Together at the Table: Cooking for the $5 Challenge

by Meredith Paterson

A teaser from the premiere: Beth, Jordan, Cole, and
Andersen on the red carpet. More photos coming soon!

Happy Saturday! The $5 Challenge that I blogged about last week is here! We are in Dallas this weekend for the premiere of the Yogiños DVD (see Beth's post below), and I am staying with my family up here in Richardson, so I had the opportunity to hang out with my mom and shop at the Richardson Farmers' Market.

The idea of the $5 Challenge from Slow Food USA was to help people understand that they can eat in a sustainable (local, organic) way without breaking the bank. 

Right now in Texas, we're just about to enter our best produce season. Fall brings lots of variety in terms of veggies. Today we started seeing pumpkins and new squashes at the farmers' market which fit perfectly with the lovely gray rainclouds in the sky hinting at fall. (We really need the rain down here.) However, we decided we wanted to cook some of the last of the summer veggies, so zucchini was the centerpiece of today's meal.

Quinoa dish
(Apologies for the picture.
I'm no food photographer)

We made this recipe that I found on the gorgeous blog 101 Cookbooks:  Quinoa with Currants, Dill, and Zucchini. It was my first time to try this recipe. I thought it turned out really well. I subbed goat cheese for the feta because that's what was available, and I thought it was pretty tasty. I want to try it with the feta, too, though.

Zucchini, yellow squash, and onion
before hitting the grill.

We also grilled some veggies from the Farmers' Market. We were going to a dinner with family friends, so I didn't have the opportunity to complete a full meal on this challenge, but we had some money left over that could have gone towards foods to round out the meal.

Here is the cost breakdown:

Organic green onions: $0.99
Dried currants: $0.40
Sesame seeds: $0.22
Organic quinoa: $0.50
Local zucchini: $3 (used in both dishes
Local fresh dill: $0.75
Local goat cheese: $3.99
Local yellow squash: $0.72
Local white onion: $1
Grand Total: $11.57 / Per person (feeding 4): $2.87



This challenge was a lot of fun, and I encourage you to experiment with what you can do for under $5 with produce from your farmers' markets. Let us know what you prepare, and we would love to feature your recipes.