Posted on 02/18/2009 2:24:13 PM PST by JRandomFreeper
Its tough out there and may get tougher. Job cuts, pay cuts, and expenses are going up. Whats a conservative to do? Conserve, of course.
That doesnt mean you have to eat less healthy food, or eat foods that arent so good, or eat less. With a few of the right ingredients, some practice, some planning, and some time, you can produce excellent quality nutritious meals for surprisingly little money.
The catch, of course, is the time it takes. But if you are unemployed, or under-employed (like me), you have more time than money.
Fine cooking is about treating good quality ingredients right. Inexpensive cooking is about picking the right ingredients, some planning, and some labor.
My favorite ingredients are good quality, good price, and ingredients with many uses. That means shopping fairly frequently, watching for specials in the flyers that fill up my mailbox, and talking to family and friends about the REALLY GOOD DEALS that we all run across sometimes.
Ingredients
I rarely buy canned or frozen, with a few exceptions, (canned tomatoes and frozen corn, namely) I use what is fresh and in season, and cheap. I also have a garden, and eat what is seasonal from the garden.
Basil is expensive in the grocery store, but is easy to grow. And it shows up about the same time as the tomatoes. Can you say Italian?
Meats are more problematic. Ive pretty much given up on beef, except once a month. Im fortunate that I can get game locally, like venison and boar, and we raise a few goats for the freezer.
Pork can be found on sale in large roasts that can be cut up and prepared in many ways.
Chicken also can be found on sale in bulk and frozen in appropriate sized portions.
Bulk products, like flour, cornmeal, rice, beans, masa, and sugar can be purchased in bulk and transferred to appropriate sealed containers to keep the bugs out.
Planning
Since Im single, I know how much of what Im going to use in a month and plan accordingly. Breakfast is whatever you eat for breakfast times 30. For me that means 60 eggs, 30 sausage patties, 30 frozen biscuits, and 60 oz of homemade salsa for the month. Sausage patties weigh 2 oz each, so thats 60 oz of that pork shoulder for breakfast for the month.
A word about individually frozen biscuits. I use them, they are good. I can, and have mixed up a batch of biscuit dough to cook just one biscuit. I won my bet, and would never do it again.
Lunch and dinner I plan for 8 oz of meat, 6 oz of cooked starches, and 4 to 6 ounces of vegetables. So for planning thats 2 meals times 30 days = 60 meals. So I need about 30 lbs of meat, 22 lbs of starches, and 20 lbs of vegetables for the month.
A word about starches. 2oz of dried beans, rice, or pasta roughly equals 6 oz of cooked starches. For things like potatoes, rutabagas, and turnips, use the full 6 oz measure when buying.
Fruit is as in season, and inexpensive. Sometimes, that means that I just get preserves.
Salads for me come from the garden if they are in season. Down here in Texas, Ive usually got something most of the year.
I make my own breads, desserts, and lots of my own sauces.
This article is meant to stimulate discussion on cost savings and maybe provide some advice during these difficult times. There are quite a few freeper Chefs, food service professionals, and darn good non-professional cooks on this site.
For those of us with freezers looking into reducing freezer burns, can you recommend a vacuum sealing foodsaver?
Lots of times, baking recipes are given in 'Baker's %' where the weight of the flour =100% and the other percentages aren't true percentages, but a percentage of the flour weight.
I run about 12 grams of salt for 480 grams of flour, or somewhere around 2.5% of the flour weight.
When I get a chance, and my brain is really working, I'll convert my standard bread recipe to normal kitchen measurements and post it here.
/johnny
Anybody got any suggestions?
/johnny
Now there's a name I haven't heard in some time. RIP, Mel.
If you’ve really never seen Top Chef, I envy you: you get to see it all, fresh, not knowing.
Start with Season 1, arguably the best season of them all.
Find a way to see this show. If you have a semi-modern or modern computer, it can play DVDs. Get the first season of Top Chef.
What's "TVP"?
I would, quite literally, eat possum before I would eat TVP.
/johnny
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/
I disagree strongly with you about Alton Brown’s “manic” (your description) presentation manner. It is charming, amusing and makes watching him easier for the ADDled youth of today.
Then again, what are the odds of some SK8r punk watching Food TV?
Nonetheless, *I* like him, and have incorporated many of his hints into my cooking.
you can use a pressure pan to do that...
There is the smaller pressure pan, as compared to what you use for presssure canning vegetables, that will cook beans or tougher cuts of meat in a short time...and there is always the standby slow cooker. The toughest piece of meat will be totally tender in either the pressure pan or the slow cooker.
If you peel the stem of broccoli, the stem is tender and very good in vegetable dishes or soups.
racccon and opossum are thick...
My father-in-law used to run trap lines for beaver, to sell the pelts. Mom-in-law used beaver meat in mincemeat pies and yes it was very good.
Great food thread. Thanks for posting!!!
/johnny
Another way to get away from the gas of beans is to use them as sprouts-they go into soups and meatloaf etc with no problem.
And beans (check to see what your flour mill does not like, such as oily nuts) run through the flour mill can be added to anything. Meatloaf, soups, casseroles, thinking in terms of adding some protein, although as mentioned, incomplete. But it adds nutrition.
Flour is around 80 cents per pound. A pound is 453 grams. Four calories per gram of carbohydrate/protein = 1812 calories/lb. Moderately active adult male of average size requires 2300 calories, which represents 1.27 pounds of flour, or roughly a dollar. So too does canola oil represent about $1 for 2300 calories. So, to the extent you are having fresh homemade bread, you are subsisting for a dollar per day.
I don’t have a bread machine, but I love baking bread. There is something deeply satisfying about punching down the first proof of the dough: it’s more fun than popping a balloon.
Easy peanut butter ch chip cookies
1 c sugar
1 c peanut butter
2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
mix thoroughly
add
1 c ch chips
drop 1 spoonful on baking sheet 1 1/2 inch apart. flatten slightly
bake for 9-10 min at 350 degrees
Also to cut down on salt, I use medium coarsely ground wheat for a home version of shake and bake for baking chicken. For my taste it completely eliminates the need to use salt and really tastes good.
That's right. No bread machine needed. What is real handy is a dough whisk to get it started before the dough is smooth enough to take in hand. It requires a little work, but do more stuff like this by hand, and a gym membership isn't needed so much.
I pay only $10 for a gallon of the cabbage kimchi. Yum!
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