Veggie Might: Top 5 Reasons I Love New York + A Recipe

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.Today, my Fair Readers, is the 15th anniversary of the day my pal JBF dropped me, my two milk crates of books, and my dreams in front 201 W. 91st, New York, NY. Our journey originated in Orlando, took side trips to our respective familial homes in North Carolina and Virgina, and ended with JBF settling in Princeton, NJ and me in the Big City. Fifteen years, three apartments, and 17 roommates later, I’m still here and loving New York.Top 5 Reasons I Love New York1. Each neighborhood is like its own little city. Residents get to know their neighbors, the best places to buy groceries, which laudromat gives the most time per quarter, and the coffee...

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Posted in: Mains,Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

Creating a Global Pantry

Exploring a new cuisine can be exciting and intimidating. Flavors and ingredients are sometimes unfamiliar, and the techniques can be tricky. But trying new food is an adventure, and it’s less stressful when you realize that the strange is not so strange at all.American food is a mishmash of influences, primarily western European: English, French, German, and Italian. We use lots of parsley, oregano, garlic, and onions in our everyday cooking, with a little sage thrown in at Thanksgiving. So do many other cultures.When I first started cooking Indian food, I was worried that I would blow a week’s pay on spices just to learn a few dishes. Not true. I found after reading a few recipes that I had several of the Indian staple ingredients in my...

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Posted in: Buying Food,Frugality,Organization

Green Kitchen: Chunky Spiced Unsweetened Applesauce

Green Kitchen is a bi-weekly column about nutritious, inexpensive, and ethical food and cooking. It’s penned by the lovely Jaime Green.I'd like to take a moment to think on the lessons of zucchini.I greet the first greenmarket zucchini with excitement – just like every vegetable's first seasonal appearance, this is a momentous occasion. Fresh and bright and less than $2 a pound, I take them home in big bundles, sauteeing them simply for the sweet zucchini flavor.Fast-forward to August and we're like, Uggh, please, no more zucchini! I know you are cheap, summer squash, but I am sick of you.Friends, let us not let the apple fall prey to the same late-season disenchantment.We must take action now, at the start of apple season, to ward off an...

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Posted in: Dips and Sauces,Green Kitchen,Vegan,Vegetarian

Ask the Internet: How Do You Organize Your Recipes?

Sweet Angela, Bea, and Rosalind, readers! Ask and ye shall receive. Last week, I threw myself at your feet and you lifted me up with more slow cooker tips and recipes than I can use in this lifetime. I am heartily grateful.This week’s multi-part question is born out two-parts need for decluttering solutions and one-part sheer curiosity:Q: Readers, I gotta know, 1) how do you keep track of your recipes and 2) what’s your favorite method for reading a recipe while cooking? Dog-earred cookbooks? An index card file? Are you going digital? 3)What are your favorite recipe organization tools/applications?A: My 1-ft by 1-ft countertop makes using cookbooks cramped and messy. Recently, I used Charming Boyfriend’s smartphone to pull up a recipe while...

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Posted in: Ask the Internet

Broccoli Quiche

Please welcome Michele Laikowski, actress, voiceover artist, mom to the cutest boy in the Tri-State, and forever friend of CHG. And today on Serious Eats: Shredded Beet, Apple, and Currant Salad with Apple Vinaigrette. I made, ate, and loved dried fruit in a salad. Is that a horseman, I see? Hi CHG readers! The last time I was here, my son was 7 months old and I was discovering ways to make baby food. Actually, I discussed making pureed peas and lamented the lack of space in my Brooklyn apartment.Well, now, we’re at the stage in his life where he eats big-people food, and he wants to eat it NOW. That leaves a working mom, who picks up her kid at 6 pm, trying to figure out how to distract him for as long as possible while cooking a nutritious...

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Posted in: Eggs,Mains,Vegetarian

Saturday Throwback: Weekly Menu Planning for Singles, Couples, and Working People

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG archives. This one is from March 2009.Spend an afternoon perusing family-oriented frugality blogs, you’ll discover there are a few recurring themes. Among them: yard sales, thrift store shopping, a widespread love of free shampoo, and of course, weekly menu planning.Menu planning, it’s argued, will streamline evenings in the home. Ma and Pa are saved money, time, and mounds of frustration because they know what the brood’s having for dinner days ahead of time. There’s no scrambling in the kitchen or supermarket, since both shopping and cooking are refined to a science. Kids (sometimes) get to have a say in what they eat, too, which makes the whole thing a family activity rather than merely a parental chore.All in all, it’s a fantastic strategy....

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Posted in: Buying Food,Cooking,Frugality,Organization

Top Ten Links of the Week: 9/17/10 - 9/23/10

1) BBC: UN Holds Key Meeting on Food PricesToday in Rome, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is gathering, “sparked by global fears about high food prices.” Among their concerns: the Russian export ban due to recent drought, riots in Mozambique over high grain prices, and the continually rising price of grain-currently at a two-year high.2) Food Politics: A Decent Food Safety System: Will we ever get one?Marion Nestle explains how politics shapes and hinders U.S. food policy, and wonders if we will ever get it right.3) MOMA: Counter Space: Design + the Modern KitchenA new exhibit at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art explores how the kitchen influences politics, design, pop culture and vice versa. The images curated here are captivating,...

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Posted in: Links

Veggie Might: Easy Tomato Sauce

Penned by the effervescent Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about the wide world of Vegetarianism.For years I avoided making my own tomato pasta sauce based on several misconceptions:1) Jarred sauce is fine2) Making homemade tomato sauce is hard3) You have to be Italian with instinctual sauce know-howLet’s debunk these one at a time.1) Jarred sauce is fine if you like bland sauce and don’t mind spending just as much time and effort “perking up” what comes out of the jar as you would making a batch from scratch. Plus, jarred sauces are high in sodium and preservatives that keep the smiling at you on the shelf for a good long time. They can also get expensive.2) Making homemade tomato sauce is hard if you think chopping is hard....

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Posted in: Dips and Sauces,Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

Trading Butter for All the Broccoli in China: Getting Healthy Takes Practice

Making her CHG debut, please welcome today's guest blogger, Amy Dickenson. Amy is an actor, writer, producer, and mom to the cutest baby girl in the five boroughs.Forty. Forty is the new 30, right? Well, in my house, 40 is starting to look like the new 60. My gorgeous husband and I have recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol—hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, to be fancy, like certain cheeses which I love and will never be able to eat again.Photo: Jami Dwyer via FlickrLet’s jump in the Crisco Time Machine. It all started 18 years ago when our courtship took a decided slant toward biscuits slathered in butter and jam. Have you ever tasted butter? It’s like a miracle married to a unicorn wrapped in a rainbow....

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Posted in: Buying Food,Cooking,Health

Ask the Internet: Do You Use a Slow Cooker?

Readers, you have installed Greek yogurt as Queen and Supreme Ruler of Mayofreeland and avocado as Prime Minister. Soft, spreadable cheeses and sour cream are their trusted advisers. Enemies of mayo rejoice!For this week’s question I took a look deep inside (my kitchen):Q: My mother gave me a slow cooker many years ago, at my request. I use it to make beans, collards, and oatmeal. Up to now, I’ve been fairly content with my alternating shining success/burning failure within this repertoire, but I’d like to expand. (And avoid setting off the smoke detector when I’m not home.)Do you have any good vegetarian slow cooker recipes or resources? How about general slow cooker tips for expediting mealtime?A: CHG readers, it’s all you today! The comments await your sage advice. Thank you!Want to ask...

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Janice's Glazed Carrots

Please welcome Cindee Weiss, writer, comedian, and dear friend of CHG, who is here today to knock our socks off with deliciousness. And today on Serious Eats: Top-Crust Peach and Cardamom Pie: the most delectable way to ease the transition from summer to fall. Hello kind readers! It's nice to be back in the cozy and delicious world of Cheap Healthy Good, as I am in the throes of the Jewish High Holidays. Equal parts celebratory and somber, Fall is peeking in, and there's holiday food. OH THE FOOD! It's not gourmet, or fussy, or experimental. It's also not a meal one takes lightly. When the appetizer is chopped liver on challah or rye bread, you know that this will be a meal that demands attention. What follows after the chopped liver is something...

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Posted in: Sides,Vegetarian

Saturday Throwback: Learning to Love the Foods You Hate: A Guide for Frugal Eaters

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG archives. This one is from April 2009. Up until a few years ago, the list of foods I loathed was a long one. It included, but wasn’t limited to: spaghetti squash, broccoli, asparagus, red cabbage, ginger ale, cauliflower, radishes, lentils, beans, Brussels sprouts, fennel, eggplant, anise, scallops, figs, and of course, the dreaded mayonnaise. The list goes on (and on), but you get the idea: growing up, I wasn’t exactly a daring eater.I still hate mayo. I will ALWAYS hate mayo. George Clooney could serve me mayo wrapped in chocolate bacon on a gold-plated re-issue of Who’s Next, and I would throw it back in his face. But my opinion’s changed on most of those other foods. These days, I’ll gladly scarf...

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Posted in: Cooking,Frugality

Top Ten Links of the Week: 9/10/10 - 9/16/10

1) Food Politics: This Is Good News? UN Says 925 million People Are Chronically Hungry2) NY Times: Ranks of Hungry Shrink, but Remain LargeTen years after the world’s wealthiest nations promised to reduce hunger by half in 15 years, there has been .5% decrease in the number of hungry people around the globe. But experts say the situation is not hopeless. “While all the movement in terms of aid is in the right direction, [Jacques Diouf, the director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization] said, the pace needs to be accelerated.”3) Food Politics: Corn Refiners Ask FDA to Replace “HFCS” with “Corn Sugar”Big Corn wants a little rebranding for HFCS, I see. Be sure to check out Marion Nestle’s reader updates on the etymology...

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Posted in: Links