Grocery prices are stressing me out. Cheap meal ideas, please?

[Sneezyone]

13 minutes ago, DreamerGirl said:

There is a speciality butcher shop near my house which is just a shop in a strip mall. Our neighbors get sausage and other meats including I think wild buffalo and other meat. You can get beef bones for soup there. You are also most likely to get meat with bones in it or a big hunk of meat which they will process for you but at additional cost. One of the things I learned was to get over my aversion to touching raw meat and learn to cut it. I cut even stew meat into pieces depending on the dish. I also cut meat really thin for fajitas or stir Frys or Thai curries especially and slightly thicker for curries. But rarely do I not cut even precut raw meat from the grocery store even if it was first cut by a butcher.

I am not sure which store, but I have seen beef bones in the freezer case in a local grocery store. Perhaps Whole Foods ? But in the Halal store there is an entire freezer case of bones. I always buy bone in because it is cheaper and the curry will be tastier in my view though you cannot make every dish with boned meat. But I cut them myself. As the flavoring you talk about, in my language there is a saying "the smell of meat" in a dish. Pretty much all the meat dishes we grew up with had a variety of vegetables in them. Drumstick, bitter gourd,  eggplant, spinach and/or some sort of bean or lentil other than the usual potato, peas, carrot etc. We were a family of 6, 4 adults so meat was not possible every day so everything was stretched like this. It was extremely flavorful because the vegetable added gave it a flavor of it's own.

I am always friendly with the butcher or the fishmonger and they will toss extra parts at me which I did not buy. For instance many people will not eat the head of the fish. My inlaws and parents know how to debone it. I don't. So I just toss them into a pot a make a stock. I would highly encourage familiarity with a butcher at the grocery store.

Absolutely on the cutting meat part and getting friendly with the grocery staff. I was at Harris Teeter today and they had a sale on pork loin, 1.99 a lb. I bought one at $8-9 and cut it into quarters. I should have bought two. UGH. Two quarters will be used this week to feed 17 cheerleaders a team dinner (pork taquitos) with refried beans, rice and veggie trimmings. I forgot I swapped weeks with someone, UGH!! One was partially frozen and cut into thin slices for stir fry. The other will be for some other night. It's still possible to do things economically. It just requires more flexibility/creativity. I swear ethnic meals are as cheap as it gets. Every culture has dishes that use very little meat and lots of filler.

When I'm feeling ambitious, I'll buy a BIG leg or shoulder and cut that up for 4-6 meals. I did that last summer and BBQ'd it. We had it plain/grilled, in BBQ nachos, pulled pork sammies ,and  salads. I have a little handheld vacuum sealer that makes it possible to store the cooked meat w/o freezer burn for months so the meals aren't one after the other. 

- Veggie chow fun is delish. No meat at all and rice noodles are cheap. 

- Fritattas (no wheat) and quiches are easy and filling.

- Breakfast dinner. 1lb. bacon (found today for $3.99) with GF-pancakes, waffles and scrambled eggs (easy to add veggies too)

Don't forget coupons (online and print) either. Spend a couple bucks on a newspaper and you'll make it back quickly (mostly b/c most people WAAAAYYY overpay on toiletries and personal care items).

Edited January 5, 2022 by Sneezyone

[DreamerGirl]

OP, do you have an Instant Pot ? 

If not, I would highly recommend it. It is not yet another gadget and I resisted that for a long time.

But it really saves time and makes a lot of things I used to make before like cooking dried beans and stock easier. I have a stove top pressure cooker (multiple sizes) as it is extremely common in my country of origin. But it necessitated me to stand and be there vs the Instant Pot since it is set and forget. I never got much use out of a crock pot and stock was something I did not make regularly. Beans I just found it a bit tedious because I would need to baby sit it and it needed me to be there. Now with the IP, I wash the beans and soak at night. DH who is the first to go down in the morning just drains it, tosses it into the IP and presses the bean button while coffee is made. It takes 30 minutes and goes to warm. One more task taken from me and easy for him. It is a game changer in terms of frequency of beans.

Dairy Yogurt. I always had issues with temperature and weather and it would turn sour, runny and it was annoying. We bought yogurt a lot because it is a big part of our diet. It is almost $4.00 for 2lb in our local ethnic store. We go through 2 tubs a week. Once the IP came, it has a yogurt button. A bit of a learning curve but it is something that is now there consistently and Dh or I and even the kids know how to do it. The savings did add up noticeably.

I love stock and I am finicky about store bought. I make my own because we eat a lot of soups. Before it was a laborious process. Now, IP, set and forget.

These three alone helps me build a pantry around which I can then build healthy and cheap meals. IP saves you time spent baby sitting stove top or even oven cooking. It did for me.

[prairiewindmomma]

I don't even soak the beans with my IP. There's no need. They are plenty tender with just pressure cooking in the instant pot.  I cook them in 1 lb bag portions, and I end up with six cups of cooked beans. I usually use 2 cups in one meal, and then bag the other beans in (2) quart sized bags.

[cintinative]

7 minutes ago, DreamerGirl said:

OP, do you have an Instant Pot ? 

 

Yes, but it sits on my shelf and never gets used.  😃

I do make my own stock sometimes (usually with turkey carcasses when I have them) but I use the crock pot.  

Do you have any tips on the instant pot use for beans and stock? I had horrible luck with recipes for the instant pot when I first started out but I was trying stuff with meat. It was just hard to get the timing right--it tended to be overcooked or undercooked.  And if you looked in three places for suggested times for cooking, they would all be different.  😃  

I have bought beef femur bones before, but for my dog. (where is the run away emoji when I need it?). They are actually pricey now--about $6/lb.  

 

[cintinative]

4 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I don't even soak the beans with my IP. There's no need. They are plenty tender with just pressure cooking in the instant pot.  I cook them in 1 lb bag portions, and I end up with six cups of cooked beans. I usually use 2 cups in one meal, and then bag the other beans in (2) quart sized bags.

Is there a reliable cooking time chart you use? 

[prairiewindmomma]

I mostly cook black beans AFA pressure cooking beans goes.

1 lb of black beans = 2 cups dried black beans. (You can either buy the 1# bags or have a dried bean bucket like I do.)

Add 6 c. water, pressure cook for 25 minutes.

This will yield 6 c. of cooked beans.  Technically one 15 oz can of beans is 1.5 cups cooked beans, but I usually just use 2 c. of beans and adjust the recipe only if needed.

-----------------

I have a chart somewhere, I didn't find it at a quick glance through my cooking stuff.  I don't use it often, obviously, as I just have a good repetoire of recipes I work off of that has those included. 

[Melissa in Australia]

You guys who don't soak your beans do you chuck out the water after cooking before adding other ingredients? to get rid of whatever that toxin is. 

[Sneezyone]

Goodness, yes, on the IP. For this last minute team dinner, I bought 2-12oz bags of pinto beans (3/$1 ) and 2-12oz bags of rice (2/$1). I’ll jazz ‘em up with lard, onion, garlic, lime juice, bouillon cubes and fresh cilantro. Super cheap to feed a whole bunch of girls. I spent more on the paper plates/cutlery, napkins, drinks (individual servings of water and Gatorade) and snack (between games) than the actual meal itself.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Sneezyone

[Sneezyone]

2 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

You guys who don't soak your beans do you chuck out the water after cooking before adding other ingredients? to get rid of whatever that toxin is. 

Sometimes I chuck the water, usually if I’m making a cold salad (like cowboy caviar). Other times, I keep it, like with chili.

[Melissa in Australia]

2 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

Sometimes I chuck the water, usually if I’m making a cold salad (like cowboy caviar). Other times, I keep it, like with chili.

How do you remove the toxen? 

Soaking or parboiling then chucking the water is to remove the toxen present in beans 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Melissa in Australia

[Sneezyone]

4 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

How do you remove the toxen? 

Soaking or parboilinh then chucking the water is to remove the toxen present in beans 

So, yeah, I’m from country, country stock despite my current circumstances. I don’t know nothing about no toxins. I wash (rinse) the beans and soak if I’m planning ahead (usually no) and discard only when necessary. I soak to decrease cooking time, not to remove toxins. I wash rice to remove starch (makes it fluffier at the end), for ex. I always assume there will be some extra, ahem, matter in dried goods.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Sneezyone

[Melissa in Australia]

Here it is written on the packet of dried beans

 

also it isn’t some new idea. My grandmother knew about it and always chucked the water, even in times of starvation. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Melissa in Australia

[Melissa in Australia]

https://www.statefoodsafety.com/Resources/Resources/toxic-beans

 

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/05/how-to-avoid-poisoning-from-red-beans/
 

 

[Scarlett]

I know you said they don't like meatless meals, but a wonderful inexpensive meal is Lentils and brown rice....1 cup each, with 2 packages of taco seasoning and 4 1/2 -5 cups of water.  Cook on low in crockpot for 6 hours or so.  Serve as 'taco meat'.

[prairiewindmomma]

 I don't cook red beans that way.  I don't cook red/kidney beans at all.  On the rare occasion I use them, I buy them commercially.

Black beans don't need to be soaked to remove toxins as they don't contain toxins. The argument for bean soaking (red beans aside) is that it reduces cooking time and reduces gassy properties.  The cook time isn't affected when pressure cooking, and we haven't had gas issues from the black beans. 

Black beans, pinto beans, and chickpeas are the majority of what we eat here--none of those have to be soaked. I do pre-rinse, lightly, but that's it. 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[Scarlett]

20 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

So, yeah, I’m from country, country stock despite my current circumstances. I don’t know nothing about no toxins. I wash (rinse) the beans and soak if I’m planning ahead (usually no) and discard only when necessary. I soak to decrease cooking time, not to remove toxins. I wash rice to remove starch (makes it fluffier at the end), for ex. I always assume there will be some extra, ahem, matter in dried goods.

Same here.  From the country, pinto beans especially were a staple in my growing up.  My mom rinsed the beans and then cooked them.  No throwing out the water after cooking the beans.  No soaking the beans.  

I only heard about soaking beans as an adult and I have found it very annoying trying to do that so I quit.  

[Sneezyone]

16 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

https://www.statefoodsafety.com/Resources/Resources/toxic-beans

 

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/05/how-to-avoid-poisoning-from-red-beans/
 

 

Red beans aren’t a staple in our diet so maybe that’s why? We eat pinto (aka brown beans), navy, cannelloni, black, black-eyed, and chickpeas. The link also says the gastrointestinal toxin is deactivated by boiling them to death, which we do. We don’t eat raw beans.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Sneezyone

[DreamerGirl]

OP, Youtube has a lot of recipes and I used it a lot.

This is the first video I used to learn about the IP. She really explains it in a way that is easy.

 

This is a master list of recipes

https://www.buzzfeed.com/melissaharrison/easy-instant-pot-dinner-recipes-quarantine

There are pre-set buttons for a variety of things that will set a time for you. I highly encourage you to use that in the beginning.

I most frequently use the Bean/Chilli (30 minutes pre-set) button as the pre-set button and the yogurt button.

There is a rice button and it is 12 minutes. The IP recommends 1.1.25 in the measuring cup it comes with.

For the texture we like, we use the measurement of 1:1.5 and manual (the button where you can set the time yourself) and set it to 14 minutes for white rice and 27 minutes for brown rice.

How to make yogurt (flavored yogurt)

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by DreamerGirl

[Bootsie]

As far as eating beans, I know people who are not particularly fond of warm beans (as in a white bean chili, red beans and rice, etc.) but really like a cold, marinated bean salad.  

[Sneezyone]

5 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

As far as eating beans, I know people who are not particularly fond of warm beans (as in a white bean chili, red beans and rice, etc.) but really like a cold, marinated bean salad.  

I do a lot of bean salads. I rinse after cooking or after removing from the can. I want the bean, not the juice/starch in a salad. It’s after New Year’s so the fresh black-eyed peas were on sale today for $2. I boiled them for 20-25 minutes eh, VOILA!! Perfect in a green salad. (I had to make an emergency trip out of state so we’re celebrating New Year’s Day late.)

Edited January 5, 2022 by Sneezyone

[DreamerGirl]

Ghee recipe

Plain yogurt

 

[Clarita]

On 1/3/2022 at 11:14 AM, BusyMom5 said:

If you can, check into buying a half or quarter beef directly from a farm or meat processor.  There are many mom and pop type places that do this!  Saves over half- plus more profitable to the farmer!

It's also fully butchered for you which I wasn't expecting. You can get the different parts in steak, cubes, ground, roast, whole as you like; they only charged a little extra if you asked for each slice of steak to be individually packed, otherwise if at least 2 to a pack I was not charged extra.

Even more so if you are a big family who eats or wants to eat meat a lot. Also you don't have to go to the rancher. You can have it processed for you so you pick it up at the butcher which can be closer even if you live in a suburban or urban area. I got lucky and my rancher has family that lives near me so he drives the meat there and I pick it up from him from there. 

9 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

Offal/off-cuts used to be cheap, not so much anymore. When I was sick as a kid, my mom would make oxtail soup (which kinda ended up tasting like a really rich french onion soup. Now oxtails are gourmet. SMH. Same thing with menudo ingredients (tripe, etc.). Grocery stores around me don't even butcher those parts anymore let alone sell them. You have to go to the ethnic markets.

If you are looking for those parts and you have freezer space look into buying a section (quarter, half or whole) steer. Then you just ask for all those parts. If you buy a quarter or half you may have to discuss with the butcher/rancher/other customer on who gets the part(s), but I had no trouble getting the oxtail and the tougue when I ordered my half. 

[73349]

Nisha Vora (Rainbow Plant Life) is helpful for vegan Instant Pot recipes. I don't think she's 100% gf, but her recipes tend to be. There are charts in the front of her IP cookbook for cook times for different kinds of beans, rice, and vegetables, and I've found them to be spot on.

Another side to this IMO is nudging Congress to pass the Food Labeling Modernization Act so that more products, including the cheaper store brands, are labeled for barley content. Part of the high cost of celiac shopping is even if we only want foods that should be naturally gf, we have to make sure the harvesting/processing/packaging companies are willing to declare that they haven't ruined it with cross-contamination. If everybody had to label one way or the other, the playing field would be leveled dramatically.

[Eos]

Thanks for this thread.  I have to shop later and I'm certainly planning more carefully than I used to.  Something I've noticed here is if I buy a large covid-amount of one thing, it's pricier next time I go back - I'm calling it Lamarkian inflation.

[marbel]

I'm a little late on this but re: beans in the instant pot - I have always found Simply Recipes to be a reliable site for pretty much anything. Here is a their full article and cooking time chart for beans in the IP:

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_fast_no_soak_beans_in_the_pressure_cooker/

Also I like Jacky and Amy's site Pressure Cook recipes for their rice cooking chart and other things:

https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/start-here/

 

[KungFuPanda]

I'm also from the sticks and grew up with LOTS of pinto beans and cornbread dinners.  My mother always soaked the beans and tossed the water before cooking.  Sometimes she did an overnight soak and sometimes she did a quick soak, but it's something she always did.  We never seemed to have any "digestive issues" from these meals.  I don't think the soaking is just to make the beans cook quicker.  Does anyone know the science?  I've never really researched this, I just copied my mother.  After I've discarded the soaking water and cooked the beans, I do keep and consume the broth they make at the end of cooking.  That's some good stuff!.

I was always taught that beans were dirty, so soaking serves three purposes; to make them more digestible, to shorten the cooking time, and to clean the beans.  (We also always rinse our rice before cooking because it's dirty too.)

Edited January 7, 2022 by KungFuPanda

[DreamerGirl]

35 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I'm also from the sticks and grew up with LOTS of pinto beans and cornbread dinners.  My mother always soaked the beans and tossed the water before cooking.  Sometimes she did an overnight soak and sometimes she did a quick soak, but it's something she always did.  We never seemed to have any "digestive issues" from these meals.  I don't think the soaking is just to make the beans cook quicker.  Does anyone know the science?  I've never really researched this, I just copied my mother.  After I've discarded the soaking water and cooked the beans, I do keep and consume the broth they make at the end of cooking.  That's some good stuff!.

My grandmother who taught me to cook always taught me to wash things until the water ran clear be it meat, fish, grains, beans, lentils and veggies. We are talking about mostly farm or freshly butchered so it was obviously very dirty, but I have always followed it as a method of practice.

Re: soaking

Even my grandmother cooked her beans on a stove top pressure cooker. But we always added asafetida to the beans or even lentils while cooking and it was taught to me as it reduces digestive issues. I follow it religiously.

35 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I was always taught that beans were dirty, so soaking serves three purposes; to make them more digestible, to shorten the cooking time, and to clean the beans.  (We also always rinse our rice before cooking because it's dirty too.)

Rice is very dirty. We had stones and insects and chaff growing up. So you always had to thresh (?) basically put it on a straw thingy and toss it up and down until the chaff is released to the wind. Now no need to do any of it except wash it.

But washing it also reduces the starch and soaking it makes it cook faster and softer. This is also one piece of grandma wisdom I still follow. 

[gstharr]

Long before the pandemic, I started a routine of hitting our local grocers on markdown day.  I hit three markets (same chain) in a one hour loop.  Mark downs are typically 30-75%, though some surprisingly extravagant item are frequently  marked a flat dollar or two.  This week I picked up a 3 pound roast for $5,  a 12 pound ham half for $6,  4 pounds of gala apples for 99ct, Stone fire naan for 99ct, a large pack of salad greens for 99ct, and a large  apple pie for $2.  I passed on ground beef/turkey/italian saugage for $2/lb, because I have a freezer full.  For me, it was slim pickings this week, so to fill out the week, I  pulled some steaks from the freezer that I got a couple of weeks ago --think I paid $3 each.  I rarely spend $40 a week on groceries. It pays to know markdown days and times they they are put out. My stores are about 8am, Tues or Wedns.  I 've heard that ALDI does it on Wedns, but I have not tried it there.

[cintinative]

1 minute ago, gstharr said:

 It pays to know markdown days and times they they are put out. 

How did you find out? Did you ask someone?

[gstharr]

4 minutes ago, cintinative said:

How did you find out? Did you ask someone?

 

It started way back when the dollars stores had really good stuff for a dollar.  I was hitting hit 3 or 4 stores, and running into the same group of shoppers.  We chatted, and shared scores.  Even now, I run into a regiular group and we share or point out the bargains.   But, I would simply ask the produce guy, the butcher, baker, and deli person when they usually do markdowns.  The best discounts are gone within an hour.   Not all stores do it.  The rival chain to the one I shop, does not markdown, but donates all such items to foodbanks.

[marbel]

Couple of stores near me heavily discount day old bread. I haven't been able to find out when they bring it out, it seems to vary. But there's pretty much something out there every day. 

[Sneezyone]

4 hours ago, gstharr said:

Long before the pandemic, I started a routine of hitting our local grocers on markdown day.  I hit three markets (same chain) in a one hour loop.  Mark downs are typically 30-75%, though some surprisingly extravagant item are frequently  marked a flat dollar or two.  This week I picked up a 3 pound roast for $5,  a 12 pound ham half for $6,  4 pounds of gala apples for 99ct, Stone fire naan for 99ct, a large pack of salad greens for 99ct, and a large  apple pie for $2.  I passed on ground beef/turkey/italian saugage for $2/lb, because I have a freezer full.  For me, it was slim pickings this week, so to fill out the week, I  pulled some steaks from the freezer that I got a couple of weeks ago --think I paid $3 each.  I rarely spend $40 a week on groceries. It pays to know markdown days and times they they are put out. My stores are about 8am, Tues or Wedns.  I 've heard that ALDI does it on Wedns, but I have not tried it there.

Yep. I do this too. My local Food Lion doesn’t sell as much premium stuff so I get my ground lamb, beef, veal, and steak from them on markdown day. I bring it home, vacuum seal it, and pop it in my freezer.

[Pippen]

On 1/5/2022 at 5:04 PM, Sneezyone said:

I do a lot of bean salads. I rinse after cooking or after removing from the can. I want the bean, not the juice/starch in a salad. It’s after New Year’s so the fresh black-eyed peas were on sale today for $2. I boiled them for 20-25 minutes eh, VOILA!! Perfect in a green salad. (I had to make an emergency trip out of state so we’re celebrating New Year’s Day late.)

What do you for your bean salads?

 

[Sneezyone]

11 minutes ago, Pippen said:

What do you for your bean salads?

 

Cook the beans as normal and then toss them with sweetened vinaigrette. We just had cowboy caviar this week so it was on the brain. Black eyed peas, black beans, corn, add tomatoes, red onion, cilantro. I like to do black beans, corn, and red onion, with parsley, feta and dill. We just toss beans onto our green salads too. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Edited January 7, 2022 by Sneezyone

[ScoutTN]

On 1/5/2022 at 2:38 PM, DreamerGirl said:

There is a speciality butcher shop near my house which is just a shop in a strip mall. Our neighbors get sausage and other meats including I think wild buffalo and other meat. You can get beef bones for soup there. You are also most likely to get meat with bones in it or a big hunk of meat which they will process for you but at additional cost. One of the things I learned was to get over my aversion to touching raw meat and learn to cut it. I cut even stew meat into pieces depending on the dish. I also cut meat really thin for fajitas or stir Frys or Thai curries especially and slightly thicker for curries. But rarely do I not cut even precut raw meat from the grocery store even if it was first cut by a butcher.

I am not sure which store, but I have seen beef bones in the freezer case in a local grocery store. Perhaps Whole Foods ? But in the Halal store there is an entire freezer case of bones. I always buy bone in because it is cheaper and the curry will be tastier in my view though you cannot make every dish with boned meat. But I cut them myself. As the flavoring you talk about, in my language there is a saying "the smell of meat" in a dish. Pretty much all the meat dishes we grew up with had a variety of vegetables in them. Drumstick, bitter gourd,  eggplant, spinach and/or some sort of bean or lentil other than the usual potato, peas, carrot etc. We were a family of 6, 4 adults so meat was not possible every day so everything was stretched like this. It was extremely flavorful because the vegetable added gave it a flavor of it's own.

I am always friendly with the butcher or the fishmonger and they will toss extra parts at me which I did not buy. For instance many people will not eat the head of the fish. My inlaws and parents know how to debone it. I don't. So I just toss them into a pot a make a stock. I would highly encourage familiarity with a butcher at the grocery store.

Yes, bones for stock from the Halal store or from a farmer who sells at your local farmers’ market. We get a huge bag of bones from grassfed beef for $5. Makes 4 7qt crockpots of stock.

Whole Foods has given me fish heads to make stock with for free. But I only make fish stock in spring or fall, when the windows can be open!

[cintinative]

5 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Yes, bones for stock from the Halal store or from a farmer who sells at your local farmers’ market. We get a huge bag of bones from grassfed beef for $5. Makes 4 7qt crockpots of stock.

 

What is a Halal store? Is that an Indian/Southeast Asian food market?

[ScoutTN]

3 minutes ago, cintinative said:

What is a Halal store? Is that an Indian/Southeast Asian food market?

Ethnic market where observant Muslims buy meat. Similar to Kosher for Jews. Meat prepared according to Muslim religious rules.

I do shop there, but feel uncomfortable sometimes, because I’m clearly of northern European descent, not in hijab, and speak only English. The prices are very good and they have cuts of meat as well ad produce that my regular groceries don’t. We have a huge international grocery nearby that has everything from everywhere, but the prices aren’t quite ad good and it smells like bad fish!

[ScoutTN]

During the warmer months, I sometimes hang around when the farmers’ market vendors are packing up. The produce farmers often have bruised or somewhat damaged items they couldn’t sell and don’t want to take home available for free or cheap. I get boxes full of damaged tomatoes and make salsa, then can it. I often make soup from the veggies and freeze it.
 

Only one farm at our market is conventional, all the rest are organic or beyond-organic, so high quality food from nutrient-dense soil at less than grocery prices. 
 

 

[ktgrok]

On 1/2/2022 at 2:00 PM, Carolina Wren said:

We're also gf. I've learned that my people are less apt to say I'm not giving them meat if there *is* meat--enough for flavoring.

So I make "bacon soup" with one strip of bacon per person (and 2-3 cans of white beans, some fresh spinach, onion/garlic, and juice of a lemon) and freeze the rest of the package of bacon for another time. You could likewise make taco salad with about a cup of ground meat and the rest beans, plus your leafies, tomato, corn, salsa, whatever--doing it as a salad means the $$$ gf tortillas can be replaced with a bag of tortilla chips. And "butter chicken" can be made with a big pile of rice and peas, but quietly replacing at least half of the chicken with mushrooms.

👂 for more ideas.

oh my word - can you come meal plan for me! I NEVER EVER like these threads because it is all food that people in my house won't like, but often also stuff I have to admit I don't like. But these ideas* sound really yummy and practical! I'm not a huge bean fan, kidney beans are the devil in fact, but I do like some white beans, like great northern beans! And I LOVE bacon in soup!  I am making that this weekend!!!! And I never thought to add beans to a taco salad! And YES I often do "nachos" rather than tacos so we can use tortilla chips instead. And I adore mushrooms!

(other than the peas - peas are gross and will not cross the threshold of my house other than in frozen bags to use as ice packs. I have legume issues, obviously)

[ktgrok]

Didn't read the replies yet after getting sidetracked by bacon soup...but we also have a Celiac kid and groceries cost WAY more than my mortgage and is also freaking me out. 

Best option off the top of my head is breakfast for dinner more often. Even my super picky kid likes breakfast for dinner! And eggs are one of the cheaper sources of protein, even when I buy pastured or cage free. And in.a pinch I know I have friends I could source eggs from - especially if I offered to buy some feed. Anyway, we usually d0 scrambled as easier to serve a bunch of people than to fry that many), then some bacon and/or sausage links - the Banquet frozen links are gluten free and you can get a big family size bag of them for a decent price. Not the fanciest thing, but I heat them in the air fryer and get RAVES about them. I served them at Christmas brunch and everyone asked what brand of sausages they were as they were so good - had to admit they were the very cheapest heat and eat ones, lol. I usually don't do just bacon as it isn't a lot of protein for the money and doesn't fill them up the way sausage does. So they will get a few sausage links and one strip of bacon, rather than eating half a pound of bacon a person, lol. (exaggerating....slightly)

Then some kind of carb - either grits or toast or gluten free waffles. Or I will air fry or oven roast cut up potatoes - thats nice and cheap as well just takes longer although you can cook a batch ahead of time and reheat when making dinner. Basically home fries. If you have separate toasters or a toaster oven where you can keep things uncontaminated you could do regular and gluten free toast/waffles, and grits you can find gluten free and are cheap. 

You could also do egg sandwiches on english muffins - the glutino ones are my favorite for the celiac kid and whatever aldi brand or store brand for everyone else, plus a slice of generic store brand cheese and one strip of bacon. 

Serve with apple/bannana/whatever fruit is cheapest. 

You can fancy it up with some sautteed spinach or onion/peppers or tomatoes or whatever. I often make myself a saute of onions/bell peppers/halved cherry tomatoes to go with my eggs. 

Anyway, eggs as the protein, carbs to fill it out, and cheap sausages or small amount of bacon, plus fruit. 

[cintinative]

7 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Didn't read the replies yet after getting sidetracked by bacon soup...but we also have a Celiac kid and groceries cost WAY more than my mortgage and is also freaking me out. 

 

Not to scare you but my grocery spending has been higher than my mortgage since long before the recent inflation. =(  Although my grocery costs include everything from groceries, toiletries, paper goods, printer ink, etc.  But for sure the Celiac diagnosis increased our spending, and we don't buy much premade stuff at all.  

[ktgrok]

3 minutes ago, cintinative said:

Not to scare you but my grocery spending has been higher than my mortgage since long before the recent inflation. =(  Although my grocery costs include everything from groceries, toiletries, paper goods, printer ink, etc.  But for sure the Celiac diagnosis increased our spending, and we don't buy much premade stuff at all.  

Oh, me too. I should have clarified that. That's what makes the increase so scary! Plus add in delivery costs as we are trying to avoid stores. Ugh. 

[cintinative]

2 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Oh, me too. I should have clarified that. That's what makes the increase so scary! Plus add in delivery costs as we are trying to avoid stores. Ugh. 

Yes, hugs. It's tough. 

[DawnM]

Remember that book The Tightwad Gazette?   She said that she never buys remade anything, including convenience items like chips.

Each person was allotted a certain portion of meat at dinner (I think it was 6oz) and they were free to eat as much of the starch and vegetables as they needed to fill up.   She said she always had leftover rice, potatoes, etc....and that became their snack foods for the next day.   

There is also a "feed a family of 4 for $200/mo" article that I used to read.   It was written in about 2005, so things have changed, but her ideas were very helpful to me when we were trying to cut costs.   She also didn't buy anything convenience unless it was on a huge sale.   She bought 1/2 a cow every 6 months and they would eat off of that for their meat (I didn't do that because that much beef is too much for me, but I did stock up on turkeys during the holidays and we would have anywhere from 3-6 turkeys for the year for .29/pound)

We didn't eat a lot of beans because my family doesn't like them much, so they were never a main dish, they were just add ons to things like tacos.   But we do like pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, etc....I know you said GF, but I am just saying what we used.

 

[KungFuPanda]

I was thinking of this thread while scrolling YouTube.  Sometimes I think the trick is to make things that taste amazing without meat being involved and then they don't miss it so much.  I'm not remotely a vegan, but this youtuber makes some vegan foods that I'd happily eat and serve.  I might put a little meat or dairy along with it, but she makes relegating those items to side-dish status look doable. I'm seriously considering making this dish and adding a little hot Italian sausage to it.  

 

[marbel]

36 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I'm seriously considering making this dish and adding a little hot Italian sausage to it.  

I make white bean/kale/sausage soup on a fairly regular basis. It's good! And doesn't need much sausage because Italian sausage has a lot of flavor anyway.  I don't remember what recipe I have used but there are lots online.

I've thought about making it without the sausage, adding some fennel seed and extra red pepper flakes, maybe some extra olive oil, to get the Italian sausage flavors and satiety of the fat without adding the actual meat. Though I am not opposed to using actual meat.