Add zing to your $5 challenge menu!

Getting ready for the $5 meal challenge? Be sure to check your pantry and take inventory of your household staples to add a little zing to your $5 dishes. Try incorporating that honey-ginger hot sauce you bought on an island vacation ages ago, or sprinkle the fleur de sel you paid a premium for but doesn’t cost a dime toward your $5 meal! Get creative and use up your pantry goodies when pressed for cash…a little spice goes a long way so punch up your slow food supper with some thoughtful seasoning. Also be sure to harvest the last of your garden herbs before summer ends and throw those onto your menu as well. It’s another great way to save money for this challenge and add color and flavor to your plate! Can’t wait see all your fantastic $5 ideas! Cook it Up!

Why does SF buckle under to McGiant?

Re:SF Upstate Chapter Leader Janette Wesley proving that ANYONE can take the $5 Challenge - Ronald McDonald stands for EVERYTHING that slow food is not: expensive, highly processed, highly salted, high fat, unhealthy, mass produced, factory farmed, etc I’m appalled that you chose to display this picture which is simply free advrtisement for the chain, AND the concept of FAST FOOD. Shame on you.

Christopher David Gauthier, Vancouver BC

Infinite Varieties and a $5 Challenge

Cross-posted from my blog.


I organized another installment of “Shop Like a Pro at a Farmers’ Market” today. After leading the group through the Union Square Greenmarket, I began my hunt for the best end-of-summer produce. A wonderful thing about a farmers’ market is the seemingly infinite varieties of many vegetables and fruits. From S & So Produce Farms, I grabbed a handful of Jersey tomatoes, three persimmon orange tomatoes, and one that looked like Black Krim. I asked a worker at the Sycamore Farm tent about the differences in their ample medley of eggplant. He explained that the name eggplant was originally coined because its white color resembled the eggs of geese. It was only later that the plant was refined to develop a deep purple skin to mask the bruising that occurred during shipping. Today, white eggplants are softer and less seedier than their purple counterparts. Softer yet is the smaller heirloom variety, great for Eggplant Parmesan.

Today also marks the Slow Food USA $5 Meal Challenge, encouraging everyone to “take back the ‘value meal’ by getting together with family, friends and neighbors for a slow food meal that costs no more than $5 per person.” I made a late lunch for my husband Ryan and friend Kent using food from my farmers’ market purchase.


Costs are approximate:

Tomato Cobbler (source unknown)
3 tomatoes, peeled and diced - $0.80 per person
1 chile, seeds and stems removed - $0.05 per person
2 garlic cloves, diced - $0.05 per person
1 shallot - $0.35 per person
Seasonings like cumin, salt, pepper to taste - cents
1 stick of organic butter - $0.50 per person
1/2 cup of flour - cents
1/2 cup of cornmeal (also purchased from farmers’ market) - cents
2 teaspoons of baking powder - cents
1 teaspoon of salt - cents
1 cup of milk - $0.25 per person

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix tomatoes, chile, garlic, shallot, and seasonings. In a large cast-iron skillet, melt butter on low heat. In a bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Add milk and stir until batter forms. Pour over melted butter in skillet, and spoon the tomato mixture on top. Bake for 35 minutes.

Corn on the cob - $0.50 per person
Butter - $0.15 per person

The $5 meal challenge: Artichoke Risotto

Food and price have an interesting relationship. For something we value so importantly as our nutrition, you find that supermarkets mostly sell and market their products on a cost basis. I read an interesting passage in the ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’ by the pastoralist farmer Joel Salatin who once told a customer that clean, ethical and/or sustainable food is actually the cheapest food you can buy. He states that the hidden costs in conventionally cheap food, such as water pollution, antibiotic resistance, food induced illnesses, government crop subsidies etc…, are not incorporated into the price and we are therefore made to believe that we are getting a good deal.

So I think it is great that slow food is promoting the fact that with a bit of creative thinking, ethically produced and/or sustainable food can be put together for a meal costing $5 or less! Which is a far better than eating takeaway or something cheap and nasty. Plus I am on a very strict budget at the moment so achieving a meal for this cost is of uttermost importance.

To contribute to this important challenge, I have decided to make an artichoke risotto, using one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes. I don’t use artichokes much in cooking as their unfamiliar shape looks fairly daunting. However this was a great recipe to experiment and I found out that they are delicious and make a risotto that little bit more creamy!

Moreover, the total cost of this meal was $10.90 and the majority of my products were bought from the farmers market. Divide this by four portions and I have paid $2.70 per meal. How about that for cheap sustainable eating!!

Artichoke Risotto
Ingredients
(Preparation time: 10 minutes, cooking time: 25 minutes)
6 small or violet artichokes
1 knob of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
2 small wine glasses of dry white vermouth or dry white wine (this is only if you have this lying around, otherwise this step can be skipped no worries)
Approx 1.1 litres of vegetable stock (use a large pan as the artichokes will be added to the stock)
Small handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked

Method
Begin by preparing the artichokes. Peal each artichoke back to their pale, light leaves (don’t be afraid to take off a lot of leaves). Then halve them and remove the hairy chokes with a teaspoon (the furry inside part). As soon as you remove the chokes, immerse the artichokes into a bowl of water with half of the lemon juice. Place a dish on top of them to ensure they are immersed into the water – this will ensure they do not discolour.

Hearty Land-locked Jamabalaya

At first glance, the $5 challenge seemed daunting.   After hearing so many jingles for Dollar Menu ads, you start believing that fast food is in fact the cheaper, more logical, answer to today’s nutritional and health issues. 

Recently, I met the challenge unknowingly.  After making dinner for a group of friends and checking the receipt the next day, I realized we had eaten a hearty, healthy meal for about $3 each!!

Our dinner featured a slow-cooked Jambalaya using long grain rice, celery, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, chicken stock and three meats - chicken breasts, beef chorizo, and spicy andouille sausage.

The entire dish cost about $20 and fed six people.

$5 Slow Food Challenge: Jambalaya and Community

The concept of community is relatively new for me, but I’m learning to embrace the idea. I’m lucky, because my neighbors are warm and welcoming - something that I’ve not always been completely familiar or comfortable with. I’m getting there, though - more and more every day. I signed on with Slow Food USA about a month ago to take their $5 challenge. I had these grandiose ideas that I’d throw an elaborate dinner party and invite friends and family to be a part of it. Then I realized that the scheduled date for the challenge coincided with a writing workshop that I’d already paid to attend. So, I decided that instead of doing it on the 17th, I’d do it on the 18th, mostly so I could do it justice. And it wouldn’t be a dinner party, per se. It would just be dinner for the family. The immediate family - the ones that live in this house. At least, that’s how it started. Anthony Bourdain says, on his Travel Channel blog, that “the greatest , most beloved and iconic dishes in the pantheon of gastronomy—in any of the world’s mother cuisines—French, Italian or Chinese–originated with poor, hard-pressed, hard working farmers and laborers with no time, little money and no refrigeration.” For this $5 challenge, I decided to look to one of those beloved and iconic dishes - one that originated in a culture that thrived mainly because the people who cultivated it knew how to stretch just about everything to make it last longer and go further. Jambalaya (both the Creole and the Cajun version) derives from Spanish paella, and uses inexpensive but flavorful ingredients to create an abundant, filling meal. There is a sense of community in the Cajun/Creole culture. An ingrained reliance on neighbors and extended family for support and sustenance. A cooperative spirit. As a whole, we’ve moved away from this sense of community - everyone is so isolated, so insulated from each other. We’ve forgotten where we come from in our hurry to get where we’re going, and we ignore the importance of tradition and camaraderie in our quest for self reliance. And I’m as guilty of it as the next person. Yesterday, as I gathered the ingredients for this simple dinner, intending for it to feed only myself, my husband and our two boys (and perhaps my mother, if she didn’t already have dinner plans), I got a text message from our neighbor across the street. She was inviting us to come over for an afternoon swim. I had just started cooking, and I wasn’t sure whether my husband would be done with yard work in time, or that I’d have dinner ready anytime soon, so I started to text her back with a “thanks, but no thanks - maybe next time” kind of message. But then I reconsidered. I looked at the pound of sausage that I was browning, and the 8 chicken legs I had waiting in the wings, and the two cups of rice, and I thought: this is enough to feed all of us, and still have food left over. So instead of “thanks, but no thanks” I told her I’d just started cooking jambalaya, but that we’d love to share with her and her husband. So, an hour later, we trekked across the street in our bathing suits, carrying a large pot of jambalaya and some of the last tomatoes from our garden, and we shared a meal with our neighbors. And it was that much better because of the sharing. I managed to make this meal for about $16 total, but that’s mainly because the majority of the ingredients came from my garden and my canning pantry. I used chicken stock that I’d put up a while back, a jar of tomatoes that I’d canned during the peak of tomato season, and the bell peppers, thyme and parsley also came from the garden. The andouille came from a regional supplier to Harry’s Farmer’s Market and was probably the most expensive part of the dish at $6.99 a pound. The chicken came from two pounds of organic drumsticks that I’d bought for $2.99 a pound a while back and froze for use at a later date. I don’t think they were local, but they were just about the only part of the dish that wasn’t - well, except for the rice. If you break that down, we fed seven people for about $2.25 per person, and we had leftovers.

Jambalaya prep time: 10 minutes cook time: 1 hour serves: 8-10

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. fresh or smoked andouille sausage
  • 2 lbs. chicken parts
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried parsley
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 1/2 cups brown rice
  • 3 cups canned diced tomatoes, with juice
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  1. Begin by browning the sausage in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, allowing some of the fat to render out.
  2. Remove the sausage to a plate and brown the chicken parts in the fat from the sausage. I removed the skin from the chicken legs, but you can leave it on if you want (more flavor that way, but also more fat).
  3. Remove the chicken to a plate
  4. Saute the onion, celery, pepper and garlic in the same pan you browned the meat in
  5. Add the uncooked rice, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
  6. Slice the sausage into 1/2-inch thick rounds and add it and the chicken back to the pot.
  7. Add the tomatoes and the chicken stock to the pan and stir to combine.
  8. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Allow to simmer, covered until the rice is cooked through. Cook uncovered to thicken sauce if necessary.
  9. Enjoy!

slow food challenge

I buy a whole free range chicken, roast and debone, while it is cooking i make homemade pasta and boil. Take cooked, deboned chicken and cut or shred to bit size pieces. Put cut chicken in pan (wok is better) and stir fry with olive oil. drain pasta and add to chicken. then add what veggies from garden you like (onion, pepper, squash, chard’s, spinach, ect…..) cook till greens are wilting. Season to taste. (if you like your onion, pepper and squash cooked more then me add in pan with chicken, but not greens they will over cook. That will feed 6 to 8 people for under $5.00 each ( about $2.00 per person.

Retired Cooks Weekly Dinners

Myself along with several friends have weekly dinners. The cast changes by the week. Three of us are former restaurant line cooks. We are the most consistent attendees. Generally 6-8 people attend the dinners. We devise a menu and assign people a course/ingredient to bring to the meal. It keeps it interesting, since the meals have a bit of a surprise factor. Be it that either the meal, dessert, or any course can be a surprise. Depending what is brought by the guests. Sometimes we will have a themed meal depending on holidays or the occasional bounty such as a turkey someone gets at work. For us cooks it tests or skills to team up diverse ingredients.

It’s that good!

Indian Dahl and rice.  It’s the cheapest most delicious most healthful way I’ve found to eat.  Simply cook yellow or orange lentils, fry up some onions, add curry seasoning and mix together.  Top it over brown rice (really yummy with more sauteed onions added to it).  This is less $$ than a cheeseburger costs.

Potluck Challenge with Four Friends

Four friends took the $5 challenge and had a feast - Ginger Miso Wraps, Bean and Escarole Soup, Egg and Zucchini Puff and Poached Pears with Dark Chocolate.  Each of the dishes cost $5 or less.  Five of us shared the food and had some left over.

Bella Cucina Maria takes the challenge!

I recently started a blog for college students who just moved in to an apartment and need a little help with cooking. I focused this week’s blog entry on the Slow Food Challenge. Over the last weekend I headed up to the University of VT to my step-daughters kitchen and cooked for 7 of her friends, showing how easy it was to get to a healthy and tasty $5.00 dinner. You can read the full blog at www.bellacucinamaria.blogspot.com. 

Yesterday I took my recipes “to the street,” so to speak! I cooked two if the dishes at the Chappaqua Farmers Market. I’m happy to report the people that visted my table loved the samples! So without further adieu, here are my recipes:

Quinoa Cakes with Caramelized Vegetables 

Serves 4 

3/4 cup of Quinoa ($1.87)

1 1/2 cups of Water

Kosher Salt ($.03)

Ground Black Pepper ($.02)

3 Carrots, 1/4” dice ($.99)

1 Celery Rib, 1/4” dice ($.15)

1/2 Onion, 1/4” dice ($.25)

1 Garlic Clove, minced ($.04)

1 Egg, beaten ($.20)

2 tablespoons Corn Meal ($.19)

Carrot Greens, from the carrots

Canola Oil ($.24)

Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and quinoa to a pot with boiling water. Once the water comes back to a boil lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes covered. Lay the quinoa out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and let it cool completely. This will take about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile saute the vegetables with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Saute for 5-10 minutes until caramelized. Remove from pan and mix in with the cooling quinoa. 

Once the quinoa mix is completely cold add to a mixing bowl with the egg and sprinkle the cornmeal over it. Add another 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and about 2 tablespoons of finely chopped carrot greens. You will have another tablespoon of the greens left to use with the chicken recipe below. Mix well and form in to 4 patties. Let the patties rest for about 5. In a non-stick pan heat 2 tablespoons of oil and gently place the patties in a hot pan. Cook for about 2-4 minutes on each side to get a nice golden crust. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Cost of ingredients is $3.98, or .$99 per person

Chicken, Kale and Mushroom Roulades

Serves 4

1/2 Onion, 1/4” dice (.$25)

1 Garlic Clove, minced ($.04)

1 8 oz container of sliced Mushrooms ($1.99)

1 bunch of Kale, rib removed and sliced very thin ($.99)

1 17 oz carton of low sodium Chicken Stock ($1.00)

1 lb thin sliced Chicken Breast Cutlets, rinsed and pat dry ($3.99)

2 tablespoons Butter ($.24)

2 tablespoons Corn Meal ($.19)

2 tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese ($.35)

Kosher Salt ($.03)

Ground Black Pepper ($.02)

2 tablespoons Chopped Celery Greens

Olive Oil ($.50)

In a large pan saute the onions with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. When they just begin to get soft add the garlic, mushrooms and the 1 tablespoon of chopped carrot greens from the previous recipe. Add another 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and saute until the mushrooms become golden and most of the liquid evaporates. Add the kale to the pan gently tossing with the mushrooms. Add another 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and 1/2 cup of stock. Cover and steam for 5 minutes, or until the kale is soft. Remove from pan and allow to cool on a parchment lined cookie sheet. 

 

Lay your chicken out on a cookie sheet. Brush both sides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle each piece with a little corn meal and parmesan cheese. Divide the cooled kale mix evenly between each of the thin cutlets leaving a 1/4 edge around each. (the filling will spread out a little when you roll it.) Roll each firmly and fasten with either a toothpick or kitchen twine. 

In a non-stick pan with a tablespoon of oil carefully sear the rolls all the way around. This will take up to 10 minutes. Once you achieve a nice golden brown all the way around remove the rolls and cover loosely with foil to keep them warm.

In the same pan melt the butter and add the cornmeal. When it gets slightly foamy slowly add the remaining stock, 1/2 cup at a time. When the sauce reaches a consistency of thin to medium thickness add the chicken back along with a tablespoon of chopped celery greens. Lower the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes bathing the chicken rolls in the sauce. 

Cost of ingredients is $9.60 or $2.40 per person.

Cook’s note: If you are not able to find carrots with green tops parsley may be substituted. The cost difference will be a wash as the carrots with green tops are approximately $1.99 and a regular bag plus the parsley will be the same.

Foccacia Bread

Serves 4

1 ball of prepared Pizza Dough, room temperature ($2.00)

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil ($.50)

2 teaspoons of blended dry herbs (.50)

Kosher Salt ($.03) 

Ground Black Pepper ($.02)

Place the dough in a oiled bowl and let rise until doubled in a warm spot in the kitchen. Punch down and press out in to a small oiled cookie sheet, cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes. 

Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper. Place in a preheated 450 degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Cost of ingredients: $3.05 or $.76 per person.

Total meal = $4.15 per person! 

Quinoa Cake: $.99

Chicken Roulade: $2.40

Focaccia Bread: .76

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

1/2 whole chicken $2.50

Green beans, onions, carrots and garlic from the garden $1.50

Rice, 1 Cup, $0.30

Three eggs  $0.50

Two lemons $1.20

Bread $2.00

Total for four people: $8.00

Cut the chicken away from the bones. Put bones in a pot and cover with water. Make chicken broth, using onions and carrots from the garden. Cook for 1 1/5 to 2 hours, skim fat and remove veggies. Cook the chicken broth down until you have about 1/3 of what you started with.

To the chicken broth, add the rice and cook. Once the rice is cooked, add the chicken you picked from the bones. Simmer, adding the juice of both lemons. Cut up the green beans and add to the soup.

In a bowl, beat the eggs until light. Add a little of the chicken broth to the eggs to cook eggs, without scrambling them. Pour egg mixture into the pot and turn off heat. Let sit for about 5 minutes.

Serve with bread.

Makes enough soup to feed four people

A Provençal Picnic in Manhattan - $3.97 per person!

I made some delicious Ratatouille from a recipe by Melissa Clark. My friends and I made a picnic out of it and headed to a park by my house for  dinner. This is an inexpensive, satisfying meal! It just happens to be vegetarian and can be made vegan simply by omitting the goat cheese at the end. 

Ratatouille

http://www.culinary-librarian.com/2011/09/5-challenge-and-melissa-clarks-genius.html

Natural Farmacy Takes On The Slow Food USA $5 Dinner Challenge

The challenge: host a dinner party based around  locally sourced ingredients that support the slow food vision. The philosophy of the slow food movement—“food that is good for those who eat it, good for farmers and workers, and good for the planet”. My vegetarian dinner party for 6 was created for less than $5 a person and was inspired by seasonal produce from my farmers market or what I could find in my backyard.

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