Stretch That Meat!

My kids are growing every day. That is more evident in how much they are eating. I send Isabella a whole lot of lunch and she's starving when she climbs in the van at the end of the day. The other night I made tacos. Usually 1lb of ground beef is enough with plenty left over. Not so this week! We ate nearly all the meat in one meal.

Of course it was super delicious.

But still.

Thanks to Taco Bell, the term 'fillers' has gotten a bad reputation. I, however, still love it! I totally use fillers to make my meat last. When making tacos, I add half and onion or more chopped fine. I also have started to add green pepper, also finely chopped. Beans are another great addition to make taco meat last longer.

When I make spaghetti sauce, alot of times I'll add pureed carrots. You can't really taste the difference and it adds more vegetables to each serving. Also, I like to add a can of diced tomatoes if I'm using canned spaghetti sauce.

There's a whole world of possibilities when you start adding little things to your recipes! What are your filler secrets? Do share!

Happy Friday!!!

What a wonderful morning. Sometimes you just feel like you've accomplished everything, and it isn't even 9 am. That's how my morning's going. Plus I'm drinking coffee. Extra bonus!

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The main thing on my mind since my last post, has been eating on a budget. I was talking with one of my dear friends yesterday about when Jon, I and our oldest were eating on $50 a month.I mentioned how in 7 years the price of food has gone up quite a bit. Thinking about it made me think what a challenge that would be to try and figure out if it can still be done.

I love a good challenge.

But this one will take some research on my part, as I am out of practice. While I research, here are some tips to maximize your grocery buying.

1. Plan your menu! It's easier to stay on budget when you plan what you're going to have.

2. Plan meals with like ingredients for the week. For example, if I'm going to have tacos I'll buy the 20 pack of tortillas. They won't all get eaten in one dinner, possibly not even 2, but I'll plan to have quesadillas the same week. I will only have to buy tortillas once that week.

3. Utilize your fresh veggies!!! Don't let them go to waste. If you're going to make salad, then plan to also do something with lettuce that week. Or add it to your sandwiches. Not only are veggies great fillers, but they're healthy. And nothing burns me more than having to throw out food.

4. Plan a leftover day. Let the troops know ahead of time so that the complaining can finish before that night begins. I don't particularly enjoy leftovers, but I don't like to waste.

5. Mix up the menu with herbs. They're cheap and can totally change the flavor of whatever you're cooking.

What are some meals that you cook inexpensively?

$20

Let's play the 'How Many Meals Can We Get From $20' game. I went to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon to pick up a few staples after getting home from Iowa. I walked out with $20 less in my bank account. Because I have the intention of staying within my budget for groceries, I'm going to see how long we can eat off this.

Here's what my bags held:

18 Eggs
1/2 Gallon Almond Milk
Iceberg Lettuce
4 Roma Tomatoes
8# Bag of Potatoes
16 oz. Light Sour Cream
1 Ranch Seasoning Packet
1 Bag of Bananas (more to come on these in another post)
Croutons
Loaf of Double Fiber Bread
3 oz. Grilled Chicken (from the salad bar)

We bought a quarter cow this past year, so beef is not going to be on my grocery list. I realize that does make this not as replicable, but it gives you the general idea.

#1-Saturday night's dinner was 'Chicken Cobb Salad'. It was pretty fantastic. I used the lettuce, tomato, croutons, eggs & chicken from the store. I had cheese in my freezer that I pulled out, and used leftover bacon from breakfast cut into small pieces. For the dressing, I put the ranch seasoning into the sour cream.

My oldest won't eat any other ranch. Kind of strange.

#2-Sunday dinner was Roast! Yum. My whole house smelled like my grandma's, and that was fantastic.

I stuck it in the crockpot frozen at 9:30am. 7 hours later it was falling apart AH-MAZ-ING. I baked 4 potatoes, made gravy from the broth and pulled out the leftover salad. Night #2 in the books.

#3-Monday's dinner was Open Faced Roast Beef Sandwiches. Again, YUM! I shredded the leftover roast and warmed it and the gravy in my cast iron skillet. I boiled 3 potatoes cut into cubes, drained them and added the leftover baked potato creating 'smashed potatoes'.

I love adding rosemary and garlic to those babies.

Toasted 4 pieces of bread, topped it with the potatoes, then beef and gravy. Added broccoli from my freezer and night 3 is done.

I don't know how much longer I can stretch this, though. Iceberg lettuce only satisfies me so long.

Tonight I may make Upscale Scalloped Potatoes and Ham. My Grampsy cans ham and sends it to me in a care package. I add a secret ingredient to make the dish totally delish!

Or tacos. Or taco salad. I'm in the mood for Mexican.

If I can use my $20 for a family of 5 for 3 nights and counting, maybe you can too! Or maybe you can do even better!

What's your money saving grocery tricks? How do you stretch your groceries? Do tell, because I love to get new ideas!

Hamburger Buns

Really? Yep, really.

Totally off subject, I notice that I talk to myself a lot when I blog. Back to the buns.

After my post on Friday I had a hankering for hamburgers. I'm pretty sure my husband did too. We bought a quarter of a cow this past autumn, so we have plenty of ground beef to make this happen! I don't like to spend money if I don't have to, so I looked in my freezer to figure out if I had something that could work for the buns. I was in luck! Frozen rolls.

Rhode's frozen rolls and breads are fabulous. My grandma makes the best rolls every Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day...pretty much occasion the family gets together for. She uses Rhode's frozen bread dough. Maybe I'll share the recipe with you one day.

So I did the fast thaw method for a dozen rolls. I love leftovers. Back to the buns. Again. So I made the rolls as hamburger buns. My mom asked me why. I said because I had them. Simple enough! They were amazing!!!! Literally, the best tasting hamburger buns ever.

And the best part? They were extremely cheap!!!!! I paid $.99 for a bag of 36. That means each dozen cost $.33. Amazing! And they were delicious! My husband's new favorite. We will never go back to store bought hamburger buns. Unless we have a massive group of people over.

How did I get them for a dollar? Well, pretty simple. The rolls were on sale for $2.99, after my coupon they were less than $1. Here in Tulsa there is a store that doubles coupons up to and including $1. That means a $1 coupon turns into $2 off the product! Their policy can get a bit tricky, so if you're a coupon newbie, keep it simple.

Educate yourself on your local grocery stores' coupon policies. Coupons stretch your budget dollars!!!

Healthy Eating On A Budget

Normally, the two words 'healthy' and 'budget' to not mesh in a sentence. I am not normal, however. So in this post I will make them mesh!

So let's take a look at a 'normal' meal. That usually includes a meat, starch & vegetable (please tell me you include vegetables, I think they're becoming a mythical creature). Great! The cheapest meat is probably ground beef, so we'll make hamburgers with potato fries and green beans. Our ingredients are listed below:

Beef $1.29 for 1 pound
Buns $.49 (.99/2 because it's 2 meals worth in the package)
2 large baking potatoes $1.28
2 cans green beans $1.34

Meal total: $4.41

Not bad at all. Of course that's assuming you have all the condiments in your house. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, oil for the potato fries, butter for the green beans. If not, that can add up.

Let's take a look at the cost of a salad. Don't groan. I can hear your cells crying out for live nutrients from fresh vegetables. Even if those vegetables are covered in a smothering of dressing. Below are the ingredients that I buy for our family when we eat salad:

Lettuce $.90 (Artisan lettuce costs $2.69/3...it really makes 3 meals)
Carrots $.39 ($.79 for a pound we use half)
2 large roma tomatoes $.75
Eggs $.68 (2 eggs each)
Cheese $.50 (half ounce each is great)

Grand total $2.47

Again, if you have to buy dressing, that's another $1 for a cheap bottle on sale. I realize that you can't buy a third of a package of lettuce, a half bag of carrots and a quarter bag of cheese. But we're looking at actual cost here. Triple that and it's $7.50 for 3 meals. That is still a steal!!! And a healthy one at that.

Your intestines are thanking me already ;)

Be creative with your meals. Buy more fresh ingredients. It's not going to hurt the grocery budget as much as you think. Really.