Secret stash: let us know of your secret $$-saving meals

[Legend]

First, I don't consider it cost saving when it sacrifices your health. Health is everything. You could be a billionaire, but if you don't have your health, you have nothing.

Here's something I like making:
Rice (buy bulk at walmart, really cheap)
Lean Chicken (12 precooked breasts at walmart is $8)
Spinach
Broccoli
Garlic
Olive oil
Teriyaki/pineapple marinade

I'm guessing the net cost is about $3.

That's one of many meals I make, and I spend $50/week on food. I eat about 2500 calories or so a day.

 

[badmouse]

Originally posted by: Bryophyte
I'm seeing a lot of suggestions, but very few of them are actual meals Most of them are just for a single item and don't include fruits/vegetables/whole grains. Many of them don't sound like healthy or well-balanced meals. Who eats *just* eggs, salmon, steak, rice or pasta individually as a whole meal?

A bunch of rice (make lots, keep in fridge)
An egg
A box of frozen veggies

Fry in some oil. Optional, add soy sauce or some other asian flavoring. (add a fruit for your wellbalanced meal)

***

Bake a potato.
Cook a box of frozen veggies - put over potato
Melt a handful of WallyWorld cheap grated cheddar over it (real cheese is better, but it gets expensive)

Optional, put a can of really really cheap chili over it along with the veg's
Ditto on the fruit

***

Cheap WallyWorld chicken breasts or legs
Whatever sauce is on sale - cheese sauce, bar-b-q, pasta sauce, can-o-cream-soup etc
Box or 2 of frozen veg's

put in baking dish, bake. Optional - top with stale bread crumbs, potato/corn chip crumbs, or cheese

***

potato soup base:

cook potato in water
melt a bit o'butter, add a bit o'flour
add some of the water the potato cooked in
smash up the potato and stir it in
ADD salt & pepper, a little milk, great soup that costs about 30 cents

Fancier soups using potato soup base:
cook potato soup
add leftovers

or add a bag/box o'frozen veg

etc.

***

in my area the absolute cheapest pasta meal is frozen ravioli, the off-brands on sale.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Originally posted by: Bryophyte

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: Bryophyte
I'm seeing a lot of suggestions, but very few of them are actual meals Most of them are just for a single item and don't include fruits/vegetables/whole grains. Many of them don't sound like healthy or well-balanced meals. Who eats *just* eggs, salmon, steak, rice or pasta individually as a whole meal?

Most people who are either cooking for themselves or cooking for leftovers for lunch will only make a "main" course and then just grab something from the fridge or pantry for sides.

That's how it works around my house any way. Make a main course, maybe throw some cottage cheese or small salad on the side. Maybe nuke some frozen veggies. Whatever. But the main thing is just to have a main meal I can throw in a tupperware dish to nuke in the microwave tomorrow. I'll throw in a fruit cup or small bag of pretzels or something to go with it.

My point was that either the meal price they quote is lower than the actual cost (the sides are usually not free) or that people are trying to save money by eating garbage, robbing their bodies of necessary nutrients.

What you are getting is the collage student diet. Students are a notoriously unhealthy lot. I personally found out that it is impossible to live on Raman Noodle while living off campus my junior year. McDonalds would have been a healthier alternative to most of my meals.
If you really want to be healthy with my meal then splurge on some extras:
Meat - go for a pork knuckle you can get those insanely cheap for the amount of useable meat on it and you boil it in the same pot as the crowders for an added bonus ? add about $2.00
Vegetables ? Turnip Greens, very cheap, very good when in season ? add about $1.00 for a weeks worth.
Grain ? Cornbread, you will need some eggs and milk ? add $3.00 (bulk corn meal, eggs, and milk) Makes at least a weeks worth, and you can drink the milk for added bonus.
Total cost for a weeks worth of meals: about $7.00

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

That carribean stew sounds awesome how do you make that?

1.5 pounds of pork loin/boneless chop grilled
1 13.75oz can of chicken broth (I get the stuff with chopped garlic in it)
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 pound sweet potatoes
2 teaspoons of Onion powder
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of a cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/8 (but I use a half) teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1 red pepper ( I don't normally use)
1 green pepper (I don't normally use)
1/3 cup of Orange Juice (depends if I have it or not)
1 cup sliced green onion

Combine all ingredients except OJ, peppers, and onions in a crock pot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Add OJ and green onions a couple minutes before serving and stir them in.

Lately I've been adding some white beans for a bit of filler. I also replace the red & green peppers with more crushed red pepper and some hot green chili pepper powder.

It's a major hit with friends and family in the winter

Thanks bookmarked, will definitely try that when I get back from my trip...

 

[Bryophyte]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

My point was that either the meal price they quote is lower than the actual cost (the sides are usually not free) or that people are trying to save money by eating garbage, robbing their bodies of necessary nutrients.

The sad part is, I'm probably better off *not* having a salad smothered with ranch dressing. Depending on the type of salad. Romaine and iceberg salads have very, very little true nutrients. Some fiber, and a little bit of this or that. But when you load it up with calorie laden dressings like most people do, you just took two steps backwards.

If you are using a light vinegarette or some of the other low calorie/fat dressings that's fine. But the regular leaded ranch dressings can add another 300-500 calories to the meal depending on how much you lather on there. I'm better off skipping the salad and having an extra scoop of main course.

I'll take a multivitamin for the rest.

I don't eat iceburg lettuce (yuck) but I do eat head lettuces. Don't eat ranch dressing, only like vinegarette type dressings, and don't buy the ones that are loaded with oils.

Lettuce DOES have nutritional value. For instance, 1 leaf of romaine gives you 1% of your daily dose of fiber, 7% of Vitamin A and 2% of Vitamin C, all for a whopping *1 calorie*. Iceburg (1 leaf) gives you 2% fiber, 4% Vit A, 2% Vit C, 1% Calcium, 1% iron for 5 calories. Butterhead lettuces give you 2% fiber, 36% (!) vitamin A, 3% Vit C, 2% calcium, 4% iron for 7 calories. Red leaf gives you 25% of your USRDA for Vitamin A with similar profiles to other lettuces for the other nutrients. I don't have data on other nutrients that lettuces contain, since I'm going off the USDA labels, so I'm undoubtedly missing a few vitamins/minerals that lettuces provide.

When I eat a salad, I typically eat more than one leaf of lettuce, so I AM eating a great food in that it gives a significant source of nutrition for almost no calories (hell, you probably burn more calories preparing and eating the lettuce than you get from the lettuce itself.) Add some shredded carrot, cucumbers, celery or other veggies to the salad and you get even more nutrients for *very* few calories. And a multivitamin, while helpful to fill in gaps in your diet, does absolutely nothing to help your digestive tract to do its job. It has no fiber. heh

http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-Lettuce.html

 

[Leper Messiah]

I bought 20lbs of short grain rice at sam's for $8. Figure one cup is like a serving, thats like a 100 meals or something. and you can do all sorts of good stuff with rice, make sushi or sashimi (sp?) if you've got some sea food, rice goes well with alot of different kinds of meat/fish/poultry...


And then there's velveta. Yummy.

 

[vi edit]

Heh. I get about 60% of my fiber for the day just at breakfast. Between the big serving of 5 grain oatmeal and the mixed berry smoothie I make, I'm doing pretty well right off the start for my colon cleansing. A couple slices of whole grain bread for my sammich at lunch and I'm at almost 100%. I'm a huge bean fan so there's some more to round things out.

 

[sao123]

Homemade chicken Noodle Soup for 4 (or soup for 1 for a week)

Place 2.5 quarts water in a pot
Add 2 cubes of chicken boullion
Add 3 medium large chicken breasts
Add 1 minced medium size white onion
Season heavily with Seasoned Salt, Course Black Pepper, & Garlic (1-2 tablespoons)
Boil for 30-45 minutes

In a large bowl, beat 3 eggs
Measure 2 1/4 cups of flour
Add 1 tsp of seasoned salt to the dry flour
Stir the flour/salt mixture into the eggs
Knead the dough until it is completely dry
Allow the dough to sit for about 5 minutes
Roll the dough out flat, and cut it into thin strips with a plastic knife
Seperate the strips, so they do not stick together.

Remove the now boiled chicken and allow it to cool.
Turn the heat down to low, but keep the broth hot.

Slice 3 carrots (I clean mine with a brush and leave the skin on)
Slice 2 celery stalks
Slice 1/2 pound of mushrooms

Cube the now cooled chicken
Add the noodle strips, carrots, celery, chicken, and mushrooms to the chicken broth and turn the heat back to medium.
Add 2 tablespoons of Chicken Soup Base
Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice
Season heavily with parsley flakes and cook for another 20-25 minutes until the noodles are no longer doughy.


(I am in the middle of writing my own unpublihed cookbook)
I also have homemade recipies for Broccoli and Cheddar Soup, Ham-Barley Soup, and Vegetable (Beef-tomato) Soup.
Among my other more popular recipies are Mustard Meatloaf & Poor-Mans Chicken Alfredo & Tomato Soup Pork Chops. Thats too much to type them all, but if theres one in particular you want, i'll type it out.

 

[Legend]

Originally posted by: Bryophyte

Originally posted by: vi_edit

My point was that either the meal price they quote is lower than the actual cost (the sides are usually not free) or that people are trying to save money by eating garbage, robbing their bodies of necessary nutrients.

The sad part is, I'm probably better off *not* having a salad smothered with ranch dressing. Depending on the type of salad. Romaine and iceberg salads have very, very little true nutrients. Some fiber, and a little bit of this or that. But when you load it up with calorie laden dressings like most people do, you just took two steps backwards.

If you are using a light vinegarette or some of the other low calorie/fat dressings that's fine. But the regular leaded ranch dressings can add another 300-500 calories to the meal depending on how much you lather on there. I'm better off skipping the salad and having an extra scoop of main course.

I'll take a multivitamin for the rest.

I don't eat iceburg lettuce (yuck) but I do eat head lettuces. Don't eat ranch dressing, only like vinegarette type dressings, and don't buy the ones that are loaded with oils.

Lettuce DOES have nutritional value. For instance, 1 leaf of romaine gives you 1% of your daily dose of fiber, 7% of Vitamin A and 2% of Vitamin C, all for a whopping *1 calorie*. Iceburg (1 leaf) gives you 2% fiber, 4% Vit A, 2% Vit C, 1% Calcium, 1% iron for 5 calories. Butterhead lettuces give you 2% fiber, 36% (!) vitamin A, 3% Vit C, 2% calcium, 4% iron for 7 calories. Red leaf gives you 25% of your USRDA for Vitamin A with similar profiles to other lettuces for the other nutrients. I don't have data on other nutrients that lettuces contain, since I'm going off the USDA labels, so I'm undoubtedly missing a few vitamins/minerals that lettuces provide.

When I eat a salad, I typically eat more than one leaf of lettuce, so I AM eating a great food in that it gives a significant source of nutrition for almost no calories (hell, you probably burn more calories preparing and eating the lettuce than you get from the lettuce itself.) Add some shredded carrot, cucumbers, celery or other veggies to the salad and you get even more nutrients for *very* few calories. And a multivitamin, while helpful to fill in gaps in your diet, does absolutely nothing to help your digestive tract to do its job. It has no fiber. heh

http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-Lettuce.html

That's great and all, but both of you are only looking at the elementary nutrients that advertising has informed us about.

The stuff in a centrum is the tip of the iceburg. And a crappy tip at that because a centrum has the cheapest forms of vitamins that get very little bioavailibility.

There's also amino acids, enzymes, antioxidants, bioflavonoids, and co-factors that increase the efficiency of other nutrients that your mutli-vitamin does not contain. These things are found naturally in fruits, vegetables, lean healthy meats and whole grains. They are not on food labels, but they are still there.

Cheap manufactured chemicals aren't a substitute for the huge list of nutrients from whole foods. They're not even a substitute for the natural occuring minerals that they are supposed to provide.

To give you an idea of what your vitamin is missing:

http://dan.xtend-life.com/products.asp?product=tb&page=mens_plus

Best multivitamin that I know of, but still is not a substitute for whole foods.


And I hate salad!

 

[Kanalua]

$1.50 Eggs and Rice at the University of Hawaii at Manoa student center.

 

[gabemcg]

All you can eat buffet - $6.50

Large zippered bag or backpack - $0.00 -- Probably already have

Lots and lots of tupperware - Proabably already have, or use that gladware stuff for about $3.50

$10 = All the meals you can get away with...

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: sao123
Homemade chicken Noodle Soup for 4 (or soup for 1 for a week)

Place 2.5 quarts water in a pot
Add 2 cubes of chicken boullion
Add 3 medium large chicken breasts
Add 1 minced medium size white onion
Season heavily with Seasoned Salt, Course Black Pepper, & Garlic (1-2 tablespoons)
Boil for 30-45 minutes

In a large bowl, beat 3 eggs
Measure 2 1/4 cups of flour
Add 1 tsp of seasoned salt to the dry flour
Stir the flour/salt mixture into the eggs
Knead the dough until it is completely dry
Allow the dough to sit for about 5 minutes
Roll the dough out flat, and cut it into thin strips with a plastic knife
Seperate the strips, so they do not stick together.

Remove the now boiled chicken and allow it to cool.
Turn the heat down to low, but keep the broth hot.

Slice 3 carrots (I clean mine with a brush and leave the skin on)
Slice 2 celery stalks
Slice 1/2 pound of mushrooms

Cube the now cooled chicken
Add the noodle strips, carrots, celery, chicken, and mushrooms to the chicken broth and turn the heat back to medium.
Add 2 tablespoons of Chicken Soup Base
Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice
Season heavily with parsley flakes and cook for another 20-25 minutes until the noodles are no longer doughy.


(I am in the middle of writing my own unpublihed cookbook)
I also have homemade recipies for Broccoli and Cheddar Soup, Ham-Barley Soup, and Vegetable (Beef-tomato) Soup.
Among my other more popular recipies are Mustard Meatloaf & Poor-Mans Chicken Alfredo & Tomato Soup Pork Chops. Thats too much to type them all, but if theres one in particular you want, i'll type it out.

Sounds like mine w/out the mushrooms and I just use egg noodles from a bag.

 

[yhelothar]

My local staterbros just had the claim jumper TV dinners for $2.50 each. 18oz of food inside!
Not your average $2 9oz dinners.

 

[secretanchitman]

ramen from the local chinese supermarket - 25 cents a pack.

 

[badmouse]

Originally posted by: Nitemare


Sounds like mine w/out the mushrooms and I just use egg noodles from a bag.

Homemade noodles taste great.

However, they're a bunch of work and take a lot of cleaning up. I use RAMEN noodles in my homemade chicken soup, cheap as heck and cook quick (nothing worse than yucky soggy old noodles in leftover chicken soup - just heat soup in microwave and throw in ramen). Of course, without the flavor packet.

 

[D1gger]

A package of spicy chicken instant noodles, an onion, a carrot, a stick of broccoli, a little curry powder and I'm good to go. All for less than a buck.

 

[BatmanNate]

1 Whole Chicken (2.50-5.00 for a large one, depending on sales)

Covered thawed chicken in Kosher salt and coarse pepper. (this will seal in the moisture as well as add flavor) Place bird in foil pan on weber style round grill, with heated coals gathered on opposing sides beneath, in the indirect style. I cook for about 2 hours depending on the weather and the size of the bird, adding water soaked hickory chips 2-3 times during the process. The salt, pepper, and hickory chips are typically one time investments and will add at most 50¢ to the individual recipe cost, less to the serving, much less if acquired in bulk.

1 box cornbread mix (.25-.50 per box, requires 1 egg and a little milk and butter as well)

Vegetables for stirfry, I like to use Zucc, Brocc, Bok Choy. About 2.00.

Heat pan (a carbon steel wok works best and requires the least oil). I make a marinade from soy sauce, brown sugar, fresh grushed garlic, flaked red pepper, ginger, sesame oil, chinese 5 spice, and a shake of fish sauce. Add marinade to wok, stir fry veggies covered on high heat for a few minutes.


This meal feeds 4-6 for about $5, so around $1 per serving, however requires use a BBQ and consumables such as charcoal and spices, so call it 1.50 per serving evened out. I also make my own wine and beer which even out to about .50-.75 per serving without taking into account the equipment. As an added bonus, the worked over chicken carcass works great for making stock the next day, for all of your soup needs.

 

[Goosemaster]

THis thread is GOLD

 

[necine]

I'm going to bump this thread because it's AWESOME!

 

[Chaotic42]

Pasta: $1.09
Sauce: $1.49
Broccoli: $1.09
Turkey Sausage: $2.49

That's like three meals.

 

[jadinolf]

God, I wish I was a cardiologist.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: Bozono
1 fast fry steak $2
1 can brown beans in tom. sauce $.60
1 can 6 bean medley $.80
1 head broccoli $60
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup $.60

cut up steak, mix the rest together. all for $4.60.

1 head broccoli $60

Not that much but not 60 cents either.

 

[ElFenix]

you can buy a 3 pound spiral sliced ham for about $9. that is enough ham for at least 6 meals and maybe more.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Jello is .33/box and easy/good. Not instant, though.

 

[monk3y]

I get around 6 chicken thighs for ~$3. I cook those in the oven and store some in the fridge. Then cook some rice and I have chicken and rice to last me atleast 3 meals.