I need help reigning in our grocery budget. I'm not great at menu planning on a regular basis but when I do it, we stay well within and sometimes under budget. I do get stuck in a recipe rut, though.
Can y'all give me some tips and recipe ideas? Anything I can make in big batches for leftovers is a plus.
Here are the pluses - We eat anything! No real picky eaters here. I love to cook and have time to do it. I also love my slow cooker. My family enjoys new foods. No dietary restrictions but shellfish weirds me out (don't ask. I'll happily eat it if someone else cooks it. I have just never cooked it.)
The minuses - I'm trying to limit carbs like white pasta, white rice, and potatoes. We have limited freezer space. We have a side-by-side fridge and the freezer is narrow. We don't have a chest freezer.
Along with the blogs from the ladies here (I'm looking at you, @majorwife, @mrswindycity, redheadbaker, et.al.) I love Annie's Eats. www.annies-eats.com/
"Not gonna lie; I kind of keep expecting you to post one day that you threw down on someone who clearly had no idea that today was NOT THEIR DAY." ~dontcallmeshirley
Portion control goes a long way to helping us control our budget. Or I guess just proper portions. When we use our food scale for chicken for example we eat a lot less of it. The chicken breasts are HUGE so weighing it helps is see how much we are actually eating. For the three of us, two chicken breasts can get us through two meals or more if we have veggies and rice with them (brown rice if you want)
Farmers markets are great for cheap fruits and veggies and then I freeze them for later in the year.
We drink mostly water which helps and we have a few cheap meals that we keep in our rotation - tuna casserole, stuff like that.
We use coupons but aren't obsessive over them.
I use beans a lot to flesh out a meal too
On farmer's market fruits and veggies, is there any special prep you need to do before you freeze them? Do you vacuum seal them or just use regular freezer Ziploc bags?
Do you make a big batch of beans from dry or do you used canned?
We eat a lot of soup in my house. At least once a week actually. I used to make it from leftover bones but I think the broth tastes so much better if you use raw bones. So I usually either buy either stuff like turkey necks or I set aside two chicken thighs or a breast with bone aside when I make other things.
To make the broth, you just simmer a bone of some sort with a bunch of water, a quartered onion and a couple cloves, root end, peel and all in water for at least an hour. You can do it on the weekend if you like. Sometimes I save veggie scraps throughout the week when I'm cooking to add to it to too. Mushroom stems, carrot ends, celery leaves, etc. I keep a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for this purpose.
If your family isn't a soup for dinner person, you could eat it for lunch throughout the week. If they don't consider it a full meal, then add salad or grilled sandwiches.
When pork is on sale, I buy a huge ass roast. It gets rubbed down with brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper, sprinkled with lime juice, and roasted with apple juice in the bottom of the pan. (Buy frozen juice. It's so much cheaper.) I make a big pot of black beans and another pot of rice. On day two, I shred up the pork and serve it as tacos or burritos with the beans and rice. On day three, it all turns into soup. If your roast is big enough, you could get a day of leftovers on that. Or you could use corn tortillas and some enchilada sauce and make an enchilada casserole.
Ground turkey is cheaper than ground beef, especially right now so you can make spaghetti with turkey instead. Homemade chili mac is really, really good and inexpensive to make.
On farmer's market fruits and veggies, is there any special prep you need to do before you freeze them? Do you vacuum seal them or just use regular freezer Ziploc bags?
Do you make a big batch of beans from dry or do you used canned?
I do both wrt to beans. It really depends on what I'm trying to do with them and what's on sale. You don't need much to make a great pot of beans. I used ham pieces, sometimes salt pork but I don't see salt pork around very much anymore. But the ham pieces are pretty cheap. You get a big wad of them for like $3.00 and it's enough for three batches of soup or beans.
When looking at beans, don't forget split peas for soup and lentils just for tastiness. I think I have a recipe on my pinterest page for carrot lentil soup which is OMG, so effin good if you're interested. Lentils are also a good salad base which I never would have guessed. I cook ours and then toss it with some chopped tomatoes, a little bit of oil, basil, and shredded cheese. I forgot that I often boil the lentils with a chopped carrot too.
Personally, I find deli meats cheaper than the packages. I also like it because I don't have to buy a pound if I don't want to.
I'm trying to think of what else but I seem to have gone blank.
Do you have a world market? They're really good for ruts because they have various seasoning packets and ingredients from different cultures. So if you have a hankering for chinese food, they can help hit the spot without costing you as much as eating out.
Recipes that involve braises, all in one pot type meals, etc are usually less expensive to make because you use less meat but have more flavor so I personally feel more satisfied with them.
I'm sorry my posts are so frequent and hella long but I looooooove this topic.
If you're steak people, look for flat iron steak when it's on sale because, OMG, that's good shit. The same shit but with some needed prep work is blade steak. They are the same cut of meat. But for flat iron, someone was nice enough to trim it for you. With blade, you have to cut that thick piece of whatever the hell that is out yourself. If you do that, put it in a ziplock bag and freeze it for soup later.
I make steak tips and gravy with my blade steak, served with a mushroom and onion gravy. So the trimmed bits, the mushroom caps, the onion root ends all go into soup later. If I think that won't be enough meat, I'll cut off a quarter of the ground beef or turkey I bought for something else, cook that, and throw it into the broth after I've thrown out the boiled shit. Add barley and more mushrooms and you've got beef and barely soup.
We have pretty limited grocery budget, so we shop by sales, so we eat wha is on sale, I buy a few packages and portion them up and freeze them. I do the same with bell peppers. Or farmers markets do not have better prices than aldi r other frozen veggies, so watch the prices there.
Because we shop by sales, I'll look to see what's on sale that week and plan my meal around it. Or I'll stock up on something and do "pantry planning" one week.
Sales have really helped us in terms of the packaged food we eat. I try to limit it, but things like cereals do add up. When they are on sale, especially if I have coupons, I've been known to buy 10 boxes at a time (no, I'm not a extreme couponer and I never clear a shelf). We save a few hundred dollars a year just with that strategy.
Meat really is a killer,so we generally just eat pork and chicken.
If you happen to smoke chicken (or buy smoked chicken), use the carcass to make stock & then make the most AMAZING red beans of your life. I soak overnight in water, then drain, sautee onion/garlic/celery, dump in the plumped beans, and finally add the stock & cook until done. They are so smoky tasting that you think you've added copious amounts of bacon or something.
I did that this week & we've eaten them for 2 recipes (over 4 nights). One recipe was bean burritos: beans, rice, roasted butternut squash, lettuce, salsa, cheese & in a tortilla. The other recipe was "gumbo" (I say "gumbo" because my husband doesn't like okra & I served it over rice instead of rice inside). I did more garlic/onion/celery/thyme/smoked paprika & green pepper & sauteed them in bacon fat. Then added flour for the roux, then dumped in beans/sausage/regular chicken stock. My one son didn't even bitch about peppers being in it!
I've signed up for Fresh 20 for new recipes plus more attention to veggies. It provides a shopping list with cost estimate, the recipes are good but easy to modify/substitute a bit if needed, and for the two of us with a picky 4yr old the portions are pretty generous with lunches for the next day (not the fish nights though, we just use 1/2 the ingredients).
Post by redheadbaker on Oct 19, 2014 10:11:19 GMT -5
I'm part of a group of food bloggers that posts recipes on Sundays, and today's theme is Budget Cooking. I made Shrimp Fried Rice, and there are links to at least 30 other recipes in the post.
I like this, lots of veggie dishes. I'm vegetarian and it seems like most of the cheap meal ideas involve stretching chicken. (For good reason, it's just not useful to me.)
If your budget allows, it can be a lot easier to stick to the meal plan if you have one pre-prepared backup meal for that one day everything goes out of control and you don't have time or can't stand the thought of making dinner. Most weeks I can make about 4 scratch meals, then there's a leftover night or two and a night or so of fuckthisshitgrabsomethingoutofthefreezer. If I buy 7 nights of entirely scratch meals I get burnt out and quit halfway through.
Easy, cheap meals for us:
Roasted root veggies with lentils and a sprinkle of feta
Beans, polenta, salsa and a fried egg
Wilted greens, wild rice and a fried egg or tofu
DIY pizza - I make the dough, everyone over 5 feet tall scavenges the fridge for toppings. It's good for the end of the week to use stuff up. Teens come up with bizarre combinations though (peas, green beans and tofu?)
I can get three or four meals out of a roast chicken. Roasted chicken one night, then leftover meat can be used for other things - white bean chicken chili, tacos/enchiladas, pot pie, chicken noodle soup, fried rice or stir fry noodles, chicken salad sandwiches.
When pork is on sale, I buy a huge ass roast. It gets rubbed down with brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper, sprinkled with lime juice, and roasted with apple juice in the bottom of the pan. (Buy frozen juice. It's so much cheaper.) I make a big pot of black beans and another pot of rice. On day two, I shred up the pork and serve it as tacos or burritos with the beans and rice. On day three, it all turns into soup. If your roast is big enough, you could get a day of leftovers on that. Or you could use corn tortillas and some enchilada sauce and make an enchilada casserole.
William Sonoma makes a series of cookbooks called "30 min weekday meals," and in each book they have an awesome "make more to store," section. HBC's above post about the roast with all the different types of leftover recipes is included in one of the books.
They have a flank steak mmts, chicken mmts and tons of other recipes. This can definitely cut down on costs.
Another suggestion is Cooking Light magazine. They have tons of recipes. They have really good "meatless Monday" recipes, and a section that is all about cooking entire meals for four for under $15.
Veggie pizza is a favorite cheap meal in my house. I use Annie's Eats recipe which makes enough crust to get two large pizzas so we eat one fresh and I freeze the second for later. I always keep a jar of sauce in the fridge for pizza emergencies since they're so cheap. I hit up the salad bar to get my toppings so I only have to pay for the exact amount of onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and olives I want or I just raid my crisper bin for whatever is looking a little sad as to not waste it.
When pork is on sale, I buy a huge ass roast. It gets rubbed down with brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper, sprinkled with lime juice, and roasted with apple juice in the bottom of the pan. (Buy frozen juice. It's so much cheaper.) I make a big pot of black beans and another pot of rice. On day two, I shred up the pork and serve it as tacos or burritos with the beans and rice. On day three, it all turns into soup. If your roast is big enough, you could get a day of leftovers on that. Or you could use corn tortillas and some enchilada sauce and make an enchilada casserole.
William Sonoma makes a series of cookbooks called "30 min weekday meals," and in each book they have an awesome "make more to store," section. HBC's above post about the roast with all the different types of leftover recipes is included in one of the books.
They have a flank steak mmts, chicken mmts and tons of other recipes. This can definitely cut down on costs.
Another suggestion is Cooking Light magazine. They have tons of recipes. They have really good "meatless Monday" recipes, and a section that is all about cooking entire meals for four for under $15.
It's funny you should quote this today. We're having pork roast for dinner tonight.
I was going to add that we have been incorporating a lot of lentils into our menus to help stretch ground meats. I just made up a recipe with a great mix of spices (curry, cayenne, cumin and chili powder), red lentils, ground turkey and brown rice. It will feed us for a week of lunchesm I think.
Post by dorothyinAus on Oct 19, 2014 19:57:38 GMT -5
DH is vegetarian, and I cook 3 true vegetarian meals a week, and the other meals are usually things that I can easily add meat to -- burgers, schnitzels, tacos, etc.
Truly though, the 3 vegetarian meals a week have made a HUGE difference in my budget. Also, take time and frustration into consideration. I have yet to successfully roast a whole chicken despite many attempts using many methods. It's easier for me to buy an $11 rotisserie chicken than it is for me to buy a whole raw chicken at $9 and roast it. The energy costs and frustration are worth it for the pre-done chicken. Half a standard rotisserie chicken yields about 2 cups of cooke chicken, so I can use one chicken for 2 recipes. It's worth it for me.
The other thing I can suggest is to get creative with leftovers, and cook some meals with the intention of having leftovers -- I make meatloaf for dinner one night (admittedly not a vegetarian meal), with the intention of dough patty melts later in the week with leftovers. This week I have spaghetti & meat sauce planned, with the intention of using the leftover sauce for spaghetti turnovers later in the week. Sometimes I do stews so that I'll have the filling for a pot-pie all ready and waiting a crust.
Let me second the portion control idea. If the recipe says it makes 4 servings, divide it that way and put the leftovers away immediately. Usually I have leftovers as lunches, so immediately after I serve plates, I portion the leftovers into single-serving some containers for lunches. I have gotten my budget for the 2 of us down to $75/week; and I almost never have to buy lunch stuff. (I live in notoriously expensive Australia, so I am pleased with this total.)
Thin pork chops are usually very cheap at my supermarket, so I buy them often. A simple recipe is to dip them in egg, then coat with a mix of Panko bread crumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and garlic powder, then fry them up - finish in the oven if necessary. I serve them with a vegetable and potatoes or polenta.
I sometimes get $5 worth of peeled and deveined shrimp at the seafood counter (just me and MH, so $5 typically buys me 10-12 pieces). I sautée garlic in some butter, add the shrimp, deglaze with white wine, maybe add a little chicken stock, squeeze in some lemon, salt and pepper to taste, and dump it all over spaghetti. Serve with green salad and bread - a head of loose romaine or red leaf lettuce is a lot cheaper than bagged or clamshell-packed lettuce.
Ditto about flank steak - it takes a marinade very well.
I probably have no business here because my grocery bill is redonk, but I have a few ideas that sound good in theory.
Carl got the idea (not really a recipe) from a coworker for red bean soup. We turned it into a crockpot soup - two pounds of beans, water, an onion. Then chop up a bunch of Pico for topping + cheese (we used cotija, which wasn't budget, but mozzarella would probably suffice).
Tonight we took some of the leftovers and made refried beans for burritos - just add bacon grease.
The meat was shredded Costco rotisserie chicken (they had it already shredded), which we'll use again this week for tacos and pita pizzas.
We do a lot of braised meat in the crock pot in the cooler months - serve over rice or mashers the first night, with gravy from the braising liquid. Then stretch for tacos, pita pizzas, nachos, etc.
Our bill is probably high because we buy expensive meat, but we rarely buy more than 2 things/week.