April 22nd, 2010

Unemployed? Frustrated by rising food prices? Don’t worry! You and your family can still eat well. Here are some cheap meals menu ideas that will reduce the food budget. However, the most important thing isn’t the food you make, it’s the menu planning you do before you even spend a dime.

Please do not neglect menu planning if money is tight. Our Menu Planning 101 post is a good place to start.

1. Eggs are cheap and delicious.  About $2.50 for 18 eggs is not too bad. Add in a $2.50 bag of potatoes for hashbrowns, some cheese (save more money by shredding it yourself) and you have the fixings of a delicious, filling breakfast for the week. (Tip: Bake the potatoes, refrigerate, and then fry ‘em up as you need them all week long.)

When you’re sick of eggs, combine them with flour and sugar to make muffins.

2.Soup is also a good way to stretch the food budget. Buy a small whole chicken and boil in water with some onion and carrots to make the broth–this should all cost less than $7.  Remove the chicken, save the breasts for another meal, put the deboned dark meat in the pot and add some rice.

The chicken breasts can be shredded for chicken salad (just add mayo and serve on bread) or make great chicken enchiladas (tortillas, cheese, beans, can of enchilada sauce).

3.Super cheap dried beans with just 1lb of meat make for an excellent chili. The recipe on this site makes a lot so consider freezing half of it for another time.

Per #2, bean soup would be a yummy, filling lunch for just pennies per serving.

4. Use cheaper cuts of meat. Chicken thighs and drumsticks are pretty inexpensive, but make delicious meals.  We’re actually working on a few recipes using cheaper cuts that will be posted soon-ish.

5.Skip cereal and eat oatmeal instead. Not only is oatmeal better for you,it’s cheaper and comes in large containers. Big, off brand containers can sometimes be found for under $3 and would last more than a week.

6.Do it yourself. If money is tight, it’s time to grate your own cheese and to stop buying bagged lettuce–the fresh, unprocessed lettuce is about 50% cheaper. Start a small garden too. Stop paying someone else to do the work–do what you can at home and grow your own. Every little bit saves you money.

7.Switch to frozen fruits and veggies. They are usually quite a bit cheaper than fresh and much better than their canned counterparts.

Notice how these tips do not rely on highly processed foods full of refined sugars! This is healthy food on the cheap, the whole point of this blog; good food, cheap meals.

This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursdays.

Tags: cheap meals, meal planning, menu planning, reduce the food budget
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April 17th, 2010

These muffins will keep your toddler regular without any fuss. Plus they are super healthy. I use these in combination with the Gluten Free Peanut Butter cookies to treat toddler poop withholding.

This recipe is also reduced sugar.

Banana Flax Muffins

Ingredients

-1/2 cup butter

-1/2 cup sugar

-1 cup mashed bananas

-1 cup dried fruit such as raisins or chopped prunes

-1 tbsp vanilla

-1 egg

-1 cup flour (whole wheat is fine as is white)

-1/2 cup ground flax meal (again, this is available at grocery stores, but usually cheaper on Amazon.com.)

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1 tbsp Cinnamon

-1 tsp. baking soda

Instructions

1.Cream sugar and butter.

2.Add egg, mashed bananas, and vanilla.

3.Mix in dry ingredients.

4.Fill muffin tins and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350F.  Makes 12 muffins.

I give our toddler one every morning for breakfast. Then she gets one peanut butter flax cookie as a snack. Plus some regular prunes. If I keep up with the baking, this food schedule keeps her regular.

Tags: muffins, toddler constipation, toddler poop withholding
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April 17th, 2010

Here is a great recipe that will keep any toddler regular. If you are struggling with a stubborn toddler who just won’t poop, this is the solution you’ve been looking for.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies (with a secret ingredient to combat constipation in toddlers)

Between the peanuts and the flax, these cookies will get things moving and your toddler will have NO idea the real purpose behind this delicious cookie.

Ingredients
-1 cup natural peanut butter (I nuked it a bit to make it runny)
-1/2 cup sugar or sweetener (I reduced this to 1/4 cup)
-1/2 cup ground flax meal (can be found in grocery stores but is usually cheaper at Amazon.com. Note:If you don’t have flax handy, just use 1/4 cup of flour. Peanuts often have a laxative effect on their own.)
-1 egg
-1 tbsp vanilla
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/4 cup sugar for coating cookies prior to baking

Optional add ins like chocolate chips.

Instructions

-Blend the peanut butter, egg vanilla and sugar.

-Add the flax meal and baking soda and chocolate.

-Mix the ingredients–you might need to use your hands.

-Form into small balls (about the size of a big marble).

-Roll in sugar.

-Bake 10 min at 350F. Not a second longer or they’ll burn. Also, let them sit for a few minutes before moving, they can be fragile until they ’set.’

-Makes about 16 small cookies. I dole them out one at a time.

Tags: gluten free cookies, toddler constipation
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March 16th, 2010

Who doesn’t love a good meatball? Spaghetti and meatballs is classic comfort food, but many people find meatballs to be too much work. This recipe will take you about 20 minutes to put together –no frying, no roasting in the oven, just fix it, toss it in the slow cooker and forget about it.  In a few hours you’ll have some of the best meatballs and red sauce you’ve ever eaten.  The slow cooker caramelizes the sugars in the tomato sauce giving it excellent flavor and the meatballs are tender and flavorful. This recipe is not to be missed–you have got to try this!

Ingredients

-1.5 lb of ground meat (I like ground turkey) @ $1.50 (on sale)

-1/2 to 3/4 cup Parmesean Cheese @$0.75 (bought in bulk)

-1 egg @$10. (bought in bulk)

Dash of red pepper flakes @$0.10

1 tbsp garlic powder @$0.25

1 tbsp onion powder or actual diced onion @$0.10 (bought in bulk)

2 18oz to 24oz jars of spaghetti sauce @$2.00 (on sale)

Your choice of pasta @$1.00

Note: I don’t use bread crumbs. You don’t really need them, but if you feel weird skipping the bread crumbs, feel free to add some in, or to substitute bread crumbs for the parmesan cheese. Just FYI leaving out the bread crumbs makes these low carb meatballs.

Cooking Instructions

1.Mix the meat, parmesean cheese, spices and egg thoroughly.

2.Pour 1 jar of sauce in bottom of slow cooker.

3.Form balls–about the size of a ping pong ball–and gently place in slow cooker.

4.Top with the second jar of spaghetti sauce.

5.Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours. I like to check it and give it a stir about 5 hours in.

Prep Time: 20 minutes of prep, 7 to 8 hours of actual cooking. Oh, plus 20 minutes for pasta.

Serves: Depends on how you divvy up the meatballs. I usually get 12 meatballs from this recipe. 3 meatballs a piece would serve 4. 2 meatballs a piece would serve 6.

Leftovers: I usually have extra sauce which can easily be used to top a pizza. Or you can saute some veggies in olive oil, onion and garlic and add the sauce to make a veggie marinara later in the week. If there are extra meatballs, think about a meatball sub with toasted garlic bread.

Total Cost: $5.80 (buying some things in bulk and shopping the sales really pushed the price point down.)

Tags: cheap meals, crockpot meatballs, low carb meatballs, meatballs, slow cooker meatballs, spaghetti and meatballs
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February 28th, 2010

I am cooking up a storm over here. I like to do batch cooking whenever possible because, while I like to cook, I don’t necessarily want to do it every day. Besides, running a family sometimes means I don’t have time to cook daily.

Typically on Sunday, I make our meal for the day, the husband’s lunches for work, and something to carry us into Monday.

My husband’s lunches have been very simple lately. Partly because he has a picky palate that eschews leftovers. For the last few months I’ve just been making some frozen mushroom ravioli or cheese tortellini. A bag costs $3.69 and will last for 3 days. I add some fresh fruit and I’m pretty much done with lunch for him. The fourth lunch of the week will be a leftover and the husband eats out on Fridays.

If you think about it, the frozen pasta is a higher end lunch than sandwiches and cheaper too. Lunchmeat is so expensive, it’s not worth it. In our area, you can easily spend $7 a pound. Add in the cost of bread and condiments and you’re looking at a $4-$5 per sandwich while I’m only spending….let’s see

-Pasta $3.69

-Sauce $1.89

-Cheese $1.00

Total: $6.58 for three days which is just $2.19 a day for lunch. Add in fresh fruit and it goes up to maybe $2.80.

Interesting how sandwiches aren’t cheap any more, isn’t it? I hadn’t thought about it before.

Okay, so moving on, what else did I make today?

Crockpot spaghetti meatballs. Love this recipe and as far as I know/can remember, it’s my own variation. No frying. No complicated anything. Just make the meatballs, drop ‘em in the crock pot, cover with sauce and cook. 7 hours later, you’ll have perfect meatballs in a great slow roasted sauce. The left over sauce (there’s always leftover sauce with this recipe) will be given a second life on pizza night.

I also made my own version of  ‘Shepherd’s Pie’–mashed cauliflower in cheese sauce  and ground turkey. I haven’t made it before so I’m not sure if it’s any good, but it smells great in the oven.

At the moment, I’m taking a break from the kitchen to post here, but later I’ll go back in and try a new flax muffin recipe to which I’ll add some frozen berries.

What’s cooking on your end?

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February 23rd, 2010

One of the key refrains heard over and over again is that, in order to save money on food, we should be buying food in bulk. Volume discounts are great, but not always practical. Here are 5 foods that are not a great idea for bulk food storage.

1.Brown sugar.  Brown sugar is hard to store without ending up with a crystalline brick. Unless you use enough to go through quite a lot of brown sugar in a month (or less), I don’ t think brown sugar makes for a great bulk food buy. Regular white granulated sugar is a better option for bulk storage.

2. Flour. No question about it, bulk flour is cheaper, but only if you have the freezer space for it. Flour should be ‘frozen’ for 3 days to kill any bugs or bug eggs present*.The problem with this is that bulk flour comes in large packages. Unless you have a chest freezer, it’s hard to properly process and store flour in bulk quantities. You’re better off sticking with five pound bags that will fit in the fridge freezer.

3. Meat. This one is controversial, but most of us have no business buying meat in bulk. Why? Because we throw it in our freezer and it sits there until we excavate it two years later, when it’s completely encased in freezer burn. There’s no point in stockpiling meat if you aren’t already in the habit of rotating stock in and out of the freezer. If you’re just now starting to meal plan and stockpile food, don’t build up the freezer stash until you’ve got a workable meal plan going.

4.Bacon. I love bacon and it pains me to share this fact, but did you know bacon is only good for a month in the freezer? Apparently the fat content means it doesn’t freeze very well and it can actually go bad even in the deep freeze.

5.Ingredients you’ve never eaten before but which are now on your menu plan so you are sure you’ll eat a year’s supply in the next 12 months. Stop. Don’t go there. Only buy bulk items that you know you will eat. Otherwise you end up wasting money and food. New spices are a good example.  Never made chicken curry before? Then please do not buy a lifetime supply of curry powder–you will not be happy. For one, you’re not likely to finish the spice before it goes bad and two, you’re banking on unproven recipes that you may not even like. Don’t do it!  Buy small quantities until you are sure a new ingredient is going to be a staple.

Investing in a chest freezer, mastering menu planning, and learning about bulk food storage can eliminate all but  the bacon off this list. However, until you have that basic knowledge, be careful about bulk food storage.

*I failed to freeze my flour once and ended up hatching quite a few bugs. It was kind of gross and I now have to not think too hard about bug eggs while eating baked goods.

Tags: brown sugar, bulk food storage, bulk foods, chest freezer, flour, menu planning
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February 14th, 2010

This is a quick easy meal that you can just toss into the crockpot in the morning. It also is a great recipe for cheap cuts of steak such as round steak or london broil because the slow cooker ensures tender meat. In our area, round steak is a cheap cut that often goes on sale ‘buy one, get one’ so I stock up then which reduces my costs greatly for this recipe.

Ingredients

2 lbs Round steak sliced against the grain into strips and extra fat removed @$2.50
1 tbsp Garlic powder @$0.30
1 tbsp Onion powder @$0.30
1 small chopped onion @$0.25
3 tbsp Soy sauce @$0.30
1 can chicken or beef stock, whatever you have on hand
1 can diced tomatoes @$0.75 ( we buy this in bulk at a cost savings)
1 can diced tomatoes with green peppers @$1.00
Cornstarch as needed to thicken the sauce
Rice @$1.00

Optional Ingredients: Fresh green pepper if you are big on peppers. We are not so the one can of diced tomatoes with green peppers is more than enough for us. Mushrooms would also be a nice addition, however, we don’t like them at our house.

Time: Prep: 30 minutes. Cooking time: 6-8 hours

Serves: 4 and really not much more than that.

Cost: Around $5.90

Instructions

1. If you have time, quickly sear round steak in a hot pan with the onion, powdered garlic and powdered onion. Otherwise, everything can go right into the crockpot.

2.Transfer steak to slow cooker. Add in soy sauce, tomatoes and stock. Set to cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

3.Thicken sauce with cornstarch if necessary at the end of cooking time (sometimes this recipe cooks down and thickens on its own just fine) and test meat for tenderness. If it’s tough, cook a little longer. If it never becomes tender, you may not have cut across the grain properly when slicing the meat.

4.Make Minute Rice in the microwave or long grain wild rice, whatever you have on hand and like. (Some cooks add the rice to the slow cooker, but not everyone in our home eats rice so we make it separately.)

5.Serve on top of a bed of rice.

Tags: green pepper steak, slow cooker green pepper steak
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February 14th, 2010

This is a cheap meals recipe I came up with to use up the 1 lb of ground beef we received from Angel Food Ministries. To make it even more frugal, dried beans are used as well.

The spices are key in this recipe because there’s not a lot of meat to carry this dish. Slow cooking brings out the best in the beans and the spices for a warm-your-toes satisfying chili.

Yum!

Ingredients

@$3.00 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey (whichever you prefer or whichever is cheaper)
@$0.25 1 onion diced
@$1.75 1 bag dried kidney beans (if you really want to s-t-r-e-t-c-h your budget, make it 2 bags and you’ll feed an army for a week.)
@$1.50 1 jar salsa (generic is cheapest and tastes the same as name brand, at least in our area)
@$1.20 1 can chicken stock (if you make my crockpot chicken salad and chicken broth 2 for 1 meal you can cut the cost of this recipe.)
1 ‘can’ Water
@$1.00 1 can diced tomatoes with juice (this can be left out if money is tight.)
@$0.50 Spices: 1-2 tbsps. Cumin, 2-3 tbsps. Chili powder and anything else you like in your chili

Total recipe cost: approximately $9.20
Serves: An army! At least 6 servings. Easily 10-12 servings if you use an extra bag of beans.

Cooking Instructions

1. Soak kidney beans overnight.

2. The next day, dice onion and put it in skillet with a tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp cumin and 2 tbsp chili powder. Saute together for a minute or two until spices are fragrant and then add your meat. Cook throughly.

3.Rinse beans one last time and put in crockpot with salsa, tomatoes, chicken stock and an equivalent amount of water (eyeball it to see if you need more water. You don’t want too much or too little. There should be just enough water to cover the top layer of ingredients and no more.). Add some more cumin and chili powder followed by the cooked meat.

4.Cook on high for 6 hours or until beans are soft. (I used some old beans and slow cooked my chili for almost 18 hours, which totally screwed up my meal plan. Also, I now know I have to eat my beans faster! Old beans are tough!)

Serve with cornbread (from a mix or homemade) or top with some shredded cheddar cheese to make a $10 dinner deal. This recipe should yield enough for leftovers or to feed the freezer.

Tags: beans, cheap meals, ingredients for slow cooker chili dinner, slow cooker chili
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February 14th, 2010

One good way to save money on groceries is to buy dried beans. This is a huge cost saver–1 bag of dried beans is equivalent to 2 – 2 1/2 cans of canned beans but costs between 60 to 80 cents less. Plus, canned beans also have high levels of Bisphenol A which is not a chemical you want to ingest on a regular basis. So dried beans not only save you money, they are also better for your health.

If you haven’t worked with dried beans before, there are some things you need to know. Fortunately, the learning curve is pretty short and sweet here.

When shopping for beans, look in several locations because there may be a significant price difference between grocery aisles (why, I don’t know). Our store, for example, has a bean section in the mac ‘n cheese, Chef Boyardee aisle and then more beans in the Hispanic food aisle. The cheapest bean prices are in the Hispanic food aisle. Makes no sense to me, but that’s how it is. So keep an eye out and compare prices.

Usually dried beans need to be soaked overnight and they have a slightly longer cooking time than canned. However, with some preparation, you can have the convenience of canned beans at a fraction of the cost. Just cook up monthly batches of beans, freeze them and then pull them out as needed for cooking.

The other helpful thing to know is how to make your own baked beans. Although I would run a cost analysis here. If you only eat baked beans a few times a year, it is probably more cost and time effective for you to just buy the cans. Right now baked beans are one of the few veggies my toddler will eat, so she’s keeping me busy on the baked bean front.

Lastly, don’t seal your dried beans in an air tight container for months and months. Beans actually give themselves gas and can literally explode over time if there’s no place for the ‘little bean farts’ to dissipate. (Sorry for the potty humor, I couldn’t resist. It cracks me up to think that beans can explode from their own gas. By the way, this is one of the reasons why you soak them and cook them thoroughly, so they don’t explode in your stomach.)

If you prefer canned beans, at least buy generic brands (this will save between 2-5 cents a can) and try to buy in bulk at you local Sam’s/Costco/BJ’s wholesale club–you might save $1 on 6 cans if you’re lucky. As usual, keep an eye out for sales and stock up.

Are you using dried beans? We do use them quite a lot now, especially in the slow cooker. Beans are great way to s-t-r-e-t-c-h a meal, they make a great filler that is nutritious and tasty.

Tags: baked beans, cheap meals, dried beans
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February 14th, 2010

As I mentioned previously, Angel Food Ministries is one way to save money on groceries. We picked up our first order last week and have been cooking from it the last few days.

So, how does the food stack up? Weeeeeeell, ummmm, it’s not as good as I had hoped. I don’t think the meat quality is the same as what I would buy at my grocery store. There’s less meat, more fat and I have to really reach into my bag of tricks to make filling meals with the small amounts of meat AFM gave us.

This month’s ’signature box’ featured the following proteins:

1lb of ground beef (about the size of a house brick–I made chili using 2 bags of dried beans as filler so we would have enough for more than one meal.)

1.5 pork roast (which looks smaller than the beef brick even though it weighs more)

2 lbs of NY Strip steak (4 small, thin steaks with lots of fat, but tasty.)

1 lb chicken fajita strips (this was by far the worst meat item in the box; low quality, fatty, weird flavor and not enough meat for our family to make a meal of)

Chicken tenders (tasty, even the toddler ate them and she doesn’t like meat)

Fish sticks (we aren’t fish people so will probably give these to someone else)

The portion sizes are…well, you know how a protein portion is supposedly the size of a deck of cards? Angel Food Ministries has taken that portion size to heart and they are gospel strict about it.

If you are on a diet or want to lose weight, AFM might be a good place for you to get your groceries. We are certainly eating less this week.

What it boils down to is this, you will struggle mightily to feed more than 2 people with 1 signature box. Also, the quality is a mixed bag–there’s more gristle and fat than I would buy and in that sense, I think AFM is probably a poor value for the money.

I think, for us, AFM would be something we would do only if we were both unemployed and had our backs to the wall financially. It’s not something we would willingly eat if we could afford other options.

I’m glad I tried it. I know it’s there if we need it. I also know I’ll need lots of pasta and beans to extend the portion sizes so that the meals are filling. Nor will I plan on having any leftovers.

Have you tried Angel Food Ministries? What did you think?

Tags: Angel food ministries review
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