Favorite dollar stretcher dinners??

[Jim]

Just curious what everyones favorite dollar stretcher dinners are.

Mine are preaty much anything with ground meats and noodles. I also buy chicken pieces in bulk and freeze them in ziplocks. I love to grill a bunch at a time and eat it over a few days. I guess use the grill while it's hot.

Jim

[lavandulagirl]

I think you're on it with the bulk stuff. I like to buy large quantities when available, and freeze things, or else store in the pantry. My biggest dollar stretcher, actually, in this old farmhouse, has been air (and bug) tight containers for things like cereals, grains and sugar. Nothing worse than seeing that line of teeny ants in and out of your sugar when you're going to make cookies!

[moonlilyhead]

tunamacpea. Also, I like plain noodles (any long kind) cooked al dente and then sauteed in olive oil and garlic, maybe some basil. CHEAP! Got some frozen veggies? Throw those in too.

[moonlilyhead]

And, cereal. I could live off a box of cereal a week for dinner before I realized that "normal" people actually cook nearly every night.

[canadamike]

I think my garden is a fantastic dollar stretcher... Ok, pasta are to, with garden pesto or whatever veggie left in the fridge, and, moolily, I could live on cereal too, cracked oatmeal is a great natural filler in the morning, so cheap and good...

[bluelacedredhead]

I agree that raising one's own food is a great way to stretch the budget. For 15 years, we've raised most of our own beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey as well as veggies and fruit. We have little left in the way or meat animals and I'm not looking forward to having to make 'regular' visits to the grocery store to purchase items that I've taken for granted.
Looks like it will be back to cheap burger and chicken legs with thighs attached from now on.

[sammyqc]

Less meat, more veggies!! Seriously. I'm not a vegetarian by any means ( I looove my steak!) but I've found cooking more veggies, and much smaller cuts of meat goes a long way to stretching the food budget. I try to have one or two meatless suppers a week, and that helps too. Oriental cooking (or my version of it) ginger garlic veggies (any veggies, specially love bean sprouts), with noodles. Recently discovered everyone loves Bok Choy. Go figure! My picky eaters love stuff I don't think they'd even try! And we love tofu! I cook differently now that I used to, partly for money reasons, but mostly for health! We are planning on buying half of an organically raised grass fed cow, and that will save us a ton of money right there! The taste difference is incredible from the crap you get at the supermarket. Tastes like moose meat! Friend of mine used to get me some grassfed beef from her in laws, and it was so good. And we eat more fish and chicken than we used to. Recently tried organic chicken, and I couldn't believe the difference! It's pricier, so you eat less of it, but the quality makes up for it in my book!
But I think the main thing is to put less emphasis on meat as the major part of the meal, and more emphasis on the veggies! Better for your health and your wallet!

[skip]

G'Day Clarkbar2311

Apologies for not responding sooner. I have only just read your post. At the Cooking Forum here I have posted our Polish pierogi recipe. So inexpensive and so delicious! And, yes, you can snap-freeze them and cook them straight from frozen (no need to thaw them out first). Try them and let me know what you think. Being half Polish yourself they should 'hit the spot beautifully', as we say Down Under.

[skip]

G'Day Jim!

See our Polish goulash recipe posted at this forum. Make it soon, using up your canned tomatoes and let me know how it 'went down'.