The Recipe Revolution!

Stop treating recipes like laws and watch your grocery bill shrink while your creativity grows. Erika shares how to break beloved dishes into simple, repeatable templates so you can cook boldly with what’s already in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Instead of chasing the exact ingredients for Crab Cakes Benedict or a perfect lasagna, Erika shows you how to decode the structure—starch, protein, sauce, topper; or layered carb, creamy element, savory element—and then rebuild the experience with smart, budget-friendly swaps.

You’ll leave with a new lens for meal planning: shop your kitchen first, map a template, and plug in components you already have on hand. Expect fewer  grocery runs, less food waste, and dinners that still feel special enough for company. Want a head start? Grab the free “template any recipe” guide at stretchyourkitchen.com, and subscribe for more tips, tools and takeaways. What classic will you reinvent tonight?

Transcript

Welcome To The Recipe Revolution

Erika 0:00

Today on Stretch Your Kitchen, join the revolution. The recipe revolution, that is. I'm going to provide a whole new perspective on recipes, and it's sure to get you thinking about what you prepare and how you prepare it in order to serve up delicious meals, save money, and stretch your kitchen. Great meals don't start in the grocery store, they start in your own kitchen. I'm Erika, and I'm on a mission to prove that thoughtful cooking isn't about buying more, but about using better. Welcome to Stretch Your Kitchen. As I explained in last week's episode, when I was a young mom, I knew that I wanted to provide great meals for my family. I wanted them to love my cooking. I wanted them to want to come home for my cooking. Well, back in the day, I think I bought every single recipe book on the market. Yes, back then we used books. It wasn't a thing to just look up a great recipe on the internet. We actually had books. Some of my favorite books were America's Test Kitchen or this one that I had that was called Kentucky Cooking. It was full of comfort food recipes. I loved comfort food even then. One of my favorite recipes from that book was called the Sunday chicken rice bake. And I really think I made that every Sunday for months on end. Back then, I was also an army wife. And one of the things that army wives did back then was look for ways to raise funds to support the units. And cookbooks were one of those amazing ways to raise funds. It seems like every single unit I was a part of produced some sort of cookbook where everyone would contribute their favorite recipes and then the cookbook would come out and everyone would buy it. And it just seemed like a great way to share maybe your family traditions surrounding cooking. Some of my favorites from those cookbooks were cowboy caviar. I actually still make that to this day. And I remember some sort of brunch ring that used a puff pastry. I don't know if I was very successful with that puff pastry brunch ring, but I'm sure I've tried it at one point or another. Over the years, I began to realize that while often tasty, these recipes were really limiting my ability to cook freely and creatively using ingredients that I already had on hand, because they often required me to go out to the grocery store and purchase items just to recreate this recipe that promised a delicious ending. So by trying to follow those recipes, it just pulled me further and further into the trap of spending more grocery dollars rather than saving and using my resources wisely. So where did that leave me? Well, I honestly for a little while felt like a tourist without a map. I love to travel, but one thing I know is that oftentimes when we're in a foreign city, we feel a little bit lost, out of our element, so to speak. I'll tell you one thing though. One thing that I've really learned about traveling blindly, kind of letting the wind take you where it may, is that it often leads to some of the most memorable travel experiences. Likewise, when we ditch the roadmap to cooking that I call a recipe, it often leads to some of the most delicious quality meals, and it increases creativity in the kitchen, reduces waste, and saves money. So that leads me to today's Kitchen Quest. The Kitchen Quest is where I tackle new topics each week to help you stretch your grocery dollars, minimize food waste, and turn what you already have on hand into delicious, flavorful meals. Today's Kitchen Quest is designed to lead you toward more creative cooking using ingredients that you already have on hand in your pantry, in your refrigerator, or your freezer. This ultimately saves you money and minimizes food waste. My husband and I tend to entertain from time to time. I love providing a delicious meal and a bottle of wine, and we sit and talk and sometimes reminisce over that meal. Well, I do want it to feel special. I want to provide an experience for my guests. So I do put a lot of thought into what I prepare, but I don't want to put forth a lot of effort to go to the grocery store and buy multiple ingredients to create something when I know that with a little creativity I can use what I have on hand and put forth a quality meal that we can all enjoy together. People often ask me for my recipes, and the truth is I don't really have them. I mean, I can tell you roughly what I've done and I can put that on paper, but my approach to cooking is all about creativity. See, I don't believe recipes should be set in stone. I don't think they should be a list of prescribed requirements that will produce some specific end result. I like to think about recipes as tools or templates, if you will. For me, a recipe is just an inspiration. So I love a good cooking show like The Kitchen or Pioneer Woman or America's Test Kitchen. That's a show too, or Guy's Ranch Kitchen, or anything, Gordon Ramsay. I do love me some Gordon Ramsay, I'm not gonna lie. But these world-class chefs have made their living off of providing delicious recipes that home cooks desire to follow because everything looks amazing. But here's the thing: those recipes might look delicious and tempting, but they're not always achievable at home. Because perhaps they require ingredients that might not be, say, easily accessible to us or might not be within our grocery spending budget. Sometimes the sheer number of ingredients required can be a little bit overwhelming, which would lead to increased grocery spending. What if we were to reframe the idea of what a recipe is? What if you began to think about a recipe not as a step-by-step roadmap to success, but rather a possibility, an inspiration, a template for creative cooking using what you might already have on hand? Now remember, as we've been freezing items and looking to stretch our grocery dollars, we are already building up our own home inventory. So why not make use of that inventory and save money while getting a little bit creative? Let's take a recipe that sounds absolutely delicious, but maybe out of reach in terms of what you already have on hand, because remember it's not about what you buy, but about how you use it. I absolutely love Crab Cakes Benedict. It is probably one of the most perfect bites in my mind. That delicious crunch of, say, an English muffin on the bottom, a wonderful crispy crab cake with lump crab meat making up the bulk of that crab cake. And then you add that delicious creamy Hollandaise sauce on top of a beautifully poached egg. When you break it open, that egg yolk just runs all over, enhancing the already delectable Hollandaise sauce. Yes, I love it. My mouth is actually watering right now when I'm talking about it. I love Crab Cakes Benedict. Let's take that Crab Cakes Benedict and really think about what it is at its heart. What it is is a bread on the bottom or a starch. Next, on top of that is a protein. In this case, it's a crab cake. On top of that is an egg and then an egg-based sauce. So, really, its components are a starch, on top of that, a protein, and then an egg, and then a sauce. That's all it is. Well, here in Hawaii, we have something called Loco Moco. It is a local favorite. It's in pretty much every restaurant. People make it at home. It's so easy to make. Let me explain to you what Loco Moco is. It's a bed of rice with a deliciously seasoned hamburger patty on top. On top of that is a brown gravy, and then on top of that is a beautifully cooked sunny-side up egg. Again, it's a starch on the bottom with a protein and an egg and a sauce. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? You see, loco moco is simply a derivative of a crab cake Benedict, or any Benedict for that matter. Do you know that Benedicts were originally created in the late 1800s in high-end hotels in New York City? You see, Benedicts were a meal that were designed for the wealthy. So as Benedicts developed over time, they became even more high-end. Oftentimes we'll hear of the crab cake Benedict. Crab cake replacing the original Canadian bacon. Sometimes we'll hear about a lobster benedict. Mmm, how succulent does that sound? But at the heart of the recipe, it's still the same. It's a bread, a protein, an egg, and a sauce. So imagine if I were in the mood to make a Benedict, but I didn't have lump crab meat on hand, or it wasn't in my budget right now. Really, if I just think about the components of that recipe, I can create my very own version of a Benedict. Kind of like we have the Loco Moco here in Hawaii. I ask myself, what do I currently have on hand? Well, right now in my freezer, I know that I have ground turkey. I don't have English muffins, but I know that I had frozen half of a loaf of French bread because we didn't eat the entire loaf last week. So I've got frozen turkey, I've got French bread, I don't want to waste six eggs on making our Hollandaise, plus, I don't know that a Hollandaise sauce is appropriate here. So I think to myself, what's one of the most economical, simple sauces that I can make? And then how can I elevate it? Well, I love a bechamel. It's rich, it's velvety, and it's simple. It's butter, flour, and milk. That is all. That's what makes a bechamel. Now, a bechamel is just a foundational sauce. It's a French mother sauce, it's used worldwide. But you can elevate that bechamel by adding in additional flavors. And this is where creativity comes into play. So again, I'm planning out my Benedict. What if I toasted that French bread and created a crustini of sorts? I could brush it with some olive oil, maybe sprinkle it with a little fresh parsley and garlic, and put it in the oven as a crustini. Now that ground turkey I can make into a delicious turkey burger, but I want it to be herbaceous. So I'll add some parsley or hey, remember that pesto that I always have on hand? I could add one tablespoon of pesto into that ground turkey. It would be delicious. Maybe chop up a little bit of onion in that turkey burger as well. Form them into nice big thick burgers. Okay, so now I've got my bread, which is my starch, I've got my protein, and a sauce. I mentioned that bechamel. Well, what goes great with turkey? Well, swish cheese. Why don't I add two slices of swish cheese into that bechamel and whisk it so it melts right in? Now I've got a swish cheese bechamel. Yum. And of course, I could top it with an egg, but in this instance, I really think that this could use a little bit of acid, something really fresh that could lighten it up. Well, in my refrigerator right now, I have a little bit of arugula and a little bit of kale. So I'm going to chop those up and make a nice little arugula kale salad with simple olive oil and lemon juice. That nice acidic burst on top of that will be perfect. So here I have it, my own version of a loco moco. You will not find this recipe anywhere because I literally just made it up because I used a recipe template. Well, you will find it somewhere actually because I'm about to add this onto the stretchyourkitchen.com website. I would love to make this tonight. And as a matter of fact, I am going to make it tonight. I'll add the recipe that I use onto the Stretch Your Kitchen website as well as a photo so you can see for yourself how it turns out. But please remember this is just a template. You can create your own unique version of a Benedict by following that simple template: a bread, a protein, a sauce, and a topping, whether it's an egg or a nice, fresh, acidic salad. Let me think of another option I could make using this same recipe template. Okay, I have some frozen garlic bread in the freezer. And I probably have some frozen shrimp left because I did a feast of the seven fishes right before Christmas and I had bought too much shrimp, so of course I froze so that I didn't let it go to waste. So I've got garlic bread, I've got shrimp. Again, I can make a bechamel, but how do we change it? Well, I love shrimp scampi, so why don't I make a bechamel and add some garlic, lemon, and wine? It would be a garlic, lemon, wine bechamel. Sounds like a scampi, but more creamy and delicious. Okay, and what should I top it with? I think I'll use that same salad since I know I have arugula and kale in my refrigerator that need to be used up before they go bad. Otherwise, I'll freeze them. So what do we have? We've got the bread or starch, in this case, garlic bread, the protein shrimp sauteed with just a little salt, pepper, and lemon, lemon wine, cream sauce, and a nice acidic salad. That sounds delicious. Do you see how recipe templates work? You don't need to follow a recipe. It is inspiration to use what you already have on hand. I can take probably any recipe and template it out and use it to create something new and delicious with what I already have on hand. Let's think about lasagna. What is the template for a lasagna? Well, it's noodles and cheese and a meaty sauce and then layered noodles, cheese, meaty sauce, topped with cheese. That is a template. Do I have to have regatta or cottage cheese on hand? Do I have to have lasagna noodles on hand? Do I have to have ground beef or ground pork or ground sausage and red sauce on hand? No, I don't. While a lasagna is delicious, I can use that template to create something new using what I already have on hand. Let's take the example that I used above. I have shrimp. I know that. That can be the protein. I can make that same garlic lemon wine bechamel. And I don't have lasagna noodles on hand right now. But you know what I do have? I have two packs of puff pastry because I was going to try my hand at a beef wellington, but I didn't want to spend the money on a tenderloin. So I gave up on it and knew I could use that puff pastry in another way. So let's use this template of a lasagna. And what if I put some garlic lemon wine cream sauce in the bottom and then layered a thin layer of puff pastry? I'll roll it out thin, and then added that shrimp with another layer of that delicious cream sauce, another layer of puff pastry, another layer of shrimp, and keep going along those same lines. And at the top, I will sprinkle parmesan everywhere. Now, when that bakes up, I can only imagine that it would be a delicious, puffy, crispy, savory bite. And oh my goodness, I might have to try to make that too. Yes, I am going to make that. But again, I am making these up right now on the spot because I believe in the idea that a recipe is an inspiration. It is a template. You can utilize the basic idea or structure or construct of that recipe to create something new and absolutely different. So I'm going to add these recipes that I've talked about during this episode in StretchYourKitchen.com in case you want to view them. But I highly encourage you any recipe that I've added to stretchyourkitchen.com, feel free to get creative with it. What do you have on hand and how can you use it to stretch your grocery dollars while creating something new and delicious for your family? Reframe those recipes. They're now tasting templates. How about we head into this week's culinary concern? The weekly culinary concern allows me the opportunity to answer your questions and share more ways to help you stretch your kitchen. If you're feeling inspired, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. Visit stretchyourkitchen.com, and please follow me on Facebook and Instagram at StretchYourKitchen for more tips, tools, and helpful takeaways to minimize waste and maximize flavor. Today's culinary concern comes from my sweet husband Thomas. And that's because this is my second episode, and I'm recording these episodes prior to releasing the podcast. But please head over to stretchyourkitchen.com and ask away. I would love to answer your questions or give you my ideas and feature them on a future podcast. So my husband said, and I quote, Babe, this is so delicious. How do you come up with all of these amazing meals? The answer is, I don't. The recipes create themselves. Have you ever heard that phrase, there's nothing new under the sun? There is nothing new under the sun. Every recipe is simply a permutation of something that has already been done before. We just have to be willing to experiment with it, get creative, and understand how to use. A recipe template to create something new. The food is already in existence. It is and has always been. This is not rocket science. I'm not inventing anything. I'm simply using a template of something that has been done before, along with what I have on hand, and a little bit of creativity so that I can create a flavorful meal without buying more, but using better. Of course, there are a few guiding forces that give me the confidence to get creative in the kitchen. And I'm actually going to share more about that in next week's podcast. I can't wait to cover some of your culinary concerns, but for now, let's just move on to this week's Triple T takeaway. Each week, I'll leave you with my Triple T takeaway. That's tips, tools, or tasks to begin implementing the Stretch Your Kitchen Lifestyle. These simple takeaways prove that thoughtful cooking isn't about buying more, but about using better. This week, I have a tool and a task for you. First, the task. Now, think about the basic components of that recipe and template it out. And then think about what you already have on hand. And based on that template, build a delicious meal for your family. Remember, the trick here is to use what you already have on hand because the whole idea of Stretch Your Kitchen is to minimize food waste and maximize flavor. You can achieve both. You will very quickly begin to see that new and exciting meals are on the horizon for your family, all while saving you money and minimizing food waste. Now, here's the tool. I am including on stretchyourkitchen.com a free download, a guide for templating any recipe. Feel free to download that guide and use it this week. I honestly believe that with a little bit of practice and a little bit of creativity, you will soon see that every ingredient that you have on hand can become something new simply by following a recipe template. Your family will be so surprised when you break out of that recipe rut and begin serving new and creative meals. So that's all for this episode of Stretch Your Kitchen. Next week it's Flavor Flav. Well, okay, that's a little embarrassing, but it's not exactly flavor flav. I don't have that budget. But the episode will be packed with flavor. So tune in next week as you continue your quest to stretch your kitchen. Thank you for listening to Stretch Your Kitchen. If you enjoyed this episode or feel that it would be useful to someone else, please leave a review on Podchaser and follow me on Facebook or Instagram at StretchYour Kitchen. And remember, thoughtful cooking isn't about buying more, but about using better.