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!
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.
Mexican Street Corn
Elotes (or Mexican Street Corn) is crazy delicious. Turns out that you actually CAN make fresh corn even better. Sweet, spicy, salty, cheesy even tart. All your taste bases are covered. This beautiful recipe, from the streets and homes of Mexico has been one of the most popular recipes in Good and Cheap. So far, not one, but three people have told me they were overcome with tears of joy when they tasted this. It's that good. What are you waiting for? (from Good and Cheap page 60)
Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
It's my youngest sister's (Hannah's) birthday today. Hannah has many wonderful qualities, but one of my favorites is that she is really fun to cook for. She basically likes everything, and is always extremely enthusiastic and goes back for seconds. She's the kind of person you want to make cookies for. So Hannah, these are for you! If you're not a big coconut fan you can definitely skip it and just leave these plain chocolate chip, they are fabulously chewy and nutty. (from Good and Cheap page 155)
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
Good and Cheap lessons at Rising Stars Academy
Today’s post comes from Julie Fromm, RD who taught a class using Good and Cheap at Rising Stars Academy. Rising Stars is a post-secondary school for young adults with special needs. In addition to math, reading and college and career readiness classes they focus on food. They grow food in their greenhouse and garden, and prepare it in their commercial kitchen. I taught a series of 4 lessons based on the USDA MyPlate and Good and Cheap. Here’s the basic lesson plan if anyone wants to try to replicate it! We started out discussing the MyPlate food groups and the...
Kale Caesar Salad
Dinosaur Kale tossed with a classic Caesar dressing and homemade croutons.
Fresh Pasta
This is my favorite fresh pasta recipe that uses whole eggs. Multiply this recipe by the number of people you are serving, maybe a bit less. The stated quantities are a useful ratio, but produce big portions.
How Good and Cheap Enhances a Student Program in St. Paul, MN
Hi guys! Today we have a wonderful guest author, Aimee Gonzalez here to tell a story about how she has used Good and Cheap in her work with Latino high school students in St. Paul, MN. If you or anyone you know would like to share their story about how they're using Good and Cheap please write to me at leanne@leannebrown.ca with subject line Good and Cheap Stories. --- Leanne The question every single one of us has asked ourselves at one point or another in our lives is more or less: “What am I supposed to contribute to this...
Spicy Green Beans
A simple recipe for spicy green beans stir fried until just cooked and coated in a spicy, salty and garlicky sauce. Serve it with rice and an egg and you've got a full meal.
Banana Pancakes
Don't let this weekend pass without these banana pancakes in your life. They are ridiculously good. The banana melts into the pancake almost like custard. I like to add some fresh nutmeg or a little cinnamon, but I bet some coconut would be delicious as well. (from Good and Cheap p. 18)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Granola Bars
Simple-to-make granola bars made from combining just oats, peanut butter and jam or jelly. You can make infinite variations and additions to this flexible recipe.
Black Eyed Peas and Collards
'tis still the season for warm pots of yummy stuff. When it just seems like the winter will never end it feels good to eat something green. Collards are great at this time of year and melt beautifully into a pot of black eyed peas with the salty, smoky bacon counterpoint. You can substitute beans instead of peas and spice this up any way you want to. Serve this over rice or any other grain, or with some toast or flatbread
