Low Income and On A Budget... HELP!

Dried beans and lentils are so cheap and easy. I like having eggs/omelettes/fritattas for dinner too. If you have a slow cooker, I've seen tons of budget, bulk slow-cooker blogs. Try www.budgetbytes.com too for cheap meals!

Try changing up the seasonings on your meats and veggies. Also, buying beans and big bags of rice are cheap and will last you a very long time. I have a giant bag of rice that I'm only halfway through and have had for 4 months. The slow cooker idea is great too.

We do lentils or chickpeas made into a stew.....very filling and cheap at the same time. You can always go with a rotisserie chicken and use the dark meat and wings for dinner with baked potato and green beans, the breasts can be combined with refried beans, chiles, tortillas and enchilada sauce for another meal and the bones/carcass can go in with a can of chicken broth, vegetables and rice to flavor a good soup. It really comes down to using all parts of a component to stretch it out further. My husband is from North Africa and they look at meat as secondary in a meal and fill their plates with vegetables with the meat as a small piece included. I learned alot when we visited there because they live on so little so it showed how to stretch things out to make them last.

Lentil Soup Recipe

1-1/2 cups lentils
1-1/2 quarts of tap water (6 cups)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
15 oz can tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon basil (optional)

Get out a large stew pot. Put the lentils in it, and add the water. You can wash the lentils first in a colander if you like, they do sometimes have a little dirt in them, so rinsing them is a good idea. Then put the clean lentils in your big pot (4-quart size) and add the tap water. Bring the lentils to a boil and simmer them on the back of the stove for about an hour. They should be nice and soft, if they aren’t then cook them a little longer, until they taste soft enough to you.

Now get out an iron skillet or another type of frying pan. Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Quickly saute the onions and garlic until they become tender and translucent. This should only take a couple of minutes. Then add the tomatoes and basil. Bring to a slow boil, and simmer for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, add the salt and pepper to the lentils. When the tomatoes and onions are hot, add them to the pot of lentils. Stir it up and serve. This stew is very hearty. If you already love lentils, then this recipe will probably become a favorite. If you don’t like them yet, then this is a good “get acquainted” recipe. They have a special flavor which puts one in the mind of getting closer to the earth.

Offer hot muffins and celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter on the side.

Like this recipe? Try the split pea dahl next. It’s one of my favorite exotic bean and legume recipes.

Boys are hungry and it's a cruelty to feed them no carbs for dinner. You have to feed kids carbs.

Carbs are cheap, too. Perhaps you have chicken and vege, but boil the boys some potatoes? Potatoes are cheap and filling, and bursting with vitamin c.

Also: pizza. Homemade pizza is cheap as chips and the boys can have extra. Wheat has protein and vitamins, including b group vitamins.

Don't be so quick to call foods 'bad.' processed foods are usually bad, but carbohydrates are not automatically bad, any more than fats.

I did a lot of casseroles with baked potatoes, too. And baked biscuits for the children to take in their lunches.

When you have mouths to feed besides yourself, and need to stay on a tight budget, there are quick and easy recipes your household can enjoy with you. Although school age children require more carbohydrates than a mother’s metabolism will allow, you can make easy additions to their plate that won’t leave them feeling hungry or make you feel deprived. I have diabetes, and have to eat small meals throughout the day to keep my sugar levels balanced, and I have a very tight food budget. A single mom, two kids and a small budget for food is a predicament I can closely relate to. When it is dinner time, it’s important for me to cook something my kids will eat that won’t send my sugar levels for a loop.
Frozen vegetables can be bought for a small sum of a $1 a bag. I use the stir-fry mixes that have a small amount of noodles or rice and mix them with boneless skinless chicken. Season the chicken heavily enough to make a good sauce once the vegetables are added. Using Soy Sauce or Teriyaki along with Cavenders Seasoning or Garlic Salt, makes a great stir fry chicken and vegetable. For the kids you can add rice noodles to increase their carbohydrates and fill them up after a long day of school activities.
Fajitas are a favorite in my home. Sauté some of your “free” foods to add flavor, like onions, peppers, and finely chopped jalapenos. You can even add mixed veggies to your sautéed “free” foods. Add refried beans to the children’s fajitas for more carbs and wrap them like a fajita burrito. Use fajita seasoning for the chicken, and a little chicken goes a long way when you use vegetables in your sautéed mix. Wheat tortillas are a little more expensive, and my kids won’t eat them, so I get a bag of the small flour tortillas for myself and a bag of the large ones for the kids, and use them for many other recipes throughout the week. The small lunchable has a perfectly portioned amount of food to eat as a snack or meal, but they can be costly for everyday use. I buy a box of Kraft Ritz crackers, a block of cheese and some sliced turkey sandwich meat , then make my own cheese and turkey crackers. Six is a serving size and it fills me up more than I expected. You can eat this for lunch and then have a few crackers with a glass of milk for a snack; it keeps sugar levels balance without using too many carbs or calories.

Also www.hillbillyhousewife.com has great ideas and also a grocery list for spending (I think) $40.00 for 3 people for a week. Or something amazing like that.

I agree that things like beans, pasta, chicken, eggs, homemade soups, homemade chili, etc. are great ideas. I'm also on a budget-40 dollars a week for two of us-and I have to be pretty creative!

I second this recommendation. Here's a link to her $45 (was $40 in '09) meal plan\:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm

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My family was pretty poor growing up. (My dad made $6k in their first year of marriage...almost literally a starving artist! ) We ate a lot of Lentils, split pea, beans, and meatloaf. I make a turkey meatloaf (good protein and not too many calories) now and still eat lentils, etc. on occasion. I grew up in Hawaii and milk was $5 a gallon (Now it's like $7.50)...so obviously we never bought it; instead, we had powdered milk.

We didn't have much variety...but we were always full. Good luck to you.

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Check out 100daysofrealfood.com they did 100 days on a budget and shopped off of what food stamp money would be in their area. While it sounds like they still spent quite a bit more than you are wanting to, she has lots of great recipe ideas that you can put in the mix.

Lots of veggie soups are so filling and depending on what types your kids might not even realize what they are eating. I make a turnip and turnip green soup, cauliflower soup, white bean soup. They are all delicious and filling without being expensive or high calorie. I try a bake a loaf of bread a week (I use the Smitten Kitchen no knead bread recipe) which ends up being super cheap once you have the ingredients on hand. A good bowl of soup and a hunk of homemade bread is a great dinner for growing kids!

Spaghetti squash is another great veggie for meatless meals. One spaghetti squash could probably make two meals for the three of you. Its great with pesto, a little cheese, or even just a little salt and pepper. I make spaghetti squash tacos with steamed spaghetti squash seasoned to taste (chili powder, cumin, lime, whatever you like) Served like street tacos with some diced onion, black beans and a little cheese (or not!) and they are so good! Delious, super filling, nutritious and cheap.

Loads of fab advice on here so the only thing I can add is that I often eat veggie-substitute meat as it is so much cheaper than actual meat! Chunks of 'chicken' and 'mince', and even sandwich 'meat'. Doesn't taste exactly the same as meat but with seasonings etc it's not too bad!

Bump. Making that awesome Lentil soup recipe this weekend. num, num.

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