|  M-Nome | Apr 24, 9:16pm | | Well, I'm fresh into a new apartment. I've always loved to cook, but have never had to do it on a daily basis. Anyone got any good tips about how to eat well cheaply? |
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Sponsor |  Thomas-Jefferson | Apr 24, 9:41pm | Dry beans and big sacks of rice. Whichever fresh fruits and vegetables look good and have a low price per unit. I personally get a good deal on 1 lb cubes of frozen spinach.
For meat I focus on frozen ground turkey and frozen chicken (boneless skinless costs extra but thats what I get). Sometimes you can get a good deal on frozen fish too, but it can't really be a staple if you are on a budget. I buy frozen tilapia at aldis and eat it on friday.
I try to fit meals together for extra savings. For instance I made pasta this week. Recipe:
recipe part 1
two boneless skinless chicken breasts
two italian sausages
some seasoning salt (I used a mexican chile lime one, but I often just use onion salt)
some dry spices, not herbs (dried hot peppers and an indian spice blend recommended for lamb meat is what I used this time).
I boil this w maybe 8 cups of water until I think the chicken might be done, then cut it and the sausages up to bite size and returned them to the boiling water. I then added
1 lb of frozen spinach
and returned to a boil, and added
1 box/sack of pasta.
after about 10 minutes more boiling (depending on the pasta) I carefully strained it above another pot so as to save the water (stock). Then I returned the pasta/meat/spinach to the original pot and added herbs (parsley and other italian herbs like oregano and sage) and olive oil (I often use flax oil too, but I am out, and besides it's expensive). Finally I dumped in a jar of pasta sauce I bought on sale (this time it was a roasted garlic alfredo sauce) and stirred.
On my own plate I put lots of cayenne pepper on top, but the kids used parmesan cheese instead (go figure ;)
Leftovers can be put in tuperware for easy storage and consumption, and the water (stock really) I saved in the frige for a lima bean soup I made the next day....
part 2
2 sacks dry lima beans (rinsed and soaked / prepared according to directions)
leftover pasta water (stock)
5 bouillon cubes
lots of dried minced garlic, maybe 20 dried chile peppers (or to taste ;)
all boiled until I thought the beans were done (cool and eat one), then I added
1 lb of frozen spinach
and the peel of one lime.
and returned to boil while chopping
2 onions
and 1 lb of mushrooms
which I added right near the end and cooked only for a minute or two. Finally I added some herbs and ate it (for a couple of days ;). |
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Sponsor | | CelticWarrior | Apr 25, 5:26am | | This is a great site. It's aimed at families but with a little bit of math you could adapt it for a single household. |
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| | pinklu | Apr 25, 5:50am | I can add that whatever you do cook, you can always freeze the leftovers, and then you actually will not need to cook every night. Some foods freeze better than others. But you can't go wrong cooking a pot of soup or a stew, and apportioning it out in single serves to be frozen.
All the best with your new appartment, M-Nome:) |
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Sponsor | | CelticWarrior | Apr 25, 6:49am | | I highly recommend investing in a vacuum seal system. You can spend a day cooking and freeze up your meals for the week. Invite a friend over and both of you invest your time and money together. It can be great fun and a real money saver. |
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Sponsor | | joemayer | Apr 25, 9:55am | I definitely second the leftovers and vacuum sealer thoughts. Also, potatoes are still relatively cheap and filling, and are great side dishes to add to a small piece of meat so you feel like you've had a "real meal." Of course, the pasta, rice, and beans can also do the same thing.
One other suggestion is to freeze whatever you can that is not absolute trash. Bones from almost any meat, fish heads, shrimp peelings, the tops of root vegetables, even potato peels. Freeze them separately or in "themed groups" (stuff that tastes good together), and when you get enough, stick them in a pot with a quart or two of water and some appropriate herbs and simmer for a good little while. It depends on the stuff you're cooking, but fish or shrimp stock can be done in an hour or so, beef or pork takes a good deal longer, sometimes five to six hours depending on the size of the bones and such. Fortunately, if you leave it at a low simmer, even cooking it too long doesn't really do much damage. Once you feel that you've extracted as much good flavor from the solids as possible, strain the liquids out into a bowl and discard the solids. The liquids can be put in the fridge for a few hours and then the fat will solidify on top. This can then be peeled off and either discarded or (my preference) frozen to be used as a cooking medium later. The now rather clearer broth can be frozen for a good long time, six months to a year, and makes a wonderful base for soups, stews, sauces, pot roasts, risotto... Pretty much any recipe you can find that calls for broth, you can use your own instead of paying Swanson to do it for you.
Good luck with the apartment and the cooking! |
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| | qthews | Apr 25, 10:40am | As we in Italy have a (declining in last years... but not so fast) "tradition" of relatively small (compared to USA standards) fridges i'm amazed on how much you all count on having a lot of "freezing volume".
My only advice is to have some really fast and easy foods to cook/warm when you really don't have the time or the energy that are not junk: it is healthier and cheaper. |
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Sponsor | | Thomas-Jefferson | Apr 25, 10:45am | yes, it is wonderful to have a large freezer. I lived in europe, and the refrigerators you have for a family are so small we only use them for beer in the garage, or maybe for a college student in a dorm apartment.
My german friend had a small refrigerator, but they also had a deep chest freezer. |
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| | qthews | Apr 25, 11:02am | Yes, #8, deep chest freezers are more diffused than big refrigerators, and they are usually used for meat as every family knows "that shop" where meat is special and/or cheaper.
I'm speaking about northern Italy, there is some difference in this through Italy. |
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Sponsor | | Thomas-Jefferson | Apr 25, 11:06am | | yes, I have studied italian politics a good deal, and am aware there are radical differences between the north and south socially and economically. I imagine the food is rather different as well! |
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