what are your budget stretcher meals?

[Jim]

:DI'm looking for cheapo meal ideas

[canadamike]

freeze all leftover bones and meat from any animal, beef, chicken, etc... Make a broth , then a real thick soup or stew with potatoes and vegetables

I NEVER throw chicken bones or else in the can until I have made a broth.

[grunt]

Beans. Not just as beans, but used to make a broth that richens any stew or soup, as chili, or baked, or even as a side dish. They are also easy to grow lots of for drying, shelling, or snap beans. Make good pickles or can be just dilled.

[bluelacedredhead]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Senate Bean Soup........

[bluelacedredhead]

Just thought of something. (It's packed but) I have a copy of a Family Circle magazine from the 70's where they held a contest for best original family dinner recipe. The woman who won made (I believe) 4 meals out of two 3-1/2 lb chickens.

The wing tips and neck were the base for a soup course with pasta, canned tomatoes and green beans.
The thigh meat was added to an egg noodle casserole.
I'm sorry but I don't recall what the other selections were, but of course chicken breasts would have been an entree.

And no, this isn't Iron Chef, so the 4th menu selection was NOT a chicken liver Ice Cream, LOL. But I'm sure that the livers were on the menu somewhere.

[peapod]

Looking for affordable meals that are good tasting and nutritious. What a great idea. I used to teach this exact kind of class to single parents. Not just moms but dads too.

Here are some really good and easy meals to make. Since you garden it'll be even more affordable

Got a crock pot? (slow cooker)
Soak what beans you like over night. Rince in the morning.
add an onion or 2 or 3 or 4 what ever you flavor is.
A few potatoes
let it cook for a few hours about 3-4.
It'll thicken due to the taters
add your seasonings... We love garlic. Our family motto is when you think you have added to much garlic then thats about right.
Salt pepper garlic hot peppers its just a pot of good carbs and protien. Add what ever veggies you want at this time. Corn, garden beans, cauliflower, brussel sprouts etc. Your garden goods.

Let it cook for 'bout another hour or 2 and you have yourself a meal that is well balanced and nutritous.

Really rince your beans in the morning. You'll tooter all day and into the next if you dont.

I have tons of recipes. Really I do. And they are all geared toward affordable eating. Not a Tele show that has folks running out and purchacing fesh crab meat.

[swisscharrd]

Another cheapo I like is turkey; either turkey legs or hindquarters. The hinds have tons of meat. I'll have to look for my turkey trotters recipe - it is basically a kind of barbeque type sauce the legs are cooked in and is great. They have smoke turkey legs too that are great in beans- just a couple small ones and lots of flavor and no ham needed.

I also freeze my chicken carcuss's or is it carci- until I have two or three and make broth.

[grungy]

Rice, pasta, use meat to make a sauce, and use carbohydrate base. Extends the expensive part of the meals. Also can or freeze anything you can get in bulk, cheap in smaller batches and use to spice up regular meal staples.

[moonlilyhead]

Pasta and fresh tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Side of homemade bread. Salad from the garden. CHEAP! Dinner for the cost of the pasta, nearly, which is about a buck!
This is my favorite cheap, healthy, and tasty meal.

[bunkie]

i saw this woman on the news. she's truly amazing at stretching a meal and supplies! these are mostly youtubes which are hard for us dialuppers. am looking for transcripts and will post if i find.

Great Depression Cooking with Clara

Great Depression Cooking with Clara is the popular online cooking show. In each episode Clara prepares recipes that her mother made during the Great Depression...
www.greatdepressioncooking.com/Depression_Cooking/Welcome.html

[ceara]

Oh how ironic. lol My hubby and I were just watching the nice old lady Clara on You Tube yesterday! She seems really sweet. There seem to be a bunch of her videos on You Tube. She shows family photographs and talks about her memories during the depression.

Also, good budget stretcher recipes can be found in any war time cookbook, either in the UK or USA, in the times of war food rationing.

[macmex]

About a month ago I had the urge to make something thrifty and delicious.
It was my day off and I got to make dinner for us. I rummaged around in the freezer and came up with a venison neck bone, with some meat on it, and put that in a big pot. Then I dumped in a qt of canned zucchini and a qt of chicken stock, from when my wife canned a couple of our chickens. Went through the fridge and found leftovers of green beans, okra, pre-cooked Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips; all from the garden. I cut up an onion and some garlic(also from the garden and added that along with salt and pepper (not from the garden). I threw in a couple of handfuls of cowpeas (from the garden) and garbanzos (not from the garden).This produced about 4 qts of really great stew/soup. It's amazing how much meat will come off of a neck or spine when it's well cooked! Finally, just before serving I made dumplings and cooked them on top of it all. The cornmeal was from our own corn, but the wheat flour was not. It was a wonderful, inexpensive meal which made leftovers for us to carry to work, etc.

Dumplings are very easy to make from scratch. They turn a pot of soup or stew into a gourmet treat.

George

[mnjrutherford]

Here's my fav...

QUICK! Run to the garden and grab about 3 lbs worth of tomatoes, as many sprigs of basil and thyme as you can collect in 15 seconds or less, grab a few green onion tops as a last minute thought.
Run back into the house and wash everything.
Throw everything into the blender and pulse a few times.
Check the fridge for a piece of onion and or garlic and if you have it throw it into the blender as well.
Heat an adequate sized pot to about medium or medium high.
Add a generous squirt of olive oil and a small nob of butter to the warming pot.
When fats are hot, pour in contents of blender.
Bring to gentle boil.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Turn off the heat.
Add a bit of heavy cream or sour cream if you like the idea.
Serve.
Eat!
Moan with delight.

[fulenn]

We really like soup around here. Take your vegetable trimmings and make a broth from it. Add a bit of white wine if you like near the end. Then chop in a potato, onion, a double-handful of whatever cooking greens you have in your garden (spinach, chard, kale, etc.), and add 1/4 cup nutritional yeast. Really good.

Another good one is chicken tomatillo soup.
Chicken broth--6-8 cups
1 bottle of your favorite beer
saute together 10 tomatillos, 2 jalapenos, 1 onion, 2 T. garlic
Add to broth.
1 chicken breast, or thigh, or 2 wings, whatever

After it is all cooked, serve over crushed tortilla chips or over a lump of fresh polenta. Yum! My kids like it with a bit of shredded montery jack cheese. If you don't have any chicken, don't worry, it's still good.

Fulenn