The humble toaster oven (continued) - making pizza

In the last post on the humble toaster oven, I made bread. In this post, I'm going to show you how easy it is to make pizza in whatever size toaster oven you have. If you have a small toaster oven, you can make a small round pizza or medium rectangular pizza. It doesn't matter if you don't have a pizza pan because you can just make one out of some aluminum foil.

The toaster oven I used to make pizza was the GE convection toaster oven that I got from the Goodwill. The pan that I used barely fit in there so I would probably use a slightly smaller pan or a rectangular pan the next time. To make this pizza a little healthier, I used a bean and tomato sauce puree instead of a regular tomato sauce. The advantages of doing this was that I could use up my leftover red beans, get some extra protein in my pizza without adding meat, and the bean puree was less watery than tomato sauce. If you've ever made homemade pizza and ended up with a soggy crust, it was probably because you put too much tomato sauce on it. The bean tomato puree had just enough moisture in it to moisten my dried mushrooms, which were the main topping on the pizza.

Toppings:
bean tomato puree (use blender to puree cooked beans and tomato sauce)
minced garlic
dried mushrooms
grated swiss cheese
tomato sauce (for the smiley face)
olive oil (so the dough didn't stick to the pan)

Pizza about to get baked

This is what it looks like when it's done.

The dough was from Oggi Gourmet in Harvard Square. Their dough is much better than mine. The bean puree was actually very good on the pizza! Initially, I put it on there just because I was trying to put more beans in my diet and wanted to create a less watery sauce but it also adds another layer of texture to the pizza. I'd put it on pizza again just because it tastes (and feels) good. The dried mushrooms were more flavorful than fresh mushrooms and had a nice earthy flavor. However, I dried those mushrooms in a dehydrator, which means that they might not be as dry as the shitake mushrooms at the Chinese supermarkets. If you want to try adding dried mushrooms, it might be a good idea to soak them for at least 15 minutes before putting them on the pizza.

Here's a video showing the baking process:

The humble toaster oven

The humble toaster oven, which is smaller than a regular oven, can do almost everything the regular oven does and in smaller batches. Because of its smaller size, the toaster oven is also good for saving on your electricity bill. In the summer time, your kitchen will stay cooler if you don't fire up the regular oven. You would be surprised to know what you can make in the toaster oven. I've made ribeye steaks and salmon steaks by using the broil function on my cheap Black and Decker toaster oven. My new acquisition of a GE convection toaster oven from the Goodwill store has enabled me to cook even more things because it's bigger and can fit a pizza pan. As long as you can control whether the heat comes from the top, bottom, or both, you can make a great variety of tasty things in whatever kind of toaster oven you own. Since there is less space in the oven, it takes less time to pre-heat (sometimes no pre-heating is required). The toaster oven is perfect for students because it takes less space, saves time and money, and does most of what a regular oven does.

Oven basics

For those of you who don't know the difference between broiling and baking, it's basically about which heating coils are being turned on. If you want only the top coils to be on, choose the broil function. Toasting is when both the top and bottom coils are on. Baking is usually when the bottom coils are hotter than the top coils. It might vary from brand to brand so check your manual. I used to have a Bella Cucina toaster oven that made things very simple - the dial had only 3 settings (top, bottom, or both). For most toaster ovens:

Baking
When the heat comes mainly from the bottom, your pie crust will get more heat than the top. This is a great thing because your topping would most likely burn if this were not the case. The top coils might be on but the bottom coils will be hotter.

Broiling
This is the setting for a very quick searing of the top of your food. Only the top coils will be on. In case you don't have a mini torch around the house (really, who does?), the broil function is what you can use to make the top crust of a creme brulee.

Toasting (or all coils on!)
This is the fastest setting because both the top and bottom coils are on. This setting is good for toasting your bread or bagels and reheating food. Be careful with this one because you might burn your food if you're not careful about setting the right temperature. To prevent accidental burning, you might want to wrap your food in aluminum foil.

Convection toaster ovens
This is a relatively new thing in the toaster oven world. Convection ovens have a fan that blows the air around while the oven is on so that your food cooks more evenly. If you've ever baked anything that came out uneven, it's because most ovens are not the same temperature in all spots. The fan evens out the temperature in a convection oven.

Recipes
Now that we have the basic ideas of how the toaster oven works, let's make some food! The first thing I'm going to show you is how to bake bread. In subsequent posts, I'll show you more recipes that you might not consider doing with a toaster oven. After a while, you might end up using the shelves in your regular oven as extra storage space because you'll be doing most of your cooking in the toaster oven!

Ok, so let's get back to the bread. Most bread recipes include yeast (1 or 2 tsp), flour (about 3 cups), sugar (about 1/4 cup), salt (1/2 to 1 tsp), and water (about a cup). These are the basic ingredients and you could use the same ingredients and approximate measurements for making 2 balls of pizza dough. If you eat a lot of bread, go get a bread machine from the Goodwill for about $8 and use the mixing function to mix your dough. That will save you a lot of time and energy. Then, put the dough in a bread pan (or any pan) to let it rise. When it's big enough, set the toaster oven to the bake function at about 325-350F for 30 minutes and go away. When the timer dings, check the bread by tapping it. If it sounds hollow, you're done. If it's not done, bake it for another 10 to 15 minutes. When it's done, let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes before cutting into it. Here's a video of my "new" GE toaster oven from the Goodwill store:

This video has been featured on other websites such as Large Toaster Oven and Bravetti Toaster Oven.

Making cheap non-dairy homemade ice cream

Recently, I found a Rival brand ice cream maker at the Goodwill for only $10. I had been looking for one for quite a while and was very excited to finally find one that looked good. A few years ago, I found one of those hand-cranked ice cream makers but it didn't seem to work properly. However, this automatic model that I found works great! As long as you let the machine run before pouring in the mixture, the spinning paddle won't get stuck.

The problem with ice cream machines is that it's not really much cheaper to make your own, if you like the premium ice creams that have a high fat content and mix-ins. I used to buy Turkey Hill vanilla bean pints for $2.49 each. To make your own ice cream, you need milk and heavy cream, which are not cheap nowadays. Then, for those of us who are lactose intolerant, we pay a premium for the lactose-free dairy products, such as Lactaid milk. Typically, the recipe for a quart of ice cream is 1 cup milk, 1 cup heavy cream, and flavorings. The milk and cream will cost over $2 and the cost goes up from there. If you want to make vanilla bean ice cream, those vanilla beans aren't cheap! From a health standpoint, all that saturated animal fat isn't good either. From a practical standpoint, it's difficult to transport ice cream home from the store without it melting if you don't own a car! But, we still want that ice cream in the summer, right?

Here are three easy solutions. The first is the most complicated one but offers you the most variety. The second one is very simple but you might not be able to create all the flavors you want. Both are healthier and cheaper than buying heavy cream and milk. The third solution is for athletes and people who want some protein in their ice cream.

Solution #1 - coconut ice cream
The first solution is to use coconut milk, which can be found for as little as 99 cents a can (e.g. light coconut milk at Trader Joe's). One 13.5 oz can should be enough for nearly a quart of ice cream because it expands as it churns. Also, you need to add stuff like flavorings and sugar. For about $2, you can make anywhere between 1.5 pints to a quart of chocolate ice cream, depending on what you add. The coconut milk is usually a buck or two a can and the other two ingredients are probably in your house already. BMS has Goya brand coconut milk for $1.69 a 13 oz can while CVS has the same for only $1.39 a can. The coconut milk replaces the milk and the cream in the typical recipe if you use the full fat Goya (or other brand) stuff (the light coconut milk will obviously make a lighter ice cream). I should also point out that the taste of coconut is actually quite mild. If you want coconut flavored ice cream, you need to add some kind of coconut extract and maybe some coconut flakes.

Chocolate ice cream takes only 3 ingredients:

• 1 can of coconut milk 
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder. 

The basic recipe is just the coconut milk and some kind of sugar. Substitute whatever you like in place of the cocoa. Blend it all up either by hand or in a blender. Turn the ice cream machine on, pour in the mixture, and let it churn for about 15 to 30 minutes (depending on your machine). At that point, you'll have a great soft-serve ice cream. Use a wooden spoon to get all the ice cream into air-tight containers and freeze it for about an hour to have a harder ice cream. That's all there is to it. The bowl is easy to wash by hand and you can put it back in the freezer once it's dry.

Variations:

• add a shot of espresso or instant espresso dissolved in a small amount of water to the mixture
• add tropical fruit chunks (e.g. pineapple, coconut flakes, mango, or banana) during the last 10 minutes of churning
• omit the cocoa powder and add vanilla beans (but not vanilla extract because the alcohol will prevent the ice cream from solidifying).
• add nuts during the last 5-10 minutes of churning.
• use honey instead of sugar

Solution #2 - only bananas

The second solution is to use only bananas. This idea is the simpler one because it doesn't require an ice cream maker. There's actually a machine called "Yonanas" that is basically a sideways blender, that makes ice cream with frozen bananas. However, you don't need to do that. Why buy a machine that does only one thing? The only equipment you really need is either a food processor or blender. The processor works a little better, I think. Basically, you cut up 2 or 3 bananas, freeze them for about 5 hours, and process them. Eventually, you'll have delicious and refreshing soft-serve "ice cream" that's healthier for you and cheaper than regular ice cream. Here are a couple of people on youtube who have successfully demonstrated that it works:

This lady used a hand-cranked food processor!

She used an automatic food processor.

Frozen banana chunks in the Bella Cucina cup

Since most people use a food processor, I was curious to see if it would work in a blender and it did! However, I needed a splash of soy milk to get the blades going. Other than that, the two bananas were all I needed and there was enough to serve two people.

All done, ready to eat!

It was pretty amazing how the texture resembled regular soft-serve ice cream. In a blender, you really need at least a little bit of liquid to get the blades going. I also had to shake it after every 10 seconds at the beginning to help it along. After a few shakes, it all came together. The taste was actually very banana-like and sweet enough without adding any sugar. So, if you don't have an ice cream maker but have some ripe bananas and a food processor or blender, this would be an easy way to have some cheap ice cream all summer. It's actually very good. After you try this, it'll be hard to pass up a package of ripe bananas in the clearance section at the supermarket!

Golden opportunity! Only 49 cents a package. Less than 10 cents/serving.

Solution #3 - Ice cream for jocks
Finally, for those of you who need/want some protein in your ice cream, here's a recipe for high protein chocolate ice cream inspired by a body-builder blogger named Charli. I'm leaving out the xanthan gum because it's $11.99 a bag and it's not necessary. If you like the flavor of Mexican hot chocolate, add a dash of cayenne pepper. Rather than mixing it up and then freezing it, I suggest freezing the banana for about 5 hours as in solution #2 and then using a blender to mix everything up into a soft-serve style ice cream. I've tried this with hemp protein powder and it's more fun to eat than having a smoothie.

Ingredients

• 1 medium banana, broken into chunks
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (any kind - whey, hemp, soy, etc.)
• 3 tsp cocoa (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Freeze the banana chunks for about 5 hours or more.
2. Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend until it's smooth. If you're using a blender and it's not moving well, add a Tbsp of liquid (e.g. soymilk, water, any kind of milk).

So, there you have it - 3 easy ways to make non-dairy homemade ice cream at home. Enjoy!

Treasure Hunting at thrift stores

It's amazing what you can find at places like Goodwill, Salvation Army, or Boomerang's (thrift store in the Boston area). Twenty years ago, I would have been called a cheapskate, but now, I'm "green" or "environmentally conscious". Perhaps thrift stores would be more popular and trendy if we called them "eco-friendly stores". Whatever. The point of this blog is to help my fellow poor students live well on very little money. Thrift store shopping is very important in this endeavor because you can save a lot of money from the time you move into your first apartment or dorm. It should be your first stop for household decor and supplies. Whatever you can't find at the thrift store, you get at a regular store. If you go to the regular stores first, you'll probably find the same thing at the thrift store for a fraction of the cost and slap your forehead while yelling "DOH!"

The stuff you can get at a thrift store can be divided into 4 main categories: appliances, dining, clothes & shoes, and books. In this series, I'll show you what I've found in the past 10 years at various thrift stores in the Boston area. The videos will feature some of the best items.

Appliances and Cooking tools

Here's proof!

GE Convection Toaster Oven

The popcorn popper that I used in previous posts on roasting coffee was from the Goodwill. I got that for only $6. More recently, I found this GE convection toaster oven for only about $10! When I bought it, I didn't know that it was a convection model and just thought I was getting a great deal on a huge toaster oven. As I was baking some bread in it, I heard it make some noise coming from the oven. As you know, toaster ovens are not supposed to make noise! So, I googled the toaster oven and found out that it was a convection toaster oven. The noise was the fan that blows the hot air around inside. For more on this appliance, check out my future blog post on maximizing your toaster oven.

Kitchen utensils are another great surprise that you might find in the housewares section. I found a garlic press, a potato ricer, various spatulas, and more. The quality is usually going to be pretty good because the person who has donated it has already used it and the utensil has therefore stood the test of time. The crappy utensils break before they ever make it into a thrift store.

Finally, baking pans and cooking vessels (i.e. pots & pans) of all kinds can be found in most thrift stores. Why pay $10 for a muffin pan when you can get it for $3 at the Goodwill? However, you need to check the pans carefully for scratches. Teflon pans that have scratches and rust spots will probably add some small flakes of teflon or metal to your baked goods - not cool! Stainless steel pans are usually the best bet because it's pretty hard to damage those.

Dining - Dishes and Silverware
Most of my dishes came from Boomerang's. Recently, I found a crystal mug that retails for $48. At the Goodwill, it was just any mug, so it cost me 60 cents. Unfortunately, crystal contains lead oxide, so I can't use it on a daily basis. However, I've bought quite a lot of glasses and mugs from Boomerang's and have a cupboard full of great drinking vessels. Most of my plates are stoneware. If you take some time to look around thrift stores for plates, you could probably stock up your dish cupboards with better quality plates, cups, glasses, and dishes than if you  went to a regular store AND pay much less.

Clothes and Shoes
If you have free time to look through all the racks, you can pick up most of your wardrobe if you visit 2 or 3 thrift stores. It's unlikely that you'll find everything you need at one store because the selection at each store is so random and the sizes are not always accurate because a large size from a ten-year-old shirt is not the same as a large size today. It's a time consuming process to try on all the clothes there, so try to think about what you want before you go there. That way, if you don't find it, you can move on to the next store. Just make sure you throw the clothes in the wash before you wear them.

You can find things that are better quality at thrift stores.

Shoes are another crap shoot and you need to inspect those carefully. Check the heels to see how worn out they are. I've found Doc Martens that were not worn out much at all. If you know how to shine shoes, a pair of leather shoes that look old and worn can be transformed into a pair of shiny shoes that look almost as good as new. I guess those 5 years of military service taught me something useful after all...

Books
You probably won't find all the textbooks that you need but if you're a philosophy major, it's very possible that you might find something by Chomsky or Nietzsche on the shelves. I've also found a Durkheim book and some supplementary books that came in handy. However, if you're looking for fun reading, there are usually plenty of used novels, travel guides, cook books, and autobiographies. Amazon charges $4 for shipping. Books at thrift stores range from $1 to $3 at most places.

Once you get past the funky smell of the clothes and the fact that the items were once owned by someone else, thrift shopping might just become your healthiest addiction because you'll realize that it's just not necessary to spend more money on stuff at regular stores. Some of the highest quality items in my house are from Boomerang's and the Goodwill.

Wide World of Affordable Tea

Asians have been drinking tea for thousands of years and in many Asian supermarkets, you can get quite a lot of tea leaves for only a few bucks. Why? Because Asians don't think of tea as some hoity-toity drink! When you go to a Chinese restaurant (an authentic one), the first thing the waitress/waiter does is to either put a pot of tea on your table or ask you what kind of tea you'd like. No big deal.

Of course there are all kinds of fancy tea shops in Asia but that kind of tea is not the kind that comes in tea bags, which are filled with a lower grade of tea than the loose tea. The best tea is always loose. That's the stuff that you can inspect and smell without a paper filter in the way. You're also paying for the ambiance there. In North America, if you go to Teavana or other fancy tea shops for loose tea, they'll also charge you for the ambiance and the brand. The same quality (or even better) stuff can be found at any Chinese supermarket (e.g. Super 88 or C-Mart in Boston, TNT in western Canada). If there are no Asian markets in your area, Coffee bean direct has a great selection of teas that are very good quality and reasonably priced. They also have some interesting flavors (e.g. raspberry rooibus, Earl Grey Zephyr, mint teas, etc.) that you won't find in Chinatown.

t-sacs (for making your own tea bags)

Earl Grey Zephyr tea - a little more fragrant than regular Earl Grey

Flavored rooibus tea

Green Jasmine tea - it's very fragrant. If you're concerned about the convenience (or lack thereof) of using loose tea, get a pack of t-sacs, which come in different sizes (from 1 cup to 12 cups). They're available at Coffee Bean Direct and other places too.

However, if you don't care about the quality of your tea and want the convenience of pre-made tea bags, those Chinese supermarkets will probably have green or jasmine tea bags for about 20 bags for less than $1. For about $3, you can get a box of 200 individually-wrapped jasmine tea bags. These are especially good for making iced jasmine tea in the summer. The flavor doesn't matter as much when it's hot outside and you just want to guzzle a glass of tea to quench your thirst. Save the good tea for drinking in the winter.

200 tea bags for about $3.

Another great drink to make in the summer is iced raspberry rooibus. It doesn't require any sweeteners but a little simple syrup, agave nectar, or honey will make it taste like (or better than) the more expensive bottled teas that you get at the store. You can brew a lot of tea at once and store it in glass or plastic jars or bottles (e.g. empty spaghetti sauce jars, glass milk bottles, etc.). This will save you a lot on bottled tea drinks and you won't be overdosing on high fructose corn syrup all summer. Unsweetened iced tea is surprisingly refreshing too. In Asia, it's common for people to drink bottled unsweetened iced oolong and iced jasmine tea. By making your own iced teas, you can slowly wean yourself off sugar by adding less and less sugar each time you brew. Then, you can save money on sugar! :)

Making chili in a frying pan

I am not a vegetarian and love to have a nice toaster oven-broiled ribeye steak whenever possible. However, once in a while, I like to pretend that I'm a vegetarian and eat a lot of beans. Usually this happens when my pants are feeling a little tight and the universe is telling me, "Hey! Lose some weight, fatty!" As you can see, the universe and I have a very frank and honest relationship. After about ten days of eating at least 2 meals that include beans each day, my pants start to feel a little looser. That's good because it's difficult to find pants for short people here. Eating beans is actually not as bad as it sounds. After all, beans are usually not the first thing one thinks about when someone mentions delicious food. As for the farting, that goes away after a few days. Just go outside to take a "break" once in a while. :)

The trick to making beans taste good is to use a lot of spices. A little olive oil can be nice too but if you're trying to lose weight, too much oil is not a good thing. Spices usually have 0 calories, so use as much of those as you like. The other seasonings that make beans taste almost gourmet are Frank's hot sauce and soy sauce, each of which has very few calories. I like to use soy sauce instead of salt because it's in liquid form, which means that it spreads out a lot easier. It should enhance the hot sauce but not do much more than that.

Good bean spices:
cumin
cayenne pepper (use sparingly) or chili powder
black pepper
paprika
curry spice (can be mixed according to taste): can include cardamom, turmeric, coriander, etc. (Click the link for Alton Brown's curry blend)
salt

Here's my recipe for "Addictive Bean Chili" (catchy name, eh?). It's great for using up leftover beans and vegetables. Think of it as a quick bowl of chili that you make in a frying pan. The Secret Sauce makes it addictive. I guess it's not a secret any more...

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

Part of the "secret sauce"

Secret sauce: Frank's hot sauce and soy sauce (start with equal parts, a few shakes of each, and adjust to taste)

Cumin or Curry spice (a little or a lot, depending on what you like - start with 1 Tbsp and add to taste)

Sliced or diced vegetables (however much you want - start with 1 cup and add more if you like) - if you'd like some suggestions: tomatoes, okra, mushrooms, eggplant, squash, zucchini, and corn
1 chopped/minced clove of garlic
1 diced potato
1 portion of cooked beans (any kind, whatever you can eat in one sitting) If you have a rice cooker, use that to cook dried beans.

Instructions:

1. On low-medium heat, in a frying pan, add the oil, the "Secret sauce" (Frank's hot sauce, and soy sauce), and cumin.
2. When you see the cumin sizzling a little, add the vegetables, garlic (and potatoes if using), and beans.
3. Cover the pan with a lid (or another frying pan that has been flipped over). Don't open the lid too many times because you're trying to steam the vegetables in the pan. If possible, don't touch this for 5 minutes!
4. After 5 minutes, the vegetables should have released some of their water and mixed with the Secret Sauce. There should still be at least a little liquid in the pan (unless you left the pan uncovered too long in the previous step). If all the liquid has been evaporated, add 1/4 cup water  and stir to deglaze the pan. The beans will absorb some of that liquid.
5. If there is too much sauce, let it simmer without the lid.
6. Serve and eat

 A 1-pound bag of dried beans will make 5 cups of cooked beans in a rice cooker. That's enough for about 5 large servings. The bag says that there are 12 servings but if the beans are the main part of your meal, there are 5 servings.

Time for a wash!

For this meal, I used a yellow tomato (they're less acidic than the red ones), a purple potato, 3 white mushrooms, some basil, corn, and garlic (last two were not the picture above because they were shy). I also grated some Irish cheddar on the plate.

The "Secret Sauce": Franks' hot sauce, cumin, soy sauce, and olive oil

Everything into the pan!

Two scoops of black beans and the basil join the party!

Add some corn, cover the pan, and don't touch it for 5 minutes!

Cook on low-medium heat!

Making a fancy plate with some grated Irish cheddar from haymarket.

This is what it should look like when it's done. Just make sure the potatoes are cooked.

This was about half the pan of food. There was enough for two plates like this.

This should be a delicious meal that fills you up. It's healthy and very cheap to make. If you have a small amount of jarred tomato sauce that you need to use up, throw it in! That can be used to deglaze the pan or added at the beginning to help steam the vegetables. Tomato sauce can also be a substitute for the hot sauce if you don't like that much heat. I've also used fresh basil leaves to add some extra flavor and freshness to the dish. Just use whatever you have in the fridge.

If you really want some meat in this dish, add it in the first part of the recipe with the vegetables. One strip of chopped bacon can add a good amount of smokey flavor to the dish However, I think the sauce and garlic makes it savory enough without the meat.

Cheese is another ingredient that can be added either to enhance the creaminess of the sauce or as a garnish when serving it (see picture above). Either way, grate the cheese or crumble it up into small pieces so that you can incorporate it evenly into the dish. Smoked gouda is good for adding the smokey flavor if you don't have bacon. Cheddar adds a nice bit of tang without being overpowering.

Enjoy!