Wow, here we are in week 4 of the Frugal Food Series–the series that helps you stretch your food dollar in this time of rising costs! We are doing this by providing you with family tested and approved recipes from folks around the web–all utilizing inexpensive ingredients.
So far we’ve covered Eggs, Tuna and Beans. This week we hit another frugal kitchen standby-ground meat.
Of all the cuts/types of red meat out there, ground meat (also called mince in some parts of the world) is usually the most economical. This is because the butcher can take less tender cuts and “trimmings” from larger cuts of meat and grind them up into a salable product. Beef is not the only type of ground meat out there-anything can be ground: Pork, Turkey, Lamb, Venison. Nine times out of 10 beef will be the least expensive (and items like pork and lamb can be down right expensive). Personally our freezer is full of Venison-which can be very inexpensive (or free) if you have a hunter in your life.*
When shopping for ground beef, remember that typically the leaner the meat, the more money per pound. I tend tp buy the cheapest ground beef for use in anything where it is going to be cooked prior to the rest of the ingredient being added-you can use techniques like rinsing the meat after cooking or even using boiling instead of frying to cut down on the fat content.
For recipes where the beef is cooked by baking or grilling (ie meatballs, meatloaf, burgers etc) I like to use Texturized Vegetable Protien to stretch the meat, lower the fat/calorie content and increase the fiber. I just reconstitute the TVP with a strong beef broth (made from cubes), then mix the TVP about 1/2 and 1/2 in with the raw ground meat. Shape and cook as usual.
The most common uses for ground meat in the Frugal Upstate Household are:
1. Hamburgers-Usually a TVP/Burger mix.
2. Meatloaf-TVP/Burger mix when I do make it. I admit, I don’t make this often for some unknown reason-and when I do I like to make my mom’s recipe for Rueben Meatloaf-I’ll post it later this week 🙂 .
3. Meatballs-TVP/Burger mix. When I make meatballs I usually make a ton. Then I bake them (I set them raw on my cookie cooling racks, which are then set on a baking sheet so the grease drips out), cool, flash freeze**, and then freeze in meal sized portions. Ta-da! Sam’s club prefrozen meatballs take THAT!
4. Tacos-TVP/Burger mix. I have been known on occasion to skip the ground meat all together and just use TVP. By the time you get all those taco spices in there, who can tell the difference.
5. Cabbage Rolls/Cabbage Roll Casserole-I’m usually too lazy to make the actual rolls, so I just do the casserole version. For this I use rinsed ground meat.
6. Stuffed Whatever-This is usually something I make in the summer when produce is cheap and/or free. The same beef/rice/tomato/spice mixture can be stuffed into peppers, zucchini boats, grape leaves, pretty much whatever. Occasionally I’ll do TVP/Burger mix, if I have some already mixed together on hand, but more typically I’ll used rinsed ground meat.
7. Hamburger Casserole-I do they standard noodle, corn, cream of whatever mix. I’ve been known to do both TVP mix and rinsed meat.
8. Chili-For this I tend to just used the rinsed meat.
So now it’s your turn. What great frugal recipes do you have for ground meat? Remember to consider the total cost of your recipe. If it calls for artichoke hearts, goat cheese and capers it probably isn’t exactly a cheap recipe-even if the meat portion is inexpensive.
Playing along is easy. Just post your recipe, along with a mention of the series on your own blog (or dig one up from your archives-a backlink would be appreciated but isn’t strictly necessary for archived posts). Next link to the post with your recipe*** in the Mr. Linky below. Please put the name of the recipe in parenthesis to help folks navigate a bit easier.
Don’t have a blog? That’s fine. Just leave your recipe in the comments, or send it to me via email (my email is over there in the left sidebar) and I’ll post it and link it when I get a chance.
Have you come a little late to the party, but have an awesome egg, tuna or bean recipe to share? Just head on back to those posts and link-they are still fair game.
Coming up next week-Frugal Food Series Part Five: Cheap Chicken Cuts-“Whole Chickens, Drumsticks and Thighs, Oh MY!”
*Note: This is assuming that said hunter already owns their equipment and hunts locally. Booking a Caribou hunting trip 2000 miles away with the guys that requires guides, cases of beer and special equipment is NOT Frugal-although it may be fun for said hunters.
**Note: Flash freezing is simply placing the meatballs on a wax paper lined cookie sheet in a single layer with space between, freezing till solid, then throwing them all into a ziplock type baggie etc. This keeps them from freezing into a single solid mass.
***Note: Please, make sure you link to the post, and not just to the main page of your blog. If you link to the main page and someone tries to look up your recipes next November, they will never be able to find it.
Ground beef has always been a frugal choice. Your idea of adding TVP is a good one and I think I’m going to try it.
where do you buy the TVP? i’ve never heard of it before. sounds like a great way to stretch the meat…
we use a lot of ground venison at our house, too. we have a local guy butcher for us. he charges by the pound. last winter we paid $69 for 75 pounds of meat, 75% of which was ground. you want to make sure that someone knowledgeable butchers your deer or you may get food poisoning. you should also cook all venison well done since it hasn’t had all that parasite prevention that livestock gets. a big plus is how lean venison is. when i brown it, i get less grease than when i do 93% lean beef.
I get TVP in the bulk aisle from Whole Foods (or whatever natural foods store is convenient). Usually that store is the most expensive for everything– except bulk! I get my couscous and beans there too 🙂 But I’d avoid buying any prepackaged TVP, too expensive!
Here is a way to stretch a half pound of hamburger to feed four people.
Hamburger Pancakes
½ lb. ground beef
1 tablespoon grated onion
½ teaspoon salt
ÂĽ teaspoon pepper
ÂĽ teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs. Separated
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Combine beef, onion, salt, pepper, baking powder, and egg yolks. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Fold them into the meat mixture. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over moderate heat for one minute. Using a large spoon drop the mixture into the skillet main four pancakes. Cook five minutes, turn the pancakes, and then cook five minutes longer.
Serves 4
i steal a lot of ideas from the kraft foods web site, but for the sake of being frugal, don’t always use their ingredients.
a favorite with my fiance is the tex mex shells and cheese
1 box shells and cheese
1 lb ground beef
1 can chili ready diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cup water
shredded cheese (optional)
brown ground beef, drain. add in shells, tomatoes (don’t drain), and water. bring to boil. reduce heat and cover. after 15 minutes, add cheese sauce and serve.
i usually can do this dish for under $3 (assuming i’ve purchased the ground beef for $0.99 lb).
it only serves two (we’re both hearty eaters), but if you have a larger family i’m sure you could add sides to make it go further.
I have been considering buying the fuller fat ground beef but wondered at the true cost effectiveness of doing so, with the weight reduced after fat removal. Sounds like an interesting experiment. I’ve also wanted to try grinding my own meat. We don’t use soy products but do stretch the meat with beans quite often, as in one of the recipes I’ll add to my Frugal Food post.
I use TVP also as a stretcher sometimes, but I prefer to use bulgur wheat. I just reconstitute it with hot water (or use stock or broth for more flavor) and then combine it with the ground beef.
I’ve added a link for my meal starts. It is really more of an idea but I added a recipe for our favorite sloppy joe recipe.
Jill
I was so glad to see you mention cabbage roll/ cabbage roll casserole. I do the same thing with enchiladas. We love em, but I don’t like the time it takes to make em, so I turned it into a casserole, same with lasagna.
Oh and I’m laughing now about the hunting part. Hubby said to me today that he wanted to look into the cost of a guided hunt…
OH and we now have 220 pounds of beef in our freezer. You can often buy the cow from an FFA kid, and while the cost is $2 a pound, that is for everything from rib eye and t-bone to hamburger. Plus it was grass fed. The biggest problem is that the ground beef is frozen into 1 pound tubes. So when I went to make my texas hash recipe, I scooped out half the beef after browning and put in the fridge for another meal. There was almost no fat either!
Ok I’m done hijacking your comments. 🙂 Thanks for hosting!
Those ideas are all great but, you can use bread crumbs to make meat appear bulkier so, you can eat less of it. Have fun in the Summer sun and Happy 4th of July everyone!!
I almost always use ground turkey because it is half the price ($1.56/lb) and you can use it just about everything that calls for ground beef. Thanks for this great series!!
Good Job! 🙂
Here is a family favorite: Spaghetti Pie