Frugal Food

Today I tried to be frugal about food. Since I missed breakfast yesterday on Valentine's Day with my family because I was at a business meeting, I made chocolate pancakes. The boys loved them, especially garnished with whipped cream!


Here's the recipe (Better Homes and Gardens, Jan 2007):


Chocolate Pancakes
1 2/3 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 C buttermilk
1 egg, slightly beaten
3 T cooking oil

In a large bowl, combine flour and other dry ingredients. In second bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Stir buttermilk mixture into dry mixture and stir until slightly lumpy. Heat a lightly greased griddle over medium heat and then reduce as needed. Pour or ladle batter onto griddle. Cook until lightly browned and turn when bubbly with slightly dry edges. Makes 16 pancakes.

Note 1- I increased the sugar a little bit.
Note 2 - Can cook at lower temp b/c of chocolate although I didn't.

Since it's the season of Lent, it's also the time for Filet-o-Fish Friday's at McDonald's. We partook of this classic tonight for dinner for the 4 of us--total tab was $16.03 (That's about $4 per person and 2 of the meals were Happy Meals).

Normally, Filet-O-Fish sandwiches run around $2.69, at least in our area. If I remember correctly from a CNBC special, the Filet-O-Fish ended up on McDonald's menus because there was a challenge between Ray Krok who favored the Hula Burger (a pineapple slice with a cheese slice on top in a bun) and the Filet-O-Fish, sponsored by a franchisee, and the Filet-O-Fish won. The contest was started because in the 50s and 60s, there were still quite a few people who wouldn't eat meat on Fridays for religious reasons.