Blue Palate

He could save 20% on his food budget. (Image credit: Tambako the Jaguar)

The other day my sister Caitlan asked me if I thought $350 was an excessive monthly food budget for one person. I said I thought it was, but eventually changed my mind. Those of us who are conscious about what we buy and put in our bodies can easily spend $12 a day on groceries. In our current food system, whole foods like lean meats, fresh produce, whole grains and unprocessed sugars are generally more expensive than refined foods made with cheap fructose. Cost rise considerably for those who choose organic over conventionally grown foods.

It’s a dilemma I share with my sister. How do we feed ourselves well, have less impact on the planet, and spend less than $50 per week per person? I decided to experiment by cutting one of the most expensive items from my food budget this week: meat.

My husband and I cook meat at home about 4-5 times per week. Even though it’s not an every day occurrence, meat accounts for approximately 20% - 30% of our weekly food budget. Trim that off the bill and we’ll have met our goal of less than $50 per week per person. But will we feel satisfied? Will we get enough protein? Without possessing the convictions behind vegetarianism, will it be difficult to stick to a truly meatless diet? And do we really have to eat tofu?

Today we started with a meatless breakfast burrito and plan to have leftover veggie pizza for lunch. Dinner will be a cauliflower and pea curry with brown rice. So far so good. I’ll blog over the next week about our experimentation with vegetarianism. Stay tuned.

image credit: Aubrey Arenas

Traveling on a tight budget can be tricky, especially in winter months when camping isn’t an easy option for those light on gear. After the costs of airfare or gas, hotel, and sightseeing add up, often there’s little leftover for fine wining and dining.

The gastronomic experience in a new city or town is as important to many as the museums, events, sports, shopping or hiking. Also, part of being on vacation is a holiday from the kitchen and monotony of everyday cooking. How do we eat well on the road and have money leftover to buy groceries when we get home?

Having taken many trips with limited funding, I’ve devised a few strategies for sticking to a budget and enjoying the culinary aspects of tourism.

• Book a hotel room with a small kitchenette. Cook most meals, especially breakfast and lunch, and splurge on a couple of nice meals. Grocery shopping in a new city can be as fun as dining out!
• Drink in your hotel room and save your money for meals. Alcohol can be the most expensive part of dining out. Buy a couple of your favorite bottles of wine or some cocktail makings and have a drink and appetizer (like some healthy nuts) on your balcony rather than the bar. At the restaurant, hold the alcohol or just order a glass instead of a whole bottle.
• Research restaurants before you go. Often, if we are unfamiliar with a city, we find ourselves hungry, desperate and eating in over-priced, underwhelming tourist-trap restaurants recommended by the concierge. Read up on a city or town’s top-rated restaurants, which aren’t always the most expensive, especially in local entertainment guides or weeklies. Websites like Yelp and TripAdvisor are useful too. (Read the customer reviews!)
• Be adventurous. The fun of traveling to a new place is trying new cuisine, the best food is often the local food. Eat where the locals eat. Venture from the downtown. Visit an international neighborhood or a college campus. You’ll likely find yourself paying less and having a more intriguing experience than if you ate at the fancy bistro across the street from your hotel.
• Splurge on one or two great meals. If you can’t have a vacation without visiting a five-star restaurant, pick one or two to visit for lunch (cheaper) or dinner, and eat frugally for the other meals.

Are you a seasoned budget traveler? Share your tips for vacation dining with fewer finds.

I have mixed feelings about cheap beer. Beer is high in calories for a beverage and if I’m going to spend it I like to taste it. But a pint of Pabst Blue Ribbon or can of Hamm’s can be quite refreshing on a hot day and I can drink a couple and not feel heavy headed. And the best thing about cheap beer? It’s cheap. Here are a few of my favorite spots in Portland to drink cheap beer.

Photo credit: Whatknot

The Standard - At this Northeast hidden gem you can drink Rainier on Monday and Hamm’s on Wednesday for a buck a can. Yes folks, for one dollar you can sip an adult beverage, play shuffleboard, or lounge in their large patio. Save your remaining dollars for the county fair-esque photo booth.

Zach’s Shack - Known for their delicious dogs and late-night hours, Zach’s Shack on Hawthorne has one dynamite refrigeration system. Their cans of PBR are the coldest in town. During their extended happy hour (4 p.m. - 8 p.m. every day), you can chase away the heat for $1.25.

Captain Ankeny’s Well - Probably best known for their authentic deep dish pizza, Captain Ankeny’s has the most variety I’ve seen when it comes to happy hours. $1.25 on select pints some nights, $1.95 select small pitchers on others, sometimes only $0.50 off.  But if you land on the right night of the week between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., you can drink - and eat - for dollars.

Cheap beer is plentiful, even in the land of $5 microbrews. Where’s your favorite place to knock back a cold one for a buck or two?

I had a hankering for happy hour the other day, and while Portland is filled with a cornucopia of choices for cheap eats after the work day, I am pretty budget conscious these days. I’ve been trying hard to limit eating at bars and restaurants, despite inexpensive options some might offer. Instead, I visited my good neighbor Trader Joe’s to see if I could mimic the happy hour experience, recession style.

Alcohol: Since Oregon’s archaic liquor laws prohibit selling hard liquor in grocery stores, I had to stick with wine or beer. Beer from a bottle didn’t seem quite conducive to the happy hour experience so I chose a bottle of Valreas Cuvee Prestige from Cotes du Rhone for $5.99. The wine was delicious, and way more drinkable any bar’s house red.

Appetizers: Trader Joe’s knows frozen food. Spanikopita, mini quiche, empanadas. Even taquitos. I went for the samosas for $3.29 and a jar of mango chutney for $2.99. The samosas were crispy but not too greasy. Just the right amount of salt and fat to feel like a real happy hour experience.

Grand total: $12.17 for about 2 glasses of good quality wine and 3 samosas each. At a bar or restaurant, even during happy hour, we would have spent around $20-$25 including tip. Plus we had chutney left over and didn’t have  to deal with noisy professionals elbowing for a table.

Nosh on!

I am leading a hectic life these days. Not to whine, but my weekday schedule consists of three consecutive 12 hour days. Bottom line: I don’t have a ton of time to cook (Or write blog posts…wink wink). This Sunday I was very proactive though and, with the help of my legal boyfriend Peter, made three meals that have lasted through the week. I am very proud of my planning, and also proud that all three recipes are my own. Not stolen from a cookbook or pilfered from a cooking website. I came up with all three of these recipes and they are all cheap, healthy and easy. I will share them with you. Here’s the first. Pilfer away.

Lindsay’s Cauliflower Sweet Potato Curry

Saute half a chopped onion in olive oil. Add a half cup of fresh cilantro. Add a couple teaspoons of curry powder and one teaspoon of garam masala. Saute until fragrant. Add a half cup of chicken or vegetable broth, 2 tbsp of tamari or soy sauce, 2 tbsp plain yogurt and one head of cauliflower, chopped. Saute for 7 minutes. Add 1 large or 2 medium peeled, chopped sweet potatoes. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add a bunch od chopped spinach, chard or kale. Cook for 10-15 minutes until greens are soft. Serve with brown rice, couscous or quinoa.

I used orange cauliflower. It tastes the same as white, but looks prettier.

I used orange cauliflower for the first time in this delicious curry recipe.

Smart Money recently published a helpful article detailing 8 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill. This article  caught my attention because I recently implemented a grocery cost cutting plan of my own. My goal was to trim our weekly grocery bill from $100 to $75, saving us $100 per month. I’m not a coupon clipper, but I do have a few tactics that have worked well for me. I though I would share my own strategies for eating through the recession.

Buy in bulk - I don’t mean buying industrial size cans of tuna at Costco. Many grocery stores have a bulk food section, where they sell various cereals, grains, nuts and even candies by the pound. Bulk food is generally cheaper than the packaged variety and you can buy as much or as little as you want, which can reduce waste and save you money. If anything, look into buying dried herbs and spices in bulk. Jarred herbs are incredibly expensive compared to bulk.

Make a menu and shop with a list - It’s helpful to know what you are buying before setting out to the grocery store.  A while ago I started planning a weekly menu before I made my grocery list, so I know exactly what I need for the week. Shopping with a list can help you avoid purchasing unnecessary items and reduce impulse buys, since you are less likely to browse.

Cut back on meat - Meat tends to be one of the most expensive products in the grocery store, especially if you are like me and paranoid about buying discount meat or anything that might be pumped with hormones and antibiotics. I’ve saved a lot of money by periodically substituting beans for meat as a source of protein in my diet. Try it 2-3 times a week. You could save up to $20 on your weekly bill.

Buy fewer packaged/prepared foods - Cost per ounce, packaged foods tend to be more expensive than non-packaged. If a busy lifestyle has you dependent on microwave meals or packaged foods, try cooking on two or three not-so-busy nights a week and doubling or tripling your recipes. Eat throughout the week or invest in some freezer-safe containers and freeze individual portions for future meals. (This is a fun thing to do with friends - each person picks a recipe and brings enough ingredients for several servings. Buy a couple of  bottles of two buck chuck, hold a cook-off, and swap meals.)

Avoid the center aisles of grocery stores - In the first chapter of her book “What to Eat,” nutritionist Marion Nestle outlines the science of supermarket layout, a crafty, elaborate process designed to influence customers to spend more money. Among many other shrewd tactics, markets tend to stock common items such as produce, milk, and meat in the periphery, while high-profit items such as snacks, bottled drinks and juices, and packaged foods in the center aisles. Adhere to your list, stick to the outer area, and avoid browsing these center aisles. You’re less likely to be temped by over-priced (and likely not so healthy) cookies and chips.

Buy seasonal produce - The least distance it had to travel, the less it’s likely to cost. Become familiar with what is in season in your area, and consider buying frozen produce for must-have, out-of-season produce. Farmers markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA) operations are great resources for fresh, seasonal, and inexpensive produce.

Don’t shop hungry - Everyone knows this one, because everyone has gone to the store famished and come home with a box frozen beef taquitos and two different flavors of kettle chips. Have a snack before you go, don’t go right after work, pick a weekly time to shop when you won’t be starving.

Adjust your tastes - This is probably the hardest. Some foodie lifestyles are not budget friendly. If you are used to only drinking wine that’s in the $20 range, stocking your fridge with cheeses from half of Europe, or eating fresh fish five days a week, it may be difficult to change to a recession-mandated diet. Experiment with simple ingredients and recipes. Try a five dollar bottle of wine. Learn ways to indulge without going bankrupt.