How to stretch meat for dinner...recipes please.

[Oakblossoms]

My husband has rotating shifts.  So, half the week he isn't here.  He cooks at work instead.  We never eat meat unless he is here.  He works really hard now and insists he needs meat :glare:   I hate cooking meat.  So, I might throw a cheap pack of thighs in the oven and cover them with barbecue sauce.  I made meatloaf and he liked that...of course it was bacon covered.  

 

We have to cut our budget somewhere.  We don't qualify for food stamps.  Meat is expensive.  I usually budget $10 for dinner for our family.  So, if he wants a pack of meat and it costs 7-10 that ruins my budget.  

 

Hit me when some recipes please.  Casseroles and crockpot stuff would be awesome.  Things that you could freeze in microwave portions would be awesomer. 

 

 

[Flowing Brook]

what about stir fry with only a little meat in it. Chicken and broccoli casserole with rice. one chicken breast is sufficient.

[MomtoCandJ]

Chili, goulash,

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

America's Test Kitchen ZITI goes a long way, and you can add meat to it just to bulk it up a tad.  I've done it with beef or de-cased sausage.  Freezes well too.  They have a lasagna that's the same idea.

 

THIS recipe calls for cubed turkey, but I usually make it with ground.  Anything with a grain like barley is filling, which stretches your meat usage.

 

Stuffed Peppers use meat in a filling that is also bulked up with rice and beans.  I usually end up with more filling left over that ends up in flour tortillas for lunch over the next several days.

 

Chili can have as little or as much meat as you want, and you can still bulk it with beans (I do one with three beans).

 

Actually, a lot of the AICR recipes use meat as a "condiment" since that is the main idea of the site's approach, so you can take what is mostly a veg or grain based meal and just extend it with a comparatively small about of meat.

 

 

 

 

[NancyNellen]

I buy whole chickens or chicken leg quarters when they are on sale and roast them and shred them. I make lots of soups with the chicken - chicken corn chowder is a HUGE hit with all seven if us.

[regentrude]

Anything that uses cut up or ground meat will allow you to stretch the meat; anything that uses entire steaks/chops/chicken breast will not. So, think:

 

pasta sauce with ground beef

lasagne

goulash

soups

chili

- all of these freeze very well in single servings or bulk.

 

For one of our almost instant standby meal, I cut up one or two chicken breasts or pork chops in pieces, brown it in a pan with onion and garlic, add spices, cream, white wine, and serve over pasta or rice with veggies as a side.

Or stir fry with vegetables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Oakblossoms]

Meat never goes on sale here.  Isn't that strange? I think it is because raise their own.  (We moved here this summer.)  I used to buy meat at Costco or when Safeway had the B1G1F.  I figure I can add stuff to chili or make taco filling since we eat those two a lot.  

[kewb]

I stretch ground beef with oats.  If I am making meatballs I add a cup of oat flour per lb of meat.  Meatloaf -throw in a cup of oats.  Sometimes i will make flour out of lentils and add that to meatloaf.  Sloppy Joes with a mix of ground beef and cooked lentils.

 

For my dh a lot of the time it is about the texture.  If I am skimping on the meat in a stir fry I make sure there are plenty of mushrooms so there is a similar feel.

 

[Oakblossoms]

Oh yeah if I make meatballs or meatloaf, I add a ton of filler stuff.  

[swellmomma]

soups, stew, casserole, sauces, salads, wraps.

tonight is "loaded nachos" meaning I could not afford the tortillas to make tacos and only have 1 lb of ground beef.  I made it with the taco seasoning then topped the nacho chips (which were on sale) with meat, peppers and cheese.

Often I will cook 1 chicken breast I get on sale, slice it up and top a ceasar salad with it.  Or wraps with a bit of meat.  Stews, and soups need very little meat to be yummy and hearty.  Spaghetti sauce with meat in it it a hit too.  Casseroles are a good stretcher too.

 

Alternatively I watch for good sales.  Today I go small packs of chicken thighs for under $2 each because they were $2 off each due to being nearly the expiry date, and packs of ribs for $5 each.  I don't always find deals like that but when I do I snatch them up. 

 

Also don't discount canned meats like tuna for casserole or salmon to be used for salmon balls.  Sometimes you can get a better deal on those thatn on other meats.

shepard's pie uses a relatively small amount of meat. 

 

I buy beef bones for making soup for about $1 a peice.  They make a great stock and then I can toss in a little bit of whatever I have on hand meat wise.  Or I use 1 lb ground beef and make a big pot of hamburger soup. 

Also it is hunting season, if you know a hunter they may consider sharing their bounty if you help pay for processing.  It works out to be cheaper than store bought meats, and healthier. Doing that can ensure you have ground meat, and perhaps a roast etc in the freezer to cook up.

[bolt.]

What I do is cook up meat in large batches (sometimes with fillers), then freeze it kind of loosely in bags, then add it when and where I want.

 

Try:

 

Ground beef with quick cooking oats, water and beef bullion (to flavour the oats like beef as they cook)

Variations on ground beef, like taco spices, or whatever savory style beef you want to end up with

Beefy spaghetti sauce: make a cauldron, freeze in meal sizes

A whole turkey -- seriously cheap per pound -- roast as usual, have a meal, then *carefully* turn the rest of it into (bone and slime free) chopped meat

Maybe pot-roast beef or pork would yield similar styles of add-later shredded meat

 

Also, pre-done things like meatloaf, meatballs, pot pies, etc, with plenty of filler. If you are going to make one, you might as well make 4, and save yourself 3x the work later.

[JadeOrchidSong]

what about stir fry with only a little meat in it. Chicken and broccoli casserole with rice. one chicken breast is sufficient.

I agree:-)

 

One pound of meat serves two dinners for us. I usually use one pound ground turkey and lots of veggies for filling for my Chinese pot stickers.

Also, if you make Chinese style stir fry, you use lots of veggies with a little bit of meat. Same with eggs.

[Mama Geek]

pulled beef, pork or chicken over a potato with butter, cheese pickle, bbq sauce type of thing.

[Swimtaxi234]

Red Beans and Rice is an affordable meal that has a lot of protein.  Dried kidney beans are cheap.  Rice is super cheap.  I usually only add one pound of sausage for the entire batch and that makes 20+ servings (I freeze 3/4 of the pot).  I almost always serve this with corn bread which is also inexpensive to make.

 

 

[Oakblossoms]

Do you have a recipe for your red beans and rice? 

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

I'm not Swimtaxi, but here's my favorite crock pot friendly Red Beans and Rice recipe.  You can make two to three batches with 1 14-16 oz. package of audouli (spelling!) sausage. I serve with Jiffy Corn bread (.50 box here).

 

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/02/red-beans-and-rice/

[joannqn]

I have found that if I serve meat cut up I can get by on a lot less.  A good example in our house is fried chicken.  I do not fry whole chicken breasts ever.  Instead I cut width-wise into 1/4 inch slices and fry those.   I'm able to get by with only two chicken breasts for six people this way, especially if I make the side servings larger.  I do the same thing with pork...never pork chops, always pork slices/chunks.  A bonus is that it cooks a lot faster and more evenly too.  

When I make roasted chicken, I always make chicken soup with the leftover meat and carcass.  I usually make enough soup for 2-3 meals.

I rarely make meatloaf and meatballs because it takes up too much meat.  My family loves meatloaf, but it takes two pounds of meat to fill the pan and there are never leftovers.  Spaghetti and meatballs are a treat because I won't spare the extra pound of meat to make the meatballs when there is already a pound of ground beef in the sauce itself.

[Swimtaxi234]

http://swimtaxi234.blogspot.com/2011/01/red-beans-and-rice.html

 

Now that we live at such a high altitude (at least compared to near sea level when I wrote that blog post), I have to cook the beans a lot longer and I tend to need to season them 2-3 times during the cooking.  

 

I never use Jiffy cornbread mix because it tends to be very sweet, plus a bag of cornmeal is a more affordable option.

[LucyStoner]

No sales ever? Where do you live?

 

What about the manager's special bin for stuff that is reaching its sell by date? Find out when they mark it down and then make sure to shop on those days. Also if people raise a lot of their own meat, have you tried buying from a small farmer or family with extra?

[Susan C.]

You can stretch hamburger meat for chili, spaghetti sauce and the likes with slightly undercooked garbanzo beans/chick peas. Soak dried beans with lemon juice for 12 hours, throw water out, put new in and cook until still firm. At this point you can drain, cool and put in the refrigerator or freezer. Then food process, it will be the consistency of hamburger meat (chunky). Then mix, 2/3 meat 1/3 beans, or if you are daring 1/2 and 1/2. I've tried for hamburger patties too, it was different, but fine.

[KungFuPanda]

A pork roast is fairly cheap, filling, goes a long way, and freezes well. Just toss it in the crockpot with a little liquid (broth, salsa, BBQ sauce, etc). Cook until it's tender and easy to shred. Then you can add it to burritos, tacos, soups, salads, sandwiches, or whatever DH likes. If the rest of the family isn't interested in meat, you can keep costs down by adding it to just DHs portion when you serve. For some people, meat satisfies in a way nothing else does and trying to stretch it with too much filler isn't always the answer.