Bacon in the Budget

Bacon Pancakes - recipe below

Bacon is quickly taking on a role as the new chocolate as of late and I'm on that wagon, for sure. Bacon lovers are coming 'out of the closet' with a fervor and I'm more than happy to join the ranks of newly outted pork belly fanatics whether it's PC or not.

However (come on, there has to be a 'however' here) bacon is expensive and not-so-good for a person's health. What to do? Bacon ends. I'm not talking the fat-only type, and don't let your butcher get away with handing that to you, I'm talking the kind with a good amount of meat still on them and all the flavor of the more picture-perfect slices. There are many areas where you can actually purchase boxes of bacon ends for your freezer. If you don't have that available, ask at the meat counter.

Here's the health part; it doesn't take a lot of bacon to get a good bacon flavor. Take those ends and cook them up until crisp. Drain well and crumble into bacon bits. While you're at it, save the bacon grease for other uses. Strain out the cooked bits of bacon and freeze the leftover drippings in small containers. It only takes a tablespoon or so to add flavor to soups, stews, casseroles and gravies.

This recipe is for Bacon Pancakes. In a family as large as ours, the bacon budget can get out of hand rather quickly. To have all the flavor without all the cost, try crumbling bacon right into the pancakes as they cook. Everyone in the family loves these.

Bacon Pancakes
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

1 recipe pancake batter (use whatever you really like - my favorite is still the BH&G New Cookbook basic recipe)
1/2 pound bacon cooked crisp and crumbled

Ladle pancake batter onto hot griddle in the amount desired (1/3 cup works well) and top with crumbled bacon. Flip when bubbles appear on surface of pancake and edges are dry.


You can always mix the bacon right into the batter, but I find that the bacon that rests on the bottom of the pan gets too done that way.

Other Bacon Recipes:

Bacon at Cooking with Anne
Bacon at A Thousand Soups


More on Meal Planning and Budgeting:

More on Food Budgeting
Budget Meal Planning
What's For Dinner?

P.S. Check out Cooking with Anne and Short Order Mom on Parentdish.com today!

More on Food Budgeting

I'm sure for anyone reading here often you've surmised that nearly every recipe posted is of the frugal variety. Other than the occasional recipe that contains an expensive ingredient or two, I stick to what I know: Feeding many for little.

It's no secret that much of what I cook is from scratch with as little processed junk as possible. A few of my favorite budget-minded recipes from the archives:

Homemade Toaster Tarts

Whole Wheat Bread with Honey

Corn Fritters with Black Bean Salsa

Hummus and Tomato Melt (using Hummus and Wheat Pita)

Tortilla Española

Veggie Fajitas with Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas and Refried Beans

Linguine with Baby Spinach and Almonds

Creamed Peas and Carrots on Toast

Orange-Ginger Chicken Tabbouleh

Lebanese Zucchini

Sausage Sandwich Tart

Fried Green Tomatoes

Stacked Salad

Three Bean Salad

Apple Cake

Wacky Cake

Chicken Recipes

Similarly, nearly everything I've posted to Family.com has been in the frugal family, so take a look there, as well. I'm working in getting recipes tagged properly here so they are easier to search for, but with 3 1/2 years of recipes to sift through, it may take a little time.

Regardless what others may believe, feeding my large family for $150 a week doesn't make me an anomaly. On the contrary, it puts me in good company. I have several friends with larger families (and smaller families) who feed them well for a relatively small amount each week. Lucky for the rest of us, they also blog about it.

Here are several links to frugal family blogs to get you started:

Real Life Living : Not only does Annie share great frugal recipes and menu plans, she also lets you in on how her own family's debt reduction is going (and it's going well!).

Making Do with the Not-So-New : MJ shares leftover food ideas, but beyond that are all sorts of ways to make your money stretch and make-do with what you already have.

Caffey Family Adventures : I think Jaqueline may just trump us all by doing things like feeding 16 for breakfast, lunch and snacks and 6 for dinner on less than $97 a week!

Growlies for the Gang : Kim has a large family (14 in all!) and feeds everyone on budget without making them eat nothing but ramen noodles. Real food, real good, real cheap. Check out her sidebar titled, 'The Freezer' for some awesome menu plans.

Cornbread & Cookies : Ranae, another mom of seven shares her own great tips and recipes for the frugal kitchen.


More on Meal Planning and Budgeting:

Budget Meal Planning
What's For Dinner?

Budget Meal Planning

A budget favorite: Grandma's Buttermilk Pie

In these tough economic times, what's a person to do when it comes to eating? Budgeting for food is one thing, but being able to actually spend that money wisely so that you can feed your family is a completely different matter. I am going to share with you how I feed our family of 9* on a budget of $150 or less per week. It really is doable and we don't eat beans every night. In fact, beans rarely make it into our menu.

I've already written about how I plan and the lists I make, and I'll elaborate on that below, but I think the best way to show how I'm accomplishing this seemingly impossible feat is to share with you what we eat. Let's start with recent weeks, for instance.

Our budget the past few weeks was $60 less than usual and the cupboards after the holidays were nearly bare, so it was even more of a challenge than usual. We haven't been eating like kings, but nobody is starving and I've even had requests for seconds on several of these meals.

In no particular order, our dinner menus for 8 of those days were:

• Italian Eggs and turkey bacon
• Burgers in gravy with rice and fresh green beans
• Turkey Sliders and Baked Parmesan potato wedges
• Chili and corn chips (one pot with beans and one without)
• Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and sweet corn
• Chuck Roast with potatoes, carrots, salad and rolls
• Spaghetti and meat sauce with garlic cheese rolls
• French toast and turkey bacon

Total cost for all of these meals was less than $70 - about $10 per meal, less than $1 per person.

The best part is the extras from leftovers. The Potato and Ham Chowder from A Thousand Soups was made of leftover potatoes from Sunday's dinner; we had a vegetable beef soup that was made from leftover potatoes, carrots, chuck roast and green beans from two dinners; lunch one day was a soup thrown together from leftover chili.

It doesn't matter what my culinary aspirations are, when it comes to keeping my family fed, I go with what works and what I know they will eat. Some of what you read below is from my Dinner Menus page on my site.


A couple tips that help me to keep costs down :

Make a list! This is where the whole list of menus on my website came from. I find that if I figure out what we will eat and make a list to stick to that my bill is lower.

Make another list! I know, some of you just aren't list makers but this one has really helped me; I go through my cupboards and refrigerator/freezer and make a list of everything I have (not spices, etc.) and take a look at that first before I make my shopping list. This has saved me from buying multiples because I wasn't sure if I had the item on hand or not. I am also sometimes able to make full meal plans from what I already have on hand and buy less for that week because of it.

Be flexible! For instance, if I make my list up and get to the store to find that one thing is on sale or just far cheaper that week than another then I try to adapt and plans change a bit. I do try to keep the main dishes the same and make sure that I check the ads FIRST so I know what is on sale or not.

Check the "dented cans" section. Many times I have checked here to find items that were completely fine (and not dented at all!) but were there because the store was phasing them out. I've gotten many things from beans to holiday coffees and candies etc. in this section at a mere fraction of the price, most often as little as 30% of the original. If I don't use the item that week because it wasn't "planned" it simply goes onto the "have-on-hand" list the next week and usually gets used then.

Buying in bulk doesn't always work. Say you're down to the last $5 of your budget and you still need potatoes. There's a large 50 pound bag available for $10 - which is far cheaper than the $4 for 10 pounds you were looking at. Well, if all you have is $5 you go with the smaller package, even if it costs more per pound. Keep in mind that you need adequate storage space for bulk items and that some things can spoil before you're able to use them.

Cooking ahead saves time and money. Not everyone has the time to do full-blown Once A Month Cooking excursions, but often times a little planning ahead for leftovers can save money. Buying a large roast with the plan to get a second meal from it is a good idea. When there were just 7 of us, I did a whole month of food for less than $200 - that would translate to about $400 right now, but that's still a considerable savings over the usual budget.

Think seasonal! Anything bought within season is generally better and cheaper than when purchased off-season. With shipping the way it is nowadays, you can certainly get almost any food at any time, but you're still paying more than if you were to pick it up when it's at its peak.

Don't throw it away! Before you think that a half cup of vegetables won't amount to anything, consider the fact that several of those half cups can be added to soup or stew, tossed into an omelet or frittata or added to a casserole. I keep bacon grease on-hand in the freezer along with bread heels, nuts, stock, gravy, leftover soup and anything else I have that isn't enough to serve as-is.

Keep coupons to a minimum. I don't mean don't use them, but don't buy an item just because you have a coupon for it. I have gotten some great deals in the past using coupons like getting items completely free or at a very large savings, but in general I don't save enough on a national brand to make it cheaper than what I get at ALDI.

So, where do I shop that allows me to keep within my budget? Here in the Lehigh Valley, I shop primarily at:

ALDI
Giant
Valley Farm Market
Price Rite

I get out to Wegmans occasionally for items I'm not able to find at my regular stores and I also like Elias Market for things like bulk beans, nuts, seeds, Middle Eastern foods and very affordable produce.

About ALDI - I did a post at Family.com about ALDI that got a bit of interest. ALDI seems to be a love-it or hat-it affair, but I can honestly say there is nothing to hate. Please keep in mind that I have a culinary education and have cooked and eaten some of the finest food there is. ALDI really does compare well to other stores and save a very few items, everything is as good as or better than other brands. ALDI's packaging is often far larger than national brands, making the savings even greater. I would say I get at least 85% of my shopping done at ALDI, and sometimes more.

I'm hoping this information helps someone and if you have any other questions, please feel free to email me at irishones7 (at) juno (dot) com.

*This was written in 2009 and a few things have changed since then. The amount of people I now cook for is 7 most days (divorce and one kid living elsewhere), but the budget is still relatively the same. I shop more often at Price Rite for the time being, but I will always recommend ALDI!

The KFC $10 Challenge? I'll Take That.

Have you seen the newest add campaign from KFC? It portrays a mother and two kids at a grocery store trying to rustle up the ingredients for a fried chicken meal without going over $10. They can't seem to clear this hurdle, so they head off to KFC for dinner, instead. You can watch the ad HERE.

I think with the recent financial woes this country is facing that this is just a bad idea. I can take that same $10 and make that meal twice. When was the last time you were at KFC? The so-called sides are pitifully small and the belief that you could really feed your family of 4 on a meal like that is even more pitiful.

Here's what they are pitching: 7 pieces of chicken (please note that they count wings as a full piece), one side and 4 biscuits. I know complete incompetents that could make that meal for less than $10.

Just in case you're wondering about the ability to accomplish this, check out the LOK/CWA Challenge from May/June, which was to feed your family for a dollar or less per person, and the submissions HERE. I'll be writing more on budget cooking soon, especially since we're all so in need of ideas lately, but for now, please don't be fooled by KFC and their claim.

Homemade Toaster Tarts

I know they're a little wonky, but as all of my kids have their own aprons they decided to come and "watch". Of course that doesn't really mean watch, it means touch ... a lot.

Anyhow, we ran out of toaster tarts (Pop Tarts) and as I've had a recipe or two sitting around forever I decided to give it a whirl. Yes, it's too hot for baking, but I cut the dough in half and put one half back in the fridge so I only made 8. I couldn't keep the oven on for that long.

Once they were done and the kids decided they were way better than store bought, I did
some costing and found that for me to make my own they cost about 6¢ each as opposed to
12¢ each for the cheap kind and 20¢ each for the name brand!

They are a bit of work but not terribly so and you can put whatever you want in the middle of
them, even combos the "big guys" haven't even thought of yet. I plan on working around with it to come up with a chocolate dough too and if I pin it down I'll share it.

I promise tomorrow we'll get back to Summertime cooking.

This is a combination of a couple recipes - feel free to cut the recipe in half, it will work just as well.

Toaster Tarts

1c sugar
1c margarine or butter-softened
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 c flour
4 t baking powder

Filling:

Jam, jelly, preserves or whatever will firm up a bit when they are cooled.

Beat butter or margarine together until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time while beating and then add vanilla. Stir in flour and baking powder until a soft dough forms. Cut in half and flatten each half a bit and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

You can either cut the dough into 16 rectangles and fit two together with filling in the center (about a tablespoon per tart) and trim the edges OR roll a large rectangle and fold in half and cut into 8 pieces so the top and bottom of each are more uniform before putting the filling on them. This is what I did - I didn't want to roll all day long.

Crimp the edges closed with a fork and poke the tops well with a fork. Set on cookie sheets (I didn't grease mine) and bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. You can poke them with a fork again halfway through baking time to keep them flat or, if that doesn't matter to you, let them bake, they don't get that puffy anyway.

You can brush them with a bit of milk or beaten egg white before baking also and when they are done they can be frosted with a simple powdered sugar icing.

What's For Dinner?

As requested by Rich, (thanks for your patience!) here are some ideas for dinner.

First thing is to find out what your family eats, good or bad,and write it down. I'm sure we can all agree that a child who eats,
even if it's unhealthy, is better than a child who doesn't eat.

There are several approaches to the dinner table arena. Mine happens to be a list.
Yep, I'm a list-maker. I have a list of nearly 70 meals I know that almost every member of my family will eat-from main dish to dessert. I started out using index cards and at that time I had 14-2 weeks worth. You can only eat the same stuff so many times in a row so I had to expand. It took time and thought; there really aren't easy answers to this whole dilemma. This is a link to that list , but be forewarned, it is always a work in progress and as such, there are missing parts. Please only use it as a guide! It isn't the healthiest of alternatives since my husband and a couple of the kids are so picky it's all I could manage.

There are tons of sites out there and books that offer menus for
X amount of days, but when you really get down to it, they are just
guidelines. I don't know of any family where every member will eat
every item on the menus given on those sites and in those books.

Once you have nailed down relative likes and dislikes you need to take a
look at your food budget and make sure that if the only protein anyone will eat is lobster that you can afford it. If not ... think tuna.

You can also do the "Chicken on Monday", "Beef on Tuesday" approach.
Choose one thing for each day ~ chicken, beef, pork, pasta, fish,
sandwiches, pizza etc. and give it a specific day;

Monday-beef
Tuesday-pork
Wednesday-chicken
Thursday-pizza
Friday-fish
Saturday-sandwich
Sunday-roast

As you see, you can do it by dish or by food choice or by ethnicity.
You could make Wednesday soup night or Friday Italian night etc.
Choosing a theme helps you plan knowing that your choices are not
so broad for a particular day.

Then all you need to do is round up recipes for that particular theme
and off you go.

I plan my shopping lists around dinner always. Nearly everything else is
secondary. I plan for staples first, things I know I always have on hand,
and then I pick dinners for the week, make a list for all I will need for them,
and fill in with lunch and breakfast.

Another way to do this is OAMC-Once a Month Cooking, you cook for a day and eat
for a month. It is exhausting but worth it if you have the initial time and freezer space. There are many sites out there about this so I won't bother to expound upon it. You can also do something similar called "investment cooking" or just do prep-work on your purchases as soon as you are home from the store to make things easier all week. You know, pre-peel carrots, clean chicken breasts, separate ground beef into 1 lb packages, make meatballs, make muffin mixes, etc.

You can choose to do the "What's on sale" approach and wait until the Sundaysales flyer comes out and plan your meals from there. PLEASE keep in mind though, 10 lbs of anything on sale is NOT a bargain if it's something your family won't eat no matter how you disguise it! Tossing food is never thrifty.

Here are links to some helpful sites:Saving Dinner-Leanne Ely
OAMC Frozen Assets
Menus 4 Moms
Real Food for Real People
(I subscribe to this list and I love it. Out of all the recipe lists I have been on it is the ONLY one I stay with.)Simply In Season
Kraft dinner ideas
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Dad is holding his own (as usual!) please continue to hold him in your thoughts and prayers~he is believing for a complete healing miracle, and we are standing with him.