The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen

With the economy still struggling, families all over the world are looking for creative ways to stretch their food budgets further than ever.

If food costs are getting you down, or if you're just looking for a few easy and cost-effective recipes, take heart: Casual Kitchen has you covered. What follows is an extensive list of the best and least expensive recipes ever posted on this site. The recipes below range from inexpensive to downright laughably cheap. Best of all, every single one of them is easy to make. Enjoy!
*****************************
Easy Sopa de Lima
A delicious, scalable soup recipe that costs just over $1.00 per serving.

Red Lentils and Rice
At a laughable cost of only $2-3 in total, this recipe will serve four as a main dish.

Pasta Puttanesca
Don't let a couple anchovies scare you away from one of the most interesting pasta sauces out there. This sauce is extremely inexpensive and it can be made in less than half an hour.

Black Beans and Rice
At 65-70c per serving, this is one of the easiest and least expensive recipes in this entire blog.

Pasta with Tuna, Olives and Roasted Red Peppers
This contains a fully balanced meal, with protein, veggies and carbs, and it can be made for about $1.75 per serving.

Easy Lentil Soup
This recipe is easy to make and it costs a hysterically cheap 60c per serving.

Easy Split Pea Soup
The first part of this post is a curmudgeonly diatribe against salt (you can skip that). But the second part is an easy split pea soup recipe that can feed you for days for only $3-4.

Navy Bean and Kielbasa Soup
A rich and delicious soup that can be made for under $1.00 per serving!

Smoky Brazilian Black Bean Soup
A spicy, delicious and easy to make soup that costs just over $1.50 per serving.

Sauteed Penne with Broccoli and Chickpeas
An unusual and original pasta salad that costs about $1.75 per serving.

Collards with Rice and Kielbasa
It will cost you just $4.00 and 25 minutes of your time to feed four with this easy dish.

Pasta Arrabiata
A simple and delicious pasta dish you can whip up in minutes. Cost: 75c per serving.

Garden Gumbo
A healthy and delicious soup recipe that involves a bit of chopping, but you'll love the price tag of under $1.00 per serving.

Chickpeas, Pasta and Tomato Salad
A balanced and mild pasta salad that costs less than $1.50 per serving.

Thai Pasta Salad
This refreshing pasta dish can be made for around $1.50-$1.75 per serving

Homemade Burritos
One of these burritos can make a light meal; two will make a heavy meal. If you scale this recipe up, you can make these for about $1.00 each.

Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
A house favorite here at Casual Kitchen--a delicious and original pasta sauce with a per-serving cost of around $1.50.

Casbah Curried Chicken
Scroll down past the article about never using cooking wine, and you'll find a healthy and delicious recipe that costs about $1.50-$1.75 per serving.

Chicken Mole
A house favorite, and the recipe that gets by far the most search traffic here at Casual Kitchen. Cost per serving: just $1.25-$1.50.

Risotto
This flexible and fancy-sounding dish is really quite easy. If you stick to basic ingredients, you can make this dish for under $1.00 a serving.

Viennese Potato Soup
Yet another filling and delicious soup that can be made for about $1.00 per serving.

Fresh Corn and Tomato Soup
High in fiber, low in fat and easy on your wallet. This dish costs around $5-$6 to make and it will serve 4-5.

Wintry Tomato Vegetable Soup
A hearty, cool-weather dish that can be made in 45 minutes from start to finish, and costs a little over $1 per serving.

Groundnut Stew
This exotic vegetarian stew is made from easy to find ingredients, and it feeds 7-8 for less than $10 in total. A top favorite recipe here in our home.

Fried Rice
An old warhorse recipe that I've been making for nearly 20 years. You can whip this up in minutes at a cost of less than $1.00 per serving.

Finally, readers, if you have a laughably cheap recipe that you'd like to offer, please share it in the comments below!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday October 9, 2009

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Big Brother is watching us now: The FTC now can fine bloggers who don't disclose payments from companies or products they endorse. Apparently, fines can be as much as $11,000 per post. (WebProNews)

Yes, calories labeling laws actually do work. (The Atlantic)

A touching story of an Indian fasting custom that didn't go quite as expected. (A Life of Spice)

Stock your cleaning cabinet with a full range of home cleaning supplies--for under $25. (Beingfrugal.net)

In a beautifully written post, pro pastry chef Michael Laiskonis describes some of the eureka moments of his life as a cook. (Notes From the Kitchen)

Food prices could triple by 2050, thanks to climate change. (Food Navigator via @DanaMcCauley)

Banana art. (YesButNoButYes)

Recipe Links:
Really useful Sugar Cookie and Icing Tips. (The Hungry Housewife)

An exceptionally easy Pasta Fagioli recipe. (Italian Cooking Recipes)

An amazing Greek-style Rice Salad that looks both easy and inexpensive. (Kalofagas)

A glorious, beyond-awesome, low-flour Nutmeg Dusted Bittersweet Chocolate Cake. (cook eat FRET)

Homemade Tortillas and Black Bean Salsa. (Poor Girl Gourmet)

Off-Topic Links:
How to create your own luck. (Bit Rebels)

How to double your chances for success. (The Change Blog)

How to use "fastdrafting" to flesh out that novel you've always wanted to write. (Girl Meets Word)

For literature geeks only: A physics grad student stumbles onto Paradise Lost and decides to calculate exactly how high up Satan was when he was cast out of heaven. (Built On Facts)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Obesity and the Obama Administration: A Blogger Roundtable Discussion

Ask any doctor or health expert to tell you what's the most pressing medical issue in American today and he or she will say, "Obesity." Not cancer, not heart disease, not high blood pressure, but obesity. All it takes is a simple look around the country to see that most Americans need help with their diets.

Once again, I thought this was a perfect issue to bring to the Casual Kitchen Blogger Roundtable (see other Blogger roundtable discussions here at Casual Kitchen). And so, I sent this question around to our roundtable team members:

What is your top suggestion for the Obama administration to help solve America's obesity epidemic?

As expected, their responses were blunt, creative and further proof that great ideas come when we think together. Here are their thoughts:

Joy, author of What I Weigh Today:
The most important thing is to implement health insurance reform that would provide income-sensitive coverage for everyone and that would include prevention, nutrition counseling, access to fitness centers, early and regular testing for the so-called lifestyle diseases and mental health care.

Another extremely important action the Obama administration could take would be to remove the subsidies built into the farm bill that make it profitable to mass produce the kinds of food that compromise our health while making it expensive and difficult to grow the kinds of food that promote health. Greater oversight and regulation of the processed food industry is also urgently needed.

Joanne, author of Eats Well With Others:
First of all, BAN HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Unlike glucose or other sugars, the human body has difficulty regulating the absorption of fructose, and it can easily lead to insulin-resistance and diabetes.

Second, EDUCATION IS KEY. Before I set about losing my fifty pounds I had no idea what a calorie was. Sure, I knew what was “good” and “bad” but only in a very abstract way. For example, how many people realize a 1500 calorie McDonald’s value meal is equal to their calorie expenditure for the day, or one lemon poppy seed muffin from Costco has the same calories as 10 apples?

A good way to remediate this would be to start teaching kids about nutrition when they are young. We can teach them the difference between first and second order foods and introduce them to fruits and vegetables in an appealing way in the same way we have DARE programs in schools to teach children that drugs and alcohol are bad.

Tara, author of Beach Eats:
My suggestion would be to focus on some combination of nutritional education and the revision of school lunch programs. I believe its important to build a foundation for life-long healthy eating and what better place to start than with our nation's youth? If school lunch programs could be revamped to focus on fresh, whole foods, rather than salty, fatty, manufactured junk, we might begin to develop a broader segment of the population committed to eating well from the start.

Jules, author of stonesoup:
Educate, educate, educate. If people don't know the basics of preparing fresh, nutritious inexpensive and most of all satisfying food, we will never be able to beat obesity.

Tyler, author of 344 Pounds:
While the obesity epidemic is a serious health risk to America, I don't believe it's the responsibility of any government--Republican or Democrat--to tell anybody how they should live their lives, even if it's "for their own good." While I support trying to solve the obesity epidemic in America, I don't believe it's the government's job to protect people from themselves.

That being said, there are wonderful organizations operating with private donations (including mine) like Bill Clinton's Alliance for a Healthier Generation. It tries to educate our youth on the benefits of eating healthy, exercise, and the risks of obesity.
**********************************
Readers, here's your chance to sound off. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Related Posts:
How Food Companies Hide Sugar in Plain Sight
Stacked Costs and Second-Order Foods: A New Way to Think About Rising Food Costs
15 Creative Tips to Avoid Holiday Overeating
Why Our Food Industry Isn't So Bad After All
The Problem with Government Food Safety Regulation

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Who's Watching the Watchdogs? Ethical Problems in the "Ten Riskiest Foods" Report By the CSPI

Here's where I correct an example of raging intellectual dishonesty from a well-meaning food safety watchdog group.
**************************************************
Anyone listening to the news over the past day or two has probably heard a news blurb or two on a highly critical report about the dangers of eating 10 surprisingly risky foods.

This report was written by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer watchdog group that has done an amazing job putting together a report that's both controversial and highly disturbing. And most importantly, the report is easy for reporters to work into an attention-grabbing story.

Too bad it's an utter non-story.

In today's post I'm going to discuss exactly why it's a non-story, and I'm going to raise questions about the ethics of manufacturing an apparent health scare in order to draw attention to a watchdog organization's agenda.

First, the report itself, which lists ten surprising foods already regulated by the FDA that led to more than 48,000 cases of food-borne illness. These foods, in order, are:

1) LEAFY GREENS: 13,568 reported cases of illness
2) EGGS: 11,163 reported cases of illness
3) TUNA: 2341 reported cases of illness
4) OYSTERS: 3409 reported cases of illness
5) POTATOES: 3659 reported cases of illness
6) CHEESE: 2761 reported cases of illness
7) ICE CREAM: 2594 reported cases of illness
8) TOMATOES: 3292 reported cases of illness
9) SPROUTS: 2022 reported cases of illness
10) BERRIES: 3397 reported cases of illness

All told, these ten foods accounted for a total of 48,206 cases of illness (the report gives no fatality information, but I would guess less than 1% of these resulted in deaths). The press release goes on to drop this exceptionally well-chosen money quote from CSPI staff attorney Sarah Klein:

"It is clearly time for FDA's reliance on industry self-regulation to come to an end. The absence of safety plans or frequent inspections unfortunately means that some of our favorite and most healthful foods also top the list of the most risky."

Pretty compelling stuff, huh?

We don't find out until the very end of the report, however, that these are the sum total of food-borne illnesses reported over a 17 year period from 1990 to 2006. That means that on a per year basis, there are approximately 2,835 illnesses per year.

And that, unfortunately, ruins everything.

Let me explain by putting these numbers in perspective. The USA has a population of more than 300 million. 2,835 people are sickened by these ten foods each year. That means that your odds of getting sick on these foods are roughly, 1 in 105,820 per year (or, expressed in percentage form, it works out to less than 1 one thousandth of one percent). The odds of dying? Probably well less than one in a million.

I will take those odds any day. Please pass the spinach and eggs.

Even if you swallow the CSPI's assertion that the list above represents only 40% of reported illnesses (thus the total could be 7089/year), we're talking about an illness rate of 2.4 thousandths of one percent.

Now I very much feel for anyone who's suffered from food poisoning, but anybody with a calculator can tell that this is not only not a health crisis, it is not even a rounding error. Compare the above data to the real health crisis of highway deaths, which run between 38,000 and 41,000 per year. Yes, that's right, per year. (And these are highway deaths, not highway "illnesses.") Now that is a legitimate health crisis, but somehow it doesn't seem to resonate quite the same way as dying from a pint of ice cream.

Here's why reports like this infuriate me, and why they should infuriate you too. People are going to avoid healthy foods because of this report. They are going to worry unnecessarily after hearing about this report. Worst of all, they are going to worry about the wrong things. I'm sure the CSPI means well, but they've written a report that actually hurts the public.

But it certainly doesn't hurt the CSPI. In fact, this report helps the CSPI gain attention and grow in scope and stature. Which brings me to my next point. Why do reports like this get written, and why is it that they are quickly picked up and widely disseminated by the mass media?

Because they are constructed specifically for that purpose. What talk radio show or news program isn't going to run with a story about food borne illness from foods like lettuce that are otherwise thought to be healthy? And along with lots of free media attention, the CSPI gets the warm patina of being an altruistic organization out to fight for healthy food. After all, "fighting for healthy food" is kind of like rooting for puppies, isn't it?

Now, what if I were to ask: what is the purpose of a watchdog/advocacy group like the CSPI? You might logically answer, "oh, well of course, they care about our food supply."

You'd be wrong. That's the CSPI's secondary purpose. Their primary purpose is to get noticed and thereby secure contributions, donations and support. And judging by this latest flurry of news coverage on their latest report, I'd argue that they are very good at that. The question is, at what cost, and with what unintended consequences?

If the CSPI mis-informs the public about a health crisis that isn't, and as a result causes us to expend resources, tax dollars and political energy on areas that do not need that attention, then the CSPI's ends do not justify their means. This, in a nutshell, is exactly what's wrong with our media and many of our watchdog and lobbying groups.

Therefore, in the future, when you see a news story on the food industry that sounds particularly horrifying, do two things. Listen with a jaundiced ear, and note what organization wrote it. If it's the CSPI, keep today's article in mind.

Readers, what do you think? Is it ethical for advocacy groups to bend and massage the truth to gain attention for their cause--even if it's ostensibly a good cause?

Sources:
CSPI's own press release on the report
The full CSPI report itself

Other media outlets that gullibly picked up the story:
Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Calls grow for tougher food safety regulations
New York Times: Ten Common Food Poisoning Risks
ABC News: Where's the Beef? 10 Unexpectedly Risky Foods

A follow up article from the blog of Sarah Klein, a CSPI staff attorney and the report's lead author:
Are we all crash test dummies for the food industry?

Understandably angry responses from food industry sites:
Media Should Treat CSPI Report With Skepticism
An Outbreak of Distortion

Related Posts:
Stacked Costs and Second-Order Foods: A New Way to Think About Rising Food Costs
How to Give Away Your Power By Being a Biased Consumer
Brand Disloyalty
41 Ways You Can Help the Environment From Your Kitchen
A Recession-Proof Guide to Saving Money on Food

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Four Steps to Put an End to Overeating

David Kessler was arguably the most activist FDA Commissioner in history. Now, he's back in the spotlight with a new book, The End of Overeating(here's my rabidly positive review if you missed it), in which he lists four controversial recommendations to rein in a food industry that he believes has run amok.

Are his suggestions good ideas or hopelessly misguided? In my view, a little of both. Let's take a look.

1) "Restaurants should list the calorie counts of all foods they serve on their menu--by mandate, if they're not willing to do so voluntarily."

Let me admit up front that I've only recently come around to agreeing with this idea. I'd always taken more of a free-market view towards food, both in restaurants and in stores, and for a long time I was completely against the recently-enacted rules requiring major chain restaurants to post calorie counts for their menu items. My logic fell along the lines of "hey, nobody puts a gun to your head and makes you wolf down that Monster Thickburger, so let's focus instead on personal responsibility and eating in moderation."

However, after learning about the many food engineering, processing and layering techniques the restaurant industry uses to entice diners to eat far beyond their daily needs, I've come to believe that the preposterous calorie counts of restaurant dishes should be revealed to consumers, and all restaurants, chains or not, should fall under these rules. Consumers should know exactly what they're getting themselves into when they order a meal. Furthermore, a mandate like this will give restaurants an instant incentive to put several lower-calorie options on their menus. If you disagree, I'd love to hear why.

2) "All food products should convey prominently on their labels the percentage of added sugars, refined carbohydrates, and fats they contain."

Again, agreed, and I didn't even have to come around to this one. I've felt all along that the federally mandated labels on packaged food don't go far enough. For more on this subject, and to see a particularly devious way to exploit labeling requirements in order to hide the contents of a processed food, see my post on how to hide sugar in plain sight. Kessler's recommendation would add the final piece of the puzzle for the consumer to make truly informed decisions about the packaged foods they buy.

3) "Well-funded public education campaigns should address the issue of "big food." People need to hear repeatedly, from many sources, that selling, serving, and eating food layered and loaded with sugar, fat, and salt has negative, unhealthy consequences."

The model that Kessler wants to follow is that of government funded anti-tobacco advertising. One could imagine gruesome photos of clogged arteries, or appetite-killing descriptions of advanced Type II diabetes symptoms.

I have issues here: it's one thing for the government to use tax dollars to sponsor advertising on something that literally kills you. It's another thing to have the government sponsor negative advertising on something that only kills you when eaten to ridiculous, Homer Simpson-esque levels of excess. Is it fair to punish everyone for the sins of a few people who eat too much of a good thing, and more importantly, is this an intelligent use of tax dollars? I think it's a stretch to say yes.

4) "Food marketing should be monitored and exposed. When the industry promotes superstimulants that lead to conditioned and driven behavior, it's not presenting neutral information; it's promoting harmful behavior."

This is the squishiest and most dangerously broad of Kessler's ideas, and I'd hate to see the 1,000 page bill that comes plopping out of Congress to try and satisfy this vaguely phrased recommendation. Not to mention, we already have a government agency that monitors advertising and marketing: The Federal Trade Commission. Perhaps a more prudent idea would be to stiffen that agency's regulations and policies first.

Readers, what do you think about these recommendations? Fair? Or foul?

Finally, for those of you who haven't yet read David Kessler's The End of Overeating, do so. It's well worth it.

Related Posts:
How to Lie About the Soda Tax
Just Say No to Overpriced Boxed Cereal
Why Our Food Industry Isn't So Bad After All
Stacked Costs and Second-Order Foods: A New Way to Think About Rising Food Costs
Eat Right to See Right: Foods for Better Eye Health




How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday October 2, 2009

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: follow me on Twitter!
*************************
A food blogger goes to the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit and witnesses the use of force on protesters and onlookers--including the first-time use of LRADs on American citizens. (Another One Bites the Crust)

Tyler reveals another enormous side benefit of his amazing weight loss journey: his high blood pressure completely vanishes. (344 Pounds)

Kate goes to a Volksfest in Germany and has the best time of her entire life. (Accidental Hedonist)

A touching anecdote about how Julia Child never let anything go to waste. (In the Kitchen with Dorrie Greenspan)

Dannon settles a deceptive advertising lawsuit on health claims of "probiotic" yogurt. (Bargaineering)

Recipe Links:
Dave shows us how to make the tastiest steak he's ever had: Sous Vide Steaks. (Food & Fire)

A seredipitous and exotic Moroccan Nectarine and Plum Chicken. (Christie's Corner)

Adam shows us how to make a Chocolate Souffle--and it's easier than you'd think! (The Amateur Gourmet)

A simple recipe for Homemade Playdough. I bet it tastes a whole lot better than actual Play-doh. Not that I've tried it of course. (Home Ec 101)

Off-Topic Links:
The Culturematic: anthopologist Grant McCracken lays bare the laughably simple mechanism behind almost all of our culture. A brilliant short essay. (Grant McCracken's Blog)

How NOT to suck at blogging. (Man vs. Debt)

A classic essay on the curse of having too much stuff. (paulgraham.com)

Grading the conventional wisdom on saving and investing. (Consumerism Commentary)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Casual Kitchen's Top Five of the Month: September 2009

This once-a-month post is for those readers who may not get a chance to read everything here at CK, but who still want to keep up with the best and most widely read articles.
*********************
Top Five of the Month for September 2009:

1) How Food Companies Hide Sugar in Plain Sight

2) Scarred for Life by a Food Industry Job

3) How to Give Away Your Power By Being a Biased Consumer

4) Review: The End of Overeating by David Kessler

5) On the True Value of a Forgotten Restaurant Meal

From the Vault: Top Five Posts from One Year Ago:

1) Why Spices Are a Complete Rip-Off and What You Can Do About It

2) Ten Tips to Save Money on Spices and Seasonings

3) How to Make an Apple Pie with a Perfect Flaky Crust

4) Catalan Mushroom Soup (Sopa de Bolets)

5) How to Make the Best Cornbread. Ever.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!