Saving Money on Food

A collection of some of my favorite tips and recipes for saving money on food, beginning with this quotation, which just about sums it all up:

“I once lived with a Tuscan in a house in San Francisco. I would cook a pot of beans weekly, and our bean meals followed a regular pattern. The cooked beans would sit in their broth for half an hour, contenting themselves with their last swallows of olive oil and herbs. When my Tuscan friend decided their time was up, he would stand ceremoniously, clear his throat, slice bread, open wine, and put olive oil on the table.

“Then we would eat just beans and bread… I would do it all happily, he intently, glowing with genetically imprinted joy at his great fortune to be sitting there, eating beans, beans beans.“

(From Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal, 113)

(n.b.– when I buy meat, cheese, and dairy, I usually buy organic. Which means we rarely eat meat, and when we do it’s usually something random and weird like beef heart, duck livers, etc. I spend $4/dozen on good, local, pastured eggs, and we typically eat at least 2 dozen each week between the three of us. So I do spend a little extra on quality for those things, but we make up for it by eating meals mostly based on beans or eggs.)