A little different twist on the subject of the rising cost of groceries..

[Leader of the Club]

I saw this thread just before leaving for Aldi and...

I remembered to look at the price of evaporated milk...

I remembered the price of the evaporated milk...

AND I remembered to come here to reply to this thread!

Y'all should be really impressed!

Evaporated milk is .69 at Aldi in Cincinnati. Ohio

 

[leight]

Leader- Good of you to post- I saw the evaporated milk at at my aldi in central fl for $0.69 too but forgot to come here.

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

3) Lentils. My kid seems to really like these. I've heard you can sub them out for ground beef in a lot of things like tacos or chili. Huge difference in price between lentils and ground beef, and healthier too. Does anyone know exactly how to do this?

I have done this many times. It takes about as long to cook some lentils as it does to brown a pound of burger. DD prefers lentils to burger, so I often substitute lentils in any burger casserole type of recipe. I have a recipe for "Homemade hamburger helper" that works really well with lentils. I would think you could also mix some burger with some lentils in this type of recipe.

I love Allrecipes.com. Just put in lentils in the ingredient list and you get all kinds of recipes.

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

I never knew you could freeze eggs! The things I have learned on the DIS!

When you want to use one of the frozen eggs for cooking or baking, how do you thaw it? Can you microwave thaw it?

 

[Sagginit]

i used to buy only the steam in the bag frozen veggies, i bought a rice cooker for $15 and it came with a steam basket, so now i buy the regular ones and just throw them in the rice cooker.

i also am starting to branch out to more than stir fry with tofu. i can get a package for $2.50, they had ground turkey on sale and it looked like a deal until i realized it was almost $6 a package total. i used bread ends to make breadcrumbs and made homemade tofu nuggets and they were amazing. i also bought potatos and have been making my own french fries from scratch instead of the frozen cut up ones. tofu also does well when frozen (but its packed in water so you don't want to freeze it in that little container).

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I have done this many times. It takes about as long to cook some lentils as it does to brown a pound of burger. DD prefers lentils to burger, so I often substitute lentils in any burger casserole type of recipe. I have a recipe for "Homemade hamburger helper" that works really well with lentils. I would think you could also mix some burger with some lentils in this type of recipe.

I love Allrecipes.com. Just put in lentils in the ingredient list and you get all kinds of recipes.

Do you cook the lentils first? Like maybe microwave them with some water, and then stir them in with the ground beef right before you add the seasonings?

If you're using 100% lentils, instead of browned ground beef, what do you do?

 

[C.Ann]

I saw this thread just before leaving for Aldi and...

I remembered to look at the price of evaporated milk...

I remembered the price of the evaporated milk...

AND I remembered to come here to reply to this thread!

Y'all should be really impressed!

Evaporated milk is .69 at Aldi in Cincinnati. Ohio

Thanks so much for coming back and posting this.. I just had a "gut feeling" that 69 cents would be the magic number.. Pretty neat - huh?

Well - that seals it for me.. Because I use it every single day, when I make my big "stock up" trip I'll be purchasing 3 - maybe 4 cases of it.. When that starts to run out, I'll be sure to have my list planned for another "stock up" shopping trip..

Thanks to everyone else who responded as well.. Sounds like I can freeze more things than I originally thought - now I just have to figure out the most "compact" way to do it - since I just have the freezer over the fridge.. The "egg" idea is brilliant!!!

 

[waltsgirl]

Freeze items in Ziploc bags and keep them Flat. When storing them in the freezer you can line them up like file folders- labeling them on top.

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

Do you cook the lentils first? Like maybe microwave them with some water, and then stir them in with the ground beef right before you add the seasonings?

If you're using 100% lentils, instead of browned ground beef, what do you do?

Yes, I cook the lentils first. I simmer 1 c. of lentils with 2 1/2 c. water for about 15-20 minutes until they are soft and the water has cooked away. Then I stir them into the recipe, whether I mix them in with ground beef or if I use all lentils.

 

[C.Ann]

Freeze items in Ziploc bags and keep them Flat. When storing them in the freezer you can line them up like file folders- labeling them on top.

Thanks for that suggestion as well..

Since bread takes up so much space, I'm going to buy a bunch at Aldi's (hot dog/hamburg rolls too), take some with me (probably 2 loaves and 1 pkg. each of rolls to begin with), throw the rest in DD's chest freezer down here and then have them just bring me more each week when they come up on Friday nights - once they get their travel trailer up there for the season..

Also good to hear that you can freeze packaged deli meats too!

How about:

Sour cream?
Half 'n half?
Heavy cream?
Plain yogurt (large container) to be used in baking?
Butter/margarine (for baking)?
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Staples:

How long will a large jar of open peanut butter stay good on the shelf?

TIA!