Readers Letters: Frugal Meal Ideas
by Jenn @ Frugal Upstate on October 10, 2008
Dear Frugal Upstate,
I am so glad you ran your frugal food series! I am finding that as a senior our fixed incomes are not keeping up with all the cost of living increases. Heat, light, and of course food! I think that although we eat all our meals at home now, I could use some upbeat ideas, to change our meals and improve both the cost of these meals and the variety. I work hard at bringing a change of texture, colour and falvour to our meals. Having said that I feed 3 adults at supper, and the 2 men are basically meat and potaote guys.
Two ideas that I am really working on are buying roasts, hams on sale and then using very thin sliced left over meat once durring the week, as a supper. I have been using it as a sliced meat, cold, and using up left over potatoes or macaroni and making salad, and serving a side salad of green salad, or coleslaw , or carrot salad, or broccoli salad ( those are the favorites), I make which ever salad I have the makings for, or can get for the least amount of cash. If I don’t have enough meat and want to stretch things, I make devilled eggs, ( both fellows love them!).
Another use for these items is hot pork ( beef, meatloaf) sandwiches. When I was growing up the Chinese cooks in the local resturant always had a special of the day. Often it was hot (turkey, beef, port ) sandwich, on bread with gravey, mashed potatoe, a veggie, tea, or coffee, and a cornstarch pudding or Jello for desert. Soup started the meal and bread and butter, or a bun. I remember we were always filled, and felt so special! Now our local resturant has a special like this, move the clock ahead and it is $10.95 to $12.95 not as much food, and coffee or tea are $1.50 extra! (Senior special is $1 less and has 1/2 the meat and potatoes).
The other extender for a supper for me is Making a huge pot of Chilli, This has become the Saturday supper. I use my own canned tomatoes, so far I have used canned beans, but will start doing my beans the night before and see if it will be more cost effective than buying beans already canned on sale. To my chilli I add in things I want to use up. mushrooms, celery, onions, corn, hamburger.
Saturdays will also see Macaroni and Cheese, I use a Menonite recipe I got that uses eggs in it. That is served with some coleslaw, or green salad.
Lastly Pizza shows up on the Saturday menu. I make the crust up in my bread machine, and again it is a use it up meal. Bits of left over veggies, onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheeses, hamberger ( I have been known to save some from an earlies meal, and freeze it and bring it out to use it on a pizza. Saturdays are my easy days, My take it easy Mom meals, but I still need filling meals that are low cost.
On nights when I have time for chopping I make a stir fry, served over noodles of one kind or another. I am looking forward to my garden again for lots of fresh veggies, at a price I can afford.
Are you going to be featuring any ideas for inexpensive gardening? Seed saving or any ideas like that? Any and all ideas welcome. A friend taught me to make paper pots for starting my transplants in. She used a tomato paste can and we rolled the newspaper around it and left the papers a little longer than the can , then folded the bottom of the papers in to form a proper pot. worked good for us. But you need to make sure all the paper pot is under the earth, or it will act as a wick and dry your plant out.
Thanks for your news letter and site, Love it.
Kootenay Annie, in Kitchener, B.C.
Annie,
Thanks for writing in! I know it took me months to respond to this (sorry!) but you had such great ideas and comments that I had to publish it despite my own embarrassment (folks, she sent me this in July).
I really appreciate you sharing with me, and now with all my readers, some of the ways you are making frugality work for your family’s meal planning. It sounds like you could teach me a thing or two.
You also have some fabulous gardening ideas. I did actually have a garden this year, but neglected to write about it much. I promise that this coming spring I will be a better blogger and cover it in detail. And I plan on using your newspaper pot trick when I start my own seeds this winter.
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate
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Related Articles:
Frugal Food Part One: Eggs
Frugal Food Part Two: Tuna
Frugal Food Part Three: Beans
Frugal Food Part Four: Ground Meat
Frugal Food Part Fiver: Chicken Whole, Wings & Thighs
Frugal Food Part Six: Bread, Potatoes, Pasta & Rice
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The recipezaar.com website that you told me about is a great resource for help with putting together frugal meals by finding recipes to use leftovers and inexpensive ingredients. The ratings and comments from others who have tried the recipes are very useful. – Mac
I love your frugal ideas. Thank you! I have 5 teens to feed and that can be expensive.