Recipes to save you time and money and feed the Family

RECIPES: Great Recipes That Are Quick To Make and Easy On The Budget

Think about how easy it would be to save money if you never had to eat. What a budget boost! You can’t of course, stop eating, but you can follow some shopping tips that will save you tons at the grocery store. You’ll also find some great, inexpensive recipes here, too.

Saving Money  On Grocery Shopping

Basics such as bread, milk, fruit, and meat never go away. But, have you ever noticed where they’re located in the store? They’re usually around the outer walls, rather than in the aisles. Here’s a challenge—try, for one week, to feed your family with only items you find along the outside walls of the grocery store. Those displays not only feature the basic food groups in their rawest states, they are usually the least expensive foods in the store.

For instance, look at the weight of a box of cereal. You’ll pay $4 for a box of cereal, and get fewer meals than you would get with a dozen eggs for ½ that. You’ll get twice as much steak for that cost. Chips and cola are just as bad on your budget. Cereal, chips, and cola are the 3 most overpriced food items in the grocery store. Replace cereal with eggs or even oatmeal, which is still less expensive than cereal. If you need chips, replace them with pretzels, or vegetable slices. Substitute home-brewed tea for soda. Sure, these may not be your favourite meals, but it can save up to $100 a month, which you’re sure to like.

Recipes

Meals made from basic, raw ingredients are much cheaper than pre-packaged meals. Here are some easy recipes that are quick to make and easy on the budget. With this recipe, you’ll feed your family with at least 3 meals.

• Roast Beef; purchase a large roast, either beef or pork. Put it in a dutch over or slow cooker with potatoes, onions, and carrots, and slice several cloves of garlic onto it. Sprinkle the whole thing with oregano and cumin powder, and cook it all day. There is one meal, with your bread and vegetables added.
• Bar-B-Q, Sandwiches; your next meal will be the left-over roast, shredded and cooked on the stove top with your favourite BBQ sauce for sandwiches.
• Chimichangas; freeze the left-over shredded BBQ roast until you’re ready for Chimichangas. This Mexican dish is spicy and delicious. Warm the shredded BBQ roast, adding a little more ground cumin powder and some red chili powder. Then, spoon it into a flour tortilla. Fold the tortilla closed and secure it with a toothpick. Then, fry it in hot oil for about 2 minutes on each side. Sprinkle cheese over it, serve with salad, and you have a quick easy meal.

Seasonings, garlic, and vegetables are far less expensive than pre-packaged meals. Give it a try, and you may just decide cooking isn’t so bad!

On Days When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking…

On the days you don’t feel like taking the time to prepare a whole meal, break out one of those packages of meat you set aside. This quick recipe will only take about 30 minutes, since you’ve already done most of the prep. Defrost the meat in your microwave, and while that’s going on cube some potatoes and set them to boil. Once the beef is defrosted and the potatoes are cook, stir them together carefully over heat, letting the curry sauce from the beef cover the potatoes.

To get your greens, you can cook any frozen vegetable you might like – maybe peas or green beans. Cook some rice and serve your meat and potato curry over the rice with your green on the side, serve with a dollop of yogurt on top of the curry and you’ve got dinner. From start to finish, minus the prep, it takes about half an hour. Everyone can sit down to a home-cooked meal they’re going to love, and you’ve done a great job with a quick recipe while saving money.

You can make this recipe go a little farther by adding a can of tomatoes to the meat. You can also try the same recipe with chicken instead of beef. Experiment with different sauces to get different flavors, there’s no telling what you might come up with.

Now that you’ve tried it out and enjoyed it, maybe you can share this money saving recipe with your friends and family. It’s a great way to get some time to recover during a stressful work week or after a particularly long day at work.

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