Budget friendly fleishigs

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 10:35 am

Due to various health needs, my family needs to eat a lot of fleishigs. Until now, I've been keeping things reasonable by cooking mostly chicken dinners. Now two of my kids are refusing to eat chicken. They only want red meat. What is the best way to do this without harming my budget too much? I'm thinking ground meat (although burgers and meatballs are rather more labor intensive, which is annoying). Any other cuts that I should consider that are on the cheaper end? Thanks.

ra_mom

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 11:22 am

amother wrote:

Ground meat is really versatile. You can make kebabs, saucy meatballs, meatballs in pita or soup, meatloaf, tacos, chili, burgers, etc.
Would you try dark ground turkey? It's moist and tasty and doesn't taste like poultry.
Some of the cheaper cuts available are stew meat (needs low and slow liquid cooking) and London broil (quick searing, slice, serve right away).
Does meat ever go on sale in your area? If so you can get a larger variety of cuts.
Good luck!

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 11:34 am

Thanks. Yes, meat goes on sale from time to time. I recently stocked up on brisket, there was a really good sale. I have tried the dark ground turkey, but not everyone likes it that much (myself included). I also got turkey roast a few times, and the non-chicken eaters liked it the first few times and then stopped liking that. I'm sure eventually they'll go back to liking chicken eventually, they're not picky, just fickle LOL

I have also had to change veggie staples for them regularly, but that's a lot easier to do, there are more options.

tichellady

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 11:34 am

Without knowing your restrictions, I am going to suggest you focus on veggies, grains, quinoa, beans etc and then can spread the meat further ( for example, a mushroom barley beef soup will use much less meat but be filling). You can also make a chili with butternut squash and meat etc

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 11:44 am

tichellady wrote:

Basically, I and some of the kids need to be on some form of ketogenic diet due to very high diabetes risk (the kids are on a modified safe for kids version, but still need it). So we actually can't have so much beans (I'm basically allowed to toss some beans on a salad to bulk it up, but really can't have them as a main, same situation with quinoa). Also, my husband has IBS and beans are a major trigger for him. There are some fish allergies in the family so we can't have it in the house. Everyone eats eggs for either breakfast or lunch, so I can't make them for dinner too (at least not too often). It's not recommended to have large quantities of soy, so tofu and the like are a once in a while thing. We eat full-fat dairy, but cheese doesn't have enough protein to be a protein meal. The dairy we eat is usually in the form of cheese sprinkled on an omelet or salad, or cheese as a snack.

Raisin

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 11:44 am

my kids really like when I mixed ground meat and ground chicken (or turkey would work too) together for meatballs. I liked it too.

You can make a meat sauce with pasta with a lot of veggies in. (mushroom, peppers etc) Which is a also a really quick supper.

I think if you serve anything too often kids will get sick of it. I try and rotate so we don't have anything more then once a week - shabbos leftovers sunday, then the rest of the week one night fish, once night chopped meat, one night chicken (usually schnitzle), one night milchigs or a lentil based dish.

nicole81

Thu, Nov 09 2017, 11:48 am

amother wrote:

The easiest meal we make is with ground beef. I throw a frozen family pack of ground beef (or mix grind-- if you think you can get away with that, it's even cheaper and healthier) into the crockpot with a bit of olive oil, canned tomato sauce, marinara sauce if you want, water, and seasoning. Let it cook all day on low. 1-2 hours before dinner, use a wooden spoon to break up the meat if desired, and throw in a bag of frozen vegetables or use fresh. Serve over pasta, rice, or any other grain.

Prices will depend on where you live, but by me, chuck roast can be found for 4.99/lb. Delmonico, pickled corned beef, and london broil can be found for 5.99/lb. Minute steak and minute roast can also be found for 5.99, and I like to cut up minute steak for use in asian style dishes instead of the more expensive pepper steak. Silver tip is a great cut that occasionally goes as low as 5.99/lb, but is usually more like 6.99 on sale.

TCR

Sat, Feb 03 2018, 11:58 pm

amother wrote:

Diabetes runs in my husband's side of the family. He saw big success with a vegan diet. Dr. Joel Furman has a book on it titled "Eat to Live." Also helps with weight loss.

Chana Miriam S

Sun, Feb 04 2018, 3:51 am

TCR wrote:

Diabetes runs in my husband's side of the family. He saw big success with a vegan diet. Dr. Joel Furman has a book on it titled "Eat to Live." Also helps with weight loss.

Many vegans become insulin resistant and gain weight on a vegan plan long term. Low carb is good.

amother

Orange

Sun, Feb 04 2018, 10:44 am

Iymnok wrote:

If you are having eggs for breakfast and lunch, you don't need meat for supper.
I think the number is 60-80 grams a day. That's not much.

So what is she supposed to serve them for supper if not protein and not grains or carbs?

OP, I personally I find the easiest way of making chopped meat is to saute an onion with the meat (no extra oil needed because the meat has its own fat) pour on a jar of tomato sauce or sloppy joe sauce and cook until the meat is brown.

I also serve high protein meals very low carb. I don't serve the meat crumble with any carbs, just sliced cucumbers or peppers go well with this for the crunch.

Also, sometimes you can find already made hamburger patties in the supermarket. By me it's the same price per pound as regular chopped meat so I buy that as a 0 prep hamburger meal.

Have you ever served turkey meat? Like turkey legs or turkey wings? In my opinion that can be dissimilar enough to chicken to make it like another option.

What about chicken stomaches? I stirfry them with celery and mushroom and onions and think it's delish.

As much as your kids may be sick of chicken, they really shouldn't be having meat every night. I'm sure there are ways of changing up the way you make the chicken to make it not so boring and the same old.

Mommyg8

Sun, Feb 04 2018, 10:49 am

My kids don't really like chicken on the bone, but they'll eat chicken in other ways. Like - grilled chicken, chicken cutlets in cornflake crumbs, with or without sauce, sesame chicken, etc. There are many ways to serve chicken that make it more interesting.

I second the sloppy joe suggestion. I also sautee an onion or two with ground meat (I add vegetables), pour over tomato sauce, sugar, spices, and it's a really nice meal.

Meat sometimes goes on sale (especially the Argentina meat), so you can stock up when this happens.

Are you completely off starch? Otherwise, it's not the end of the world to serve something that doesn't have a protein, if you have eggs for breakfast and/or lunch you don't need a protein supper every single day, healthwise - this is only a personal preference.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Feb 04 2018, 10:55 am

Pot roasts and chuck roasts do really well in a slow cooker. They are very lean, cheap cuts, and will be really tough if you don't cook them low and slow all day long. Once they're done, they are very tender with good flavor.

About halfway through cooking toss in any low carb veggies that your family will eat. Mushrooms, onions, carrots, and celery are a good mix. Sweet potatoes or yams if you can have them.

It tastes even better the next day, and freezes beautifully.

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Feb 04 2018, 11:02 am

Chili with many beans to fill it up, meatsauce stretched with veggies, tacos where mixed with rice/beans/veggies in the shell you use less of the meat up. I have had a meat/rice casserole thing after birth by a neighbor of mine, but don't know the recipe (I will make a meat/pasta dish where I can get by with a lot less meat since it's a one-pot dish). Meatball soup...

If you could try chicken in different ways, that is easy to stretch -- e.g. I made chicken soup without the soup last week and served on egg noodles.

amother

Orchid

Sun, Feb 04 2018, 8:53 pm

I was in Costco the other day and bought Empire Turkey Tenders.
I couldn't figure if it was dark or white meat.
It was very reasonably priced, I think $3/lb
I made "shawarma"

I sliced the tenders and marinated them with oil and spices, Paprika, onion,garlic, tumeric, salt, season salt, whatever I had on hand.

I split the package in 3 and froze 2 portions marinated already.

Then I took all different color peppers and onion, sliced, sautéed
Added the turkey-sautéed until completely done.

Served this with rice and Israeli salad, some techina on the side. , but you can serve it with cauliflower rice.

If you eat fish I make tuna patties.
I keep a lot in the freezer.
You can make flax buns.

Flax bread/bun can be made in the microwave quickly. You can melt cheese on it grilled cheese, or pizza bread. Or you can make a crust in the oven and make a big pizza.

You can make cauliflower crust pizza. Eggplant parm. Brocolli w cheese- when I serve this I'll make soup and/or salad.

PinkFridge

Mon, Feb 05 2018, 8:15 am

Like orchid said, prep more than one meal at a time. You find meatballs time consuming. Maybe take a block of time and a larger quantity of fresh raw meat and shape dozens of meatballs. Put on sheet, freeze, then put in zipper bag and take out as needed.