Are you a fan of The Whole Deal in-store value guide? If so, here’s a sneak preview of the special December issue we’re putting together. It will focus around giving and entertaining on a budget and feature several recipes for amazing “small bites” party food that cost less than 50 cents per piece-many much less than that!

I know, I know, it seems awfully early to be talking holiday parties, but to be ready to inspire and assist you when the time comes we have to start Christmas in July, so to speak. And this year we also want some help from you! Simply use the comments space below to share your own favorite value-focused “small bites” holiday appetizer recipe that costs less than 50 cents per piece. If your favorite is selected as our favorite of all the entries, we’ll send you a $50 gift card and print your recipe in The Whole Deal. But, hurry up, the deadline is October 5th!

Good luck…I can’t wait to get a taste of your ideas.

And, if you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for The Whole Deal e-newsletter. You’ll hear from us a few times each month about in-store specials and money-saving tips…and future contests, too.

Tune in to our Whole Story blog each Wednesday in October for a special value-focused weekly contest!

I’m not one of those people who love breakfast, but I do truly appreciate the power of the humble egg. With the exception perhaps of bananas, eggs are presented in the most perfect package nature provides. They cook quickly. They are versatile. They have just enough flavor to stand on their own, yet combine with other flavors wonderfully. Best of all, the egg is one of the most affordable sources of high-quality protein. Here are some of my favorite ways to take advantage of the nutritional and financial benefits of eggs. Most are probably obvious, but maybe you’ll pick up a new idea or be inspired to save some money by making a meal around eggs more often. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s so hot I can barely think. Here in Austin it has been over 100°F every day for weeks on end. All I want to do is crawl into the freezer. So, that’s what I’m going to do, virtually, anyway. Maybe just focusing on cool, cold, icy things will lower my body temperature. And in the meantime you can hopefully benefit from climbing in there with me to see why the freezer is my money-saving friend. Here’s what’s in my freezer right now:

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A traditional well-made pesto is a beautiful thing. Aromatic fresh basil, rich extra-virgin olive oil, authentic Parmigiano Reggiano, piquant garlic and crunchy pine nuts add up to perfection…but they can also add up at the cash register. So I’ve been grateful every time I learned a new tip to help ease the pain on my pesto pocket book. First, I grow my own basil as long as weather permits, make big batches of pesto at once and divide up into portions for the freezer. I toast—and then cool—the pine nuts to coax even more flavor out of them. Read the rest of this entry »

I know food lovers who create incredible meals out of what appears to be a chaos of abundant ingredients covering every kitchen surface, coaxing from each ingredient the very best it has to offer and…leaving to rot or get tossed any part that is not the most perfect or succulent portion.

I know other fine home cooks who work meticulously in a neat and orderly kitchen, producing lovely meals from carefully selected ingredients, perfectly measured and diced, following recipes to a tee and getting the results they promise, and…just as meticulously, putting down the disposal any portion not called for in the recipe.

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Summer’s outdoor activities often mean I return home exhausted and hungry in the way that one’s brain doesn’t function well enough to put a complete meal together from scratch. This is when I grant myself full permission to take urban shortcuts vs. the scenic route, so to speak, in the kitchen.

For me, taking a shortcut doesn’t mean splurging on a completely prepared dinner, frozen or otherwise. It means buy some, make some, starting with an affordable, yet convenient packaged or prepared food. Then I add to it so it goes further and hopefully becomes a more nutritious rounded meal in the process. I usually have these basic starters on hand so I don’t fall for ordering a pizza for delivery.

Frozen Cheese Pizza

Transformation ideas: canned artichoke hearts, olives, tuna & hardboiled egg (I discovered this on menus in Malta), pineapple & ham, small cubes of packaged baked tofu, anchovies, bell pepper or mushroom slices, leftover chicken tossed in BBQ sauce, browned ground meat, slices of pre-cooked sausage. Or my favorite is to brown crumbled tempeh with garlic, sage and fennel seed to make a veggie Italian sausage topping. Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time this Value Guru was a small tyke, but even then I had a hungry mind and curious appetite. My father fed both. He didn’t cook all that often, but when he did, it was always exciting because it was something special. Like many a dad he was the steak cooker and knew the power of a marinade to tenderize an affordable cut, and the power of slicing against the grain to avoid too-chewy bites. The slicing also stretched a modest-sized steak to feed four.

My father’s other specialty was seafood. We lived in a small island community on the Texas coast where his brain power, writing ability and knowledge of the mysterious workings of local government-official and otherwise-were valuable enough amongst the fishermen and shrimpers that they would barter fresh catch. Another local owned a popular chicken and soft-serve shack, Custard’s Last Stand (where I worked my first job at age 11 for a silver dollar an hour, incidentally). This guy also worked for Westinghouse so my father gave Custard’s ad space in his newspaper in exchange for a full-size Westinghouse freezer that soon filled with the rewards from his bartering for seafood along with his own hunting and foraging efforts. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter what was else was on the table, my grandmother served an iceberg lettuce salad at every evening meal. As a sometimes visitor, it was one of those things I looked forward to as a familiar part of visiting my grandparents and I enjoyed helping to make the dressing. She had one of those glass carafes with the measurement lines on it for filling with oil and vinegar, and then you added the packet of dressing mix and shook it up. Thing was, if I had grown up with that-vs. being a visitor-I think I would have rebelled against being served the exact same salad and dressing every night! Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not a huge fan of eating outdoors, but I am always up for making anything into an event if it includes sharing food with others. Therefore, I eat it, so to speak, when invited to a picnic or BBQ or outdoor potluck. Then I spend days obsessing about what to bring and run a million ideas through my head, mentally balancing my budget with the amount of time and effort I’m willing to put into that specific gathering at that specific time.

I usually settle for pasta salad. I say “settle” because it always seems like a cheap copout to me. I think of how many times I’ve peered closely (and hopefully discreetly) at the unidentifiable “bits” and sauces that make up someone else’s potluck bowl of pasta salad and skip it for something more easy to recognize as food. I think also of all the wonderful foods I know about and enjoy putting into a meal and how I don’t want to “insult” great ingredients by tossing them into something that might be unidentifiable to some other discriminating potluck guest. Read the rest of this entry »

From an early age I was a summertime kitchen helper for my grandmother, sent to the herb garden to snip a bit of this or that. I loved to watch as she nonchalantly minced, tossed and sprinkled the aromatic snippets into all kinds of dishes, including her unique Summer Cucumber Salad. In my 20s when I wanted to learn more about growing and using herbs, I turned to an aunt who dismissed my entreaties for a logical learning method and told me basically to “just do it” and I could start by helping her weed her own herb garden. While I felt a tad hornswoggled, she was right-as she is about most things-and getting my hands, eyes and nose right down there with the herbs was indeed a good first lesson. The pleasure of watching, tasting and listening across the counter as she cooked became Lesson 2, and I was off! Read the rest of this entry »