Thrill me with your dinner!

[cart-mom]

Last night we had Ham, buttered noodles, peas & a garlic loaf.

I'm making Sloppy Joes for lunch today - pretty cheap meal.

budget tip - shop during the week and llok in the meat dept. for markdowns (last sale day, manager's specials,etc.) The meat is still good and much cheaper.

 

[FreshTressa]

Hmm, my brother bought me beef jerkey once for Christmas. Just a plain ole bag of Oh boy Oberta. So, meat can be an x-mas gift.

I am on a bean kick. And beans and rice are definately cheap, especially in the 10 pound bags. So, I made homemade chili tonight and we have enough for the next few days lunches for less than $2!

 

[Mamu]

Baked sauage, zucchini and mushroom polenta, with a salad and fresh bread. Yummy!

 

[Mermaid02]

I thought I was so smart yesterday and got up and put some stew meat and veggies in the crock pot early so it could simmer all day and make that "cheap" meat tender..... Joke was on me... the power went out at 11 am and didn't come on until 6 pm. We had Dominoes.

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

It was leftover spaghetti last night and tonight will be Chili! (I just got a new recipe that I want to try!)

 

[Minnesota!]

Thanks for the Porketta clarification. If we ever move to Duluth, I will look for it

Anyway, I ended up having a steak with bleu cheese and onion sauce on it, garlic mashed, mixed veggies and a piece of garlic toast. It was sensational! I also had a couple Miller Lite's on the side!

DH and I picked up ice cream on the way home and curled up in bed to watch the Cubs game. When I blow my diet, I do it in style!!!

 

[TerriP]

Aunt Lissa, you are officially invited. And just feed your broccoli to the dogs...they'll love ya for it!

 

[powellrj]

We had cubed steak w/ mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans. Tonight we are having beef stew that I made while I was fixing the cubed steak and I will cook it all day while I am at work so I can just fix some biscuits when I get home and dinner will be ready.

When the kids were little I was a SAHM and on a very tight budget, so you can really get creative when you have to be. There are things that I learned back then that I still use today!

Good luck

 

[piratesmate]

We had Roast Sticky Chicken, homemade rice pilaf & cooked carrots.

I always thought porketta was an Italian thing. The first time I had it was at the house of a friend who had the stereotypical Italian Mamma. Mmmmm! Wonderful! Anyway that was in the Philadelphia area.

Minnesota! - You can use those chicken breasts for soups - or about a zillion other things....you just have to pick the meat off the bones after cooking. (I know, DUH! ) Anyway, you could put them in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil & then simmer for an hour or so. (I don't like them in the crockpot as the bones can break down so far that you can't pull them out whole.) Then after they're cool you can remove the meat & shred it right away, bag & refreeze in meal-size portions. I use it in chili, chicken salad, taco, casseroles, etc.

 

[princessariel]

<SIZE=3>Last night I made taco salads. I planned on making stuffed pork chops tonight but...... we found out one of our favorite restaurants has brasciole (sp?) with homemade spagetti and homemade sauce as their special for tonight. Sooooooo, I don't have to cook the stuffed porkchops till tomorrow night. Probable make baked potatoes with it.

I remember the days of boxed mac & cheese, Liptons noodle soup, tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwich, tomato sandwiches when tomatoes were from MIL garden. We were much younger then!</SIZE>

 

[Blondie]

Not a big meat eater here! But the DH and sons like it occasionally. I make a lot of pasta, macarani & cheese casseroles, etc. lots of meatless dishes.

Since I worked last night, I had a Veggie Sub from Subway. DH and the boys had left over Roman Holiday Soup (homemade, no meat) that I made for Sunday dinner.

Tonight it will be Mexican Lasagana that I won't be eating since it contains ground beef.

 

[Arabella Figg 2003]

$20 a week for groceries?

May I ask -- have you considered Food Stamps? You qualify based on income.

I'm sure it would help give you a more balanced diet.

 

[JC2]

We had chicken fingers and celery with blue cheese dressing last night.

Tonight we are having homemade chili beans. Yum! It's quite crisp out today and great weather for a bowl of chili.

 

[Lynn CC]

Last night I made a steak dinner, tonight I made a pork chops dinner. I'm always trying new recipes...
I don't eat meat, I make meals for my family and then a vegetarian meal that they usually have some of too.

I think to stretch your dollar you should buy meat that is on sale at your grocer and make it last in several dishes, so you will have meat atleast a couple of times a week.
For instance a large chicken (if on sale) you could make a baked chicken dinner, chicken soup, chicken salad ect...
The same goes with a smalll ham, a ham dinner, ham salad, a pea soup.
You can make one roast or whatever is on sale last a while. I get some great recipes on foodnetwork.
Have fun creating interesting budget meals!
It is so expensive to eat these days, isn't it?

 

[HauntedMansionGeek]

Originally posted by Arabella Figg 2003
$20 a week for groceries?

May I ask -- have you considered Food Stamps? You qualify based on income.

I'm sure it would help give you a more balanced diet.

$20 or less per week is what currently fits into our budget but if we have to we can and sometimes do borrow from our other budgeted expenses. So as to stay on track with our overall unemployment income, we're trying to stick to the budget as closely as possible.....but there's some wiggle room built in.

At this time, no, we don't qualify for food stamps or heat/fuel assistance either. I have 2 part time jobs that I don't see the income from as it goes right into the bank to be saved for the higher heat bills we'll see this winter.

I didn't intend this to be a sympathy post at all, as our budget is entirely in our control.....we COULD spend far more for groceries, but we want to make sure our house payment and all our insurance and miscellaneous bills stay current/up to date.

As I mentioned earlier, it's really been a fun goal to try to keep the weekly food bill under $20 and it's also been easier than I thought it would be! (except for missing a bit of meat in the ol' diet LOL LOL)

Tonite's dinner ended up being baked tunawiches!!! YUM!!! Made enough for several meals. YESsssssssss I'm getting good at this food budgeting!

 

[CRB#33]

How do you make those HMG?

We had pasta and meatballs again, LOL!

 

[bzelf]

Great Thread! It is very interesting to read what others have for dinner.

Tonight for dinner, we had sauteed salmon filets, szechwan eggplant stir-fry and jasmine rice. Yummy!

bzelf

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

I had chili tonight! It was pretty darn tasty too!

 

[HauntedMansionGeek]

It's just a large can of tuna mixed with some onion, mayo, misc spices and a little bit of shredded cheese. Spread it on a bun and wrap it in tin foil and heat it up a bit.

I hadn't made them in a while and it really hit the spot!

 

[CRB#33]

Sounds pretty good. It would probably be good under the broiler too.