Budget-friendly Meals

Summer Pasta Salad

Looking for a cool meal for a hot summer night? Or a tasty make-ahead dish to take to a summer potluck? This pasta salad combines fresh, seasonal summer veggies & local pasta with tangy dressing, olives, and feta for a perfectly balanced summer meal. Feel free to be creative with veggie add-ins. This is the kind of salad that can be built around just about any veggies that are abundant in your garden or at your nearest farm stand this time of year. 

Pasta Salad

Looking for a cool meal for a hot night? Or a tasty make-ahead dish to take to your next potluck? This pasta salad combines fresh, seasonal veggies & pasta with a tangy dressing, olives, and feta for a healthy, delicious meal. Many of the ingredients are featured in our weekly sale from June 8th – 14th, including local Maplebrook Farm Feta, so this one’s easy on the wallet, too! Feel free to be creative with veggie add-ins. This is the kind of salad that can be built around just about any veggies that are abundant in your garden (or your local farmstand or co-op!) this time of year!

Summer Rolls

This recipe is extremely versatile, so feel free to use any fresh, colorful summer veggies and herbs you happen to have on hand. If tofu isn’t your thing, feel free to sub in your favorite cooked protein. If you don’t plan to serve the rolls right away, try rolling them in plastic wrap until you’re ready to eat. This will prevent the rolls from becoming soggy or sticking together. Other key tips are to avoid over-moistening the wrappers and avoid over-filling. Your first few are bound to be a bit clunky, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly.

 

 

Chili

The Big Game is upon us and regardless of your sports fan status, we think you’ll love this hearty chili recipe. It’s a simple, one-pot meal that features a handful of ingredients from the weekly sale display from February 8th – 14th, so it’s easy on the budget. Using dried beans requires a little more advanced preparation (soaking) and a longer cooking time, but dried beans are much more economical and the longer cook time allows a deep, rich flavor to develop.  Cook up an extra-large pot and freeze the leftovers for a busier weeknight. You’ll be so glad you did!

Pork Dumplings

If you find pork dumplings from your favorite take-out spot irresistible, just wait until you taste this homemade version! Pork dumplings, or jiaozi, are the quintessential dish of Lunar New Year celebrations and these have everything you want in a dumpling: plump and nicely chewy, filled with tender pork, flavored with fresh ginger, green onion, and sesame oil. Lunar New Year, Chinese Chunjie, Korean Seollal, Tibetan Losar, and Spring Festival all describe the celebration that begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon, 15 days later. This year, many will hold celebrations on Sunday, January 22nd. The Lunar New Year festival is thousands of years old, and today nearly 25% of the world’s population participates in this celebration. 

Because of their resemblance to gold ingots, making and eating dumplings during Lunar New Year celebrations is a way to express wishes of prosperity and fortune in the coming year. Making dumplings is also a group effort, so Lunar New Year celebrations are good times to get the whole family involved in making — and eating! — several batches. Whether you’re celebrating the Lunar New Year or stocking your freezer for a busy month ahead, these dumplings should definitely be on your list. You’ll find many of the ingredients in our Lunar New Year-themed weekly sale from January 19th – 25th, so it’s a perfect time to give them a try!

Hoppin’ John

The black-eyed pea was first introduced in the New World by Africans who carried the dried legume here with them from West Africa. The U.S. Library of Congress has records of its arrival as early as 1674. James Beard award-winning chef and cookbook author Edna Lewis, known as the First Lady of Southern Cooking, shares in her timeless cookbook In Pursuit of Flavor that in her home state of Virginia, Southern farmers planted them in abundance to supply nitrogen to the soil between cash crops. Before the plants were tilled in, farmers welcomed anyone to go out and pick the peas. Lewis remembers her family storing the dried pods in cotton sacks until “on a cold winter afternoon when there was nothing better to do, we would shell the peas.” Because of its significance in African foodways, dishes with black-eyed peas are commonly made for feast days and other special occasions among members of the African Diaspora, most notably on New Year’s Day to bring good fortune and prosperity, and during Kwanzaa, a celebration of African heritage which runs from December 26th – January 1st. Because Kwanzaa is a nod to harvest celebrations in Africa, when communities honor crops and laborers, food plays an important role — particularly soul-food staples like Hoppin’ John. You’ll find black-eyed peas and rice featured in our Weekly Sale from December 29th – January 4th, so it’s a great time to give this dish a try!

Hoppin’ John

The black-eyed pea was first introduced in the New World by Africans who carried the dried legume here with them from West Africa. The U.S. Library of Congress has records of its arrival as early as 1674. James Beard award-winning chef and cookbook author Edna Lewis, known as the First Lady of Southern Cooking, shares in her timeless cookbook In Pursuit of Flavor that in her home state of Virginia, Southern farmers planted them in abundance to supply nitrogen to the soil between cash crops. Before the plants were tilled in, farmers welcomed anyone to go out and pick the peas. Lewis remembers her family storing the dried pods in cotton sacks until “on a cold winter afternoon when there was nothing better to do, we would shell the peas.” Because of its significance in African foodways, dishes with black-eyed peas are commonly made for feast days and other special occasions among members of the African Diaspora, most notably on New Year’s Day to bring good fortune and prosperity, and during Kwanzaa, a celebration of African heritage which runs from December 26th – January 1st. Because Kwanzaa is a nod to harvest celebrations in Africa, when communities honor crops and laborers, food plays an important role — particularly soul-food staples like Hoppin’ John. You’ll find black-eyed peas and rice featured in our Weekly Sale from December 29th – January 4th, so it’s a great time to give this dish a try!

Skillet Cornbread

Our weekly sale from October 7th – 13th celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which falls on Monday, October 10th this year. You’ll find ingredients in the sale this week to help you pull together this simple Skillet Cornbread, which happens to pair beautifully with the Three Sisters Soup recipe also featured on our blog this week. The cast-iron skillet allows the cornbread to get extra crispy and golden on the outside, with a soft, smooth interior that’s irresistible! No skillet? No problem! Simply bake in an 8-9″ round or square baking pan. 

Summer Pasta Salad

Looking for a cool meal for a hot summer night? Or a tasty make-ahead dish to take to a summer potluck? This pasta salad combines fresh, seasonal summer veggies & local pasta with tangy dressing, olives, and feta for a perfectly balanced summer meal. Many of the ingredients are featured in our weekly sale from July 7th – 13th, so this one’s easy on the wallet, too! Feel free to be creative with veggie add-ins. This is the kind of salad that can be built around just about any veggies that are abundant in your garden (or the local farm down the road) this time of year.

Summer Solstice Rolls

The summer solstice is just around the corner and we think these summer rolls are a perfect way to welcome the new season. This recipe is extremely versatile, so feel free to use any fresh, colorful summer veggies and herbs you happen to have on hand. If tofu isn’t your thing, feel free to sub in your favorite cooked protein. Our weekly sale from June 2nd – 8th features a handful of the ingredients listed, making this one easy on the budget, too! If you don’t plan to serve the rolls right away, try rolling them in plastic wrap until you’re ready to eat. This will prevent the rolls from becoming soggy or sticking together. Other key tips are to avoid over-moistening the wrappers and avoid over-filling. Your first few are bound to be a bit clunky, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly.