Are you taking Slow Food’s $5 Challenge on Saturday, September 17? The idea is that you get together to share a meal of sustainable food that costs no more than $5 a person.
I’m more slow to the draw than I am slow food, having just heard about this via Josh’s Viertel’s interview on the Smart Food podcast on Edible Radio, but it sounds like a neat idea and the link above has some tips, which include recipes. He wants to change the challenges that keep some from cooking good, clean food on a budget.
In reading the Slow Food blog, I saw a post about a Lunch Co-op that seemed like a fun idea if you could pull it off:
Nine months, two participant shuffles, six steady members and three check-in meetings later, we are happy to report that our experiment has now become the envious daily practice of our co-workers. The main success is that lunch co-op is still going strong and delicious! Being part of the group pulls us out of our jobs for just a little time every day to share a meal with co-workers.
Whether you’re breaking bread with friends or starting a lunch co-op, don’t forget to get an organic cotton reusable bread bag because as the bag reminds you bread is a gift!
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trashmaster46
September 18, 2011 at 9:35 pmWe hadn’t taken the challenge, but thinking back to tonight’s dinner, it certainly met most of it. had shrimp, bought 1lb at $5.99/lb, and cooked it in a bit of olive oil, along with some thyme and rosemary sprigs from the garden. Served it over basmati rice, about $2.50 for a 2lb bag of rice, of which I made 2 cups, cooked in a chicken stock I’d made from bones & scraps off a roasted chicken we had a few weeks back mixed with onions & herbs from the garden. It made about 4 servings with a little left over.
We also do sandwiches on a fairly regular basis. I’m rather fond of PB&J – I made my own bread and jam, and we typically get peanut butter at Costco, so even with an orange and a handful of chips, it’s a pretty cheap meal.
Next week we’re planning chicken soup – one chicken, roasted, with meat for soup and some for other dishes. Bones go for stock later. Noodles are pretty cheap. Or maybe we’ll use rice again. Carrots & onion & garlic from the garden (already finished off the peas), one stalk of storebought celery, all cooked in stock I made from the last chicken we bought. We might get extravagant and use frozen cheese tortellini instead of egg noodles.
Andi / udandi
September 18, 2011 at 10:09 pmRight on, sounds like you have a good plan for creating delicious meals! We’ve been steered away from eating simply as generation before did because it was too hard or took too much time.