Eat Well On 4 Dollars A Day: Good and Cheap
By Leanne Brown
Leanne Brown created an earlier version of this book during her time at New York University
while getting her MA in Food Studies. Leanne choose to design the recipes in her updated
book on the concept of eating for $4.00 per person per day. This is the rough calculation for
what SNAP (US food assistance program) recipients receive in assistance. Her desire to
educate and empower people to eat healthy on this low of a budget inspired her cookbook.
In her cookbook, she shares her tips on how to purchase nutritious food at the lowest price,
building a pantry, how to think/eat seasonally, and make good choices when it comes to
meal planning. Her price calculations are based on 2014 prices, but you can get the
general ideas as to which foods are cheaper to purchase and how to combine different
low/high price items to create delicious meals and still maintaining your weekly grocery
budget.
Her recipes use a limited number of cheaper ingredients, which keeps the grocery budget
down, to create wonderful choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This cookbook
reminds me of the Betty Crocker Cookbook my mom got for me when I moved into my first
apartment. It had really basic recipes, easy to use and had tasty results.
Leanne uses a lot of eggs in her meals and since eggs are a very reasonably priced protein
source, I completely agree with her choice. However, because of health reasons, we use a
lot of egg whites versus whole eggs. If you purchase egg whites in a carton, it will run you
about $4.29 for 32 oz, but an entire dozen of eggs will only cost $1.19. It is easy to
separate the yolks from the whites, so take a little time and save a lot of money.
In addition, Leanne also makes a lot of convenience foods from scratch, such as breads, flour tortilla
and pizza dough. She also provides recipes for items that you may turn to a box or frozen option to
provide a meal. Jambalaya, Dumplings, or Pulled Pork recipes are provided and many recipes
have vegetarian options. She also provides ways to stretch your meat such as Half Veggie Burgers.
Her Half Veggie Burgers incorporate lentils/black beans in order to stretch the expensive meat
ingredient and still provide a high protein burger with great flavor.
One of Leanne’s greatest gifts to everyone is that she provides all of this information for free. It is
also available for purchase and the proceeds go towards printing this information for low income
people who do not have access to a computer. Here is a link to download Leanne’s cookbook:
Try out her recipes and let everyone know which ones you enjoy or want to try in the comment box
below.
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