I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma with two parents who
loved to cook. We had the same fare as
most people, most of the time. For
example, my mother can cook an amazing meatloaf, pot roast, and this amazing
goulash (which I have since discovered differs from region to region). However, when my friends families had gotten
bored with their typical meals and resorted to Hamburger Helper and ordering
pizza, my family had chicken cacciatore, shrimp scampi over fettuccine alfredo,
and hot-off-the-grill fajitas. All of my
friends wanted to eat at my house whenever they could.
Saturday mornings with my family were spent watching
cooking shows like The Frugal Gourmet and Justin Wilson’s Cajun Cookin’. Unlike most of my friends’ families, both my
parents cooked. My dad (yes, my dad)
taught me about the differences between Romano and Parmesan cheeses and why
they kept longer than cheddar. He
introduced me to recipes most people don’t attempt in their kitchen – but we
did – and we loved them.
Looking back, it isn’t the food that’s so impressive. With a little practice and the right tools,
anyone can make what we made in our kitchen and love it. What’s really impressive is that both of my
parents were public school teachers.
Anyone who has listened at all to the news in the past
decade or so knows that teachers are some of our most underpaid public
professionals. There are people out
there without a college education that make more than their high school
teachers. However, this is not a
political platform. My point is – we ate
well. We ate well; we ate fresh, and we
ate on budget.
Years later, I had a daughter and a husband who couldn’t
find work. We were on food stamps, government assistance for those who need to
afford food – a plight that befalls 15% of American families and more every day. In 2011, the average food stamp allowance per
person in a household was $133.85. That
seems like a lot at first, but when you calculate that that’s only about $33.50
a week, it seems a lot less. It was then
my job to make food for my family that would fit that budget without going too
much over.
But this blog isn’t just for people on food assistance
programs. It’s dedicated to helping you meet your budget whether you’re on a
fixed income like SSI or retirement or you just want to save some money. What I learned from cooking for my family was
that there are some things you can substitute for more expensive things and
there are some expensive things that just can’t be substituted. However, if you learn little tricks for how
to save money on big things, then you can have a little left over for a hunk of
Parmesan.
How do you do it?
Well, first, you have to cook.
You have to say goodbye to the box dinner aisle with its tempting
slogans of “Done in 30 minutes!” and promise yourself that you can make that
same dinner in 45 minutes for half the price.
You have to have the proper equipment to make what you want, and you
have to learn what corners you can cut.
I’m planning entries that will tell you how to get around
issues like Prosciutto (no, it can’t be substituted), red wine, and extra
virgin olive oil. Why? Because you deserve to eat well regardless of
your budget. You can’t have a gourmet
meal every night, but hopefully, with this blog, you can have them a lot more
regularly than you have up to this point.
Questions? Comments? Ideas for me to cover? Tweet to @cookingcheap
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