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mama2many
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 6:01am | IP Logged
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OK, I'm new to this whole "BIG FAMILY" thing (and we're still not there by many standards..) I am an only child, dh, only child, and we're expecting #5!!!! WHole new dynamic! LOL
Anyway, how do I make our family standard recipes BIGGER, without making the grocery bill BIGGER!! LOL
a few "back notes".. we don't eat white rice, kids don't "do" beans, mostly we eat chicken, and b/c I had surgery (lap band) I can only eat thin cut boneless skinless chicken breasts!!  It's a weird family set up we have.. we do eat brown rice and quinoa 
Oh, and no mushrooms! LOL
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Krystin
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A (7/10)
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Paula in MN
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 6:22am | IP Logged
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We eat a lot of chicken, and I know it goes farther if I cook it in advance and use chopped up chicken in recipes versus everyone getting a leg or wing or thigh.
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 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 7:50am | IP Logged
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I'm currently reading Miserly Moms
and while the author doesn't have a big family, she address making meals go farther and saving money. I'm finding it helpful.
I've also found that what Paula says in true.
We eat alot of meat that way. Instead of a roast (which we do eat on occasion) it's alot cheaper to cut up the meat, put it in a gravy or sauce and eat it over rice.
I also wanted to say it's tedious, but you can save some money by buying chicken breasts with the skin on and just pulling it off yourself. When I was growing up my mon was on a strict diet and one of my jobs was to de-skin the chicken before we cooked it. I really hated that job, but I got used to it and now it's really no big deal.
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Becky
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 9:32am | IP Logged
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More veg, same amount of meat. Make soups instead of stir-fries or serving it plain to stretch the same ingredients. Serve homemade bread with every meal, it's a good filler...even if you can't eat it, maybe the kids can?
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 11:46am | IP Logged
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cutting meat into smaller pieces.. like in a stir fry.. instead of 1 inch chunks.. dice it up smaller and the meat will spread through out more.. get meat in every bite still but use less.
seasonings!! can't say enough about them.. they add good flavor without costing a huge amount.. and can help the foods to still taste rich without needing lots of meats and such. I can make spaghetti sauce meatless but add a bit of beef bullion to still get that rich beef flavor in it. Or I'll make a sausage gravy going light on the meat but adding the seasonings generally used in breakfast sausage and the gravy still tastes rich even with half the meat you'd otherwise use.
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 1:02pm | IP Logged
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Jodie, my family is so funny. I used to cut up two chicken breasts typically to make a stir fry, a soup, a casserole, whatever. I'd cut it into small pieces thinking it would stretch further. Someone always complained they didn't get enough meat. So I got lazy one day and cut the same amount of meat into bigger slices. Everyone talked about how filling the meal was!  Even though each person only got about two or three strips of meat (maybe 2 or 3 oz total) it just seemed like a bigger amount to them because they could SEE it.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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LeeAnn, I could see that.. I do it differently for different things.. meat that is mixed in anyway seems to work better with smaller pieces.. if I want to do fried chicken.. I'll cut the chicken bl/sl chicken bre@sts into 3 or so pieces.. most everyone still eats about the same amount but they think they've gotten a lot more because there were more pieces
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Growing families... and expanding recipes
