Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

[locolorenzo24]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Ok....well there's quite a few recipes you can make that require a tad more cook time but are much better for you than HH. Here's three of my favorites.

French bread pizza
Slice bread, top with tomato sauce, kidney beans, mushrooms, cooked meat, whatever you want. Pop into 350 degree oven for 10 mins, then add cheese, cook another 3/4 mins or until cheese is bubbly...MMM yum!

Chicken & spinich pasta...
Marinate chicken in Italian dressing for 1/2 hours, bake at 350 degrees until done (45 mins). While chicken is cooking, make pasta, drain, add back into pot, add in spinich and mix to slightly wilt spinich. Mix in veggies of choice, put on plate, top with chicken.

Locolorenzo's chili tacos
Brown beef with green pepper, onion, garlic. Drain, put back into pot. Add 1.5 cups water, 1 cup domestic beer MGD, simmer 1 hr. Drain off liquid for tacos, leave for chili, but top with sour cream/cheese, serve with tortilla chips...pretty good.

Need any more? just ask.

[nahirean]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Ok....well there's quite a few recipes you can make that require a tad more cook time but are much better for you than HH. Here's three of my favorites.

French bread pizza
Slice bread, top with tomato sauce, kidney beans, mushrooms, cooked meat, whatever you want. Pop into 350 degree oven for 10 mins, then add cheese, cook another 3/4 mins or until cheese is bubbly...MMM yum!

Chicken & spinich pasta...
Marinate chicken in Italian dressing for 1/2 hours, bake at 350 degrees until done (45 mins). While chicken is cooking, make pasta, drain, add back into pot, add in spinich and mix to slightly wilt spinich. Mix in veggies of choice, put on plate, top with chicken.

Locolorenzo's chili tacos
Brown beef with green pepper, onion, garlic. Drain, put back into pot. Add 1.5 cups water, 1 cup domestic beer MGD, simmer 1 hr. Drain off liquid for tacos, leave for chili, but top with sour cream/cheese, serve with tortilla chips...pretty good.

Need any more? just ask.

Aren't those quite expensive recipes? I wish I knew what cost what.. this is quite frightening for me. Also, since I am so new to cooking.. is there any simple things you suggest to start with? Like rice/potatoes, etc? haha

[locolorenzo24]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Ok, I understand the cost issue, but here goes..I will try to tell you best I can for each item....

French bread pizza (makes 4-8, depending on how big you cut it)
Slice bread (1.49), top with tomato sauce (.34), kidney beans (.69), mushrooms (1.67 fresh, .50 canned) , whatever you want. Pop into 350 degree oven for 10 mins, then add cheese (1.50), cook another 3/4 mins or until cheese is bubbly...MMM yum! (total cost....roughly 5-6 dollars, good friday night splurge, but eat 2 per meal...good deal.

Chicken & spinich pasta...
Marinate chicken (breast strip package for 2.00) in Italian dressing (.75, don't need much) for 1 or 2 hours, bake at 350 degrees until done (45 mins). While chicken is cooking, make pasta (1.50), drain, add back into pot, add in spinich (2.50) and mix to slightly wilt spinich. Mix in veggies of choice, put on plate, top with chicken. (6.75 total, feeds for 3/4 meals)

Locolorenzo's chili tacos
Brown beef (3, sirloin) with green pepper (.33), onion(.65), garlic (.23). Drain, put back into pot. Add 1.5 cups water, 1 cup domestic beer MGD (optional), simmer 1 hr. Drain off liquid for tacos, leave for chili, but top with sour cream (.99)/cheese (1.50) serve with tortilla chips (1.50)...pretty good. (roughly 10 bucks, feeds me for around 6/7 meals)

Gotta remember....it's not really any more expensive than buying HH. Plus better for your health, a whole lot tastier. You need to practice shopping. I remember when I was first here. I bought a lot of take out/frozen/microwave/quick fix box meals....promptly gained 20 lbs in 3 months! Now that I eat better, it's tastier, and better for me.
Question..........Do you have a good friend nearby that maybe could go shopping with you? Someone who has practice cooking? Remember, you're on the internet! whatever you want to cook, you can find tips online for. I didn't know how to hard boil eggs...figured that out real quick! Can you scramble eggs? Look it up! Quicker and easy! 4 minutes to cook a nice omelet.......
Also, make up an imaginary shopping list....don't limit to cost right now.....along with the list, put what you think it costs next to it. Post it here and we'll give it some feedback. Put anything you've ever seen or imagined being able to cook on there! Take your time, I think it'd be good practice for you.
And.........you have to spend money at first to stock your kitchen...after that, it's all maintenance.
Looking foward to seeing your list.......

[lrjohnson]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

I think you're gonna need to be patient with yourself, too. Learning everything at once will blow all your fuses.

You've got Hamburger helper down, that's good. Now add one or two recipes, just once or two. It can be simple: fried egg sandwich. Baked potatoes. Pasta with a cheap canned sauce.

Your diet may not start super balanced but I am gonna assume that you'll get enough calories (most of us in the US do). I think if you worry about getting too balanced to start it might scare you off. If you have health issues watch the fat and sodium etc. closely, but if not, work for progress not perfection.

So just add one idea a week, maybe. Alternate a "healthy" idea with a "what the heck" idea.

If you add one idea a week, in two months you'll have eight, more than one for every day of the week.

I highly recommend oatmeal for breakfast, or yogurt with a healthy nugget cereal, or reguklar "box" cereal with soy milk (protein).

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Some really simple basics:

baked potato:
wash and prick with fork, put in microwave for around 5 minutes (watch it, size depending) or bake in oven at 375 for around 45 to an hour (size depending) top and eat.

Rice:
I use a ricer, so I have no idea how to cook in a pot, but if there are no directions on the box, ask someone at the asian market.

but once cooked: top with tarihaki or soysauceand a vegetable and/or cheese

or combine with a can of cream of mushroom/chicken soup and a vegetable

or scramble an egg in a pan (just put on medium heat, place some oil or pat of butter in the pan, drop in egg-no shell)-move with spoon till cooked fully..is not 'real scrambled, but good for fried rice) put in rice and a finly chopped vegetable (I use shredded carrots, but I shred them in bulk) some soysauce, some water, stir around to distribute soysauce and heat rice. (they say you need 'old rice' like last nights, and they might be right, but I never expect perfection when I cook!)

Beans:
A can of tomatoes (not stewed), a can of kidney beans or two, a tablespoon of chili powder (some diced onion or pepper if you have it, powder or skip if not) let it 'simmer' (that means little bubbles, not full boil) for awhile (20 min for minimum flavor, hour for fancy homemade slow cook flavor) top with cheese if you have it, pour on rice if you want to stretch it.

[lrjohnson]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Sweepsplayer said on another thread:

Wraps are a good choice. Buy a package of the soft, medium to large tortilla shells (the spinach or tomato ones are even better for you). You can use them for fajitas, tuna/chicken/egg salad, a bread-alternative for dipping in soup or chili, breakfast burritos, and a lot more.

It seemed perfect for this too.

There are some basic foods that can be used in combination. Say, Ground beef, tortillas, cheese, eggs, potatoes. You have burritos, you have hamburgers with oven-fried french fries, you have breakfast burritos, you have omelets with country fired potatoes, baked potatos with cheese, potato salad, egg salad, etc.

If there's food you like that's reasonably priced, use it a lot! If you like ground beef, find 5 recipes that use it, instead of one for ground beef, one for chicken, one for pork chops, etc. Same with a veggie, a starch, etc.

It's like they say with clothes: you want things that complement each other. not a who bunch of separate outfits that don't match, but pieces you like that are versatile.

[nahirean]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Wow, there's a lot I have to learn here... I am still very nervous.. I am on such a budget, I am worried I will starve!

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

I doubt that, most of America has never really felt true starvation...

Lousy food yes, starvation prolly not.

[boefixepa]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Promise you won't starve. Really have you ever tried not eating for two days? I have, and really I didn't even notice the first day. The second day was a bit harder, but as long as I kept busy I was fine. (I did this to just to see what it was like. I was in Africa and I was seeing starving people.) So trust me you are not going to die.

Someone on the site posted this web page and I really like it. Tweek it to your liking and it will give you some great ideas and it even has recipes for everything. Give it a shot...so far my goal of feeding my self for $50.00 a month is on track!!! Granted I've been cooking from scratch since I could cook so there is less learning involved for me.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm

If this feeds a family of 4-6 for one week it should work for one person for one month!

[wwjdmsl]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Beans and Rice and Water

[auntie2many]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Keep your menu simple. I am seeing a lack of fruits and veggies in the menu's. You have to have a little fiber. Carrots and cabbage are usually real inexpensive. Buy a cheese shredder and shred the carrots and use a knife to dice the cabbage and then make some coleslaw. A cheap coleslaw dressing recipe is to mix 1/2 cup mayonnaise with about 1/4 cup sugar and one tablespoon of white vinegar. The salad will look real dry but let it sit in the refrigerator for about four hours before eating and it mixes and becomes real moist. I usually use a head of cabbage and three or four carrots to this amount of dressing.

Buy fruits in season and vegetables too.

Summer - melons, grapes, bananas, lettuce, celery, carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage.

Winter - potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, apples, oranges, winter squash.

A good tip for boiling eggs is to put the eggs in a pan and add water (about 1-1/2 inches above the eggs) and add 1 tsp. vinegar to the water. (The vinegar helps the eggs to peel better), bring to a boil and cook at a low boil for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and drain then add cold water and let the eggs sit in the cold water for about 15 minutes then they will be cool enough to take the shells off.

If you cook beans from scratch, do not add salt or tomato products until the last half hour of cooking, because salt and tomatoes turn the beans tough if added at the beginning of cooking.

I hope that you find these tips helpful. This is my first post. I am new to this board.

auntie

[nahirean]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Promise you won't starve. Really have you ever tried not eating for two days? I have, and really I didn't even notice the first day. The second day was a bit harder, but as long as I kept busy I was fine. (I did this to just to see what it was like. I was in Africa and I was seeing starving people.) So trust me you are not going to die.

Someone on the site posted this web page and I really like it. Tweek it to your liking and it will give you some great ideas and it even has recipes for everything. Give it a shot...so far my goal of feeding my self for $50.00 a month is on track!!! Granted I've been cooking from scratch since I could cook so there is less learning involved for me.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm

If this feeds a family of 4-6 for one week it should work for one person for one month!

Learning to cook isnt a problem for me. I am learning a lot about it thus far.

I looked at the web site, and I am not sure how I can modify this to feed only myself for a month..

[jaksilee]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

I cook for just myself during the week and for my DBF on the weekend when he visits. I try to see what is on sale and stock up when I can to make things easier for myself.

Here are some of my stock cheap meals:
1. Pasta w/homeade or semi homemade sauce

For the pasta: I cook a whole bag of pasta shaped pasta (no long noodles)when I do this, then use the planned overs for lunches. When pasta is done and drained put back into your hot pot, drizzle with enough olive oil to coat all the pasta when you stir it in (I don't knoe how much that is, sorry. Do one drizzle around the pot stir and add more if needed) then take out what you need for your meal. Put the rest in the fridge right away, it can be used to make pasta salads and other stuff!

For the sauce: for semi homemade, take one large can of sauce (the cheaper the better I get mine for less than a dollar in the CAN not the jar) add garlic, mushrooms, greep pepper or any other good for you vegge then simmer till it is all tender.

2. Leftover pasta:
Option 1: Take pasta, left over chicken/beef or a can of tuna, a little bit of fresh chopped veggies (carrots, onion, celery, radishes, ect.) then mix with a little italian salad dressing for a cold pasta salad.
Option 2: Take some stock, leftover chicken/beef, small cut frozen veggies (peas, carrot stlye mix) and leftover pasta or Ramen Noodles (with out the seasoning package) simmer stock and veggies (and ramen noodles if using) till almost done add meat chunked into small pcs and pastaand cook till warm.

These are just a few that I can think of right now...I will try and think of a few more for you that don't cost much.

[kashi]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

Check out allrecipes.com. You can type in ingredients you have on hand and see which recipes come up here. One nice thing about allrecipes is that you can change the number of servings a particular recipe makes, and it will change the ingredient measurements for you.

This Black Bean and Couscous recipe is really good, and you can substitute orzo pasta for the couscous if you want. It's a fairly cheap recipe and makes a ton.

Check out the library! There are tons and tons of books out there about making cheap meals, learning how to cook, cooking on a budget, etc etc.

Definitely take that multivitamin! You'll be ok.

[boefixepa]

Re: Frugal grocery newbie needs some serious help.

You might try and do a search for a menu planner and plan things out. Many recipes are hard to cut down to single servings, but with some planning you can freeze single portions for future meals, I do this alot. If you do some planning it might help you feel more comfortable.