Cheap Suppers | Imamother

zaq

Sun, May 25 2014, 8:07 pm

Think vegetarian/vegan main dishes. Lots and lots of grain/legume combos. Peanut butter and bread is one, so's rice and beans, or pasta and chicpeas. Add a bit of animal protein in the form of milk or a grating of cheese or an egg to boost the protein value further. Cereal and milk is as sound nutritional combo as a cheese sandwich.

legume-bases soups like split pea and lentil are filling and inexpensive, and, if made with rice or pasta or served with a grain on the side, form a complete protein.

Appetites are stimulated by variety, so if you want people to eat less, go for one-dish meals like casseroles and stews rather than serving several different dishes in one meal.

buying nonperishable staples in bulk is often cheaper than buying smaller packages, but make sure you can use up these staples before they go bad. Summer is usually a bad time to stock up on grains and legumes because of the bug issue, but if you can store these things in your fridge or freezer, you can avert that problem.

Hatzlacha in your job search.

allthingsblue

Sun, May 25 2014, 8:50 pm

Another alternative is to stretch the protein (chicken, meat, fish) so it goes a long way.

Some ideas:
stew: use turkey/meat, buy only a small amount, and then add potatoes, onions, other root vegetables (parsnip, sweet potato, carrots...), and tomato sauce (Hunt's tomato sauce is cheap)

Stir fry: use small amount of chicken with a lot of cheaper veggies, I.e. onions, mushrooms, zuchinni, green beans

Chili (someone else mentioned this too)- you can use a little ground beef and a lot of tomato sauce, kidney beans etc- gives you a really filling meal!

Uncle Ben's rice is cheap, use it as a side.

Eggs are always good, you can spice things up with add-ins, such as mushrooms, onions. And serve with potatoes, hash-brown style.

Tuna patties, use chunk light tuna (healthier and cheaper)

Buy pita, make falafel, and Israeli salad- not too expensive.

Soups can stretch a while. Especially vegetable soups with rice/barley to make it filling, and add a little bit of meat for flavor and substance. A little goes a long way.

Hatzlocha!!!

amother

Sun, May 25 2014, 11:06 pm

I dont have a lot to spend on food so I make a lot of pasta, rice, eggs sometimes chunk lite tuna. I don't know your family size but if its smallish you can also buy a package of chicken on sale and its not so much and use it for 2 dinners. Sometimes I buy 1 package of chicken bottoms and 1 package of chicken drumsticks to stretch it. potatoes, onions ..not so expensive ... frozen peas a carrots ... frozen orange juice (concentrate) if you need juice at all. Can you apply for food stamps? I did recently and it helps a lot. but store brand products and bulk - you get a a lot more. something I do ..its more like a lunch but my kids eat it for supper...bagels. I have my own cream cheese at home to spread and a can of cocoa powder to make them hot cocoa and they are full (about 2x a month I do that).

Dolly Welsh

Mon, May 26 2014, 12:06 am

Rice. Make it in a pot, two volumes of water to one of the same volume of rice. Brown rice is the better kind. Eat together with beans; they go together as complementary proteins. The beans can come out of a can or are cheaper if bought dried in a plastic bag. Then, soak them for an hour, discard that water, rinse them, and boil until soft. They shouldn't have any hardness left at all.

Drain, mix with the rice, and now you need sauce.

A jar of salsa is nice. Medium hot or Mild. If that isn't handy, ketchup will do, but it must be dusted with powdered Cumin. With the Cumin, you will like it.

Put a tablespoon of oil into the beans as they cook. And put some more on them before eating, mix in. Adds nourishment, and helps digestion.

You can put a teaspoon of oil in the rice as it cooks. Any oil. Put some iodized salt in if you want.

Eggs are a good cheap food. An egg slicer is handy. Slice one or two hardboiled eggs on top of the rice and beans, and dust with a little paprika or black pepper, for appearance.

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Pasta (Barilla brand) is filling and cheap. Put some oil in the water as it boils.

Pasta is a nice backdrop for anything else you have around. The rice and beans can go on a bed of it, too.

Celery is a cheap source of fiber and nutrition. Slice it up fine, and put it in anything. Carrots also: grated carrots, or boiled carrots, or sliced and boiled.

Do NOT get organic vegetables, they cost much, much more. No need at all.

Onions are cheap and fun, but there isn't much nutrition in them.

Potatoes are cheap and good for you. The thin skinned Yukon are good. The cute little ones in the bag cost more, avoid them for now.

There too, put one or two tablespoons of oil in the boiling water. No other seasoning needed.

Oil and vinegar are salad dressing. Bread is good to sop that up with, too.

Quaker Oats oatmeal is great and cheap. Microwave it. A bit more water than oatmeal, say 3 minutes in the microwave, in a heavy glass bowl. I put agave syrup on mine; a little strawberry jam might be nice. Raisins are great, if not too expensive.

Baking your own bread will save money. It is much cheaper to buy yeast in bulk than the little packets. Bread flour, or all-purpose. Use iodized salt. There are videos on YouTube about no-knead methods. Even quick stove-top methods to make bread.

If you want use corn meal, google recipes for Polenta. It is a good, cheap, traditional food.

If your house eats a lot of yogurt, make your own. You will need a slow-cooker. YouTube has videos about doing that. You start with one plain-flavor, "active cultures" Greek yogurt that you have to buy, as a starter, and then after that, you just buy whole milk, which is much cheaper than yogurt. You start the next batch with some starter from the previous batch.

Rice comes in ten pound bags. Brown is best. That may be cheaper. Check the price per pound.

Bananas are a cheap fruit.

Make sure everybody drinks a glass of water before bed-time.

Buy a large bottle of lemon juice, and offer it diluted in water, with a little sugar, and ice. No sodas.

elaela

Mon, May 26 2014, 3:10 am

meat balls (I stretch the ground meat with ground carrots/zuccini/potatoes whatever I have, egg aend mazzahmeal)

chciken soup (one chicken makes a hole pot of soup, use the chciken for chicken salad, o serve cold with chrain, the soup will last you a couple of days, add carrots, noodles, mandels or rice. it is healthy and with grain is also filling.

home made pizza

wholegrain pasta with veggies.

chili con carne with rice or bread.

garlicbutter and home made white bread with salad (what ever veggi is on sale)

tomato soup with rice

thuna/ eggspread

tuna patties (stretch with eggs and mazzahmeal) and fried potatoes

baked potatos

mushroom omelette

risipisi with cheese (our favorite!!!)

fried rice or noodles with veggies and soysauce

rice with lentils

quinoa-pinapple kugel

Mrs Bissli

Mon, May 26 2014, 2:35 pm

All good advices above and everyone commented on bean/legume and rice combo and pasta.

Assuming you are not completely going vegetarian, here are my tips on meaty cheap meals.

- whole chicken is normally cheaper than cut up chicken.
Do the whole roasted chicken then cut into parts, or get a good solid knife so you can cut into
pieces you want. (I usually slice off breasts so I can use them separately for schnitzels).
Save the carcase to make the chicken soup.
Frozen chicken wings are also often quite cheap--I defrost, marinate in BBQ sauce and grill.

- Find out which cuts are cheap. Ask butchers.
Beef shin is good for making stocks, goulash, soups (lovely with barley).
Neck meat is also cheap. Both are "tougher" cuts so they need long cooking in low heat
in liquid.

- If using tinned fish, mackerel and sardines are normally cheaper than tuna and more nutritious.
They'll need a good squeeze of lemon, and goes nicely with tomato sauce.
You can make mackerel into salad just like tuna. (No need to remove skins/bones--they're all
edible and good sources of calcium/omega-3).

- On vegetarian protein, tofu is inexpensive and much quicker to cook than beans.
The one thing you need to remember is they do need seasoning. You can marinate in
BBQ sauce or combo of OJ/soy sauce or Italian dressing before grilling/pan-frying.
Goes nicely with stir-fried noodles and vegetables.

- Switch to private brands if possible (esp items like cereal). Porridge is cheaper and more filling
than cold cereal. See if your local supermarkets have near-expiry aisles for fruits/veggies.
I just got a kilo of gorgeous rhubarb for nearly nothing and perfectly fine oranges at 1/4 of price.

granolamom

Mon, May 26 2014, 4:08 pm

pizza4 wrote:

Whenever you have a bit of leftovers, freeze it. Many foods freeze very well, as long as you package them well.
I had so much food wasted until I started doing this. Extra sauce from chicken- freeze for next week chicken, a little extra soup etc.

I started doing this a while back too, it really adds up! I have ice cube trays for freezing extra tomato sauce or rice milk so when I need just a bit, I dont have to open a new container which will go bad before I use it all.
leftover challah and crusts cut off the bread for my kids sandwiches become bread crumbs which I also store in the freezer. if I buy fruit and its starting to go bad before anyone eats it, I pop in into the freezer. it can be used later for smoothies or pies or just eating frozen (my kids like that in the summer).
probably the biggest tip Ive foudn to help cut back the food bill, was to use what I have. a couple days before I go shopping I meal-plan around what is left in the fridge. throwing out less food means saving more money.

and make everything you can from scratch, much cheaper that way, not to mention healthier.

mummiedearest

Mon, May 26 2014, 6:08 pm

Dolly Welsh wrote:

about the bolded: you don't need a slow cooker. you can cover your boiled milk + yogurt starter and just leave it out. it'll be fine. make sure the boiled milk has reached a temperature close to your body temperature before adding the yogurt starter (I use plain store-bought yogurt). just leave it out until it thickens. a warm environment is good for this. if you want, you can leave it in your oven with the oven light turned on, but you don't have to. you can also put it in a cooler with a hot water bottle. not absolutely necessary. homemade yogurt is easy and significantly cheaper than store-bought.

I find amazon's warehouse deals or manager's deals to be helpful with grocery costs. these products are often nearing their sell-by dates, but still good to eat for a while. don't buy more than you think you can finish in a few weeks, and don't try out new products. you might regret the purchase. I have found some great fruit snacks, cereal, pasta, brown rice pasta, juice boxes, etc. at great bulk prices this way.