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Food Stretching - s/o of Name that Menu



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myself




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 4:10 pm
In the spirit of the thread 'Name that Menu', let's hear your food stretching ideas.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 4:16 pm
Dirty Rice, Chili, Pasta with meat sauce and veggies, Chicken Stir Fry or pepper steak with equal parts veggies to meat, Indian chicken, Tacos. I usually try to stretch 1lb of meat for three of us and am really lazy so one pot meals are my favorite.
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 4:19 pm
Rissotto made with fresh greens. You can always add meat and not include cheese or butter.
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tichellady




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 4:24 pm
Always serve soup before meals. It will make you eat less of the rest of the meal. If you eat beans/ legumes than fresh cooked chickpeas and lentils are delicious either vegan style in a seasoned sauce or with Poached eggs or a little bit of meat protein.
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workaholicmama




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 5:33 pm
I buy family packs of chicken, that's a 10% discount to begin with. I buy only chicken thighs as that's the cheapest part if the chicken. (I'm always wondering who buys the drumsticks that are so much more expensive than even chicken quarters...)meat is only for yom tov. To make cutlets, (my kids' favorite...) I sometimes buy chicken tops and debone them myself(more time consuming, but lot cheaper and then I use the bones and neck for chicken soup)
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mirah2




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 6:06 pm
I have parev pots so that I can cook things like soup or rice for two days at once (and so it doesn't matter if we're having meat or milk). Rice is especially good for stretching - just cooked a big pot now which covered dinner tonight, tomorrow's dinner, tomorrow's lunch (rice salad) and some in the freezer for a community members' post-baby meal.

Other meal-stretching helps are having lots of lentils, frozen veg and tinned stuff to hand (chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, different types of beans etc.) to add to soups and meals, and incorporating leftovers into lunch the next day. We stock up on tins and non-perishables once a month and plan menus a week at a time, which help keeps the weekly food bill lower. And yes, soup with each dinner helps.

We only have meat about once/twice a week outside of Shabbat - it seriously helps that my in-laws send cooked frozen meat and schnitzels over from Antwerp every so often! Otherwise we'd be near-vegetarians to keep the cost down...

Finally, we buy regular supermarket brands wherever possible and only buy things with a hechsher/from the kosher stores where this is essential for kashrut reasons. We keep chalav stam, so don't buy CY.

Overall I think we spend between £250 and £350 a month just on food (difficult to be exact as I budget food and other household things together). This is for a married couple with no kids, and includes the odd takeout.
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mummiedearest




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 8:32 pm
I buy whole chickens. after cooking the chicken, I freeze the skeleton to use for future soup. I sometimes save the drippings to flavor other foods with. if I have leftovers of chicken or any type of meat, I freeze them and use instead of cholent meat. I don't add filler to meatballs or burgers, so I don't stretch them in that sense.

I like to serve soup as supper pretty often.
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mille




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 8:44 pm
Chicken wings are awesome and super cheap. I would never buy anything but chicken wings to make chicken soup. Here, I can get them for as low as 99c/lb, which is insane for kosher meat! I also have removed the skin and added them to chili (then removed the bones and cartilage when its cooked), made crispy buffalo wings in the oven (no frying!), and braised them in various marinades and liquids until they fall off the bone. I get super family packs for around $5 for the whole thing, and that gets me 5 portions of wings for my husband and I.

I don't know if that's really 'stretching' but I feel like chicken wings are super underrated!

Stir fry is always great for leftover veggies and/or meat of any type.

Oh, I also keep the scraps of veggies in a bag in the freezer. When it gets full, I use it to make stock that I use in recipes. When I have chicken bones from something (like a whole roasted chicken), I add that for chicken stock. Pretty much ANY scrap works well. Green bean tips, the top of a bell pepper, carrot tops, celery leaves, onion skins and roots, mushroom stems, zucchini tops, etc etc!
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 10:06 pm
Chicken wings are cheap because they have like no chicken on them. I think it's a waste of money, if you asked me. I would make chicken soup with chicken bottoms or quarters and give the chicken to my baby for supper. I get a cheap pack for like $4 and this makes a lot of soup.

Cheapy supper would be lasagna. Package of pasta about $2. Cottage cheese $3.50 (whatever is on sale). Tomato sauce $0.59. Eggs $0.25. Shredded cheese, about $2. So for under $10 you get 6 nice sized adult portions. Serve with cubed potatoes.
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lucky14




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 11:15 pm
mille wrote:
Oh, I also keep the scraps of veggies in a bag in the freezer. When it gets full, I use it to make stock that I use in recipes. When I have chicken bones from something (like a whole roasted chicken), I add that for chicken stock. Pretty much ANY scrap works well. Green bean tips, the top of a bell pepper, carrot tops, celery leaves, onion skins and roots, mushroom stems, zucchini tops, etc etc!


I love this idea. Thanks.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 08 2015, 11:35 pm
Mille's idea expounded on: NO LEFTOVERS. Whatever is leftover, gets frozen. If it's enough for another supper or even half, I'll use it at a later point. If it's like one portion or half a portion, it goes into a collection container and when the container gets full, we make "cream of mold" soup which means I blend all the vegetables together (those that escaped the mold situation!) together with some red lentils and voila, soup for supper.

Soft mushy fruits similarly get frozen to be used for fruit smoothies.

Whenever I use ground chicken or canned fish for patties, meatballs, etc., I add lots of extras to create more portions: sauteed onions, raw eggs, some kind of thickener (bread crumbs, matza meal, or oatmeal). Sometimes I'll also add shredded vegetables like carrots or squash.

When I make a stew of chicken nuggets and something else (potatoes, quinoa, rice, etc.), I add proportionately more of the side than the main. Same thing with sloppy joes, same thing with shabbas cholent.

I prefer to use vegetables raw, cooked, or steamed rather than roasted. Roasted vegetables/potatoes shrink and everyone ends up consuming more.

I dilute all bought juices. I make orange juice ices for the kids, half juice half water. (I do the same with cleaning products such as Mr. Clean and Murphy; my cleaning lady thinks that the more the better, and as many times as I tell her to put less, it doesn't help.)

When there isn't enough chicken left over from shabbas to serve normal portions on Sunday, I make chicken salad out of it and serve with pita or buns.
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Mrs Bissli




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 10 2015, 5:22 pm
I proudly serve left-over cholent on Mondays, adulterated with chopped tomato and water, some chopped carrots and celery seasoned with paprika and pepper as 'potato and beans soup'. My chicken soup is made with chicken carcase and giblets--much cheaper than chicken wings, I even pick enough meat from the carcase. I save all leftover gravy from meat dish, freeze and use as the base for cholent or add to meatball sauce. Leftover challot are for eggy bread (French toast) on Sundays, as well as toast during the week and any still left I grate for soft breadcrumbs.
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 10 2015, 8:49 pm
Mrs Bissli wrote:
I proudly serve left-over cholent on Mondays, adulterated with chopped tomato and water, some chopped carrots and celery seasoned with paprika and pepper as 'potato and beans soup'. My chicken soup is made with chicken carcase and giblets--much cheaper than chicken wings, I even pick enough meat from the carcase. I save all leftover gravy from meat dish, freeze and use as the base for cholent or add to meatball sauce. Leftover challot are for eggy bread (French toast) on Sundays, as well as toast during the week and any still left I grate for soft breadcrumbs.

I always wonder how people reuse cholent. If it cooks all day on Shabbos (and a lot of Friday as well) I can't imagine it being safe to eat on Monday. It's gone too many days.
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PinkFridge




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 11 2015, 9:20 am
mandr wrote:
Chicken wings are cheap because they have like no chicken on them. I think it's a waste of money, if you asked me. I would make chicken soup with chicken bottoms or quarters and give the chicken to my baby for supper. I get a cheap pack for like $4 and this makes a lot of soup.

Cheapy supper would be lasagna. Package of pasta about $2. Cottage cheese $3.50 (whatever is on sale). Tomato sauce $0.59. Eggs $0.25. Shredded cheese, about $2. So for under $10 you get 6 nice sized adult portions. Serve with cubed potatoes.


You can make lasagna even cheaper by using layers of elbow noodles instead of lasagna. (I make skip a step, using regular pasta and adding a cup of water around the perimeter after building the lasagna, and cooking covered.)

As far as cottage cheese, that's a good price for CY (don't know about CS). Even better is stocking up when cheese goes reduced due to being near the date. Cheese is usually a good food to take a gamble on. When the cottage cheese is 1 or $2 and I buy 10, even if a few are off I save. I've also bought plain yogurt (reduced) and substituted it for some cottage cheese with no difference in quality. Yes, cottage cheese defrosted may not be the same if you want to eat it plain but it's fantastic for cooked pasta dishes.
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PinkFridge




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 11 2015, 9:21 am
pause wrote:
Mille's idea expounded on: NO LEFTOVERS. Whatever is leftover, gets frozen. If it's enough for another supper or even half, I'll use it at a later point. If it's like one portion or half a portion, it goes into a collection container and when the container gets full, we make "cream of mold" soup which means I blend all the vegetables together (those that escaped the mold situation!) together with some red lentils and voila, soup for supper.



Yeah, read the book American Wasteland for some sobering thoughts on leftovers. And if your library has the Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine, she has a decent article on repurposing food (as food, with one sidebar on compost). (And if we're saving money, don't think of buying it at the checkout, go to your library.)
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