Comments of the Week

This week, it’s kale recipes, coupon clipping, vegetarian beefs, and remembrances of Presidents of the United States of America gone by. Oh, and if you have the time, check out all the great responses to What Would You Do: Restaurant Gives Meat to a Vegetarian. The consensus: I should have spoken to a manager, yo.On Millions of Grilled Peaches (Grilled Peaches for Me)molly b: Can't believe someone else actually remembers that song. We had a hamster once that we named Peaches... because we got her for free. :-)Monica: I loved that song! So much I bought the whole CD. Oh the crapola we listened to in order to get one great song. Thank you so much iTunes!On Eating Healthy While Clipping Coupons: The Dos and Don’tsPam: I started clipping coupons a couple of months ago and was amazed at how many...

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Posted in: Reader Comments

Millions of Grilled Peaches (Grilled Peaches for Me)

I am a fruit girl. Sure, I like vegetables and grains appeal to me now more than ever, but I am, have always been, and will always be a fruit girl.Besides the pleasure of scorching my translucent flesh to a bacony-textured, slightly off-white hue, the abundance and variety of fruit is the key reason I tolerate humid, stinky summers in New York. Every June and July the Union Square farmers market teems with cherries, watermelon, blueberries, plums – all the good stuff. It’s a rainbow of inexpensive nutritiousness, and sashaying down the open-air aisles, it’s all I can do to keep from stuffing my face with juicy, fruity wonderment. Even the local Key Food, normally a black hole of bruised produce, is starting to brim with berries, melons, and...

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Posted in: Desserts and Snacks,Vegan,Vegetarian

Veggie Might: Daikon (Jicama) Mango Slaw - I Can Make That

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian. It’s pretty much my goal as an amateur gourmet on a budget to recreate the fabulous things I eat (or smell) in restaurants on the cheap, on the veg, or at all. Since I can’t afford to eat out often, I pay close attention and occasionally take notes (or poor resolution camera phone pics).Working without a recipe can be risky for sure, especially when you’re a cheapskate like me. I HATE wasting food. But I also find it extremely rewarding. It’s creative and fun, and when it works, it’s thrilling. I dance around, give the dog a carrot, and if it’s really good, call my mother to brag.Last Friday, I had the pleasure of dining at Spring Street Natural,...

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Posted in: Sides,Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

CHG Favorites of the Week

Food Blog of the WeekCarol on KellerMaryland resident/novice chef Carol is attempting every meal in the legendarily complicated French Laundry cookbook, which is a bit like learning math by starting with calculus. Fr’ instance? The most recent post documents her attempt to braise and stuff a pig’s head. Yoinks.Food Comedy of the Week“Cake or Death” by Eddie Izzard Someone set Eddie’s famous/FAHbulous Dress to Kill show entirely to Legos! It's hilarious, and almost better than being covered in bees.Food Organization of the WeekKivaA microlending organization connecting individuals directly to the folks they’re donating to, Kiva is one of (if not THE) first website of its kind. What happens is this: you choose an entrepreneur anywhere in the world and loan them a pre-designated amount of cash....

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Posted in: Links

Eating Healthy While Clipping Coupons: The Dos and Don’ts

(So, I finished this piece a few days ago, but waited until today’s scheduled Article Day to post. Money Saving Mom beat me to the punch in the best possible way. Guest contributor Jody Connelly has a tremendous essay called Nine Coupon Myths Debunked, and while it doesn't concentrate wholly on healthy couponing, it’s absolutely worth ten ganders. I encourage you to read it, study it, and adopt it as your child. Once that’s done, c’mon back here. Hopefully, this can add to Jody’s well-observed points.)A few weeks ago, Serious Eats (one of my favorite blogs) picked up on a CHG piece called The Hour: How 60 Minutes a Week Can Save Hundreds of Dollars. Their post summarized The Hour in four simple steps, #2 of which was “Clip and organize coupons.”...

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Posted in: Buying Food,Frugality

City Kitchen Chronicles: Introducing Jaime

City Kitchen Chronicles is a bi-weekly column about living frugally in Manhattan. It's penned by the lovely Jaime.jaime: Hello Cheap Healthy Good-ers! We here at City Kitchen Chronicles have a special column for you today. Two weeks ago you were introduced to Jaime by way of one of her cheapest, healthiest, tastiest recipes. Today we go past the flash and sizzle to meet the girl behind those tasty beans and veggies, to learn a little about how she ended up here, and why she’s sorta living on rice and beans. Hi Jaime. Thanks so much for joining us.JAIME: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.jaime: Of course. So, first, how did you end up here at Cheap Healthy Good?JAIME: Well, that’s a two-part question. Or, several parts. How did I find the website?...

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Posted in: City Kitchen Chronicles

Tuesday Megalinks: The Post-Party Edition

We had 100 people at our place for a Memorial Day barbecue this weekend, and my kitchen just this morning stopped smelling like Brooklyn Lager. Please forgive me if some of these are nonsensical.Being Frugal: Frugal Living for BeginnersLynnae runs down a few starter strategies for frugal newbies. (Essentially: DIY, plan ahead, consolidate.) BAM!Culinate: Better and easier cooking: rules for the home kitchenWith eight tremendous tricks to make cooking easier, this piece is a bit like “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Meaning, I wish I wrote it.Culinate: Steering clear of refined grains (How to eat more whole grains)What I like best about Culinate is that they walk you through things. Really, they’re the Alton Brown of foodie websites (only without...

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Posted in: Links

White Bean and Kale Soup with Turkey Sausage: Kale and Hearty

(In celebration of Memorial Day, this will be my last post until Tuesday. Hope y’all have lovely long weekends, and don’t forget the sunscreen!)My experience with leafy greens has been somewhat limited. Salads and simple sauteés mostly, with the occasional collard green experiment thrown in to alleviate the boredom. Oh, and once, I cooked chard for so long it burned to the pot, causing a chemical/produce scent unrivalled by even the foulest San Joaquin poop lagoon. I still owe my old roommate R a new pot for that, plus a few years in nasal therapy.Why have I never keened on to those heralded emerald veggies? I could resort to, “My Mama never made ‘em,” and it would be true. Clichéd, but true. More truthfully though, they never did much for...

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Posted in: Mains,Meat and Fish,Soups and Stocks

Veggie Might: That’s What I Was Going to Say

Penned by the effervescent Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about the wide world of Vegetarianism.This past weekend, my cute doggie, Snack, and I participated in a bike ride to promote pet adoption. Here’s a cute photo of Snack and a link to Rational Animal rescue collective. Adopt a pet and love forever!Even before Kris asked me to write for CHG, I’d been thinking about what my Veggie Manifesto might say. It would not try to convert omnivores to the fold (though you may think otherwise from my first post—really, I was just making a correlation to our current eco/enviro situation); but it would respond to the same old questions and frequent (and unprovoked) defensiveness I encounter from meat eaters.Then someone wrote it for...

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Posted in: Veggie Might

CHG Favorites of the Week: The Cake Edition

Food Blog of the WeekAllergic GirlTree nuts, salmon, eggplant, melon, tropical fruits, and lemongrass are just a few of the banes of Allergic Girl’s existence. For three years, she’s “maintained a wheat/gluten-free, processed sugar-free, lactose-free, soy-free, low processed food-free lifestyle.” These are her stories. (And also her motherlode of food allergy resources, which could be super-helpful to anyone out there with similar issues.)Food Book of the WeekThe Road by Cormac McCarthyOoooo, this is bleak. Bleakbleakbleak. Like, why-do-I-bother-eating-this-orange-we-all-eventually-die-anyway bleak. Yet! Every time the main characters find food, it sounds like an unparalleled feast. It’s the only novel I can recall where canned pears sound better than ten birthday cakes. Read it and savor....

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Posted in: Links

40 Greatest Songs About Food: Part II

Ladies and gentlemen, you're just in time for the second half of CHG's 40 Greatest Songs About Food! Sit back and behold!20) “Me in Honey” by R.E.M.Kate Pierson is sadly absent from this live performance, but bassist Mike Mills fills in nicely.19) “Gin and Juice” by Snoop DoggC’mon, Snoop – it was never hard being you.18) “Peaches” by Presidents of the United States of AmericaNote: This is a band, not our actual Commander in Chief. (As you know, Dubya's biggest hit is about pretzels.)17) “Blueberry Hill” by Louis ArmstrongAdjust your eyes – it’s Satchmo in EXTREME close up. You can see his pores!16) “Candy” by Iggy Pop with Kate Pierson Has Iggy Pop ever worn a shirt, ever? I could draw the man’s nipples from memory.15) “Pulling Mussels From a Shell” by SqueezeMy second favorite Squeeze song,...

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Posted in: Links

40 Greatest Songs About Food: Part I

It’s been pretty serious around here lately, between the food crisis and well, uh, the food crisis. So, I’d like to lighten things up with the sweet, sweet sounds of music. Namely, music dealing with food. Even more namely, my favorite 40 songs marginally related to food, determined by no method other than my own dabolical whim.Subsequently - be on the lookout! This hour it’s #21-40, and a little later in the day #1-20 will make an appearance. Unfortunately, I can't embed all the videos (I tried, Blogger crashed), but the links will take you right to YouTube.So! Without further ado! Here goes.40) "Lady Marmalade" by LaBelleEat your heart out, Aguilera.39) "Eat to the Beat" by BlondieThe link only contains about 20 seconds of the single, but it’s worth a look for Debbie Harry’s general gloriousness.38)...

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Posted in: Links

Tuesday Megalinks

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with advice on our restaurant situation. (Read all about it here.) I agree with most folks on the tipping issue. Having worked in food service in high school and college, I would have expected a severely reduced tip if I behaved like our waiter had. The one thing we DIDN’T do was talk to the manager (which, in retrospect – duh). I’m sure it would have made a huge difference in our experience. But hey - now we know.And with that, on to the links!Antithete: How We Eat on $250 a MonthFaboo step-by-step guide to feeding a family of five on ~$50/week. I bet singletons and DINKs could get a bunch out of reading this, too. (Thanks to Get Rich Slowly for the link.)Ask Meta: Adventures in VeganlandAre you on the no-dairy/meat/egg...

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Posted in: Links

What Would You Do: Restaurant Gives Meat to Vegetarian (Also, There's a Mango Salsa Recipe in Here Somewhere)

(Apologies for the longest, most nonsensical post title, ever. Must ... work ... on ... brevity.)We had a strange situation this weekend, and I’d love to solicit a few opinions from everybody. It’s definitely more of an etiquette dealie, but frugality and good business sense definitely factor in. I’m just not sure what we should have done.Here’s the scenario: Saturday night, some friends were in from out of town and we all met up at a fancy Italian restaurant. The place was gorgeous, the wine was tasty, and all seemed well at first. When our time came to order, my friend H, a vegetarian since she was 13, specifically asked if the Potato Leek Soup was made with vegetable stock. The waiter, without checking, said, “yes.”Can you guess what comes...

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Posted in: Dips and Sauces,Sides,Vegetarian