Sample From the Cookbook

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The actual cookbook includes tons of introductory information, weeks of recipes and shopping lists, and additional resources. Here’s an excerpt to get you started.

THREE DOLLAR DINNER

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ……………………………………… 3
Cookware and Appliances ……………….. ….. 10
Kitchen Basics ………………………………….. 11
Week One Menu …………………………………. 17
Week One Shopping List ……………………….. 18
Pantry Staples Shopping List ………………….. 19
Park Avenue Sloppy Joes ……………………….. 20
Little Italy Pasta with Feta ………………………. 22
Sixth Street Masala with Basmati Rice ……….. 24
Mexico City Burritos ……………………………… 26
Chinatown Express Noodles with Peanut Sauce….. 29
Fashion Week Polenta …………………………………. 31
Kerouac Stew ……………………………………………. 34
Week Two & Continental Supper ……………………. 36
Week Two Menu…………………………………………. 38
Week Two Shopping List …………………………….. 39
Little Brazil Beans and Rice ……………………….. 40
Winds of Arabia Couscous …………………………. 42
B For D …………………………………………………. 44
New York’s Finest Chili …………………………….. 46
Fiesta Fridays ……………………………………….. 48
Sunshine Risotto …………………………………….. 50
Garlicious Mac and Cheese ………………………. 52
Resources …………………………………………… 54
Other Books ……………………………………….. 55

WHO THIS COOKBOOK IS FOR
This book is for everyone who wants to eat fantastic food without breaking the bank. It’s for people who like to eat (who doesn’t!) but also want to watch their wallets – without giving up great tasting, healthy, filling meals. It’s for hipsters, students, cool soccer Moms, and sassy grandmas. This is a new kind of cookbook, perhaps the first of its kind, focused on showing you how to make fresh food that is better than most restaurants will serve you, for well under three dollars per person. It’s about reconnecting with the joy of homemade meals while recognizing that no matter what your situation is you probably don’t have time to spend hours in the kitchen. This book is for:
• One income or no income families with two, three, four or more mouths to feed
• Cool kids doing what they love in the big city and getting paid next to nothing (or nothing – thanks internship!) – but who still want to nourish their bodies and souls with fantastic organic meals for around $20 a week or less each.
• People who are trying to get out of debt but don’t want to eat rice & beans every day
• Grandmas and grandpas who want to eat well on a limited income
• People who don’t have a lot of time or money but want to eat well
• Anyone who wants to impress a date with a fantastic romantic home cooked meal
• Anyone who thinks it’s cheaper and easier to eat fast food than to cook at home- I’ll prove you wrong!

NOURISHING VS. FEEDING
Look, we all need to eat. Three times a day – at least. The food industry is a multibillion dollar business, and a huge segment of it is devoted to convincing you that it can feed you better, faster and cheaper than you can feed yourself. Yet the prevalence of anxiety, disease, and health issues in our society is at an all-time high – and many experts and doctors agree that eating convenience food and chemically laden foods is a big part of the problem. There’s a big difference between eating and actually nourishing yourself, and it’s actually not that hard to make meals that hit the sweet spot in your belly and your soul – and budget.
But regardless of whether you’ve bought this book because you are concerned about your health, or because you’ve just found yourself on a more limited income and want some cost-cutting ideas for the kitchen, or whether you just want to learn how to do more than boil water and burn toast, you’ve come to the right place. You’ll get two full weeks of dinner recipes and exact instructions, as well as shopping lists and overall tips for saving money in the kitchen.

If you’re known as someone who can’t cook, don’t despair. There is no such thing as someone who can’t cook. There’s only someone who hasn’t been given instructions in the proper way. Cooking is as much a learned skill as it is the art of tasting; and while I’m not going to make you a gourmet cook I guarantee that if you follow these easy directions, your reputation will change – at least as far as your cooking skills go. Once you master a handful of basic techniques, you’ll be able to look in your pantry and figure out what you can make, even if you haven’t planed ahead.

GREEN IS ALSO THE COLOR OF MONEY
Most cookbooks also don’t pay much regard to cost of the food or time involved. Even in good times, this is too bad; cost is a major turnoff for people once they realize that they can eat out for less than the cost of making the recipes they find online or in cookbooks. In a recession, it’s even more important that we consider the cost of our meals.

The average cost of the meals I’m helping you prepare is under $3 per serving; about half the cost of a fast food meal. I use organic ingredients in my recipes at home and that’s how I’ve priced these, but if you use non-organic food in some cases you will save money; some items you will actually find cheaper organically. The recipes are written for four, so they can easily be halved, or doubled, or whatever you need to do for the number of people you’re cooking for. If you’re cooking for one, it’s easier in most cases to halve the recipe and cook as if for two, and have the leftovers for lunch the next day, or invite a friend over for dinner.

As demand has increased, and disposable income has decreased recently, prices have dropped on everything from organic cheese and milk to organic tomatoes and greens both at grocery stores and farmer’s markets and as more and more people decide for whatever reason that they want to buy organic, it’s just going to get more and more affordable. Don’t assume that organic means expensive; shop around and you might be surprised at how comparable the costs are.

BUT I DON’T HAVE TIME TO SHOP OR COOK!
In terms of time, if you’re anything like me you don’t have two hours, or even an hour to spend in the kitchen. Most of the meals in this book involve around 20 minutes of work. The point of this book is to get people who feel left out of the “cook healthy food at home” conversation in the kitchen, cooking.

I indicate in each recipe how much time it takes so you can decide what to make based on the time available. I also tell you what order to do things in, so you can “superset” your cooking – meaning, while one item cooks you prepare another part of the meal.

Grocery shopping is also simplified. These recipes are broken down into shopping lists for week one and for week two, and the idea is that you should be buying things that won’t be wasted –i.e. either canned or pantry staples like pasta and beans and canned tomatoes, or perishables that will be utilized in the weeks recipe’s like eggs, cheese, meat or meat substitutes (for vegetarians), and vegetables and greens.

There is no reason to waste anything you currently have. If you’ve got a 5 gallon vat of industrial salsa, then use it. If you’ve got piles of spices, jars of oil, cans of beans – use them!

WHY “CHEAP RECIPES” AREN’T AS ALWAYS AS CHEAP AS THEY SEEM
There are plenty of places to find recipes that feed four people for around $5 or $6 total. Unfortunately most of them are based on processed foods and very cheap meat. “Very cheap meat” automatically equals “very bad for you meat”. If you knew how they made chicken, beef, and pork so cheap, you may reconsider eating it – but those details are for your own personal investigation, and not something I want to get into in a cookbook. I offer a free “personal eating manifesto” at www.ThreeDollarDinner.com that details my own journey to this way of cooking.

However, I understand that right now (and for some of us, always) $5 or $6 a meal for four people is about all we can swing, and as I said at the beginning of this book I want to offer ways for anyone, on any budget, to eat real, delicious food. So look around the recipes and you’ll find that there are some surprisingly delicious ways to stay on this budget and stay away from the “food nasties”.

If you look elsewhere for good quick cheap recipes, please beware of any that include Velveeta, refrigerator biscuits, onion soup mix, or any meat that comes in a can.

HOW THE REST OF THE BOOK IS ORGANIZED
To keep it simple, I’ve given you two weeks of dinners – 14 amazing meals that each cost an average of $2.50 per person and take 10 to 30 minutes to prepare. Instructions for converting them to vegetarian dishes are given for all of the recipes, and they can all be halved or doubled for couples or larger gatherings. Each recipe also gives an estimate of cost and time to prepare.

WEEK ONE MENU

PARK AVENUE SLOPPY JOES

LITTLE ITALY PASTA WITH FETA

SIXTH STREET MASALA WITH BASMATI

MEXICO CITY BURRITOS

CHINATOWN EXPRESS NOODLES
WITH PEANUT SAUCE

FASHION WEEK POLENTA

GREENWICH VILLAGE STEW

WEEK ONE GROCERY LIST FOR FOUR PEOPLE – INCLUDED IN THE COOKBOOK…. even includes vegetarian subsitutions…..

PARK AVENUE SLOPPY JOES
COST PER PERSON: $3.61
TOTAL WORK TIME: 12 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME: 12 MINUTES
TOTAL COST FOR FOUR PEOPLE: $14.45
CALORIES PER SERVING: 700
Everyone loves a Sloppy Joe sandwich. Whether you have kids or not, Sloppy Joes are a fast, delicious, nutritious meal made the New Economy way. Served with a side of baked beans, it’s the perfect fun, fast, filling weeknight meal. This version is a bit healthier but still so yummy, using beans as part of the protein rather than all meat (how uptown!) And you can easily make this a vegetarian meal with Smart Ground meat substitute or the meat substitute of your choice- but if you’re having vegetarians for dinner, make sure to get vegetarian baked beans as well.
Ingredients
1 can organic pinto beans $1.39
1 chopped organic onion $0.60
¾ cup organic ketchup $1.60
One can organic diced tomatoes (14 oz.) $1.29
8 good quality hamburger buns $3.30
2 cans organic baked beans (vegetarian or not) $2.78
½ pound organic ground beef $3.49
or for vegetarian version, skip the beef and use
8 oz. Lightlife Smart Ground Beef or Original $3.19

Condiments
Two teaspoons organic mustard
One tablespoon olive oil

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1 (2 MINUTES)
Heat one tablespoon olive oil in your skillet over medium high heat. Chop the onion into small pieces.
STEP 2 (4 MINUTES)
Brown ½ pound ground beef and onion in the skillet. Chop the meat with your spoon or spatula to keep it from clumping. Make sure all the meat gets cooked and browned; this should take about 4 or 5 minutes. If making the vegetarian version, do exactly the same thing but with the meat substitute – brown Smart Ground or the substitute of your choice.
STEP 3 (2 MINUTES)
Stir in pinto beans and ketchup and can diced tomatoes, plus two teaspoons mustard. Turn heat down to simmer (medium low).
STEP 4 (1 MINUTE)
Empty baked beans into a small pot over low heat to warm them. Let them simmer for 2 or 3 minutes while you prepare the sandwiches.
STEP 5 (2 MINUTES)
Spoon 1/8 of the beef and bean mixture into each of four buns (everyone gets seconds!). Serve with warm baked beans.

LITTLE ITALY PASTA WITH FETA
COST PER PERSON: $2.40
TOTAL WORK TIME: 15 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME: 15 to 19 MINUTES
TOTAL COST FOR FOUR PEOPLE: $9.60
CALORIES PER SERVING: 675

This tastes better than any pasta we’ve ever had in a restaurant. Seriously. And we eat pasta at a lot of restaurants. You’ll be getting requests for this one. It’s best with whole wheat pasta, but you can use the white stuff if you want. It’s the kind of off-the-menu dish that someone in Little Italy might whip up for their friends in the restaurant kitchen after closing time.

Ingredients
16 ounces organic pasta –linguine, penne, or fusili $2.49
Two handfuls organic arugula or spinach $0.98
Feta cheese (8 oz.) (organic if you can) $2.99
28 oz. can whole peeled organic tomatoes $1.79
3 tablespoons crushed garlic $0.12
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar $0.45
8 organic walnuts $0.78

Condiments
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
STEP 1 (2 MINUTES)
Fill your large pot with enough water to cover the noodles, plus two inches. Bring to a boil by setting on your stovetop’s highest heat. Don’t put the noodles in until it boils. While you wait for the water to boil, go to step two.
STEP 2 (1 MINUTE)
Heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat in your skillet.
STEP 3 (3 MINUTES)
While the oil heats and water comes to a boil, remove all the tomatoes from the can and discard the juice. Roughly chop the tomatoes into 6 to 8 pieces each.
STEP 4 (5 MINUTES)
Once the water boils, add the pasta, and keep an eye on the clock based on the package directions (usually 8 to 12 minutes). Once the oil in your skillet is shimmering and hot, add the garlic and sauté for two minutes. Add the ¼ cup balsamic vinegar and the chopped tomatoes. Turn the heat off and stir for two minutes. Then put the mixture in a bowl and set aside.
STEP 5 (2 MINUTES)
Roughly crush the walnuts and put them in your toaster oven for about 2 minutes. If you don’t have a toaster oven, rinse your skillet (careful of the heat), wipe it dry, and heat it to medium high heat. Then pan toast your walnuts by stirring them in the pan over medium high heat for one or two minutes. Whichever method you use, toast the nuts, don’t burn them. Set the walnuts aside.
STEP 6 (2 MINUTES)
Your pasta should be approaching done-ness. At the end of the recommended cooking time, check the pasta by removing a piece or two with a slotted spoon. Let it cool for a moment and then taste it. If it’s too firm, let it cook for a minute or two more. Pasta gets softer as it cooks, so you don’t want it too soft – “al dente” is the perfect firmness, and it means that it has firmness to your teeth.
Once it’s done, drain the pasta in a colander. Then put the pasta in a big serving bowl. Crumble all of the feta cheese over the pasta, and then add the two handfuls of washed arugula. Now add your tomato/balsamic mixture over that, and toss until everything is blended.
Add the toasted chopped walnuts on top, and serve.