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Creating New 'Money Saving Meals' with Sandra Lee
by Troy Rogers
 One of the busiest home style cooking specialists and smart shopping food experts, Sandra Lee, hit the Food Network airwaves back in May with Sandra's Money Saving Meals. Delving into Money Saving areas within the episodes "Fall Feast", "Restaurant Remakes", and "Holiday Cocktail Party", Sandra Lee joined forces with the Food Network to launch Sandra's Money Saving Meals to help families get by with budget friendly recipes for every day of the week. In a penny pinching era, Sandra maximizes cost-saving via savvy supermarket shopping and proper pantry stocking while also introducing her Round 2 recipes based on the same set of ingredients.
In time for Thanksgiving (or the holidays), we spent a few minutes with Sandra Lee last week to learn more about smart shopping, duplicating restaurant dishes, making Chili Hush Puppies, and where to find the best deal no matter where you live.
If you've never seen Sandra's Money Saving Meals, check out all of the savvy advice on the Food Network at Sandra's Money Saving Meals.
THE DEADBOLT: I noticed that supermarkets often disguise prices and nutritional value. Have you found a keen way not to get fooled by that?
SANDRA LEE: Well, the key way is to look at your price per ounce. I mean to look at real cost. For instance, it can cost exactly the same price to buy chicken stock or vegetable broth or beef stock when you buy it in the small container or the large. So there's no fooling there. But if I see that product varies in price and you're paying more for less, I'm going to tell you to buy the bigger container if it's something that you are going to be using quite a bit of.
I try as hard as I can not to buy this whole thing and only use two tablespoons. I hate that. If I can at all get around it, I will, even if it means coming up with a whole new recipe to use that product in just so you get the value out of the product. That's my job. My job is to show you how to get as much value as physically possible with whatever you put on your table.
THE DEADBOLT: I'm also interested in the "Restaurant Remakes" episode. What is the biggest challenge with trying to duplicate a high end restaurant dish at home affordably?
 LEE:
Getting the flavor you want. Because when you
talk about a duplicate recipe, a duplicate recipe
if you're going after that exact flavor, you
have to sit there - I mean, one of the things
I get to do, which I have obviously, as you
can imagine, gotten really good at, is sitting
there. Not that my honey, when I'm sitting there
doing that when we go out to dinner, is delighted,
but I'm like, "I think there's a little curry
in there, possibly some Garma masala. I'm tasting
a lot of garlic." To go have dinner with someone
who's always analyzing the menu is probably
not so much fun. But I think it's a great time.
So I think that's the biggest challenge, really getting that flavor down. And I have to tell you, I have a remake recipe for Cinnabuns that is right on. If you're a Cinnabun fan, baby, we have to get that recipe to you so you can post it, because there isn't a person on the planet who doesn't like a good Cinnabun.
THE DEADBOLT: So for the "Holiday Cocktail Party" episode, can you explain what a Chili Hush Puppy is?
LEE: Oh, a Chili Hush Puppy. Well, those
are absolutely delicious. One of the things
I try to do when I throw a cocktail party is
I really try to be thoughtful about finger foods.
So I think that you don't have to throw a big,
elaborate sit down dinner that's expensive.
Doing cocktails and little finger food hors d'oeuvres
is fantastic and you can convert any major recipe
into a smaller portion recipe, even when it
comes to macaroni and cheese.
 In
fact, one of the things that I am going to throw
in here is that I have four one-hour primetime
specials for the holiday coming out on HGTV
in addition to Semi-Homemade and Money Saving
Meals on the Food Network. One of the things
I had to do in those specials was take the family's
menu, their normal holiday menu, and break it
down into smaller portions. So, for instance,
when I did macaroni and cheese, I served them
in espresso cups so that everybody could enjoy
it. When you're doing something like a dessert,
you can maybe do a mousse in a shot glass. Those
are easy to rent and inexpensive to rent. Or
you can get them in plastic at Party City and
they're pennies and they're fantastic.
But let's talk about the Chili Hush Puppies real quick. I don't know about you, but I always have cornbread on my table when it comes to the holiday season. So you're going to take some of the cornbread batter, either reserve the cornbread batter, which is what I do on my show - I always make a little bit more - and reserve it. Then you're going to take some of the chili that we also made in the show and you're going to bake that off. Then what you want to do is make a beautiful dipping sauce.
So we're just going to fry up the cornbread
batter and make our little balls, stir in the
chili, add some flour, and then you're going
to make a spicy sour cream sauce. So the Hush
Puppies are a Round 2 based off of other
recipes. Round 2s are always based off of other
recipes, they are not leftovers. They're what
you make in addition to what you need for that
particular meal and then reprocessed. Just like
when we do Cocktail Time, we're doing two cocktails
for two different reasons.
 First
and foremost, whenever you have an event, a
holiday soiree or whoever you entertain anytime,
you want to make sure whoever is the driver
is being responsible and has an option. Also,
everything is about the family. A lot of family
members and a lot of kids watch our show. A
lot of children watch our show. Aunt Sandy is
over 21 so Aunt Sandy gets to have a cocktail
with mom. I am mom`s best friend but the little
ones are going to have a "mocktail". So I always
try to make a cocktail now in Money Saving Meals.
Not just because it costs less money, but because
it`s very family friendly and I`ll give you
the cost of that, the "mocktail". Then I`ll
tell you how much it costs to add liquor to
this and you can make a cocktail out of it.
So it`s always a two-for-one and the show seems
to be very partial to that segment.
THE DEADBOLT: Where is a good place to look for deals no matter what part of the country you live in?
LEE: Obviously shopping at the club stores you're going to get the best values. You're going to have to buy in bulk and you have to pay the membership. Also, looking up and down the aisles in regular grocery stores, it doesn't matter. Things like frozen vegetables don't matter when they are generic brands or the grocery store's brand. Things like condensed soups, it does matter. If you open a can of Campbell's soup and you open a can of most private label products, you will see a huge difference in quality. Just look at it.
 For
me, I also look at the sales. Coupons are a
great way. They're sending out all of those
coupons right now for holiday shopping. Buying
a frozen turkey instead of a fresh one will
save you a lot of money. If you brine it, or
if you thaw it out and really give it a great
butter basting inside the skin and outside,
you should be absolutely fine. And don't overcook
it. You just have to kind of know the secrets
and where the best values are. That's what Money
Saving Meals is all about. Every single show
you're going to get so many ideas, tips and
tricks, price analysis, comparisons and also
substitutions. Saving money when you're making
meals is not just about buying products, it's
utilizing what you have. So if you have maple
extract instead of vanilla extract, use the
maple. If a recipe calls for cinnamon, nutmeg,
or any of those types of spices, you can use
pumpkin pie spice. Use what you have, that's
the number one rule.
THE DEADBOLT: Do you think a lot of people overlook coupons, or do they actually use them?
LEE: I think they're using they more and more these days. The redemption, I know for a fact in the grocery stores, is higher than they've seen in years.
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