Do you have an Aldi in your area? If so, do you go there? If not, why?! We do not have an Aldi in our town, but we do have one to the east about an hour in Springfield, MO, one to the north about 45 minutes in Carthage, MO, one to the south about 1 hr and 15 min in Rogers, AR, and we used to have one about 45 minutes away in Joplin but the tornado took it down :( I pray they are rebuilding it? Well, I just checked on their website and it's completed!
I have to wait till I have business to attend to in one of those cities before I can go to Aldi, but I look forward to the times I get to go. Yesterday we went and got some good deals. Pineapples were 99 cents each (big, juicy pineapples!) so we got 21 of them. Sweet potatoes were on sale for .25 a pound a few weeks ago, but now they are .33 a pound (which is still a great price). When we got them last time, I 'wished' I had gotten more because these things are YUMMY! and good for you too. I got 42 pounds this time. Sunkist oranges were 4lbs for $1.50. I only got 24lbs of them because we still have several pounds left from our bulk food order. They wont last long though. Bananas are going for .44/lb right now, which is pathetic if you compare it to a few years ago, but really good if you compare it to right now (.59/lb where we are). During the summer Aldis had cherries for .59 or .69 a pound, I forget which. Either way, it was a great deal. I bought a lot of them. A lot. Blueberries too ... .99 for 12oz. Grapes have been going for less than .80/lb but they just stopped that deal recently. We like grapes. A lot.
We like fruit. We like Aldis. Aldis is a good way to support our fruit habit.
Of course they have other veggies too besides sweet potatoes. Broccoli was less than a dollar a pound yesterday, but during the summer they had that and cauliflower for less than fifty cents a pound. I stocked up; chopped them and froze them all. I don't care much for frozen broccoli or cauliflower, but I really appreciated the price, so I'll just deal with the frozen part. Carrots usually go for .50 a pound, but I've seen them for .25 a pound.
Here is a link to the Aldi store locator. Check it out!!!
And in case you are wondering "wow, what do they do with all that fruit?!" the answer is, we eat it! We eat what we can raw, but then as it starts to get too ripe we freeze it and have it in smoothies.
And sweet potatoes ... I wash them, throw them whole (skins on) into the crock pot and set the heat to high. I let them bake about 3 hours, maybe four depending on the size, and then eat. YUM! The children like to put homemade applesauce (unsweetened) and cinnamon on top. I just like mine plain, but the other stuff tastes good on it too.
p.s. don't forget to bring your own bags and a quarter for the cart deposit!
Showing posts with label Frugal meal tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frugal meal tips. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Hot summer days
Blah. It's hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Praise the Lord. We have had a lot of chances to practice patience, long suffering, endurance, etc.
I cannot remember a time when we've done more laundry. Clothes are soaked through with sweat every day and stink. I am thankful for a washing machine and a laundry line right outside in the back yard. We used to have to walk past the church and across the street :)
The garden is suffering. The crops are suffering. Everything is dying. But, praise the Lord!
By mid-afternoon I am so wiped out that the last thing I want to do is prepare and cook supper. I may only have 3 (nearly adult) children, but I also feed several grown men. It's a blessing :) The last several days I have been preparing supper in the MORNING or at the very latest, preparing it along with lunch. I get everything ready that can be ready and then store it in the fridge. I take it out and cook it whenever it needs to be cooked in order to be done by supper time. It has been a great help to have this done and off my mind long before I start to get too tired to function normal.
Chicken and rice (cp - crockpot), quiche with veggies (cp), lasagna, enchiladas (cp), sweet potato stew stuff (cp), and so on ... all have been ready and waiting for us whenever it's time to eat. What a blessing!
I cannot remember a time when we've done more laundry. Clothes are soaked through with sweat every day and stink. I am thankful for a washing machine and a laundry line right outside in the back yard. We used to have to walk past the church and across the street :)
The garden is suffering. The crops are suffering. Everything is dying. But, praise the Lord!
By mid-afternoon I am so wiped out that the last thing I want to do is prepare and cook supper. I may only have 3 (nearly adult) children, but I also feed several grown men. It's a blessing :) The last several days I have been preparing supper in the MORNING or at the very latest, preparing it along with lunch. I get everything ready that can be ready and then store it in the fridge. I take it out and cook it whenever it needs to be cooked in order to be done by supper time. It has been a great help to have this done and off my mind long before I start to get too tired to function normal.
Chicken and rice (cp - crockpot), quiche with veggies (cp), lasagna, enchiladas (cp), sweet potato stew stuff (cp), and so on ... all have been ready and waiting for us whenever it's time to eat. What a blessing!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Breakfast Ideas
It's been a while but I'm still here ... just have not had time to post on this thing!! I'm getting together a garden post soon (lots of green stuff :) spinach, kale, beets, lettuce, etc.) but here is a quick post on breakfast ideas.
I always have a green smoothie for breakfast, but my children have fruit and something else. The 'something else' is what varies from day to day. Most commonly it includes leftovers. Sometimes it's Beans and rice. Beans and cornbread. Beans and tortillas. All favorites. Pancakes ... we sometimes have those but not like the typical american I don't suppose? Peanut butter, fruit, applesauce, pear or pumpkin butter, etc. No syrup or butter. I am sure to make enough to send along with lunch for pancake sandwiches or to have as snacks later on. Something else we like very much is cornbread or cake with fresh milk over it. This morning I made a pear cake (just a basic cake recipe with 2/3 less sugar, a little stevia added, pear juice instead of milk and chopped canned pears) and the children ate that with raw milk that a friend gave us :) YUM!
Breakfast cereal is so expensive and so not good for you!! Well ... a few are actually good for you, but still expensive when compared to leftovers, rice, oatmeal, etc. And too, they are usually loaded with sugar and leave you feeling hungry soon after. Take care of yourself!! Eat healthy.
I always have a green smoothie for breakfast, but my children have fruit and something else. The 'something else' is what varies from day to day. Most commonly it includes leftovers. Sometimes it's Beans and rice. Beans and cornbread. Beans and tortillas. All favorites. Pancakes ... we sometimes have those but not like the typical american I don't suppose? Peanut butter, fruit, applesauce, pear or pumpkin butter, etc. No syrup or butter. I am sure to make enough to send along with lunch for pancake sandwiches or to have as snacks later on. Something else we like very much is cornbread or cake with fresh milk over it. This morning I made a pear cake (just a basic cake recipe with 2/3 less sugar, a little stevia added, pear juice instead of milk and chopped canned pears) and the children ate that with raw milk that a friend gave us :) YUM!
Breakfast cereal is so expensive and so not good for you!! Well ... a few are actually good for you, but still expensive when compared to leftovers, rice, oatmeal, etc. And too, they are usually loaded with sugar and leave you feeling hungry soon after. Take care of yourself!! Eat healthy.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
A few frugal tips
This elderly man we visit gave us some VERY OLD crackers. They were a few years past the "best by" date, but there were no obvious bugs in them. Yes, they were VERY stale, but otherwise they were all right. We lined them up on the dehydrator trays and dehydrated them for a few hours ... nearly as good as new! They still had a slight 'stale aftertaste', however they were very crisp again.
Another thing I discovered recently ... the other day I was making buttered noodles as part of our dinner. I had just finished off the last of the pretzels (there were only a few of them!) and the empty sack was sitting on the counter. Buttered noodles need salt, and there was the empty pretzel bag right in front of me with all that 'rock' salt at the bottom of the bag ... about to be thrown out!! I added some of that salt, and then saved the rest in a small jar; there was about 2T in all. Now whenever we are done with pretzels, we will save the salt and use it for soups or whatever.
:)
Another thing I discovered recently ... the other day I was making buttered noodles as part of our dinner. I had just finished off the last of the pretzels (there were only a few of them!) and the empty sack was sitting on the counter. Buttered noodles need salt, and there was the empty pretzel bag right in front of me with all that 'rock' salt at the bottom of the bag ... about to be thrown out!! I added some of that salt, and then saved the rest in a small jar; there was about 2T in all. Now whenever we are done with pretzels, we will save the salt and use it for soups or whatever.
:)
Friday, January 7, 2011
Money saving meal tip ...
I assume your town puts out local grocery store ads each week? Look in the sale ads and write down what's on sale that you would normally buy. Now look in your cupboards, pantry, freezer, fridge, etc. and see what's on hand. Plan your meals based on what's on sale and what's on hand. Go shopping. If it's an especially great deal, stock up.
Most people know this already, but it still surprises me how often people break this simple money saving tip. They have a craving for a specific thing, so they buy it and do not care about the jacked up price because "it's only one thing, what does it matter?" Well, a lot of 'one things' add up quick, and so does the money you waste!!
I have certain high-end prices in my mind for various items that I normally buy that I will NOT go over. For instance, I know that I can get grapes on sale for 99 cents a pound, however right now they are about $1.99 - $2.99 a pound. Guess what? I have not eaten grapes in about two months because I will not spend more than .99 a pound for them. I have all sorts of prices in my head, and having this information is handy because I know right away when I see a really good deal. Using grapes again as an example, one time at Aldi they were on sale for .75 a pound. I bought 30 pounds or so. We ate what we could fresh and then froze them before they went bad. The frozen ones work well in smoothies.
Carrots go for .50 a pound at Aldi ... I will go without carrots until I can make it to Aldis because Wal Mart is the next cheapest and they sell it for about .75 a pound. No thanks. When I do make it to Aldi, I stock up on carrots and try to get as many as I'll need to last me till the next time I go.
Well, this could turn in to a long post, so I'll just stop now and assume you know what I'm talking about. Please do not waste your money!!
Most people know this already, but it still surprises me how often people break this simple money saving tip. They have a craving for a specific thing, so they buy it and do not care about the jacked up price because "it's only one thing, what does it matter?" Well, a lot of 'one things' add up quick, and so does the money you waste!!
I have certain high-end prices in my mind for various items that I normally buy that I will NOT go over. For instance, I know that I can get grapes on sale for 99 cents a pound, however right now they are about $1.99 - $2.99 a pound. Guess what? I have not eaten grapes in about two months because I will not spend more than .99 a pound for them. I have all sorts of prices in my head, and having this information is handy because I know right away when I see a really good deal. Using grapes again as an example, one time at Aldi they were on sale for .75 a pound. I bought 30 pounds or so. We ate what we could fresh and then froze them before they went bad. The frozen ones work well in smoothies.
Carrots go for .50 a pound at Aldi ... I will go without carrots until I can make it to Aldis because Wal Mart is the next cheapest and they sell it for about .75 a pound. No thanks. When I do make it to Aldi, I stock up on carrots and try to get as many as I'll need to last me till the next time I go.
Well, this could turn in to a long post, so I'll just stop now and assume you know what I'm talking about. Please do not waste your money!!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Moths, larva and other critters
I wont put pictures of roaches here ... we know what they look like. So, what do you do if/when you find critters in your grains? I recently had a poll going with several choices. I see now that I should have been a little more specific with some of the more open ended questions, but it is still obvious what more than half of the people who answered would do if they found critters in their grains - "Yuck, that's totally disgusting - I throw it out of course!" With some it would depend on what kind, how many and whether the bugs were dead or alive. And then there were some that would sift out the critters and use the flour/grain anyway. I was encouraged by the amount of responses in this category ... I am glad to know more of you would do that than what I thought ... about 20% of you, or, 1 out of 5.What would I do? I sift them out and use the flour or grain ... the kind of bug does not matter, nor does the amount or whether it's/they're dead or alive. There are some at my fellowship that do not appreciate this in the same way I do, so out of respect for them, I will use 'good flour' (usually fresh ground in my vitamix) when I'm making bread for the fellowship meal.
Why do I ask?
A Sister in the Lord shared a story with me one evening when we were going through her scrapbook from their time in Ghana. I pray I get the story right ... basically she said that nearly every time they used their flour, they had to first sift the bugs/worms out of it. One time there was so many of them and they were so small they slipped right through the sifter she used ... and there on the counter was a pile of really wiggly flour. She said that was just too much for her seeing that flour move all around like that. So she had her helper girl dump the flour behind their house/hut in the trees. Not too long after that, she saw some little girls scooping the flour up off the dirt; she knew they were bringing it home and giving it to their mother. All that time they had spent there living just like these people ... they had good testimonies and all ... and then this. She regrets not using that flour - if they could do it, why couldn't she?
I was so blessed to hear this testimony and it has really helped me to care what is in my food - just pick it out and use it. We are so spoiled here in the U.S.
I think it would be really interested to do a comparison of food here in the U.S. verses food somewhere else. Compare all sorts of things like what's eaten, how much, how often, variety, etc. If anyone knows of a good place to look for this information, please share.
In the mean time, I want to challenge everyone to use what you have, even if there are bugs in it. People all over the world do it every day; you can too. Cooking it should destroy most or all of the 'bad stuff'. I also want to challenge you all to eat more simple. Start off with adding more brown rice to your diet. If you already do that, then add more beans. If you already do that, then add something else cheap and healthy, or take out something unhealthy whether cheap or not (soda, candy, chips, white stuff, etc.).
I have so many ideas but not enough time.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Weekly meals and frugal tips
Jennifer at 'double nickel farm' had the great idea of sharing meals for the week. I thought I'd give it a try as well; feel free to share what your family does!
As we all know, or should know, family meal time can make or break a budget! We try to plan our meals a week at a time, based on what's on hand and what's on sale at the stores. First, I write a grocery list, next I clean the refrigerator, then go shopping ... and finally, I come home and write a meal plan for the week.
Something we are starting now is daily crock-pot meals. Don't get me wrong, we use the crock-pot often!!! However I am now using it every day for lunch. I found that lunch time was when I often slacked and didn't get things started when I should ... thus making the meal late and supper late as well. The crock-pot idea has solved our lunch dilemma! YAY! We are all liking it so far.
Here's our meal plan for the week; I write it all on one sheet with room for notes and a store list. I save the sheets for future meal ideas:
Breakfast is always a green smoothie, fruit &/or oatmeal. If for some reason we are out of smoothie ingredients, the children have oatmeal and I eat raw fruit (I just cannot eat cooked food in the morning!).
Lunch - I make notes on my meal chart to remind me of what I need to prep ahead of time. For example, my note for today (tuesday) said "cut up veg for wed" and "start beans in crock-pot before bed". This makes it to where I can simply get up in the morning, throw the stuff in the crock-pot, add liquid and turn it on :) How easy is that? Now lunch is always ready at noon. Since fresh veggies are abundant right now, I often will serve a cucumber salad or other raw item with the soup. Also, there's usually left over soup; I leave the crock-pot on warm and we'll have it as a snack later when we are hungry.
Monday - Minestrone soup
Tuesday - Veg & rice soup
Wednesday - Black bean soup
Thursday - Potato soup
Friday - Sun seed butter and jam sandwich with carrot sticks (thought we might want a change for that day!)
Saturday - Don't know yet!!
Sunday - Hamburger stew
Supper
Monday - Nachos with fresh salsa and corn
Tuesday - Fish, green beans and rice (we had plenty of left over veg & rice soup from lunch, so we used that instead)
Wednesday - we will be with our friends eating at their house; I am bringing a salad and fresh bread
Thursday - Beef, cabbage and rice
Friday - Veggies over rice biscuits, cuc salad
Saturday - Spaghetti & broccoli
Sunday - homemade veggie pizza (no cheese!), salad
You may have noticed we eat a few meals with beef this week ... once in a while I will buy a little bit of ground beef and cook it all at once. I then portion it out into baggies and freeze them; there is 1c of cooked ground beef per baggie. This 1c is just enough to flavor the meal and make it seem like there's a lot there, however it's not much at all. Also, we really do not like eating meat that much ... so this is a great way to save money too.
Sometimes I will buy a whole chicken, cook it, pick it apart, portion the meat into baggies (1c) and freeze. Then I take the left-overs, throw them in a stock pot with a few misc. veggies and seasons, bring to a boil, then simmer a few hours. Let it cool, strain out the chunks, and what's left is fatty chicken stock. I keep that in a bowl in the refrigerator over night. Pull it out in the morning, scoop off and throw away the fat that has settled at the top, pour into mason jars, and freeze.
In general, we hardly eat meat of any kind (don't like the smell of it, nor the taste in most cases, nor the way it makes us feel) ... we'll go for months at a time without preparing meat at home.
After we steam veggies, I dump the water into a 'community mason jar' in the refrigerator. This collects till full, then gets dumped into a crock-pot soup as a veggie stock.
Something I used to do but stopped ... and plan to do it again ...
When we get home from grocery shopping, I used to prepare a lot of the vegetables, rice, pasta, etc. in one day and then store in the refrigerator or freezer for later use. I would peel and chop vegetables and store in a container with water in the refrigerator. I would pre-cook all the meat for the month and freeze it. I would cook a lot of rice, beans, etc., portion them out and freeze. There were several other things I did, but you get the idea I'm sure! This makes meal prep time so much shorter the day of.
I try to cook extras so I can freeze at least one meal for later use. This does not work with everything, but a great majority of items freeze well. Recently I made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce - I ended up freezing about 10 quart jars full. I poured the sauce into the jars, then topped with the lid ONLY (no band!). Once it was frozen, I put the band on. This allows for expansion and no cracking.
We try to make crackers, pasta and tortilla shells, however it usually does not happen :( This is on my top priority list. Thursday I plan to make either pasta or tortilla shells ... I'll blog that. Also, I used to make batches of granola and healthy cookies for easy snacks. I plan to start that again as well.
All of this takes time but is fun and such a great way to spend time as a family. It's amazing to me how much time I waste - to my shame - when I could and should be doing more important things. This has been one of my biggest prayers (for myself) to the Lord ... that He would show me the way to get all the important stuff done and reveal to me the time wasters in my life ... we have recently gotten back on track and I give God all the praise for that. I continue to pray for strength and encouragement to keep it up. We are also trying to be more structured with our homeschooling ... I plan to post on my other blog about that soon.
Well, that's all the TIME I have for now :)
Matthew 6:33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
As we all know, or should know, family meal time can make or break a budget! We try to plan our meals a week at a time, based on what's on hand and what's on sale at the stores. First, I write a grocery list, next I clean the refrigerator, then go shopping ... and finally, I come home and write a meal plan for the week.
Something we are starting now is daily crock-pot meals. Don't get me wrong, we use the crock-pot often!!! However I am now using it every day for lunch. I found that lunch time was when I often slacked and didn't get things started when I should ... thus making the meal late and supper late as well. The crock-pot idea has solved our lunch dilemma! YAY! We are all liking it so far.
Here's our meal plan for the week; I write it all on one sheet with room for notes and a store list. I save the sheets for future meal ideas:
Breakfast is always a green smoothie, fruit &/or oatmeal. If for some reason we are out of smoothie ingredients, the children have oatmeal and I eat raw fruit (I just cannot eat cooked food in the morning!).
Lunch - I make notes on my meal chart to remind me of what I need to prep ahead of time. For example, my note for today (tuesday) said "cut up veg for wed" and "start beans in crock-pot before bed". This makes it to where I can simply get up in the morning, throw the stuff in the crock-pot, add liquid and turn it on :) How easy is that? Now lunch is always ready at noon. Since fresh veggies are abundant right now, I often will serve a cucumber salad or other raw item with the soup. Also, there's usually left over soup; I leave the crock-pot on warm and we'll have it as a snack later when we are hungry.
Monday - Minestrone soup
Tuesday - Veg & rice soup
Wednesday - Black bean soup
Thursday - Potato soup
Friday - Sun seed butter and jam sandwich with carrot sticks (thought we might want a change for that day!)
Saturday - Don't know yet!!
Sunday - Hamburger stew
Supper
Monday - Nachos with fresh salsa and corn
Tuesday - Fish, green beans and rice (we had plenty of left over veg & rice soup from lunch, so we used that instead)
Wednesday - we will be with our friends eating at their house; I am bringing a salad and fresh bread
Thursday - Beef, cabbage and rice
Friday - Veggies over rice biscuits, cuc salad
Saturday - Spaghetti & broccoli
Sunday - homemade veggie pizza (no cheese!), salad
You may have noticed we eat a few meals with beef this week ... once in a while I will buy a little bit of ground beef and cook it all at once. I then portion it out into baggies and freeze them; there is 1c of cooked ground beef per baggie. This 1c is just enough to flavor the meal and make it seem like there's a lot there, however it's not much at all. Also, we really do not like eating meat that much ... so this is a great way to save money too.
Sometimes I will buy a whole chicken, cook it, pick it apart, portion the meat into baggies (1c) and freeze. Then I take the left-overs, throw them in a stock pot with a few misc. veggies and seasons, bring to a boil, then simmer a few hours. Let it cool, strain out the chunks, and what's left is fatty chicken stock. I keep that in a bowl in the refrigerator over night. Pull it out in the morning, scoop off and throw away the fat that has settled at the top, pour into mason jars, and freeze.
In general, we hardly eat meat of any kind (don't like the smell of it, nor the taste in most cases, nor the way it makes us feel) ... we'll go for months at a time without preparing meat at home.
After we steam veggies, I dump the water into a 'community mason jar' in the refrigerator. This collects till full, then gets dumped into a crock-pot soup as a veggie stock.
Something I used to do but stopped ... and plan to do it again ...
When we get home from grocery shopping, I used to prepare a lot of the vegetables, rice, pasta, etc. in one day and then store in the refrigerator or freezer for later use. I would peel and chop vegetables and store in a container with water in the refrigerator. I would pre-cook all the meat for the month and freeze it. I would cook a lot of rice, beans, etc., portion them out and freeze. There were several other things I did, but you get the idea I'm sure! This makes meal prep time so much shorter the day of.
I try to cook extras so I can freeze at least one meal for later use. This does not work with everything, but a great majority of items freeze well. Recently I made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce - I ended up freezing about 10 quart jars full. I poured the sauce into the jars, then topped with the lid ONLY (no band!). Once it was frozen, I put the band on. This allows for expansion and no cracking.
We try to make crackers, pasta and tortilla shells, however it usually does not happen :( This is on my top priority list. Thursday I plan to make either pasta or tortilla shells ... I'll blog that. Also, I used to make batches of granola and healthy cookies for easy snacks. I plan to start that again as well.
All of this takes time but is fun and such a great way to spend time as a family. It's amazing to me how much time I waste - to my shame - when I could and should be doing more important things. This has been one of my biggest prayers (for myself) to the Lord ... that He would show me the way to get all the important stuff done and reveal to me the time wasters in my life ... we have recently gotten back on track and I give God all the praise for that. I continue to pray for strength and encouragement to keep it up. We are also trying to be more structured with our homeschooling ... I plan to post on my other blog about that soon.
Well, that's all the TIME I have for now :)
Matthew 6:33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Read it and weep
My usual wednesday morning routine includes going over the local grocery store sale ads, writing a list of what's on sale, and thinking about meals I can make with that list along with what's on hand.
One of the stores had a 5 day dinner plan in their ad with the title: "Budget Friendly Meals". That caught my attention right away! Then underneath the title it read: "Complete meal for a family of 4 for about $3 per serving." Yes, $3 PER SERVING was considered a 'budget meal'. That's $12 for a family of 4 for ONE MEAL. That's $360 for 30 meals (dinner each night for a month ... not including breakfast, lunch and snacks!). That's almost TWO TIMES the amount of my WHOLE FOOD BILL (3 meals a day plus snacks) FOR ONE MONTH! Yikes!
We spend about $45-$50 a week on food for the 4 of us. Here are a few frugal bean recipes; ok, a disclaimer first ... I usually do not follow recipes, even the ones I make up and write down. I just throw things together; whatever sounds good, is cheap, on hand, etc. I normally do not use measuring devices either ... my point ... if I have measurements here, it's only an estimate. Figure out what you like and write it down so you don't have to remember next time!
Pot Pie
*Combine cooked beans, pieces of cooked vegetables, slightly cooked & cubed potatoes, chopped onions (saute in water first), and whatever else you like.
*Make gravy of your choice ... I usually brown some flour in a pan, then add water till it seems like enough. Next come the spices, braggs, or whatever. Then more flour/water or both till it's just right. Sometimes I'll add mushrooms.
*Put into a baking pan. Top with biscuit mix (2c flour, 1T baking powder, 1/2t salt, seasons if you wish, cut in fat ... 1/4c-1/2c ... lightly stir in liquid ... 3/4c-1c water, milk, stock, whatever.)
*Variation ... of course you can pour your filling into a traditional pie crust and top it with another crust, or top it with biscuits, however I like to just do the biscuits to save time.
*Bake at 350 till done.
This is a great way to use up left over vegetables from previous meals.
Bean burgers
2 1/2c beans (kidney is our favorite for this recipe)
1/2c oats
2T braggs
Spices to taste (salt, pepper, garlic, onion, etc.)
Mash, form into ~6 burgers, fry till brown (grease the cooking surface)
Serve with normal burger toppings, baked 'french fries' and something green.
Rice Pilaf
Water saute - onion, garlic, vegetables (celery, green pepper, mushrooms, sprouts, etc.)
Add - 1-2T braggs or soy sauce, salt, pepper, and other seasons of your choice, 3-4c cooked brown rice (or other cooked grain), 2-3c cooked beans, 1/4-1/2c seeds or nuts, raisins, olives, etc.
Heat & eat! This is another great recipe for leftovers ... and you only need one pan :) YUM!
Black Bean soup
Saute carrots, onion and celery till tender (we use a lot of carrots & celery, not much onion)
Add garlic, 1 1/2t each dry basil & oregano, salt & pepper to taste, 4c or more of water, 3c or more black beans, 1-6oz can tomato paste, 2T braggs or soy sauce.
Simmer till done. Top with parsley before serving. Great with salad and fresh bread.
Variations ... adjust the amount of vegetables to your liking; can also add other veggies.
OK ... that's it for right now. Have a great day!
In Christ,
Joanne
One of the stores had a 5 day dinner plan in their ad with the title: "Budget Friendly Meals". That caught my attention right away! Then underneath the title it read: "Complete meal for a family of 4 for about $3 per serving." Yes, $3 PER SERVING was considered a 'budget meal'. That's $12 for a family of 4 for ONE MEAL. That's $360 for 30 meals (dinner each night for a month ... not including breakfast, lunch and snacks!). That's almost TWO TIMES the amount of my WHOLE FOOD BILL (3 meals a day plus snacks) FOR ONE MONTH! Yikes!
We spend about $45-$50 a week on food for the 4 of us. Here are a few frugal bean recipes; ok, a disclaimer first ... I usually do not follow recipes, even the ones I make up and write down. I just throw things together; whatever sounds good, is cheap, on hand, etc. I normally do not use measuring devices either ... my point ... if I have measurements here, it's only an estimate. Figure out what you like and write it down so you don't have to remember next time!
Pot Pie
*Combine cooked beans, pieces of cooked vegetables, slightly cooked & cubed potatoes, chopped onions (saute in water first), and whatever else you like.
*Make gravy of your choice ... I usually brown some flour in a pan, then add water till it seems like enough. Next come the spices, braggs, or whatever. Then more flour/water or both till it's just right. Sometimes I'll add mushrooms.
*Put into a baking pan. Top with biscuit mix (2c flour, 1T baking powder, 1/2t salt, seasons if you wish, cut in fat ... 1/4c-1/2c ... lightly stir in liquid ... 3/4c-1c water, milk, stock, whatever.)
*Variation ... of course you can pour your filling into a traditional pie crust and top it with another crust, or top it with biscuits, however I like to just do the biscuits to save time.
*Bake at 350 till done.
This is a great way to use up left over vegetables from previous meals.
Bean burgers
2 1/2c beans (kidney is our favorite for this recipe)
1/2c oats
2T braggs
Spices to taste (salt, pepper, garlic, onion, etc.)
Mash, form into ~6 burgers, fry till brown (grease the cooking surface)
Serve with normal burger toppings, baked 'french fries' and something green.
Rice Pilaf
Water saute - onion, garlic, vegetables (celery, green pepper, mushrooms, sprouts, etc.)
Add - 1-2T braggs or soy sauce, salt, pepper, and other seasons of your choice, 3-4c cooked brown rice (or other cooked grain), 2-3c cooked beans, 1/4-1/2c seeds or nuts, raisins, olives, etc.
Heat & eat! This is another great recipe for leftovers ... and you only need one pan :) YUM!
Black Bean soup
Saute carrots, onion and celery till tender (we use a lot of carrots & celery, not much onion)
Add garlic, 1 1/2t each dry basil & oregano, salt & pepper to taste, 4c or more of water, 3c or more black beans, 1-6oz can tomato paste, 2T braggs or soy sauce.
Simmer till done. Top with parsley before serving. Great with salad and fresh bread.
Variations ... adjust the amount of vegetables to your liking; can also add other veggies.
OK ... that's it for right now. Have a great day!
In Christ,
Joanne
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