Stretching Groceries

[adavant]

Ok, I have been using the E-mealz service that Dave Ramsey recommends. I love it because it helps you to "stretch" meat and stuff for more than one meal.

I just started getting gazelle again w/ the Dave Plan so I am doing envelopes for groceries. I fund them twice a month, because that's how hubs gets paid. On the 1st I put in $250. I shopped yesterday and therefore I"m down to $5 in the envelope after 2 grocery trips since payday.

I need to stretch my meals even further to the 15th when he gets paid. Any suggestions on doing so?

I have extra chicken breasts, Extra bacon, as far as meats go.

[sunshine]

Use your meats as a condiment, not the main dish. . . casseroles, soups, stir fry's, etc.

Even one chicken breast, cut into strips - seems like more meat when cut up in pieces. When my boys were home (teenagers) I'd use one chicken breast in fried rice and feed all 5 of us, with leftovers for my lunch the next day.

Bacon, cooked and crumbled and used a topping for baked potatoes with veggies and cheese. . . .

[adavant]

Use your meats as a condiment, not the main dish. . . casseroles, soups, stir fry's, etc.

Even one chicken breast, cut into strips - seems like more meat when cut up in pieces. When my boys were home (teenagers) I'd use one chicken breast in fried rice and feed all 5 of us, with leftovers for my lunch the next day.

Bacon, cooked and crumbled and used a topping for baked potatoes with veggies and cheese. . . .

Great I have some stir fry veggies and I have rice so I can definitely do some stir fry w/ the chicken.

[sunshine]

How about homemade pizza? uses just a little bit of meat, yet seems like a lot when you're eating it.

[adavant]

How about homemade pizza? uses just a little bit of meat, yet seems like a lot when you're eating it.

We love bacon pizza. How do you make the crust? My daughter wants pizza for her birthday which we are celebrating next weekend. Ideas for that would be perfect!

[sunshine]

I use this recipe, as I like to use my bread machine:

Ingredients
1 cup flat beer
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Directions
Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting, and press Start.
Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside, about 24 minutes.

[sunshine]

Check here for pizza crust recipes:

Easy Pizza Crusts.com - Easy Pizza Crusts.Com - Home

[adavant]

I use this recipe, as I like to use my bread machine:

Ingredients
1 cup flat beer
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Directions
Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting, and press Start.
Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside, about 24 minutes.

Ok I don't have a bread machine and we don't buy beer. Any other suggestions? I do have yeast on hand.

[pollypurebred39]

How about this? you could use homemade Bisquick, and I don't see why you could not just use any cheese you wish.


Impossibly Easy BLT Pie Recipe from Betty Crocker

You could make Spanish rice and serve it with bean burritos.

SPANISH RICE

1/2 lb bacon, cut up in bite-size pieces
1 onion chopped
1 cup rice
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder

In a large saucepan, fry bacon until crispy. Add onion, rice and spices. Fry until rice is lightly browned and onions are nearly clear. Add diced tomatoes and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender.


http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/re...cipe_id=443492

This recipe might not be exactly like you think of bacon pizza, but it sure looks good!

[MomToTwoBoys]

The Bisquick Easy Pizza recipe is the best pizza I've ever had that was homemade, next to homemade crust I used to make. The trouble is that we're GF now, so we don't get to eat it.

I'd try the Bisquick pizza recipes and then add in the chicken and bacon ontop of it.

[cheles2kids]

I would defiantely suggest a "Vegetarian" meal one night a week.

Something like pasta (without the meat), or even just have a HUGE salad with baked potatoes on the side.
When I have a Chef Salad meal night, I will still shred some cheese & boil some eggs to go on top.

Also soups:
potatoe
minestrone
vegetarian'ish taco soup (just omit the ground beef, *or* you could use only 1/2 lb. and it tastes just as good as using an entire lb.)
vegetable

Whenever I do my menu, I try for:

1 salad night
1 soup night
1 sandwich night
1 chicken night
1 beef night
1 pizza night

Then it's usually a leftover night the other night of the week.

I think it's great that you're working on you're grocery budget, because a person really can save so much with just changing how/where/how often they shop.
Also having a set weekly menu keeps all of those extra grocery store trips down to a minimum.

Good Luck to you!

[cheles2kids]

Ooo and for another pizza crust recipe, here's a 30 minute one that I used Friday night, it turned out really good 'cept we made 2 large pizzas out of it and it still turned out a bit thicker than we like.

I'm a thin crust pizza girl myself. So next time, I think we could easily get 3 thin crusts out of this one recipe.
It also doesn't take hours to rise, so you can throw this together really easily.

Enjoy:
2 for 1-Breadsticks OR Pizza in under 30 minutes from ONE easy recipe: Whole Wheat Food Storage Recipes : Everyday Food Storage Recipes-Food Storage & Recipe Blog

Something that I've learned with homemade pizza crusts is, if you like herbs in you're crust, this always seems to add something extra whenever you're making it homemade.

[ladykemma2]

i shop every two weeks with no in -between trips. i freeze the bread and milk. i meal plan for 14 days and include quick eats like tombstone pizza in case i am on shaky ground and want to end up getting restaurant food.

i do cascading meals like this:
roast chicken on sunday, chicken tacos on monday, chicken soup on tuesday. so get three dinners from one chicken.

how is the easy meals working for you?

what are your personal best 14 meals? 14 meals is all you have to come up with. meals can be as easy as steamed potatoes with melted cheese on top, cambells tomato soup, and green salad. or two tombstone pizzas with green salad

here is my pre-prepared list of cheap eats. maybe there is something on here that would interest you.


Dinner Ideas (tried and true)
Scrambled eggs
Eggs and ham
Eggs and spam
French toast
Heart attack potatoes
Eggs Benedict
Scrambled egg burritos
Hash and eggs
Bacon salad with thousand island
Chicken rice -a-roni
can of chicken in the rice cooker with rice, veg, and spices
Stovetop stuffing with chicken
Hamburger helper
Cheese, rice and salsa/hot sauce
Steamed potatoes and cheese
Fettucini alfredo
Pasta with capers, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts
Pasta ragu (spaghetti with meat sauce)
Pasta marinara
Leftover pork, jelly, fried potatoes, mustard
Chick peas and pesto
Oregano, butter chick peas
Chana masala
Chick peas with lemon juice, olive oil and parmesan
Hummus and homemade whole wheat bread or storebought artisan bread

Chili
Refried beans with taco seasoning, cheese, rice
Tacos
Enchiladas (green)
Quesadillas
What ya got soup
Corned beef and potatoes
London broil major gray chutney and raisins
Chipped beef on toast
Hot dogs and beans
Hot dogs and sauerkraut
Curry potato salad and hamburger patties
Tombstone pizza
Black eyed peas, collards, rice, muffins
Tabouli
Cheese toast and tomato soup
Tuna sandwich
Peanut butter and jelly
BLT
Egg salad sandwich
Reuben sandwich
Spam sandwich
Split peas and bacon in the crock pot
Lentils with sherry and thyme in the crockpot
Minestrone soup with parmesan
Campbells tomato soup
Chicken stock, canned tomatoes, and dill soup

[Grainlady]

You don't say how many people, and what ages you are feeding. If you don't mind my asking, how much do you pay for E-mealz?

My grocery budget is $150 a month for two adults. I might be able to help you make different choices to save on groceries - even more than E-mealz. To date for the year: $375 in budget, $315.76 spent. My grocery budget is for FOOD ONLY. I have another amount for non-food purchases. You can't eat magazines, hair-care products, pet food, and a large assortment of other things people see their food dollars go for if they combine these purchases and call it food budget...

As a pizza novice, you can get a simple-to-make pizza crust mix at the store that is very cheap (under a dollar). All you do is add water and a little oil, cover and let it rest for 5 minutes before patting it out on a 12-inch pizza pan you have sprayed with a pan spray (Pam). Oil your hands when you handle the dough so it doesn't stick to you.

Once patted out, par-bake the pizza crust for about 10-minutes (just beginning to brown a little), take it out of the oven and add the sauce, meat, veggies, and cheese. Pop back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and slightly bubbly.

You can top the pizza with all kinds of cheeses, including a slice or two of American Cheese. Just cut it into fun shapes, or strips, and top the pizza with it. We like Pepper Jack Cheese on a sausage/gluten pizza, or smoked cheese.

My (now grown) kids used these pizza crust mixes to make pizzas at home while their friends went broke going to the Pizza Hut.

I always keep homemade 8-inch pizza crusts, par-baked and ready-to-go in the freezer. Perfect size for us for one meal and lunch the next day.

You can also use flour tortillas for making pizza.
Cooks.com - Recipes - Tortilla Pizza

Homemade pizza is served nearly every Sunday at our house and is a good way to use up veggies in the crisper drawer and leftover meat. I have a couple slices of ham I've saved for the pizza tonight, and a variety of veggies.

You can buy ready-made pizza sauce, but a less expensive way to make pizza sauce is with tomato powder (Tomato Powder). Tomato powder is a real money saver over convenience foods. Pizza Sauce: 3 t. tomato powder, 3 T. water, 1 t. honey, 1/2 t. vinegar, and Italian or Pizza Spices to taste.

You can also use a can of tomato sauce and freeze the leftover, because one can is too much for one pizza. Add a sprinkle of pizza or Italian spices to the top of the sauce.

A pizza topping tip: I often get toppings at the grocery store salad bar. This way you don't have a lot of money invested in produce that might not get used up sitting in your refrigerator. When bell peppers are expensive, you can get enough to add to your pizza at the salad bar for a few cents. I like mushrooms on my pizza, but hubby doesn't, so I buy a few sliced mushrooms for my pizza pieces, some green peppers, sliced black olives, etc. to use as toppings. One to two tablespoons of each is plenty for a 12-inch pizza.

I teach nutrition classes, and "stretching meat" often erroneously means you use less protein servings and more carbohydrates (i.e. tuna casserole), which ISN'T stretching meat at all, and most people already consume too many carbohydrates.

The first way to save on meat is to know what a serving is and avoid over-eating protein servings - 2-3-ounces meat, poultry, or fish or 2-eggs equals a serving. For non-meat substitutes equal to 1-ounce of meat -- 1/2-cup cooked beans, 2-T. peanut butter, 4-oz. tofu, 1/4-cup seeds or 1/3 c. nuts. A total of 5-7-ounces of protein per day is plenty for adults.

I try to purchase meat that is $2.00 a pound or less, and keep meat purchases to no more than $10/week (for two adults) as the second way to save.

Combining meat or fish (which can be a budget busters these days) AND a low-costing non-meat protein like eggs, beans, cheese, and gluten is a better option than skimping on meat and using too many carbs.

Caution when picking up that can of tuna and thinking it's cheap meat. If a 5-ounce can of tuna costs $1.29 that is equal to $4.13/pound - go buy steak.... You need 2-ounces of tuna to equal a serving of protein, so tuna can be an expensive choice, and a can is only 2 and 1/2 servings of protein. So when using tuna, also add low-costing eggs to make tuna patties, or hard-cooked eggs to tuna salad, or add beans to the meal to add protein.

I make gluten at home (aka seitan or fake meat). Using it ground, I mix it 50/50 with ground meat (beef, sausage, turkey) to extend the protein with a vegetable-based (cholesterol-free, fat-free) protein.

Four cups of raw gluten bakes into 9 cups of ground gluten, which is equivalent to 3-pounds of hamburger (cooked).

Here's a good example of "stretching protein". I have a recipe for Tuscan Rosemary Chicken and White Beans. In this recipe I use a small chicken tenderloin (1-1/2-2 oz.) per serving and the remaining protein is made up with the white beans (1/2-cup per serving) so we still get a serving of protein but using a LOT less meat.

[adavant]

Wow you're right you're a lot of help. I paid for E-mealz one time just to "try it out" my plan is to quit after the first payment and rotate the meals. It paid for 3 months of menus/grocery lists.

Right now I'm trying to stretch what I have which is why someone suggested the pizzas and that's what my daughter asked for for her birthday. We will celebrate on the 13th.

I need all the meal suggestions and stretching ideas I can get though literally. It can always be helpful with a tight bugdet.

My budget for groceries, diapers and household supplies is $500 per month for 5 people 2 adults, a 19 month old, a 3 year old and a 6 year old.

You don't say how many people, and what ages you are feeding. If you don't mind my asking, how much do you pay for E-mealz?

My grocery budget is $150 a month for two adults. I might be able to help you make different choices to save on groceries - even more than E-mealz. To date for the year: $375 in budget, $315.76 spent. My grocery budget is for FOOD ONLY. I have another amount for non-food purchases. You can't eat magazines, hair-care products, pet food, and a large assortment of other things people see their food dollars go for if they combine these purchases and call it food budget...

As a pizza novice, you can get a simple-to-make pizza crust mix at the store that is very cheap (under a dollar). All you do is add water and a little oil, cover and let it rest for 5 minutes before patting it out on a 12-inch pizza pan you have sprayed with a pan spray (Pam). Oil your hands when you handle the dough so it doesn't stick to you.

Once patted out, par-bake the pizza crust for about 10-minutes (just beginning to brown a little), take it out of the oven and add the sauce, meat, veggies, and cheese. Pop back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and slightly bubbly.

You can top the pizza with all kinds of cheeses, including a slice or two of American Cheese. Just cut it into fun shapes, or strips, and top the pizza with it. We like Pepper Jack Cheese on a sausage/gluten pizza, or smoked cheese.

My (now grown) kids used these pizza crust mixes to make pizzas at home while their friends went broke going to the Pizza Hut.

I always keep homemade 8-inch pizza crusts, par-baked and ready-to-go in the freezer. Perfect size for us for one meal and lunch the next day.

You can also use flour tortillas for making pizza.
Cooks.com - Recipes - Tortilla Pizza

Homemade pizza is served nearly every Sunday at our house and is a good way to use up veggies in the crisper drawer and leftover meat. I have a couple slices of ham I've saved for the pizza tonight, and a variety of veggies.

You can buy ready-made pizza sauce, but a less expensive way to make pizza sauce is with tomato powder (Tomato Powder). Tomato powder is a real money saver over convenience foods. Pizza Sauce: 3 t. tomato powder, 3 T. water, 1 t. honey, 1/2 t. vinegar, and Italian or Pizza Spices to taste.

You can also use a can of tomato sauce and freeze the leftover, because one can is too much for one pizza. Add a sprinkle of pizza or Italian spices to the top of the sauce.

A pizza topping tip: I often get toppings at the grocery store salad bar. This way you don't have a lot of money invested in produce that might not get used up sitting in your refrigerator. When bell peppers are expensive, you can get enough to add to your pizza at the salad bar for a few cents. I like mushrooms on my pizza, but hubby doesn't, so I buy a few sliced mushrooms for my pizza pieces, some green peppers, sliced black olives, etc. to use as toppings. One to two tablespoons of each is plenty for a 12-inch pizza.

I teach nutrition classes, and "stretching meat" often erroneously means you use less protein servings and more carbohydrates (i.e. tuna casserole), which ISN'T stretching meat at all, and most people already consume too many carbohydrates.

The first way to save on meat is to know what a serving is and avoid over-eating protein servings - 2-3-ounces meat, poultry, or fish or 2-eggs equals a serving. For non-meat substitutes equal to 1-ounce of meat -- 1/2-cup cooked beans, 2-T. peanut butter, 4-oz. tofu, 1/4-cup seeds or 1/3 c. nuts. A total of 5-7-ounces of protein per day is plenty for adults.

I try to purchase meat that is $2.00 a pound or less, and keep meat purchases to no more than $10/week (for two adults) as the second way to save.

Combining meat or fish (which can be a budget busters these days) AND a low-costing non-meat protein like eggs, beans, cheese, and gluten is a better option than skimping on meat and using too many carbs.

Caution when picking up that can of tuna and thinking it's cheap meat. If a 5-ounce can of tuna costs $1.29 that is equal to $4.13/pound - go buy steak.... You need 2-ounces of tuna to equal a serving of protein, so tuna can be an expensive choice, and a can is only 2 and 1/2 servings of protein. So when using tuna, also add low-costing eggs to make tuna patties, or hard-cooked eggs to tuna salad, or add beans to the meal to add protein.

I make gluten at home (aka seitan or fake meat). Using it ground, I mix it 50/50 with ground meat (beef, sausage, turkey) to extend the protein with a vegetable-based (cholesterol-free, fat-free) protein.

Four cups of raw gluten bakes into 9 cups of ground gluten, which is equivalent to 3-pounds of hamburger (cooked).

Here's a good example of "stretching protein". I have a recipe for Tuscan Rosemary Chicken and White Beans. In this recipe I use a small chicken tenderloin (1-1/2-2 oz.) per serving and the remaining protein is made up with the white beans (1/2-cup per serving) so we still get a serving of protein but using a LOT less meat.