Eat at Home 3!

[Epcotgal8]

May I ask you (or any other DISer who uses one) a question about pressure cookers? I know a lot of people here in Michigan who talk about using theirs a lot to cook meat, but that's I am curious, do you use yours for other things? Like, make soup? Cook vegetables or beans? Anything else? We don't eat meat, so a pressure cooker wouldn't help us there, but if I could use one to reduce cooking times (and help keep our house from overheating in the summer--we don't have central A/C), I might consider investing in one, especially since we make a lot of stuff from scratch to save $.


It seems, theoretically, like they could be useful for non meat eaters too, but I'm having a hard time finding good info. Every time I try to Google them, I come up with tons of stuff talking about meat dishes, but it seems like it could be useful with other things too, it's just hard finding good info when 19 out of every 20 pages I find are talking exclusively about meat.

~Meg

Hi Meg. When you say you don't eat meat I'm not sure if you mean just red meat or not pork, chicken etc. but not only does it cook those, but you can do soups, stews, vegetables, seafood, fish, rice, pasta, and even desserts. Most of the electric ones on the market now brown, simmer, slow cook, high pressure cook, and will go to warm. I love that feature. It is so much faster and I'm not using 2 or 3 different pans. I meant to add that if you get one and need web links for recipes just pm me.

 

[GlitteryOtters]

Hi Meg. When you say you don't eat meat I'm not sure if you mean just red meat or not pork, chicken etc. but not only does it cook those, but you can do soups, stews, vegetables, seafood, fish, rice, pasta, and even desserts. Most of the electric ones on the market now brown, simmer, slow cook, high pressure cook, and will go to warm. I love that feature. It is so much faster and I'm not using 2 or 3 different pans. I meant to add that if you get one and need web links for recipes just pm me.

We are vegan (no meat/seafood, no egg or dairy). I am always curious, sometimes I hear other people talking about how useful they are & they sound theoretically like they could be useful for me too, but almost all the recipes I come across are for meat. I have absolutely NO CLUE what you can and cannot cook in them besides the fact that meat is a yes, and you can make some stocks or soups (but I am still not sure what you can and cannot use them for?!).

I have a vegetable stock recipe which sounds promising, but I am finding it hard to do research on pressure cookers because I end up spending forty minutes of wading through either websites selling pressure cookers or recipes or blog posts about cooking meat dishes in pressure cookers just to find a couple of small mentions of cooking soup or stock. I was just curious about what else you could make *besides* meat in them so I know what to google (the vegan corner of the web is very small and I haven't really run across vegan bloggers or Instagrammers talking about using them to cook with--but I don't want to assume they aren't a useful tool for us, I just think possibly we haven't really discovered them yet as a tool we can use).


~Meg

 

[Arich01]

We are vegan (no meat/seafood, no egg or dairy). I am always curious, sometimes I hear other people talking about how useful they are & they sound theoretically like they could be useful for me too, but almost all the recipes I come across are for meat. I have absolutely NO CLUE what you can and cannot cook in them besides the fact that meat is a yes, and you can make some stocks or soups (but I am still not sure what you can and cannot use them for?!).

I have a vegetable stock recipe which sounds promising, but I am finding it hard to do research on pressure cookers because I end up spending forty minutes of wading through either websites selling pressure cookers or recipes or blog posts about cooking meat dishes in pressure cookers just to find a couple of small mentions of cooking soup or stock. I was just curious about what else you could make *besides* meat in them so I know what to google (the vegan corner of the web is very small and I haven't really run across vegan bloggers or Instagrammers talking about using them to cook with--but I don't want to assume they aren't a useful tool for us, I just think possibly we haven't really discovered them yet as a tool we can use).


~Meg

If you're on Facebook, in the search type in "instapot recipes" and a group will pop up that shares TONS of recipes! I found a few that may work for you in just a quick glance that could be, or are Vegan. Also, go to Pinterest.com and search "vegan instapot recipes" Again, TONS of recipes popped up! They look pretty tasty too! I saw one for Lentil Bolognese that looked good! Apparently you can bake potatoes in a pressure cooker (who knew!) I've been doing a bit of research myself about getting an Instapot... I think it may help out during my son's football season where I can put a quick meal on the table. Eating take out gets old reeaaall quick, lol!

 

[Sydney2977]

Well we did pretty good last week. Tuesday I had a really rough day at work, was feeling cruddy with this chest cold thing we all seem to have, and we had Scouts, so I just decided we were going to have Easter leftovers. No complaints and it helped clean out the fridge. We did go out to eat Wed. night because 1. our favorite restaurant was having a triple points special (they have a loyalty card where after you get 100 points you get a $10 credit, normally $1=1 point) and 2. to celebrate DH getting offered a new job! It will be better pay, is more in line with what he wants to do with his career now that he's out of the service, and gets his foot in the door with the company he wants to work for long term. Now this next week- back to the normal eating schedule! I went grocery shopping this afternoon and hardly spent a thing since I'll be using some things already on hand.

Friday- chicken parmesan with broccoli
Saturday- eat out after church
Sunday- orange ginger glazed steak with roasted red potatoes and garlic bread
Monday- chicken pot pie casserole
Tuesday- queso enchiladas
Wednesday- corn bread bbq skillet pie
Thursday- turkey breast with mashed potatoes and rolls
Friday- ham and hash brown bake

 

[tobikaye]

I have a vegetable stock recipe which sounds promising, but I am finding it hard to do research on pressure cookers because I end up spending forty minutes of wading through either websites selling pressure cookers or recipes or blog posts about cooking meat dishes in pressure cookers just to find a couple of small mentions of cooking soup or stock. I was just curious about what else you could make *besides* meat in them so I know what to google (the vegan corner of the web is very small and I haven't really run across vegan bloggers or Instagrammers talking about using them to cook with--but I don't want to assume they aren't a useful tool for us, I just think possibly we haven't really discovered them yet as a tool we can use).

If you check out Pinterest and do a search for "vegan pressure cooker recipes", you might get some good idea of what some use the pressure cooker for. We eat meat, but sometimes I am looking for non meat dishes and that is the search term I use. We do a lot of side dishes, such as potatoes and corn in our pressure cooker.

 

[Kellars]

Well I had a busy Easter with grand daughters and then work interfered with grocery shopping so it was a clean out the fridge and freezer every night this week. I am proud to say no budget busting nights (the liquor store bill doesn't count!). I consider this a win! I will need to plan meals and go shopping in the morning. Will post the plan when it is solid.

 

[westcoastfldisneygirl]

Hope everyone had a good week! They released the new late night schedule at work and I saw I have mine in 4 days and it messed with my plans a bit.

Monday: Slow cooker tomato rotini soup http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes...ni-soup/17015afe-4b24-4146-b565-802ad5cd9aa4#!
Tuesday: I have my late night at work. I'll eat leftovers at work, H will have leftovers at home.
Wednesday: I have my workout class. I'll take something out of the freezer, not sure what. I don't like to cook these nights.
Thursday: Eggs in red sauce (this recipe minus the mushrooms) http://www.food.com/recipe/eggs-in-roman-red-sauce-231107 , dinner rolls (Alexa brand from the freezer)
Friday: Chicken enchilada suizas, red beans and rice
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, fruit.

 

[Kellars]

Week's menu and grocery list made for the following. I will need to restock freezer meals after last week, so will double a few of these.


Spiced Chicken drumsticks & home fries (recipe testing the drumsticks)
Cheeseburger pie & tossed salad
Oven fried fish & chips /Cole slaw
Smothered pork chops /mashed potatoes - veg tbd
Bourbon chicken /vegetable fried rice
Homemade mac n cheese /salad & leftover drumsticks
Pizza

Hope everyone has a great week,

 

[GlitteryOtters]

Thank you all for the pressure cooker info! Unfortunately, I am not on Facebook or Pinterest and cannot search those sites without creating an account first, but I spent a couple hours looking online yesterday & managed to find some good info on cook times for different foods, recipe conversion info, etc. I think I am sold on pressure cookers for at least some of my cooking, especially during summer when my tiny kitchen overheats when you do something as small as boil water for pasta!

Yesterday, I told our housemate that I was thinking of saving a little out of each month's food budget and buying an electric pressure cooker, but that I was a little nervous spending money on one without trying one first. She gave me a funny look, laughed and said "oh, didn't you know? Your husband owns one, I saw it in the basement last year!"...it would have been nice if he'd told me he had one already when I was talking about them last week! My guess is that he bought it five or more years ago (before we met), never used it (like most of his kitchen supplies) and promptly forgot he had one! Now I just need to search the (overflowing) basement until I find it! Wish me luck! If I adapt to it well & find it useful I'll invest in one of the electric ones (which would be very useful as running our gas stovetop really heats up our non-central A/C house, plus if we have this it will make meal prep easier as our ancient stove only has 2 working burners & often, between the 3 of us living here, our stove is working at full capacity & we need more burners).

I'll post again tomorrow with next week's meal plan & a round up on how we did with this past week's plan (spoiler alert: we had to make a couple of alterations!)


~Meg

 

[GlitteryOtters]

Monday: Slow cooker tomato rotini soup http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes...ni-soup/17015afe-4b24-4146-b565-802ad5cd9aa4#!

Oh, WOW! This soup looks amazing. I am totally nabbing this recipe, I can't wait to try it!

~Meg

 

[GlitteryOtters]

Here's my roundup of how last week went (updates in bold):

Monday: sweet & sour tofu with pineapple chunks (large portion for my husband, small for me along with some lower sodium cucumber, basil & avocado gazpacho) We ate this exactly as planned.

Tuesday: bread & cabbage soup. My husband decided he wanted veggie burgers instead, so he made that & I still made the soup. Somehow I ended up with a lot more soup this time than the last time I made it, so between being the only one who wanted to eat it & the unintentional large batch, there were tons of leftovers. I also made chocolate chip banana bread hearts for desserts his day & next, froze half the batch for next week.

Wednesday: vegan Welsh rarebit and the last of the cucumber, basil & avocado gazpacho leftovers. We ate this exactly as planned.

Thursday: Mexican night...black refried bean burritos & tortilla chips (husband) & zucchini slices (me) with homemade guacamole and mango salsa. My husband had a last minute dinner out with a friend he'd been trying to hang out with for a while, so I made burritos just for me & skipped the salsa & guacamole step, used the ripe avocado in a homemade dessert instead (1 avocado + 1 large banana or 2 smaller bananas + 2 tablespoons cacao powder & blend all in a high speed blender with a tiny amount of water=delicious chocolate pudding).

Friday: purple sweet potato curry & mashed potatoes. My husband decided he wanted to eat 6(!) chocolate chip waffles instead, so I made it for myself only. (Can someone please explain to me how a future dietitian who is a type 1 diabetic can justify eating 6 chocolate chip waffles with a TON of maple syrup?! Because I can't see how anyone can argue that is good, healthy eating....)

Saturday: pasta e fagioli (homemade tomato sauce from canned tomatoes, cannellini beans & shell pasta), homemade rolls. Skipped this as I still had cabbage soup left, despite eating it as part of lunch every day. Ate the last of the soup, my husband opted out, not sure what else he ate besides vegan chocolate/peanut butter cups?

Sunday: vegan mac & cheese and steamed dill carrots. Still making this, will eat as planned.

I am attaching a couple of photo collages below of some of the dishes I made this week, for anyone who is curious.


Here is our plan for this week:

Monday: Zapiekanka (I'm veganizing this recipe: http://www.sensualappealblog.com/traditional-zapiekanka/ ) & Mango, Black Bean & Avocado Salad with Cilantro Lime dressing as a side dish (recipe: http://m.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/mango-avocado-and-black-bean-salad-lime-dressing )

Tuesday: Chili Mac with leftover Mac & Cheese from Sunday. Mango, Black Bean & Avocado Salad as the side again, because it is super popular. I'm thawing out the rest of the banana bread hearts for dessert this day & next.

Wednesday: Kenyan Style Kale & Tomatoes with Kidney Beans (recipe: http://m.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/kenyan-style-kale-and-tomatoes plus add a can of drained, rinsed kidney beans)

Thursday: Chili topped baked potato for me (with rest of leftover chili from Chili Mac), my husband will feed himself something else since he's not a big baked potato fan.

Friday: Busy day, I have a doctor's appointment plus grocery shopping at 2 stores, so I am thawing soup from the freezer, probably Minestrone with homemade rolls.

Saturday: Vegan Pizza for our housemate as well as both of us. Tomato, broccoli & onion topping for my husband, probably olives & red bell pepper from my stash in the freezer for our housemate & I. Basic side salad as well.

Sunday: leftover soup & homemade rolls.

~Meg

 

[TwoMisfits]

Sun (brunch) - Croissant french toast with a homemade fresh pineapple/banana/rum topping (eating this now - so yummy...
Sun (dinner) - Stuffed Shells in tomato sauce, Roasted Asparagus
Mon - Carne Asada Tacos using Ground Beef (I have the carne asada seasoning and the guac, but I've never tried swapping the meat - we'll see if this works), Blackberries
Tues - Beef Nachos (leftover beef, leftover guac, lettuce, tomato, cheese, salsa), Mexican bean dip for on or off nachos, Strawberries
Wed - BLTs/Grilled Cheese, Roasted Zucchini, Fresh Pineapple (or Pineapple/banana muffins or both)
Thurs - Chicken Club sandwiches (with leftover bacon from the day before, lettuce, and tomato), Roasted Carrots, Strawberries and Blackberries
Fri - Chicken Fajitas with Red Onions and Green Peppers over Rice (instead of tortillas) with any extra guac and toppings from the week (might swap Thurs and Fri if I have no bacon leftover)
Sat - Frozen pizza and/or leftovers of everything (with a likely lunch out)

I will likely make an Apple Crumble this week to pick on for dessert, since I got some gorgeous granny smiths at Aldi's this week...I may also make apple cinnamon or apple-fresh cranberry muffins to have for snacking or a dinner side if I need a make ahead...

 

[westcoastfldisneygirl]

No problem! It looks good and I have everything on hand, some win win!

Thank you for the idea of Chili Mac. I haven't made that in a while and I do love Chili Mac! I will have to work that into a weekly menu.

 

[queenofthehive]

Menu Plan - week of April 3rd
Sunday - cube steak, okra, mashed cauliflower
Monday - eggs/ asparagus with cherry tomatoes
Tuesday - grilled steaks, black bean & corn salad, leftover mashed cauliflower
Wednesday - salmon, sweet potatoes, coleslaw
Thusday - hamburgers, corn, baked beans, pickled beets
Friday - grilled chicken salad

 

[DnA2010]

Last Week's Plan:

Monday- DH isn't working today/night- so he will do something...I'm thinking appies or stirfry after all those big meals (we had chicken stirfry)
Tuesday- DH working nights so he will take a dinner from ham leftovers, I'm going straight to hockey so will get something out (DH had ham leftovers, I had a Subway wrap my mom brought me to the hockey game)
Wednesday- DH working nights however is on pager so will prob make something simple- DH made pasta
Thursday- hamburger helper with veg and mash potatoes- I honestly can't remember, but we didn't eat out
Friday- We may go watch the away game of our hockey team, if we do we will prob just grab food at the arena (we went to the game, ate at a pub- pricey but good- planned treat)
Saturday- MIL has already invited us over as some other family is in town (I was sick DH went to hockey with FIL- they all had turkey dinner, I had canned soup)
Sunday- I'm thinking fish of some sort- we got lazy and had a frozen pizza and veggies

This week's Plan:
Monday- hamburger helper and mashed potatoes, frozen veg ( were bad and had fast food- we were in town trying a car, I needed to eat and DH was going to work)
Tuesday- leftovers of the above, salad (we had the hamburger helper with mash pot)
Wednesday- triangle stuffed pasta with pesto sauce, salad or cut up veggies (we had the pasta and broccoli)
Thursday- Shepard's Pie (we had shepards pie and frozen corn)
Friday- turkey surpise (turkey dinner leftovers in a casserole dish- called surprise as every one is different ) I freeze these and pull out a while later) (we had a hot dog roast with friends)
Saturday- shake and bake chicken thighs and drumsticks, quinoa, broccoli (chili and buns and veggies)
Sunday- possibly tacos with mexi rice and crock pot refried (so not actually fried) beans- always lots of rice and beans left for the freezer (we had homemade burgers at the farm with FIL)

 

[LilyWDW]

Kroger finally released their ad this morning so now my planning is finished. They had Pork Spare Ribs for even cheaper then Market District so going to add Kroger as a third stop. It's just down the road so easy enough to do! Also, Aldi has chicken breasts at 1.49/lb and Kroger has wings and boneless thighs for 1.99/lb)

Update!

So I went to Aldi first and was able to get half my shopping list done there for about $30. I decided to skip Market District and headed to Kroger to get the last of my items. All in all, I spent right at $80 for the two weeks BUT that included toilet paper, paper towels, 4 boxes of Kleenex (my allergies are killing me), and kitty litter. Plus, I got 4 lbs of ribs which was a great deal and will feed me for 4+ meals, but the "one time" price hits that basic budget number hard. I also picked up a pack of 6 chicken thighs at Aldi for the regular price of .99/lb so that will go into the NEXT plan. So if any of you have any ideas of how to stretch 2-3 thighs into 2-3 meals each, I would really appreciate it! Lots of vegetables with them is my best idea haha.

I really need to get back into eating more vegetarian since it always seemed to help my budget.

 

[stayhomemom77]

I would suggest cooking the thighs and then pulling the meat off the bones and using it as a "garnish" in a good, filling recipe.

Like a huge veggie stir fry with the cooked chicken thigh meat added at the end. DH does this all the time and makes three or four bowls of it up and eats it for the next few days as lunches.

Or use it in a soup or stew where you can bulk it up with veggies and starches and just toss the shredded or chopped precooked meat in at the end.

Or use it up with bean and/or rice burritos, fajitas (light on meat, heavy on veggies), taco bowls, rice bowls, or in a quiche or omelet type dish. Or get/make some gravy and bread and make hot chicken sandwiches. YUMMO!!

Good luck!

 

[stayhomemom77]

New week, new menu...

**The world is my oyster since DH is not doing low carb right now!

Tonight- pork chops and rice with mushroom soup gravy, salad
Tues-pancakes, ham, omelets, fruit
Wed-chicken fingers and fries, broccoli
Thurs-hamburger helper, not sure of veg
Fri-hot dogs and mac, veggies and dip
Sat-alfredo lasagna, likely salad
Sun-butter chicken, naan, rice pilau, peas

 

[GlitteryOtters]

So if any of you have any ideas of how to stretch 2-3 thighs into 2-3 meals each, I would really appreciate it! Lots of vegetables with them is my best idea haha.

I really need to get back into eating more vegetarian since it always seemed to help my budget.

Oh man, I know how it is trying to make delicious & interesting eats on a tight food budget, so you have my sympathies. Back when I was in high school, before my family went vegetarian, my family had a really low income for a couple of years while my stepdad & mom started a new business & most profit went back into the business. My job was to help my mom plan our meals & food budget down to the penny & I will say we incorporated ALL of the excellent ideas @stayhomemom77 listed in her post, plus we did a few other things to help stretch the meat & the food budget both.


A big one is to eat seasonally. I worked grocery for 6 years, I know the produce seasons by heart & know when to get my favorite fruits & veg cheaply, and we eat a lot of them at that time (right now, my house is overrun with pineapple & mangos!). There are also "seasons" when food distributors give grocery stores big discounts on shelf stable items & when different types of meat tend to go on sale. For example, I know to always allow extra in my budget for the 2.5 months leading up to Christmas, for example, as that is when they put all of our baking supplies, spices, oils on sale. At the beginning of January, supplements & vitamins and a lot of health foods go on sale (and/or have amazing coupons). My husband is obsessed with bagged stuffing mixes & buys it en masse around thanksgiving when it is on amazing sales, etc.

One of our favorite ways to use less meat was to have breakfast for dinner & have it be less meat-centric... Like, eggs & toast & pancakes & fruit with maybe 2 strips of bacon each instead of a giant mound of bacon and sausages. We all adored breakfast in our family, and the price was cheap.


We also had one low meat or meat-free soup per week (like split pea with ham, or tomato or minestrone or lentil or butternut squash or cabbage & tomato, etc.) A big staple soup for us now uses this dried 32 bean & 8 vegetable soup mix we get for a good price from the bulk bins of our local Whole Foods. We cook it as directed & add a can of tomatoes during the last half hour & it makes a ton of delicious, high protein & filling soup.


We also ate a lot of pasta & rice centric dishes. Mac & cheese made from scratch is cheap & easy. In tomato season, we throw in chopped tomatoes right at the end, before serving, in winter we add broccoli. As @stayhomemom77 said, stir fry can be a good staple meal!


We interspersed higher meat content meals with lower meat content meals...like, we had pork chops one day, but the next day we'd have a dish which was like a modified version of spaghetti & meatballs. Instead of making meatballs we'd cook up a small amount of ground round & mix it in with the tomato sauce, then use shape pasta (like rotini or shells or elbow macaroni) instead of noodley pasta. This was a Depression era dish my great grandma used to make which we adopted, it cut out meat use in half versus making meatballs as we had some meatball hogs in my family! We'd eat chili with a lot more beans than meat (or make vegetarian chili).

Remember alternate protein sources...dairy, egg & beans are all generally a lot cheaper than meat, so we'd make mac & cheese or chili mac once a week. When avocados were on sale we'd use a lot of them too as they are decent in protein & have good fats.

We made pasta salads with beans, pasta, in season veggies & some olives tossed in a little salad dressing. Those are still a huge staple for me every summer. For meat eaters, you can add cubes or small pieces of ham or chicken for added flavor & protein boost.

Think creatively on cheap protein sources. We made a dish called Eggs A La Goldenrod every other week...hardboil some eggs, make a white sauce, separate the yolks & egg whites, chop the whites into small pieces & stir into the white sauce. Pour over toast. Crush egg yolks with a fork & sprinkle on top. We always ate this every week around and after Easter when eggs are so cheap!

Remember sandwiches that use little or no meat...BLTs were huge in our house, as we had a giant tomato patch in our garden. Egg salad sandwich paired with a veggie or fruit salad is great when it is hot & you don't want to cook anyway. Grilled cheese with tomato soup was always good. Avocado toast is another big favorite (I sprinkle mine with Mrs Dash's chipotle seasoning mix--it is so good!).

Also, feel free to ask for any recipes I make (if they are online too I'm trying to track down the link & post it with my food plan, but I am happy to type up & message over any recipes I make that are in my cookbooks).

Right now, finances are tight as my health doesn't allow me to work but it still does allow me to travel (as long as I take a lot of rests!), so we are trying to travel as much as possible now as I won't always be able to travel. As a result, I try to save $$ whenever & wherever I can, and often times a big place I save is in the food budget. That said, food is a huge deal for both my husband & I (it's actually how we met), so I try to make my meal plans fun & interesting, even though we are on a budget.


Good luck!!! Hit me up if I can be of any help with ideas or recipes or whatever.


~Meg

 

[happybaker]

So if any of you have any ideas of how to stretch 2-3 thighs into 2-3 meals each, I would really appreciate it!

I like this crock pot chicken cacciatore recipe from Skinny taste for using chicken thighs. I've used both bone-in and boneless thighs and either way it comes out great. I don't like peppers, so I use mushrooms instead. http://www.skinnytaste.com/crock-pot-chicken-cacciatore/


Holly