Budget Family Meals

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

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

So you have some great ideas for your holiday leftovers. That is all well and good, but by the time you get to the leftover part, the leftovers you planned may not have worked out quite right. How are you going to make an amazing lunch the next day if you don’t have enough leftovers to work your magic? Let’s take a look at how to master leftover magic with just a few ingredients.

Start With the End in Mind

Leftovers are never a problem, except when you plan to use them for something else. All of a sudden, they become a hot commodity and there are never enough left to use in your next recipe. In order to combat this Murphy’s Law of cooking, you must start with the end in mind. When making all of your initial feast dishes, think about what you will need to have leftover for your next dish. Once you have those amounts in mind, then prepare to make what you will need as extra.

For instance, if you needed four cups of stuffing to make egg mountains the next morning for breakfast, prepare your initial recipe and add two or three cups more. This is a good estimate of what will actually be leftover for the next morning while still giving everyone plenty of food to eat the first night. Once you are sure you have enough food left over to use for your next meal, it is time to begin assembling your ingredients.

Plan the Beginning

With every good recipe, a plan is needed in order to make everything work out. Now that you know you have your main leftover ingredient, it is time to pick your other ingredients in order to complete your recipe.

If you’re planning on baking a ham, the leftover ham with pineapple, bell pepper, onion and tomatoes would be make great kabobs for the grill. Leftover turkey with cheese, mushrooms, eggs and cranberry sauce will make beautiful omelets. Once you are sure you have enough leftovers, it is easy to get creative and develop a new favorite recipe with only a few leftovers.

Enjoy the Middle

At this point, all of the hard work is done other than actually cooking the new dish. You have ensured the amount of leftovers you need and planned out the rest of your meal. As you fire up the stove, grill or oven, now comes the time to enjoy this process. Not only are you using up your leftovers, but you are also creating a new dish.

As you cook, you can further your leftover reduction plan by turning the leftovers you have into snacks during the day. Just make sure you leave enough of your primary ingredients to finish making the meal. Once you are done cooking, you have mastered the leftover meal challenge.

So, all you need to do in order to master leftover magic with just a few ingredients is to plan the end, the beginning, and enjoy the preparation. You won’t be stuck staring into a refrigerator jammed with leftovers, scratching your head. You won’t be so overwhelmed that you just keep reheating the same plates over and over. If you plan for your leftover dishes before you even start your holiday meal, and set the stage for your repeat performances, your leftovers will take direction and the show will come off without a hitch!

I know that most people realize that cold breakfast cereal isn’t the be all and end all of a good nutritious breakfast. At least I hope people realize that.

There is a new study out that reinforces that knowledge. According to the study, many cold breakfast cereals contain just as much or more sugar as a Twinkie or 3 chocolate chip cookies. Would a parent actually give their child Twinkies breakfast in the morning? Well, I hope not and I don’t think the would.

Children should not be eating sugar for breakfast. It isn’t the type of energy they need to start their day. The trick to finding a better cold breakfast cereal is to read the label. Take back your food. Don’t rely on marketing to tell you what is good for you. Choose cold breakfast cereals that have the least amount of sugar as possible and the most fiber as possible.

The top 10 worst offenders of all of this sugar in your breakfast cereal are:

Kellogg’s Honey Smacks
Post Golden Crisp
Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow
Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries
Cap’n Crunch Original
Quaker Oats Oh!s
Kellogg’s Smorz
Kellogg’s Apple Jacks
Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries
Kellogg’s Froot Loops Original

More information can be found by clicking here for the news story.

I don’t propose that people throw away all of their cold breakfast cereal. I do think it has a place for convenience sake and I even believe that the occasional junky breakfast is ok. However, I am a firm believer in education and making better food choices in general and arming people with the information they need in order to be able to do just that.

This week on BFM, we will be talking about the most important meal fo the day…breakfast. I know that mornings are hectic and it can be daunting to figure out what to feed the family each morning before school and before work. Fast food is expensive and school food, while an option for kids in many school districts, can also be expensive and not necessarily the most healthy of foods.

Between people getting dressed, kids fighting and finding lost backpacks, finding easy morning breakfast options is very important. I can’t help you with finding the backpack or the lost socks or the other shoe, but I can help with breakfast options! Let’s look at some ideas. Recipes will be added through the week.

1. Homemade trail mix can be mixed ahead of time and stored in individual containers or in a jar in the pantry. Be sure to include a mix of healthy nuts (for protein) and dried fruit.

2. Pre-packaged nut packets are also a quick solution when you are short on time on week day mornings.

3. Yogurt with healthy cereal. Before you grab those kid-friendly looking yogurts with the mix-ins or green dye, read the labels. You are better off mixing in a cereal like Grape Nuts for added crunch and nutrition.

4. Frozen grapes or cherries. Not everyone is a big eater in the mornings but some frozen fruit to nibble on during the ride is a great way to wake up their tummy.

5. A tortilla can be filled with shredded cheese, thinly sliced apples and microwaved for a few seconds until the cheese melts. It’s tasty, nutritious and fast.

6. If you are trying to wean yourself off of a fast food breakfast, try an English muffin with ham and American cheese. If you have time, microwave until the cheese melts. If you have even more time, fry an egg.

7. A great way to use up leftovers from last night’s dinner is to add a piece of leftover chicken to a dinner roll with some cheese. Heat and eat.

8. If your family is big on Saturday morning pancakes, make extra and stash them in the freezer. You can microwave them or eat them frozen (kid friendly). You can serve them with syrup or spread them peanut butter.

9. Smoothies are a great way to get a lot of nutrition in your body quickly, and they taste great. Try vanilla soy milk, a banana, a handful of strawberries and ½ cup of uncooked oatmeal. Give it a spin and grab a straw.

10. Another version is the chocolate smoothie. What kid wouldn’t want a chocolate shake for breakfast? Mix chocolate almond milk, a banana and 2 tablespoons of natural peanut or almond butter.

11. Oatmeal with all the fixings is a great, quick breakfast. Prep all the add-ins, nuts, raisins, brown sugar, and have them handy at all times. This breakfast works best for kids that are driven to school. It’s a little tricky to walk to the bus stop while eating out of a bowl. Not impossible, but tricky.

12. Homemade granola and milk is another great to go breakfast for the car ride.

13. Better yet, turn that homemade granola into homemade granola bars.

14. Leftover mostacholi is a healthier alternative to cold pizza and quite popular with kids. Plus, there is nothing easier than cold, leftover noodles to serve for a breakfast on the go.

15. Bake banana bread or zucchini bread on Sunday to make your Monday mornings go a little smoother and tastier.

Whichever tips you take, have everything prepped in a drawer or section of the fridge for easy access. Better yet, make sure everyone can get their own breakfast by putting everything in easy reach.

Be thinking about ideas of your own as you prepare to collect these recipes to make your mornings healthy and easy. I’d love to hear your ideas this week! Together, we can make mornings much more efficient.

I realize we are all on a budget. I realize that schools are on a budget but really, this thing about the tomato paste being ruled a vegetable on a slice of pizza is down right ridiculous and how it has passed muster is beyond me.

My career is in food and nutrition so I know what constitutes a serving of vegetables.

Here is the article:

Pizza is a vegetable

An excerpt:

The new USDA standards proposed that it would take at least a half-cup of tomato paste to be considered as a vegetable, which no normal slice of pizza includes. The food industry is seeking to block those proposed changes and keep the current practice, so that a single slice of pizza can meet all the requirements for lunch: grain, meat alternate, and vegetable. Fresh tomatoes, OK, but 2tablespoons of tomato paste to count as one of the required vegetable servings for federally-subsidized lunch requirements to be met? Really?

Now, let me tell ya that if the pizza they serve at school is a fresh vegetable pizza, this would be a non issue. However, when was the last time you saw a veggie pizza at school? I’ll tell you when. Never. LOL I worked at the school district, there is no such thing as vegetable pizza at school. It’s frozen pizza from the Tony’s brand. At least in Iowa in the public school system it is.

As somebody who is passionate about food and nutrition, I find this unacceptable. Not only should school lunches, which are subsidized by tax dollars, be held to a higher standard, we have to realize that for many many MANY children, the meals received from school are the only meals they get and this is how seriously we take this responsibility? It’s no wonder that this country is battling diabetes, heart disease, childhood obesity, etc.

This is something that people should be concerned about. In future posts, I will be doing book reviews on some of my favorite food books. I truly feel that part of being on a budget means getting the most out of your food budget, not just filling your tummy with junk.

There are other things in this article that bother me too but this….this was just over the the top.

Yes, is that time of the year where you will have to figure out what to do with all of those leftovers.  There are some fantastic cookbooks you can use to help you.

Leftover Turkey – Make Some Magic (Kindle Edition)
~ Chefs Secret Vault ~

The Holiday season often means a great pile of leftovers to enjoy. However, if you don’t want to be eating turkey sandwiches every day for a month, you’ll want to find more exciting recipes. You’ll find some of the best leftover turkey recipes like Heart Healthy Turkey Loaf, Rib Sticking Baked Ziti with Ground Turkey Meatballs, and Eye-Popping Jumbo Shells Stuffed With Turkey.

The Kindle edition makes it very handy to order.  Even if you don’t have a Kindle, there is a free download for Kindle for PC.  It’s very cool.  Try it today!

The Turkey Trots Once More
~ Johnny Pinto and Sandy Pinto ~

With 200 holiday leftover creations to choose from, you are bound to find a few new favorites. Think beyond the turkey sandwich. This one of a kind cookbook covers as they say “gourmet soups, peppy pasta, sassy salads, ample appetizers, epic entrees, enticing ethnic, and captivating casseroles.” Judging from these titles, we’ll all find something to love: Aunt Wyannie’s Great Northwest Turkey Bake, Cranberry Turkey Wreath, Spicy Orange Turkey Stir Fry, and Turkey Paprikash.

Meanwhile, there are some great videos on the big ole www that will also help you along. I’m a fan of the Food Network and saw this video that I thought people would enjoy.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it is lunch that gets you through until dinner time. The price of school lunches is high for what you get and the prices rise each year.  Many parents are finding it hard to keep up with this.  The food is not as nutritious as it could be on top of that.  This doesn’t only go for school but for other cafeterias as well.  Fortunately, there are some good ideas on how to combat the high price of lunches bought at school or at work.  Here are some money saving ideas:

Take your lunch. This might seem like a simple idea but most folks don’t want to take the time to actually do this day and and day out.  It’s time consuming to make lunch for 3-4 people (or more) every morning.  This goes for parents as well as kids. We are tempted to eat out every day because it feels faster and easier.  However, the price of doing this day and and day out adds up quickly.  There are some very attractive insulated lunch bags on the market today that can help keep your food cold and they are easy to carry.  Because of this, we can even save money by not having to buy the paper bags all the time.  This makes using insulated bags much more earth friendly.  This will make our friends at Open Space Productions very happy to know!

When you pack your own lunch, you know what is in it so it is easier to avoid a lot of unhealthy fats and junk food. It is amazing what is in our food that people just don’t know about. I will touch on this further in future posts.

Make a sandwich. This is a staple of packed lunches and it seems simple enough, doesn’t it? I’m not talking about just the plain old sandwich we are all used to though. Make it with a wrap, pita, crust less bread, or bun sandwich. Use wheat for added nutrition. Varying the bread each day will help with food fatigue. Slices of bread every day is sure to wear down even the most frugal among us so a variety of breads by alternating with the wraps and pita are good choices. You may want turkey with alfalfa sprouts, tomato, and onion on a pita or chicken strips with barbecue sauce, lettuce, and shredded cheese in a tortilla wrap. Many kids like bread without crust for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This makes lunch fun and your kids are more likely to eat it if they have a creative variety. Single packs of condiments might be an invest to consider. Having them helps with making sure your bread doesn’t get soggy.

Water and single serve drink mixes. Water has never been the same since they came out with those handy packs of flavorings. You can find them everywhere. Best of all they have five calories or less. You can turn a bottle of water into a drink that is better than soda. Kids love them too. You can get a really great reusable water bottle as well and save money on buying cases of bottled water.

Dessert should never come out of a vending machine. You can bring a piece of cake from home and it would be a better choice than a candy bar. Better yet, fruit is a good choice and packed with nutrition. I’m not saying that you can’t ever be naughty but you can always find a healthier option than the junk food we are used reaching for. Homemade cookies are a good choice. Take some for a snack in the afternoon.

Ice packs. While an insulated lunch bag is better at keeping food cold than a traditional paper lunch bag, a small ice pack should be used as well. This is just added food safety measures that should be utilized. It doesn’t do any good to be frugal and pack a healthy lunch in the morning if it’s going to make you sick by lunch time. This also lets you take even more healthy choices for lunch such as a low fat yogurt.

Veggie sticks. Eat them with your sandwich and add some Ranch dressing for dipping. These add bulk to your lunch that will not add additional calories if you use a fat free dressing. Don’t let that scare you, fat free Ranch dressing is actually pretty tasty.

Lunch doesn’t have to come from the school cafeteria or the fast food joint around the corner to fill your tummy. Coming from home, it can be healthier, taste better and cost less.  Now that’s a combination you can’t beat.

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What do you do when a meal is finished?  Most of us wash the dishes and wrap up the leftovers, but what happens to the leftover portions not eaten?  Do they get consumed later or do they sit in the refrigerator until they start to smell and you finally throw them out?  If you tend to do the latter, how about saving some time and money by learning how to use those leftovers in new ways to surprise your family at dinner time.

Some people like leftovers and some do not. Still then, many will eat them one day out, but quickly get tired of eating the same thing over and over.  Here’s a way to fix the problem if you or someone in your family is the same way. Let’s start with an example.

You prepare a roasted pork loin and rice for dinner one night.  The family wants something else for dinner the following night so the pork loin gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator.  Normally, that’s where it will stay until you clean out the fridge, right?  Not anymore.  Let’s do something to keep that pork loin from going to waste.

Eating leftovers the way they were originally served, is probably what’s turning family members off from wanting it again the next night.  Your family doesn’t have to eat the pork loin as is.  So, chop that pork loin up into bite size pieces.

Now you’re probably thinking, ok that’s great, but what do I do with it now?  In a large skillet or wok, stir fry the leftover rice with a bag of frozen veggies, an egg, and some of the chopped pork loin to make pork fried rice. Add a little soy sauce and you’ve got a whole new dinner for your hungry family.

This is just one way that leftovers can be turned into a new dish with a new flavor. The same can also be done using chicken, seafood, or beef.  Let’s take a look at beef.

If you have hamburgers left from dinner, chop them up until they resemble ground beef again. The meat can be combined with chili powder and taco sauce to make beef tacos.  Or, add some beans, chopped peppers and tomatoes, and sauce to create a pot of chili.  If you have the imagination, there are an unlimited number of possibilities of what you can do with meats and side dishes from a previous night’s dinner.

Using a little leftover magic can make one meal last for two, three, or even four more days.  But, you don’t have to eat it all in the same week.  Fix a new meal with the leftovers and freeze it until you are ready to have that particular meat again. On that day, dinner will already be made, all you’ll need to do is heat it up.  Yes, it really can be just that simple.

Your family will be amazed at your ability to transform any meal into a new creation they will enjoy.  Besides that, you will save money on your grocery bill and won’t be throwing it away in the trash can as spoiled leftovers.  Try these and similar ideas to expand your family’s palate.

Image: piyato / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Food is expensive.  I think we all realize that and the prices just continue to rise leaving families with the daunting task of trying to figure out what they can afford to feed their family.  That is why we are here, to help folks take the sting out of food shopping and food preparation.

Fortunately, that doesn’t mean that I will recommend eating a flavor of Hamburger Helper every day (although once in a while, that stuff is actually ok to work into a menu)  LOL!  No!  I am going to show you what you can do with very little money that is tasty, healthy and filling.

I very much welcome comments and suggestions.  We are all in this together.  This is just a place where it can all be in one spot for all who are struggling with food costs.

I don’t generally clip coupons.  That’s probably sickening to some people out there LOL and I know I could save more if I did BUT like others who don’t clip coupons, I just don’t have the time, energy or desire to go that extra mile but I still want to eat well.

Meals at my house are based on one thing.  What’s on sale!  There is also a good way to plan meals with a meal cycle calendar.  Many institutions such as hospitals, schools, etc. use this method and it works very.  This method is easily applied to home menus and I will show you how you can in future posts.

With that, let’s set this blog on go and help our budget stay intact no matter what that budget is set at.