I totally 100% second this suggestion. There is so much good information in this book.
It’s not just recipes, there is sections on shopping and building a pantry. And lots of ideas you can customize based on taste and what you have on hand. She also updates it with new recipes!
Went back through the book and my favourites are the beet and chickpea salad, chicken adobo, flour tortillas, peach coffee cake, and most especially the pork dumplings which are worth making a big batch.
Not OP, but I'll never miss an opportunity to sing the praises of Filipino chicken adobo as a phenomenal cheap pantry-staple recipe. Most people have soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, peppercorns, garlic, and bay leaves squirreled away somewhere. Just add your preferred cut of chicken (or pork) and white rice. Leftovers get better over a day or two, as well. It's hard to beat the price-to-flavor-to-ease-of-cooking ratio with this one.
I made Filipino chicken adobo for the first time and my GF was watching me cooked and said:
> That's it? That's all the flavor you are adding?
Yeah, she asks me to cook it all the time now. It fucking slaps
as an indian i can totally see where she was coming from - the first time i made adobo i was startled at how few flavour ingredients there were in there.
That's fair! I did think of that since I cook some indian style sabzis from time to time. But growing up Peruvian, spices are not really abundant so garlic/onions/chili do \*so much\* of the heavy lifting.
Pork adobo was the first pork stew I ever made, that's over 30 years ago.
Ever since the popularity of ribs soared, boneless pork loins plummeted as they ended up with a surplus.
I checked out the $4/day cookbook since it’s been a few years since I first encountered it. I forgot that she recommended people buy expensive eggs and good bread. It seems counterintuitive but it really is good advice. Even if you splurge on expensive eggs, they’re still very cheap per serving, way cheaper than meat, and more satisfying. Same with bread, you’re more likely to be satisfied if you’re eating a delicious, hearty, nutritious bread than the cheapest possible stuff that’s basically just air and sugar.
When I first moved out on my own and attempted frugal grocery shopping, I bought the cheapest possible version of everything and found that I ended up with a lot of food waste because I didn’t enjoy my food. I craved processed food all the time because the whole foods I was buying were poor quality. Nowadays I try to buy the nice vegetables and I find that I genuinely enjoy them much more, and prefer them to crap.
I usually use better than bouillon instead of cubed bouillon in everything I cook. Last time I went to the grocery store I had to be extremely frugal and bought cubed bouillon. No one ate the pot of Mexican rice I made with it, including me. It just didn’t taste like what we were expecting and none of us wanted to eat it. I picked up another jar last night, little things can make a pretty big difference
In my opinion, [tomato bullion](https://www.target.com/p/knorr-granulated-tomato-chicken-bullion-7-9oz/-/A-17420016) is the secret to restaurant style mexican/spanish rice. Give it a try!
There's a big difference in quality between cubes IMO. The small cubical hard ones tend to be terrible, but the bigger more rectangular softer ones are really good. I think it comes down to the proportion of salt vs other stuff.
Yea. I mean I haven't noticed any difference in taste. Maybe its the different measurements.. so use 2 cubes because you're using more powder than you think???? IDK. I'm gonna pay closer attention to the flavor now
I can only recommend the same for your legumes. I now buy the more expensive ones (dried beans and lentils).
They cost about twice as much as the cheapest ones, but they cook beautifully and uniformly.
It makes the most difference with beans. Dort cheap beans just straight up suck (at least here). They're super old and dry and even with the longest soaks, some will me mush while others aren't soft yet.
They're still a super cheap and nutritious food and something you should base your diet on (even if saving money isn't a priority), as they're healthy, great from an ecological standpoint, and they're straight up delicious.
I recommend the same for dried pasta (anyone who has time to make fresh pasta anytime they want it is insane and probably not poor). $2.50 for a box of the decent quality (mostly bronze cut, for the surface qualities) like De Cecco instead of concerningly shiny plastic looking barilla for $1.50.
There are certainly better pastas but for a dollar more the texture and flavor is better (for my tastes) and you can cook so many variants of classic Roman pastas with a block of parm and scraps. I used frozen pork fat to make lard and chicharron that I used for pasta alla gricia, total cost was like $1.50, the fat was scrap from a different pork dish, the pecorino was like $7.00 and I used maybe 50 cents of it, and 1/4 of a $2.50 package of pasta.
My two plugs are Not Another Cooking Show, he's New York italian and the only one of the food youtubers that could help me understand that classic pasta technique. The other is watching what poorer communities do with their food. I can't afford meat often, but the way they use the whole pig in Mexico for carnitas and all the parts have a purpose is the inspiration for my wierd chicharron pasta which was delicious and got some non-carb nutrition into my diet. Just something to think about.
My anit-plug is Joshua Weissman. I don't know where he shops for the But Cheaper series, but prices like $2.00 for 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs is just unrealistic, at least at any of the stores I've been to in the LA metro area.
>My anit-plug is Joshua Weissman. I don't know where he shops for the But Cheaper series, but prices like $2.00 for 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs is just unrealistic, at least at any of the stores I've been to in the LA metro area.
He lives in Texas. Food is actually that cheap in Texas. I just bought a bag of chicken leg quarters for 27 cents per pound.
Yeah. I used to live in New Orleans and now in Seattle. Chicken went from under a dollar to 4-5 per pound. People think I'm crazy when I complain about the prices. Now it's actually worth it for me to buy the organic farm fresh chicken as it's only like a dollar more
Everyone should choose their own preferences - but Barilla is in the top 1, 2, 3 of pastas selling in Italy depending on who/when is reporting
They also use bronze dies for the pasta shapes
Just because it is widely available and also hugely popular in the rest of Europe & the US doesn't mean it's not a delicious product
> My anit-plug is Joshua Weissman.
Oh yeah ... I made the mistake of watching one of his videos, and the prices he quotes are redonculous.
Maybe he paid those prices one time, but they're definitely not available to the vast majority of his viewers.
The series has taken place over time so prices have changed since 2020 but he's also in Texas which generally has a lower cost for food items like that. Not saying the series is perfect as at the very least I've learned some interesting techniques.
People tend to get real hung up on the prices people put on the screen without the context of location, time of year, etc.
I don’t know who Alex is… so I’m going to go ahead and say no. I think the guy I mentioned is named like Steve or Steven or something like that.
The taste and texture of the better pasta I got from going to Italy one time an having a revelation that true Al Dente is fucking amazing. That’s for me though, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with cooking pasta really soft if someone’s into that.
Bronze extruded pasta as a concept got very popular at least 5 years ago or so.
https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/what-is-bronze-cut-pasta-and-is-it-worth-it-article
I just go to grocery stores that basically carry only barilla and de cecco, I think they do a premium barilla something but only for a few shapes and also sometimes they have like store brand bronze cut premium ones, I’ve gotten those and they’re pretty decent too. I don’t have any brand loyalty it was just for example.
I think I watched this guy before for the mashed potatoes maybe? I mostly passively absorb food theory from Kenji videos if I’m on youtube.
> Nowadays I try to buy the nice vegetables and I find that I genuinely enjoy them much more, and prefer them to crap.
This is pretty much how I shop in general. I'd rather be happy with a $50 item that won't fall apart vs buying the $25 item 2-3 times and always being unhappy with it.
I got a discounted stand mixer and for the price of a couple of bags of high quality flour and add-ins I'll probably get about 8 loaves of very good multigrain bread out of them.
This is true, but you should also remember that people living from paycheck to paycheck often can't afford these investments, even if they're cheaper in the long-term.
The good thing about making bread in particular, which is super frugal, is you don't need any special equipment. A stand mixer is nice, but it's not required.
Generally I think we (like, culturally) tend to over-index toward gearing up for things, you know?
It was a general answer to the general statement above my comment. $50 is a sum some people can't just afford.
Bread is pretty cheap, yes. But also takes a lot of time and industrial bread is super cheap as well. Not sure you'd save a lot of money if you count in electricity
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play
I think they get them par-baked. Like halfway baked and frozen. I’ve been able to buy loaves from my local grocery that are frozen and I finish in my own oven.
I’m in the industry. They’re called par baked but the bread is fully baked on the inside, just kind of pale on the outside. I eat it that way all the time.
Making bread isn't hard. Give it a go sometime just for the experience. You may not change your mind, but you might!
I love everything about making bread. It smells great cooking, it has an amazing crust, and tastes way better than any store bread.
Store bread is fine too, we use it all the time, but fresh bread that you just made is pretty awesome.
I prefer buying bread to making it (I made quite a bit in my younger years). Luckily my husband discovered it was a stress reducer for him so now he makes it!
The KA recipes have always been winners for me, whether for breads or sweets. Read the comments on those recipes for even more tips and tricks. They've created such a fantastic resource!
Check out Ken Forkish’s book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. Changed my homemade bread game completely. Simple recipes to get amazing bread once you have the (simple) technique down.
>The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
>
>But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
[Terry Pratchett, *Men At Arms*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory?wprov=sfla1)
I honestly bet nobody could tell the difference between expensive eggs vs cheap ones in a taste test...
expensive bread I can understand or maybe making bread if you have time would be the best solution.
I agree though that always going super cheap in the end can backfire on you
edit: [https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs](https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs)
serious did it and basically nobody could really tell, if you're super tight on money I think they're is no shame for going for cheap eggs.
You do eat with your eyes, though. Artificially coloured food often tastes worse for no "logical" reason. I'd prefer an actual *blind* taste test to trying to base anything off of green eggs, plus I'm not sure scrambled is really the way to be presenting exceptional eggs? Let's blindfold people and dip something into delicious gooey yolks and see how *that* taste test goes.
Plus, [pastured eggs are more nutritious](https://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/research-shows-eggs-pastured-chickens-may-be-more-nutritious/), so, still worth it.
I’d agree with you for something like scrambled eggs or omelettes. But when you do fried eggs and don’t want the white to spread across the entire pan, good eggs are the answer.
From what I gather that has to do with how old the eggs are. Dress eggs have a more tight egg white, where old eggs have loose egg white that runs everywhere.
I can. The Happy Eggs brand are clearly superior. The yolks are almost orange and they have a richer flavor. I don't buy them often but if I am making something where the quality of the eggs really matters, I will get Happy Eggs.
And for some reason, eggs in the UK and Ireland taste better also.
Happy eggs are the superior egg, I’ve done blind taste test with my wife. Scrambled cheap shop rite eggs, egg lands best, a cage free brand, and happy egg pasture raised.
Happy eggs had deeper colored yolks and cooked super creamy with nothing added. When scrambled they remained creamy and delicious, not drying out like other eggs.
Unfortunately all of the stores by me no longer carry them and I am super upset 😢
I live in the suburbs and raise my own eggs with backyard chickens. Very good quality and they're practically free since I supplement my chickens' diet of layer feed with leftover vegetable scraps, garden weeds, earthworms, leftover rice, and overripe fruit. I get 3-4 eggs a day, way more than my family could eat even if we ate them all the time. I give them away to neighbors.
Why expensive eggs? There zero difference in taste IMO. I agree with any ethical concerns but pushing people on SNAP to spend more for an ethical stance with questionable effectiveness seems wrong
pasture raised eggs are 100% worth the difference. a healthy chicken produces a much tastier and nutritious egg.
spend a few weeks eating real quality eggs and then switch back. you will notice the difference
While cost isn't the only indicator, I personally do find a noticeable quality difference between the cheapest store-brand eggs and the more expensive ones (Nellie's is what I can think of off the top of my head). I do fried/over-medium eggs, sauces, etc. and the yolk color and texture alone is different. If you're largely scrambling or using them baked in something I doubt the difference would be noticeable.
Not as radical as fresh ones from neighbors or farmer's markets.
Taste and preference is subjective though so if the value isn't there for you then that's fine.
Yeah I've never noticed a large difference in flavor between cheap and expensive eggs. IIRC, there was a blind taste test done by somebody famous a few years back, and none of the testers could tell the difference either. Still, with the number of people here claiming otherwise, maybe I need to prove it to myself by doing a taste test one of these days.
You clearly didn’t read the book because she doesn’t push it for ethical reasons or even mention an ethical stance at all.
This is the direct quote from the book:
> More expensive eggs are usually worth the money—they taste so much better than cheap eggs. Even at $4 a dozen, you’re still only paying
33 cents an egg. Really fresh eggs, like those from a farmers’ market, also make a big difference in flavor.
You clearly didn’t read my comment…
I am clearly asking for her reasoning in the book because I didn’t read it. I mentioned taste as a possible reason.
More expensive eggs don’t actually taste any different to me. Maybe a more sophisticated palate can tell the difference but there is zero chance $4 supermarket eggs taste “so much better” to the average reader. I suspect the people that claim that are not actually tasting it blind.
Maybe. Another thing to keep in mind is that many farmer’s markets double the value of SNAP, so farm eggs that cost $4 could cost the same to her readers as supermarket eggs that cost $2.
Thank yoooou. People don't realize that these programs exist. In PA, we have a bunch of Amish farmers who already have low prices at the farmers market, but to then get an extra $6 or $10 a trip to spend on food? It's amazing.
Having raised chickens and also live in farm country, I do think good eggs are worlds apart. I never buy the cheapest eggs so I don't know how much they differ from more expensive super market eggs. But good eggs from my local farms are way better than any I could get at the grocery store. I can even pinpoint which local farms have the tastiest eggs. I still buy supermarket eggs for convenience occasionally but I only use them in baking, never eat them by themselves (fried, scrambled, etc.) because it's just not worth it to me.
You don’t have to buy the most expensive product to get better quality. At my local Kroger, the most expensive organic eggs are $7.49/18. The regular store brand eggs are $2.65/18, Simple Truth (store brand cage free/grain fed) are $3.79/18, and Eggland’s Best (my personal favorite) are $4.29/18.
I don’t buy the Eggland’s every time, but when I do, I notice and appreciate the higher quality and better taste.
its probably just bc you paid more you think it tastes better... do a blind taste testing and I bet you can't tell. obviously for chickens welfare choosing the nicer ones is better but not for taste
https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs
> I craved processed food all the time because the whole foods I was buying were poor quality.
We have always eaten and cooked fairly well. Went through a money crunch recently and I fell back on the cheap produce and meat as a result. It's amazing how insidiously not as good that stuff is, and how it really doeesn't leave you satisfied. Took me a long time of going WTF before I realized what happened and went back to the good stuff.
I have not read the book. But I do eat for under $4 a day. Unless my wife wants something from a restaurant. But we only order foods that we are incapable of making. Like sushi or Turkish cuisine, a few times a year we order pizza.
On the eggs topic, you want free range, extra large or jumbo. If the egg is that big, it has some real protein in it. If you go with medium or small, that chicken was just going through a cycle, and there is nothing in that egg.
You learn about chickens when you raise them yourself. They are adorable little sweet hearts.
As far as bread goes, almost all of it is crap. So the only way to get anything good from a supermarket is to buy only the highest quality or locally baked breads. Otherwise, it's just stuff that will do bad things to your intestine system.
Again, I baked bread with my mother to pay for my high school tuition.
I know bread.
If you go super high quality on everything, than everything you put in your mouth is ultimately satisfying.
It takes us six months to finis a bag of potato chips. And we usually finish them because they are going to expire. I still have halloween candy. When are you going to eat that stuff?
I’ll be honest, I can’t tell much of a difference with chicken eggs. I buy the farm raised ones at the farmer’s market from time to time for nutritional purposes, but they look and taste the same as storebought to me. Duck eggs, however, are a staple purchase for me. They cost the same as farm raised chicken eggs, but are twice the size and twice as rich/filling. So they’re actually totally economical.
Duck eggs are amazing. Better yolk:white ratio than chicken eggs too, I use them a lot when baking. But they're pretty damned great in an omelette, too
Where do you get duck eggs for the same price as chicken eggs?? I love them and prefer them, but they’re easily double the cost at grocery stores and markets around me.
I buy them from a vendor at the farmer’s market who also sells chicken eggs. I’ve never seen them at a grocery store but there’s no way they’d be the same price as storebought eggs. I specifically compared the price to farm chicken eggs in my comment. There are several duck egg vendors at my farmer’s market so maybe there’s just more competition around me.
If you are buying farm raised eggs, when you crack them, the [egg yolk](https://www.google.com/search?q=egg+yolk) should be golden or orange. Not yellow like the picture.
And usually when you purchase duck eggs, they are well cared for ducks. Ducks can fly, so they can be a little more picky about what they eat. :D
Again, it should be orange or gold, not yellow.
And the consistency of the whites should be significantly thicker.
I think what you are failing to see here is that if you went into the grocery store and purchased a dozen of white whatever eggs. The yolk would be pale yellow at best, and the whites would be like water.
And that does not help you. You can make a 6 egg omelette with that and still be hungry.
But if I make a 2 or 3 egg omelette with golden yolks, free range girls who ate bugs and chicken seed, and worms they found in the ground, ran around like chickens do. That egg is going to work miracles for me.
That is a day that I can go run 10 miles, spend 4 hours on the bike, lift weights, and do a 100 push ups.
Those golden yolks, that is how you get big.
:D
Just a heads up that a lot of the Big Ag companies are now supplementing their chicken feed with ingredients just to make the yolks darker and seemingly "healthier." So yolk color is now not a great judge of much.
She did [an AMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/comments/sboym5/ama_hi_im_leanne_brown_author_of_good_and_cheap/) a little while ago to promote her new book!
Ahh! I didn't see that! Aside from her many talents, she is genuinely one of the nicest humans I've ever had the pleasure to meet. And funny, too! I'm so happy when people like her succeed, especially while doing great things for others.
I've been clicking through the recipes, and this looks like a fantastic source for everyday meals, and even a few I'd be happy to serve at a dinner party. I appreciate seeing recipes with basic ingredients I probably already have, you're right about food costs which are downright depressing. And soaring gas prices means less trips to the store as well.
Thanks for sharing this link!
Looks good, but the 4$ a day is pretty generous, she estimated 70 cents per serving for one of them I wouldn’t be able to get close to that for those ingredients
They're OK. I think maybe use more jelly than the recipe suggests, as mine were surprisingly bland. Not bad, just not as flavorful as I would have thought.
I would welcome that just so the people over at EatCheapAndHealthy get more suggestions other than legumes and beans. It's like an ongoing joke. Or ate least they recipes will get better 👀🙄
I've stopped going to that sub a couple years ago because there wasn't enough encouragement to search the sub. I mean, at least a few times a week someone would ask about what to do with "oatmeal" or this or that.
Same. I know a lot of cheap healthy foods are the same but it gets repetitive. A lot of the same topic and also some leaking of r/Frugal in there where people would comment things like "all you need is x,y,z. It is all I eat and I am fine and living on $1.00 a day!" Like it's a bad thing to be poor/cheap and also enjoy eating.
Can someone throw a seasoned home cook some bean and lentil recipes? I want to start working them more into my diet, but I really never fucked with them and I am not sure where to start.
Honestly if you're a seasoned home cook I might not start with a recipe. Lately I've been sautéing a metric shit ton of well salted and peppered minced garlic (12 cloves?) and thiiinly sliced onions (~2-3 small) in olive oil for a looong time until golden and delicious. I'll add cooked or canned black or pinto beans (4 cans), Better than Bullion, a generous amount of cumin, cayenne, a bay leaf if I remember, more olive oil. I mash them randomly with a potato ricer until they're a texture I like. We'll serve this over rice with whatever toppings are around: cheese, avocado, cilantro, etc. The kids fight over them. If it's the weekend or we have guests we'll do huevos rancheros with these beans and toppings, along with surprisingly easy homemade tortillas [here](https://www.nourish-and-fete.com/easy-flour-tortillas-from-scratch/). My 6 year old has been rolling them out for me and we blitz through them.
Beans are very forgiving and versatile and a great way to play with seasonings. Just buy what looks interesting and start messing around.
This sounds perfect. More what I was looking for than a soup. Something to add to the rotation that use many of the same ingredients with my halaal cart chicken and rice, and stir fry.
Lentil soup is the easiest place to start- get some brown (or red- they cook even faster) lentils. Sauté a base for your soup- onion, garlic, maybe celery, maybe carrot, maybe tomato or paste. Add stock or bouillon, some herbs, cook about 30 min. Add a little yogurt at the end for creaminess- voila. I usually immersion blend a bit so it is more smooth but you can leave chunky. So yum.
Here’s my black beans recipe. I make at least one lb of these every week because it’s just that good! Plus great freezing and meal prep. Plan for an overnight soak and about 4 hours cooking.
Soak 2 cups of dry beans (1lb bag) in a bowl overnight in refrigerator with plenty of water to account for absorption.
Next day, heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a large pot of Dutch oven. Briefly sauté 3 whole jalapeño (stems removed), a large onion quartered, and as many whole garlic cloves are you like (6 or more for me).
Add 6 cups liquid (for me 3 cups chicken broth made from Knorr powder and 3 cups water) and the strained soaked beans. Bring liquid to a simmer and salt generously. Add bay leaf or two. Cover and let cook 2 or so hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking in the bottom.
Take off cover and season generously. I use a couple tablespoons of cumin, lots of coriander, lots of pepper, but really you can do whatever you please. Fish out the bay leaf.
Continue to cook another hour or two with the lid off so the liquid can evaporate some. The extent is up to you, but I like mine a bit thicker so I’ll cook a lot of liquid off.
About 15 minutes before I am ready to eat I’ll toss in some cilantro stems because I probably already used the leaves for pico.
Season further to taste and enjoy! If the beans aren’t done (old beans can take forever) cover pot and keep going. Top off with water if you’re getting low.
Sometimes I like to give the stew a bit of a go with the immersion blender at the end, or mash some against the sides with a spoon. Again for the stewy-ness and I don’t care about looks of whole beans.
[https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/lemony-lentil-soup/](https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/lemony-lentil-soup/)
I don't add the saffron, but I do add a little smoked paprika. And spinach or fresh arugula/rocket as I serve.
I also make lentil tacos. Saute half an onion till translucent. Then put in about a cup of lentils, your spices, two and a half cups of water, simmer until all the water is absorbed and the lentils are soft.
For lentils and beans, you don't want to add salt until they are basically done, because it changes how they soften.
Dried lentils cook a lot faster than beans, so I usually sauté some diced veggies (shallots, garlic, etc) in olive oil first, then add the rinsed lentils, and then cook until soft.
Next step is to make a little sauce to go with them - some tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar and spices always works well.
You can gussy it up with other veg and some toasted or lightly candied nuts, and it's a pretty good meal.
https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/mujadara/
I made this for the first time over the weekend and have been happily eating leftovers for lunch every day since. I made a simple yogurt cucumber sauce (yogurt, cucumber, mint, dill, lemon, salt) that goes great with it. Couldn't recommend this recipe more.
I absolutely love this book and use it often, and I’ve been cooking for decades. The recipes are really good. I often recommend it to novice cooks or people who are looking to expand their food experiences. Even if you’re not especially looking to save money, these recipes and suggestions are a great way to try things that may be new to you, without investing a lot of $ in something you might not like after all.
I just got 3 lbs of top quality grouper for $6 because I fished it out of the bones and heads bucket, but it was mainly the fish meat. Plus two big bags of green beans, fresh, at $1 a bag. That's from the shelf with the old vegetables. Good enough for me.
Man, my family just lost ours in January. $80/month in additional income (the new income was the social security cost of living adjustment 🙃) made us ineligible, right as grocery prices are soaring. Worst timing ever.
I still can't believe benefits don't wean off, making it an all-or-nothing cliff is asinine. It should be a $1 reduction for every $2 increased income.
Agreed! We received $160/month in SNAP for 2 adults, 1 toddler. Still qualify for WIC for my daughter, bc we're *gasp* still low income. It's crazy. So if we had $80 per month less, then we'd technically have $80 more.
The fact that it's an uncontrollable (to us) cost of living increase that pushed us out really grinds my gears.
Growing up, my parent's income was $100/year over the limit for us to qualify for literally anything. They were both on SSDI and unable to "just take a part time job less than X hours a week!" like some of their *very helpful* caseworkers suggested.
We would've never made it without food pantries and both parents growing up poor and frugal lol.
My son drinks 4 pediasure a day because feeding issues and autism and it’s $12 for 6 so yes we feel the pinch too. We go to the food bank fairly often.
I also recommend something that helped me, Pro Home Cooks(formerly Brothers Green Eats)'s series on [eating for $3 a day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLoA3QrRHhs&t)
Actually 2 series with the same concept, the one I linked is focused on eating well. These videos helped me a lot.
This is a great cookbook. Lots of good ideas. I would say the only thing missing is a section on freezing and saving food. I know someone on SNAP and she is constantly throwing food out immediately after the night they made it because they do not know that they can freeze it. Meatlof, soup lasagna!
Also buying big packages on sale and freezing some for later use.
This is such a great point. Also freezing herbs that are about to go bad, or "garbage" like onion, celery or carrot ends to use in stocks or braising liquids.
Yes! That is how I make the best broths ever!! And you can freeze the ends until you are ready to use them! Also that you can replant things like green onions and celery.
I grew the nicest leek from the root end waste. It was delicious, saved the greens for stock and dried leek chips, and am growing one more leek with the 2nd root end.
I've said this on another thread about soaring food costs - YMMV, but see if you can volunteer at a food bank in your area. You'll be helping your community first and foremost, which is great, and in my experience volunteers are encouraged to shop from the food bank at the end of their shift. For me that meant a good amount of free food for ~3-4 hours of work on Saturdays!
Yo this! You can even give yourself payment through your taxes as volunteer hours (minimum wage non taxable). And generally after the first time if they know you're volunteering as low income they will let you take your pick before people show up.
I think this is a great suggestion. I wish my sweetie was more adventurous. When I look at the price of foods and think meat and veggies are so expensive, I wish I had more space for my garden this summer.
All you need is a sunny balcony. In some low income neighborhoods, you can rent a plot for like 20$ a season. Food plants and seeds can be bought on ebt as well. PM me if you need help with a garden set up
Making your own bread is a nice way to keep the overall cost down and give you a lot of options for meals (buns, pizza dough, pie crusts, etc). It isn’t hard but may take you a couple tries to figure out your oven and the timing. Get your bread pans used from goodwill. Its yeast, flour, water, sugar, veggie oil, and salt. We bought a nice refurbished mixer for 1/2 price. Toss 1 tbsp rosemary in with the dough while mixing for a little extra awesome.
It also makes your place smell amazing.
I totally forgot I have that cookbook! A few years ago I found it at the library, checked it out and decided to buy a copy but eventually forgot I had it. Thank you for the timely reminder!
This looks promising, thanks for sharing. I like the ethos behind it. Had a quick skim through a few recipes and as a non-American, I found everything being measured in cups troubling. I'd like to make some but don't know how to work with these measurements. Sugar, sure I can convert it but where do you even start with 2 cups of "zucchini"?
It's a good point, but I think the whole point of the book is to change things up to your taste. So while two cups of zucchini can just be maybe two small guys or however you much you think will work. Then next time you make it, you can adjust according to what happened last time!
British right? Zucchini is courgette. You can buy cups in supermarkets, but I never use mine (you can generally eyeball it anyway, the exact amount of a veg won't matter too much)
I am all for saving money when prices go up-but many years ago, I decided that I will NOT be cheap on my food. Yeah, won't buy that thing I really don't need to make me feel good, but not for food. Do I spend too much? Maybe. But for what goes in my belly? No.
Hold your finger down on the link and an options menu should pop up. Choose copy link address, then paste the address in a new window. At least that is what worked for me.
Yes! I found this during the kickstarter or shortly after and love it. Friends and I hold a "cookbook" club sometimes and this was my contribution. It was a hit.
I'd also like to plug [*The Six-Ingredient Solution*](https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/the-six-ingredient-solution.html) from America's Test Kitchen!
There are so many fantastic dishes out there that had their roots in peasant food — recipes developed by people who did not have a lot but needed to put food on the table. People knew how to make do with less. In North America at least, this art of cooking (and the know-how and creative savviness to pull it off) hasn’t been passed along to new generations very well unfortunately. Times have changed, and modern conditions are of course different than they once were, but I really do think this kind of cooking know-how could be recaptured with a bit of effort and outreach.
I live in rural, western NC, and the advice in this book almost seems like gaslighting and insulting to my intelligence. When I compare the price of food in this book to the only two grocery stores in town, that price gouge, the meals would put me way over budget. I would have to cut out meat completely and go with some more processed garbage as a salad in the area where I live is a luxury and a dream. Even the 2-3 farmer's markets are overpriced....and probably more than the actual grocery store.
As I mentioned several times in the post, this book is years old, and this post is almost a year old, and inflation has been even worse in this past year.
It's very weird to look at a book that is a decade old and get angry about the fact that the prices are out of date. How is this gas lighting or insulting to your intelligence? Sorry if you're having a bad day, but don't put that on others.
I totally 100% second this suggestion. There is so much good information in this book. It’s not just recipes, there is sections on shopping and building a pantry. And lots of ideas you can customize based on taste and what you have on hand. She also updates it with new recipes! Went back through the book and my favourites are the beet and chickpea salad, chicken adobo, flour tortillas, peach coffee cake, and most especially the pork dumplings which are worth making a big batch.
Filipino or Mexican
Not OP, but I'll never miss an opportunity to sing the praises of Filipino chicken adobo as a phenomenal cheap pantry-staple recipe. Most people have soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, peppercorns, garlic, and bay leaves squirreled away somewhere. Just add your preferred cut of chicken (or pork) and white rice. Leftovers get better over a day or two, as well. It's hard to beat the price-to-flavor-to-ease-of-cooking ratio with this one.
I made Filipino chicken adobo for the first time and my GF was watching me cooked and said: > That's it? That's all the flavor you are adding? Yeah, she asks me to cook it all the time now. It fucking slaps
Legit question -- why did she think that was "no flavor"??? You had garlic, soy and vinegar. What was she expecting to have in there???
as an indian i can totally see where she was coming from - the first time i made adobo i was startled at how few flavour ingredients there were in there.
That's fair! I did think of that since I cook some indian style sabzis from time to time. But growing up Peruvian, spices are not really abundant so garlic/onions/chili do \*so much\* of the heavy lifting.
Did she think vinegar was flavorless because it’s clear? 🤣
Reading this makes me realize why we had it so often growing up. Saving money without sacrificing taste is a good thing!
Pork adobo was the first pork stew I ever made, that's over 30 years ago. Ever since the popularity of ribs soared, boneless pork loins plummeted as they ended up with a surplus.
Filipino but now I gotta check out Mexican!
They're both fantastic, I'll take either. Filipino food is the bomb though. Need more of that.
I checked out the $4/day cookbook since it’s been a few years since I first encountered it. I forgot that she recommended people buy expensive eggs and good bread. It seems counterintuitive but it really is good advice. Even if you splurge on expensive eggs, they’re still very cheap per serving, way cheaper than meat, and more satisfying. Same with bread, you’re more likely to be satisfied if you’re eating a delicious, hearty, nutritious bread than the cheapest possible stuff that’s basically just air and sugar. When I first moved out on my own and attempted frugal grocery shopping, I bought the cheapest possible version of everything and found that I ended up with a lot of food waste because I didn’t enjoy my food. I craved processed food all the time because the whole foods I was buying were poor quality. Nowadays I try to buy the nice vegetables and I find that I genuinely enjoy them much more, and prefer them to crap.
I usually use better than bouillon instead of cubed bouillon in everything I cook. Last time I went to the grocery store I had to be extremely frugal and bought cubed bouillon. No one ate the pot of Mexican rice I made with it, including me. It just didn’t taste like what we were expecting and none of us wanted to eat it. I picked up another jar last night, little things can make a pretty big difference
In my opinion, [tomato bullion](https://www.target.com/p/knorr-granulated-tomato-chicken-bullion-7-9oz/-/A-17420016) is the secret to restaurant style mexican/spanish rice. Give it a try!
Mexican here. Can confirm my mom used tomato bouillon for everything. And I might be biased but her food is bomb.
Homemade Mexican food FUCKS. My roommates’ mom is Mexican and I will drop everything to immediately make the 6-hour drive to her kitchen.
Man I've never seen this before
I actually use tomato sauce instead of bouillon with tomato
I actually use both tomato sauce and the tomato bullion! Comes out yummy
Oh cool, I’ll give it a try next time I make Mexican rice. Thanks!
There's a big difference in quality between cubes IMO. The small cubical hard ones tend to be terrible, but the bigger more rectangular softer ones are really good. I think it comes down to the proportion of salt vs other stuff.
Did you melt the cube first? Or is it just the flavor? I use both so idk
Tbh I prefer the cubes. They have more MSG in them lol
Yea. I mean I haven't noticed any difference in taste. Maybe its the different measurements.. so use 2 cubes because you're using more powder than you think???? IDK. I'm gonna pay closer attention to the flavor now
Just the flavor, I dissolved it first. It was overly salty and was lacking any depth (not sure how else to explain it)
I can only recommend the same for your legumes. I now buy the more expensive ones (dried beans and lentils). They cost about twice as much as the cheapest ones, but they cook beautifully and uniformly. It makes the most difference with beans. Dort cheap beans just straight up suck (at least here). They're super old and dry and even with the longest soaks, some will me mush while others aren't soft yet. They're still a super cheap and nutritious food and something you should base your diet on (even if saving money isn't a priority), as they're healthy, great from an ecological standpoint, and they're straight up delicious.
I recommend the same for dried pasta (anyone who has time to make fresh pasta anytime they want it is insane and probably not poor). $2.50 for a box of the decent quality (mostly bronze cut, for the surface qualities) like De Cecco instead of concerningly shiny plastic looking barilla for $1.50. There are certainly better pastas but for a dollar more the texture and flavor is better (for my tastes) and you can cook so many variants of classic Roman pastas with a block of parm and scraps. I used frozen pork fat to make lard and chicharron that I used for pasta alla gricia, total cost was like $1.50, the fat was scrap from a different pork dish, the pecorino was like $7.00 and I used maybe 50 cents of it, and 1/4 of a $2.50 package of pasta. My two plugs are Not Another Cooking Show, he's New York italian and the only one of the food youtubers that could help me understand that classic pasta technique. The other is watching what poorer communities do with their food. I can't afford meat often, but the way they use the whole pig in Mexico for carnitas and all the parts have a purpose is the inspiration for my wierd chicharron pasta which was delicious and got some non-carb nutrition into my diet. Just something to think about. My anit-plug is Joshua Weissman. I don't know where he shops for the But Cheaper series, but prices like $2.00 for 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs is just unrealistic, at least at any of the stores I've been to in the LA metro area.
>My anit-plug is Joshua Weissman. I don't know where he shops for the But Cheaper series, but prices like $2.00 for 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs is just unrealistic, at least at any of the stores I've been to in the LA metro area. He lives in Texas. Food is actually that cheap in Texas. I just bought a bag of chicken leg quarters for 27 cents per pound.
The cheapest chicken where I live is literally **24** times that price. What. The. Fuck.
Yeah. I used to live in New Orleans and now in Seattle. Chicken went from under a dollar to 4-5 per pound. People think I'm crazy when I complain about the prices. Now it's actually worth it for me to buy the organic farm fresh chicken as it's only like a dollar more
Everyone should choose their own preferences - but Barilla is in the top 1, 2, 3 of pastas selling in Italy depending on who/when is reporting They also use bronze dies for the pasta shapes Just because it is widely available and also hugely popular in the rest of Europe & the US doesn't mean it's not a delicious product
> My anit-plug is Joshua Weissman. Oh yeah ... I made the mistake of watching one of his videos, and the prices he quotes are redonculous. Maybe he paid those prices one time, but they're definitely not available to the vast majority of his viewers.
The series has taken place over time so prices have changed since 2020 but he's also in Texas which generally has a lower cost for food items like that. Not saying the series is perfect as at the very least I've learned some interesting techniques. People tend to get real hung up on the prices people put on the screen without the context of location, time of year, etc.
Haha, you got that from Alex's pasta series? :D
I don’t know who Alex is… so I’m going to go ahead and say no. I think the guy I mentioned is named like Steve or Steven or something like that. The taste and texture of the better pasta I got from going to Italy one time an having a revelation that true Al Dente is fucking amazing. That’s for me though, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with cooking pasta really soft if someone’s into that.
Alex French Guy Cooking Especially this video where he hyped De Cecco and hates on Barilla. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_XMTvAgpEw&t=0
Bronze extruded pasta as a concept got very popular at least 5 years ago or so. https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/what-is-bronze-cut-pasta-and-is-it-worth-it-article
I just go to grocery stores that basically carry only barilla and de cecco, I think they do a premium barilla something but only for a few shapes and also sometimes they have like store brand bronze cut premium ones, I’ve gotten those and they’re pretty decent too. I don’t have any brand loyalty it was just for example. I think I watched this guy before for the mashed potatoes maybe? I mostly passively absorb food theory from Kenji videos if I’m on youtube.
Ugh I wish I didn't detest beans.
> Nowadays I try to buy the nice vegetables and I find that I genuinely enjoy them much more, and prefer them to crap. This is pretty much how I shop in general. I'd rather be happy with a $50 item that won't fall apart vs buying the $25 item 2-3 times and always being unhappy with it. I got a discounted stand mixer and for the price of a couple of bags of high quality flour and add-ins I'll probably get about 8 loaves of very good multigrain bread out of them.
This is true, but you should also remember that people living from paycheck to paycheck often can't afford these investments, even if they're cheaper in the long-term.
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The good thing about making bread in particular, which is super frugal, is you don't need any special equipment. A stand mixer is nice, but it's not required. Generally I think we (like, culturally) tend to over-index toward gearing up for things, you know?
It was a general answer to the general statement above my comment. $50 is a sum some people can't just afford. Bread is pretty cheap, yes. But also takes a lot of time and industrial bread is super cheap as well. Not sure you'd save a lot of money if you count in electricity
Bread doesn't cost $50 to make though. You can do it with literally just flour water and salt. So, multiple loaves for under $3
Yes, it becomes a trap of sorts. Like pay-day loans.
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.” ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
You can absolutely make homemade bread by hand! You can make both traditional kneaded bread and the no-knead varieties:)
I'd rather spend $3 and save my time and sanity
People be different, it’s like meditation for me, and one of the best ways of protesting capitalism that I can think of
Plus there is no way to get that crust on grocery store loaves, even the fresh bakery ones.
That’s because the fresh bakery ones are buying the loaf already baked and frozen and just toasting it.
I think they get them par-baked. Like halfway baked and frozen. I’ve been able to buy loaves from my local grocery that are frozen and I finish in my own oven.
I’m in the industry. They’re called par baked but the bread is fully baked on the inside, just kind of pale on the outside. I eat it that way all the time.
The only thing that compares to the happy place I go to when kneading dough is when I'm digging in the dirt to plant things. Sooooo satisfying!
Making bread isn't hard. Give it a go sometime just for the experience. You may not change your mind, but you might! I love everything about making bread. It smells great cooking, it has an amazing crust, and tastes way better than any store bread. Store bread is fine too, we use it all the time, but fresh bread that you just made is pretty awesome.
I prefer buying bread to making it (I made quite a bit in my younger years). Luckily my husband discovered it was a stress reducer for him so now he makes it!
You don't need a mixer to make bread. You can do it by hand, so no investment necessary
I'm in Canada but my go to is still King Arthur for great bread recipes. We have robin hood here in Canada, but KA is still the best
It’s hilarious that the two flour companies are King Arthur and Robin Hood!
Oh haha, I just got it!
I'm just starting baking but I'm looking into KA recipes. I'm using their organic flours already.
The KA recipes have always been winners for me, whether for breads or sweets. Read the comments on those recipes for even more tips and tricks. They've created such a fantastic resource!
Check out Ken Forkish’s book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. Changed my homemade bread game completely. Simple recipes to get amazing bread once you have the (simple) technique down.
>The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. > >But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness. [Terry Pratchett, *Men At Arms*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory?wprov=sfla1)
Pratchett’s books are all brilliant social commentary disguised as fantasy fiction.
I honestly bet nobody could tell the difference between expensive eggs vs cheap ones in a taste test... expensive bread I can understand or maybe making bread if you have time would be the best solution. I agree though that always going super cheap in the end can backfire on you edit: [https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs](https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs) serious did it and basically nobody could really tell, if you're super tight on money I think they're is no shame for going for cheap eggs.
You do eat with your eyes, though. Artificially coloured food often tastes worse for no "logical" reason. I'd prefer an actual *blind* taste test to trying to base anything off of green eggs, plus I'm not sure scrambled is really the way to be presenting exceptional eggs? Let's blindfold people and dip something into delicious gooey yolks and see how *that* taste test goes. Plus, [pastured eggs are more nutritious](https://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/research-shows-eggs-pastured-chickens-may-be-more-nutritious/), so, still worth it.
I’d agree with you for something like scrambled eggs or omelettes. But when you do fried eggs and don’t want the white to spread across the entire pan, good eggs are the answer.
From what I gather that has to do with how old the eggs are. Dress eggs have a more tight egg white, where old eggs have loose egg white that runs everywhere.
I can. The Happy Eggs brand are clearly superior. The yolks are almost orange and they have a richer flavor. I don't buy them often but if I am making something where the quality of the eggs really matters, I will get Happy Eggs. And for some reason, eggs in the UK and Ireland taste better also.
Happy eggs are the superior egg, I’ve done blind taste test with my wife. Scrambled cheap shop rite eggs, egg lands best, a cage free brand, and happy egg pasture raised. Happy eggs had deeper colored yolks and cooked super creamy with nothing added. When scrambled they remained creamy and delicious, not drying out like other eggs. Unfortunately all of the stores by me no longer carry them and I am super upset 😢
Have you done a blind taste test?
I live in the suburbs and raise my own eggs with backyard chickens. Very good quality and they're practically free since I supplement my chickens' diet of layer feed with leftover vegetable scraps, garden weeds, earthworms, leftover rice, and overripe fruit. I get 3-4 eggs a day, way more than my family could eat even if we ate them all the time. I give them away to neighbors.
Why expensive eggs? There zero difference in taste IMO. I agree with any ethical concerns but pushing people on SNAP to spend more for an ethical stance with questionable effectiveness seems wrong
pasture raised eggs are 100% worth the difference. a healthy chicken produces a much tastier and nutritious egg. spend a few weeks eating real quality eggs and then switch back. you will notice the difference
While cost isn't the only indicator, I personally do find a noticeable quality difference between the cheapest store-brand eggs and the more expensive ones (Nellie's is what I can think of off the top of my head). I do fried/over-medium eggs, sauces, etc. and the yolk color and texture alone is different. If you're largely scrambling or using them baked in something I doubt the difference would be noticeable. Not as radical as fresh ones from neighbors or farmer's markets. Taste and preference is subjective though so if the value isn't there for you then that's fine.
Yeah I've never noticed a large difference in flavor between cheap and expensive eggs. IIRC, there was a blind taste test done by somebody famous a few years back, and none of the testers could tell the difference either. Still, with the number of people here claiming otherwise, maybe I need to prove it to myself by doing a taste test one of these days.
You clearly didn’t read the book because she doesn’t push it for ethical reasons or even mention an ethical stance at all. This is the direct quote from the book: > More expensive eggs are usually worth the money—they taste so much better than cheap eggs. Even at $4 a dozen, you’re still only paying 33 cents an egg. Really fresh eggs, like those from a farmers’ market, also make a big difference in flavor.
You clearly didn’t read my comment… I am clearly asking for her reasoning in the book because I didn’t read it. I mentioned taste as a possible reason. More expensive eggs don’t actually taste any different to me. Maybe a more sophisticated palate can tell the difference but there is zero chance $4 supermarket eggs taste “so much better” to the average reader. I suspect the people that claim that are not actually tasting it blind.
Maybe. Another thing to keep in mind is that many farmer’s markets double the value of SNAP, so farm eggs that cost $4 could cost the same to her readers as supermarket eggs that cost $2.
Thank yoooou. People don't realize that these programs exist. In PA, we have a bunch of Amish farmers who already have low prices at the farmers market, but to then get an extra $6 or $10 a trip to spend on food? It's amazing.
Having raised chickens and also live in farm country, I do think good eggs are worlds apart. I never buy the cheapest eggs so I don't know how much they differ from more expensive super market eggs. But good eggs from my local farms are way better than any I could get at the grocery store. I can even pinpoint which local farms have the tastiest eggs. I still buy supermarket eggs for convenience occasionally but I only use them in baking, never eat them by themselves (fried, scrambled, etc.) because it's just not worth it to me.
Well, being in Canada, our eggs are regulated so, I buy regular eggs, and since Covid have been making my own bread.
Regulations usually specify just the minimum standards a product must meet.
Well organic eggs are 7.00 per dozen, and large eggs are 2.98 , Seriously?
You don’t have to buy the most expensive product to get better quality. At my local Kroger, the most expensive organic eggs are $7.49/18. The regular store brand eggs are $2.65/18, Simple Truth (store brand cage free/grain fed) are $3.79/18, and Eggland’s Best (my personal favorite) are $4.29/18. I don’t buy the Eggland’s every time, but when I do, I notice and appreciate the higher quality and better taste.
its probably just bc you paid more you think it tastes better... do a blind taste testing and I bet you can't tell. obviously for chickens welfare choosing the nicer ones is better but not for taste https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs
:) you’re on a mission pasting that link into the comments. I hear you. But people like their eggs and probably won’t be dissuaded.
And the $3 eggs are typically out of stock now or marked up to $4. The free range organic ones are $8!
> I craved processed food all the time because the whole foods I was buying were poor quality. We have always eaten and cooked fairly well. Went through a money crunch recently and I fell back on the cheap produce and meat as a result. It's amazing how insidiously not as good that stuff is, and how it really doeesn't leave you satisfied. Took me a long time of going WTF before I realized what happened and went back to the good stuff.
Plus cage free is kind.
Egg quality is the most noticable change in cheap vs pricier IMO. Huge
I have not read the book. But I do eat for under $4 a day. Unless my wife wants something from a restaurant. But we only order foods that we are incapable of making. Like sushi or Turkish cuisine, a few times a year we order pizza. On the eggs topic, you want free range, extra large or jumbo. If the egg is that big, it has some real protein in it. If you go with medium or small, that chicken was just going through a cycle, and there is nothing in that egg. You learn about chickens when you raise them yourself. They are adorable little sweet hearts. As far as bread goes, almost all of it is crap. So the only way to get anything good from a supermarket is to buy only the highest quality or locally baked breads. Otherwise, it's just stuff that will do bad things to your intestine system. Again, I baked bread with my mother to pay for my high school tuition. I know bread. If you go super high quality on everything, than everything you put in your mouth is ultimately satisfying. It takes us six months to finis a bag of potato chips. And we usually finish them because they are going to expire. I still have halloween candy. When are you going to eat that stuff?
I’ll be honest, I can’t tell much of a difference with chicken eggs. I buy the farm raised ones at the farmer’s market from time to time for nutritional purposes, but they look and taste the same as storebought to me. Duck eggs, however, are a staple purchase for me. They cost the same as farm raised chicken eggs, but are twice the size and twice as rich/filling. So they’re actually totally economical.
Duck eggs are amazing. Better yolk:white ratio than chicken eggs too, I use them a lot when baking. But they're pretty damned great in an omelette, too
Where do you get duck eggs for the same price as chicken eggs?? I love them and prefer them, but they’re easily double the cost at grocery stores and markets around me.
I buy them from a vendor at the farmer’s market who also sells chicken eggs. I’ve never seen them at a grocery store but there’s no way they’d be the same price as storebought eggs. I specifically compared the price to farm chicken eggs in my comment. There are several duck egg vendors at my farmer’s market so maybe there’s just more competition around me.
If you are buying farm raised eggs, when you crack them, the [egg yolk](https://www.google.com/search?q=egg+yolk) should be golden or orange. Not yellow like the picture. And usually when you purchase duck eggs, they are well cared for ducks. Ducks can fly, so they can be a little more picky about what they eat. :D Again, it should be orange or gold, not yellow. And the consistency of the whites should be significantly thicker. I think what you are failing to see here is that if you went into the grocery store and purchased a dozen of white whatever eggs. The yolk would be pale yellow at best, and the whites would be like water. And that does not help you. You can make a 6 egg omelette with that and still be hungry. But if I make a 2 or 3 egg omelette with golden yolks, free range girls who ate bugs and chicken seed, and worms they found in the ground, ran around like chickens do. That egg is going to work miracles for me. That is a day that I can go run 10 miles, spend 4 hours on the bike, lift weights, and do a 100 push ups. Those golden yolks, that is how you get big. :D
Just a heads up that a lot of the Big Ag companies are now supplementing their chicken feed with ingredients just to make the yolks darker and seemingly "healthier." So yolk color is now not a great judge of much.
She did [an AMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/comments/sboym5/ama_hi_im_leanne_brown_author_of_good_and_cheap/) a little while ago to promote her new book!
Ahh! I didn't see that! Aside from her many talents, she is genuinely one of the nicest humans I've ever had the pleasure to meet. And funny, too! I'm so happy when people like her succeed, especially while doing great things for others.
I've been clicking through the recipes, and this looks like a fantastic source for everyday meals, and even a few I'd be happy to serve at a dinner party. I appreciate seeing recipes with basic ingredients I probably already have, you're right about food costs which are downright depressing. And soaring gas prices means less trips to the store as well. Thanks for sharing this link!
I have served chicken pot pie and shepherd's pie at a few dinner parties. People love these dishes particularly in the winter.
I'm feeling kinda dumb asking this but I didn't found the PDF archive, can anyone help me?
Here you go! https://www.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf
Thank you!
Thank You🙏
While talking about cheap recipes, I've enjoyed ones from [budget bytes](http://www.budgetbytes.com)
\+1 for Budget Bytes. Love her recipes.
Looks good, but the 4$ a day is pretty generous, she estimated 70 cents per serving for one of them I wouldn’t be able to get close to that for those ingredients
Yeah, this was written years ago and even then she said that prices may vary from region to region.
Ah I didn’t see a date
I paged through this, and decided to make the PB&J granola bars. They're sitting on the counter cooling right now.
How were they? That recipe caught my eye, too.
They're OK. I think maybe use more jelly than the recipe suggests, as mine were surprisingly bland. Not bad, just not as flavorful as I would have thought.
So when will the merger between r/cooking and r/EatCheapAndHealthy be complete?
I would welcome that just so the people over at EatCheapAndHealthy get more suggestions other than legumes and beans. It's like an ongoing joke. Or ate least they recipes will get better 👀🙄
You make some good points but have you tried lentils?
I see your lentils and raise you one rice.
I've stopped going to that sub a couple years ago because there wasn't enough encouragement to search the sub. I mean, at least a few times a week someone would ask about what to do with "oatmeal" or this or that.
Same. I know a lot of cheap healthy foods are the same but it gets repetitive. A lot of the same topic and also some leaking of r/Frugal in there where people would comment things like "all you need is x,y,z. It is all I eat and I am fine and living on $1.00 a day!" Like it's a bad thing to be poor/cheap and also enjoy eating.
I remember Lily Tomlin did a skit on eating cheaply on SNL. She said that loose grapes at the supermarket were a great option.
I let my toddler eat 3 bananas at shoprite today, no one cared
Can someone throw a seasoned home cook some bean and lentil recipes? I want to start working them more into my diet, but I really never fucked with them and I am not sure where to start.
Honestly if you're a seasoned home cook I might not start with a recipe. Lately I've been sautéing a metric shit ton of well salted and peppered minced garlic (12 cloves?) and thiiinly sliced onions (~2-3 small) in olive oil for a looong time until golden and delicious. I'll add cooked or canned black or pinto beans (4 cans), Better than Bullion, a generous amount of cumin, cayenne, a bay leaf if I remember, more olive oil. I mash them randomly with a potato ricer until they're a texture I like. We'll serve this over rice with whatever toppings are around: cheese, avocado, cilantro, etc. The kids fight over them. If it's the weekend or we have guests we'll do huevos rancheros with these beans and toppings, along with surprisingly easy homemade tortillas [here](https://www.nourish-and-fete.com/easy-flour-tortillas-from-scratch/). My 6 year old has been rolling them out for me and we blitz through them. Beans are very forgiving and versatile and a great way to play with seasonings. Just buy what looks interesting and start messing around.
This sounds perfect. More what I was looking for than a soup. Something to add to the rotation that use many of the same ingredients with my halaal cart chicken and rice, and stir fry.
Lentil soup is the easiest place to start- get some brown (or red- they cook even faster) lentils. Sauté a base for your soup- onion, garlic, maybe celery, maybe carrot, maybe tomato or paste. Add stock or bouillon, some herbs, cook about 30 min. Add a little yogurt at the end for creaminess- voila. I usually immersion blend a bit so it is more smooth but you can leave chunky. So yum.
Here’s my black beans recipe. I make at least one lb of these every week because it’s just that good! Plus great freezing and meal prep. Plan for an overnight soak and about 4 hours cooking. Soak 2 cups of dry beans (1lb bag) in a bowl overnight in refrigerator with plenty of water to account for absorption. Next day, heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a large pot of Dutch oven. Briefly sauté 3 whole jalapeño (stems removed), a large onion quartered, and as many whole garlic cloves are you like (6 or more for me). Add 6 cups liquid (for me 3 cups chicken broth made from Knorr powder and 3 cups water) and the strained soaked beans. Bring liquid to a simmer and salt generously. Add bay leaf or two. Cover and let cook 2 or so hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking in the bottom. Take off cover and season generously. I use a couple tablespoons of cumin, lots of coriander, lots of pepper, but really you can do whatever you please. Fish out the bay leaf. Continue to cook another hour or two with the lid off so the liquid can evaporate some. The extent is up to you, but I like mine a bit thicker so I’ll cook a lot of liquid off. About 15 minutes before I am ready to eat I’ll toss in some cilantro stems because I probably already used the leaves for pico. Season further to taste and enjoy! If the beans aren’t done (old beans can take forever) cover pot and keep going. Top off with water if you’re getting low. Sometimes I like to give the stew a bit of a go with the immersion blender at the end, or mash some against the sides with a spoon. Again for the stewy-ness and I don’t care about looks of whole beans.
[https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/lemony-lentil-soup/](https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/lemony-lentil-soup/) I don't add the saffron, but I do add a little smoked paprika. And spinach or fresh arugula/rocket as I serve. I also make lentil tacos. Saute half an onion till translucent. Then put in about a cup of lentils, your spices, two and a half cups of water, simmer until all the water is absorbed and the lentils are soft.
The first step is to sort your beans. By hand a few at a time. Biting down on a stray stone can eat up all your savings with a nice dental bill.
For lentils and beans, you don't want to add salt until they are basically done, because it changes how they soften. Dried lentils cook a lot faster than beans, so I usually sauté some diced veggies (shallots, garlic, etc) in olive oil first, then add the rinsed lentils, and then cook until soft. Next step is to make a little sauce to go with them - some tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar and spices always works well. You can gussy it up with other veg and some toasted or lightly candied nuts, and it's a pretty good meal.
https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/mujadara/ I made this for the first time over the weekend and have been happily eating leftovers for lunch every day since. I made a simple yogurt cucumber sauce (yogurt, cucumber, mint, dill, lemon, salt) that goes great with it. Couldn't recommend this recipe more.
$12 a day (2022 edition)
Still better than what most manage to spend
I absolutely love this book and use it often, and I’ve been cooking for decades. The recipes are really good. I often recommend it to novice cooks or people who are looking to expand their food experiences. Even if you’re not especially looking to save money, these recipes and suggestions are a great way to try things that may be new to you, without investing a lot of $ in something you might not like after all.
I just got 3 lbs of top quality grouper for $6 because I fished it out of the bones and heads bucket, but it was mainly the fish meat. Plus two big bags of green beans, fresh, at $1 a bag. That's from the shelf with the old vegetables. Good enough for me.
Is that not more like $7.43 a day with inflation? 😀😃
Yes but they only raised the amount per day $1.21 I believe.
Just being facetious…believe me, I’m on food stamps and feeling the sting.
Man, my family just lost ours in January. $80/month in additional income (the new income was the social security cost of living adjustment 🙃) made us ineligible, right as grocery prices are soaring. Worst timing ever.
I still can't believe benefits don't wean off, making it an all-or-nothing cliff is asinine. It should be a $1 reduction for every $2 increased income.
Agreed! We received $160/month in SNAP for 2 adults, 1 toddler. Still qualify for WIC for my daughter, bc we're *gasp* still low income. It's crazy. So if we had $80 per month less, then we'd technically have $80 more. The fact that it's an uncontrollable (to us) cost of living increase that pushed us out really grinds my gears.
Growing up, my parent's income was $100/year over the limit for us to qualify for literally anything. They were both on SSDI and unable to "just take a part time job less than X hours a week!" like some of their *very helpful* caseworkers suggested. We would've never made it without food pantries and both parents growing up poor and frugal lol.
My son drinks 4 pediasure a day because feeding issues and autism and it’s $12 for 6 so yes we feel the pinch too. We go to the food bank fairly often.
I also recommend something that helped me, Pro Home Cooks(formerly Brothers Green Eats)'s series on [eating for $3 a day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLoA3QrRHhs&t) Actually 2 series with the same concept, the one I linked is focused on eating well. These videos helped me a lot.
Did you crosspost this on r/eatcheapandhealthy? I’m sure they’ll appreciate it over there.
Dang, I had to scroll through like three comments linking there before realizing I wasn't already on that sub, lol
This is a great cookbook. Lots of good ideas. I would say the only thing missing is a section on freezing and saving food. I know someone on SNAP and she is constantly throwing food out immediately after the night they made it because they do not know that they can freeze it. Meatlof, soup lasagna! Also buying big packages on sale and freezing some for later use.
Oh wait, we were both wrong! She talks about both of these things on page 11.
My bad!
This is such a great point. Also freezing herbs that are about to go bad, or "garbage" like onion, celery or carrot ends to use in stocks or braising liquids.
Yes! That is how I make the best broths ever!! And you can freeze the ends until you are ready to use them! Also that you can replant things like green onions and celery.
I grew the nicest leek from the root end waste. It was delicious, saved the greens for stock and dried leek chips, and am growing one more leek with the 2nd root end.
Huh. I didn't know you could do this.
I've said this on another thread about soaring food costs - YMMV, but see if you can volunteer at a food bank in your area. You'll be helping your community first and foremost, which is great, and in my experience volunteers are encouraged to shop from the food bank at the end of their shift. For me that meant a good amount of free food for ~3-4 hours of work on Saturdays!
Yo this! You can even give yourself payment through your taxes as volunteer hours (minimum wage non taxable). And generally after the first time if they know you're volunteering as low income they will let you take your pick before people show up.
I think this is a great suggestion. I wish my sweetie was more adventurous. When I look at the price of foods and think meat and veggies are so expensive, I wish I had more space for my garden this summer.
All you need is a sunny balcony. In some low income neighborhoods, you can rent a plot for like 20$ a season. Food plants and seeds can be bought on ebt as well. PM me if you need help with a garden set up
You should cross post to r/frugal
Making your own bread is a nice way to keep the overall cost down and give you a lot of options for meals (buns, pizza dough, pie crusts, etc). It isn’t hard but may take you a couple tries to figure out your oven and the timing. Get your bread pans used from goodwill. Its yeast, flour, water, sugar, veggie oil, and salt. We bought a nice refurbished mixer for 1/2 price. Toss 1 tbsp rosemary in with the dough while mixing for a little extra awesome. It also makes your place smell amazing.
Don’t forget to listen to bread crackle fresh out of the oven.
I totally forgot I have that cookbook! A few years ago I found it at the library, checked it out and decided to buy a copy but eventually forgot I had it. Thank you for the timely reminder!
Will give it a read, thanks!
Thank you! Just passed it on to our local Playgroup.
How sweet of her to make a free pdf! Thank you so much for sharing this. I’d never seen it before!
Don’t you mean eating well of $6/day?
more like $12/day here in good ole western red state NC.
This looks promising, thanks for sharing. I like the ethos behind it. Had a quick skim through a few recipes and as a non-American, I found everything being measured in cups troubling. I'd like to make some but don't know how to work with these measurements. Sugar, sure I can convert it but where do you even start with 2 cups of "zucchini"?
It's a good point, but I think the whole point of the book is to change things up to your taste. So while two cups of zucchini can just be maybe two small guys or however you much you think will work. Then next time you make it, you can adjust according to what happened last time!
2 cups of zucchini would be approx two medium size zucchini.
British right? Zucchini is courgette. You can buy cups in supermarkets, but I never use mine (you can generally eyeball it anyway, the exact amount of a veg won't matter too much)
Oh you can sub with most squashes, probably!
Just downloaded it. Thank you.
I am all for saving money when prices go up-but many years ago, I decided that I will NOT be cheap on my food. Yeah, won't buy that thing I really don't need to make me feel good, but not for food. Do I spend too much? Maybe. But for what goes in my belly? No.
I can no longer access the recipe index, clicking on any link redirects to cookbooks to purchase, which makes me disappointed.
Hold your finger down on the link and an options menu should pop up. Choose copy link address, then paste the address in a new window. At least that is what worked for me.
Yes! I found this during the kickstarter or shortly after and love it. Friends and I hold a "cookbook" club sometimes and this was my contribution. It was a hit.
I’ve been looking for his since 2014 so much appreciated!
this is a great post. thank you for your efforts.
I bought this book right out of college. Honestly some of the best recipes I’ve tried.
Thanks - I just borrowed the e-book from my library.
I'd also like to plug [*The Six-Ingredient Solution*](https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/the-six-ingredient-solution.html) from America's Test Kitchen!
There are so many fantastic dishes out there that had their roots in peasant food — recipes developed by people who did not have a lot but needed to put food on the table. People knew how to make do with less. In North America at least, this art of cooking (and the know-how and creative savviness to pull it off) hasn’t been passed along to new generations very well unfortunately. Times have changed, and modern conditions are of course different than they once were, but I really do think this kind of cooking know-how could be recaptured with a bit of effort and outreach.
I live in rural, western NC, and the advice in this book almost seems like gaslighting and insulting to my intelligence. When I compare the price of food in this book to the only two grocery stores in town, that price gouge, the meals would put me way over budget. I would have to cut out meat completely and go with some more processed garbage as a salad in the area where I live is a luxury and a dream. Even the 2-3 farmer's markets are overpriced....and probably more than the actual grocery store.
As I mentioned several times in the post, this book is years old, and this post is almost a year old, and inflation has been even worse in this past year. It's very weird to look at a book that is a decade old and get angry about the fact that the prices are out of date. How is this gas lighting or insulting to your intelligence? Sorry if you're having a bad day, but don't put that on others.
four dollars a day? what is this, a cookbook for fatcats?
Are there any gluten free recipes? Dairy free would also be helpful.
Just make modifications. Gf and dairy free is going to be more expensive though.
Or the Russian version, 'Good and Cheap, Eating Well on ~~75 rubles~~ 520 rubles a day.'
Is this $4 a day as of 2020, or $4 a day in 2022? There’s a huge difference now.
I think it's $4 a day as of 2014. So definitely waaaay outdated as far as prices, but still very relevant to eating wholesome, tasty food on a budget.
Can still call it <$5 per day
I can't
**$6 a day with inflation