eating cheap

[ThriftoRama]

Yep,the crockpot is the way

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.