Organic, Sustainable, and Local Cooking for any Budget
We can become happier, healthier, and more secure by cooking and eating real food again. Join the movement to make delicious, seasonal meals from scratch. You'll reduce your grocery bills and probably your medical bills. You'll have the joy of vibrant health and the relief of being able to eat well on even a small budget. You'll make a positive difference for yourself, your family, and for your community and planet.
Summer time!
Farmers' markets are transitioning from high summer to early fall. Get peaches and tomatoes while you still can. Peppers, okra, summer squash, potatoes, and melons abound. Basil is getting harder to find as powdery mildew strikes, so put up your pesto for winter before it's too late. Green beans may be hard to find for a few weeks but they will come back in the fall. Hardy greens such as kale and collards are coming back. Beware, though: collards have not yet been sweeted by frost.
Buying in bulk, eating with the seasons, and cooking ahead are all key skills in the Wildly Affordable Organic kitchen. See below for recipes.
Top Seasonal Recipes free on this site
- Baba Ganoush (new!)
- Summer Stew with Red Lentils, Green Beans, and Potatoes
- Heat-Wave Gazpacho
- Chickpea and Quinoa Salad with Beets, Cukes, and Peppers
- Stir-Fried Vegetables with Chickpeas and Peanuts, Summer Edition
- Steamed Collards with Peanut-Lime Sauce
- Chickpea Nomelettes with Kale (like omelettes but made with chickpea flour)
- Mexican Grilled Peach Sorbet
My
Favorite Seasonal Recipes in Fifty Weeks of Green
We've practically been living on Light Summer Southern Pesto, Quinoa Salad with Chioaggia Beets, One-Pot Barely Cooked Tomato Sauce with Noodles, Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes, and Lentilicious Sunshine Spread. Dessert is all about fruit with Potluck-Pride Peach Cobbler or Blueberry Slump.
Fifty Weeks also has tips for feeding your freezer, including how to freeze bell peppers. Putting food by can be fun with friends, as you can see in my post about summer, friends, and basil pesto.
Year-Round Organic, Real-Food Recipes
- Cuban Black Beans
- Dairy-Free Pizza with Hummus (match your toppings with the season)
- Lentilicious Sunshine Spread
- Steamed Collards or Kale with Peanut-Lime Sauce
- Power Jars for Grab-and-Go Lunches
- Hot Italian Cocoa Cookies
Why cook the Wildly Affordable Organic way?
Go green for $5 a day or less with mostly organic or sustainably raised ingredients. Or focus on cost to save even more! Either way, you'll probably be spending less than the food-stamp allowance for someone with no other means. We can afford to eat wonderful food that is good for our bodies and for our planet. Vote with your fork for a better world. (Don't forget to vote with your vote, too!)
Top tips
- From bags of bulk spices to a super-organized spice shelf
- Kids won't eat their greens? Try raw collard stems. Really!
- Using a kitchen scale (with video)
- How to cook dried beans (with video)
