Food for Thought

CHEFTALK

Food for thought

This heading does not really sound like something a chef would have in mind. Chefs have food for your stomach in mind and they should, after all it’s their job to provide food for stomachs. 

So why come with a topic like this, well I've been advocating home cooked food as the right path to healthier living for some time now and thought that it would be interesting to have a look at the differences between cooking at home and restaurant cooking.

One out three or four people in the US are obese, may be with an exception here and there, but all these people became overweight for a reason and that reason is not because they eat healthy food.

Supermarket prices rise by 6% per year while restaurant prices remain somewhat flat. These facts provide the perception that eating out is cheaper than cooking and eating at home.

Americans are spending more and more of every paycheck on dining out; presently this is about 4.5% out of every paycheck, while the spending on groceries stays flat.

When the prices of groceries rise for you, obviously they rise for restaurants also, but restaurants buy in bulk you may argue. True, but so can you! 

Portion your bulk purchase, buddy shop, share, vacuum your portioned bulk purchases.

You can find a quality vacuum sealer here:  www.vacupack.com  for USA and www.vacupack.ca for Canada. 

Is it less expensive to cook at home

I research a bit for this article and found two articles that made clear how we, consumers, are misguided by the media. Let me share the stories.

The first part was a study conducted by a financial website Gobankingrates, I found it on MSN Money, with the heading “Eating out is Cheaper than cooking at home”, they compared a number of restaurant meals to the purchase of the same ingredients of that particular meal in a supermarket and claimed that the restaurant meals were $2.00 to $3.00 cheaper compared to the home cooked version.

Jane Dornbusch of the Boston Globe raised her eyebrows, like I did when she saw the article and investigated.

The study forgot, as I suspected, that you cannot calculate food cost apple to apple. 

One of the meals in question was a rib-eye steak with soup, asparagus and a salad for $17.99, cooking the meal at home costs according to the study $20.52

Jane made a trip to the restaurant and found that in reality $17.99 was the base price for the rib-eye steak, soup added $2.99, the asparagus added another $1.00 and at the end the bill eventually came up to $22.93  

A few days later she purchased the ingredients to duplicate the meal. The grocery bill was close to the restaurant bill but, and here is the whole misconception created, you do not use all ingredients for that one meal only! You use some of the soup and the salad for example. When she calculated exactly what she had used, the cost of the home cooked meal was $11.84.

Quite an amusing twist to the study, but also an eye-opener how we are made to believe that cooking at home is expensive, and therefore it seems better to eat out, this brings me back to the rising cost of supermarket prices. Restaurants and other food offering establishment also need to cover the rise in ingredient prices.

They cut wages by hiring less knowledgeable staff and compromise on quality of food, hard to detect compromises are made to maintain profits and your health pays the price in many cases, whereas you are in control when you cook at home.

Cooking at Home is (in most cases) healthier

The home cooked meal gives you the ability to control, calories, nutrients, quality of ingredients, salt levels, portioning and taste.

Whatever leftovers you have can innovatively be re-used for other dishes when you teach yourself a bit how and your vacuum sealer gives you the ability to keep your food in good condition. A little effort can easily save up to $100.00 per month or more.

Eating out is fine and good for all. It is good to be served and pampered once and a while. Just buying food to eat and out of so-called convenience leads in many cases to obesity, bad health and series of medical issues.

Enjoy a regular trip to your favorite restaurant, but keep in mind that your health is yours, keep it under your control.

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn   

Inspiring Canning Stories

CHEFTALK

Inspiring canning stories

Retort, canning, jarring, bottling, name it as you like, we should add pouching to the list of words for retort don’t you think so.

Retort experiences are quite inspiring when you listen to what people have to say about their canning adventures. Many of them are already canning since childhood, you know that ‘my grandmothers recipe thing’ that you find when people talk about cooking their favorite dish, I found the same experiences when I was looking for retort tales.

From here

                              

To here

                            

Many of them were really very inspiring and I like to share a few of them. If you are inspired after this read, share your story here and inspire others to eat healthy homemade food made with their own retort produce.


Inspirational

In abundance 

I found this story of a lady who says that she has been canning for 45 years now and started when she was with her, now husband, in college, the budget was tight and behind their house was a yard with apple trees, she gathered the apples and made apple sauce and apple butter from it. Canning is work she says, but unlike house work it is very rewarding to have rows of jewels on the shelf that you can pull out in winter and have the taste of summer.

Her favorite canning memory was that her daughter once called her in the middle of the night and asked how to can peaches; because her husband loved the mother’s canned peaches to bits. She gave her the recipe and her daughter has been canning ever since.  

Juicy and Succulent

Another lady said that she loved canning tomatoes, crushed and stewed with onions and peppers. She makes salsa’s, pizza sauce, taco sauce, pickled jalapenos, dill and sweet pickles, soups and apple pie filling from their own green house and garden. She grows a lot of vegetables on their 1 acre land and says ‘Yes it’s a lot of work but I have so much fun doing it’.

Then I loved this comment, ‘A trip to the local farmers market is better than taking a vacation for me,’ working with the herbs and vegetables I bring home with me extends the sensory experience I brought with me from the market.   

‘I can fresh produce and control what ingredients go into my family’s food and that makes me feel good. The reason that I retort, is the sense of accomplishment I feel when I watch my shelves fill up with food that is not only safe and healthy but which is as nourishing to my senses as it is to my body’.  How true

One man said, ‘the amount of money we have saved by canning produce from our garden is hard to say, but it is a considerable sum for sure. It involves hard work but an enormous sense of pride and an incredible feeling of accomplishment and living.

I did not want to waste to excess produce from my garden and started canning for that reason, I can tell you now that there is nothing than to open a packet of your own produced retort in the middle of winter and smell your garden, said another contributor. 

Yes it may be harder work then going to the grocery store but knowing what is in my own produced retort, or maybe more importantly, what is not in it, justifies all the effort.

Homemade

He added that he makes tomato sauce, chili sauce and his own sausages that make to best hot dogs imaginable.

The last one: ‘Best thing is that we do it together, we clean, cut, cook, pack and process everything together, spending precious time together and enjoying every minute of it.

This couple’s favorite product were peanuts, wash them very well, boil for 5 minutes with salt and retort for 50 minutes under 11 LBS pressure.           Worth a try I would say.

   

My immediate assessment after reading some retort stories is the joy and feeling of accomplishment you get from making your own, if you do not have a garden, go to the local farmers market for more inspiration.

I found that some people manage to save up to $800.00 per year which is the icing on the cake.

Pouch retort is pretty cheap, clean, saves storage space and rewarding, go for it!!

www.vacupack.com  for USA and www.vacupack.ca for Canada 

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn

Emergency Water and Pouch Retort

CHEFTALK

Emergency Water and Pouch Retort

Are we talking water? What is there to talk about water you might say, well true, but water is our main source of survival. We use water for almost everything we do in our daily chores and you only find the importance of water when there is no water. You cannot wash your hands for example, an exercise we perform more often than you think.

The need of emergency water

There is a good chance that you do not have access to clean drinking water when a calamity occurs, something that happens more often than you think also and when it does we have a recipe for disaster. Disastrous news enters our lives every day through the many media services available to us. Floods, droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes and wars are scattered all over the world. One wonders if there is still a single safe corner left on this planet.

Being hit by a natural disaster is already a devastating experience on itself, no water during the aftermath of such catastrophes is a serious problem. In areas, prone to disasters, people are very often advised to store emergency drinking water in their homes, a gallon per person (and pets) per day is advised, preferable for two weeks.    

When water is our survival during the Apocalypse, how does water survive when it is stored for a long period of time?



The trouble of safe water storing 

Good, but Porous 

Then there is the advice to replace that water every six months, not to store water near to pesticides or gasoline, store in a cool place with a constant temperature and a few more advices that are pretty troublesome. Emergency water is not something everyone wakes- up with in the morning.

Water stored in badly sanitized containers may still be alright after a year or so but the containers may develop molds, another problem you are not looking forward to.  

When you finally have the emergency water woes in order and under control, it is time to think about some more fun things in life, a weekend hiking or camping with the family for instance. Again the water topic pops up. No shops in the woods, trees and thirst in abundance. Now, size becomes an issue, your backpack is only that big. Huge bottles of water are out of the question, small bottles then? To store and carry many of them is also a bit uncomfortable.

The solution

Here is an interesting solution to all these water problems, retort water in small convenient packets. Expensive? Yes, when you buy them, No when you make them.

An 8 oz pouch holds 16 oz of water. Retort at 10 LBS pressure for 30 minutes.

An 4 oz pouch holds 8 oz of water. Retort at 10 LBS pressure for 30 minutes.

For more info on the right sizes of pouches that fit your vacuum sealer, go to:   

www.vacupack.com  for USA and www.vacupack.ca for Canada 

Pouch Retort

The Convenience
These pouches are easy to store in your backpack, they last for years and can therefore be made any time convenient. Retort pouches are not porous so you can store them anywhere you have space, there is no need to replace them every six months also. Forget about installing an air conditioner and a heather in your garage to maintain a fairly constant temperature.  

The Money Catch

Now here is the ‘homemade water in retort pouches’ catch.

Store bought they cost around $2.00 for a 4 oz to 6 oz pouch.

Homemade they cost less than $0.50 cents. Great cost saving! And you make good use of your retort canner and vacuum sealer

All reason the more to go for pouch retort when it comes to emergency or convenient safe drinking water on camping trips.

No scientific data  from the FDA is available on home canning, the information and retort times given are guidelines and not authorized data.

PMG holds no responsibility for misuse of information provided and is void of any liability.
Home canning is at your own risk.

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn   

  

Money Saving Cooking Tips

CHEFTALK

Money saving cooking tips

A few blogs ago I promised to give money saving cooking tips how to prepare fresh, healthy home cooked meals that fit your budget.

My point was, quote: “I reject to believe that you have no choice or that your only choice is a 99 cents fast food meal because the organic aisle is too expensive. To me that is just a cheap excuse.” End quote.

This was based on a study with the outcome that white bread and ground chuck were on average cheaper than healthy organic products and that is why consumers grab processed food instead of cooking with fresh ingredients.

Now, I do believe that organic artisan bread is healthier than factory made white bread but I also (strongly) believe that you do have a choice and there are more options than the organic isle.   

When preparing this article, I wondered myself what the best way would be to explain the subject.

You would probably say, easy talking for a chef.

Maybe it is, but read on, I am sure you will find something helpful.

Tip 1:   Vacuum to safe money

                                         www.vacupack.com www.vacupack.ca

My first tip may sound exaggerated, but vacuum – sealing tools are truly revolutionary when it comes to preserving food in your freezer and refrigerator. The ugly food destroying freezer burn is eliminated and your food stays fresh and delicious for months in the freezer. In the refrigerator vacuum prolongs shelf life significantly. If that does not save money?

  

Tip 2:  Use cheaper cuts of meat

Great Roasting Meat

A cheaper meat cut is not necessarily ground chuck. Pork, lamb, beef have many cheap(er) cuts that are delicious.

You need to get familiar with some different cooking techniques but making a roast it as easy as searing a steak.

Shoulders of pork of lamb cost $ 2.00 to $6.00 per pound compared to steaks $10.00 a pound. These shoulders make a great roast and make one (or two) at a time, use what you need for dinner and use the rest for other means, these roasts make a great sandwich filling (cheaper than cold cuts), or filling for a pasta or a rice dish later in the week. On top of a cracker with a bit of mayonnaise and a salad leave it makes a nice snack to go along with a drink on a weekend.

Consider investing in a slow cooker, these cheaper cuts are fantastic to use in stews, turn the slow cooker on before you go to work and dinner is ready when you come home. 

Tip 3:  Think ahead

Buy meats on offer and prepare all at once and use the balance in a stir fry. Or marinate what you do not use immediately, vacuum and freeze, this way you always have something on hand when there is no time to shop. This saves energy and your time.

Pre-prepared vegetables keep well when vacuumed and frozen; take advantage when you find offers.

Tip 4:  Serve the right portioning

This is not good

Have a look at how much you really need to cook and put on a plate. Tons of good food are wasted daily because of over-portioning.  

Tip 5:  Clever ways to use left overs

Overripe fruits are sweet, take advantage and turn them into dessert toppings by simmering them for a couple of minutes with sugar, a bit of water, a slice of lemon and a cinnamon stick , vacuum and freeze.

Tip 6:  Make the best of fruits

Turn overripe bananas into banana bread, this can be done in an hour inclusive baking, lovely for breakfast or a snack when the kids come home from school. A lot cheaper than throwing them in the rubbish and buy ready- made jars of toppings and packets of snacks.

Tip 7:  Make your own juices

Delicious

When the store has overripe fruit and sells it cheap, blend it with a bit of water or that little leftover of milk or yogurt. 

Delicious drinks/smoothies, I do that all the time and make healthy fruit juices for less than 0.50 cents per glass. If you know how packed fruit juices are filtered you will follow this tip.

Tip 8: Do not throw bread away

Do not throw stale bread in the bin, grind it in a food processor, fresh or wet breadcrumbs are a fantastic binding agent for sauces and stews. Easy to vacuum and frozen they last for months. If you have a lot consider a bread and butter pudding.

Tip 9: Think traditional

Two eggs, a cup of flour, 2 tbsp of oil and a bit of salt makes dough that gives you enough pasta for a family of four. It takes five minutes to make the dough, then ten minutes to make pasta from the dough and it cooks in three minutes.

With some left over bacon, mushrooms, broccoli or zucchini half an onion and two more eggs you make an unmatched traditional Carbonara. How does that sound?

Fry the bacon, add the vegetables until soft, boil the pasta, add the pasta straight from the water into the bacon vegetable mix. Off the heat, add the whisked eggs and toss. That’s how they make pasta dishes in Italy. Absolutely divine.  

            

Tip 10:  Spend wisely     

                

Invest wisely, buy fresh food that fit your budget and remember that recipes are ideas that sprung from somebody’s mind, change to your liking, recipes are no laws.

Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less

I compiled these budget friendly tips so that you will not be locked up in your kitchen every day. Be inspired and cook healthy foods.

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn

How can you Benefit from Local Foods and the Local Food Movement

CHEF TALK

How can you Benefit from Local Foods and the Local Food Movement

Some facts:

There is a good healthy frenzy going around in the food world as a collaborative effort to build more locally based self reliant food economies. One in which local food production, processing, distribution and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place or geographical area.

I strongly support the idea where small entrepreneurs work hand in hand with local communities to promote their carefully produced products to an offset market not too far from their home base.

A United States department of Agriculture publication describes local food as “related to the distance between producers and consumers” as well as “defined in terms of social and supply chain characteristics”. The second part of this description is much more significant for the producers and consumers than the first part, because ultimately you decide how far you wish to travel to buy the produce you want.

The consumers approach:

What I like about the whole idea? It brings the consumer a significant step closer to the food chains. How food is produced, how derivatives from certain produce is made, think cheese and honey.

Why producers believe in organic produce, grass fed livestock and why they believe in a ‘free roaming’ environment for animals.

We should all believe in the relationship between people, earth and food. That is what we eat and what we eat is our health. The understanding that healthy produced sustainable food can ultimately bring about change, to people, to communities and to the earth as a whole,

It needs to be noted that not all produce labeled as local is sustainable, industrial produce and marketed within the geographical radius which is considered ‘local’ should not but can be labeled as sustainable. Producers that market real sustainable produce play therefore a big role in the local self reliant food economies. It is them that open their doors to the consumers and give insight to what sustainable local produce is all about.

Various programs have been established to promote local produce and more and more people in various communities support healthy produced and sustainable produce. There are the farmers markets to visit and get acquainted with a wide array of local produce. Another program exists where communities buy a part of the production of a particular farm and in some cases you can harvest produce left behind on a field and harvest yourself. The choice is yours.

Health benefits:

Food safety, health and nutrition are important considerations for consumers to decide why they should choose the local farmers market above a supermarket.

High levels of food production lead to increased use of chemicals to keep foods ‘fresh’ for a longer period of time necessary to process, store and transport. Small amounts of food borne bacteria can lead to disastrous consequences in these consolidated environments.

Long distance transportation systems require fuel which in return produces high levels of emissions, bad for the environment as a whole.

Local produce direct from farms do not require these practices and a different (correct) approach by the producers has health and nutrition in mind. Fruit ripens better and with more nutritional value on the mother plant, the fruit can be harvested close to peak ripening time.

Variety farming, smaller quantities per variety, result in produce with higher nutritional value by virtue of their variety in comparison to crops only produced for high yields. Grass fed beef is higher in good cholesterol (lower in bad) and higher in vitamin A and E, lower in fat and contain more antioxidants than factory produced beef.

Sustainable foods also use less (or no) pesticides, antibiotics and hormones commonly used in high production farming.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United States says that “food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life”. Well that sums it all up.

The overall advantage:

The local food movement is, as evidence indicates, an economy booster for local communities. They are more likely to spend their dollars on farm related investments locally than the large scale manufacturers.

What is in for the consumer? Meeting your neighbor at the farmers market is good for your social life. Share the experiences you had with local produce. Buddy shop if a seasonal product is too much for you to handle. 

Pre-prepare and vacuum for even longer shelf life. www.vacupack.com

Ultimately it all comes down to one, very important part of our daily life:

Good tasting nutritious, healthy, hearty food and our health.  

Find a vacuum sealer that suits your needs here: 

www.vacupack.com  or  www.vacupack.ca

Written for PMG by Marinus Hoogendoorn



         

CHEF TALK, Learn How to Save Money with Bulk Buying and Long Term Food Storage.

CHEF TALK

Learn How to $ave Money with Bulk Buying and Long Term Food Storage

We all like to save money, to some of us the ‘Buck Thrill’ is a way of life. Couponing is one favorite, takes a lot of time and being organized but it pays off. The fact is we do not all have the time to cut coupons and go to stores where the coupons are on offer at that particular time.

How to buy in bulk

Another good one is buying in bulk. This can be the ultimate bang for you. The warehouse type of stores are getting more and more “small” customer friendly and better still, they have quality stuff. Problem arises, what should I do with a 10 pound jar of pickles, there are only two of us in my house hold.

Well, you just have to be smart about ‘bulk’ buying and then these warehouse stores will work for you.

                                                                                   

First of all make a decent shopping list, if possible plan a weekly menu (or at least have some recipes on hand before you walk through those doors). Discipline yourself when you shop. With that, you do not overbuy and come home with all sorts of stuff you do not need.

       Buddy shop, go Dutch with a friend, family member, neighbor or colleague and share things that are too much to handle for your family.  

This works definitely for dry goods like toilet paper and multi packed smaller packaging (24 small packets of nuts in a big plastic bag). But how about large meat cuts you would normally avoid buying. Best 'to be vacuumed' money saver. The 7 or 8 Lbs strip loin below can be transformed into 24 or 25 great steaks in no time. Vacuum share, freeze and save money!  

Before

After

       

Make sure to shop with an ordinary shopping cart, these flat bed carts cheat your eyes, even the biggest packaging looks small on those things.

Go with the treasure hunt idea in mind. This is what I like and this is what I am going to cook with. Share your ideas with your buddy shopper and share the purchase. 

It works for him.....

Learn about new ingredients and how they can work for you. This is a great way to explore new foods, healthy and nutritious produce that you would normally stay away from.

There was a time that the thought of buying meats in a warehouse store would make ones stomach coil. Not anymore, times change and these bulk stores are an excellent place to buy top quality meats. If you do not see what you are looking for, ask. Bulk stores are realizing that people are interested in cooking with local and seasonal ingredients.

Money savers

And then there is another great money saver. It is your vacuum sealer. Why? You just read the answer, your bulk buying pays of even more with the help of your vacuum sealer.

Studies reveal that that you may save up to $ 2.700.00 per year with the help of your vacuum sealer. 
Find them here: www.vacupack.com  www.vacupack.ca

One of the best aspects of storing vacuum sealed foods is that it is extremely economical. Vacuum sealed foods last 3 to 5 times longer than ordinary packet fresh foods.  As a result the food maintains its color texture and appearance longer. Further, because vacuum sealed foods can last longer, you can buy in bulk, ‘save money’ and re-pack in the portion size that suits you.

Bring this to your advantage and make menu planning, buddy shopping and idea exchange a fun thing. Larger packing sizes are no concern anymore, vacuum and freeze perishables. Freezer burn is eliminated because vacuum packed food does not come in direct contact with the cold air in the freezer.

Advantages of vacuuming                                                                    

No more issues

Dry foods, such as brown sugar that you do not use on a daily basis, do not become hard because there is no air to absorb the moisture.    

Insect infestation is eliminated in the flour and sugar you bought in bulk.

The pores in fresh protein foods, meats and fish, open up when vacuumed. This allows better marinating and faster marinating times.

Less air in packaging will give you better organized storage options.

Some problems may arise when vacuuming liquids. Here are two tips to avoid that.

• 1      Freeze the product in a vacuum bag, then seal. The seal will prevent air from entering the bag.
• 2      Leave products like ready cooked meals and sauces to chill overnight. They will get a much firmer consistency. Many sauces will even gel up. When you vacuum the chilled products you will get the desired result.

Conclusion                                                                  

Your money saver

                                     www.vacupack.com  www.vacupack.ca

                                      

To conclude: Vacuum sealing your food and non-food preps is an economical and extremely effective way to save money and maintain a varied pantry. If you plan to use this method of saving money, prolonging the shelf –life of products and buddy shopping, I assure you a fast return of investment in a good quality vacuum sealer.   

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn