Back in the old days settlers would come into town to pickup supplies. Some dried beans, rice, spices, and maybe some salted or smoked pork. Combined with a few other things and what was grown on the homestead. Include maybe a chicken or two, and they had the back bone of their diet.
When you get right down to it, that’s pretty good eating. Just the other day I picked up a bag of mixed beans, pinto and northern beans. I added them into a pot of boiling water with a couple frozen chicken leg quarters, then left them to simmer. After an hour I chopped up an onion, a couple carrots and some celery. Everybody in the pool.
I opened a can of Chick Peas, Black Beans and some Butter Beans, after rinsing all, into the pot with everything else. After de-boning the chicken, the meat was returned and a variety of spices got tossed in.
Now the reason I’m not wasting time writing down a specific recipe is this ain’t Rocket Science. I cook with some of this, a bit of that, and some more of the other. When making soup, you can’t hardly screw it up. The point I want to make is this is not only very healthy eating, it’s about the cheapest and easiest way to come up with a meal that will feed a bunch of people , or will last a few days for a few people.
Dried beans or peas have an unlimited shelf life, as does rice. Dried pasta falls into the same category. Spices may loose a bit of their kick over time, but I bet you’ve used Paprika that’s been in the spice drawer for more then two years without a thought.
You can fill your pantry with a wide variety of such staples and only make a small dent in your food budget. Next head to the meat section. Buy a 10lb bag of chicken leg quarters, maybe a ham hock or two. As my wife doesn’t eat either beef or pork, I always have a chunk of Turkey Ham in the freezer as a soup ingredient. It’s almost as good as ham, at a fraction of the cost. Divide the bulk quantity of chicken into smaller zip lock bags then toss the whole works in the freezer.
When making soups you can just throw the frozen pieces in the boiling water, they’ll thaw out real quick and after about an hour of simmering the meat can easily be removed from the bones. The chicken stock will be just as good as the canned stuff and didn’t cost you a penny.
I prefer dried beans and peas, mostly because they keep forever, and in bulk cost pennies. You can also go to the canned section and stock up on the same if you chose to. I tend to stock up on tomato products for the bulk of my canned goods.
Diced, whole, sauce, paste, with herbs and spices, I keep a couple cans of each on the shelf at home. One of the more versatile tomato products is spaghetti sauce, though with the other canned tomato products and a spice package costing about $ .33, you can make your own. If your only cooking for two, I’ve found the big jar of sauce will have you wasting a good portion. Making a smaller batch from a can of tomatoes and some spice will give you just enough for two people.
Ok, now all you College Students and young married couples that are living on McDonalds, and Raman Noodle packages when the monthly money runs out. Next month go to the super market while you still have a few bucks, stock up on the staples mentioned above, and get ready to do a little cooking and a lot of good eating.
Some of the dishes you can make with a modest investment in staple products are:
Split Pea Soup with Ham
Five Bean soup with Chicken
Home made Chicken Noodle soup
Home made Chicken and Rice soup (Wild Rice Blend is real good)
Lentil soup with Ham
Boston Baked Beans, with Bacon
Spaghetti
Lasagna
Macaroni hot dish
These are but a small sample, if your reading this you have internet access. Start looking for recipes, there are millions on line.
Start avoiding prepackaged processed meals, your body and your bank balance will both appreciate the effort. A funny thing, along the way you’ll probably find out that the food tastes better too.
