Cheap Dinners

[smilie]

You guys rock! Thanks for all the ideas...

 

[NYCgrrl]

We do a lot of omelets and quesadillas when money is tight. You can throw anything in an omelet, and almost anything between some tortillas. I grate up 2 decent sized potatoes, salt and drain and then fry for some yum homemade hash browns, too.

My "I can make it for breakfast, lunch and dinner" staple was a 10 lb bag of rice during what my immediate family calls the Summer of Generics(actually it was also Spring but they have shorter memories. Breakfast was a rice porridge with fresh or dried fruits. Lunch was fried rice, or a rice salad, a timbale with whatever was found in the roof top garden (thank goodness for that!) or fridge; I was known to borrow an onion from a neighbor. I could make one roasted chicken last for 3 dinners with of course rice. There were 4 of us at the time and although no one could say they went hungry I sure stretched my imagination to make meals.

You guys are so lucky to have such cheap food prices. The lowest our chicken goes is about $4.99/lb and that’s only 3-4 times a year. I stock up with about $100 of chicken and try to stretch it til the next time it goes on sale. Maybe our quality is better? I’ve never compared taste but it would be interesting.

Could be....nowadays I pay more for chicken w/o antibiotics that are NOT grain fed but we eat less animal protein than in the past for health reasons. My flip out moment is that many veggies cost the same per pound as meat. Of course I can still recall growing up and noting chicken on sale for 25 cents per pound, LOL.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

sounds bland. I would use the sauce packet, too

Good call

 

[RUDisney]

I like this low calorie meal that is inexpensive...

Mock Eggplant Parm

Dice an onion and 1-2 eggplants and cook with a little olive oil until soft. I use a pot with a lid so I can add some water to help steam the eggplant to cook it faster. When it's soft and cooked, add a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes and 1/2 to 1 cup of seasoned bread crumbs and mix this together. You can serve it this way with a little parmesan on top, or you can add a small container of ricotta cheese, mixed into the eggplant.

Cook until it's heated through and serve.

Yummy!

 

[kimblebee]

So much seems to really be dependent on where you live (in the US anyway) -- I live in Buffalo NY, we probably don't have the lowest food prices ever but I don't think they are particularly outrageous (with the exception of convenience/packaged or specialty/gourmet type stuff) -- and for chicken I just have to keep a close eye on sales -- a few times a year bone-in chicken breasts will go on sale for 99cents/lb -- but have to read the label carefully, as some chicken is injected with sodium broth, which falsely increases overall weight, plus that added sodium, etc. I have 3 different stores I rotate through and do a lot of comparison shopping that way (Aldi, Tops and Wegmans are the three). I can usually find someone with on-sale chicken that hasn't been injected with the broth with some effort, but if I had more money I'd just buy all my chicken from the local farm about 3 miles from my house, but it's simply out of my budget feeding 5. Now if I lived in NYC or San Francisco my grocery budget and bills would be a lot different I'm sure. Even when I go back home to Maryland, a 6 hour drive, I notice price differences at the grocery store near my parents' compared to my places here in Western NY. Some things are higher, some lower. I guess a lot depends on how far the trucks have to go to get things there too... like how grocery costs in Alaska are very high.

My "I can make it for breakfast, lunch and dinner" staple was a 10 lb bag of rice during what my immediate family calls the Summer of Generics(actually it was also Spring but they have shorter memories. Breakfast was a rice porridge with fresh or dried fruits. Lunch was fried rice, or a rice salad, a timbale with whatever was found in the roof top garden (thank goodness for that!) or fridge; I was known to borrow an onion from a neighbor. I could make one roasted chicken last for 3 dinners with of course rice. There were 4 of us at the time and although no one could say they went hungry I sure stretched my imagination to make meals.

Could be....nowadays I pay more for chicken w/o antibiotics that are NOT grain fed but we eat less animal protein than in the past for health reasons. My flip out moment is that many veggies cost the same per pound as meat. Of course I can still recall growing up and noting chicken on sale for 25 cents per pound, LOL.

That’s what I was thinking, that maybe yours had been injected with a bunch of stuff. Our meat can’t be injected with hormones or steroids or anything so that makes it more expensive too.

I bought chicken once that had been salt brined and it was disgusting. I ended up throwing it all out (such a waste) because no matter what I did I couldn’t hide the salty taste.

 

[bcla]

So much seems to really be dependent on where you live (in the US anyway) -- I live in Buffalo NY, we probably don't have the lowest food prices ever but I don't think they are particularly outrageous (with the exception of convenience/packaged or specialty/gourmet type stuff) -- and for chicken I just have to keep a close eye on sales -- a few times a year bone-in chicken breasts will go on sale for 99cents/lb -- but have to read the label carefully, as some chicken is injected with sodium broth, which falsely increases overall weight, plus that added sodium, etc. I have 3 different stores I rotate through and do a lot of comparison shopping that way (Aldi, Tops and Wegmans are the three). I can usually find someone with on-sale chicken that hasn't been injected with the broth with some effort, but if I had more money I'd just buy all my chicken from the local farm about 3 miles from my house, but it's simply out of my budget feeding 5. Now if I lived in NYC or San Francisco my grocery budget and bills would be a lot different I'm sure. Even when I go back home to Maryland, a 6 hour drive, I notice price differences at the grocery store near my parents' compared to my places here in Western NY. Some things are higher, some lower. I guess a lot depends on how far the trucks have to go to get things there too... like how grocery costs in Alaska are very high.

Of course it depends on where you live. I live in California where there's a lot of more or less local produce. I'll go to a farmer's market where the farm is located about a 3 hour drive and prices are great. I also have access to this one market that seems to have a number of different specials all the time. Of course not all of it is local since year-round produce just doesn't exist. However, this place has good relationships with distributors that allow them to sell specials all the time. I recently got a 5 lb bag of limes (my kid loves making limeade) for 89 cents.

As far as meat, poultry, and fish goes, Asian markets (especially in Chinatown) in my area seem to have been prices and excellent quality. I can actually talk to the butcher, although sometimes there's a language barrier.

I mean - sometimes I go on vacation and end up looking at various prices wondering where it's all going. In the Seattle area I was buying oysters that were locally farmed and cheap. But I wanted some lemon and it was $1 - marked as being from California. My kid likes blueberries and while in a suburb of Philly in March I splurged on $4 for 6 oz of Chilean blueberries. That was likely about the same price as I could have paid at home, since blueberries are out of season on the west coast.

 

[NYCgrrl]

QUOTE="kimblebee, post: 59704205, member: 240334"]That’s what I was thinking, that maybe yours had been injected with a bunch of stuff. Our meat can’t be injected with hormones or steroids or anything so that makes it more expensive too.

I bought chicken once that had been salt brined and it was disgusting. I ended up throwing it all out (such a waste) because no matter what I did I couldn’t hide the salty taste.[/QUOTE]

Salt brining doesn't have to taste disgusting. I do my own brining (wet and dry) thus control the amount and type of salt in the final dish. Here's a chart that gives the science behind wet brining:

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5804-brining-meat

Up until recently Butterball turkeys were only available pre-brined and I avoided them like the plague no matter how inexpensive they were. Maybe the food processor was following Butterball's technique and that's what you had.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'd check out Pillsbury(.com), Food Network(.com) and Pinterest(.com) for some good ideas-those are my main places.

I've found plentiful healthy/cheap/easy/5 ingredient/30 min meal, etc meals

Also Pillsbury(.com) has manufacturing coupons you can print out and use.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Of course it depends on where you live. I live in California where there's a lot of more or less local produce. I'll go to a farmer's market where the farm is located about a 3 hour drive and prices are great. I also have access to this one market that seems to have a number of different specials all the time. Of course not all of it is local since year-round produce just doesn't exist. However, this place has good relationships with distributors that allow them to sell specials all the time. I recently got a 5 lb bag of limes (my kid loves making limeade) for 89 cents.

As far as meat, poultry, and fish goes, Asian markets (especially in Chinatown) in my area seem to have been prices and excellent quality. I can actually talk to the butcher, although sometimes there's a language barrier.

I mean - sometimes I go on vacation and end up looking at various prices wondering where it's all going. In the Seattle area I was buying oysters that were locally farmed and cheap. But I wanted some lemon and it was $1 - marked as being from California. My kid likes blueberries and while in a suburb of Philly in March I splurged on $4 for 6 oz of Chilean blueberries. That was likely about the same price as I could have paid at home, since blueberries are out of season on the west coast.

It's unfortunate that much of the soil in PA isn't blueberry ready. Travel a bit north and east and they still grow in the wild and are farmed for shipping around the country. I buy ducks in a local Chinese market and imagine my surprise to find that not only did they still have a head and feet but also an esophagus. No idea why I dinna think about that before buying them........

 

[KMarston]

It’s actually canned limas. My sister gave me the recipe and she got it from an aunt when they made her a recipe file for her wedding gift.

It’s just a pound of ground beef, browned with about a fourth of an onion chopped. Add a can of tomato soup, a can of green Limas (I guess you could use dried that have been cooked), and a can of corn(both canned veggies drained), 2 Tb of chili powder and 1T of yellow mustard. I add a tablespoon of sugar to cut the acid of the soup, just because it gives me heartburn. Let it simmer down until most of the liquid is gone. It’s also one of those things that’s better the next day.

I have also done it with frozen corn and limas just because that is what I had. Just cooked the limas first, the corn will cook in the pot but I wasn’t sure the beans would.

We do this but mix in cooked corkscrew noodles and top with cheese. My mom called it tallarina.

 

[Kitty 34]

ground hamburger and a can of spaghetti. I was rather poor when I first moved back to Michigan from Colorado (35 yrs ago) and did that a few times. If you feel rich and I'm not being sarcastic throw in some cottage cheese.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

It’s actually canned limas. My sister gave me the recipe and she got it from an aunt when they made her a recipe file for her wedding gift.

It’s just a pound of ground beef, browned with about a fourth of an onion chopped. Add a can of tomato soup, a can of green Limas (I guess you could use dried that have been cooked), and a can of corn(both canned veggies drained), 2 Tb of chili powder and 1T of yellow mustard. I add a tablespoon of sugar to cut the acid of the soup, just because it gives me heartburn. Let it simmer down until most of the liquid is gone. It’s also one of those things that’s better the next day.

I have also done it with frozen corn and limas just because that is what I had. Just cooked the limas first, the corn will cook in the pot but I wasn’t sure the beans would.

Thanks for the recipes. I love the combo of a super easy recipe & something we haven't tried. What do you serve with it? Rice, something else, nothing?

 

[bcla]

It's unfortunate that much of the soil in PA isn't blueberry ready. Travel a bit north and east and they still grow in the wild and are farmed for shipping around the country. I buy ducks in a local Chinese market and imagine my surprise to find that not only did they still have a head and feet but also an esophagus. No idea why I dinna think about that before buying them........

Well - at the time I got them I don't think there was any place in the US that was growing them except maybe in greenhouses. They don't grow well in tropical climates like parts of Florida. That's the time of year where half the produce sold seems to be from the southern hemisphere. I do go to that same farmers' market during winter. Some of the farmers have a more limited selection of stuff that still grows in colder temps.

As for birds, I haven't seen a place that sells live poultry in years, but I have seen a peek in the back where they receive and slaughter them. San Francisco used to be well known for live poultry. There was a story of almost mythical proportions about an old Chinese woman who bought a live chicken in Chinatown and was waiting to take the bus, where the gist is that she's going to kill it at home since Asian cooking often places a premium on preparing freshly slaughtered meat. The bus driver then tells her "You can't take a live chicken on the bus." Depending on who tells it, she either wrings its neck or slams it against a fire hydrant.

Chicken dead now.​

 

[luvsJack]

Thanks for the recipes. I love the combo of a super easy recipe & something we haven't tried. What do you serve with it? Rice, something else, nothing?

Just a salad and rolls.

 

[NYCgrrl]

UOTE="bcla, post: 59704613, member: 451830"]Well - at the time I got them I don't think there was any place in the US that was growing them except maybe in greenhouses. They don't grow well in tropical climates like parts of Florida. That's the time of year where half the produce sold seems to be from the southern hemisphere. I do go to that same farmers' market during winter. Some of the farmers have a more limited selection of stuff that still grows in colder temps.

As for birds, I haven't seen a place that sells live poultry in years, but I have seen a peek in the back where they receive and slaughter them. San Francisco used to be well known for live poultry. There was a story of almost mythical proportions about an old Chinese woman who bought a live chicken in Chinatown and was waiting to take the bus, where the gist is that she's going to kill it at home since Asian cooking often places a premium on preparing freshly slaughtered meat. The bus driver then tells her "You can't take a live chicken on the bus." Depending on who tells it, she either wrings its neck or slams it against a fire hydrant.

Chicken dead now.​

[/QUOTE]

^^ Ahahahaha!
A decades back family anecdote about my mother's childhood on a Jamaican farm revolves around the time she tried to help her grandmother by chopping the heads off of every chicken she could lay hands on. The village which was mostly inhabited by Granny's offspring ate particularly well for a day or so in those pre-electric fridge time since a chicken was a Sunday meal back then . Oh and whilst butchering my ducks (they were already dead when I bought them) I call my Mom and asked for her help; she told me I was on my own....whadda citified wuss she became in later life.

There are still some live poultry places even in Manhattan but no sense in me going there since I only know what to look for when they are properly dead and plucked- oops.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Just a salad and rolls.

Thanks. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

 

[tvguy]

You guys are so lucky to have such cheap food prices. The lowest our chicken goes is about $4.99/lb and that’s only 3-4 times a year. I stock up with about $100 of chicken and try to stretch it til the next time it goes on sale. Maybe our quality is better? I’ve never compared taste but it would be interesting.

It's Foster Farms, which is a pretty good brand. Do you have Foster Farms in your area? I think they are only on the West Coast.

 

[kimblebee]

It's Foster Farms, which is a pretty good brand. Do you have Foster Farms in your area? I think they are only on the West Coast.

Wrong country lol

 

[tvguy]

Wrong country lol

LOL. One of my cousins came across the border for dinner tonight and posted photos of the fine U.S. restaurant Olive Garden that I just learned have no locations in Canada.

 

[Poohforyou]

How cheap are you talking about? Two things that can stretch protein is a stir fry or fried rice. Another is a baked potatoes with a variety of toppings - chopped cooked vegetables, beans, ground meat, cheese.

I tend to buy frozen vegetables over fresh as the frozen generally have more nutrients. Plus, there's usually a greater variety of frozen than fresh. I will buy in season fresh vegetables from a farmer's market.