Healthy and Cheap Family Meals for Tight Budgets

Instant Pot Vegan Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese

5/4/2018

This recipe came about when I had a large gathering of family over the weekend and wanted to come up with a simple recipe that would feed a crowd and hit the spot for people.

Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese is my usual standby in that case. It’s always a crowd-pleaser and a very easy dish that was probably the very first recipe my Mom taught me to make.

But in this case, there was going to be at least one vegetarian in the group. So I decided to try to change things up a bit come up with a vegetarian version instead.

Lentils seemed a logical choice.

And when I did a search online about possibilities, I found a couple of good options that I combined and tweaked a bit to arrive at the recipe here.

The results were better than I had hoped for, and were a hit with my guests.

Spicy Ginger, Cabbage, and Noodle Soup

4/10/2018

The inspiration for this recipe was a simple rice noodle soup I saw on Pinterest. However, the original did not include any protein, so I made it an egg drop soup to provide that. But I've also tried other variations, using canned tuna, and canned salmon, instead of the eggs, with excellent results.

And just last week, I used shrimp. Now, before you question my frugality bona fides, let me explain that such indulgences are usually strictly reserved for very special occasions in my household. However, my local grocery store happened to have a special introductory price for a new line of fish products they are carrying, so I snatched up a couple of 1-pound bags of pre-cooked shrimp for the amazing introductory price of $5.

Now, that's still a good deal more than I typically budget for the protein portion of any meal. But I only spent a total of $55 on groceries last week, so I still remained within our weekly budget of $30-$35 per person (it's just the two of us now).

Warm Lentil and Vegetable Wild Rice Salad

3/23/2018

The recipe for this meal came to me again via Pinterest. It was labeled as a salad recipe with warm vegetables, and looked delicious, so I decided to try it.

Of course, I made some changes. I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t.

First of all the recipe is originally from one of those home delivery meal ingredient programs.

I'm just going to say right here - that trend in food preparation boggles my mind a bit, and has this frugal, self-sufficient old soul shaking her head in puzzlement and wonder at its very existence.

Honestly, I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that people need recipe ingredients delivered to their door.

I mean, it’s just really, really not that hard for able-bodied people to go to the grocery store, pick out their own ingredients, and bring them home themselves.

Really.

Vast majorities of people have been doing it for generations with no problem.

And I can only imagine the hit to the bottom line that such a practice takes.

So here’s my strong advice to people:

Just do your own shopping already. You’ll save bundles, and you’ll learn and employ some basic life skills along the way.

Just do it already. Seriously.

Okay, rant over.

Back to the recipe in question.

Greek-Style Chickpeas (Chickpeas Plaki)

3/15/2018

Here’s another super easy and cheap recipe from the traditional, everyday cuisine of the beautiful island of Cyprus. It's incredibly quick, too, if you happen to have leftover cooked brown rice on hand.

Dishes like this are what make the Mediterranean diet such a healthy one, unlike the recipes with a heavy red meat emphasis that so many people mistakenly believe are the typical daily fare for Greek households.

Mama Aphrodite, my Greek-Cypriot mother-in-law, would often cook this meal at our request. We would usually ask for it after a weekend of visits to various Cypriot relatives’ homes where they showed their love for us with incredible feasts that invariably resulted in us stuffing ourselves to the point of discomfort.

There's a reason that the first word I learned in Greek (other than a few choice expletives and please and thank you), was the command to eat. In fact, “Fáe, Fáe, Fáe!” (Eat, eat eat!) is probably the most common refrain a guest will hear from any ethnic Greek host or hostess.

And they really mean it.

When entertaining guests, they pull out all the stops, so that as a visitor to a typical Greek home you’ll often encounter a table almost groaning from the sheer weight of the platters of different grilled and stewed meat dishes, pasta and meat casseroles, meat and vegetable casseroles, stuffed grape leaves and zucchinis, small plate “meze” offerings (similar to appetizers or tapas), fruits, and desserts, etc.

The hospitality for which the region is renowned obligates the host or hostess to ply their guests with course after course of food until you are stuffed to the point where you simply cannot eat one bite more.

Cheese and Garlic Broccoli Stuffed Baked Potato

3/6/2018

I’ve enjoyed stuffed baked potatoes since I lived in England several decades ago and experienced them for the first time. They were called jacket potatoes over there and were standard pub fare. Now I see them called “Twice Baked Potatoes” here. It's just different names for the same thing and all its many variations.

Stuffed potatoes are a very tasty and versatile dish, even if I suspect that some of the versions are essentially a heart attack on a plate, loaded as they are with butter, cheese, and often bacon or ham.

This adaptation is much better than that, healthwise, but still contains more fat and cholesterol-laden ingredients than the vast majority of my recipes.

But as I’ve mentioned many a time before, my approach to diet and eating is “everything in moderation”. I would never make a regular habit of this kind of meal, but a few times a year, I'm going to go ahead and enjoy it.

Vegan Potato and Cabbage Bean Soup

2/23/2018

As I’ve mentioned before in my blog posts to the point of being annoying about it, I am not a fan of the low-carb movement in food these days. There is simply no way I could give up things like bread, potatoes, or pasta, and no reason I would have to, thank goodness.

No, for me, carbs actually make up a major part of my daily intake of calories. I avoid the processed, refined kind, such as white rice, or white bread, but generally eat many portions of whole grain carbs each day. That, combined with lots of vegetables, has helped me maintain high energy levels and excellent health throughout my life.

One of the carbs that is most unfairly maligned by the low-carb crowd is the potato.

30-Minute White Bean, Parmesan, and Spinach Soup

2/7/2018

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and it was billed as a 10 minute recipe.

In my experience, that’s not a realistic timeline for any healthy meal, so I immediately assume that someone saying that is either stretching the truth a little or using a whole lot of processed ingredients.

In this case, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the blogger admitted that she'd underestimated the time. But I have to say that it isn't by much. This really and truly is a quick recipe. Maybe not 10 minutes. But 20-30 minutes, easy. And that's still pretty darned good by any measure.

And it's also delicious, hearty, healthy, and family and budget friendly. A keeper, for sure.

Greek Balsamic Beet, Egg, and Potato Bowl

1/18/2018

This was one of the first meals my husband cooked for me when we were dating. It’s a lovely meal that is perfect for just about any time, since it can be served warm, room temperature, or cold. I like it warm in the winter, in particular.

Like most recipes of this type, it also lends itself to just about endless variation. The traditional Greek way is simply greens, eggs, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, with a generous helping of olive oil and wine vinegar dressing.

But there’s nothing that says you can’t make all kinds of substitutions and additions.

For example, my husband usually uses regular salad greens. But I love beet greens, so I often opt to steam and serve them with this salad instead of the more typical romaine or green or red lettuce. In the wintertime, this is definitely my preferred version.

Spinach would also be a very nice alternative.

I also sometimes use diced sweet potatoes instead of, or in addition to, the tomatoes and cucumbers. And you can easily add other salad makings, such as carrots, celery, or just about anything that suits your fancy.

Regardless of the exact ingredients, it’s still a terrific, simple, and nutrient packed meal.

10 Hearty and Healthy Soups That Will Warm and Nourish You

1/9/2018

We’re in the middle of a brutal cold snap here in the Northeast, and winter has just begun, so we have many weeks of freezing weather ahead of us.

That means it’s the perfect kind of weather to cook up a big pot of soup or stew. Few things warm the body and soul more than a steaming bowl of delicious, homemade soup.

Of course I’m not talking about a thin gruel of mostly broth with just a few veggies or morsels of meat thrown in. I’m talking about a lip-smacking blend of ingredients that’s so thick you can practically stand your spoon up in it – a true meal in a pot.

That's the kind Mom always made.

I have loved soup ever since childhood when she would make up huge pots of steaming goodness using the leftovers and bones from a roast to create a meat-based broth or vegetables a bit past their prime to make her minestrone.

And I love soup now just as much as a cook and household manager. After all, there are few meals that are more economical than a big pot of soup.

And there are few meals that are easier for a cook to put together.

Cheesy Spinach Pasta Bake

1/2/2018

This recipe is about as easy and quick to put together as it gets. Yet, it’s delicious. My husband loved it so much that I caught him in the very rare act of helping himself to a second portion after dinner. For a man with his extraordinary discipline, that says something about how much he liked the meal.

I came up with this pasta dish by necessity when a few weeks back I fell behind on a writing deadline and needed something really fast and easy for dinner so that I could get back to my desk as soon as possible. The meal I had originally planned wouldn't quite cut it.

So I made a quick inventory of my refrigerator and saw that I had leftover cheese from a previous lasagna recipe.

That put me in mind of a delicious cheese, spinach, and artichoke dip served with bread that I had enjoyed at a party the previous week.

The thought occurred to me that it would be a simple matter to try to re-create the recipe and adapt it for use with pasta.

Balsamic Swiss Chard and Bean Pasta

11/18/2017

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, but we did not have our garden this year. We decided to take a break to see if that would help get rid of some of the pests we’ve been contending with – squash beetles, in particular.

So, we made do with a few container plants of tomatoes and green peppers on our patio.

However, my husband has also been tending the garden of a good friend who has spent weeks in the hospital after a serious health crisis. And the bounty from that garden has been nothing short of amazing.

For example, last week, just before the weather turned, and we began getting regular hard frosts, he brought home a gorgeous bundle of rainbow Swiss chard.

Broccoli Cheese Spaghetti Squash

11/8/2017

When it comes to spaghetti squash, I have to admit that up to now, I’ve not been a big fan of this particular member of the squash family. I always felt it lacks the sweet flavor of the winter squashes I prefer, such as butternut, buttercup, acorn, and Hubbard, and I also found the stringy texture unappealing.

But I’m not about to let food go to waste, particularly fresh produce, so when our neighbor gave us two large ones from his garden , I knew I had to figure out a way to cook with them that my family and I would like.

A quick search of the internet revealed that I’d been doing it all wrong in the past by attempting to cook it as a side dish the same way I would other squash types. Everyone else, it seems, combines it with other ingredients to create a main dish.

Who knew? Chalk it up to one more of those moments that proves you can learn something new every day. Even at my age.

There were many recipes online, but I happened to have most of the ingredients on hand for this particular one, so I decided to give it a whirl. It turned out to be very easy and quite delicious. Thus, a new meal entered my recipe lexicon.

Spicy Pumpkin Vegetable Soup, Haitian Style (Soup Joumou)

10/18/2017

I happened upon this recipe because a young colleague mentioned in passing this wonderful Haitian stew a friend had made for her. She raved about it. So I promptly looked it up and was immediately intrigued.

I found several recipes on-line and tried various combinations before hitting on this one that was a big hit with my family.

We love the blend of lime, pumpkin, and the tang of pepper. It makes for a unique, mouthwatering flavor, and you couldn’t ask for a healthier meal in terms of the power vegetables it includes. Really, a combination that is great for whatever ails you, and for those cold winter days when soup or stew is just the thing.

Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Dipping Sauce and Topping - Tzatziki

10/5/2017

UPDATE: I just returned from a two-week trip through northern and central Greece that included the islands of Corfu and Evia, and I had tzatziki a couple of times a day on most days. I found the variety of ways it was prepared to be very interesting. I tasted dill only once in all those times, and it was combined with mint. I tasted mint by itself a few times. And one time, the tzatziki was served with nothing but a bit of lemon for flavoring. Most times the predominant flavor I noticed was garlic. Regardless of how it was prepared, the tzatziki was always delicious. It just goes to show how recipes can vary by region and by cook. There's no such thing as one recipe fits all.

The first time I ate tzatziki was in my dear mother-in-law’s kitchen in Cyprus, and it was a taste revelation for me. I couldn’t get enough of the refreshing cucumber and yogurt sauce. I loved the combination of garlic, mint, and dill flavorings.

Tzatziki is typically served as one of the many small appetizer options in a meze, which is a Greek multi-course meal that provides a sampling of a wide range of dishes --- and leaves diners typically stuffed to the point of discomfort.

And it’s also served as an option along with pita bread, as a kind of dip. And I personally like it with Greek souvlaki (pork shishkebob) or with souvla (lamb shishkebob).

But I know and love it best as a topping for falafel, the wonderfully flavorful and savory chick pea patties that are mainstay of Middle Eastern cuisine.

Falafel (Vegan Middle Eastern Chick Pea Patties)

9/28/2017

My love for falafel started way back when my husband was in school, and I was supporting us on a meager wage in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Restaurant meals were just not an option for us at all. And that included any kind of meal out for lunch at work. Our household of two at the time simply could not afford the hit to our bottom line of daily take-out or cafeteria meals.

Even for a single person that would have meant hundreds of dollars less every year that could go toward savings or long-term financial goals. And for the two of us, it would have amounted to a couple of thousand dollars a year. That’s tens of thousands over the course of a lifetime.

And let’s bear in mind that this is money spent on completely forgettable food.

So we brownbagged our lunches then, both for school and for work. And we continue to do so now, either by taking leftovers, or making ourselves sandwiches.

Our financial situation taught us early that there’s simply no reason that lunch should cost more than $1-$2 per person.

How to Prepare and Cook Dry Beans and Other Legumes for Delicious Recipes

9/21/2017

Legumes are pretty much a mainstay of my family’s diet. We’ve always included many vegetarian meals in our meal plan, and legumes are major sources of protein in place of meat.

And as we’ve gradually moved almost entirely away from meat consumption, they’ve taken on an ever bigger role in our cooking.

But even if you’re not vegetarian or even remotely interested in becoming one, legumes are terrific additions to a family’s menus because they’re so darned versatile.

A testament to that is their frequent appearance on the ingredient list of diverse and delicious recipes from all over the world.

They’re also very cheap. Eaten as the main course, they deliver meals at rock bottom prices.

And when added to stews, soups, or sauces that are meat-based, they can extend the number of servings considerably, stretching food budget dollars in the process.

Now, most people use the canned version of beans and other legumes. And that’s fine and quick.

But using dry legumes is the most economical way to buy and use them. So if you’re really interested in cutting your food costs, this is one easy way to do that.

12 Ways to Prepare and Cook Zucchini That Your Family Will Love

9/13/2017

As most gardeners know, the end of summer can mean a bumper crop of zucchini. A standing joke in the parts of the country where I grew up is that late August is the only time people lock their car doors --- to prevent kindly gardening neighbors from generously depositing a bag of green squash surplus onto the driver’s seat.

It seems that few people know what to do with a large amount of zucchini all at once.

And truth be told, if they’re like I was in my younger years, it’s also not their favorite vegetable to begin with, let alone in massive supplies. I’ve only learned to love the green squash as I’ve gotten older myself, so I understand that.

But since I always recommend eating produce that’s in season, and preferably locally grown, using zucchini at this time of year when it's one of the produce bargains that's readily available makes absolute sense.

It’s generally dirt cheap right now, sometimes even free, but usually easy to find for well under $1 per pound.

So the trick is to find ways to prepare it that you and your family will enjoy. And in actuality there are many ways to do just that.

Here are some suggestions that I use in my own household.

Zucchini Garlic Hummus (Vegan and Gluten Free)

9/10/2017

Zucchini is abundant at the end of summer and into early fall – some would even say OVER-abundant - in home gardens, farmers’ markets, and grocery store produce sections where locally grown ones are very easy to find at the most affordable prices of the year.

And since I always recommend buying and eating produce that’s in season and locally grown as much as possible, it’s a good idea to take advantage of this cheap option to get more veggies into your diet.

I’m always looking for creative new ways to cook with vegetables, so I was intrigued when this recipe popped up in my Pinterest feed not long ago. I immediately checked it out, liked what I saw, and saved it. And when I tried it, it proved to be a winner. It’s a delicious, healthy snack option.

Chick Pea Noodle Soup

5/12/2017

This recipe is brand new to me. I discovered it on Pinterest and tried it. My family loved it, and so did I. It really does hit all the buttons – easy, quick, cheap, and very tasty.

Of course, as I am always inclined to do, I made some changes to the original (which you can find here) and substituted less expensive ingredients for some of the pricier ones called for. The results were still delicious.

First off, I noticed the sea salt in the recipe, and knew immediately that I wouldn’t be using that, since it’s much more expensive than the regular table salt I ended up using.

Salt is salt, so there’s simply no reason to pay 5-10x times the price for it, for an absolutely indiscernible difference in flavor. I recommend holding firm against marketing hype and the pressures of lifestyle cachet in making your food choices.

Salt is just one such example.

Louisiana Red Beans and Rice

4/10/2017

This is another one of my very old recipes. I got it decades ago as a Christmas stocking stuffer gift from one of my sisters.

The simple, but thoughtful gift consisted of a bag of dry red beans, with a recipe card attached by a pretty bow.

I was immediately intrigued and when I tried the super simple recipe, my husband raved about it. And so it became a regular part of our menu repertoire.

Gifts that keep on giving like that are truly the best kind.

Now, I want to mention that the original recipe name on the card was Louisiana Red Beans and Rice. I have no idea if this is any kind of authentic recipe from that part of the country or not, but I have stuck with that name here.

I hope it is not an insult to Southern cooks anywhere. That is definitely not my intent.

The original recipe also called for ½ pound of smoked sausage. I have never used that in my version, and I don’t think it’s necessary, but by all means add it if you would like. It can be cut up and stirred in along with the beans.

Sweet Potato Oven Fries

3/29/2017

The method described here is the same for sweet potatoes fries or regular potato fries. It’s an easy, no fuss way to get homemade fries on the table. And while it uses oil, it’s far less than what's used in deep frying, so it’s easier on the waistline - and healthier, too.

Just be sure to allow enough time – about an hour – to get them on the table. That’s an hour where you can pretty much go off and do other things, but it’s still time you need to plan for.

Here’s the recipe:

Homemade Basic Seitan (Wheat Meat)

3/23/2017

As I think I’ve mentioned a few times before, my husband and I first began including vegetarian meals into our menus to save money way back when we were struggling students on a very tight budget.

Throughout the years since then the level of our vegetarianism has varied, but in recent years we have begun to avoid meat pretty much all the time, mostly for health and budget reasons, but also to lessen our impact on the planet. (It takes much more land to feed an animal to then feed a person than it does to feed a person directly.)

But we both like meat. In the past I have used soy tempeh as a meat substitute in some meals, but it costs much more than I typically pay for a pound of meat, so that kind of defeats the purpose of saving money.

I’ve known about seitan, the so-called “wheat meat”, which is made from wheat gluten, for a while, but only recently decided to explore it a little more closely.

However, when I checked it out at the store, it was even more expensive than the tempeh. That was disappointing, but I didn’t give up and proceeded to do a little research into making my own. I figured that since it’s essentially made with a component of flour, it couldn’t be harder to make than bread.

And I was absolutely right about how simple it is to make. In fact, it really could not be easier to make your own seitan - even easier than bread, actually.

All it takes is about 10 minutes of prep time, an additional 45 minutes of cook time, and voila, you have about 2 pounds of seitan to work with. It has a nice chewy consistency that to my mind is a darned close facsimile of what you get with meat. It’s good.

Caramelized Onions, the Easy, Slow-Cooker Way

3/14/2017

It’s no secret that I’m normally the kind of cook who has little patience for fancy foods or extra or added cooking steps. I'm always looking for the easiest way to get a meal on the table.

I don't want to say I'm lazy or anything; I prefer to think of myself as practical and efficient.

Yeah, let's go with that.

So even if I really like something that tends to be complicated or take a long time, I will always try to find a way to simplify the process so that I can incorporate it into my regular cooking more easily. Caramelized onions are just such a case.

As the name suggests, caramelized onions are packed with sweetness. When added as an ingredient to a recipe they can add a flavor punch that raises the taste experience of even a mundane dish to a higher plane. Which is why you’ll find them called for in all kinds of recipes, from grilled meats to salads to grilled cheese sandwiches. Caramelizing turns the humble, everyday, yellow onion into a gourmet-level ingredient.

But there’s one problem with them: they take forever to prepare. Yeah, you'll find so-called quick recipes that include caramelized onions as an ingredient, but they always seriously underestimate the time they take to prepare.

There is simply no such thing as a quick recipe using caramelized onions.

Truth be told, it can easily take an hour on the stovetop and almost constant attention besides. You can shorten the time a bit by putting them on a cookie sheet in the oven, as shown in the pictures below, but it still is going to take 45 minutes.

That’s a lot of time to dedicate to one single ingredient in a recipe, particularly when you have to add that cooking time to all the other prep steps

Egg Alternatives

3/2/2017

May Belle - one of my sister's free-range, laying chickens that I helped nurse back to health after she was seriously wounded by an unknown predator. A sweet, lovely girl. But some people cannot enjoy the delicious eggs she lays.

I have a son who has developed an allergy to eggs in adulthood, so I have become much more conscious of the whole food allergy issue.

I'm not alone.

Awareness about food sensitivities has grown in recent years in general, and that makes it much easier than it used to be to find ways to accommodate them, or find recipes that cater to a particular type of allergy.

Having an allergy to eggs is quite common, as is the desire to eliminate them from the diet by those following a vegan regimen.

But it can be difficult to avoid them, given how much they're used in so many food products, from baked goods to some pastas, to mayonnaise, etc. It demands careful reading of ingredient labels to make sure it's not included in whatever the food may be.

In the past, an egg allergy often meant essentially giving up all kinds of baked goods, as well as anything else that uses egg as a binder, such as meatloaf, many types of burgers, or lasagna, just to name a few.

But awareness has helped educate and promote alternatives for eggs that can be used as a substitute in those recipes and in others, with very satisfactory results.

Below is a list of those substitutes I am familiar with. Some work better for different recipes than others, so you may want to experiment a little to see which one works best for your favorite one.

In some cases, you may even be surprised to find that the egg alternatives produce better results than the eggs do themselves.

That happened recently when my son's girlfriend baked two loaves of the same sweet bread, using eggs in one and pureed fruit in the other. We all agreed that the one with the pureed fruit was better.

So even if you don't have an allergy or you aren't vegan, these alternatives are still useful if you ever find yourself short of eggs for a recipe you planned.

Turkey and Vegetable Rice Pilaf

2/8/2017

This is another very old recipe from back in the day when my husband and I were starting out and didn’t have 2 nickels to rub together. I think I still have the original recipe on a post card that I got from my sister. But to this day, it is still consistently one of the family favorites.

Of course, in those days, I used smaller amounts since it was just the 2 of us, but with the teenage boys in our household, I had to learn to cook in larger quantities to satisfy their enormous appetites. This version of the recipe reflects those quantities. Feel free to cut the proportions in half if you are a smaller household. Or you can cook it as it is here, and freeze any leftovers to have for a dinner a few weeks down the line.

Another thing - this recipe is extremely versatile. So, quantities can easily be adjusted for more people, more or less meat, more/different vegetables, or more or less rice, etc.

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