Did anybody check out this series this month on NPR’s Web site? The radio network solicited gourmet meals for a family of 4 for less than $10. Viewers submitted recipes in the comments section, now 318 strong (and closed to new submissions): How Low Can You Go? Submit Your $10 Meals : NPR
I think it’s a great concept. A while back, my local natural foods store had a series of fliers boasting that customers could use their weekly dinner plan for 4 with an average cost per dinner under $20. Now, to me, if dinner is going to cost close to $20 (or more!), I’m going to get lazy and go out — after all, some people argue that eating out can be cheaper than cooking.
But does home cooking — even organic — need to be pricey? Last night, we had a pretty luxurious meal. It was the first day back after a three-day weekend; I knew Mr. Cheap would be exhausted after a celebratory day at an amusement park with 90 fifth-graders; and it was the last in a lengthy string of dark, gloomy, rainy spring days (and we Coloradans start to get morose when that happens — we’re used to our sunshine!). I put an (organic) beef pot roast in the slow cooker, along with some potatoes, onions, carrots and tomato soup. We ate it with slices of leftover baguette spread with a little onion-chive cream cheese. The total cost for the three of us was about $15 if I round up, and $11 of that was the roast. (It was delicious.) We could have fed four; I suspect leftovers went to lunch with Mr. Cheap today. But that’s not a bargain dinner to me, nor is it the norm — that’s a splurge at our place (to Mr. Cheap’s dismay, admittedly).
And now for our favorite …
If I were to pick our family’s favorite cheap, satisfying dinner, it would have to be the Japanese savory cabbage pancake, okonomiyaki. Mr. Cheap and I discovered it as we cooked our way through the recipes in Japanese Vegetarian Cooking: From Simple Soups to Sushi while we lived in New York. It’s a mixture of shredded cabbage, carrot, pickled ginger, egg, flour and water, left to soak for a few minutes and then grilled/steamed until just brown and delicious. Then it is topped with mayonnaise, Bulldog sauce and furikake (dried seaweed rice seasoning) to the diner’s taste. We make a big batch, one pancake per person. Altogether, our cost is perhaps $6 for the family ($2 per person), and that’s with a rough, high estimate for the condiments.
And that’s just our take, based on our cookbook. Okonomiyaki has as many variations as there are neighborhoods in Japan, it seems. Scan the Web for your favorite version. 101 cookbooks published a mushroom version of this “Japanese pizza” that might be a good place to start.
If you are a literature lover, also note that I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago to come across okonomiyaki as a part of Mary Yukari Waters’ wonderful short story, “Mirror Studies.”
What’s on your dinner table?
Do you have a secret recipe for a cheap, delicious dinner? We’d love to know about it!
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Comments ( 8 )
I love okonomiyaki! I discovered it when I was reviewing a Japanese cookbook, and the recipe was a keeper. I would never have guessed a “cabbage pancake” could be so delicious.
I write about manga (Japanese comics), and okonomiyaki comes up fairly often in the stories, as does onigiri—a rice ball with something delicious, such as salmon or a pickled plum, buried deep inside.
Brigid added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
4:38 pm
Hmmm…I am not sure if it is cheap but it is easy and everyone loves it. We do “rice packets” once every two weeks. We cook rice in the rice cooker and serve it warm on a sheet of nori with some canned salmon. You wrap the whole thing up like a burrito and eat with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger. I will have to do the math…
Erin added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
4:57 pm
OMG. I LOVE OKONOMIYAKI!!! and your idea of the mayo sauce on top is brilliant. Brilliant! My mom made a mean homemade version of it when I would come home on college breaks. Yum… Thanks for the mention and I’m so glad it’s pocket-book-friendly!
kimchi added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
7:14 pm
I enjoy listening to NPR. I heard kathy Llyod’s Tomato Pie and just had to make it.turned out pretty tasty. It cracks me up on the “how low can you go” series taht the recipes I like are the home cooks- not the orfessional chefs. Of course I am a whiz a top ramen- used as an ingredient.
rob added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
9:21 pm
Here is the tomato pie recipe and one for Spaghetti pie
rob added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
9:29 pm
I make something like those okonomiyaki, but I knew the dish as “Korean pancakes.” I just put in a lot of vegetables, using whatever is coming in gangbusters from the garden, and top it with sri racha, Korean chili-garlic paste, or Thai sweet chili paste, depending on my mood. It’s an easy, satisfying meal that helps us stay on top of the garden harvest at peak season. And it’s a good training meal for kids to learn some basic kitchen skills too.
I tend to think pasta when I think of cheap meals that are tasty and can be healthy too. Frugal meals are things I blog about a lot.
Kate@LivingTheFrugalLife added these pithy words on
May 28 09 at
6:43 am
I didn’t get to hear the entire series, but I think one of the dishes mentioned by one of the professional chefs is already on our regular rotation: lentils in a saucy sauce. (I think the NPR person called it lentils mujadara or something like that.) Basically, we take some brown or black lentils, cook them up in a tomato-based sauce with either Indian spices or berebere (Ethiopian spice mix); there’s usually some onion in there as well, and sometimes I’ll throw in bell peppers if we’ve got ‘em. Serve over rice with a salad on the side. Delish and crazy cheap.
L'an added these pithy words on
May 28 09 at
9:47 am
Homemade miso soup is one of my favorites and it’s so simple and cheap to make.
We eat alot of Asian inspired foods (my Husband does most of the cooking and he’s an improv cook while I’m more of a cookbook as jumping off point kind of gal) and that cuts our food bill down considerable because we use meat more as a condiment in a dish with other veggies and a starch, usually rice, pasta, or rice noodles. Very quick to make too.
Condo Blues added these pithy words on
May 28 09 at
3:32 pm
