Cook ahead staples save time and money.

Time is the number one reason cited by people to explain why they eat out instead of cooking at home. Healthy food takes a while to cook properly and the busier our lives get, the harder it is to find the time to cook. Rather than giving up on cooking, learn to cook smarter--convenience foods are convenient because they are precooked and we can use that simple concept to make our own food shortcuts.

Brown rice: I love brown rice and it is probably one of the healthiest things you can eat but let's face it--that stuff takes a minimum of 55 minutes to cook. If your tired and hungry, brown rice isn't going to be on the menu unless you plan ahead.

Brown Rice
Boil-In-Bags of rice are showing up in the market and these are a great idea but way too expensive for my kitchen so I make my own heat and eat rice. Scale up your favorite method for cooking the rice so that you have 4 cups or more of cooked rice. Let it cool and spread it out on a cookie sheet and put the whole thing in the freezer. After a couple of hours, the rice is frozen. Spray the frozen rice with non-stick spray like Pam, put it in a freezer container and keep it frozen for up to 6 months. To use it, scoop out the amount you need and microwave it or put the frozen rice in a colander and run hot water over it, drain and serve.

Standard Brown Rice Recipe
2 cups Brown Rice
5 cups water
Start by bringing the water to a boil. Add the rice, salt and butter, and give it ONE stir. Cover the pot.

Return the pot to a boil, then turn the stove down to simmer and set the timer. It can take 45-55 minutes to cook brown rice. When cooking any and all rice, never stir the rice while it is cooking or you will end up with very mushy rice!

Beans: Beans are another super-healthy food that takes way too long to cook on a daily basis. Frozen beans cooked ahead of time make it much quicker to use beans in hurry-up meals.

Basic Beans
2 cups of dry beans
6 cups of water
Bring the beans and water to a boil in a heavy pot. Turn off the heat and let the beans soak for at least an hour or overnight. Drain and rinse the soaked beans and put them back into the pan with enough fresh water or vegetable stock to cover them. Cook at a simmer for 1-2 hours until they taste almost "done" but still a little firm. Avoid stirring too much since that will break up the beans. Dip beans out of the cooking liquid and put them into a muffin or cupcake pan with just enough liquid to fill up the space between the beans. Freeze for a few hours, then pop the beans out of the pan and store in an airtight bag in the freezer. Don't make too many at once and try to use the frozen beans in 2-3 months.

Potato Short Cuts
Potatoes are fairly quick to cook so they do make it to the dinner table regularly as boiled, mashed or baked potatoes. Because of the starch content, potatoes change consistency and flavor if they have been cooked, cooled and then cooked again allowing for a much wider variety of potato dishes. When you do cook potatoes, always make a point of cooking twice as many as you need so that you have cooked and cooled taters on hand for the next recipe. Cooked potatoes can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days and can be frozen for 2-3 months.

Smashed Potatoes
This simple alternative to baked potatoes makes an excellent side dish. Take a cooked and cooled potato, place it in a baking pan and use a spatula or coffee mug to squash it to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Drizzle with a tiny amount of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and spices to taste. Brown under the broiler for 3-5 minutes until crusty brown.

JoJos
Slice cooked and cooled into wedges. Toss in a bowl with a teaspoon of oil, salt and spices to taste. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until browned, turning at least once during the cooking.

Hash
Hash has an interesting history in the US including the fact that hash was so popular at times that restaurants, called Hash Houses, opened all over the country and served nothing but hash--not bad for a food that is basically leftovers and potatoes!

Breakfast Hash
Chop 1/2 of an onion and 2 slices of bacon. Start frying together and add a large cooked and cooled potato that has been diced. Cook everything together, add salt and pepper to taste, until the potatoes are browned nicely. Crack 2 eggs on the top and stir them in. Put a lid on the pan and cook the eggs for a few minutes. Eat as is with toast or roll up in a tortilla for hash to go!

Plan to Save Money

While cooking is the key to cheap food, planning and shopping are the foundation of the whole program. Spending 2 hours planning a monthly menu can save hundreds of dollars a month on the average food budget. Planning allows a family to buy larger quantities and then use them before they spoil. Pay attention to sales papers and plan around them. If pork is cheap, plan a month of pork meals. When chicken goes on sale, switch to chicken. Let the market be your guide rather than, "I feel like a pizza today." Also be aware that rock bottom dining doesn't allow for the luxury of a daily balanced diet. Try instead, for a weekly balanced diet by eating a variety of side vegetables and fruit that are in season.

Vary what you plan by what is on sale.
Most meals can start with just a few cheap ingredients:

Protein	Starch	Veggie or Fruit
Pork	Potatoes	Lettuce
Chicken	Rice	Tomato
Beef	Pasta	Green Beans
Beans	Bread	Broccoli
Tofu	Beans	Cauliflower
Meat Replacement	Crust	Carrots
Cheese	Couscous	Bananas
Egg	Dumplings	Oranges
Liver	Falafil	Apples

Vary the way you cook.
There are many ways to cook any type of food and using variations is a great way to save money. For example, cheap pork steaks can be breaded and fried, breaded and baked, cubed, breaded and deep fried, cut into strips and sauteed with veggies, cubed and sauteed-followed by simmering with veggies and noodles, ground and mixed with spices for homemade sausage, baked with BBQ sauce for sandwiches and many other ways. Same cheap cut of meat, but at least 7 very different meals.

Pork 6 Ways
Pork Shoulder Steaks are on sale this week at Safeway for $2.29 per pound and comes in a 3 pound package for $6.87. That is enough for 7 meals for 2 people (or 2 people with a child). Split the package up at home like this:
Bone each steak, cut the steaks along the major division lines. Save the largest 4 pieces for steaks(save an extra, cut in half, for a child) Make 2 packages. Reserve bones and most fat. Cube the rest of the meat. Divide into 3 parts--Large cubes, small cubes, smaller bits.

Monday: Pork gravy over biscuits, & green beans
Tuesday: Pork Steaks, lettuce wedges, chopped tomato, baked potato
Wednesday: Pork Kabobs with carrots, potato and onion, couscous
Thursday: Leftover couscous or rice stir fried with small bits of pork with candy carrots
Friday: Sweet & Sour Pork with veggies, rice.
Saturday: Pork Pot Pie
Sunday: Meat Free Day-Homemade Pizza, Soup or veggie chili.

A word about vegetables: Frozen veggies are a tremendous value if you know what to buy. My current favorite is California Mix(Broccoli, carrots, yellow squash, & green beans) in a 4 pound bag for $3.58 that I get at Cash & Carry(a restaurant supply store). When you buy mixed veggies, you do not have to use them mixed. You can pick out just broccoli or just squash so that meals look more varied than your supplies are.

4 Way Chicken
Take 1 small whole chicken(about $3.00 on sale) dust it with your favorite herbs and spices and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done. Split the chicken into 4 meals for two people: Breast meat, thigh meat, legs & wings, soup bones.

Soup bones doesn't mean you have to make soup from them. Boil the meat off and make chicken pot pie instead, YUM!

A few words about beef.
Beef has gotten dramatically more expensive this last year. Hamburger is $2.50 or more per pound so it is very hard to make it fit into a Dollar Dining menu. But, keep in mind that a serving of ground beef should be about 3-4 ounces. By controlling serving size, the cost per serving is 50-65 cents and well within the guidelines. Ground beef can also be mixed with cheaper foods to extend it and cut costs. Some examples of this would be mixing ground beef with an equal amount of grated carrots or finely chopped onions. These mixtures work well for fried burgers and they stay nice and moist. Or, mix ground beef with 2 parts of cooked rice and bake up some meatballs.

Rediscover Eggs
Even with recent price increases, eggs are still a great deal. At 20 cents or less per egg, you can whip up a super omelet for next to nothing and eggs and hashbrowns are a good meal any time of the day. Stock up when eggs are on sale, they will keep in the fridge for at least 3 months.

Fish & Seafood
Low cost meal ideas coming soon!

The "Other" Meats
Liver, tongue, balony, & spam...more info soon!

What is Dining on a Dollar?

Food prices are up and will continue to increase, but food costs are still the number one area to save money on a household budget. Unfortunately, many people have used convenience foods for so long that they have forgotten how to cook good cheap food. This blog is about reviving forgotten recipes and techniques to greatly reduce the cost of everyday food.

Most Fast Food Restaurants offer "Dollar Menus" and have an assortment of things to buy for a buck or less, but they still make a profit! They make money on every purchase because the "Dollar" items actually cost around 15-25 cents to make. You can save a lot by simply preparing the same items at home, and that is just the beginning.

In coming posts, I will introduce cheap foods, cheap places to buy food, and cheap ways to use more expensive foods. The goal is to prepare meals that cost less than $1.00 per serving. The servings will be generous enough for adult men, yet lower in fat, cholesterol, and sodium than similar fare found elsewhere.

Real food is still really cheap, but many of us are so dependent on highly processed foods that our budgets have spun out of control. Planning menus and shopping lists can help a lot to lower food costs. If that hasn't worked for you in the past, then the ultimate way to plan is to use grocery delivery if it is available in your area. Another way to cut impulse spending is to shop at a different kind of store such as a restaurant supply that offers large packages of a limited number of products. There are less brand names to confuse you so you will tend to spend less overall on the products you do buy.