busybee Food

Salads

I am a big fan of salad as my primary bulk food.

Generally I start with a base of shredded Romaine lettuce (which I shred myself, then rinse, dry, and store using a salad spinner), and then I’ll dress it with a dressing, then put on cheap but nutritious toppings, such as:

• Roasted sunflower seeds
• Dried cranberries
• Chickpeas, black beans, or other legumes/pulses
• Croutons (easily made from stale bread)

I usually buy my salad dressing but it’s pretty easy to make a nice vinaigrette yourself. Two parts olive oil, one part vinegar, a little mustard, add some Italian seasoning, maybe a little finely-minced shallot, whisk it all up, there you go.

Beans and legumes

I no longer buy canned beans. Instead I buy them dry and in bulk, and always keep a bunch of prepared ones on hand. My basic recipe for that:

1. Put one cup of dried beans into a 32-ounce deli container, and fill it the rest of the way with water and 1-2 tablespoons of salt
2. Soak it overnight
3. The next day, drain and rinse, then put the beans into a pot with two deli containers' worth of water
4. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer
5. 1-2 hours later, you got beans which you can store back in the deli container

These can go on salads as per above, or served with rice. (I am also now a huge fan of my small rice cooker, incidentally.)

You can also use the soaked beans in a stew or soup, with no need to pre-cook them, although if you do that, make sure to not put any acidic ingredients (tomatoes, vinegar, etc.) in until after the beans are cooked soft.

I also love making Indian-style curry. Heat up a pan, toast up some garam masala, then add a cup of cooked chickpeas or kidney beans and a can of stewed tomatoes, and let it cook down for a while. Goes great on rice or with naan.

Also, save some of the water they were cooked in (also known as aquafaba): it’s a great eggwhite substitute, and you can use it for making things like mayonnaise, meringues, and even quiche filling. I always have way more than I know what to do with.

Rotisserie chickens

You know those cheap rotisserie chickens at the grocery store, which are suspiciously inexpensive? Supposedly they’re so cheap because they’re made from the chickens that are close to their expiration date. I say, take advantage of the store’s overbuying tendencies and save some money and some effort.

When I get a chicken, I’ll carve it up and use the meat on salads or in soups, and more importantly, I’ll take the remaining carcass, put it in a stock pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil for an hour or two, which results in extremely good bone broth which you can use as a cooking liquid or as the basis of a soup or stew. Making stock is also a good use for vegetables which need to get used up (especially onions, carrots, and celery). For extra flavor you can try roasting the carcass for 15 minutes at 425°F/220°C beforehand.

Red lentil flatbreads

Red lentils are a great way to get a cheap and easy flatbread that you can use instead of naan or tortillas. Just take a cup of red lentils, soak it in a cup of water with a pinch of salt and maybe some garlic powder and whatever other spices you like (keep it mild though), then blend ‘em up into a thin batter. Then lightly grease a nonstick pan, bring it to medium heat, then scoop in a bit of your lentil batter. Spread it around and let it cook for 2-3 minutes per side (definitely wait until there are bubbles popping on the surface before flipping it the first time), and now you have a great, nutrious, high-protein wrap.

Bread

Making your own bread is actually pretty easy with a bit of planning.

What I do is make a very basic dough based on a flour/salt/water ratio; basically, weigh your flour, then in a large bowl, combine 2% of your flour’s weight in salt, 50% of its weight in water (around body temperature is best), and a teaspoon or so of yeast. Stir it up, then slowly add your flour while keeping it combined.

So for example, 10 grams of salt, 250 grams of water, and 500 grams of flour.

The flour can be any mix that you like. Usually I do about 90% bread flour and 10% rye flour. For a whole wheat bread I’d recommend keeping it around 25% whole wheat (e.g. 375 grams bread flour, 125 grams whole wheat flour), but this is a ratio you can absolutely experiment with.

Anyway. Now you have a dough that you can let proof/rise for a bit. Take a bunch of it for whatever size loaf you want, knead it on a floured surface, shape it into a loaf, and then bake on the center rack at 425°F/220°C for, like, 25 minutes or so, until the internal temperature reaches around 190°F/90°C. It’s also good to put a tray of water on the lower rack to add some steam, but this isn’t strictly necessary. There are plenty of additional techniques you can use to get different shapes of loaves and different crumb textures (with various pans and cuts to the outer skin and so on).

If you have any dough left over, you can use that as the starter for the next batch, and you’ll eventually develop a nice sourdough flavor.

This pre-ferment (also known as a “levain”) can stay in the refrigerator for quite some time and develop flavor while it’s at it. If you’re going to keep one around for a while it’s a good idea to keep refreshing it with additional flour/water/salt to keep the yeast alive.

Any leftover bread can be turned into croutons. Dice it up, toss it in olive oil and your favorite spices, and then throw it into your air fryer or oven at a low temperature (say, 250°F/120°C) for 15-20 minutes, tossing occasionally, as it crisps up.

Pizza dough

Pizza dough is just bread dough. I like using 75% hydration instead of 50% though (so for example, 500 grams of flour gets 375 grams of water), but different hydration levels give different textures.

You could start out with bread dough as above and then bring the hydration up by adding in some water. So, if you have 500 grams of 50% hydration dough, that means you’ve started out with 333 grams of flour and 167 grams of water. Add 83 more grams of water and you have a 75% hydration dough.

You also don’t have to be super precious or precise with your hydration ratios. Experiment with different things!

Taco meat

You can make really good taco meat by taking a pound of some ground meat (beef, chicken, pork, whatever), frying it up with some cumin and crushed red pepper flake, then adding a minced onion and diced potato (and a bit of light olive oil if you used lean meat) and sauteéing/stirring until the potatoes brown. Optionally add some paprika and/or oregano. This goes great in tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and so on. Also stir in some cooked beans (pinto or black especially) for a lighter texture.

Drinks

Water is good for you. Add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice if it’s boring.

If you like coffee, I have a whole section for that. I’d highly recommend getting into home roasting, as a cheap roaster pays for itself surprisingly quickly. Even with current tariffs you can get really good stuff for under $9/pound before roasting (which works out to around $11/pound after roasting).

More resources

I really like The Poorcraft Cookbook, as it’s really good at teaching the basics of cooking cheap but tasty food, and where to get ingredients for cheap.

Food Wishes is a good source of recipes and techniques.

So is Cook Well.

Adam Ragusea and Internet Shaquille have good informative cheap-and-easy cooking content as well, and focus more on making stuff that’s easy, tasty, and cheap, rather than trying to be fancy and impressive.

Anyway. Stay safe. We’ll get through this.