Due to Mead Library closing for the coronavirus outbreak, I decided my blog post would be a bit different. All of the cookbooks in this post are available through Hoopla and Libby, so you can still check them out with us closed! Though, I will also include a link to our main catalog in case you find this post after the pandemic has died down. All of these books were selected because they were related to either food storage or cooking on a budget. I’ll include the description from Libby or Hoopla about each of the books.

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day by Leanne Brown (Libby/Hoopla/Monarch)

“While studying food policy as a master’s candidate at NYU, Leanne Brown asked a simple yet critical question: How well can a person eat on the $4 a day given by SNAP, the U.S. government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program informally known as food stamps? The answer is surprisingly well: Broiled Tilapia with Lime, Spicy Pulled Pork, Green Chile and Cheddar Quesadillas, Vegetable Jambalaya, Beet and Chickpea Salad—even desserts like Coconut Chocolate Cookies and Peach Coffee Cake. In addition to creating nutritious recipes that maximize every ingredient and use economical cooking methods, Ms. Brown gives tips on shopping; on creating pantry basics; on mastering certain staples—pizza dough, flour tortillas—and saucy extras that make everything taste better, like spice oil and tzatziki; and how to make fundamentally smart, healthful food choices.”

Urban Pantry: Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable & Seasonal Kitchen by Amy Pennington (Libby/Monarch)

“Urban Pantry is a smart, concise guide to creating a full and delicious larder in your own home. It covers kitchen essentials, like what basics to keep on hand for quick, tasty meals without a trip to the store, and features recipes that adapt old-fashioned pantry cooking for a modern audience. Avid chef and gardener Amy Pennington demystifies canning and pickling for the urban kitchen and provides tips for growing a practical food garden in even the smallest of spaces. Her more than sixty creative recipes blend both gourmet and classic flavors while keeping economy in mind…”

Put ‘Em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling by Sherri Brooks Vinton (Hoopla/Monarch)

“With simple step-by-step instructions and 175 delicious recipes, this book will have even the timidest beginners filling pantries and freezers in no time! Put ’em Up! includes complete how-to information for every kind of preserving: refrigerating, freezing, air- and oven-drying, cold- and hot-pack canning, and pickling. Sherri Brooks Vinton includes recipes that range from the contemporary and daring – Wasabi Beans and Salsa Verde – to the very best versions of tried-and-true favorites, including Classic Crock Pickles and Orange Marmalade.”

The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse: A Cookbook & Culinary Survival Guide by Lauren Wilson (Libby/Hoopla/Monarch)

“The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse is a cookbook and culinary field guide for the busy zpoc survivor. With more than 80 recipes (from Overnight of the Living Dead French Toast and It’s Not Easy Growing Greens Salad to Down & Out Sauerkraut, Honey & Blackberry Mead, and Twinkie Trifle), scads of gastronomic survival tips, and dozens of diagrams and illustrations that help you scavenge, forage, and improvise your way to an artful post-apocalypse meal. The Art of Eating is the ideal handbook for efficient food sourcing and inventive meal preparation in the event of an undead uprising.”

From Freezer to Cooker: Delicious Whole-Foods Meals for the Slow Cooker, Pressure Cooker, and Instant Pot by Polly Conner and Rachel Tiemeyer (Libby/Monarch)

“It’s dinnertime and, yet again, you’re behind. The kids are cranky, the fridge is empty, the kitchen is a mess. Sound familiar? That was every night at the houses of popular bloggers and cookbook authors Polly Conner and Rachel Tiemeyer until they discovered freezer cooking. And once they realized that freezer meals could be made even easier with the hands-free magic of the pressure cooker, Instant Pot, or a slow cooker, dinnertime drama became a thing of the past.”

Bonus!

Another option, if you would rather binge a cooking show, is Kanopy. It has a 10 item stream limit per month, but The Great Courses series doesn’t count against that limit. There were a few that stood out to me. The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking teaches the basics of cooking. The Everyday Gourmet: Making Great Meals in Less Time shows you how to cut some time off your recipes. Lastly, The Mayo Clinic Diet shows you how to implement some healthy lifestyle choices in your life.