Comments on: Cheap Eats: Hot Tips for Beginners

By: selenana

selenana — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:57:54 +0000

@wallsdonotfall I also love the Joy of Cooking, and I have a small library of cookbooks that I like to choose one from and try to cook a lot from it. I love writing in them and making notes – very satisfying.

By: km1312

km1312 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:00:38 +0000

@km1312 Fave variations in this include:

Quinoa with sweet corn, black beans, onions, crushed red pepper, and cilantro

Whole-wheat pasta with spinach, cannellini beans, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice

You get the idea.

By: km1312

km1312 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:57:54 +0000

This basic recipe has saved me so many times over:

-Make a bunch of pasta, rice, quinoa, whatever
-Add a package of frozen veggies (broccoli, spinach) – usually you can just throw it in with 5 minutes left on the pasta-cooking
-After the pasta/veggies are done cooking & drained, add a can of beans (cannellini, chickpeas)
-If I’m willing to dirty another dish, I’ll saute some onion, garlic, and/or crushed red pepper and toss it over the dish
-Add butter/oil/herbs/cheese

Carbs, protein, veggies – BOOM. I usually make a massive batch of some version of this and bring leftovers to lunch for work – it’s nice because it can all go in one tupperware, rather than multiple containers for meat/salad/etc.

By: selenana

selenana — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:14:45 +0000

@Ben I love Heidi’s site and I am vegetarian too so it’s relevant to my interests, but I feel like she uses a lot of esoteric ingredients that aren’t easy to come by outside of well-stocked hippy enclaves. I don’t live somewhere where you can procure farro and rye flour and fiddlehead ferns, so I have to cook using basics – veg, tofu, and standard pantry staples. Once I move back to Portland I will totally cook from Super Natural Cooking every week!

By: Ben Chandler@facebook

Ben Chandler@facebook — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:01:31 +0000

@selenana You have excellent taste ;) The only one of those that I don’t turn to on a regular basis is thirty a week, which I’ll have to add to my list. One other recommendation is 101 cookbooks (like smitten, but more san francisco style).

By: alphonsegaston

alphonsegaston — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 06:26:58 +0000

Heck, I’m 78, have been cooking since I was a teenager. All of the advice given is good (although I do see the point about the savings on coffee), but I want to comment on the advice to clean up as you go. I have seen so many women (well, in my generation, men did not cook) become frustrated with cooking because of the mess. Have followed that advice–don’t know where it came from–for years and still do even though I am no longer the dishwasher in chief.

By: acid burn

acid burn — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:06:38 +0000

Nobody has said Budget Bytes yet!! It's my go-to for easy, cheap recipes.

By: mishaps

mishaps — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:33:07 +0000

We’re coming out of the right season to do this, but: make a stew over the weekend. If it is good, freeze the leftovers in single/double-serving containers so you/you and your partner have a delicious meal or meals sometime down the road as well. Solves the “I am sick of eating that same dish I cooked” blues.

If it is not good, well, lesson learned! Stew is not that expensive to make. Try something else next time.

By: editrickster

editrickster — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:24:22 +0000

@dotcommie Yes! Slow cookers are your friend for lazy, cheap eats like soups and stews. I usually use mine in the winter but now I’m on the hunt for good summer crock pot recipes. They’re ideal for summer cooking because they will not heat up the kitchen very much.

You can also use them to make apple butter, which is delicious.

By: anachronistique

anachronistique — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:12:00 +0000

@werewolfbarmitzvah But the soccarat is half the point of paella!