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Things are starting to get a bit more financially burdened here on me and my family up here, nothing too major but Food is becoming a major thought in my head right now.
We usually spend around 300 a month on groceries for me, wife and 9 yr old son and we do pretty good with that but my Menus are getting soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo friggin boring and food is just not looking good anymore. I'm also a very picky eater and don't like alot of things that have a cream or white colored sauce to them.
Our usual grocery items include such things as Hamburger (mass majority of our monthy food bill is from that), Hamburger Helpers, Tuna in a can, Hot Dogs, Rice a Roni's, Canned Raviolli, Sghettios and meatballs (ok those two are mainly for my son lol, I Think lol), Spaghetti, Taco Fixings (both mexican and indian) PB and Jelly, Canned Chow mein, Bread, Milk, some cheeses and such and Taters.
Food has gotten so boring that most of the time I skip a meal or two during the day and cuz of that my Headaches are getting worse and I am feeling pretty exhausted most of the time now.
My question to you all is, how do you stretch your food budgets, what kind of meals do you guys have. I'm a meat and taters kind of guy although I do love salads too and my veggies (usually canned Corn, Peas, Beans, Carrots and occasionally cob corn). I know the wife is getting sick and tired of our menu too being from New york and having all that wonderful overpriced food up there lol.
I'm working on cutting soda out of my life right now, haven't had one in 2 days now, and will be working on cutting out the smoking too (anyone know a good Hypnotherapist in Rapid or close that does smoking cessation stuff please let me know, I've tried the patches and gum to no avail and have been smoking since I was 14 roughly). I also wanna get back to the Sit down meals at the table thing too. With cuttng out Cable I think that might help as we won't be so tempted to sit down and eat on the sofa to watch a show.
Occasionally when Safeway has their good buyers club deals we'll get the boneless Pork or Beef country style ribs, or some other good cuts of meat, but mostly Hamburger is our staple.
Appreciate any kind of help ya all can give me on this weirdo subject LOL.
WEll, I won't be much help here since I'm a vegetarian. My grocery bill would be extremely low, but DH balances that out pretty well with steaks and roasts and all that stuff that makes me cringe. But to each his own.
Potatoes~mashed, just boiled, potato salad, french fries~doesn't matter. I love mashing jellied cranberries into them, too.
Noodle packets~anything that is along the veg area.
Rice packets~again along the veg area. Oh, and minute rice with butter and sugar.
Egg salad is also good, but I eat WAY too much bread so try to avoid sandwiches.
Grilled cheese~YUM!!!!
I love throwing baby carrots and potatoes and onions into a roaster and just letting them cook. Of course, I have to smother them with catsup.
Spaghetti with the Ragu mushroom sauce~YUM!!!
Meatless burritos are good, too.
Mixed veggies~and I use them in everything from putting them on top of buttered noodles to mixing them in mashed potatoes, etc. And of course, we use REAL butter cause margarine is one molecule away from plastic.
AND of course, my all time fave~cheese pizza!!!!
I actually don't have a lot of variety. I could eat the same thing every day. I should also point out that I'm vegetarian~not vegan so that leaves a lot more open for me and also I am ok with that.
We do a lot of casseroles and also things in the crock pot. If you look on the packages of things you can get some good, cheap recipes. Dinty Moore Beef Stew has one for Shepard's pie and Velvetta shells and cheese has a good pizza hotdish. I also like to make chili, pot roast and chicken breasts in the crock pot. Tonight we are having chicken breast in the crock pot with Italian dressing, baked potatoes, and corn for supper.
Good subject! You could try those boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It might be a bit more spendy than ground beef, but it is more versatile.
Chili and homemade soups are great for the cold weather. Another good idea might be to buy more in bulk, and freeze what you can. You can also make some dinners ahead of time, and freeze them for later.
I like to cook, and if I'm looking for a certain recipe for something, I usually go to this site: All recipes – complete resource for recipes and cooking tips
I make beef & barley soup, with burger. or stew meat.
Today, there's a batch of chicken noodle soup, on the stove. I made it, with 3 chicken breasts...hubby likes more meat, in soup, than me, so for the two of us, this will make about 3 meals.......I have issues, with down sizing, for only 2 people........
anyone else ever made fried cabbage, with bacon? brown the bacon, & add the shreeded cabbage & onions? I've heard of people adding potatoes, as well............
Great idea's, Not much into chicken though thanks to the military's Chicken for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner while I was in LOLOL.
I do make loads of chili and such with the burger and make plenty to freeze and have later on.
I guess what I mean by this thread is its the same things over and over and over again. Thats what I am trying to say I guess. Monday, Hamburger helper, Tuesday Macacheese and dogs, Wednesday, Raviloli, Thursday Rice a roni, friday, Tacos, etc...... but not necessarily those particular meals on those particular days.
I walk into Walmart for the monthly grocery shopping and see the foods and just go Blah. I guess I want to get back to the basics when people actually cooked meals instead of pulling them from the freezer and sticking them in the microwave for 10-15 min and then eating (Salisbury steak family size tubs lol). Less Processed for my convienence foods I guess. Anyone got any good family Recipes for stuff like beef stew, or anything.
I know exactly what ya mean AFdude, when I was in germany from 93-98 i think it was, I soooo missed home cooked meals per se and of all things, Long John Silvers and Taco bells, They had Mickey D's and Burger Kings over there but that was pretty much it for fast food.
Debey I would love to have that Beef and Barley soup recipe.
One thing that I have come to look fwd to eating though is a concoctionof Bacon Sliced into about 1 inch sections and then cubed taters, Fry the bacon up, leave a bit of the ohhhh so delicious bacon grease in the bottom of the frying pan and then fry the taters in it, combine and serve by the heaping spoon fulls. Gawd that is sooo to die for LOL. But if I ate that on a daily basis I would weigh 400 lbs in a matter of days lol.
Thanks MJ I will definately check out that site and see what I can come up with.
Well, I'm almost vegetarian - no red meat at all and only chicken, turkey or fish occasionally. But.... check out Rachael Ray's website for the recipe of the day. Every day she makes something different and keeps the costs down. I like to do some of what she makes with my own twist to keep the meat to a minimum.
I do cook for the men in my house - regular food. They love breakfast for dinner at least once a week, I break up the monotony - pancakes, scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and meat all in one dish, stuffed french toast (creamcheese in the middle).
Most of our grocery bill is turkey burger, hamburger, chicken breasts, occasionally roast or fish. We eat so many vegetables I'm waiting for someone in this house to start resembling a rabbit. And since I bake for a living, I bring home dessert a couple of times a week.
Do you like enchiladas? You need a pound of hamburger, tortillas, shredded cheese and enchilada sauce. Pour the enchilada sauce in a bowl. Dunk the entire tortilla in the sauce, then put it in a pan. Put some meat and shredded cheese in and roll it up and then repeat the process till the pan is full. Put some shredded cheese on top and pop in the oven untill the cheese is melted. Super easy to do, can get a little messy dipping the torillas, but they are good. I also use taco seasoning in the meat to give it a little extra taste.
Also found this recipe while cutting coupons and we tried it last night (it was good)
VELVEETA CHEESY PASTA CASSEROLE
1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 cups cooked rotini pasta
1 pkg. (1 lb) frozen italian-style veggie combination, thawed
1 can (10 oz.) RO-TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained
3/4 lb (12 oz.) VELVEETA, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Heat oven to 400
Combine in 13x9 inch baking dish, cover with foil
bake 40 min, let stand 5 min stir
makes 8 servings
Another thing you can do, is growing up my mother used ground turkey and turkey burgers in place of hamburgers. Its a little cheaper and I've heard the turkey is a little better for you. Not everyone can do this, my wife really notices the taste difference so we usually buy 1/2 a beef from a family friend and freeze it.
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My grocery bill would be extremely low, but DH balances that out pretty well with steaks and roasts and all that stuff that makes me cringe. 
But to each his own.
