cooking from scratch

unexpensive meals

Cheap food does NOT mean eating bad!

@marguicha (223720)

Chile

February 6, 2011 8:47pm CST

I have heard many times about eating frugally as a synonim to not eating a good meal. On the contrary, it can be the difference between eating junk and preparing a nice healthy meal with little money. I always have a salad (grees or whatever is on season). Nothing canned because that does not serve the purpose of being healthy nor cheap. I can make then an omelette (eggs=prtein; veggies or potatoes or rice). Or I can make legumes from scratch (I just remember to soak the legumes overnight)or a heaty stew with a cheap meat and big chunks of veggies. And I SO like the onion/potato soup. Its a whole meal and for 2 people I use 1 potato, 1 onion, broth (homemade), some oil and a bit of cheese. What kind of unexpensive meakls do you cook? Do you feel you eat better or worse when you eat them? Share!

6 people like this

17 responses

@sedel1027 (17846)

• Cupertino, California

7 Feb 11

We eat a lot of fresh and frozen vegetables. I make dishes with seasonal vegetable. My favorite time is winter because one squash goes along way and is really filling. One thing I do enjoy is that one of the local grocery stores has frozen salmon for $5. The piece is about the length of my arm and is 5 pieces. With salad and another side, that's enough for the 4 of us to eat for dinner and have enough for a lunch. Another meal that just started making often is a garlic and greens pasta. It's just pasta, garlic, and winter greens (we usually use spinach). That one meal might cost $2 to make. Is your onion and potato soup beef broth based?

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@sedel1027 (17846)

• Cupertino, California

9 Feb 11

I love making homemade broth. When I first started my husband thought I was nut but then he started tasting the difference in the food and how much food we would have normally wasted was used. What type of meat do you buy and grind? Does that save money?

@beautyqueen26 (16030)

• United States

8 Feb 11

Thanks for all those wonderful ideas. I have always wondered how to make homemade pesto. Do you put all that into a food processor or something like that to blend? I'm not sure. Thanks again for the info. I will be using that garlic pasta idea too. Sounds yummy!

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

I either use the not so apreciated parts of the chicken to make btoth and save it or I use beef. As I buy my own meat and grind it, ther are little bits I don´t want to grind and it all goes for a broth (along with oregano, a carrot and half an onion). The carrot is always a salads later and as for the meat it depends if they are only bones. I make pesto (basil, garlic and olive oil) to last me all year. I freeze it and use it in pasta. My grandchildren love it!

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@dorannmwin (36392)

• United States

7 Feb 11

The vast majority of the meals that I cook in our home are inexpensive meals. I love to make a pot of vegetable soup. It doesn't cost very much to make and I'm able to make enough to feed our family for more than one night (I can freeze the leftovers for later). Another favorite of my children is doing breakfast for dinner where I will make some eggs and waffles to go with it (made from scratch). Tomorrow night we are having chicken with yellow rice which actually just cost me $5 to buy everything that I need and it is a completely balanced meal.

2 people like this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

Vegetable soups, either chunky or creams, help a lot. I usually make the chunky one and then cream the leftover soup in the blender adding either water or milk. If I transform it into a creamy soup, the croutons made with stale bread come in handy.

1 person likes this

@snbutterfly (259)

• United States

7 Feb 11

I store a lot of dried beans, frozen onions, peppers, and tomatoes and make chili. Sometimes we add beef and sometimes we don't. I also make a mean hamburger hash with potatoes, spices, onions, and hamburger. I love potato soup with potatoes, beef, onion, and pepper or rosemary. In fact, many of the spices we use come from our backyard garden.

1 person likes this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

Legumes, when you don´t use canned ones, can cut costs a lot. I have some spices in my backyard too and it sure helps

.

1 person likes this

@randylovesdar (4932)

• United States

7 Feb 11

I make a lot of homemade meals as opposed to buying things out of a box. I make my own Macaroni and Cheese by buying pasta (it is cheap) and buying a jar of cheese sauce. Since it is only my husband and I the meal will last a couple of days. I do the same with spaghetti as well. I make my own sauce and freeze the rest. I also make lot's of soup and freeze whatever I do not use. I also have a breakfast for dinner once a week because it helps save money. I always buy whatever is on sale. I will sometimes get really lazy and only have a salad for dinner and thats all. I notice if I make casseroles I can get more than one meal out of it.

1 person likes this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

I make my own spaguetti sauce too. This year it will be even cheaper as I planted some tomato plants in my garden. Besides eating tomatoes everyday, there are plenty to make sauces and relishes for the Winter (I´m in Summer now).

@megamatt (14291)

• United States

8 Feb 11

That is very true. You can eat a pretty healthy meal on a shoe string budget. In fact, it does tend to cost a bit more to not eat as healthy to an extent if you really want to think about it that much. There is a lot of inexpensive food out there that is rather healthy. I think that really many people do not understand where to find it. Noodles for instance are rather healthy. You can buy them in bulk a lot of the times. Also growing your own food is rather cheap when you think about it, if you have space for a garden. There are any number of things that can be utilized to help shave several dollars off of that food bill and still eat healthy. It is just a matter of creativity.

1 person likes this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

8 Feb 11

I´m sure that with a bit of imagination and a love for cooking one can save a lot of money in food. I never use canned legumes, I buy veggies when they are on season and freeze them in many ways. When I I think of all that can be bought with the money you spend on a bad burger full of grease it makes me shivewr.

@dreamnishu (1247)

• China

7 Feb 11

hello friend!you are absolutely right.i am totally agree with you.all cheap food does not mean bad for health.sometimes i like to eat cheap foods.use 1 potato,some onion,some chilies and 1 egg, mash it and fry it in oil.ready 1 cheap item but it is very testy.try it. thanks a lot.

1 person likes this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

Cheap food only needs more imagination and more time so you cook from scratch

1 person likes this

@maean_19 (4655)

• Philippines

7 Feb 11

Hmmm! I am not an expert of that because I buy my groceries in the supermarket. Although, I live independent and must consider some healthy diet. Nowadays, it is hard to find cheap or inexpensive foods. But if we have to see the prices of foods, I can see and notice that the expensive ones are the unhealthy ones. I think, tufu is healthy, it is a substitute for meat. And it is cheaper than meat. Another source of protein than taking or cooking meat always.

1 person likes this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

Most of the food we buy at the super are ingredients. If we learn how to cook healthy meals with cheap ingredients we will save money. If we don´t buy ingredinents but end products, the money goes up. All canned food are less healthy than the raw ingredients, except a few exceptions.

1 person likes this

@cher913 (25782)

• Canada

8 Feb 11

we eat a lot of soups during the winter. you can get veggies that are cheaper if they are few days older and cut off the bad parts. you can also get soup bones for next to nothing. we also make our own homemade bread. we get the flour from the bulk barn which is cheaper than getting it at the grocery store.

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

8 Feb 11

Soup bones and chicken carcass make wonderful broths as a base for awesome vegetable soups. I like chunky soups in winter, add some homemade pesto (I make for the whole year when basil is in season) and top it with parmasan cheese. I don´t need anything else to have a full tummy.

@schulzie (4061)

• United States

10 Feb 11

I buy all kinds of stuff when it is on sale. I just got some pasta at the grocery store buy 1 get 1 free. It came out to .70 cents a box for the pasta. Also, I buy my meat and veggies on sale. You really can cook and eat frugally if you try.

I make chili, soups, and pasta alot for my family. Have a great day and happy myLotting!!!

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

11 Feb 11

I love on sale groceries. And that means that when someone comes for a visit, I always have something to give.

@GreenMoo (11833)

•

8 Feb 11

Pretty much everything I cook is made from scratch, and a great deal of the produce comes from our own land so I know it's origins. I buy the things we don't make at home in the supermarket (pasta, rice, flour, tuna ...) but not a great deal that's highly processed. I think we eat pretty healthy, and we manage it quite cheaply too.

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

8 Feb 11

I´m sure that way of eating is cheap and a lot healthier. Good for you! I have my own tomatoes this year and the wonderful tomatoes plant rippened have nothing to do with those at the super with no taste at all.

@GreenMoo (11833)

•

9 Feb 11

You are so right. Of all the veggies you can grow at home, I think tomato and strawberries are worth it simply because they taste so much better than the shop bought equivalents.

@ladym33 (10979)

• United States

7 Feb 11

I like to make all kinds of inexpensive meals. I make a lot of soups using left overs. If I have left over ground beef I will make chili or a hamburger soup with it. I like to bake chickens when they are on sale for around $4. Then with the left overs I make a chicken noodle soup, or a casserole with the chicken. I also find spaghetti with meat sauce is an extremely cheap meal. Tuna casserole is also a really cheap meal to make and the kids and I really love that.

1 person likes this

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

All the meals you have mentioned are cheap yet healthy, well balanced and yummy. Hooray for you!!!

@dreamsharmin (2281)

• China

7 Feb 11

Yes i totally agree with you. Cheap food is not bad for health. So many cheap foods are very good for health. I just boil the potato and make it mash and take it with my rich and it's very cheap to cost but very healthy for our body. I feel batter when i make such kind of food which test is very good and healthy and also very cheap.

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

It takes a little of our time to make a meal from scratch yet you can make something wonderful with very little money.

@jacky9538 (78)

• China

7 Feb 11

I agree with you on that. I think most people often eat food like you mentioned that is the basic part of the food that we eat. Food that we eat doesn't change a lot. The ways we cook can change. By the way, I don't know what the difference is between cheap and expensive meal you talk about. I see what you eat is nutritiionally rich but preparing yourself can be money-saving.

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

I am talking about money saving fod. Junk food is a lot more expensive than a good meal prepared from scratch and it is most of the times unhealthy as it has more fats than what we need. Canned food is more expensive than many raw foods (like legumes). When you prepare your food, you are using half as much grease without meaning to. And you don´t use additives either.

@bussyien (134)

• Indonesia

7 Feb 11

I agree with you. Not all of cheap food is bad. There are many cheap food that good for our body. We can mention many cheap fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, spinach, banana, and the others. We also can make simple fried rice with plain omelette. They are cheap, tasty, and good for our body.

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

I buy veggies in season and they are better and less expensive that the canned produce. Sometimes when I have leftover rice, I either make an omelette (yummy) or heat it and serve it with a fried banana.

@cream97 (29086)

• United States

20 Feb 11

Hi. marguicha. You are right. I try to buy foods that are at reasonable prices and my meals still turn out great. In this day and age, we have to save as much as we can think of.

@tkonlinevn (6438)

• Vietnam

19 Feb 11

The important is not what you eat, but how you eat. We have many ways to cook food and making them become delicious meals.

@kaycharmedMD (381)

• Philippines

7 Feb 11

I love mixing different forms of salad. This is mostly the inexpensive food that I make that's really healthy especially when I use lots of greens with some chunks of freshly broiled chicken without the skin. Whenever I eat them, I feel healthier. It's a state of mind really, being able to see the wonders of healthy eating and feeling good about it.

@marguicha (223720)

• Chile

7 Feb 11

In Summer I often make a big dish of green with chicken pieces (from leftover boiled or roasted chicken), olives and peppers. I make my own dressing and it´s perfect and refresing!