Comments on: Sustainable Eating on a Budget

By: Kerr

Kerr — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:30:53 +0000

Hi, Leah! It’s true, I forget sometimes what a paradise I live in, where I can get into a major city in half an hour but I can also walk around the block to grab a lemon off a neglected tree. I do sometimes find myself missing the all-night Chinese burrito delivery place that was close to where I stayed in New York for a couple of winters. (They say you haven’t lived until you’ve had a Chinese burrito packed with sweet and sour chicken, onions, green peppers, broccoli, fried rice, black beans, and sour cream, delivered to your door at 2 a.m. in the dead of January. They also say you haven’t lived until you’ve been kicked by a horse.)

By: Leah Koenig

Leah Koenig — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:17:04 +0000

Thanks Kerr - all great ideas - especially dehydrating your fruit. Unfortunately for us NYC dwellers, however, there aren’t many neighbors with fruit trees around! ;)

Thanks KRG - I’ll check that out.

Those breakfast cookies sound really yummy Lauren. When I make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I always have this moment the next morning where I wonder, “do those count as breakfast b/c they have oatmeal in them? This is a great solution.

By: lauren ahkiam

lauren ahkiam — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:08:05 +0000

ps those beans look GOOD :)

By: lauren ahkiam

lauren ahkiam — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:07:08 +0000

thanks for all the great tips, leah and kerr! i especially like the cofp idea, and the storage of seasonal produce. and the priorities idea is very useful (i know i sometimes choose local conventional over far away organic).

two tips on the morning coffee issue: one way for fast caffeine on the go is to throw a bag or two of mate in your water bottle. the water doesn’t have to be hot for the mate to brew, and it has a good boost of caffeine in a friendly type way. also, i recently got a bodum french press travel mug (about $10) and keep coffee grounds at at work and school (or you could keep a little container in your bag) and then you can make your own good coffee easily wherever there is hot water!

another breakfast tip is if you make chocolate chip cookies but replace half the flour with whole wheat flour, use only half the chocolate chips and sugar called for, use fruit puree instead of butter/oil, and throw in a handful of walnuts, you have breakfast cookies you can eat for the week, without buying pastries or bars!

By: KRG

KRG — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:58:55 +0000

a great source for tips like these is the livejournal community “poorskills”

By: Kerr

Kerr — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:45:51 +0000

Gleaning is good! Make trades with neighbors for the produce of their unharvested fruit trees.

Preserve what you can’t use right away for later. If you blanch and freeze some of your overstock veggies in the summer, not only will you not have to throw them out, but you can eat them in the winter when fresh local veggies are scarce. Drying fruit is easier than learning to make preserves, which is a bit fiddly, requiring sterile jars with airtight seals.

Store your dry goods properly. If you’re using whole grain flour, it should go in the freezer in an airtight container so the germ doesn’t go rancid; the same is true of raw nuts.

Sprouts in winter! Lentils, beans, and sprouting seeds are still fairly cheap, and sprouting them in your kitchen is much cheaper and healthier than buying off-season produce.