Cheap & Cheerful suppers for June

Saturday
lasagna, made with cottage cheese (frozen from a markdown deal in early spring), spinach and chard leaves, mozzarella cheese, garlic for filling, and a traditional marinara sauce, plus pasta
large salad, with lettuce leaves, chopped, drained canned tomatoes, black olives, one Parmesan cheese packet (from a take-out a long time ago)
lemon cake roll

Sunday
pumpkin-pinto bean soup (also had red bell pepper, onion, garlic, cumin, corn, tomato sauce and chicken broth -- found the recipe online, pretty good)
fresh strawberries

Monday
turkey-noodle salad -- spaghetti noodles, sliced frozen turkey breast, cabbage, peanuts, snow peas, green onions, orange segments, in a dressing of oil, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes,  all over lettuce leaves
fresh strawberries

Tuesday
"crazy soup" adding canned tomato paste to the crazy soup pot in the freezer
Cheddar Bay biscuits


Wednesday
baked beans (making a sauce of sweet pickle juice, tomato paste, soy sauce and onions browned in saved bacon fat)
seasoned brown rice
carrot sticks
fresh strawberries and banana slices

Thursday
refried bean, seasoned rice and cabbage burritos (the cabbage was in a dressing of oil, vinegar, chili powder and garlic powder -- it was good)
carrot sticks
fresh strawberries

Friday
barbecued chicken legs (using up the very last few charcoal briquettes from 2 years ago), made a rub of chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, then in last 20 minutes of cooking, spooned on a mix of barbecue sauce, soy sauce, tomato paste, and water
oven-roasted cut corn
carrot sticks
rhubarb sauce

Saturday
Asian-style chicken-noodle salad (like the turkey noodle salad above, but with chicken)
fruit salad leftover from serving at a charity tea (the proceeds from the tea went to the local Fill The Boot campaign)

Sunday
smoked salmon spread, crackers, peanuts, potato chips (given to us at the tea), carrot sticks, tossed green salad, strawberries, 2 pies (apple, also given to us, and lemon meringue that I made)

Monday
bean burgers topped with cheese and quickie ketchup (tomato paste and sweet pickle juice)
brown rice
kale and mustard greens sauteed in bacon drippings
leftover pie

Tuesday
kale, ham and onion quiche
mashed potatoes
steamed carrots in mustard glaze
watermelon pickles
leftover pie


Meals have been heavy on the carrot sticks this week. I bought a 25-lb bag of carrots, and for a busy week, carrot sticks are quicker to do than just about any other veggie.

Comparing the driving costs to 2 different locations

Last Friday, I talked about finding a new favorite beach to visit, one with free parking. The subject of the cost of gas to get to a new beach, came up.

I did find a beach that I really enjoy visiting. It's within walking distance of a quaint downtown area, with art galleries, cafes and a wide variety of shops to check out. The homes in the area are older and have sweet little gardens in front, making a walk around the town very pleasant.

This beach is a bit further from my house than my previous favorite beach, so it would cost more in gas to drive there and back.

How to figure this cost to make a comparison? I use Mapquest. When you request directions to a given location, on Mapquest, there's an option to calculate gas cost, based on year/make of car, the MPG it averages, plus type of gas that you purchase.

So, I did a Mapquest calculation for the distance and gas cost to both beaches.

My "old" beach had a one-way gas cost of 90 cents. My "new" beach has a one-way driving cost of $1.12. So, the increase in gas-cost is 44 cents round trip, but I save a minimum of $2 in parking.

Guess which beach I'll be frequenting this summer?

So it's summertime and that means corn-on-the-cob, right?

We love corn-on-the-cob, but right now, the best price I'm seeing is 3 ears for $1.

How do you compare the "value" of corn off the cob vs. corn-on-the-cob?

Right off the bat, I have to admit, we love fresh corn so much that we visit a u-pick farm at least once per summer, when the corn is ripe and ready for us to pick. And before local corn is ready, we also buy produce-stand, corn-on-the-cob, a couple of times per summer.

But for many recipes and meals, on-the-cob isn't necessary. Like corn relish, corn salsa, and corn pudding. All three of those dishes do fine with frozen and even canned corn.

Last week, I had my choice with corn. I could buy fresh ears at Target in the produce section, for 3/$1. Or, at Cash & Carry, I could buy 5-lb bags of frozen corn for $3.49.

With the corn-on-the-cob, my family would need a minimum of 3 ears, for $1. (Breaking each ear in half, that would give us 6 small servings of corn.) With the frozen corn, 16 ounces is about what I would serve our family, for a cost of 70 cents. But these aren't really equivalent servings, are they?

A medium-sized ear of fresh corn has about 3/4 cup of kernels. 3/4 cup of kernels weighs about .27 lb. To get the same amount of corn cut off of the cob, to equal 16 ounces of frozen corn, I would need to buy 3.70 ears of fresh corn, at a cost of $1.22. So, comparing the two, fresh corn-on-the-cob vs. frozen corn, the same amount of fresh corn costs $1.22, as frozen at 70 cents.

For our family, with Cash & Carry's price on frozen corn being my "buy" price for frozen cut corn, corn-on-the-cob needs to come down to 5 ears for $1, which yields about 74 cents per pound of cut kernels.

Your prices may vary. But for you to compare, remember this:

• 1 average ear of fresh corn yields about 3/4 cup of kernels
• those 3/4 cup of kernels from 1 ear of corn weigh about .27 pound (just over a quarter-lb)
• it takes about 3.7 ears of fresh corn to equal 1 pound (16-oz) of kernels
• if you're comparing the costs between canned and fresh, a typical can of corn kernels weighs about 15 ounces, and contains about 1  1/2 cups of drained corn, or .54 pound. It takes about 1.85 of the 15-oz cans of corn to get 1  pound of kernels. So, if you can get canned corn at 39 cents per can, that would be about 72 cents per 1-pound of drained kernels, or what works out to be roughly my "good" price on frozen corn.

What all of this means for my family is that in summer, I DO buy frozen corn, for using in recipes. But we also "splurge" on roasting ears a few times per summer, for the experience of eating corn-on-the-cob. However, we're aware that when fresh corn prices are 3/$1, or even 4/$1, it's not the best buy, and it is the experience of eating corn-on-the-cob that we're paying for.

FYI, unless you have a super-cheap source of fresh corn, it's almost never the best deal to cut corn off the cob to freeze for winter. Commercially-frozen corn will, in most cases, be cheaper than doing it yourself.