St. Patty’s Day Recipe: Corned Beef & Potato Pizza

Not a big cabbage fan?  Try this recipe from Trader Joe’s for a modern take on classic Irish dinner fare:

Corned Beef & Potato Pizza

• 1/4 cup TJ’s Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 package TJ’s Plain Pizza Dough
• 1/2 container Bellwether Farms Crème Fraîche
• 1 tsp TJ’s Whole Grain Mustard
• 3/4 cup TJ’s Pesto Gouda Cheese (limited availability), shredded… or use 3/4 cup TJ’s Gouda Cheese mixed with 1 Tbsp TJ’s Genova Pesto
• 1/3 bag TJ’s Frozen Mashed Potatoes (yellow bag)
• About 1/5 of Pocino Fully Cooked Uncured Corned Beef Brisket, shredded or coarsely chopped

Here’s what to do:

Remove half the dough from package and let rest on a floured work surface for 10-15 minutes. Preheat oven to 450°F. Place a pizza stone into the oven to heat, or spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside. Add more flour to work surface, then roll dough into a circle about 12″ in diameter. Transfer dough onto baking sheet or a well-floured peel (do this before topping as this pizza can be heavy and will stick). In a small bowl, mix together Crème Fraîche and mustard. Spread mixture generously over the dough, almost to the edges. Top dough with Pesto Gouda Cheese. Place about 12 Mashed Potato Disks on a microwave-safe plate and heat for about 20 seconds. Once potatoes have cooled a minute, slice each disk into two disks, so each disk is half as thick. Distribute potato slices and corned beef on top of the cheese. Bake about 10-12 minutes or until edges brown and cheese bubbles.

Serves: 3 – 4
Cooking Time: 35 – 40 Minutes

Healthy Lunches in a Pinch!

It’s January 2nd, the holidays are over, and for most of us that means back to work, school and everyday life!  This year, don’t let your resolution to become a healthier, thriftier, and better you go as life becomes hectic again.  While you are getting back on schedule, take control of your health and budget where you can — your kitchen!  Download the Unclipt app from the iTunes App Store and follow the Grocery and Organic feeds for deals on the healthy and budget-friendly foods you need for you and your family…

Do you know the average lunch out costs $7?  That’s $35 a week, and about $1,750 a year!  Plus, if you live in the city like we do, you know $7 is probably on the low side.  We know you don’t want to spend what little time you have to yourself each night chopping veggies and cooking up a storm for the next day’s lunch, so here’s a compromise — buy healthy, easy to prep lunches to store in your fridge or pantry and pop in your bag on the go!  These choices from Whole Foods are great, and cut your meal expenses in half.  Still not convinced?  They are also on sale until the end of the month….check it out!

Breakfast on the go!

            $1.00 off any THREE (3) 6-oz Cups or ONE (1) 24-oz Cup of Brown Cow Cream Top Greek Yogurt

             $1.50 off any ONE (1) 59-oz Uncle Matt’s Organic Juice when you buy any ONE (1) Nature’s Path Love Crunch Granola

Brown Bag lunch!

          Buy any THREE (3) Annie Chun’s Products, Get ONE (1) FREE*

          $1.00 off any ONE (1) 17.3 fl oz 365 Everyday Value® Organic Soup

          $1.00 off any ONE (1) 6-pack Zevia Natural Soda, any flavor

           $1.50 off any TWO (2) Nature’s Path Granola Bar or Hot Oatmeal Item (Mix n’ Match)

Mid-afternoon Snack!

          $1.00 off any ONE (1) Ciao Bella 14-oz Gelato, Sorbet or Greek Frozen Yogurt

           50¢ off any ONE (1) Kit’s Organic Fruit & Nut Bar

          75¢ off any ONE (1) Box Celestial Seasonings Tea

5 Things We Can All Be Thankful For This Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  Before digging into your turkey, Tofurky, duck, or whatever holiday dinner you wil be enjoying, take a minute to remember what you have to be thankful for this year.  We’re doing the same!  In case you need some inspiration, here are a few things we can all be thankful for today:

1. Time with family & friends (and pets!).  Life is so busy, there is rarely a time where nearly everyone has a few days off work, school and other responsibilities.  The holidays are always crazy, but remember what is really important — spending time with those you love!

2. Sharing good food with loved ones.  Whether you cook a traditional turkey, a vegetarian feast, or a cultural meal, cherish this opportunity to take a break from rushed take-out or boxed meals.  Get the whole family involved with the prep work, and invite guests to bring a dish to share to ease some of your cooking responsibility. (Click these images to go to some of our favorite unique holiday recipes!)

Holiday Chopped Salad

Mexican Polenta Casserole

Coconut Stick Rice with Fresh Fruit

3. The ability to help others.  Each Thanksgiving, many spend all or part of the day serving at a local soup kitchen or food drive.  If you missed out this holiday, be sure to check for upcoming opportunities to volunteer during Christmas and Hanukkah.

4. Helpful everyday technology.  Although technology can be a distraction, it is also a blessing.  Imagine not being able to connect with others through phone and email, or discovering news, events and other resources online.  As we developed and released our Unclipt app this year, we realized just how important technology is for organizing our lives!  Consider Unclipt our gift to you — it’s available for free in iTunes!

5. Sales and deals that make it possible to give the gifts our loved ones want and need (especially from local retailers!).  To get the most out of your holiday shopping this weekend, make sure to check out our post on Black Friday deals, and follow the feed on Unclipt!  Look out for tomorrow’s post on how to shop Cyber Monday deals.

Enjoy the day!

-The Savvy Staff

Monday Inspiration!

Happy Monday!

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this Thursday, many of us can look forward to a short work week, time with friends and family, and good food!  Don’t forget to be thankful for the little things, because sometimes these bring the most happiness.

– The Savvy Staff

Restaurant Week!

Sunday, August 19th was the start of Restaurant Week here in Boston! This event stretches for about two weeks from August 19th-August 24th and August 26th-August 31st with nearly 200 restaurants participating!

Basically how Restaurant Week works, is that the participating restaurants create a prix fixe menu especially for the two weeks! Customers can choose a 2-3 course meal for a set price!

Set Prices

2-course lunch: $15.12

3-course lunch: $20.12

3-course dinner: $33.12

Restaurant week is a great way to try out that one expensive restaurant that you wouldn’t normally have a full meal at! For us, it was Grill 23 on Berkeley Street in Boston.

*Rule of thumb is to always make a reservation to guarantee your spot! Restaurant Week draws in tons of people so make sure you get in by calling ahead!

Grill 23 is a premier steakhouse in Boston. As in, you should not wear flip flops or holey jeans there. And the normal menu is pretty pricey.

The Restaurant Week menu gave 2 or 3 options for each course that guests can choose from.

The dishes were delicious and up to par with the restaurant itself, not skimped just because it was at a lower price for Restaurant Week.

The first dish we chose was the Ragu Bolognese which was wagon wheels with bolognese sauce and fresh ricotta. This was a substantial dish that felt more like it could be a main dish than just an appetizer.

Since Grill 23 is a steakhouse, we figured that the best choice for the entree would be the steak! This dish was a Denver steak with a twice-baked potato and creamed corn. We now understand why Grill 23 is so known for their beef. The steak was cooked well to your order and the sides were delicious as well.

For dessert, we chose the Chocolate Marquis. Not exactly sure what all the components of this dessert were… but if you love chocolate, this is for you!

Just to give everyone an idea of the prices, all the cuts of beef a la carte are over $32. For a 3-course meal with sides and everything is $33.12. An amazing deal in our opinion. You can take a look at the Grill 23 menu yourself here.

Here are some dates for Restaurant Weeks in other cities!

New York City, NY: August 13th- September 3rd (Saturdays excluded)
Check out the event here.

Alexandria, VA: August 17th- August 26th
Check out the event here.

Austin, TX: September 23rd- September 26th & September 30th- October 3rd
Check out the event here.

Baltimore, MD: January 25th- February 3rd 2013
Check out the event here.

Cleveland, OH: February 25th – March 3rd 2013
Check out the event here.

Houston, TX: August 1st- August 31st
Check out the event here.

Honolulu, HI: November 12th- November 18th
Check out the event here.

Philadelphia, PA: September 30th- October 5th & October 7th- October 12th
Check out the event here.

San Diego, CA: September 16th- September 21st
Check out the event here.

See more Restaurant Weeks in other cities here!

Look for your city and go out and try that one restaurant that you always wanted to try. Restaurant Week is the best opportunity to!

Love,

The Savvy Staff

Guide to Food Expiration Dates and Other Labels

Is it anyone else’s first instinct to sniff something that just passed its printed expiration date to see if it’s still edible? Well, we are here to help you differentiate between the different kinds of labels!

“Sell by” date- This label is for the store to know how long to display an item. The food will still be edible for days beyond the “sell by” date but that date is the last day that the item will be at it’s highest level of freshness. You should buy the product before the “sell by” date expires.

“Best if used by, best by, or best before” date- These dates are purely for the quality of the product. It tells the consumer when the product will still be at its absolute best. This is not a safety label.

“Expires on” date- You will see this mostly on baby formula and infant food, which are the only foods that the government regulates by dates. You should always buy and use these items before the expiration date.

“Guaranteed fresh” date- This is mostly for bakery items. The items will be fine and edible after this date but they won’t be at their peak freshness.

“Born on” date- This date is the manufacture date and can be found on beer. Be wary of beer because it can go bad in three months. It gets affected by sun because the light can reactivate microorganisms in the beer.

You can eat most foods beyond the convenience date and be perfectly fine. If the label is explicitly an “expiration date” then proceed with caution.

Here are some guidelines for common food items and how long they can be kept.

*A good rule of thumb is to set your refrigerator temperature to 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below for the best food storing conditions.

Ketchup- Ketchup can maintain it’s quality for up to six months in the refrigerator. It’s fine to eat as long as there is no mold or strange odor.

Olive oil- Olive oil can stay fresh for 18-24 months in or out of the fridge. It is recommended to keep it in a cool, dark place.

Eggs- Eggs will stay good for 3-5 weeks. Keep the eggs in the coolest part of the refrigerator.

Milk- Milk will stay good for up to one week past the date printed on the carton. But toss it if it develops mold or an odor.

Yogurt- Yogurt is best 7-10 days after the “sell by” date.

Mayonnaise- Refrigerated mayonnaise is good for 2-3 months past its expiration date! It may even still be good after that but the texture may change.

Peanut butter- An open jar of peanut butter will last for 3 months in the pantry. Afterward, refrigerating it can make it last for an additional 3-4 months.

Pickles– An open jar of pickles can remain good for a year in the fridge.

Soy milk- Soy milk is similar to normal milk in that it lasts for 7-10 days past the carton date.

Sour cream- Sour cream is more difficult than other products to judge because it is supposed to have the slightly sour smell. It can keep for two weeks, covered, in the refrigerator.

Raw ground meats- Refrigerate for 1-2 days.

Raw roasts, steaks, and chops- Refrigerate 3-5 days.

Cooked meat, poultry and seafood- Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

A big thing is to also use your senses! Keep an eye out for mold or strange colors and smell the product to determine if it’s still fresh!

We hope we’ve been able to help you!

Love,

The Savvy Staff

 

Host a Cooking Competition!

Do you love food and love to get together with your friends? We have the best idea to melt those two together into an amazing event…host a cooking competition!
A cooking competition allows you and your friends to enjoy each other’s company while eating a great variety of food made by each other. The competition aspect also brings in a fun vibe to the whole event! The staff here at My Savvy Way recently participated in a cooking competition ourselves and it was absolutely divine! We want to share with you how our system worked and our thoughts and ideas on how you can have the best time ever! Starting off Start by gathering up a group of friends to participate! Then decide on the different categories! We personally split our competition up into three categories: appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Each guest should choose one category to be a part of. It doesn’t matter the level of cooking a person possesses. This party is for beginners as well as experts and the place to try out recipes for the first time! Venue Set a time, date and place! Choose a person’s house where there is enough room for all attending and enough kitchen space for multiple chefs at a time. Since the weather has been so beautiful, we had an outdoor event!
Tidbits – Ask everyone to choose one dish to make for their category. But make small portions! Our competition had nine competitors so by the end of the ninth dish, everyone was so full so small tapas portions are perfect. – You can find things like fancy-looking multi-use plastic cups at stores like iParty and Target that give a dish some class when served.
– Do simple preparations like chopping beforehand but do the cooking at the hostess’s house for fresh food! – Make sure that there are plenty of dishes! Small dishes are easy to clean and just perfect for the amount of food from each dish that should be served. – Restrict everyone from voting within their own category! That way, no one will vote for themselves and the results are unbiased. – Give it a fun twist by setting a rule or requiring a secret ingredient! At our competition, everything was required to be grilled including the dessert! – Make the presentation of the dish a priority as well!
Bonus idea: Ask everyone to print out a copy of their recipe and collect them all to compile your very own ‘cooking competition cookbook!’ Scoring There are plenty of ways to score. A way that we found easy was to give everyone two sheets of paper for the two categories they are allowed to vote in and have them write the name of the person they favored most in both categories! We hope everyone enjoys our suggestions! A cooking competition is such a fun twist on a party and it was so much cheaper to have a 9-course meal at this event than at a restaurant! The food was so delicious that we finished it all right down to the bone!
If you do host one, let us know how it went and if there was some system that was very effective for you! We’d love to hear about it. Love, The Savvy Staff

Delicious Banana Bread!

There are two really good reasons to make banana bread. One, because it can be eaten all day long since it’s not a dessert. It’s delicious for breakfast! And two, because it’s a way to utilize those overly ripe, mushy bananas!

This recipe is so easy to make and many of the ingredients are ones that most people already have in their kitchens. The bake time is a little longer than other pastries but the prep time is very minimal. It’s especially a great beginner recipe for first-time bakers!

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup of melted butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon of baking soda

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.

2) Mix the butter into the smashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

3) Then, mix in the brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.

4) Sprinkle the salt and baking soda over the mixture and mix it in.

5) Finally, add in the flour and mix it completely.

6) Pour the mixture into an 8×4 loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. A fork should come out pretty clean when stuck in.

The loaf came out delicious and moist! Let cool for a little bit before serving. The loaf stayed moist for up to 3 days. Unfortunately, I can’t say if it would stay moist past then because it was such a hit, that it was gone by the third day! But from the way it tasted on the 3rd day, I imagine it would’ve kept well for a week.

Another great idea is to add other ingredients to the mixture. Chocolate chips are delicious and so is peanut butter. Many different ingredients can be added to create banana bread variations.

This recipe is so simple so if you have some ripe old bananas lying around in your kitchen, don’t waste them and make some banana bread!

Love,

The Savvy Staff

Gourmet Meal at Home

Going

Bo Luc Lac (or shaking beef) is one of my favorite Vietnamese meals.

Shaking Beef
Charles Phan, The Slanted Door
	The Meat2 T chopped garlic 1 t sugar 1½ t salt ¾ t fresh black pepper 2 T neutral cooking oil, such as canola or corn oil 1½ lbs filet mignon, cut into 1” cubes The Vinaigrette ¼ c rice vinegar 1 T sugar ¼ c rice wine 4 T light soy sauce 1 T dark soy sauce 1 T fish sauce The Dipping Sauce Juice of 1 lime ½ t kosher salt ¼ t fresh black pepper The Stir-Fry 4 T neutral cooking oil, such as canola or corn oil 3 stalks green onion, cut into 1” pieces ½ small red onion, thinly sliced 2 t butter 2 bunches watercress, for garnish 1.   Prepare marinade by combining garlic, sugar, salt, pepper and oil in a large nonmetal bowl.   Add filet mignon, combine and marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for two hours. 2.   Prepare vinaigrette by combining rice vinegar, sugar, rice wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and fish sauce.   Set aside. 3.   Heat a wok over high heat.   Divide beef, green onions and red onions in half, as you will cook in two batches. 4.   Add 2 T oil to the wok.   When the oil starts to smoke, add first portion of the beef in an even layer.   Let it sit until a forms a brown crust, about 2 minutes.   With a spatula, flip the beef over to brown the other side, about 1 minute. 5.   Add first portion of the green onions and red onions and cook for 1 more minute.   Pour half of vinaigrette down the side of the wok, and then shake pan to release the beef and toss with the vinaigrette.   Add 1 t butter and continue to shake pan until butter melts.   Remove the meat and onions from the wok.   Keep warm. 6.   Repeat steps 4 and 5 with second portion of meat, green onions and red onions.   Place the watercress in the middle of the serving plate and spoon hot beef and onions on top. 7.   Prepare dipping sauce by putting salt and pepper in small ramekin and squeezing lime juice over it.   Serve alongside the beef.   Serves 4.

Ramen Noodles: A Cheap and Quick Meal

I love ramen noodles. They are cheap, tasty, and oh-so-comforting, although not too healthy.  I usually buy an entire box of Mama Tom Yum ramen noodles and reach for a bag or two (most of the time two bags) on those cold winter nights. I haven’t picked up another box of Mama ramen noodles because I’m trying to eat healthier and also because my local Asian food mart has been out of this specific brand.

While trying to be true to my New Year goals of holistic eating without missing out on my comfort food, I have been in search of a healthier ramen recipe. Here’s one that I found on Baby Center that is not too bad. If you have any amazing ramen recipe, feel free to share.

1 32 Oz Box of Chicken Stock
1 Cup Water
2 Tbsp White or Yellow Miso
2 (3-ounce) Packages Packaged Ramen Noodles (pasta, udon or rice noodles work great too)
4 Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced thin
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Mirin
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 Tsp Onion Powder
1/4 Cup Scallions, green & white, sliced