Updated Crab rolls

I took this basic crab roll recipe I made:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/01/crab-rolls.html
and decided to pump it up, nutritionally. I couldn't find asian slaw and I didn't feel like grating my own cabbage so when I saw that Wegmans had "rainbow salad" which was Asian slaw with grated broccoli... I thought what they heck, and substituted for the additional nutrition of broccoli. I used zesty clover and radish sprouts this time, added more dill, and sprinkled in some five spice.

Crab rolls

Here's another one of my wing-and-a-prayer efforts:













In a bowl I mixed:

• 1 bag Asian slaw from wegmans (about 5 cups of Napa Cabbage, carrots and celery)
• About one cup bean sprouts
• one small can fancy lump crab meat
• two teaspoons fresh dill

I used this as filling for some egg roll wrappers and since I didn't have any eggs, sealed them with corn starch in water. The egg roll wrappers were pre-made, I believe they were Melissa's.

I fried mine in my Le Creuset skillet. I layered the skillet with less than 1/4 inch of canola oil, and rolled them after a few minutes so I could get each side.

Now the vegetable egg rolls I love at Wegmans are $6 for 5. I paid about $10 for all the ingredients for these and the yield is 15, with some filling left over for the tortoise.

Served with thai plum dipping sauce and low sodium soy sauce. My only complaint is I should have filled them more.

A few days after this post, a fancier recipe site posted a more gourmet Vietnamese spring roll recipe. I'll include the link:

http://laurasbestrecipes.com/2009/04/vietnamese-spring-rolls-with-peanut-sauce.html

Midnight snack

I didn't get dinner tonight so I survived on a Special K breakfast bar, a die of cheese, two pieces of salami and a quarter-sized peanut butter cookie at a special writer's meeting.

But afterwards, I stopped at Wegmans.

Figured I'd get some of those vegetable egg rolls I adore and some mint chocolate milk. They didn't have my milk. So I got Pomme Lambric (Belgian Apple Beer).

Now, when I originally got the 2 egg rolls and the milk before class one night, it was $4.03 or something similar.

Five egg rolls were $5.99 and the 750 ml of lambric... $10.99. Not cheap. But so tasty.

Asian tonight

I opened my freezer in shock to find it was mostly empty. No homemade bread, no baked goods, no frozen meals left for me to heat in an instant.

So tonight, I took the last of the frozen chicken egg rolls from the warehouse store and I mixed up some oriental style sauce: about a teaspoon garlic powder, a teaspoon honey, three tablespoons sesame oil, one teaspoon sugar, about three tablespoons water, a 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and a half teaspoon oriental five spice.

I poured the sauce into a skillet with lots of frozen mixed vegetables (the kind normally for soup) and added a couple tablespoons of sesame seeds. I cooked the mix on high for about five minutes to thaw the veggies, then I turned the heat down and let it simmer.

Meanwhile, I started some instant brown rice with some butter. I also thawed the egg rolls in the microwave. When they finished, I tossed the egg rolls in the skillet with the veggies.

Finally, I started the tea pot and made some green tea with honey.

I made iced tea with the green tea. I piled rice into bowls, topped it with vegetables, and added the egg rolls to each bowl. Normally, when I make random stirfries without a formal recipe, they come out bland and I have a boatload leftover which nobody wants to eat. Today, it was incredible. And everybody wanted more. But there wasn't any.

Flea Shampoo Potatoes and Egg Rolls

Tonight my husband has another Christmas party that didn't include spouses or families so the preschooler and I are on our own. I made pineapple fried in equal parts soy sauce, olive oil and canola oil, and the mini egg rolls I mentioned earlier in December.

I also made what is known in this house as "flea shampoo potatoes." I forget the real name, but it's a vegan recipe that can feature either dill or parsley. If you use dill, the smell is oddly reminiscent of flea shampoo. We love dill, and if I have fresh dill I load it on. Simply put, for flea shampoo potatoes you fry the potatoes in olive oil, soy sauce and lots and lots of dill. I like my potatoes salty, so I use 50/50 on the oil and soy sauce but you can adjust to taste. My daughter ate a portion like this and just asked for two more mini egg rolls. AND more potatoes.

Another easy secret to fun convenience food is to use funky sauces. I served these egg rolls with a plum dipping sauce. The 7 oz. bottle was $3.59, which is steep, but it jazzes up a cop-out meal and is used sparingly. I got mine at Wegmans.

Shopping tips...

Periodically, I'll try to share my shopping tips. Remember, every family is different and my techniques might not work for you, but maybe they will.

1. Never clip a coupon for something you normally wouldn't be tempted to buy. Most coupons are for convenience foods, foods that try to gain our children's loyalty or brands that remain expensive even after you save that dollar. I only clip coupons for items that would typically end up in my cart. 

2. If you primarily use lemons and limes for their juice, buy a bunch when they're cheap in the summer and freeze. It will destroy the texture of the fruit, but if you plan on using only the juice anyway... what's the difference? Hummus, lemon bars, guacamole, etc. Just need juice. Right?

3. On the topic of French wine... My French professor in college always said, "You can never go wrong with a Beaujolais" (for its price and flavor) as a basic table wine. I also adore Vouvray when the occasion calls for a white.

4. Know where you shop. One local supermarket near me has a breakfast cereal sale every few months. The cereal was priced something like 4 boxes/$10, I would save my cereal coupons for that sale. Also, there's a CVS within three blocks of my house. Every six weeks or so, they would put their generic diapers on sale (and I swear those things were just like Huggies) buy two get one free. I bought my diapers then (and enlisted relatives as needed when my customer limit was reached). On top of that, CVS had an additional deal with the bonus card that if you bought four packs of diapers, you got a coupon for a free pack. Granted, they didn't 'count' free ones toward the total, but even I'm not that greedy.

5. Know what you buy, why you buy it, and how much you really use. Conventional wisdom says "Buy in bulk." I don't buy into that. I buy bulk where it makes sense for me: cheese, toilet paper, toothbrushes, soap. But sometimes the big bottle of juice, or the pre-cut broccoli florets in the bag the size of potato chips, will spoil before you use it. I can't buy the cheap-o tub of organic spring mix at the warehouse store. Yeah, it costs as much as the one half its size at my supermarket, but it starts to rot the second I put it in my fridge. We use about 1/4 of it by the time it goes bad. Therefore, it's cheaper to use the smaller one. We don't waste any. How many things do we buy out of habit? Snack foods often fit in this category, as do expensive drinks. In many cases, there is a cheaper alternative that still pleases the palate.

6. Track what you buy, how you use it, and what items seem to serve the family best and which ones are splurges.

7. Determine what you use most and see if you can save money on these particular items. Like when I wait for the cheese sale...

8. The take-out trap. We all love take-out. Today I really wanted take-out. But as I'm broke... I managed to talk myself out of it. Sometimes, when I want take out, I indulge in a different kind of treat. Let's say I want Chinese. Instead of spending $30 on a restaurant, I go to the grocery store and allow myself a $15 budget (see, I'm still saving money). I check the frozen food aisle for a General Tso's Chicken or Sweet and Sour Chicken frozen entree or I get a big bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables and some chicken or I splurge on some funky sauces for the eggrolls I have in the freezer and make my own fried rice or egg drop soup. 

9. Avoid pre-packaged anything. Pre-chopped apples are the latest rage and this floors me. I like apples in their skins. It's like a handy carrying case. String cheese? Is this necessary? I have never seen someone refuse cheese because of its shape or because it wasn't fun enough. Little individual cups of yogurt? Get the 32 oz. Single serving drinks? Buy a thermos.

10. Cleaning chemicals. Other than my father-in-law's FANTASTIC homemade Windex, I clean 90% of my house with some combination of the following: vinegar, baking soda, and isoporyl alcohol. And forget expensive pretreaters for the laundry. I use a $1 bar of Fels Naptha soap. The same bar I bought around the time my daughter was born. 

There's my first ten tips. Let me know what you think. ;.)

Honey Glazed Egg Rolls with oriental seasoned carrots and rice

At our local warehouse club, I often buy some sort of frozen egg or spring rolls. I select the type based on what I read on the label. When I know I will be running from meeting to meeting all day, I toss one in my bag still frozen. Then when I get a minute, I can wrap it in a paper towel, toss it in the microwave and since it is usually fairly thawed by then, it cooks in a flash and I can wolf it down while driving, packing for my next engagement, whatever. And they have enough protein to keep me going.

I noticed them in the freezer Tuesday night, and believe me they stood out in that sparse environment. I usually make them with stir fry and serve pineapple on the side. But no pineapple. No stir fry vegetables. Just carrots. About a half pound.

So I peeled them and cut them and cooked them. While they were cooking, I whipped up a oriental-style sauce for them. The 'base' was a recipe for ginger carrots from the American Heart Association Low Salt cookbook. But I am NOT including that recipe here. Imagine my recipe with just the ginger, butter and sugar.

Combine in a small skillet:

2 teaspoons butter (I used the real thing)

@ 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I'm not real good with measuring or sticking to a recipe.)

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 drop sesame oil

1 pinch oriental five spice

When carrots are tender crisp, prepare them in sauce.

Now, I took the dirty skillet, added some canola and some sesame oil and about a tablespoon of honey and fried the [precooked in the microwave] egg rolls in it. I made white rice (I usually used brown, but someone gave this to me.) The egg rolls got very dark very quickly because of the honey, but we liked it.