Quick simple somewhat healthy menus for family of 6?!
Answers: Can anyone provide me with some relatively cheap dinner ideas (<$20/night). Thanks in advance.
I have a family of 5 and I know how outrageously expensive the grocery bill can be. I've got ours down to about $90 for food and diapers for the week. All of our meals are planned around what's on sale. I pick pork loins, pork roasts, sausage (kielbasa or polish) and other goodies up for buy 1 get 1 free. I never buy shrimp unless it goes on sale for buy 1 get 2 free. When there are really good deals I try to stock up on them and freeze what I can. Gound hamburger, chuck, and others I pick up for as little as $1.50/lb. Before I go shopping I check the weekly ads out online and write out a grocery list. Doing this allows me to make things like shrimp pasta (one of our family favorites!) for as little as $4 for the shrimp and probably $15 for the whole meal. (We just had shrimp pasta tonight along with breaded eggplant and a salad!) I use lots of fresh and frozen veggies. Fozen broccoli with cheese and corn with butter are the kids favorites and we pretty much have them every night :) I just wait for them to go on sale for a buck or less a bag. Also if you find a fruit and veggie market near your house that sells their produce really cheap that can be a great money saver.
Meat Pie/Pasties
1LB ground beef, whatevers on sale, the leaner the meat the drier the pie.
1 small onion chopped
1 clove minced garlic
3-4 carrots peeled and chopped
3-4 potatoes peeled and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbls margarine or butter
Pastry dough (you can make it homemade or pick it up on sale. I've gotton it for as little as $1 and freeze a bunch, it can be found by the biscuits at the supermarket)
In a large bowl mix all ingredients with your hands. Lay one pastry dough on bottom of a 9 inch pie plate, add mixture and press down firmly. Dot top with butter or margarine, cover with second pastry dough and seal edges. Slit top of pie crust. I usually put tin foil around the edge because they tend to get darker then the rest of the pie. Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until veggies are fork tender. I check this by sticking a knife into the slit I made and checking the carrots and potatoes. Pull it out and let it rest 10 minutes before serving. Sometimes I make a salad but since you have your veggies, meat and carbs all in one dish (and it's quite filling) we just eat it alone. We always have leftovers of this one which are great the next day.
Another favorite in our house is Boneless skinless chicken, thighs, drums, or pork chops lighty browned and then baked in a casserole dish with 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. They're really good served over rice.
Meatloaf and Spaghetti are also inexepensive.
I like getting hams for $.99 cents a pound and we end up eating off it for 2 nights and then we make pea soup with the bone and leftover meat.
Every couple days or as needed :) we have leftover night. We clean out the fridge and reheat all the leftovers. It makes it fun for the kids because they feel like they get more of a choice. Though if yours are anything like mine, they'll all want the same thing which of course there is never enough of....Oh well at least I don't have to throw a whole bunch of lefties away!
Stews and Chili are another really good idea. You can load them with veggies that the kids might not eat otherwise.
Hope this helps and good luck!
I saw this on tv the other day. Not sure how it costs out, but it certainly seemed quick and simple.
http://www.seven.com.au/sunrise/fact_071...