We made two simple meals this past week, one feeding an extra couple who stayed with us–that was 11 mouths, both meals costing around $4.00 and providing enough for supper with a bit left over for hubby’s lunch.
I should qualify that we did serve bread and salad with these dishes which makes the $4 punch a little bit of a cheat, but it sounds better in the title :-). And, you could always serve the dishes by themselves in a pinch.
I would post the recipes (and I will if you’d like), but they are not uncommon and are versatile as well. Beef Stroganoff (made with homemade white sauce) and Lasagna-type pasta, using what I had on hand were the meals.
Sometimes though, just “thinking cheaply” can help us cut corners. The secret to these budget meals was in the reduction of meat. I have found that buying packs of frozen beef patties are not only cheaper by the pound than a large pack of ground beef, but the convenience of being able to divide them into small quantities for menus helps me use less. To get really specific, it also saves me the cost and time of dividing the meat into plastic bags for freezing and is much less messy.
For the Stroganoff, I also cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces which helps stretch the sauce. Of course having access to fresh cow’s milk helps a bit on the cost, but that’s very minute.
For these dishes, I used 2 hamburger patties and they really didn’t seem skimpy at all. I don’t think anyone noticed. Feel free to share a kitchen tip or recipe you have found to save your family money. ‘Tis one of our many jobs and I’m always on the lookout for suggestions to help me be more resourceful.
17 comments
I would love the recipe……including the white sauce! The picture looks wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
Angie
Angie,
Oopsie…’fraid I cheated on the picture, although mine looked very similar (just didn’t have time to grab the camera).
I don’t follow a recipe, per say, but this is what I did:
Brown beef, and stir in chopped green onions, a garlic clove or two, and chopped mushrooms (I put about a cup and a half but you could put more). Remove from pan and leave grease. Cook over med. heat. (Add a little olive oil if it’s not enough.)
Add a couple of Tbls. of flour, stir in with fork until lumpy. Add milk or cream (about a cup) and stir in. It should be pretty thin because it will thicken as it cooks. Add a little sour cream–as much as you prefer. Salt and pepper (I use freshly ground). You could also sprinkle some Parmesan cheese. Add the meat, mushrooms, etc. back into sauce and heat thoroughly. If it gets too thick, add a little more milk.
Serve over egg noodles! (I think I remembered everything ;-P)
I meant to add, just depending on the size of the dish you wish to make, add more oil, flour and milk to stretch the white sauce.
Thank you Kelly!
I make the same recipe with a few changes. I brown the onions and mushrooms in a T of butter (or whatever I have). Make the white sauce and add a can of tuna to it. Mix in the mushroom mixture, add a little sour cream and a little “shakey cheese”! Serve over the noodles or rice. Yum! and cheap!
Onions @ Sam’s are always cheaper and I buy them in the LARGE bag. I want to say it’s 40lbs. Anyway, I cut them all up on one day and freeze them in doubled freezer bags. Throw a handful in any dish that does not require fresh and it takes steps and dirty chopping board and knife away!
A great trick for making a low beef dish seem beefier is to use about half cup of TVP (textured vegetable protein). I find mine in the bulk foods section but it is also sold in packages. Simply soak the TVP in a bit of water to soften it and then toss it into the dish along with the meat. Because you have the meat it is even more believable and the TVP (which is a soy product)takes on the flavor of the dish (otherwise it is completely flavorless and inoffensive. My dh NEVER knew when something had little or no meat. He was amazed by it. Great for spaghetti and stuff like that.
Melissa,
I love this idea and I never remember to do it. Friends left us an abundance of chopped onions from the salad they brought and I have loved having them to toss in. Good reminder. Bell pepper could be done the same way, especially if you found it on sale and wanted to stock up.
Diana,
Great trick! Kind of a side thought, but I’ve heard of putting pureed veggies such as cauliflower into spaghetti and mashed potatoes just to increase the nutrition where the kids won’t notice. I haven’t tried it yet, though!
Wonderful ideas ladies! I like the one with tuna 😉 I think I’ll try it.
Kelly, speaking of bulk veggies, if y’all have a garden this year you could look into buying a good dehydrator (maybe borrow?). Dehydrate your veggies and pulverize in a food processor. Then you have basically a veggie broth base to flavor and thicken soup, and add fiber and vitamins. You could also chop garlic and onions to dehydrate if you grow or buy in bulk.
Something to consider regarding soy products: I used to be an enthusiastic cheerleader for soy, considering it a healthful, frugal source of good protein. I even wrote an article once on using tofu for bothersome aspects of peri-menopause (and used it myself.) But since then I’ve done some more research, and now I believe it’s better not to eat most soy products. You can see specific reasons, and downsides of soy, here: http://bit.ly/46qZf
Thank you for the link, Tricia. I also clicked on your name, then scrolled down almost to the bottom of the page it took me to, where I clicked on “Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods: Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about.” This information is so important to know…GMOs are increasingly becoming a problem in our food supply, so it’s good that you are helping to get the word out here. Thank you!
Tricia – thanks for sharing that – I know lots of folks still stand by soy as a protein source, but I’ve come to believe it’s the new PC corn…cheap, and easily morphed into substitutes for other food products and fillers, with questionable benefits. I appreciate that the article you referenced pointed out there is a difference between a corporate agri-business soybean and a traditional Asian kitchen garden one. Good point.
As for the recipes – yum…one thing studying foods of different cultures has taught us is that Americans eat A LOT, and that the sauce/gravy component in most non-American kitchens is more akin to salad dressing – a tasty condiment, not spaghetti soup (ranch salad soup, in my husbands case 🙂 )
Tricia,
Glad ou wrote that, I was just preparing to write something similar. For every study out there that shows how “great” soy is, the is one showing how bad it is. Not good odds to play with when feeding your family. I prefer to wait for a great sale and buy in bulk.
Ladies: Have you tried mycoprotein as a protein source? It is a mushroom/fungus based protein that I find yummy. You can find it in the frozen foods-section as Quorn. But, it is on the more expensive side…
Kristin
Two things:
–add a dash of brandy or sherry to the stroganoff. (I make mine w. Boca burgers, but that is, of coure, less thrifty(
— the soy debate: millions of asians aren’t sick from eating soy, but they consume it differently than we do. it’s best to eat tofu, edamame, tempeh, etc., and skip the processed Boca and
Morningstar Farms products. (Yes, I still eat them, but only a few times per month)
Marie, at the risk of starting a whole other tangent, I think one of the problems is the type of soy. Almost all commercial soy is Monsanto Round-up soy – a type that will survive spraying w/ Round-up (makes farming easier). One of the problems is that it cross-pollinates w/ normal soy, so it’s very hard to not eat. Like MSG – the original version is probably fine, made from fermented kelp. Not the stuff here, made from fermented corn syrup. So it’s essentially a different food, one that was not made to work nicely with our bodies, just with Round-up.
Of course another obvious problem is that we Americans just EAT so much!
Probably a lot more to it, but just to say that there are some fundamental differnces to take into consideration.
But that said, I’m a personal fan of soy. Yum! 🙂