Frugal Recipes - Submitted by Women from Around the World
Beef Shepherd's Pie
Our families favorite frugal dinner is Beef Shepherd's Pie. Not only is it quick and easy to fix, but it's also very filling and absolutely DELICIOUS! Usually, I always have the ingredients on hand, so we can have it anytime too.
It's a very simple recipe, that is adjustable to not only what you have on hand for veggies and spices, but also to your family size.
Here's how I make it for us, a family of 3 -- and it lasts a few meals for us.
Brown and season your ground beef, as you would normally do. Peel and cook potatoes, as you would for mashed potatoes. I like a lot of mashed potatoes, so I usually do between 6 and 9 decent sized potatoes. In a cake pan, spread your ground beef on the bottom. Then put in a bag of any frozen vegetable mix that you have on hand .... you can even use 2 cans of whatever veggies you have on hand, if you don't have frozen available. Mix the meat and the veggies together so that it's all evenly spread out. Once your potatoes are done, you're going to mash them .... then spread it evenly over the top of the meat and veggie mixture. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees until the potatoes are slightly golden, roughly 20 minutes or so.
-Brandy
Crockpot Sunday Dinner
My mom used to make this. I make it a lot on Sundays so dinner is ready as soon as we get home from church.
6 - 8 peeled and sliced carrots
4 - 5 peeled and sliced potatoes
1 pound of browned hamburger
Turn on high and leave for 3-4 hours. It's great with homemade bread.
-Kris
This is something my grandmother made for her family, my mother for hers, and now, I'm serving it to my family. Using fresh-from-the-garden veggies, it's a terrific one-dish meal that's very affordable. We call it goulash (but I never much cared for that name, because growing up, we had other types of goulash that I did not like at all. But this one is different from those. Guess I'll call it Garden Goulash.)
bacon (5 or 6 slices for our family of eight--more or less, if desired)
bell pepper, to taste (I use maybe a quarter of a medium-sized pepper)
onion (maybe a quarter or a half)
sweet corn, cut off the cob (we probably use 8 or 10 ears; Silver Queen and Peaches and Cream are our favorites)
fresh tomatoes, diced (as many as you want; I probably use one large one)
okra (again, as much as you want)
Fry the bacon in a good-sized skillet. Remove and drain bacon.
Sauté the pepper and onion in the bacon drippings.
When the pepper and onion are to the consistency you like, add the corn.
Dice the tomatoes into the skillet.
Cook this until it is to a doneness you like (mainly the corn; won't take long).
Slice the okra into the skillet and cook for only a short time. (If you cook it too long, it will become slimy. I usually get the drinks ready--or have one of the kids get them ready--at this point; when they're ready, so is the goulash.)
Meanwhile, we've made biscuits (one of the kids, usually, or I've gotten them in the oven as the bacon, peppers and onions cooked).
Serve the goulash over split biscuits and enjoy!! (Some of us add butter to the biscuit before the goulash; with the bacon drippings and butter, can you tell we're from the South?),
(With all these veggies, I never thought my children would eat this, but they look forward to it; fresh makes a difference, I think, as does having corn as the main part of the dish.)
-Mary Susan
-2 large sweet onions, sliced
-french rolls (or loaf of french bread, cut for sandwiches)
In crockpot: combine water, brown sugar, tomato paste. Add onions and meatballs. Stir well. Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. Assemble sandwiches to your liking and top with cheese.
-Jessica
A Mother’s Best Friend Recipe
1. Microwave as many baked potatoes, as you need for your family.
2. Heat several cans of .33 chili beans (Walmart).
3. Top the baked potatoes with the chili beans, cheese, sour cream, whatever you have on hand!
For dessert:
Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls
Melt 2tb of butter and pour in a pie plate. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon. Swirl! J
Open can of biscuits (I use a brand which is 5 cans for $1.00!), rub each biscuit in mixture, bake gooey side down for the amount of time on can.
-Susan
Bacon and Eggs
I find bacon and eggs to be a very frugal dinner.
Eggs often cost under a dollar and if I buy bacon on sale I can purchase that for under three dollars. .90 cents for bagels...and there you have an inexpensive dinner for six at our house. Five dollars for six people is pretty good. Don't you think?
-Donna
Salmon Patties
Salmon patties ($1/can - yields 4-5 patties) - add one egg and some bread crumbs, ramen noodles (10-15¢/pack b/c I buy them in the BIG box of packets at Walmart) and a salad. We are basic lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese and crouton salad-eaters. I make my own croutons from bread ends. All of the salad ingredients probably costs us $1.50/4 salads. Sometimes, I'll serve baked sweet potato instead of the ramen noodles and that will make this meal a bit more expensive. On the whole, this meal costs about $3-4 for 4 people.
-Kris
Here is one of our favorite fast and frugal recipes!
2-4 # Bnls Pork Ribs (usually figure about 1/2 # per person)
1-2 chopped onions (this is optional depending if you want a little extra flavor)
Throw the ribs and onions in your slow-cooker and pour the BBQ sauce over everything. If you put it in the morning on low, it'll be ready by dinner time! Cooking time is about 6-8 hours on low and 3-5 on high.
Serve with bread and your favorite veggie.
This makes for a very fast, easy and frugal dinner if you purchase everything when its on special at the store!
-Brittany
We like to have chicken casserole on the Lord's Day as the veg base can be prepared before and chicken added on the morning. The casserole cooks while we are in church. I always make too much veg base and then reserve what remains for the following:
1 cheap tin of tomatoes (or your own if you have a glut)
pinch of mixed dried herbs or herbs from the garden
+/- Worcester sauce or tabasco sauce
2 pints veg stock or the remains of the casserole made up to 2 pints
Put in a saucepan, bring to boil then simmer for 40 min. Puree if wanted.
Serve with bread +/- grated cheese.
Frugal dessert: Either fruit from the garden or rice pudding cooked in the slow cooker (crock pot).
My Mother knew many, we used to say "1001" recipes from wind fall apples donated by various members of the family. Many of these can be used for other cheap fruit-crumble, pies, cobbler, "stewed"-compote sounds better, strudel, apple charlotte, apple sauce for pork, etc.
Quiche is another favourite frugal meal with us.
Make a short crust pastry base to fit your pie dish (traditionally left over bread dough was used). Cook the base for 10 minutes at 400 F (this improves the quiche greatly). Fry an onion at a low heat so that it is tender rather than blackened. Add the onion and grated cheese (we use strong cheddar-definitely best to use a cheese with a strong flavour). Then for an 8 inch pie dish use 3 eggs and 1/3 pint milk. The eggs and milk should be whisked together then poured over the quiche.
This can be varied according to what you have (e.g. natural yogurt or cream can be subsituted for milk. Tuna can be used instead of cheese. Other veg- e.g.courgettes or mushrooms can be used instead of cheese.)
Cook at 400F until the quiche is set and golden brown. Serve with salad or available veg.
This also freezes very well.
-Annaelisabeth from London
This recipe is a staple in our house. It is quick to make and pretty cheap. It is also very healthy if you use the smaller amount of coconut cream.
Indian Chickpea (Garbanzo) Curry (Serves 4-6)
1 onion (sliced)
2 tbsp Indian style curry paste
1/4 cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
3/4-1 cup vegetable stock
1 medium sized cauliflower, cut into florets
425g(14oz) can chickpeas/garbanzo beans (drained)
2 cups baby spinach leaves, washed (you can use any type of dark green leafy vegetable. I've successfully used both English spinach chopped up and bok-choy chopped up .)
200ml-400ml (7-14oz) can light coconut cream
4+ cups cooked rice (to serve)
METHOD:
1. Saute' onion and curry paste in a non-stick wok/large electric frypan until onions are translucent. Stir in Peanut Butter and stock until combined.
2. Add cauliflower and stir; cover and cook until it is just tender. Stir in the chickpeas, spinach leaves and coconut cream. Heat through and then serve over the cooked rice.
Tomato Feta Penne (serve 4-6)
1lb (500g) penne pasta
1 Tb oil
2 tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 28oz (800g) can chopped tomatoes
12 black olives (optional)
1/2 cup fresh parsley OR 1-2 Tb dried parsley
6 oz (170g) feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup basil OR 2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp thyme
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Cook pasta in boiling water to al dente.
Meanwhile saute oil and garlic in pan over medium heat. Add tomatoes and cook for 4 minutes. Toss with drained pasta.
Halve olives if using, chop parsley and tear basil if using fresh herbs. Add olives, parsley, feta, basil and thyme to pasta. Sprinkle parmesan on top.
Serve with garlic bread and a green salad.
-Rachel from Australia (Be sure to check out her other frugal recipes here.)
Bread and Butter Pudding - serves 4 adults
We often have this served after a meal of soup to make a simple, cheap supper seem a bit more luxurious. It is a great way to use of stale bread.
Butter 4 slices of bread. Cut them into triangles and arrange in an oven proof dish.
Sprinkle the bread with 2T dried fruit.
Beat together 15fl oz milk, 2 eggs [you could use one egg and more milk for a less rich dish], 2T sugar and an optional but tasty pinch of nutmeg.
Pour the egg mix over the bread and leave it to rest for half an hour before baking for 1 hour at Gas Mark 3 or 325 degrees F.
Melt a knob of butter in a pan, and add 1 grated onion, 4 large grated carrots, 1grated baking potato and fry gently for 5 minutes.
Add 15 fl oz water and 10 fl oz milk, 2 1/2 T brown rice, salt and either a pinch of nutmeg, some coriander seeds, or the seeds from 1 or 2 crushed cardamons [we prefer the latter].
Cover, simmer for 45 minutes or until all is tender, then blend and serve.
Mash together 1 drained can of cheap kidney beans as roughly or smoothly as you like, and add 1 chopped, cooked onion, 1t chilli powder, 1T tomato paste and 1-2 chopped garlic cloves. Add 1 beaten egg and 1/4 c oats.
Stir well. If you think the mixture looks "wet" add flour as needed to make a "mouldable" consistency which you can make into patties. Press each pattie into flour or cornmeal, then fry for 5 minutes a side. Serve with rice and a salsa or tomato sauce.
-Lucy
1 can cream of mushroom soup
chicken breasts (4-6 small ones cut into handling sizes)
Put chicken in crockpot with italian dressing and cook for 3 hours. Then, mix soup and cream cheese and add to pot. Cook for additional hour and then serve sauce and chicken over noodles. Serve with a salad and bread.
Quick and Easy Fruit Cobbler
1 can of peaches in syrup (canned make a good one too!)
1 cup of Self-rising flour
Mix sugar, flour and milk together, melt butter in a 13x9 pan and then pour in the sugar, flour and milk mixture. Pour fruit on top, with juices and bake in 350-375 oven until brown on top.
-Kerri
Here's a recipe that my family loves. I am a homeschooling wife and mother of one great husband and five hungry kiddoes ages 9 months to almost 10 years.
Mexican Hotdish ("Casserole" if you're not from Minnesota!)
3 cups cooked brown rice1 pound ground beef, browned, drained and cooked with taco seasoning1 cup frozen corn1 can black beans1 can diced green chiles2 cups shredded cheddar Layer ingredients in a 9x13 pan in order given. HINT: make your taco meat extra tomato-saucy so it soaks into the rice a little. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
If you want to be spiffy, you can serve with sour cream, chips, salsa and shredded lettuce. We like it as is and it is great stuffed into a tortilla the next day, if there's any left. I once made 5 meals of this before I had a baby and we didn't get tired of it.
-Jill Krantz
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The Cyber Mom's Guide to Creating Home Income with Online Auctions - Very thorough and comprehensive guide to selling on eBay. This book is HUGE and walks you step-by-step through everything you'll need to know to successfully sell on eBay.
Jumpstart Your Successful eBusiness -By fellow homeschool mother and business owner, Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest Maps.
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