AskGeorgie.com and the Meal Plan for the Week

Getting Inspiration from AskGeorgie

This morning while checking out FoodBuzz, we happened across another new site that is worth mentioning here: AskGeorgie. AskGeorgie is put together by Georgie Fear: a registered dietician, personal trainer and graduate student in nutritional science at Rutgers University. Why is Georgie's site worthy of inclusion here? She seems like a healthy, busy lady. She publishes a lot of recipes that look pretty tasty, are quick to put together and above all are healthy. This seems right in line with what we're trying to put together here, and we'll be looking to AskGeorgie for inspiration, recipes and ideas.

In fact, at the moment we're scanning AskGeorgie's Recipe Archive for ideas for this week's meal plan. On a "Centsible" meal plan, we're looking for seasonal ingredients that can be used in more than one meal. The goal here is to minimize waste, minimize expense, minimize prep time and maximize taste & nutrition! There's plenty in AskGeorgie's archive that we can work with too it looks like!

Winter Meal Planning

Focus on Root Veggies and Squash

Its cold out there and that means the seasonal vegetables are keeping themselves warm under the ground or in a thick skin. Look for squash, carrots, beets, yams.. I'll start off this week's meal plan by choosing a few dishes from this theme from AskGeorgie's site:

• Butternut Squash Fries
• Stuffed Acorn Squash with Sausage & Dried Cherries
• Roasted Cruciferous Veggies with Cannelini Beans
• Eggplant Mini Pizza / Roasted Eggplant w/ Sprouts
• Brussels Sprouts and Garlic
• Pan-Seared Cabbage with Tomato Sauce

Shopping List:

• Onions, Garlic & Peppers: Onions, garlic
• Cruciferous Veggies: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, green cabbage
• Squash & Tubers: Butternut Squash, acorn squash, eggplant
• Greens: Kale
• Fruits: Apples, oranges, cranberries
• Canned Foods: Cannelini Beans, Tomato/Pasta sauce
• Meats and Nuts: Sausage, Boneless Chicken Breast, Walnuts
• Breads and Pastas: whole-wheat tortillas
• Seasonings: Dried cherries, fresh sage,

Filling out the weeks menu

From the meals chosen at AskGeorgie's site, we've got the following side dishes to find:

• the Stuffed Acorn Squash dish and Roasted Cruciferous Veggies and Cannelini Beans both need something lighter on the side
• the other 4 dishes could be considered sides and need their accompanying main dishes
• Kale only appears once (Roasted Cruciferous Veggies) and I should find something else to use it with

(We already keep our pantry stocked with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, spices & dried herbs and dried legumes as well as canned vegetables)

We jumped over to Epicurious and found a recipe for Kale with Panfried Walnuts which might be nice next to the stuffed acorn squash. Instead of the typical burgers with fries, what about some wrap sandwiches? Referring to a favorite cookbook, The Sonoma Diet Cookbook
, we opt for the flexible 'Sonoma Express Wrap' on pg. 127. The spread (also from the Sonoma Diet) that we'll use is the Cranberry-Apple Relish (p. 146) as that sounds like it would go with the other foods. As we decide on the meal plan, we're jotting down the pairings until we come up with the plan for the week. The 'Easy Balsalmic Chicken' on pg. 183 and Tandoori Chicken on pg. 177 sound like good fits too.

The Complete Meal Plan

As we were coming up with this we were jotting down the groceries we need in our shopping list and keeping an eye on re-using a lot of the ingredients. We've put the Sonoma Express Wraps towards the end of the week so we can use some of the left-overs in these sandwiches (this can be roast veggies and leftover meats). If this plan is too ambitious, the ingredients all kind of blend together anyways, so there is room for last-minute improvisations. Hopefully we'll have tasty, healthy, cheap food all week with a minimum of prep time.

Be sure to keep up with us all week to see how much this costs, how good it is, how easy it is to prepare and whether we could stick to our plan or not!

Healthy Winter Foods Menu

• Stuffed Acorn Squash and Sausage & Dried Cherries with Kale & Panfried Walnuts
• Eggplant Mini Pizza with Pan-Seared Cabbage in Tomato Sauce
• Balsamic Chicken with Brussels Sprouts & Garlic
• Roasted Cruciferous Veggies with Cannelini Beans
• Tandoori Chicken with Roasted Eggplant & Sprouts
• Sonoma Express Wraps with Butternut Squash Fries

Tangy Pulled Pork Sandwiches. Easy, cheap or healthy?

Here we are with the second installment of Eats on the Cheap! This blog is an extension of Centsible's Deal of the Day blog. We're continuing our review today of the February / March 2010 issue of tasteofhome magazine: particularly their "Light 'N' Hearty" section. Both yesterday's easy chicken pot pie and the tangy pulled pork sandwiches for tonight's dinner are taken from tasteofhome's book, The Comfort Food Diet. If you like these recipes, you can always purchase the full cook book online from Taste of Home online.

"Tangy Pulled Pork Sandwiches"

tasteofhome, February and March 2010, Light 'N' Hearty, pg. 42

We're starting this blog just before noon while preparing dinner already. Note* - This recipe requires a slow-cooker. As is the case with slowcooked meals, they are quick and easy. Cider vinegar and spicy brown mustard is about as unusual as this recipe's ingredients get. Further analyzing things than just the ease of preparation, we're now going to see how much it costs to prepare and if the fat/calorie contents are really diet-worthy.

How did it taste?

Cost of Ingredients

Of course this will vary between which brands you use, which city you live in and what store you shop at! Generally though, you're variance won't be that much. Again, our prices are coming from a corner grocery store in Chicago, IL with none of the items being on "special". Here's what we were set back tonight..

• 1 Pork Loin Roast @ $2.99 / lb - $4.87
• 4 Kaiser Rolls - $1.00

Total cost of groceries - $5.87
(We still have milk, chicken breast, thyme and baking mix from yesterday's recipe and will need to find a way to work this in to our meal planning this week for optimum value on our groceries and the least amount of waste.)

The magazine says this recipe will serve 4. Thus, the price per serving comes out to $1.47. Not bad.

Calorie and Fat Content

tasteofhome magazine says that 1 of these pulled pork sandwiches contains 402 calories and 7 g of fat. Again, its time for some Centsible investigating. Nothing was from a can today, so our investigating was all done with online calorie charts (listed at the bottom). Here is what we found..

• 1 lb pork loin roast - 1056 calories / 51.2g fat
• 1 cup ketchup - 233 calories / 0.7g fat
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar (based on 1 cup equaling 16 tbsp.) - 102 calories / 0g fat
• 2 tbsp. cider vinegar - 0 calories / 0g fat
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce - 12 calories / 0g fat
• 1 tbsp. dijon mustard - 0 calories / 0 g fat

Total fat and calories of entire dish - 1403 calories / 51.9g fat

So exactly HOW does that break down per serving and compare to other meals or even a pulled pork sandwich from a major restaurant chain?

• Calories per serving - 350.75 calories
• Fat grams per serving - 12.97 fat grams

Be sure to add on to this 190 calories and 3g of fat for each Kaiser Roll!

I don't know how tasteofhome got their fat and calorie contents for this dish, but we think its way over the stated 402 calories and 7g of fat (140 calories and 9g of fat to be precise!)

Compare it to Au Bon Pain's Pulled Pork Barbecue Sandwich

How does this compare to Au Bon Pain's Pulled Pork BBQ?

• Calories per 10 1/2 oz. portion - 610 calories
• Fat grams per 10 1/2 oz. portion - 18 fat grams
• Cost per sandwich - couldn't find it, honestly!

In summary, we're not sure on the savings of this, as you can't really purchase pulled pork sandwiches pre-made in the grocery store and we couldn't find the price of a take-away version. I'll bet making this at home is cheaper than going out for it though!! Really to make a good comparison, we'll need to weigh out the portion sizes of the finished product and then compare. As it stands, we've got half the calories and 2/3 the fat grams of those prepared at Au Bon Pain. When dieting, I'm sure its better to make your own meats anyways: you can choose a leaner cut of meat and be sure to trim off and disregard the fat.

As long as the kids like it, we'll be making this again.

It smells great while cooking all day in the slow cooker and its easy. Not a FANTASTIC dieting choice, but a sensible one when you've got kids.

Sources cited for calorie and fat gram counts (aside from the packaging labels).

• Mike's Calorie and Fat Gram Chart for 1,000 foods
• The Daily Plate
• Calorie Count

Is this Chicken Pot Pie easy, cheap or healthy?

Welcome to the first installment of Eats on the Cheap! This blog is an extension of Centsible's Deal of the Day blog. Here at Eats on the Cheap we'll focus on a variety of topics including: printable coupons, meal planning, cooking tips, cookware, shopping strategies, recipes, dieting and food / cooking magazines.

"Easy Chicken Pot Pie"

tasteofhome, February and March 2010, Light 'N' Hearty, pg. 42

As we've got this entree in the oven tonight, lets look at what it covered. It was quick and contained no unusual or expensive ingredients. Those are of course important factors, but lets look a little deeper. Particularly, we're going to look at what it cost, what OUR calorie and fat gram counting found, and of course how it tasted!

How did it taste?

The taste was a little bland for me, but the kids liked it. Also, its not hard to spice up or add flavor to this dish, maybe some chipotle peppers to add smokiness or some garlic? I definitely recommend serving it with cranberry sauce as the author recommends BTW!

Cost of Ingredients

Of course this will vary between which brands you use, which city you live in and what store you shop at! Generally though, you're variance won't be that much. Our prices are coming from a corner grocery store in Chicago, IL with none of the items being on "special". Here's what we were set back tonight..

• 1 10 3/4 oz. can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup - $1.49
• 1 10 3/4 oz. can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup - $1.49
• 1 gallon skim milk - $2.19
• Dried Thyme leaves - $0.69
• 2 packages frozen mixed vegetables @ $1.19 - $2.38
• Chicken Breast @ $1.79/lb - $4.49
• Jiffy Baking Mix - $2.89

Total cost of groceries - $15.62
(Of course we didn't use all of the milk, chicken breast, thyme or baking mix - those can be used in future recipes this week.)

The magazine says this recipe will serve 6. At our house, it comfortably served 2 adults and 3 kids (one is asleep for dinner tonight) with leftovers for 2, so this is about right. Thus, the price per serving comes out to $2.60. Not bad.

Calorie and Fat Content

tasteofhome magazine says that 1 1/3 cups ckicken mixture with 2 biscuits equals 342 calories and 5 g of fat. We did some investigating. All of the entire cans of soup mix and frozen vegetables were used, so that was easy to calculate. We used 14 oz. of chicken (about 3 boneless breasts) and are not sure exactly how many cups that equals, but the recipe called for 1 1/2 cups and that is probably near to what we used. Here is what we found..

• Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup - 250 calories / 15g fat
• Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup - 300 calories / 20g fat
• Flav-R-Pak Frozen vegetable mix @ 300 calories per bag - 600 calories / 0g fat
• 1/2 plus 2/3 cup skim milk - 115 calories / 0g fat
• 14 oz. Grilled Chicken - 600 calories / 6g fat
• 1 1/2 cups Jiffy Baking Mix - 780 calories / 27g fat

Total fat and calories of entire dish - 2645 calories / 68g fat

So exactly HOW does that break down per serving and compare to other meals or even a frozen pot pie dinner?

• Calories per serving - 440 calories
• Fat grams per serving - 4.5 fat grams

Compare it to Stouffers

How does this compare to Stouffer's White Meat Chicken Pot Pie?

• Calories per 1/2 pie (8 oz.) - 600 calories
• Fat grams per 1/2 pie (8 oz.) - 35 fat grams
• Cost per pie - $2.50

In summary, the homemade version of chicken pot pie costs about twice as much as Stouffer's White Meat Chicken Pot Pie, but has 2/3 the calories and 1/7 the fat grams.

For those kinds of nutrition savings, we'll be opting for the homemade version!

Sources cited for calorie and fat gram counts (aside from the packaging labels).

• Mike's Calorie and Fat Gram Chart for 1,000 foods
• The Daily Plate
• Heat Eat Review