Saturday Throwback: Recession-Proofing Your Diet - Food Strategies for a New Economy

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG archives. This one comes from March 2008, and includes then-timely Elliot Spitzer and J.D. Salinger-being-alive references. Oh, Comedy. You are a cruel mistress.If you’ve been to the supermarket in the last few months, the rising cost of food isn’t exactly an Elliot Spitzer-level surprise. Grain prices are up, dairy products have become a luxury, and meat … well, cheap beef is rarer than a J.D. Salinger sighting these days. CNN, MSNBC, and the newspapers are finally picking up on it, too, with more stories about global grocery shortages and ludicrous shipping expenses. It appears we’re headed for a recession, and it may not get better anytime soon.Never fear, though – it’s the interweb to the rescue....

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Top 10 Links of the Week: 7/23/10 – 7/29/10

It’s been a sweet seven days over at headquarters (Note: my futon), between a Lifehacker link and post on the most excellent Get Rich Slowly. But the week is never complete without ... THE LINKS!From Get Rich Slowly1) Get Rich Slowly: How to Use a Food Dehydrator to Preserve Your HarvestClear, informative, extensive post on the wide world of dried fruits and veggies. I swear, Kris’ summary of methodology, practical uses, and advantages will convince you to buy a dehydrator by the time the article is over.2) Eatocracy: The Great Lunch SwapI love this idea: co-workers Tommy and Callie made lunch for each other for three days, and it was a total, raging success. Are you converting from takeout to brown-bagging your office meals? This is a faboo...

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Posted in: Links

Veggie Might: Sprouted Quinoa and Mango Tabouleh

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian. She continues CHG's No-Cook Month.Remember last week when we sprouted quinoa in glass jars with only water, cheese cloth, rubber bands, and our devotion to Not Cooking? Oh, those were giddy days. Well, this Dear Readers, is the joyous, hip-shaking result.Quinoa sprouts are quite tasty on their own: fresh, crunchy, and a bit nutty. They have the essence of alfalfa or mung bean sprouts but retain their recognizable quinoa flavor. You can use the sprouts to top sandwiches or salads, grind them into flour for baking, cook them like any other grain recipe, or make a fabulous grain salad, like tabouleh. (Though, yes, quinoa is technically a seed.)Tabouleh...

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Posted in: Mains,Sides,Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

68 Cheap, Healthy No-Cook Recipes

Alas, CHG’s No-Cook month is slowly coming to an end. It’s been a joyous, ovenless journey, sweet readers, and we couldn’t have done it without the blistering sun or the stifling humidity. Thanks, Mama Nature. Article-wise, we’ve already discussed 13 Ways to Cook without an Oven as well as 18 No-Cook Meal Ideas. This week, we’re giving you the actual recipes: 68 inexpensive, nutritionally sound dishes you can make without ever lighting anything on fire. (Hopefully.)Each one of these links comes from either Cheap Healthy Good or my weekly Healthy & Delicious column over at (newly redesigned!) food dynamo Serious Eats. This means three things: A) we know they work, B) there are pretty pictures involved, and C) um … turns out there were only...

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Posted in: Cooking

Ask the Internet: Favorite Weird Kitchen Tool?

Today’s question comes from CHG headquarters, a multi-level high-tech complex buried deep underground in Utah. (Note: Actually, an ancient apartment building in Brooklyn.)Q: This is the Husband-Elect’s bacon fork.It has a single function: to flip his bacon. In his eyes, no other utensil can do the job nearly as well. If I were to ever injure, mar, or disfigure the bacon fork in any way, the world would end. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together ... mass hysteria.Do you or your family own a similar utensil? Something with only one use, but life would be unimaginable without it? A: Readers! This one's all you. What's your most favorite, most bizarre kitchen tool?Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or...

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Posted in: Ask the Internet

No-Cook Month: Watermelon and Feta Salad with Mint

NOTE #1: Hello, readers from Get Rich Slowly! Welcome to Cheap Healthy Good. It's nice to have you here. If you're looking for a good place to get to know us, this post is a good start. Thanks for visiting and enjoy!NOTE #2: Today on Serious Eats: Zucchini Carpaccio with Feta and Pine Nuts, an excellent alternative to a green salad.Dude. It’s watermelon season.Last week, it went on sale for $0.39/pound, so I dragged a 13-pounder home from a supermarket half a mile away. It's been parked on my kitchen table ever since, like some giant, edible bowling ball. Yesterday, I finally cowboyed up and gutted the thing. And now, as you can see from this picture, we have enough watermelon to fill two man-sized storage containers. The problem is, Husband-Elect...

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Posted in: 15 Minutes or Less,Desserts and Snacks,Vegetarian

Saturday Throwback: Food, Frugality, and Fighting Brand Loyalty

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG Archives. This number is from February 2008. Those were the days, Edith. I have a confession: cooking healthily and staying on budget remain constant struggles. Though I’m learning, and hope you’re enjoying the journey, I’m ultimately not an expert chef, dietician, or personal finance guru.But I am a media professional. And I know a little bit about advertising. And I know that the brass ring of every ad agency in existence is brand loyalty. And I know that brand loyalty can cost a food shopper (you, me, us, etc.) a lot of cash.Today’s article focuses on that phenomenon. What is brand loyalty? When does it start? Why is it less than great? How can it be tamed? You might find the piece a bit drier...

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Top 10 Links of the Week: 7/16/10 – 7/22/10

We’re coming to the home stretch of No-Cook Month, sweet readers. Just two more dishes and a giant recipe rundown (coming Wednesday) to go. But first, before we get there, we must experience THE LINKS.From Getcrafty.com.1) Casual Kitchen: Don't Pay Up For That Cookbook! How to Spend Next to Nothing on a Great Recipe CollectionFabulous post about saving big dough on recipe tomes. Between libraries, the interwebs, and your pals, there’s almost no need to buy cookbooks at all. (Except for Cook’s Illustrated books. We must always support Chris Kimball. We MUST.)2) Salon: My new grandmother's cooking changed me foreverThis is the second piece from Riddhi Shah we’ve linked to in the last few weeks, because she’s just a wonderful writer. This essay,...

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Posted in: Links

Veggie Mights: DIY Sprouted Grains

Penned by the effervescent Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about the wide world of Vegetarianism.Last year, I went on a couple of dates with a delightful guy, H. We quickly discovered We Did Not Want the Same Things but had great conversation while we figured it out. Our first date culminated in a meal at a Vietnamese restaurant where I confessed to being a vegetarian and prepared for the backlash. He smiled and one-upped me. He was a vegan.Wow. I’d never even dated a vegetarian before; I was tickled. He continued that he once had been a voracious meat-eater until a healthier-than-thou raw foodist friend annoyed him to the brink of science.After several weeks testing a raw diet on himself, H claimed to feel lighter, stronger,...

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Posted in: Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

18 No-Cook Meal Ideas

No-Cook month continues on CHG! We’ve already tackled 13 Ways to Cook Without an Oven, so today, we’re brainstorming the dishes themselves; food that doesn’t require any heating implement to create. There’s no baking, roasting, grilling, or crockpotting involved whatsoever. All you need is a knife, a cutting board, and a stomach.Fortunately, it’s July, which means we can take full advantage of summer produce. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, corn, melons, plums, nectarines, peaches, herbs, and leafy greens are either here or about to arrive. And that equals wicked variety, massive nutritional value, and low, low prices. Excellent.So, without further ado: 18 no-cook meal ideas. And I'm...

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Posted in: Cooking