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Get More Bang for Your Food Budget Buck Part IV: Augmenting Recipes in a Cost Effective Manner

Beef up your Main Courses with Veg

We hear it all the time on television, the Internet, and in the news: Americans consume far too few fruits and vegetables, while consuming way too much meat (particularly red meat). This problem contributes to a multitude of health problems ranging from obesity, heart problems, cancer, and ultimately, death. It’s not a pretty picture.

Aside from the health problems related to over consuming meat, the cost can be staggering. I was shopping for ground round (beef) the other day and it was $5 a pound. In Texas. Where there are more cows than people. I can't even imagine what they are paying in...say...New York. This got me thinking, how can I cut back on using meat without hearing this:



This is going to take a bit of ingenuity. I'm not a fan of "sneaky" cooking; I think it only leads to trouble. I know I'm not a mother yet, but I believe, in my heart, that open communication about food will lead your children into making better choices on their own. When you sneak in ingredients to familiar foods, the taste will be altered to some degree, kids will comment on how the food tastes "funny", and will feel manipulated when it comes out that you slipped spinach into their brownies or brussel sprouts into their macaroni and cheese. When you are upfront and honest with your family about trying something new, you may get initially rebuffed, but curiosity may get the best of them. I could go on heaps on my opinions regarding kids and food battles, but I am going to save that for another time. Let's get back on topic.

There are several recipes you can beef up with veg that are totally legitimate. (I've got to find another term for beefed up! LOL) I think pasta dishes really lend themselves to this because the sauces really permeate the vegetables, giving the impression that they are integral to the dish as opposed to competing with it. Some of my favorite vegetables to add to pasta dishes are squash, zucchini, and eggplant. Let's look at two plates of spaghetti below. Which looks more appetizing?





Option A

 



Option B

I'm going to hope you chose Option B. This choice is not only better for you, it uses less meat AND will be more filling because it contains a lot of vegetable fiber. Squash, Zucchini, and Eggplants have a very firm flesh that really lends itself being a meat substitute. In saucy recipes I usually dice it into small pieces and let it simmer in my tomato sauce while I attend to other parts of the meal. They absorb a lot of the tomato flavor and have a good toothy feel.

Let's tackle another one. A classic crowd pleaser for decades: Lasagna! When we think of lasagna, we typically think of 4 things: Tons of Meat, cheese, sauce, and pasta. Truth be told, ANYTHING can go in a lasagna. Lasagna simply means "to stack". This is a great meal to have kids help out with because they help by sprinkling in the ingredients that you have laid out. By helping to prepare the meal, they are more engaged, and will be more likely to consume what is made. When it comes to cooking mise en place very important, but for lasagna, it is wicked important. When putting a veg layer in, I generally use veg that is cut into thin disks. This helps the layers stay nice and flat. Alternate meat and veg layers and you will find that you need 1/2 the meat you normally do, but you have managed to put in 3-4 squash, zucchinis, or 1-2 eggplants. I've even used cucumbers once (by accident) and it gave the final taste a bright, summery flavor. Chopped spinach leaves can be dispersed sparingly throughout for a hint of color.

Let's do one more. Let's talk about some of those casserole type meals like Pot Pies. Whenever I am making my chicken pot pie, shepherd's pie, or soups/stews, I ALWAYS throw in more veg than recipes typically call for. For example, my beloved Julia's recipe for Beef Bourguignon (beef stew) calls for only 1 carrot. Honey, please. People are already expect there to be vegetables in these types of dishes, so why not add a little more? They add a color, brightness, and flavor. Adding an extra couple of carrots or 1/2 cup of peas while pulling out 1/4 lb of meat isn't going to throw off the balance of these meals. If you cooked every single day, in one week you would have saved almost 2 lbs. of meat. At the rate that I listed above, that's almost $10.

What other recipes could you (legitimately) beef up with veg? Let me hear your ideas!

Are you making any changes you that you have read about? What did you do, how much did you save, and what did you learn? Tell me about it in the comments!

Get More Bang for Your Food Budget Buck Part II: Menu Planning and Plan Ahead Prep

If you are like most of Americans, you rush home after work and have about 10 seconds of private bathroom time before the kids are banging on the door screaming “What’s for dinner!?” Again, like the majority of us, you draw a blank. You open your fridge and see a hodge podge of ingredients and think, “What can I make with that?” Have no fear; we are going to turn a little bit of this in that into a few staple meals. Let’s get crackin’!


Let’s start with a little planning. Remember the notepad from your fast food favorites list? Pull that sucker out. Turn it to a clean page and gather the family around the table. Ask everyone at the table if they could choose dinner tonight, what would they want to eat? I’m going to give you 5 days worth of dinners that you can make on the spot if you plan and prep ahead just a little. This will help you when you are going to the grocery store, because you know what you are going to cook for the week and you can stick to a list of those items. This cuts back on wasted food, time searching for items, and impulse shopping. Let’s see some common favorites:

• Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

• Tacos/Fajitas

• Meatloaf

• Chicken (strips/nuggets/breasts)

• Chicken Pot Pie

Believe it or not, you can crank most of these meals out in about 30 minutes if you plan ahead and have the prep work knocked out ahead of time. When you think about how these meals are more similar than different:

Okay now. You’re probably still freaking out about this, but now let’s talk about prepping these meals in advance so that all you have to do is throw the ingredients together and go.

Let’s start with the meat. As you can see from the diagram, we have six of the meals where half require ground meat (beef or turkey) and the other half requires chicken breasts. When you go to the store, buy a big container of ground beef and a bag of frozen chicken breasts. You will need ½ to ¾ of a pound of ground meat per person, per meal and 1/2 to 1 whole chicken breast piece per person. You will also need sandwich or quart size Ziploc bags. I do all my shopping on Saturday, and do all my prep when I get home. If I were going to make those 6 meals this week, here is how I would begin the prep:

1. Plan Which Day to Cook What Meal: Select which day I want to have each meal and write it on a notepad on the fridge. Mondays are my busy day, so I pick the meal that is quickest to prepare (spaghetti). I don’t like eating beef three days in a row, so I decide I’m going to have beef meal alternated with chicken meals. That way everyone know which dinner is coming up.

2. Prepping Bulk Ground Meat: I crack open my beef and I put enough meat per person for one meal in each bag. For our household of 2, we put in 1 lb or a good fistful approximation of ground beef per bag. Push the meat flat in the bag so it stacks nicely, and thaws quickly after being removed from freezer. When you have divided up all your beef, you will know how many meals you can get out of it. We have found that we actually use a lot less meat this way. $$$!

3. Prepping Bulk Chicken Breasts: Next, go after the chicken. Decide how you want to prepare your chicken. The pot pie and chicken nuggets require smaller pieces, so I cube up the chicken into small pieces, putting those in a bag. Some chicken breasts are mutant large and you can get away with making two cutlets out of them. To make a cutlet, cut the breast in half lengthwise, then mash it a little flatter with your palm. Put a cutlet for each person needing a meal, per bag. Cutlets are how restaurants get their chicken breasts to go farther. Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Fried Chicken, Chicken Teriyaki, etc. are all made with chicken cutlets. Tacos/Fajitas/ Chicken strips will require you to cut your chicken into strips. Cut accordingly.

Cutting a breast lengthwise will make two cutlets

4. Freezer Organization: If you have extra plastic baskets laying around, consider labeling them as beef or chicken, etc. so your mini bags of meat are quickly identified in their buckets. It will help keep all your bags organized, give you a good visual about how much meat you have left, and can help little ones who want (need to) help identify different types of meat. Example: beef is in a red bucket, chicken is in white. "Jenny, open the freezer and pull out one bag from white bucket and put it in the fridge for mommy."

(c) Jem from Dog Food Forum

An alternative approach care of "Crazy Cake Lady"

Now let’s talk a little about prepping veg. Most meals require some aromatics. What is an aromatic? A vegetable used as a flavor base for cooking, usually by sweating or sautéeing. Carrots, onions, garlic, peppers, and celery are all aromatics. All the meals we listed will require aromatics in different sizes. I like to buy garlic that is pre-diced in a jar, but all the rest I will cut myself. Guess what, they rarely go bad because I only pull out what I intend to use right away. Yes, you can buy pre-diced onions, celery, carrots, etc. If you are in a big time crunch and don't mind spending the extra money go for it and buy the pre-chopped stuff. You can save a lot more by doing it yourself though. If you feel more comfortable starting out with the pre-cut stuff and then moving to chopping yourself, it's a good baby step to getting started cooking at home. No judgment.

Onions are a must for all these meals, whether in sliced or diced forms. Sliced onions are the kinds you use for fajitas where diced is the small little cubes. Now because there are plenty of videos on how to dice an onion, and because I am not yet a domestic goddess when it comes to dicing, I am just going to refer you here to watch a video on how to do it here. This takes practice, but you will get faster each time you do it. It's important to take your time and make uniformish pieces so that they will cook at the same rate. I put the diced onion in a Ziploc and slap in the freezer. It will quickly thaw so defrosting is no biggie. (Feel free to make a sliced onion and bell pepper medley bag for tacos/fajitas if that suits your fancy.) Chop some celery into smaller, bite sized pieces and bag. Ditto with the carrots.

The hard work is done now. All your big prep for each meal is ready to go when you are. So let's talk about the next step we delayed earlier: Getting your family involved! Rituals, rituals, rituals.

1. First Person Home Pulls Out the Meat: Starting when I was about 8 years old, my mom would call me after when my school bus arrived home and asked me to pull out a package of whatever meat was on the menu for that night. The first person home checks the week's menu on the fridge, and pulls out one bag of meat that is required for that meal. Put the whole bag on a plate to thaw on the counter, out of sunlight. Because you have prepped all these little bags, it will defrost faster than the whole big container, and you will only use what you need. No kids to do this step? Before you go to bed, check the menu the night before, and place that meat in the fridge to defrost. It will be waiting for you when you get home.

2. Mise en place: What the heck does that mean!? Mise en place is simply French for "everything in place". Since you already know what meal you are going to cook because you have it all right there on the fridge, you have all your ingredients put together on your counter ready to go before you start cooking. This is a great step to do with kids 6 and up. Ask them what they think goes in spaghetti, what do they need? Have them go to the pantry and fridge to pull those out.

3. Starches take the longest to cook, start them first: How many times have you started a meal, only for one part of it to be getting cold while the rest is still cooking. It's a common problem, I still do it myself. The thing to remember is that starches like potatoes, biscuits, etc. take the longest and should be started first, followed by your meats, and your veg last.

Mise en place for lemonade syrup.

With these simple steps, the time it takes to make dinner will be cut back significantly. You'll be proud of your results when you see a week's worth a meal prep ready to go for the next week. As children get older, they can start taking on more tasks in the cooking department until they are cooking a meal a week independently. This is an important life skill that will help build confidence and self esteem. Good luck!

Are you making any changes you that you have read about? What did you do, how much did you save, and what did you learn? Tell me about it in the comments!

Next in the “Get More Bang for Your Food Budget Buck” Series: The Art of Braising, Turning Cheap Cuts of Meats Into Stellar Meals With Very Little Effort.

Get More Bang for Your Food Budget Buck: Scaling Back Take Out, a Few Cents at a Time

Think about what you buy the most frequently when going out to eat.

Most people spend way too much of their food AND entertainment budgets on going out to eat. Yes, eating out is fast, convenient and a fun way to get your grub on from time to time. However, but it also can be expensive, over-portioned and unhealthy. Let’s not also forget the loss of sharing a meal together as a family. Snarfing down McDonalds in the SUV during rush hour is not considered a sharing a family meal.

There are boo-koos of data that suggest that families who share meals together even a few times a week are healthier not just physically, but mentally as well. Children learn important messages about food choices and preparation, in addition to culture and family values around the family table.

According to multiple studies conducted by Marla Eisenberg and crew at the Center for Adolescent Health and Development, it was found that children and teens that share family meals are less likely to have problem behaviors, eating disorders, low self esteem, and risk-taking behaviors such as smoking, drug use, and suicidal actions. There is even evidence that shows family meals will delay the onset of sexual behaviors in teens. All of these have long ranging socio-economic impacts. Who knew that sitting around the table just a few times a week could have such a big impact!?! So let’s get started on the track to pulling away from the drive thru and parking it the dining room. Your kids and your pocket book will thank you…probably the pocket book before the kids, but they’ll come around, eventually. ;-)

First things first, sit down with a notepad and a pen and write down the food your family eats out the most. The items on your list are the first items that you need to start learning to prepare at home. Of course, whatever you learn to make at home is never going to taste exactly like the store bought kind. However, you might be pleasantly surprised, once you get the hang of making it, that your version tastes better or is more satisfying. In the end, remember you will be much happier when you have more green in the bank than you will from the short-lived pleasure derived from a fast, store bought meal.

Now let’s be realistic. Everyone knows they can just stop buying fast food and eat at home. You can get that advice at any website you Google. I am going to be a little more realistic here because changing a habit like this can be tough. So, let’s get started.

First things first, look for items that can be purchased as a whole unit at the grocery store and prepared at home. The easiest example is pizza. My husband and I ordered pizza out nearly every single Friday. This would cost us anywhere from $10-$15 after delivery fee and tip each week. Now, we buy several week’s worth of the good quality, frozen pizzas at the grocery store that are between $5 and $6 a piece. Our savings are around $16-$20 a month. Doesn’t sound like much, but that is almost $250 a year. That’s a car payment. Not only are we saving that money, the frozen pizza cooks faster than the time it took for the delivery guy to get our order to us. Yes! If you just can’t give up your favorite chain pizza, consider picking it up instead of having it delivered. If it is on the way home from the office or near where you pick your kids up from school/practice, you can save yourself several dollars in deliver fees and tips. This step can be a bridge to the cooking at home step.

Let’s look at more “meal-like” store bought foods. One frequent fast meal is a bucket of fried chicken with all the fixin’s. You’re trying to give your family a real “sit down” meal, but you don’t have time to fry a whole chicken, let alone make sides, rolls, and dessert. That’s okay; we can work on this, too. Consider buying only the main course (i.e. the bucket of chicken) and supplement it by making the sides at home. Mashed potatoes will take around 20 minutes, and you can pop open a can of veggies (or use frozen) and have the sides in no time. There are also frozen, bagged biscuits or biscuits in the can that you can make instead, saving even more money. We were a KFC family, so I am going to pick on them a bit. KFC’s sides $2.50 each. Two cans of veggies cost less than one prepared KFC side! All that you would have to do is open the can/bag, pour into a bowl, pop in the microwave, and serve. Prepared foods are almost always going to be more costly that unprepared foods. In addition, they are going to contain more unpleasant things like fat, trans fat, oil, MSG, salt, preservatives, etc. than your home cooked varieties. Not to mention, they will taste less fresh. Who knows how long those mashed potatoes have been sitting under that warmer…and how many hands have been messing with them?

Let’s do one more. How about sub sandwiches? You go to the deli with the kids, Jenny wants a bologna, Timmy wants a ham, Dad wants roast beef, and you want a turkey. Instead of buying everyone a sub, consider having a “build your own sub” night at home. Chain grocers are have a larger selection of breads that are more sub like than your boring old sliced variety, and lunch meats are pretty reasonable. For example, I know Wal-mart sells Bolillos, which are about the size of a 6” sub, 4 for $1. That’s already cheaper than one store bought sub sandwich. Now, I’m not going to lie, buying 3-4 varieties of lunch meat with 1-2 blocks of cheese at once is going to be a bigger upfront cost, but there will be so much more meat/cheese that you will be able to make quite a few sandwiches over the long haul for less. Pick one bag of chips for this week, rotating among family favorites each time. Or, you can buy variety packs so everyone has a single size of their favorite type. This is a great meal for kids because it gives them choices and control over their food. Get a large platter and put a several choices of meats, cheese, and veg (lettuce/tomato/pickle etc.) on it. Bring out a few bottles of spreads, mayo, mustards, ketchup, and some unusuals for a more grown up taste: pesto, vinaigrettes, salsa, bbq sauce. Give everybody their bun and let them go to town, experimenting with new flavors (or sticking with their favorites.) There are no wrong combinations as long as everyone is eating, in my opinion anyway. As a kid, my brother would eat a mayo, bologna, cheese, and applesauce sandwich pretty regularly. The fun was that we ate together as a family, and laughed at each other’s wacky combinations. My favorite was a PBJ with Cheetos (in the sandwich) dipped in milk. To this day, still one of my favorites. This can be a weekly ritual: Wacky Sandwich Wednesday. Eating at home is all about building a meaningful ritual, no matter how small. Things to stay away from:

• Don’t Offer Too Many Choices: Kids, especially younger ones, don’t need a huge selection of 50 meats, cheeses and dressings. Start initially with flavors they are comfortable with and then substitute in more exotic choices once the ritual is established. Three meats, 1 cheese, 3 spreads and veg are more than enough choices for little ones.

• Buy Blocks of Cheese, Not Pre-sliced Cheeses: Remember, the more processed the final product, the more it will cost. You can buy a large block, slice it all at once, freeze what you can’t eat in a reasonable amount of time, pulling out the amounts you will use as needed.

• Meats: Pay attention to weights and packaging. A bigger package does not necessarily mean more meat. The more packaging usually means higher costs. Sometimes you can catch the sales on meats/cheese and make out like a bandit. Sometimes, the deli department overbuys, or have small packages they mark down to finish off a hunk in order to open a new one. (Kind of like scraps at fabric store). Fresh cut stuff will need to be eaten more quickly, but if you are at the store tonight, see meat on sale that will need to be eaten by the end of the week, and sandwich night is tomorrow…get it! Same is true for breads and deli rolls.

• Rules: Making wacky sandwiches can be fun, but lay down one rule before you start and make sure everyone (meaning the kids) can repeat it and understand: “We want everyone to have fun tonight but there is one rule: You are free to make your wacky sandwich, but you must eat whatever you make.” Like I said before, my bro at the mayo, bologna, cheese, and applesauce sandwich. If your little one wants to make that, but you already know they hate applesauce, remind them of that and the consequences of having to finish their entire sandwich if they don’t like a particular topping.

Are you making any changes you that you have read about? What did you do, how much did you save, and what did you learn? Tell me about it in the comments!

Next in the “Get More Bang for Your Food Budget Buck” Series: Menu Planning and Plan Ahead Prep