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The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Leftovers

April 27, 2010 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment
leftovers

For some, leftovers can be a doom sentence. While some of us look at leftovers as the best thing in the world. All will agree that the leftovers with all that green furry topping are pretty ugly. Leftovers eaten three nights in a row can be pretty bad. Leftovers made into great tasting meals can be a good thing and believe it or not can save money. Let’s take a look at ways to use those leftovers to our benefit.

Re-purposing Those Leftovers

Holidays – Leftovers during holidays usually surmount into outrageous quantities. If you are getting tired of the same old turkey or ham sandwiches for the following week, try changing it up for breakfast. Combine the mashed potatoes, stuffing and diced meat in a pan creating a little creator for an egg. Pop it all in the oven for ten minutes on 350 degrees and you have a hearty egg in a nest for breakfast. This is a complete meal with your meat, grains and dairy. It’s also not a bad way to start a day off from the turkey hang-over from the night before.

Meat – A staple of many households is ground meat. It is a perfect start to practice re-purposing leftovers on. A couple pounds of ground beef can be used for hamburgers, then the next day for tacos and finally as an addition to spaghetti sauce or a warm crock pot of chili. Steaks are also great leftovers to utilize for a couple of days. Eaten first as a main dish with mashed potatoes and green beans, cut into strips to top a hearty salad and finally cut into chunks for stews or soups.

Remember to have fun with you leftovers. Try a different spice or mix and match them to create a new treat for everyone to try. Just remember that the taste is what is most important. Watch the ingredients while watching the taste. Sounds hard? It’s not. Let’s take a look at how to accomplish just that.

Ingredients

Let’s take the hamburger meat as an example. What ingredients did you put into it for the actual hamburger? Salt, pepper and maybe some Italian seasoning were used. Keep these ingredients in mind when re-purposing the hamburger because it may not need more salt in the dish you are trying to create. If there was plenty of salt for the hamburger, cut out the salt in the new recipe and see if that works well. Bread crumbs, ketchup and possibly even some A-1. If you went heavy on the A-1 sauce, this might not work well re-purposed as a breakfast casserole. A meatloaf on the other hand might be the way to go. Just remember what you put in will determine what kind of dish you want to reuse the meat for.

Taste

Let’s use a holiday breakfast make over as an example. One can only assume that since mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey all go together in a meal, that they can all be used together in a single dish. Pretending with your mouth can get you a long way when cooking. If you think it will taste good together, go for it. If your instincts tell you otherwise then don’t try it. Think about how the food will taste together to get a good idea of the expected outcome.

Yes there is a good, bad and ugly to leftovers. Reusing leftovers can be a challenge but it can also be a blast. Have fun with your leftovers. Remember to keep tasting as you cook to insure you are on the right track. Most importantly be sure to use those leftovers before they become a green furry mess that ends up in the garbage disposal. Try reusing your leftovers to make hearty nutritious meals for your family and watch the dollars begin to stack up.

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Saving Dollars with Meal Plans

April 24, 2010 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment
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When it comes to saving money a meal plan is very important. It saves you money, time and keeps your kitchen life in order. Meal plans can be monthly, weekly or even nightly depending on the lifestyle. Each type of meal plan has its benefits as well as its hindrance but they can do one thing well. Save you money!

Different Plans for Different Lifestyles

By the Month – These meal plans are extremely helpful for families on the go. Monthly meal plans help big families and active families to see what is for dinner on any given night. It also allows those who are doing the planning to fit certain foods around the monthly schedule. For instance, on a night where all three kids need to be in different places within thirty minutes of each other, pizza might be a good alternative. Monthly menu plans may also include pre-preparation and freezing, making it easier as a grab and go type meal.

By the Week – Weekly meal plans are usually more typical due to the frequency of store visits. Most families abide by the weekly meal plan, buying just enough food for that week, so a minimal amount goes bad. This meal plan is best for a family that may not be on a tight schedule, but on a schedule none-the-less.

Every Night – Nightly meal plans offer the most flexibility when it comes to meal plans. These meal plans are usually for people who live near a store or market and are extremely health conscious. This specific meal plan usually includes copious amounts of fresh fruits and veggies. Since the meal planner has all day to come up with what they would like for dinner, these meals are usually more in depth when it comes to preparing.

Saving the Dollars

Meal planning in itself is a giant cost savings habit. It is a habit because in today’s microwave society, where we want everything instantly. It is extremely easy to stop at the drive through or order out if in a pinch for time. The savings comes in with advanced planning.

If you spend ten dollars a day for food at a restaurant, you can easily spend $200 a month, which equates to $2,400 per year. If you also figure that meal planning allows you to eat those same meals for five dollars a day, well you can calculate the savings.

Food is much less expensive if purchased in a store. Just take a look at the cost of a steak in a restaurant versus buying that same cut in a store and cooking at home. Funny how when we stop and think about it we can really see the dollar differences. The cost saving is ridiculous.

Try each type of these meal planning ideas to see which one works best. Remember everyone needs a break sometimes so when planning throw in a night out. This will ensure you aren’t chasing the money at the end of the month. If you stick to your game plan you will not only save the dollars but deliver great tasting and nutritious meals every time.

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Have Fun Saving and Sharing Tips

April 15, 2010 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment
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Finding great deals is an exciting adventure, but it is not an adventure to relish alone. By sharing shopping tips with friends and family, everyone can participate and be enveloped with the excitement of scoring the best deals. Here are a few ideas on how to share some shopping tips with those you love.

Over the past year, with the recession growing on people’s minds, the use of coupons has become an art. Help others find this fine art and teach them what you know. Compare receipts after every shopping trip to see who saved the most, both in total dollars and percentage of the final bill. For instance, one person may have saved $100 on their trip, while the other saved almost 80%.

Get together for coupon clipping and see who can find the most coupons for a certain item, or who can find the biggest coupon amount. Rotate homes each week and make sure you have some food at this get together.

List an item each week and see who can get it the cheapest. Let’s take Cheerios as an example. By the end of the week, the goal is to be able to combine the most coupons and store deals to get a box of Cheerios the cheapest. Of course, this is only one idea as far as making a game with your shopping habits.

Another possibility is to go through the week and see who can find the best deal, not even worrying about the category that it is in. Let’s say someone found a pair of shoes that were originally $300 and ended up with them, in hand, for $50, while another person purchased a certain brand of cereal for free, even though it never goes on sale. This game will have to be judged on a personal system, between friends because it is difficult to assign a point value across categories. The winner is whoever the group thought got the best deal on what they bought.

This goes right along with making a game of frugality. Invite a group of friends over and have each one bring a dish. To add to the difficulty, create a spending cap when making the dish. For instance, no prepared dish will be over five dollars. This forces people to get clever with their shopping and allows everyone else in attendance to get different ideas for frugal shopping and cooking. If the honor system won’t work for you, then have everyone bring in their receipts and award a prize to the best dish and also the least expensive meal.

The point is, when you share your shopping tips with others, everyone can win. Money is saved and fun is had at the same time. By sharing shopping tips with friends and family, you have just one more avenue to connect on, and isn’t that the whole point? Sure, saving money is great, but why not have some fun with those closest to you at the same time.

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The Always Forgotten Grocery List

April 10, 2010 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment
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There’s nothing harder on a budget than forgetting the ever-important grocery list at home. This usually results in a bout of yelling and blaming. Thereafter it is followed by an attempted list-recreation while moving through the store. Generally, this causes an abundance of items ending up in the shopping basket. Not to mention blowing the budget out of the window. When you get home you find only partial ingredients to make any resemblance of a meal.

Shopping lists are only as effective as the person who makes them. The rule for shopping lists is to make sure you look through all of your items, including the shelves where you stock the goodies, to make sure you have written every last thing down. The best thing to do for keeping a good list is to hang a piece of paper on the refrigerator to keep a running tally as you use up items. This will help ensure minimal items are missed. It is still helpful to go back through the fridge, freezer and all pantries before heading to the store.

Making a shopping list doesn’t have to be an all out war. There are a few simple tips to remember when making that list that will help you endeavor to preserve.

Organize – Try and keep your list organized by where items are placed in your kitchen. For instance, have a column for frozen goods, another for refrigerated and a final one for pantry items. This will help three fold.

When we shop we find that many items are grouped together in this same way. This is great because it will increase shopping speed and leave little room for impulse buys while wandering up and down the isles. Also all of the like items will be packaged together since they are in your cart together. This helps in keeping the cold items cold and the meats away from the bread and eggs. Since the items are packed together, putting them away at home will be a breeze. They will already be grouped according to where they go.

Game Plans – Try to map out the stores you frequent. Unless they constantly move items around, you will be able to quickly find the cereal and the mustard without having to search around, wasting time and money. Being able to grab exactly what you need aids in cost savings because, again, you won’t be left to your own devices when walking aimlessly up and down the isles.

Budget Checks – Leave room on your list to write down prices. Many stores will honor prices if marked incorrectly on the shelf or even give you that particular item for free if it rings up incorrectly. Being able to keep track of the dollars you are going to spend as you walk through the store also helps to keep the budget in place. When you see the dollars adding up, it is much more difficult to justify the impulse buy at the checkout lane.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure you have the list with you before you leave the house. Make sure that list is as complete as possible by keeping a running tab of needed items on the fridge. Sort the list by common items to make life easier and know where those items are located. Finally, keep track of your spending on the same list to help with frugal shopping.

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