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Beo posted:I know this has probably been mentioned a thousand times in this topic but you just can't beat a pound of dry beans + some remnants of meat + something with a bone in it + some veggies.
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Oct 21, 2012 02:00
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therattle posted:We at GWS want you to eat well. That includes eating good-quality food. If you are buying meat and fish on a budget, especially if you aren't buying the cheaper cuts like people here recommend, chances are you are buying poo poo: factory-farmed, artificially-fed, hormone- and anti-biotic pumped meat, and destructively-harvested fish that is not so good for you, definitely not good for the animals involved, and bad for the environment to boot. I know it is easy for me to preach from a position of relative wealth and privilege, but I do believe that if you can't afford to buy "good" meat (i.e., meat that has been humanely reared and killed - usually but not always organic) then you shouldn't eat meat - well, not often. Rather eat better, less frequently, or buy cheaper cuts of decent meat and, with skill, make them into something delicious. Eating a more vegetarian diet is DEFINITELY cheaper, and better for the world - and for you. loki k zen posted:I get that the intent here is to be helpful, but one of the best things I learned from my poor-to-begin-with boyfriend when I went from being a middle class kid to a poor adult is this: you are poor before you are ethical, you are poor before you are an environmentalist and you are poor before you are a health nut. I'm poor and my diet is mostly a vegetarian diet. I rarely buy meat, but when I do, I don't buy lovely factory-farmed meat. Though, even if I wasn't so poor and made enough to put a chicken on the table every night, I think the majority of my meals would still be vegetarian.
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Oct 21, 2012 04:37
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Just made the cheapest meal ever for dinner, and incredibly good. Fresh pasta, (one and half cups of flour and two eggs, some salt and a little olive oil), some tomatoes from my garden, and some olives. obviously we don't all have garden tomatoes but fresh pasta is truly a decadent treat that is incredibly cheap and you can mix most anything with.
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Oct 21, 2012 07:53
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I've been eating a ton of Chinese food style meat and broccoli. Pork is usually the cheapest, especially if you get the assorted cuts package which is cheaper since its all the chops that aren't pretty enough to be on a plate. It was probably like $10 to grab good soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rooster brands chili-garlic sauce. Per-meal I probably end up paying $2.50 in ingredients and its easy to make in bulk to split up for meals.
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Oct 21, 2012 16:39
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My favorite thread while I sort out finances I recently got a new crockpot and in my opinion you really cant beat the whole chicken recipe in the slow cooker thread. A $5 chicken, a stalk of celery and an onion (and s+p) yields at least 3 meals of meat. Its great on its own, or with gravy made from the chicken, or even with stuff added. I threw some basil paste on to make a ghetto pesto and made a salad of spinch ($1 a lb at a local farm) and cliantro (60 cents a bunch) with rice vingar dressing and cooked some wild rice ($4ish for probably 10 servings) and it was delicious and quick. Re: home made pasta, what would I do in lieu of a machine? Semolina flour isnt expensive but unless I'm hand cutting strands of spaghetti I dont know what I can do. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Oct 21, 2012 |
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Oct 21, 2012 20:47
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Saint Darwin posted:Re: home made pasta, what would I do in lieu of a machine? Semolina flour isnt expensive but unless I'm hand cutting strands of spaghetti I dont know what I can do. I've had some success with a plain rolling pin and a knife. It's hard getting super thin pasta, or even width strands, but it's certainly doable. After rolling out the pasta mass thinly, fold it over a couple of times to make the distance you need to cut smaller, just make sure to quickly un-fold the strands and hang them, so they don't stick together.
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Oct 21, 2012 21:04
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I'd say just roll the dough out nice and thin with a rolling pin, then just run a knife down it to make ribbons of pasta however thick you want them.
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Oct 21, 2012 21:06
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Saint Darwin posted:My favorite thread while I sort out finances Hmm, fair enough, it is a bit tough without the roller machine. But if you think about it, it was done with a rolling pin for many many years obviously. I've never been able to get it thin enough for my taste without my kitchen aid roller (not cheap obviously.) And any flour works just fine, not just semolina.
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Oct 21, 2012 23:08
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Did something happen to the slow cooker thread? I don't come into GWS very often, can't seem to find it.
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Oct 21, 2012 23:30
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Simon Draskovic posted:Did something happen to the slow cooker thread? I don't come into GWS very often, can't seem to find it.
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Oct 22, 2012 00:37
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Saint Darwin posted:Re: home made pasta, what would I do in lieu of a machine? Semolina flour isnt expensive but unless I'm hand cutting strands of spaghetti I dont know what I can do. Roll it out thin, flour liberally, and roll up like a fruit roll up and slice into inch wide ribbons to make pappardelle, or thinner to make tagliatelle, fettuccine, etc.   pappardelle al ragu di cinghiale alla bolognese by gtrwndr87, on Flickr You can also make thin sheets of fazzoletti, or handkerchiefs.  Make square sheets and roll up onto itself using a wooden spoon handle for garganelli  Semolina isn't necessary for these types of pasta, they are egg based and use plain flour. If you wish to use semolina and want to make a handmade pasta, omit the egg and try orecchiette. It is challenging but awesome.  semolina orecchiette and roasted chicken ragu by gtrwndr87, on Flickr Here is a video with someone far better at it than me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk34jkzVZYs
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Oct 22, 2012 05:16
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You can also make hand-pulled noodles: http://youtu.be/wZ26q_LOwUY http://youtu.be/TYZM_ZDZHlQ It's actually not that hard, but you need a bit of practice. Lucy Heartfilia fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 09:17
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Well, tonight is too much of a gently caress, and tomorrow I have a concert, but hopefully I can try Wednesday. The *internet* says a 1:4 ratio of semolina to unbleached works best. Thanks for the tips, you guys are the reason I've gained 10 lbs in the past 2 weeks.
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Oct 22, 2012 20:07
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loki k zen posted:Now, I get that the intent here is to be helpful, but one of the best things I learned from my poor-to-begin-with boyfriend when I went from being a middle class kid to a poor adult is this: you are poor before you are ethical, you are poor before you are an environmentalist and you are poor before you are a health nut. As a current poor person, I'm going to have to disagree with this. You can absolutely be poor and be ethical, but you will be making some sacrifices, such as not eating meat with every meal. I don't try to be vegetarian but I'd say that 75% of my meals contain no meat. Meat, particularly beef, is some of the most expensive stuff you can buy per pound. There's no 89 cents a pound ground beef nowadays like there was when I was a kid. I go to the store and I'm shocked when I see that ground beef is often > $2.50 or $3.00 per pound, and I live in one of the biggest beef-producing states in the country! Not eating meat will save you a lot of money if you are a smart shopper. Or make friends with a hunter (or shoot your own food). My $35 deer tag is meat for a year, and that's about as ethical as you can get. Also, I get my eggs from a lady who raises chickens, and they cost less than the factory-farmed cheapo-crap eggs at the store, and the chickens are nice and healthy and happy because I can see them playing around when I go over there. I also have to disagree that you can't be poor and be an environmentalist. I'd actually say that the opposite is true. The things that save you the most money are the things that are the most environmentally friendly such as: drinking tap water instead of bottled water, brewing coffee at home instead of wasting a styrofoam cup by going to Starbucks, riding your bike to close places instead of using gas and driving, starting an herb garden instead of buying small overpriced packs of basil or rosemary at the store, reusing plastic bags and glass jars, etc. Just to name a few things. Also, a person that does these types of things is often labeled a "health nut"  .
razz fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 23:20
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growing/raising your own food is the ultimate blend of ethical and economically wise practice.
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Oct 22, 2012 23:27
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razz posted:
Where I come from this is called being a normal person, growing your own herbs is optional but the fashionable thing to do these days. It's not a hipster eco-friendly health nut or a poor people thing either, just how we do because gently caress paying for overpriced bottled water if you can just get it from a tap. (Insert stingy Dutch people joke)
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Oct 23, 2012 00:38
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I wish it was normal in America 
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Oct 23, 2012 01:18
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PiratePing posted:growing your own herbs I would like to start doing this and would like some info on it. Is there a cheap kit I can get off of amazon? Also how much direct light would I need? I'm in Wisconsin so I wouldn't be able to have them outside, but I do have a kitchen window that I could put them in.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:49
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Growing your own anything is a pipe dream for many Americans. Hell, I have a house with a small yard and I cant grow crap due to the constant shade from trees, the lack of clear land, and the angle of the house (blocks almost all light). Re: vegetarianism for savings, I just dont see how. Fresh vegetables are expensive, frozen never thrill me, and canned is a combination of those. You can eat the hell out of rice and beans but thats not exactly balanced.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:56
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Saint Darwin posted:Re: vegetarianism for savings, I just dont see how. Fresh vegetables are expensive, frozen never thrill me, and canned is a combination of those. You can eat the hell out of rice and beans but thats not exactly balanced. You eat things that are in season, a diet heavy in legumes, and you make your own breads/etc. It's so much cheaper, especially in places where meat is not as heavily subsidized as in most of the US.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:06
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I like to buy fresh veggies when they're on sale and freeze them. For example, sometimes bell peppers are on sale for 25 cents and they're usually like 50 or 75 cents. So I'll buy 5 or 6 of them and use maybe 2 of them, then I'll cut the rest into strips and freeze them using my vacuum sealer. They're not really awesome to eat raw after they've been frozen but they're great for stir-fry, pasta, etc. I'll also do that with broccoli when it's on sale. I think some vegetables are pretty good frozen. I like frozen corn, peas and green beans and a lot of times, they are on sale for less than a dollar for a one-pound bag.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:17
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Harminoff posted:I would like to start doing this and would like some info on it. Is there a cheap kit I can get off of amazon? Also how much direct light would I need? I'm in Wisconsin so I wouldn't be able to have them outside, but I do have a kitchen window that I could put them in. Google growing herbs?
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Oct 23, 2012 03:01
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Growing herbs is kind of difficult. I tried to start an herb garden earlier this spring and while everything sprouted, somehow they all managed to die before they got maybe 2 inches tall. I might recommend going to a local greenhouse and starting with mature plants and re-potting them into appropriate containers. I've always been terrible with plants for some reason! Luckily my fiance's parents grow a lot of their own veggies and herbs so we usually get herbs from them. But I never buy fresh herbs because of the price. I think growing them indoors is probably where I went wrong, because I started the plants when it was still too cold to put them outside. And after they all died I just lost motivation. Probably it would be best if you had an outdoor place to grow them, it doesn't have to be in the yard but maybe in pots on the balcony/porch if you have one.
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Oct 23, 2012 04:02
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I love growing my own herbs, but I can't seem to get basil to live long enough to do much with it. I've read all the care guides, but it still doesn't help. I think the main issue is finding the balance between too much and too little water. Last few times I tried, I got fungus gnats swarming the pots, so I stopped watering so much, and they totally dried up. Right now I have some shiso growing in the windowsill, and while it's doing really well, I haven't used any yet.Saint Darwin posted:Re: vegetarianism for savings, I just dont see how. Fresh vegetables are expensive, frozen never thrill me, and canned is a combination of those. You can eat the hell out of rice and beans but thats not exactly balanced. Depends on where you go shopping! I do a lot of my shopping at small ethnic markets, or Fresh and Easy, which is a chain in the western US. They have a lot of cheap produce, and they always mark down things that are close to the sell-by date. Sometimes my roommates and I get our dinners entirely from the clearance section of the store. You can feel good shopping there too, since they use low-power lighting, solar on some facilities, and a lot of the produce is locally-sourced. Sometimes they even have big boxes of local organic produce for sale, similar to what you'd get from a farm share.
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Oct 23, 2012 05:25
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Mizufusion posted:I love growing my own herbs, but I can't seem to get basil to live long enough to do much with it. I've read all the care guides, but it still doesn't help. I think the main issue is finding the balance between too much and too little water. Last few times I tried, I got fungus gnats swarming the pots, so I stopped watering so much, and they totally dried up. I had the same problem until I tried Gnatrol, which is some kind of bacteria that kills the gnat larvae. It probably took out 90% of my gnat problems in the first week, and it's been pretty low-key since.
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Oct 23, 2012 05:52
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Saint Darwin posted:Growing your own anything is a pipe dream for many Americans. Hell, I have a house with a small yard and I cant grow crap due to the constant shade from trees, the lack of clear land, and the angle of the house (blocks almost all light).
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Oct 23, 2012 06:51
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There are ways to grow at home even with limited resources/space. Sprouts are a great example. You can buy a bag of black oil sunflower seeds for hella cheap and eat nothing but sprouts for, like, a year. You can grow lettuce seeds in little trays and eat as microgreens. Arugula and dandelions grow like weeds because, well they are weeds. You can grow beets in containers and eat the greens while you wait for the beet to grow. A container full of chard can grow shittons of greens, too. You can grow oyster mushrooms on old newspaper and coffee grounds. Radishes grow from seed to plate in a few weeks. A lot of times, people just have bad luck due to a few easily fixed things. As mentioned, for beginners, start from plant starts. Many (not all) seeds can be hard to start strongly without a grow light. Know what grows well in your area or under your conditions. The best way to figure this out is to talk to a local master gardener or mom and pop nursery. Buying starts/seeds from Lowe's is hit or miss, many times their nursery managers give no shits about the plants. The hybrids (most likely not heirloom varieties) are not optimal for your area as they all come from the same distributor. get good soil. If you're lucky enough to have space, compost. If not, and you don't mind a bit of maintenance, get a worm bin. If not, a good organic compost from a mom and pop store should work well. Fungus gnats on indoor plants? Put a half inch layer of sand on the top of the soil. They live on the surface and their larvae feed on organic matter. If you don't mind a little diy, you can build a small grow light system for easy and cheap. Just a T5 work shop light fixture from a hardware store and some sort of hanging system and a shelf. Seed starts are super easy if you have one. </gardening derail> GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 07:06
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Ghost of Reagan Past posted:I mostly eat vegetarian. I eat veggies every day, but most of my protein comes from soy. Tofu is $1.69/lb at my local Chinese grocery. And yes, fresh veggies can be expensive, but learn to shop around and buy seasonally. I live in the Midwest, so during the winter I suffer through frozen and canned vegetables, knowing that come spring and summer I will have fresh ones. It is not expensive to feed yourself a balanced vegetarian diet, since meat is still pricey, too... Between 5 and 11 % of protein in tofu is a pitiful amount. To actually get more without breaking your vegetarian diet you could always add some suitable protein shakes a day. Otherwise, getting plenty of proteins from tofu, nuts or legumes with a vegetarian diet, especially a rigid one, will tend to involve heaps of calories from fat or carbs included. Which is great if you're going for a high caloric diet, but not so much for a balanced one.
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Oct 23, 2012 07:07
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razz posted:Growing herbs is kind of difficult. I tried to start an herb garden earlier this spring and while everything sprouted, somehow they all managed to die before they got maybe 2 inches tall. I might recommend going to a local greenhouse and starting with mature plants and re-potting them into appropriate containers. I've always been terrible with plants for some reason! Luckily my fiance's parents grow a lot of their own veggies and herbs so we usually get herbs from them. But I never buy fresh herbs because of the price. Man, I grew lots of herbs from seed this year in my room which only gets sunlight for maybe two hours a day at most. Oregano, thyme, parsley, even my basil was doing great (if a bit leggy) until I bought a mint plant that contained aphids. I tried to stop the invasion but all my plants died just as they were mature enough that I could start using them regularly. My babies  Are fresh veggies really that expensive in America? Leaving out meat easily cuts the cost of my dishes in half. Before I got a meat-eating boyfriend I was practically vegetarian because why buy two portions of boring meat if the same amount of money buys me a week's worth of all kinds of delicious veg at the market. I also often go to the small Arabic supermarkets that are all over the place here. They usually have better quality veg for cheap as well as halal meat. It's cheap and (supposed to be) ethical. There is some controversy around the way the animals are slaughtered (slitting the throat while the animal is still conscious so that its brain is instantly deprived of oxygen and it cannot feel pain) but most studies suggest that their methods are more humane than Western ones. I'm not sure about how the animals are kept... Muslims believe that all animals have to be treated with respect so in order for the meat to be halal the animals have to be healthy. The rules focus mainly on the method of slaughtering though so I don't really know. PiratePing fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 12:32
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Saint Darwin posted:Growing your own anything is a pipe dream for many Americans. Hell, I have a house with a small yard and I cant grow crap due to the constant shade from trees, the lack of clear land, and the angle of the house (blocks almost all light).' You just have to be inventive. People garden enough to provide almost all of their own food in environments as varied as the hell-blasted deserts of Nevada to the cold and constantly gray Greenland coastline. Certain crops do better in certain conditions. For instance, if you have a lot of shade and a lot of rocks in your yard or something, just grow a bunch of kale and turnips - that's what they do in Scotland where the conditions are exactly like that.
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Oct 23, 2012 15:34
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Mizufusion posted:Depends on where you go shopping! I do a lot of my shopping at small ethnic markets, or Fresh and Easy, which is a chain in the western US. They have a lot of cheap produce, and they always mark down things that are close to the sell-by date. Sometimes my roommates and I get our dinners entirely from the clearance section of the store. You can feel good shopping there too, since they use low-power lighting, solar on some facilities, and a lot of the produce is locally-sourced. Sometimes they even have big boxes of local organic produce for sale, similar to what you'd get from a farm share. Even the H Marts I go to, while they have potatoes and onions and steal prices, as well as the cucumbers I pickle for extremely cheap, stuff like bell peppers are still $1 each (and I can eat those like candy). Mr. Wiggles posted:You just have to be inventive. People garden enough to provide almost all of their own food in environments as varied as the hell-blasted deserts of Nevada to the cold and constantly gray Greenland coastline. Certain crops do better in certain conditions. For instance, if you have a lot of shade and a lot of rocks in your yard or something, just grow a bunch of kale and turnips - that's what they do in Scotland where the conditions are exactly like that. That's a loving fantastic idea. I can actually do stuff with those. I'll look into it.
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Oct 23, 2012 15:45
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Saint Darwin posted:Even the H Marts I go to, while they have potatoes and onions and steal prices, as well as the cucumbers I pickle for extremely cheap, stuff like bell peppers are still $1 each (and I can eat those like candy). That's the spirit!
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Oct 23, 2012 16:13
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Hey, I just thought I'd pop in and say thank you. Reading this thread, I took the idea for a whole chicken and found this recipe, and it's some of the best food I've ever tasted. I made stock overnight, and I'm cooking rice with it as I type this. I never dreamed that food this good could be this cheap. As a poor grad student with a poor girlfriend, thanks you guys.
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Oct 23, 2012 18:09
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The thing about all this gardening talk is this: I suck at growing things. I can't keep a tomato plant or a basil plant (or, for that matter, even a mint plant) alive. The initial investment for any of those things to produce any sizable quantity of produce is quite large and definitely involved a delayed payoff--which you can't afford if you're eating on $30 a week. It requires a level of time investment that I (and plenty of other people) don't necessarily have. Even if you have good enough soil to plant directly into (you probably don't) and even if you can get plants for free (what healthy plants are going to be free?), it requires a serious investment of time. Homegrown tomatoes require pruning, tying onto stays, fertilization, and attention. If your week at work is super busy during a dry week, your tomato plant will wilt, and their output will go way down. Sure, a window box full of herbs doesn't require that level of maintenance, but starting any plants from seedlings requires a surprisingly high initial investment, and buying plants can be as expensive as a pound of the produce itself for a plant that won't necessarily produce that volume magically on its own with no attention. Half the time, I found myself wanting to just pull up the entire plant to get enough for whatever I was cooking. Obviously, I'm doing things wrong there, but when do I have time to experiment about placement and watering schedules? I'm ridiculously busy, remember? I'm trying to get less poor over here! Good for those of you who have the time & ability to grow exciting, flavorful herbs and vegetables yourself--and I mean that sincerely, I wish I had the ability to do what you do--but suggesting someone rely on that for nutrition when they're strapped for cash seems like it could be a huge money sink if you don't know what you're doing and don't have time to learn.
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Oct 24, 2012 01:46
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If only people in third world and developing countries knew how hard it was to rely on food you grew yourself to eat. Edit: ok content. It was mentioned already but growing things that are meant to be grown in your area/under the conditions you are able to provide goes a very long way. GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Oct 24, 2012 |
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Oct 24, 2012 02:45
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Nicol is right about tomatoes, they aren't easy to grow. For starting gardeners some things that can be grown easily from seed packets in a variety of locations include: 1) Cucumbers - do these first 2) Zucchini 3) Peas 4) Swiss Chard 5) Bush Beans 6) Radishes - but why would you want those? Geurilla Gardening - swipe a piece of plant for these guys and you can grow your own plant of it (I'm not kidding, I had a rosemary plant for three years that I grew off a piece I swiped off a giant rosemary bush in someone's front yard). 1) MINT - really easy, make sure that it's walled off, in it's own pot, etc. or it will take over everything. 2) Rosemary - swipe a piece and stick it in water until it roots, then put it in soil. 3) Chives - if you can get someone to give you a divided plant you'll be rolling in chives. I've literally had the same chives plant for over 10 years. I call him grandaddy chives. If you'er going to do container gardening, and have space, I'd recommend getting a half whiskey barrel. The major problem with clay pots is they need to be watered every day if you live somewhere hot. Another option is the Earthtrainer which looks great. Also, if you're gardening on a budget you should look for local garden clubs. These clubs often have plant sales in the spring where you can buy very cheap plants that people have grown by splitting/propagating/etc their own plants. If you make friends with a gardener, not only can you learn good tips on gardening but sometimes they'll hook you up with free plants or give you advice on getting an alottement or something if you need more space. Logiwonk fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Oct 24, 2012 |
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Oct 24, 2012 03:47
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Chard and kale are super easy to grow. I adopted a giant chard plant from a science experiment and stuck it in my garden and it's super happy even though the weather is starting to go to poo poo and it recently got a tree branch dropped on it. Dark leafy greens are really good for you too. Also garlic. Break up a head of garlic and stick the cloves in the ground and then by summer you'll have many heads of garlic. I did this a couple years ago in the most awful, depleted soil and probably didn't water them enough, but they all came up and I got tiny (but potent) garlics.  As for herbs, try some thyme. It's perennial and can take a beating over the winter and in general. Sage is one of my other easiest plants. Oregano is pretty easygoing too. And then there's mint. My mint stock was some roots and stuff that I pulled up from the feral patch next door to my old place. Stuck them in the ground and then next spring it was trying to take over everything, along with the oregano. Also, I'm in PA, not some mild weather plant happyland, and my first herb garden, which was successful, was in mostly shade and under a pine tree. Once I dumped some good gardening soil stuff on it, everything took off. Soil bag cost like 5 bucks and setup was half a Saturday, and then after that, pretty minimal maintenance, like watering when it hasn't rained in a while or going out and grabbing some stuff when I need it for cooking.
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Oct 24, 2012 05:41
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Mint isn't one of those things you really use day to day, but as a few people have said, holy crap it grows and takes over everything. Don't plant it in the center of your garden.
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Oct 24, 2012 06:18
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Thanks for the gnat tips, everyone. Part of the problem I've had with gardening is that my old place had no land, and the apartment had no insulation so everything I planted died in the summer heat, or got overwatered. New place is much nicer, and I'm working on a windowsill garden. I ended up buying some of those pricey herbs in plastic boxes earlier, so I put the leftover rosemary and thyme in some water to see if they'll grow roots. There are a lot of things you can grow from kitchen scraps, actually. The root ends of green onions can be placed in water and they'll sprout again (although you should change the water daily or it gets really funky), and some people have claimed success with growing celery and romaine lettuce by putting the root end in good soil. Sweet potatoes are pretty easy to start too, but they require lots of sun and warm weather, and take a while to mature. Tomatoes are hella easy to grow, I think, but I live in California where you can grow practically anything. They even thrive in our crappy clay soil, with little to no maintenance. My mom used to grow cherry tomatoes, and they took over a corner of the yard because new plants were sprouting from the fallen fruits. We were giving away fruits and small plants all summer. So yeah, gardening can be done on the cheap, but you have to know what grows easily in your area. SproutRobot will give you a good idea of what to plant and when, based on your zip code, if you're in the US.
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Oct 24, 2012 06:57
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Logiwonk posted:
  Radishes own.
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Oct 24, 2012 07:14
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