All About Good and Cheap
Good and Cheap is a cookbook for people with very tight budgets, particularly those on SNAP/Food Stamps benefits. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) when you sign up for my newsletter and has been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times. It is also available in print, and for every copy sold we donate one to someone who can’t afford it.
Good and Cheap had an unusual journey into publishing. It started out as the thesis for my Masters degree in Food Studies at NYU. I made a digital version of the book, but didn’t have any kind of distribution or marketing plan. After some fruitless attempts at working with non-profits, I decided to simply offer it as free download on a simple website in early 2014.
A few weeks later someone posted it on Reddit and I was astonished by the interest! The book was downloaded so many times that first day that it broke my website. Suddenly my inbox was full of kind advice, stories, gratitude, and encouragement from strangers who wanted to get the book out there as much as I did!
With that encouragement and proof that there was an interested audience, I started a Kickstarter project to fund a print run to get Good and Cheap into the hands of those who couldn’t get it online. For the summer of 2014, I worked night and day, along with my now-husband Dan and many generous friends, to make the project a reality. The experience changed my life. We were trying to raise $10,000 but ended up with a whopping $144,681. This allowed us to print 40,000 copies of the book, giving away one for every copy sold to someone who couldn’t otherwise afford it. We made 25,000 available for just $4/copy to organizations who work with target populations. It was amazing! Also completely wild and exhausting and unsustainable. But luckily we got help.
Next I found a wonderful publishing home in Workman Publishing. I never thought the book could be a commercial success; that was why I did it as a master’s thesis. I was so happy to be wrong. Workman was supportive of the buy-one-give-one model from the beginning and have been even more insatiable than I was about getting it into the hands of non-profits at deep deep discounts. In 2015, I got to go on a massive book tour, meeting so many incredible people, sharing stories and generally basking in the glow of all the incredible work people are doing. In addition, Good and Cheap won the 2015 IACP Judge’s Choice Award, I made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Food and Drink, and Food & Wine and Fortune named me one of the Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink. Good grief!
Check Out Some of the Recipes!
Dry-Rubbed Pulled Pork
There's a big fireworky weekend coming up. Traditional fare is grilling. May I suggest taking a cue from our southern friends and making pulled pork? You can make it ahead of time and enjoy your friends and neighbors with abandon! Absurd deliciousness Cheaper than burgers, seriously Way more impressive than burgers
Taco Salad
In the summertime even avowed salad haters are willing to join the salad munching set. Ugh, seriously, it's too hot to cook with heat! My apartment is already sauna-like. My fanning arm is growing weak. So this salad is for those who might feel hesitant about salad being a "real" meal. Taco salad is basically a deconstructed bunch of tacos in a bowl with some extra lettuce for kicks. You could call it "lazy tacos" or "summer taco bowl" or "crunch lunch" if it makes you feel better. Taco Salad (from Good and Cheap page 52)
Jacket Sweet Potatoes
Baked sweet potatoes are a fun weekday meal.All you have to do it throw them in the oven and grab a couple of toppings from the fridge. I first got into them when I had a large number of sweet potatoes from a farm share. They were all odd sizes with long knobbly bits and I just didn't know what to do. So I just baked them, grabbed some sour cream and other random sauces and made a little topping bar. We ate potato after potato (these were little ones I swear!) and tried different toppings on each. So easy...
Half Veggie Burgers
Half veggie burgers are half lentils or beans and half ground meat with the addition of veggies. They are flavorful and filling, but leaner and cheaper than the usual burger patty.
Caramelized Onion and Cheddar Toast
An easy snack or simple dinner of pan-fried toast topped with caramelized onion and cheddar.
Vegetable Jambalaya
Jambalaya is a reader favorite, and it's easy to understand why! This dish takes boring rice and leftover vegetables and makes it into an exciting, spicy, satisfying meal to feed a crowd! It's a perfect way to enliven any leftovers from a large Easter dinner and make them into something new and mouthwatering.
Sweet, Crispy and Juicy Broiled Grapefruit
Grapefruit cut in half and broiled with a little brown sugar until it is juicy and caramelized, but still fresh and fruity in the middle.
Cheddar and Potato Perogies
Perogies! Delicious, pillowy pockets of dough filled with potato, cheese and anything else you feel like adding, fried in butter and served with sour cream. Great to make in quantity and freeze.
Deviled Eggs
If this Sunday sees you hosting a gathering of football lovers, may I recommend these deviled eggs? They are a little more fuss than dumping out a bag of chips and dip, but they won't leave you feeling gross and everyone will be impressed. Plus you need something to do while you wait for the game to start, right? You can even flavor them to honor your favorite team! For the patriots, the classic, mustard with a little pickle, for the Seahawks, maybe a little smoked salmon and dill? Eat well, even on game day. (from Good and Cheap, p.130)...
The Great Dumpling Tour!
During the Good and Cheap Kickstarter, Jim Leff, founder of Chowhound, offered out of the blue to do one of his famous food tours to help spur donations. Arlyn Davich, founder of Payperks, quickly scooped up the prize with a generous donation. This past Saturday, Jim hosted Arlyn and I on meticulously curated tasting tour of NYC's rarest and most delicious dumplings. I think we can all agree that one of the best parts of traveling is eating new and delicious food, and it was incredible to have that experience all in one city. One of the unexpected delights of...
On Tour with Good and Cheap!
Hi, friends! It’s almost here! The bigger, better 2nd edition of Good and Cheap is officially out on July 14 — just one week away. Unofficially, it's already on the shelves in some local stores :) Take a look for it, and send me a note on Facebook or Twitter if you spot it! I've just put up my Events page, because I'll be on tour across the US and Canada for the rest of the year. Already, I'm scheduled to visit 21 cities (hurray, but eek!). Undoubtedly, I'll be somewhere near you, so check out the map and please...
Fast Melon Sorbet
It's SO HOT. Let's eat watermelon together. Let's just eat watermelon and sit and sweat. Okay, some of you are overachievers. This is for you. Take some of your sweet, sweet watermelon and chop it into cubes (take the rind off first, silly). Put it in a bag or receptacle in your freezer. Once it's frozen make it into sorbet using just a little yogurt and sugar and a food processor or blender. Add some vanilla or lime juice (or anything else you think would work with watermelon) if you're super serious about it. Fast Melon Sorbet FOR FOUR
