Depression Cooking With Clara

Pasta and Peas



Egg Drop Soup



Poormans Supper

Crock Pot Breakfast

Crock Pot Breakfast

1/2 cup wheat berries
1 cup Millet or Rice
1/4 tsp. salt
4.5 cups water

Slow cook over night on low
(We put this up just before bed.)

In the morning add any of the following: peanut butter, applesauce,
dried fruit, or just eat it the way it is.

Beef Barley Soup

Life has been busy and honestly have not made as many from scratch recipes. The ones I have made are everyday ones I hardly think worthy of putting on this blog.

I bought a 25lb bag of hulless barley.

From: www. barleyfoods.org

Hulless barley refers to a type of barley in which the tough inedible outer hull is loosely adhered to the kernel. The outer hull is so loose, that when this barley is harvested in the field, the outer hull usually falls off. Processors often refer to this type of barley as “naked” barley. Hulless barley requires little to no processing to remove the tough inedible outer hull. Because this product requires minimal cleaning, most of the brand and endosperm is left intact and the germ is present

It is very difficult to use because it takes a long time to cook. I finally remedied that by cooking it in the slow cooker overnight. It came out wonderful and more tender then ever. Cooking and cooking it on the stove didn't seem to do the trick. I did it with the ratio of 1 cup barley to 4 cups water. It was a little damp in the morning, but I was using it for soup so it didn't matter.

Here is the recipe I used:

Beef barley soup

1lb beef cut into stew size pieces
4 -5 cups cooked barley (I can't remember)
1lb carrots chopped
1 onion chopped
2-3 sprigs celery, chopped
4 qts chicken broth
2 cans mushrooms, drained.
Salt and pepper to taste
+ a little light Adobo to taste

I sauteed the beef with the carrots, onion, and celery in a little olive oil. Then added broth and barley and everything else except the mushrooms. If you used fresh mushrooms you could add them now. I let simmer for over an hour. I tasted and seasoned about 1/2 hour before done. Added canned mushrooms last 15 minutes.

My children really enjoyed this and I was glad the barley was not tough!

HOW MUCH For That Bag of Groceries?

Here is an snip-it from an article by Dr. Mercola on top 10 food choices on a budget.

You can’t tune into the news today without hearing about the rising cost of living, be it gas for your car, heat for your home, or food for your family. Many baby boomers are giving up -- or at least stretching out -- food luxury items such as those coveted fancy coffees, because their pocketbooks are thinning, along with their hairlines.

In this report, I will give you some ideas for selecting delicious, nutritious items that won’t empty out your bank account.
(snip)

Below are ten excellent, nutrient-packed food choices that you can still find for around $1 per serving.

Click link below to read more:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/08/23/ten-healthiest-foods-under-1.aspx?source=nl

Pressure Cooking Beans Update

I have been pressuring cooking beans since my first post in March. It has become very easy to do. I found I can pressure cook from totally dry beans for about 20 minutes (after coming to pressure) followed by a natural cool down and have well cooked bean.

I no longer like the taste of canned beans. I still keep some on hand for emergencies, but almost exclusively use dried beans. I love the plainer, less acidic, fresher taste of cooked dried beans. I also found I like pinto beans, which I strongly dislike canned.

This has been an excellent experiment that has been working for me. I can make beans in about an hours time, fully cooked and ready for any recipe. Next I would like to try cooking the recipe in the crock pot. But that will have to come later. This is summer and I doubt I would get the opportunity!

Happy pressure canning!

Easy Crockpot Millet Breakfast

Bird Seed for Breakfast!!

1 cup millet
4 cups of water

Put on low in the crock-pot just before bed and wake up to cooked millet. For our family of 7 we double this and sometimes have a little left over.

In the morning serve with Agave, coconut, and some milk. YUMMY!

PS: We have an older crock-pot which does actually slow cook. I don't know how this would work in the newer crock-pots. Newer crock-pots tend to cook faster on low then older ones.

Not just for birds anymore!

Menu Planning

I like to menu plan by making a list of meals and tacking it on the fridge. Things change around here so fast, that it is hard to say Monday we will have... Tuesday we will have... and so on. Then the other problem I run into is that sometimes I am just not in the mood for whatever is scheduled. So that is why it is easier for me to make a list of 7 or 8 menus and pick from the list. If I know something is perishable or has lots of ingredients that are, then I will choose those first.


A well stocked pantry is important to me. Rice, whole grain pasta, canned tomatoes, beans and some canned vegetables are necessary. Living in a rural area we don't have easy access to grocery stores. I always keep celery, carrots, and onions in the house. I like to have potatoes and sweet potatoes, too, but those aren't as important.

A favorite easy meal:

Chicken and Rice
1 to 2 cups poultry of choice (turkey or chicken, diced)
2 to 3 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped or diced
2 sprigs of celery, chopped
6 cups of chicken broth
1/2 stick of butter
1 1/2cups Brown Rice
1/2 tsp. Salt or to taste (Hint: omit or use less with commercial chicken broth)

Bring rice and broth to boil on stove, then let simmer while preparing vegetables. Chop veggies then saute veggies in butter. Combine broth and semi cooked rice with veggies and rest of ingredients in a 9X13 pan. Bake in 350 degree oven 45 to 55 minutes, until rest of liquid absorbed and heated through.

This should serve 4 to 6 easily. We double this for our family of 7 (4 boys) and this does have some left overs.

Another meal that is a favorite:

Vegetable Black Bean Chili
1 lb Black beans, soaked and pressure cooked 15 minutes, natural cool down (see previous post on pressure cooking beans) or equivalent
1 medium to large zucchini, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped (or green if that is what you have on hand)
1 onion, chopped
2 sprigs celery, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder (Frontier Fiesta Chili Powder - our favorite)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cilantro
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can of corn
16oz favorite salsa
1 teaspoon salt or to taste (may not need if using canned beans)

Saute veggies in olive oil. Add fully cooked beans and rest of ingredients. Bring to boil. Simmer 1 to 2 hours or crock-pot low 8 hours, high 4 hours. You can skip the saute if you want and just through ingredients together.

Serve with sour cream, corn chips or corn bread.

Have a great day and enjoy!!

Pressure Cooking Beans

To cut back on cost and to make them healthier, I have decided that I would only use canned beans for "emergancies." So I decided that I would have to prepare ahead or use the pressure cooker. Tonight was my first experiment with it. The beans cooked up well and took only about 45 from start to finish.

I found a website with great info on how to do it. I followed the directions that came with my pressure cooker, which is always best to go by. But if you don't have them there are some suggestions here:

http://missvickie.com/howto/beans/bean-cooking.html
http://missvickie.com/howto/beans/bean-cooking.html

Here are some tips about cooking with beans:
A pound of dry beans measures about 2 cups.
Beans triple in volume when soaked and cooked.
A cup of dry beans yields 3 cups cooked.
A pound of dry beans yields 6 cups cooked.
Use 3 cups of water per cup of dry beans for soaking.
A pound of dry beans makes about 9 servings of baked beans.
A pound of dry beans makes about 12 servings of bean soup.
A one-pound can of cooked beans measures about 2 cups

Fast and Healthy Cereal

One thing we have done to make tummies full longer and spruce up plain low/no sugar cereals (you choose your favorite)is add our own raisins, sunflowers, dates, or what ever other seeds, fruits, or nuts we happen to have on hand. Recently we added dried apples and was liked by most.

Other options are to mix different cereals together. More dense cereals - like granola with lighter cereals - bran flakes etc.

We make most of our own breakfasts, but we use these for when we need a fast breakfast when time is short.

Welcome To Frugal Whole Foods

I have been searching for websites and blogs that contain whole foods or at least healthier foods that were inexpensive (aka frugal). I have been finding mostly recipes with refrigerator biscuits and cream soups. Many recipes can be adapted to make them whole foods and / or healthier. It just takes some experimenting and some practice.

So my mission is to find those recipes and share them here. Some adapted, some linked to other sites.