Ellen Brown - $3 Meals in Minutes: Delicious, Low-Cost Dishes for Your Family That Can Be Prepared in No Time!

Copyright 2009 by Ellen Brown

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to The Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

The Lyons Press is an imprint of The Globe Pequot Press.

Text design: Sheryl P. Kober

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN 978-1-59921-822-9

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

While writing a book is a solitary endeavor, its publication is always a team effort. My thanks go to:

Ed Claflin, my agent, who had faith in the various iterations of this project, as well as for his constant support and great sense of humor.

Eugene Brissie, of The Lyons Press, for his faith in me and my ideas.

Ellen Urban, of The Lyons Press, editor extraordinaire, for her guidance and help all through the production process, and Jessie Shiers for her eagle-eyed copy editing.

My many friends who shared their culinary wisdom and tips for saving money.

Tigger and Patches, my furry companions, who personally endorse all fish and seafood recipes.

If youre feeling stressed about the dilemma of how to feed your family healthy food in a jiffy each night for very little money, youre not alone. Your quandary is shared by millions of Americans, and the number continues to grow.

Thats where $3 Meals in Minutes, and the other books in the $3 Meals series, enters your life and your kitchen. Youll learn that you can produce delicious meals that are on the table in less time than it takes to watch the evening news, and are more healthful because they contain real ingredients and not processed foods.

The goal of the $3 Meals series is an ambitious one; this small amount of moneyless than the cost of a large fast food burger or a slice of gourmet pizzais for your whole meal! That includes the greens for your tossed salad and the dressing with which its tossed. It includes the pasta or rice you cook to enjoy all the gravy from a stew. And it includes a sweet treat for dessert. So unlike many books that promise cost-conscious cooking, this book shows you how to achieve savings beyond the entree.

Youre cooking to combat what I call the 3 Cs of modern living cost, convenience, and chemicals. You pay more money for convenience foods that are loaded with chemicals. Its as simple as that. The 3 Cs are an evil trio, and cooking these recipes, youll learn how to avoid bumping into them.

These dishes are made with real ingredients that once grew from the land, walked upon it, or swam in its waters. These recipes do utilize canned beans and tomatoes, plus some inexpensive frozen vegetables that do not diminish the quality of a dish and speed its preparation. But those are foods that are minimally processed and represent a good value, too. Canned tomatoes, for example, have better flavor than fresh ones bought for a lot more money out of season, and frozen spinach delivers the same nutritional value as fresh and can be prepared in a fraction of the amount of time.

There are a few ingredient compromises taken to trim costs; however, these shortcuts trim preparation time, too. This is the first book Ive written for which I used bottled lemon and lime juice in recipe development rather than freshly squeezed juices from the fruits themselves; I discovered it took a bit more juice to achieve the flavor I was after, but with the escalated cost of citrus fruits, this was a sacrifice I chose to make. Ive also limited the range of herbs and spices specified to a core group of fewer than a dozen. Theres no need to purchase an expensive dried herb that you may never use again.

On the other hand, there are standards I will never bend. I truly believe that unsalted butter has a flavor that is far superior to margarine, therefore, any minimal cost savings from using margarine was not worth the trade-down in flavor. Good quality Parmesan cheese, freshly grated when you need it, is another ingredient well worth the splurge. You use very little of it because once grated it takes up far more volume than in a block, and its innate flavor is far superior.

The same is true for using fresh parsley, cilantro, and dill. While most herbs deliver flavor in their dried form, these leafy herbs do not. Luckily, they are used so often that they are inexpensive to buy and dont go to wasteespecially with the tricks Ill teach you on how to preserve their freshness.

Youll find cooking the recipes in this book that budget is hardly synonymous with boring. The recipes are for great American foods and foods from cuisines that are increasingly popular options in this country. These dishes have vibrant flavors, but theyre not made with exotic ingredients that cost a lot of money and that you might not use again.

The recipes are arranged by category of food and cooking method rather than by the dominant ingredient. Within each chapter, the recipes follow the same sequence; they start with vegetarian options, and then progress through fish, poultry, and meats. The reason for this approach is to think of foods in terms of how they are prepared, and some methodssuch as stir-frying and sautingare far faster than others. Also, many nights you know you want a salad for dinner, so all the entre salads are grouped together rather than having to use the index to locate them. And at the beginning of each chapter is a discussion about each cooking method, if appropriate.

While specific cooking methods are important to learn, general tips for speeding up your time in the kitchen are detailed in Chapter 2. Like any activity, the more you do it, the more accomplishedand in this case, fasteryou should become. But there are some skills, such as how to hold knives to achieve the best results, that are important to know for all cooking.

Many of the skill-building tips, as well as tips for saving money, come from my years running a professional kitchen. Wasteeither of ingredients or staff timeeat away at profits, so they had to be avoided.

A good number of the recipes in $3 Meals in Minutes began as staff meals in the professional kitchen. These are the foods cooked in a short time to feed the hungry folk who work there. They could be dishwashers who were happy with anything Id make because it was free, to chefs and sous chefs with discerning palates. They were always happy with the food, and I hope you will be, too.

It makes little difference especially when youre holding your breath in the supermarket checkout line watching the total risethat people in other industrialized countries envy the relatively small percentage of income that Americans spend on food. All you know is that a gallon of milk is now significantly more expensive than a gallon of gas, and a pound of chopped sirloin now costs what a real steak did a few years ago, even discounting the influence of inflation.

And youre not only spending more money at the supermarket now, youre spending more time, too. All those warnings! Does this contain trans fat? If this pudding is sugar-free, whats making it sweet? The alternative to cookingstopping for the bucket of chicken or box of pizza on the way homeis now a luxury rather than a viable alternative to feed your family for mid-week meals.