5 ideas
A household does not need every meal to be nutritionally complete; balance can be spread across a day or several days. Freed from the rule that each meal needs meat, starch and two vegetables, a cook under scarcity can make one generous, satisfying dish per meal and spend less money, fuel and effort without eating worse overall.
Scarcity is treated as a wolf at the door, a constant presence that can be faced, outwitted and even tamed rather than a disaster to hide from. Seen this way, an empty pantry becomes a practical problem that calls for wit, and not a mark of shame. The fear loses its grip once the wolf is looked at directly and planned around.
For the worst case, Fisher gives a recipe she calls sludge. Cheap ground meat, ground vegetables and whole-grain cereal are cooked together into a thick mush that can keep one person alive for pennies a day. She offers it without apology as the floor beneath which no one need fall.
Eating well depends more on attention, ceremony and appetite than on expensive ingredients. A single egg or a plain soup, eaten slowly at a set table, alone or with friends, can feed the spirit as fully as a banquet. Keeping these small rituals is how people keep their self-respect when resources shrink.
Under rationing, cooking energy is a scarce resource to budget, just like food. Fill the oven whenever it is lit, so a casserole, baked fruit and bread all cook together. Cook vegetables quickly in very little water to save both fuel and nutrients, and prefer methods that turn one burst of heat into several dishes.