Our Favorite Ways to Eat Inexpensively
Food is an inevitable aspect of bodily life and can be expensive. Here, we’ve rounded up our favorite ways to cook, eat, and even drink cheaper, not to mention peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (although they’re not bad).
Welcome to Cheap Chow Week ! Food is now more expensive than it ever was, and it might seem like the only cost-effective options for you are fast food or instant ramen. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This week, we’ll show you how to buy, prepare, and eat food in a cost-effective way without sacrificing pleasure or taste.
We’ve got meat bulk, light side dishes, and (of course) several ways to improve your instant ramen. Check out all the links below, and if the spirit touches you, share your favorite ways to enjoy food sparingly in the comments.
Food and main courses
- Decadent Chicken Thigh Confit : This recipe uses chicken thighs and schmalz instead of the classic (and more expensive) duck legs and fat.
- Aged Steaks with Fish Sauce and Koji : Give this cheap set a rich aging flavor with two unusual ingredients.
- Sous vide carnitas and eat tacos for months : Sous vide cooking turns a twenty dollar shoulder of pork into weeks of delicious carnitas (requires a little freeze).
- Turn a can of beans into something special : Protein-rich beans can be sexy.
- Prepare a roast of chak to taste like a rib : sous vide helps us to communicate convincingly what a simple fillet is.
- Beat Starbucks in their very own game of sous vide egg slices : it’s just eggs and cottage cheese (and whatever add-ons you like).
- Make a creamy four-ingredient spread without cream : semolina flour is the key to success.
- Increase Servings of Chicken : Poaching is highly underestimated.
- Three ways to turn sweet potatoes into food : You can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- Make your cheap stew taste great – it’s all about how you treat it.
- Save money on the road by making freezer-friendly breakfasts : Get two weeks of sandwiches and burritos from the same pan of eggs.
- Prepare canned salmon canapés that are quirky : croquettes are a fun and quirky dish.
- Prepare dinner for two for less than $ 10 at Trader Joe’s : there are many delicious options (one even vegan).
- Bring your instant ramen to life : cook an egg right here , add some coconut milk, or use one of these great reader tips .
Parties and snacks
- Prepare an amazing potato dish with simple linseed oil and butter : Pommes Anna will impress even the most cynical dinner guest.
- The best potato casserole contains no cheese : it’s just reddish brown with cream.
- This unusual cheese namaz is made literally from pieces : it is French and therefore very exquisite.
- The upside-down cornbread of green tomatoes will thrill you : honestly, who gave the permission to A.A. Newton?
- Chicken liver is cheap and you should make mousse out of it: it’s the cheapest meat dish.
- Shishito pepper in bubbles – perfect snack of one ingredient : do not miss the unexpected sharp guys.
- This Instant Pot polenta is insanely creamy and doesn’t require stirring on your part, which is nice and enjoyable.
- Carrots (and other chunks of greens) make a surprisingly good pesto sauce : put it on a grilled fish or just eat it with crackers.
- Haystacks are the cheapest confection you will ever make : they are amazingly good.
Super condiments
- Make colorful, flavorful salts from bell pepper peels and tomato skins : there is a lot of flavor in these chunks.
- Shio koji will make any food tastier : Rice is a small investment – about eight dollars – but you’ll get a ton of shio koji out of it, and the taste will pay off hugely. Season the whole chicken before baking for a rich flavor and an insanely golden skin.
- The meat sings from simple and cheap marinades : some of them have soda. Yes, we are very proud of ourselves.
- In fact, table salt is the rule : there is no reason to be a salt snob.
- As with cheap beer : leave the wine to drink.
- Don’t toss in the ramen seasoning bag : use it to flavor popcorn, eggs, and anything else that needs an umami boost.
Waste No
- Season the gin with the pineapple peel ; vodka can be used if needed.
- Grind chicken scraps for great cooking oil : Seriously, schmalz is liquid cooking gold.
- Clean out the refrigerator with this two-ingredient dish – all you need are eggs and rice.
- Turn a fridge full of sad foods into food : Who doesn’t love crispy vegetable pancakes?
- Bake them into bread : don’t worry; it is a very light bread.
- Eat more trash and save more money: We have many articles and videos on how to do this.
If we missed one of your favorite ways to grab a cheap snack, recycle food, or refresh ramen, leave it in the comments below so we can all benefit.