<p>In the tough economic times we might have to face, it would be wise to have some recipes for inexpensive (or down to earth cheap) meals 
Would you care to share yours?</p>
<p>We like new potatoes with buttermilk. Tastes best when it is still warm outside (late summer, early fall). I use new red potatoes that I boil in skin, top it up with some butter and dill (fresh dill is best but it can be expensive). Buttermilk has to be cold.</p>
<p>When my daughter was a toddler, I mentioned that I didn’t know what we should have for dinner. Her suggestion: “How about gum?”</p>
<p>Might be a fitting menu in light of today’s stock market plunge.</p>
<p>My favorite cheap, easy, nutritionally balanced lunch:
peanut butter (just a bit) on whole wheat toast, glass of milk, apple</p>
<p>My Dad used to talk about taking lard sandwiches to school during the Depression.</p>
<p>My grandmother’s healthy snack foods for kids: </p>
<p>Cut up carrot sticks (ready for kids to grab-she cut them into small pieces often), sliced cucumbers, celery sticks. She also made pudding to make sure that we got our calcium, and occasionally made jello. This is less expensive and most are healthier than processed cookies and chips.</p>
<p>Pasta dishes make things stretch if you can afford the carbs.</p>
<p>Soups from scratch can be less expensive than processed or ready to serve store made soups (small container in our grocery is $5, and it goes up from there).</p>
<p>I’ve been wishing for more ideas for healthy and cheap dinners too. Here’s an easy one I made last week, adapted from a recipe on Epicurious. It’s very good, and quinoa has lots of protein.</p>
<p>Quinoa with Black Beans</p>
<p>1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup quinoa
2 teaspoons chili powder (without other spices added)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, divided in half
1/3 to 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese </p>
<p>In a heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and saute the onions and red pepper until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the quinoa, chili powder, cumin, and salt, and cook for a minute or two to toast the quinoa. Add the water and bring to a boil. Cover and turn heat to low, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Add black beans and 1/4 cup cilantro and heat until cooked through, still covered. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup cilantro and the crumbled feta.</p>
<p>Srambled Egg Fitata
Turkey Meatloaf
Tuna Casserole
Pasta Primavera
Beef or Chicken Stew</p>
<p>I grew up on these meat stretching recipes. Since people are eating less meat now, low fat versions of the above can be quite healthy when made with whole grains and a lot of seasonal vegetables. You can add just about anything to them for variety, depending on what’s on sale, too.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed lately that my cat really seems to enjoy his food. Hmmm . . .</p>
<p>I just made a recipe that my h. and I really liked–and it fed the two of us for 3 meals:</p>
<p>2 cans fat-free chicken broth
1 diced onion cooked in broth until tender
1 can mexi-corn-drained
1 can black beans-drained
1/2 cup rice
8 oz. salsa</p>
<p>Cook all until rice tender, may add some cheese on top of each bowl</p>
<p>Today for dinner we had black bean and brown rice enchiladas. Yummy, healthy, and cheap. (There are lots of good recipes with beans and rice.) Lentil tacos are great, too. I think both of these recipes come from yearly cookbooks from Taste of Home: Quick Cooking and Light and Tasty. Yesterday we had homemade vegetable beef soup and rolls.</p>
<p>Growing up, we are a lot of macaroni and cheese, tuna casserole, and spaghetti. I still like those occasionally, but prefer healthier meals most of the time. </p>
<p>Black bean fettuccine is nice, too–just remembered that one, because it is similar to spaghetti, but has canned spaghetti sauce with black beans, onion, green pepper, and spices added.</p>
<p>I have found a packaged Chili mix that is very good, far better than any I have ever made from scratch. It’s made by Bear Creek Country Kitchens and is called “Darn” Good Chili. It’s packaged in a green envelope (dry ingredients) on the soup aisle. If you throw is some browned lowfat ground beef, it makes a big pot of chili that you can eat on for days. DH likes it on top of spaghetti which stretches it even farther.</p>
<p>^^^We also use chili as a topping for a baked potato.</p>
<p>Dried beans, split peas, and lentils are dirt cheap. Use a little bit of meat, like a smokes turkey wing or a ham hock, to make a big pot of soup. Serve that with hot multi-grain bread and no one will miss the extra meat. If you make soups/stews/chili spicier than usual, they go farther over the starch.</p>
<p>Cornmeal is also extremely cheap. Cooking it up into soft polenta is very easy and replaces mashed potatoes or rice. Cornbread/muffins/dodgers are almost as easy, and everyone loves them. If you’re in a hurry, pour your cornbread batter onto a hot skillet and fry it up like pancakes – takes about 3 minutes, and you don’t have to turn the oven on. Top the cakes with beans or chili. They’re also great with maple syrup for breakfast the next day.</p>
<p>Everything from scratch. Nothing packaged. Small portions. Great weight loss program!</p>
<p>Frying cornbread batter like pancakes is an extremely cool idea. I just made cornbread this weekend, but I need to make it again very soon so I can try it this way.</p>
<p>Dried beans are incredibly cheap. I agree avoiding all the pre-packaged stuff works too, but I’ve mostly done that with very few exceptions.</p>
<p>If I get really desparate maybe I can make my family like my grandmother’s favorite cheap meal. It’s comfort food to me, but my family hates it. Here’s the recipe.</p>
<p>Mother B’s Chile</p>
<p>Cook 8 oz. box of spaghetti.
Brown a pound of hamburger and drain.
Put spaghetti and hamburger a casserole along with 1 can of kidney beans and 1 can of tomato soup. Cook at 400 for anywhere between 1/2 an hour to an hour.</p>
<p>Charro Beans</p>
<p>1 large onion and 2 poblano peppers, coarsely chopped and sauteed 'til soft
1 28 oz. can chopped tomatoes
2 cups vegetable or chicken boullion or broth
3 14 oz. cans pinto beans, rinsed
1-2 Tbls. Chili Powder
1-2 Tbls. Cumin
1-2 Tbls. Cilantro (dried, if fresh use 1/2 C chopped)</p>
<p>After sauteeing onions and peppers, add remaining ingredients (except cilantro if fresh), bring to boil, simmer on low covered for 15 mins. to 1/2 hour, then remove cover and simmer another 15 mins. to 1/2 hour. Serve alone or over rice. (This is my husband’s favorite meal. I often double the recipe and freeze about 6 2-cup servings for his lunches.)</p>
<p>^^^Sounds great!</p>
<p>Great ideas.
I also try to make everything from scratch. Lemonade and ice tea,too .</p>
<p>Once every few weeks I make a big stock pot and freeze it in portions - different sizes for different purposes.</p>
<p>My simple/no meat pasta recipe:</p>
<p>slice zuccini into small, 2 inch sticks
slice carrots the same way
saute both in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
add broth (home made) and cook covered till vegetables are tender (just a few minutes)
salt, pepper, other spices to taste
thicken if desired, can add some sour cream
serve over favorite pasta</p>
<p>H and I will be eating the veggie soup I made for the rest of the week. Yup, the whole two gallons of it! H, the lucky dog, is going to visit D later this week, which means I’m stuck with the soup 
on my weekend menu.</p>
<p>I made food from scratch most of the time, and if I have to buy something, it is usually either Papa Murphy’s pizza or the Costco freshly roasted chicken.</p>
<p>My garden finally produced something: I have pickling cukes, tomatoes, onions, etc. This summer has been so nasty, nothing seemed to grow, and whatever did try to grow, was eaten by cottontails.</p>