Cheap Eats

[DC Sunshine]

Ways to budget - much has been said about rice, greens, beans,
ramen, lentils - so no point repeating it - all good advice.

Try the generic brands - Home Brand - whatever they call it locally. Some (not all) products can be acceptable.

When there's marked down meats - buy them - get them home (quickly!) and either cook asap or repackage and freeze. Get to know the time of day when your local store marks their products down - lurk in another aisle till you see them out there then POUNCE! Dairy section can also be good - if you're looking for a product for that night or next day - lots of bargains to be had.

Grow whatever veg/fruit/herbs you can - just for a bit of added freshness.

Don't toss away the stems on a cauliflower or the stalks of broccoli - they make a good addition to a stir fry, sliced thinly. If you peel your potatoes, think about deep frying the skins for a tasty treat (not too often!) and sprinkle with chilli powder or whatever tickles your fancy. BEtter yet - leave the skins on - much better for you - saves time too.

I buy carrots in bulk - they sell them here in 5kg (10#) bags for not very much. They're on the edge of going old, but I peel them, chop them into a variety of shapes (sticks, rings etc etc) blanch them then freeze them - got a freezer full of them at the moment. Yes it takes a while but saves a lot. Same with onions, buy them in bulk when they're in season, if you can stand the tears.

Don't toss out your stale bread - either toss it in the freezer for toast or for making breadcrumbs - freeze then grate - much easier this way - makes a great hamburger stretcher. Or grease a muffin tin, cut the crusts off the bread, stuff them into the muffin holes to make a casing and bake them till they go crispy - they make a good savoury tart base. Can either freeze them or keep in an airtight container for a few days. Or make croutons in bulk for soups.

Speaking of soups - what a life saver they can be! Many many ways of making odds and ends when the funds are low. Save all your bones - or buy cheap marrow bones - have the butcher cut them into shorter lengths for you. Makes the best broth as a base for a lot of delicious soups. See if you can find a butcher/store that will sell you a tray of chicken carcasses for next to nothing. Spend a day making stock and reduce and freeze it - comes in handy for making sauces, gravies, soups etc.

Keep your bacon rinds for adding into stocks/soups, just haul them out before serving. (I used to forget to do that sometimes, but the kids thought they were lucky to find one in there hehe). Even to add them to rice when you're boiling it - adds flavour.

Well I could go on forever...but I better give someone else a chance.

[OregonYeti]

On the subject of nutririon . . . carrots' beta carotene increases with longer storage, so I have read many places.

[shroomgirl]

A french soup version is simply onions, oil, veg (butternut squash etc) and water. Saute onion add veg, pour in water to veg level, cover cook until tender.....about 25 minutes. Puree, if you want a silky mouth feel run through a chinois.

[shel]

Originally Posted by DC Sunshine

Speaking of soups - what a life saver they can be! Many many ways of making odds and ends when the funds are low. Save all your bones - or buy cheap marrow bones - have the butcher cut them into shorter lengths for you. Makes the best broth as a base for a lot of delicious soups. See if you can find a butcher/store that will sell you a tray of chicken carcasses for next to nothing. Spend a day making stock and reduce and freeze it - comes in handy for making sauces, gravies, soups etc.

One of the busier poultry stores I frequent gives away chicken breast bones. These are the bones and left over meat resulting from people who wanted their chicken breasts boned for them. There's plenty of meat left on those breast bones. I'll get five or more pounds of those bones, make a great, flavorful, light broth from them, and strip the meat off for use in other dishes, like chicken salad, or to add into soup, or to feed my cat as a supplemental treat, or to make chicken sandwiches.

See what your butcher, fish or poultry monger will give away or sell at bargain prices. The places I frequent have a great turn over, and sell quality product, so their offerings are always fresh and of high quality.

A friend likes very ripe (over ripe?) tomatoes for some of her dishs, and has found a produce store that will give such tomatoes away free. I like very ripe bananas, and at least two produce stores sell the bananas with heavy brown spots for half price. When I see those, I buy as many as makes sense.

shel

[Grumio]

Indian food is one of my favorites, & I ate so much keema during my lean years (of which there have been many - I'm an actor after all) that after making some after not having had it for a good while, I realized that it is now "comfort food" for me.

Keema, as far as I know, is Hindi for "ground meat," you can use any kind, and there are almost as many recipes as there are non-vegetarian Indian cooks.

My more or less standard version uses tomatoes, potatoes & peas, & one day I realized that I was making the humble Brit dish mince & tatties with Indian spices, garlic & ginger & cilantro instead of parsley .

[dxt178]

My college (and still to this day) staples for cheap eats:

* Rice with broccoli and cheese (light velveeta)
* Stir fry (chicken, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, bok choy)
* Ramen (good stuff like Nong Shim brand "Shin" "Kim Chi" or "Sutah" with Choy Sum in it for cheap greenery)
* Pasta Fagioli (my family recipe, can't give it out for fear of death but northern beans, tomatoes, garlic, ditalin, etc.)
* California rolls (nori, sushi rice, an avocado, fake crab sticks, cucumber)
* Omelettes with cheese (and salsa over them)
* Grilled Cheese with a store bought rustic tuscan bread and any cheese (colby jack, moz, etc.)

All of those listed above are well under $5 to make and generally make a lot so it can last for lunch and dinner or two/three days. I lived through my seven years of college with it and still go back to some of them even now.

[geese4u]

Baked potato with a poached egg and cheddar cheese on top. This was something we ate when I was a kid and times were tough.

[teamfat]

Boy, this topic has brought back some memories of my early climbing/skiing unemployed bum days. I remember being involved with the Ute Alpine Club at the University of Utah, we put together a spaghetti dinner at the Wasatch Mountain Club lodge. I ended up taking home the remainder of the parmesan cheese, which was maybe 9.25 pounds remaining from the original 10 pound package. I ate scrambled eggs with parm at least twice a day for a month, maybe two, possibly three. Good, but a little variety would have been nice. It would be interesting to have a bit of that cheese to compare with the freshly grated parm I put on my pasta for last nights dinner.

Actually I'm currently underemployed and do keep an eye out for bargains at the store. I always check out what I call the "used meat" section where the store puts marked down packages of stuff that is at the 'sell by' date and such. Sometimes one can get good deals there. One local market on occasion has full pork loins for sale at a good price. One of those foot and a half, two foot long chunks of meat can make a LOT of stir fry dishes, boneless chops, paprikash, tacos, burritos, chili, etc. Of course, that's no help if pork is not part of your diet.

Cabbage in various forms is also a good source of cheap and healthy eats, in slaws, salads, soups, stews and such. Try a bok choy, carrot, green onion and slivered almond stir fry for a blend of tastes and textures.

Chicken livers - if you like them, great just cooked with a bit of butter and garlic, they can also make excellent pates for a bit of bargain elegance.

mjb.

[China]

Mac & Cheese (99 cents/box) and Pasta Roni (Also 99 cents/box)