who read here regularly are veterans at frugal cooking. You've been making rice and beans, bean soup, or yeast breads for decades. Maybe you learned how to prepare these budget-friendly foods from your mom or dad. Or maybe you are self-taught and have been at this for such a long time that you really don't need people like me to tell you how to knead dough or soak beans.

However, some of us have different backgrounds and circumstances.

Recently, a friend of mine made a wise observation. She noted that a lot of folks weren't raised learning basic frugal cooking skills. Instead, in their family homes of origin, a lot of foods that they consumed were what we'd recognize as convenience foods, such as boxed meal helpers. There's nothing at all wrong with that scenario. However, they now find themselves (through no fault of their own) on a very limited budget, unemployed or forced into early retirement due to this pandemic. Here's the problem: good people -- people who have always paid their bills on time, taken care of themselves financially, worked hard at their jobs -- are now out of work. Unemployment really doesn't pay all that well. Yes, there have been some limited bonus payments. Yet, there are people who are struggling financially right now and are looking for help so that they can help themselves.

Basic frugal foods made easy

For the next few Saturdays or possibly Sundays, I'll be sharing how to prepare some of the quintessential frugal foods, in easy and manageable versions for any cooking skill level.  For the next several weeks, my weekend blogging will cater to those of us who may need a bit of encouragement to try cooking techniques and recipes that are less familiar to us. 

I'll share some of the best, easiest and most frugal recipes, applicable tips, and cooking techniques, here, one recipe at a time. One of the coolest things about learning information or a new skill is that once you've learned it, you own that information to use over and over again. So, let's begin!

Mmmm, bread hot out of the oven

Could anything say "frugal cooking" better than baking your own yeast-raised bread? If you can buy yeast at a reasonable cost, this loaf is very frugal. 

The brand of yeast that I use is SAF-instant Yeast. Red Star also makes an instant yeast. You can also use active dry yeast -- just adjust the amount as indicated in the recipe. I wouldn't try yeasts that are labeled "rapid rise" or "quick rise". Those yeasts are a different strain of yeast, designed for other applications in bread-baking.

Pane veloce veloce (or Quick, Quick Bread)

When most of us think of making homemade bread, thoughts of rolled-up shirt sleeves and beads of sweat forming on our foreheads as we knead dough on a dusty countertop fill our imaginations. If that's not enough to put one off from attempting homemade bread for the first time, the time involved in the mixing, kneading, and rising of loaves is an enthusiasm-killer for many. What if I told you that there's a yeast bread that you can make in about 2 hours, start to finish, without any kneading whatsoever?

There's a reason this recipe is called Quick, Quick Bread. As yeast breads go, this is the Speedy Gonzales of the bread world. You can literally start this bread around 4 in the afternoon and have fresh bread for the dinner table before 6:30, with minimal hands-on time required.

In addition to being fast to make, it produces a tender, airy, and tasty loaf of Italian bread. Unlike a soda-leavened bread (which is also a fast way to make homemade bread), this Italian bread remains fresh for a few days. The recipe itself is Italian. I've adapted one ingredient to make this more accessible for most of us. The original recipe calls for brewer's yeast, which although we know it as the yeast for brewing beer, it is also used in some yeast bread recipes. I use instant yeast in its place. If the type of yeast you can find in your store is active dry yeast, that will work, too. Just use the appropriate measurement.

Never baked bread before? You can do this! You can make delicious and soft bread! Let's do this!

Pane veloce veloce

1½ cups lukewarm water, divided (lukewarm for activating yeast is between 105 and 115 degrees F - best results: use a thermometer)
1 teaspoon honey
1¼ teaspoons instant yeast (or 1¾ teaspoons active dry yeast)

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

additional water as needed to make a sticky dough

additional flour for the top of dough and the parchment paper, about 1 tablespoon.

Ensure your warm water is between 105 and 115 degrees F.

In a small bowl, pour ¼ cup of the warm water, the yeast, and the honey. Stir to combine. If using active dry yeast, allow to stand for 5-10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, dump the 4 cups of flour. Make a well in the center of the mound of flour.

Pour the softened yeast and honey water into the well in the flour. Pour the remaining 1¼ cups of lukewarm water over the yeast water. 

Stir the liquids and flour together. Add extra water as needed to make a soft and slightly sticky dough (anywhere from 2 to 5 tablespoons of extra water). 

Sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough (I've dumped it in the center so you could see it -- you should sprinkle it evenly across the top) and mix it in thoroughly.

Sprinkle the top of the soft dough with ½ tablespoon of flour. 

Cover the bowl. (I use a large dinner plate to cover my mixing bowl.) Allow to rise for 1½ hours. You're doing great!

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of parchment paper on a large baking sheet. Flour the paper well with the last half-tablespoon of flour.

After the rise time, the dough will look something like this. The soft mass has spread across the bowl from one side to the other, and you can see that it is puffed somewhat from the yeast action.

Preheat the oven to 445 degrees F (non-convection).

Without disturbing the dough too much, gently go all around the edges of the dough up against the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula, lifting the dough a bit as you go. Next, carefully transfer the dough in one large mound, close to the center of the floured parchment paper on the baking sheet (keeping the floured side of the bread dough up), if you can. If it doesn't land in the center (like mine didn't), no biggie. You'll just have to move all 3 sections of dough in a minute. Try not to disturb the gas bubbles in the dough too much.

With a long, serrated knife (like a bread knife) score the dough into 3 long loaves. Dip the knife into flour between scorings. The loaves will not be perfect-looking. But that's part of the charm of this rustic Italian bread.

Using the floured knife, cut the loaves apart and gently lift and move dough portions to space the 3 loaves equally apart on the parchment paper.

Are your loaves a bit wonky in shape like mine? It won't matter. I promise! After the bread is baked, slice up the wonkiest-looking loaf and place the slices on a plate with a ramekin of butter. Somehow, once the wonky-looking bread is sliced up, it isn't as obvious as when it's still in loaf form.

Bake at 445 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes until browned on top, and the tops of the loaves sound hollow when tapped with your fingernail.

How'd we do?

What I like about this bread recipe:

• minimal equipment is needed -- a baking sheet, parchment paper, large mixing bowl, small bowl, a mixing spoon, rubber spatula, a cooking thermometer, and a long knife. If you don't have parchment, you can also try aluminum foil that is very well-floured or a floured Silpat liner. (If using an off-brand of silicone liner, make sure it's rated for higher than 445 degrees F.)
• as bread recipes go, this is very inexpensive -- no fats, only a teaspoon of sweetening, and salt is cheap. This is basically a flour, yeast, and water bread.
• it's easy, there's no kneading
• hands-on time is about 15 minutes
• the bread has decent keeping qualities for homemade bread 
• it's fast. I can literally begin a batch at 4 PM and have fresh bread on the table at dinner time. Or, I can begin a batch after breakfast and have fresh bread for lunch. Or, I can begin a batch as I'm preparing dinner, and I'll have my bread baked and all wrapped up before I go to bed.
• it's tasty! My family members love it with butter. I like the bread just as it is. I also have a secret indulgence -- a thin slice of this bread, a thin square of dark chocolate, and a small cup of strong coffee. I place the square of chocolate onto the slice and eat it like an open-face sandwich. Lacking chocolate squares, a dozen semi-sweet chocolate chips also suffice. This may sound crazy, but it's like the French manner of placing a piece of chocolate in a baguette. I eat my bread and chocolate "sandwich" as a sweet breakfast, snack, or dessert after dinner.

If you've never baked bread before because you thought it would be too finicky, hard, time-consuming, challenging or you'd fail, think again. Pane veloce veloce is a bread for all skill levels. You've got this!

A Week's Worth of Three-Minute Salads

I go through about 3 quarts of a lettuce and
veggie blend each week for my lunches

I have a large salad for lunch as often as I can. I love the freshness, the flavors, and the way my body feels after I've eaten. I feel fueled without feeling weighed down. But, as I mentioned earlier this week, I'm a busy person and don't want to take more than 3 or 4 minutes out of my day to make my lunch.

I thought today I'd show you what my meal-prepped salads look like for a week. But before I do, I wanted to share my cost comparison of bagged salad blends and doing that prep-work myself.

A medium head of iceberg lettuce weighs about 19 oz, and this winter is selling for 40 cents a head at my local Walmart. So, that's about 34 cents per pound. Carrots sell for about 69 cents per pound in a 5-lb bag and cabbage has been priced at 40 cents/pound for green and 88 cents/pound for red, all at my local Walmart.

A couple of shelves over, the 12-oz bag of Marketside Classic Iceberg Salad blend (iceberg lettuce, carrots, red cabbage) is priced at $1.48. (That's $1.97 per pound.) If I put together my own salad blend from a head of iceberg lettuce, some carrots and cabbage, I estimate my cost at about 45 cents per pound.

The bagged salad blend offers great convenience. However, making a salad doesn't take much finesse or expertise. Some foods take a great deal of experience in order to do a good job in their preparation, like croissants or Beef Wellington. But salad is easy. Tearing lettuce is a job that we give to children. So, the convenience is in time-savings. To make a salad, I would need to get out the cutting board and a good knife, wash and chop some lettuce, peel and dice a carrot, wash and shred a little cabbage, then clean up my mess. So, that's where bagged salads make their sale. If I have a salad every day of the week for lunch, then I am going through this process 5 times in a week.

On the other hand, I don't need to go through the process 5 times in a week to have salad 5 days in a week. Making 4 or 5 days' worth of salads, all in one go, doesn't take that much more time than making 1 day's worth of salad. Getting out the cutting board and knife take the exact same amount of time. Washing a head of lettuce and head of cabbage takes exactly the same amount of time whether I'm using the entire head or part of a head. Cleaning up my mess takes exactly the same amount of time. The part that takes extra time is chopping more lettuce  -- an extra couple of minutes. Same with the cabbage. Peeling and dicing two carrots instead of one will take an extra few minutes, too. But that's it on the extra time for prepping a basic salad blend that will last me all week.

When I was just beginning with meal prep, I started with prepping salads and chopped onions and minced garlic. These were the items that gave me the most bang for my buck. Just a little extra work, but a lot of time saved. And the payoff was that I could have a large salad as my lunch everyday if I wanted, even on the days when I was steeped in a project or course assignment, or even if I was away from the house.

Of course, a main-dish salad is much more than lettuce, carrots, and cabbage. I also keep items like olives, raisins, nuts & seeds, shredded cheese, hard-boiled eggs, cooked grains, canned veggies, avocados, cooked beans, bacon bits, and canned tuna for quickly adding to a salad. If I were to just eat the lettuce/cabbage/carrot combo, I'd call these 30-second salads -- 30 seconds to grab a fork. I estimate that I spend between 3 and 4 minutes quickly throwing ingredients onto the salad blend base. Dressings are almost always super simple -- oil, vinegar and seasonings poured directly onto the salad. Occasionally I mix 2 ingredients in a small dish to make a simple dressing (like the salsa and mayo below). So, on average, a three-minute salad.

Although I like to prep my salad ingredients, I also like the flexibility of waiting to see what I want to add to a salad just before the lunch hour. So, I prep the basic blend and dice one or two vegetables (as part of the rest of my dinner prep) in advance, and the add-ins come from the fridge, freezer and pantry at the last minute. 

I store the basic salad blends in quart-size canning jars and the extra diced veggies are stored in a large plastic container. The lettuce is the most fragile of all of the salad ingredients, keeping for about 5 days.

So what was in my three-minute salads this week?

Monday-- lettuce, carrots, celery, cabbage, boiled egg, raisins, sunflower seeds, olives, shredded cheese, vinaigrette dressing, and oyster crackers plus a pre-prepped beet/apple/spinach juice drink

Tuesday -- lettuce, carrots, cabbage, celery, rice, boiled egg, cheese, sunflower seeds, Mexican seasoning powder, oil & vinegar

Wednesday -- lettuce, carrots, cabbage, celery, cheese, sunflower seeds, ham cracklins' (like bacon bits), olives, oil & vinegar, pretzels on the side

Thursday -- lettuce, carrots, celery, cabbage, olives, cheese, sunflower seeds, mayo/salsa dressing, toasted corn tortilla (toasted in the toaster while adding ingredients to salad)

It's early-early on Friday morning, so too soon to know what will top today's salad. Maybe some canned tuna, cheese, canned green beans, and olives, dressed simply with mayo. Yum! I can hardly wait.

What's your go-to weekday lunch? What are your favorite salad toppings?

My daughter bought a Roku streaming stick for the family TV this fall: My frugal thoughts

A few months ago, my daughter Julia bought the least expensive Roku, spending about $25 at Target. What is a Roku (and other streaming devices), you ask? Streaming devices hook up to your television so that you can stream on a larger screen than your computer or phone and share with your entire family. Roku uses our existing wireless internet in our home. It's recommended that you have high-speed internet access, such as cable, fiber, or DSL.

There are no monthly fees. Once you buy the streaming stick, you're set. Simply attach the stick with an HDMI cable (usually included), set it up (takes just a couple of minutes), and begin streaming. The device is tiny and basically hidden from view. 

There are dozens of free channels available, providing music, television shows, sports, news, and movies. We stream our church's worship services in the family room with Roku instead of each of us individually watching on a small computer or handheld screen. We also stream free movies. There are several free services for content as well as paid subscription services. We have taken turns signing up for free trial accounts with various paid subscription streaming services (canceling before any fees accrue) for wider access to available movies. There's even a handy search feature for locating specific movie titles.

some of the free streaming services

Are we getting Julia's money worth on this? Doug (husband) and Julia are huge movie fans. This is right up their alley. In previous years, we'd check out stacks of dvd's from our local library. With the pandemic, the physical building of our library is closed, limiting our ability to dvd-browse. In addition, streaming provides a wider selection of free movies than our local library ever could. 

Our other former mode of getting movies for home-viewing has been to rent them from that well-known red kiosk. At near $2 a pop, kiosk rentals would become more expensive than Roku in just over a dozen movies. I know my family has watched more than a dozen free movies with Roku in just the last two months. 

Beyond movie watching, we've been streaming content from YouTube, opening the possibility to watch all kinds of content, including workout videos, cooking shows, DIY info, funny video clips, and old episodes of favorite tv shows. Again, money's worth? I think so. When you consider that we use streaming for more than just entertainment, but also for fitness and DIY projects for the large screen, we're getting a lot of use from our Roku.

Besides the content, some things I like about Roku:

• The technology was super easy for me to learn. I'm not very tech-savvy, so this is saying a lot. The Roku was easier to figure out than learning how to use the television's remote or setting up the dvd player. 
• It comes with its own remote. I had thought that smart TVs or similar devices would require using a laptop or phone with every action. You can access Roku with a smartphone, but the remote does most of what you would need.
• We didn't need a special type of television. The only requirement was an HDMI connection. Our TV is a 2008 Samsung, so not super old, but getting up there in years.
• The actual "stick" isn't even a stick. The device is smaller than a smartphone and can be placed anywhere on the TV with the self-adhesive tabs. It has a very low profile.
• We get a much larger screen for streaming, which means our family has been more inclined to spend time in the evenings together, instead of us all scattering after dinner.
• We can watch content without cable, a dish, or even an antenna. That means we can watch content anywhere on our property where we have wi-fi and can plug in a TV. 

We're cord-cutters, cutting cable about 30 years ago and relying solely on an antenna and dvd/VHS player for video content. For cord-cutters, cord-shavers (those folks who are trying to reduce the expense of paid TV access but not cut it out altogether), and cord-nevers (those who have never been tethered to satellite disk or cable), streaming devices offer expanded content at a very low cost. Other than Roku, brands include Amazon Fire, Apple, and Google Chromecast. 

We're enjoying what Roku can bring to us. At a one-time $25 cost, it's a frugal option for added entertainment content in place of cable/dish plans or dvd rentals from the red kiosk.

Can You Really Put Healthy and Chocolate Cupcake in the Same Sentence? (Plus Homemade Chocolate Cake Mix)

Weaning myself off holiday goodies requires some inventiveness. To that end, the other day I decided to make these pumpkin-chocolate cupcakes. They were fudgy, chocolatey, and hit the spot. Most importantly, they were guilt-free!

Did I mention these cupcakes were healthy? Not only are they reduced-fat, but they also have fiber, Vitamins A, B (several of them), E & K, iron, calcium, potassium, copper, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, and trace amounts of zinc and selenium. Whew! That's a lot of good stuff packed into something so tasty.

Remember the pumpkin-spice cake mix hack that Kris told us about? Here's a chocolate version that is topped with a melted chocolate drizzle. I made this as 16 good-sized cupcakes. It can be made into 18 smaller cupcakes or a 9X13-inch rectangular cake. I prefer the cupcakes as they're portion controlled while delivering on the chocolate.

Healthier Chocolate Drizzle Cupcakes

15.25 oz box chocolate cake mix  or  3⅓ cups of chocolate cake mix

15 oz can pumpkin puree

½ can (pumpkin can) of water

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 teaspoons vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush with oil or spray with baking spray, 16-18 muffin liners set into muffin pans. 

Mix the cake mix, pumpkin and water until thoroughly combined.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin liners. On a center rack in the oven, bake for 20 to 24 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently pressed with a finger. (Don't rely on toothpick test for these cupcakes.)

Cool in the pans for 15 minutes then remove to wire racks to fully cool.

Chocolate Drizzle

Melt ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening in the microwave in 15 second increments, stirring in between. When fully melted, drizzle over tops of cooled cupcakes. 

I place the cupcakes very close together on a platter and drizzle the melty chocolate with a fork over all, quickly, before it begins to firm up.

Since I rarely buy cake mixes, I used this homemade chocolate cake mix. It makes 4 cups of dry mix, which is equivalent to what was in the older 18.25 oz boxes of cake mix. (Anybody else remember the larger cake mixes? They shrank a couple of years ago.) Today's 15.25 oz box of cake mix contains about 3⅓ cups of mix. 

Homemade Chocolate Cake Mix

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

¾ cup natural cocoa powder (not dutch-processed)

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

⅓ cup instant dry milk powder

4 tablespoons vegetable shortening

With a mesh sieve over a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to remove any lumps. (This is primarily for the cocoa and leavenings.)

Stir together with a wire whisk or pastry blender. Cut in the shortening, using the whisk/pastry blender, until uniform consistency.

Store in a cool, dry location in a tightly covered container or resealable bag, up to 3 months.

This mix can be used in place of a commercial mix in cake mix hacks, using 3⅓ cups of mix in place of a 15.25 oz box, or it can be baked as a cake on its own.

To bake the Homemade Chocolate Cake Mix as a cake:

In a large bowl with electric mixer set on LOW, combine the mix with 3 large eggs, ⅓ cup vegetable oil, and 1¼ cups water. Increase the speed of mixer to MED for 2 additional minutes. Pour into greased and floured baking pans and bake at 350 degrees F.

• 9X13 rectangular baker -- 35-38 mins
• two 9-inch round pans -- 30-33 mins
• 24 cupcakes -- 19-22 mins

Have I shown you my mom's trick to fit 16 to 20 cupcakes into a small, 30-inch oven all on the same rack?

Set one muffin pan into another, off-setting the top pan by 4 or 8 indentations. 

Do you know the difference between natural cocoa powder and Dutch-process cocoa powder? 

I didn't know until recently. Here's what I found out. Dutch-process cocoa powder has been treated with an alkaline substance to neutralize acidity that is naturally present in the cocoa beans. And Dutch-process cocoa powder is darker in color and smoother in flavor than natural cocoa powder. Many recipes don't specify which type to use. 

According to King Arthur's website, for most modern recipes, if neither type is specified, either will do. However, if you're thinking of making your great-grandmother's special chocolate cake recipe, you'll want natural cocoa powder. Dutch-process cocoa powder was not widely available in the US until the second half of the 20th century. So, it would stand to reason that older cake recipes always used natural cocoa powder along with baking soda for leavening. 

If you're not sure what you've got in your cupboard, it's often printed right on the front of the label as to which type of cocoa powder it is, such as Hershey's 100% Cacao Natural Unsweetened or Hershey's Special Dark 100% Cacao Dutched Cocoa. If the front of the label doesn't indicate Dutch or natural, check the ingredients listing on the back. If the product has been Dutch-processed, it will say something like "Cocoa-processed with alkali". I use Walmart's Great Value brand cocoa powder. The front of the GV brand just says "Baking Cocoa/ Unsweetened Cocoa Powder". The ingredient listing simply says "Cocoa". I'm assuming this is natural cocoa powder and not Dutched.

Why would any of this matter? As natural cocoa powder has not been treated with alkali and is acidic, it reacts with a base like baking soda, providing leavening. In a cake recipe, that may matter. In brownies, maybe not so much. There are formulas for how to substitute one type for another. King Arthur's article on cocoa powders indicates that if the recipe calls for less than 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, no changes need to be made. Greater than 3 tablespoons? You may want to adjust the leavening. (See "How to tweak the recipe to minimize changes" in the King Arthur article for details.) 

December treats may have been all about cookies in my house. It's looking like January desserts will be all about cakes, healthier versions, of course 😏. 

Readers' Favorite Recipes from A to Z

Here are your favorite recipes, from A-Z, with links from the game that we played over the weekend. Thanks for playing along, everyone!

A  Light and Creamy Apple Salad by The Seasoned Mom

B  Chocolate Banana Crinkle Muffins by Averie Cooks

C  Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken by Skinny Taste

D  Dirt Cake by All Recipes

E  Baked Egg Cups by Life Made Sweeter

F  Zucchini-Lentil Fritters with Lemony Yogurt by Bon Appetit

G  Simple {Nut Free} Cinnamon Raison Granola by One Hundred Dollars a Month

G  Greek Chicken Wraps by Budget Bytes

H  Betty Crocker Cookbook: Ham Glaze -- "A fully cooked ham glazed with 1c brown sugar, 1T cider vinegar, 1/2 t mustard powder, 1/4 t clove powder. 20 minutes before the ham is finished cooking remove from oven and cut a diamond pattern on surface. You can insert a whole clove in each diamond if desired then coat the ham in the glaze and continue baking until done." 

I  Instant Pot Baked Potatoes by A Mindful Mom

J  Sheet Pan Jambalaya by Cooking Light with Creole Seasoning Blend by All Recipes

K  Water Kefir by Cultures of Health

L  Lavender Pound Cake by Cooking and All That Jazz

M  Olive Garden Minestrone Soup by Copy Kat

N  No Bake Cookies by All Recipes

O  How to Make Overnight Oats by Wholefully

P  Plomeek Soup by Food Replicator

Q  Quiche or Impossibly Easy Ham and Swiss Pie by Betty Crocker

R  Camellia's Famous New Orleans-Style Red Beans and Rice by Camellia Brand

S  Bakery-Style Cranberry Orange Scones by Baker by Nature

T  Easy 30-Minute Homemade Chicken Tortilla Soup by Averie Cooks

U  Pineapple Upside-Down Bundt Cake by All Recipes

V  How to Make a Quick Cheese Sauce for Vegetables by The Spruce Eats

W  Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates with Walnuts by The Things We'll Make

X  Xanthan Gum Uses in Cooking by The Spruce Eats

Y  Yorkshire Pudding: A Frugal Quick Bread to Go with Supper by Creative Savv

Z  Zucchini: sautéed, spiralized, chocolate zucchini cake and Easy Cake Mix Zucchini Bread by Betty Crocker

photo credits: each photo came from the website for its corresponding recipe link