Growing up in coal fields and farm lands… money was always tight for many families. Appalachians have learned to make do with some surprisingly excellent cuisine on a very tight budget! I should know because many of these are my favorites to eat. Now I’m gonna be honest a lot of these are not diet friendly, but you have to remember these folks worked hard and needed all the calories and carbs they could get to make it thru the day! So keeping that in mind let’s talk about some of my (historical Appalachian) favorites when the budget is a bit tight.
1. Biscuits and gravy. Biscuits are good for any meal. Easy to make and only take two ingredients. Plus a little saved bacon grease. Lesson number one folks is to always save your bacon grease! I’ve posted the biscuit recipe before but it’s basically self rising flour + enough buttermilk to make it into dough (if you don’t have buttermilk just add a little vinegar to regular milk to make butter milk). Scoop out balls of dough (we call these cat head biscuits. Cover your hands in bacon grease and roll the dough balls to cover them in grease (you can use oil or melted butter or whatever else you have but bacon grease is basically a free bi product ingredient). Bake at 450 for 20-30 minutes till light golden brown and do a tooth pick test in the center to make sure they are done. Gravy is easy too… you can google instructions… but basically it’s all purpose flour, bacon grease, and milk.
2. Homemade bread: way less expensive and so much better tasting than store bought. Make a couple of loaves on the weekend to get you thru the week. Basically flour, water, yeast and a tiny tad bit of sugar to activate the yeast. The recipe is posted on my blog. Super easy and very cost effective. I can get about 6-8 loaves of bread for the same price (or less) than a loaf of store bought bread.
3. Homemade egg noodles. So simple! Basically flour, eggs, and water. Roll it out and cut it. You have noodles!
4. Chicken and dumplings: this I count as a basically free bi product meal too. Day one you have an inexpensive rotisserie chicken. After eating it pick off any left over meat and boil those bones overnight to make chicken broth! Next day add that picked off meat to the broth and make some dumplings. Basically self rising flour and hot chicken broth mixed together to make a dough. Spoon in dollops of dough to the boiling broth. By the time you have dropped in all those dollops dinner is done. Doesn’t take but seconds to cook those bread dough dollops (aka dumplings). There are other fancier recipes… but this is a “tight on money” recipe.
5. Fried mush: I know… sounds weird but it’s really good I promise! This is something you prepare the night before for the next days breakfast. It’s cornmeal and water (google a recipe there are many out there and all basically the same lol) cooked for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool and put in a loaf pan in the fridge overnight. Here is where the magic happens the next morning. Flip the loaf pan upside down and you will have a loaf that you can cut like bread. Cut into slices and fry in bacon grease (or any other oils you like to use) and serve with your favorite pancake syrup (maple, strawberry, blueberry etc). It is absolutely delicious!
6. Johnny cakes. This is an easy one too. Basically corn meal and all purpose flour with a little water and egg. You can add a little sweetener if your choice as well (honey, sugar, molasses etc) You make these like pancakes. Good to eat like pancakes. Plain with just butter. Really good with a pot of pinto beans. Use it like sliced bread or English muffins. Lots of ways to eat this one.
7. Pinto beans: a protein staple! Just a hint. I learned this from a Texan! If you add a pinch of baking soda to the pot of beans while they are cooking then you won’t experience 💨💨💨 lol and run your coworkers out of the room the next day. Just a pinch is all it takes.
8. Growing a garden: even if all you have is a sunny window in an apartment, a patio, a balcony, or a tiny yard… you would be surprised the things you can grow in small spaces to eat! Seeds are inexpensive. Heck seeds can be free if you save them! I have tomatoes growing from a store bought tomato that when I cut into it the seeds were already sprouted! I just planted the slices and now I have bunches of tomatoes growing for free! Cucumbers, peppers and squashes are another store bought vegetable that are easy to save seeds and grow tons of food from! Have potatoes that have grown eyes? Cut out the eyes and plant them! Heck I composted some potato peels one year and got a healthy crop of potatoes the next year from those peels! We cube cut those potatoes and fried them in bacon grease for free country style hash browns for weeks! We even home canned some for use in other recipes. If you don’t have the space or time to garden then visit your local farmers markets before going to the grocery store. You can get more for less and fresher that way.
9. Home canning: so easy! You can often get jars from thrift stores or free online. I save spaghetti sauce jars and can in those all the time! I have friends that save them for me too. You can also ferment in large pickle jars so check out the local sports arena and ask them to save you some large pickle jars after their events at the concession stands. The cost for new lids is negligible for regular and wide mouth canning jars. Today I canned dill pickles. I grew the cucumbers in the yard and the dill in a patio pot. The juice is 12 cups water, 4 cups vinegar, 1 cup non iodized salt (must be non iodized!) and a tad bit of alum in each jar for crispy pickles. The jars have been reused so many times I can’t even count lol. So basically I have very little money in making these pickles. I made 18 quarts and one large recycled pickle jar for next to nothing. How much do pickles cost in the store? We then use the pickle juice to make salad dressing (nothing goes to waste) later after we eat all the pickles out of the jar. Another free bi product item. I would guess less than a dollar a jar to make these pickles (including utilities cost to heat the juices in the stove). My rule on plants is: “ if I have to pay to water it then it better provide something for me to eat!” I refuse to water grass lawns and do edible landscaping instead. Many plants that are pretty, are also edible! So do some research!
10 foraging: mamaw always picked “yard salad” in the spring. Lots of edibles growing in the yard that are considered weeds! Just don’t use pesticides in your yard if you decide to forage in it. There are apps that will help you identify edible plants so take a moment to get to know what’s growing in your yard. Plantain, purslane, dandelion, nutsedge, curly dock, blackberries, walnuts, pecans… the list goes on and on! Take a walk and see what you can discover. If your neighbor has a walnut tree ask if you can collect some. I bet they will say yes because otherwise they would have to pick them up before mowing the yard and you are saving them the trouble! Black walnuts in cakes and in cereals and on top of oatmeal is fabulous! It’s also a high protein snack! I have a freezer full of wild blackberries we just picked waiting on cooler weather to make into blackberry jam. Some will be used for cobblers and pies later this winter. Free food is always good! We have sacks of black walnuts stored also. Waiting on me to crack them open to fill a quart jar at a time full of nuts. You can also freeze them after you have cracked them. The library is a good place for foraging books. Many places have foraging classes that are free or low cost. Check with your county extension office. Other places have free or low cost garden spaces you can rent to grow food (aka food plots). So check around and see what available in your neighborhood.
What are your go to meals, made from scratch with basic ingredients found in the pantry (flour, milk, butter, eggs etc) that are your go to recipes when you are on a tight budget? if you say Raman noodles I might just gag… just a warning lol. I’m looking for healthy, basic ingredients, inexpensive, easy to make, not fancy, made from scratch, and will fill up an empty belly…. type of recipe. Share your “hard times hints” with others who might need a helping hand in the form of knowledge. Because knowledge can in fact fill an empty belly.
Conestoga Chuck 