austerity cooking

[Mountain]

This post is courtesy A-typ-self on Reddit:

One thing I learned being raised by women who had lived through both the depression and WW2 is how to "scratch" cook and make the cheapest ingredients into filling meals with little waste.

I didn't realize how poor we were because I was always fed. We never went to bed hungry. Thinking about it, I realized some things were staples in my childhood diet. And their are lessons to be learned from the past.

Whole grains are our friends. Oatmeal, hominy, corn meal.

For example, cold breakfast cereal will give you around 30 servings for $10. And you need milk too. Increasing the cost per serving. And it really doesn't fill you up with a serving.

For that same $10 you can get 113 servings of oatmeal. It can be prepared with water and a small amount of milk to make it "creamy" condensed and powdered milk work well too.

My grandmother used to say it "sticks to the ribs" A serving of oatmeal contains 5g of protein, 2.5g of fat, 1.6mg Iron and 4g of dietary fiber.

Beans, peas, lentils are wonderful inexpensive and filling bases for meals.

Don't throw out bones. "A chicken in every pot" was a campaign slogan during the "great depression" because a single chicken could provide protein for a family for the entire week. It's not just the meat. Bones can be used to make broth that contains both fats and protein.

Potatoes and other root vegetables are filling foods. One of my favorite meals growing up was a potato dish made by cooking potatoes in broth to form a stew with carrots and limabeans. A little bullion gave it more flavor.

Baking is also a skill that helps. We had homemade biscuits with every meal.

Obviously the two road blocks to these things are skill and time. One thing I have learned is that developing cooking skills saves time. Learning how much can be done ahead, what stages to freeze things at for best results etc.

Having a really good soup to nuts cookbook is a great start.

Learning how to work with shelf stable products like dried milk, condensed milk etc. It's a different flavor profile. Condensed soups are also great bases to add fat, salt and flavor to dishes, it's all about proportions.

My current stock up plan over the next 6 months is to fill my freezer/pantry with staples such as oats, barley, flour, dried milk, dried beans, canned goods, powdered eggs, fats/shortening, bullion, various types of sugar, dried fruit. Dried yeast can be frozen. Powdered citric acid is important for food preservation and a good source of vitamin C.

Stock up on shelf stable multivitamins. Whole food isn't "fortified" the way processed food is. While it's possible to get all we need from food, a limited diet is limited in the vitamins it provides. Keeping this in mind will help us stay healthy.

Having these staples on hand and properly stored will help stretch our food budgets so that we can focus on adding fresh vegetables when in season or additional proteins. They are also relatively inexpensive additions that can be purchased in small amounts weekly that will add to our prep without breaking the bank now.

[AikaterinaBlue]

I'd like to add powdered chicken/beef/veggie stock. It adds flavor to rice, lentils, beans, and etc. You can find large containers of adobo seasoning or other flavorings in the Hispanic section of the grocery store. These seasonings are made to go into rice or bean dishes and make them flavorful. It isn't enough to eat cheap, you need to enjoy the flavors!

[Mountain]

I'd like to add powdered chicken/beef/veggie stock. It adds flavor to rice, lentils, beans, and etc. You can find large containers of adobo seasoning or other flavorings in the Hispanic section of the grocery store. These seasonings are made to go into rice or bean dishes and make them flavorful. It isn't enough to eat cheap, you need to enjoy the flavors!

Yes! Great tip (lmao tried to upvote your reply). Worth checking Asian grocery stores too for miso, seaweed flavors etc.