Cost vs Benefit when choosing recipes

[tamawrite]

Okay, so I have to ask: How much does the cost of ingredients affect which recipes you add to your meal plans?

I make most of my dinners from CL, but I skip over half the recipes in the magazine because they contain halibut, scallops, obscure but perishable ingredients I'll waste most of, etc. I do my best to choose recipes that share ingredients so I don't buy too much "special" stuff...but still, I have a hard time convincing myself to pay $10 for one meal's worth of crab or shrimp. Even perishable items that I don't usually keep around add up--plain yogurt, sour cream, exotic spices, etc...

Do you ever wish CL would include more recipes that consist entirely of more common ingredients? Or have you been cooking long enough that you tend to have a lot of the right items in stock? (I'm getting to that point, slowly and expensively!)

[Little Bit]

I do admit that I skip over recipes that call for yet another ingredient I don't have, and wouldn't need for any other purpose.

On the other hand, I try to keep an eye on what I have in the pantry and seek out recipes that use up my stash.

I try to just get creative with substitutions, if its feasible and won't completely wreck the recipe. This is lots harder with baked goods than some other things, though. *sigh*

[cminmd]

When I see an interesting recipe with a expensive specialty ingredient I usually won't just for family. I will usually put it in my file and make for guests. I buy enough of the ingredients to make it twice and have a trial run about two days ahead of time.
Recipes with non expensive specialty items I keep around until I have about two or three recipes that use the same ingredient and try them over a two week period. I reached critical mass for barley recipes when the yummy Thai Barley recipe came out and YUM! Now between that recipe, Smothered Chicken and Barley Soup I know that I can keep barley stocked in my very small kitchen without the room going to waste!
I also try to adapt some more exotic recipes into more every day items. Many seafood recipes and suaces work well on chicken. That helps since no one in our house can stand seafood of any kind!
I have yet to reach the same critical mass on quinoa recipes? Any suggestions?

[stefania4]

Cost certainly accounts for a lot of the modifications I do to recipes; visit the fish counter and you'll see why my halibut and swordfish recipes have all been made with tilapia! I also can't get on board with a lot of fresh herbs recipes; one bunch is expensive and goes bad long before I could possibly use it up. For cheap herbs like parsley, no problem. Fresh sage or thyme? Forget it.

Fortunately we've accumulated a lot of the sauces, seasonings, condiments, etc. and we don't need to buy 12 new things to make an Asian marinade. I do pass on a lot of the bread recipes since I can't see buying - and storing - 3 kinds of flour that I'm not likely to use again anytime soon.

[semmens]

Fresh herbs don't deter me; I grow everything I need most of the year except rosemary, and I usually get 3-4 recipes out of one of those bunches of basil with the roots on; we just keep it in a vase on the counter. Lasts for weeks.

I won't even look at recipes that have multiple seafood items (like cioppino for example); the odds of me finding decent clams, scallops and specific fish, all at one store, are virtually nil. And I hate substituting.

Laura

[MKSquared]

Spice I don't have? Sure, I'll run down the street and buy it for a reasonable price. Flour? Sure. It's cheap. When I got curious about quinoa and kasha, I bought just enough to try out a recipe. Such is the beauty of buying things in bulk. I skip over many of the cheesy recipes anyway, so that eliminates the expense of cheese.

If there's something I'm just dying to try, I usually break down and do it. If it used something perishable that I usually don't have around, I'll search for a recipe to use it up. I buy my seafood frozen, not fresh, since I can't afford fresh yet.

[Gail]

I'm going to guess that CL, in its continuous endeavor to broaden the horizons of healthful eating, makes use of so-called exotic ingredients to show that low-fat cooking can be exciting, innovative and extremely varied. I visit a couple of other bulletin boards, peopled by cooks from different countries, and it's amazing how many of them are actually stymied when it comes to preparation of low-fat foods. So, I've referred them here for recipes.

We've had debates before as to whether we find CL too spicy or too bland, too varied or not varied enough, whether it places too much emphasis on sweets and not enough on veggies, etc. etc. Invariably, some of us lean one way, others lean the other. But I think that CL does a pretty good job presenting a scope of healthful cooking which falls somewhere in the middle ground.

Few of us, I'm sure, can afford to splurge on swordfish, beef tenderloin, pine nuts, morels and shellfish on a regular basis. Sometimes, like cminmd, one has to earmark a costly recipe and put it aside for special occasions. Perhaps I'm in the minority-- and I don't mind a bit if that's true-- but I would get horribly bored if CL stopped publishing these sorts of recipes.

Perhaps-- now that they've decided to add the section on on quick meals-- they might wish to consider adding a monthly "budget friendly" feature as well, which might feature healthful meals made with easily obtainable and not terribly costly items.

[tamawrite]

I like the idea of a "budget friendly" section.

A couple of my solutions for keeping costs down:

Buying foods like soy flour, pine nuts, couscous, semolina, and the like from bulk bins. This works well for dried herbs and spices, too -- compare the price per ouce to the pre-packaged bottles sometime! Dried fruits and bakers chocolate come in bulk, too.

I grow almost all my own herbs -- oregano, parsely, chives, lavender, thyme, sage, mint, & rosemary are not a problem. I have 3 basil plants but have to use them carefully because they're young and I'm always tempted to pluck too much. This way, I only have to buy the occasional bunch of dill, cilantro, & a few other things.

I freeze leftover coconut milk, roasted red pepper sauce, etc in ziplocs to cut down on waste.

Any other ideas out there?

[LaurenP]

tamawrite
Try growing your own cilantro and dill, easy and wonderful to have fresh all summer at your finger tips. Cilantro tries to go to flower/seed but if you keep it cut back (by using it) it will keep growing, or you can replant as the summer cools down, it grows quickly. Dill will ofter reseed itself, even here in Conn. Basil is the other must have herb for me. And if you plant red lettus and arugala, throw in the herbs,you will have wonderful salads all summer. (I get excited about fresh summer food.)

[Kay Henderson]

Lots of good suggestions by others here. Here's my two cents worth.

To a certain extent, the cost of some particular ingredients can depend upon where you live. Using your example of fish, some fish cookbooks include a chart of the different types of fish which you can use to make substitutions. (Note to CL: if you haven't done this lately, it might be useful to your readers.)

As far as increasing the ingredients you have at your disposal, you are doing a lot of things right. Spices and dried herbs don't last forever, so waiting until you need something before you buy it makes sense.

[slknight]

Originally posted by Kay Henderson

To a certain extent, the cost of some particular ingredients can depend upon where you live. Using your example of fish, some fish cookbooks include a chart of the different types of fish which you can use to make substitutions.

This is definitely true. Fish around here is CHEAP. I can get some of it cheaper than I can get flank steak. :( Too bad I don't like any of it. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who would happily trade places with me and have a ton of fish available inexpensively. :p

As for worrying about the cost of ingredients, I'd have to say that I don't really pay attention. :rolleyes: :o If I want to make something new and don't have all the ingredients, I'll buy them. Maybe that's why my grocery bill is so big. ;) But cooking is what I like to do, and I don't spend a lot of money on things like going to the movies, theater, or whatever. Cooking is a hobby, and I'm willing to pay a bit more for it and sacrifice in other places.

(That being said, I have slowly accumulated many spices and other ingredients, so that it's rare I have to buy too many anyway.)

[Grace]

I'm with Sue (slknight). The cost is the least of my worries when I choose a recipe. It's my hobby too, and eating well gives my DH and I both so much pleasure. Besides, no matter how much it costs, it's still FAR cheaper than going out and eating a like meal in a restaurant. So we always justify it that we're saving a LOT of money! And there are plenty of times the recipe I choose to make is very inexpensive. So it all balances out. It's not like I choose the most expensive ones on purpose - I just choose what looks good, regardless of the cost.