http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/10/earlyshow/saturday/chef/main4711905.shtml?go_ramen#ccmm

I wonder where this chef was trained and on what planet.

Basically a CBS article talking about cheap budget dinner for less than $35/meal. Ingredients include things such as chevre, blood oranges and lamb.

The comments are gold.

1/13/2009 9:11:22 PM

Quote :

"Comments Are Closed For This Story"

1/13/2009 9:14:33 PM

Awesome comments. lol at everyone spewing hate for Katie Couric

1/13/2009 9:23:49 PM

i don't even know what the fuck a chevre is

a shoestring dinner for me is a pack of smokehouse cheddar lance crackers and a cup of noodles.

1/13/2009 9:24:23 PM

a goat

1/13/2009 9:26:57 PM

^it's cheese made from goat milk. It's 4/10 compared to good cow-based cheese. Usually really soft and a VERY pungent odor.

1/13/2009 9:27:10 PM

i could feed four people for about $15 per meal. what's that clown thinking?

1/13/2009 9:59:00 PM

1. rice
2. beans
3. ?
4. profit!

1/13/2009 10:10:24 PM

you can do way better than beans and rice for $15

1/13/2009 10:11:56 PM

I can eat 3 meals a day for a week for $35...

Pretty decent meals at that...

1/13/2009 10:12:23 PM

Your dear author is an idiot. $35 a meal isn''t a budget--that''s better than $12K for a DINNER budget alone. Congrats. That''s more than great many folks make in a year.

How''s about your staff try to touch base with the reality that folks are actually living?

1/13/2009 10:13:41 PM

$35 for a meal for four?
Get back to me when you feed a family of four on $35 a week, and it's healthy food.

[Edited on January 13, 2009 at 10:15 PM. Reason : wrong unit]

1/13/2009 10:13:50 PM

35 dollar shoestring
60 dollar socks

1/13/2009 11:14:25 PM

Your dear author is an idiot. $35 a meal isn''t a budget--that''s better than $12K for a DINNER budget alone. Congrats. That''s more than great many folks make in a year.

How''s about your staff try to touch base with the reality that folks are actually living?

1/13/2009 11:44:30 PM

WTF FUCK DAT I JUST LIVE

1/14/2009 12:18:14 AM

srsly. i could have made at least 10 portions with what i bought for dinner last night, and it only cost me like 23 bucks.


sweet potatoes
green beans
red pepper
a fennel bulb

frozen salmon


as it is, it fed 3 with leftovers, and that was only half of the stuff.



the key to eating cheap AND well is to stay the fuck away from prepackaged foods. i only shop around the edges of the grocery store, except to get rice, pasta, occasional condiments and crackers.

1/14/2009 12:20:44 AM

Quote :

""Chef on a Shoestring"? What kind of shoes? Christian Louboutins? "

1/14/2009 12:21:54 AM

Reminds me of that $40 a day show where she acted like it was something special to feed just herself for only $40 a day. Now if they showed how some janitor feeds his kids for $40 a week, that would be interesting to watch.

1/14/2009 2:09:59 AM

you have to remember the audience, to NYC $35 a meal is like chump change.

1/14/2009 2:19:28 AM

The comments on this article are 10/10. I do have to ask why these people couldn't use the shift key for their acronyms, though.

1/14/2009 2:19:49 AM

Quote :

"WHO IN BLAZES"

1/14/2009 3:29:02 AM

TARNATION

1/14/2009 3:30:31 AM

Quote :

"you have to remember the audience, to NYC $35 a meal is like chump change."

The only logical explanation, because otherwise CBS is run by morons who don't know what a shoestring is.

1/14/2009 8:02:48 AM

I understand what you're saying

but I also can get myself a meal for $3 in NYC

don't forget that it takes armies of poor people to support the rich

1/14/2009 8:09:40 AM

They've done the "shoestring" dinner story on the air quite a few times. Every time they draw the exact same criticism. They should really reconsider the name of the segment.

1/14/2009 8:11:52 AM

^^you some kind of reaganite?

[Edited on January 14, 2009 at 8:12 AM. Reason : ^]

1/14/2009 8:12:11 AM

Quote :

"Reminds me of that $40 a day show where she acted like it was something special to feed just herself for only $40 a day."

That was different though, she ate out at 3 places in a different city every week, had dessert, and a beer or wine at dinner. I remember she tipped like 10% too, haha.

1/14/2009 8:17:01 AM

Quote :

" Next, you''ll tell me how to save money on the purchase of a new car by buying a Rolls Royce. "

1/14/2009 8:45:54 AM

every family could save up to $10k per year simply by hiring an accountant to weasel them out of taxes for the wealthy

1/14/2009 8:47:53 AM

Quote :

"HUBIESTUBERT FOOD RANT"

1/14/2009 8:50:43 AM

35 dollars isn't outlandishly expensive, as some of the frugal fucks here would have you to believe

Its also not really budget-level either

The whole point of eating at home is to save money

If you're spending 9-10 bucks a person anyway, you might as well eat out

1/14/2009 8:54:43 AM

Which goes against the reasoning behind the article...

1/14/2009 8:56:04 AM

yeah when i cook for four i routinely spend over 35 but I won't be trying to conserve money

If I was, I'm sure I could pull it off for around 20 bucks or so

1/14/2009 9:01:01 AM

i dont see how people can say they could eat 3 meals a day all week for 35 bucks. i spend about 350 a month at the teeter (for a family of ME). maybe 75 of that is like swiffers and toilet paper

and i surely dont think i eat extravagantly, considering how often i use the microwave.

1/14/2009 9:09:49 AM

Quote :

"lol at everyone spewing hate for Katie Couric"

My pilates instructor in PA used to say all kinds of things of how much she hated Katie Couric while teaching our class. It was very entertaining and it made the class go by quickly. It was a hard class.

1/14/2009 10:10:20 AM

Quote :

"spend about 350 a month at the teeter (for a family of ME). maybe 75 of that is like swiffers and toilet paper and i surely dont think i eat extravagantly, considering how often i use the microwave."

I can identify two things right there that are driving up your food costs:
- harris teeter
- microwave

Harris teeter is extraordinarily expensive. Oftentimes, their sale prices are still above regular prices for stores like Kroger and Food Lion.

Microwave: this tells me you're eating a lot of packaged/prepared food. Which is expensive. Unless you're doing up large batches of food from scratch, freezing them, and then eating out of your freezer for a while.

It'd be hard for me to do an accurate estimate of how much I spend on food for me, and then me and Z, and then Z alone, because
- we have a shitton of food stockpiled, and eat from that
- I get food from a lot of places. Money poor and time rich means that it is indeed worth my time to go to three or four stores (but not every week ) in order to get the best prices
- I suck at keeping receipts organized
- he travels a lot, so I'd need to separate what he eats from what I eat for the weeks he's home, and the weekends
But I know that back in 03 and 04, my mother was feeding all four of us for $35, or less, for a week. Money was crazy tight. We ate a lot of rice + cream of [something] soup + vegetable + 1chxn breast casseroles. And lots, and lots, and lots of spotted clearance bananas. If you choose to spend your money on fruits and veggies, instead of meat, it's not impossible to feed four for $35 in a week.

A single person on $35 for a week is very doable...and you can still have meat and fresh fruits and veggies.


[Edited on January 14, 2009 at 10:21 AM. Reason : lkjd]

[Edited on January 14, 2009 at 10:23 AM. Reason : dlkj]

1/14/2009 10:17:25 AM

i use the microwave a lot and never buy frozen foods

of course i use the microwave every morning to cook egg whites for breakfast sandwiches (in coffee cups!!)

and then the ziplock steamer bags every night with a head or two of broccoli

1/14/2009 10:19:38 AM

$35.00 would buy 4 16 oz. ribeyes from Costco and a sack of taters, with enough left over for 2 40's.

1/14/2009 10:21:08 AM

^^Steaming vegetables was the only microwave thing I could think of that wasn't a prepared food (other than leftovers...which is technically prepared, but ...). I didn't know you could cook eggs in the microwave

1/14/2009 10:22:41 AM

you can shrink spinach in a microwave so it fits in the saute pan better!

and 7 minute baked potatos!

[Edited on January 14, 2009 at 10:25 AM. Reason : +]

1/14/2009 10:25:00 AM

yeah it's totally rad

i put 3 egg whites in a coffee cup with a paper towel over the top, 90 seconds later it's like they've been scrambled

part of my "breakfast symphony"

1.) slice of rye toast in the toaster oven
2.) crack three eggs, discard yolks, put into coffee cup
3.) put in eggs in microwave for 90 seconds, start toaster oven
4.) pack lunch
5.) take eggs out, dump them onto paper towel, cut em up, cool in paper towel wrapped up
6.) slice the toast into two peices
7.) make sandwich

start to finish with cleanup i can be out the door in under 6 minutes, good hot breakfast in hand and a lunch packed up for work.

the only bitch though is that you really have to scrub out the coffee cups

i have dedicated eggs only coffee cups

and if you keep the yolks in, only do like 1 egg / cup, them shits expand and will come out the top

[Edited on January 14, 2009 at 10:30 AM. Reason : e]

1/14/2009 10:27:14 AM

I, also, cook eggs in the microwave.

My wife thinks it's the most disgusting thing ever, but they're awesome. They always come out really fluffy.

1/14/2009 10:28:24 AM

hmmm

This is good to know.

1/14/2009 10:29:43 AM

I didn't know you could do it either until I stopped at a bagel shop one time and ordered a breakfast bagel and that was how they cooked the egg. I was astonished, but it was good.

1/14/2009 10:42:05 AM

You should freeze the yolks.

1/14/2009 10:52:33 AM

what in gods name would i do with 21 frozen yolks per week

1/14/2009 10:53:30 AM

Your cracked out ass likes to cook random shit, so go make some custards and stuff ok?

1/14/2009 10:54:30 AM

Quote :

"I can identify two things right there that are driving up your food costs: - harris teeter - microwave"

ht really isnt that expensive, i dont know why everyone says that. i always hit up the sale stuff and try to stockpile X item while its really cheap.

1/14/2009 10:56:05 AM

set up the set up

1/14/2009 10:56:57 AM

why dont you eat any yolks

i try to keep a 3-1 white to yolk ratio

got to have at least a little yolk to creat some flavor and substance

also cheese

1/14/2009 10:58:46 AM