Friday, July 9, 2010

Friday's Frugal Food

Here's another frugal food tip:

Streeeeeeettcccchhhh your ground meat.  Most meals that call for ground meat can be stretched by adding lentils or rice to the meat.

For instance, I like to add brown rice to our taco meat.  Lentils go great in sloppy joes.  They both work in cheeseburgers (so does oatmeal.....my sister-in-law adds oatmeal to her cheeseburgers and they are so yummy!).  All three of those ingredients could be added to meatballs.  I think you get the drift.

If you want to do this, start slow.  Just add a little bit of rice/lentils to the meat and then slowly add a bit more every time you make that meal.  This is how I've done it and the carnivores in my family haven't complained!

How do you stretch your ground meat?

5 comments:

  1. Great idea's!! I've never tried oatmeal in hamburgers, but I bet it would work great! Maybe something to try this weekend for the BBQ!

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  2. That's a really great idea - I think I'll be trying oats!

    I haven't stretched very well before. This is a perfect time to start as I'm trying to eat healthier anyway.

    Cheers,
    Laura

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  4. I add a lot of different vegetables, especially if it's something like sloppy joes. When they're chopped finely and cooked in well, you can hardly tell. I call it "meat sauce," serve over pasta, and call it a day. We once had 3 unexpected guests and I had to stretch about 300 grams of ground meat into a meal for 5 adults and a toddler - and no one could tell that it wasn't exactly what I had planned.

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  5. What a fantastic idea!!!!! We freeze ours in one cup portions and make recipes that call for small portions of meat, mainly using the More With Less cookbook. It really does save a lot of money. I LOVE this idea though!!!!!!!
    I'm your newest follower
    Amy @ www.thecheapandchoosy.com

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