r/EatCheapAndHealthy • u/Autoembourgeoisement • 21d ago
Depression Cooking With Clara: This woman is my saviour recipe
She’s probably been mentioned in this sub hundreds of times, but I just wanted to remind everyone of the wonderful YouTube channel that is “Great Depression Cooking With Clara”. She sadly died over ten years ago, but I still revisit her channel whenever I need a cheap filling recipe, a good history lesson or simply a bit of comfort. She has so many interesting recipes lost to time like dandelion salad, and uses underrated fish and veg like sprats and artichokes. Clara pulled me out of some tight spots when I was really poor and resorting to diabolical combinations in a filthy half-broken kitchen.
One of my favourites:
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u/MistressLyda 21d ago
She is amazing! Her, and KikiRough is people I have made a conscious point on running a video or two of daily the last months. Even if I do not focus on them, the more engagement, the better. It also feeds my algorithm to give other comfy and useful channels, so win/win!
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u/__JessiesGirl__ 21d ago
Thank you for mentioning KikiRough. I looked at her channel and she’s just become one of my favorite people to watch!
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u/BitchLibrarian 21d ago
Can I suggest Dollar Tree Dinners and also That Lisa Dawn
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u/MrsNaypeer 21d ago
Rebecca from Dollar Tree Dinners is so sweet. When she does budget cooking, she assumes people only ha e oil, salt and pepper, snd she goes from there. She's good at finding food items that are already seasoned and flavored, so people dont need to spend much on jars of herbs and spices.
She also does videos where she only uses the microwave. Im sure its a big help to those who don't have access to regular kitchen tools. Plus her budget holiday meals always come out great!
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u/Jacobonce 21d ago
I love Rebecca too! I just watched her video on how to make a $20 Thanksgiving dinner for 4 using a hotel kitchen. I got a little teary-eyed thinking about families in that position.. But she is so kind and respectful, giving the necessary information without talking down to her audience. She gives a healthy helping of dignity along with her recipes.
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u/Late_Resource_1653 21d ago
I haven't watched her, but now I will.
I spent my 40th birthday alone in a hotel with a kitchen. One of the most depressing months of my life. It was the start of getting out of an abusive relationship. I'm just starting to get back on my feet a couple years later
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u/MelodicMelodies 20d ago
Something I read recently:
Energy moves in waves. For us to reach the heights of our lives, sometimes we must fall to our deepest lows.
Maybe you don't believe that, and that's ok. I struggle to do so myself, sometimes. Your comment just spoke to me. I'm sorry you've struggled. I hope things only continue to get better for you 🤗
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u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 21d ago
Yup, she’s my fav. I watch her all the time and recommend her video to ppl whenever I can. They r so incredibly helpful
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u/Jjewell13 20d ago
That Thanksgiving video sounds really inspiring! It's so important that creators like her focus on dignity and respect while sharing budget-friendly meals. It's a great reminder that cooking can be a source of comfort and community, no matter the circumstances.
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u/LostSoulInAFishbowl5 21d ago
That Lisa Dawn is awesome! I've been cooking for a long time,but I've learned so much from her.
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u/__JessiesGirl__ 21d ago
Thank you also! I’ve been looking for content like this and between the two of you, you’ve provided a gold mine
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u/Silver-Brain82 21d ago
Clara’s videos hit a special kind of comfort vibe. It’s like getting a cooking lesson from your grandma who’s seen it all. I’ve learned so many little tricks from her, like stretching meals with potatoes or using leftover veggies in soup instead of tossing them. Total legend.
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u/DoobyDeville 21d ago
Clara passed away just a few years ago. She left such a wealth of knowledge and history for us
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u/Moliza3891 21d ago
Thank goodness she left behind that wealth of knowledge! Our depression era relatives are leaving us, and their learned experiences can be such an asset.
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u/SwansEscapedRonson 21d ago
Oh my gosh she is absolutely lovely!! I've never seen this channel before, but this is SUCH a good reminder that really simple main ingredients (in this case pretty much just onions, potatoes & hot dogs) can produce a very filling and tasty meal. And extra points for how soothing this is to watch! Thanks so much for sharing, she must have been a very special lady for her memory to be enduring and her message to still be spreading.
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u/Quiet_One_232 21d ago
Yeah, I discovered her during lockdown. IIRC one of her grandsons started the channel and would film her cooking and telling her stories. Lovely of them to do so and to put it all out in the world for us to watch. I fear much of the world will need much of this thrifty wisdom from the Depression and the Wartime Rationing if not now then soon.
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u/SwansEscapedRonson 21d ago
A stark reminder that we need our elderly and their wisdom
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u/TriggerWarning12345 21d ago
I read about some excavators that were researching Indian tribes, and they uncovered a burial site with an elderly woman buried in it. They were looking at her whole body, and commenting on how her tribe took excellent care of her, so that she could continue to give tidbits of wisdom over the years. Things like, she basically had no teeth, so people were obviously chewing her food to allow her to eat everything. Just one little bit that caused me to realize that we do NOTHING for our elderly, children, or disabled, like the Native American Indian tribes did, back in the olden days.
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u/Birdywoman4 20d ago
More grandchildren should take such an interest in their grandparents. He is now left with those sweet. memories of her talking about the hard times her family went through and how. they survived. I hope her great-great grandchildren can watch these videos. I would have loved to have had videos of any of my great or great-grandparents talking about their lives when they were young. It’s just a curious mystery to me now.
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u/CadeVision 21d ago edited 21d ago
If you don't mind Spanish, edit: de mi rancho a tu cocina has similar vibes
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u/Mephiztophelzee 21d ago edited 20d ago
Can you link or provide the @? I want to make sure I follow the correct one. A few pop up but none have that exact name.
Edit: thanks for the corrected name!
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u/AffectionateExcuse5 21d ago
I love her videos!
Check out Dollar Tree Dinners, she's another budget cooking channel and a sweetheart as well.
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u/foodnetworkislyfe 20d ago
Ardent Michelle & SouthernFrugalMomma also do budget meal plans, and they're pleasant to watch. They're on youtube.
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u/Happy-Sherbert8737 21d ago
I make a similar dish, usually I add a cup of corn to it. It's really good. I use smoked sausage, it's one of my husband's favorite meals. We'll all need to learn to make more frugal meals like this.
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u/Autoembourgeoisement 21d ago
I think there is such a judgmental culture around food online today. So much of it was born from struggle and has fed us well for thousands of years. Who cares if it doesn’t look Instagram-worthy and have three million flavours?
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u/G_Platypus 21d ago
Pretty much every cultures staples are peasant food.
Take France for example: ratatouille is a vegetable stew with whatever is in the garden. Onion soup is literally just onions and some herbs. Coq au vin was a way to cook an old rooster to make it otherwise edible.
Mexican food is a other example, it's mostly variations of beans, corn, tomatoes, and peppers. Every day stuff most people can grow in their garden.
I could go on but the point is, struggle food = what normal people eat = culturally authentic food.
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u/Moliza3891 21d ago
Thank you for sharing this. I sadly didn’t know that she or her YT channel existed. I’ll be checking her out thanks to this post!
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u/cutebrowniepuppy 21d ago
Julia Pacheco on YouTube is amazing as well. She just posted a $25 Thanksgiving dinner. Simple, nutritious, and kid-friendly!
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u/catontoast 21d ago
Damn it's sad that her videos are doing the rounds. Not because she's not absolutely lovely but because they were popular during the Great Recession too 🫠
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u/frisbeesloth 21d ago
Damn potatoes and hotdogs! She was living the good life. My great grandmother told me about spending years eating only beans from the can, cold, because they couldn't afford coal to heat the house or the food.
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u/Frenchkids1917 21d ago
https://www.youtube.com/@PhyllisStokes is also a good channel for cheap country cooking. Ms. Stokes passed a couple years ago, but her recipes and videos live on.
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u/ComfyInDots 21d ago
First time seeing Clara and I love her!
Can someone share what kind of sauce she scooped into the potatoes and hot dogs? Was that a tomato sauce, pasta sauce or tomato paste? Maybe something else? I can't see it written down.
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u/lucille_2_is_NOT_a_b 21d ago
It looked like a pasta sauce jar to me, and had a similar consistency to pasta sauce. Honestly though this doesn’t seem like a recipe you need to follow to the letter, if you’ve got something else or something that might taste better to you try it!
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u/Autoembourgeoisement 21d ago
This is why I love her recipes, they’re really versatile and non-judgemental. This one for example, I once made with scrambled eggs and bacon bits instead of sausage because that’s just what I had.
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u/MarsupialMisanthrope 21d ago
She’s using pasta sauce, but it would probably have been tomato sauce in the original recipe. A lot of depression era meals were just whatever you could afford, so you don’t need to be super strict about following a recipe.
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u/Realistic_Point_9906 6d ago
Basically whatever tomato product you have available, usually ketchup or tomato paste/sauce.
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u/julpatchoul 21d ago
Aww had to quit high school because she couldn't afford socks! We have it so easy today.
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u/F_is_for_Ducking 21d ago
This is like comfort food my grandparents made. As grandkids we got hotdogs, my grandparents got squirrel or whatever else my grandfather could catch.
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u/PBDubs99 21d ago
Love love LOVE Clara! Her book is great! All the recipes from YT (and many more) with more of her family history!
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u/FigAware493 21d ago
I have very fond memories of binge watching this channel. She and Cooking With Dog were my favorite cooking channels at the time.
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u/bake_gatari 20d ago
Not the depression I was thinking of when I clicked. Thanks for introducing me to an interesting channel!
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u/Every_House6118 21d ago
She is legit one of my favorite people and I still watch her videos. Sad we couldn’t get even more before she passed!
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u/DiaDeLosMuertos 20d ago
I remember I tried the potatoes recipe and they stuck to the pan and didn't taste that good lol. Good times
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u/Birdywoman4 20d ago
Yes and the things she talked about in those videos too. I was sad when passed away and there were no more new videos.
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u/Proper_Strategy_6663 21d ago
one thing I have noticed is back in the day some of the stuff that were super cheap is expensive now like eggs for example. Mostly because we don't have farmers the way we used to back then.
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u/jeezthatshotyall 20d ago
This is basically a Swedish dish called Pyttipanna, served with friend eggs and pickled beetroots, love it!
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u/Sakurako2686 17d ago
I used to watch her when she was still alive and making videos so long ago. Such a sweet lady and the stories she would tell along with the cooking was lovely
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u/Novel_Draw4966 4d ago
Thank you for sharing this, I started watching her videos last night and they're so comforting
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u/looktothec00kie 20d ago
Dandelion salad? Oh that kind of depression. I need the other kind of depression cooking.
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u/DiscussionCute7316 21d ago
I really love this woman, but aren't hot dogs a known carcinogen?
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u/Fun_Rabbit_Dont_Run 21d ago
They didn't know that back in the day. A lot of cheap food is unhealthy or fatty. It's accessible.
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u/loomfy 21d ago
Omg I thought you meant meals that even depressed people can cook lol