Dinner on a Budget: Beef Stroganoff

One way to save money on meals is to utilize leftovers. Leftovers can be frozen and served weeks later, taken to work for lunch the next day, or used to create a new meal that will fool your family into thinking they aren't eating leftovers at all!

Grilling steaks one night? Don't just throw those leftovers in the fridge to be forgotten or begrudgingly eaten a few days later (everyone knows that steak reheated isn't very tasty at all), turn them into a delicious meal that the whole family will love.

I am a huge fan of Beef Stroganoff. However, for months I was unable to find a recipe that I loved. They were all either too bland or too complicated. Finally, I stumbled across one at AllRecipes.com that was provided by Campbell's Kitchen. It was perfect! Just the right flavor and it complemented the leftover grilled top sirloin perfectly. I've altered the recipe a bit to make it work with pre-cooked steak, but for the most part it was just right:

Ingredients:
1 lb cooked boneless beef steak (whatever leftovers you have)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped (you can substitute onion flakes)
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup sour cream
seasonings as needed
4 cups cooked egg noodles
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:
Slice beef into thin strips; set aside.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until tender.
Add soup, paprika, and seasonings as needed. Heat to a boil. Stir in sour cream and beef strips. Heat through. Serve over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley (optional).

Originally posted at Examiner.com.

Dinner on a Budget: Mac 'n Cheese Meals

This week’s “Dinner on a Budget” is brought you by Kraft’s Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Okay, not really, but it is one of my favorite ways to stretch a dollar, or a dollar and fifty cents to be exact.

There are literally dozens of ways to turn a simple box of macaroni and cheese into a delicious dinner for your family. Whether you feel like a cheesy soup or a bubbly casserole, your taste buds (and your wallet!) will never be disappointed.

First, start with a basic box of mac ‘n cheese. Personally, I like using Kraft’s Velveeta Shells and Cheese mix because the cheese sauce is already made and I prefer shell pasta over elbow macaroni. However, they run about $1.50 a box, so I tend to buy them only when I have coupons that make them 50 cents to $1 a box. You can also use cheaper variations of macaroni and cheese…most grocery stores sell them for 40 to 60 cents a box.

Next, pick your main meat ingredient. Literally anything from ground beef, to steak strips, to shredded chicken, to cubed ham can be used. You’ll need about a pound per box of mac ‘n cheese. If you want to make the meat stretch you can definitely use as little as half a pound. I tend to use less shredded chicken (about a cup) for recipes, but more ground beef. It balances the flavors better, I think.

Finally, pick your fillers. This can include anything from veggies (broccoli and carrots are some of my favorites), beans, salsa, extra cheese, and more. You’ll want to add extra milk, sour cream, or water to get to the consistency you desire.

Mix together, season as desired, and voila! An easy, delicious meal that can be made for as little as 75 cents a serving!

And for starters, here are a few of my favorite Kraft recipes:
(If you want to view the recipes larger, just click on the images)
Since I’m less of a “recipe-follower” and more of a “recipe-adapter” I used my own taco seasoning mix (chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, onion powder), Fritos instead of tortilla chips (it’s what we had), about half the cheese the recipe called for, and leftover packets of Taco Bell salsa. It was delicious! Oh, and the directions to “layer” the dinner can be followed loosely…it’s just as good all mixed together.

This is supposed to taste a bit like a real cheeseburger, and although I’m not a fan of cheeseburgers, it was really good! I didn’t have green onions on hand, so I skipped those, but they probably would have added a nice kick to the dish. I've discovered that I’m not a big fan of tomatoes in pasta dishes, so I probably won’t use them next time.

This dish was perfect with the ingredients listed, but don’t follow the directions exactly if you cook this. A large skillet won’t hold everything…use a medium to large saucepan instead. Also, if you want the broccoli and carrots to be tender either cook them separately or cook the dish longer than it calls for. But if you like them crunchy, the cooking time is perfect.

Dinner on a Budget: Steak and Potatoes

This is the first installment of a new blog series about planning meals on a budget. I’ll try to post one of these dinner ideas weekly, but no promises, I do have two kiddos under the age of two to look after as well. :)

Serving delicious, yet inexpensive meals for your family isn’t difficult. It just takes time and a little extra planning. However, sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in a rut with meal-planning. I know from time-to-time I like to serve slightly nicer meals, but don’t want to break the bank.

Steak dinners at most mid-range restaurants will run you anywhere from $10 to $20 a person. Serving a meal like that at home can seem daunting, especially when you check out the prices of steak at your local grocery store. However, if you plan ahead, you can serve a similar meal for a quarter of the cost. For example, Chili’s Grill and Bar has an 8-ounce top sirloin steak on their menu for $12.99. The steak comes with two sides and a piece of garlic toast. I will show you how you can serve a similar meal for around $3 a person.

First of all, scan your store circulars for deals on steak. If you have a Sun Harvest in your area, they regularly (about once a month) have top sirloin steak on sale for $2.99 a pound. I went last month and bought three steaks, each just under two pounds. (HEB Grocery also runs similar sales, but theirs are a bit less often.) If you do the math on price per ounce, an 8-ounce piece comes out to $1.50.

For my side dishes, I chose baked potatoes, sautéed peas and mushrooms, and dinner rolls. Instead of buying expensive baker’s potatoes, I opt to buy 5-pound bags of russet potatoes and specifically choose bags with several large potatoes in them. Russet potatoes vary in price from week to week (I’ve gotten them for as low as 99 cents), but for our purposes we’ll set the price at $2.49 for the bag. That’s about 25 cents per potato, give or take. The sautéed peas with mushrooms is one of my all-time favorite “gourmet” side dishes. Each serving of frozen peas is roughly 22 cents and a 4-ounce can of mushroom pieces is 59 cents, or about 30 cents a serving. Sauté the mushrooms in a little butter, boil the peas until they’re tender, combine, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Finally, I chose dinner rolls because we had previously bought a bag of Rhodes dinner rolls for $2.99 (roughly 10 cents a roll). These are basically just balls of dough, so they’d be easy enough to make on your own, but for me the convenience is definitely worth the added cost.

Then add about 40 cents a person for baked potato toppings (butter, shredded cheese, and sour cream) and about 25 cents a person for charcoal. And there you have it:

8-oz top sirloin steak = $1.50
Baked potato with toppings = $0.65
Peas ‘n’ mushrooms = $0.52
Dinner roll = $0.10
Charcoal = $0.25

Total cost = $3.02 a plate.

(And if you prefer T-bone over top sirloin, Sun Harvest and HEB occasionally have sales on T-bone steaks for $3.99 or $4.99 a pound, bringing the cost of your meal up a bit.)

And as an added bonus, if you grill extra steak you can use the leftovers to make a delicious beef stroganoff dinner. I found a recipe I loved here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Campbells-Kitchen-Beef-Stroganoff/Detail.aspx. Just slice the leftover steak and add it to the sauce at the end. Delicious!