Frugal Friday: Homemade Breakfast Burrito

Make your own dollar menu breakfast burrito!

It's hard for some people to resist fast food entree items that cost about a dollar. But when you order off the dollar menu, it's safe to say you aren't getting your whole grain serving, you aren't getting lower fat dairy products, and you aren't getting leaner meats.

But you can make your own dollar menu treats at home. Case in point: A homemade breakfast burrito using multi-grain flour tortillas, a mixture of real egg and egg white, reduced fat shredded cheese, and a tablespoon of salsa from the refrigerator.

• Package of multi-grain tortillas contains 10 tortillas and sells for about $3.50 (35 cents per tortilla)


• 1 dozen eggs makes a mixture of eggs (4 whole eggs and 8 egg whites) that makes about 4 servings of scrambled eggs. A dozen eggs runs about $1 per dozen (25 cents per serving)


• A package of reduced fat shredded cheese costs about $2.50 per 8-ounce package and contains 6 servings of 1/3 cup of cheese. (41 cents per 1/3 cup serving)


• A tablespoon of salsa from the refrigerator to top it all off.

Total cost per breakfast burrito = $1.01

Related Topics:

• 10 Healthy Foods Under $1
• Best and Worst Fast-Food Breakfasts

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game of Gluttony?

Gluttony: the act or practice of eating and drinking to excess.

Photo Credit: Navin75

Baseball season is here and so is the practice of stadium gluttony. "Take me out to the ball game" has become "take me out to 3 hours of non-stop eating and snacking." There are all sorts of high calorie-low nutrient foods tempting you at every turn...fried foods, snack foods, frozen desserts, high fat meats, refined breads. It's a spectator sport, that's true. But I find it ironic that some of the people sitting in the stands are almost constantly eating and drinking while they watch the players on the field who are exercising like crazy.

Photo Credit: Navin75

At least when you go to a stadium type sports event, you have to go up and down some stairs and a hallway or two to fetch the food, right? Not so anymore.

Dozens of stadium and arenas are now offering tickets complete with unlimited food and beverages. The fine print on the ticket often reads "alcohol and desserts sold separately." In most cases, the food and drinks come to you - and keep on coming.

Photo Credit: Navin75

I have to admit though, not waiting in those 20 deep food stand lines sounds nice but having to physically seek out your concessions and the fact that you can only eat as much as you can comfortably carry, may somehow keep us snacking reasonably.

Related Topics:

• Take Me Out to the Ball Game!
• Don't Sweat It: Six Easy, Healthy Summer Snacks

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Taste Test Tuesday: Ben & Jerry Have Lightened Up...Or Have They?

Notorious for their extra rich ice cream, famed ice cream makers from Vermont, Ben & Jerry, have "lightened up" of late! They have a line of "lighter" ice creams being sold in pints size containers. The two ice cream flavors I took home to taste were Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Light Ice Cream and Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Light Ice Cream.

If you quickly look at the grams of fat it seems reasonable and certainly a big improvement from their regular ice creams - 5 or 6 grams of fat per serving (depending on the flavor). But then if you happen to glance at the calories per serving or grams of sugar per serving, you might find yourself taking a double take.

What? Two hundred calories per half cup serving! What? Twenty-four grams of sugar per half cup serving! This is a bit unexpected because other light ice creams you can buy in most grocery stores have more like 14 grams of sugar and only around 120 calories per 1/2 cup serving. That's a HUGE difference if you were to double the serving size and pony up to say...1 full cup of the light ice cream. If you do this and you choose one of these light Ben & Jerry ice creams, you are up to around 400 calories, 12 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat and 48 grams of sugar!

How do these taste? Both of these flavors had a nice flavor and texture (wouldn't expect anything less from Ben & Jerry). The key to enjoying these ice creams then becomes truly sticking to the half cup serving size. It's a bit easier to do this if you use a cute little bowl or cup to scoop your ice cream into and you can use a cookie dough scoop to make a couple mini ice cream scoops that add up to 1/2 cup. You can even use tiny spoons to eat the ice cream with. All of this just encourages smaller, mindful bites so you can truly get lots of enjoyment and satisfaction from eating your smaller ice cream serving.

Here's the nutrition info on two of the Light Ben & Jerry Flavors:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Light Ice Cream
(First 5 ingredients: skim milk, liquid sugar, cream, unbleached wheat flour, sugar)
1/2 cup =
200 calories
6 grams fat, 3.5 grams
saturated fat
35 mg cholesterol
24 grams sugar
2 grams fiber

Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Light Ice Cream
(First 5 ingredients: skim milk, liquid sugar, raspberries, cream, sugar)
1/2 cup =
180 calories
5 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat
25 mg cholesterol
24 grams sugar
2 grams fiber

Related Topics:

• The Best of the Light Ice Creams
• Make 1/2 Cup of Ice Cream Seem Like More

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Frugal Friday: Buckets of Popcorn

Healthful, whole grain, and cheap!

We all know that the microwave popping corn that comes in those convenient bags can be super high in fat and sodium, depending on the type you buy. The label on a box of Orville Redenbacher's Butter Microwave Popping Corn says that 2 tablespoons of unpopped corn equals a serving so that's what we will use for comparison.

Here's the difference nutritionally...

2 tablespoons (unpopped) of Orville Redenbacher's Butter Microwave Popcorn contains:

170 calories, 12 grams fat, 6 grams saturated fat, 3 grams of fiber and 380 mg sodium.

2 tablespoons (unpopped) of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn (the kind you pop yourself in an air-popper) contains:

80 calories, 1 gram fat, 0 grams saturated fat, 4 grams of fiber and 0 mg sodium.

If you like the butter flavor you can always add a tablespoon or two of melted whipped butter to an entire bowl of popcorn (making several servings). Each tablespoon of whipped butter contributes around 7 grams of fat.

Here's the BIG savings in your wallet...

A box of Microwave Popping Corn, with about 3 bags (containing a total of 9 servings) sells for about $4.19

• Price per serving = 47 cents per serving

A 30-ounce jar of Orville Redenbacher's popping corn kernels contains 21 servings if each serving is 3 tablespoons of unpopped kernels. It sells for around $4.99

• Price per serving = 24 cents per serving

THAT'S HALF THE PRICE!

Related Topics:

Kernel of Truth About Butter Flavoring

Whole Grains Fight Belly Fat

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Pickle Popsicles

Has the world gone mad?

Don't get me wrong; I like a good dill pickle just as much as the next guy or gal. But pretty much the last thing I would think about pouring in a mold to freeze as a Popsicle is pickle juice! That's right folks, there's a new product on the market called Pickle Pops and they are frozen pickle juice treats. Sort of "frozen dairy aisle meets deli counter."

According to the company that makes them, Pickle Pops are made not from just the brine left over from pickling, but from freshly squeezed pickles, much like an apple or orange is pressed.

"Once people try them they are hooked!" notes the company in a recent press release. Pickle Pops arose from good old-fashioned American ingenuity. Texas roller skate rink owner John Howard started freezing pickle juice for the kids and adults and was selling out every night. And that's how Pickle Pops were born.

The company also touts some possible health benefits to their pickle juice pops including information on a recent study that suggested pickles blunted the blood sugar spike by as much as 30% after a high carb meal. I remember seeing another study or two similar to this using vinegar. It was hard to imagine drinking vinegar on purpose, but eating a pickle or slurping down some pickle juice? Now that might be more manageable for some people.

NOTE: Pickle Pops have no fat and have less than 1 gram of sugar.

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• Apple Cider Vinegar: Is it Good For Your Health?
• Reduce Salt in Your Diet

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Taste Test Tuesday: PopChips Barbecue Potato Chips

Sometimes you just want a handful of potato chips, am I wrong? Listen, I'm not a big "chip" person. I have no problems passing up chips at parties or at delis. But every now and then you just want a handful of chips. Maybe it's a flashback from my youth or something.

Anyway, I NEVER buy the regular fat chips (they are just too greasy to me); so I'm always looking for a lighter chip that satisfies the chip craving (whenever it strikes). There's a new chip in town. They aren't fried and they aren't baked. They're...well...popped! This "popping" apparently takes place with some heat and pressure applied to potato slices.

The main 3 ingredients for the barbecue flavor chips are:

Natural potato ingredients (potato flour, potato starch)
Safflower oil
and/or sunflower oil
Barbecue seasoning (sugar, whey, onion and garlic powders, salt, torula yeast, brown sugar, tomato powder, yeast extract, spices, etc...)

Each ounce of chips (a perfect serving size) contains:

120 calories,
4.5 grams fat,
0 g saturated fat and trans fat
0 mg
cholesterol
20 g carbohydrate
1 g fiber
1 g protein
280 mg
sodium

How did they taste? REALLY good. I loved the barbecue flavor (not too powerful but full of flavor) and I loved the texture (crispy but not greasy).

These "POPPED" chips come in a few more flavors too, original, salt & pepper, and salt & vinegar, and Parmesan garlic.

Related Topics:

• Cheat on Your Diet and Still Lose Weight
• Comfort Food Without the Guilt

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Frugal Friday: Chicken On The Cheap

Do those "extreme value" or "value pack" trays or bags of boneless, skinless chicken breast really save you money?

Why pay for the chicken skin when you are just going to throw it away, right? The best way to judge the best deal with chicken is to consider the price per pound instead of the cost per chicken breast because some chicken breasts are bigger or smaller than others. Two small chicken breasts can weigh the same as one extra large chicken breast.

In my neighborhood grocery store the "value pack" of boneless, skinless chicken breasts is $3.49 per pound while a package of "boneless, skinless Breast Fillets" will run you $6.49 per pound.

But you only need 4 chicken breasts for dinner and the value pack of chicken contains anywhere from 6 to 8 breasts. So what do you do with the extra 2 to 4 breasts? The way I see it you have two good options:

Option #1
If you are roasting or grilling the chicken, you might as well throw on the extra breasts. You can use the extra cooked breasts for lunch or dinner the next day (chicken enchiladas, chicken quesadillas, chicken pot pie, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken Caesar salad, etc…)

Option #2
You can wrap the extra-uncooked chicken breasts in a freezer bag (make sure you have pressed out any air in the bag) then keep it in the freezer. The next time you are making chicken for dinner, you can just defrost the frozen chicken breasts by placing them in the refrigerator the night before.

The savings add up!
If you have chicken a couple of times a week and use about 1 pound of chicken each time, you could potentially save around $24 each month!

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Homemade Honey Wheat Hamburger Buns

Buns You Can Make With Your Bread Machine!

It would give a big boost to our health if we could all switch to whole grains most of the time - just say "no" to white bread products. One of the hardest products to find whole grain options for is a hamburger bun. So, just in time for the BBQ season, I developed a recipe for bread machine honey wheat hamburger buns. These tasted so good fresh from the oven; my family ate half the batch of buns before I could even make the broiled chicken breasts I was planning to serve with it. Each bun includes a half-tablespoon of ground flax too!

Honey Wheat Hamburger Buns
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic members: Journal as 3 servings of whole grain bread OR 3/4 cup "starchy foods with 1 teaspoon fat"

Ingredients:

1 cup water (hot from the faucet)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon Molasses
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed (also called flaxseed meal)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons yeast (rapid rise, active dry, or bread machine yeast)

Preparation:

1. Set bread machine to the "dough" cycle. Add all the ingredients in the order listed here (or according to the manufacturer's directions), but add the salt to one of the corners in the bread machine pan and make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast there.
2. Press "start" - a nice dough should form in a few minutes. After the dough cycle (usually 1 hour and 40 minutes long) place dough onto a floured work surface and cut dough in half; cut each half into 4 equal portions (to make 8 portions total).
3. Shape each of the portions of dough into round disks about 3 inches wide. Place on a nonstick jellyroll pan or cookie sheet and cover with a kitchen towel. Start preheating the oven to 350-degrees. Place the pan near the warming oven or in another warm spot in your kitchen. Let dough rise about 30 minutes (or until double in size).
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked throughout and lightly brown on top.

Yield: Makes 8 hamburger buns

WebMD Weight Loss Clinic members journal as: 3 servings of whole grain bread OR 3/4 cup "starchy foods with 1 teaspoon fat"

Nutrition Information per serving: 245 calories, 7 g protein, 44 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat, .5 g saturated fat, 2.6 g monounsaturated fat, 2.3 g polyunsaturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 5 g fiber, 296 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 22 percent. PLUS: 1.3 grams of omega-3 fatty acids.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Healthy Grilling
• Summer Barbecue Recipe Makeovers

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Taste Test Tuesday: Dueling Multigrain Tortilla Chips

A side-by-side taste test!

I'm a fan of "2-minute Nachos" that you make in a microwave. You make a bed of tortilla chips then drop spoonfuls of canned fat free or vegetarian refried beans, sprinkle some shredded cheese over the top and top that with chopped tomatoes, green onions, or anything else that appeals to you.

Microwave for about 1 minute and your snack or meal is ready!

I ALWAYS use multi-grain tortilla chips for this and other recipes that call for tortilla chips. Well I found two new brands of multi-grain tortilla chips on my last trip to Whole Foods, so I thought my family would test them out side by side with some guacamole.

In one corner we've got Garden of Eatin' Multi Grain Tortilla Chips (with flaxseed).

And in the other corner we've got Kettle brand Multi Grain Tortilla Chips.

My two teenage daughters preferred the Kettle Chips but liked the other chips too. My husband liked the roasted flavor in the Garden of Eatin' chips but liked the other ones as well. I couldn't decide which ones I liked better, so I guess you could say I would be happy with either.

Nutritionally, they both have 7 grams of fat per ounce with 1 gram of saturated fat and zero trans fat. The only differences I could find were that the Kettle Chips contained 2 grams of fiber per serving while the Garden of Eatin' chips have 3 grams of fiber per serving (maybe from the added flaxseed?)

Next important question is, what type of oil is used to make the chips? Garden of Eatin' uses expeller pressed canola oil and/or safflower oil and/or sunflower oil...which doesn't really help me because they've given us too many oil possibilities here. Reading the ingredient list though does definitely show that these are "multi-grain" with ingredients like steel cut oats, organic brown flaxseed, barley grits, soybean grits, wheat bran, etc...

The Kettle chips list expeller pressed high monounsaturated safflower and/or sunflower oil as their oil with their "multigrain" major ingredient being multigrain flour, which contains organic whole wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, and millet.

Per ounce they contain:

140 calories
7 grams of fat
1 gram saturated fat
0 mg cholesterol
18 or 19 grams of carbohydrate
2 or 3 grams of fiber (Garden of Eatin' has the 3 grams)
2 or 3 grams of protein
100 or 140 milligrams of sodium (Kettle has the 100 mg)

Related Topics:

• Faster-Than-Takeout Dinners
• Tips for Reaping the Benefits of Whole Grains

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Frugal Friday: Make Your Own Snack Bags

Welcome to Frugal Friday!

You know how the latest thing in lunch box packing is these 100-calorie (or more) snack bags? Well, I did the math and they are a money waster that's for sure.

One of the best reasons to make your own snack packs is that you can choose the reduced fat or whole grain snack options whenever possible whereas the prepackaged bags tend to come in the "original" versions.

I wanted to calculate the money we would save if we made our own snack bags after bought a big box or bag of the snack and divvied it up into individual snack bags (using the snack bag size baggies).

I used the ever popular, strangely irresistible goldfish snack crackers as my example.

A 6.6-ounce bag of "Goldfish made with whole grain" costs around $2.39.

A box with 5 pouches of goldfish (100 calories each) costs around $3.49.

Here's how to make your own goldfish snack bag:

• A slightly heaping 1/3-cup measure is about 41 goldfish and equals about 105 calories.


• The 6.6-ounce bag of goldfish makes 8 servings total - just fill snack bags with slightly heaping 1/3 cup of the goldfish and they are just as easy to add to that lunch bag or box as the store-bought 100-calorie bags.


• $2.39 divided by 8 snack bags = 30 cents each!


• The box with 5 pouches= 70 cents per pouch.

What Could You Save?
If you made your own snack bags and put them in your children's' lunch bags every day for a week (5 days) and you had two children, you would save 4 dollars a week! And you were able to increase the fiber a little by switching to the "made with whole grain" goldfish.

Related Topics:

• Saving Money the Healthy Way
• 100-Calorie Snacks

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5-Minute Chicken Caesar Salad

During the week, things can get a little ugly at the Magee house what with two tumultuous teens, a demanding work schedule and after school activities that would make your head spin...

So...one of my easiest weeknight dinners that seem to please all members of the family is 5-Minute Chicken Caesar Salad. I buy 4 charbroiled chicken breasts (skinless and boneless) at a deli/grill nearby but you can just as easily shred the meat from a rotisserie chicken you bought at the grocery store (sometimes these are on sale too).

The only prep work you have to do is chop the chicken into bite size pieces then layer the following in a big salad-serving bowl:

• A bag of romaine lettuce (just open it and pour it in)


• Any vegetables you like to add to your Caesar salad like cucumber or cherry tomatoes (cherry tomatoes are easy because all you do is wash them)


• The chopped charbroiled or roasted chicken


• Some shredded Parmesan cheese (this comes ready to sprinkle in bags and tubs at most grocery stores)


• Drizzle some light Caesar dressing over the top - it's available in several brands in the salad dressing section of most supermarkets


• Any light croutons you have handy can be sprinkled over the top as well.

This is literally thrown together in 5 minutes! (Not including the chicken that you bought at the store.) I'm sure we'll get sick of it sooner or later, but for now, it's a hit with the family and we usually have this once a week.

Happy salad month!

Related Topics:

• 10 Tips and Tricks for Healthy Summer Salads
• 9 Myths About Your Salad

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Taste Test Tuesday: NEW Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Links (60% Less Fat)

For the love of pigs in a blanket!

I know I've done quite a few Taste Test Tuesdays with various types of breakfast sausage (meatless and turkey products usually). But this is all because of my love of "pigs in a blanket".

There is something totally yummy about fresh buttermilk pancakes (I make them with part whole wheat) wrapped around a light tasty sausage link. Well this morning I made my light buttermilk wheat pancakes and tried out the new Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Links with 60% Less Fat.

They are packaged "fully cooked" so all you need to do is reheat them in a microwave or stove top (I chose the latter). This way adds a little extra browning. They tasted really good and my husband, who tends to be picky about his sausage, loved them.

The first ingredient is "boneless turkey" and the second is "water." There is less than 2% of the rest of the ingredients. The package says the serving size is 3 cooked links (68 grams) and this serving will add the following to your breakfast totals:

120 calories
7 grams fat
2 grams saturated fat
0 g trans fat
55 mg cholesterol
490 mg sodium
13 grams protein

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Health Benefits of Turkey
• Healthy Breakfast Ideas and Recipes

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5 Tips To Save Money In The Kitchen

Photo Credit: Doug Floyd

Whether it's the higher food prices that have hit you hard or the April tax deadline that has left your wallet lighter than usual...most of us are more motivated lately to save as much money as possible in the kitchen.

Here are my top 5 tips to save money in the kitchen:

1. Get that last serving of dressing from the bottle! When you think you've gotten all the creamy salad dressing from the bottle, add a couple of tablespoons of fat free half and half to the bottle. Screw the cap on and shake it up well. Now you have at least one more serving of lite creamy salad dressing! I do this all the time with my light Caesar salad dressing.


2. Clean the inside of the jar to save money and recycle! Certain foods that are really sticky like peanut butter or light mayonnaise can be a bear to clean out and recycle. But here's a way to get at least one more serving from the sides of the jar AND make the jar clean enough to recycle without washing. Use a mini spatula/scraper to remove that last bit of peanut butter or mayonnaise on the inside of the jars. You will be amazed how much of it you are able to scrape out and use!


3. Save that bread! One of the foods that people end up throwing away most because it gets moldy or stale before they can use it all up is bread and bread products. So freeze what you don't think you'll use in 3-5 days and when you are ready for the next batch of bread, just take it out of the freezer and it will defrost within a few hours. This works well for sliced bread, buns and rolls too.


4. Save money when you buy meat by making your portions of meat smaller. Dishes like stir-fries, meat and veggie kabobs and casseroles work well for this. Where as a pound of meat might have served about two people before, with smaller meat portions it can serve four well.


5. Keep your refrigerator and pantry well organized so you don't forget about products you've bought and need to use soon. For example, once you've cut into the block of cheese, it's days are numbered. Make sure you see it in the cheese drawer so you can use it up before you have to throw it out. Once you've opened up that box of whole wheat crackers, Keep the inside plastic well sealed (so the crackers stay crisp), and keep the box front and center in your pantry so you'll remember to include them in the near future. Same goes for the vegetable and fruit crisper. Know what's in there so you can use them within a few days after purchase.

And remember that going to discount food stores only works if you only buy what you truly need and will use. Those coupons and "2 for 1" deals only save you money if it's for items you really want and would buy anyway.

What are some of your best tips to save money in the kitchen?

Related Topics:

• Saving Money Message Board
• 12 Ways to Eat Better for Less

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