Today we are wading into the land of low cost, budget meals. It’s an area that I think is pretty saturated, but readers of this newsletter have asked for a Deep North version! I’m happy to oblige with my seasonal cooking and eating focus.
To kick us off, I think it’s important to establish that “budget” or “low cost” are relative terms. I live in a household with two adults with full time jobs and no children or pets. Those with kids, or who work a few part time jobs, or cannot work at all will have a different idea of what “budget” might mean. While I’m a frugal person who hates wasting both money and food, there might be a blind spot or two. That being said, I have eaten well for many years keeping costs low from week to week, and I grew up in an ingredient heavy house.
A few overall tips:
An important part of eating on a budget is having some skills and knowledge about preserving and storing food after you get it home so that it lasts a long time. Things like a chest freezer and dehydrator, while a big investment up front, will pay off in the long run if you use them consistently and well.
If you don’t have access to those, you can make your regular freezer work for long term storage with some great organization and Tetris-ing skills, and you can use your oven to dehydrate food.
Ice cube trays and silicone trays like Souper Cubes are helpful for saving food when you’re sick of the leftovers but don’t want to waste them.
Buying produce when it’s in season means that it tastes the best it ever will, and since there’s a bounty, the price will likely be lower than typical (or, there will be deals and sales on it, especially at your local grocery store). If you have the means to buy produce at its peak, then do that! Enjoy the bounty and save a little for the bleaker, colder months.
If you can, get a CSA because then the food will come to you when it’s in season! In years past, I’ve written at length about how to store veggies you get in a CSA box, and what to cook with them, so check out these old posts for more.
9 Reasons to Get a CSA
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I grew up in a weird food time. My childhood was filled with the convenience of prepared foods - boxes of Hamburger Helper, easy to grab bars, colorful ketchups and inventive chip shapes (3D Doritos anyone?). I was pretty distant from vegetables that were fresh from the garden, and was instead famili…
How to Store (and eat) Early Summer Produce
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Summer is in full swing over here! I simultaneously cannot remember what day it is and also feel busy with projects including making bread, crocheting a dress, a Lego kit, garden weeding, and getting through my audiobooks before they are due back to the library. I had one of my most stressful week…
For foods that aren’t produce, it’ll always be cheaper to buy raw ingredients rather than prepared foods, so dried, canned, and frozen goods are going to be your best buds. I’ve been known to make a chili completely from cans and jars, and a tater tot hotdish from bags of frozen foods. You can have an excellent nourishing meal on very little.
Low Cost Summery Meals
Now onto the summer meals that are low cost, nourishing, and celebrate the season:
White Bean & (Almost) Any Veggie Salad: Mix together white beans (cooked from dried or canned) and raw or slightly cooked veggies. You’ll want the veg to have some crunch for texture variation. Add some herbs that are in season or dried ones in your pantry. Dill, parsley, cilantro, and basil are always a good bet!
Rotisserie Chicken Meals: Use a rotisserie chicken for shredded chicken sliders, chicken salad, sliced up for salad, warmed up in the oven with some herb butter. You can get a whole chicken for under $10 (and for $5 in a lot of places!) that you can stretch for a few meals, so leverage that.
Pasta Salad: Pasta is filling and can go a long way. Cook pasta and toss it with whatever seasonal veggies you have, along with a pre-mixed dressing or once you make yourself. Add protein linke rotisserie chicken, tinned fish, chunks of cheese or chickpeas.
Grain Bowls: My favorite is quinoa because it is so filling. You can do a ton of variations based on your tastes and what you have on hand veg-wise. My go-to for potlucks, meal trains, and meal prep is this one.
Dips: Blend a can of chickpeas (or cook them from dried) for homemade hummus for the week! You can eat the hummus with veggies, crackers, and/or a protein all week long. Roast up an eggplant and blend up for baba ganoush. Make a white bean dip from a can or a bag of dried beans. This style of dip is one that’s going to fill you up and be cheap for girl dinner or girl lunch.
My Meal Plan for the Week
What I’m making this week with our CSA veggies and what we already have on hand from last week’s Costco run:
Cannellini bean salad with thinly sliced radishes and onions, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, and dill
Hotdogs and kohlrabi salad (kohlrabi, onions, cilantro tossed with cilantro lime crema leftover from a taco kit)
Quiche with chicken breakfast sausage, asparagus, and sautéed turnip greens
Grilled chicken with beet salad (roasted, then chilled sliced beets on greens with homemade honey mustard dressing)
Let me know what you are making this week in the comments! ^
Whether it’s a bunch of greens, a rotisserie chicken with fresh dill, or cans of beans, I hope that you are eating well this season, and for cheap too!
Things I Like
Thinking about getting a pair of fisherman sandals for summer/fall. They’re trendy and with climate change, we are going to have more weeks of warm weather each year so I think I’d get a lot of use out of them. Thoughts?
Butterfly and moth tattoos are all over my saved pins at the moment. Rare Press just did a butterfly necktie and I’m so into it. If only I had infinite money for tattoos!
A box of classic mac and cheese with a big ole salad really hits lately.
Cannot wait for the IKEA and Gustaf Westman collab.
If you’re also in your underconsumption era, don’t forget that you can alter your black shirts with bleach. Recently, I twisted up a black shirt and sprayed it with a bleach/water solution and it turned out so well! Gave that shirt a new life! Might also cut off the hem to crop it too.
May your week be gentle and may you eat well. 🌲🥣