Cheap Meals

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Cheap Meals

My shopping list today, November 17, 2011

1 pound fettucini	$1.08	This list assumes you
1 pound brown rice	$0.78	have staples items like
1 pound dried pinto beans	$1.32	dried herbs and spices
1 pound Jimmy Dean Sausage, Italian	$2.50	already in the pantry.
1 pound Jimmy Dean Sausage, Maple	$2.50	All items were bought
1 can diced tomatoes	$0.58	at the local Wal-mart
2 pounds shredded cheese	$8.88	and are Great Value
1 pound butter	$2.98	Brand, except Stevia
1 bag frozen peas	$1.94	and the bread. I buy
1 jar spaghetti sauce	$1.33	day old bread, 3 for a
1 onion	$0.50	dollar at the Sara Lee
5 pounds potatoes	$2.98	day old bread store.
1 galllon milk	$3.15	This is a week's worth
1 bell pepper	$0.88	of meals and snacks
4 oranges	$1.40	without having to
1 dozen eggs	$1.58	resort to things like
1 package Stevia in the Raw	$2.98	Ramen noodles and
1 parmesean cheese	$2.62	hot dogs, which are
1 picante sauce, medium	$1.53	not healthy. It also
2 pounds flour	$1.83	assumes you will drink
3 pounds chicken thighs	$5.98	water or tea, hot or
3 loaves whole wheat bread	$1.00	cold. I don't use sugar
1 bag small Gala apples	$2.48	in any of my cooking,
1 pound corn meal	$1.38	hence the Stevia. Jimmy
1 bag popcorn for air popping	$1.00	Dean sausage was on
Total of today's groceries	$53.81	sale. Now what?

The first thing to do is plan your dinner meals because these usually take the most ingredients. For this week, I am using the following dinners:

Chicken Fettucini Au Gratin
Spicy Pinto Beans and Cornbread
Italian Sausage Meatballs with Parmesean Rice
Chicken Quiche
Roasted Spiced Chicken and Potato Curry
Apple Corn Fritters with Maple Sausage Meatballs
Potato Potpourri

For breakfast each day I would simply make cinnamon toast and tea, pancakes, or stewed apples on toast. Oatmeal would be another inexpensive alternative (whole oats, not instant). I try to stay away from breakfast cereals because they are loaded with sugar, preservatives,and other unhealthy substances. You will note that these menus use hardly any processed foods. Real food is always cheaper, healthier and tastes better.

For lunches, you can always make grilled cheese sandwiches. I also developed three sandwich spreads made from potatoes that are quite good on toasted bread. You could also make a big pot of potato soup for lunches. Omelets are also a good lunch alternative. Another idea is gravy on anything. As long as you have butter, milk and flour, you can make gravy to put over biscuits, toast, leftover rice, noodles,

anything. If you finish a meal and are still hungry, pop some popcorn in the hot air popper and eat with sliced apples or an orange. Make a small fruit salad from cut up apples and oranges and have with some leftover paremsean rice. You are going to have flour, corn meal and probably some apples left over, you can make a cinnamon apple coffee cake and some hush puppies with marinara dipping sauce. You'll have extra bread and milk so a bread pudding could also be made. Or just plain ole Milk Toast, something I remember from my childhood. Any way you slice it, $53 a week for a family of four is pretty cheap, and can still uses healthy ingredients. Now - these are NORMAL size portions, not heaped up plates. In this country, we are all overweight because we insist on having a heaping plateful of food or going back for seconds. Not healthy or necessary. If you are still hungry after a meal, drink a large glass of water, and then dig into the popcorn. If you are still hungry, be creative about leftovers. Some leftover noodles, some leftover beans, a little leftover potatoes, throw them all together and stirfy to warm them up in the skillet and add a handfull of cheese and some spices. Try to use the microwave as little as possible, it destroys the health value of your food.

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