# Cheap and Frugal Dinning Folks



## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Frugal or cheap dining but so good, the French called it Ratatouille, one hell of a name; my grandmother also had a name for it, vegetable pot luck or stew (menestra de verduras in Spain) she called on the kids to go out into the fields and bring whatever they could find;cabbage,zucchini,carrots,eggplant,squash,tomatoes,okra, is a simple dish of every vegetable available cut in chunks and in a big pot with olive oil, coriander, salt, red pepper flakes to taste, black pepper, vinegar or apple cider. I add a can of diced tomatoes to start the liquid and the salt mostly at the end when the vegetables are tender, is that simple, perfect for a crock pot or heavy clay pot, is a slow dish to cook in order for the vegetables to release their natural sugars. This dish has to be served with good artisan bread in a cold winter day and since is below 85 here in Miami, I felt the need for it. The left over's can be turn into a vegetable omelet by the way with plenty of cheese.


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## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

I usually like meat in my soups...BUT at work we have been having a lot of mixed veggie only soups like what you put together. I have been enjoying these soups on a daily basis. I have become a soup Nazi lately whether meat of meatless. The more stuff in it the better.
Your soup looks delish and makes me hungry. I guess old age has changed some of my eating habits, and I have been trying a lot of foods I never would have in my younger years.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

I grew up on that dish! My family called it "goop," a generic term for "whatever fits in the pot."

All in all, my favorite cuisine is peasant food. Every cuisine has it - simple, cheap, low on the food chain, and usually minimally processed. It feeds the soul along with the belly.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Growing up our one pot wonder was S.O.S. Or as others call it 'sh*t on a shingle'. My mom served it over noodles or white rice not toast. It is just ground meat, onion and a cream sauce made from milk added to the grease drippings or a corn starch slurry. I loved eating this and would finish the leftovers before going to bed.

I can't recreate it though I have tried.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

I grew up eating SOS and love it, my wife and 6 year old have a different opinion of it though.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

Mmmm, SOS with a fried egg on top. Haven't had that in a long time. But I've never had it with ground beef. Our meat is the Buddig (brand name) chipped beef. Ground beef sounds good in it too.


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## ksmama10 (Sep 17, 2012)

Grimm said:


> Growing up our one pot wonder was S.O.S. Or as others call it 'sh*t on a shingle'. My mom served it over noodles or white rice not toast. It is just ground meat, onion and a cream sauce made from milk added to the grease drippings or a corn starch slurry. I loved eating this and would finish the leftovers before going to bed.
> 
> I can't recreate it though I have tried.


I would eat that...and race you for the leftovers. Comfort food...


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Grimm said:


> Growing up our one pot wonder was S.O.S. Or as others call it 'sh*t on a shingle'. My mom served it over noodles or white rice not toast. It is just ground meat, onion and a cream sauce made from milk added to the grease drippings or a corn starch slurry. I loved eating this and would finish the leftovers before going to bed.
> 
> I can't recreate it though I have tried.


I served it over homemade waffles for breakfast or brunch,the family is very attach to SOS.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

readytogo said:


> I served it over homemade waffles for breakfast or brunch,the family is very attach to SOS.


That sounds really good! I'm going to give it a try.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

helicopter5472 said:


> I usually like meat in my soups...BUT at work we have been having a lot of mixed veggie only soups like what you put together. I have been enjoying these soups on a daily basis. I have become a soup Nazi lately whether meat of meatless. The more stuff in it the better.
> Your soup looks delish and makes me hungry. I guess old age has changed some of my eating habits, and I have been trying a lot of foods I never would have in my younger years.


Soups are a simple satisfying dish, made with whatever you have on hand, I grew up with soups slowly cook on a heavy clay pot on a wood stove they seem to cook forever but boy once served with a chunk of old bread, heaven.In today's kitchen is less work, meat/fish, vegetables, water, wine, salt, pepper or bullion and you wake up to a gourmet meal unlike any other, just don`t forget to turn on the Crockpot. I did some lawn work this morning and after that my back pain keeps me in bed but my good old Crockpot is hot and the sweet-sour chicken soup is readytogo.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

While we do enjoy a number of homemade soup recipes, I must be the odd man out because I never grew up with and do not currently have a low cost whatever-is-available recipe like SOS or ratatouille. We do however have left overnight and do not cook "new food" for lunch time if there are leftovers available. With a wife, seven kids and a part-time nanny no meals seem to fall into the low-cost category. Probably the least expensive dinner we eat is homemade linguine with Alfredo sauce. It's really just flour, eggs, heavy cream, garlic, Parmesan cheese and butter.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

Sentry18 said:


> no meals seem to fall into the low-cost category. Probably the least expensive dinner we eat is homemade linguine with Alfredo sauce. It's really just flour, eggs, heavy cream, garlic, Parmesan cheese and butter.


Sounds like you answered your own question with that one.


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## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

Originally Posted by Sentry18 View Post 
no meals seem to fall into the low-cost category. Probably the least expensive dinner we eat is homemade linguine with Alfredo sauce. It's really just flour, eggs, heavy cream, garlic, Parmesan cheese and butter.

We do the same except I cook chicken breast in wine and add broccoli and chop it up, and add it in the Alfredo and linguine. yummy....


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

Sentry18 said:


> While we do enjoy a number of homemade soup recipes, I must be the odd man out because I never grew up with and do not currently have a low cost whatever-is-available recipe like SOS or ratatouille. We do however have left overnight and do not cook "new food" for lunch time if there are leftovers available. With a wife, seven kids and a part-time nanny no meals seem to fall into the low-cost category. Probably the least expensive dinner we eat is homemade linguine with Alfredo sauce. It's really just flour, eggs, heavy cream, garlic, Parmesan cheese and butter.


I think the answer for you guys is to look at cost per serving instead of cost per meal. That's how I cost my recipes, even though it's just the husband and I.

We make a lot of curry around here. Cheapest piece of pork or beef we can find ($5-10), a couple cans of coconut milk ($2 each), veggies ($5? maybe), a scoop of curry paste ($5 for an entire can), water, and various small additions. Sometimes, peanuts, but always Mae Ploy and sriracha. Served over rice, of course. If we had to pay for everything at the store, about $17.10. This makes about 10-15 servings minimum. So, $1.71 a serving.


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## Jim1590 (Jul 11, 2012)

I like our version of sloppy joes. Of course with beef prices soaring, no longer a frugal meal.

Brown the meat, drain the grease, add enough water to cover the meat, add healthy dose of ketchup (catsup also acceptable!) and plain yellow mustard. Goal is to add enough to give you a orange colored suspension with the meat. Boil off the water and you have a tasty meal.

Missing all the other veggies that are in the premade cans. So this one is more kid friendly.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Brown beans with some homegrown pork tossed in and a pan of cornbread ... Smack your lips!


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

*Andi said:


> Brown beans with some homegrown pork tossed in and a pan of cornbread ... Smack your lips!


Uhmm ... what are brown beans?

One of my favorites is beans and dumplings.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

mosquitomountainman said:


> Uhmm ... what are brown beans?


In my area it would be from the store pintos or homegrown horticultures ...


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

*Andi said:


> In my area it would be from the store pintos or homegrown horticultures ...


I was thinking Pintos ... sounds good to me. That's one of my favorites also (beans, pork and corn bread!).


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Jim1590 said:


> I like our version of sloppy joes. Of course with beef prices soaring, no longer a frugal meal.
> 
> Brown the meat, drain the grease, add enough water to cover the meat, add healthy dose of ketchup (catsup also acceptable!) and plain yellow mustard. Goal is to add enough to give you a orange colored suspension with the meat. Boil off the water and you have a tasty meal.
> 
> Missing all the other veggies that are in the premade cans. So this one is more kid friendly.


In North Dakota, what I call a sloppy joe is called a slushburger.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Toffee said:


> I think the answer for you guys is to look at cost per serving instead of cost per meal. That's how I cost my recipes, even though it's just the husband and I.
> 
> We make a lot of curry around here. Cheapest piece of pork or beef we can find ($5-10), a couple cans of coconut milk ($2 each), veggies ($5? maybe), a scoop of curry paste ($5 for an entire can), water, and various small additions. Sometimes, peanuts, but always Mae Ploy and sriracha. Served over rice, of course. If we had to pay for everything at the store, about $17.10. This makes about 10-15 servings minimum. So, $1.71 a serving.


This sounds delicious, and this may not seem important to anyone else, but I would want to serve it over basmati rice.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

mosquitomountainman said:


> I was thinking Pintos ... sounds good to me. That's one of my favorites also (beans, pork and corn bread!).


I love pintos! We take the leftovers mash them up and make patties then roll in flour and fry like a potato cake. They're great with bacon and runny eggs for breakfast.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

Stone Soup!

Once upon a time, there was great famine in a poor village where the peasants jealously hoarded and hid whatever little food they had.

Two soldiers, returning from war, decided to stop at the little village for the night. “How I would like a good dinner tonight," said the first. "And a soft bed to sleep in," added the second.

But when asked by the soldiers for these humble luxuries, the peasants declared: "We have no food for ourselves! In fact, there's not a bite to eat in the whole village. You’d better move on.”

The first soldier declared, "Good people! We are hungry soldiers; we’ve asked you for food and you have none. I suppose we will have to make stone soup." The peasants just stared. The soldier added mysteriously, "Our king gave me a very special gift when I saved his life in battle." 

He then asked for a big cauldron and water to fill it. When the villagers brought the cauldron, the two soldiers placed it in the middle of the square and built a huge fire underneath. Then the first soldier took out an ornate bag from a secret pocket of his cape, removed three very ordinary-looking stones from the bag, and with great ceremony dropped them into the water.

"A good soup needs salt and pepper," the first soldier said, so one of the peasants sent his children to fetch some salt and pepper.

"Oh!" the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do love stone soup. Of course, stone soup with carrots...that's hard to beat."

Hearing this, one of villagers sent his son home to fetch some carrots hidden in the cellar. Soon the son returned and they ceremoniously added the carrots to the pot. "Magnificent!" exclaimed the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with carrots and some salt beef as well, and it was fit for the king!" The village butcher managed to find some salt beef. And so it went, until soon there were onions, potatoes, barley, cabbage, and milk added to the cauldron.

The village peasants had never before tasted anything so good that was made of stones, and soon they began singing, dancing, and making merry well into the night.

The moral of the story? Talent, nimble thinking, teamwork, resourcefulness and creativity go a long way.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

A large part of our income goes into food so is very important to manage our money properly, money and time. I never turn the oven on just to heat or cook one meal, waste of money; roasting a leg of pork, meatloaf, lasagna and a loaf of bread or rolls can easily come out of the oven at the same time. A can of beans and tomatoes can be a pot of chili just by adding chili powder, ground meat for a complete meal with corn bread; I keep a jar or two of cook ground meat for a quick sloppy joe or tacos even a good taco salad. Mix frozen vegetables some meat and ramen noodles (minus the salt packets) can turn out to be a great oriental meal with a little oyster sauce. I also make a menu; I ask everybody in the household what they want for dinner it saves me time and money I also used my crockpot alot,great tool .


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

I just experimented with a potato casserole a week ago.. mmmmmm.....

Shred potatoes
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
1 can (empty soup can) Milk
1 Tub sour cream
Meat of your choice
shredded sharp cheddar cheese

I heat the soup and sour cream then mix it with the potatoes and put it in a baking dish. then I top it with the meat and then the cheese and bake. I bake at about 300° until potatoes are done. I do brown the meat.

Makes me about 8 servings or more.


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

weedygarden said:


> This sounds delicious, and this may not seem important to anyone else, but I would want to serve it over basmati rice.


Thems fightin words!  We only use jasmine rice here. I do have basmati on hand for rice pudding and that sort of thing, but my husband jokes that they would take away his culinary degree if he dared use basmati rice for anything "good"


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## Jewel (Sep 6, 2014)

We always eat frugally but never cheap 

One of my winter favorites is Everlasting Soup. the pot just sits on the wood stove and things are added each day or as needed. I usually start it like a soupy stew with chunks of seared venison and cut up root vegetables like potatoes, J chokes, carrots, dandelion root, onions etc etc.. . And the just continually keep it heated and add things to it. Even just a handful of millet or a cup of leftover rice.

I also keep all my veg scraps and make vegetable broth when i have a potful. It's made the same way as chicken broth with the carcass. The chickens get the vegetable scraps after they've been boiled down. I use one of these sorts of broth for the base of the soup.


Tonight we had a very frugal meal. Leftover pizza. I used biscuit dough this time but also do make my own pizza dough and it's good with pie crust dough. Topped with a jar of my own herbed tomato sauce, leftover ham, reconstituted peppers, leftover rice, more herbs, slices of the last two roma tomatoes from the garden that were picked over a week ago but just now ripened in the window, red onion and topped with shredded goat cheese. I hung this cheese longer than usual and it was pretty firm for farm cheese. 

It was a wonderful pizza!! We live very simply but eat like kings


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## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

how cheap you want? i recently put together a recipe compilation for a newly wed with all my ultra-cheap recipes (called it 'the budget is in the crapper again cookbook'). I use most of them regularly, now that its getting colder it is crock-pot-soup-surprise. Kinda like your 'everlasting soup pot' Jewel - you sound like my kind of cook!

My latest version started with the excess soaking water drained from yesterday's dehydrated hash browns, then I added the cup of chicken drippings I had in the refrigerator from deglazing last night's roasted chicken pan (defatted of course), a scant handful of chopped green pepper (frozen from the garden when in season), a nice meaty southern style spare rib, diced about 1/4 inch (leftovers saved in freezer), a cup of leftover whole kernel corn plus the juice drained from the can of corn, and a cup of pre-cooked whole white wheat kernels (made ahead and frozen; stands up to slow cooking better than brown rice does), and 2 low sodium chicken bouillon cubes. It was delicious, and all those bits & pieces did not get wasted. The next soup will be beef based more than likely. God bless the freezer, I keep all the leftover bits & pieces, the bones for broth, etc. I ALWAYS have something in the slow cooker. Don't like soup? Makes a fine broth for gravy or to cook rice or pasta in, for gravy too. (Thanks to my freezers, I don't have to waste a scrap.)

Some things I learned in childhood from my depression era mom about eating cheap:

1. ALWAYS stretch the hamburger with something (oatmeal, chopped mushrooms are my standbys; she used bread crumbs and minced onions) and then save out at least 2 ounces per pound of meat for a rainy day (that is what the freezer is for). Nobody will know whether your pound of burger was 16 ounces or less unless you tell them, and most folks eat way too much meat.)
2. ALWAYS save the fat/grease for later use (chicken fat for baking, bacon grease for flavoring, hamburger and/or beef grease for frying). You can make soap if you get too much.
3. Learn to cook the cheap, easily raised, root-cellar veggies as many ways as possible (potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, squash). Bonus points if they are things that the produce man doesn't know how to cook with at the grocery store, they usually sell those things extra cheap (sweet potatoes, rutabagas) because nobody knows their use or value. Eat in season and from the garden as long as you can.
4. Always have on hand (cheap is OK) onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, cinnamon, allspice, sour salt (citric acid - has a lemony flavor) to add variety to basic foods like rice and beans. Add salt, pepper and vinegar and you can really cook!
5. Learn to make some kind of fresh bread. It makes any old thing a memorable meal when it is served with hot bread (must be true, my late dh was crazy about biscuits & gravy and that is cheap as it gets!)
6. Learn to cook as many kinds of game as you can find or obtain where you live. Ditto for foraged vegetables (weeds to some). You get the fun of hunting/foraging, the benefits of unprocessed foods, and some mighty fine eatin'. (Her fried squirrel was excellent!) Learn to can any surplus or windfalls for later, too.

So I ask you....what's in your personal food bank (pantry, refrigerator and/or freezer)?


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