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Elena's Pantry for the Recession era

(14 posts)
  • Started 2 years ago by vyvyan
  • Latest reply from selkie
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  1. vyvyan
    Member

    In the real world... many of us don't have unlimited credit card balances for $400 vita mixes and $7.00 dagoba chocolate chips. Since Elana's recipe's brilliantly tend the use the same ingredients over and over, I'd be curious to know anyone else's ideas of shaving your grocery budget.

    Many of the ingredients found at health food stores are sold by entrepreneurs who go to Asia or South America, buy local products and laughably mark them up triple to raw/vegan food enthusiasts. You can often save money by shopping at local and Asian supermarkets that have to sell their products to ethnic populations who will not wowed by hype of organic or "whole" foods. For instance, I pay $.99 /lb for an organic apple in Koreatown (sometimes $.99/2lb) while my neighbors pay $1.99/lb (or $2.99) at the farmers market.

    Here are my ideas for saving money:

    Agave: substitute Palm sugar (lower on the GI and no controversy - yet) which I buy at the Asian supermarket for $1. I boil it down with 2 parts sugar, 1 part water and make my own syrup which takes like 3-4 minutes.

    Dark Chocolate: trader joes 71% (1.99) or whole foods brand ($2.29) which I chop up with a butcher knife. You get the "chocolate chunk" feel in brownies/cookies. I make sure to get the soy free chocolate bars which are only cacao and sugar

    Sea Salt - the 1.50 sea salt from TJ/Whole Foods brand rather than the $5-6.00 "celtic"

    Coconut Milk/Butter/etc - again Asian supermarkets have this at regular cost since every Thai restaurant you go to uses this stuff like water. No need to buy the Whole Foods coconut products for triple the cost (the "milk" is heavily watered down anyway).

    Baking soda - obviously sodium bicarbonate doesn't need to be purchased anywhere special.

    Pure Vanilla Extract - wildly overpriced at health food stores - Trader Joes has it for around $3-4.

    Cacao - another way of spelling Cocoa and then charging "raw" food people triple. If you are going to bake cacao than it defeats the "raw"ness anyway.

    Any other ideas?

    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. babovka
    Member

    vyvyan, thank you for this post. It has really excellent information. I love your idea of using the palm sugar, I am definitely going to try that!

    I don't know what kind of sea salt that Trader Joe's sells, but make sure the sea salt is not a pure white, for it to have lots of minerals it needs to be gray or pink, etc. Considering how little salt one uses in any given recipe, it could well be worth spending more for high quality.

    I use coconut oil in place of grapeseed oil because I think it is far healthier and am having difficulty finding it where I live (in Europe). You got me thinking about checking the Asian stores. Do you, by chance, know if particular ethnic cultures use coconut oil in their cooking?

    Posted 2 years ago #

  3. adelshad
    Member

    I really like these ideas vyvyan. I too buy a lot from TJs - including sea salt and chocolate, the 71% is delish! I also often use their almond meal which is quite inexpensive and although it is not blanched I've had no problems with Elana's recipes.I do use agave, I found some on sale half price so I stocked up, but I'll have to check into the palm sugar. I think that 100% fruit juice concentrates are a good option for some recipes. As far as vanilla goes - I use it a lot, so I make my own using vanilla beans and rum (1 bean per 1 cup liquor). Even though the beans are expensive this makes a lot of vanilla so it saves money in the end.

    Babovka - a lot of caribbean cultures use coconut oil in their cooking

    I also make up for the extra cost of gluten free baking by shopping frugally for my other groceries, particularly in the realm of proteins. I eat a lot of beans (a very inexpensive protein). I buy canned Alaskan Wild Salmon rather than fresh - it works great for salmon patties and for salads. I am not completely grain free so affordable staples like rice, oats and quinoa also help keep costs in check. Last I buy a lot of my produce and all of my spices at a hispanic grocery store - they have the freshest and the cheapest stuff! I also use a lot of frozen, rather than fresh, fruits and veggies.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  4. mymanzwife
    Member

    A couple of you have mentioned the Trader Joe's 71% chocolate. Would that happen to be their "Fair Trade Swiss Dark Chocolate"? If so, I really like that one, too. If you're looking for organic, TJ's has a "73% Super Dark" (lavender metallic wrapper) for $1.99 as well. Both are 3.5 oz bars and soy-lecithin free.

    I found Celtic Sea Salt (aka Grey Sea Salt) by Le Tresor which is cheaper in bulk than at the celticseasalt.com link provided by Elana. Although their 1 lb. bag is about the same price, a 5 lb. bag of their fine is only $25.90 vs. $49.50. Free shipping for orders of $25, too. Just click on "Also available in bulk". Got mine delivered today.
    http://www.saltworks.us/shop/product.asp?idProduct=265

    I like the palm sugar syrup idea, too. When I first happened on this site about a month ago, I saw a post in the "palm sugar" thread on making the syrup and thought it was an interesting idea. And since I was just getting started with all of this, I took that approach instead of using the agave nectar. I have no idea how the recipes vary in taste from the two sweeteners, but I absolutely LOVE the flavor that the palm sugar imparts. I don't have Asian markets anywhere local so have been buying mine online, but is the one vyvyan mentioned a granulated form of it; how much do you get for $1, and does it say if it comes from the "Cocos Nuciferas" variety? From what I read, that's the only one that was tested as having the low glycemic rating of 35.
    http://cocopalmsugar.sch.ph/node/54

    Oh, and adelshad...if I made homemade vanilla as yummy sounding as the one you're making, then I'd be using a whole lot of it, too! ;) Any particular brand of rum??

    Posted 2 years ago #

  5. vyvyan
    Member

    Are there any S.E. Asian people in your area? If so 99% there is an asian market somewhere that might have palm sugar (check yelp.com if it's listing busineses in your area). I also always buy produce from asian markets - it's about 75-80% cheaper sometimes. You have to bargain bin dig sometimes because they get the less "pretty" fruit, but its worth it.

    For sugar the cheapest ones are the blocks called GULA JAWA from Indonesia manufactured by ASLI (distributed by Wira Corp 866-330-3500) . I think its available on amazon but its probably not worth the cost when you add shipping. I haven't noticed much of a taste difference other than the pancakes which burned (or turned) black when I cooked them too fast. If you are stuck in the boonies you can always buy SweetTree which is about $4/lb for a granulated product. I dunno if the GI is actually 35... seems too good to be true. But the taste blows away Stevia or any other junk like that.

    Also coconut milk/cream is awesome from these same markets. Really creamy and rich (about 20% fat) and cheap (like about $1). It can be watered down for drinking or used in cooking, or used to put into coffee.

    Another deal I found yesterday: Target has Wild Alaskan Salmon steaks, 2lb bag for around $9 and they are individually cut and wrapped. This is about 50% less than what you would pay at TJ's.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  6. mymanzwife
    Member

    Unfortunately, I'm more "boonies"--Asian markets are about 40-45 min. away. I did look up the palm sugar you mentioned, but I noticed that it's mixed with cane sugar. From what I've been reading and learning about palm sugar, this is more often the case when buying in Asian markets, and if one is wanting to get the lower glycemic benefit, it really should be 100% Cocos Nuciferas. (I've got a diabetic husband so I have to be more careful.) I've been buying the Natural Nativas brand, and actually they may be the same company as Sweet Tree (not sure), because the packaging was identical at one site I checked out. Thanks for your response, though! I do wish I had access to the Asian markets for the other things you've mentioned.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  7. vyvyan
    Member

    http://www.efooddepot.com/products/Asli/21152/Asli_Palm_Sugar.html#product is the one I buy and its 100% palm sugar (unless they are lying on the package) but you can see a close-up here: http://www.efooddepot.com/products/images/zoom/A/0/2974/Original_Java_Sugar__hypen__Palm_Candy_%28Gula_Jawa%29__hypen__17oz.jpg

    It says PALM CANDY and it tastes exactly the same (and has the same texture and color) as Sweet Tree when melted down (I boiled them both down) Try efooddepot.com

    Posted 2 years ago #

  8. mymanzwife
    Member

    Hmm...that is so weird. When you mentioned what you use, I had Googled "gula jawa asli wira" and the first thing that came up was the website of the distributor, Wira Corp, so I went there. The first two items on the page are the ASLI Palm Sugar, and when enlarging the photos, the front of the bag says Palm Candy along with two types of sugar--arenga and cane.
    http://www.wiracorp.com/?s=product&pcat=22&stat=cat&scode=P001

    Maybe those are outdated photos and they've changed their product to 100% palm sugar now, which would seem to be the case with the photos at efooddepot. If it's the arenga only (no cane), then that's just one of those several varieties of palm sugars listed in that link I posted above. I still need to stick to the Cocos Nuciferas variety, though, just to be on the safe side as far as it being tested for a low glycemic value. But, one never knows if that's just some selling gimmick! So confusing...

    Posted 2 years ago #

  9. mymanzwife
    Member

    I wrote a couple of posts ago: "I've been buying the Natural Nativas brand"...

    That should've been, Navitas Naturals.
    http://www.navitasnaturals.com/products/palm.html

    Posted 2 years ago #

  10. vyvyan
    Member

    just to be clear for anyone else - GULA JAWA means "Javanese sugar" and is sometimes mixed with cane sugar. So if you want the cheap 100% palm sugar you need to check on the package. some of the larger packages in Asian stores are made for cooking and are mixtures which contain cheaper cane sugar mostly. Navitas and SweetTree (both available at Whole Foods) are OK but are priced about 200-300% higher (but they are granulated).

    Posted 2 years ago #

  11. lisastafford
    Member

    I bought my refurbished Vitamix at much lower than retail. Just call them up and ask. I got both containers. I can chop or grind nuts in the dry one, and it works great.

    I found boneless and skinless canned salmon at Trader Joes, and I am making Elana's Salmon Dill Burgers tonight with it.

    I am buying TJ's lite coconut milk because it has no added guar gum, etc. It is $.99 per can. TJ's Almond Butter is $4.99 and their homemade mayonaisse appears to be safe for our family, and reasonably priced.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  12. jade
    Member

    @mymanzwife: You're not tooooo boonies if you have Trader Joe's. We do not have a TJ's here in Salt Lake City, Utah. The closest one is in Las Vegas - a 6 hour drive away. We do have Whole Foods, but it is NOT the same as TJ's. I miss Trader Joe's - you're so lucky!

    Posted 2 years ago #

  13. mymanzwife
    Member

    Hi Jade - yes, I AM lucky to have a Trader Joe's! There's only two in the whole state of Ohio and they happen to be in the Columbus area. It's still about a 40 min. drive to get to the one location, so I don't get to go as often as I would like to, but at least I can stock up when I get there. When I lived in southern California for many years, I had a Trader Joe's 5 min. away so was quite spoiled. I would've really missed it if I could never get to one here in Ohio! It sounds like that's what has happened with you, so I can totally understand.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  14. selkie
    Member

    Thanks for posts, some fabulous ideas. I've only used palm sugar in coconut sorbet, the syrup idea is fab. I love the flavor of it too..

    I've bought TJ's almond meal and yes it is a very good price, but it has the label "processed in facility that also processes wheat" so now I stay away from it
    (have Celiac). Same with their chocolate, I think (but would have to check label for sure).

    Posted 2 years ago #

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