All the egg stuff was behind a cut for length, so you might have missed it, I am going to c/p what Lillian said:
Summary
So, for replacing eggs in baking, which I know is less of a concern, I recommend: ener-g egg replacer. One box is like $12 but it last approximately a bazillion years so it pays for itself quickly.
To replace eggs in dishes like scrambles, tofu is reasonably priced usually (go for extra firm for a scramble) - costs about $2 a pound depending on where you buy. Full of protein and very filling. If possible, find an asian soy specialty store (the one I go to is where all the thai and chinese restaurants shop) and you can get down to $.75/lb.
For breakfast dishes without egg, I recommend black beans. This is why I eat tacos for breakfast. Black beans have less protein than eggs, but they are also a complete protein and complex carb so they’re delicious nutrition packets. Also very cheap. It cost me about $.60 per morning for breakfast including the tortillas, beans, etc.
beans are MUCH MUCH cheaper if you get them dried and prepare them yourself than if you buy them canned. I love having a pressure cooker for this purpose because no longer do I have to soak them.
I make my own hummus for snacks and it gets you a lot of protein combined with whatever you put it on (crackers, carrots, whatever). You can make it with fava beans or garbanzo beans depending on your preference and your
A lot of people use avocado to hit similar fat/protein ratios as eggs, this works well only if you live in a place that has cheap avocados. Here avocados are often $.50-$1 each during peak season. Less true in the midwest or northern Europe
Essentially if you’re looking for protein: beans, hummus (make your own, very cheap), soy (lean towards unprocessed stuff like tofu/tempeh if you want to keep it cheap, the soy-imitation stuff is expensive).
If you’re looking for quick fuel: look for complex carbs like bananas, oats, etc.
Shopping seasonal really helps with produce-y things
if you want to know more about replacing eggs in baking, let me know!
Signed,
A Person Who Used to Manage an Egg-Free Conference Kitchen for 100+ Daily Guests and handle a household food budget for 30 Hungry Vegans
I’ll join. I’m just going to keep it simple and say no fast food or coffee shops all month. Restaurants, even with takeout, haven’t been an issue, but the drive through definitely has. And I can never have just a coffee—now there’s always some treat to go with it, so that’s even more expensive.
I’m cutting caffeine at the same time, so at least that and “no coffee shops” will reinforce each other.
Since my husband does the grocery shopping, I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I’m in!
No alcohol spending (us).
Track alcohol consumption (me). I may go all out with a dry January, tbd.
No takeaway coffee (me)
Track weekly grocery spend (us)
Plan and make at least one dinner per week (me for us) with enough for leftovers for a second dinner.
Oatmeal for breakfast 3x/week (me)
Salad for lunch 3x/week (me)
Track consumption of sparkling water (me). I have largely replaced regular water with sparkling water this year.
Takeaway food max 1x/week (me)
Use 2 bags of frozen tomatoes from the freezer in a recipe this month.
No mindless food waste due to neglect or poor planning; it’s okay to intentionally compost stuff we don’t like (us)
Just to make sure I’m looking at the situation correctly, so does the food go bad in the tupperware or get dumped out when the next groceries come in?
Deborah Madison talks about a friend who plans for a weekly or twice-weekly meal where he combines all the leftovers into a pasta dish, and adds cheese or bacon if required for flavour. I tend to make a pot of rice for my lunches, so I will often use up leftovers that way (or else add roasted eggplant or sweet potato to make it enough for a meal). If bacon or cheese aren’t appropriate, chilli oil or peanut butter often work to make several prepared ingredients come together.
I think it was Tamar Adler who suggests omelettes as a great solution (including for curries), or making open faced sandwiches. My mom saves salad for some reason, and then that can generally get chopped more finely and go into tacos.
What types of food do you tend to have leftover? Could they be reworked as ‘bowls’ or composed salads, or did they have competing flavour profiles?
Great, I’ve run into a hurdle already. D does the grocery shopping and this receipt is rather confusing. Neither of us knows what “PREMIUM 24 OZ FAMI” is.
My first goal is to eat what I have in my cupboard and freezer. I’m setting a grocery budget of $40, in case I need some fresh food.
My second goal is to order takeout less. I sometimes order takeout a few times a week, so I am going to set my goal to 5 times for the month.
So, supper tonight is going to be on specified Mexican something or other that husband cooks. It should use up some of the freezer supplies, so we’re off to a good start. I predict it removes from the freezer frozen peppers and onions, frozen chicken breast or turkey sausage, and a package of the rice I cooked a while back.
I’m so curious to see how this goes! I attempted to track something related once, but I couldn’t quite figure out the right way to do it, so I want to see how your experience goes!
I needed a Snackuary! I have once again happened up the experience of “accidentally splurged too much on unplanned eating out and didn’t get much happiness bang per the buck”, and I’d really like to be more economical with our unplanned eating out.
I’m still thinking on the exact amount, but it’ll be something like having a restriction on the amount allowed for the month on unplanned meals out, where planned meals out are ones posted here at least 2 days before it happening. Maybe $50 of whimsy food orders?
To start, I am planning on four “Sunday fun dinners” on each the 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st.
Freezer cleaning out continues. Tonight husband ate leftovers from last night (used a pound of ground turkey sausage, a pound of frozen peppers and onions, And a ziplock baggie of frozen rice that I made a couple weeks ago). However, I ate the biryani frozen dinner that was left after I bought the special food for my birthday since we can’t go out to eat. Then I finished off my pint of Ben & Jerry’s, so that’s another thing out of the freezer!
I totally nerded out on this idea. You could calculate the joy per $spent on food items and then try to calculate your marginal utility (joy) of each additional item. Then you could plot your marginal utility curves and figure out how to maximize your overall utility/joy given your budget. A simple constrained optimization problem
Week 1 - the splurge is going to be multiple components because this will be our 19th anniversary. I bought tortillas from the butcher that has a Mexican food section (twice as expensive and not as good as our preferred place’s tortillas, but that is a 90 minute walk each way). I will get a flank/ hanger/ skirt steak from the other butcher (exact cut tbd when I go). And I’ll probably get some prepared fresh salsa or guacamole because I didn’t get avocados in time for them to ripen.
I also considered shrimp curry for the meal, but sustainable shrimp from our fishmonger is less reliably in store. Maybe another week.
