Nov 9

Welcome to Ways to Save, a new weekly series where we will drill into different frugal living or money saving tips in more depth.  This week we will look at how you can dine out on a budget, and provide our best money saving tips in this regard.  If you have topics you would like to see addressed in a weekly Ways To Save edition please email those to us at centsibleinseattle@gmail.com or submit it in the comments section below.

One way to save on your grocery budget is to learn to cook with ingredients that are cheaper to start out with, even without a sale or coupon.  I touched on the topic of using cheaper cuts of meats in my previous article Tips To Maximize Your Grocery Budget. Beyond just using less expensive cuts of meats there are many ingredients that I like to keep on hand because: 1) they are affordable 2) they make great tasting food and 3) they are versatile.

One thing I love about trying to keep my pantry stocked with these items is that it frees up my grocery budget to purchase other items to provide a balanced meal. If you have these items available then you can splurge on ingredients for a nice salad to serve with them.

My list of favorite frugal ingredients to keep on hand:

Pantry Items –

Potatoes – you can usually find a 5 lb bag for just over $1.  This is one of my families favorite foods and so versatile. We dice them up for fried potatoes or hash browns in the morning, cut them up for french fries, slice them up and add cheese for scalloped potatoes, bake them whole and add all the toppings, boil them up for mashed potatoes (a secret ingredient – cook in simmering half and half with a couple of cloves of garlic until potatoes are soft. There wont be too much liquid left so I add butter and mash them right in the cream and garlic they cooked in. Not calorie friendly, but delicious).

There are so many great side dish uses for potatoes. They also can be used for every meal of the day, and are a great additive to soups and casseroles.

Garlic – I love garlic! I could just leave it at that, but there is something about walking into the house to a meal that started with a diced onion and diced garlic cloves cooking in a little butter. At least that’s what the hubbie says. This is the base of many of my recipes. Its how I start my Fettucini Alfredo, spaghetti, and many others. If I have a savory dish that needs a little boost I often dice up a garlic clove or two and add them, and I just cannot think of a time that it did not improve the recipe. Ok, I am a bit partial, I think garlic is wonderful (and usually get away with spending anywhere from $.50 to $1 for a head of garlic).

Rice – this ingredient is very affordable and can act as the base for a dish, hold its own as a side dish, or act as an ingredient in soups and casseroles.

Beans - another affordable ingredient and can be used to stretch your meat budget. Since beans have protein use them to make a meat dish go further and be as filling. They also make a great side, add to rice or salads, etc. There are many recipes available for beans, just google them.

Stuffing - I love this ingredient because I will often find it on sale. I just picked it up for $.10 cents a box at Top Foods. Besides your standard stuffing side I grind them up (in my coffee grinder of all places, it would work better for you if you own a food processor), add some seasonings and store in an airtight container to use as bread crumbs. Its much cheaper then if you buy bread crumbs packaged. Another thing I do is toss some of the bigger bread crumbs from stuffing package on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and seasonings and bake for a short while to use as croutons on top of salads.

Pasta – another affordable ingredient that you can use as a main dish or side dish, or even as an ingredient in soups or casseroles. Its a great comfort food, or can be dressed up and served with a bottle of wine for special meal.

Chicken Stock – this is another one of those ingredients I use in everything. I usually buy the bouillon because its often cheaper then chicken stock.  I use this as a base for most of my soups (including cream soups, replace 1/2 the cream with chicken stock and get great flavor and less fat). You can also use it to boil your potatoes in for flavorful mashed potatoes, add to your cream sauces if you need to thin them out but want great flavor and more. Hard to keep enough of this on hand in my house.

Frozen Foods:

Rhodes Frozen Texas Rolls or Bread Loaves – these are one of my favorite cheat ingredients. Although I would love to make homemade bread from scratch regularly, I do not have the patience (nor a bread maker yet). I buy this frozen dough and all I have to do is follow the easy instructions to rise them on the back of the bag, and presto – I have homemade bread. I find them to be cheaper then buying loaves. I can usually find them at Winco for around $4 for a bag that holds four loaves (so around $1 a loaf).  They are incredibly versatile. I use them to make:

• Bread or rolls (you can do bread sticks, focassia bread, garlic bread, etc).
• Homemade cinnamon rolls
• Elephant ears (my kids love these, and so easy withe the Texas Rolls)
• Pizza crust and calzones ( we use the loaf size for our family pizza or the rolls for individual pizzas. Thaw two rolls and make one pizza then cover with another for a calzone).
• Flat bread for native style tacos
• Thaw out a roll and wrap around hot dogs and cook. Another kid favorite.
• Thaw out the rolls and cook up a hamburger. Add cheese and then wrap the dough completely around your burger and bake until browned.  These are my kids favorite hamburgers (but be careful before biting into them, the cheese inside can be very hot if you do not let them cool first or cut in half).

The sky is the limit with these babies!

Frozen Vegetables

Bread (this freezes well. Buy loaves when they go on sale and freeze until your ready to use).

Meats:

Whole Chickens – these often go on sale for under $.90/lb, about as cheap as meat gets. At that price a chicken that costs about $4.50 should feed a family of 4-5, depending on your appetites. I stock up on these when they go on sale and put them in the freezer. Once thawed I can use them for simple meals like a roast chicken, or make homemade chicken noodle soup, or I can cut it up for fried or grilled chicken. So many uses for these chickens, some of the uses just require a bit of prep work.

Pork Roasts - this is another meat that will often go on sale. Throw it in the crock pot for the day, shred it up and now you have tender meat for most recipes that call for pork.

Chicken Thighs – you will often find these priced at $.99/lb. When cooked slow the meat is tender and flavorful. I use chicken thighs in many recipes my family loves. You can brown them up in a little oil and add a small diced onion, can of black beans, can of corn, can of tomato sauce and some chili pepper. Top off with red pepper flakes and let the thighs simmer in that sauce until cooked through. Serve over garlic mashed potatoes for an affordable southwestern style chicken. My husband loves when I fry them up and then top off with a cream sauce (1/2 part cream cheese, 1/2 part sour cream, 3 diced garlic cloves and ranch dressing seasoning mix). Let them cook long and slow in the oven on 300 and they will fall apart when you cut into them.

Flank Steak - an affordable alternative to pricey steaks. Cook them long and slow in a marinade and they are delicious. You can also use for fajita meat, teriyaki beef, and other recipes that call for beef strips.

Ground Sausage – I use this in spaghetti, soups, pastas and more. Its a great way to stretch your meat budget when things are tight.

This is just the start of a frugal ingredients list. I have already thought of ten ingredients I did not include! What are your favorite affordable ingredients to cook with, and how to do you use them?

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