Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/25/chef-shows-how-he-eats-for-les.html
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That’s about $24 for one person for 7 days. If he eats 3 meals a day, that’s 21 meals, $1.14 per meal.
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Back when I was living on my own in the Tenderloin of SF for a few months, my meal plan was to buy bags of bulgur wheat and quinoa at a co-op in the Haight, make them into a porridge (the two together make a complete protein) and add things to it like green veggies. Worked out to about 25 cents a day. I saved a lot of money but it wasn’t exactly enjoyable.
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This looks like a job for…
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FWIW that’s actually £25 which is ~$33USD.
None the less…
There’s also no coffee and no meat in that photo/list. Ultimately, it’s all a tad misleading.
Admittedly, at a younger age I ate for far less a week. But, while a loaf of bread and cheap bottle of wine didn’t cost much, it wasn’t much of a long term diet.
You can save tons of money just not buying into the marketing BS from the organic industry. Organic food is not more nutritious, and usually not more sustainable, than conventionally grown produce. But they’ve convinced everyone that it is, so they can charge twice the money. All food is organic. Otherwise, it’s soil.
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It says in the article that the chef is a vegetarian.
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I wonder how much he pays in transport to get to where he can buy this stuff so cheaply and in bulk. “In bulk” implies he’s using a car or van to move stuff around, unless he happens to live in easy walking distance of bulk supply places.
But then, he’s a chef, so maybe he gets it delivered with his restaurant’s supplies.
£18 a week
I must be doing something wrong. I’m lucky if I can get out of the grocery store without spending $30 a meal for 2 people.
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Not to mention the time and effort spent working out ahead of time what he can do to make full meals under the limitations of what’s in season and what’s available, or the time/money he spent learning his trade, such that he can now easily do what takes the rest of us much, much more effort. Sure, I could probably create full menus for pennies. But if it takes many hours to plan/purchase/prepare, is it worth my time?
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Yep. Did this during college, but with lentils and brown rice. My big splurge was to add some curry to it. Nutritionally complete, but man, though I still love curry and rice, and like lentils. The thought of curried lentils makes my stomach ball up to this date. I suppose if I’d had the time to mix the menu up a bit (as well as increased storage space) it wouldn’t have been half bad.
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with ovo-lacto vegetarian recipes
NEXT!
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…plus added pesticides and herbicides.
It may not be more nutritious and / or sustainable, but it does not have those things, some of which are deemed safe merely because they have not yet been noted as harmful.
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My worst student ‘meal’, in desperation because there was nothing else in the cupboard and no funds for a day or three, was spaghetti with Marmite sauce (Marmite diluted with the pasta water).
I love Marmite, but that meal was a new low.
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i’ve been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for almost 30 years. it’s actually not that difficult to do.
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Are you under the impression that organic foods aren’t grown with pesticides? Maybe look into that. Because they are. And often with more, since pesticides approved for organic food use are less effective. Oh, and they’re also less studied, because everyone thinks organic is safer. Because that’s what the organic industry tells them. Pesticide use is an agriculture problem, not an organic/conventional problem.
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As the definition of “organic”, when it comes to produce, means “grown without added pesticides”, and the definition of “organic” for meat/dairy involves zero use of growth hormones – no, that’s not true. Not all food meets that definition. But you are free to eat any food you like if you don’t care about pesticides and growth hormones.
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Good and Cheap: Eat well on $4 a day
Hey, it’s not hard to do. Walk into the grocery store of your choice and buy whatever veg/fruit are cheapest. Most grocery stores, even Whole Foods!, put their loss leaders right at the front door. Then take the Good and Cheap cookbook and look up the stuff you just bought in the index and make recipes using them. Make big batches, don’t cook the rest of the week. No planning involved, especially if you stock your pantry with the items recommended in the book.
I cannot recommend this cookbook enough:
Good and Cheap: Eat well on $4 a day
You don’t even have to buy it, Leanne Brown provides a free pdf of the book here.
I have recommended this cookbook to dozens of " I burn boiled water" folks before as well as actual chiefs. Everyone loves this cookbook and the recipes are packed with nutrition too.
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Ramen noodle + egg is value for money.
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