Friday, May 22, 2009

Feeding Your Family Frugally

A lot of people are having to cut back on their grocery bills right now. Not just so mom can stay at home, but because dad has last his job also. As I was praying for different people in our church who are needing work, I started thinking about this, and about the ways I have stretched our grocery dollars. My husband is a meat eater so usually the first thing I think about in preparing a meal is what kind of meat to start with.
Some really inexpensive choices are:
-liver (we happen to love it)-fry it with onions, and eat it with mashed potatoes and gravy.
-canned salmon-make it into salmon patties or season it and bake it in the oven.
-ground turkey-I cook with the frozen turkey sausage because I like the flavor better. I think it's Jenny-O. Anyway, it's cheaper than ground beef at Wal-Mart.
-ground breakfast sausage-you can usually buy this cheaper than ground beef and it is great in spaghetti sauce.
-smoked sausage-great cut up either with sauerkraut(mix in some sour cream and it takes away the tartness), or fried with chopped potatoes, or in macaroni and cheese.
-a bag of boneless chicken breast-take out one or two piece of chicken at a time to cut up and eat in a soup, casserole or sauce.
-regular fat ground beef-according to the book "Nourishing Traditions" we don't really end up with that much more meat by buying a leaner meat, because the lean meat loses moisture while cooking. So, there is not a lot of difference in the amount that the two cook down. (The book also talks about the nutritional reasons to buy fatty meat, but I won't get into that, you'll have to read the book).
These are some of my favorites meats to cook with.
We also have eaten lots of beans, first as a soup and then what was left we made into refried beans and had lots of tostados and burritos.
We have also eaten rice every way there is to season it and eat it. Adding either cut up chicken or ground beef to make it the main dish.
I'll end with a couple of recipe ideas:
Hamburger-Rice Skillet
1 lb. ground beef, 1 med. chopped onion, 1 chopped green pepper(opt.), 1 minced clove garlic, 1 c. rice, 1 16 oz. tomatoes, 1 8 oz. tomato sauce, 1 tsp. Worcestershire, 1/2 tsp. basil, 1 1/2 c. water, 1 tsp. salt.
Cook beef, onion, pepper, and garlic-add rice. Cook 2 minutes stirring. Add undrained tomatoes, tom. sauce, Worcestershire, basil, water, and salt. Bring to boiling, reduce heat, cover, simmer 25-20 minutes.
Garlic Chicken Spaghetti
Melt one stick of butter and saute 1 or 2 tsp. of garlic (to taste) , 1 tsp basil, and 1 or 2 cut up chicken breast. When chicken is cooked through, you can either mix it with cooked spaghetti and eat it like this or add 1 or 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (depending on taste and how far you want it to go), heat, and eat over cooked spaghetti. Oh, and don't forget to add some Parmesan cheese.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for these wonderful tips!!
    I am always encouraged and enlightened
    by your frugal tips!!!!

    Many Blessings~ Jen

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  2. Sharon, these are great tips and recipes! You are a wonderful keeper of love and light in your home and for all here.

    Many blessings to you,

    Andrea

    ReplyDelete