Thanks for jumping in Kathryn :)

If you eat seasonally it is much cheaper than buying foods out of season, and bulk up your meals with those seasonal vegetables and cut your meat in half (or 3/4) of what you normally have.

Also, I find that having an entree like soup before the main meal fills people up so they aren’t looking for more food later on (have a husband and son that do that) or a healthy dessert. Anyway, having two courses.

If you cook in bulk you take some out and freeze for a later meal and also keep some for lunch the next day which means that you are more likely to be filled up with healthy cheap homemade food. Things like a vege/lentil/less-meat bolonaise with a little pasta is great for this, also a vege soup made of cheap seasonal veges.

It’s funny, that reporter ate mostly tortillas, peanut butter, pasta, and peanut butter, with the occasional egg and sweet potato. Not the best Nutrition, but not the worst. She didn’t use any preexisting pantry items (buying butter was a game changer, she said) and she scavenged salt and sugar packets.

It’s an interesting conundrum, that eating $1-2 meals often requires up-front investments that might be beyond one’s means if actually on SNAP benefits ($4/person/day). It’s something that Leann Brown’s awesome recipe book “Good and Cheap” addresses – how to build pantry items over time on such a tight budget. Italian spices one week, oil another, etc. And smaller amounts of bulk items (though I note that in my experience, bulk shopping tends to be something I mostly only see in affluent neighborhoods, though that can be regional; worth calling out privilege to remember that the playing field is seldom level).

Albóndigas – I had to look it up. Albóndigas soup is a traditional Mexican soup featuring spicy meatballs offset by the fresh flavors of vegetables and herbs.

Sounds delicious! I never think of meatballs in soup, even though several cultures do it.

I think I need more soups in my life. I know that an amazing soup can be had with hot spiced broth (with or without cream or coconut milk) poured over rotisserie chicken, veggies, and a starch. I just don’t do that enough. Maybe once it stops being in the high 90s.

Good call. Your post got me re-started with protein smoothies, thanks.

You might also check out farro. It’s an ancient grain, cooks in 12 mins, freezes great (I use an icecube tray).

I like to drop a few cubes of frozen farro and some frozen veggies into a skillet with a small dash of water, cover and steam a bit, scramble in eggs. Top with a bit of cheese, salt, pepper, hot sauce if you like. If you have an avocado, throw some slices on top. Ta-da!

I just checked her out – what gorgeous photos (I’m uber visual so I have a hard time sometimes when things look unappealing – but her things are gorgeous. I appreciated her recipes and outline of things to cut out, as that she updated her food costs as her kids grew up.

haha yeah – I eat 3 packets at a time :)

I think there’s a Trader Joes near where we moved so gonna see if they sell in bulk! I’ve never even seen it for sale before anywhere, but really haven’t looked either…

I like the idea of getting down to the basics like that – sounds so manly! haha…

YES! I’m so happy some other people use this book. I bought myself and a friend a copy…just to have them donate two copies. I could afford it, since I’m now saving money on food! ;-)
Plus – everything I’ve made so far has been tasty.

We go through a lot of oatmeal. The little Quaker packets are super expensive and it would take a least 4-5 of them to make an actual meal. We even thought that buying the 2 lb. canisters was too expensive for us. Instead we found a place that we can get a 50 lb. bag of rolled oats, sometimes quick oats, for $31 (in college we could get it anywhere from $18-$24 for 50 lbs.). My wife also uses it as a filler for a ton of her baked goods. I think that we have probably consumed over 1,000 lbs. of oatmeal over the past 6 years of marriage since a 50 lb. bag tends to last us a little over 6 months.

We just boil it with a small amount of salt. Add a little sugar and milk when we plate it up. Sometimes we have a piece of toast with it.