Homemaking - Recipes
Money Saving Meals
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Short on cash to buy groceries? Overspent your food budget with days to go? Here are some inexpensive ideas to help you feed your family! The ideas and recipes below were contributed by our HomeschoolChristian.com recipe board participants. Please see our Frugal Living section for additional money-saving ideas.
Chicken in Red Gravy
Posted By: Lynn
chicken, cut into pieces (enough to feed family)
salt and pepper, to taste
spaghetti sauce (which ever you prefer)
a nice sized onion, halved and sliced
Season chicken. Brown slightly, leaving chicken in the pot, add onions then cover for 20 mins on med. heat. Next, add the sauce and cook until the chicken falls off the bone (or is tender if you use boneless). I've served this with mashed potatoes or spaghetti (although our favorite is the potatoes), peas, green salad, and rolls.
Macaroni and Tomatoes
1/2 lb macaroni
1 46 oz can tomato juice
1/2 lb cooked ground beef, sausage, turkey or venison
Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper.
May add onion and/or garlic if desired.
Bring tomato juice + 1 c. water to boil in stock pot, at boiling add other ingredients and cook until macaroni is done. Let stand until as thick as you like. May be served with shredded or grated cheese. A can of diced tomatoes can be substituted for the meat if you want to go really cheap (omit 1 c. water).
Roast in the Crock Pot
I can usually get 4 suppers and several lunches from one 1 - 1 1/2 lb. roast. We have two adults and two small children.
Day 1: cook roast w/ potatoes, carrots, and onions and required water. Serve 1/3 roast for supper w/veggies. Reserve broth and leftovers in the fridge.
Day 2: remove fat from top of broth, divide into thirds. Divide remaining roast into thirds. Slice roast very thinly. Take 1/3 roast, 1/3 broth and remaining vegetables, place back in crockpot. To this add 1 can peas w/liquid or 1/2 package frozen peas with required water and more potatoes, onion, and carrots as necessary. This will cook down to make stew. Add water throughout the day if broth gets too thick. If broth is too thin, combine 2 Tbsp cornstarch with 1/2 c water and add in the final 1-2 hours. Serve with butter bread for supper. This should also strech to provide at least one-two lunches.
Day 3: Take remaining broth and roast, combine with 2 packages frozen mixed vegetables (or equivalent canned vegetables, reduce water by 1 c.)and 3 c water, 1 large can diced tomatoes, 1 c. barley, and whatever spices you like for vegetable beef soup in crock pot. Again, add water if too thick, cornstarch if too thin. When finished, divide soup in half. Each half should be enough for one supper and a couple lunches.
Both the soup and stew freeze well, so you could concievably have beef one night a week for a month this way.
Breakfast for Dinner
Breakfast for dinner!!! I buy 5 dozen eggs for about $4 and make an omelettes, scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs with them. I have a recipe for "Casualty" here somewhere too--that's their favorite. Bacon, hash browns (I grate potatoes from scratch), onion, and bacon or sausage with the eggs, all cooked together (after you brown the potatoes).
My Fave Chicken Soup Recipe
Posted By: Pam McL
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup peas (frozen or canned)
1 cup corn (frozen or canned)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup cooked macaroni (twists, shells or elbows)
1 bay leaf
pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons minced parsley (optional)
Bring the broth to a boil in a 4-quart saucepan. Add carrots, celery and bay leaf. Cover and simmer 8 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add peas, corn and chicken; cover and simmer about 4 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender. Stir in macaroni, pepper and parsley; heat through. Makes 2 quarts (8 cups) for 4 servings.
NOTE: I have to double this recipe, so I usually just toss in a can of peas and a can of corn (drained) instead of 2 cups of the frozen kind. I've also put in 3/4 cup barley with the carrots and celery. You could probably think of more things you want to toss in to stretch it.
Quick Pasta Salad
Posted By: Judy in FL
Boil a couple of different shapes of pasta; Add to that some lightly sauteed veggies (peppers, zucchini, carrots, celery - whatever you have!) If I have it, I add diced salami and cheese (provolone or mozzarella) but you can leave this out to save money; Then mix it all with your favorite salad dressing (we like italian) and some parmesan cheese if you want. You can eat this warm or cold.
Chicken/Stuffing Bake
Posted By: Jean in Maine
Outstanding for leftover chicken or turkey.
casserole dish
enough stuffing to cover the bottom of dish(at least 1" thick)
broccoli,or green beans(makes for good color and texture holds the best), enough to cover the stuffing (lightly,but not a thick layer)
any left over chicken/turkey, layer this as thin or thick as you want or have meat.
1-2 sm cans cream of soup(depending on size of pan)
Top with shredded chedder cheese(we've tried others and find the sharpness of the chedder work/taste the best)
Bake in oven until the chedder is brown and bubbly. Bake @ 350 degrees. A 8x8 pan serves a family of 4(2 s,2 sm kids) fine with some for lunch the next day.
Vegetarian Eating
Posted By: Liz
To save money, don't eat meat at all. In college I did not eat meat more than 2x month. You can think of eggs and milk as meat, nutritionally they are. Eat lots of rice and beans. Buy the hard cheeses to save money because you need less to ge tthe same flavor. For example sprinkle parmesan on your pasta. Pasta dishes are dirt cheap. Youc an make cream sauces for variety. Split pea soup is cheap. Lasagna doesn't need meat at all.
Try to find an old copy of the Frugal Gourmet, he has lots of cheap tasty recipes.
I practically lived on potatoes. Potato soups are cheap and fun to make. You can puree them to make them look fancy and expensive. I use up whatever vegetables I need to get rid of. Just either do red/yellow veggies or green, otherwise youg et pureed brown and that is ugly. Beet/potato soup is really pretty. If you eat it with a heart bread and lots of butter for the little ones it is a filling meal. To really save, make your own bread.
Make everything from scratch.
Simple Ideas
Chicken...baked, fried, BBQ, with dumplings, soup, salad.
Soup and salad
Soup and sandwiches
Omelettes
Red beans and rice
Jambalaya
Gumbo
Ground Beef Stroganoff with egg noodles
Spaghetti Pie
Salsbury Steak with potatoes
Tacos or encilladas with spanish or yellow rice
Black beans and rice with tortillas
Bean soup is good also.
Pasta, add fresh vegetables with seasoning.
Lasagna rolls with vegetables.
Spaghetti
Dried soups in the Kosher section. Add fresh vegetables.
For dessert, lemon squares are very economical.
Split pea soup
Chicken noodle from scratch, starting with about 3 chicken thighs boiling in water with boullion added, a carrot, onion, spices and then noodles. I make homemade Cuban Bread, which is basically 5-6 cups of flour, salt, little bit of sugar, yeast, water and oil. My kids LOVE this dinner. It usually makes enough to cover lunch the next day too (2 adults, 3 kids).
Sloppy Joes. I sometimes find hamburger buns cheap, and along with 2 cans of chili, it makes a cheap dinner. I usually do some sort of fruit with it.
