Frozen Herbs... woah!

I recently discovered a product that I had absolutely no idea existed, but that seems like one of those really really awesome ideas, and you can't figure out why you haven't been using it for years... what could this be, you ask?

 Yes, you read that right... it says frozen cilantro! (and basil) This company Dorot (http://www.mydorot.com/default.aspx) has had the foresight to freeze teaspoon sized ice cubes of fresh herbs that you can pop out and add to recipes!

My herb garden is looking a little pathetic these days (although the weeks of torrential downpour in LA did help a bit), which makes this all the more appealing. Also, it just seems handy- for instance, the other day, I made my chana masala recipe, and one of the things I love about that is that its easy just to whip up out of things in the cupboard (basically all it has is onion, canned tomato, garbanzo beans, and spices). But, fresh cilantro makes a huge difference- thing is, I had no desire to go to the store just for a bunch of cilantro that I'd only use half of anyways, so I went without. No more! It was only $1.99 for the entire pack, so this can easily fit into your budget cooking store of herbs because they'll last quite a while, it seems. I'm excited!
(I found this at Trader Joes).

A New Adventure: CSA Box!

Something is afoot, and I'm not going to lie, Charlotte and I are pretty pumped about it. OK, that might be a little white lie because I'm having some amount of trouble getting her properly enthused.

Whats up? I finally, after quite a while of looking, found a CSA to support. For those LA area people who might be interested, the one I found is the South Central Farmers Cooperative Community Supported Agriculture, the main feature it had that the other ones didn't is that you can sign up each week as you want to- which, since I am not a family of 4, means that if it takes me more than a week to eat everything, I'm not buried in a hailstorm of kale (a scenario I imagine somewhat like this scene from the Simpsons of Homer eating donuts in hell, around minute 2 in this video). ANYWAYS... I got my first box this week! Check out the bounty...

I've already busted into the cantelope, which is quite delicious.

(pictured next to the favorite go-to breakfast of me and my co-gardener across the city, Feeesh- egg whites on top of whole wheat english muffins with Laughing Cow cheese spread.

You are sure to see more... its all very exciting- watermelon! purple basil! patty pan squash! (I think), Rond de Nice Squash (I think based on google)!, summer squash! spaghetti squash! the cutest little eggplant ever! fresh tomatoes! kale! (as a side note, I have already learned something about basil... apparently, the appropriate way to store it fresh is the same way you store flowers- trim the stems and put it in a glass of water- who knew!).


I'm hoping to wrap this into my budget cooking posts by trying to create dishes that are based on these items, and that use basic staples (grains, onions, garlic, beans, flour, olive oil, chicken, broth, (feta and almond milk, around here), etc) that I have on hand- essentially I've made sure I have everything like that on hand and am now going to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store. We'll see!

Beer Bread

Oh man oh man oh man!

I'm always trying to figure out some miraculous fast way to make bread at home. I have tried things like this whole artisan bread in 5 minutes a day kick people were on, I've tried other fast and easy tricks. And, let me tell you, I have made a lot of bad bread (see Exhibit A. it was not delicious. it looked like a giant cow pattie. it did not look like the picture on the internet. neither did any of the rest of the ones I made).


Exhibit A.

BUT. This, this might be the answer. And, of course, the answer involved beer.

This is suuuuuuuuuper easy:
1 bottle beer (I used Sierra Nevada IPA because thats what I had)
3c flour
.5tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
1/3c sugar

Stir it up. Put it in a loaf pan. Let it sit for like half an hour to an hour if you have time. Put it in the oven at 350, and bake for about 1 hour. If you want, 3/4 of the way through you can spread butter on the top of it.

Check this out! Its not deformed!


And check THIS out... (DRUMROLL, PLEASE...)

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(ps. if you have self-rising flour, use that. just skip the salt and baking powder)

The Mother Lode

I think we all know that I'm a sucker for a deal on spices. This is mainly because if you're going to cook on a budget, you're going to need to take action to keep things interesting... very cheap ingredients (lentils, beans, grains, and so on) can take on a huge range of flavors if you do things right.

Well, this weekend... I hit the mother lode. A friend and I went to an area of town full of every kind of Indian store you can think of- clothes, food, groceries, everything. (this, by the way, is why I love L.A... I spent the morning there, then went to little Ethiopia for dinner, then I came home to my place, which is in little Brazil). ANYHOW. Check this out... I think I may never need to buy cumin, ever, for the rest of my life. This beat the ethnic section of my regular grocery store, which I had previously been all excited about, hands down- $1.80 for half a POUND of cumin? Holy smokes!

I got a couple of things I'm particularly psyched about...

1. cardamom pods
Why am I all excited about this? Mainly because I find cardamom fascinating- my family is Scandinavian, and growing up, I completely associated the taste with desserts made by my Grandmother (in addition, it is an ingredient in Glogg, which is the spiced wine you'll find on the stove of everyone I'm related to during the holidays). Only as an adult did I learn that its a huge component of Eastern cooking as well- I had this very surreal experience at the home of a friend, when her Mom used it in a rice dish- it took me half the meal to figure out what the strangely familiar flavor was. And only 10 minutes ago when I googled it, did I learn that together the Near East and Scandinavia consume half the worlds cardamom. I really like the idea of these two completely diverse regions and cultures independently landing on a same favorite spice. Plus, apparently its related to ginger, and, I do love ginger.

2. Garam masala in seed form:
I didn't even know you could get this. I always have garam masala on hand, but its usually a mysterious powder. Now, the mystery is unveiled and I can see all the raw components (of course, I have to figure out how to grind it up, but thats another adventure).

3. Moong beans
One of my favorite things is to buy ingredients I've never used before, and just figure out what to do with them once I'm home. Thats not totally the case with these beans because I'd heard you could use them for daal. But, I've definitely never cooked them myself, and just spent part of the evening looking around for recipes. A pot of daal is currently bubbling on the stove, destined to be my lunch tomorrow if it works out. If its edible, you'll be seeing it soon! (it smells good, so my hopes are high).

Chana Masala

Recently I went to Trader Joes (aka, my second home), and bought their frozen Chana Masala. Chana masala isn't even in my top tier of Indian food choices (I'm a saag kind of girl), but let me tell you, it was pretty delicious. Of course, having had it in all its deliciousness made me want to learn to make my own (because thats how I am).

So, a perusal of the internets began.I found a number of recipes, but this lady was by far and away not only the cutest of them all, but the biggest influence on my ultimate product.

(I preface this with my usual caveat about how I come from a Nordic people who do not make curry, so everything here is based on me liking stuff, not necessarily me being super authentic and making everything definitively. Plus, I like to experiment too much to make anything definitively, anyways).

SO!

Take a diced onion and slowly saute in some oil. I think that slowness is the key here, so that they get really soft, translucent, and a bit brown.

After they've been going for a bit, throw in a few cloves of diced garlic and some diced fresh ginger (I love ginger, so probably used about 3/4 of an inch of a plug of ginger). Then toss in a diced jalapeno (seeded). Let them cook until the onions are really nice and soft. Put in some cumin and coriander seeds and let them pop.

Now, dump in a can of crushed (crushed! must be crushed!) tomatoes, and stir around. Add 1/2-1tsp tumeric, 1/2 tsp red chili powder, 2-3tsp coriander, and stir it all up and let it cook a bit.

Then, dump in a can of drained chickpeas. Let it simmer for a while- you might need to add a bit of water, but this amount of tomatoes actually provides a lot of liquid. To thicken, just smush a couple of the chickpeas, which will release their starch. After its been cooking and the beans seem soft and the sauce tastes pretty good, add a little salt and 1/4-1/2 tsp garam masala. Right before you serve add a big squeeze of lemon and some cilantro and let that sit a second.

This was goooooooooood. And, cheeeaaaaaaaaap. (if you have your budget cooking basic ingredients, you are almost entirely good to go!).

Summer in a Skillet

Ok, I lied. The "Summer in your ear" (did I really call something summer in your ear? yes. yes I did) earring post was not the end of my summer series... THIS one is.

This is something I threw together (which, to be honest, is how most of my dinners come about), but it was really tasty. Basically, what we have here is whatever summer veggies were on sale. I got white corn (2 ears), 1 Anaheim chili, 2 small tomatoes, and some yellow squash. In just a little bit of olive oil I stir fried some onion and the chili, then threw in the squash, followed by the tomatoes (because I hate raw tomatoes and wanted them to be really cooked), and at the very end put in the corn, which I had cut off the cob*. I like to put the corn in at the end so its still crisp- then, add salt, pepper, and a splash of apple cider or white vinegar (this makes ALL the difference, it just makes everything taste fresh). When it was all ready I threw in a ton of fresh chopped cilantro.

I wanted to add a little protein because basically this was dinner (although it would make a great side dish), and I was too lazy to make chicken or something, so I threw in defrosted turkey meatballs from Trader Joes. It was so fresh and delicious! Perfect and easy for a hot summer day.


* I have an on-off relationship with Rachael Ray, but in an 'on' phase while watching her show I learned an awesome corn slicing trick. Take a big bowl, and put a much littler bowl upside down inside it. Balance the corn on one end on the little bowl and slice off the kernels- they all go into the big bowl and you don't get corn kernel shrapnel all over the place!

Summer in a Bowl! (White Soup)

As a precursor to the "summer in a crust" peach blueberry crostata, we had a very delicious meal that included one of my long time childhood favorites: "white soup" (aka Cucumber soup or white gazpacho). My Mom used to make this when it was really hot out, and we'd sit out and eat it for dinner at the patio table and it all seemed like a giant treat. While I was on vacation, she made it again, and I remembered all over again how awesome it is. So, here is her recipe...

Basically, this is what you need:
1 cucumber- peeled, seeded, chopped
1c sour cream (or, non fat plain yogurt. or, some combo of the two)
1c chicken broth (I would guess veggie broth would work)
1T white vinegar
1/3 clove garlic
salt to taste

Just take it all, throw it in the blender, blend it up, and chill for at least 6 hours (or over night).

Then when you serve it, the fun starts- toppings can be slivered almonds, diced tomatoes, green onions, bacon bits, bell pepper pieces... the sky is the limit! The soup itself has a very cool cucumbery flavor that would probably be amenable to a lot of different type of toppings.

And, here is the glamor shot:

(and, for those budget cookers out there, this would be a good example of how you can make something that looks and tastes really fancy, that you could serve to anyone, out of just a few very budget-friendly ingredients)

I'm back, baby!

Ok, so I've been on a bit of a hiatus recently- basically, I am changing jobs, I moved apartments, and everything has been generally chaos... I haven't cooked or made jewelery, and poor little Charlotte has been all aflutter. But, things are settling down, and I'm back!

Want some proof? I give you... veggie quiche, the healthy(ish) version!

This was my dinner.. mmmmm.... even though it requires the oven, it still feels summery.

What you need:
--2 eggs and 3 egg-whites (or some combination basically equivalent)
--half a cup of milk (I used non-fat)
--half a cup of shredded cheese (whatever you have, also, it could be feta crumbles)
--veggies- whatever you have on hand. I used about half a bunch spinach, half a zucchini, half an onion and some miscellaneous pieces of red bell pepper
-- a decent sized potato (or a couple red potatoes)

As you can see from the ingredients list, this is not an exact science.

First, we're going to make a crust, you could use a pie crust, but we're going to use potatoes to avoid something full of either butter or trans fats.

Spray a pie pan or a cake pan with some olive oil. Slice the potato fairly thinly, and cover the bottom and sides with slices. They should pretty substantially overlap because they will shrink. Spray with a bit more olive oil, and cook at 375 for about 15 minutes, until they look sort of cooked, but not brown- like this:

In the meantime, saute the veggies until basically cooked (start the onions first, then add zucchini, then last wilt the spinach)- mine looked like this:

Beat the eggs with the milk, and add the cheese. Then put in some salt and pepper. Dump the veggies in the potato shell. Then pour the egg/milk/cheese mixture over it. Bake at 375 for about half an hour - 45 min, until it is nice and puffy and brown, like this:

Let it sit for a minute, then serve (mine is with strawberries, because its the season, and they were 99 cents... NINETY NINE CENTS when I was at the store).

AND, for my budget cookers, I calculated the total cost here- this ENTIRE THING cost $4.27, and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't get much better than that! (as usual, the cost estimation assumes you're a savvy shopper- I have a grocery store discount club membership and shop accordingly. I also calculated just the cost of the actual items used- like, only 5 of the eggs not the cost of the full dozen). Anyways, for 4 servings, you have a very manageable $1.06- what else can you ask for?

Aloo Gobi-licious

So, I've been making an ongoing effort to learn to cook Indian food. An important thing to remember about this is that a lot of the resulting recipes are guided a lot more by what I like than by anything having to do with authenticity. I'm Scandinavian. We have no idea how to make curry. So, I can promise that if I post it, I liked how it tasted. If you want the canonical version of something, there are things like this book which I really really want.

At any rate, today we have Aloo Gobi, which I decided to make because I was in the midst of a cauliflower craving (by the way, if you could go back in time and tell my eight year old self that I would one day have an intense cauliflower craving, she'd think you were crazy). Its adapted from this recipezaar recipe.

Stuff you need:
a bit of vegetable oil
1 large onion,chopped
1/2 of a bunch of fresh cilantro, stalks and leaves chopped separately
1 small green chili, finely chopped
1 large cauliflower, cut into pieces of the biggest size you'd like to eat
2 big potatoes, peeled and chopped into 3/4 inch pieces
a can of garbanzo beans (because in addition to cauliflower I wanted protein)
2 cans diced tomatoes
fresh ginger, really finely chopped
fresh garlic, chopped
1 tsp cumin seed
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garam masala

1. Heat vegetable oil in a giant pan. I used my biggest pot and it was totally full by the end
2. Add the chopped onion and one tsp of cumin seeds to the oil (if you don't have actual seeds, you could use regular cumin, but you can get cumin seeds for super cheap in the ethnic section, and they really add something good).
3. Stir together and cook slowly, onions should become nice and soft and golden, and translucent.
4. Add chopped cilantro stems, two tsp of turmeric, and one tsp of salt.
5. Add chopped chilies and then tomatoes.
6. Add ginger and garlic; mix thoroughly.
7. Add potatoes to the sauce plus enough water to just cover. Simmer this for about 10 minutes.
8. Add the cauliflower and garbanzo beans, and cook for ~10 more minutes or until the veggies are cooked. the point of adding the potato and cauliflower separately is so that the cauliflower doesn't get mushy, which is gross.
9. Throughout, make sure that the whole thing has enough water to be mostly or nearly covered, and cook with the lid on.
10. After its all cooked, add two teaspoons of Garam Masala and stir. (why do you add this at the end? I have no idea. if anyone knows, by all means fill me in.)
11. Sprinkle chopped cilantro leaves on top of the curry and stir around.
12. Turn off the heat, cover, and leave for as long as possible before serving.

You'll likely get something like this:


Now, the pot of food this made is HUGE (and, I only used 2 potatoes instead of the 3 they recommended!). I got 8 meals out of it, if I had put it over rice it would have been more.

For people who have been following the series on budget cooking, here is the rundown. If you followed the shopping list and spice list, you'd already have onions, garlic, ginger, cumin, garam masala, tumeric, garbanzo beans and the tomatoes-- you'd just need to run to the store and pick up some potatoes, cilantro, a chili, and a cauliflower (4 things! not bad!). But, lets say you needed to get all of it (other than the spices), because you'd had eaten yourself out of house and home and had no basic food which was my situation. It would cost a grand total of... wait for it... $11.26. (this is counting things that were on the grocery store specials, and generic brands of canned goods. but, I'm assuming you will be a savvy shopper too). In case you don't feel like doing math $11.28/8 servings = $1.41 per serving. A dollar fifty! There are no frozen dinners that are that cheap, and this is packed with things that are actually good for you, plus it is delicious. Also, after you've eaten as much as you want to, you can do the whole frozen lunches thing, like this.

Cooking on a Budget: Lesson 4- Lunches I

Ok, so one of the obvious keys to cooking on a budget is transitioning to eating mostly things you actually cook. Eating food other people make, whether its at a restaurant or its a frozen dinner, is just more expensive. And, most of the time, it is not that healthy- frozen food tends to have huge amounts of sodium and preservatives, and all of that kind of icky stuff. And, I love to go out to restaurants for dinner, but you might as well save it for places you really like and food that is really interesting, not just something to fill you up on the way home from work.

One of the meals that most people most commonly buy is lunch. This is because there is this myth that packing a lunch is a giant pain because it means you have to make stuff in the morning, and you'd have to be June Cleaver to accomplish it on a regular basis. The thing is, buying lunch is expensive- if you spent just five bucks on lunch every day (and that is not going to buy you a particularly delicious lunch) that is already almost $2000! Yikes!
1. exhibit A- a prime example of what I do not look like in the morning.

So, what are you supposed to do if you don't want to wake up at 5am to cook something for lunch, but you don't want to go broke either? The answer? DON'T cook it every day- be lazy! This tip is the best one anyone ever gave me. Basically, in addition to your groceries, you're going to need to go buy some packages of those disposable tupperwares in individual portion size. Buy more than you think you need, once you get going on this habit, you'll want more. On the weekends, or whenever you have the energy, make a big batch of something you like. Pretty much anything I've posted on, I've done this with. After you make it, eat however much you want to eat for dinner. Afterwards, immediately separate the rest into individual portions in the tupperwares. When its cool, put the lids on, and stick them in the freezer. Like this:
2. exhibit B- some of the contents of my freezer

What have you just done? You've just made your own frozen dinners (or lunches). This won't only be cheaper, it'll be healthier because you'll know whats in them. Just grab one from the freezer in the morning, take it to work, and microwave. Then wash the tupperware and re-use. This can also be dinner when you just don't feel like cooking anything. Once you've done this a few times, you'll end up with a couple different things in the freezer, and you'll actually have some different options to choose from. The other reason this is awesome is that if you make a big recipe, the thought of eating it for every meal until you run out of it is a little overwhelming. This is a good way to eat what you want, and then just save the rest for later- its actually the main thing that made me feel like I could learn to cook "real" recipes even though I live by myself (not that Charlotte doesn't like my cooking, but she flat our refuses to take her lunch to work).

Try it! Next, we'll talk about things you can actually make to put in these tupperwares!

Cooking on a Budget: Lesson 3- Make stuff with what you have

Ok, so now I've posted on getting stocked up on spices and other basic ingredients. But, what can you make? I'm going to list a bunch of stuff that I've posted on here before that use these basic things. For most of them, you would need to buy a couple extra ingredients, which I'll list below them. You can see that when you only have to buy a few things, it all seems a lot more do-able. So... here you go! They are in order of the least to most extra ingredients:

You need nothing else...
Mujadarrah
-nothin'. you've got it all!

Sauteed spinach, tomatoes, and chickpeas
-nothin'. you are good to go.
(this is pictured with the Samosa stuffed potatoes, which take more ingredients. good, easy ingredients, but not ones on the list).

Peanut butter cookies
-optional chocolate chips (the rest could be kept in freezer and used in muffins).


You need one more thing...
Pitas (still seriously probably the most fun thing I have ever cooked)
-1 little package yeast from the baking aisle at the store.

Flatbread (optional to go with Mujadarrah)
-sesame seeds (go to either the Kosher or Asian section)

Morning Muffins
-baking powder (not bad to have around anyways)
-optional anything you want to put in them. could just do cinnamon though.


You need two more things...
Balsamic Lentils
-chicken sausage (optional)
-fresh basil (get big container at TJs for like 2 bucks)

Squash soup
-a butternut squash (or, little pre-cut packages from Trader Joes)
-a granny smith apple


You need three more things...
Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry
-a head of cauliflower
-a lime
-1 hot chili pepper


You need four more things...
Rosemary Chick Pea Couscous Salad
(use whatever grain you have)
-jar of sundried tomatoes (these are fun to have on hand- they are AWESOME in scrambled eggs)
-a lemon
-rosemary
-a cucumber

Spinach, Sweet potato, Adzuki bean stew
-2 sweet potatoes
-1 carrot
-azuki beans (from Whole foods, probably)
-1 can coconut milk

African Peanut Stew
-a couple sweet potatoes
-a red pepper
-a jalapeno
-a can of pinto beans

I mean... look at these lists. What this means is, if you had a few basic items on hand, you could have any of these things for dinner tomorrow night and the most you'd have to do is buy 4 things (4! you don't even need a basket!), and you could probably get most of those extra things for a max of about five bucks.

Cooking on a Budget: Lesson 2- Basic Ingredients

Alright... last time, I covered one of the first steps in stocking up your kitchen to get ready to cook, which was getting your spice rack up to par. Now, that is a great first step, but unless you have a cast-iron stomach, you're probably not going to be able to live on spices alone. SO. What to do, what to do.

I went through the recipes I've posted, and have made a list of basic ingredients that appear over and over again- these are things I pretty much always have on hand. If you can just have really basic stuff around, you'll find that it seems less overwhelming to make things because you'll end up having most of the ingredients and just need to buy 2 or 3 things to make any one recipe. Also, because these are pretty simple, non-processed foods, they are all cheap and will keep in the cupboard.

Here is a list of things I am never without...
In the fridge:
--milk
--eggs
--bag of spinach (super cheap at Trader Joes. if you go to the grocery store, don't buy bags of it, buy bunches of it over by the lettuce for half the price)
--peanut butter (I only buy the kind that has only peanuts and salt. who wants all that other stuff?)
--soy sauce (apparently you do indeed have to keep this in the fridge)

In the cupboard:
--salt/pepper
--bag of lentils (not only diverse, but possibly the most budget friendly food ever at 99 cents for a bag with 13 servings in it)
--bag of brown rice
--bag of onions
--garlic cloves
--ginger root
--olive oil
--balsamic vinegar
--couscous or some grain of your choice (I also like bulgar, which I get in bulk at Whole Foods)
--flour
--sugar
--canned diced tomatoes
--canned garbanzo beans
--broth of your choice (chicken or veggie; Trades Joes also has some cool little concentrated liquid packets of broth so that you only use as much as you need and don't have something around that goes bad or need to mess with cans. I bet they have them other places. I also used powdered stuff from the regular store).

Optional items I also always have but that don't necessarily relate to the recipes:
--giant container of oatmeal. add some frozen fruit or a banana- best breakfast ever.
--bag of frozen chicken breasts (obviously only for the non-vegetarians)
--pasta
--canned black beans
--rice wine vinegar (great for salads and for a lot of Asian dishes)
--salsa. makes anything better.
--honey (btw- if you're interested, you can also make face scrub out of honey, salt, and sugar).
--these bags of frozen green beans from TJs that are actually good, and you can pull out a bit at a time for an emergency vegetable (you know, in case you are at imminent risk of scurvy)

And finally, the other thing you need-
--individually portion sized tupperwares. This is the best tip anyone ever gave me. Just because you made some giant pot of soup doesn't mean you have to eat it all week. Put individual portions in tupperwares and freeze for your own homemade frozen lunches.

Stay tuned, and I'll point out some of the recipes from this website that you could make if you had all of these ingredients.

Cooking on a Budget: Lesson 1- Spices!

Ok. I mentioned earlier that I was going to address the idea that you have to 1. spend a lot of money and 2. be a skilled cook to make interesting tasty food. Lets start with issue 1. One of the main things that throws people when they start to cook is that recipes call for all of these ingredients that they just assume you have sitting around in your pantry. If you have to buy those every time you cook something, it can seem expensive, even though really it is a one time purchase and you'll have it to use for many future recipes. It also makes cooking seem like more work when you don't have things on hand.

Some things that tend to fall into that category when you're first starting to cook are spices. Unfortunately, spices are the absolute most critical investment if you're going to cook on a budget- they are what enable you to take something like lentils, and make a vast array of types of meals. This is the thing that will keep your cooking from being boring. Spices are expensive if you buy the name brands in the main area of the grocery store. You could easily spend a ton of money stocking up if thats how you decide to do it. However, I'm here to tell you, that doing that is just plain silly. This is my best, #1, top tier, most fantastic grocery shopping tip. (you're pumped, I can tell!). There are a lot of sources for spices, if you go slightly (really only slightly) off the beaten path. In your own grocery store, leave the baking section and head to the ethnic section. In my personal store, there is an area near the Mexican food full of little packets of spices for 60 cents to a dollar. In the Kosher section, there are giant shakers of spices for much less than the price of one small bottle in the regular section. If you compare the unit prices (price per oz) of these, your mind will be blown. Blown! You can stock up on a vast array of things for very little money, and suddenly will waves of new found confidence when encountering new recipes and realizing you have ingredients in your cupboard already! Here are some examples of store brands I found. I also found cheap spices at Cost Plus. Observe:

If I were to take 10 bucks or so to stock up on some spices, so that I'd be able to make a decent variety of food, this is what I would get:
-ground coriander
-ground cumin
-curry powder
-cinnamon
-thyme
-bay leaves
-ground ginger
-basil
-oregano
-parsley flakes
-red chili powder

If I wanted to expand my horizons and bring my total to about 20 bucks, I'd add:
-garam masala
-turmeric
-cumin seeds
-coriander seeds
-paprika
-smoked paprika
-fennel
-cloves
-rosemary
-dill

Get either group 1 or both group 1 and 2, and you'll be ready for all kinds of food... Indian, Mexican, Italian, and on and on. Obviously there are always other crazy things in some recipes, but you'll be able to make most things if you have these on hand.