Food & Drink Discussions

One of our favorite simple meals is to make rice and cover it with canned spicy tomatoes. Add a vegetable and a pan of cornbread for a delicious, cheap meal.

Pasta is still an inexpensive meal.  I recently made Ziti with a meat sauce and added some yellow squash, zuchinni slices, and mushrooms to make it a healthier.  Egg salad is a good inexpensive lunch - if you can peel off the dang eggshells.

We have something similar to Meri's favorite meal all the time ~ brown rice topped with canned tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and cheese. I also have some cornbread with it. 

Lately, we have been having a lot of salads and vegetables because beef cost so much.

JovialCougar said…
Pasta is still an inexpensive meal.  I recently made Ziti with a meat sauce and added some yellow squash, zuchinni slices, and mushrooms to make it a healthier.  Egg salad is a good inexpensive lunch - if you can peel off the dang eggshells.

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Don't use real fresh eggs. They need to sit for a week or so to peel right. Also, pour real cold water over them after they're boiled and let them sit in that for a while. That helps on peeling  and also prevents those odd green rings from forming around the yolk.  

I make my own pizza dough, but I make about 5 at a time; I use one and then I freeze the rest.  I put homemade mozzarrella, homegrown tomatoes and basil and serve it with a side salad....dinner is done and on the cheap.

It's interesting but seeing as these are the groceries that are usually flying up there on the high price list, eggs and milk are one of my staple foods I can actually afford.  I can buy a three flat things of eggs for like 5 bucks so I make a lot of sunny side up eggs, scrambled eggs with cream cheese and eggsalad sandwich.  I also eat a lot of cereal in the summer time too keep the kitchen cool and I'm never a big eater in the summer.  Getting steak is also great because you can get a big piece and cut it up for BBQ one night, fajitas another, and stir fry another.

CyndiA said…

JovialCougar said…
Pasta is still an inexpensive meal.  I recently made Ziti with a meat sauce and added some yellow squash, zuchinni slices, and mushrooms to make it a healthier.  Egg salad is a good inexpensive lunch - if you can peel off the dang eggshells.

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Don't use real fresh eggs. They need to sit for a week or so to peel right. Also, pour real cold water over them after they're boiled and let them sit in that for a while. That helps on peeling  and also prevents those odd green rings from forming around the yolk.  

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Thanks for the tip!  Last time I chipped off the shells and fuzzy, peeping chicks poped out.  Oh well, we just had chicken salad instead of egg salad ;)

We've been eating more pasta lately... sometimes we do fresh herbs and a bit of ricotta for a sort-of "alfredo" sauce, and other times we make homemade meat sauce with fresh herbs, garlic, onion, and peppers. 

Pasta with cherry tomatoes and fresh mozarella. I love olives in it too!!!

Now, I do hope you know that when I say older eggs that I mean that they are older when you boil them and not boiled and sitting for a week (-: I'd sure hate to give you food poisoning.

We are family of 8 so any meal can b costly     any pasta dish is proably most cost effective and you can add different things to change it up!!!!

I must be the world's cheapest date. My wife and I regularly go to Costco for two slices of pizza and a soda for less than $5. These are BIG slices of pizza and one is a meal for me. It leaves just enough room that we can walk around and eat the free samples in the back of the store. I do 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer on display, and I'm good to go.

--Bob

OK. Off to find fam and friend pasta dish recipes to go with the great ideas here.

Beans? Those ought to be pretty good too I'd think. Cheap. Filling. Protein.Maybe not so much fat back in them with cholesterol issues.

We don't have Costco. Litte Ceasers has $5 pizza - pretty large size and ready to grab and go cooked. Prob takes me more than 10 minutes to work it off though. No. I do not eat the whole thing (-:

JovialCougar said…
Pasta is still an inexpensive meal.  I recently made Ziti with a meat sauce and added some yellow squash, zuchinni slices, and mushrooms to make it a healthier.  Egg salad is a good inexpensive lunch - if you can peel off the dang eggshells.

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Try adding a little bit of oil (it doesn't matter what kind) and some salt to the water when you boil eggs. It makes the shells so much easier to get off. (My helpful hint of the day) LOL

I love to grill, so at least twice a week I will peel and cut up some tatters then put them in the middle of a big sheet of foil, add some butter, minced onion and Cavenders seasoning and put it on the grill. The next thing I do is wash up a bunch of baby carrots, put them in the middle of some foil along with butter, a little sugar and Cavenders then put those on the grill too. Once the carrots and tatters get done, I'll patty out some ground deer burger (if we have some) or either ground chuck along with my seasonings and then grill them. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's not. It all goes well together and it's actually a very cheap and very good meal.

I love to grill too redfireant. I have a grill site Yes You Can Grill and also a blog on outdoor cooking. We always love potatoes. For faster ones, the frozen hash browns also work. Doctor them up as you do read potatoes. I just get the store brand. They are often on sale too.

With food prices so high, well it is not that bad for me for I am alone, but I do stir fry rice, couple of eggs, chicken, shrimp or I even use the spam in the can with a few stir fry veg, and it is filling and tastie.  Sometimes I take the Garlic bread and make a tasty egg sandwich.

There are a lot of farmer's markets around here and they are pretty inexpensive, but fresh produce does not last very long... pasta is a good stand-by and pretty easy to make yourself (I've been making it for 30 yrs, that might be overstated). Dried beans and grains (like pearled barley and quinoa) are cheap and can be used creatively in case you are sick of the same 'ol same 'ol. If you use a grain and cover it with vegetables you can still put in a little meat and not run up the bill too much.

You can't go wrong with Ramen noodles!!!  LOL!  Actually, one of my favorite, relatively cheap summer suppers is a huge salad with crusty French bread on the side.  If you want added protein, throw some beans on it.  Having a garden has saved us quite a bit on fresh produce. 

And on busy nights, our local Domino's has $5 peperoni pizzas...can't eat out much cheaper than that!

We've been making a lot of Pasta Pomodoro lately! 1 ounce sliced proscuitto, chopped garlic to taste (we use about 10 cloves), 1 can whole tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup white wine, chopped fresh basil and parsley to taste, and salt/pepper to taste, along with a 16 ounce box/bag of penne, spaghetti, linguine, etc.

Delicious, light, and inexpensive to make, especially if you grow the herbs!

i am saving a lots by cooking at home. i cook at home on the week days. i  eat out on the saturdays. i have saved a lots just by doing that.

I have an almost identical recipe, but mine omits the prosciutto and adds a tablespoon of red pepper flakes and a small can of tomato sauce for an arrabiatta sauce...love it!  We pan saute some chicken with it for a little more staying power.  Easy, fast, and cheap!

We often substitute rice for ground beef when we make tacos. We use the 5 minute rice and add the taco seasoning right in the water. We call it poor mans tacos. LOL!

ooh found another great and inexpensive recipe this week.  Rachael Ray's Lemon Spaghetti.  All you need is a box of spaghetti, a few garlic cloves, some lemon juice (I use bottled), red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup of heavy cream, and a cup of shredded parmesan/romano cheese.  It also calls for freshly chopped basil and parsley but they didn't do much for the dish so you can omit them if you don't have them growing in your yard.  You can find the recipe on the Food Network web site....  super-yummy and cheap!

That does sound good. I'll have to try it.

If you like to eat pasta, then this is a good meal. You find some bacos, Italian dressing, some vegatables (like carrots), either spaghetti or trio italianos and mix it all together. There you go....a meal and it is good.

We call it Mexican lasagna - as long as you have tortillas, tomato anything (sauce, pieces, etc), cheese and some sort of protein -- it tastes excellent. Lean times it's mainly beans, but it lasts forever and costs only $5 to make a HUGE dish of. The more you layer, the longer it lasts.

Another favorite is homemade pizza - oil, flour, salt and water make a crust with whatever you want on it. I made a homemade pesto using basil from our garden, fresh tomatoes from our garden, and a can of black olives - it's a meal that costs an entire $3 to feed a family of 4.

you all are so healthy! It all sounds good. I have a picky kid and particular husband. I have to sneak veggies in. We do a Mexican lasagna that goes over well as long as I add a little meat. My kids love what I call Shipwreck dinner that uses a box of mac & cheese as the base with spag sauce, corn and some ground beef.  Not that healthy! I have had great success with pureeing carrots and adding them to tomato base sauce and in the meat loaf.

We grow a lot of stuff in our backyard. My favorite sandwich isn't too expensive (mainly because I snatch some of the ingredients from out back):

Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Sammy

Toast the bread, and put a thin layer of mayo on 1 slice. Cut up some basil and evenly spread it on the mayo. They lay a layer of tomato slices overtop of that. Sprinkle a small amount of salt/pepper on the tomatoes. Place a slice of mozzarella cheese on top of that and place the sandwich half in a toaster oven (on broil) to melt the cheese. Then pull it out, put the other slice on top, and viola! Yummy sammy!

I guess the easiest, fastest and cheapest would be spaghetti.  We tend to have a lot left over for lunches the next day, as well.

 

Seems like a lot of recipes are pasta. :)