When one thinks of frugal food one thinks of war rations. I do because my Sydney granny took a pound each of sugar, flour, butter, and meat and stretched it like a silk stocking across a canyon to feed her family of seven through the week. But if my Australian, Irish, and Scottish ancestors had been a bit less xenophobic and tried some veggie heavy/lean-meat light Asian and Indian rice-and-noodle dishes, they needn’t have starved. The classic Western diet of meat for every main meal, a sugary dessert, and loads of baked goods in between is both fattening and costly. And it’s so 1940s, in a bad way.
Looking at contemporary budget-cookery suggestions (from websites to cookbooks), there is a lingering legacy of blandness with a heavy reliance on packaged and canned foods, cheap ground red meat, melted cheese, and bread: essentially a million versions of hamburgers, tuna melts, and rice and beans. The menus bear a striking resemblance to hospital food! Sensuality and thrift can live together on the same plate if we bring creative flair to simple ingredients and break free of the tyranny of protein/grain/vegetable being the basis of every meal.
Sometimes cheap food is wed to easy or convenience food. Some of us can only think about economical eating in terms of ramen noodles and the usual shabby staples that we’ve eaten as students. But the truth about eating well is not in the individual breakdown—price per plate—but rather how you make your weekly shop stretch so every mouthful tastes good and does you good. Intelligent use of pantry staples makes fresh produce go further, but you need the balance of the two to keep low-budget dinners tasting and looking vibrant. I have a million ways to cook a twenty-five-cent cup of rice, but I always have fresh cilantro at hand. Be it a Vietnamese-style broth or a quick risotto, sophistication is only a bunch of fresh herbs a way.
This chapter concentrates on dinner as it seems quite easy to make breakfast and lunch cost less. Emotionally, physically, and just for the ritual, I try to make dinner really count. My son gets loads of fresh fruit and proper vegetables cut into funny shapes. (At not yet five, he makes requests.) I throw a small, friendly dinner at least once a week. Then there are nights of “nothing special” dinners when avocado on toast with a few cherry tomatoes and an apple are okay. But my mind is never far from what we’re having the following night.
The key with eating well for less is planning. Ideally dinner at our house costs no more than three to ten dollars (total) and the main meals constitute half of the weekly shop. Not being a great fan of leftovers, I try to cook in proportion to what is eaten and freeze larger batches of soups, casseroles, or pasta sauces. The principle of “waste not want not” only works if you apply a strong sense of proportion. It’s just better really to cook less to start with, especially when preparing children’s food, which means halving recipe amounts and sometimes simplifying ingredients.
The cheapest way to prepare ten-dollar dinners (or less) is to be a vegetarian and, failing that, to cook like one and eat three to four veggie-heavy dinners a week. My sample week of ten-dollar-dinner ideas presents eggs as an economical and protein rich meal base for one night but often I’ll stretch it to two. When roasting a chicken (usually on Sunday night for guests), I’ll make sandwiches for school the next morning, then boil the bones with bay leaves and black pepper for stock. Fish is always bought the day it must be eaten or cut into portions and frozen. I was taught to eat meat the Asian way, cut small (like a luxury) in stir-fries or cooked until very crumbly and tender and in a curry. So much easier to digest physically and financially. Often if I want the heft of meat without the blood, I replace flesh in a recipe with iron-rich portobello mushrooms. They make an amazing shepherd’s pie and taste so juicy broiled like a steak with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and skinny slivers of garlic. Eating vegetarian three nights a week saves you hundreds of dollars a month and also gets you eating the right servings that provide the needed fiber and nutrition. I regularly add beans or spiced lentils to a plate for extra protein.
Growing up we had a big baked potato once a week, stuffed with corn, sour cream, shallots, and fresh chopped red pepper. In the witch hunt to purge carbohydrates from the evening meal, the humble potato has fallen from favor. But it’s a shame! Baked potatoes, red wine, and a crunchy green salad—so fine for a summer barbecue, so hearty with a soup on a frosty night. And cheap as dirt.
Trained from childhood to expect rich food straight after shopping, and progressively simpler dinners as the week wears on, I tend to feast on Saturday and Sunday fresh from the markets. Then eat a little lighter on Monday night after the weekend’s grazing. Then, by week’s end, when ingredients are often low, pasta and homemade pizza work well to use up leftover veggies, cheese, fresh herbs, and tomato sauce.
Saturday evening is a great time for grocery shopping; it’s not so crowded at the stores, it recharges you for a week of cooking, and the rush of the week is not on your heels. I don’t include desert in this chapter because a good pie can last two nights, fresh fruit is best most nights, and sweet things often drag you over the limit of ten dollars. One issue with eating for less can be monotony. Everyone gets tired of chicken at some point. To keep things varied and lively, consider your budget dinners as a dance between childhood favorites and more sophisticated treats (a kid’s salad can include sliced oranges, while your salad takes it up a notch with sophisticated tastes like goat cheese and green olives), super healthy whole and raw foods, and a little bit of stodgy comfort. Throughout the year, try seasonal flavors and some experiments with new ingredients. To wake up my husband’s palate, I used to pop some spiced rice with raisins and pine nuts in with a dish he liked and he would always trail into the kitchen looking for more. I never had the heart to tell him it was ready-made $3.50-pilaf-in-a-box from the health-food store. Eating is deeply ingrained in habit, but the senses are always ready to be roused by a subtle change. Fruit makes savory food sexier: When grapes are cheaper, I toss them into the salad. When apples are in season I bake them with the vegetables. And when casseroles seem a bit dull, I add dried apricots to deepen the flavor. My mother used to make a frozen pudding out of ice cream and Jell-O. We thought it was the fanciest thing in the world. If you have a cheap experimental recipe up your sleeve, then maybe your kids will too.
Make a basic veggie soup and enrich it with a can of cannellini beans, a splash of green olive oil, a sachet of French onion soup, a little mustard, a handful of porcini mushrooms, some tinned tomatoes, and a dash of cream or rice boiled into the mix. My favorite for summer or winter is beet salad with Feta and spinach, and here it is:
Beet, Feta, and Spinach Salad
5 fresh baby (or small) beets*
3 cups baby spinach
1 handful walnuts, chopped (toast them if you like)
1 handful goat Feta, crumbled
Scattering of finely chopped fresh shallots and mint
Green extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a dash of honey
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Boil (or steam) beets in their skins with tops and tails connected for about 40 to 50 minutes, then peel off the skins and let cool. Chop into quarters and place on the greens, tossing nuts, cheese, and fresh herbs on top. Add the vinaigrette just before serving so the salad doesn’t go soggy.
*Frozen or canned beets can do in a pinch, but fresh beets are so much more nutritious and economical.
Fritatta is really a fancy version of an omelet, but it tastes even better cold the next day and is a great vehicle for leeks, zucchini, button mushrooms, and other stray veggies. And as a side, I like to sauté green beans in garlic and olive oil, then squeeze on lemon juice and toss in raisins and toasted almond slivers.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salted butter
2 small red potatoes, thinly sliced
1 large sweet red pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
1 bunch fresh green onions, sliced
3 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped 1 dozen large eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon salt, and a pinch of freshly ground pepper
4 to 6 ounces Fontina or cheddar cheese, grated
Yummy Italian Extras
1 Vinicio Capossela CD (a southern Italian musical touch)
1 bottle Chianti
Preheat the oven to 350°. Heat the butter and the oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof sauté or frying pan over medium heat. Add the potatoes and cook on both sides until lightly browned and tender. Add the red pepper strips, stir and sauté until tender. Stir in the green onions and the herbs and cook just enough to heat them, then spread the vegetables evenly around the pan. Beat together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and half the grated cheese. Pour the eggs into the pan on top of the vegetables, turn the heat to medium low, and cook until partially set, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and place in the oven for about 25 minutes, until the fritatta is set and golden brown on top. Slice into wedges and serve hot to 4 to 6 people.
P.S. This dish is extremely flexible to the contents of your pantry and crisper. Try different varieties with anchovies, and olives or bacon, cheddar, broccoli and onions.
Lazy economists can use a ready-made curry base and cook their meat, veggies, or frozen shrimp into the existing masala sauce. I keep jars and cans of curry sauce at hand for when I need to feed extra people (I simply double the ingredients).
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 jar or can curry sauce
1 can tomatoes
1 knob fresh ginger
½ bunch cilantro, finely cut
4 cups chopped meat (chicken, fish, or prawns, frozen* or fresh)
3 cups sweet potato, diced small
1 zucchini, cut chunky
1 large potato, cut chunky ½ cup coconut milk (for Thai curry only)
2 heaped cups basmati or jasmine rice.
Heat sesame oil in a large pan and add ginger and meat of your choice. When flesh browns at the edges add potatoes, sweet potato, and zucchini. Sauté for 3 minutes, then add curry sauce. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add whole can of tomatoes and roots of the cilantro cut very fine. Let the curry cook with a lid at the lowest flame or setting for 40 minutes, longer if cooking red meat. (*With frozen prawns, add only at the tail end of cooking the curry, say 15 minutes before serving.) Add a little water if the curry is reducing too quickly (though, the zucchini should create enough extra liquid). Taste often. For a Thai green curry add the coconut milk in the final 10 minutes of cooking.
Prepare rice at the same time. Serve with mango chutney and generous handfuls of fresh cilantro, which tastes great on all curries.
The week is winding down and so are your supplies. This pasta recipe draws on mainly dry goods from your pantry with the addition of some fresh Italian parsley to break into fresh pieces on top and the indulgence of a nice bottle of red. Serve a salad of slightly bitter greens, such as arugula and baby spinach, with chunks of bocconcini (mozzarella) cheese, sliced apple, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes with a few splashes of olive oil, and a pinch of rock salt.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion
1 red chili
2 cups of water
4 anchovy fillets, chopped small
1 medium-sized tin chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
¼ cup sundried tomatoes
2 tablespoons small olives
1 cup fresh basil, and 1 cup fresh Italian parsley, torn into small bits
1 package tagliatelle pasta
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
Grated Parmesan to taste
Heat oil and fry the onions for 1 or 2 minutes, add chili, anchovies, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sundried tomatoes, and olives.
Prepare the pasta in boiling salted water for 3 to 7 minutes and then drain. Always taste the pasta to make sure it is al dente (not thick and soggy). Add a dash of olive oil and salt to the pasta. Add sauce and serve with grated Parmesan and broken pieces of fresh basil and Italian parsley.
The elements of an Asian stir-fry are simple. You need fresh ginger and garlic, soy, chili, or tamari sauce, lots of green vegetables, and possibly a marinated meat. The trick with stir-fry is to toss the ingredients into a very hot wok and always add the veggies last, cooking them for less than 5 minutes to serve them with plenty of crunch. To intensify flavor, marinate any meat you fancy in crushed ginger, chili, tamari, or soy sauce, and garlic in the fridge overnight. Here is a recipe my mother made me cook from the age of eleven onward:
Mum’s Chicken and Veggie Stir-Fry
3 cups chicken, cut into chunks and marinated overnight in marinade (see next page)
1 knob ginger (½ cup), sliced fine
6 cloves garlic, cut fine
1 lemon
½ bunch cilantro
1 cup zucchini, cut chunky
1 cup celery, cut chunky
½ cup fresh bean sprouts
½ cup broccoli florets, cut small
1 cup firm tofu, cut in squares
½ cup teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon fresh red chili, cut fine
Simple Marinade
1 cup teriyaki sauce, juice of 1 lemon, 5 garlic cloves (crushed), 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Prepare a very hot wok oiled with sesame on very high heat, add ginger and garlic, cook till sizzling, then add the marinated meat and tofu. Add the veggies after about 10 minutes and toss them around, leaving them crisp and bright green. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes, adding extra splashes of teriyaki and fish sauce as well as chilis and cilantro. Garnish with cilantro and a squeeze of lime. If rice feels like hard work, serve on a bed of rice noodles tossed in a little sesame oil, a dash of peanut or sweet chili sauce, some toasted sesame seeds, and a splash of mirin (rice wine).
Frozen pizza bases are the best for making a pie high as the sky (layered with veggies and cheese and more veggies and sauce and cheese) or thin and subtle (with sea salt, a drizzle of oil, steamed pumpkin, ricotta, and rosemary). This is a fun meal to prepare with kids as well, and cold pizza for Sunday morning breakfast is just the best!
This meal costs a little more than ten dollars. If the chicken is organic it might cost just on twenty to twenty-five (with all the trimmings). But you can stretch it to feed up to six people, and I usually bulk up on vegetables if the bird is on the small side. Adding whole garlic and pearl onions to the baking tray adds a lot of flavor to the roast as does a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and oregano.
12 small onions
12 garlic cloves
1 pat salted butter
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
6 large potatoes, cut into quarters
4 large beets, cut into quarters
1 medium-sized sweet potato, cut into large chunk
1 handful fresh oregano, thyme, and rosemary
Preheat the oven to 350° and line a heavy-bottomed pan with olive oil, the baby onions, garlic, and potatoes. Place all other veggies in their own tray, garnishing with oil and herbs and a splash of balsamic vinegar, if you like it. Prepare the chicken by rubbing it with salt and olive oil and placing the butter inside with herbs and a few onions. Reduce heat to 250° and roast the chicken and the veggie tray for about an hour, basting every 20 minutes. Test the readiness of the bird by placing a clean satay stick under the wing; if a lot of liquid flows out, you might need another 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the chicken if the legs begin to look dry or the skin gets too brown. The color of your bird will depend on your basting. Serve with fresh watercress. I often just squeeze lemon on a salad that is served with a big roast dinner to cut through the oily richness of the roasted meat and veggies.
Wendy’s Pomegranate Salad
Wendy Frost is a painter and she cooks like she makes her art, with ritual, memory, and a sure hand. This is her recipe, written on a piece of brown paper as she recited it over the phone from her farm/studio in Hudson, New York.
On a bed of mesclun greens, drop a ½ cup of dried cranberries, ditto for either pecans or walnuts (your preference), a handful of grape tomatoes, and about a ½ cup pomegranate seeds. Splash on a good vinaigrette, no garlic but a wee bit of mustard. I do this salad in an all red version as well using a bed of radicchio and red lettuce, roasted red pepper strips, grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, pecans, tiny slivers of red onion crescents, and of course the pomegranate seeds. It’s served with the same vinaigrette, mixed with a little mustard.
2 bulbs fennel, thinly sliced
Generous pinches of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
½ cup fresh Parmesan, chipped
½ lemon, squeezed
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
This salad is really just thinly sliced fennel dressed, but it’s a tremendous subtle accompaniment and aids digestion too.
The healthiest way to shop for food in a supermarket is to stick to the perimeter. Analyze the outside aisles of most supermarkets and you will see this is where fresh produce, essential condiments, and animal protein are displayed. Most of the other foods (in the center aisles) are sugary/salty/fatty filler. Cookies. Chips. Salsa. Sugary cereals. Popcorn. Culinary landfill! When out shopping get all your whole foods first, then see what you have left over for “treats.” I buy a lot of frozen fruit to have handy for smoothies and use what we don’t drink to make popsicles. I freeze yogurt and tell my son it’s ice cream and buy pizza bases rather than whole pizzas so I can get better use of the veggies in the crisper and the last of a small block of cheddar.
Cutting out snacks from weekly shopping and replacing them with raw nuts or the fixings of your own muesli bars or homemade dips saves you calories and dollars. The same goes for soda and candy. Half the time we scarf down snacks when we’re just thirsty, so gulp a full glass of water before you chomp. Or, alternatively, plan ahead of your hunger and designate a section of your fridge for healthy snacks like yogurt, individual muesli-topped parfaits, or prechopped celery and cucumber slices with almond butter.
Even if you live alone it still pays to plan your menu for the week—first for nutrition and secondly for cost. Make dinner something you look forward to and find ways to share with a welcome visitor. The temptation to subsist off takeout is expensive, unhealthy, and a little bit sad. Go head and make that red cabbage, corn, cilantro, and pumpkin a happy-looking salad, even if no one sees it but you!
Fish tastes best fresh, but when it is on special I buy up big, chop it up small, and freeze it to drop into soups and stir-fries later on. Frozen jumbo shrimp tastes fine in a curry as does crab in a pasta sauce. The only time you have to worry about fish crumbling or tasting watery is when you prepare it outside of a sauce.
Learn to make salads from less perishable materials such as slaw cabbage, apples, nuts, boiled eggs, and oranges. Iceberg lettuce keeps best but spicy dark greens pack more antioxidants. Buy a fancy lettuce on the day you know you’ll use it. Or, if you waste a lettuce a week, stop buying it all together and use baby spinach leaves as a salad base instead—they keep longer and taste excellent with sesame and Asian-style salad dressings.
Soak carrots that have gone droopy in a bowl of cold water in the fridge overnight. They’ll be firm and fresh in the morning.
Use frozen peas and corn to fill out pasta sauces and savory pies, which make a great backup resource for the end of the week when fresh produce runs out.
Always have an unsweetened pie crust in the freezer for a veggie pie, a quiche, or a sweet fruit pie. It just looks special but is so simple to defrost one bought from a health-food store or quality market.
Do a biweekly scan of your pantry and make use of the canned and jarred foods (beans/soups/curries) and grains for at least two meals in your week.
Clip coupons, watch weekly specials, and when you go shopping do take a calculator and a firm list. If you are tough on the total, you can reward yourself with more costly items that build your pantry or break a taste rut.
Hand small kids healthy snacks (to win their silence!) when they shop with you so they don’t pressure you into buying cereal decorated with superheroes or impulse purchases like candy at the cash register.