These days, a piece of fruit can be the same price as a dollar-menu hamburger. The icky, slimy, greasy, dead-flesh food is getting to be more affordable than the good, whole foods! I have two responses to this epidemic:
1. Products usually sell for what they are worth, so keep that in mind when you buy a $1 hamburger.
2. There are inexpensive, whole, vegan options out there!
An excellent and timeless example of this is a bean and rice dish. I made some very rough estimates and found that you can get 5 cups of uncooked rice for $1.69. Taking into account how much rice expands when you cook it, that is a LOT of rice. Dried beans are similarly cheap, and then all you need is a veggie or two to make a tasty, wholesome meal.
I had two recipes I wanted to try out this weekend. They are both from La Dolce Vegan. The first one I actually made yesterday, called Bountiful Beans and Brown Rice.
Don’t mind the pizza. The rest of the family had pizza last night, as they tend to avoid my ‘freaky vegan food’ like the black death.
This was the final product and it was good. It was not complicated at all, took no longer than the time to cook the rice, and it had a simple but satisfying flavor. One thing to note: the recipe also calls for green peppers and jalapenos. I don’t much like green peppers and didn’t have any jalapenos so I left those out. I imagine it is even more flavorful if you leave those in!
I would give this recipe a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
It was no gourmet dish, but it didn’t have to be. It was simple to prepare and made me happy and full, which is all I can ask :)
How do you save money on food without giving up great taste?
If there’s one thing you can’t have too many of, its money- or time-saving tips!
yum, beans and rice are so good together! I love Mexican rice and beans a lot.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of money saving tips!! Being a poor grad student and all... ;)
I actually did a series of posts a few weeks ago on eating for 1 week on $21. You can find it here: http://masterofherromaine.blogspot.com/2010/08/21-week-challenge-day-1.html
I ended up eating out once, but the rest of the time I stuck to it! I save a lot of money by buying pretty much ONLY produce and some beans like chickpeas. Also sometimes I get tofu or bread..but basically 80% of my shopping budget is spent on produce! With the right spices, I can make so many dishes out of the same fruits and veggies and never get bored! I have also recently started making my own crackers and fake-Starbucks drinks! That saves a ton of money.
I actually did see those posts!
ReplyDeleteIn fact I think it was the original 21-dollar a week post that led me to your blog.
I have been wanting to try the $21 thing myself but I keep finding tasty dishes in all these library books that I want to try before I have to return them, hehe.
Sonia, I'm definitely going to have to check out the eating on $21 a week! And Sava, I appreciate the simpleness of rice and beans. Sometimes I love dishes like that. So filling too!
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