The $15-a-week crockpot diet

My friend Bill, a writer, tutor and Crown Heights resident, loves going out to bars, events and movies. But like all of us Brokesters, he’s on a bit of a tight budget. So, to help balance his all-important drinking/music/movie habit with the need for food, Bill’s devised a strategy to eat on $15 a week or less.

Bill moved to New York in 2007, after finishing grad school in Philadelphia. He subsisted on frozen Trader Joe’s burritos and boxed mac and cheese until a friend suggested he get a crockpot. Even though his first experiments were a series of cream-sauced, Velveeta-slicked disasters, he discovered the appeal of slow cooking. The food went a long way. “After about 4 or 5 meals, I realized I still had another 4 or 5 to go, and I did a rough calculation of what each meal was costing me,” he said. “That’s when I finally understood what crocks were all about.”

Since then, Bill’s crocks have become so good that his friends look forward to dinner invites. Lentil casserole is delicious and his red beans and rice, made with $4 worth of kielbasa from Greenpoint, is really, really good. After a night at the bar, returning to Bill’s apartment for bowls of white bean and chicken chili is the best drunk food there is.  Even his roommates steal from the crock. “They come home from the bar and they head straight to the crockpot. I know they just try to skim from the top, to stay undetected, but I can always tell.”

There is not, however, a smorgasbord of slow-cooked delicacies to choose from in Bill’s refrigerator.  He makes one of these dishes a week, and eats it for every single meal. I’m not even kidding. That’s how he affords his very social New York lifestyle.

Because I thought Bill’s thrifty ways might be inspiring to others as well, I roped him into keeping a diary of his food and outings costs for a week, and asked him to send me some of his best recipes. Try ’em out—if you don’t have a slow cooker, they’re not very expensive, about $40, and in many cases are free. Your mom probably has an extra one.

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BILL’S ONE-WEEK EATING AND DRINKING LEDGER

DAY 1
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Chicken mushroom pasta, costs about $1.75 per serving
Dinner: Chicken mushroom pasta $1.75
After dinner: Drinks at Subway Bar, $15, and Legion Bar, $20

DAY 2
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Chicken mushroom pasta $1.75
Dinner: None
After dinner: Drinks at Canal Bar, $12, free drinks at Taco Competition open bar, $6 tip

DAY 3
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Paid for at internship
Dinner: Chicken mushroom pasta $1.75 (The end of the crock. Crock total cost: $14)
After dinner: BAM, A Single Man, $9 (student rate – not really a student)

DAY 4
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Paid for at internship
Dinner: Beans and rice crock (about $1.06 per meal)
After dinner: Film Forum, Red Beard, $6 (member rate

DAY 5
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Beans and rice $1.06
Dinner: Beans and rice $1.06
After dinner: Drinks at Washington Commons, $24

DAY 6
Thursday, Feb. 4
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Beans and rice $1.06
Dinner: Free, generously provided by roommate.
After dinner: Drinks at Alibi Bar, $12, drinks at Sweet Revenge, $12

DAY 7
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Beans and rice $1.06 (4 projected meals left. Total: $9.54 cost)
Dinner: Friend buys Bill 2 hot dogs in exchange for enduring the Knicks vs. Bucks game (the tickets were a gift from his brother – $0)

TOTALS
Food: $12.30
Movies: $15
Drinks: $101

[Editor’s note: Please consult a medical professional before embarking on any diet plan, especially one involving skipping breakfast and spending more money on drinks than food.]

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BILL’S FAVORITE RECIPES
Always brown meats first and sautée and onions, garlic, peppers, and celery—it softens the vegetables and seals in their flavor. Otherwise, just throw everything in the crockpot and cook for 6 to 8 hours on low—or 3 to 4 hours on high.

Chicken mushroom pasta
1 pound chicken thighs (bone-in), trimmed of excess fat
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 ribs celery, diced small
6 to 8 mushrooms, sliced
1-2 onions, diced
Garlic, minced
Oregano, 1 1/2 tsp
Box of pasta, preferably a roni-esque noodle (cooked first, and added at the end)
Optional: mix in a block (cubed) of your choice of cheese in the last 20 minutes
*When finished, remove bones from chicken thighs, should be very easy to do at this point

White bean chicken chili
3-4 large cans of white beans
1 green chili (sent fresh/frozen from New Mexico if you’re lucky or can be found frozen at Trader Joe’s or canned in various markets here)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 pound chicken thighs (bone-in, again remove bones upon completion of cooking)
3-5 slices bacon, diced
8 oz button or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
Cayenne, chili powder, paprika, pepper, etc. to taste
*Fry up bacon, mushroom and onions together first and add to crockpot with rest of ingredients

Red beans and rice
1 pound kielbasa, sliced
1 – 1.5 cups dry rice, cooked
3 cups water
1-pound bag of dried red beans, soaked overnight, weird looking beans picked out [Ed: a commenter notes that red beans can cause food poisoning if undercooked, which is a risk in a slow cooker. So to be on the safe side, you should soak dried kidney beans in water for at least 5 hours, pour away the water, and then boil them for an hour in fresh water before putting in the slow cooker.]
1-2 onions, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 rib celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Thyme, paprika, pepper – to taste + a bay leaf
*Stir in rice at very end

Lentil casserole
1 pound lentils
1 cup brown rice
3 cups chicken broth
1-2 onions, diced
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 large can of diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
Thyme, basil, oregano, salt, sage, garlic powder to taste
*Add 1-2 blocks of cheddar in the last hour