Tuesday Megalinks

So much good stuff today, but first – I had the opportunity to write for the Mushroom Council’s new blog, so head on over if you get the chance. There’s a short post followed up by a sweet recipe for stuffed mushrooms, courtesy of the fine folks at Cooks Illustrated.

Broke Grad Student: Festival of Frugality Singles Awareness Edition
This week’s roundup includes lots of candy hearts, CHG’s What the Great Depression Can Teach Us About Food and Frugality, and a stellar post by Mighty Bargain Hunter entitled Why Do Frugality Tips Suck So Badly?

Chow: 10 Ways to Save at the Grocery Store
There are a billion of these stories floating around the blogosphere right now, but I liked Chow’s attention to substitutions and size, as well as the superhelpful (one word!) Chowhound threads linked at the end. Those guys know their stuff, yo.

Chow: Cooking with Winter Ingredients
To be sung to the tune of “It’s the End of the World as We Know it” by REM:
That’s great it starts with a grapefruit, banana, kale and artichokes –
Escarole is not afraid
Eye of a meyer lemon, listen to a yellow onion
Turnip serves its own needs
Don’t misserve your own beets
Feed it up with chard, cabbage, kiwi, orange,
Rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga – rutabaga fine!

CNN: Living on Food Stamps
Sean Callebs is living on the government’s $176 food stamp allotment for an entire month, and blogging all about it. As a 5’9” woman with no children or discernible exercise plan, I could do this. As a 6’3” long distance runner, Sean might have some issues.

Epi-Log: Cheap and Indispensable
In which Epicurious gives it up for flexible cutting boards. They’re absolutely necessary in my kitchen, so I concur with the mad props. Pretty colors, too.

Get Rich Slowly: Quick Tips for Eating Organic
Lightning fast rundown of tricks, highlighted by copious links and a few informative words from Grist’s Lou Bendrick.

Gotta Little Space to Fill: Make it From Scratch Festival
Valentine recipes galore decorate this week’s festival, along with Leigh’s Kismet salad.

Healthy Eats: Top 5 Kitchen Tools for Cooking Healthy
Food Network’s new healthy cooking blog launched only a few weeks ago, but is already packed to the gills with good stuff. Among the more helpful posts is this short, sweet article on the glory of food scales, plane graters, and beyond.

The Kitchn: Eight Ways to Build Flavor
The best part about this piece? All those flavor builders involve almost no added fat or calories. Plus, they turn the taste to 11.

The Kitchn: Soup Swap – Have You Tried it?
Ooooooooooo. Neat twist on the average potluck dinner. We’ve been nuts about soup here lately, so this might be worth a shot.

The Kitchn: Vegan and Vegetarian Soup Recipes
Speaking of soups, here are 15 of the Kitchn’s meatless favorites. These guys are on a total roll lately.

New York Post: Golden Time for Arche$
McDonald’s sales went up more than 5% last month alone. Whoa. Sure, they’re everything that’s wrong with food policy, but, uh … invest now.

New York Times: In Kitchen, "Loser" Contestants Start From Scratch
Article of the week, right here. Much more on this in tomorrow’s post, but essentially, the whole shebang boils down to this: Biggest Loser contestants generally come into the ranch completely unable to cook for themselves. Learning how is the hardest part of the whole experience, except for when Jillian yells. She’s scary.

New York Times: Restaurants Stop Playing Hard to Get
Eateries – even the fancy ones – are courting customers like CRAZY in an attempt to stay afloat during the recession. There are deals and discounts to be had out there – it’s just a matter of research.

New York Times: Dieting? Put Your Money Where Your Fat Is
Need a fast way to lose weight? Bet your ultra-competitive coworkers, cousins, or BFFs that you can do it quicker than they can. For real, it’s helping a lot of folks drop extra poundage.

Prime Time Money: Wife Swap and Couponing Gone Wrong
I saw this episode! While the non-frugal couple could have trimmed waaaaay back, the frugal family took thrift about 37 steps over the boundary of acceptable, to the point where it was affecting their children’s social development. Good analysis of a strange situation.

Slashfood: Could You Live Without a Fridge?
Do you know anyone who’s trying this? I hope they have a spare igloo.

Smart Money: 5 Sites for Clipping Grocery Coupons
Super-nice breakdown of reliable couponing sites. Hardcore shoppers might already know about these, but for the uninitiated, it’s a treasure trove … OF KNOWLEDGE. (Thanks to Consumerist for the link.)

U.S. News and World Report: Coupon Master Saves $1,500 a Month
Interview with Ashley Nuzzo, a.k.a. Frugal Coupon Mom, in which she details how she banks all that extra cash. Her plan is difficult to follow if you don’t have the time, but there are decent tips within, nonetheless. (Thanks to Jezebel for the link.)

Wise Bread: Frugal Fitness - Twenty-Five and a Half Ways to Make it Happen
WOOOO! Linkfest ’09! (Seriously, this is good stuff. Click now.)

(Photos courtesy of Ultimate Coupons, Spinalist Tips, and Spinelli's Deli.)

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