So this is your first kitchen.

[amireal]

The thing that I noticed a lot in the last few years was that when you're used to seeing what shopping for a family looks like (especially one that doesn't have to watch the bottom line very hard) it's hard to really understand what shopping for a single person should feel like. Especially if you're suddenly really concerned with the price bread,

Comments

[graycastle]

dude, vegetarianism. nothing cuts down on expenses like cutting out meat: tofu, tempeh, edammame, beans, lentils, textured vegetable protein, powdered whey protein/soy protein, and eggs are all cheap and awesome. admittedly, some protein sources (like nuts and dairy) are more expensive, but are easily affordable if you're not sinking money into beef and chicken. most north americans eat too much protein anyway, so if nothing else, paying attention to how much protein you need vs. how much protein you eat (something I had to start doing when I went mostly-vegetarian) is a great idea for everyone.

also: there are some superstars of the vegetable world that are high in nutrients and low in cost - carrots, rutabegas, yams, spinach, kale. Better to spend money on these than on potatoes or lettuce; you get more nutritional bang for your buck (which is perhaps more important than the plain old amount-of-food-to-dollar ratio).

I totally have the problem of food going bad in my fridge before I get around to cooking it; I think for me, though, the real solution is to cook more (rather than, say, eating some toast and calling it good).

[mireille719]

I would argue some of that--if you live in a very small town, tofu, tempeh, TVP, etc., can be quite expensive. OTOH, beans are always cheap. (I'm not a vegetarian, but I agree that meatless meals are a great way to save money as long as you're not buying expensive meat-replacement products like veggie corn dogs.)

[amireal]

That's about what I said-- I need to understand beans better-- I just didn't grow up in a family that used 'em-- but I live in the south now-- I can find 'em everywhere.

[mireille719]

I live in the Upper Midwest and can find them everywhere, too, now. I think they're easier to find most places, these days.

Although I grew up in the South and am therefore *used* to having beans all the time.

[j00j]

One of my favorite quick/easy meals is just beans and rice with some cheese. Takes longer if you use brown rice, but it just means remembering to put the rice on earlier.

I sautee some garlic and/or onions, add some crushed red pepper, maybe a little chili powder (I like spicy food. Incidentally, decent spices are often recommended as a good way to make inexpensive food more interesting. And apparently spicy food makes you feel full faster if that's an issue for any reason.). Then I throw in a can of black beans (too lazy to deal with soaking dried one in advance) and some salsa and let that cook awhile. Mix with rice, top with cheese. Makes a few portions, keeps pretty well. Can also be used to fill burritos or whatever. You could add some ground meat or TVP or tofu or whatever if additional protein is desired.

You can also do baked beans using black beans-- I've seen some interesting recipes for that. I think black beans have more protein than some other kinds.

Chickpeas/garbanzo beans are also pretty great-- they can be sauteed in some olive oil and garlic and added to pasta, or to sauteed veggies like spinach. Inexpensive, contains protein, cooks fast (the canned ones, anyway). They're great in curry if you like that.

my religious status on FaceBook is "chickpea"

[_swallow]

sometimes I eat a can of Goya chickpeas (rinsed and salted) for an instant comfort dinner.

[graycastle]

that's true enough; I only started eating tvp and tempeh when I moved to crazy-hippie-ville. availability is definitely a factor, too; I'm lucky enough that the store five blocks away carries all these things.

though I don't imagine that tofu is more expensive per gram of protein than chicken, no matter where you are (even back home in Little Farming Town in the Middle of Nowhere, tofu is available in the grocery stores, and is pretty cheap).

[mireille719]

No, it's not more expensive than chicken, but if the only thing you're considering between meat/tofu is the cost, it's not *less* expensive here than chicken, either.

[amireal]

*hee* If I lived closer to a market that sold those things, I'd be peppering my meals with them a lot more, but now we're in a gas/food cost effective analysis. I tend to eat 1 small chicken breast, cheese, and probably one small portion of protein in my sammich. So I'm good in that place.

also: there are some superstars of the vegetable world that are high in nutrients and low in cost - carrots, rutabegas, yams, spinach, kale. Better to spend money on these than on potatoes or lettuce; you get more nutritional bang for your buck (which is perhaps more important than the plain old amount-of-food-to-dollar ratio).

I'm with you on the spinach and carrots-- never learned how to cook the others-- but I'm willing to try one day. Poatos I keep because it's a really really quick carb (yukon golds).I totally have the problem of food going bad in my fridge before I get around to cooking it; I think for me, though, the real solution is to cook more (rather than, say, eating some toast and calling it good).

Yeah. I started watching what I shopped for and made small schedules if it was something likely to go bad quicker.

[mireille719]

If you can cook a potato, you can cook a sweet potato. (I make them instead of baked potatoes, most of the time. They take a little longer, in my experience, but I also will cook a few extras and have them for lunch.) And sweet potatoes are *loaded* with vitamins.

Although sometimes I just *want* a potato.

[amireal]

I-- never really got into liking sweet potatos. It's a me thing-- I don't think dinners should be too sweet. I should start nabbing them just BECAUSE-- see if my feelings have changed a bit.

[mireille719]

They're not *too* sweet if you just bake them. They're sweet, yes, but... okay, I thought I hated sweet potatoes, because I'd only had them either canned in syrup ( you can now find canned vacuum-packed ones, which are cheap-ish and are handy as an emergency staple, though fresh are better) or cooked with sugar or marshmallows added.

If you bake them--or oven-roast them; one of my favorite winter meals is a plain(ish) piece of baked chicken or fish with a medley of potato, sweet potato, turnip, and carrot (and parsnip if they're affordable) cut into chunks and tossed in a little olive oil, then roasted--they're not super-sweet. Probably no more so than a carrot or winter squash.

[amireal]

I'll give it a shot, I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots and the like-- but healthy is good (mom's trying to get me to switch to whole grain rice, I am being stubborn). Also that meal sounds FABULOUS.

[mireille719]

It's *easy*, which is the nice thing--you cut up the veggies, season everything, and then the only thing you have to do is remember when it's time to put the chicken in (since the vegs take longer).

(See, this is why I do not get Rachael Ray. Sure, it's slow. Sure, it'll be more than 30 minutes until dinner's on the table. But I've worked for 15 minutes, and now I'm going to go away and read my friends list for an hour and unwind, and then dinner's on the table. Whereas using her method, I'd run around like a chicken with my head cut off for 30 minutes (or more--usually more) and be exhausted.)

[amireal]

Yeah-- sometimes I get good ideas from her-- but it's nice to just shove the veggies in come back, flip, add chicken, come back, eat. That's a great meal.

[mireille719]

Exactly. So many "slow cooking" meals involve a lot of hands-off time, and that's nice, because I can have that nice, slow-cooked, comfort-food meal, and I still didn't have to work too hard.

Now, if there's more than about 30 minutes hands-on cooking involved, I tend to skip it. *g*

(I have several RR cookbooks. I have made a few things from them. It's the whole "why would you cook a meal that takes two hours?" attitude I don't get, because most of the time, if you take the time to plan the meal right, at least 90 minutes of that is hands-off. :))