Best Cheap$kate Food Finds of 2020

 Deals Deals Deals - come and get 'em! 2020 was a great year for my budget food foraging finds, everything from Godiva Pudding to Radish Sprouts.

Well, if you are a frequent visitor, you have seen some of these photos illustrating my delish recipes, and special Deal of the Day reviews like below (click on names to see the original cheap$kate review or recipe.

Brown Cow Yogurt

Spring Rolls

Vegan Steak Strips

Mediterranean-Style Chicken Bowl

 

Click on any photo to see larger - to read ingredients or description. 

I get comments all the time about how awful dollar and 99 cent stores must be. I can't argue with that, they carry an abundance of dross and Frankenstein foodstuffs -- hey, you get what you pay for. But I am a bottom feeder on a budget with over a decade of blog experience picking out the best for less. But don't come down on me too harshly, I do highlight plenty of organic food-stuffs that Dollar Trees and  99c only Stores now wisely stock.

Best Cheap$kate Food Finds of 2020

Bouillon Paste? Seems like a good idea.

This brand does a delicious job with frozen veggies and fruit.

Tastes just like regular ketchup, just less sugary.

Check out my Kraut Dog recipe here. I love sauerkraut this way.

Hey, I'll admit to eating from time to time a few preservatives and cooking with unhealthy oils like generic vegetable oil -- gotta keep my liver exercising! Of course, do substitute healthier ingredients in my cheap$kate recipes...if you have a Whole Food budget, or can even find any untainted ingredients in the food desert you may reside in.

Haven't tried these yet, but I like this brand.

Hemp Milk is surprisingly good, especially on cereal.

Used to get a dozen for a buck. 

A little strange, but not bad?

I gotta give it up to my local 99c only Store and Dollar Tree. Without them, my food blog would be anemic and barren. When I'm low on food, I will go to a regular grocery store for coffee and deli-baked bread (usually in the bargain bin and a few days old,) veggies on sale, fresh seafood, and specialty cuts of meat, but I always make time for a quick stop at my fave cheap$kate 99 cent and dollar stores for many food deals.

Cooked Shrimp great in Fried Rice.

99 thanks budget stores and keep stocking the shelves for starving students, hardworking minimum wage earners, retirees on a budget, single-parent families, and everyone else without much change to spare and just plain old penny-pinchers.

Pastrami on Rye? Recipe for Easy Homemade Pastrami here.

Been having Bagels & Cream Cheese lately. 

Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese is intense but tasty.

For my Best Food Finds of 2020 I've learned to be an impulsive shopper - walk past one of these cheap$kate deals below, and by the time you get home, change your mind and return to get the deal, well, it will likely be gone.

Crackers ain't what they used to be and that's okay.

Just a drizzle really kicks up a Stir Fry.

Hic!

Well, that's you're missing all you naysayers and snooty gourmands. Sometimes you gotta bite the budget bullet, but don't worry all my fellow penny-pinching gastronomers, the 99 Cent Chef has your back or at least your stomach!

My preferred hot sauce for Cajun cuisine.

And keep checking back for another year of scrumptious blog postings!

Best 99c only Store Food Finds of 2013

2014 has arrived and here is another of the Chintziest Hunter Gatherer's year end Top 9 Lists, The Best 99c only Store Food Finds of 2013.

Come cruise the aisles for healthy and unique food finds from my favorite Los Angeles budget market, the 99c only Store. This has been a fruitful year where I've found everything from heirloom tomatoes to organic pumpkin puree.

The 99c only Store stock shelves are especially well represented by canned and jarred veggies. Looking for Artichoke or Piquillo Pepper Bruschetta for 99.99 cents (okay, it cost a dollar) that would normally cost major bucks at any specialty food store? I always get large jars of Minced Garlic, but when I saw the same size jar of Ginger Paste, I picked up a couple for future stir fry recipes.

 

Some finds sound too good (or weird) to be true. How about Kimchi Tortilla Chips or Sesame Street "Organic Letter of the Day Cookies"?  Hmmm, I think I'll take a pass on the first one, while the "Organic," in Letter of the Day Cookies, must be quite a stretch of the meaning.

I don't know if you have heard the news of our local Sriracha hot sauce plant closing down because of odor complaints. (LA Times news article is here.) Called Rooster Sauce (because of the bottle's logo), the most well know brand of Sriracha is found at most Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants. So the closing of the plant is distressing to local hot sauce fanatics in Los Angeles. But don't worry as there are now other Sriracha purveyors; and I found large bottles of the hot stuff at, you guessed it, 99c only Stores.

So check out some more great deals I've documented below. You'll never know what unique food stuffs are stocked at the 99c only Store.