-Buy as much as I can at Aldi's.

-Buy a portion of a cow once a year.

-On nights dh works I make meatless meals.

-Eat leftovers or transform them into another meal.

Coupons,coupons,coupons!! I cannot stress this enough!!I got 10 barilla pasta,15 bags of birdseye veggies ,35 rolls of reynold wrap last week for FREE!!! I got oatmeal when it was .38 a tub!!

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If God takes you to it,God will get you through it!!

I talked to our local grocery store to find out when meat is clearanced. It's always still a day or two from expiration and at a deep discount, so I buy it, bring it home & freeze it immediately (after reportioning in ziploc bags sometimes). I got three pound packs of hamburger meat for a little over $3.00 the other day. And whole chickens for $2.50 apiece the other day (roughly 5 pounds each).

Another thing we do is make "freezer soup." I toss the leftover veggies from meals into a gallon sized plastic ice cream container with a lid and put it in the freezer. When it's about 1/2 -2/3 full, I make a BIG crockpot of vegetable soup - we sometimes toss in some kielbasa or ground beef or leftover chicken as well - and some diced tomatoes and/or tomato sauce. Any leftovers from this go over rice or noodles or over baked potatoes.

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ncleslie4
mommy of 4 blessings :love: ages 8, 6, 4 & 2
ask me about adopting from Ethiopia

I never throw out meat. I'll dice leftover chicken and put it on top of a salad. Leftover beef or pork chops make good BBQ sandwiches (slice meat thin).

Leftover fresh fruit I will save for the next meal and mix with other chopped fruit = fruit salad (yummy, yummy) if you're a Wiggles fan! Oh, the dancing I will do to make the kids eat their food!

Bread crusts I will save in the freezer and make croutons, bread pudding or overnight breakfast casserole. Also nice to have crusts on hand to use as breadcrumbs in meatloaf or a bread crumb coating.

I love buying roasted chicken from the deli. $5 each, not bad. I shave off meat as I need it for chicken salad or diced chicken, when the bones are left I'll boil the carcass and save the broth in the freezer. Make chicken noodle soup and toss in your frozen leftover vegetables.

Left overs - if I have cooked too much will go as an entire new meal in the freezer. If there is a little bit left over I freeze it in a small container -as its normally enough for dd (2.5) lunch or supper on a day I dont feel like cooking.

Instead of cooking a whole pork chop or chicken breast for each of us, I'll take one, cut it into bite-size pieces, and then either stir-fry it or stew it with veggies and serve it over rice, pasta, or quinoa.
That way, I get at least four servings out of what would have been one if I had just cooked it whole.

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When life hands you lemons, ask for tequila and salt and call me over!
Any time God closes one door, She always opens another, even though sometimes it's Hell in the hallway.
Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or play with it, pee on it and walk away.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, prepare to die. (Klingon proverb)
Don't point. You'll poke holes in the air and all the faeries will escape.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

I almost forgot, powdered milk!!!
I plan my meals out weekly so I can see ahead of time if I am going to use milk in any of my cooking. If I am I will make up one quart of powdered milk to use in those recipes. It really saves on the regular milk.
If I dont use it all up in a few days, I will make the kids chocolate milk or strawberry milk with it to drink.

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What a good idea!!!

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan9.Samantha8,Cameron6

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What a simple idea , but a great one. I never even thought of doing this before , and I prefer chicken cutlets over thick chicken breasts.

Thanks! I will be doing this from now on.

I sometimes buy boneless, skinless chicken thighs to mix in with chicken breasts in recipes. It costs about half what the breasts do, it's got more iron and flavor, and my kids like it better because it doesn't dry out so badly.