Tomatoes

I have a love-hate relationship with tomatoes. I don't like many raw vegetables, including tomatoes, although I will eat them on sandwiches which are doused with enough spices or condiments to mask the taste. However, the taste of a tomato is less and less a concern, as the food industry is more concerned with the tomato's look and robust portability. And don't tell me I just haven't tasted a freshly picked home-grown tomato -- my father picked bushels of them from his garden when I was a child.

However, through the chemistry of cooking, the disagreeable taste and texture of the raw tomato changes to something that I love. But I don't buy raw tomatoes and cook them. Canned tomatoes are the only canned vegetables that are acceptable to eat, in my opinion. My only concern is the extra sugar and salt that might be added. I check the label and avoid the ones with added sugar. I haven't been checking the sodium content but will start doing that.

One of my shortcuts for quick meals is prepared spaghetti sauce, the bachelor's friend. I purchase the meatless sauce with extra vegetables (garden style), which I assume is a healthy choice, knowing that it has added sugar and salt. I will be checking labels more carefully.  Would homemade sauce be cheaper and healthier? That will have to be investigated.

One of my favorite meals using tomatoes is a simple "gumbo." I dice onions and green pepper (if I have it) in a pan and saute it adding peeled shrimp and garlic. Then I add canned diced tomatoes, black pepper, no salt (plenty in the tomatoes), a dash of hot sauce, and thicken it with spaghetti sauce since I never have tomato paste. Let it simmer a few minutes and serve over a bed of rice.

Your Thrifty Cook 

An Introduction from your Thrifty Cook

Every time I hold forth on cooking as I am wont to do, my mother always says, "You should write a book!" Well, I don't have the talent or patience to write a book, but why not a blog?

I am single, so I cook for my own pleasure. I eat three meals a day with a few snacks in between. (My mama taught me right way to eat.) I rarely go to restaurants or eat fast food, and when I do, I order those things that I do not or cannot make myself. And when the check comes, I blanch.

Let me start with my cooking philosophy:

1. I buy everything I can on sale. To do this, you have to give up your privacy and join the supermarkets' frequent shopper programs. I scour the weekly advertising flyers and visit a couple of different supermarkets once a week. I never buy meat that's not on sale. I buy in larger quantities, put it in smaller packages, and freeze it for later.
2. I don't use coupons unless they fall into my lap. Most of the coupons are for processed foods or products I don't use, and it takes too much time to manage them. As a frugal cook, I admit that admire a shopper that can get a cart full of groceries for free, but I wouldn't dare eat what's inside.
3. I am becoming more and more wary of processed food and believe in eating them in moderation, and less. Processed, or prepared, food can be used for cooking shortcuts, but the more I know about them, the more guilty I feel about using them.
4. I use frozen vegetables, but never canned (except tomatoes). They can be almost as good as fresh, and I can use small quantities at a time.
5. I almost never throw away food. If cooking is my religion, wasting food is a cardinal sin. Extra food is often an inspiration for a dish, and I love having leftovers in my refrigerator.
6. I don't measure too accurately, unless the chemistry is important. And I substitute or leave out ingredients if they are not readily available or  too expensive.

Your Thrifty Cook

 P.S. They can say it better than I ever could...