Use It Pho Bo

I am happy to report that I came out of grocery shopping this week about $45 below budget. I've done better, but we were out of some of the bigger-ticket items this week so I think $45 is pretty OK.

Here's the first recipe I made this week, using stuff from my fridge and freezer:

Use It Pho Bo

For the soup:

• 14 cups water 
• 3 pounds beef soup bones 
• 1 1-inch piece of ginger, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced 
• 1 tbsp salt 
• 3/4 tsp anise extract or 6 pieces star anise
• 1 1/2 cinnamon sticks 
• 2 bay leaves 
• 1 tbsp sugar 
• 4 cloves 
• 2 tsp fennel 
• 1/4 cup fish sauce 
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 pound boneless beef sirloin, cut into thin strips
• 3 oz dried rice or mung bean noodles 
• 1 cup fresh bean sprouts 

Serve on the side:

• 1/8 cup green onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro sprigs, roughly chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves 
• Lime wedges
• Plum sauce
• Sriracha hot sauce

Put the beef bones in a pot with the water. Add the ginger, onion, salt, anise, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and sugar. Place the fennel and cloves into a tea baller and drop into the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for two or three hours, checking occasionally and topping off with a little more water if needed. You want the stock to boil down a bit so it will be rich tasting, so don't add a whole lot of water.

Now strain the stock and return to the pot. Bring to a simmer.

Soften and cook the noodles according to the package directions (this will vary depending on what kind of noodles you're using). Now add the beef strips to the pot and let cook for maybe a minute or two. Don't cook too long because you don't want them to end up tough and they will cook quickly.

Add the bean sprouts and noodles. Serve with sliced green onion, cilantro, jalapenos, basil and lime wedges on the side, and plenty of plum sauce and hot sauce to liven it up.

What I had to buy:

• Ginger - $.25
• Bean sprouts - $1.29
• Green onions - $.50
• 1 jalapeno pepper - $.30
• 1 lime - $.25

Total amount spent this week, on this meal: $2.59. Everything else was already in my fridge and freezer.

Now, it's not entirely true of course that this meal only cost $2.59, because those soup bones and meat slices cost money and were not destined to be thrown out. But because we food stockers often forget about and/or fail to make use of what we stash in our freezers, I'm going to exclude the cost of anything that I already had on hand. The idea is to make use of what I've already got, so I'm going to focus on keeping those weekly expenses down instead of thinking about how much I spent on all those items I've stocked up on in the past.

So like all the recipes I will post here, feel free to include/exclude items if you have them. You don't *need* basil and you could get by with a different kind of hot sauce, if you have it, for example. Buy as little as possible. Put any kind of beef you have on hand in the pot, or even skip the stock making step altogether and use a canned stock flavored with some ginger and anise. Improvise and keep your expenses down!