Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Looking Back – Economical Cooking
Sometime back in April, I asked for tips on how to be a more economical cook. Someone asked if I could do a look-back post and tell you guys how it went.
Our first year practicing a budget was a huge success! We were able to replace a 16-year-old car with a 2017 Honda Civic, financing less than half of the cost. We have also put aside another couple thousand for our kids. We hope to have the car paid off sometime in June or July, which will put us at Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step Six-ish once again.
Our grocery bill was a huge chunk of our budget. I suppose this should be expected, as feeding five people is not going to be cheap (and one is still in diapers … kind of … he’s running around naked as I write this). Through some of the advice and recipes given in my April post, we did manage to trim quite a bit of it, saving about $500 this year on groceries. Not only did we save money, though, but I stopped feeding my picky-eater chicken nuggets! I went for about three months without cooking one chicken nugget for any of my kids (this is a huge accomplishment). We have also expanded his food preference list by quite a bit (or at least what he will put in his mouth).
I altered some of my habits, relying more on a recycled menu list of tried and true foods — tacos and spaghetti — with one new food a week. This ensured my kids ate well for most of the week on easy to prepare (and cheap) foods while I could be a bit more creative and introduce new foods to (and potentially starve) my kids for one meal. That went incredibly well, discovering the family as a whole strongly dislikes watercress, but no one minds okra in shrimp gumbo!
Another thing I worked quite a bit on was adding to the days I planned and cooked for. Back in April, I was cooking about two dinners a week and eating out, having leftovers, or winging it for the rest of the week. I started by adding one meal a week and planning leftovers or easy meals for busy days. We are now on three-four planned meals at the dinner table per week with leftovers or easy dinners on busy days. Our once-a-week habit of McDonald’s before Wednesday church is now split into a bi-weekly tradition, with an easy meal of spaghetti or other quickly made food in its place.
I still have a way to go. My goal for this year is to spend less time cooking while still putting as many meals on the table. I have made plans for two weeks worth of meals, done most of the shopping, and will work on spending spare minutes doing early preparations, doubling and freezing recipes, and trying to make cooking sessions suffice for more than one meal at a time.
Thank you to Ricochet for your advice and recipes!
Published in General
That’s terrific, Stina. I missed your original post, but it sounds like you’ve made some great decisions. Keep it up!
Your bleg must have been in early April before Easter, because I missed it. Congratulations on doing so well. I use a slow cooker often. Soups and chili give great winter meals and makes the food budget stretch. I also make deep-dish pizzas and meatloaf (or meatloaf casseroles) which can feed the two of us for a week. With your situation, they might not last quite as long, but still might be good dinners for a couple of days.
The slow cooker is also good for things like pot roast or carnitas.
And now I’m hungry. I’d better go make lunch.
My husband bought a pressure cooker that cuts the time of slow cooking way down. I’m not very good at planning slow cooking in time but when I manage it we end up with really good food.
Do you have a recipe for this? I’ve been mastering my cooking technique (as in heat and stone mastery) for pizza making, but my family likes deep dish. My attempt at it was less than stellar as I used normal dough in a pan. Clearly not how that is done. What do you do for dough?
You realize you’re talking to Mr. Gluten Free? Polenta (which auto-corrected to Tadpole!).
Ha ha! No I didn’t. Perhaps I should go looking elsewhere! Lol. However, if he’s still willing to share, I’ll set it aside for when my son’s godmother comes for dinner.
This is great! Congratulations on the accomplishment and good luck for the new year.
I have celiac disease, so what I use is polenta. It is very, very good, but not at all typical. I usually mix yellow corn grits (often marketed as polenta) and hominy grits. For a 14″ deep-dish pizza, I use six cups of water and a stick of butter. I also usually add a couple of Knorr chicken bouillon cubes and some Italian herbs. When the bouillon is dissolved, the butter melted, and the mixture boiling, I slowly stir in two cups of the mixed grits. It usually takes from 15-18 minutes for it to thicken up properly, stirring often. I then pour that into my pizza pan. I have this pan. I usually try to put a bit of oil on the pan, but the non-stick coating is great and it doesn’t need it. I spread the cooked grits to the edges of the pan and try to get a bit up the sides. It doesn’t work very well, since corn/grits don’t have much structural strength. I then refrigerate it for at least half an hour to help the crust congeal. Then I top it and bake it. It is not as strong as a wheat crust, doesn’t hold together as well. It definitely makes for a knife and fork pizza. Good though!
That actually sounds pretty good. I may have to try it.
That does actually sound good!
He had me at “stick of butter.” I am so not in the mood for Weight Watchers.
Well, it’s not like you eat it all at once. A pizza that size should give at least sixteen slices with twelve meal-size and four corner pieces that are half-meal size or maybe of a size for a crumb-cruncher. It works out to less than a tablespoon of butter per slice.
I have done several variations on the crust, such as dusting the pan with cinnamon and stevia (or sugar) or other spices, but my wife doesn’t like the sweet/spicy crust as much as the Italian herb crust, so I say, “Yes, dear!” I have also done it with either beef or vegetable stock instead of chicken. I have also used some spicier combinations for my personal consumption, such as a bit of Slap ya Mama seasoning mix. Again, though, my wife does not like spicy. Depending on what your sauce is going to be and your toppings, you can use different spices or herbs.
Ever done a Cajun pizza? Mmm, mmm, mmm.
With my wife, we stick to a red (tomato based) sauce or a home-made pesto sauce. One of these days, I’ll do the work to find a white (Alfredo) sauce recipe I can eat. Could also do a butter and garlic sauce for the pizza. Teach those kids about the good things in life.
Now I’m thinking about a good Cajun pizza with shrimp and andouille sausage, yes I am. I may have to do that while my wife is at her conferences this year and invite @davecarter‘s friend Alphonse up for some fine cuisine.
For me saving time, money, and energy, started with shopping. Buying in bulk whenever an ingredient was cheap, especially at Aldi, meant I had ingredients at hand for meals with less shopping; and I saved a bunch.
Making putting together a meal as easy as possible is the best way to avoid expensive eating out. Often I cooked in the morning when I had more energy and the children were more amenable. Saving later in the day for more leasurly pursuits like reading or board games in the winter or outdoor fun in the summer.
Prepping ingredients as soon as I got home from the grocer’s was much easier than later when I was tired. For some reason it’s easier to prep vegetables etc before they get put away. Peel all carrots. Wash and prep all leafy greens. Clean and slice celery and onions. Grate cheese. Put everything in a ziplock bags and they are not only ready for jump-starting recipes all week, but they make speedy snacks.
As soon as I got home I would boil a dozen eggs before labelling them, and put them back in the box for snacks or sandwiches. Iwould also remove the largest potatoes before stashing the rest away, and bake them in the oven ready for making into twice-baked potatoes, they freeze beautifully. Prepping is half way to a meal and doing them all at once saved on washing up too. Plus prepped ingredients take up less room in the fridge.
I divided bulk ingredients into recipe sized units before dropped them back into their sack and stashed in the freezer. All my flour was put in bags of one pound white with one half pound wheat ready to be made into my bread recipe. Rice was put into cup sized bags, as were beans, split peas, lentils etc. This turned my freezer into my own store of easy, pre-measured ingredients. The bags being labeled were thrown back in the freezer for reusing over and over.
I tried to at least double every recipe and put one or more ready-to-heat dish in the freezer. This way of cooking starts with doubling, or more, your pans, of course. With bread I would make several batches at a time for six loaves which could be baked all at once, saving fuel. The last batch would be made into sweet rolls, or pizza bases, or pita bread etc. It took very little longer to keep throwing the ingredients into the mixer, than making only one recipe, and I had only one clean-up to do. I would throw all the loaves into a bin bag in the freezer and we had enough for the whole week.
Do the recipes you find have flour and powdered Parmesan? I make my Alfredo with cream cheese, some milk or cream, and freshly grated Italian cheese – romano, parmesan, asiago, provolone…
Some do, even if only a bit, such as a tablespoon. Because my wife has not sounded enthusiastic when I mentioned it, I have not pursued it very far as of yet. Again, I may experiment when she is away at her conferences this year.
Oh, man. I can do gluten-free Alfredo easy!
1 pound gluten-free fettuccine
1 stick butter
1 cup heavy cream
a couple whole cloves garlic cut in half to expose more surface
2 cups freshly grated Parmesan
While you’re boiling the fettuccine, melt the butter in a large, deep skillet and flavor by simultaneously heating garlic cloves. Remove garlic. Gradually add cream while whisking continuously. Once combined, gradually add at least 1.5 cups of Parmesan (I usually use it all) until melted and thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
When noodles are finished cooking, spoon them into the skillet with some cooking liquid (this adjusts the thickness of the sauce) and toss until covered. Serve immediately with extra Parmesan, if you have any.
Easy peasy, delicious, and not sanctioned by Weight Watchers. The kids love it, although we don’t have gluten issues, so we use regular pasta.
I wish you hired out and commuted . . . sigh . . .
You give much encouragement! thanks.
When we were starting a family Dr.Spock (no not that one) was still a thing. He said something like, if you don’t give your child junk food and sweets, he will not starve: Serve him nutritious foods in a balanced diet and He will eat what his body needs. Radical I know, but he was probably right.
What can I say? We were inconsistent at best. But the kids did survive.
I’m glad your budget is working. Our experience has been that just doing a plan – any plan – for meals goes an enormous distance toward budget control.
I add Basil, oregano and lemon juice or white wine to mine :)
Financial Peace is an excellent book on how to arrange your finances. The two most important things in it are the Baby Steps and the Compound Interest chart.
What the Baby Steps are is a priority list on managing your money. In other words, how to manage your money and in what order so you can build up an emergency fund, get out of debt, and save for retirement and children’s college. He doesn’t just present it and tell you to do it. He gives thoughtful, logical reasons. A subset of the get-out-of-debt step is the debt snowball, also a useful tool.
The compund interest chart he presents does two things. First, it shows how one can become rich in retirement. He does this with two hypothetical situations, identical except for the duration of the contributions. He has one guy put $2000 into an IRA for the first eight years of his working life (ages 19-26 in the example), then never contribute again. He has a second guy do the same, except he starts after eight years (ages 27-65), and contributes $2000 every year right up to retirement. Both guys retire at 65, each with a small fortune. However, the amazing thing is the first guy’s fortune is roughly 50% larger just from starting earlier. However, it’s hard to convince someone at age nineteen, just married, and with a baby on the way, to put the max into an IRA every year. But, every little bit helps.
Now, neutral observer and I don’t always follow his Baby Steps to the letter, and we don’t do all the things he suggests (such as not using credit cards). However, it does make us discuss what we want to do with our money and why, and most important, agree on the path forward. Spousal involvement and working together to manage family finances is one of the things in his book we follow to the letter. That’s why my wife and I were able to retire at ages [censored by wife] and 62 respectively.
I am cheap. But we have a LOT of mouths here, and the teenagers are vacuum cleaners in the fridge. I have one rail-thin kid (#2) who is capable of frying up 1 pound of ground beef and a dozen eggs, and eating it all. For breakfast. I get value back from his physical labor.
We have a LOT of freezers, and we buy things as and when they are cheap. We get flour and chocolate chops at a restaurant supply store – $15-22 per 50 pound King Arthur sack, and about $2/pound for Callebaut chips.
Here is my real contribution: On a caloric/fat/goodstuff basis, meat is often cheaper than vegetables.
We decided that instead of opening college savings accounts (I believe higher education is in a bubble that could pop in the next 10 years), we would save and invest their savings with our savings with the hope of bigger returns on more money and once they start their first job, put it in IRA s for them. No penalty for withdrawing for higher education and if they go another route, they have a head start in retirement.
I’ve started doing a casserole, a soup/stew, and a pasta sauce or “over rice” dish every week. We’re eating well and managing to keep the food budget reasonable. My husband is also gluten-intolerant, so we’re doing a lot of home cooking to keep him feeling good.
Thanks for the pizza-crust recipe, @arahant!
I have plenty of soup/stew recipes, and a great meatloaf casserole, too. ;)
Pen and paper ready! Maybe you should publish Arahant’s gluten-free cookbook?
Not a bad idea. Give me a bit, and I’ll start writing up a few. Of course, there is one here:
http://ricochet.com/groups/you-will-need/gpages/arahant-meatloaf/
That was an earlier version of the meatloaf casserole when it was more meatloaf. The basic change from any other meatloaf is to use grits in place of any other filler or binder, such as bread crumbs or oatmeal.
Y’all do know about the Recipe and Cooking group, don’t you?
http://ricochet.com/groups/you-will-need/
No, I did not!