Trying to Eat Cheap: It's All About the Seasonal

Just a note that I'm not going to try to monetize tonight's dinner as I've been doing most of this month, because I went to a family birthday party. We all had yummy Chinese takeout and a nice thick tall chocolate cake.

Instead, I want to do a quick mid-series review of my "Trying to Eat Cheap" posts. I'm getting to the point where I'm looking back over the 20-odd dinner posts I've made and thinking that we eat a LOT of lentils and squash and kale and cheese. Where are the exotic stir-fries and coconut soups? Where are the simple salads with bacon and eggs thrown on for protein? Where are the vegetable focaccias or pasta primaveras or the grilled marinated veggie-meat kebabs? Where is the COLOR? Then I remembered. It's November. And part of eating cheap (and in my opinion, part of eating healthy) is eating with the season and trying to eat locally or at least mindfully. That means that a November dinner series is going to be a lot different than a May one or an August one. At this time of year in my part of the country, the crops are apples, butternut squash, pumpkin, kale, and lots of roots (potatoes, beets, turnips, etc.). Combine these with bulk items like brown rice and beans, and you're eating cheap. It's just doesn't seem very exciting sometimes!


Future goal: I would love to assemble a pan-seasonal "cheap eats" recipe list, with emphasis on local healthy foods along with plain cheap foods. I love garden-based cookbooks, but they sometimes don't account for the 6 months of the year when everything is under snow and we're faced with cold storage veggies--or splurging on avocadoes at $2.50 apiece! I think there is a lot of value in knowing what to do with beans and grains. They are not exotic, but neither is my heritage, which is haggis-based. So look for "Trying to Eat Cheap" posts past the month of November, as I work on assembling a solid repertoire for the whole wheel of the year.