The Slow Food USA Blog

Eat in style on a bare-bones budget

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by Mikayla Moretti, Slow Food chapter at University of Rhode Island

What could possibly be better than eating food you can feel good about without breaking the bank?  Author and Slow Food extraordinaire Amy McCoy recently wrote and published a cookbook that does just that; she calls it Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in style on a bare-bones budget.  In this cookbook, there are over 200 pages of recipes that call for seasonal foods, sensational flavor, and savings beyond your wildest imagination.

The best part about this book is Amy’s creativity and sensibility behind each and every recipe.  With the turn of every page you will find good, clean, and fair ingredients combined together to make a delicious gourmet meal that won’t wipe out your firstborn’s college fund.  The recipes account for the cost of every ingredient used to prepare each dish down to the cent, allowing even the most sophisticated palate to eat well despite the effects of the current economic recession.

Where did this all begin you may ask? A few years back Amy created her blog, the original Poor Girl Gourmet, at the start of the recession.  She began posting the recipes of meals for her readers, all of which she prepared herself at her home.  The essence behind Poor Girl Gourmet enables us all to deliberately keep costs low without sacrificing the integrity, flavor, or locality of our food. 

In addition to her talents as a freelance writer and culinary expert, Amy is a gifted photographer and the mastermind behind the beautiful pictures in this book, as well.  In fact, Amy recently visited the University of Rhode Island in April to impart her comprehensive wealth of knowledge on students and the URI community.  Amy’s agenda at URI included a visit to several journalism classes during the day and a special sneak peak of Poor Girl Gourmet in the evening.  Amy’s book discussion featured the complete story that brought her from blog to book and the process she encountered after being sought out by a publishing company.

To top it all off, Amy has served as the Slow Food Rhode Island chair for the past two years and has seen membership grow exponentially in this flourishing chapter.  Currently Amy is on tour for the summer – check out her blog for a more complete schedule of Amy’s whereabouts and book signings.  Don’t forget to pick up a copy of Poor Girl Gourmet at your local book store!