Feed your family good food for $1/ pound? I read it, but could I believe it? So, I wandered around my Safeway on the San Francisco peninsula looking for vegetables I could put on the table for that price. It seemed a lot harder than just last year when Jeff Yeager found 50 ingredients under a buck.
My challenge was to find something fresh, other than a potato, that I could fill that half of the dinner plate allocated to fruits and vegetables, according to the USDA’s latest icon for food selection.
My choices, once I discarded the idea of a mass of onions for dinner, were carrots, cabbage, and tomatoes (on sale). Not bad.
Having bagged three fresh veggies, now for ideas on how to prepare them. It does no good to buy them for cheap if you can’t find appetizing ways to fix them. And I suspect that carrots and cabbage will be regulars on the least-expensive vegetables list.
So, here we go with ideas on preparation.
Carrots
Raw, I’d consider a shredded carrot salad. Once you moved beyond the classic, with raisins and pineapple, experiment with one with carrot and apple, Try a Moroccan Carrot Salad, with an olive oil and lemon juice dressing, seasoned with cumin, paprika and parsley. I simply grate a carrot into my green salad. Carrot sticks and dip do the trick as well.
Cooked carrots have become a favorite of mine, as long as they are not overcooked. Sunset Magazine taught a technique they called “butter steaming“. Cut the veggies in small pieces, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan with a lid; add the veggies and 3-5 tablespoons of water. Cover immediately and cook over high heat, shaking occasionally until the food is tender.
Roast carrots with chicken or beef; roast them alone with cumin. Make carrot soup. Boil or microwave them and mix with potatoes or mash with rutabagas.
Then of course, there’s carrot cake.
See, this isn’t so hard. I’ll tackle cabbage another day.
Image courtesy of Creative Tools.
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Hi Cathy,
Congratulations on meeting the challenge. I absolutely loved the Butter steaming carrots. We eat lots of vegetables for both reasons, health and expense. But I will try that method this evening. We also put cabbage in the mix when we stir fry. Thanks.
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[...] face it, who can stand to drink 10 pounds of carrot juice? Then I came across this article by Cathy Moran on Money Health Central on feeding your family good food for $1/pound. On her top list – [...]
Saw this rule as well,
http://www.mattberkus.com/blog/2011/04/save-money-on-groceries-with-the-1-per-pound-rule/
I have posted it around the web for feed back, not sure how feasible it is in certain parts of the country. But I am a fan of Yeager; I love this concept as a rule of thumb since it rules out processed food and many unhealthy choices.
When was his book published? My venture looking for fresh vegetables at that price didn’t turn up lots of variety. I’ll bet the effect is largely the same at $1.50 or so a pound.
[...] my quest for healthy food for under a dollar a pound takes on a greater sense of urgency. And it’s January, not the height of harvest season. [...]
sometimes foods that are healthy and cheaper are being ignored. they don’t know that this kind of food gives more benefit. aside from its much healthier that other foods, It’s also much cheaper. Great post, you gave others idea what are the other foods that are cheaper but also healthy as well.
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[...] my quest for healthy food for under a dollar a pound takes on a greater sense of urgency. And it’s January, not the height of harvest season. [...]