Cheapest meals on earth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Organic things I have bought at Aldi: baby kale, baby spinach, butter, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, grape tomatoes, cheddar cheese, blue tortilla chips, granola, almond milk. Not every day do they have all of these.

Right so for someone like me, maybe op (?), going to Aldi for your perishables doesn't work. Because they won't be there, in all likelihood (though you MAY score two things). The you have to drive to store #2, which absolutely eats up your $1.23 you just saved on organic apples at Aldi (if you are being truthful about gas and wear/tear costs on your automobile. Or you spend $2.50 on the bus / metro


So. Aldi. Not for eaters like me.

Op, in your shoes, DS and I eat a lot of oats, quinoa, eggs and 300 kinds of beans.

[Anonymous]

This thread is making me really hungry. PP with the sloppy lentils suggestion - what recipe do you use?

I don't have a kid, but I remember being a teenager and I don't like to spend a ton on food myself when I'm cooking, so here are some cheap ideas: Make a lot of grilled cheese; make a big baked pasta; taco night - buy a box of shells, some protein (we use canned beans), chopped tomatoes, and shredded cheese. These are all filling and inexpensive, and your kid will probably enjoy them.

[Anonymous]

Buy frozen vegetables and keep them on hand to add to everything. I try to buy the dirty dozen and dairy organic but the rest eat conventional. Veggie curries with beans and fried rice with cabbage stretch a long way. I make brown rice in the rice cooker and some kind of stew with a wide variety of vegetables every week and that goes pretty far for cheap. Oatmeal for breakfast. Beans and rice in a burrito for lunch. Anything you make can be stretched with a cheap vegetable chopped and mixed in--broccoli, greens, carrots, sweet potato.

[Anonymous]

I have gotten organic food at aldi. For example, you can find spinach in the refrigerated section and I think it's about half the price of other grocery stores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give up grass-fed meats. I found that the meat goes bad a lot quicker, and the taste was strange.

Strange? Some of us would say better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids never really have a "huge appetite" for healthy food so I think you don't need to worry too much. Buy lots of fruits and veggies and watch the appetite go down.

Hahahahahahahahaha!

No. OP, today my 9-year-old ate: 3 slices ham, a bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of muesli, a bell pepper, a serving of spaghetti squash with marinara and parmesan, a sausage, a few apple slices, a banana, and a hard boiled egg. And we haven't had dinner yet!

I get it. My saving graces are:
Snacks are constantly available cheap raw veggies (carrots, celery, cucumber) and fruits (melons, apples, bananas, oranges) and hard-boiled eggs. These I buy and peel/slice/hard-boil once per week and usually do 2 from above lists of veggies, two of fruit, then get one thing that is more expensive for variety (e.g., carrots, cucumber, bell peppers, and apples, cantaloupe and mango). We usually go through the pricey alternate within 2 days, but have lots of the standbys for remainder of the week. I also do cheese instead of eggs about every 3 rd week.

Breakfasts are gluten-free (usually coconut flour) muffins with frozen berries baked in, steel cut oats with frozen or dried berries or raisins and maple syrup or banana pancakes with nut butter on top.

Lunches are where I use gluten--I try to avoid it, but let lunch slide. We do sandwiches (pb and honey, pb and banana, chicken from leftover chicken breast, or beef from pot roast) or wraps (tortilla with lots of spinach and cheese and a little leftover meat or hummus). At home on weekends, lunch is usually a big salad.

Dinners, we do a ton of soup. Will roast a chicken, turkey or occasionally duck about once a week, then use leftover meat to bulk up lunches, do leftover meat for dinner the next night (e.g., roast chicken thighs, then chicken breasts the next night) and boil carrcass to make stock (really easy once you learn how). Use half the stock and remaining meat to make a chicken soup third night (like chicken soup with rice, broccoli-cheddar-chicken soup with tons of broccoli, chicken and (GF) noodles, etc.). Fourth night something off-the wall like fajitas that uses a little meat and lots of veggies, fifth night is vegetarian usually lentil-based, 6th night. I do gluten-free (usually mozarella and cauliflower based) pizza with leftover veggies or meat on top. 7th night thaw out remaining stock and make pureed veggie soup (butternut or tomatoe bisque, e.g.

With dinner, I serve salad (depending on what was had for lunch that day) or frozen broccoli or peas and tons of roast veggies, especially squash, sweet potato, potato and sprouts.

We don't do a ton of dairy, because it's pricey, but we spring for raw milk and drink about 1/2 gallon per week and I make the rest into yogurt, cottage cheese, creme fraiche, etc. It's not a ton, but it's a nice source of variety. If I wasn't doing raw milk, I would probably just buy a 1/2 gallon of organic milk and a tub of plain yogurt or cottage cheese each week.

I do pay for about 1 8-oz block of cheese a week to go in wraps or soup or occasionally in weekend morning omelets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...We don't do a ton of dairy, because it's pricey, but we spring for raw milk and drink about 1/2 gallon per week and I make the rest into yogurt, cottage cheese, creme fraiche, etc. It's not a ton, but it's a nice source of variety. If I wasn't doing raw milk, I would probably just buy a 1/2 gallon of organic milk and a tub of plain yogurt or cottage cheese each week.

I do pay for about 1 8-oz block of cheese a week to go in wraps or soup or occasionally in weekend morning omelets.

PP, may I ask you where you get raw milk? Or you are talking about non-homogenized?

[Anonymous]

Use up vegetables in a stir fry with rice, serve with a fried egg on top for protein. Breakfast for dinner 1x/week: eggs, toast, and fruit/veg.

I shop at whole foods, and buy mostly organic. Get the 5 lb bag of organic carrots for just under $5. Raw carrots are healthy, easy snacks. Chop into carrot sticks and sautee until brown, or roast them. Add them to soups and stews.

Big bunch of organic kale for $2.79 would make 3-4 salads for you and DD. Chop kale and make dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Make sure it's coated. Then add chopped apple, raisins or other dried fruit, sunflower seeds or nuts. Can add cheese or protein too.

Roast a whole chicken. Can get an organic whole chicken for $10, then have roast chicken with roast vegetables 2x. Boil carcass to make soup, add carrots, celery, pasta, and chicken. Freeze the rest of the chicken and half the soup to have an easy dinner another time. Use rest of frozen chicken for rice and bean burritos, chicken chili, etc. These meals will stretch the meat and beans add protein too. GL.

[Anonymous]

PP here, I forgot to say add onion, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme to soup too. Can do barley instead of pasta too.

[Anonymous]

DH is from a large family so his Mom always stretched a buck as far as possible. Staples in their home included beef stew with tons of veggies & rice, red beans & rice, fried chicken legs with black eye peas. I think all of these can be adapted to suit your needs. He is from the south and his father always had a large garden. If you have any outdoor space at all, you can grow veggies like tomatoes and squash with relative ease and the plants produce all summer long.