» Meals

Frugal Meals Ideas – 2

Tricia — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:25:35 +0000

Everyday sandwich bread – also includes wheat, oatmeal, cornmeal and potato bread

Garlic bread crumbs – great recipe for stale bread

Cinnamon cake – easy and cheap (no eggs)

Taco seasoning – homemade (definitely frugal)

Greens – easy and quick (about 5 to 10 minutes)

Pinto beans – regular and crockpot method

Country pie – easy baked dish

Baked potaoes – simple (but for some reason I can never remember it, lol)

Crockpot cheeseburgers – little prep, sloppy joe style

Alternatives to sandwiches – 6 quick and easy recipes for sandwiches, great for lunch

Breakfast ideas – monkey bread, roll-ups and french toast

Chicken chili – crockpot (can be used with homemade taco seasoning)

Beef stew - crock pot, easy prep

Variety of frugal meal recipes

Tricia — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:49:28 +0000

Today I was searching the net looking for inexpensive recipes like I do every week. I came across this site called Blogander which is a collection of blogs on different subjects. One of the blogs is called Cheap Eats. It is a guide to eating cheap with tips, recipes and techniques. I think these would be some great additions to your LifeTips . Hopefully you have your own lifetips to keep track of all the frugal information you come across

Home Fried Potatoes - 70¢ this is for one serving but I think it is pretty easy to change the recipe for your particular family size

Quesadillas - price starts at 70¢ but it varies depending on what you add to it. Super easy recipe Take 2 tortillas, add some cheese that easily melts, layer in a pan and you are done!

Quick French Toast – 95¢ about 2 to 3 servings, 6 slices of toast

Garlic Bread – $1.36 I must admit I am surprised by this one. I have never thought about making my own garlic bread. I always thought it was just cheaper to buy it already made.

Penne Pasta Casserole - $3.42 very easy to make

Bread Pudding – can use any type of leftover sweet bread or plain bread

Ground beef layered casserole - simple to prepare uses potatoes and tomato sauce

Magic Milk Shakes – uses no ice cream! Amazing right?

Lasagna - can be prepared as a make ahead meal, serves 9-10 people

Nothing but Ramen Noodle Recipes!

Taco Salad-takes about 20 minutes start to finish. Ingredients can be found at Aldi’s

Free recipe e-books!

Simple Meal Ideas

Tricia — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:03:30 +0000

This week some of the recipes I am posting are centered around the kids. I have four very, very picky kids so there is always someone complaining about what is for dinner. So I started looking for kid friendly meals. I found a whole bunch and plan on printing them out and making my own cookbook.

Cheesy Potato Cups - kid friendly and make ahead

Mini Taco Bowls - quick and easy, kid friendly

Strawberry Nilla Nibbles - super quick dessert, very kid friendly

Ham and Potatoes Casserole - easy and 1 dish

Smiley Apples - cute and quick, kid friendly

Family Cheese Pizza – quick, easy and kid friendly

Cresent Dogs - quick and kid friendly

Kid’s Snack balls - fun and easy

Green and Gold casserole – easy and frugal

Apple Crisp - frugal dessert

Angel Food Ministries

Tricia — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:54:05 +0000

One of my internet friends was telling me about this organization called Angel Food Ministries so of course I had to share. This organization is non profit and offers high quality food for $30. There is a monthly menu which includes chicken breasts, ribs, fresh corn and carrots, potatoes and pork chops. Every one qualifies for this program. You do not have to fill out any applications and there is no limit to how many boxes you can buy. None of the food is second hand, damaged or out of date. All you have to do is find a host site in your area. Unfortunately there are no sites where I live in Wisconsin, but there may be a site near someone who can use a good deal on food.

Meal Ideas – 1

Tricia — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:16:07 +0000

I have been coming across some very nice websites with good recipes that are frugal friendly, here are some of them.

Country breakfast casserole – a make ahead dish
( eggs, sausage, hash browns, cheese, etc)

Banana cinnamon french toast – quick and easy

Chicken taco casserole – make ahead freezer meal

Frozen french fries – quick freezer dish

User friendly meatballs – freezer dish

Barbecue short ribs- crock-pot meal

Hearty chicken and noodle casserole – easy from Campbell’s Kitchen

So how much should I budget for groceries?

Tricia — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 06:40:38 +0000

Well, I started posting what I make for dinner to see how much I was spending on groceries. That way I can budget accordingly. I also asked people around me how much do they think is a good price for groceries for a family of 6. Almost everyone I asked said between $400 and $450 a month. That sounds like a good price for me. I may even be able to get it under $400. I am going to budget $400 per month not $100 per week. That way if there are a lot of good sales one week and it is over $100, I won’t use money that if for something else.

I do not think my problem with spending too much money on food has to do with what I buy entirely. I think it is convenience. There has been plenty of times I didn’t have anything planned so we ate out. Or I just didn’t feel like cooking so we ate out. There have even been times there are so many after-school activities or functions , it was quicker to eat out. So I think I need to plan my meals. I am going to try this make ahead meal thing. I am going to look up some recipes and start either tomorrow evening or Monday morning. Wish me luck!

Friday’s Dinner

Tricia — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:55:11 +0000

chicken strips $1.98 oranges $.79

rice $.99 (really easy to cook, just add water)

$.94 (really good deal, found on sale) total price $4.70

DH wanted to eat out last night so we got fish from my favorite fast food restaurant. I was excited because it feels like years since the last time I had some.(it has really only been almost 1 month) Guess what happened? It was absolutely horrible! Everything tasted different. The food was cold and flavorless. The fries(which are normally my all time favorite) was cold, hard and tasted like cardboard. I called and complained , and the manager said they were using a different fry supplier. He did offer me a free order so DH went back to get it. They tasted ok but it is just not the same. Sadly I will not be eating there anymore.

You learn something new everyday

Tricia — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:06:11 +0000

Well, yesterday I went grocery shopping and I did pretty good. I used all cash and did not over spend. I actually found some nice things on sale so that was a big plus. I only have two tiny regrets. I did not use coupons (i know, bad girl) and I did not do any research before I went shopping. I met these really nice people in a forum and they gave me some great money saving tips as far as food goes. In all the years I have been trying to find ways to save money I never thought about finding ways to prepare foods inexpensively at home. For example instead of I guess I figured to save money on groceries I needed to find better deals. So I am excited about the next time I go grocery shopping (which should be about 1 1/2 weeks, I did pretty good yesterday) I am determined to finally read some of the make ahead meals cookbooks I keep checking out at the library. Wish me luck!!

Wednesday’s meal

Tricia — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:53:13 +0000

$1.00 1 1/2 lb $2.69

applesauce $.79 apple kiwi juice $1.69 $.99 total cost $7.16

DH and I ate the leftover nachos for dinner

Tuesday’s dinner

Tricia — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:01:06 +0000

$2.99 Tater tots $1.29

nacho cheese $3.78 (2) sour cream $1.29

ground beef ($5.39, cut in half)$2.69

Total price $12.04 not too bad compared to almost spending $30 at taco bell