Some doomsday people are warning about a recession or worse in our government climate, I don’t want to buy into their negativity, but some of that mindset is,not a bad idea.
It never hurts to be mindful of not wasting food, Some people estimate that forty percent of the food we buy goes to waste. That is one reason why I don’t gmfor organic fresh veggies; the other one is the cost. On a four dollar a day budget, it just isn’t practical .
It just makes sense to incorporate bits of things into your meals. Soup is a way of doing that, as well as portion control.
Recently we found a chicken pot pie recipe for two. We made it a couple of nights ago. It is hard when you have cooked for many to cut your recipes down to a manageable size for two people.
Bit that left half a can of cream soup. Last night we had potato soup in the instant pot. I found a good recipe that takes three minutes. Now, it does take a lot of chopping, but it is really good and economical. I just added the rest of them to the soup after it was done and in the stage where you add milk and thicken the soup. We topped it with some crumbled bacon and chives.
I saved the vegetable peelings and ends for stock in the freezer.
Making your own bread crumbs is another way to save. Instead of buying them at Howard’s if two dollars a pound, you make them and use up the heels of your bread. Easy and quick.
We have chicken left from the chicken pot pie. I cooked one breast on the insta pot from frozen. We can make chicken salad sandwiches for lunch.
Think out of the box. Buying frozen veggies instead of canned ones means of you have a smaller family, you can cook just what you need. My buy price for veggies is a dollar a pound or less.
This is getting harder to find.m
When buying fruits and veggies, we try to stay as close to a dollar a pound as possible. Winco seems to help. I almost always try to keep blueberries and tomatoes in the house for their nutritional value.
Corn, mixed vegetables, peas, and green beans are all good choices.
Cooking your own dried beans is about 90 percent cheaper than buying canned. We used to buy canned because it was too time consuming to cook a couple of cups of beans on the stove. Que the insta pot. Wash and pick beans, pit beans on the insta pot, cover with water, cover and seal pot, push the bean button. Done.
Adding some beans to meat mixture for tacos or burritos is a tool some people use to stretch the ground beef. There are some healthcare professionals that want you to limit your beef consumption to 18 ounces a week. That’s not hard with the cost of beef. You really only need four ounce portions and less for tacos because you are adding cheese to the protein mix.
Chili and burrito bowls are good choices to stretch your dollar.
Rice and beans make a complete protein. Rice and beans have a short refrigerator life. Making small batches of you have a small family makes sense. Beans don’t freeze well. They change their texture. Some people are not bothered by that, but our freezers are full of vegetables and meat and we don’t fill them with beans or ready made freezer meals. We might if we had bigger freezer. There are times when having a freezer meal would be beneficial; but with small space, I don’t want to take up room with something that is shelf stable and not necessary to be frozen.
Sour cream can be thinned down and used in a recipe that calls for cream many times— Especially when it is to be added to a casserole. Or, you can make a dip for vegetables. Or garnish enchiladas. Make salad dressing. Ranch dressing mix is easy to make and a lot cheaper than buying it. Winco has a bulk spice section that allows you to buy just what you need cheaper. If you already have spice jars, refilling them saves the landfill and money too.
There are some good cookbooks on line that allow you to search an ingredient you want to use up and It will supply you with recipes to cook.
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