Concerned about the rising cost of groceries? It’s time to learn what your great-grandma knew about feeding a family on a limited budget. In America, recent generations have not known much in the way of hardship or struggle. Many people have not been taught how to stretch a dollar or a meal. It’s never too late to learn, especially in shifting economic times. And the best knowledge is often from those who came before.
Let’s talk about smart meal planning. Many people in our country think in terms of abundance when it comes to cooking, storing, serving and eating. They don’t worry about not having enough. Some find leftovers boring… or worse, they throw away uneaten food. It’s time to unlearn those wasteful habits that have us throwing away perfectly good food that could have taken our dollars farther.
Let’s explore what smart restaurant owners know about the art of re-purposing leftovers, and making your groceries and food-budgeted dollars go the distance.
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Frugal About Food
Being frugal about food means recognizing that different, pre-made components serve as the building blocks of a tasty, satisfying and well-balanced meal.
Once you get in the habit of advance-prepping different types of foods to mix and match, you’ll find that mealtime goes more quickly. Your food offerings become more versatile for everyone… and your dollar stretches farther at the grocery store.
Leftovers are the Creative Cook’s Secret Sauce
Leftovers make life easy; having cooked food available saves us time and money. While many people shun them, it’s a mistake. Leftovers carry the potential to be reinvented into endless, delicious possibilities.
Best dishes and crowd-pleasing favorites to easily make from leftovers:
- Soups – such as chicken noodle, vegetable, pepper pot
- Pot pies – chicken, beef, turkey made with creamy soup, leftover meat, veggies and a crust. Make one from scratch using flour, oil and water. Or pick up a ready-made crust in the freezer section of your grocery store.
- Casseroles – Add meat, veggies, rice or pasta, creamy soup and seasonings to one pan. Pop in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes and you have a beautiful, hot and healthy meal.
- Stir-fry – a great way to use up leftover meat and veggies. Just add noodles or rice.
- Tacos – Ground beef or turkey, slow-cooked pork, shredded chicken, shrimp or salmon can be the base. Add the usual fixins’ – diced tomatoes, lettuce, cheese. Or get creative with beans, olives, avocado, or even a vinegar slaw.
What to Cook and Stock Your Fridge & Pantry With for Healthy, Hassle-Free Dinners
Here are some essential staples to cook and keep on hand. Make your family’s meals, particularly dinner, about fast, easy and creative preparation – piecing together different elements.
- Pre-cooked starches – potatoes, rice, pasta
- Pre-made vegetables
- Pre-cooked meats and fish
- Pre-cooked beans and legumes
- Broth made from bones
You can also keep your pantry stocked with those add-as-you-go ingredients that come in jars, bottles, cans and boxes.
Ideas:
- Canned tomatoes in all forms – sauce, diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes
- Canned or boxed broths for when you’re short on time
- Canned fish like tuna, clams, oysters, salmon
- Salsa
- Cans of beans and legumes (like lentils and chick peas)
- Bagged beans and legumes
- Sauces: soy sauce, Worcestershire, hot sauce
- Oils – some for frying and cooking. Other oils like olive, for cold salads
- Vinegar – wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar are best for cooking
Having ingredients like these on hand to help dress up your meals means a few things. One, you can stock up and buy in bulk for the best value. Then, when it comes to weekly shopping, you’ll only need to replenish perishables like meat, dairy, eggs.
Frozen veggies prove highly useful for cutting the grocery bill. See how many fresh veggies you can switch out for frozen. Then, instead of feeling pressured to eat those fresh foods you bought before they wilt or grow mold, you can pick and choose from your frozen veggie supply.
Here’s a couple of dinner options that it’s worth stocking the freezer with:
- Chicken nuggets are a kid favorite. The breading makes them technically a starch and a meat in one.
- Pasta products like pierogies, tortellini and ravioli only take a few minutes to prepare. Just drop in boiling water and cook for however many minutes is directed on the box. Top with sauce, or butter and cheese. Add veggies. Enjoy!
In the next section, we’ll go into a bit more detail about meal planning so you can have healthy, delicious dinners on the table in a hurry.
Mealtime Essentials to Make Dinner Prep Quick, Easy, Tasty and Healthy
Below, find a list of easy-to-prepare meal essentials to stock your fridge and pantry with. When it’s time to cook again, you’ll already have everything you need to make a great meal.
Starchy Sides – Preferably Whole Grain, Cooked and Stored for Easy Use
Brown Rice
Brown rice tops the list for versatile, healthy whole grains. Brown rice is rich in B vitamins and nourishes the digestive system to help you use more of the foods you eat and stay regular.
Brown rice can be added to a wide variety of recipes. Its subtle, nutty flavor can take front and center in a sweet and savory rice pudding dessert. Or you can sneak it into your next chili meal, barely noticed as it plays a hearty and healthful background role to bulk up and round out the meal.
Pasta
Most people prefer white pasta, and we’re lucky enough that, just like bread, cereal and white rice, US-based brands are fortified with essential vitamins to meet daily health requirements. While whole-grain is better for you due to the added fiber, traditional (Semolina) pasta generally gets the nod of approval even from the fussiest of family members.
Pasta makes a great, starchy side to have stored in the fridge. Drop a cup or two into vegetable soup just before serving. Ladle a few hearty helpings of beef or chicken stew over noodles. Serve it on the side with a few pats of butter, for your picky eaters who don’t like their foods and flavors to mingle together. Or, top it with grated cheddar or Parmesan; pop open a jar of sauce to heat on a busy night.
It takes only 15 minutes to cook pasta which is pretty convenient. Still, a great side to have at the ready on those busy nights.
Potatoes
Potatoes have gotten a bad rap in recent years, but it’s unwarranted. They’re packed with essential minerals and vitamins, including potassium and magnesium, especially if the skin is eaten. Potatoes add fiber and bulk to fill hungry bellies on a budget.
White potatoes tend to be higher in sugar than sweet. Serve half a large or one small potato; or about a half a cup for those who are watching carbs but haven’t gone full keto. (Potatoes are a big no on the keto diet.)
Store cooked potatoes in the fridge for use in breakfast, lunch or dinner recipes.
Ideas: add them to omelets or fry in a bit of oil as a hash brown breakfast side. Stir into soup or heat up as a dinner side. Layer with milk, onions and shredded cheese and bake as a casserole. You have many easy option for building a delicious meal around the ubiquitous, humble potato.
Pre-cooked Meats – The Main Feature of Your Meal
Roasted Meats
Meat is wonderfully nutritious, though many Americans consume too much red meat (beef) which increases the risk of cancer.
You need not give up red meat, as it’s rich in iron especially if cooked on the rarer side. But it is a good idea to reduce consumption to once per week or less over the course of a month.
You can also cut down on your red meat consumption by incorporating it into balanced meals, like sauces, stews and soups. Ground beef chili is a great example of a well-balanced meal that contains beef, but not too much.
What types of roasted meats can you cook and store for use in recipes?
- Beef – London broil, roast beef, chuck steak, flank steak
- Pork – chops or a roast
- Chicken – a small chicken can stretch several days if you’re smart about it.
- Turkey – try getting the breast only, or shopping for turkey legs (very economical)
Try to plan a weekly roasted meat meal. So maybe you cook a roasted chicken on Sunday. Then save the leftovers and bones for soup, tacos, chicken salad, and/or pot pie for several dinners over the remaining week days. Even if you don’t plan on serving a big roasted meat meal, you can still cook meat in advance so it won’t spoil. Then you’ll have it in the refrigerator to put dinner together quickly on a busy night.
Example: you have pork chops, but no one will be home today or tomorrow. You could freeze them. Or, roast in advance. Store in the fridge to make a stir-fry with veggies and rice.
What about ground meats?
They’re handy to have on hand – think meatballs, a pot of spaghetti sauce, lasagna, “hamburger helper”, meatloaf, burger patties, shepherd’s pie. But they don’t keep as long, so if you pick up some ground meat you’ll want to cook it within a day or two, or else freeze it.
How to Do Meat for Your Health
- Source your meats from local farms that raise grass-fed animals.
- Buy leaner cuts.
- Drain the fat after cooking things like ground beef or sausage.
- Balance your meat consumption with sides like dark, leafy greens, whole grains and a colorful array of other types of veggies.
Easy Weeknight Meals: Just Add Cooked Meat!
- Stew over noodles or rice
- Vegetable soup with rice or pasta
- Stir-fried with in-season veggies over noodles or rice
- Pot pie or shepherd’s pie
- A quick chili with cooked beans, veggies, tomato and rice – or a side of corn bread
- Tacos – soft or crunchy with lots of fresh veggie sides and fixin’s
- Burritos
- Meat cooked in tomato sauce over pasta and a fresh side salad
- Ground meats in casseroles, layered with potato or pasta or rice, some veggies, sauce and cheese
Tomato Sauce – Prepare, Freeze and Use as Needed
Tomato sauce can be simmered from scratch in bulk quantities using garden tomatoes. You can also purchase tomato sauce pre-made, preserved in cans. It’s always a good idea to stock up during Shop-Rite’s infamous can-can sale.
Other forms of cooked tomato that work well in recipes are diced, crushed pureed, whole cooked with herbs, jarred sauces. It’s always a good idea to have tomatoes available in various forms, to add to your favorite recipes.
What’s Good About Tomatoes?
- Tomatoes are an acidic food which make them ideal to pair with meat, such as in many Italian, Spanish or Mexican recipes. The acids in tomatoes helps to break down the meat. The meat assists with absorption of the nutrition present in tomatoes.
- It’s said that the lycopene which is present in cooked tomatoes affords health benefits which help to lower the risk of chronic disease.
Bone Broth for Deep Flavor and Healing Through Food
The best bone broth, in terms of taste and quality for your health, is homemade. If you’ve never cooked bone broth from scratch, it’s not as complicated as it sounds.
Canned or boxed broth will do in a pinch, but you won’t have control over the salt content. Many popular brands of broth contain MSG. Makers know that the better it tastes, the more likely it will sell.
How to Make Bone Broth (easy, no-fuss!)
- To make bone broth, take the bones from your dinner (such as if you cooked a roast chicken) and add them to a slow cooker.
- Set to low (or if you need to speed up cooking, set to high – then once the liquid begins to simmer, you can turn it to low).
- Simmer for several hours, all day, or even over several days. The longer your bone broth cooks, the more of the calcium and minerals from the bones will leach out and make your broth more nourishing.
What’s Good for You in Bone Broth?
- Calcium from the bones
- Collagen from the cartilage and skin (if using chicken)
- Nutrition from the marrow
Best, Low-priced Veggies to Add to Your Meals for Maximum Nourishment
All of the veggies are “long keepers” that you can store in a potato cellar, auxiliary fridge or even on the porch.
- A great filler veggie to add to soups, stews, stir-fries, salads and sides. A little goes a long way.
- These are packed with goodness, and they add a sharp and hearty flavor.
- Full of calcium, magnesium and potassium.
- Vitamin A-rich vegetable that nourishes the eyes.
- A cousin of carrots. Sweet, mild, adds that missing something to soup that you didn’t know it needed.
- Garlic and onion. Aromatics add the flavor, plus they kill germs and balance the gut.
Beans, lentils, legumes – cooked and stored to add to meals
For those looking to cut back on meat consumption for health and to save money, beans and legumes provide the missing protein plus health benefits to boot.
Beans and Legumes 101
- Beans come in a rainbow of types and colors – you have kidney beans, black beans, Great Northern beans, pinto beans, chick peas and more.
- Lentils are cousins of beans — you’ll find them in brown, red, yellow.
- Dried peas come in yellow or green and they too serve as a protein base to add nutrition to your meal.
- Mung beans are less commonly eaten in the US, but they are used in Indian cuisine.
- Chick peas, too, make a hearty porridge or can be added to soups, dips, salads and more.
What to Do With Cooked Beans?
- Add to soups and stews
- Cook with rice
- Sprinkle over a tossed salad
- Make a bean salad, like a three-bean salad or a chickpea salad with fresh peppers, onions & cucumbers
- Blend up a bean dip
- Form veggie burgers made with beans and rice, and fry or bake
The quickest way to cook and store beans for use in recipes is to fill your pantry with canned beans. Or, you can do it the long way which is also the more economical way: buy dried, bagged beans. To cook them requires a bit of planning but not a lot of prep as one might think. It’s a matter of remembering in advance that you want to cook some beans to use in recipes this week, and then following through with your plan.
Step 1 would be to place the dried beans in a bowl and cover with water. Let soak for a day to soften. To cook, add your soaked beans to a big pot and fill to 3/4 of the way with water. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium or so. Let simmer, partially covered, for several hours until the beans are tender.
Lentils and peas do not need to be soaked in advance before simmering. They take about 45 minutes to cook in water using the same method as described above.
How to Make Veggie Burgers at Home
You probably think of soups and porridges when you think of beans and lentils. Don’t forget, these versatile vegan-friendly foods make a nutrition-dense filler to help you reduce or eliminate meat in your diet. Veggie burgers aren’t just for meatless eaters. They can be a perfect appetizer or side dish to liven up lunch or dinner.
You can prepare veggie burgers homemade from scratch. Include the same ingredients you might use to make a bean stew sans liquid: beans, spices, garlic and onion, veggies, rice.
Combine all, then mix in flour, beaten egg and some oil, to form patties or balls. Roll in bread crumbs and fry in a shallow pan of oil, about 4 minutes on each side.
Drain on paper towels. Make these on vegetarian night if you like. Or, top with melted cheese and serve them in place of rice and beans, to accompany your meat dishes with a fresh salad on the side.
Cooked beans make a great addition to tacos, burritos, and other Mexican fare.
Make Bean Dip from Scratch
Save money on pricey, store-bought bean dip and hummus. All you really need to whip up a homemade vegetarian dip at home is the same ingredients you’d use to make a bean salad, plus add nuts or seeds. The ratios may differ slightly but the taste is the same, and it’s smooth. Homemade bean dips are great for dipping crackers and dunking veggies.
Try the following bean dip recipe at home. In a food processor or blender, pulse the following:
1 8-oz. can beans of your choice, rinsed and drained
2 Tbs. lemon juice or vinegar
pinch of salt and pepper
2 Tbs. of a fresh herb such as parsley, cilantro or basil (roughly chopped)
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste) or sunflower seeds
Blend thoroughly. You may need to adjust amounts of each ingredient, or add small amounts of water to reach the desired consistency.
Bean or Lentil Soups, Chilis, Stews or Porridges
Porridge is just an old-fashioned word for a thick soup. We think of the old nursery rhyme, peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold.
Make Bean Soup
To make bean soup, start with the basic miripoix – chopped garlic, onion, celery, carrot and other root veggies you may have handy such as turnips, parsnips or a potato. Sautee these in a healthy oil, like extra virgin olive, until translucent.
If you’re using dried legumes like peas or lentils, stir these in now. Cover with water and a few cups of broth. Use chicken or beef, or vegetable only if you’re a plant-based eater.
Season with salt, pepper and spices or herbs of your choice. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes if making legumes like lentils or peas.
If you’re using dried beans, you should make sure that the beans are cooked to soft before combining with the soup ingredients. You can do this quickly if you have a pressure cooker. Otherwise, follow the instructions for cooking dried beans, which will take a day of soaking in water plus several hours of cooking at a slow simmer.
Once the dried beans are cooked, you can add them to the soup recipe toward the end (otherwise they’ll be overcooked, and the outer skin of the beans will become tough and separate from the tender innards).
Different bean soups, stews or porridge recipes will call for different flavors.
Easy Method for Making Traditional Chili
You can add kidney and/or black beans to a traditional red chili – which will call for a tomato base, some type of ground meat like beef or turkey, peppers, corn, tomatoes, celery.
The commonly used spices will be chili pepper, cayenne, paprika, a bit of oregano, and perhaps some specific types of peppers, like a smoked paprika or chipotle if getting experimental. Sprinkle some fresh cilantro into your chili if you like.
White Bean Chili Adds Variety
A white bean chili is made with ground turkey, chicken broth, perhaps a few chunks of tomato, but it’s cooked in chicken broth rather than in a tomato base. Cilantro is the dominating herb in white chili, with perhaps a few shakes of typical chili spices.
Rosemary, sage, and parsley add some nice, mellow herbal flavor to a pot of lentils or pea soup. You can also add another level of heartiness to your bean soups by simmering a meat bone -like a ham bone or a beef bone, as it cooks.
If you plan to add bits of meat to your bean soups, that’s great – just be sure to wait until the end, so the meat doesn’t over-cook and come out tough.
Bean and legume-based soups, stews and porridges keep well frozen. If you make a big batch, separate into containers. Put a few pints in the freezer and a few in the fridge for the week’s use.
