Cost-effective cooking

[RoJoHen]

Greetings. I am considering trying something new in an attempt to save money on groceries. I generally only make food for myself, and that can sometime gets a little pricey when I'm making/buying one meal at a time. I often try to cook some a lot on the weekends so that I can have meals ready during the week, but usually this will end up being a casserole or some chili or something like that.

This works okay, but I want to try some new things. For example, I am considering cooking a whole turkey for myself. Cook it, slice it up, and freeze a lot of it. Turkeys seem to go a long way for my family during the holidays; I can only imagine how far I could stretch a turkey if I'm the only one eating it.

Do you have any ideas or things that you do to make cooking/eating more cost-effective? Keep in mind that I have a giant appetite. If you were to mix a teenage boy with a pregnant chick, that is the appetite I have. I am also trying to cut back on carbs and things, so if you have protein-heavy recipes, those would be awesome, too!

 

[Kestra]

Are you just looking for new recipes, or what? I find myself cooking large amounts and then freezing half. Making a casserole for two people means we can get sick of it really fast if we have to eat the same thing every night. So I'll make a few big meals per week, freeze half of it, and mix and match during the week.

I just reheated some broccoli-cheese soup I made earlier in the week and added a few things and it was even better than the original batch!

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't really know what I'm looking for. Maybe new recipes? I eat like a horse. I eat like a horse, and a casserole that would normally feed about 5-6 people would be eaten by me in a day. I had eight hot dogs for dinner last night. Eight! And when I woke up this morning, I was starving.

I think maybe I'm looking for, like, GIANT recipes.

 

[SeerSGB]

My Aunt does this a lot. She has a mini-cake pan (eight loaf style cakes to a pan) and she'll make up mini meatloafs and freeze them and them microwave them during the week for work lunches or a quick meal. She even cooks veggies an instant potatoes or baked then takes those little divided Rubbermaid / Tupperware bowls and makes up a meal. She says it saves her a bunch of time and money a month.

I've done the "tray meals" like she's down and I found that beef works best for freezing and reheating, especially tips.

 

[Kestra]

I don't really know what I'm looking for. Maybe new recipes? I eat like a horse. I eat like a horse, and a casserole that would normally feed about 5-6 people would be eaten by me in a day. I had eight hot dogs for dinner last night. Eight! And when I woke up this morning, I was starving.

I think maybe I'm looking for, like, GIANT recipes.

Haha, you sound like my husband. He doesn't snack or anything, but when he eats he eats everything in sight. It's ridiculous!

I'd suggest looking into crockpot/slow cooker recipes? I somewhat recently learned how to make pulled pork in the slow cooker and was told it was really good (I don't eat pork myself). But you can make large quantities that way.

I guess most of my really large meals are either meat (like making a roast) or just large amounts of pasta or something casserole-ish. But you said you're trying to cut back on carbs ...

Oh! Look into soups or stews, ones that are more filling. I make this southwest type bean soup in massive quantities but the smallest amount of it is really filling so it lasts a long time.

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, stews would be good. My biggest problem is that I always seem to make the same things over and over again. I need to expand my horizons. I made an 8 pound pot roast in my crock pot last week with about 10 potatoes and a bunch of carrots...it lasted me two meals, and that's only because I forced myself to stop eating it. I could have easily eaten the entire thing in one sitting if I wanted to. The other night, after eating dinner, I was still hungry, so I cooked myself a dozen scrambled eggs. If I made meat sauce for spaghetti, I will eat the entire pound of ground beef along with half a box of pasta...and an entire loaf of garlic bread! My appetite is fucking ridiculous.

 

[Kestra]

Ugh. I'm 5'1". Do you know what would happen to me if I ate an entire loaf of garlic bread?!

 

[sojourner]

Ugh. I'm 5'1". Do you know what would happen to me if I ate an entire loaf of garlic bread?!

You're SO wouldn't kiss you till you brushed?

As to the OP, holey cow! what are you 8' tall? I mean, really, it sounded like you had a similar appetite to me until you mentioned the dozen eggs after dinner.

I eat a lot and if I let myself, I could go through an entire pot roast in a day (and used to). But I don't. I limit myself to 2 plates per day of a "prepared meal" and at other times I'll eat fruit a lot. There are times when I feel hungry for a "meal" and have found that getting a can of corn or peas or something like that and nuking it works to fill the urge.

And no, the last time I was over my weight range was the mid 90's.

 

[Me-Ike]

Wow, good metabolism.

Maybe try and eat some carrots or other vegetables in between? To dampen the actual hunger when dinner comes around?

Or eat GIANT animals. I hear whale is quite nice this time of year.

 

[Paradon]

I always like stir fried recipes. It's easy and quick. You can prep your ingredient ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. Just dump eveyrthing together in the hot wok and seasonings, or whatever, and you're done. Be sure to freeze meat. It's safer that way.

Or You can make different stir fried dishes from the same cut of meat with different veggies on the weekends and put them in the fridge and just heat in the microwave when you want to eat them on the weekdays. It should last in the fridge. I usually by one a huge chunck of meat of what I want to eat for the week and try to make different dishes from it. This way I save money. I freeze the rest of the meat if I can't use all of it for the week and maybe BBQ it on the weekends.

 

[RoJoHen]

Wow, good metabolism.

Maybe try and eat some carrots or other vegetables in between? To dampen the actual hunger when dinner comes around?

Oh, I do that too.

 

[Pingfah]

Try Tuna, Quark & Pasta bake, with a few herbs, garlic some broccoli and a tin of tomatoes thrown in. The tuna and Quark are virtually fat free and absolutely jam packed with protein.

Use wholewheat pasta too, lots of fibre and I understand the carbs are better for you when they come from unprocessed grain.

It's my go to after workout meal, loads of protein, vitamins, fibre, virtually no fat and tasty too. Also, extremely cheap.

You could also try some curries, they are very easy to cook up in a large batch and super cheap as often the only ingredients are Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Meat and whatever vast array of spices are required. Use Chicken for a higher protein, lower fat meal. The spices are expensive to get at first as you need so many, but then they last for a long time.

 

[Me-Ike]

Oh, I do that too.

You'd be devastating to a poor country in Africa.

Use wholewheat pasta too, lots of fibre and I understand the carbs are better for you when they come from unprocessed grain.

Definitely this. My roommate is a nutrionist and she keeps preaching it to me. Your bread should look somewhat like this for it to last long.

 

[RoJoHen]

Unprocessed grain isn't very good for you, either. I honestly tend to avoid all bread for the most part (with the exception of occasional loaves of garlic bread).

I don't need tips on nutrition. I need tips on cooking in bulk!

 

[Me-Ike]

I need tips on cooking in bulk!

Back to the giant animals!

 

[RoJoHen]

Mmmm...buffalo....

 

[Me-Ike]

A mere side dish.

To get slightly back on topic, I think I can empathise. Not that I sustain an entire state's agricultural output, but ever since I started running regularly, all I think about is food. While I'm eating I think about what to eat next. It's like driving a wheelbarrow full of dirt to the grand canyon and trying to fill it up that way. Maddening.

 

[Pingfah]

I don't need tips on nutrition. I need tips on cooking in bulk!

Whatever you are cooking, cook a lot of it.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't need tips on nutrition. I need tips on cooking in bulk!

Whatever you are cooking, cook a lot of it.

I'm gonna write that one down.

 

[BillJ]

Better watch the old ticker eating like that.

I had a heart attack scare on Sunday, spent two days in the hospital and was stuck like a pin cushion. Food definitely hasn't tasted nearly as good since I came home. And I eat alot of the time the way you describe above.