Cookbook Review: "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook" & a Giveaway

When the lovely people at Viva Additions/Cleis Press emailed me and asked if I would like to review an advance copy of "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste Not Recipes for the Wise Cook" by Lynette Rohrer Shirk and Lara Starr, being published in September, I immediately said yes. I thought it would be a great opportunity since while I believe I have the "foodie" part of the equation nailed down pretty well, I am not so good at the "frugal" side of things. Between tracking down lots of spendy ingredients for recipes and being easily seduced by seeing something that looks good or I want to try, I am definitely not a bargain shopper, cook or eater. I need all the help I can get and authors Starr and Shirk have teamed up to write a cookbook and guide for eating and living well in these tough economic times. There is plenty packed into this small book with chapters like "Bankable Breakfasts", "Snacks on a Shoestring", "Clever Kids Meals" "Pulled Purse-String Parties" and "Thrifty Gifts" among others, combined with lots of money-saving ideas and tips. 

To start, I made the "Garlic Chicken Confit", where whole chicken leg quarters are roasted in olive oil, garlic and herbs. Being cooked low and slow in their own fat makes the chicken legs rich and flavorful. Of course I had to buy organic chicken leg quarters (not so frugal) but they were on sale (pretty frugal) and after a good blotting of the chicken and removing of the skin, I enjoyed the tender meat of one leg with some rice. (Sorry it is really hard to take a good picture of chicken legs!)

Since the authors consider chicken to be "the backbone of the frugal kitchen", there are several recipes, including one for "Exponential Chicken" where a whole chicken is poached and used for meals for two for 5 days. I did a slight modification, and used my remaining "Garlic Chicken Confit" to make two of those dishes. First I made the "Tacos Naranjas", where the chicken is added to onions and garlic sauteed and cooked in orange juice, cumin and jalapeno. I was surprised at how much flavor and how good the resulting fajita-like tacos were with so few ingredients--they made a great lunch on whole wheat tortillas.

Next I tried the "Chicken Curry", a basic curry with onions. garlic, tomato and spices. Because there is no milk or cream, this is a lighter curry but it has good flavor (if you use a good curry powder!), and it was nice over leftover rice (very frugal of me!). 

I had heard about "Cracker Toffee" before and couldn't resist trying it. Basically butter and brown sugar are boiled and poured over a sheet pan of saline crackers and baked in the oven until nice and bubbly. With two sticks of butter and a package of chocolate chips (I made the "Toffee Twists" version with chocolate), I am not sure how truly frugal this recipe is, but I guess it is cheaper than buying a big thing of toffee. Warning: I found it oddly delicious and somewhat addicting and had to give most of it away or I would have eaten it all. The cracker takes on an almost shortbread quality and with the thick layer of chocolate and the nice crunch, I find my chocoholic little heart is still thinking about it. ;-)

I thought the Lentil Burgers sounded intriguing, especially using red lentils. I did find one thing a bit odd, the authors say "...and using red lentils gives it an attractive color more similar to beef than other veggie burgers." I am not sure I have ever eaten an orange-ish beef burger, (lucky for me--hopefully that's not the color of frugal beef!), and when you mix cooked red lentils with grated carrot and onion, there is a distinctly yellow-orange color to the patties. 

Even though they didn't resemble beef in color, they were quite tasty, easy, good for you (they are baked in the oven), and quite frugal too! I ate mine on a whole-wheat bun with some of my own "special sauce" (non-fat Greek yogurt with ketchup, Dijon, capers and black pepper), lettuce sprouts and tomato. 

Because I am a sucker for long baths with good smelling bath stuff, I exercised my craft gene and tried the Time For Tub Tea from "The Frugal Beauty" in the "Thrifty Gifts" chapter. These little muslin bundles have Epsom salts and good stuff from the kitchen like oatmeal, powdered milk, baking soda, chamomile and rosemary.


Easy to make, they make a pleasant, lightly scented bath treat (I road-tested them myself), and would be fun little gifts. They are easy enough you could do them with children. (I say that because I was able to make them with no problems!). There is a coffee scrub in the book that I think I am going to need to try too. 

The book is also full of advice with frugal living tips sprinkled throughout. My favorite tip? The head-smackingly, should be obvious and very brilliant idea of using the smaller end of your melon baller to scoop capers out of the jar. It fits perfectly, the hole means they drain easily and now your melon baller is a double-duty tool! Duh!!! Why didn't I ever think of that?! I use a lot of capers and because a spoon never fits in the jar, I usually pour them into something else and spoon them out or pierce them with a fork and pull them out... Anyway call me a geek, but that tip alone made my day. 

The Frugal Foodie Cookbook isn't fancy--it's a cute little book with black and white illustrations to break up the text, rather than pictures of the dishes, however the recipes are easy enough and accessible for all levels even without photos. Everything I made was tasty and made with pantry basics that any savvy frugal shopper could find on sale. This book would be good for someone starting out, people cooking for families, or really anyone who wants to eat more frugally, but wants to do it in a pretty painless way. Did it help make me more frugal? Well...maybe not exactly, but I am a hard case and it did give me food for thought and some good ideas and fun recipes. Thanks to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to enjoy this book and for helping one of you to enjoy it too with the ultimate in frugality--winning a free copy!.

Want To Win Your Own Copy of The Frugal Foodie Cookbook?

The publisher very generously offered to give one of my readers their very own copy of "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook" when it comes out next month. If you would like a chance to win it, leave a comment on this post (by 6:00 PM (HST) on Tuesday, August 25th) with your favorite frugal foody-style tip. (Something you do to stretch a dollar). A winner will be randomly drawn from all the comments (actually only the comments that have tips!), and will be announced on Wednesday 8/26. You don't need to have a blog to win but don't forget to make sure I have a way to contact you to get your mailing address in case you are the winner. Good Luck!