Frugal dinners...

[bookworm]

Ladies, I am in need of some good, frugal dinner ideas. Our grocery budget is not enough anymore, but the income hasn't increased to keep up with inflation (big shock, I know). Any ideas, recipes, suggestions?? I have been reading about TVP-- anyone have any experience using it? Is it good, easy to work with and easy to hide in food? Is it worth the trouble of finding it? Thanks!!

[natickgirl]

My experience with tvp has been not good. It's quite icky, even when disguised. Your best bet would be to try to use beans, lentils, etc. as much as possible for protein substitutes. For example, we've made sloppy joes with lentils before, and it is almost as good. Tacos might work with lentils, too. You can also omit the expensive meat in things like fajitas (use black or pinto beans), soups, lasagna (cottage cheese & egg has protein), chili, etc.. Just add lots of veggies, if they're not too expensive.

Food is so much more expensive now than it was 5 years ago. Combine that with growing kids = bigger appetites and it's no wonder food budgets are going through the roof.

[Dia Minha]

I have never tried TVP. I even had to look it up to see what it was. If you are looking for cheap protein I would say beans, beans, beans. We love beans, especially black and pinto. I have also heard, but never tried wheat berries added to hamburger to make it stretch. Wheat berries is just whole wheat soaked in water overnight. The kernel swells up and can be cooked while browning hambuger or popped like popcorn. I actually need to try that one. I have tasted both before, but have never cooked them.

Ways we use beans include adding pinto beans to hamburger for tacos and black beans with left over roast for beef fajitas. I have even added a can of beans to canned soup to stretch a can of soup on nights we just need a quick meal for a few of us.

We also love eggs. We aren't really meat eaters. Most of our budget goes to buying fresh and frozen fruits and veggies and cereal. My first step to cutting our budget is cereal. We don't buy the kinds I would like to have on hand, because they are so expensive, so we buy the MOM honey nut cheerios, puffed wheat, and frosted shredded wheat which are all high in sugar. I would love to do more hot cereals and eggs and whole wheat toast and the like, but my kids just really like the cereal.

If I come up with any more ideas I'll let you know. This is something I have been wanting to work on as well, so I'm excited to see what others have to say.

[5ft Diva]

What is your definition of frugal? How much $/person/meal?

[Erudite]

Stop buying meat. We did that about two years ago and while you do need to eat veggies in meat's place, veggies are cheaper than meat. (I think...I haven't bought meat in two years, so I don't know what it costs.)

I do second Dia's suggestion on adding wheat to meat. I've never done wheat berries, but back when I did eat meat, I often did cooked cracked wheat with my taco meat. Now I add cracked wheat to my chili beans, which have to be the most economical food on the planet.

Also, look for bulk sources of stuff that stores well. Like I buy the big orange boxes of potatoes and apples because they keep a long time in my cold storage room. #10 cans from the dry pack cannery are going to be a whole lot cheaper than anything else and the possibilities are endless in saving money if you work to make your own of stuff like granola, chili beans, etc.

Finally, it's January...time to be thinking about making a serious garden plan, so that your garden can feed you and provide you with preservable food for next winter. I'm thinking this year, I'd like to try thinking through my menu and attempting to grow stuff that I can preserve and then use throughout the year. Like we eat a lot of potatoes, but I've never grown them. And salad...we eat a ton of salad, but the lettuce I've grown in the past is wimpy and often bitter. I'd like to learn how to do lettuce (and cucumbers!) well.

So it's been a bit since you posted. Have you found any good ideas that you'd like to share? I'd love more ideas!

[Dia Minha]

Yea! So good to see you E!

I just wanted to share with you what I learned about growing lettuce. Lettuce is a cool weather crop. Once the temperatures start rising, it will turn bitter. It is the heat that turns it bitter. The first year we did lettuce, I didn't know this and we tried to continue eating the lettuce well into 70 and 80 degree weather. It was bitter, but I thought it was just supposed to be that way. I have a cousin that constructed a mesh tent over her lettuce box. This gives the crop a little shade and keeps it cooler, while still allowing some sun through for growth. I never talked to her to find out if it worked, but it seems like it would. Also you can plant a crop early, early, spring and then again early fall for a second round when the weather cools down again. This would give a another month of fresh lettuce from the garden, while avoiding the bitterness of those hot summer months.

[bookworm]

I appreciate all the ideas. I don't really have anything new to add, though. I've been in survival mode since October and haven't had time (or money, though I realize many of these suggestions end up saving money) to experiment or make any major changes. If I ever do, I'll gladly share anything I find that works!!

[Erudite]

Thanks Dia for the lettuce info! I will keep that in mind.

There's a book out right now called The Forgotten Skills (or secrets maybe?) of the Mormon Pioneers. It's by a guy who lives in Alpine, Utah and he says we can get produce out of our gardens 12 months out of the year. The book shows a picture of his garden in January with LETTUCE amongst the snow! I only read the introduction so far, but his point is that the pioneers would have starved if they gardened like we do...only getting produce about 3 months of the year and preserving a VERY small portion of that. It's a good point, I thought. I'm not really excited about gardening in January, but I would like my garden to produce more that I can perserve well.

Hmmmm, sorry BW...I think I might have hijacked your thread!

Have you googled for ideas on frugal meals? It seems like I remember some website out there that helps you put together meals...though I don't remember if it had a "frugal" focus. But the Internet has everything else...

[bookworm]

I don't mind, E!

That is a good thing to think about-- how we can grow fresh food for ourselves year round. Didn't the pioneers keep livestock and chickens, too? So in the winter they would have had meat and eggs and milk also. I would think, anyway... still, a good point and most of us don't even think about having a garden all year.

I would really like to have a larger, better cared-for garden. Our lives are just packed busy and I don't know how to make time for it. When I do have small segments of time, I have no energy! Such a good thing, though. Maybe I'll figure out how to get the kids to do it for me this year...

It seems to me that in our modern world, gardening is less about frugal living and more about A. Keeping ourselves ready for post-apocalypse survival (or at least learning self-sufficient-skills) and B. Eating more healthy, organic food. I have found that it costs us more to do a garden than to buy cases of tomatoes at a co-op or farmer's market. Same for other produce. Water, fertilizer, topsoil, peat moss, etc. is all very expensive... I'm glad we grow a garden, but it's not really helping us financially. We have chickens right now, and feeding them in the winter costs about $20 every 2-3 weeks. A lot more than I spend on eggs, so I'm not saving anything. The eggs are yummy, and much healthier, but... it's not really helping us live more frugally.

I guess the truth about my position on frugal cooking is that I'm resistant to radically changing our eating habits for many reasons. For one, I hardly even cook anymore-- my kids do some, my husband does some, and it needs to be simple, quick, and food they will eat, so we aren't making any major changes right now. Just eating lots more soups and simple pasta dishes!

[Erudite]

ah ha! Resistant to change, huh? Join the club. We have jackets, cookies, and a great motto: Change is wonderful...tomorrow.

I'm teasing of course, but the reason I'm teasing is that one of my sisters was just asking last night how to get yourself to eat the healthy food you know you need to eat. I made this suggestion: "keep a food journal and note how different foods make you feel". I think you're less likely to eat said food if you noted that you feel yucky after eating it. So my other sister (my sisters and I meet once a month to work on our yarn projects) says "E, this is X we're talking about. She's not going to do a journal." So my sister X thinks about that for a second and starts laughing and says, "you're right! I think it's a good idea, but it's very not like me." Then my other sister Y says, well, you have to realize that you have to change. You got the weight you are by being like you are. To be a different weight, you're going to have to be different." Isn't that profound? It's the whole point of life, you know? We are going to have to make changes AND make those changes inside and out, if we are going to make progress toward small goals...let alone the biggies like "eternal life".

Now, I'm not saying you need to do anything different at all. That's completely up to you. I was just thinking about it because it came up last night is all and thought I'd share the thoughts. We gotta work on weaknesses...we can't always play to strengths if we are going to make the changes to be who we want to be. Sigh...now to get to work, huh?