This is a blog I’ve created as a collection for not only my recipes, but how to cut your meal budget, save time, and eat healthier. It will be a way for me to share my recipes with friends and family, but most importantly, my six beautiful daughters.
Feel free to post comments about things you do differently, or let me know your great ideas so I can post them here.
Some ideas to get your started are listed below. Visit the topic pages for lists of meal ideas and recipes.
I’m moving this blog to a different domain, and I’m rebuilding it. So this site will no longer be updated. Please visit us at www.recipes.biz.
Happy accidents abound in my kitchen. I was attempting to dress up seafood one time in another attempt at getting my kids to eat fish, and ended up with finger sized pieces of talapia on a stick, battered and fried. It turned out so good, my daughter requested it for her birthday dinner. The dish ended up being named “Fishy Stickies“.
While making it, I realized I didn’t have enough food, and prepared chicken the same way. A second happy accident! They turned out moist and tender, and the kids at them up. I named them “Chickie Stickies”.
I was pondering side dishes, and though of doing all of dinner on a stick. So we made some fruit kabobs with apples, oranges, and maraschino cherries, a grilled vegetable skewer with an herb and butter marinade, and for the adults, an easy chicken satay. Dinner turned out beautiful, the food was good, and the kids had fun eating everything on a stick.
Purchasing bulk raw ingredients is a great way to save money. But if you’re not careful it can take a lot more time.
The best way to deal with bulk food is to have what my friend and I call a “Baking Day”. Set aside a whole day or even just a few hours. Plan in advance what you are going to do. I’ll tell you some of the things that I do (not necessarily all on the same day!) and maybe you’ll think of others. Planning a bulk shopping trip the day before is a good idea to get the ingredients you’ll need.
If you just don’t have the time to dedicate a few hours, then just do it as you go. When you buy cheese, repackage it right away. When you run out of hamburger, make it all at once as mentioned below and freeze the leftovers. When you make a roast or other meat, make double and freeze the other half for later. Or make three lasagnes or casseroles and freeze one for later. If you plan in a advance, you’ll find a way to do it. In the end it saves time and money.
Some things I do: (Let me know your ideas as well!)
Sausage or hamburger. Fry up that huge roll of sausage or all of that hamburger you got from Costco the day before. Let’s say you bought 6 lb. of hamburger, and your recipes generally call for 1 lb. Cook up all of it in a big skillet (or two batches if your pan isn’t big enough). Drain it, rinse it, and bag it into 6 bags. Label it, date it, and then throw it in the freezer. Now when you go to make your tacos or need that ground beef, it’s already done! Sloppy Joes have never been easier. You can even pre-season your meats if you want and then freeze them that way. Then you just re-heat and serve.
Rolls. I’ll make a big batch of rolls, let them cool, bag them into whatever size my family will eat for a meal, lable them and freeze. Then when I need rolls for dinner I just throw a bag in the microwave for a minute or two and my rolls are done. They’re even better than store bought!
Bread. I make 8 loaves at a time. I know most people won’t do that, but I do. After the bread cools I slice it and put it in ziplock freezer bags. Squeeze the air out, label and date it, and then freeze it. I keep a bag in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. As I run out I just bring a new bag to the fridge. Most of my kids like store bought bread, so I only have to make it once a month or so (assuming the neighbor doesn’t eat it).
Cookies. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer, so I tripple my batches of cookies. I also have a convection oven with three racks, so I bake three trays of cookies at a time. I know you’re jealous, but it might help you plan your next oven purchase! Anyway, I bake up lots of cookies, let them cool, then bag whatever the kids or neighbors haven’t snitched. Label and freeze. If you need a fast treat, just pull some out, put them on a plate, and by the time dinner’s done they’re defrosted.
Beans. I use a lot of canned beans. Mash up a few cans of kidney and or pinto beans, add some seasoning, and you have amazing refried beans. Make black bean soup or add a can of white beans to your chicken noodle soup. They don’t seem that expensive in the store, but if you make them yourself they’re almost free.
Pressure Cooker Method: I know some people are scarred to death of a pressure cooker, so I’ll give you an alternate method in a minute. I prefer pint size jars of beans. In one pint jar, add 1/2 c. dry beans, 1 tsp. salt, and fill with boiling water. While you’re doing that, boil water in a microwave and soak lids according to the box directions. When the lids are ready, put a lid and band on each jar, put them in your pressure cooker, add about 1″ of water, and cook at 13 lb. pressure if you live in Orem UT. If you live somewhere else call you canning extension, look it up online, or consult your Ball Blue Book (If you don’t have one, get one. It’s my Bible!). Cook at pressure for 45 minutes, turn off heat, and allow to come back to zero naturally. Remove, place on a towel, and let sit for 24 hours. My favorite option is to use a mixture of kidney, garbanzo, pinto, black and white beans and then use them in taco soup.
No Canning Required Method: Ok, now that I just scared half of you, I’ll give you the other method. Cook beans according to package directions. When they’re done, rinse and cool. Package them into whatever quantities you need for your recipes in ziplock freezer bags. Label, date, and freeze. Feel better?
Chickens. If you don’t have a big stock pot, get one. I love mine. Now, buy whole chickens on sale whenever you can get them. My stock pot is a huge 20 quart one and it holds 4-5 chickens. The smaller ones would probably only hold two. But that might be fine for your needs.
Place the chickens in the stock pot and cover with water. Add a whole quartered onion, celery leaves and hearts (leave really big pieces), salt, pepper, and whatever else you feel like putting in there. Cook until the chicken is done enough that it falls off the bone. Transfer chickens to a cutting board or large plate and pull off the meat. Chop it and bag it, label it and date it, then freeze it in whatever size portions you need.
Now for the broth. Skim it as best as you can and pull out the large pieces. If you want the more complicated method, I’ll give you that too. Get a very large bowl. Line a collander with cheese cloth (which I never have) or a thin dish towel. Get someone to help you with this part. Pour the broth through the collandar and into the large bowl. If you want, put the bowl of broth in the fridge overnight. In the morning, the fat rises to the surface and you can just skim it off. If the broth has congealed, don’t worry about it. It will go back to being a liquid when heated.
What to do with the broth? You can pour it into tupperware containers and freeze it and then use it in any recipe that calls for chicken broth. You can turn around and make chicken noodle soup with it. You can freeze it and later make chicken noodle soup. The possibilities are endless.
Lasagne. My kids love it. I don’t like to make it. So I came up with an easy method. I buy 3 disposable 9×13 pans. I buy a large can of spaghetti sauce from Costco. I buy the 5 lb. shredded mozzarella bag from Costco. I purchase the large tube of saugsage, also from Costco. (Notice a trend? My nearst Costco is only 4 blocks from my house.) I buy 2-3 boxes of oven ready lasagne from…my grocery store. Costco doesn’t carry it. You can also buy the large tub of ricotta cheese from your local grocery store.
Now, to assemble. First cook the sausage, drain and rinse it. Set aside. Place all pans next to each other. Ladle sauce into the bottom of each. Place a layer of noodles. Then put a layer of ricotta cheese (if you like it). Place more noodles on top, and ladle more sauce on top of the noodles. Layer with cooked crumbled sausage or hamburger and a layer of mozzarella cheese. Place more noodles on top, and then more sauce. Do a layer of just mozzarella if you want and if you have the space. On the top layer, place sauce on top of the noddles, cover with mozzarella cheese, and if you have it parmasean or other cheeses. Cover tightly with foil (release foil is my favorite for this job). Lable and date and freeze. Separate them if you can while they freeze, but after they’re frozen you can stack them fine. Make one for dinner and freeze two. It takes the same amount of time, and it beats the $10 Stouffers lasagne any day. Just bake at 350 for about an hour and a half. It takes longer from frozen.
Casseroles. You can use the same idea with other casseroles as well. The kids come home from school, you throw a casserole or lasagne in the oven, add a salad, rolls and cookies from the freezer and you’re done! Great for busy nights.
It seems that grocery stores are morphing into pre-packaged and convenience foods. It’s harder and harder to find natural and raw ingredients. The reason is because the markup on packaged food is much higher than for normal raw type ingredients. The busier we get, the more tempted we are to turn to the “complete taco kit from Taco Bell” or the Hamburger Helper or casseroles in a box. The problem with those meals though is they aren’t very good for you, and they tend to be expensive.
In the amount of time it takes you to make a meal from a box, you can have a fresh meal made. It takes a little more planning, but it is worth it.
Fresh ingredients taste better, are better for you, and kids do love them.
Look around on the site at some of the ideas and recipes. Just try one or two and see if it works for you. Even saving a little is still worth it.
We all walk into Costco or Sam’s Club or some other warehouse club and see huge quantities of everything. What are you really going to do with a huge can of olives or a giant jar of mayonnaise? Well unless you’re having a huge party, leave it on the shelf.
There are other finds though that really can save you time and money.
Cheese. Let’s take cheese for example. You see that 5 lb. bag of shredded cheese and think there’s no way you’ll use it before it goes bad. You’re probably right. But a few aisles down, there are Ziplock Freezer Bags that you will come to find are your best friend. Buy a case of quart size and gallon size. Now divide that 5lb. bag of cheese into smaller portions, about how much you would use for a meal or for a week. Make sure to squeeze the air out and lable not only what it is, but the date. Leave one bag in the fridge and put the rest in the freezer. As you run out in the fridge, move the next one from the freezer.
Meat. At the back of the store you will find enormous packages of meat. Who can actually eat three rump roasts or a 2.5 foot long pork tenderloin? Well here’s what you do with it. Repackage the roasts into smaller portions, and freeze them in your ziplock freezer bags. Lable and date them, and they’re ready to go. Even better, cook twice the meat you need for one meal, freeze the rest, and it makes your next night even easier. I buy the bulk sausage (Jimmy Dean’s) in the large tube, cook the whole thing at once, drain and rinse it, and then put it in a gallon size bag. When I need to flavor spaghetti sauce I just break some off and add it to the sauce frozen. It heats up by the time the pasta is done and makes canned sauce taste much better.
Bread and Buns. At Costco, it seems most things come in 2 packs. Much more than you would normally use. But bread and buns freeze fine for about 3 months. So you can stock your freezer with the double pack of hamburger buns and then just pull out however many you need for that meal. Microwave for a bit and then toast and you’re good to go!
Let’s put it all together to give you an idea of how it works.
It’s late, dinner isn’t made yet, the kids are all hungry, and you’re tempted to just go grab some 5 buck pizzas.
Instead, grab some tortillas from your fridge, add some pre-shredded cheese, grab some already cooked shredded beef from your freezer and reheat, and add whatever you have: refried beans or canned beans, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, olives, lettuce, anything works. Dinner is done in about 15 minutes, and it’s much healthier for you too.
Another idea: pull some frozen shredded pork from the freezer, heat in the microwave, stir in BBQ sauce and reheat. In the mean time toast bread, buns, or whatever you have around (or in your freezer). Add a salad and some fruit and you have a complete meal in just minutes.
Do you like chicken noodle soup? I keep that huge bag of “Homemade Noodles” from Costco in my pantry. If you want a quick dinner without a lot of fuss, pull a bag of pre-cooked chicken from the freezer (no need to thaw), put in in a pot, add water (count how many cups you put in) add one cube of chicken bouillion for each cup of water, then throw in whatever you want: celery, carrots, onion, barley, a can of white beans, etc. When the water boils, throw in the soup noodles, cook for about 15 minutes and you have instant dinner. It’s much better than canned soup.
These are just a few of the ideas contained in the recipes on this site. You’ll find that most of them have ingredients that can be made ahead of time and frozen, or will make a lot so you can freeze your left overs and use them in other ways, saving you both time and money.
Let me know your fast or budget meal ideas!
Budget Meal Ideas 