So, we are on a tight budget until the end of the month.

[conuly]

I'm trying to work out groceries on the cheap, which is... fun, always fun. Beans and pasta and rice and beans, from now until the first. If anybody has alternate suggestions, or novel recipes for those basic ingredients, you know I want them even more than I wanted recipes before! Potatoes as well, and did I mention the beans?

Parent teacher night was yesterday, and I went in lieu of their father, who couldn't make it. With the storm and all it had just slipped everybody's minds.

Evangeline has TWO teachers, one for math and one for reading, and they both think she's just the smartest thing ever, working a year above grade level in every area but spelling, but maybe she could stand to put her book down once in a while. Also, we got a blank stare when told that her last year teacher didn't think she retold stories adequately. I asked for all this in writing so I could highlight the more interesting parts and mail it off to her, but neither they nor I was sure how serious I was being.

Ana is not writing enough in class, though she is reading well above grade level, as always. Also, she's not paying sufficient attention on tests, so that's gotta change. Her teacher agreed to quietly deemphasize that damn reflection journal, even more than before, because it's not helping. And at this point it's not just Ana who is being badly affected by the expectation of writing in that awful thing, just the thought of it makes my blood boil! It's not fair to anybody else either.

Comments

[steorra]

I quite like moudjendra, which is a lentils and rice dish; I've never had to price it out, but I imagine it's fairly cheap, unless the olive oil is enough to cost significantly.

I have a document full of mostly-vegan recipes from a variety of sources, many of which are based around dried beans/lentils, and some of which are based around making rice more interesting. I could send the whole thing to you if I knew where to send it.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

What's your actual budget per person per day? I have meals that I would consider cheap (weekly food budget of $18 for several years), but they aren't in the rice-and-beans-for-every-meal category because I can't make myself eat that for more than a few days.

[conuly]

I'm not sure yet. We had a furnace emergency followed by a plumbing emergency, and one of those alone eats up two weeks paycheck. So I really don't know the exact budget. I know the nieces will eat free breakfast at school a few times.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

We eat a lot of ham fried rice (or just fried rice with no ham) and beans and rice with sausage. Do you ever seen those big U-shaped sausages at the grocery store? They sell here for about $2 per sausage and I cut up half, add 2 cans of beans (one black, one navy) and a bunch of rice, when some soy sauce, and the kids beg for more. They'll eat 2 bowls of it. If I could figure out how to make real beans without ruining them, I'd save even more money, but we get the cans of beans at Costco and so it's about 70c/can. The meal for the 4 of us is about $3. There are usually some leftovers for lunches the next day.

The fried rice, we put butter in the pan, sautee some onions (or add dried onion flakes), scramble 4-6 eggs, then add frozen peas, frozen corn, and chopped ham if we have it. Once it's all cooked, add cooked rice and add soy sauce. My mom bought us some shrimp at Costco so last night we had this, with shrimp (I put the shrimp in a frying pan with butter, 4 cloves of crushed garlic, and some onion flakes; don't mix it in with the rice cause it gets the rice all shrimpy).

Also, the kids' favorite pasta dish is pasta (gluten free for us), drained, but leave the pan on hot and add a bit of milk or half-and-half while stirring quickly (if you have 4 servings of pasta, 1/3 C milk should be plenty, maybe less but I don't measure). Also a few Ts of butter. Then add garlic salt. Then remove from the heat. For added protein, crack a couple eggs into it and/or a few handfuls of shredded cheese. You can also throw in a can of tuna or canned chicken (or real chicken but if I'm making real chicken I usually serve it on the side) and some broccoli and there's a meal.

Other bean meals the kids love? Chili. Just a scoop of beans on their plate. Refried beans in tacos (sour cream, cheese, beans, sometimes meat, and sometimes rice). Fried bean and cheese quesadillas. Hmm. Just about anything as long as it's not green beans. They hate those for some reason...

[conuly]

We love green beans here, but it probably helps that I cook them with sugar. Sausage is costlier here, the cheapest is eight ounces of chorizo, and that's five bucks right away.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Although the nice thing about chorizo, assuming yours is the same thing as ours, is that a little goes a long way. Especially if you can get them to slice it really thinly (we tend to buy ours from the counter because it's cheaper than buying a whole packet, and we rarely need as much as 100g/4oz to make four portions). Then further chop it into small pieces.

But then, I'm a great believer in stretching meat by cutting it up very small. Like so much of food, it's psychological. As long as you're getting a bit of the taste/texture in enough mouthfuls, it won't feel so stretched.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I assume that you still have store-cupboard ingredients like spices? Look into pilaf/pilau/plov/insert regional variation here. They're basically fragrant rice dishes popular across much of Asia and are incredibly versatile. The main one I grew up eating is onion, leftover roast chicken, rice, raisins and chicken stock.

I can't stand beans so can't suggest much on that front, but you could try a cassoulet? I've long wanted to try making one but haven't because beans are so central. It's French peasant food, so it should certainly be achievable on a tight budget.

And then of course there's that most wonderful of simple comforts: baked potato, baked beans and a little grated cheese. I know American baked beans are a bit different to ours, but I guess it would still work.

I second the recommendation for fried rice, it's a great way to use up whatever scraps you've got knocking around. Also, if you still have eggs then spaghetti alla carbonara? The version I was brought up with just uses bacon, spaghetti, eggs and black pepper - and I suppose some parmesan? (I've never made it myself, I hate it, but I sure was fed it a lot in my youth!)

[conuly]

Yes, all our spices. And we like beans, more or less, so that's no problem!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Organic groceries often have bulk bins with colorful mixtures for pilafs, etc, stuff that all cooks in the same pot at the same time and temperature.

Ethnic menus are satifsying, like Mexican rice, beans, cheese, corn; Indian rice, lentils, beans, yogurt/cottage cheese. Also that's a way to ensure getting a "complete protein" though a looser timing also works. Seeds, peanut butter, etc can also be used in such combinations. Tofu is cheap. Here's some perspective: http://files.achs.edu/resource/nut101/addendum/nugget6.html

My fried rice fries better in hot oil than in butter or margarine, and better after it's been prepped in the microwave.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

PS. Btw another approach is banana bread (or carrot or zucchini or sweet potato etc) with whole grain flour. Or in the form of muffins or cookies.

[conuly]

Though banana muffins, I hadn't thought of that. Bananas are cheap, but you can have too many of them if you just eat them plain.

[conuly]

That's most of what we eat already, happily, as that's what I like to cook.