$$$ Challenge! I have told Bub that due to our decrease in household income,

dawn_mo

dawn_mo

Well-known member
that I can feed our family of three (not counting grandkids, who will need wholesome hearty afterschool snacks) on $35/week. This is not counting things like laundry soap, toilet paper, dog food, etc., just breakfast and dinner for the three of us. As like most of you, I am very comfortable cooking from scratch and have some time for it right now.

Any ideas and/or recipes from your frugal but delicious files?

Thanks so much!!!

 
Hasselback potatoes

These are inexpensive, filling and my kids (and the adults) devour them. You can get as fancy as you want with them e.g. adding cheese(s) or bacon etc. I don't use a recipe but basically I slice em; mix up a seasoning which I mix into grapeseed oil and then drench them and try to get the oil/seasoning into the nooks and crannies.

Nice thing too is that if you make them for dinner and there are leftovers they go nice with eggs in the morning.

I don't do the flour or saucepan step in this recipe below but both make sense. Pretty similar to what I do aside from that - and I use whatever type of potato I have on hand. They have all worked good.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robert-irvine/hasselback-roasted-potatoes-recipe/index.html?ic1=obinsite

http://img.foodnetwork.com/FOOD/2009/05/03/FSSP09_90083_s4x3_lg.jpg

 
just read the comments on that recipe

maybe the flour is a bad idea but there are hundreds of Hasselback recipes online. IMHO - KISS Principle applies - just season to your family's tastes. I cook them directly in the oven (without the boiling/steaming step) at 425 but maybe I'll try that extra step next time.

 
Lentil soup with cornbread!!! Put anything you have in the pantry/fridge in the

soup, left over sausage from breakfast, chunks of chicken from last night's dinner, can of beans, any sort of veggies you have around--I know you do all this already! But I just LOVE a good lentil soup with some hot cornbread in the winter smileys/smile.gif

 
Hey, we're going to try the same thing...starting next month. Larry gets a little

green around the gills when he sees what I spend a month on food as he is now retired and on a limited income.

So I suggested we set a budget, he shops and prepares all the food--or makes the decision if we go out to eat. All of which will come out of the same bucket of money--preset.

he's willing. So we'll see how that goes.

 
Soups and stews allow me to cook with whatever is on hand and/or...

...whatever is on sale. They're so flexible as to ingredients, and they hold well in the fridge. If I have two or three different ones available at a time, the family doesn't tire of any one recipe. I freeze whatever isn't eaten in two or three days, and bust it out a few weeks down the line.

I don't tend to use recipes as much as I prepare these meals by instinct and what I have on hand.

Dry beans are a huge bargain, and whether you're filling tortillas, making soup/stew, or even pureeing them into a faux hummus, you can get away with alot and do so very economically. Pasta is the same, as I'm sure you know.

Think simple meals, with as few ingredients as possible. Don't make the mistake I made for years by running to the store at 3:30 every afternoon to "get what I need for this recipe". That "plan" equals budget disaster.

Michael

 
I used to make that store run, I was guilty of going just for a veg to serve with dinner if what I

had on hand didn't go with it well, either taste or colorwise, in my opinion. I am still picky about what to serve with what but have learned to tell myself it's just one meal and tomorrow there will be another. It works...most of the time. I'm now 12 miles or so from nearest grocery store. That helps immensely.

 
I used to make these a lot and never used flour!?! just cut them and roasted them

after they were drenched in good fatty things. Last time (before I had a food intolerance to potatoes) I used melted duck fat. Holy patooties that was good.

I give Susan in Kentfield a huge hat-tip for the inspiration on that.

 
I've made them a lot too and only roast them- and here is a nifty cutting tip

Take a pair of chopsticks and put them on either side of the potato- then when you make the slices you won't cut through to the bottom by mistake.

I think if you try to boil the potatoes after cutting them they will fall apart too easily. I find that roasting them is plenty of cooking. I use cream and butter and parmesan cheese. Yum.

 
A few afternoon snack ideas:

- mini pizzas using English Muffins, it's mostly tomato sauce with a little cheese and leftover lunch meat or ham or veggies. I would make them with pita bread too.

- hummus is great to make yourself and it's inexpensive, except for the tahini but a can of that lasts a long time. 2 cans of garbanzo beans make a lot of hummus. Carrot sticks or baby carrots are great with this.

- deviled eggs

- I know it's not the healthiest snack but if you have teenagers there's nothing like a bowl of top ramen! You can add veggies to it, just make sure they drink water at dinner that night.

- string cheese - great buy at Costco and kids just love them.

- pasta salad with a vinagrette, good also to repurpose leftovers, it tastes great and lasts a week and a nice bowlful is a good snack or lunch addition.

- onigiri - japanese rice balls. My friend taught me how to make these, she cooks up an entire pot of rice with the rice cooker and then freezes it in little containers for use during the week. For lunches and snacks she thaws the rice in the micro, adds her seasonings and forms into balls and puts in tuna salad or vegetables or whatever, and then wraps the shapes with a strip of seaweed. They're palm sized and a good snack and I love it when she makes them for picnics. I really like the ones that are brushed with soy sauce and broiled until crispy. These can be made in advance and frozen and then heated up in the micro - see link.

With tight budgets I have learned during the Great Unemployment to shop at the farmer markets and at the ethnic markets for vegetables and fruit. Some of the ethnic markets have good deals on fish, meats and poultry too, just make sure they have a lot of turnover. I also found great prices on bulk beans and grains from our local co-op organic places. I took a notebook and wrote down prices and shopped accordingly. Sometimes the food is not organic or is commodity or not sustainable but when the wallet is slim and the stomach is growling one must make concessions to ethics.

http://lunchinabox.net/2007/07/02/tip-use-cookie-cutters-as-onigiri-molds/

 
Here is what I did when feeding my family of 5

When the store ads came out each week, I would sit down with my legal pad and look at the meat, veggie and fruit mark downs..
I'd plan each days menu with the sales and our families likes in mind. I'd also have our household/school schedule in front of me so I could see if a crockpot prep one morning or a meal with leftovers for the next night was in order. I would plan out my menu, taking into consideration anything new I wanted to try for that week. I'd put the menu up on the fridge so the kids weren't asking me everyday, "whats for dinner"
Breakfast was usually healthy cereals and fruit or made ahead oatmeal, that they could get for themselves. I packed their lunches with healthy foods, the preferred.

 
Get a turkey. And other ideas.

Roast it. Eat some, either freeze the rest of the meat or make a big casserole out of the rest (and you can freeze the casserole if you have enough). Take the turkey carcass and create a wonderful soup. You get the biggest bang for the buck out of a turkey. I keep bones from chickens, turkeys, pork chops, lamb chops, beef in a big bag in the freezer until I have enough to create a huge pot of soup then I freeze containers for later.

Another cost-cutting tip is to use a lot of noodles- make your own pasta. It is really inexpensive to make from scratch and it is fun. Also make your own sausages or salami- you can get inexpensive cuts of meat, grind yourself and stuff casings. I just made 5 lbs of ground beef and pork into a kind of "Summer Sausage"- I used herbs, a little salsa, some Potato Buds, curing salt- and made five large rolls of sausage (the kind that you slice and use later for sandwiches or added to other dishes) that I then roasted for 4 hours at 225 degrees. I think the total cost was about $16. I used some of it on a homemade pizza instead of pepperoni and it was great. Also scrambled some with eggs- delicious. Could be used in many ways. I buy the "end of the run" meats in the discounted section and freeze them until I have enough to make into a batch. Then I grind and mix.

Make your own bread. Inexpensive. Delicious. Make English Muffins, bagels, pita breads, Naan bread- easy, fun.

Also, my Mom made a great inexpensive treat that we all loved when I was growing up- she'd make tuna salad and put cubes of cheese in it (she used Kraft American), then she'd stuff hot dog buns with the mixture, wrap in foil and freeze them. When we were hungry- snack time or for dinner- she'd thaw, open the foil and bake until toasted and the cheese melted. A great memory for me and I still make them once in a while. So yummy.

 
And buy bone-in, skin-on chicken parts. Want them boned? Do it yourself

And save the bones and skin for that big pot of soup.

Usually you can buy chicken at a better price if you get it bone-in and skin-on. Here you can buy a frozen 5 lb box for about $8.

 
For 30 years I've gone through the Sunday flyers to see what's on sale where

and shopped accordingly. I even did this when I was in college. Big costs savings doing this.

 
shop from your freezer if it's stocked. we're trying to seriously empty our freezers

this year and not buy new meats until we see a significant dent. this has really cut down our grocery bill. We shop mainly for fresh fruits/veggies/dairy to make up dishes from what we find in the freezer.

 
also, I check for the clearance items---if you know your grocery store it can be a good savings

the red banded bananas at my favorite Safeway are always just fine and not too ripe. I find really good cuts of meat in the butcher section of my favorite Fred Meyer and they are not too old or yukky looking( I don't ever look for marked down seafood though---too iffy). the cold cut and dairy aisle can also have some good markdowns on things that are close to date, but not past. day old breads, etc, etc.

 
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