Comments of the Week

This week, readers brainstorm tips for hot-weather cooking, Jaime salutes the ultimate ballpark food, and Kirby explains Hulu for the uninitiated (i.e. me).

On CHG Favorites of the Week

Kirby: (re: Hulu.com) It offers free episodes and clips from tv and movies. You have to sit through short (30 sec.) commercials, but the offerings are worth it (like all of Firefly, full episodes of Family Guy and the Simpsons.) You don't have to sign up to use it, but if you do they will notify you when they add new episodes of shows you are waiting for.

On City Kitchen Chronicles: My Wet Hot New Yorkian Summer

c.r.a.: Not opening the windows until the temperature outside is less than it is inside, is also key (an indoor outdoor thermometer comes in handy for that).

Anonymous: Try using a slow cooker for some meals, if you have one. It won't heat up the apartment like an oven. I also swear by lemonade in the heat.

Paul: I'm all about cottage cheese and hummus... especially mixing it with Trader Joe's chipotle hummus... which I'm pretty sure is the best hummus in the galaxy.. it looks sort of grody but tastes like heaven.

Pam: My favorite summer meal is shrimp cocktail w/buffalo mozzarella and sliced tomatoes.

On Tuesday Megalinks: Longest. Ever. Edition.

Jaime: (re: stadium eats) The only ballpark food worth eating is Dippin Dots. Eating anything else is wasting time, money, and calories that could be spent on Dippin Dots.

On FAQing With a Side of Curried Chickpeas

Chief Family Officer: I highly recommend these CL sandwich recipes (hopefully he likes pesto): Turkey Pesto Sandwiches (from 2002! can you tell I've been a CL fan forever?) and Pesto Chicken Salad Sandwiches (makes a ton b/c it's a lunch club recipe, I usually make half a recipe).

Cookus Interruptus: Curry powder can be kind of uninteresting. YOu'll get a lot more flavor by either fresh grinding the whole spices purchased in bulk (cumin, cardomom) and combining with some tumeric OR making a cool curry paste to keep in your fridge and add to things (my favorite).

(Photo courtesy of Treehugger.)

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Comments of the Week

This week, it’s coupon tips, suggestions for forgiving yourself, and a slew of fantastic ideas for thrice-a-week veggie dinners. Cam, as god as my witness, I am trying those Nachos Grande. AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME!

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

On Of Plumbing and Turkey Burgers
(I mentioned Dave and Kelly's sink woes in Tuesday’s post. This is his update.)

Dave: after an entire weekend spent in the house, approximately fifteen calls to the landlord, and two visits from some very nice gentlemen with some exceeding hard core pieces of equipment, kel and i have, like you guys, come to appreciate the wonders that a fully functional kitchen represents. i also appreciate the wonder that is the modern drain snake. probably a little more than kel does. but man, that thing is awesome.

OTHER GREAT COMMENTS

On Relax Frugal Eater: A Measured Approach to Lifestyle Changes

Ms. Meghan: Make sure the reward doesn't offset the act it's rewarding. In other words, if you managed to lose five pounds, don't go out and have an ice cream cone to celebrate (unless treats are part of the plan).

Kristen: I've had a bad habit of wasting food for a long time, and I've finally started to work on it in earnest. I'm blogging about it now(link is in my profile), and it's helped me a lot. Knowing that I've promised myself that I will post a photo of the food I throw away has really motivated me to persevere in using my food.

Daniel Koontz: Allow yourself a "cheat day" once in a while. On that day, you allow yourself to break a few of your rules without feeling guilty about it.

On Monday Megalinks: The Kitchen Sink Edition
(re: Vegetarian dinner ideas)

mollyjade: It's vegetable grilling season. Beyond the usuals like corn or vegetable kebabs (with or without marinated tofu), you can also grill things like pizza or potatoes. And leftover grilled vegetables make great sandwiches or grain or pasta toppings.

Jesse Harris: Beans are often a great way to enjoy meatless entrees without resorting to everyone's favorite carb. I'm especially fond of lentil soup or even a simple meal of hummus with cucumber slices and pita.

Marianne: Our #1 favorite is the Vegetable and Bean Tamale Pie from Cook's Illustrated's "The Best Make-Ahead Meals". I make the full recipe but portion it out in cheap aluminum bread pans, then chuck them in the freezer.

Jill: My 14 yo daughter went veggie on us a year ago and rather than cook two meals, I just started serving more vegetarian meals to all of us. It is cheaper and healthier (usually!) anyway.

Cam: I have two words: Nachos grandes. Take a 9x12 casserole dish and fill it about halfway with tortilla chips. Add a layer of sliced avocado. Add a layer of refried beans (we prefer homemade black beans). On top of that, corn, on top of that, salsa, and on top of that, cheese. Cook 15 min at 450. Nom, Nom, Nom.

molly b.: My favorite thing in the summer is to make up fresh guacamole (avocados are cheap and plentiful in my neck of the woods) and serve it with the black bean flautas from the old Vegetarian Times Cookbook. ... They're also really good with Southern Living's Hill Country Salsa. Another favorite is a big spinach salad, with homemade pita chips and a dip that a friend told us about: black beans and feta in the food processor. Just add some of each until you get the desired consistency. :-)

Kelly: My favorite meatless meals are Epicurious' Spiced Black Bean Burgers and Cooking Light's Baked Eggplant with Savory Cheese Stuffing.

On Eating Healthy While Clipping Coupons

Anonymous: 1. Don't use that little "coupon wallet" to store them in. I keep mine in a trapper -keeper filled with transparent baseball card holders … 2. Check the coupons in the paper before you leave the store. … 3. Some larger stores will triple coupons less than 40 cents, and double coupons less than 51 cents. …4. If you're lucky, and brave enough to rummage in the shadows, your store has a dark corner filled with food unworthy of being sold looking pretty. Coupons count towards these items.

Saving Advice: You can contact organic companies directly and often get coupons for their products. Here is a list of contact numbers for organic and natural food companies.

Monroe on a Budget: If you want to buy "pantry items" (useful for cooking from scratch) on coupons, you will find them as part of the Thanksgiving / Christmas foods marketing campaigns.Yes, I'm talking about flour, canned milk, Splenda, cinnamon and other spices, even cookie sheets.

NH Mom of 3: First -- I was recently shopping at my local food co-op and noticed near the entrance a coupon book (geared towards the natural/organic type of items) in the rack with a list of weekly/monthly specials at the store. … 2nd -- I sometimes can find better deals on pantry staples and fresh fruits/veggies at stores like Costco, BJs, etc. But this tip is really only effective if you know your family can actually EAT everything that might be in the bigger item there.

(Photos courtesy of downtownpropertymanagement, and i can has cheezburger.)

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Comments of the Week

This week, it’s kale recipes, coupon clipping, vegetarian beefs, and remembrances of Presidents of the United States of America gone by. Oh, and if you have the time, check out all the great responses to What Would You Do: Restaurant Gives Meat to a Vegetarian. The consensus: I should have spoken to a manager, yo.

On Millions of Grilled Peaches (Grilled Peaches for Me)

molly b: Can't believe someone else actually remembers that song. We had a hamster once that we named Peaches... because we got her for free. :-)

Monica: I loved that song! So much I bought the whole CD. Oh the crapola we listened to in order to get one great song. Thank you so much iTunes!

On Eating Healthy While Clipping Coupons: The Dos and Don’ts

Pam: I started clipping coupons a couple of months ago and was amazed at how many of them are for personal care items. Since I'm not brand loyal for these kinds of things, I've saved a lot of money using coupons. It's freed up more of my grocery budget for the organic dairy I've been wanting to purchase but couldn't.

Di Hickman: Also for those looking for healthier coupons, try Mambosprouts.com they have some health food coupons, but then you gotta search the supermarkets to find the items! (though whole foods does take coupons)

Chocoholic: Another thing on the websites, especially organic companies, sign up for their emails! I routinely get emails from Horizon, Organic Valley, etc. that have coupons in them. Make sure to check out the register coupons some places print. I've bought Amy's pizzas and gotten Kashi pizza coupons and vice versa.

On Kale and Hearty: White Bean and Kale Soup with Turkey Sausage

c.r.a.: Now that you have discovered kale, may I suggest my favorite kale recipe, Pasta with Kale and Fontina? It is so good. I only use half of the pasta called for to make it more about the veggie goodness (and as a result, you can scale back the chicken broth a little) and gouda cheese is, I think, even better than the fontina. It also makes rocking leftovers.

Leigh: Kale is my favorite leafy green. When in doubt, just sautee with garlic and mmm! Enjoy your new, healthy relationship.

Anonymous: As for other greens, can I suggest Swiss Chard? I make a one dish meal (sounds better than casserole ?) with Canadian bacon, Swiss chard, potatoes and Gruyere ( or regular Swiss) cheese that is very good. Recipe is here.

On Veggie Might: That’s What I Was Going to Say

Jen@BigBinder: When I go to a restaurant, I want someone who can do something snazzy with vegetables so I usually order a vegetarian dish. I think there is a greater potential for interesting and beautiful and tasty dishes I can't make at home.

CraftyKate: I can only speak for myself of course, but as a long time veggie who lives with a meat eating boyfriend it makes me uncomfortable when a meat eating family make too big of a deal about me being veggie. … I really don't want to be a burden, and while it's incredibly sweet she's willing to go out of her way to make me welcome in her home, I always feel like a finicky pain when she buys me my own meal. I'm happy with the non meat portions of the meal!

Michelle: I know food choices can be hard, but I think vegan shoes have really come along way! One of my favorite vegan shoe sites is: http://www.vegetarianshoesandbags.com/. They also just added a children's line as well! doesn't get any easier than this!

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Comments of the Week

Y’know, sometimes, it’s hard being Snoop D-o-double-g, but not this week. There was some GREAT commentary - suggestions and stories both - on brown-bagging. Be on special lookout for Jennifer, who goes above and beyond the call of lunch.

On The Brown Bag Brigade: Your One-Stop Shop for Work Lunch Ideas

Meags: I hate leaving the office during lunch because it wastes 20 minutes of my hour getting to the place and back.

Deborah: I think the best thing about taking lunch to work is that I'm not stuck in a restaurant, or standing in line, or rusing to and from my food destination for an hour. ... I would often take my lunch to the local park, or to the local lake. 30 minutes sitting watching nature go buy sure beats sitting at a table or standing in a line when it comes to resting my brain.

Annie K. Nodes: A good quick lunch I made the other day was grape tomatoes, corn, and cheddar cubes mixed with italian dressing. Very good. A good snack is edamame. I boil it in the morning, throw in a tupperware and munch munch munch!

Anonymous: Low fat string cheese is easy to carry to work and just the right size for snacks. I also like making larget batches of soup so I have left overs for a while. A cup of soup or chili and a think slice of whole grain bread is healthy, inexpensive and amazingly filling.

Aryn: I do wraps instead of sandwiches and my husband likes to intersperse his sandwiches with salads. The key to our success is quality deli meat, not the cheapo stuff that comes in a package.

Jennifer: One thing I do instead of buying lunch meat is make my own (sort of). I buy 3lb frozen boneless turkey breast portions, roast them myself, then slice them. I usually do 2 at a time and those two will last me probably a month. Whatever I won't use in the next week or so goes into the freezer until I'm ready for it. This saves a good deal of money over processed lunch meat. Depending on where I buy the roasts, they cost $7-10 for the 3 lb which works out to $2-3 per pound, much cheaper than deli meat and even the prepackaged stuff. Plus it tastes so much better!

Cam: For the afternoon snack, I highly recommend pumpkin chocolate chip bread (I found the recipe at tastespotting.com). I make it with all whole wheat flour, halve the amount of baking soda (because I could taste it in the first two loaves I made - yech), and use dark chocolate chips. It's very satisfying both in filling you up and sating the evil sweet tooth, and way better for you than a vending machine run! You just have to remember to only bring one slice :)

Claire: When brown-bagging, remember that the all-time cheapest option is leftovers! (it's been tested;))

Kristen: I pack my husband's lunch without fail. 99% of the time he eats leftovers (lunch meat is way too expensive for our budget), and the odd time he'll eat a PBJ, or a french bread pizza that I throw together. I have no idea how much money this has saved us over 11 years, but it's got to be an impressive amount. It's also saved me from throwing away untold amounts of leftovers!

Marcia: I carefully plan my dinners to have leftovers. I had to start doing that because my husband, who was perfectly content to eat PB&J for 30-odd years, one day decided he wanted leftovers for lunch too.

Julia: I cook on Sundays JUST to brown bag during the week. Once every few months I'll make a healthy lasagna, cut it into single servings, wrap each one and freeze them. Then when I'm out of leftovers I still have something healthy that I made to brown bag. Recipe here. And one of my absolute favorite things to make for the week is chicken salad. I just keep coming up with new flavors!

Kazari: always, always leftovers. with two of us in the house, it works out best. we have a whole bunch of lunch-size freezer containers, and they get filled as i serve the dinner. as long as it's not salad, everything gets frozen. and during the week you just open the freezer and go. mystery meals!

On Veggie Might: Lentil, Spinach, and Bulgur Stew That Wasn’t

Daniel Koontz: I worship Jay Solomon. We've been exploiting his Vegetarian Soup Cuisine book for more than a decade for easy-to-make, highly scalable meals. I also LOVE the fact that almost all of Solomon's recipes are preposterously inexpensive. An entire pot of soup with all sorts of healthy ingredients for under $5.00? Yep. Jay Solomon is The Man.

(Photo courtesy of lunchboxsetco.uk.)

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Comments of the Week

This week it’s all about Food Network stand-ins, classy party strategies, vegetarian solidarity, and a little bit o’ sweet, sweet Motown. As always, some comments have been edited for length.

On Mm-mm Good: Cooking Light's Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

nyjlm: My parents say that one of my very early spoken phrases was "Sheaaaa stadium," so it was no surprise that I became a Met fan.

Daniel Koontz: I have to tell you, I fear fake maple syrup. Too much sodium hexametaphosphate. Nothing beats the real thing.

On Veggie Might: That Food Crisis Everyone’s Just Raving About

Mrs. H: My husband hunts, and so fills our freezer every year with deer, duck, fish, and hopefully this year, turkey. We figure out how many we need for the coming year, and off to the woods he goes. All that being said, we have cut our meat portions a little smaller lately, mainly for health reasons. ... As good quality produce gets harder to find, more expensive, and leaves a larger carbon footprint, we are choosing to go local...as in, our own backyard.

Phrakture: I actually just went through a "month of vegetarianism" (cut out dairy and eggs too). I was amazed at how cheap it was. My lunch was costing me about $3 from the produce section of the grocery store, as opposed to getting a $10 sandwich down the street.

Nicole: My boyfriend wants meat all the time and I could live without it. Our compromise is we eat it twice a week. … He's starting to understand that meat is expensive and not the best for him or the planet. A slow conversion in the process...

Bigbinder: We decided to eat less meat, but not go totally meatless. … I dragged my ratty old Moosewood cookbook out and started making some meals from that again; dinner takes longer to make but we feel better about it. Almost smug, but not quite.

Jaime: I've been a vegetarian for ten years, but only in the last couple have I really started eating vegetables and whole foods. … Processed foods can be almost as expensive as meat, and are not quite healthy. (I loved them, but after so much time away, I wonder how a Chik Patty would taste now...)

On CHG Favorites of the Week

Chocoholic: Maybe [the recipe of the week is] this recipe.

Gretchen: For cover versions of songs: how 'bout Gladys Night and the Pips' "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" or Stevie Wonder's "We Can Work It Out" (Cover of the Beatles' hit)?

On Classy Parties on the Cheap: Baby Showers, Barbecues, and Beyond

Nancy: What I've learned from 21 years of marriage and 21 years of hosting every major holiday dinner: ... people are happy to eat the same menu for all occasions, with just the main course changing with the seasons (turkey for Thanksgiving, lamb for Easter). ... to play to my audience. When my mother became legally blind, I cut corners on the dusting and spent more time moving furniture so that it would not be in her way.

Nicole: There are plenty of free/cheap things to set ambiance: music, candles, a bouquet of flowers. The moms will notice and appreciate the extra touches so it's good to whip it out for them. (Boyfriends aren't quite as observant, at least in my experience...)

Caro: For our wedding (which we hosted and catered ourselves) we found that Trader Joes has a great set of $3 wine … They were returnable. So we bought more than we could use and then at the end we returned the un-opened bottles. A very nice perk for us.

Mel: Accept help, people want to see the hosts, not see them scurrying around. … And relax. The whole point of having a party is to have fun!

Kyle: My strategy is to make sure I have enough beer and wine even if no one brings anything, and save the leftovers for the next time I have a party (assuming my roommate and I don't drink it all in the meantime!).

On Grilled Sweet Potato Salad, Food Network, and the Ultimate Test of Frugality

Trinity: If it's any consolation, FN has an awesome website with videos and recipes and such...

JAB: You could hang out in empty hospital rooms and watch their FN. Just kidding.

Sarah: I have been cable-less for almost 3 years. I get by on PBS cooking shows (America's Test Kitchen, Rick Bayless, Everyday Food), food blogs, magazines, Food TV shows on DVD from the library, and video podcasts.

Cinzea: We're forgetting one very important thing: PBS, FREE public broadcasting! They have some of the finest cooking shows, i.e: Lidia's, Jacques Pepin, Everyday Food, Everyday Baking (both by Martha Stewart), Daisey Cooks! as well as other ethnic foods such as mexican, asian in addition to America's Test Kitchen, Ciao Italia, Mark Bayless. ... Try it. It's free!

Mamacita: I get TONS of great recipes and food ideas from the internet. Here's a new site I heard of last night, in fact: Open Source Food.

Autumn: Gasp! No more FN? No more Alton late at night when you can't sleep? No more Chairman's ridiculously dramatic eyebrows? No more laughing at the way Duff laughs? (Kind of like a cross between an old man coughing and a duck quacking.) .... I suppose there are plenty of people who live without FN, and from what I can tell, they still manage to be happy with their empty, flavorless lives. If you decide to try it, well...Godspeed.

Kelly: [FN is] not about food; it's about the personalities, and I won't put up with that nonsense from anyone except Alton Brown, who is my Food Network boyfriend and can therefore feast on asphalt any time he likes. … Remember - if you give up Food Network, you never have to wake up in a cold sweat knowing that in some small way, you're contributing to the income of Sandra Lee.

Sara l: I agree with most of the other commenter's, if you're doing fine without cable you can find way to live without food network. Now that I've given the 'good' answer I'll confess that I don't want to cancel my package and loose all of the great things I have on my DVR.

(Photos courtesy of Flickr members wallyg, gwarcita, and Dshalock the Libertarian Emperor as well as foodwiser.com.)

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Comments of the Week

This week, a plethora of food crisis opinions, the obscene beauty of Frickadellen, and David “Ewok” Archuleta splits the vote. Thanks for all the great comments, folks! And as always, some have been edited slightly for length.

Oh yeah! I forgot to link to this week’s Festival of Frugality, which is over at Sound Money Matters. Hurry! (Uh, when you’re done here.)

On Roasted Chickpeas: Wrong Way, Right Way

Autumn: My pound cake ran over once in the oven...I spent hours cleaning it up. Got a few nasty burns, definitely employed loud oaths, and ended up buying some spray stuff that made the burned-on goo disintegrate like magic. It was pretty cool.

Ms. Meghan: I highly recommend smothering them with hungarian paprika and garlic powder as well.

On Tuesday Megalinks

Chief Family Officer: Do you find that you go to nice restaurants and think to yourself that it's so not worth the cost compared to what you could have prepared at home? I've felt that way for at least the last five years.

On The Ultimate Guide to Understanding the Food Crisis: How it Started, Who it Hurts Most, and How to Solve the Problem

Keith: You forgot one of the most important reasons for high food costs (at least in the US), and that is government subsidizing of farmers, encouraging them to not grow crops.

Aryn: And how does our Congress respond to the increase in corn prices? Why increase the subsidies, of course, which leaves the average person paying twice for food - once in subsidies taken from our taxes and once when we buy it in the store.

Finally Frugal: We'll need to adapt to the higher prices, but that could be beneficial: eating less meat (and fewer resources used to 'grow' that meat), buying more raw food (less packaging and more support for local growers) and less waste of leftovers.

Jill: I know I will be canning peaches, pears, jams, jellies, etc this summer and I'm buying it now rather than wait because, in all likelihood, it will be more expensive this summer. … I don't call this hoarding because I'm actually going to use this and we are not talking hundreds of pounds!!

Jennifer: Grow your own food. … Not only does it reduce your costs, but it reduces the demand on the supply for every one else. Plus, you can't get produce any fresher and more local than your own backyard!

On CHG Favorites of the Week

Kim: Just FYI - this version of Everybody Knows is also on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack. Ahhh...the late 80's goodness...

trmbmom: I would have definitely named a girl Betty if a) husband ok'd it and b) we hadn't had two lovely boys instead...

Grace: Betty's next book, "Joy in the Morning" is darn good, too. And surprisingly feminist given when she wrote it.

TwoHandsAndARoadmap: All those food descriptions in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are really something else. Frickadellen (the meat/bread mixture Katie makes) is also a great swear word substitute for when the kids are around.

On Lightened Mashed Potatoes with Leeks and Sour Cream. Also, American Idol.

Jill: As for David Archuleta, I adore him. I have two teenage daughters (16 and 14)who also adore him … I'll admit he needs to act like a teenager a little more and less like miniature 40 year old, but still . . .!

Amy: Amen sister. You nailed the David Archeletta nail on the head. I agree 100%. ... David Cook will win, I seriously hope so. Then again, I would have bet my house on the fact that Carley at least makes it to the top 4, so what do I really know? (Carley = so sad, sniff sniff)

Sarah: Amen on the David Archuleta summary. … His song choices are that of 50 year old woman

American Fork: I totally love both Davids and Syesha. Being from Utah, we all consider David Archuleta our Hometown Hero and totally want him to win. Castro has to GO this week!! :)

(Photos courtesy of PAB and Soundtrack Collector.)

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Comments of the Week! (Now With Extra !)

A bunch this week on the diet foods post, including Dani’s sugar substitutes, Anne’s Tasti D-Light observations, and Kelly’s inventive SnackWells sandwiches. Plus, check out Slinkystar2002’s solid, extensive comment on Touchy Subjects: Confronting Loved Ones About Weight and Money Problems. It’s a bit long to cut-and-paste here, but her stories provide some good insight on the subject. (It’s the last one.) Finally, three cheers for Elaine, who dropped 50 pounds! Nice!

On Popovers and Out

Collier: I woke up starving this morning with nothing in the house but egg whites, flour, skim milk and pam. so i made this recipe substituting pam for shortening and using three egg whites in place of one egg and two whites. they are delicious, and cooked in 20 minutes under 450. the batter made 12 popovers at about 50 calories a serving.

On The Problem with Diet Foods

Dialectially_yours: To make things 'fast food easy' and to control portion sizes a bit more, I sit down and portion out snacks into the plastic snack bags. It's a good visual activity to SHOW someone how quickly those calories have stacked up.

Jaime: 90% of the time, I'm much happier eating a mango and a small piece of dark chocolate than 2 100-calorie packs of Oreo wafers. Of course, the other 10% I'm clutching a bag of BBQ Fritos like my life depends on it, so who am I to say.

Annie K. Nodes: One thing I've noticed lately...I rarely see anyone who's thin eating Tasty D-Lite.

Elaine: I know ALL about the SnackWell Syndrome. I think that's part of how I gained weight a number of years back. BTW, in the last year I've lost 50+ pounds, mostly by reducing portion sizes & taking up bike commuting.

Kelly: On Snackwell's syndrome: in high school, I used to take a Snackwell's brownie, slice it in half lengthwise, and fill it with peanut butter. This was my favorite side dish for a while. The more I pay attention to nutrition and to my eating habits, the more I'm convinced that eating as little processed food as possible - diet or regular - is the way to go. If I eat, say, a Lean Cuisine for lunch, I'm hungry again almost before I'm done eating. The same calories in homemade beans and rice fill me up all afternoon!

Sally Parrott Ashbrook: It's taken my taste buds a couple of years to adjust to a whole-foods, no-fake-sugar diet, but honestly, now that they have adjusted, a much smaller portion of the sweet stuff (the real sweet stuff), homemade or from a bakery, is far, far more satisfying than a larger portion of diet foods is. And I have the ability now (that I previously did not possess at ALL) to tell that some foods are actually too sweet to enjoy much of.

Daniel Koontz: What worked for us was this: instead of buying diet foods, we switched most of our weekly meals to vegetarian. Vegetarian cuisine is typically higher in fiber, more nutritious, less energy-dense and best of all, cheaper. We still eat meat, but only on occasion.

Dani: To cure sweet cravings, go cold turkey on sugar and use an unprocessed equivalent like muscovado or rapadura. They're not addictive and you'll find that in no time at all the sweet cravings have gone.

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Comments of the Week

This week: stellar suggestions for maximizing kitchen equipment, a few great ideas for healthier mac and cheese, and the start of the Great Ranch Dressing Wars. Bring your courage ... and a salad.

As always, some comments have been edited for length.

On Mission: Light Mac and Cheese

Erica: I've also found a great way to make mac and cheese low fat is to sub in some cottage cheese. If you use 1/2 cheddar and 1/2 low-fat or 2% cottage cheese it tastes almost as cheesy. And the cottage cheese actually becomes very creamy.

Kevin: I have tried a few lower fat versions of mac and cheese. … My favourite of the ones that I tried is from a show called Eat, Shrink and be Merry.

Kristen: Whenever I made mac and cheese, I depend heavily on a roux to make it taste richer than it is. It helps a great deal with any weird clumps of cheese, and you can just toss it with hot pasta and the cheese, then stick it under the broiler for a browned top. An uber-simple roux is this: melt 2 T butter in a microwave-safe dish, then stir in 2 T flour with a fork. When it is lump-free, add 1 c milk (1% works just fine, or you can use something less skim), and heat until just bubbling around the edges. Whisk thoroughly to dissolve the flour mixture in the milk, and you'll see it start to thicken. Alternatively, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and whisk constantly until you can smell the nuttiness of the flour. Add the milk, which you've heated to just under boiling in the microwave or on a separate burner, and whisk until the mixture thickens. Season with freshly ground black pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Toss with the hot pasta and sprinkle with cheese, or add the cheese to the roux, stir to combine, and toss with pasta.

On Tuesday Megalinks

Paid Twice: Sandra Lee still sucks. She could be blind and have one leg and still suck. Maybe she's missing taste buds... maybe that's why.

On Cheap Healthy Salad Dressing: 102 Light Recipes

Hops: Ranch dressing is everything that's wrong with this country.

J. Sassydo: Agreed, hops--ranch should never have ventured forth from the hidden valley. Also, when I want to keep it light, I dress my salad with a few squeezes of lemon juice or a drizzle of good vinegar. (Berry vinegars are especially great on summer greens.) Toss in some salt and freshly ground pepper, and you're in fat-free business.

Mamacita: Don't be hatin' -- ranch dressing has its place.

On Of Cheese and Rock: Low-Fat Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Julia: I've been meaning to make my ricotta-spinach soup from True Tuscan by Cesare Casella, a fabulous cookbook, and you've inspired me to do it this weekend. It's an absolutely luscious use of part-skim ricotta cheese...does that fall under healthy? I hope so. But honestly, it's so good I don't care.

On Free Cooking Lessons Part II – A Beginner’s Guide to TV Chefs

Anonymous #1: I learned to cook from one of the early TV chefs - Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet - who passed away a few years ago and disappeared from the air severals years before that because of a bit of a scandal. He was incredibly informative and took pains to be sure to show all techniques and methods. I'm sure you must be able to get all his different series on DVD, and, as I have them, can recommend the companion books wholeheartedly. (Good call, Anonymous. Can't believe I forgot this guy. - Kris)

Anonymous #2: I'd just like to add that Ina can't go a half hour without saying "That's fabulous.” (This is TOTALLY true. It’s like her favorite word next to “Jeffrey.” - Kris)

On Finding Quality Kitchen Equipment on the Cheap

Anonymous: One thing to keep in mind is that certain pieces are WAAAY more versatile than others. Steel, NON-TEFLON cookie sheets get such a workout at our house that I have half a dozen and am always looking for two more, just to avoid having to stop cooking in the middle to wash and dry them! The other thing to remember are non-standard uses for less "necessary" items. Ramekins- the 7oz ones, or the new, 16oz "soup mugs" which are microwave and oven safe and come with a plastic lid. Why buy a jumbo-muffin pan if you have four or six 7oz ramekins? Set them on a cookie sheet for easy carrying/handling, and dont fill completely--there's no support for really big muffin tops. … 7oz ramekins are *wonderful* for making individual meatloaves or meatless quiches, and actually cook faster and more evenly in the smaller containers.

(Photo courtesy of Jupiter Images.)

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Comments of the Week

(Hi there, everybody coming over from Money Saving Mom. Very happy to have you, and please feel free to look around and e-mail me with questions or suggestions. Thanks for the linkage, Crystal!)

This week, Jaime lightens her brownies, Linda flings some fruit, and Ms. Meaghan sounds off on Billy Corgan and Co. Plus, lotsa hardcore shoppers share their grocery-buying strategies for the good of all.

As always, some comments have been edited for length.

On CHG Favorites of the Week

Laura: Heh. Yeah, I was like, fourteen when I finally realized that *none* of Cookie Monster's cookies were going in.

On Tuesday Megalinks

Linda: OK, I confess. I think I tried the citrus fruit slinging thing. Now I feel much better.

Jaime: In hopes of getting some pumpkin flavor, I replaced all 2/3 c of oil with pumpkin puree. Used 2 eggs and 1/4 c water as directed. I've never made applesauce-for-oil brownies, so I don't have a lot to compare - I also am a novice brownie maker - and this might just be lame brownie mix, but they're not impressive. (Or pumpkiny!) Flat, dense, sticky, yet still sorta dry. Definitely not fudgey. … Half oil half pumpkin probably would've worked better.

On We’ve Got the Means to Make Amends: Cooking Light’s Fresh Tomato Lasagna

Liz: Sometimes Cooking Light cracks me up. Call it 8 servings instead of 6, and it's "light!"

Ms. Meghan: I still listen to the Smashing Pumpkins, which were my version of Pearl Jam. And a good portion of "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" sends a chill down my spine when I hear it. I also heard "Caress Me Down" by Sublime on the radio the other day, and I had an intense flashback to being 13 and wishing I knew Spanish.

On The Hour: How 60 Minutes a Week Can Save Hundreds of Dollars on Food

Karen: Make sure coupons are really saving you money. … I found that they don't save money for me - I just don't buy many items that are coupon-able. Being a geek, I calculated it out with a spreadsheet a couple of years ago. I compared the price with coupon to the price I'd normally pay (so if I normally buy the store brand, I'd compare the store brand price to the price of the name brand with coupon). I kept track over three months, and by the end, I had saved some money. But once I factored in the price of the newspaper (which I normally don't buy), I ended up losing money. I decided it wasn't worth it. The caculation would be different if I could have gotten coupons for free, or if I bought more "couponable" foods.

Aryn: I like to keep my weekly menus in a little notebook so I can go back and see whether we've eaten a particular dish in the last month or two. That way I don't make jerk chicken with homemade tortilla chips and fruit two weeks in a row. I also have a magnetic list on the fridge where we write down anything we run out of or are about to run out of (like margarine, which I don't use and therefore don't think to check.)

Aahzmandius Karrde: The list is where I go to the extreme. I have a spreadsheet setup that I record what aisle the items are in, including a lookup table that tells me what order I hit those aisles in. After I mark the items I need,I sort by needed then order. So as I go through the store I pretty much check things off top to bottom. Avoids having to backtrack in the store and gets me to the checkout faster.

Brian: I recently created an Excel-based “menu planner” for recording the circular deals, a spot to create the weekly menu and a couple other items to help with store shopping. If anyone’s interested, feel free to look at it at Weekly Menu Planner.xls. (See comment section for this. – Kris) I have it up on the computer when I go through the circulars and recipe sites, print out the results as a grocery list, and hang it on the fridge as a daily reminder of what we planned to eat.

Monica: Don't forget about "Manager's Specials" on items nearing their sell-by dates. I routinely get bread, cheese, and sometimes meats and produce for 50-75% off this way.

Sarah: My Hour happens once a month - I look at my list of meals (inspirations plus last month's meals and seasonal favorites), select about 20-25 (lasts a month with some meals that provide leftovers), and then make my lists - Farm, Aldi, Walmart, Fresh foods ordered by meal. Print my text file of menu / shopping lists / recipes, and I'm set for a month. It is probably more than an hour, but I'd rather spend more time at the computer planning and less time in the store overall.

(Photo courtesy of sanseverything.)

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