Happy new year! New Years is all about resolutions!right, LOL.
The third on the basics of groceries on the cheap is cooking from scratch. We all know that cooking from scratch is more healthy because we aren't eating a whole lot of preservatives and things that we can't pronounce.
Cooking from scratch does not have to mean that you are spending hours on the kitchen. We all have busy lives. If it is you hobby and you enjoy cooking all day, go for it. If not, there are alternatives that still allow you to eat better for less.
One of the biggest time and money savers is batch cooking. There are people that freezer cook. For some reason, that doesn't appeal to me. Probably because it takes two days out of your life-- a luxury that most people with kids on the house don't have and I don't have the stamina at my age to stand on my feet for all day. Batch cooking takes a single item of protein and cooks enough for that particular items worth of meals for a month.
For instance, I usually cook two chickens when they are at a buck or below a pound. I bag them in dark meat, breast, and soup bones enough for a meal. Dinner time is a whole lot less hextic, the mess happens once, and then weeknight dinners are easy. Shopping os easier because you are looking for a particular cut of meat that is on sale cheap. Remember if your family won't eat it, it's not a bargain.
There are many recipes out there for skillet and slow cooker meals. Soup from scratch is a good, inexpensive dinner with a roll or bread. No need for the expensive boxed dinners. My daughter and I dissected a hamburger meal box. It was really an interesting eye opener. ( see older post). Since then, the company has redone their boxes. I got one for free, but haven't dissected that one yet.
Juice boxes and most fruit cups that are ready made are really expensive and full of refined sugar. We feed our children way too much refined sugar and salt. It is hidden on a lot of foods.
You are much better off making your own fruit cup, or better yet, just having the raw fruit.
Convenience foods start with the letter $$$$.
There are a few dinners that I can put on the table on about fifteen minutes. Tacos is one of them. I have to admit that there are times when I enlist help to do it sooner. Tomato soup and cheese and a baguette is another fast meal. I used to have roast beef in freezer bags for roast beef a jus sandwiches and a green salad-- before the price of beef took a big hike. I am afraid that once people have learned to either suck it up and pay the high price, or do without that "they" will decode we can continue to pay the high price. Fortunately, we have learned to eat hamburger when I can get it cheap, or a roast when I can find it under three bucks and chicken and pork along with a couple of vegetarian meals to fill in. If we have a meal that seems short on meat or other protein, I serve a desert or salad that beefs up the protein. Creme brûlée , pudding, cottage cheese salad, deviled eggs and a veggie tray starter.
Breakfast for dinner is a good save for a low cost dinner. Kids love it. Chocolate waffles are just waffles with some raw cocoa in the batter. The kids think they are having desert for dinner. I usually serve it with yogurt laced with granola and fruit. The nutrition is there, but they think they are getting desert for dinner! I don't do it often, but it's a real hit!!! ( like maybe twice a year). Yogurt is sometimes really cheap with a coupon, I have got it as cheap as .12 a carton for Tillamook.
There are coupons out there for real food. I am not finding them so prevalent the last couple of weeks, hoping the new year brings better ones. The new months are out, download them soon, when the high procedure ones are gone, they are gone. There is a limit on them. The manufacturer allows just so many to be printed. To be polite, don't print one that you aren't going to use. It's goes along with the polite rule not to clear the shelves. Leave some for someone else.
I digress. Off the track...cheap scratch food
BBQ chicken made with homemade BBQ sauce and the dark meat you cooked. Spread the pieces and heat on the oven finishing off under the broiler for a few seconds.
Chicken pot pie
Chicken and noodles noodles are easy to make of you have the time.
Chicken cassaroles are plentiful on the Internet.
Buffalo chicken pizza ( pizza crust is on a real early post)
Tacos
Tacos
Meatloaf
Meatballs can be made a zillion ways, meat ball subs, meat balls with rice, noodles, mashed potatoes, spaghetti sauce....
Taco and rice skillet
No Brainer pasta ( earlier post)
Pork chops
Pork loin roast
Sausage breakfast for dinner
Quiche
Sausage and bean soup
Ham and split pea soup
Ham quiche
Ham amd pineapple pizza
Ham and scalloped potatoes
Bean and rice burritos
Bean vegetable soup
Cheese pizza
Scrambled eggs and hash browns and fruit
Waffles
There are many more, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head!
Thanks for stopping by
Please feel free to share and comment on what your favorite cheap dish is.
Jane
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