Help...need CHEAP, EASILY PORTIONED meals....?

HI

maybe the first time u could enter all ingredients individually so u know that meal is approx (so many calories)
it would be easier .
just freeze it and label 400 cals(or whateva it is) so u know how to plan your day accordingly

hope this helps

I batch cook a lot. Especially for lunches. I tend to portion everything out into microwaveable containers - 8 for £1 in Poundland - and label each up before freezing. I love BBC Good Food website for suggestions and I post images of all my meals and recipes on my food diary blog - ameliasfooddiary.wordpress.com - which might give you some ideas. Most of the recipes are freezable!

Ax

Also, if you are eating the whole batch yourself if you know the calories in the entire things, it doesn't matter if you are a little over or under any given day since it will even out in the end.

Here is a crockpot meal I do a lot that is cheap and makes a huge amount of food.

Ingredients:

1 lb. 95% lean ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 tbsp finely minced garlic
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp sweet Hungarian Paprika
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 heads green cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
2-4 cup water
1 cups uncooked brown rice
2 cups pizza blend cheese

Instructions:

Heat a large frying pan on medium heat; add ground beef and cook until it's browned and cooked through, breaking it apart as it cooks. Add onion to soften . Add the minced garlic, dried thyme, and paprika and cook about 2 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and uncooked rice and 2 cup of water

Cut cabbage in half, cut out the core, and remove any wilted outer leaves; chop the cabbage coarsely into 1 inch pieces.

In the crockpot layer half the cabbage, half the meat mixture, remaining cabbage, and remaining meat mixture. (you can just mix it all in also.)

Cook on High for 6 hours adding water if the rice is not getting done. For the last 20 minutes put cheese on top and let melt.

make your own pizzas, they aren't "big batch" but they only take a few moments to whip together and then about 7 minutes in the oven at 450.

Arnold flatbread sandwich pockets (use them flat) - 200 calories
1/4 cup pizza sauce - 35 calories
1/2 c shredded cheese (this is heavy for the size of the bread) - 180 calories
17 turkey pepperonis - 70 calories

485 calorie qucik lunch

All the ingredients cost me $12.00 and makes 4 pizzas.

When we're (my husband and I) on a really low budget week, we make rice balls (made out of brown sushi rice, with a little rice vinegar for flavor). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onigiri We make ours without fillings to save calories and sodium, while getting us fiber and to help fill up. Just use a half cup for each rice ball. We invested in a good $25 rice maker and its worth its weight in gold.

I sometimes make mini salads. I'd take the bag of spring mix and add veggies to the top. Seal it up and you have individual salads for the next couple days. Any veggies left in the fridge at the end of the week that are a little dried out can go into the chowder recipe below. Since you're simmering them, if they're a little dry they get rehydrated in the soup and taste amazing.

Another thing that I would make is a double batch of garden chowder and buy some plastic seal-able containers and put the same amount in each one. The recipe that we make has 220 calories for 2 cups of chowder.
All you need to make it is:
~a bit of butter/oil
~onion (optional)
~water
~chicken bouillon cubes (sodium free preferred)
~5 cups of veggies, split any way you want (about 2/3 bags of frozen veggies).
~a couple cups of milk
~a bit of flour for thickening.

The veggies can be frozen, fresh or canned. Fresh is best of course, but frozen has a lot less sodium than the canned stuff and is really cheap. You can use any veggies that you have on hand; as long as there's 5 cups total. A double batch of chowder lasts 2 people for 5-6 days.

Send me a message, and I'll send you the recipe. You can add a sprinkle of fat free mozzarella (about 50 calories), or a couple slices of low fat low sodium turkey bacon (25 calories each slice). Extra bacon can be used for BLT's using extra stuff left over from making salads earlier in the week. This way, you're using all of your ingredients and nothing goes to waste.

Get your meats and fresh veggies that freeze well when they are on a good sale and set aside a few hours to put together a few meals for the next week. Plan your main dish and side items based on what is on sale. Cut up all of your meats and veggies and basically set set up a production line. Portion out everything for each quick meal so you can determine the calorie/macros. Season the meat and/or veggies with whatever dry seasoning or marinade you like. Place everything you want for each meal in a freezer bag. If you are using veggies you do not want cooked "with" the meat, put it separately into a smaller freezer bag and put each individual bag into a larger freezer bag to keep it all together. You can do this with crockpot meals or to cook in the skillet or on the grill. When you are ready to cook one of your quick meals, just pop it into the fridge one or two days before so it is thawed and ready for you to use. Doing it this way, YOU have controlled and measured every calorie that went into you meal AND you are using fresh, clean foods, AND frankly it just tastes good!! Good luck!!

Thanks for posting this recipe, I do the batch and portion for one as much as I can
and this sounds delicious!!

My go to is pancakes! They're easy to make in large batches and freeze and take seconds to warm up. I just made a batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes which worked out at 172 cals for 2. (But I know it can be done in less)

Ingredients are cheap so something to consider. Search the forums for the recipe.

Its sounds like you're getting a lot of the same answer: batch cooking. If you want to eat well you need to control the ingredients, espepecially if you want to save some cents, homemade is always cheaper than store bought.

Good luck!

Hey there where is the MF recipe builder at?

Food->Recipes-> add new recipe (it's hiding on the far right side of the screen)