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joann10
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| Posted: July 13 2010 at 8:45pm | IP Logged
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I desperately need very low cost meal ideas for my crowd. No one is a bean eater---so the lowest cost item is "off the table".
It is also so hard to find healthy cheap food choices, even the local farmers markets and farms stands are priced so that enough for a large family is often out of my price range.
I know this has been delved into before, but it is getting a little desperate around here.
God Bless,
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dinasiano
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| Posted: July 13 2010 at 8:58pm | IP Logged
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Joann,
We like potatoes,peppers and eggs. I just slice potatoes and fry them and then make sort of a frittata with the eggs. You could add a salad with it.
I like eggs with just about anything! You could make eggs with almost any veggie and add potatoes or rice to bulk it up.
Another favorite is macaroni pie: boil spaghetti and add eggs and cheese, salt and pepper. It can be made in the oven or on top of the stove in a frying pan.
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Bridget
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| Posted: July 13 2010 at 9:02pm | IP Logged
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I have been throwing lentils in with my sloppy joe meat and pasta sauce to extend the meat and add more protein. They can tell it's there but no one minds the texture.
I buy whole milk and water it down. That's cheaper than powdered milk.
The chicken leg quarters are the cheapest and they work well for soups, stews and stirfrys. Ground turkey in the frozen bullets is good deal too.
Instead of deli meat make egge or tuna salad, good for hot days.
Have you seen this menu for hard times? Even if you don't follow the menu, it's a helpful primer in frugal cooking.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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joann10
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| Posted: July 13 2010 at 9:24pm | IP Logged
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Eggs are a popular food around here,they are probably my most used food item...and Bridget, I will definetely be reading the "menu for hard times" site. It looks very interesting and helpful.
I also have two very underweight little children and it is hard to get enough calories into them when money is tight.... What are some good snack ideas? Snacks are needed for my littles...
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Bridget
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| Posted: July 13 2010 at 9:32pm | IP Logged
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That's stressful.
Snacks here are fruit in the morning. I just get the cheap bags of apples and whatever is in season, which is usually the lowest price per pound.
In the afternoon snacks are cheese or PB on saltines, nachos or popcorn. Unless Monica or I bake. 
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: July 13 2010 at 11:09pm | IP Logged
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if you use a stronger flavor cheese you can add less cheese and still get good cheese flavor.
broth/bullion can increase your meat flavor with less meat.. like in speghetti sauce.. my dh doesn't like me to cut down too much on the amount of hamburger in it because it loses the meat flavor.. so I still use less but I add a bit of beef bullion and we're both happy. 
If I make sausage gravy for breakfast.. I use the spicy sausage and seasonings and can use less meat and have a good flavored gravy.
Speaking of which.. if you do broth gravies rather than cream gravy.. you can stretch meat by making a gravy with the meat chopped up in the gravy and serve over your "cheap food" whether it's biscuits/bread or rice or potatoes.
Peanut butter is a great snack.. it has the fats and proteins to fill up on.. you can put it on crackers, bread/toast, apple slices, bananas, celery..
in highly seasoned things potatoes can also extend meat.. for instance a small dice of potatoes with hamburger will work for taco or burrito filling.
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Veronica
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| Posted: July 14 2010 at 12:16am | IP Logged
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Will they eat 3/4 ground beef and 1/4 refried pinto beans? I make cheesy beef & bean burritos (ground beef, refried pinto beans, taco seasoning and cheese all mixed together in a flour tortilla). I have a couple of kids who don't like beans but never notice when I do the above combo.
They also don't know that I do a 50/50 combo with my enchilads. 
Mac & cheese (homemade or box) with a pound of ground beef, one can of cream of mushroom (or homemade) and a can of milk. Mix it all together and bake in oven till it gets all bubbly.
You can do the same with tuna... Mac & cheese, a can of tuna, cream of mushroom and milk.
To stretch a jar or two of spaghetti sauce, add a can of tomato sauce (small can for one jar, large can for two jars) and sprinkle in some Italian seasoning.
I have a friend who makes a hearty potato salad... Lots of eggs, potatoes, some bacon and all the other potato salad ingredients. It's very yummy and very filling.
We drink a lot of smoothies around here... Lots of ice helps to stretch it.
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Pilgrim
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| Posted: July 15 2010 at 3:43pm | IP Logged
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For Fridays we do three different tuna meals taht everyone here loves. Tuna casserole(I do stove-top to save on propane, and takes less time than the way we made it when I was a kid): cooked macaroni noodles, add cream of mushroom soup and half the milk, tuna, and peas. Then the second one is Cream Tuna on Toast: just cream of mushroom soup diluted less, and tuna added. Some like it over their toast some like it with their toast on the side. The other favorite tuna meal is noodles with sauteed onions, canned tomatoes, tuna, a little cheese, and italian seasoning.
Oh another great one everyone here loves is Hamburger Noodles: cook macaroni noodle; at the same time brown hamburger or ground turkey(we've come to almost prefer ground turkey here), onions, green peppers, and a can of mushrooms. When noodles are done throw it all together, add some broth or boillion broth, and seasonings. My daughter cheers when I tell here this is for supper. Oh, and if there's enough cheese around we sprinkle a little cheese on it.
Will they eat baked beans with extras added? My Grandma always made what she dubbed Camper's Delight: ground meat browned, add beaked beans, BBQ sauce, ketchup, and brown sugar all to taste. Another fgavorite meal around here.
Shepherd's pie: Ground meat, veggies, cream of mushroom soup in a pie plate or casserole dish topped with mashed potatoes. Bake until bubly at sides, or golden on peaks of potatoes. Another favorite around here. Another one I do stove-top lately.
Poor Man's Steak:prepare ahead, usually uses a slow cooker, but if you don't have one, I have done it stove top when in a hurry, or baked low heat in the oven for the sauce portion. 1 - 1 1/2 lbs. ground meat, 1 c. milk, 1/4 t pepper, 1 t. salt, 1 small onion finely chopped, 1 c. cracker crumbs, 1 t. brown sugar. Mix above ingred, make into loaf and refrigerate at least 8 hrs. Slice and fry. Place cooked meat in slow cooker or casserole. Dilute one can cream of mushrrom soupo and pour over. In slow cooker cook on low 2-3 hrs. This is one of dh's favorites.
Chicken Broccoli Casserole: Chicken(cooked), cream of mushroom soup, cooked broccoli, throw it in a casseorole dish, sprinkle with parmesan or mozzerla cheese, and almonds(opt.) Another one I often do on stovetop lately.
I got a book I like, Cheap, Fast, Good, on amazon cheap, and it had lots of ideas for meals and shopping. It's a really nice cookbook. I found it funny and encouraging that their low cost meal planning and shopping was quite a bit more expensive that our food budget, but we find that all over, us mom's on a single income family budget can really stretch the budget!
Our kids like peanut butter on crackers, too. They also really like peanut butter bread or toast with applesauce on it.
I love some of the ideas on how to use less and still add flavor! And the whole milk watered down is an excellent idea. Most of us drink 1% or skim anyway and that makes so much sense to just get one gallon instead of two and wtaer it down.
It can get frustrating when all the cookbooks seem to use way more expensive ingredients than we typically have on hand.
I know how difficult trying to satisfy a hungry crew with a small budget can be. My Mom is an expert on stretching meat, my Dad and brothers like to tease about trying to find meat in a meal, but I stand amazed at the delicious meals she makes on a tight budget!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: July 15 2010 at 6:31pm | IP Logged
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Look for depression era cookbooks.. or WWII cookbooks.. they'll often give the recipe and then substitutions or alterations if you don't have a particular ingredient (like one that was rationed during the war)
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mamasue
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| Posted: July 15 2010 at 6:39pm | IP Logged
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Can't link it but one of my favorite recipes for feeding a lage crowd is at www.melskitchencafe.com- search for the stovetop chili mac. Use less meat more noodles to cut cost and you can leave out the green chiles since they are a litlle expensive
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: July 15 2010 at 9:20pm | IP Logged
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Cooking with Clara...take a look at YouTube. She also has a cookbook (Clara's Kitchen, check the library...chapter three is titled "It's a hot meal...stop complaining") but I think most of her best Depression-era recipes are on youtube. Look especially for "Pasta and Peas," "Poorman's Feast," "Potatoes and Eggs."
You can make numerous filling meals from those foods & ingredients:
bread
Pasta
rice
oats
Eggs
Potatoes
hot dogs
ground beef
frozen vegetables
tomato sauce
olive oil
a bit of cheese, esp. Parmesan in a can
condiments of choice: ketchup, etc.
For me the challenge is making hot-weather food. It's easy to make a tasty (and cheap) vegetable soup with homemade bread, but not so easy to be excited about it when it's 80+ outside.
Most families 100 years ago, unless they were well off, had plain bread and milk, bread and cheese, or bread and coffee for two of three meals a day. The family meal (either dinner or supper, that is, the evening meal or noon meal) would have the only meat of the day, if there was any, and usually in a stew or soup to make it go farther. If not bread, then oats or other grain, usually cooked into a porridge. There is no reason we cannot eat this way again when the food budget is really tight. It is simple, filling, nutritious (esp. if homemade bread, whole grains, etc) and cheap.
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4 lads mom
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| Posted: July 16 2010 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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You know, it makes me feel better in a backwards kind of way  that this is one reason why food allergies are so expensive!!!! My kids can’t eat beans, chicken, turkey, dairy, tree nuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, oats, fresh fruit and vegs...and some soy.....when I see what everyone’s cheap foods are...they are often things that are off limits to us! Thank goodness for potatoes and rice!!!
Now that I have added a little whine  one thing I like to fix, Joann, is hamburger with a can of diced tomatoes, frozen corn and sauteed green peppers and onions, I add in macaroni and some water to cook it all in the skillet...I am sure that is just a variation of what everyone else has said....but with pepper and a tiny bit of red pepper flakes....it is always a hit!
As far as getting calories in to the skinnies....which I have a lot of experience with that one....we have added Carnation Instant Breakfast to my skinny guy’s milk...that was before we had our littles with diary allergies.....and we added pats of butter to their macaroni....or whatever they were eating...frozen vegs etc...
While my kids can’t do beans, they do okay with lentils....are lentils okay for you all if you put them in with pastas?? They are so good for you, and cheap....
Snacks...do you have a popcorn popper?? That would be good, air popped popcorn, that you can add calories with the littles’ serving. You could make kettle corn pretty easily, I’ve found recipes online...
I’m praying for you, dear Joann!!! I sure wish we all lived closer, you would be on my list of friends to stop in on today and give you a big hug and a pot of something yummy!
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Cheapest meals to feed a crowd
