Spanakopita

I love Greek food!! Now that we're eating mostly vegetarian again, I thought turning to Greek food would be a good place to start.

I've always loved spanakopita. What's not to like? I mean, it has feta cheese in it!

2 packages of frozen spinach -- thawed and drained of excess liquid
1 C of ricotta cheese
1 C of feta cheese
1 onion - chopped
2 cloves garlic -- minced
10 sheets of phyllo dough
4 Tbls of melted butter
1 Tbls olive oil
1 egg -- beaten
cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and pepper

Cook the onions in the olive oil until soft. Add garlic and salt and pepper and cook for a couple more minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl and let cool. In the hot pan add the drained spinach, break apart, and cook for a couple of minutes. In the mixing bowl, add egg, feta cheese, and ricotta cheese and cayenne pepper. Once the spinach is done add to the bowl as well and mix well. Taste for salt and pepper.

In a small square baking dish, add one sheet of phyllo (keep the rest of it moist, as it will dry out in no time). Brush with melted butter and add another layer of phyllo. Keep doing this, making sure to brush with melted butter between each layer until five layers have formed. Add the spinach mixture and top with another five layers of phyllo dough, buttering each layer in between. The top layer of the dough should also be brushed with butter.

Bake in a 350 oven for 45 minutes. You'll know it's done when the dough is a golden brown and the spinach mixture is piping hot. Let it cool for a minute and serve.

Very good!!

Hummus "Pizza/Tostada"

I'm now cooking vegetarian meals. Don't ask. I was a vegetarian for years and did cook that way, as well. After several years on the meat wagon, I have forgotten what I had made before! I'[m adding new recipes and trying new things. This is what I came up with a few weeks ago and it is delicious!

1/2 C Hummus
4 Pita Bread
2 tomatoes seeded and chopped
3 scallions chopped
Handful of kalamata olives chopped
Handful of crumbled feta cheese
Cucumber chopped
Whatever else you may want to add


Warm the pita breads in the oven for five minutes. Mix all the vegetables together with the cheese. Spread hummus on the warm pitas and top with the vegetable medley. Devour.

I literally just ate two and half of them for lunch in about 20 minutes flat.

No Go

B did one full day of his juice fast. He's done with it for now. I, of course, did not buy groceries to cook with as this was a No Cook Week for me. Great....

Bright Side

I love mushrooms. B hates them. I make this creamy mushroom pasta that I absolutely love and B will not touch. I rarely make it now. I am so excited to make it while he is on his juice fast. Is that wrong???

ETA: B just announced that it may not be a 15 day fast. It might be shorter. Would it be wrong to feel disappointed? Don't judge.

Rolling with the Punches

Well, I explained in my previous post about B's new "diet". To my utter delight he's changed it again. He informs me last night after I just went food shopping for this week, that starting Saturday night, he'll be on a 15 day juice fast. Joy! He's done this a handful of times since we've been together. He does drink only fruit and vegetable juices. By the end of the 15 days, he's an emaciated mess. He insists he feels great, but looks like shit.

I looked at the bright side of this. I will save a crapload in grocery money. I only have to shop for myself for the 15 days and I'm happy with simple meals, then I'm good to go!

Of course, now I won't be able to surprise him to his great brunch place we've been dying to try. He said we can still go and I told him I will not be spending that kind of money for him to drink orange juice until his heart's content. Nope.

September Round Up

I really slacked with my blogging this month!! I'll be better in October!

Well, I did reign in on my spending. Rather, I think I did; I haven't looked at my checkbook yet. So far, I'm pretty much on budget, which is great! I do have a wedding to go to tomorrow and it is somewhat unexpected. Since I only had like a week and a half notice, I did not budget for the gift. I might minus that from my savings for this month, although I really want to get back on track with that!

I did receive a small bonus yesterday. So, that will definitely help with the savings. I'll add everything up this weekend and post exactly how much I have in liquid savings.

On the cooking front, we did .... decent. I did cook a bunch and kept our eating out at a minimum, but we did still eat out. All this week, I cooked and even planned ahead for breakfast! I made two batches of buttermilk biscuits and ate them in the mornings with jam and some with turkey bacon. Delicious and really easy to make. This weekend, I'll be making fruit and oats bars for the mornings.

I also had a bit of frustration towards B. I go through my phases and this month I had reached my limit. Sometimes I get so tired of doing it all on my own. He's doing a bunch of stuff now, so I understand he doesn't always have time to help. But when I'm baking, cooking, and cleaning after a long workday and he can't do even a little to help drives me insane!

Last week, he changed his diet again. I planned for it and then BAM! yesterday, he changed it again! He doesn't seem to understand I don't just plan a menu for the week.

My weekly menu plan has to have all of these components:
1. Ease
2. Fits in budget
3. Transports well
4. Heats well
5. Enjoyable
6. Reflect weekly store sales and ads
7. Some ingredients already on hand or have something in fridge/pantry to use up

And to top it off, he'll change his diet and then change it back lickity split! Anyway, I'll post how it all goes down as it progresses.

To Buy Generic or Not to Buy Generic

I don't mind buying generic things. I always compare the labels and often times, they are exactly the same to their more pricier name brand competitors. B does not like generic at all! He has fallen for all the marketing ploys into brainwashing you into thinking that their brand name is different. I've done the switcheroo and he never knows, but if he sees a generic label of a product he's been enjoying all along, he'll all of a sudden not want it. When I call him on it, he'll say how he knew something was "off". Uh huh, not buying it.

As I've mentioned before, I was sick last week. In my medicine cabinet, I had a bunch of medication (generic). B went to get me some "Nyquil" and he threw a fit over how generic my medicine cabinet was. Seriously, he wanted me to throw it away because "why save a few pennies for something that isn't going to do the job"?

Now he is sick. He asked that I bring him some stuff from the store. I got him all name brand (he wouldn't use it if it wasn't and I am still recovering so there was in no way, I was going to hear him bitch about it all night only for me to turn around and return the stuff). I bought Puffs tissue, Motrin PM, Thera-flu, Tropicana Orange Juice, Arrowhead Water, and super glue (I broke a nail while shopping for his shit). The total? A whopping $52! I did buy one generic item. Yup, the super glue. If I did buy only generic, I would have saved almost $20!

I'm not a cheapskate. I'm far from that, but I do not see the point of paying more for a brand when they have the EXACT same ingredients.