Savage Beatings Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Maybe this belongs in the food forum, but it's more about budget IMO than it is about food, so thought I'd post here... For those of us just beginning to make up weekly meal plans, what are just some real simple ideas for meals? Not looking so much for recipes here, just some basic staples that you make for your meals in your everyday lives. I'll start it off: Breakfast: Cold cereal and milk Lunch: Bologna sandwiches and chips Dinner: Hamburgers and french fries Spaghetti Tacos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untateve Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I tend to may myself a turkey sandwich for lunch. Yogurt with home made granola is a nice side. Dinner: Pasta dishes are good and inexpensive. Tilapia is a cheap fish that one can do a lot with. Chicken can also be inexpensive and one can do a lot of things with chicken. Smoking a pork butt is cheap and easy and makes for lots of sandwiches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Neutron Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Smoking a pork butt is cheap and easy and makes for lots of sandwiches. Yup. Brisket is even more economical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Cid Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I tend to may myself a turkey sandwich for lunch. Yogurt with home made granola is a nice side. Dinner: Pasta dishes are good and inexpensive. Tilapia is a cheap fish that one can do a lot with. Chicken can also be inexpensive and one can do a lot of things with chicken. Smoking a pork butt is cheap and easy and makes for lots of sandwiches. Yup. Brisket is even more economical. As a bonus, both a brisket and a pork butt will be scads healthier for you than the processed lunch meat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egret Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Chick peas for lunch. I can make a mean Mediterranean chick pea salad. A lot of weeks, I'll make my own hummus and buy a bag of pita bread for lunch. Then I'll have one and a half loaves with hummus for lunch. Some weeks I'll make it into a wrap with sliced peppers, onion, parsley, and a few other spices or veggies. It's healthy and it fills me up enough. Breakfast is either oatmeal or the wrap that whomper posted about a few months ago. Dinner is tougher as my wife is a picky eater. My son eats typical kid foods. While he likes to go out to eat, he's just as happy eating a PBJ with dad while watching Backyardigans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hat Trick Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 For breakfast, cereal everyday except weekends. For lunch I pretty much eat the same thing everyday, turkey sammich with one slice of cheese and mustard; cottage cheese with celery and a banana. Too many to post, my wife is a Pampered Chef rep, and has every cookbook they have published. She usually goes through them and mon-thurs she decides on 30 min meals, the rest of the week is fair game and she selects whatever recipes that we want to eat. Meal planning is a great idea and when we started this a couple years ago it really helps with healthy eating and only buying what you need at the store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheikYerbuti Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 One thing I learned when living in Washington Heights: Dominicans know how to do breakfast right. 2 scrambled eggs, yellow rice and black beans and a cup of caffe con leche. It's about 50 cents worth of ingredients and it's AWESOME. Dominican food is all about taking cheap ingredients and making them delicious and enough to feed a large family. Oh, I also love making soups when I'm in the mood to be economical. A bag of Goya 16 bean soup mix, some soup greens and maybe a smoked ham hock and you've got hearty lunch for a week for about $3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 at work..... will respond later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar Magnolia Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 One thing I learned when living in Washington Heights: Dominicans know how to do breakfast right. 2 scrambled eggs, yellow rice and black beans and a cup of caffe con leche. It's about 50 cents worth of ingredients and it's AWESOME. Dominican food is all about taking cheap ingredients and making them delicious and enough to feed a large family. Oh, I also love making soups when I'm in the mood to be economical. A bag of Goya 16 bean soup mix, some soup greens and maybe a smoked ham hock and you've got hearty lunch for a week for about $3. I was just staying with a friend who is barely making ends meet. She eats a lot of lentils for breakfast. She recently fixed me spiced green lentils with a poached egg on top. It was really quite good. You can make a batch of lentils and keep in the fridge. In fact, she got it from a vegetarian cookbook and I just ran out and bought the cookbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Red beans & rice w/ garlic bread or spicy beans and corn bread--gotta good recipe for those beans spaghetti is always cheap and good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billay Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 (edited) Nice thread Savage. This is one area where my family has been able to save considerably. Working in a restaurant (wife and I both) has really come in handy. I used to buy hummus at the grocery store. Once things started getting tight i realize I could make it for a fraction of the cost. A general rule I heard years ago has really come in handy. Treat the grocery store like a U turn. Only buy products on the outside isle of the store, pratically everything down the isles is both essentially useless and expensive, at the very least, it's prepackaged. As you work your way through produce, butcher, & dairy, you can get just about everything you need. Sure, things like cereal and coffee are necessary, but try and buy raw materials, not prepackaged stuff. Learn to make some basics. Mashed potatoes for example. A bag of spuds is so much cheaper, (and easy to make) than a similar prepackaged single serving. Steaming vegetables takes the same time as throwing something in the microwave. A favorite meal of ours is roasted chicken. Throw some cut potatoes, onions, carrots, cherry tomatoes, broccoli (whatever veggies you have lying around) in a bowl with a touch of salt and pepper and olive oil. Rub a small roaster chicken (or larger for a big family)with salt, pepper, (maybe a bit of sage or thyme) and olive oil. Spread the veggies around the chicken and roast for an hour on 425. (lbetter if you can do it for 1.5 or 2 hours on 350, but I understand often time is a constraint) The meal will last for 2 days and honestly, it cost about 10 bucks total. Some basics in your kitchen that assist in good cooking: olive oil spices (Don;t buy a bunch at once, as they do tend to be a touch pricey, but every time you go to the grocery store, get a new spice) sage, thyme, garlic, kosher salt (not iodized) white and black pepper) we love herbes de provence cook with onions, garlic, and shallotes white and red wine (cheap wine is great for cooking!) Some of these things seem expensive, but when you are trading out raw materials for prepackaged crap, you are really saving money in the long run, and quite frankly, eating much better and healthier. Edited October 10, 2008 by billay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar Magnolia Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Nice thread Savage. This is one area where my family has been able to save considerably. Working in a restaurant (wife and I both) has really come in handy. I used to buy hummus at the grocery store. Once things started getting tight i realize I could make it for a fraction of the cost. A general rule I heard years ago has really come in handy. Treat the grocery store like a U turn. Only buy products on the outside isle of the store, pratically everything down the isles is both essentially useless and expensive, at the very least, it's prepackaged. As you work your way through produce, butcher, & dairy, you can get just about everything you need. Sure, things like cereal and coffee are necessary, but try and buy raw materials, not prepackaged stuff. Learn to make some basics. Mashed potatoes for example. A bag of spuds is so much cheaper, (and easy to make) than a similar prepackaged single serving. Steaming vegetables takes the same time as throwing something in the microwave. A favorite meal of ours is roasted chicken. Throw some cut potatoes, onions, carrots, cherry tomatoes, broccoli (whatever veggies you have lying around) in a bowl with a touch of salt and pepper and olive oil. Rub a small roaster chicken (or larger for a big family)with salt, pepper, (maybe a bit of sage or thyme) and olive oil. Spread the veggies around the chicken and roast for an hour on 425. (lbetter if you can do it for 1.5 or 2 hours on 350, but I understand often time is a constraint) The meal will last for 2 days and honestly, it cost about 10 bucks total. Some basics in your kitchen that assist in good cooking: olive oil spices (Don;t buy a bunch at once, as they do tend to be a touch pricey, but every time you go to the grocery store, get a new spice) sage, thyme, garlic, kosher salt (not iodized) white and black pepper) we love herbes de provence cook with onions, garlic, and shallotes white and red wine (cheap wine is great for cooking!) Some of these things seem expensive, but when you are trading out raw materials for prepackaged crap, you are really saving money in the long run, and quite frankly, eating much better and healthier. Kind of on the same lines, I made a quiche last night and instead of buying the frozen like I have been doing, I made my own crust. I haven't made a crust in about 15 years. It cost about 25 cents instead of $2 and it turned out fun to make and so much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Neutron Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Cooking from scratch isn't as cheap as it used to be, but it will still save money. I've tried "market" shopping when on health kicks and it works great - shopping daily for fresh whatever strikes your mood. I need to get back to that for a number of reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheikYerbuti Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I used to buy hummus at the grocery store. Once things started getting tight i realize I could make it for a fraction of the cost. Totally. . .hummus is such a racket. A 50 cent can of chick peas a few shots of olive oil half a garlic clove squeeze of lemon juice some water to get the consistency you like Crank in the food processor until yummy Done for about a buck. The same exact amount of the same exact product in the store is $4.50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Neutron Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Totally. . .hummus is such a racket. A 50 cent can of chick peas a few shots of olive oil half a garlic clove squeeze of lemon juice some water to get the consistency you like Crank in the food processor until yummy Done for about a buck. The same exact amount of the same exact product in the store is $4.50. I'll have to experiment with this - never had hummus I liked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoopazz Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 cereal for breakfast cant be beat. I also will boil a batch of eggs to take to work and have with a slice of good bread. We eat alot of soup for lunch. Homemade or chicken noodle with PBJ or tomato with grilled cheese are good and cheap. Dinners I'll agree are best if planned for the week. We always make enough of whatever we're having for leftovers. We only cook every other day or so. Saves alot. Pasta dishes with grown veggies are good, or just throw in a hot dog in Prego sauce. We always have a good fresh bread around to work with just about anything. My family are tuna fans, so you can do a simple sammich or a cheesy melt. Then on weekends, we do up good wholesome meals, with lots of taters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billay Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Totally. . .hummus is such a racket. A 50 cent can of chick peas a few shots of olive oil half a garlic clove squeeze of lemon juice some water to get the consistency you like Crank in the food processor until yummy Done for about a buck. The same exact amount of the same exact product in the store is $4.50. Don;t forget the tahini! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 in a nutshell, starches are inexpensive, filling, hold well over time, and very tasty. proteins: chicken, pork, some fish, and tougher cuts of beef are less expensive. i have np buying frozen shrimp for home. find yourself some cookbooks with simple, easy to find ingredients and you'll be fine in avoiding boredomn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egret Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Totally. . .hummus is such a racket. A 50 cent can of chick peas a few shots of olive oil half a garlic clove squeeze of lemon juice some water to get the consistency you like Crank in the food processor until yummy Done for about a buck. The same exact amount of the same exact product in the store is $4.50. Tahini, salt, pepper, and cumin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montster Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 at work..... will respond later in a nutshell, starches are inexpensive, filling, hold well over time, and very tasty. proteins: chicken, pork, some fish, and tougher cuts of beef are less expensive. i have np buying frozen shrimp for home. find yourself some cookbooks with simple, easy to find ingredients and you'll be fine in avoiding boredomn. that's what we waited five hours for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 that's what we waited five hours for? he knows where to find me for recipes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheikYerbuti Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 tougher cuts of beef are less expensive. Watch for sales! I got a whole beef tenderloin at my local supermarket for $4/pound. I did have to trim it up a bit myself and take off the silver skin. But it's worth it when you wind up with 11 good sized filet mignons and about a pound of chain meat for $25. That's a little over $2 per filet!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Watch for sales! I got a whole beef tenderloin at my local supermarket for $4/pound. I did have to trim it up a bit myself and take off the silver skin. But it's worth it when you wind up with 11 good sized filet mignons and about a pound of chain meat for $25. That's a little over $2 per filet!! there are always going to be sales. generally speaking you are going to save buying rump, shoulder, skirt, flank instead of filet, ribeye, NY, t-bone, porterhouse, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skilly Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 The more you can stay away from the prepackaged stuff, the better. Not only is it expensive, but those kinds of items are usually loaded with sugar and salt. Your body doesn't need or want that. Chicken and Tuna are still fairly cheap options for your protein source. We will buy 3 or 4 packs of chicken and then use it in different ways throughout a 2 week period. I'll have tuna 2 or 3 times a week at lunch with some fruit. Prices for food have generally gone way up in the last year. I am buying the same amount of food now and spending up to $40 more each trip. I try to use coupons the best I can, and it's worth it to check out the online coupon offers (although the selection of coupons that you will actually use can be slim). Rice is still fairly cheap, and spaghetti or other types of pasta. Potatoes are a great staple food, and apples and carrots. I always have apples and carrots on hand, because they are nutritious and have a long shelf life. I don't have to worry about them going bad if I don't eat them in a week. Actually, my biggest complaint when I go shopping is all the other crap you have to buy, like TP, paper towels, razor blades (don't get me started on the price of freaking razor blades!) and cleaning supplies. Sometimes I look in the cart and think to myself, "Jeez, where is the actual food?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egret Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Actually, my biggest complaint when I go shopping is all the other crap you have to buy, like TP, paper towels, razor blades (don't get me started on the price of freaking razor blades!) and cleaning supplies. Sometimes I look in the cart and think to myself, "Jeez, where is the actual food?" I use a disposable two blade. I use shaving oil and nice shaving cream. It works better than the expensive blades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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