I always hear y'all say "your meals sound good". Show and tell - sometimes it helps to see things. I don't spend a lot of money or time on cooking, but I love to eat. I keep things simple and easy and I use ALL my leftovers!!!!!!!
Goulash - simple and tasty
Smoked sausage, kraut, and mashed tators
Baby lima beans, fish strips and roasted potatoes
Tamales over rice
I think we all need to remember that we can eat well on little. It doesn't take a lot of money. I know there are some that cannot have pasta or rice or maybe even legumes. You know the things you can substitute.
I don't always have meat in a meal - I often have another protein. Meat is not essential every day.
Meals do not have to be many courses. A single plate or bowl of food is ENOUGH!
We should be eating to live - not living to eat!!!!!!
Keep your leftovers and use in a new way or freeze for use in a meal at a later date. It is nice to be able to pull a helping of soup or meat or sauce out of the freezer and thaw and heat. So simple for those days you don't feel like cooking.
Come summer and warmer weather - there will be a lot of sandwiches and salads of all kinds.
So when your money is tight, and supplies are low - take a moment and look around. Odds are you can create something quite tasty from what you have. It doesn't have to be fancy.
If you keep basic supplies on hand in your pantry - you can be a super creative person.
EAT WELL ON LITTLE - Keeping it simple!!!!!
Absolutely and so true! I've also started doing a little cooking ahead or combined cooking, so I'm only heating the oven up once, instead of multiple times. Saving energy costs. If I'm roasting chicken for dinner, I may throw in a tin of breakfast muffins, or bake cookies after my dinner is out of the oven. Use it while it's heated up, rather than preheating it a second time.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. It doesn't seem like much to some, but it does save time and energy. Love doing double takes.
DeleteI have used the air fryer some for 'baking' as well lately. No big oven to be heated!
Good tips.
I get meal inspiration from various blogs that I read. While we have our family favorites (and they are all quick and simple), it's always nice to add something different into the mix.
ReplyDeleteHamburger stew is relatively new to me and so very simple. Bonus - my son loves it. Today, another blogger mentioned bean soup and calzones and thinking of the ingredients I need to use up in the fridge I'll likely make both. Calzones for dinner and soup for my lunches for a few days.
That is the way to do it. So many ideas out there to mix things up a little. No reason for anyone to get bored or break the bank.
DeleteENJOY your goodies!
Cheryl, I am so impressed!! You eat real meals! When I was single, I would only cook once a week. I ate the same things. For breakfast, a bran muffin and apple with PB. Lunch was a Lean Cuisine, a banana, and a Diet Coke. Dinner was a variety of two, haha! Either I'd open a can of soup or I'd make oatmeal. With toast. On the nights I worked sporting events, it was often yogurt and fruit or, if I was late, it was popcorn at the arena!! The most and only real variation was when I traveled with the team. I gobbled on big Cobb salads and the occasional hot fudge sundae in bed from room service. ��. I grocery shopped the same every week. 5 of everything!!
ReplyDeleteThose meals of yours look fabulous!! When I was young, we made homemade tamales. Oh, YUM!!!! My job was to spread the masa on the corn husks. After my mom filled them, I tied little bows to keep them closed while they steamed. My Grandma was the chief of the filling...a very good one!
Simple can be very good. That Barely Beef stew last week was a last minute creative effort that turned out delicious! All orts and ends of previous meals. Over the weekend, hubs was digging through the freezer looking for the leftover leftovers lol lol. He wanted more.
I did sandwiches and salad for a long while - and missed food!
DeleteI don't really like oatmeal so that never worked for me - only cereal now and then and then as a sweet - no milk.
I would love to learn homemade tamales (mine are from a can) - but that is a lot of work for one!
It seems sometimes those accident or off the cuff meals turn out the best! Glad your hubby liked it!
Had to ask Google what Tamale was lol
ReplyDeleteNever heard of it before. I had a very very simple meal this evening. Pasta with peppers etc in it and grated cheese.
We had a heavy shower of snow this evening. The 1st this year
Sylvia
It is funny how different foods are only in certain areas. Most things I know what they are or have seen. I think we have a bit of everything here in the U.S. - so many nationalities.
DeleteThey are really good!
I love pasta dishes like that - it sounds tasty.
It is SUPER windy here today. Warm for a day and storms coming in. That is spring in my area.
Tamales were an all day project in our house, but worth it. We only made them a couple of times each year. Each wife would take home a bunch to freeze for later meals. I was a kid so I didn't get any extra lol. I was watching a show on PBS called Craft in America and they were in San Antonio. One of the Christmas traditions they showed was a couple that made tamales. I was practically drooling!!!
ReplyDeleteI am making either split pea or lentil soup tonight with leftover ham from the freezer. Yum. Your food always looks so yummy. My family loves goulash. Thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm - sounds great. Thanks - Goulash is a favorite here too.
DeleteYou are very creative with your meals! Soups and stir fry dishes are super easy and filling. We made a chicken shepherd's pie for lunch and there's enough left for two more meals.
ReplyDeleteBatten down the hatches! It sure is windy.
Chicken shepherd's pie sounds tasty. Good for you on having meals ahead.
DeleteThe wind is nuts!!!!!!! Over it.
Thank you posting these - they give me inspiration. Yes,the pictures are really helpful. We all get into a cooking rut sometimes!
ReplyDeleteI think we all gets in ruts for all kinds of things. I never would have thought I would be taking pictures of food!! LOL
DeleteGlad it helps!
Let's see.....I just finished the remaining roasted brussel sprouts from Friday. I melted 1/4c cheese over the top. I had a handful of mixed nuts and a serving of dark chocolate.
ReplyDeleteEat what ya have right???? I've been eating leftovers since Saturday and they are now all gone (some rice and black beans are frozen). Next up is to finish the remaining fresh spinach, tomatoes and carrots from the March 7 grocery shop. those will take another 3 days.
Then we'll eat from the freezer/pantry for a few days and I'll be back to the store for my once/month shop! So far so good :-) CSA starts May 5 so no more shopping for fresh veg needed until October! Yippee!!!! And that bill was paid in January-long enough ago it feels free ;-)
You go girl! Great job. Oh roasted brussel sprouts sounds so good. You are doing really well.
DeleteLove that about the CSA and already paid! How nice to have the summer spend free on fruits and veggies.
ENJOY
It is nice to read that we are so different but also the same. We all enjoy comfort food, things that are easy to prepare, use everyday ingredients, freeze well and fit in a budget.
ReplyDeleteI still remember a family that lived in our neighborhood. They were from Mexico but had immigrated long ago. They had nineteen children. No, they did not get a TV show. They welcomed every child in the neighborhood into their home. I never saw the Mom outside of the kitchen or sitting down. There was always a pot of beans cooking and fresh homemade flour tortillas in a special tower like ceramic looking thing on the table, always full of warm tortillas. There was another dish of butter and one of peanut butter. We were allowed to run thru the house and just grab a snack. One day I stopped in the kitchen as something smelled wonderful. I asked the Mom "what are you cooking today?". She answered, "tamales", do you want to see?". Yes, I did, she lifted the lid to the big pot and there was a pigs head simmering. It was a surprise but for some strange reason did not scare me at all. I ate many a wonderful dinner in that household.
The moral to the story, do not be afraid to try new things. You will be given such a gift of wonderful culinary adventures. You will learn more about other cultures and how food in their homes reflect that. You have been given a gift you didn't expect. God shows us once again, we may be different but we are the same, we are alive, we breathe, we have families, we have our religion, culture but sharing our food brings us together in the most extraordinary way.
Wow 19 kids - isn't that something. No wonder the poor lady never left the kitchen - what a brood to feed.
DeleteShe sounds like a lovely and inviting lady.
LOL - oh, I think that may have set me stumbling backwards! Not sure what I would do if I saw a pigs head in a pot!
America is quite a mix of cultures and each has a different type of food. I like a lot of things - only found a couple types of food I was not fond of. For some reason I have never really enjoyed Indiana or Greek food. I think it is the spices used.
I love you last paragraph - so very true.
Oh, my!! No pig's head in our tamales, but my grandma did use shredded pork. My grandparents were from the Santa Fe area so we did more of New Mexican cooking. Its a bit different than Mexican. No tongue, menudo, etc.
DeleteOur neighbors were Peruvian so that was entirely different! Now, my current neighbor is from Panama and that's also quite different!! They make their "tortillas" small, with cornmeal, and fried. With Mexican cheese melted on top.....to die for!!! She said her teen boys eat them faster than she can make them!!!
19 kids!!! She had more than my Tia!(Aunt). We ate our tortillas with whipped butter, whipped honey, or red chili sauce. I don't know that my grands ever tastedPB!
You are so right, Eating well does not mean spending lots of money. I have started to try and use more lentils in my cooking and am trying to figure out how to use beans as well. We quite often have breakfast for supper which is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
There is something so comforting about breakfast for dinner. I don't get into breakfast - so I love it later.
DeleteGood for you on trying to expand what you use.
Since I felt so bad tonight and had no sleep last night, Tommy ate chicken I baked last week, leftover cooked cabbage, and grape tomatoes. I had a bit of leftover spaghetti sauce over cooked ground beef with parmesan cheese on top. Then, I had half an apple. It was all tasty. I think I will go have a salad or bowl of oats.
ReplyDeleteleftovers are good and cheap.
It doesn't matter what we eat - as long as it fills us and nourishes our bodies. We eat what we have.
DeleteTake care.
Growing up my children would complain that I only buy ingredients! When they wanted a snack and I had nothing made I'd tell them to go make something. LOL.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I cleaned out the fridge. I usually do that every week or two.
So I made squash soup and also roasted the seeds. I made cabbage soup. I made tortilla chips using a package of 12 soft corn tortillas I bought for 42 cents. I brushed them with lime juice and salted them before cutting them into eighths. Baked for 10-15 minutes. I dehydrated bananas, red pepper and tomatoes. I roasted a bunch of yellow peppers I got for 40 cents a piece. I made baba ghanoush from an eggplant I got in a package of clearance produce. Not a fan of eggplant but this was good with my homemade chips.
A few days ago I made a pasta salad that I ended up not liking much. I cooked it in my homemade pasta sauce for my next meal and it was delicious. lol.
For dessert today I blended a frozen banana with a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder. Yum! Almost fat free "ice cream".
Love reading your posts, Cheryl!
~Margaret
I am now salivating!!!! Everything sounds so good. How creative. I am not an egg plant person either - but baba ghanoush is so good - and with fresh chips - yum!
DeleteYou had a lot of goodies in that frig and you sure put them all to good use. Now I would not have thought to use the pasta salad in sauce - great idea.
Love frozen fruit blended into "ice cream". Easy and so tasty.
Thanks for some good ideas and thanks for being here!
Sam's blog about calzones & bean soup motivated me to make bean & bacon soup - ham/pork stock in the freezer awa leftover baked beans, chopped tomatoes & precooked bacon. Only needed to add one can of baked beans. There was leftover roasted chicken a few days ago awa peppers that needed using up, so I made "Italian chicken pasta" with shell noodles & leftover pasta sauce from the pizzas made last wk. My goal in the kitchen is to use what there is and avoid food waste. Next on the menu - roasted Italian sausage with mashed potatoes, turnip and home canned green beans.
ReplyDeleteYou guys have such good ideas. I get hungry reading these. I need some bean soup - it has been a while.
DeleteThe chicken pasta sounds great.
Food waste is just like throwing dollar bills in the trash can. We need to be more mindful of our food and our dollars.
Your meals all sound wonderful and just good old down to earth cooking!