Budget Saving Recipies

[Gesso]

Also, to answer your question about having meat: you don't have to have meat at every meal. There's so many other sources of protein--just make sure you get it in somehow. Some ideas include:

1. Making stir fry with peanuts or cashews, veggies, and rice
2. Adding toasted pine nuts to pasta with alfredo sauce and broccoli
3. Adding egg to fried rice
4. Adding toasted almonds to green beans, cashews to brocolli, etc. with some brown butter sauce
5. Making sandwiches with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, sprouts, etc. Maybe a thinly sliced hardboiled egg.
6. Adding nuts, seeds and/or hardboiled egg to salad.
7. Nachos with beans instead of meat.

I'll let you know if I think of anything else.



awesome ideas! i'm going to print these off :D

what is brown butter sauce?

[lookingup]

You just cook butter in a skillet over med high heat until the butter melts, swirling the pan constantly.You do this until the butter has a golden brown color and a nutty aroma, abt 1-2 minutes. ***Make sure you do this in a light colores skillet so you can see the color of the butter. It's very easy for the butter to burn in a dark pan.**** (The browned butter is especially good w/ sage over butternut squash ravioli..yum)

[Tenbear2808]

Pasta e Fagioli

1 pound ground beef (use 2 lbs if family likes a lot of meat) (also you can use 1/2 sweet italian sausage and 1/2 ground beef)

1 small onion, diced (1 cup)
1 large carrot, julienned (1 cup)
3 stalks celery, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans (with liquid)
1 15-ounce can great northern beans (with liquid)
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1 12-ounce can V-8 juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 pound (1/2 pkg.) ditali pasta

1. Brown the ground beef in a large saucepan or pot over medium heat.
Drain off most of the fat.
2. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes.
3. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour.
4. About 50 minutes into simmer time, cook the pasta in 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of boiling water over high heat. Cook for 10 minutes or just until pasta is al dente, or slightly tough. Drain.
5. Add the pasta to the large pot of soup. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and serve with Garlic Bread Sticks or French Bread and parmesan cheese.

Serves 8. PS. I also add 3 bay leaves and Italian Seasonings to taste. I use a slow cooker to make it even easier but it's not necessary.


Sloppy Joes

3 lb Ground beef
1 c Onion, chopped
2 cl Garlic, minced
1 1/2 c Ketchup
1 c Green pepper,chopped
1/2 c Water
4 tb Brown sugar
4 tb Prepared mustard
4 tb Vinegar
3 ts Chili pepper
Hamburger buns

In a large skillet, brown ground beef, onion, and garlic. Cook until meat is
brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat. Combine remaining ingredients (except buns) in crockpot. Stir in meat mixture. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hrs. or on high for 3-4 hrs. Spoon on to hamburger buns. Serves 8 to 10.

Can top with cheese or sweet/dill relish, use your imagination. I guess you could even add macaroni and make a chili mac.

[Tenbear2808]

Pastor Tom's Chili

2 lbs of ground beef
Two 16-ounce can tomato sauce
Two 15-ounce can kidney beans (with liquid)
Two 15-ounce can pinto beans (with liquid)
1 medium onion diced
3 celery stalks diced
3 green chilies diced (You can use can green chilies if you want. I prefer fresh roasted ones.)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 teaspoons of cumin powder
3 tablespoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon of cayenne powder (omit if you can't stand it hot)
1 1/2 teaspoons of black pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons of salt
2 cups of water
2 *chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, diced
Fritos
shredded Cheddar Cheese
Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat and then drain the fat. Combine the beef plus the ingredients in a large pot and simmer over a low heat. Cook and stir every 15 minutes for 2-3 hours (The longer the better.)
Put the chili in a bowl and top it with Fritos and cheddar cheese. Have lots of water handy incase it is too hot. Enjoy. Makes 8 or 10 servings.

[kmendel]

When I was a kid my mom would take a can of drained tuna and mix it with a can of cream of chicken soup with just a tiny bit of milk and heat it all up in a skillet, then pour it over toast.

When my kids were little I did the same thing except I added peas and served it over rice instead of toast..............now THAT was good!!!

Kathy

[wife]

When I was a kid my mom would take a can of drained tuna and mix it with a can of cream of chicken soup with just a tiny bit of milk and heat it all up in a skillet, then pour it over toast.

When my kids were little I did the same thing except I added peas and served it over rice instead of toast..............now THAT was good!!!

Kathy

Served over pasta would be another option.

We were having a tuna discussion on a group that I am on. One lady said that she makes tuna cakes.. much like crab cakes......

Personally I hate tuna.. but our friend was short on cash and had a few coupons when doubled would give her 4 free cans of tuna!!!! So we were giving her a few recipes

[Krayola]

I have not tried this myself, but someone told me that if you boil tuna in water for several minutes and then drain it in a collander that this will help get rid of the fishy taste (if you're trying to make it more palatable)

[wife]

I have not tried this myself, but someone told me that if you boil tuna in water for several minutes and then drain it in a collander that this will help get rid of the fishy taste (if you're trying to make it more palatable)

I don't think I will try it. It is actually the smell that I don't like... so I would have to get past that.

Now my friend told me that the tuna in the packets isn't so bad. It is the only tuna that she will eat... but I don't think I will try it.:twitch

[Kliska]

I don't think I will try it. It is actually the smell that I don't like... so I would have to get past that.

Now my friend told me that the tuna in the packets isn't so bad. It is the only tuna that she will eat... but I don't think I will try it.:twitch

I think it's the moisture in the can that makes it "smell" so bad to some :heh (I love tuna!!), so the packets would be less "moist" and more "flakey" I'd guess. And I second tuna cakes, their really easy and fry up quick.

For tuna and apple lovers, guess what? They go great together! You can mix up a quick batch just by making a tuna salad like normal such as: tuna, a little mayo/miracle whip, cheese (shredded or made into little cubes), and an apple diced, or chunked up. Good on sandwiches.

Edit to add: Just saw there was another tuna and apple recommendation up thread! :thumb

[Live4Jesus]

there are boxed meals called "Home Bakes" made by Banquet. Cheap and good! They have lots of different flavors. One box is like $3 and it feeds 2 and depending on what flavor you get, you might even get a lunch as well.
Also there are several brands of crock pot meals - again cheap and good. One bag feeds 2. They are around $4.
We use 2 boxes/bags to feed our family of 4 and we always have a bit left for a lunch.

here's my goulash recipe - my kids love this

1 lb hamburger
2 boxes mac n cheese
BBQ sauce
1 can of corn

cook the hamburger and mac n cheese up like you normally would. mix together. Add BBQ sauce to taste so it has a tangy zip and the can of corn (drained). Mix together.