We grew up in an era where parents no longer cooked, and often grandparents were distant and didn’t cook either. We all have that one friend who’s strong cooking heritage is the envy of the group but that connection has been lost for too many of us.
Some may know how to cook certain recipes for special occasions, but not in a sustainable way on a day-to-day basis. Some may stock up on packaged and processed foods which is wasteful and more expensive in the long run. The more times a food is processed the more it costs, both to the consumer, and environmentally. Waste in processing is massive and the more times your food is touched the more waste, and more chance of contamination.
If you start with whole natural products, and use them completely most will find it both cheaper, and much easier than ever imagined. For example, I see people buying multiple boxes of differently flavored rice mixes at nearly three times the cost per pound than simple basic white rice, which in a single plastic bag costs about ten cents $.10 per pound.
“But what about all those lovely flavors?” you ask. Ah, well there is the ‘problem’, 90% of those lovely flavors are salt, onion, and garlic. Some beef/chicken bullion (more salt), some spices, and a bunch of stuff you can’t pronounce. It is not only possible to recreate those (or better) flavors without the chemicals, but to do it with real food, like actual chicken stock, real onions and garlic with all their nutrients and flavors intact.
“But isn’t that expensive?” You ask. Not really, not if you know how to make flavors, and use all of an item for different application. I did a great deal of research before deciding that this blog was needed, and in some of the books and blogs you see some great recipes, however they never really explain their methodology for coming to the price of said meals.
Like if they buy a dozen eggs, that costs $1.20, that comes out to $ .10 per egg, right? Not really, if you only use one egg and the rest go bad, that one egg cost $ 1.20. If they lay out the month and say this is a month of food for $150.00, but you never use the other 11 eggs their methodology is flawed. If they only give you dinners then you aren’t actually living on $150.00 per month, you still need breakfast and lunch.
You need to eat well, and as waste free as possible, and still stay within budget. If you are saving up for a purchase, just want to be more frugal, more healthful, or more waste free, this blog is for you.
If you live alone, and don’t like living out of a paper bag, or if you struggle to shop and cook without a lot of waste, both in food, and in packaging this blog is for you.
Whether you are a beginner or experienced cook looking for tips and tricks to extend your budget this blog is for you.
I’m not claiming to be an “authentic anything” cook, like most Americans these days we all love our ‘taco Tuesdays’, our spaghetti & meatballs, shepherd’s pie, pad thai, pho, poke, jambalaya and millions of other regional and international cuisines, so if anything I am “authentic American” in the fullest extent of the phrase. No one wants to live on bland rice and beans forever, you could, but who wants to?
Cooking starts with planning, then shopping, packaging, storing, and of course the actual cooking. I have cooked for groups/families of up to 12 on a daily basis, I have cooked in camps on wood fires, I have raised a family, and I have cooked for one. I find cooking for one to be the most challenging both in the cooking, and in the shopping and storing.
Most recipes in the world are for four, or six, or eight. If you watch those cooking shows they always have the husband and two friends over. Or grand-kids, or cowboys, or dancers. Someone always stops by to equal the magic number. Also they always do dessert dinner and a cocktail. We, as Americans don’t really need a little sweet meal after our meal meal most of the time, now do we? What we need is three healthy meals a day.
So we will start with the shopping, be prepared for breakfast, lunch and dinner of a normal working person. Not someone that has all day to cook – we will let the slow-cooker do that for us sometimes. There is some pre-prep so setting aside some time each week can get a good start, and I will take some of those “serves four” recipes and freeze them for grab-and-go and heat-and-eat meals for work lunches or on those days when you just don’t have the time or energy to cook.
There will be some “planned overs” where you make more planning to use the remainder for lunches, or dinners or even breakfasts the next couple days. Oh and we won’t be living on rice and beans -though there certainly will BE rice and beans as they are lovely, healthy and of course cheap.
I love different foods, I love to travel for food adventures, whether it is across town or across the country. I’m willing to sample dishes from any culture, though not to Andrew Zimmern level of bugs and eyeballs. My, and most Americans’ favorite cuisines are Asian, Italian, and Mexican. I also play with Southern, German, Middle-eastern, Irish, French etc. Is it “authentic” maybe not, is it yummy? Yes!
As you will find you don’t really need exotic ingredient lists to make these meals, and you don’t need to count on mass produced foods to get the great flavors of Mexico or Asia, usually basic proteins/veg/starch with the right spices is all you need. Every cuisine uses chicken/fish/beef/pork/eggs, most use rice and beans and wheat and other grains, everyone uses vegetables, most use dairy. So what IS the defining factor? Herbs and spices.
Look at Italian, most known for pasta (from China) and tomatoes (from Mexico), yet add oregano garlic and basil you get Italian, add tortillas, cilantro, chilies, and cumin you get Mexican, add rice, ginger, soy and garlic and you get Asian, add chick peas, cloves and cinnamon and you are in Morocco. Any protein can be used in any of those. It is primarily the combination of spices that changes from region to region. What they had, or imported from nearby neighbors.
Every cuisine deep-fries, from Asia’s tempura’s to English fish and chips to southern fried chicken. Every cuisine has a meat ball, every cuisine has a sandwich, soups, stews, eggs, beans etc. Again, the defining factors are usually spices, and knowing that you can swap out what you have for more expensive exotic and hard to find ingredients. Many of what we knew as ethnic dishes were actually immigrants adapting the recipes of their homelands with readily available ingredients in the US.
Most of what we consider “winter” or “holiday” spices people in other cultures use regularly since they have them in their region, ginger in Asia, Cinnamon in Mexico, clove in Indonesia, cardamom in Middle Eastern. Spices used to be expensive and hard to get, so when we had beautiful fresh produce that was enough, but in the winter when we had only stored preserved foods that were more bland we broke out those expensive and exotic spices to brighten up the holidays. Now we can get good fresh ginger for our stir-fries at most large supermarkets. It’s not just for gingerbread any more.
Only recently have we had access to authentic ingredients, and frankly many of those are not the best quality due to long shipping/handling to get to your market. You would be better off using good old fresh celery for a moist crunch in your stir-fry than processed canned water-chestnuts that were picked how long ago, under what conditions, then shipped half-way around the world. They taste more of can, than vegetable, and you still have to dispose of that can. AND if you are only one person, what will you do with the rest of them? I can think of plenty of uses for the rest of that bunch of celery.
It all starts at the market – well actually it starts with taking inventory of what you have on hand, but for this we are starting from scratch … literally. So let’s go shopping!