Need cheap recipes for large family

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  • UnleashingLovely
    UnleashingLovely Posts: 205
    Bump for later(:
  • yelliezx
    yelliezx Posts: 633 Member
    Wow! Everyone but me lives someplace where chicken breasts are cheap, I guess! I'd like to go there.

    I thought about the same thing. I live in Canada, and meat, especially boneless chicken breasts here are expensive.
    I bought 1 tray that has 4 pcs of chicken breast $ 24.99. Even fresh veggies and fruits prices are crazy expensive.
    I spend $ 200 week easy on our grocery a week for myself and two teenagers, not including junk food.

    $25 for 4 pieces of chicken breast?! Where are you shopping?! I also live in Canada and get a tray of 5-6 chicken breasts for $12.
  • rachelklewis3
    rachelklewis3 Posts: 69 Member
    I'm in the same boat! When times are tight I will skip meat a couple times a week and use tofu or beans instead. Pasta fagioli is cheap and delicious! 1 bag of dried northern beans, 2 cups of spiral pasta, 1 can no salt added tomatoes, a few carrots and celery stalks and an onion (and of course whatever herbs and seasonings you prefer) You can use water or stock of some sort for the broth (I make and freeze veggie stock from my vegetable scraps). Soak the beans overnight if you can in a large stock pot with about 6 cups of water don't drain the water). Saute vegetables, add to bean pot, add in some stock (1 cup now, 1 cup for later) bring to a boil and simmer. I like to do this for about 4 hours but you really only need to until the beans get soft. About 20 minutes before you are ready to serve, add in the last cup of stock, bring to a boil then add pasta. Once it's tender, it's ready to serve. Leftovers do well in the freezer and will keep for about 2 months.

    ETA: I have fed 4 adults and 3 kids with this recipe and still had leftovers to freeze :)
  • QueenWino
    QueenWino Posts: 106
    A huge pot of soup that will last for a few meals can be cheap. I like to buy dried chickpeas or cannellini beans from the co-op, soak day before, cook in am, then make a soup w/sauteed carrots, celery, onion, some minced garlic, maybe a bay leaf, veggie broth or water (or chicken), add in some chunky tomatoes or tomato paste (if the kids won't freak out!), the beans, a frozen parmesan rind if I have one, and some fresh thyme I'll just toss in whole to fish out later. I'll also add tiny meatballs that stretch a food budget & help maintain a smaller portion of meat being consumed, add in kale for the health benefits, or chard, and taste, adjust from there. The pot is as big as you want, every vegetable in the house can be thrown in, I've added cooked barley from the day before's meal, etc etc. Add a piece of bread and dinner is healthy, delicious, and dirt cheap! (It is especially easy if I made extra meatballs, maybe 1 inch diameter, and had them in freezer ready to go, a plan that works every other time I make a soup like this.) I have jars of this in my freezer in lunch portions at all times.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    Chicken breasts, salsa, taco seasoning. Put it in a crockpot and let go all day. Make as much as you want. I have a family of four. I use 2 jars of store brand salsa (2 for $3), one or two packs of taco seasoning, depending on your tastes. Can add black beans as well. The ratio of all of the above really just depends on what your personal preference is. Sometimes I take (99 cents) flour tortillas, use a pizza cutter and cut in triangles, spray with a little pam, sprinkle with some of the taco seasoning and pop in oven to crisp up to go with it. Hope this helps!

    This! But add beans (get dried and soak overnight for the best cost), rice, and a vegetable like green beans, carrots, zucchini, or asparagus. Whatever is on sale. Canned green beans work if you add them last, but bulk carrots would probably be the cheapest. I like adding smokey chipotle seasoning or using chicken ricearoni instead of the taco seasoning to give it more flavor. This is good by itself or as a taco filling. You can even use lettuce to make little wraps with this as a filling. Yummy!
  • kclayton0820
    kclayton0820 Posts: 5
    Cooked this for my family the other night and they loved it.. (I have been trying to get the kids to eat more veggies since they claim they hate them.)

    1 lb chicken - cooked and shredded
    1 package pasta (I used bowtie but you could use wheat or whatever pasta you wanted) - cooked.
    1 med squash
    1 cup mushrooms (or more if you like)
    1/2 onion
    2 cans 98% ff cream of chicken soup
    1 cup ff sour cream
    seasoning (I used Tastefully Simple Buffalo Blue Cheese Dip dry mix - you can add whatever seasoning your family likes)
    Sleeve of Ritz crackers (optional)

    Cut up the squash, mushrooms & onions and sauté in skillet.
    Combine your soup (do not add water), sour cream and seasonings and stir really good.
    Combine your soup mixture, chicken and veggie's and pour into a 9x13 pan.
    If using ritz crackers, crumble them up on top of your casserole.

    Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.
    Serve with a salad.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    Pork (loin, chunks, roast whatever is cheapest) cooked in mushroom soup with onion soup seasoning and a bunch of veggies in the crockpot (6hrs low for chunks, 8hrs for one big roast) is awesome! Serve over rice with beans or salad on the side.
  • luckynky
    luckynky Posts: 123 Member
    We do a lot of beans- Mexican rice and beans (use pinto or black beans, add some Mexican seasonings, tomatoes, chili peppers if you like, etc, top with cheese, sour cream, and salsa), bean burritos with sauteed peppers and onions, southwestern pasta with black beans (bow-tie pasta, taco seasoning, some reduced fat sour cream and about 1/3 pack of reduced fat cream cheese, tomatoes, corn), back-eye peas, carrots, and rice (cook rice with a bouillon, add a generous about of parmesan cheese, saute some diced onion with your matchstick carrots first), spaghetti with sauce, spinach, and cannellini beans.

    Actually, I started limiting meat as a way to reduce grocery costs a few years ago, but I'm now vegetarian cooking for non-vegs, and beans seem to satisfy everyone. I found a lot of good ideas and recipes on allrecipes.com for beans.
  • Some_Watery_Tart
    Some_Watery_Tart Posts: 2,250 Member
    Hit the bargain bin at your grocery store for meat. And buy whatever produce is on sale. But I agree with the others that chicken breasts are expensive!

    Go-to's from when I was a broke single mom of 3:

    - Bean burritos - rotel, refried beans, tortillas. A little cheese if it's in the budget
    - Egg salad sanwiches. <---These are probably why I'm now allergic to eggs.
    - If you can find bargain bin chicken, you can grab a McCormick's chicken in a bag seasoning pack. They're like $1. Throw in chicken parts and potato/carrot chunks. It's delicious. My kids still ask for this one. They have a pork version too. Bonus: easiest clean up ever.
    - Spaghetti sauce and noodles. Or noodles with a little olive oil sauteed with spinach and tomatoes. Top with whatever meat you have on hand.
    - Tuna in cream of chicken and cream of celery soup over rice. Throw in whatever cooked veggies you have on hand.
    - Scrambled eggs and toast

    And, I definitely agree on the whole chickens! It's the cheapest way to go and plenty of meat for a dinner for 6 or 7 people.
  • corgicake
    corgicake Posts: 846 Member
    My staple foods:
    Protein: chicken thighs/leg quarters (hint: look for the mega-bags), beans, eggs when on sale, ground pork, beef liver*, clearance and manager special items. *not ideal for those with high cholesterol
    Vegetables: white potatoes, onions, frozen vegetables, carrots, leaf lettuce, spaghetti sauce, sale/mismarked items.
    Fruit: see sale sheet. If possible, choose fruits with longer shelf life as to minimize food waste.
    Grains: bread, rice by the bag, pasta if sufficiently marked down. Oatmeal by the tub is cheap even after having to pony up for a bag of sugar to go with it.

    Spices are best obtained from the local herbal supply shop. Yes, I'm talking about the one that feels like it should probably be growing out of a commune with organic and natural everything... they are cheaper. Learn your local grocers' coupon policies and don't be surprised if the truly cheap things are counterintuitive. It's okay to be that person who doesn't look like they're trying to live frugally until they whip out a small pile of coupons. I've loaded my cart with ridiculous looking things more than a few times and watched cashiers go from giving judging looks to asking if I cleaned them out of (insert awesomeness here) as they ring up the ridiculousness.

    For recipes, there are entire sites where you can pop in a list of ingredients and see what it comes up with - the hard part is getting the grocery bill down.
  • angieochoa1201
    angieochoa1201 Posts: 105
    Soup is always something than can be stretched... Pasta or rice cooked on the side to fill the kiddos up.. I usually pass on the pasta and load up on the veggies and broth
  • Trilby16
    Trilby16 Posts: 707 Member
    I always start with the local grocery store ads. I make a plan ahead of time. I figure out our weekly meals based on what is on sale that week. I make my list and head out. I go to the meat section of the sale ad first and see what is on sale, is the least expensive per pound, yet a healthy choice. I then look at the fresh veggies that are on ad and go from there. In my area this week, cucumbers are 50cents, zucchini is 59cents, and cauliflower is 99cents, and the DEAL: chicken leg quarters are 75cents a pound. You can do a million things with chicken and there are so many websites where you can throw in the ingredients of your pantry and fridge and they will figure out a meal plan for you!

    5 pounds of chicken to bbq or bake or whatever $3.75
    3 cucumbers (for a cucumber salad) $1.50
    2 pounds zucchini $1.18
    1 head cauliflower $0.99

    Bam! Family Dinner for $7.42

    So chicken at 75 cents a pound....? Are you writing this from a time machine?????
  • MainahGirl
    MainahGirl Posts: 282 Member
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  • desert_mom
    desert_mom Posts: 91 Member
    Family of 7 here :)

    Some of my cheaper meals are refried bean tostadas (bake the tortillas, instead of fry), crustless spinach quiche (can use egg whites and greek yogurt and reduce cheese), chili and corn bread, Korean ground beef (google it--easy, cheap recipe), and spaghetti sauce over polenta (fewer calories than pasta).
  • slim4health56
    slim4health56 Posts: 439 Member
    Top Ramon noodles are really cheap. Add sliced hard boiled eggs, chopped green onion and serve. Most kids love it.
    Dried beans are much cheaper than canned...and how to prepare and what to add is endless. Franks and beans, chili with ground turkey, plain with onions and cheese, refried with chopped tomato and onion as a side dish (which I could happily live on), black bean soup, et cetera. You'll find a million recipes online.
    Rice pudding is an inexpensive treat and rice is inexpensive in bulk and so easy to turn into a main entrée with a can of condensed soup and any chopped veggies you have to spare - add in meat if your budget allows, a little cilantro. Delish!
    Meatless spaghetti is very inexpensive - canned sauce at Walmart is about one buck as would be a pound of the pasta. Throw in an onion and another dollar's worth of sliced mushrooms, and you can feed a family of six for about $3.
    Oatmeal and toast is a filling breakfast. Grilled cheese sandwiches will stick to your ribs and kids love them.
  • amyaguilar79
    amyaguilar79 Posts: 26
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  • TygerDawn
    TygerDawn Posts: 173 Member
    This is a cheap and healthy soup that you can make heaps of and even freeze. Its yum and warming for the winter :)

    Half a celery (chopped)
    One leak (chopped)
    4-5 Carrots (chopped)
    1 bacon rasher (chopped)
    2 onions (chopped)
    1-2 Tins of Borlotti/Kidney/White beans
    1-2 Tins of reduced salt tomato soup (its to your own taste)
    1 liter of water

    Cook the bacon and onion and put aside, heat the water in a large pot so it just nicely covers all of the veggies and cook until the vegetables are softer, add the tomato soup along with salt/pepper to taste and add the bacon, onion and beans and let simmer for another 10 or so minutes until your happy with the flavor.

    when we don't have much money I always make a large pot and it feeds the family and the kids love it. And always freeze quite a few portions!
  • Bernadette60614
    Bernadette60614 Posts: 707 Member
    Do you have a crockpot?

    One of my standards is cheater's chili:

    5 same sized cans of different types of beans, large bag of frozen mixed veggies, mustard, salt, pepper to taste. Low setting for 3 hours.

    It is yummy, kids like it, and it is a great way to use up leftover veggies if you substitute them for the frozen mixed ones.

    Also, check out the FrugalMama blog.
  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,033 Member
    Thanks for sharing, great ideas
    Frittatas make healthy cheap meals add some fruit yum
    Scrambled eggs with onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, spinach, turkey sausage yum
    Taco soup
    Chili
    Burritos
  • Morninglory81
    Morninglory81 Posts: 1,190 Member
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  • mlrodgers381
    mlrodgers381 Posts: 71 Member
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  • conniemaxwell5
    conniemaxwell5 Posts: 943 Member
    Visit your local farmer's market just before closing. Usually they would rather sell cheap than take it home. Check the grocery for the meat that's been marked down (it's still good for another day or two and you can freeze it). Rice and beans go a long way.

    My mom used to stretch hamburger by adding bread crumbs, eggs (you could use just egg whites for less calories), a little ketchup and mustard, salt and pepper (like a meatloaf mixture). Form into patties and grill or bake until cooked through. We called it poor man steak. You can get 6 patties out of a pound of ground beef.

    Roast a whole chicken in the crock pot all day on low with a couple of onions, some carrots and celery, Save the stock and shred the chicken to use in casseroles or other dishes.
  • mnardi123
    mnardi123 Posts: 59 Member
    I grew up with two immigrant parents one of which had a "Depression Mentality". Frittatas with zucchini, onions, and grated cheese; minestrone soup, pasta and beans in a light tomato sauce. If you have a produce market like I do, I shop there first see what on sale, today bell peppers were .79/ lb eggplant .59/lb so stuffed peppers and unfried eggplant rollatini will be on this weeks menu. Also, check your local grocery store flyers...last week Shoperite had London broil steak for $1.99/lb in twin packs so we had steak for dinner this past week but also salads for lunch and steak quesadillas.
  • liesevanlingen
    liesevanlingen Posts: 508 Member
    I cook pasta or rice in broth or use bouillon cubes in the water. Fry up some green onions, zucchini, peppers, garlic, grated carrots, tomatoes,celery,( pretty much whatever veggies you like) add any leftover meat you may have (ground beef, ham, chicken, pork, canned meat, chopped up sausages or hot dogs--they all work well) and mix everything together. Mix it all together, put in in a casserole dish and eat it! You can garnish with a little grated cheese if you like. It's very good and you don't need a lot of meat for this recipe. The variations are endless, and it works well with pasta or rice, or you could parboil some yams/potatoes and throw those in with the other veggies and skip on the pasta/rice

    We are a family of 6, two of which are teenage boys. I grew up in a family of 10. I know a fair bit about cheap, healthy cooking.
  • rusaner1
    rusaner1 Posts: 17 Member
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  • submissivelyserving
    submissivelyserving Posts: 95 Member
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  • camsgal06
    camsgal06 Posts: 14
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  • BrookieTrout626
    BrookieTrout626 Posts: 89 Member
    I love this post! Bumpity bump
  • ElBence
    ElBence Posts: 291 Member
    This is a delicious rice and black beans recipe, and the only thing most people will need to buy from the ingredients list is the black beans and maybe bell peppers and onions.

    http://icuban.com/food/moros_y_cristianos.html

    Here's a recipe from Puerto Rico that pairs well with the rice and beans.

    1-3 lbs chicken pieces
    1TBS salt
    1/2 tsp marjoram or oregano
    2cloves minced garlic
    1/4 tsp pepper
    2TBS vinegar

    Cut slices with a sharp knife into chicken. Mix above ingredients and let marinade for 3 hours.

    1/4 lb. chopped ham
    1/2 cup olive oil
    1/2 cup tomato sauce
    1large onion chopped
    1/2 cup green olives
    1/2 cup chopped red peppers
    1 bay leaf

    Pour in olive oil and sautee onions. Mix all other ingredients except olives. When chicken is tender add olives for flavor and remove from heat.

    If you don't have every minor ingredient it will be ok. Basically what you can't do without is the chicken, garlic (garlic powder is an acceptable substitute),onion, and tomato sauce. Sometimes I haven't had the ham. I don't always have vinegar (lemon or lime juice are suitable substitutes). I prefer chicken thighs and drumsticks but use whatever. The chicken skin adds flavor but skinless pieces will do great as long as you marinate them.
  • lenoresaari
    lenoresaari Posts: 500 Member
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