Big flavor, big savings (2)

Pizza is one of the most common dinners for us. It’s super easy to cook (just put it in an oven). It’s fun to decide what kind of pizza to make, depending on your mood. And pizza dough can be used to make garlic bread if you don’t feel like grating cheese. So, this time I want to talk about our pizza dough.

 

URL of the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-white-bread/

 I talked about our bread in “big flavor, big saving (1)”, we basically use the same recipe, with a little different ingredients.

Ingredients for 6-8 pizza dough:
2 cups of water
1/3 cup of white sugar
1.5 table spoon of active dry yeast
1.5 teaspoon of salt
2 table spoon of olive oil
5 cups of Semolina flour
1 cup of all-purpose flour

Semolina flour is a little more expensive than all-purpose flour. It costs about $3.50 for a bag which contains 5 cups. So 1 cup of semolina is about 70 cents. And 1 cup of flour costs about 12 cents. So, the flour cost for this recipe is $3.62. Total cost for the recipe is about $4.00.

If you make 6 servings of dough out of it, 1doughball is less than 70 cents. By the way, 1doughball is large enough for 2 adults to share for sure.

I was curious how much it costs if we buy pizza dough at shop. So, we went to check it out. The dough costs $1.85 per crust at a supermarket nearby.  

The most important ingredient to make pizza is cheese, right? We can get 1 block of cheese for $2, which is big enough to cover 1 pizza. And let’s say, if we will make a chicken pizza, 1 chicken breast costs about $2. Considering all other vegetables you want to put on a pizza, 1 large sized pizza cost should be about $5 to $6.

We can get 1 small 4 slice pizza for $5 from “Little Ceaser” for $5. But the size is much smaller than our pizza, and has no vegetables on it. When we order almost the same size one from a pizza delivery with vegetables, it costs $12 at least.

We have been looking for easy and yummy desserts. One day we saw a Panna Cotta’s picture in a restaurant.  So we found this recipe, and fell in love! It tastes super rich so that a little piece makes me feel “enough” quickly. Ingredients are simple enough to not scare us away, and cooking time is amazingly short, like 10 minutes!

Recipe URL: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/panna-cotta-with-fresh-berries-recipe.html

Ingredients for 6 cups of Panna Cotta:
1 cup of whole milk
3 cups of whipping cream
1 tablespoon of gelatin
1/3 cup of honey
1 tablespoon of sugar
Pinch of salt
Garnish with fruits as you like (We love strawberries, bananas, and green apples.)

1 gallon of milk costs $2.39 here. And 1 gallon is equal to 16 cups. So 1 cup of milk costs 15 cents.

4 cups of whipping cream is $1.39. So 3 cups costs about $1. Including other cost except for fruits should be about $1.50 for 6 cups. 1 cup is like 25 cents.

By the way, the price of the Panna Cotta we saw in the restaurant was $3.99, which is 16 times more expensive than the cost. Thief! Rip off! Police!

Big flavor, big savings (1)

This is a loaf of bread we started to make.

We got the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-white-bread/

Ingredients for 2 loaves of bread:

 

2 cups of water

2/3 cup of white sugar
1.5 table spoon of active dry yeast
1.5 teaspoon of salt
¼ cup of vegetable oil
6 cups of bread flour.

 

I wanted to know how much it costs for 6 cups of bread flour which we use for this recipe.

So, I measured by cup a 5LBs bag of flour which we usually get from a grocery shop. (It costs about $1.69)

One 5LBs bag contains about 14 cups of flour. So, it means that 1 cup costs about 12 cents. When we use 6 cups for this recipe, it costs only 72 cents! And even after adding up all of the other ingredients, it costs only about $1.

When we go to the super market and buy 2 bags of bread, it costs $5. We are saving $4 out of it. Each slice is about a half inch. Our beautiful loaf is nearly same size.

Maybe some people say that they need “unbleached flour” instead of cheap one. Sure, unbleached flour cost about $3.30 per 5LBS bag. Still, you are saving $3 every 2 loaves.

Plus, the time we need for the preparation for this recipe is just a half hour. After that, we wait until yeast rises and start baking. We can do whatever we want to do in that time.

Recipe URL: http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/32498/honey-limeade
Ingredients for 1 pitcher of limeade:

1 cup of lime juice

5 cups of water
2/3 cup of white sugar
2 table spoons of honey
Limeade is one of my favorite drinks in America. It’s bitter but refreshing and always sharpens and wakes up your brain.

We can get 20 limes for $1 in one of our closest grocery shops. 1 cup of lime juice takes about 5 limes. So the cost of limes for this recipe is only about 50 cents. Including all other ingredients, the total cost is 80 cents at most.

When we buy a one carton of lemonade (59 FL OZ), it costs about $1.75. 59 FL OZ is 8 cups. If you calculate the cost for 6 cups, which is the same amount you can get from the recipe, it is about $1.30. So, we can save 50 cents each carton.

When I use all of the 20 limes ($1) for limeade, I can save up to $2, which would cover the gas for the return trip from the grocery store!

Though I also like lemonade, lemons cost about 50cents each here, which is 10 times more expensive than a lime. Considering the cost and returns, I am fine with this yummy limeade!

Excercise Report - After 1 month.

Since I left my ex-company, one month has passed. I went to the gym 26 times out of 31 days. And I can already see several changes.

 

Our gym’s treadmill has a calorie counter so I have been checking how many calories are burnt after jogging. Here is the sum up.

When I run 5MPH, with 0.3mile X 2sets, and walk 3MPH with 0.2mile X 2sets (Total: 1mile), I burned about 130calories.

When I run 5MPH, with 0.35miles X 3sets, and walk 3MPH with 0.15miles X 3sets (Total: 1.5mile), I burned about 200 calories.

After calculation, this means that 5MPH jog burns about 140calories per hour, and 3MPH walk burns about 110 calories per hour. (FYI, I am 5’6”, and weighs 150lbs.)

My legs do not look that different, but my arms definitely started to look different. So I put my arms’ pictures which were taken a month ago (Left) and recently (Right).

 

 

I am a guitarist, so my first goal is to get stamina for my arms to play the guitar for a few hours straight. I could actually reach this goal in one month. But this workout has been the first thing I do in the morning, and I practiced the guitar after that. This really made my body tired out and after a few hours of guitar playing my both arms started to shake and I could not even hold milk carton for a while.

So, next month, I am planning to work out every other day instead of 5 to 6 days a week, and take off one day a week to not work out nor play guitar. I will report the result again!

 

 

CUTTING COSTS WITHOUT CUTTING CORNERS

Since leaving the corporate world for a more creatively-fulfilling one, we have been finding new ways to build a healthy lifestyle that won't break the bank! Here is an example of a possible Monday for us now:

1) Wake up.
2) Make a breakfast of one big omelet to share, fixed with 2 eggs, turkey bacon, and tomatoes and basil from our potted, indoor garden by the window. With herbs and veggies growing right here, we've just saved around $1.30, plus the petrol to go to the grocery market!
3) Answer emails.
4) Begin making bread to use for sandwiches at lunch time... allow dough to rise at least 1 hour...
5) Perform at least a 20-minute workout with a DVD from the library. Saved on the cost of purchasing a DVD or online program subscription! Also, now pumped up to face the day!
6) We work. At least 8 hours, but usually closer to 11 hours a day. This is a freelancer's world! Gotta pay those bills!
7) In-between working, continue with bread recipe... divide dough into 2 pans and allow to rise another 30 minutes... then bake at 350F for 30 mintues...
8) Once bread cools, slice and make sandwiches for lunch! Just saved again by not eating out, and by not wasting time or fuel to leave the house! Also saved on bread for the next two weeks or more. One loaf at the grocery store is $2.99. With this recipe, you get 2 loaves for around $1.00!
9) Answer emails again.
10) After or in-between working, we go for walks, shop near our apartment, or ride our bicycles to the library for a re-stock of books, CDs, and DVDs! All of this means exercise, cleared minds, detoxed bodies, and- my personal favorite- MORE BOOKS. The whole trip will also make a minimal dent in our wallet!
11) Make dinner. Kei and I cook by color. Different colored foods contain different useful nutrients. So a common meal for us is Donburi (fish/meat and veggies over hot rice). Usually we toss together diced chicken breast, carrots, broccoli, red pepper, zucchini, corn, purple cabbage, and onion in a pan with cooking sake, soy sauce, and chicken broth. Once the chicken is browned and the carrots soft, we serve over hot rice! Very delicious and very healthful!
12) We relax in the evenings, which is a big relief at the end of a full day. Zzzzzz.....

* Amish Bread Recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-white-bread/
* A good base recipe for Donburi: http://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/beef-donburi-with-shiso-garlic-soy-sauce/