Little money , no problem,

I have been watching people’s hauls on food stamps.  There are the good, the bad and the ugly represented there.   I started this blog to help people stretch their food dollar so that they could eat reasonably  good for  for low cost.  Google has made it impossible to share.  To say that I’m bummed is an understatement.  There is not much sense in me spending hours a day to write a blog and research if no one is able to find it.  People don’t stop and look for sites, they want a reminder or a link.   Unless I can go viral on Facebook, I don’t think I will be wasting my time.

One maybe last time.   How to s t r e t c h food to feed a family when there is no money left.

• Make chicken noodle soup.  Chicken thighs were .78 a pound.   A pound of chicken thighs, a couple of carrots, a rob of celery and some chicken steelmakers soup.  Cook chicken, remove the meat from the bones . Place the bones in a bag or plastic container.  Wash veggies, peel the carrots and save the peelings in your “bag” .  Save the ends of the celery on the bag as well.   Cook the chopped vegetables in chicken stock.  When they are tender, add the cooked chicken that has been cut up or shredded.  Add noodles and cook until tender. Cheezy biscuits are a good pairing. Noodles can be found at the Dollar  tree. Or, you can make them yourself. 
• Take the bones and vegetables you have saved from this cook or more and place on a s,ow cooker with water up to within an inch of the top.  Add 2 T Italian seasoning and set the skow cooker to low.   You can do this before you go to bed and wake up on the morning to chicken  stock ready to strain.  Freeze or use soon.   
• Potato soup. Peel and cut 2 lbs potatoes into cubes.   Peel 2 large or 3 small carrots and slice.   Wash and cut  up a rib of celery.   Cook in insta pot with chicken stock.   When vegetables are tender. Add a half cup of milk that has been thickened with 2 Tbls of cornstarch.  Stir  until soup has  thickened . Garnish with anything you have. Bacon, cheese,chives, sour cream.  Turkey bacon is at the dollar tree. 
• Chili.  Hamburger (1/4 pound already cooked and de fatted  , 2 cups beans, dried. 2:cans diced tomatoes, 3 cups beef stock.  Cook 35 minutes in the insta pot, or cook on the stove . 
• Leftover chili can do double duty by making nachos,  cheese, nacho chips, chili, peppers, diced tomato or fresh tomato.  Leftover block olives. Tortilla chips are cheapest at Costco.  
• Flour tortillas are at the dollar store.   Mix real cheese with beans a a 1/4 pound of hamburger and fill tortillas and place in a baking pan that has been spread with enchilada sauce.  Homemade enchilada sauce is really easy and cheap to make.  I hear it is also at the dollar tree and  you can use 1/2 a can.  I have not tried it , or looked at its country of origin.  Put more enchilada sauce on the rolled enchiladas and cover with cheese.  You can also add a .69 can of mild  green chilies from Winco drained.  Place the n a medium oven and heat through until the cheese is melted.  
• Flour tortillas can also make breakfast burritos.  Add smashed beans, cooked sausage, and scrambled eggs, cheese  and fold.  Eggs continue to be cheap if you shop around.  Winco has them for 1.28, others were two dollars.  Sausage can be cheap of you use coupons and shop around.  The price discrepancy  between stores for the same brand and size of chub can be between 2.48 and six dollars.  
• Spaghetti in the insta pot. Or not, is another cheap meal. 1/2 a package is adequate for four servings.  Barilla is a dollar  at the dollar store. And, you can find it cheaper on sale.  Pasta sauce is cheaper to buy ham make scratch.  A can is .88 at winco.  Jars can still be found for a dollar on sale and the jar cost .80 to buy.  I wouldn’t use it to can, but for dried food or storage on the fridge, it works.   Add meat and or parm cheese.   8 minutes in the insta pot.  You need 2 cups of stock or water in the insta pot.  
• Pizza crust  costs .19.  You can get pizza sauce at the dollar tree for a dollar.  Freeze the sauce in an ice cube tray and pop out onto a freezer bag.   Use 2 cubes for a pizza.  Or take a couple of tablespoons out of the pasta sauce in a pinch.  Add cheese and any vegetable or meat you have around.  A cheese pizza can cost a dollar made from scratch 

• 7 meals, piggy backing ingredients. Low cost.