Frugal Foodies
Posted on Mar 29 in Humble Garden, Local Foodby NikaPrint
What is it about frugal recipe sites on the web – the ones I find are like bad knock-offs of Sandra Lee almost homemade (or whatever) on the Food Network (or is that rip off the other way around?)
Sandra Lee’s formative culinary experiences were around subsistence living off of food stamp/WIC foods that she could get at a CONVENIENCE STORE .. her mom, it seems, was couch-bound and not into feeding the kids so little Sandra Lee had to walk to the local Slurpee-Burpee convenience store to get something for her and her sister to eat. My heart aches for the thought of that little girl taking on so much responsibility. Thing is, now she is making big bux off of presenting similar foods as something more than the stop-gap food that it is.
A lot of frugal recipes I see out there really seem the same – its heavily laden with store-brand oversalted canned veggies and canned meats, day-old white breads and pastries (think of the aging transfats), and velveeta to bind it in the gut.
I am willing to bet that the foods people ate in the great depression did not include a whole lot of velveeta and knock-off brand cans of cream of mushroom soup.
I think we have a lot to learn from elders who coped during the depression.
Perhaps “Frugal Foodie” is an oxymoron? You tell me. Do I have to have five different iberian jamons hanging in my larder to qualify as a foodie?
These days, due to months of underemployment with no paid health insurance but MASSIVE COBRA payments, we are doing the frugal thing because we need to.
I have never been the “usual” food blogger really. Our family has not gone to a restaurant in more than 2 years and we do not do vacations. My food is all about what I make at home for us to eat, food shot for the portfolio (and to eat), or the important outreach I do to learn more about local sustainable food in the Massachusetts area.
For these reasons, a frugal stretch with the occasional indulgence works ok with this blog.
Our chickens are laying about 9 eggs a day now so thats definitely an ingredient.
We just got two little girl baby LaMancha baby goats (which we bartered for) and we will be getting an adult goat LaMancha, in milk, soon so milk products will be available ingredients.
Our garden sprouts are coming along.
Here you can see some early start-corn.. growing like crazy and have been nibbled by cats, unfortunately.
I also planted a mess of spicy and sweet mesclun that will be ready for it’s first indoor harvest not too long from now. I can wait for these and also for the garden as a whole.
To me, frugal proteins are not animal based (eg: chicken, beef, pork) but rather vegetarian mixes that make for complete proteins (rice and beans, rice and lentils etc). The problem with being frugal is that it CAN get boring if you let it.
So, I need your help!
I am interested in hearing about tasty healthy frugal recipes that you know about or sites that you can recommend.
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I was a vegetarian for years when I was in college and dirt poor. I think every meal consist of beans, rice and whatever veggies or fruit was in season and cheap. Tortillas, lavosh, and breads are cheap and easy to make from scratch. I always bought dried beans and rice in bulk.
My favorite were my burritos… homemade tortillas, black beans, rice, sauteed veggies (zucchini, squash, onion, peppers) and salsa. I’d have a lot of random salads to use up veggies, so nothing went to waste. And dessert was usually a piece of fruit.
Leanne Ely has a suggestion she calls rubber chicken… I think most people living frugally know how to make a chicken stretch, but some might stumble on here so I’ll link it… Rubber chicken is at the bottom
Barbara: Thanks for sharing! I LOVE homemade tortillas but mine are always so tough .. they taste great but they are never like the ones I remember at little dives in San Antonio, TX where I used to live. Am going to check out that link, thanks!
Barbara: alas, that link has no URL associated with it.
I do not think that frugal foodie is an oxymoron. I would encourage you to find a copy of the More With Less Cookbook.
http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/more/index.html is a website that has some sample recipes.
You can pick up a copy of this cookbook for under $10 if you shop around. Of course, I’m not sure where my copy is right now but as I recall the cookbook talks a LOT about creating complete proteins for meals without using meats.
Being a frugal person myself I would try and see if I could find a copy of the cookbook in your local library to check it out. I’m going to try and find my copy of the cookbook and share a recipe on my blog.
Jennia: Thanks for that link! I will explore it for sure and see if I can get ahold of the book, thnx for the recommendation. Let me know when you put that recipe up on your blog too!