eating cheap

[polarbears]

I work all week and have very little time to cook dinner. Thing is, we can’t really afford to do delivery and take out every night, nor is it good for my family. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can eat healthier at home – even though I don’t have a ton of time or money to spend?

[disneysteve]

Search on line for once a month cooking sites. They give recipes and techniques for cooking in large batches and freezing in portions so that you can just heat and serve meals. Even if you don't go quite to that extreme, make sure you always cook in larger portions than you need. If dinner needs 4 chicken breasts, it doesn't take any longer to make 8 and freeze 4 for a later meal. Make a big pot of soup and portion it off.

Another good time saver is the crockpot. Take 10-15 minutes in the morning to put in the ingredients and have a fresh hot meal waiting for you when you get home.

I don't think anything she does is rocket science, but Rachel Ray has a whole series of 30-minute meals. Go to the Food Network website and browse those. We make plenty of meals at home that take less than 30 minutes from start to table.

One other option which is not as healthy as cooking from scratch but is certainly cheaper than going out is buying frozen items, especially on sale. I'll stock up on the health frozen dinners when they are on sale for $1.99 and take those to the office for lunches.

Also, can your spouse or kids get involved in meal prep?

[stressedmama]

I second using the crockpot. You can make quick and fairly healthy soups, stews, and main courses that don't take much time.

For instance take 3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts and put them in the crockpot frozen. Pour one can of cola over them (for flavoring and to prevent drying out/burning). Cook on low all day. When you get home just take a fork and tear them apart add some BBQ sauce and presto you have pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches. Add a quick salad and nuke some frozen veggies for a side. I'm in the same boat as you needing quick easy meals. It just takes a little planning to make sure you have ingredients on hand.

Another quickie recipe is to put a pckg of baby carrots in crockpot then put a whole chicken (about 3-4 lbs or so) on top. Sprinkly with some salt, peper, basil and cook on low all day. It makes a easy healthy meal. Good luck.

[stressedmama]

For the last recipe add a can of chicken broth too otherwise your meal might not taste to tasty!

[OopsIDidItAgain]

I suggest doing bulk cooking. My mother got me into this. She basically cooks for at least a week at a time on Sundays and then stores leftovers for the week. She makes chilis, soups, and other dishes that heat up very well. Now, it isn’t necessary I guess, but she invested in some Foldtuks to help her along with this. The Foldtuk goes directly from freezer or fridge to oven and is just really convenient and helpful…. Maybe this will take some of the stress out of your week

[cschin4]

Don't look at cooking as "all or nothing". You can get takeout, use "convenience" foods, premade foods, etc and still save money. Some tips:

buy a whole small chicken - roast in the oven with an onion. You can eat off it for 2 days. Then, I boil it down and make a pot of homemade soup. Toss the entire chicken in a pot, fill with water, add salt, celery and some seasonings such as bay leaf, dill, celery seed and simmer 2 hrs. Then I strain the broth through the colander and toss in some noodles and canned carrots. (I precook the noodles so it doesn't soak up all the juice). Also if you don't have the time to cook the chicken just pick up a cooked rotisserie chicken at the grocery store deli and do the same.
I suggest making a menu of things you like because with a little planning it is much easier. Spaghetti is cheap enough. I buy the sauce (Prego cuz that is what we like). I like to brown some ground beef and onion, green pepper, etc and toss into the sauce. Makes a much heartier sauce and more like a meal. Also, get a loaf of french bread or italian, butter and smear with garlic and toast in the oven. Everyone loves that.
Hamburgers are easy at home. You can get ones already shaped into patties. Also, sausage sandwiches, sloppy joes, steak um's for a philly cheesesteak and so forth. I often try to replicate the things we enjoy eating out at home.
A thawed turkey breast is probably the cheapest most delicious meal. Get one at the meat section. A thawed half breast will feed several people. Put in a baking dish with salt, pepper, and I also toss in some celery, water, and chicken boullion powder and bake for about 1.5 hrs. Yum. And, nothing wrong with instant mashed potatoes and stovetop stuffing as a side. I always make my own gravy but I have much more success using cornstarch than flour.
The crockpot is also great as others have suggested. But, don't over look frozen dinners either. I like Lean Cusines and you can often stock up on those when on sale.

[momof1in150]

Whenever I make a meal that can also be frozen I double the recipe. Most foods that can be frozen taste better if you don't cook them before you freeze them.

Is there anyone else in your family that can get dinner started or actually cook dinner? Soup and sandwiches are easy and better for you then take out. A simple meal for us is to brown a couple of links of turkey italian sausage and mix it with tomato sauce and serve over pasta. Add a salad and you are good.

There is a crock pot blog that has a lot of good recipes:
A Year of CrockPotting

Here are some other links that might help:

Crock Pot Recipes, Slow Cooker Favorites, CDKitchen Recipes

Hillbilly Housewife

When we are having a busy week I cook a bunch of chicken on Sunday and roll it into other meals during the week. Chicken Salad sandwiches, chicken Caesar salad.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Hi, welcome! One time and energy saver is to have a couple of nights a week that you know exactly what you will have because you have it every week on that night. That way, you become proficient at preparing the meal and you know always to have the ingredients on hand. For example, you might make Tuesday huevos rancheros night. And Thursday might be vegetable spaghetti night. I think families can accept, even enjoy having a meal that is always the same. It is like a little family tradition. You just probably need to do it with foods the whole family likes.

Over the weekend I was telling the family I had lunch with that the meal reminded me of the traditional Sunday dinners I grew up with. That is a fond memory, Sunday dinner at about 1:00pm, with the same meal practically every week. It was something to look forward to and something to remember as well.

About that once a month cooking-- If you decide to try it, go into the effort with eyes wide open regarding nutrition. I read the original Once a Month Cooking book and those were some heavy, fatty, very carby recipes! All foods I'd enjoy eating, I'd say, but heavy.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Joan.of.the.Arch

One time and energy saver is to have a couple of nights a week that you know exactly what you will have because you have it every week on that night. That way, you become proficient at preparing the meal and you know always to have the ingredients on hand.

Good idea. We always have pizza on Thursday nights. I work a half-day on Thursdays so I stop at the store on the way home to pick up the ingredients. Then I start the meal while my wife and daughter are still out (daughter has a standing appointment on Thursday afternoons). I have 2 pizzas topped and ready to go in the fridge. When they come home, I pop them in the oven and 10 minutes later, we are enjoying fresh pizza.

[zetta]

I was very impressed with Welcome to Saving Dinner. Each week you get 6 healthy recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less (usually 10 minutes of prep and 15-20 minutes cooking on stovetop or oven), plus the shopping list. It takes all the thinking work out of meal planning. With the list you could buy groceries online and have them delivered, which is another timesaver. A three-month subscription is only $10.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Have a 2 week course of menus you like and enjoy. This way you get faster and more prepared for days. DH and I have a box of recipes I can do and they are easy and fast.

[aurielle]

Umm what's with the copy n paste from another website to here, and (this is kinda weird) a response to this thread that is also a copy n paste from the same thread at the other website? Plus they're all 1st time posts.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

aurielle, I think the post was a set-up to come back and post that response about Moldpuk, or whatever it was called I googled , and yes, I see the same posts on another forum-- Advertisers trying to create buzz and curiosity about their product.

[ClearClouds]

I am in the same boat. I am always on the run and I don't have time to make lots of food but what I do is hit up the local Costco and get a frozen Chicken Alredo throw it in the oven while I am doing other things and in an hour it is done. I don't have to do any cooking per se but its very good and tastes homemade. I take a portion of that for my dinner and since it is so large I put the rest in the fridge and heat it up later either in the microwave if I am in a hurry or back in the oven for a quick min. Hope that helps.

[rob62521]

I'm a big Crockpot fan and that is one way to go. There's also Robin Miller who is on the Food Network. She cooks stuff quickly in most cases and for example, if she's roasting chicken, she'll do two so she can make something else out of the second one and have it on hand.

A lot of times I don't have time to make meals so I prepare stuff ahead of time on Sunday afternoons. For an hour or so of prep, I may have the materials to make three meals. I plan my weekly menus and the make sure I either have the materials in the pantry or pick them up when I go to the store. That way I have control over the ingredients in things -- I make a lot of things instead of buying boxes and packages. For example, I use chicken broth or chicken stock a lot. However, the canned stuff is pretty salty unless I spring for the low sodium. If I roast a chicken, when I take the meat off, I then put the bones and remaining meat we didn't eat or want into a crock pot, put some celery, onions, potatoes, carrots, or whatever I have that is available or ready to get soft, ground pepper, and some water and make my own broth. I strain it and then put it in the fridge or the freezer, depending on when I'll need it. I therefore control the chicken broth. Other than a few minutes, it's cheap and nutritious and less salt.

[ThriftoRama]

I really agree with the crock pot advice. I just had a baby and the crock pot is the only reason we haven't had to do take out. Around 9 or 10 every night I fill the crock pot and the food is ready when we wake up in the morning.

We usually do either a roast or a stew in the crock pot.

Also, I cook a lot of soups and stews. we have it for dinner that night, it makes good leftovers, and I usually pop one or two single=serving sizes in the freezer that my hubby takes to work for lunch (after he's not sick of eating the same soup for days).

So, one or two soups a week plus one crock pot meal and the leftovers are usually enough to feed us until the weekend. We also fill in with sandwich fixins, and last night we had sweet corn for dinner. Quick and easy. Nature already made it for you.

[Coleroo]

Crockpots and bulk cooking are definitely the way to go. It takes just as much time to cook one meal as it does 4 or 5 more servings of the same meal. Always cook more than what you need and portion it off into freezer bags, label, and save for later.

With crock pots, they're as "dump" friendly as you can get - I have never had anything turn out wrong in one. Just find stuff that goes good together and dump it in. Set the pot in the fridge over night, put on to cook in the morning, then when you're home that night everything is done and waiting on you.

Whole chickens and ground beef are fabulous for crockpot cooking and then freezing - they make a great variety of quick-cook meals.

The one secret I've found to bulk cooking though is to actually USE up what you store! Everyone has experienced finding a bag of 2-3 year old "what is this??" in the freezer. Don't let food go to waste like that - label it as soon as you put it in, and put a "use by" date on it. I always set my "use by" dates for 3 months out, regardless of what it is. This forces me to use it all up (thus saving money) because my brain "thinks" it's about to expire soon.

Rice, pasta, and biscuits make wonderful quick cooking meals as well - and can be very healthy when you use brown rice, whole wheat pasta and whole wheat flour.

[billy1980]

I would echo the advice of cooking in big batches once a month and freezing it into portions in freezer bags. That way just take a meal out of the freezer in the mornign and it takes 5 mins to reheat when you return home.

[djabloel]

I have the same problem everyday I come home after work. The trick that helped me is to spend more time during the weekend when I have more time and energy to cook or at least plan for the whole week ahead. Worst case, I have the $5 large sub from Quiznos (oh... i luv that oven roasted turkey) and it fills me up pretty nice. Costco's frozen items are great too.

[citygirl]

I too work and have to cook for me and my son or my husband gets home and has to make something (which he's not very good or interested in) so I make meals on the weekend. alot of casseroles. the baked chicken is a good idea and I use the left over chicken to make casseroles with. I also cook up alot of chicken cutlets at once and package them up and put in freezer. I cook up meat for taco's so all I have to do is cut up the veggies and heat up the meat when I get home. Same thing with things like sloppy joes. I also get the steamer bags and microwave vegetables.

I just made this recipe up wich my son loved, cook up ground beef, add frozen vegetables and some terriyaki sauce. Add water and ramen noodles. I had alot and it went for two days, I thought it was ok but my son loved it. Ramen noodles are pretty cheap as it is.