Recipes

So far, I've found it daunting to serve meals that are 1) cheap 2) nutritious 3) are meals, rather than a collection of ingredients on the same plate. If you look at what we've eaten, most of our dinners are protein, starch, vegetable. Little has required an actual recipe or involved multiple ingredients. I tested the frugal waters with last night's Lower-fat Chicken Divan. It tasted good, didn't cost a lot and the boys ate it. So tonight I got creative again. I also decided that if I was faced with permanently living on a $400 monthly budget, I would still have my spice rack and I should use it. I decided that for every meal that I use spices from my existing supply, I should charge myself a 50 cent "Spice fee." I can't imagine a way to measure and price a dash and a pinch, so I want to be fair, but also encourage myself to try some of the recipes that I've found.

I have gotten a lot of great recommendations for low-price meals, and I definitely will try to make my own stock and chicken soup in the next week. I will update this post with recipes as I find them and I hope you'll share recipes for me to try.

Braised Carrots --From the Joy of Cooking
Since Grant is too young to eat raw carrots, this is a simple, delicious, and great way to use up any half-used bags of carrots in the refrigerator. I don't even think it matters if the carrots are old and dry looking because they're cooked in water which should rehydrate them! I used a bag of baby carrots, 1 Tbsp. margarine, and 1 Tbsp. brown sugar. Cost of the entire dish was $1.11

1 pound carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into sticks (or a bag of baby carrots)
1/2 C. water or stock
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 tsp. sugar or brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Simmer, covered over medium heat until the carrots are tender, 15-20 minutes. Then uncover for a few minutes more. If you want, add chopped fresh parsley, chervil, tarragon or thyme and ground black pepper to taste

Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Banana
This combo sounds more like a Stage 2 Gerber meal than "people food," but it is pretty good, and Grant devoured it. Rachel Ray and Paula Deen have delicious-sounding full-fat recipes that would make any Thanksgiving table proud, but here is my lower-fat, lower-cost version.

4 sweet potatoes
1 banana
Juice of one orange, and zest of one orange
1 Tbsp. margarine
1 Tbsp. sour cream
1 ounce milk
salt and pepper to taste
Nutmeg, cardamom, and clove to taste

Peel and cube potatoes and place in a pot of salted water. Bring water to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes, depending on size of potato pieces. Drain potatoes and put back in warm pot. Add orange juice and mash together until liquid is almost absorbed. Add peeled banana, orange zest, margarine and sour cream. Mash together. Add milk if mixture isn't creamy. Season with salt, pepper and spices to taste.

5 Bean Taco Soup
I learned this recipe years ago at a Weight Watcher's meeting. I have made this many times for friends and family and it is SO easy to make, really delicious, healthy and it makes a gigantic quantity of soup tso the cost per serving is very low. The hardest part of this recipie is opening all of the cans! We will be having this next week.

5 undrained cans of any bean (I always use 2 cans of black beans)
2 undrained cans of diced tomatoes
1 undrained can of corn
1 envelope of Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing powder
1 envelope of McCormick taco powder

Pour all cans into a big pot, pour in both envelopes of powder. Stir and let simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Cool slightly and serve! The soup can be "dressed up" with cheese, sour cream, taco chips, etc., but add-ons may deminish the low-fatness of the soup and raise the cost.

Easy Corn Muffins
I have grossly underestimated the wonders that can come out of a Jiffy Corn Muffin mix! I made super-cheap corn muffins that were delicious and while it's not the sweet, dense-as-a-cake cornbread that I remember from my college days, I will definitely make it again and again.

Basically, follow the instructions on the side of the Jiffy Corn Muffin mix but add either 1/4 Cup canned corn or 1/4 Cup creamed corn to the batter. Make sure to let the batter sit for a few minutes before re-stirring it and dividing it into 8 muffin liners. Bake according to box instructions and enjoy! Entire websites are devoted to the recipes that can be made with Jiffy boxed mixes, all of which should be budget-friendly, so Jiffy should definitely be a part of your thrifty pantry.

Here's what we ate today

Breakfast
- S 2 Servings of cereal with 4ounces of Milk, Orange
- KC&G Oatmeal with Brown sugar
- C&G Milk
Total $0.80

Lunch
- SKC&G 1/2 can of leftover mushroom soup, 1/2 can of leftover chicken soup, 20 Crackers, 3 ounces of cheese, 2 string cheese, 12 ounces of milk and 2 oranges
- C&G String cheese, leftover carrots and milk
Total $1.39

Dinner
- SKC&G pork chops, mashed sweet potatoes with bananas, apple sauce
- $0.50 "spice fee"
- C&G Milk
Total $5.70

Dessert/ Snack
- C&G Banana & milk
- S&K Cookies
Total $0.53

Total Spend $8.42

Tomorrow, Eating without an Ego

What we used to eat

At various times in our lives, Scott and I have been healthy eaters. We've run marathons, and climbed mountains, and lost pounds and pounds and pounds. And we've been unhealthy eaters. We've binged and drank and lay on couches and gained pounds and pounds and pounds. Healthy eaters: huge, delicious salads with raisins and fun greens and every imaginable item of produce, including both hearts of palm and hearts of artichokes. Unhealthy eaters: Donuts after midnight, Whoppers with fries after midnight and nary a vegetable to be seen, unless you count ketchup. Neither of these eating styles pays any regard to the food's cost.

So, we've eaten everything and now it's time to reflect on the days when our food budget was fat. Those days aren't so long ago, less than a week actually, so it's easy for me to remember exactly what we used to eat.

Breakfast. Scott would have a huge bowl of cereal, swimming in milk. We have special "Scott cereal bowls" that hold 20 ounces. And we would buy the good stuff. Scott loves Frosted Mini-Wheats and while we would generally stock up on them when they were on sale, he would eat 1/4 of the box in a single serving. Connor lived for Pop-tarts and Grant was learning to love them too. Connor would generally eat 2, Grant 1, they'd split a banana and wash it all down with milk. I would generally eat a bagel slathered with both butter and cream cheese and milk in a glass that was so giant that it was a pint if it was an ounce. Man, with all of the carbs we were eating, how did we have the energy to do anything? Never mind the cost, $0.75 for cereal, $0.60 for Pop-Tarts, $0.50 for bagel with fixin's and about $0.80 for milk. wow!

Lunch. Scott comes home for lunch sometimes, so let's pretend this is one of those days. Scott might bring home McDonalds, he passes 2 on his way from the office. Connor and Grant would share a Happy Meal (chicken nuggets with apples) and Scott and I would order salads and sandwiches from the Dollar Menu and share an order of fries. Scott and I would drink soda while the boys would have milk. That's financially sensible, right? Wrong! At about $12 per lunch, that's more than our current daily budget. And what's with all of the fat? Oink! Oink! Other lunchtime favorites include: corn dogs with pretzels, the BOSS (but with potato chips and coleslaw) chicken strips with an assortment of cut fruit and several expensive kinds of dipping sauces, and even Lean Cuisines. At $2.50 per boxed meal, the only thing getting lean is our wallet.

Dinner. I am actually a pretty decent cook. Or at least, I can follow directions well. Especially those printed on the side of a box. I rarely buy expensive cuts of meat, we're definitely a pork chop & chicken breast family. So let's pretend you're visiting us for dinner. Here's what you'd be served (and my apologies to everyone whose ever eaten at my house and been served this, it's my favorite thing to make because it's hard to screw up): pork chops, Rice-a-Roni and some kind of vegetable (peas or beans.) And of course, I'd have made some kind of dessert like apple crumble, homemade cookies or ice cream with a homemade fruit sauce. Another thing I would sometimes do for dinner was I head to Trader Joe's without a grocery list and select something we hadn't eaten for a while. That's never cheap because I'm buying an entree, matching side dishes and condiments along with countless other unplanned purchases like dark chocolate bars, starfruit and wines with funny-looking labels. Eating like this cost us about $8 per day, with another $3 for dessert.

So our average daily food spend was about $25.65, or just under $800 per month. Seeing it all in it's fatty, greasy, sugary, spendy glory is nauseating, and since our spending is on par with the average American family, I can only imagine that our plates aren't too different from those of other families. But here it is, warts and all. Rather, here it was, because I can do and will do better for my family, financially and healthfully.

Scott went to Chicago today so he packed a lunch. But, here's what we ate today:

Breakfast
- S&K Oatmeal with brown sugar
- C Yogurt, 1/2 banana, some of Mommy's oatmeal, milk
- G Cereal, 1/2 banana some of Mommy's oatmeal, milk
$1.12

Lunch
- S (in Chicago for the day) a piece of bread, orange, pasta with peas and sauce, cereal for a snack
- KC&G can of Lentil soup and crackers, milk for the boys
- G also ate a string cheese
$2.20

Snack
- K had tea, G had milk, and we fed each other cereal
$0.14

Dinner
- SKC&G hamburger patties, cheese, peas and homemade sweet potato oven fries served with ketchup and salad dressing.
- C&G had milk
$4.75

Dessert
- C&G had 3 cookies each
- S&K had 2 servings of cereal each
- S had tea
$0.49

Total for the day $8.72

I think I need to try and push more fruit tomorrow, it seems like we ate a lot of cereal today.

Tomorrow, It really tastes as good.