Cookbook for low-cost meals started as a graduate thesis on poverty

Leave it to a Canadian to put a positive spin on SNAP (a.k.a. food stamps), a program whose ungainly full name is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

"We don't have food stamps in Canada. A lot of Americans don't appreciate that the program is actually really cool and effective," says Leanne Brown, author of Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4 a Day (Workman). She'll discuss the book and sign copies Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The book has become an unlikely phenomenon, and the interest in it started before it was officially published in July. Before she was an award-winning author, Brown was a graduate student in the food-studies department at New York University. It was school that brought her to the United States in the first place.

Brown's interest in the SNAP program inspired her thesis project - she'd write a cookbook for people who live on a food budget of $4 a day, the average amount a SNAP recipient gets. With the financial constraints of her intended audience in mind, she set another ambitious goal for her project. She wanted the book to be free, so she made the PDF available for anyone to download. Overnight, the NYU student went viral. To date, Good and Cheap has been downloaded almost a million times - and counting. You can still get your digital copy free at LeanneBrown.com.

Distributing a cookbook online might not seem like the ideal way to get it into the kitchens of low-income cooks. "That's not an issue," says Brown. "People on food stamps are stereotyped, but they are just as diverse as the rest of the population." Most have access to computers; many have smartphones or tablets, she says. "You would be surprised at the number of food processors and stand mixers I see when I visit the kitchens of those who rely on this program for food."

She notes that these items can come into someone's life as a hand-me-down or from a thrift store. Her worldview lacks any preconceived notions about government assistance; she makes zero assumptions. Having spent countless hours volunteering with this very community writing her thesis, Brown's message is, in part, that people on food stamps are just like everyone else.

Flipping through Good and Cheap, I saw many dishes that appealed to me, though I couldn't help but notice how many are based on breads and pasta - foods I try to eat in moderation for weight management and health reasons. Sandwiches and spaghetti are definitely good and, indeed, cheap, but not things I want to eat every day.

Brown's book does offer other options - including a delicious peanut chicken and broccoli dish, which I will definitely make again. Her barley risotto with peas and ricotta cheese is a whole-grain alternative to the Italian classic, which I also enjoyed. But more than any specific recipe, it's her cheerleading tone, her budget-minded shopping tips, and her meal suggestions that make feeding yourself well for $4 a day sound like a challenge anyone can tackle, even if you aren't so budget-constrained.

Hitting Brown's target budget numbers for these recipes will require careful shopping, if you can hit them at all. Her numbers are based on averages from four supermarkets near her home in New York and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Costs vary by city, time of year, and happenstance, she says, and cost per servings is a guideline, not a guarantee.

The book includes several pages of thrift-minded shopping tips, including buying in bulk, strategizing your weekly grocery runs, and sniffing out sales. There's also an emphasis on creative use of leftovers, eliminating waste, and cooking batch meals to conserve time.

Really, the book is a modern treatise on home economics, a skill that has largely been discarded and that requires practice. The book offers a motivated and budget-minded person a place to start - if that someone isn't too drained and demoralized by minimum-wage jobs or the public-transit commute to the grocery store, assuming there is a nearby grocery store with fresh produce.

The book's can-do spirit is one reason Liz Fitzgerald, who runs the Philadelphia Free Library's Center for Culinary Literacy, leans on the book for many of her center's programs. It's a key part of the ESL program there, which uses food as a way to get immigrants practicing their conversational English outside traditional classrooms.

Cooking takes time, skill, and effort; not everyone has the hours or energy to start making meals from scratch. But Brown says she receives emails from people whose lives did change. Her favorite email came from Brenda, a Texas woman who supports two grandchildren. Before downloading Good and Cheap, she had been feeding the kids mostly processed, sugary, packaged foods from her local food pantry. Now, she cooks daily and has even planted a garden. She told Brown she had lost 40 pounds in the last five months.

"When I saw that email," says Brown, "I cried for a day."

Leanne Brown: "Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4 a Day"
6 p.m. Tuesday at the Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St.
Tickets: $30 (includes signed book). Information: 215-686-5322 or www.freelibrary.org

RECIPES FROM Good and Cheap

Peanut Sauce
Makes 1 cup or 6 servings

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1 jalapeño pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot or small onion
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar-free peanut butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce

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1. Finely chop the jalapeño, garlic, and shallot, or use a food processor to make them into a paste.

2. Add the oil to a saucepan over medium heat. Once it's warm, sauté the pepper, garlic, and shallot until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the ½ cup of coconut milk.

3. Let everything come to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Stir in the peanut butter and soy sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add more coconut milk to thin it. Once the mixture is well combined, taste it and add whatever you think it needs.

Per serving: 190 calories; 1 gram protein; 6 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram sugar; 15 grams fat; no cholesterol; 154 milligrams sodium; 1 gram dietary fiber.

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Peanut Chicken and Broccoli with Coconut Rice
Makes 6 servings

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11/2 cups long-grain rice
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
11/2 pounds chicken (any part), deboned and chopped into bite-size pieces
Pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
6 cups chopped broccoli, stems and florets separated (about 1 large bunch)
1/2 cup Peanut Sauce (recipe follows)
Chopped fresh cilantro

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1. Rinse the rice. Add it, along with the coconut milk, salt, and 1½ cups water, to a pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low. Let the rice simmer, covered, with the lid askew, until the liquid is gone, about 20 minutes. If the rice is done before the stir-fry, remove it from the heat, fluff it a bit with a fork so it doesn't stick to the pot, and cover to keep it warm.

2. While the rice cooks, sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.

3. Place a large pan or wok over medium-high heat and add 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil. Let it get hot and add the broccoli stems. Cook, stirring occasionally, to soften the stems, about 3 minutes. Add the tops of the broccoli and ¼ cup of water and cover the pan. It will steam and sizzle a lot, so watch out! Let the broccoli cook until the water evaporates, about 3 more minutes. Test a piece of broccoli with a fork. It should be just barely tender, but not soft. Turn off the heat and remove the broccoli from the pan.

4. Add the remaining teaspoon of oil to the pan and put it back over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until it's no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add another ¼ cup water and stir occasionally until the chicken is cooked all the way through, another 2 minutes.

5. Add the peanut sauce and stir to coat the chicken. Don't worry if the sauce seems too thick at first. It will blend with the water to become a glaze. Once the chicken is coated with sauce, put the broccoli back into the pan and stir it all together. Taste and add salt as needed.

6. Scoop the coconut rice onto plates and top with the broccoli, chicken, and cilantro.

Per serving (with peanut sauce): 765 calories; 41 grams protein; 52 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams sugar; 41 grams fat; 101 milligrams cholesterol; 462 milligrams sodium; 5 grams dietary fiber.EndText

Barley Risotto with Peas
Makes 3 servings

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1 cup pearl barley
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups frozen peas
½ cup ricotta
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 slices bacon, chopped (optional, see note)

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1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the barley onto a rimmed baking sheet, spreading it into an even layer. Place it in the oven and bake until the barley is golden brown, 10 minutes. If you're short on time, skip this step, but you'll lose out on the toasty flavor.

2. Place a small pot over low heat and add the broth. It just needs to heat up and stay warm.

3. Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more.

4. Add the toasted barley and lemon zest, then stir to coat with the butter and onion. Add a ladleful (about ½ cup) of broth and stir. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding another ladleful of broth whenever the barley looks like it needs it. Reduce the heat if you notice the broth disappearing quickly.

5. At the 20-minute mark, you should have used up about 4 cups of broth. Add the frozen peas and another 1/2 cup broth. Stir until the broth is absorbed. Try a piece of barley to see whether it is fully cooked. There should be no hard center and the barley should be soft, but still chewy and whole. If the barley is not quite cooked, add the remaining ½ cup broth, stir, and keep cooking. Once it's ready, add the lemon juice and ricotta and stir. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. You should be generous with the pepper, but the salt will depend on the saltiness of your broth, so be mindful.

Note: If you want to use bacon, add it in Step 3 instead of the butter. Let the bacon get crispy and release its fat. Continue to Step 4.

Per serving (without bacon): 497 calories; 26 grams protein; 76 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams sugar; 11 grams fat; 23 milligrams cholesterol; 1,439 milligrams sodium; 17 grams dietary fiber.EndText