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Home Cookin’ Part I — The Only Thing Easier is the Eating!
We love restaurants. Just see our article Here’s a tip: Eat Out for all the reasons why a Cheapskate should, and can, enjoy an occasional guilt-free visit to a diner, bistro or trattoria. But eating out, like so many Cheapskate indulgences, is so much more sweetly savored due to its infrequency.
The plot to kill cooking
Although we have fun trying to find the exception, in nearly every case our home-cooked meals are better tasting, healthier, cheaper by far, and even (it’s true!) more convenient. Yet cooking from scratch has gained such an undeserved reputation as a dreaded chore or unattainable skill. We wonder: How was this achieved? It’s simple. The big profit in the food industry lies in pre-packaging, pre-preparation and processing. For who’s benefit was MacDonald’s or Cheese-whiz invented? Not yours. So say, ”So long!” to Micky-D’s! Refuse to visit fast food restaurants. Eating out should be a treat, and when the time comes, you can find something far better.
Where Ms. Hubbard Went Wrong. A Well Stocked Pantry encourages cooking
While we were researching this article, we discovered that the best way to encourage home cooking is to have the ingredients conveniently at hand, that is, to keep your pantry well stocked with simple ingredients that are not prone to quick spoilage.
Organize your pantry. By keeping just a few staples always on hand, plus a few things in your freezer, and you won’t need to go to the store more than once a week. We’ll advise you on what to get and what to avoid. (Hint: Anything with a brand name is suspect, and anything being marketed with a coupon is worse! Read more at the Great Coupon Conspiracy). We hear of folks who visit the supermarket almost daily, bring home a lot of food, which then goes bad, get’s thrown out. A great tip (seen on a recent Oprah episode): every time you throw out food, picture yourself throwing out money, because that is exactly what you are doing! It’s not just limp celery — it’s cold, hard cash!
Here’s a list of what we try to keep (ALWAYS) in the Planet Cheapskate larder:
It’s cold, hard cash!
Large cans of tomatoes and smaller cans of tomato paste: Tomatoes are the only veggies that come in cans and still retain their flavor and nutritive value. Even professional chefs swear by canned tomatoes.
Canned beans: Black beans, kidney beans, white beans, chickpeas. They’re incredible sources of protein. Some hard-core cooks soak and cook their own beans to save even more, but keep in mind that is time and energy usage intensive. We applaud such efforts but view them more as hobby than cost effective efficiency.
Dried pasta: This keeps nearly forever so stock up on a variety of styles. Some of your friends or family may have wheat allergies, so include brown rice pasta, which we highly recommend — it’s flavorful and healthy.
Cooking oil: We use a healthy canola/olive oil blend that’s much cheaper than straight olive oil and save the expensive virgin olive oil for use on salads.
Cheese and nuts: These are super healthy snacks that provide a great boost of energy to get you over the hump when arriving home at the end of the day just before russelin’ up dinner).
Hard dark chocolate: A simple dessert by itself or as part of a grander concoction. Actually pretty healthy too, when enjoyed responsibly. High quality, dark chocolate is full of antioxidants, and it cures your sweet cravings. Just have a bit after dinner or lunch, and that’s it for dessert. (Mmmm and makes any cup of coffee a special occasion.)
Fill your pantry with healthy — and cheap — produce, not expensive, pre-packaged, foods.
Fruit: Bananas! Go bananas! They’re healthy (a great source of potassium) and have a bit of fat, which makes them a filling snack. If there are deals to be had, we also choose one additional fruit-of-the-week for our Cheapskate pantry, and it must be consumed before another fruit is procured. Don’t shy away from sale racks here. In general, fresh fruit keeps better than green vegetables so if you eat up these deals first, you’ll be fine.
Salad base of the week: What looks good or is on sale? Spinach? Mixed greens? Lettuce? Let the sale of the week determine the pleasantly unexpected variety of your dinner table. Pick a green and get enough for a few salads throughout the week. Spinach is a good buy since you can also add it to casseroles, pasta toppings, etc.
Balsamic Vinegar: Have a bottle on hand for topping salads with the olive oil. A lemon wedge is also good for salad. Forget ever buying pre-made salad dressings — they’re a prepared-food profit-center for manufacturers, and never a good deal. We loved Paul Newman on the screen, but left him on the supermarket shelf.
Milk: We buy soy beverage in the box, not in the cold section. It will keep for a surprisingly long time and is actually better for adults than cow’s milk. Wean yourself off the traditional dairy product by mixing a little soy in with your regular milk, increasing the amount over a week or two, until you’re 100% on soy. Soon you’ll never notice the difference on top of your cereal or in coffee. (And you’ll be doing your part for the planet. Dairy and meat production is a major green-issue.)
Oatmeal: Don’t buy the expensive instant stuff — it’s not as good for you as the kind you have to cook. We buy the 5-minute variety and add raisins, bananas (fried are even tastier!) and a pinch of brown sugar.
Popcorn: The kind that comes in a simple, plastic bag — not microwaveable! We plan to write more about this soon, so check back.
Eggs: Buy local if you live in the country or have a farmers market in your community. You’ll be amazed by the size and taste of eggs from happy hens vs. their less fortunate factory-farm cousins.
The lowly onion is cheap, very versatile, and keeps well.
Carrots, potatoes, onions: In a cool, dry place these all keep very well, so you can always have some on hand. Carrots are a good healthy dog snack if your dog will eat them.
Baking necessities: If you’ve never baked, your “Newbie” list should include yeast, flour (try to avoid enriched and bleached), sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, corn starch, cocoa powder. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to make your own bread, pancakes, pudding, corn bread and more from scratch. It saves money, and isn’t any harder than getting out a mix (which often has more additives than a chemistry experiment). We’ll write more on this topic later if you’re interested — let us know!
Juice: There are so many 100% fruit juices on the shelf now, pick one that you like and always have some on hand. Replace all sodas and other unhealthy beverages with this. Just making sure that it is, in fact, 100% juice and not juice cocktail (a clever way of selling you more sugar). After a short time off the canned soda, you’ll probably agree with us that the juice needs to be served in the glass with about 1/3 of juice to 2/3 added water. Otherwise, we find it way too sweet. Your bottle of juice will go a long way! Also, orange juice or grapefruit juice for the morning. Look for juice on sale, and please, avoid tiny, single-serving bottles or boxes — an absolutely incredible waste!
Tea and coffee: Both are healthy for you (tea is good for your heart, coffee has antioxidants). Tea is much cheaper, but this website is powered our coffee fix every morning.
Cereal: Buy generic — something with little to no sugar — and keep it on hand when you need a snack. We don’t recommend cold cereal for breakfast, it just doesn’t stick to the ribs, and breakfast (according to widely accepted knowledge) is the most important meal of the day.
Tofu: Kept in the freezer, for “Cheap Stir Fry” night. Tofu sometimes goes on sale, as it does not keep long, so buy it up and pop it in the freezer. We’ve found that tofu suffers a bad rap simply because few people know how to cook it properly: Drain the water off, cube it, and put it in a metal pan with some canola oil — then broil. It makes the perfect tasty addition to any stir-fry.
The Tofu Trick: Grill it!
Rice: Get a large bag of parboiled. The minute-style is very expensive, and not as good for you, as the nutrients have been stripped out, and actually no more convenient to prepare. Please avoid all those brand-name boxes that have all kinds of added flavors. So overpriced — you’ll never find a way to pay more for some bits of seasoning! Add your own spices and veggies.
Bagels: for lunchtime sandwiches. When they go on sale, we stockpile and freeze.
Peanut Butter: Cheapest is not the best buy here. Try to buy organic, as peanuts are already naturally carcinogenic — and the recent tainted-peanut butter-scandal in the U.S. is evidence that until better regulations are enforced, there are times (such as health and safety concerns) when you must pay a little more to ensure quality. But relax Cheapskate, even when it’s organic, peanut butter is still a bargain.
Honey & Jam: This is just the thing for quick snacks and lunches, along with the peanut butter. Inexpensive honey is virtually the same as that a high-end brand, and look for jams with a minimal amount of added sugar.
Other produce: We buy, every week (for the 2 adults who currently reside on our Planet): a couple of lemons, 2 green peppers, 2 red peppers, 3 cloves of garlic.
Other articles in this series:
We’re Making a List! — Planning your weeks’ Cheap meals and Cookbook tips
Rattle Those Pots ‘n’ Pans: — Cheap Kitchenware Essentials
In the future, we’ll post recipes here on a regular basis which will emphasize good taste, health, low cost, and ease of preparation so check back often.
—the Editors, on February 24, 2009