The free e-book Good and Cheap, written and photographed by Leanne Brown, is a cookbook aimed at helping low income families eat better by cooking for themselves. Created for the capstone project for her MA in Food Studies at New York University, Brown describes Good and Cheap as, “a collection of recipes for people with limited incomes, particularly those on a $4/day food stamps budget.” After Brown posted her free PDF version online, it went viral on social media sites such as Reddit and Tumblr and was featured on national news stations and covered in newspapers and magazines. This support gave Brown the idea to launch a Kickstarter campaign to print hardcopies of her very popular e-book version. Her goal was to get copies of Good and Cheap into the hands of people who didn’t have access to the online version or who wouldn’t otherwise see it.
Brown’s Kickstarter was hugely successful; starting with a goal to fundraise $10,000, the campaign finished with more than $144,000 in donations and is now available to pre order! Books will ship in September with the addition of 20 new recipes. You can also donate a copy of the book and there are special options to order in bulk for low-income families. Brown states on her website, “I think everyone should eat great food every day. Eating well means learning to cook. It means banishing the mindset that preparing daily meals is a huge chore or takes tremendous skill. Cooking is easy — you just have to practice.”
Although aimed towards low-income families, there’s something for everyone in this beautifully photographed cookbook. I’m particularly excited to try the Whole Wheat Jalapeno Cheddar Scones, Vegetable Jambalaya, and Cauliflower Tacos. Also, the section called “Things on Toast” is genius and the recipes look delicious! Here’s a peek at the “Things on Toast” section:
(Video via Good and Cheap Kickstarter page; images and information from Leanne’s website and the pdf version of Good and Cheap.)