LaTigresse
Posts: 26123
Joined: 1/15/2006
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quote:
ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt
The cheapest way to eat is to learn how to cook well and make everything that you can from scratch. The local library here is free and will have tons of info, I confess to being completely ignorant about the library system in the UK.
Stop buying premade and processed food and snacks, and make it yourself. Not only is it cheaper, it's better for you.
I make my own dressings, sauces, salsa, bread, soups and stews, etc.
I like the chicken breast recipe, it is probably very good, but to me it would be expensive to make. The things you have to put in, a jar of dressing, a can of (something, sorry don't remember) then the onion soups mix, all that adds up.Plus chicken breast themselves are fairly expensive.
That is what I thought when I read a lot of what's been posted. And I saw a lot of fat and sodium. Both things I try to avoid.
Honestly I cannot really post recipes easily, or the cost to make them. I keep a lot of basic ingredients on hand. When I shop, most of the time it is to pick up fresh stuff, things like milk, yogurt, etc that I can't keep for long periods of time. The last time I shopped for groceries I spent $ 38.00 and some odd change. That was last Friday and the only reason I stopped was to pick up another can of pumpkin, a box of graham crackers and 3 pkg of cream cheese to make a cheese cake. The rest of the $$ was for a few items that restocked like fresh produce.
Yet, given that, I've been cooking and eating all week. Last night was a stir fry that was created by chopping up some bok choy that needed used up, grating some ginger, mincing some garlic, defrosting and draining some veggies I had in the freezer......the other seasonings I just stand there and "hmmmmm what flavour am I going for tonight...yeah some crushed red pepper......fish sauce.....etc etc etc". Serve it over rice noodles and voila'!
Rice noodles and frozen veggies with some leftover turkey broth has been my lunch several times this week. Spritz it with some of that wicked good red rooster hot sauce and.....lunch. Filling and damned cheap. I just boiled up the noodles in the morning while I was getting ready for work, ran them under cold water, tossed in the frozen veggies and put them in a container. When it was lunch time I poured the broth over them, nuked it, then put in the rooster sauce.
Last week end I made a black bean and pork soup. I did cheat and use canned beans and canned chopped tomatoes that has jalapenos chopped into them. The pork was the remains of a whole loin of pork I had purchased several months ago and cut up in various packages. I don't even remember how many meals I've used it for. But damn did that last little bit make some yummy soup. We've gotten several dinners and I had the very last of it yesterday for lunch.
I also made a big batch of lasagna at the same time. We had a family dinner for 5 and G.D. has had it for lunch or dinner a few times and I've had it for dinner once or twice. There is still some left.
For us, it's about watching for sales. Buying in bulk when possible. (I admit my big chest freezer really helps with this) Keeping the basics on hand. Exploring ways to preserve.....canning and freezing. And using those things to your advantage. Try new things. Look at cultures that are poor and how they eat, go online and search recipes. Doing that has taught me how to use new ingredients so that I can do like I did last night and just start pulling stuff out and tossing it together without a plan or a recipe.
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My twisted, self deprecating, sense of humour, finds alot to laugh about, in your lack of one!
Just because you are well educated, articulate, and can use big, fancy words, properly........does not mean you are right!
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RE: What can you knock up cheap? - 
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