We are severely short this time around due to Rob's furlough week, and I need help with some meal ideas. Can you tell me your cheapest meal? Ghetto style, yo. I need to feed 6 of us for 2 weeks and I'm making my menu today!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Po' Boys
Hey - yeah, I know this is the THIRD FOURTH post today. Oh well. I need help.
We are severely short this time around due to Rob's furlough week, and I need help with some meal ideas. Can you tell me your cheapest meal? Ghetto style, yo. I need to feed 6 of us for 2 weeks and I'm making my menu today!
We are severely short this time around due to Rob's furlough week, and I need help with some meal ideas. Can you tell me your cheapest meal? Ghetto style, yo. I need to feed 6 of us for 2 weeks and I'm making my menu today!
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Rice and beans. Just rice with a little soy sauce. Rice and just about anything really. Rice is cheap.
Eggs and bacon and potatoes are amazingly filling. If too expensive, leave out the bacon. Still too expensive, leave out the eggs. Potatoes potatoes potatoes, the po' boy's food! (BTW, been there, done that! Hate it! So sorry!)
Frito salad (don't know the actual name of this)
shredded lettuce
ranch style beans (not drained)
grated cheese
fritos (optional)
catalina dresssing (optional-if used, I would drain the beans)
Sometimes I add ground turkey and avocado, if the budget allows.
Looking forward to cheaper meal ideas. We could use some, too. :)
Looking forward
Isn't chili super cheap? When I make the one I found here during the Iron Chef a while back it doesn't cost much at all. I buy all the beans and such at Walmart so they are el cheap-o....if you want to cheap it up even more, skip the ground beef.
I would have to agree with Heidi Ashworth about the eggs & bacon too. You can get an 18 pack of eggs for just over 2.00 here and do all kinds of things with them. Scrambled, omelets, fried, egg salad, french toast(bread is cheap too!)....I could go on and on...but I won't.
pancakes..the kids love'em..your thighs won't!
What really stinks the high hog is it's more expensive to eat healthy!
And when you can get enough mac and cheese add ground meat and a can of rotel (drained)
Like a cheep better version and hamberger helper.
Hey here's something. Just substitute the bread with whatever bread you have and substitute the fish for whatever fish or chicken (strips) you have. Make it cheesy!
http://lifesignatures.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/what-to-eat-when-theres-nothing-to-eat/
Okay, you said cheap and Ghetto. So here you go.. and I'm sure that my meal is the cheapest :)
"Ramen Noodles " We love the chicken flavor. Yeah you can get Six packs for a buck.. WOW!! They have all flavors; shrimp, pork,beef...etc..
All you have to do is boil them for three minutes, & sprinkle the sauce packet .. I use to hate them, but thanks to my daughter adding her secret flavor,(hotsauce, season-salt and pepper)UM UM delicious. :)
We normally have this the day after a big dinner. My husband who swears he has to have meat with every meal, will make an exception and eat Ramen Noodles when needed.
My second meal pick would be PB&J...Yes, we will eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner.
Seriously, I do cook three course meals that include desert, but we are talking about cheap, ghetto shortcuts, so I had to spill my secrets...
More Ghetto cheap meals
1.Tuna is a cheap meal too..
2.Hot dogs and beans..
3. A bowl of ice cream, my kids would love dinner that night.
4. Ceral and milk
5.Bread and water!
Ha! ha!
That's like our life, ya know? http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ has some good ideas for cheap stuff, i.e., a budget for less than $100 a week. Check 'em out.
We do the beans a lot, you can spice them up different ways (mexican, italian, whatever) so it tastes different at least.
Good luck. . . hope that things pick up for ya'all soon
Bean and Cheese Burritos. A couple cans of beans, package of tortillas, and shredded cheese. heat beans on stove, spread on tortilla, top with cheese and roll!
Next, Grilled tuna and cheese sandwiches. A favorite at my house.
Also, make a couple of boxes of Mac and Cheese, add 1 or 2 cans of tuna, some frozen peas, then stick in a casserole dish, top with shredded cheese and heat in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Plain ole spagetti and red sauce is a good inexpensive meal. Between the pasta and the jarred sauce, I think it is about a 7 dollar meal.
Easy and Cheap!
throw about 2 lbs of frozen boneless skinless chicken and a bottle of BBQ sauce in the crock pot. Cook on high for about 6 hours. Now you have Chicken-Que! Serve on hamburger buns or with rice!
Rice & scrambled eggs.
Potato soup.
Spaghetti.
Skillet Spaghetti...sounds nasty but I promise it's good. Brown 1 lb. ground meat with one chopped onion. Add 3 cans (that's right I said cans) of spaghetti and one can of drained pinto beans, lots of fresh ground black pepper and grated parmesean.
Even cheaper and believe it or not, my kids just ate this last night... one can cannellini (Yep I didn't spell it right) beans, drained; one 6 oz. can white tuna, drained, 3 green onions or 2 Tb. chopped red onion, 2 Tb. olive oil, Juice of one lemon, fresh parsley and oregano to taste, and don't forget the salt and pepper. Serve it over lettuce as a meal. I make my own pita bread to go with it. They love it.
Pasta goes a long way in our house, also Cheese Quesadillas (we use shredded cheese and ro-tel and sometimes chicken or beans)
Spaghetti
Sloppy Joes & Mac n Cheese
Homemade chicken & noodle soup
Tacos
Burritos
Rice & shredded chicken
One of those $5 rotisserie chickens from the store.
i love all your posts lately. haven't had time to comment. but i've seen and read them!! :0) i've got nothing though. we love grilled cheese here. lame. i know.
UGH, we eat ghetto ALL.THE.TIME. Except for the Iron Chef stuff you do.
My kids love you. They say "thanks".
when i am going cheap...i buy a whole fryer chicken. boil it...pull all the meat off the bones and use half of it for a meal like:
chicken spaghetti...chicken quesadillas...chicken enchiladas...white bean chicken chili...chicken salad...chicken and dumplins...chicken taco soup
then the next night, or so...use the other half in something else.
$4 chicken ends up being 2 meals worth of meat!
Four posts? Wow! Ummmm, spaghetti? My kids could eat it every single day.
XOXO
Jen
These are all great ideas...Some I have used, others I'm gonna try.
One thing I've learned to do is go to the grocery store in the mornings and check out the meat dept. There is almost always packages of meat reduced to at least half price, usually more. These are good meats, too. They've just reached (or almost reached) their expiration date. They need to be cooked that day or frozen. This is the only way I buy meat now. I bought a 4 lb. package or extra-lean ground beef for $4.00 and a whole, cut up chicken for $3.00.
I stew the chicken with onion and my favorite spices, strain the broth, and save it to make soup. I pull the meat off the bones and use it to make soup, chicken salad, casseroles, etc.
I make my spaghetti sauce in bulk and freeze it. You can freeze it flat in freezer bags if your space is limited. I also cook other meats I buy in bulk with seasonings and freeze them. It's not that much more when things are bought in bulk, so I may as well cook/freeze it for later. Many a time we've run short on money and I've been able to pull something out of our freezer!
I've learned that in a lot of sauces and casseroles, I can cut the recommended amount of meat in half, and nobody notices.
Anytime I have a leftover chicken breast or two, I stretch it by chopping it into chunks. I bake potatoes, cook some frozen broccoli, and shred a little cheese. We have "loaded" baked potatoes.
Hang in there!
These girls are good! They've given you all the ideas that I would have (and a couple of others that I'll be using next month)
I know, I already commented, and you're probably done with your meal plan anyway . . . but after more thought I wanted to put in another $.02.
Usually, when you make something from scratch, you're saving money. (It does, sadly, take more time. . . we are all busy and sometimes it costs less time-wise to go with the more expensive, store bought prepared stuff.) A jar of the yummy cheesy sauce costs more than making your own. (Or spaghetti sauce, or barbecue sauce, or whatever.) When I started cooking from scratch a few years ago, when we were in a huge pinch, I noticed that the stuff I made from scratch did NOT taste as good as the store bought stuff. A friend said it's because the store bought stuff contains MSG, which makes it taste better . . . sure enough, any time I made a boxed mix it was eaten quickly, but the same meal I made from scratch wasn't nearly as tasty!
Another suggestion I'd have for you is to look closely at your food budget and buying habits. What do you spend the most on for your meals? If it's meat, then you could look for lower cost alternatives (cheaper cut of beef, whole chicken instead of already cut, even non-meat protein like dried beans.) If you spend a lot on fresh veggies, this might be the week to eat frozen. Sometimes shopping at a different store could help. Sometimes buying large quantities and freezing them into several portions for several meals helps.
You should also consider your location, and what food prices are like there. Here, a bag of the cheapest cereal runs between $3 and $4 and a gallon of milk is about the same. A dozen large eggs, $2.59. 80% lean ground beef, $1.99 a pound (from this past week's sale flyer!)
Good luck to you, and I hope this time passes quickly!
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