Budget Family Meals

Author Archive

We try to save money on our food bills but with a family, that is a trick in itself. Fresh fruits and veggies seem to cost more and spoil sooner. If you and your family love to eat fresh fruits, one way to be sure they won’t spoil is to dry them.

Dried fruits can serve as a healthy alternative to candy. Instead of reaching for chocolate or a piece of hard candy, the kids will reach for a dried pineapple or apple slices. The sweetness of the fruit is concentrated when it is dried and bursts forth with every bite.

Learning to dry fruit is a fairly easy process. You don’t need to buy any fancy equipment. Dehydrators are very inexpensive and will save you money in the long run. For instance, this dehydrator is under $35 and you will get so much use out of it that it will pay for itself very quickly.

Slice the fruit into small pieces. Apples need to be cored and peeled before slicing. Tomatoes can be cut into slices or quarters and salted before drying. Grapes and plums are okay as is because the skin doesn’t affect their taste.

If you prefer to use the microwave to dry your fruit, place small batches in the microwave on the turntable tray. Fruit pieces should be evenly spaced to allow for air circulation while drying. Set the microwave to the defrost setting in order to dry the fruit. It will take about thirty to forty-five minutes. Check after thirty minutes and gradually add time as needed. It is not recommended that tomatoes be dried via the microwave because they should be dried at approximately 120 degrees for about twenty-four hours.

You can eat some of these tasty treats as soon as they are dried or you can save some for later. If storing for later, let the fruit cool before placing in sealing jars or plastic bags. Dried fruits will keep for up to two weeks in a cool dark place. However, these fruit treats are so scrumptious they may not even last for that long.

Dried fruit has a multitude of uses.  It can be eaten as is or as a flavorful addition to ice cream, salads, pizzas, and more. Drying your fruits will save you money because it makes the fruit last longer than normal, avoid spoilage and gives you a reason to eat more of it.

Red Hot Chili Dogs

6 hot dogs
6 hot dog buns
3 tbsp cayenne hot sauce
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 can (15 oz) chili
1 can French fried onions, toasted *see note

Preheat grill and grill hot dogs and buns over medium coals until hot dogs are browned and buns are toasted, about five minutes. You can also broil the hot dogs in oven broiler and toast the buns.
Combine cayenne hot sauce, cumin, chili powder, and can of chili in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring often.
Serve hot dogs in buns, spooning hot chili over hot dogs and topping with French Fried Onions.
Serves 6.
*note: toast French fried onions by heating in a skillet over medium-high heat until they start to brown.

Taco Salad is one of my favorite meals so to continue this week’s theme, let’s learn how to make a good taco salad to take to work or school.  It’s really very easy.  This video is sure to put some good ideas into your head!

 

Nacho Chili Cheese Wrap

1 can of chili, without beans
4 flour tortillas
2 cups Nacho Cheese chips
1/4 cup diced sweet onions
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat chili over medium heat in small saucepan until warm.
Meanwhile, wrap tortillas loosely in paper towels, then warm in the microwave for about 15 seconds to make them soft and pliable.
To assemble wraps; divide evenly between the 4 tortillas the nacho cheese chips, the onions, and the Cheddar cheese.  Wrap loosely and serve immediately.
Serves 4.

Individual Taco Pizzas

1/2 lb ground beef
2 tbsp water
3 tbsp taco seasoning
8 flour tortillas (6 inch size)

pizza toppings:
1 cup refried beans
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
2/3 cup enchilada sauce
1/4 cup diced tomato
1 cup shredded Cheddar-Monterrey Jack cheese blend

Mix beef, water, and taco seasoning together in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook together, stirring often, until beef is browned and cooked thoroughly; set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Brown tortillas simply in a skillet sprayed with cooking spray over medium heat.  Put tortilla in hot skillet for about 30 seconds until brown specks appear on the bottom, flip and fry for 30 more seconds.  Remove to a plate and repeat for each tortilla. If the tortillas bubble up, just poke the bubble with a knife so it lays flat again.
Form each “pizza” by putting tortillas on baking sheets, then evenly distributing ingredients in the order listed on each pizza.
Place in oven just until cheese melts and lightly browns.
Makes 8 individual size pizzas.  Serves 4 to 8.

It’s Mexican night at your house and the typical routine involves making a stop at the fast food place on your way home from work. With a car full of burritos, tacos, and more, how could you go wrong?  Well, maybe the over five thousand calories you have sitting in your passenger seat should scare you a bit. But, you can enjoy all these tasty treats in a much healthier way with a little planning in advance and some creativity.

Re-Think Re-fried

If it is fried once, it is probably not very healthy. If it has been fried again, as in re-fried, well, let’s just say it goes downhill from there. Refried beans are usually a staple of Mexican dishes, but you can make your meal a little healthier. Change up the nutrition and flavors a bit by using different kinds of beans rather than the re-fried variety.

Black beans make a great substitute, whole or mashed, and will give your Mexican dishes wonderful texture and flavor without being fried even once.  If black beans are not quite your cup of tea, you can always use pinto, cannellini, butter, great Northern, kidney, or navy beans. Try them whole or mashed.  Either way the idea is you don’t need to fry your beans for great flavor. Explore a wide variety of beans and find a combination that your family loves.

Mix Up the Protein

Ground or shredded beef isn’t the only choice to have on your tacos and burritos. You can always try turkey or chicken for a lighter healthier dish. Experiment with a variety of meat. This is the perfect time to try some more unusual meats like venison, bison, or ostrich. Not only do these meats offer different flavors, but they are also naturally lower in fat content which makes them a healthier alternative to beef.

And don’t forget, you have a whole array of seafood and other non-meat proteins to choose from. Create fish or shrimp tacos using red cabbage, cilantro, and lime. Tofu is another option for a burst of protein without the added fat of meat. A different twist on the same Mexican dishes keeps the whole family guessing and interested. Choosing healthier proteins to avoid the fat and calories is an opportunity to get creative.

Choose Ingredients from Around the World

As with the fish and red cabbage tacos above, adding different ingredients into your menu is an easy way to create interesting, healthier dinners. Tweak the usual Mexican fare with ingredients borrowed from other regions. Sail to the Caribbean with jerk seasoned chicken with pineapple and mango salsa filled tacos or tortillas.  Avoid the heavy re-fried beans and beef and replace them with fruit, vegetables, and seafood or poultry and create a whole new world of burritos, tacos, and enchiladas.

It only takes a bit of fresh thinking and planning to create a fun meal for the whole family that is special and healthier.  Gather around the table and enjoy some great conversations and special moments as well as a healthy meal.  Rather than driving off to buy up a taco stand, and serving the same old unhealthy variety of food, make your own creations right at home and enjoy not only a healthier meal but a unique dining experience.

Chicken is routinely eaten at evening mealtime in American households. We each have our favorite ways of preparing it. When cooking a whole chicken, you can do wonders with what you don’t eat for dinner. Here are some ways to make that roasted chicken appealing to the family.

Learn to slice a whole chicken. Slicing one properly makes it easier to remove the rest of the meat from the bone. The skeleton can be used to create broth. Boil it in some water until the rest of the meat falls off.

You can season the broth with herbs and spices. After it cools, pour it into jars for storage. You’ll be able to keep the broth for a few weeks. Use it to flavor soups and casseroles.

Do your kids carry their lunches to school? Instead of buying lunch meat, slice leftover chicken breast for sandwiches. It will be a nice change from the usual lunch fare.

On the weekends, instead of ordering a pizza or going to McDonald’s, use that chicken. Cube a few pieces to toss on top of a salad with some cheese and croutons. Combine with peppers and onions in a skillet to make filling for fajitas or soft tacos.

Does your family like chicken pot pie? Add some of that chicken, along with vegetables (canned or frozen) and a can of creamed soup to a pie crust and you’ve got an instant dinner that takes less than an hour to prepare. It is a quick meal idea perfect for busy families. A salad on the side will make a complete and healthy dinner.

Chicken based casseroles can be made and frozen for future meals. The family may be all “chickened out” for the week, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of the chicken you have left for future weeks.

Do you still have more chicken? Well let’s keep going with more ideas. Hey, our mothers and grandmothers learned to use chicken in many ways and so can we. What tastes the best when you have a cold and are feeling under the weather? Why, chicken noodle soup of course.

Don’t settle for canned soup with small noodles. Make your own soup with juicy chicken pieces and wide egg noodles. That broth you jarred up will serve as a nice base and best of all it is already seasoned.

Add wide egg noodles and sliced vegetables like carrots, celery, and onions to your soup. When the noodles are tender, add the chicken. Since it is already cooked it just needs to warn up. Ladle up a bowl for the sick and the healthy as a light weekend lunch.

What are you doing with your chicken after dinner tonight? Try some of these ideas to make that chicken do double and triple duty to save on your family’s grocery bill. The best part is that the new meals are just as tasty as the original dish.

meal when they don’t get home until 6pm or later? Better yet, who feels like cooking a meal after a hard day’s work?  So, what’s a girl to do in order to avoid frozen dinners or worse yet, fast food?  Use your weekends off to prepare all your meals for the upcoming week.

We’ve all been there at least once and if you’re like me, more times than we wish to admit.  We go to the grocery store and spend a ton of money so that there will be food in the house. We then make a promise to cook each and every night since the food is already there and ready to be consumed.

But, guess what happens? I come home from work late and I am tired. Everyone else is tired from work and school and no one wants to cook. It falls on me to cook so I suggest that we order take-out food. We spend twenty or thirty dollars on food for one meal when we have a freezer full of food. Have you been there, too?  Not a very good choice when we’re trying hard to save money, right?

One way I’ve found to stop this endless cycle is to pick one day on the weekend and have a cooking party. Yes, you read that right – a cooking party. I make a menu for the week and thaw out the food on Friday. Then, on Saturday morning I get to work. The kids can help me if they choose and when they do, they get a say in what we will be eating.

For your weekend cooking party, decide on the menu early. This ensures that everything needed is present and accounted for. Start with the meats. They will take the longest to cook so get that going and try to have a variety so you’re not bored with the same meats all week long.

Side dishes should be prepared, too. It seems like such a small thing to cook the main part of the meal and save the rest for later. What usually happens is no one feels like cooking anything. Avoid the drama by cooking everything at the same time.

Cooking that much food for later requires containers to hold it all. There are two ways this can be done. One way is to use containers that are large enough for each side dish and the main meat courses. Each day, take a meat and two sides out of the fridge and heat it up for dinner.

The second way gives the family a little more of a choice each day of what they want to eat. When the food cools (everything needs to cool before placing it in containers), have each person scoop what they want to eat into a serving container. Have one meat and two sides per container. In the absence of the family you can do it yourself. Label each with what is inside. During the week, everyone can pick from a variety of dinner combinations.

Each works, but it is up to you to decide which is better for your family. Cooking on the weekend saves time and money because you’ll be less tempted to go out when you’re tired from working all day.  Not to mention, for once you’re sure to use the leftovers!

If your food makes more meals than you could eat in a week, freeze several of them for another time. Simply thaw each meal the day you plan to serve it.  Yes, you will have to make an investment in dinner size containers, but it pays off the more you use them.  Once you see how much stress you relieve and healthier your family is eating it will be well worth the initial cost.

Ever wonder how our ancestors always seemed to have food on the table even in lean times? When we are visiting the grocery store every week to the tune of hundreds of dollars, we long to know their secret. In fact it isn’t a secret at all. It is actually good planning and preparation on their part.  Once we realize this and begin doing as they did, we too will see our dollar stretch further.

The items that we have on hand are what determine how far our food will go. Filling your cabinets or pantry with a few useful staples can be the difference between a trip to the grocery store each and every week versus once or twice a month. Stocking just a few choice items is all you need to create wonderful meals.

Flour. Flour is a starter item for many recipes. You can add it to some water and make gravy in the pan for many meat dishes. Flour is used to make bread (biscuits, rolls, loaves) and to coat chicken. It can also be used to coat a round or square cake pan to prevent the cake from sticking. Of course, one of the favorite uses for flour is in cookie recipes that make scrumptious desserts.

Rice. My husband loves rice so much that we once bought a fifty pound bag from a grocery store in his hometown. Fifty pounds! Rice is a side dish, but it doesn’t have to be plain. It can be jazzed up with veggies to accompany dinner. My mother uses leftover rice for a dessert called sweet rice. Just add evaporated milk and some sugar to a bowl of rice and warm it in the microwave. It is a tasty treat for after dinner. Another popular dessert is rice pudding. Rice can also be mixed with leftover meat and a cream soup to form a casserole. Rice has many uses and your sure to find a few that your family will love.

Pasta. There are many different pasta choices and all have great uses. Manicotti can be stuffed with tomato sauce and cheeses. Macaroni can be used to make a creamy salad and also is great combined with cheese or spaghetti sauce. Spiral pasta is used in many different pasta salads.  Spaghetti can be used in a casserole topped with cheese or in the traditional way with tomato sauce and meat.

Spices. There are other ways to season food besides salt and pepper. In fact, many spices taste better than salt. Even diehard salt-a-holics won’t miss the salt in foods if other seasonings are used. Cayenne pepper, chili powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, oregano, and garlic powder are all useful tools in your flavor arsenal to give foods a fresh new taste.

Beans. There go those beans again. Beans can top your salad (edamame), make an awesome dip (black beans), and go well with grilled foods (baked beans). They provide a good source of protein with very little fat. Beans are good in soups, stews, and over rice for a simple yet filling meal.

Do you have these staples in your kitchen? You can probably think of several more that will enhance your pantry and save money. Start with these and grow your own list of basic kitchen staples that are versatile and economical.

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It is the first meal we eat when we get up in the morning. After a long night of sleep, we can’t do without it if we want to get our bodies going. No, I’m not talking about coffee. I’m referring to breakfast. Here are some ideas for breakfast that don’t require a drive-thru window.

Have a piece of casserole. It takes time to cook eggs and bacon for breakfast. No one wants to ruin their clothes with the mess it can create. On Sunday night, get breakfast done early. Put together a casserole using your favorite ingredients. Fewer eggs are needed in a casserole than when frying or scrambling them for breakfast each morning. Depending on the size of your family, the casserole may last two to three mornings.

Yogurt. Yogurt is a healthy and economical breakfast choice. When you are eating on the run, grab a container of yogurt and some dried or fresh fruit. Cutting up fruit on top of the yogurt adds carbohydrates to fuel you for the morning in addition to the calcium and protein in the yogurt itself.

Breakfast shake. This is even quicker and can be ingested while driving without taking your eyes off the road or both hands off the wheel. Put together some frozen fruit favorites, ice cubes, frozen yogurt, and unsweetened juice in a blender. Pour into Styrofoam cups to keep it cold. Everyone can grab a cup on the way out the door. The nutritional effect is about the same as yogurt, but without the spoon.

Pigs in a blanket. This is the homemade version. Whip up a batch of pancakes and freeze them in short stacks of three. A package or two of frozen link sausage is needed to create this quick and economical meal idea. Thaw out a stack of pancakes. Heat up three sausages in the microwave. Wrap a pancake around each sausage. Voila! You’ve got an instant pig in a blanket. Eat it as you watch the last of your favorite morning show or as you walk to the bus stop. It can be eaten in the car without too much fuss or mess. For a sweeter taste and less mess, add a little maple syrup or honey to the batter when making the pancakes.

Breakfast sandwiches. In the evening, while you are getting things ready for the next day, grill up a few breakfast sandwiches. Choose whatever you like: turkey slices, ham slices, cheese, tomato, bacon, etc. When the sandwich cools, cut it into bite size pieces and put it in a container. In the morning, just grab a container; pop it into the microwave for fifteen or twenty seconds and breakfast is served.

These breakfast ideas are time saving and money-saving too. They make use of items you buy normally and also whatever you have around the house to create delicious fare for a morning rush.  No more excuses for skipping breakfast or swinging into the fast food restaurant every morning.