calling all people!?

Question

my family of 4 will be on an extremely tight budget this next few months. i am looking for some simple and INEXPENSIVE recipes to make it through this (and not have to live on sandwiches). any suggestions would be great! thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There are so many options. My family has been on a very limited budget, so I know what it's like.

spanish rice made with a can of diced tomatos, spices, and a can of black beans. This is filling and lasts a long time

Buy several cans each of tomato paste, tomato sauce, canned tomatos and put them in a huge pot. Season with italian seasoning and extra basil and olive oil. Chop up some mushrooms, garlic, onion and add. Simmer it for a few hours. Now you have a huge pot of spaghetti sauce that you can dividie up and freeze for later.

Roast fall vegetables: cube up a butternut squash (peeled), 1 lb baby red potatos, 2 large red onions, a bag of baby carrots, and some smashed garlic. Toss with about 6T olive oil, salt and pepper. Then spread out on a few cookie sheets and roast at 450 for about 45 minutes. This is a hit in my family. We eat off it for a few days. You can also take half the recipe and 5-6 cups of water and puree this in the blender in batches then heat up on the stove for a nice hearty soup.

It also saves a lot of money to make your own bread. Here's the recipe I use:

1 1/4 c lukewarm water (when dropped on the inside of your wrist, you should not feel hot or cold)
1 package active dry yeast
2 T sugar
1 t salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
6T olive oil
1/4 c honey or agave nectar

Take 1/4 cup of the warm water and place in a bowl. Sprinkle with yeast and sugar. Let this sit until it gets really foamy, about fifteen minutes.
Meanwhile, sift the flour into a large plastic bowl (never use metal utensils or bowls when making yeast breads). Add the salt and make a well in the center of the flour. Drizzle the olive oil and the honey around the edges of the well.
When your yeast has "proofed" add to the well in the center of the flour. Gently start folding the flour in. When the dough gets too stiff to stir, transfer to a lightly floured kitchen counter and knead until smooth and elastic and all the flour is absorbed. You can sprinkle with extra flour whenever you need to, but be careful! More flour means a tough bread.
When you are done kneading the bread, drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a clean bowl. Place the dough in and turn the dough over so the oiled side is up. Cover with a cloth and put in a warm, draft free place for about 1 hour, or until doubled.
Punch down dough and knead again for five minutes. Divide into thirds and transfer to three lightly greased loaf pans, spreading the dough to the corners. Cover and let rise again until doubled. Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the loaves for about 20 minutes. Then turn the oven off and leave in the oven for an additional fifteen minutes. Take out of the oven and immediately wrap each pan in a towl and place in a plastic bag for 1 hour. This helps the bread stay soft. Enjoy! :)

I hope this helps! You can email me if you need more recipes. :)

Answer 2

I find that rice and lentil soup is the way to go. Simmer handfuls of rice and red lentils in water with onion, carrots, celery, and spices. You get all your vitamins and minerals, proteins and carbs in a very inexpensive, healthy meal. The combination of legumes and rice has sustained financially challenged people all over the world.

There was a time when my grocery budget was $30/month. I was able to live off of this. And I bought the spices in Bulk so that I was only paying for what I immediately needed. If I needed 1 Bay leaf, that's what I purchased...and it ended up being free because it didn't register on the scale.

I am sending you light and prayers

Answer 3

My best advice for you is to start paying attention to sales at the grocery stores and stock up on non-perishable goods like pinto beans (fantastic with leftover ham), rice, pasta, flour and sugar. Stocking up on frozen veggies when they're on sale is also a good idea. Watch for good deals on perishable items each week.

One week you could buy a large ham on sale and serve that with some vegetables the first night. You could cut up some of the ham and bake it into a quiche for the next night. The following night you could have leftover ham again. Use whatever ham's left on the bone to make pinto beans and ham. Here's the recipe: Rinse two bags of pinto beans in a strainer and then put them in a large pot and fill the pot with water. Cover the pot with a towel or plastic wrap and leave out on the counter. The next morning change the water out and again cover and allow to rest. When you're ready to start cooking the beans put the ham in the pot with the beans add some salt and pepper and cook on low heat for at least a couple of hours. You could make your own cornbread to go with it and have a true country dinner. This is one of our family favorites.

Instead of buying cookies for your family make cook and serve pudding or a batch of brownies (buy mixes at 99 cents a box). Eggs are also a low cost source of protein and very versatile - omelets, quiche, scrambled eggs etc.

Use leftover meat to make soups and stews to have later. You can freeze the leftovers and use them on the weekend to make soup. It's pretty inexpensive, good for you and will stretch the meat just a little further. Rachael Ray and Giada de Laurentiis have some great meal ideas on the food network (recipes are free online) and you can often find creative recipes in the coupon section of the newspaper as well as on the labels and boxes of foods you buy. A membership to Costco or Sam's club will help with a lot of the costs - laundry detergent, dish detergent, meat, canned goods and many other things are considerably less expensive there and you can buy in bulk. I spend $70 on a beef tenderloin but can get 10 or more meals out of it for my husband and me which makes it about $7 per meal for a real treat. I hope that you're able to use this time to expand your culinary horizons and enjoy your food. Good luck to you.

Answer 4

Here's one I know is pretty cheap: Simple Slow Cooker Stroganoff: 2-3 lb. cut of beef from the chuck (shoulder) super cheap or 2-3 lb. stew beef, 1 can tomato soup, 1 can of mushroom soup, 1 pkg dried onion soup, 8oz packaged mushroom or canned, 8 oz sour cream.

Place all of the ingredients (except sour cream) in the slow cooker (DO NOT ADD WATER FOR THE SOUP) on low for 8 hours (4 hours on high). stir in sour cream right before serving. Serve with noodles or rice. Super cheap, super simple and feeds a TON.

Answer 5

Ask some farmers to show you how to grow veggies and fruits, then you can use your money to BUY meats and other things that are harder to come by. You may also want to make sure you know how to cook as well. Growing vegatables is not that hard, and neither is fruits, just gotta know when to grow them. Use the internet and find solutions to your food dillema, tons of sites out there would surely have information you'd need.

Answer 6

i have been dealing with the tight budget a lot, just for a family of 6. first of all of course is watch for sales in the grocery store, like the buy one get one free, specially in meat department, also using coupons can save u money as well as the store card some stores like gerbes have. buying the store brand instead of others can be cheaper as well. easy food ideas can be like soups along with a grilled cheese sandwich, hotdogs, spaghetti, some stores have cheaper pizzas, like gerbes in our city have 5 for $5, u can get zatarans red beans and rice mix and get like a smoked sausage ring and cut it into it,omletts r cheap to make, bean burritos arn't too expensive, mac and cheese, if kids will eat it u can add a can of tuna to it,.................. there is a lot of things, careful shopping and saving is key though........gl

Answer 7

Chili, Lasagna, macaroni and cheese, gorditas, hamburgers and hot dogs, casseroles, chiche! Tons of inexpensive meals! Use your imagination and apply a little creativity to your cooking skills- It's how great chefs are made!!!!!!!!!

Answer 8

Stock up on pasta, macaroni and rice and make sure your pantry is well-stocked. A well-stocked pantry can be a real boon to you when you're looking for things to eat.

Buy whole chickens when they are on sale and freeze them. Don't buy cut up chickens, they cost more.

Leave snacks and cheese for a later time. They are expensive and go quickly.