: Day 4 :
Just cause it’s cheap doesn’t mean it has to be healthy. We have wicked sweet toothes here and cinnamon buns are one of those extremely rare treats. I was looking over the ingredient the other day and realized it really doesn’t take all that much to make. The recipe can be found at: All Recipes – Clone of a Cinnabon
: Day 3 :
Beef or chicken enchiladas are pretty cheap but they don’t come close to the thriftiness of Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas. We began making this dish about a year or so ago when my husband heard somebody talking about it on the radio. He came home and whipped up the most delicious enchiladas any of us had ever eaten! Again, I’m going to give you a kinda recipe but it’s so easy you can really add what you want. You can’t mess this up. And just so you know, it tastes light years better than it looks.
: Day 2 :
If you’ve never had hummus you are missing out on one of the best, most diverse and budget friendly foods out there. If you have had hummus maybe you’re like us and just bought it at the store. After all, it’s not like it costs all that much. But once you make this recipe you’ll see just how much money you’ll be able to save making one batch of hummus.
You can easily buy canned garbonzo beans and use those but if your goal is to save money I strongly encourage you to purchase dried chick peas.
Rinse the beans and place them in your crockpot. One wonderful tip I got from Broke and Healthy was to add baking soda while cooking. The beans break down dramatically faster and thin out their tough outer skin. But fair warning – when I added baking soda after it had been cooking awhile there was some science fair volcano action going on. So be careful when adding baking soda! I was also informed that the baking soda quite possibly removes some of the vitamins. You’ll have to make that call on your own.
{This photo was taken when I tried to just use boiling water and let them soak overnight. Don’t do that, use a crock-pot. Sorry, no crock-pot photos.}
Once the chickpeas are soft drain them of their water and place them in a food processor. Add garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Honestly, there are probably thousands of hummus recipes but I just want to give you a general idea of what to use. The best advice I can give you is to make sure that you blend well enough to chop up the garlic {if you add it}. My kids were not thrilled to find large chunks of garlic in their hummus servings. I just saw it as extra probiotic.
Here, though, is an excellent recipe to follow!
Serve with pita chips, raw vegetables, tortilla chips, make as a sandwich, etc.
If all my kids will eat this you know it’s good! And, of course, pocketbook friendly! After we made our one batch I asked my husband to hold the containers of hummus. He guessed we had made around twelve pounds of hummus! We’re in the process of seeing how well it freezes. I’ll update about that later.
Hope this helps you think of new and exciting budget friendly meals!
Blessings!
: Day 1 :
This recipe for tahini is a must for tomorrows recipe. This ends up being dramatically cheaper than hunting down tahini in a health food store. You’ll be surprised at how easy this is and how much it makes!
First, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Next, measure out 4 cups of sesame seeds.
Pour the seeds onto a large baking pan.
Place the pan in the oven. Stir every couple minutes. Depending on your oven it could take between 5 and 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven right before the seeds begin to brown. Let cool.
Pour the cooled seeds into a food processor. A blender will work if that’s all you have. Add about 1 1/4 cups of olive oil while pureeing the seeds.
And there you have it! You’ve made at least a year supply of tahini! Great to use in hummus or baba ganoush!
By the way, you can easily halve this recipe and still have enough for an entire year {depending on how often you make tahini dishes}.
Enjoy!
Blessings!
{Original recipe can be found here.}
Starting tomorrow, September 1, 2012, I will be steering a little ways away from the theme of my site to offer up some budget friendly meal ideas.
At some point in our lives we all come under a financial hardship and recently we’ve been surrounded by loving friends and family who have offered support and advice on my favorite way to save money – groceries. Before we were spending A LOT each week on groceries only for a good portion of them to get lost in the pantry or for produce/meat to go bad and have to be thrown away. What a waste. Now, being a family of seven, almost eight, we are spending no more than $100/week on groceries.
The Lord has blessed us immensely with two families who have allowed us to take the burden of their pantry and freezer foods while they move to new homes. As sad as we have been with their movings we are incredibly thankful to see how the Lord has used this transition to bless us. All this while teaching the children about thriftiness. Rather than just teaching we are able to live out how God wants us to take care of His money that He’s entrusted to us.
I will admit right now that not all those recipes are as healthy as we were eating before. Budget friendly? Yes. We still try to steer clear of high fructose corn syrup and a majority of the recipes are from scratch which means more time in the kitchen {but also means more money in the bank}.
{a huge thank you to a special someone for blessing us with our favorite budget friendly cereal!}
So join us this next month as we learn how to be gazelle intense in the kitchen!
Blessings!
