Growing up, my mom was always very frugal. She was a stay at home mom working with one salary and was a whiz at taking a little and making it go a long way! Once I was old enough she taught me everything she knew about bargain shopping and stretching food to make it last. It takes a lot of creativity and planning and a little extra effort, but the end result feels really good!
Several things that have helped me keep within our budget and still eat healthy are buying in bulk (Sams Club), buying less to no “convenience” food (granola bars, frozen dinners, frozen garlic bread, things like that), and buying dried beans and grains, all the way down to the coffee (beware, once you start grinding your own coffee you won’t go back to pre-ground! It’s so much fresher!) 🙂
I really like buying meat in bulk, after a shopping trip I usually throw it all in the freezer till I need it, then pull it out, thaw it, cook all of it at once and freeze what I don’t use in ziplock bags to just pull out next time I need it. It saves me some time and effort the next time I really don’t feel like making a huge production out of cooking dinner!
For chicken I usually don’t cook a whole pack at once, after I thaw it and take what I need for that night I put each piece (I usually get breast meat) into a ziplock bag and freeze them like that. The individual breasts usually thaw quickly when you pull them out of the freezer and put the bag into a bowl of hot water.
You can do the same thing with beans! I like keeping beans on hand to throw in soup and rice dishes, they add bulk and protein and kids usually love them! Just soak a bag of beans in water overnight, in the morning dump them into a colander, rinse, and pick out any crummy looking ones. Boil them covered either in water or chicken broth for 45 minutes to an hour till they get tender. After they cool put them into ziplock bags and freeze!
A couple of cheap, super easy meals I make with pre-cooked ground beef or ground turkey are:
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Taco salad (mix meat with some taco powder, serve with corn chips, salad greens, tomatoes, salsa, cheese, sour cream, hot sauce)
Mexican bean and rice bowls (toss meat with hot cooked brown rice, add corn and beans, cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, some taco powder if you want. My hubby likes to eat his with chips, salsa, and hot sauce)
Chili
Here are a few easy chicken dishes I make:
Chicken noodle soup (put one or two frozen chicken breast pieces into a pot of water, cover and boil till their done, take them out and chop them up, put them back into the pot of water, add chopped onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and whatever other spices you want, simmer until the veggies are done and add any kind of dried pasta, cook till the pasta is done and enjoy!)
Chicken stir fry (cut a chicken breast into strips, saute in butter or olive oil, add a package of frozen mixed veggies, garlic, powdered ginger, soy sauce. Serve over rice)
Chicken salad (saute sliced chicken breast in butter with onions and green peppers, serve on a bed of salad greens with cheese, dressing, and a side of pasta)
A lot of different kinds of vegetables are freezer friendly as well, green peppers are my favorite! I wash, seed, and chop them, spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze them, then store them in ziplock bags. My hubby likes to throw them in his omelets, I like to throw them into spaghetti sauce and saute them with onions and butter and chicken to put on top of my salads. You can freeze them chopped or sliced, I usually freeze some both ways for different things.
The money that I save by buying less conventional foods usually goes towards fresh produce and healthier snack stuff. I always have salad greens in my fridge, along with yogurt, berries, apples, bananas, oranges, carrots, and whatever other fruit may be on sale that week. I’ve found that if the only things I have to offer my daughter are healthy then the less picky she is generally. If it isn’t in the house then it isn’t an option, and it works out for the whole family!
Let me know if you have questions or would like me to post about a certain topic concerning this! 🙂
~amy
dedicatedhousewives 