the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

What kinds of foods are biggest bang for buck for “superfoods” but super cheap?

Garlic ginger?

eggs

Look at the cheaper cuts of beef and organ meats.

With less expensive beef, the meat is tougher so marinading it or using a crock pot works well to soften it quite a bit.

Bee pollen

garlic, ginger, onion, egg, tumeric

I like most of those foods. Not a fan of ginger. My mom always pushes the ginger. Can eat some when it's mixed with garlic for Chinese food.

Roger - what is bee pollen for? How do you use it?

How about other veggies? I googled this and sweet potatoes came up. Not a huge fan, but I can eat them.

How about beans and rice of some sort (including tofu)? Cheap but rice isn't that nutritious? Like if I hypothetically mainly eat bean/rice tacos, tofu and rice, or chick peas and rice, is that a good "base meal"? Or not that good? Looking for easiest, cheapest, nutritious repeatable meals that aren't that boring.

bee- pollen products are a little expensive ? maybe honey work in simillar way?

Also, find a local butcher, one that actually butchers his own meat, and ask about "end/odd" cuts. These are pretty affordable. They cost less as they have an odd shape or otherwise do not look they way they are expected to.

turmeric was mentioned, by it self it taste not good at all, l but its an ingredient in curry and that is super delicious

If you're looking for cheap, you just need to look at any national dish. They were all developed by poor people from necessity. In the Americas, it is fairly simple. Either it's rice and beans, or it's a stew with everything available in it --along with some starch. This pattern can be found from Roman gladiators to sumo players, too. It's really not difficult.

The problem is that people who have various types of foods available and can afford them, so they eat foods that are not locally produced. It's true that the lower cuts of meat are cheaper, but having the choice among beef, pork, lamb, and chicken is a luxury. That is, in the US. Maybe it's true in Europe, too, but I know that it's rare to find "pied de porc" on an American menu, but in Paris you can.

Eggs are cheap and available. Bee pollen is a great "food," but it's way more expensive than honey; and then there's royal jelly.
Garlic is great, but those white things in plastic net from China are scary to me. Ginger is also healthy. But, I think the spices came in because they made food tastier.

Anyway, go where you shop. Find the cheapest stuff, and then prepare it so that it tastes good. The latter is the art. But, it's like paella if you live by the sea in a country that loves sausage. It's how lobster went from being poor man's food or bait to being a delicacy. Learn to make soup (or chanko nabe, or feijoada). Use what's available.

Bee Pollen -
Bee keepers place a screen at the hive entrance.
Window screen can work. They place the screen for maybe 4 hours a day
so as to share the pollen with the hive. the pollen is what the bees
are carrying in their leg sacs after rolling around in the flowers.
when they wriggle thru the screen the bee pollen gets rubbed off.
We - in Texas - can buy local bee pollen in HEB. HEB is
a chain of grocery stores in Texas that can be found everywhere.
Kelly's Bee Pollen at HEB is $1.65/oz.
So it is cheap and you only eat 1-2 teaspoons a day.
Supposedly - if you had to survive in a fallout shelter -you could
make it OK if you stocked bee pollen and wheat germ seeds.
Sprout the wheat germ and eat the sprouts.

Peacedog -
Buy those end cuts and make shish ka bob over the camp fire
after marinating.

or stew.

Another option is to find an independent butcher and buy in bulk. By buying a "split hind" I get 100 pounds of beef of a variety of cuts for less than hamburger prices at the grocery store. But you do need somewhere to hold all of it. Roughly half of that will be hamburger.

It really only works for beef. Chickens are too small as are pigs for the most part.

If you really want to save money, buy a whole cow and pay to have it slaughtered and packaged. Again you will need somewhere to put it.

Ah ok, we don't have a giant freezer, but like this idea of bulk and odd cuts. I think I can find a local butcher. Will go check this out.

I was just reading that beans+rice is really a perfect, cheap base, but be careful about the rice (high glycemic index). Then add some meats and green/red/orange veggies. For some reason, I don't often eat beans, but I always like tofu/rice, chickpeas/rice (Indian), hummus/pita, beans/rice (any Latin kind of recipe), so I figure I/family should start making these more.