Hi all!  Those of you who know me, know that I am currently operating on a
very low budget and will continue to do so for the next five years.  This is
also the first time in my life I've had to take care of my own meals and have
been having problems in general.  I never had to learn to cook while growing
up and in college, had meal plan to keep me happy.  So now I am faced with
the what to do for food dilemma.  I'd like to be able to stay on a healthy
diet and not live off of cheap fast food, but I also have limited time and
cooking skills.  So does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do for
meals?  Any advice is greatly appreciated!

43 responses total.

   soup is pretty cheap and easy to make at home. you can make a big pot on
a day off, refrigerate some and freeze some, and have quick healthy meals for
the rest of the week.

Spaghetti.  Rice and beans (there are some variations on that which are cheap,
nutritious, good-tasting, and need minimal attention while cooking, although
the cooking process may well take a while).  Invest in a copy of Betty Crocker
for ideas and a broad overview of cooking basics.  Look for "campus kitchen
survival guide" type cookbooks.  In Ann Arbor, you can generally find a good
variety of cookbooks at super-cheap prices at the Friends of the Public
Library book sales.  If your town has sales like that, this may well be worth
looking for.

good books:
betty crocker is a must....there is the basic, and there is also a new one
that is called quick and easy, or something like that...it's actually reall
nice!  also, any moosewood could be good.  like valerie said, look at book
sales and used book stores...and never be afraid to experiment!!!!  also
always remeber things like a whole chicken will feed you for a few days, plus
you can cook the bones for great stock!  ramen, while not necessarily the best
stuff in the world, is cheap, which sometimes can be nice.

  I'll third the Betty suggestion.  I also agree with Valerie's
rice & bean, and spaghetti suggestions.  $3 in rice, beans, and
an onion can feed you for a week!  (Though it gets boring :-).
Also, a $3 jar of Ragu and a $1.50 box of pasta makes several
meals, and you can toss in whatever fresh veggies you have.  I
cook single helpings of pasta, but you can also cook a bunch at
a time, mixed w/the sauce, for easy reheating...good for a busy
schedule.  Sandwiches are also cheap and nutritional depending
on the bread and what you put on them...a $2 loaf can make ten
sandwiches...cheese & veggies or peanut butter and jelly are
fairly economical.  Other food bargains (in my opinion): eggs
(cooked however you like), potatoes (same), Ramen noodles, rice
(packaged instant rice mixes are pricier, but still cheap for
the amount of food).  Cheap fruits and veggies vary in price by
season, though bags of non-fancy apples usually seem like a good
deal.
 
  Vitamin/mineral supplements can also save money while keeping
you healthy.  For example, if you can't afford to drink milk
regularly, but need more calcium in your diet, take calcium
supplements and drink water :-).
 
  In general, preparing food like the above saves a lot over
ordering pizzas, going to fast food joints, and buying frozen
dinners.  You can fix a decent meal for $0.50-$1, while those
other options are more like $2-$6.  Even Taco Bell meals can
add up!

You can make your own granola, pretty cheaply.  My Dad has been doing it for
years, and I'm going to start Some Day Soon.  Just oats and some other things,
and honey.  Unlike classic granola, you can leave out the oil and not really
notice any difference.  That and skim milk is a pretty good breakfast deal.

I've never made granola myself, but I once had a roommate who did it.  The
whole house smelled wonderful.  I think it was the smell from the kitchen that
got me to finally try granola for the first time.  Her granola was wonderful
stuff.

   can you post the recipe, scott? there aren't too many breakfast cereals
i like, and grape-nuts get kinda boring after a while.

I beg to differ with the Betty Crocker crowd.  Joy of Cooking, in any edition
has far more information that lets you really learn to cook, and learn to
improvise.  Especially the chapters The Foods We Eat, and The Foods We Heat.
Reading it will tell you all you need to know about when you *must* sift the
flour, or measure it exactly and when the recipe really means "spoon some
flour into a half-cup measure, and toss it in".
  
As for cooking rice and beans, the Diet For a Small Planet books are great
for tasty combinations.  The author disagrees with herself now, about the
precise combination she suggested in the first edition.  Turns out that you
get the protein advantage just by eating things in the same day or so. 
  
If you are interested in low-fat, low-cost, try the MacDougall cookbooks. 
Almost vegan in their selection of foods, but extremely healthy and relatively
inexpensive vegetables, rice, beans, bread, etc.  

I also have to question the general usefulness of Betty Crocker.  We've got
it, we use it ... but ... if you ever want to cook a wombat, be assured that
it's going to tell you to start with a canned wombat.

(Note that it's been through many, many editions over the years.  The one I
know was one current somewhere around 1970.  My mother says that hers is much
more basic and useful.  The ones current today might be, for all I know.)

When I was getting started cooking, I found Joy Of Cooking was very
overwhelming, because it is so encyclopaedic.  Betty was about my speed,
because she had recipes for everything I wanted to cook, and the instructions
were pretty straightforward.  In Joy Of Cooking, if I went to look up how to
cook a wombat, each of the three wombat recipes would point me toward four
other related topics I ought to read about, each of which would point me to
four other places, ad infinitum.  I like Joy Of Cooking a lot as a reference
book, but think it's a bit overwhelming for a beginning cook to try to cook
from.

With all those links, it sounds like Joy of Cooking would be a
goo candidate for posting on the web.

(good, even)

I once had to write an essay about a practical use for hypertext (this was
slightly pre-Web).  I wrote something, but a day or so later  was kicking
myself for not thinking of Joy of Cooking.

I like JoC, but for me the problem is that even muffins seem to call for about
ten odd ingredients I don't have, like fresh diced wombat.  ;)

Yes, accompanied by an admonition that you'll ruin everything if you use
canned wombat instead.

The Helmke Granola receipe:

5 units rolled oats
1 unit shredded coconut
1 unit wheat germ
1 unit bran (either oat or wheat is OK)
1 unit nuts (optional)
1 unit sunflower seeds
1 unit (or slightly less) honey

Bake at 325 deg. F in large pan (turkey roaster works great), uncovered,
stirring and turning over every 20 minutes or so.  Takes about 1.5 hours to
bake, and you really need to watch it at the end.

Add raisins or other dried fruit after baking (optional).

There's still some fat in this, due to the nuts and seeds.  The original
involved maybe 1/2 a unit of oil, too.

(The "unit" is an arbitrary volume measure)

There is an amazing amount of saturated fat in the shredded coconut, too. 
And wheat germ has a lot of fat (although a better kind).  

I'll probably cut down on the fatty stuff when I get around to making this
myself.  Oats and honey isn't too bad a mix.

Catriona -- I'm under the impression that wheat germ varies a lot in its fat
content.  I'm not sure I have my wheat germs straight here, but I'm under the
impression that the toasted kind has tons o' fat, while the raw kind doesn't.
At least, the Nutrition Facts information on the bin of raw wheat germ at the
co-op lists a rather low amount of fat.

  When I was living in Port Huron, I had a limited budget for food. I learned
what to buy and what not to. Ramen is a good staple, and makes a good addition
to a sandwich (grilled cheese.
  I would buy the big 64 pack of American Cheese, then I would hit the bakery
thrift store for bread, usually 4 to 6 loaves for a buck. A big jar of peanut
butter, and jelly usually lasts for a while. As for soup, Campbells Tomato
is a good deal, but only if it's on sale. 
  For dinners, I would buy Hamburger Helper, which can be stretched into 2
nights, as can a whole chicken, but only if you can clean it. One of my best
ways to save money is to buy a whole chicken, take it to the butcher and ask
nicely to have him cut it up for you. 99 times out of 100 they will without
adding an extra charge. (The prepackaged chicken is usually 30 cents more per
pound, and the only difference is that they cut it for you). 
  Read the flyers and clip coupons. Plan your meals around what's on sale.
If you can get the staples on sale, then you're even farther ahead of the
game. Make a list and stick to it. Add nothing, not even a pack of gum, but
make an allowance for slippage, like $5, because speaking realistically,
you're gonna slip at first.
  If you have access to a freezer, buy in quantity if you can, and USE IT!

   thanks for the recipe, scott. next time i go grocery shopping i'll pick
up the ingredients and try it out. it sounds yummy.

bulk buy is good.
both rice and pasta-stuff can be made in large quantities and saved
in the refrigerator for a few days (refrig ~34-36F).
  
a large bag of frozen veggies is pretty inexpensive, goes a long way.
 
condensed soups are a *great* base for making 'other stuff' which
turns out like stews and thick soups.
  
also... remember that a 20# turkey is really cheap, and the large
quantity of leftovers save well in the freezer. (it's the bulk idea).
  
potatoes are good and inexpensive (and easy/fast cooking in microwave)
  
hamburger/tuna helper are good *starts* for foods, add other things
as your curiosity leads you.
  
the day-old-bread store is *great*. 

homemade sausage is actually pretty inexpensive...it all depend s on the meat
you get, and you don't need anything expensive...and that way, you can make
it as lean as you want!

also, the big bags of frozen tater tots.  :)

(If I remember right, tater tots have an astronomical amount of fat in them.)

Tater tots do, but amazingly Ore-Ida frozen french fries dont.  (I think it
was Ore-Ida)  Anyway, check french fry labels, some brands don't have any
added fat.  

  I found something that really makes a good cheap meal.

 Chicken Requests chicken breasts. They come 4 in a package. So what I do is
buy a Marie Callender's Spaghetti Dinner and I make 1 breast. I add a slice
of Mozzerella cheese over the chicken, then pour 1/2 of the spaghetti sauce
from the dinner over the chicken. The remaining sauce is placed over the
spaghetti. It's filling, and really good.
  Another way to use these breasts is with a Stouffer's side dish. 

 Chicken Requests is 3.99 a box. but since you can get 4 meals out it, it
brings the costs way down. You can do this idea with any frozen fish as well.

I'm still here and learning to cook :) managed to make chicken stew the other
day (accompanied, unfortunately, by a mess in the kitchen afterwards) but I'm
taking advantage of the summer when I'm not studying / doing problem sets,
to learn more about cooking.  It's unfortunate my kitchen seemed to have been
designed for people who don't cook (very small, you have no idea how many
friends have walked past it and then asked where then kitchen was)

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Here's anohter quick chicken idea:

buy some skinless/boneless chicken (or with skin and bones still
in, if you're willing to skin and bone the meat)

buy some italian-seasoned bread crumbs(get the large can; it keeps, and
   is useful for many different things.

have some milk on hand (about a cup or so).

Dice the chicken into bite-sized nuggets.  Dunk them into the milk,
then into bread crumbs to coat.

Arrange the nuggets on a cookie sheet, and bake them in a 425-F
oven (preheated!), for 10-12 minutes.

Viola!  Chicken nuggets!  


   ---*-*-*---

Want to make homemade french fries, without deep-frying?

Peel two baking potatoes, and slice them into fries.
Put them into a zip-lock bag, and add two tablespoons of
oil(corn, canola, olive, safflower, whatever).  Shake the
bag until all the potato slices are coated.

Arrange on a cookie sheet, and broil for about 7-10 minutes.
Turn them once during cooking, if you want.  

Viola!  French fries!

btw, the method for cooking french fries works great for other 
veggies, too.  Roasted veggies are very flavorful, and can
be mixed into all sorts of dishes, or eaten solo.

Sounds delicious -- both the chicken nuggets and the French
fries.

(By brother-in-law likes to ask: Just what part of the chicken
is the "nugget"?)

Interesting... when I was a kid, when my mom was going to use pieces of
chicken in a recipe, she always bought pieces of chicken that still had the
bones in them.  When the boneless stuff first appeared on the market, it cost
a hefty amount more than the kind with the bones.  Today's recipes all seem
to call for buying boneless chicken.  I wonder if this means that chicken
packaging has undergone a shift in the last few decades?

Mom says that when *she* was a girl, they bought chicken by going to the
stockyard and picking out which live chicken was going to be slaughtered for
them.  She's got some interesting stories about ways to cook some of the more
unusual chicken parts.

Where as when my mom wanted chicken, she went out to the henhouse and 
grabbed the one that had stopped laying eggs.  She's a bit to <something
in between cultured and delicate> to tell stories about chicken parts, but
she did once admit that her brothers had the job of converting extra
roosters into capons.

Why in the world would you buy boneless chicken?  It costs more than if you
bought it with bones and removed 'em yourself (pretty easy, since most
stuff sold boneless is breast anyway), and you loose all the goodies 
needed to make good chicken broth, soup, gravy, etc.

  I'll give one good reason: I hate handling raw chicken; I mean it's slimy
and gross. However, I am also smart enough to ask the butcher to cut up a
whole chicken for me, or boning the piece that I like but don't feel like
boning.
  I usually tell him it's a religious thing, and that usually is enough to
work. ;)

<i passes a freshly killed chicken to omni & tells him to start plucking>

Jim, why does the butcher need an excuse from you?

I can remember my grandmother going out to the chicken yard & wringing
a chicken's neck.  I may have even helped pluck once or twice.  (They
moved to town when I was about 10, I think.)

 USually they won't do it, refering me to the higher priced cuts. 

I just remember my mother's pulling pinfeathers from prepackaged supposedly-
already-plucked chicken, and my father's making comments like "This chicken
had three legs but only one wing."

For myself, I once bought boneless chicken because it was on sale and the
in-laws were expected.  Otherwise it seems an unnecessary extravagance,
but I mostly don't fix those fancy recipes anyway.

Deboning poultry is considered an essential culinary skill.  I
used to do it, before I realized how convenient boneless cuts
are.  Given how little meat I buy, I don't save much by deboning
my own chicken.  If I was cooking for a household, of course,
it'd be different.

The boneless stuff seems like sucha a waste to mee....Chicken was always
finger food, and it's so hard to eat it if there is nothing to hold on to!
  Besides...Chicken Papricash is just aWRONG without bones!

I'm sure many a Hungarian would agree with you on that one.

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