Slaw Praise

I harp a lot about the money saving aspects of gardening…I think a lot of that is because gardening is my chosen retirement hobby. The truth is there are a lot of really inexpensive and nutritional foods that can be bought in the grocery…perhaps so inexpensive that it is very questionable whether it would be worth anyone’s effort to garden grow them. Dried beans, dried peas, brown rice, oats, cabbage, onions and carrots are all super healthy foods that are dirt cheap. The pre-pre-prepared “convenience” foods are what make grocery bills high. Probably as much money can be saved by eating inexpensive staples and doing your own food preparation as by gardening.

I wrote an earlier blog about bean soups and incorporated a picture of a bowl of ham and beans and some dark bread. Later it dawned on me that I should also have showed a side-dish of cole slaw in the photo; cole slaw is the perfect taste complement to ham and beans. It also goes wonderfully with fish and fries as well. It is great with chicken, mashed potatoes and white pepper gravy. The same goes for beef, mashed potatoes and dark gravy. One of my favorite grade school cafeteria meals was chicken pot pie and sweet vinegar cole slaw. My parents and grandparents were the meat-and-potato generations; they were also the cooked cabbage and cole slaw eaters. Our generation is the lettuce/spinach salads generation but I doubt that these salads are really healthier than the cancer- fighting cruciferous family. Cabbage stores really well too, whereas the more expensive salad greens will go bad in the fridge crisper in short order.

Cole slaw can be made from cabbage, carrots, an onion, and sweet vinegar; all super nutritious, tasty, and cheap. Problem is these vegetables must be peeled and grated. It’s that food preparation thing I was speaking of earlier. My wife doesn’t care for this grating task so it sounds like a job for “retired man.” (For some reason beyond my comprehension she is forever using that phrase, “sounds like a job for RETIRED MAN.”) Once I am finished grating she adds her secret ingredients and we have a plastic container of slaw in the fridge to go with several meals.

Cooking from scratch and food preparation can be a savvy budgeting concept. Find some good slaw recipes. Here is one I just swiped from my wife’s kitchen counter:
Ingredients:
1 cup fat-free Miracle Whip
¼ cup sugar
8 cups cabbage, finely minced
2 tbsp minced carrots
2 tbsp minced onion
2 tbsp vinegar
Combine the Miracle Whip with sugar and vinegar in a large bowl. Mix well until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cabbage, carrot , and onion, and toss well. Cover and chill several hours. Only 57 calories per ¾ cup serving.