Having a practicing/in training chef in the house doesn’t mean gourmet food all the time, especially in our house because finances are very tight. We just finished 9 weeks of chicken and fish because that was the primary proteins he worked with in class. Mind you, it was GOOD chicken and fish, but it definitely left us wanting something else. To keep within our budget, we had to buy primarily what he needed to practice with: whole fish and whole chickens. But we still managed a little pork, some steak fajitas (using skirt steak, which is fairly inexpensive), and played with some soup ideas using leftovers (we did buy some shrimp for a recent soup idea, but it will probably be awhile before we can play with that again just because of the price). One thing that helps us is the local farmer’s market chain. The produce and meats are cheaper there than anywhere else, though I think the quality is a little lower too. Still, it keeps us in fresh fruits and vegetables and allows us to buy fish and seafood when we never could afford them before. We rarely use frozen veggies anymore, which I think also means healthier eating for our family.

It’s harder to try out recipes from new cultures even with the farmer’s market though. Spices aren’t cheap, and that’s where we seem to run into a problem. I do look up substitutions, but not all spices have a good substitute that will convey a similar flavor and using a substitute takes away from the authenticity of a dish. Since our chef wants to work with authentic flavors of various cultures, I’m going to have to find a way to slowly build up our spice selection to accommodate him. Not easy to do on a very limited budget like we have, but something he needs to expand himself as a chef.

This week, we’re also dealing with everyone being sick, including the chef. Being a chef is hard work. Cooking good food takes time and the chef is on his feet the whole time he’s working. Yesterday we had pre-packaged foods for dinner because our chef was just too sick to cook. Today he worked on a new soup we’re tinkering with for the restaurant, then he had to take an extended break because it tired him out. And we know the soup needs some work, but because our sense of taste is off from being sick, we’re not sure what kind of work it needs.

My goal is to work on something new each week. My original plan was to buy ingredients specific for that something each week, but our budget may limit that. I’ll have to work with ingredients we use all the time anyway: sugar, flour, etc. Stuff we always keep on hand and that isn’t that expensive. At least until our chef is working again, the things I can play with will be limited. This is okay. Unlike the chef, I’m not in culinary school, so starting with simpler recipes with easy to find ingredients is probably the best way to go anyway. He’s promised to show me what he learns in his next set of courses (Foundations of Baking & Pastry!), but that’s assuming he has the time to. If he gets a job, which we need him to do, he probably won’t have time, and I’ll be teaching myself anyway.

But, you know, the limits haven’t been all that big a deal for us. We’re already exploring foods we’ve never tried before and using ingredients in ways we’ve never thought of before. In the last few weeks we’ve created a new potato soup for the restaurant, tried a couple of Moroccan dishes, made a new cookie with ingredients we had on hand, and started working on a new soup. Cooking within limits doesn’t have to be boring. You just have to be willing to go beyond the boundaries of what you know.