Your Cheapest, Reasonably Nutritious, Family-Friendly Recipes?

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heidi_storage said:
Yep, regular grocery store. On special, you can get fryers and roasters for 99 cents a pound.
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I will have to keep my eyes peeled, then - that’s the kind of price I am willing to get a bit more adventurous for! 😉 If it was close to what I am already paying, then IMO not worth it, because so much more will be discarded.
 
Fried Rice is very inexpensive and tasty! Cook your rice ahead of time and refrigerate. When you are ready to make the rice, saute some green onion in oil then add cold rice and mix. You can get a packet of fried rice seasoning for about 89 cents. Add that to the rice along with some soy sauce. Mix and add a handful of peas and carrots then add chopped meat of your choice or go vegetarian. Scramble a couple of eggs and add right before serving.
 
miriamlillie said:
Fried Rice is very inexpensive and tasty! Cook your rice ahead of time and refrigerate. When you are ready to make the rice, saute some green onion in oil then add cold rice and mix. You can get a packet of fried rice seasoning for about 89 cents. Add that to the rice along with some soy sauce. Mix and add a handful of peas and carrots then add chopped meat of your choice or go vegetarian. Scramble a couple of eggs and add right before serving.
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Right.

In fact, old rice is actually preferable for making fried rice.

thekitchn.com/why-dayold-rice-makes-the-best-fried-rice-tips-from-the-kitchn-208326
 
miriamlillie said:
Fried Rice is very inexpensive and tasty! Cook your rice ahead of time and refrigerate. When you are ready to make the rice, saute some green onion in oil then add cold rice and mix. You can get a packet of fried rice seasoning for about 89 cents. Add that to the rice along with some soy sauce. Mix and add a handful of peas and carrots then add chopped meat of your choice or go vegetarian. Scramble a couple of eggs and add right before serving.
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Sounds yummy! I would probably do my own spices, though instead of using a premade mix (I do the same with taco or fajita seasoning and it saves a LOT, plus I can adjust heat and salt to our liking).
 
pensmama87 said:
What would you consider a good price for a whole chicken?
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I generally stock up on whole chicken at 69-89 cents/lb. I’ll buy six or seven and stick them in the chest freezer, and it’s enough to get me through to the next special. I don’t pay enough attention to the sales cycles-- I did see it at 89 cents/lb in January when I was buying some for a fundraiser.

For homemade pizza, I had good results with this one.
 
midori said:
I generally stock up on whole chicken at 69-89 cents/lb. I’ll buy six or seven and stick them in the chest freezer, and it’s enough to get me through to the next special. I don’t pay enough attention to the sales cycles-- I did see it at 89 cents/lb in January when I was buying some for a fundraiser.
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Be careful. When my aunt died, her children found over 20 frozen chickens in her freezer! 😃
 
In the US another great place to find savings is “ethnic” stores like a Lebanese, Chinese or Thai grocery stores. They usually are not as clean as a supermarkets but I have found a lot of things cheaper, and tastier too! Farmer markets are also a great place as well for values and the chance to barter, bring the 2.5 kids. My best friend is also a SAHM and is part of a farmers co-op in Pittsburgh, which is a cheaper source of food and super fresh. However she could not choose what she got. It was a big box of whatever was in season. Also you might want to try some new cuts of meat such as offal, tongue and pigs feet. Sometimes they can be a super cheap source of protein. You will have to practice a little but they can be really tasty. If you are lucky enough that you can get blood, you can also make black pudding which I miss so much. I read that you make your own bread but if you don’t have time for yeast bread, Irish soda bread is an easy alternative, it was the only bread I ate for years when I was finishing my degree and a lot quicker.
 
Lithophyte said:
In the US another great place to find savings is “ethnic” stores like a Lebanese, Chinese or Thai grocery stores. They usually are not as clean as a supermarkets but I have found a lot of things cheaper, and tastier too! Farmer markets are also a great place as well for values and the chance to barter, bring the 2.5 kids. My best friend is also a SAHM and is part of a farmers co-op in Pittsburgh, which is a cheaper source of food and super fresh. However she could not choose what she got. It was a big box of whatever was in season. Also you might want to try some new cuts of meat such as offal, tongue and pigs feet. Sometimes they can be a super cheap source of protein. You will have to practice a little but they can be really tasty. If you are lucky enough that you can get blood, you can also make black pudding which I miss so much. I read that you make your own bread but if you don’t have time for yeast bread, Irish soda bread is an easy alternative, it was the only bread I ate for years when I was finishing my degree and a lot quicker.
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Yep! Here in the Southwest, there are a lot of grocery stores which cater to Mexican/Hispanic clientele, and whose prices tend to be much lower than the more mainstream stores. They also have a broader selection of more unusual (to the average North American palate, at least) fruits and vegetables, and often for very good prices indeed.

One word of warning, which I found out the hard way, though 😉 : at least in our area, it’s SOP in these Hispanic grocery stores to brine chickens before putting them out for sale, with no marking on the package to that effect because that’s just expected in the local culture. Ergo, someone who had always shopped at this sort of store would know that and treat the chicken appropriately before cooking it. I, on the other hand, having not been familiar at all with this practice when I started shopping there, brought home and cooked a simply beautiful and very cheap chicken one afternoon, only to have to (heartbreakingly) toss the whole shebang after I finished roasting it because it was so salty as to be totally inedible.
 
Soups are really a good way to stretch a food budget and filling too! The possibilities are endless. If you haven’t already, check out pinterest… Tons of recipes, some easier and more inexpensive than others. If you are already doing two meat free days a week, a soup night is another good option. You can make it fairly easy with a new baby on the way, it holds well, or it can be made the day before.
 
Irishmom2 said:
Soups are really a good way to stretch a food budget and filling too! The possibilities are endless. If you haven’t already, check out pinterest… Tons of recipes, some easier and more inexpensive than others. If you are already doing two meat free days a week, a soup night is another good option. You can make it fairly easy with a new baby on the way, it holds well, or it can be made the day before.
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Soup plus homemade bread makes a very nice meal.
 
Have you thought about growing some simpler veggies like tomatoes, peas and peppers? I use them the most and plan on container gardening this summer. It could help and they taste awesome fresh out of the garden!
 
My dad has good luck with a bread machine. It makes good pizza dough also.

There is a food bank nearby that has enormous amounts of donated bread. I feel rather foolish every time I buy bread at the store because I know how much goes to waste.
 
Xantippe said:
Soup plus homemade bread makes a very nice meal.
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Homemade soup and homemade bread were pretty much my go-to meals when I was a broke college student. Cheap, filling, and while not exactly super foods, it wasn’t too bad for me either, especially given how little I had to spend. I got a bit tired of it, but that’s not all that surprising since I ate some variation of it for lunch and dinner many days of the week. 😛 Another advantage, though, was that I could always invite a friend over for dinner and they’d be amazed by the “gourmet” meal I’d put on for them…homemade soup, a basket of (quickly-warmed-in-the-oven) homemade bread to dip in the soup, and an apple or two for dessert had a very French peasant chic air to it without breaking my grocery budget at all. 😃

If you often have people stop by for dinner, soup is also awesome in that it stretches much more easily than, say, a set number of chicken pieces.

Darn it, now I’m craving homemade bread…may need to bake this afternoon…
 
UbiCaritas said:
Homemade soup and homemade bread were pretty much my go-to meals when I was a broke college student. Cheap, filling, and while not exactly super foods, it wasn’t too bad for me either, especially given how little I had to spend. I got a bit tired of it, but that’s not all that surprising since I ate some variation of it for lunch and dinner many days of the week. 😛 Another advantage, though, was that I could always invite a friend over for dinner and they’d be amazed by the “gourmet” meal I’d put on for them…homemade soup, a basket of (quickly-warmed-in-the-oven) homemade bread to dip in the soup, and an apple or two for dessert had a very French peasant chic air to it without breaking my grocery budget at all. 😃

If you often have people stop by for dinner, soup is also awesome in that it stretches much more easily than, say, a set number of chicken pieces.

Darn it, now I’m craving homemade bread…may need to bake this afternoon…
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True story–my husband and I once served that sort of impromptu soup dinner to some Mormon missionaries that doorbelled us.

I don’t think at this point in my life that I would do that again, but I’m glad I did it at the time.
 
pasta and lentils.

A package of lentils will be good for 2 meals.

I make mine with broth, finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, seasoning like italian seasoning or Mrs. Dash. I cook the pasta in a separate pot, usually a small type pasta like elbows or ditalini or even spaghetti broken up small.

The serve one ladle of pasta and then top off with lentils. And then drizzle with olive oil. Really good!

Also, if you have a trader Joe’s a nice sized bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is about 5 - 6 dollars. Other stores have simiar sized bottles for at least twice as much.
 
Red beans and rice!!! Look up any authentic Cajun recipe- you can use bacon grease to saute’ the Cajun Trinity (onions, celery, and peppers) and it makes it that much tastier! Beans and rice combined make a complex protein!! Serve with salad and bread- voila’!! C’est bien! 👍

Growing up, my mom made lots of tuna casseroles (use just 1 can for the whole casserole- very cheap!). Make it special by adding cream cheese and tarragon to the white sauce.

Homemade hamburger helper (skillet dinner) using ground turkey, chicken or pork instead of the more expensive beef helps stretch meat, too.

🙂
 
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