Welcome to Frugal Workshop where every Monday I share the simple strategies used to save money in my kitchen over the past week, along with the meals that made it to our dinner table. You'll find practical tips on how we saved money on food hopefully to inspire your own meal planning using the foods you have in your own pantry.
My Frugal Week
Many families feed their crew on smaller budgets through smart, disciplined habits, which involve practical systems that minimize waste and stretch their ingredients.
Key habits include buying discounted day old bread, keeping a continuous stock pot from scraps, growing herbs at home, and making one roast last multiple meals. Thee families eat seasonally because it is cheaper, track prices carefully, and relying on staples such as oatmeal, potatoes, pasta, rice, and dried beans.
Vegetables fill plates before small portions of meat, and leftovers are used up such as stale bread becoming croutons or dessert, bones becoming soup, all of which involved not throwing away food.
Other strategies included preserving fruit, diluting ingredients to stretch them, using cheaper cuts of meat, and cooking from scratch. Eating out can be rare, and sometimes communities share food to reduce food costs.
At the core of all of lies one principle: waste nothing. These aren't outdated habits, but rather efficient, economical systems that keep families healthy and budgets intact.
What’s for Dinner
Monday ~ Choice of Beefy Baked Beans or Cajun Turkey Breast, Sweet Potatoes, Cabbage & Onions, and Deviled Eggs.
I had leftovers from the weekend, so it was a choice of either the beans or turkey breast for the main course. Bailey picked the beans and we finished those. I also baked some sweet potatoes with olive oil, made some deviled eggs, and made a side dish of stir fried cabbage and onions using a bit of olive oil and a bit of bacon grease (yum!).
Tuesday ~ Baked Chicken Tenders, Sweet Potatoes, and Cabbage & Onions.
The chicken tenders were some we had in the freezer and the sides were the rest of the leftovers from Monday night's dinner.
Wednesday ~ Cajun Turkey Breast, Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob.
We used up the last of the Cajun turkey breast for dinner and I served baked beans and corn on the cob as side dishes. I also served deviled eggs along side.
Thursday ~ Chicken Crunchwrap Supremes, Refried Beans, and Corn.
I had a Taco Bell kit for Crunchwrap Supremes that I used up for dinner tonight. I stopped in at Food City to pick up one tomato and some marked down bananas while I was running an errand.
Friday ~ Grilled Chicken Burritos and Corn on the Cob.
I asked Bailey what she wanted for dinner and this was her suggestion, which works for me as it's an easy dinner to make for both of us. I make hers with my homemade chipotle sauce and make a sauce for me of cottage cheese and taco seasoning, blended until smooth.
Saturday ~ Chicken Tenders, Chili Beans, and Salad.
Sunday ~ Chicken & Onions with Cabbage, and Caramelized Sweet Potatoes.
What’s been on the menu in your home this past week? Did you build up or organize your pantry this week? Have you been decluttering? How are you managing food prices? We would love to hear all about it in the comment section.
Belinda
Homemaker at Heart
Your tips are great and I think I use them all. This morning is 'use it up' day - and I am using up things that need to be used soon. Kind of fun to see what I can come up with to stretch them out.
ReplyDeleteI made a bunch of chicken broth from two bags of rotisserie chicken bones that were lingering in the freezer. So, that was nice. I also used up a couple of meal items (Philly Cheesesteak & two bags of ground beef that needed to be used up) in our prep for the week. That created a bit more space for all of the chicken broth. - Hawaii Planner
ReplyDeleteWe try and use everything, though I did find a small hunk of cheese in a bag that was pushed far back in the dairy drawer of the fridge, and about 2 inches of a steak that was also far back in the meat drawer. I hate throwing away food!
ReplyDeleteYum! Now I'm wanting a crunch wrap.
ReplyDeleteI use many of those frugal habits, and although I find the perpetual stew concept fascinating, I hope I don't have to try it. Looking forward to garden fresh veggies, and I hope my garden does well this year.
Hope you have a good week.
Dear Belinda, your Tuesday dinner sounds delicious, dear friend! Thankfully here in Montreal we have been getting some gorgeous weather so I have been enjoying it and getting out for my nature walks, taking photos and sharing them on my blog.
ReplyDeleteSince I am spending more time outdoors my visits to my blog friends are late, but I think "better late than never" rings true...and your posts are so much fun and very informative.
I appreciate all you share, and I hope you have a fantastic week ahead!
Yummy meals as usual. I am trying to get things used up and perhaps do a bit of stocking up as well. Tough to manage both sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.