What are your most frugal recipes? (ground beef, turkey, chickens, hamburgers)

[NicoleJ]

Other than beans, I mean. we've got beans coming out of ears, lol. I've got a family of 5 and am trying to add more frugal recipes (in addition to already shopping frugally) to our rotation. We are willing to try any type of ethnic foods, so please, don't worry about that.

[Capt. Cave Man]

Stir fry is pretty cheap and you can kinda "clean out the fridge".

Mashed potatoes, brats, and sour kraut.

Smoke a brisket, we can get brisket for $1.19/# and lasts a long time, great in stir fry too.

Smoke a boston butt for pulled pork samies, slaw, and baked potatoes.

Top sirloin is a cheap and tender cut of meat. Put on skewers and grill. Along w/some onion and tomato.

[burdell]

Pirogi, flour, eggs, and potatoes, doesn't get much simpler.

Make a basic dough with flour, eggs, and water. Knead and let rest 20-30 minutes as many times as you have the patience for. Cut rounds, fill with mashed, boiled potatoes, no fat/milk added. Boil gently 'til they float. Coat with melted butter to prevent sticking and cool, when ready to serve pan fry with browned onions and serve with sour cream and kosher salt.

[yankeegirl313]

Homemade noodles.. requires flour,egg, little milk, and a little salt. Roll them out, let them dry, cook in chicken broth. Add chicken, if you want.

[sandgirl]

Originally Posted by yankeegirl313

Homemade noodles.. requires flour,egg, little milk, and a little salt. Roll them out, let them dry, cook in chicken broth. Add chicken, if you want.

Chicken and noodles sounds good. Think I'll make this tomorrow. Thanks Yankeegirl.

[yankeegirl313]

Originally Posted by sandgirl

Chicken and noodles sounds good. Think I'll make this tomorrow. Thanks Yankeegirl.

Your welcome.

[NCN]

We used to have a friend that had 3 his children and three hers children and then they had an ours child. Seven children and one income! They made their own pancake syrup with sugar, water and maple flavoring. They invited us all to their home for pintos and corn bread, so they didn't stop being social just because they were on a budget.

One thing they did was have a soup night for their family. They had a freezor and every time they had a vegetable and there was just a little left, they would freeze it and then at the end of the week or month, they would put a piece of seasoning meat in with all the frozen tidbits or one of those bones used like that and make vegetable soup. I am sure they had corn bread with that too. I think chicken broth would work instead of the seasoning meat and chicken broth has less fat in it.

I used to freeze extra hamburgers and then break them up and put them in spaghetti sauce. I also stretch the cheap Hunt's spaghetti sauce by adding a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste. The tomato paste makes the sauce really thick so be prepared to stir constantly or it will cause a volcano and spit. We have more money now so I just buy a pound of 93% ground beef or ground turkey to go in the spaghetti sauce along with the tomatoes and tomato paste.

[NCN]

Another really inexpensive meal is chopped cabbages (with a large family you might want to use two) and polish sausages that are like big hot dogs. I have used polish hot dogs instead of the polish sausages. I forgot to mention that you cut the meat in about 2 inch pieces and stew that with the cabbage for flavor. I add a little margarine for even better flavor. Serve this with frozen oblong hushpuppies (baked in the oven), but the wonderful corn bread could go with this too. My husband likes corn bread crust better than the bread and the hushpuppies are like a really crusty bread.

You can get a couple of loaves of french bread, leftover pizza sauce, cheese, onions, olives, etc. and make homemade pizzas. Any leftover you like on a pizza would work with this. You could even use flavored tomato sauce if you don't have leftover pizza sauce. Pizzas are so cheap if you order more than one, so it may be cheaper to bring home a few pizzas.

[NCN]

Every Sunday our local grocery store has a special on already baked chickens. I buy the chicken and I eat the legs and my dh eats some of the breast, so we have chicken left on the bones. We take the leftover meat off the bones and add barbecue sauce (I buy Sonny's at Sam's club.) and make barbecued chicken on buns and shredded cabbage with just salt. If you want slaw, that would be all right too, but we are trying to do away with fat and the shredded cabbage tastes just fine by itself on the bun with the barbecue.

I have another way to make barbecued chicken by using boneless skinless chicken tenders. I bake about 12 tenders in a 9X13 pan. Let them cool a little and then chop or pull the meat and add the barbecue sauce with the meat. It takes about a cup to a cup and one half of the barbecue sauce to make the right flavor. Then bake the chicken with the sauce on it in the oven for about 15 minutes so the flavors will mix.

[NCN]

Another way to make good boneless skinless chicken tenders is to put a tender or two for each person in a 9X13 dish and add one can of pineapple cubes and bake using the chicken directions. Serve with whatever vegetables you prefer. We usually use green beans, sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, sliced onions, and sliced cantalope. I like to mix all these together to make a green bean salad. The green beans are seasoned with margarine. I take the chicken out of the liquid when they are cooked and put the pineapple without the liquid in another dish. The cooked pineapple really tastes good too. Sometimes for my dh and myself, I don't bother cooking anything more than the chicken and pineapple. That is enough for us and we use the leftover chicken tenders later--sometimes I barbecue them, but the pineapple does add a different flavor than the regular baked chicken tenders.