Frugal Meals

Spending less at the grocery store. . .

Over the years I have watched different ladies “get by” on a very limited budget. The first one that comes to mind was my Aunt Jessie Pearl. She was a housewife who was very talented in the kitchen. She would take leftover biscuits and make a mouthwatering bread pudding that everyone loved. By crumbling the biscuits, adding a little milk, an egg, and a little sugar and cinnamon, she would place this in a Pyrex dish and press it down evenly, adding a dab of butter on top and sprinkling with sugar and she would bake it until golden brown. . Yum!

If we made a dessert, for instance a cake using a storebought mix and icing, we would pay at least 3-4 dollars for it today. I’m sure Aunt Jesse Pearl’s bread pudding cost less than a dollar to make! And considering she already had the leftovers and other ingredients, it really cost her nothing to make it.

We have just LOST all of the old ways of doing things in our mad rush/rush world we live in. We’ve lost the identity of these women of old along with this. We no longer consider ourselves to be valuable as these women did. They were sure of themselves, knowing their ways were tried and true! Their mothers and grandmothers passed down these money saving ideas, and probably they didn’t even consider them to be such. They just knew the recipes were good, and they continued in them.  I also think of Chicken & Dumplings…Using flour, a little butter or shortening, a little bit of chicken and chicken broth made a meal that “everyone” loved!

Cornmeal dressing with bits of cooked chicken pressed down on the top made a delicious, hearty meal!

I do know that these women used what they HAD. They were mainly country housewives, that had chickens that provided eggs and after a few seasons, the chickens were killed and eaten, their husbands grew corn that they had ground into corn meal, they had fresh vegetables they grew in their garden.  They had fruit trees that provided fruti for making preserves, cobblers, and also they picked wild berries such as blackberries that they made cobblers, pies, jelly and jam from.

I KNOW lots of ladies aren’t this fortunate these days to have access to things like this. Some live in cities, and have to depend on what the local grocer has to offer.

Here are a few tips for $$$ friendly meals…Use meat sparingly with/in these types of dishes since meat has gotten so expensive, (and it makes it go farther, but the taste is still there).

Buy the bulk of your food in rice, dry beans, pasta, veggies and potatoes.

Chicken and rice: add chopped carrots for color.
Dry red beans and sliced smoked sausage.
Dry big white lima beans and diced chicken.
Pasta and veggies with bits of fish, chicken or beef.
Potatoes with browned ground meat and gravy.

Frugal Menu's 

• Fried sausage, greens, cornbread
• Beans, greens w/smoked turkey wings, cornbread
• Salmon patties on a bun, salad, baked potato
• Dirty Rice: Brown a little ground meat (about 1/2 pound), a handful of sliced and diced sausage, onion, bell peppers, celery. Add 2 cups of water and one cup of rice, season with Creole seasoning, salt, pepper, or as desired, and cook until the rice is done. You can double the recipe if needed. Serve with crackers, garlic toast or cornbread.

• Corned Beef Hash: Brown diced onion, and diced potatoes in a skillet with a little olive oil or butter, add one can of corned beef chopped up. Add a little water to make it like a gravy to go over rice or biscuits.  
• Poor Man's Meal
• BBQ Corned Beef
• Potato Hash
• Beef Goulash
• Root Veggie Hash
• Cabbage Stew

​More recipes coming soon. . .

Tips on BUYING and cooking ground meat.

• Chuck has less fat, which means you pay less in the end. While ground beef is cheaper, it has lots of fat that is “weighed in” on the price, that you’ll just have to skim off and throw away!
• Buy the family size packages…Then use LESS meat.
• Cut the package in 1/2 or 1/3 it. Get 3 meals instead of one from it!
• Entrees such as meatloaf use quite a bit of meat, But using 1/2 the meat and adding a cup or more of oats, bread brumbs or rice will make it go farther.
• Use the other part of the package to make spaghetti or chili.
• Same for hamburgers. While they are good and everyone loves them, they do require quite a bit of meat.
• Make them in a bowl like you are making a meatloaf. Add seasonings, onions, an egg, oats, rice or breadcrumbs. Patty them and bake them or broil them. Brush BBQ sauce or ketchup on top and broil until slightly browned.
• WHEN MAKING CHILI ADD MORE BEANS TO MAKE IT GO FARTHER. SAME WITH MOST RECIPES, ADD MORE VEGGIES, PASTA, OR BEANS TO STRETCH IT.