Well with everything getting to be hard I thought it would be neat to put up some ideas on how you make meals stretch out and serve more people but use less meat or something along that line. Like tonight I made BBQ homemade ones with one pound of hamb. ketsup and brown sugar. I feed a family of 5 and had some leftover for dh lunch tomorrow. So, post ideas on what you do to stretch your food.
We actually usually eat our leftovers! We have friends that will NOT eat left-overs! Sounds expensive to me, but we benefit, cuz when we eat there, they give us the left-overs! I sometimes go through the fridge and see what the left-overs are. I make soup from some, and rice dishes from others. I'll put rice, veggies, meat (we're vegetarians, but we have veggie meats left over sometimes) in a frying pan, and stir it all together with mushroom soup, or cream of celery soup. It makes a good dish! Fruit that is beginning to get older we'll blend up with a yogurt or a Slim Fast drink and make a smoothy out of it. My ds15 loves those!
Taffy is a good food to stretch. :lol: J/K...I think I've been listening to my boys' jokes too long! I used to be bad about forgetting to use our leftovers. I'm trying to be better about it. Today at lunch I wasn't really in the mood for cottage cheese and peaches, but they needed to be eaten in the next day or two, so I ate them. Tonight, I cooked three chicken breast halves for the four of us, instead of cooking four. Then I split the largest one between my two sons. By the time it was sliced up, it was more than enough meat for them. Most of the time, I make casseroles, spaghetti, etc...things that can be stretched with pasta or rice. Another way I make my spaghetti sauce and chili stretch (and make it healthier) is to add lots of finely chopped veggies to it. (Onions, carrots, celery, bell pepper.) When the sauce or soup cooks a long time, they basically disappear and my kids never know they're eating so many veggies. I also recently bought some plain TVP (texturized vegetable protein) to use in my spaghetti, chili, tacos, etc. I plan to use it half and half with meat. I've not tried it yet, but a friend used to use it all the time and I could never tell the difference. It was really inexpensive...just over a dollar for an 8 oz. package. When it's reconstituted it's equal to several pounds of ground meat.
heehee...I like the taffy joke Kari. Keep them coming! Had to make big changes, fast! The first smack-your-forehead-and-say-duh was to eliminate meat as an entree' as much as I could. So, we have alot more casserole dishes now. Also, ground beef in spaghetti sauce and such was cut down from a pound to 3/4ths. If I do have meat as an entree', it's not as much as before. Half a chicken breast or even a 1/4th works great, especially when I increase the side dishes... (1/4th Stuffed chicken breast fills them up) Also, adding homemade bread or rolls keeps them from feeling hungry later. And, I base my menu for 2 weeks by comparing sale papers of different grocery stores. After finding ham on sale for $.65/lb, you wouldn't believe how many ham based dish ideas I used and noone ever complained!! If it's a GREAT price, stock up! And dont be afraid to ask your mom or grandma for good "dollar stretch" meal receipes!! Those are always the best!
I totally agree that using leftovers is a great idea. Sometimes we have a "buffet" of leftovers...1/2 cup green beans, a cup of baked beans, a few slices of turkey, ect. Nothing that I could make a whole meal for everyone to have the same thing, but the kids especially like picking what they are going to eat. Cut up a few pieces of fruit to go with it, and everyone usually ends up full...and has a pretty healthy meal. We have used TVP for enchiladas, chili, spaghetti... I reconsitiute mine in beef broth, and my family can't tell the difference. Make your chili with this and (dry) beans and you have a super cheap meal.
I will cook three or four roasts at once (when they're buy one, get one free), and make Pulled Beef with it, eat if for dinner, and then freeze the rest of it in three different freezer bags. You can do that with chicken, too.
Lastnight we had stirfry for my dds birthday and I have alot of rice left over so today I will be making rice pudding. My family likes it and I haven't made it in a looong time. I also like to take all the heels from bread and bread that is going stale and throw it in the freezer. When I have enough I make bread pudding out of it. If I have left over spaghetti sauce I either freeze it or make chili using it. Left overs here always get a face lift and end up in another meal.
I found cheaper ways to make some of our favorite foods and also I get creative with leftovers! I’ll make chili one night, and then the a few nights later I make chili potatoes (a baked potato with chili, cheese, sour cream and green onions on top!) There is just enough chili for everyone’s potato, and it’s very filling. I learned how to make pizzadillas just the other night. Pizza fixin’s in a flour tortilla (tortillas are inexpensive!) We completely stopped buying cereal, chips, juice and soda. It’s way too expensive! It takes just a little more time to whip up some eggs or our favorite, a breakfast skillet (onion, green pepper, mushrooms, sausage or leftover meat from the night before and diced potatoes.) We buy canned juice and eat lots of fresh fruit. I started slowly watering down the juice more and more. Now my daughter doesn’t like juice at full strength, it’s too strong. She gets plenty of fruit and just likes having flavor to her drink. For “fun”drinks I make Kool-Aid with Truvia (instead of sugar). Truvia is a natural sweetener, not like splenda or aspartame which is bad for you. My sugar-free Kool-Aid is much better than sugary juice! We eat leftovers for lunch because lunch is a lighter meal and we often don’t have enough for a full dinner. I buy whole milk and dilute it with a little bit of water. Whole milk costs the same as 2% but it’s thicker. With a bit of water it’s not so thick and it lasts longer! I DON’T skimp on the children’s vitamins. So many diseases and issues are caused by vitamin deficiencies. She takes a good multivitamin, calcium supplement (my daughter doesn’t like to drink milk) and extra vitamin C if she’s ill.
Don't forget potatoes! Bake potatoes and serve buffet-style. Leftover chili, taco meat, sloppy joe meat goes a long way on potatoes. Or sour cream, a little cheese, some chives and bacon bits. Or make potato bowls (like KFC) with leftovers the next day. Mashed potatoes, some chicken, a veggie if you want, and gravy- that will fill the kids up! (Mine like them with a little BBQ sauce too.) If I make a big pot of veggie soup (soups are great stretchers!)- by about the third day the kids don't want to see it again. If I make some pasta or rice and turn the leftover soup into a heartier casserole (thicken by adding a can of tomato sauce or a cream soup), sprinkle with some cheese and bake- that works. Especially during the summer when the fruits and veggies are so great, we sometimes have a breakfast meal for dinner. Some fried potatoes or sweet potatoes, scramble a big pan of eggs and add some veggies, and a fruit salad and it feeds our family of 5. Hope that helps! MT3
Great ideas ladies! I'm really enjoying this post. We strive to be good stewards of our money/food, but I'm sure I can get even better (if the results of my fridge clean-out yesterday are any indication! LOL). I've taken to trying one or two meatless meals a week and also using a lb. of frozen turkey (in roll) - here that is about 1/2 (or more) as expensive as hamburger meat. I also use the Wal-Mart matching policy and save some money, as well as buying the store brand for almost everything. And...I came to the realization today that I think that my making homemade bread instead of buying some is helping me lose a little weight...not that the bread is that amazing, but I get that "baking bug" out of my system and have no energy (after all that kneading LOL) to make cookies! HOORAY!
I forgot about doing breakfast for dinner. My kids love that, and it's always a cheap meal. They fill up on the starch (usually homemade pancakes, cheese grits or a big pot of Cream of Wheat) and then we have some eggs and sausage or bacon if we have it, juice and/or fruit. That reminds me of another favorite: egg burritos. Scramble eggs with veggies (a chopped onion and a couple handfuls of thawed, drained spinach is great--we call them Green Eggs), then put in warm tortillas with cheese and salsa. Refried bean and cheese burritos are another cheap meal we enjoy.
We always have leftover night once every four nights. We take everything out of the fridge, put it out on the counter and let everyone pick whatever they want. We also do breakfast for dinner probably once a week or so.
Fried rice always make good left-overs, too! (Which is what we'll be having for lunch tomorrow; had chicken and rice tonight!)
We do this too. It's amazing that you can get a meal from such small amounts of a big variety of leftovers. Lee and Jackie talked about rice pudding and fried rice. You can also freeze leftover rice and use it later in soup. It makes it more filling.
We have been using our food saver to freeze left overs. We used to put the left overs in the fridge and then sometimes someone would have them for lunch but they rarely get used up. Now we take the leftovers (roast chicken, casserols, ham) and food saver them. There may not be enough that time to feed all of us but after we do another round of food savering we get a complete meal. We hardly throw out any food except the occassional side or hamburger. I also cook some things with leftover meals in mind. I do this especially with roast beef. We get a big one at Sams and then cut it in two. When I make one of the two there is normally enough leftover that we will do hot roast beef sandwiches later in the week. So out of that one initial roast we get 4 meals.
When I make chili I use 3 types of beans in it so that way I don't have to use a lot of meat. I also get at least 3 different meals out of 1 batch of chili. We have chili in bowls the 1st night, chili dogs the 2nd and on the 3rd night we have chili cheese fries or chili nachos. We also have something we call Pepper Bellys. Its Fritos chips topped with chili, cheese, sour cream and onions. Rice: With rice I make something called Texas Beef Skillet. Its cooked rice, some hambuger ( cooked , leftovers are great) , canned tomatoes ( juice and all), shredded cheese, kidney beans (rinsed), chopped onions all mixed together until hot. Chicken Creole: cooked rice, cooked chopped chicken, canned tomatoes ( juice also), chopped onions, chopped celery, chopped bell peppers, garlic ( minced) and creole seasonings ( paprika, chili powder, onion powder). Broccoli Chicken Cheese Rice: cooked rice, cooked chopped chicken, velveeta cheese, steamed broccoli all tossed together and cook until heated. Red beans and Rice with Keilbasa sausage mixed in is another family favorite. Roasted Chicken: When I make Roasted Chicken I can usually get 3 or more meals out of it: 1st night is the roasted chicken, 2nd night is chicken salad ( shredded chicken, cole slaw, green onions ( diced), ramen noodles ( smashed to bits), almonds (sliced) , and a dressing made with sugar, rice vinegar , vegetable oil and soy sauce), toss altogether), 3rd night is chicken soup, either plain, with wild rice or tortilla chicken soup. If there are any little bits of shredded chicken left I ususally make chicken salad sandwiches for lunch or dinner with them( with a tossed salad on the side). Tuna : We make tuna melts and tuna salad ( with lettuce and grapes). Also Tuna Helper is a family fav. I will add extra noodles and peas/carrots to it to make it last for lunch the next day. Leftover meats: If we have any shredded beef or chicken, pieces of ham leftover we add it to top romen. Add some cole slaw to it and you have a great meal. We also have a meat, cheese, crackers and fruit platter night. We have different sliced meats ( if we have several pieces of different type of lunch meats around) and cheese with some triscuits ( or other crackers we have on hand) and sliced fruits ( oranges, bananas, apples, pears, etc). We have this a lot during the summer because its too hot to cook sometimes. Eggs : We have omelet night ( we toss in any few bits of green onions, ham, cheese and mushrooms we have). Scrambled eggs with chorizo over skillet potatoes. Quiche. Pre-made crust with bacon, broccoli and cheese added with the eggs and cream ( or 1/2 and 1/2). Fried egg sandwiches. Like a BLT but with fried egg added in ( with or with the bacon also). Homemade Egg McMuffin sandwiches. We also have a baked potato night. We top them with: chili, broccoli and cheese,or loaded with sour cream, green onions and lots of bacon. I also LOVE sweet potatoes topped with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and shredded chicken. Hope this helps some!!
Any time we have meat or veggies left over (even canned ones) I'll toss them in the freezer. (Even if it's not very much) Then when I have enough I'll make soup. With peas, corn, carrots, green beans, etc...I'll make a veggie soup and toss in either leftover roast or a little ground beef or turkey. Add a can or two of diced tomatoes, and some stock. You can also add leftover rice, barley, or pasta to this. (they all freeze well too) If I have black beans and corn, I'll make tortillia/mexican soup and toss in either leftover ground beef we've used in tacos, or cubed chicken. To this I'll also add some stock and diced tomatoes. I buy fryer chickens whenever they are on sale cheap and freeze them. I'll either roast one whole, and save the left over meat for other things, or I'll stew it in my crock pot with carrots, celery and onions. Then I can use the meat in whatever, AND have some yummy stock too. We also do omelets alot. And pancakes and waffles.
