Staple Meals
Posted by Christi | Filed under Christi
Six months ago we moved into our new house. In preparation, we created a budget with our best estimates of what owning a house was going to cost. Recently, I decided to update that budget with some real numbers to ensure we were doing A-OK.
As I went through the last 6 months and added up budget items like electricity, water, and fuel, I realized my estimates were pretty bang on. Yay! We can keep living here! And just as I was about to close my laptop and sleep soundly that night, I decided to check my groceries.
I was expecting that our groceries and personal items totaled less than $500 per month between the two of us. As soon as I hit the equals button, I realized I was wrong. Like, way wrong.
We were averaging almost $650 per month! Here I am, holding my head all high thinking we’re doing just fine, and we’re going 30% over budget.
Cue the self-reflection. Why were our grocery costs so high?
For one, we shop where it’s convenient, not where it’s cheapest. Safeway is 4 minutes from our house, and Superstore might be a whole 5 minutes away, so guess where we go! Everything looks so much better in dim, romantic Safeway light, doesn’t it? Their fruits and vegetables are so much prettier! And let’s face it, they bag your groceries for you. But if a personal bagger is going to cost me an extra $150 per month, I’m going to have to hand him a pink slip.
I also never create a grocery list. I just go up and down every aisle, and when I see something we “need”, I grab it. Isn’t that doing the same thing? Obviously not, because without a prepared list, I am buying what I want, whenever I want.
We’ve all heard that the more prepared the food is when you buy it, the more it will cost. This alone likely explains why our grocery costs are so high. We buy food that takes less than 20 minutes to cook. Food that is frozen solid, that you dump onto a pan and pop into the oven. Food that you slice open, plop into a pot, and cook for 10 minutes. With my choice of words I really should be a food blogger, eh?
Cue the self-realization. I don’t have the slightest idea how to cook! I don’t have a week’s worth of staple meals in my head that I can whip up for everyday dinners. I know how to make a mean spaghetti sauce, and I like making stir fry because I don’t think it’s possible to mess that up. But everything else we buy is frozen, boxed, or ready-to-eat. That is why our grocery costs are so high.
So here’s where you come in; I need your help. What are your go-to, staple meals? Please brag! I need some easy recipes that I can memorize and make after a day at work. I expect that by buying ingredients that are on a grocery list that I bring to a cheaper grocery store, I will be able to get our groceries and personal care items to be under the $500 mark. One day, I want to be that person who looks into her cupboards and just throws something together. If I did that right now, I’d be forced to combine frozen egg rolls, jam, popcorn, and thyme. Wait, is that a stir fry? HELP!
- Christi (@ChristiPosner)
Christi Posner is a Credit Counsellor for the Credit Counselling Society, a non-profit, charitable organization. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Christi is a newlywed, a new homeowner, and with the exception of car loans and a mortgage, she is newly debt-free. Her goal is not merely to survive, but to financially thrive; and to do so with some passion, empathy, humour, and a smile.
May 19, 2012 at 7:40 am
My default for a quick weeknight meal is Italian chicken bake.
Get a dish (I use a glass dish that you would make lasagna or brownies in.) Spray it with Pam. Put in a chicken breast for each person (mine come out of the freezer, they are never fresh or defrosted.) Surround the chicken with mini potatoes (I use mini so that I only have to cut them in half.) Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of Italian dressing over top of everything. Sprinkle a bit of Italian seasoning. Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese. Cover & throw it in the oven for about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 25 or so until the chicken is done. I think the oven is usually around 350 or 375. I usually steam carrots to go with it. It’s so easy and so tasty.
May 19, 2012 at 10:16 am
Mmm! I can easily do that! You sold me on not having to defrost the chicken
. See this is the stuff I need. So all I need to have “on hand” or buy regularly when I’m in the grocery store are baby potatoes, chicken (which I always have), Italian dressing and seasoning, Pam (which I always have), and parmesan cheese! I can do that! THANKS!!!
May 19, 2012 at 10:18 am
My idea is a nice Sunday dinner that leads to an additional dinner during the week. I buy whole chickens when on sale (last time got them for $5 each). On Sunday we cook the whole chicken (in the summer beer can style). Do what ever veggies you want and eat the breast meat for a nice Sunday dinner. We then make stock with the remaining skin and bones and freeze it in ice cubes. Later in the week we make a version of chicken a la king with the stock and leftover meat.
Take a tablespoon of butter with flour in a pot to make a roo. Then add the stock cubes (at least a cup worth) and some poultry seasoning – when you have a gravy like sauce throw in the leftover chicken and any leftover vegetables or uncooked peas. Keep heating until the chicken and vegetables are heated through. You can now spoon this mixture into hollowed out bun bowls or small puff pastry cups. I prefer the pastry cups made by tenderflake. I buy them on sale – usually 2 for $5 which is enough for 3 meals of 2 cups per person for myself and my partner.
Meal cost wise per meal (not per person) is less than $5. When the chicken is not on sale you are looking at closer to $5 per person.
May 19, 2012 at 10:26 am
Being honest, this recipe scares me. But I’m sure it’s cause I just need a bit more clarification. When I say I don’t know how to cook, I really mean it!! Haha. It sounds delicious, like a stew that you spoon into buns or pastry puffs. Few questions though:
1. How do you make stock with the remaining skin and bones and freeze it in ice cubes? Or are you leaving the skin and bones out of the ice cubes?
2. How much flour?
3. What’s a roo?
Thanks Siobhan!
May 19, 2012 at 10:46 am
This isn’t my post but hopefully I can clarify some of it.
A roux is a mixture of flour into butter (or some kind of fat in general) and is the start of a lot of different recipes. After you melt the butter you then mix in equal parts flour slowly and stir it well. It’s just a common base for sauces in French cooking.
When you boil the bones and skin to make chicken broth you then have to strain it. I dump it through a strainer and, if you were to make soup make sure you pick the bones and solids for the remaining chicken. Once it is strained I put the big pot in the fridge so any fat goes to the top when it cools and then you can skim it off. After that, put it in the ice cube trays.
May 19, 2012 at 10:54 am
Ohhhhh! Thanks Alicia! I understand the concept of a roux now. And the chicken broth – good call to use a strainer. Haha I don’t know that I would have known. Thanks for the help.
May 19, 2012 at 11:20 am
Sorry for my lack of clarity.
To help with getting a decent stock you should put the bones and skin in a pot and cover with just enough water to cover the bones up. You can then add an onion cut into quarters and a few cloves of garlic if you have it. I will also throw in celery leaves. Bring the pot to a boil. Cover with a lid and keep it simmering for at least an hour. Most stock recipes call for you to add salt and pepper but since I use the ice cubes in everything I wait and add the salt and pepper to the final recipe. Then as already stated I strain the stuff out of the liquid. I let it sit in the fridge overnight and then scoop off the solid fat on top and pour into ice cubes.
You can use that stock to make soups, to give extra flavour to rice (instead of boiling in water boil in stock). Or after you cook a meat in a pan throw in a couple of cubes of stock and a little butter and you have a pan sauce.
The nice thing about the chicken sauce/gravy is that it is very forgiving. If after it comes to a boil it is way to thick add some more stock a cube at a time, if it is too thin add some flour (about a tbsp at a time). Make sure in both cases you give it time to heat up before continuing to add more of either flour or stock. You are aiming for a thick gravy consitency. It is very forgiving.
The roux is the base for a lot of other recipes.
A simple white sauce for pasta would look like this – add your tbsp of butter and then a clove or two of garlic pushed through a press. Wait about a minute to add the flour. Now you can add 1-2 cups of milk (or cream). Once it thickens (like the gravy from the prior recipe) you can add other flavours. Again if it is way too thick add some more milk, if too thin add some flour. I add salt pepper, parmesan and oregano to throw over simple pasta with peas.
Or you can use the milk sauce as your base for macaroni and cheese. Just add a cup of your favourite cheese(s) shredded. I generally use a cup of cheddar with a little extra parmesan sprinkled in. And then throw it over drained macaroni and you have a creamy macaroni and cheese.
May 19, 2012 at 10:25 am
Salsa Chicken- Get a class dish put in chicken breasts sprinkle with a tbsp of taco seasoning, pour jar of salsa on top of chicken, bake in oven at 375 for 40-45 min..sprinkle shredded cheese on top bake until melted. Serve with sour cream and green onion- DELISH!
Pita Pizza’s- Whole Wheat pita’s with whatever fixings you want bake in oven at 375 for 10- 12 minutes
Italian Sausage/Pepper Pasta- Cut up a few links of low fat italian sausage, cook until brown, drain any fat, add in sliced sweet peppers (red pepper, Yello Pepper, orange pepper) and garlic cook for 2-3 min, add a jar of tomato sauce and simmer until hot for 5 min. Sevrve over your favorite pasta (penne, rotini, etc)…
I could give you a few more!!!
May 19, 2012 at 10:31 am
Thanks Diana! I forgot all about Pita Pizza’s. I’ve heard of them but never made them. Must do this immediately, it’s so easy! Salsa chicken sounds good too! What do you serve on the side? And the Italian Sausage/Pepper pasta sounds great! As you know I’m afraid of spice so I’ll just tone it down a bit. Yes I will continue to ask you for more and more! THANK YOU!!
May 19, 2012 at 10:31 am
I am also no a great cook… Any thing that takes more than 20 minutes my husband takes care of. So I added soft tacos to our weekly meal plan. No recipe required, and easy enough to make healthy if you substitute ground turkey, whole wheat wraps, etc.
Another thing that has helped us stick to making dinners, is to not only make a grocery list, but to make a meal plan for the whole week. That way if you know you have an obligation one night that requires a quick dinner, you’ve planned ahead and don’t end up hitting the drive through.
May 19, 2012 at 10:35 am
That’s true Shawn, a meal plan would help. Soft tacos is smart too. Just have to have the ingredients on hand – WHICH IS WHERE A MEAL PLAN COMES IN. So each week we write down what we want to eat for dinners, and we shop for those ingredients! I needed this. THANKS!
May 19, 2012 at 10:38 am
Easy Chicken Parmesan (sort of
)
In a baking dish put a chicken piece for each person (I use the frozen chicken breasts from Walmart but I take them out in the morning and leave them in the fridge for the day) dump a container of spaghetti sauce over it and sprinkle mozza cheese over top. Cook uncovered in the over for roughly 30 minutes (i just cut into a piece to check) and serve with salad….super easy and super yummy
also, i would recommend investing in a slow cooker….you just put everything in the pot in the morning, turn it on and go to work. come home to a finished me
There are a ton of recipes on the internet for slow cookers that are super simple
May 19, 2012 at 10:49 am
That’s it? Seriously? Just chicken, spaghetti sauce, and mozza cheese? So easy, so AWESOME! And yes, we have a slow cooker. We’ll start looking some recipes up. Thanks Crystal!
May 25, 2012 at 12:57 pm
yep… just chicken spaghetti sauce and mozza…..it is so good!
May 19, 2012 at 11:22 am
Sign up for Kraft’s free magazine. The recipes are generally very simple and use everyday ingredients. Of course they always list Kraft products but you can substitute for whatever is on sale.
http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/main.aspx?cm_mmc=srch-_-Google-_-Kraft-Branded-EN-_-kraft-recipes
There is a link to the magazine at the bottom of the page.
May 19, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Thanks for posting this Christi. Me and my husband are bad with buying frozen food as well. I never got my moms cooking gene. I will be copying these recipes everyone is posting. Thanks to everyone for sharing!
May 19, 2012 at 2:01 pm
I have made this once, make much for 2, so frozed the rest for a need it now dinner: http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis-fusilli-homemade-marinara-sauce/
I am a simple cook, but sometimes I like complex to make dishes. I made a beef stew and vegetable soup this spring and froze leftovers for need it now lunches or dinner.
My wolfgang puck panni grill is my friend. In the winter I use it regularly to grill steak, chops, burgers, grilled cheeses. takes 5 mins to cook a steak to medium.
Veggies, being Irish we eat potatoes often. I like mine roasted with stuff: steak seasoning, chives, garlic, onions. I will sometimes toss in carrots. I do them on the bbq in the summer. Try to eat 2-3 veggies at dinner. I enjoy some of the PC frozen veggies, you can microwave.
May 19, 2012 at 2:18 pm
With your stuffed potatoes, are you just slicing open a potato and scooping out some of the insides to replace with other things? Do you just wrap in tin foil and put on the bottom rack of the BBQ? I have a grill and I’m all for using that too, thanks!
May 19, 2012 at 3:54 pm
I like to cook but sometimes I just don’t have time or energy for it so we, too, buy half-prepared food. I really like the ones from Costco that they make right in the store. They are not frozen so only good for 3-5 days but for the 2 of us a pan of butter chicken, chicken pie or Shepard’s pie lasts 2-3 meals. So usually a dinner and two lunches the following 2 days. But I only buy each about once a month because you can get sick of the same thing if you eat it too often.
Other than that I like to cook casserole dishes, they taste great, last for several meals, easy to freeze if needed but they can take a little while to make. Both recipes I usually use are Hungarian.
Potato casserole is actually quite easy and very cheap to make.
All you need is: potato, eggs, sausage, sour cream and salt
You boil 3-4 bigger potatoes until cooked then cool so it’s easy to peel the skin. At the same time you also boil 6-7 eggs until hard enough inside. Also cool and peel. Then slice up all the potatoes and eggs, thin slices.
Get a sausage you like (smoked is great although the original recipe calls for a kolbasz or as it’s Ukrainian cousin is called kovbasa but my mom would faint if she saw what I sometimes end up putting in my casserole, she swears it’s only good with good old Hungarian sausage) Anyhow, slice up your choice of meat as well.
Then take the casserole dish and spread some butter around it. My mom also says it’s good to sprinkle a bit of breadcrumbs on it after because that will soak up excess liquid, so I do that too.
Then comes the fun part: you start layering, one layer of potatoes, eggs and sausage then generously cover the top with sour cream (don’t be cheap cause this will give you the yummy moisture). Then you go again with potato, egg and sausage and cover again with sour cream. I usually put a few left over slices of potato on top because it will roast nicely on the top of your dish and makes it look nice.
Also I forgot to add to boil the eggs and potatoes in salty water and even as you layer them it is a good idea to sprinkle some salt on them as per your taste. Of course you can always salt it once you serve the dish too.
So when it’s all put together you put it in the oven for about 40-45 mins on 350-375, don’t cover it because all ingredients are cooked already.
As extras you can put shredded cheese and/or bacon on top.
When served it should like something like this : http://zsuzsifoz.blogspot.ca/2007/12/rakott-krumpli-az-rk-kedvenc.html
Oh boy, sorry for the very long recipe it is really much easier than as it’s long to describe. I am not even gonna start on the other cauliflower dish cause that might be a step up from this one. So far all my co-workers asked for the recipe when they saw me eat this potato dish at work, so I can really just recommend it.
May 19, 2012 at 3:58 pm
I too am not a great cook. I used to buy all the pre made meals because they were so convenient but since I had a heart attack last June my Dr put me on a low salt diet, so out went the premade meals, they are loaded with salt. I did lose 50 lbs just by cutting out all those premade salty meals and learned how to cook. I’m no Martha Stewart but I’m not starving either. I love anything I can throw into the crock pot (easy peasy meals) plus I use Mrs. Dash for all my seasoning. (no salt). I got on the internet and looked up heart healthy recipes, made a book with my favorites and now plan my meals and grocery shopping around what I have on hand and what ingredients I need. Saves me alot of money and nothing gets thrown away because it went bad before I could eat it. Here are 2 of my favorites 1- Chicken and rice bake
1can (10 3/4oz) cream of chicken soup, 1 1/3 water, 3/4 cup Uncooked white rice, 1/2 tsp of Mrs. Dash onion and Herb seasoning, 1/4 tsp pepper, 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts frozen or thawed.
Mix soup, water, Mrs Dash,and pepper in a 2qt shallow baking dish. Add chicken to top of mixture, sprinkle pepper and Mrs Dash to chicken. Cover and bake 375 F for 1hr or until chicken is no longer pink inside and rice is done. Sometimes I add 2 cups of frozen vegs, like chopped broccoli, or peas, etc to soup mix before I add the chicken to top. And my second fav is All in one Chicken and Roast Veggies. What I love about this one is u can add anything u have on hand.
2-3 potatoes cubed, 2 tsp minced garlic, 3 onions (red or yellow) 3 green peppers cut into strips, 3 carrots cut, 2 stalks of celery, 4-6 chicken thighs, olive oil, Mrs Dash garlic and Herb seasonings. Place veggies on couple of baking pans, add minced garlic. Add chicken among the veggies. Drizzle the olive oil on everything getting into cracks on veggies. Make sure everything had some oil on it but NOT swimming in the oil. Add Mrs. Dash to chicken. Put into a hot oven 400 for about 45 min to 1 hr, turning everything over once half way thru, add more Mrs Dash to chicken. Chicken is done when no longer pink inside. I love this recipe because I can use any veggies that are in season, so in the winter I can use squash and zucchini too. Hope this helps.
May 19, 2012 at 4:09 pm
I too am not a great cook. I used to buy all the pre made meals because they were so convenient but since I had a heart attack last June my Dr put me on a low salt diet, so out went the premade meals, they are loaded with salt. I did lose 50 lbs just by cutting out all those premade salty meals and learned how to cook. I’m no Martha Stewart but I’m not starving either. I love anything I can throw into the crock pot (easy peasy meals) plus I use Mrs. Dash for all my seasoning. (no salt). I got on the internet and looked up heart healthy recipes, made a book with my favorites and now plan my meals and grocery shopping around what I have on hand and what ingredients I need. Saves me alot of money and nothing gets thrown away because it went bad before I could eat it. Here are 2 of my favorites 1- Chicken and rice bake
1can (10 3/4oz) cream of chicken soup, 1 1/3 water, 3/4 cup Uncooked white rice, 1/2 tsp of Mrs. Dash onion and Herb seasoning, 1/4 tsp pepper, 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts frozen or thawed.
Mix soup, water, Mrs Dash,and pepper in a 2qt shallow baking dish. Add chicken to top of mixture, sprinkle pepper and Mrs Dash to chicken. Cover and bake 375 F for 1hr or until chicken is no longer pink inside and rice is done. If chicken was frozen I add about 15 min more. Sometimes I add 2 cups of frozen vegs, like chopped broccoli, or peas, etc to soup mix before I add the chicken to top. And my second fav is All in one Chicken and Roast Veggies. What I love about this one is u can add anything u have on hand.
2-3 potatoes cubed, 2 tsp minced garlic, 3 onions (red or yellow) 3 green peppers cut into strips, 3 carrots cut, 2 stalks of celery, 4-6 chicken thighs, olive oil, Mrs Dash garlic and Herb seasonings. Place veggies on couple of baking pans, add minced garlic. Add chicken among the veggies. Drizzle the olive oil on everything getting into cracks on veggies. Make sure everything had some oil on it but NOT swimming in the oil. Add Mrs. Dash to chicken. Put into a hot oven 400 for about 45 min to 1 hr, turning everything over once half way thru, add more Mrs Dash to chicken. Chicken is done when no longer pink inside. I love this recipe because I can use any veggies that are in season, so in the winter I can use squash and zucchini too. Hope this helps.
May 19, 2012 at 4:48 pm
This is how I plan my meals:
http://jaabeemom.blogspot.ca/2010/03/notebook.html
One of the easiest things you can do is pop sweet potatoes in the oven for 45-60 mins with the skins still on as is. Just push down on them to test and when they’re squishy take them out and let them cool. After about 5 mins the skins should slip right off. Mash with a bit of butter and some brown sugar if you like and it’s a lovely side dish. The nice thing is that any leftovers can be made into muffins that have the same texture as red velvet cake … mmmmmm
Also buy green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots and snow peas or sugar snap peas. All of these can be steamed for a simple and healthy side dish. If you have a steamer pot, just fill your basic pot with some water (but not so much as to go into the steamer attachment) and then put the veggies in the steaming section, cover, bring to a boil, boil covered for 5 mins and then VOILA! If you don’t have a steaming pot, just put them in a casserole dish with a bit of water (1-2 Tbsps) and microwave for 3-5 minutes depending on how crunchy you like them.
Foil pouches are great meals too. Use kitchen scissors (sharp scissors you use exclusively with food.. any kind just only use them with food) to cut chicken into chunks. Put in the center or a fair sized piece of foil. Add onions, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, cabbage, basically any veggie that cooks at a medium speed and add some kind of seasoning mix (Club House has a ton of them). Fold over and make into a pocket, put in an oven safe dish and cook at 350F for 20-25 mins. Be careful when you open the pouches because there will be steam. Serve with rice or the sweet potatoes above.
Any how, that’s just a few. My blog’s linked so just leave me a comment if you want more. Crock pots are great for saving money too because you can use cheaper cuts of meat and still get great results. Also try getting the new Looneyspoons Compilation Cookbook. Worth the money if you ask me.
May 19, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Easy Broccoli Chickan Divan –
Mix a couple of cut up cooked chicken breats with a small head of broccoli. Place in a casserole dish.
Mix a can of broccoli cheese soup with 1/3 cup of milk. Pour over the broccoli and chicken.
Sprinkle with a couple of handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese. Top with breadcrumbs if you like.
Cook at 400F for 25 minutes. Serve over rice or noodles.
May 19, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Oh this sounds very yummy and super easy, I am gonna try this for sure.
May 19, 2012 at 7:05 pm
A staple at our apartment is tacos. We (I) make it with whatever ground meat is on sale, and I will cook the entire 2 kg of meat (I buy a jumbo pack) at the beginning of the month, and it will feed us for the rest of the month with tacos once a week.
I use a taco seasoning recipe (chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and hot pepper flakes -I leave those out) for the meat – you can add corn starch if you want a thicker, saucier taco, like from those seasoning packets you buy.
I make corn tortillas, which are made using corn masa mix ($4 for several kg), salt, garlic powder, and water. Technically you don’t add the garlic powder, but we like our tortillas with some garlic. We then press those out on a tortilla press and cook those.
Since the meat is normally heating up in the microwave, dinner is normally ready in about 20 to 25 minutes, including the making of 16 small corn tortillas, and the chopping of veggies, grating of cheese. If the meat is being prepared, it takes a little longer, but that’s just because it’s cooking. Each tortilla takes 1 minute per side, but I put three on a griddle at a time. If we’re lazy we’ll use store bought hard taco shells, but it’s hard to want to do that when the masa mix for over 100 corn tortillas is the same price as 20 store bought taco shells.
We also use the same ground meat for pasta dishes in a tomato based sauce (I don’t think it will go well with a cream based sauce, so I have never bothered).
Another staple at our apartment is roasted potatoes – chop up potatoes (or any veggie, really) – for size reference, I normally chop small baby potatoes in half, and larger ones in quarters, put in a bowl. Add seasoning (I tend to use lots of garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, a pinch of chili pepper, and parmesan cheese – you can skip the salt, or replace it with seasoning salt), add a tbsp or two of oil, and mix. While prepping this, put a cookie sheet in the oven to preheat with the oven (350 is fine). Once heated, put the roasted potatoes onto the HOT sheet, and then you don’t have to worry about the potatoes sticking, since they begin to sear (much like searing beef on a cast iron pan). Cook for 20 minutes, flip things and then cook for another 20 minutes.
Another option is twice baked potatoes – while youhave the oven on anyways, pre bake some potatoes (pierce the skin with forks, pop in the oven, right on the shelf). Those can be baked for about an hour or so, and once cooked, you canpull them out, cut them in half, and let them cool. Then remove all the potato flesh and put in a bowl. You want little shells of potato skin for the filling. Now you can add whatever you want in your twice baked potato – I find cream cheese or plain yogurt gives it the fluffiness without having to rely on butter. I usually add garlic, parmesan cheese, bacon bits if we have them, and grated cheese. Then the potato filling gets all mixed up and popped back in the potato skin and topped with more cheese. It can hang out in the fridge (or freezer) until you want to make use of them for dinner – put them on a cookie sheet and reheat in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, assuming you’ve let them thaw /warm up for a bit in the kitchen.
For a refreshing baked potato, try feta, dill and garlic with a yogurt/cream cheese/butter and a splash of milk or cream base. Yogurt doesn’t need the addition of the milk/cream – it will have enough liquid already. Oh, and you could use sour cream instead of the butter, too. Basically make the potato filling fluffy when you are making things.
I know those aren’t full meals, but even having a side that’s prepped already means you can just pull it out when you get home from work and pop it in the oven while you prep a salad and a main.
Good luck!
May 19, 2012 at 10:19 pm
ok, I know shrimp aren’t cheap (at least not in Manitoba!) but I get the ones that are still shell-y; they’re a bit cheaper.
So, you take some frozen shrimp, thaw it, drain it, de-shell and de-tail it. Then you dump a bit of olive oil on it (or sesame oil if you’re going Asian) and some spices. Salt and pepper are good. If I’m doing fake-Italian, I put Italian spices on, same for Asian, etc.
Then you start the pasta. It doesn’t matter what kind you use. I prefer whole wheat, myself. After it comes to a boil, I pop in the pasta and time it for 9 minutes. Towards the end of that time, I pop some butter (a wee bit) in a frying pan together with some olive oil and fry off the shrimp. When it’s all nice and pink (not too long or they get tough) take out of the pan and put in the serving bowl. It’s ok if they get cool: the hot pasta and sauce will warm them up.
Then I dump about 1 tbsp flour in the left-over butter/oil in the frying pan, stirring constantly. It makes this ball of goo. Still stirring (I have a silicone-covered whisk for this), add a bit of milk/cream/chicken stock/liquid…keep stirring and it magically turns into a sauce! Season as desired.
Drain pasta. Pour sauce into pasta and toss to coat. Add shrimp. Enjoy!
May 19, 2012 at 10:22 pm
oooh, and eggs! chop up so bell pepper and mushroom and onion, fry a bit in a nice healthy oil. In the meantime, crack some eggs into a bowl and whisk a bit (I usually just use a fork). Season with pepper and salt. Dump eggs in frying pan with veggies. Stir stir stir. When egg is just cooked, sprinkle grated cheese on top (I like cheddar).
variation: fry bacon first and chop into bacon first. Then do the rest.
Yum!
May 21, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Rice and Beans
Dump a can of black beans in a sauce pan. Add 1/2 cup salsa. Cook on med-low 20 minutes. Cook rice — I use basmati 1 cup rice + 1 1/2 cups water simmer until done about 20 minutes also. Serve beans on rice with shredded cheddar or without. A side salad is nice to go with it or frozen vegetables are quick.
This is our staple meal for nights we haven’t planned or don’t have much time to cook.
May 22, 2012 at 9:37 am
I love to cook, but like most people am often pressed for time and resort to pre-cooked dinners after a long day at work. My other money waster is that since it’s just my boyfriend and I in our house and I don’t really enjoy leftovers I end up throwing out almost half the food we do actually cook. What a waste!
What I have started doing instead is making what I call “freezer meals”, probably not a new concept for most people but this has been fantastic for us.
On my day off I’ll make prep up a big meal (lasagna, casserole or something like many of the others have suggested) and plan for half of it to go right in the freezer. If I’m making lasagna I’ll line a pan with aluminum foil, make the lasagna and pop it right in the freezer uncooked. When it’s completely frozen I’ll pop it out of the dish, wrap it in a few more layers of aluminum foil and put it in a big freezer bag. I label the bag with the date and item and put it in the deep freeze.
Ideally I’ll plan the night before to have the freezer meal and take the food out, unwrap it, place it back in the original pan and leave it in the fridge to thaw until I get home from work (it’s already in the original pan shape, but the pan hasn’t been stuck in the freezer the whole time). Then I just have to cook it in the oven as if I just assembled it. If I don’t thaw it out first I can still cook it from frozen when I get home, it just takes a little longer. Instead of eating lasagna for three days straight we can have lasagna tonight and then bring it out again in a month or so and it doesn’t seem so redundant.
Ther are a lot of great websites out there that suggest good recipes for the freezer and I’m always looking for different foods to try.
A few things to mention though, if you are using meat that you have taken out of the freezer to assemble your freezer meal you must cook it before it gets frozen again. It’s not recommended to thaw meat and refreeze it without cooking. I had thawed ground beef once that I wanted to refreeze so I made burritos by cooking the beef with taco seasoning, throwing it in some large tortillas with beans and other ingredients, folding them into burrito shapes and wrapping them individually in aluminum foil and putting them in the freezer bags. If I want a burrito I can just take one out and heat it in the oven from frozen.
Also, many of the sites mention that if you’re topping your item with cheese to do it before your putting it in the oven. I think that the cheese may get “gummy” if frozen on top. I haven’t tried it but if you like you could shred the cheese and place it in another freezer bag ready to sprinkle on. I usually just grate up some cheese on cooking day personally.
It may sound a bit exaggerated but I have really found this to be life changing. I attempt to make a new dinner (and freezer meal) every week so that the deep freeze always has different options for me to grab on those crazy days.
May 22, 2012 at 10:48 am
We have to keep our budget for groceries/cleaning supplies/diapers/personal items for the five of us to $560 per month and by the time I get home from work my three little ones are hungry.
Someone may have mentioned this already but get a crock pot! I found mine on kijiji really cheap.
Throw in a few chicken breasts and cover them with bbq sauce, wrap some cut up potatoes and carrots in foil with a bit of butter and put them on top (or just place around the chicken for the bbq flavour but my kids don’t like that) set it on low in the morning and it will be done when you get home.
When whole chickens go on sale I just stick the whole chicken in the crock pot, sprinkle with onion powder (sometimes a cut up onion and some veggies depending on if there is room) set it on low leave it for the day and it will be all cooked and yummy when you get home. If you want chicken stock then you take out the chicken, remove all the meat and put the bones back in the crock pot. Leave it on low overnight. In the morning strain the liquid into a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool and then remove the fat from the top. This can be frozen or be made directly into soup with a bit of the left over chicken and some noodles/veggies.
My other life saver is freezer cooking. Over at http://www.moneysavingmom.com she is doing a series of posts on freezer cooking with some easy recipes to choose from including breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.
May 22, 2012 at 10:59 am
I am the only cook in this household of 4 so I feel a lot of pressure. We are all learning how to cook together.
What has helped is redefining what “dinner” is. We put so much pressure on ourselves to serve up a restaurant style meal and that is not what is required. Why can’t dinner be — soup and salad/sandwich, an omlette, pancakes, grilled cheese, sloopy joes etc. ? Once in awhile it doesn’t hurt to have breakfast or lunch for dinner.
When I am cooking a traditional dinner, I try to make double amounts and keep 1/2 as left overs for next nights meal or to freeze for later. Most vege’s and rice heat up well in the microwave the next day.
If really crunched for time we will be having pasta with meat sauce or “fast” pizza that the kids enjoy making themselves.
Fast pizza -
Naan flat bread
pizza sauce
shreaded mozzarella (or other cheese blend)
(other toppings as desired – peppers, meat etc.)
cook in 400 degree oven or toaster oven until cheese in melted – about 5 minutes. Presto you have thin crust pizza.
I am trying to teach the kids to cook – even though I am not great cook – so they will have some idea how to meal plan when they leave home. Baking has been a hit and like I said we are all learning together.
Good luck and happy meals.
May 23, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I have just started to try to cook more. I live alone and eating cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner is way easier then cooking something…. Receips book, magasin, google, everything is good to find easy, quick and good tricks. Everytime I go to the grocery with my list, I allow myself to by 1 new kind of spice. as a result, whenever I decide I want to cook something, I do have the required spice for it now (before, it was limited to salt and peper) You can also make big quantity of something and freeze it, such as spagetti sauce, you can do home made marinade, put it in a ziplock bag with the piece of meat of your choice, and all you have to do it put it in the fridge in the morning and cook it when you come back from work. Also, my favorite discovery: Soup… any kind of it. It usualy is easy to do, you can freeze it easily and it it a healty choice!
May 25, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I don’t know that I can help you! Our grocery (with toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper products, pet food, booze etc always comes out to around $200/week!!!) We do mostly cook at home and don’t really buy processed foods (except for a few things…) I always am looking for new ideas for using the same sort of ingredients. Also good to branch out. Google “frugal recipes” for simple, easy ideas, watch cooking shows to help you think of other ways to serve the same sorts of foods… ie-different types of pizza, pasta, curries etc.
May 25, 2012 at 5:48 pm
I love this easy recipe:
http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/bbq-style-meatloaf-minis-111404.aspx
It freezes well, and I like the variations that you can do (mexican/bbq/italian). The two things I change up:
1.) no cheeze wiz (nasty stuff) so I put a cube of cheese right inside, so it’s a nice gooey mess and who doesn’t like ooey-ness?!
2.) I add the sauce (salsa/tomato/bbq) right to the meat mixture. Apparently I didn’t read the recipe properly the first time I made it, and since I liked the way it worked I just kept doing it my way
And a side dish of veggies/salad.
I’ll often do dishes like this on the weekend when I have more time (not that this takes any real time) so that on week days I can just pull what I need out of the freezer and whip up dinner lickety split
May 25, 2012 at 6:20 pm
Random thoughts:
I cook my potatoes/sweet potatoes in the microwave. Poke them a bunch a times and stick them in for about 5 min (size of potato will vary cook time).
What about breakfast for dinner? Eggs, toast, hashbrowns
French Toast?!
One of hubby’s favourite dishes is “stroganoff” (this is a mans lazy interpretation of it lol)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
12-15 meatballs (pre-made & frozen, you can find them everywhere)
Egg noodles
Parsley or green onion for garnish
Put the frozen meatballs in a pan with about 1/4 cup of water (few tablespoons). On medium-ish heat covered. They will steam from the water and brown up. Takes about 10-15 minutes.
15-20 min and it’s not all that terrible. I often add frozen peas to mine.
While the meatballs are cooking, get a pot of water boiling and cook the noodles according to package directions.
Drain noodles.
Put soup in pot with a little milk/water, mix it up. Add the noodles & meat balls.
DONE!
Oh and if you want to garnish with green onion, use your scissors! Grab a bunch and just crop away, much easier, and I do this right into the pot.
Another site to check out is thechew.com (daily cooking show with Mario Batalli & Michael Symon) Michael has a segment he calls 5-in-5 which is meals that take less than 5 minutes to cook, with 5 ingredients and costs less than $5!!! and it is REAL food, no processed stuff!
June 1, 2012 at 10:11 pm
The Lazy Man’s Beef Stroganoff was the first recipe I made from your comments! Both my husband and I loved it. THANK YOU!!!!!! It was so easy, and a recipe I don’t have to write down and refer back to! YES THIS IS WHAT I WANTED!
June 2, 2012 at 12:38 am
Our “staple” and still a favorite with my house of peeps is “Mexican Chicken”. We buy our chicken (Prime) on clearance and freeze it right away, costs less, just as good.
In a big crock-pot,
Empty a large jar of salsa , (.99)
Add a tin of diced tomatoes (.50 to .88) ,
Add enough pieces of chicken to feed your family (Our is 7-9 on any given night so about $5-$8)
Add a bag of frozen California (or any type) Mixed veggies. ($2)
Add 1 diced onion, (.10 if bought in the mesh baggies)
Add a clove or two of Garlic if you want ($?)
Set the crock-pot to cook, and go off to work for a few hours. (This is hard to over cook. If the meat has bones, it will just fall right off as you serve it, which is yummy, we do sometimes use the boneless/skinless thighs and such, if they are the right price)
Serve over a plate of cooked rice. (About 2.00 per pot, when you buy the big bags)
Total cost of the meal is about $13 at most, split between a family of 7-9, its less then $2 per serving, makes for good dinner, and good math too!
June 5, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Frittata: beat two eggs. Oil a frying pan. Go through the fridge looking for a total of two cups of left-overs consisting of meat, and or cheese and cooked vegetables chopped and raw vegetables like tomatoes, green onions and salsa or whatever. Left over cooked diced potatoes are good. When frying pan is hot put in potatoes and meat and vegetables and fry lightly. When slightly brown add 2 or 3 tbsp of salsa or pesto or whatever. Pour in eggs cook until eggs set on bottom add grated cheese bits put under broiler to brown. TA DA frittata. Can be eaten as is with a salad or in a sandwich the next morning. My elder daughter virtually lived on this and cleaned out my fridge regularly. It could take you all of 10 min to make.
September 24, 2012 at 2:55 am
Love this post!! Came across it tonight while having an anxiety attack waiting for the new blog postings!
Great ideas
My family LOVES this chilli recipe:
Brown and drain fat from 1lb grnd beef
Sprinkle 1 pkg Club House CHILL-O seasoning on meat and stir
Dump large can of diced tomatoes on top
Dump 1 can of kidney beans in.
Stir and heat for about 10 mins. Serve with natcho chips for dipping, shredded chedder, sour cream, chives if desired.
A time saver that we try and remember to do is when we buy bulk grd beef on sale, is to cook it all up, remover fat, cool and put it into individual freezer bags. That way when you want to make spagetti, chilli, tacos or whatever, at least that part is done ;