On a Budget

These budget-cooking recipes are easy and inexpensive to make. Many are Mediterranean-style recipes, which are healthy and nourishing. It can be very difficult to find the time and energy to cook healthy food on a tight budget. I have focused on affordable ingredients and easy preparations here, as well as foods you can make ahead for the week.

Basic Roasted Tomato Sauce

Step by step recipe for tomato sauce and instructions for processing using a pressure canner. Simple sauce made of tomatoes, olive oil, sugar and salt.

Banana Soft Serve

Recipe for one-ingredient food processor banana soft serve – creamy, all natural, sugar free, dairy free dessert.

Judy Garland’s Favorite Salad

Learn about the life of Judy Garland and celebrate her birthday with her very own crisp vegetable salad recipe with homemade French dressing.

Ambrosia Fruit Salad – Cooking Club 1907

A simple vintage tropical fruit salad recipe with pineapple, bananas and coconut from Cooking Club Magazine, May 1907.

Potato Salad with Dill and Dijon

A unique and flavorful chilled salad recipe with new potatoes, mayonnaise, whole grain dijon mustard, vinegar and fresh dill.

Creamy Baba Ghanoush

Recipe for luscious Middle Eastern roasted eggplant dip, rich with sesame tahini. Healthy and tasty!

Ful Mudammas

Learn a historical Middle Eastern recipe from ancient times – Ful Mudammas made with fava beans, olive oil, onion, garlic, and cumin. Ancient Israelite cooking.

Ensalada de Frutas con Chile

A spicy Mexican fruit salad recipe with salt, lemon and chile de árbol by Tori Avey. Cinco de Mayo or summer salad.

Middle Eastern Okra – Bamya

Easy, healthy and delicious recipe for Middle Eastern Okra, aka Bamya, with tomato, onion and spices

Rhubarb Marmalade – Cooking Club 1907

A vintage recipe for rhubarb marmalade, a delicious twist on sweet marmalade jam with step-by-step photos.

Prepared Horseradish 3 Ways

Easy recipe tutorial for Prepared Horseradish 3 Ways, including plain, with beets & cream style.

Chocolate Covered Toffee Matzo Crunch

Chocolate Toffee Matzo Crunch with Pistachios & Sea Salt – Delicious Passover dessert inspired by Marcy Goldman’s “A Treasury of Holiday Baking”

Easy 3-Ingredient Cauliflower Soup

Simple and delicious recipe for pureed Cauliflower Soup, needs only 3 ingredients. Vegan or vegetarian, gluten free, low carb, healthy, light.

Roasted Carrots with Dill

Roasted whole carrots with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and fresh dill. Simple springtime side dish. Who knew something so simple could taste so amazing?

Tomato Egg Scramble – Cooking Club 1913

Recipe for Tomato Egg Scramble with butter and crackers on toast from a 1913 cooking magazine called Cooking Club. Simple breakfast dish.

Victoria’s Favorite Pikelets

Old Fashioned Edwardian Tea-Time Pancakes from Sharon Biggs Waller’s novel A Mad Wicked Folly.

How to Make Popcorn the Old Fashioned Way

Learn how to make popcorn the old fashioned natural way, no popper required, in a pot on the stovetop! It’s simple & healthier than microwave popcorn.