When the conversation turns to healthier eating, it seems like someone always brings up the idea that it’s impossible to eat healthy on a budget. While it’s true that a package of ramen noodles is cheaper than a box of whole wheat pasta, that’s only part of the story. If you don’t invest in the food you put in your body, you will pay ten-fold in medical expenses throughout your life.

Just about everyone is looking to save money these days, but many frugal foods can also improve your health. Whether you are saving money by comparing insurance rates on InsuranceQuotes.org or making your own household cleaning products, add eating healthy to the list of ways to save a buck. Plus, health insurance rates go down if more people are healthy and requiring less money to maintain their health.

Fruits and Vegetables Are Cheap. No, really, they are. Compare the cost of an apple to that of, say, a doughnut. They’re about the same price. But you can’t deny that the apple is a healthier choice with more real vitamins and minerals the body needs to stay strong. Not only will it give your body the vitamins and minerals you need, it’s loaded with fiber and will keep you satisfied longer than the doughnut. If veggies seem more expensive during the winter months, head to the freezer aisle. Frozen vegetables are just as good for you as fresh.

Making changes to your dinner menu to include more vegetables will also save you money on your grocery bill. Cutting back on meat and focusing more on stir fries, chili and soups that rely primarily on veggies and less on meat are better for you and much cheaper. While protein is still important, you don’t need to cut meats out completely, but learn to use them sparingly. Boneless skinless chicken thighs are a great budget buy or even better, bone-in and skin-on chicken pieces help cut costs too. Watch for sales, especially on whole chickens and you can usually get all-natural options for $1.99 per pound. Now, consider that you can stretch one chicken breast to feed a family of four by making it an accent in the meal instead of the main course. Now that’s a good deal.

Packaged food is cheap, but think about what you are really paying for. Food that comes in boxes is usually loaded with sodium, fat and calories, not to mention preservatives and other chemicals. Try these inexpensive and healthy choices from the canned and boxed food aisle that are cheap, healthy and have a long shelf life even without preservatives:

• Whole wheat pasta
• Tuna
• Kidney beans
• Diced or stewed tomatoes
• Chunky pasta sauces
• Whole grain tortillas
• Salsa
• Low-sodium broth based soups

Plan your meals and try these tips on your next shopping trip, and see how much you can save.

This post is long over due. We’re talking ridiculously long. The week 1 post was almost ancient history, but thanks to my readers who have pushed me to get the rest of this series out, I kept going. Cheap Food Here is showing our readers that it is possible to spend just $100 per person per month on food. Our week 1 post was created when we were living in Costa Rica so certain foods were cheaper (most produce and fruit) but certain other foods were more expensive (specialty items, imported foods, cheese, meat, seafood, etc) so it has surprisingly balanced out now that we’ve completed week 2 since moving to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Remember that eating out isn’t going to be possible on this tight of a budget. There’s almost no way to stick to just spending $100 per person per month for food if you even eat out once. Prepared foods are much more expensive than homemade and can ruin your whole food budget if you let it. It’s also much easier to spend less than $100 per person if you’re doubling the recipes listed and feeding more than just two people.

There are two great posts from last month for 5 ways to save money on food and 5 more ways to save money on food. These are perfect for those of you doing the $100 cheap food challenge.

Here is the video again for those of you who missed the week 1 post:

VIDEO: Can you live on $100 per month for food?

Reduce snacking and eating between meals.

One of the most critical ways to save money is to reduce snacking, especially processed food snacks. This experiment was much easier when we cut out all chips, granola bars, boxed crackers, bottled drinks and junk food and replaced it with nutritious snacks like fruit, homemade crackers, nuts and other cheap, but healthy snacks. This may sound impossible because you get hungry half way between breakfast and lunch and then twice again between lunch and dinner, but knowing what to eat to reduce hunger is critical.

A high protein breakfast is the easiest way to sustain you through the morning. This means eating eggs, beans, meats, whole grains and vegetables early in the morning and in decent quantities. This is a tough transition if you’re not a big eater in the morning but once you ease into it and have go-to meals to prepare in the mornings, you’ll notice that you don’t get hungry until it’s time for lunch. Stay away from just eating cereals, breads, bagels, pancakes, biscuits and other high-carb, sugary foods because your body digests these foods faster and we all know that high-carb diets are a cause for concern with weight and diabetes.

If you do need a snack during the day, which is bound to happen, stay away from carbs and try to eat vegetables or home made snacks that are inexpensive and provide nutrition. Something that is not just a temporary escape from hunger.

Week 2 Menu

Below is the cheap food menu I’ve put together to get you started and prove you can eat healthy and fully on $50 per week for two people. Some of the recipes in the list below are from Cheapfoodhere.com and some are from our favorite foodies. Try not to use canned goods unless you have them already, but know that you are getting less than half of the nutritional value from canned goods that you would from fresh or frozen produce.

With a lot of the recipes, it’s good to reduce the quantity of expensive ingredients (example: cheese or meat) or use a substitute for something less expensive and perhaps more healthy.

Breakfast

1. Fried Eggs with Spinach and curried garbanzo beans
2. All Natural Granola Cereal with Bananas and Craisins
3. French Toast with peanut butter, banana and granola
4. Fried Eggs with Spinach and curried garbanzo beans
5. Oatmeal w/Craisins and flax and an almond milk berry shake
6. Feta and chive biscuits (follow recipe but sub feta for cheddar) with scrambled eggs and turkey bacon.

Lunch

1. Homemade mini pizza with turkey bacon, feta and jalapeño (follow recipe but change out toppings)
2. Citrus Lentil Salad with homemade hummus and carrot sticks
3. Falafel with cucumbers
4. Leftover Slow cooker chicken tikka masala
5. Leftover Cornish Hen and Dumplings
6. Leftover Homemade Gnocchi with Lemon Sage Butter

In case you didn’t catch my first post about 5 ways to save money on food, make sure you go back and check it out too. There are plenty of ways to save money on food, and below I have focused on five very important things to keep you on the straight and narrow when you’re in the grocery store. This doesn’t mean boring food, but it could potentially encroach on some of your food crutches that are driving up your monthly food budget and aren’t a requirement for your health. Take a look and feel free to comment any other ideas you have or feedback with your experience with any of the 5 more ways to save money on food.

1. Reduce expensive meat consumption

This is a true sacrifice for most. Americans love meat. There are advertising campaigns for Beef just so you’ll keep craving cattle. And while eating meat at every meal isn’t exactly healthy, it’s a habit the US culture has fallen into. A lot of people are of the belief that you need to eat meat to get the proper amount of protein. But remember, you can get plenty of protein from legumes like beans or lentils and they are a fraction of the cost. When you are looking to control the food budget, meats are one of the easier parts to cut out. But, if you still want to keep it in the meal plan, you can stretch the dollar when buying meat by getting a low-end cut of beef or pork and cook it for half a day in the slow cooker. The Crock Pot is a miracle-worker on tough meat and turns it into a tender morsel after the 10th hour or so.

2. Make homemade snacks

More often than not we find ourselves cruising down the chip or cracker aisle looking for something to throw in a baggie and take to work or to send the kids to school with. However, you need to resist the urge and really look at how much money you spend on processed foods especially snacks. There are healthy recipes all over the internet for home made snacks. For example here is a home made cracker recipe and another more simple cracker recipe that goes great with cheese, hummus dip, garbanzo flatbread, roasted red pepper spread and the list goes on. Taking whole foods as snacks will sustain you much better than processed foods, so when you are making your shopping list, think ahead about what you can buy to make at home or grab that’s as easy as cutting up some apples.

3. Eat in groups

A weekly tradition in our old neighborhood in Charlotte was to have everyone over to someone’s house each week for a pot luck dinner. The host made the main course and everyone else brought a side dish or dessert. Sometimes we’d set a budget limit on the dishes which had the tendency to be the most creative. Themes work well for group dinners and inspires the cooks to branch out of their comfort zone. The key here is to eat in bulk and thus spend less money. It’s far easier to cook for multiple people than just yourself and it’s a lot more interesting to share a meal with a group of people.

4. Eat a healthy, decent-sized breakfast

This tip I can’t stress enough. In order to give yourself the energy you need to be sustained throughout the day, a full healthy breakfast is absolutely necessary. Some people I know eat two breakfasts, one when they first wake up that includes mostly fresh fruit and juice and then once they are up and moving or after their morning workout, they eat a second breakfast of eggs, gallo pinto (beans and rice) with whole grain bread or a bagel. The first breakfast helps you wake up and get moving, while the second breakfast will sustain you until the afternoon when lunchtime rolls around. It’s amazing how much better your day can be and the energy you can find when you’ve filled your body with the fuel of fresh fruit, a protein and whole grain. This keeps you from needing unhealthy, expensive snacks and sodas to give you the false energy you need to make it to lunchtime. Fill yourself up early in the day and you won’t have to eat a huge lunch or snack in between.

5. Use dried goods instead of canned

A little research goes a long way with the cost of dried goods versus canned. When you can find it, the fresh or frozen goods are the most healthy, but in the case of beans or legumes, dried will beat out canned any day of the week. A bag of dried beans will make as much as 5 times more than the same price of beans in cans. BigLots is a great resource for dried goods. Just the other week we found bags of garbanzo beans marked down to $0.25 per bag. It was a rare, but excellent find.

It’s a little more labor intensive to soak and then cook the beans, but you can control the flavor better, avoid weird canning preservatives and of course see an immediate price savings. Our house is full of dried goods including split peas, lentils, garbanzos, black and red beans, etc. A crock pot is also a miracle on dried goods so you can set it to low and come back in a few hours to perfectly cooked beans or lentils.

Dishes are just a bit fancier when they have an edible vessel. Take stuffed peppers, stuffed mushrooms, quinoa salad in an acorn squash, taco salads in a tortilla shell bowl, etc. This recipe is no exception and up to this point I hadn’t ever used a cucumber as a vessel for a recipe, but it works great.

One of the ways that you can significantly reduce your food budget is to make your own snacks. We’ve featured a few recipes already (Homemade Crackers with Sage and Cayenne, Olive Oil and Sea Salt crackers, Flatbread with Garbanzo Flour) that keep you out of the cookie/cracker/chip aisle at the grocery store where we know a TON of money is spent and you stray the most from your grocery list. It’s a whole lot of cravings and eye candy there, so best to stay away.

We decided to find a healthy snack that would work for a family or to bring to a dinner party/tailgate that was more creative than chips and dip, wings or sandwiches. So, we tweaked a pesto and hummus recipe to include carrots instead of the beans and unsalted mixed nuts instead of pine nuts, since we’re trying to cut down the cost. Here’s the recipe:

Carrot Pesto Cucumber Boats

Ingredients

• 2 Large Cucumbers
• 1 Large Carrot
• 2 Small Garlic cloves
• 10 Fresh Basil Leaves
• 1/8 Cup of EVOO
• 1/2 Cup of Unsalted Mixed Nuts
• 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Seeds
• Sea Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions

1. In a blender or food processor, place carrots, garlic, basil, olive oil and mixed nuts.



2. Blend until smooth, stopping to push mix down with a spatula.



3. Peel strips off of the cucumber skin and cut off the ends.



4. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds with a spoon.



5. Scoop filling into the cucumber boats and slice into 1.5″ pieces.



6. Sprinkle generously with sesame seeds and serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

With food being one of the largest parts of the food budget, we often struggle with how to make cuts without feeling like you’re not feeding yourself or your family properly. This is definitely not the case and I have proved it in my $100 Cheap Food Challenge I wrote about in 2010. This case study does some quick interviews with people to discover that, not only do people have no clue how much they spend each month on food, they think it’s impossible to survive on just $100 per person per month. Now, granted, it is more difficult to live on $100 per month when it’s just one person, but it gets easier as you add more to the household. If you have five members of the family that you’re feeding, it’s easier to limit your food spending to $500 than for the single person to keep it under $100.

While it’s not easy to change your habits, it is easy to reduce the cost of food for the month by following a few simple guidelines. These guidelines aren’t going to suggest you eat off of the dollar menu at fast food restaurants or simply eat rice and beans or Ramen noodles. While those foods are in fact cheap, they end up being expensive in the long run when considering how unhealthy you’ll become and have to pay more for doctors, prescriptions, etc. So remember, just because it’s cheap now doesn’t mean it’s the most cost effective way to eat and live long term.

Most people look at the way they eat as a necessity in life, but it’s amazing how much you can save if you plan, eat the proper diet and take the time to cook at home. The choices you make at the grocery store or convenience store (*gasp!) really affects your budget, even if it’s just $10 at a time. Let’s take a look at the suggestions Cheap Food Here has put together since being on their mission to eat creatively on a modest budget.

1. Don’t eat out!

Believe it or not, eating out is the fastest way to blow through your food budget. It may seem convenient and delicious and trump anything you could make yourself at home, but it’s amazing how much you can save by staying out of restaurants. If you do decide that taking a break from cooking is a must, do it sparingly and don’t order drinks if you can help it. Drinks end up costing as much or more than an extra entree.

Another way to save money is to share an appetizer and an entree. Typically that is more than enough food to satisfy you and you’ve saved the loot from the extra box of carry-out you would have let go bad in the fridge later that week.

2. Ditch the bottled drinks

It goes without saying that you should already ditch the smoking habit if not for the health concerns but for the cost. But in comparison, drinking soft drinks or bottled juices, waters, etc are driving your food budget through the roof! Not only are most bottled drinks unhealthy, they are extremely expensive.

The sale of bottled water dropped by 9% in 2008 and I imagine it’s been going down since then and for good reason. Why not just carry your own water with you when you’re out and about. This cuts back dramatically on cost as well as help reduce trash.

3. Stick to your grocery list

There isn’t anything the retailer wants more than for you to act on impulse during your entire shopping trip. But hey, I know it’s hard to avoid the fancy packaging, the end caps and aisle violators that just insist on having their products jump into your cart. But make sure you know what you’re up against and have a clear objective in mind. Get only the items on your list, put the blinders on and get in and out as fast as possible.

4. Make sure your coupons are actually saving you money

A lot of times it’s not cheaper to use a coupon. If you know which stores to buy your staple items from and check the prices before even leaving the house, you’ll save more money than if you had a brand-named coupon for a product you don’t normally buy. Those manufacturers want you to buy their expensive products, so they try to make you think you’re saving money with a coupon. Most likely there is a different brand without a coupon that will cost less than the brand-name with a coupon, so be careful how you price out products and really look at the end price.

5. Reduce pre-packaged meals

Although it might seem smart at the time to buy the box of macaroni and cheese or the frozen Healthy Choice meal, there is hardly any nutritional value in most pre-packaged meals and considering the portions, you could easily make the same meal from scratch for less money. Buying the ingredients and making it yourself with the proper type of seasonings and salt will be more delicious and healthy. It’s good to make meals in bulk and then freeze them in separate containers when you’re ready for them throughout the week. Be careful when you see pre-packaged meals that look quick and easy; a cost comes with the convenience.

It has been a life changing journey driven by the desire for a better, sustainable lifestyle. It has been an adventure of seven years leading my wife and I to life on a jungle farm on Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast and inspiring us to gather and organize organic family farmers from various regions of the country. The result has been a beautiful organization which can deliver (within reasonable time) exceptional organic quality goodies at family prices anywhere from Talamanca to Limon with delivery coming soon to the San Jose Metro area.

My wife’s name is Mileidy and mine Carlos. She was born here in Costa Rica, I was born in New Jersey. Since we met, our dream has been to live on a farm harvesting food free of chemicals and transgenic mutations. After achieving this step we expanded our vision to include helping others through education, example and networking on how to create a more sustainable lifestyle for themselves and their families.

We grow and sell organic food because we LOVE IT, it is good for others and it allows us to keep growing in our vision. We do it with the idea of infecting YOU with a ferocious appetite for a healthier way of life! By working with our facilitators and service providers to keep costs down and quality high our clients receive the crème-de-la-crème when it comes to real natural selections and price. Our menu offers true family farmed organic fruits, vegetables, spices and hand-made vegan pasta to those who seek to express their consciousness in their food choices.

We currently work with several farms and artisans but most of our goods come from five different family run farms. Each is located in different regions of the country, one of them is located over 2,175 meters above sea level. One family farm is less than two acres in size and produces several thousand pounds of food per year! On our farm Milly started her own cross-strain of tomatoes to get a natural, delicious tomato growing in the Caribbean. While one of neighbors was the first to produce organic lettuce in the Caribbean with little to no bitter aftertaste.

Our menu is updated week to week to reflect the changes in what is available and what has come into season. We offer everything from organic Strawberries, to Bok Choy, Fennel, Kale, Onions, Lettuce, Eggplant, Peruvian Potatoes, Blackberries, Arugula, Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, a variety of Tomatoes and so much much more… You can see more about our farm at http://www.facebook.com/Comida.Organica.Express

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and letting us share a little bit about ourselves with you. If you have any questions about organic farming or sustainable living please feel free to email us at organicdeliverycr [at] gmail dot com. And remember you can start a garden or plant some veggies in almost any space, go out there and reclaim your table! Thanks again!

All the Best,
~Carlos&Milly
ComidaOrganicaExpress

Let me just start out by saying this is a breakthrough recipe. It stands far and away from most recipes I’ve discovered or created. Bravo to Sprouted Kitchen and thanks for sharing this with the world initially.

Hard squash isn’t something I’ve cooked with on a regular basis or explored really at all. Outside of yellow squash, zucchini and the occasional pumpkin, I’m kind of a squash virgin. This recipe actually called for a Kabocha squash but without really knowing what that was, I reached for the most similar looking one, an acorn squash. It turns out they are very closely related, but the Kabocha is from Japan originally.

I can’t argue with anyone that fall is the time to explore cooking with squash since you can’t walk down an aisle at the farmer’s market or in the produce department without seeing a literal cornucopia of them on display. The acorn squash is especially hard, making it almost impossible to cut into and imagining eating one. But, baked in the oven for a good 30-45 minutes and they soften right up. The seeds are just like those from it’s close cousin the pumpkin, which you can bake too. That is my absolute favorite part about Halloween, so, of course, after cutting the acorn squash in half I scooped out the seeds, cleaned them off, threw them on a cookie sheet with some Old Bay Seasoning and baked them to a crisp. Just a little bonus to recipes with acorn squash.

The way this recipe is put together with contrasting and complimentary flavors is brilliant. There is a tang in the lemon juice and sweetness of the pear that jumps right out with the squash, shallot and cardamom. In my case I used Garam Masala seasoning which is heavy on the cardamom, but also has some other Indian spices in there to bounce off the other flavors. I won’t keep you from the recipe any longer (if you haven’t already skipped down to it). Here it is, with a slight variation from the original:

Acorn Squash with Pear and Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 Acorn Squash
• 3 tbsp. Fall Seasonal Honey
• 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1 Cup cooked Quinoa
• 1 tsp. Garam Masala seasoning
• 1 Shallot, Minced
• 1 Hard Pear, peeled, cored and diced
• 1/3 Cup Basil, Chopped
• 3 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Cup Baby Spinach
• Salt and Fresh Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Slice Acorn squash in half, scoop out the seeds and brush with a mixture of 2 Tbsp honey and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.



3. Bake for 20 minutes, flesh side down. Flip and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden and soft.



4. Meanwhile, prepare the salad. In a small mixing bowl combine the cooked but cool Quinoa, spinach, shallots and diced pear. Toss with basil, shallot, Garam Masala, lemon juice, remaining olive oil and honey. Mix well.



5. Once the squash is done baking, remove it from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
6. Place squash halves on plates and fill with Quinoa salad mix.



7. Serve immediately.



]]> http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/cheap-recipes/acorn-squash-with-pear-and-quinoa-salad/feed 0 http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/articles/iron-chef-puts-cut-throat-thrill-into-cooking http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/articles/iron-chef-puts-cut-throat-thrill-into-cooking#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:02:31 +0000 CheapFoodHere http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/?p=1917 And now and article from our supporters

Iron Chef Puts Cut-Throat Thrill into Cooking 

Millions of people across the globe enjoy watching their favorite cooking competitions. The more inclined viewers even find themselves donning aprons and attempting to recreate recipes right alongside their favorite culinary heroes. Some succeed, while others fail miserably. It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about having fun! 
 
This isn’t always the case in Iron Chef. The cream of the crop among their culinary peers, Iron Chefs are chosen because they are innovative, competitive, and can whip up a tasty treat out of anything even remotely edible. Specially selected chefs from all over the world are pitted against one of a handful of Iron Chefs for a weekly hour-long cook-off that leaves everyone hot, panting, and sweaty at the end. 
 
The Iron Chef and his or her competitor are presented with a secret ingredient that is revealed only seconds before the battle begins. This secret ingredient must be the focus of the dishes created by the chefs. Once the battle commences, viewers see nothing except flailing arms grabbing the battle’s secret ingredient and sous chefs furiously chopping away at their accoutrements. Food Network HD, available from Directtv, portrays this frenzy in stunning detail. As the clock continues to count down the hour, the chefs must prepare five courses to present to a panel of three judges. Tempers flare, ingredients fly, and sous chefs are even asked to leave the set for botching important parts of dishes. The judges, ranging from food critics to movie stars, rate the dishes on taste, originality, and plating. Although there are no tangible prizes awarded, Iron Chefs fight diligently to retain their powerful status. When an Iron Chef wins a battle, they win entitlement and respect from their peers. When a competitor wins the battle, they win the pleasure of having beaten one of the world’s finest chefs. 
 
Iron Chef is like a sport to its fans. While some people spend Sundays cheering for their favorite football teams, Iron Chef fans cheer for their favorite chef. There is no doubt that viewers will continue to watch Iron Chefs and their competitors offer up their succulent variations for many years to come.
]]> http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/articles/iron-chef-puts-cut-throat-thrill-into-cooking/feed 0 http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/groceries/help-in-the-kitchen/flatbread-with-garbanzo-and-fava-flour http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/groceries/help-in-the-kitchen/flatbread-with-garbanzo-and-fava-flour#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:30:00 +0000 CheapFoodHere http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/?p=1772 Low Carb Snacks Using Garbanzo Flour

You may have noticed with some of our low carb recipe posts that we were on the 4 Hour Body diet for about two months playing around with recipes and trying to get more fit. We love the idea of low carb and cutting out wheat/gluten specifically so we started experimenting with bean flours. At the onset of our curiosity we were still living in Costa Rica where you couldn’t find bean flouers at all and I suspect if they did have them they would be cost-prohibitive (think $10 per bag of flour), but I was told you could grind your own dried garbanzo beans into a flour if you had a strong food processor or coffee grinder. I looked up a few how-tos on the Internet and just decided to go for it. Dried garbanzos are cheap in Costa Rica, so if I screwed it up it would be no big deal.

Here’s how the process went for grinding chick peas into flour:









The decibel level of sound coming from my food processor was something I’d never heard before. I know dried chick peas are hard, but these little suckers hit the side of the food processor off the blade at a blazing speed and it took a good 5 minutes to pulverize them into a flour. I had to do them in 30 to 45 second bursts because I could feel how hot the plastic and the machine were getting during the process. Overall, if you could choose between making your own garbanzo flour and buying a bag already made, I would suggest skipping the hassle and buying the pre-ground beans. I haven’t ground the beans myself since this initial try. It was just too loud and too much work for me and my food processor.

The first recipe I used the homemade garbanzo flour for was a thick flatbread, which was more like a pancake batter than a cracker. I roughly followed this recipe from Dining and Wine section of the NYTimes. Here’s how my cheap food here version of skillet garbanzo flatbread recipe went:

Skillet Flatbread with Garbanzo Flour

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Garbanzo flour
• 2 Cups of Water
• 2 Tbsp plus 1 extra Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Tbsp mix dried herbs and spices (rosemary, basil, oregano, cayenne, etc)
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Pour 2 Tbsp olive oil into the pan and coat the bottom. Place into the oven while pre-heating.



3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, pour garbanzo flour, baking powder, spices and salt. With a whisk, mix well.
4. Add the additional 1 TBSP of olive oil to the dry mixture and blend in.



5. Pour in the water and whisk until well-blended. Allow batter to sit for up to 12 hours or use immediately, whisking just before pouring into the hot skillet.



6. Pour into preheated skillet and bake for 30-40 minutes until the edges are browned and pulling away from the sides of the skillet.



7. Cool for 10 minutes, cut and serve with butter or seasoned olive oil.



A More Sophisticated Garbanzo Flatbread

After the first attempt at the flatbread we were hooked. It was a copy-cat of the delicious bready carbs we were missing, but without the carbs. Genius! So, once we moved back to the US and landed ourselves in St. Petersburg, FL and could find all kinds of bean flours, I began my next adventure. We settled on the Garbanzo and Fava bean flour made by Bob’s Red Mill in the Gluten-Free section of the grocery store. We are still learning how to properly use these bean flours and haven’t used any gums yet to help bind the flour at this point so bear with us here. The next garbanzo flatbread recipe to come out went like this (adapted from our foodie friend at Smitten Kitchen):

Garbanzo and Fava Flatbread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups garbanzo and fava bean flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp table salt
• 1/2 Cup water
• 1/3 Cup olive oil
• Approx 1/4 cup honey
• 3/4 Cup shredded Asiago cheese
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
• Approx 1 Tbsp Coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven with pizza stone to 450 for 30 minutes
2. Pour the garbanzo and fava flour into a medium-sized bowl and mix with the baking powder and salt.



3. Make a well in the center and pour in the olive oil and water.



4. Mix with a wooden spoon until it is well-integrated and then knead onto a clean work surface 4 or 5 times. The dough should feel oily, but to keep it from sticking to the work surface, sprinkle extra garbanzo flour on the rolling pin, dough and work surface.



5. Divide the dough into four pieces.



6. Roll the dough out into long, irregular shapes onto parchment papaer. There’s no need to be precise here just flatten out the dough to about 1/8″ thick.



7. Baste with extra olive oil and gently press the thyme into the dough so it sticks into it. Stab several times with a fork and sprinkle lightly with sea salt and Asiago cheese. Bake for 5 minutes or until it’s golden brown.



8. Drizzle lightly with honey and cut into pieces.



9. Devour.



This round of flatbread was to die for! I’m super happy with the way they came out and did devour all but the 4th batch of flatbreads we made that night, and they only lasted until the morning the following day. But don’t worry, we’ll be making more. I hope you try this recipe out and don’t be afraid of the bean flour, everything turns out okay in the end. Plus, this is an extremely low carb snack if you leave off the honey.

]]> http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/groceries/help-in-the-kitchen/flatbread-with-garbanzo-and-fava-flour/feed 2 http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/cheap-recipes/cheap-dinner-recipe-cheap-recipes/worlds-best-black-bean-veggie-burger http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/cheap-recipes/cheap-dinner-recipe-cheap-recipes/worlds-best-black-bean-veggie-burger#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:00:00 +0000 CheapFoodHere http://www.cheapfoodhere.com/?p=1764 The Search for the Best Black Bean Burger Concludes

Cheap Food Here has been on the hunt for the perfect black bean burger recipe ever since eating at the Original Penguin restaurant in Charlotte, NC (I say ‘Original’ because there was an issue with the original owners of the brand who were leasing it to the ones running the restaurant and to make a long story short, management changed, the charm and delicious food was downgraded to less than mediocre and thus, I wouldn’t guarantee the new Penguin black bean burger is the same as it was. See newer reviews here.) who could tout the most fabulous bean burger on the planet. Having eaten it a few times and trying to dissect it before inhaling it, I decided it probably had black beans (duh!), mushrooms, beets (this was an educated guess because of the color) and some kind of chili pepper in it because they packed some heat. Plus, I have a suspicion that the patties were deep fried because they were crispy on the outside and no matter what I’ve tried in the past, they just never get crispy in the pan, on the grill or in the broiler.

I’ve tried plenty of recipes, some with eggs, some with bread crumbs some with Portobello mushrooms; the list goes on and on. They’ve all been edible, but nothing was even coming close to the coveted Penguin black bean burger. The black bean burgers that I was making were mostly mushy and couldn’t be flipped without them falling completely apart, which I tried to remedy in every way I knew how. Nothing seemed to work and now I’m convinced it was two things: the lack of a filler like rice and leaving the black beans course rather than completely mashed. This speculation was confirmed after finding BrownEyedBaker’s black bean veggie burger recipe.

I do believe the best part about a meal is having leftovers that taste as good, if not better, than the original meal and these black bean burgers have that exact promise (hello freezer meal!). After I pattied them all out, we only cooked two for each of us so that left us with four more leftover (this recipe makes a total of 8 black bean burgers). With the extra patties, before cooking them, I placed them on a plate with parchment paper and froze them. Once they were frozen (2-3 hours) I transferred them to a freezer storage bag and we just thawed them out and cooked them the next time we were ready for them (only a few days later because we just absolutely loved them).

These hearty, full, nutritious black bean veggie burgers are one-of-a-kind and this recipe has me thinking about a ton of other bean burgers we can create off of this base. I’m thinking lentil patties and garbanzo burgers just off the top of my head. I think it’s time for a bean burger series. Okay, so here is our rendition of the famed recipe:

Black Bean Burger Recipe Ingredients

• 2 tsp grapeseed oil (or other saute oil)
• 1 cup roughly chopped yellow onion
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup coarsely grated carrots
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 3 C. cooked black beans, rinse and drained (we used dried bean to cut down on cost, but canned works also)
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1½ cups cooked brown rice
• 1 cup chopped cremini mushrooms
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (adjust to desired heat level)
• 1 Tbsp additional grapeseed oil

Black Bean Burger Recipe Directions

1. In a large skillet heated to medium-high heat, add the grapeseed oil and allow to heat up for 1-2 minutes.



2. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes until translucent, but not brown. Turn the burner off.



3. Add the grated carrots, chili powder and cumin and cook for 5 minutes on risidual heat, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool.



4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine the black beans, mustard, soy sauce, ketchup and parsley.



5. Mash together with a potato masher or your hands, making sure not to over work the mixture. Lumpy is good.



6. Stir in the cooled onion and carrot mixture. Add the cooked brown rice and chopped mushrooms, stirring to combine. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
7. Form 8 patties and make sure to press the edges to make a clean edge so the form holds during cooking.
8. Heat the remaining grapeseed oil in a large, nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add the burgers and cook for 5 to 8 minutes per side turning only once, very carefully (reshaping them after the flip if needed).
9. Remove from heat and enjoy on a bun or simply by itself with a fork!



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