by Ashley
This past week our pantry has been a bit bare, but I’ve been making it a priority to eat what we have instead of making an extra trip to the grocery store. I divide our grocery money into the number of weeks in the month (4 or 5) and try to stick to that amount – no more. We had already used our week’s allotment of grocery money so I was going to have to get creative until the following week.
One night for dinner I decided to pull some enchiladas out of the freezer. Whenever I make enchiladas I always double the batch and freeze the extras, so this was the “extra batch.” Generally when I make dinner I try to make a little extra so I can have leftovers for lunch the next day, but this was a small batch – only 5 enchiladas. My husband ate two, I ate 1 ½, gave the girls ½ and we had sides – refried beans and a side-salad.
For lunch the next day I was totally stumped. We didn’t have enough leftovers to feed me and both girls (only 1 enchilada left), and we’d been eating grilled cheese or PB&Js for the past 3 lunches in a row. I desperately wanted to run to Chick-fil-A or call in some Chinese take-out. I debated it for awhile, but ultimately I decided I needed to figure out a way to make our leftover enchilada stretch into a meal for 3.
What did I do?
Well, although there was only a single enchilada, there was actually a good amount of beans leftover. So I made a little enchilada “pie.” On the bottom of our plates I put a hefty layer of beans, then I cut the enchilada in half (half for me, half shared by the girls), and put it on top. To beef it up, I added some avocado we had on-hand, a little extra grated cheese, and a small dollop of sour cream.
It wasn’t the best or most exciting meal. It was probably 70% beans with a little enchilada and other toppings. But it was a good source of protein (beans), fats (avocado) and dairy (cheese, sour cream). And it filled us up for free as opposed to spending money at the drive-through.
I’ll call that a “win” any day!
How do you make a meal stretch? What are some of your favorite budget recipes that you can make from mostly pantry staples?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
Hi Ashley,
I read several blogs religiously but I have never once commented on any blog post. I wanted to tell you that when I read your posts, I think to myself, “Wow, you are going to make it.” You are going to crush this debt and even go beyond that. I think there are great things waiting for you in your future. Way to go.
Wow! I’m so flattered! Thanks for reading and for the kind words!!
Nice! I think this is such a big part of debt reduction- changing your automated habits. If I was running late to work, I would always just grab something at a fast food restaurant. Now, I keep easy mac and some other fine delicacies in my filing cabinet at work- not the best, but keeps me from spending extra on a lunch out (and encourages me to wake up early and just pack my lunch because I do NOT want to eat that for lunch). Congrats on the small changes- they will definitely add up to big changes for you!
literally lolling about the “fine delicacies”! That’s awesome!
I also LOL’d at the “fine delicacies” because I do something similar.
-Meghan
great job on the makeover of the left overs.
For us, it’ll be first week of not eating out. We’re both big people with big appetites and we just have been eating this one pot of chicken curry that I had cooked at the beginning of the week for the entire week. Hopefully, we will soon visibly see reduced weight and grocery budget.
Excellent! We also recently started making it a priority to eat from the pantry instead of spending more. For the past few months, our food spending dropped $200+ per month!
Another trick- if you ordered out Chinese as much as we used to do, you might have all those containers left over. When I double a recipe, I take about a dozen of the flat containers, put a layer of rice or pasta on the bottom, and divide up the extra casserole. Those make an easy single serve lunch.
Two of my favorite enchiladas are bean & cheese/onion. Great job Ashley!
Ashley,
I enjoyed this post. I understand the difficulties of having to make a meal “stretch,” and the desire to just go out and get something quick. My boyfriend and I have had to change our eating habits drastically within the past year to save money that we were spending unnecessarily.
Getting to hear the struggle and honest thought process that is universal to so many people trying to reduce their debt is the reason I enjoy this blog. Thanks for keeping it real!
Great job! I know the feeling of wanting to order in or run to the fast food restaurant instead of eating leftovers. For me though its usually because I’m tired of leftovers instead of not having enough. I’m single and I often grow tired of leftovers before they are gone. I’m working on making smaller portions so there’s not as much leftover, but somethings are hard to cut in half.
I understand that, too! Do you freeze food? I like to do that because it helps save money by saving leftovers (as opposed to letting it go bad and throwing it out). And as a bonus, then you have easy single-serving lunch/dinners in the freezer ready-to-go when you’re too tired to cook anything!
This is exactly the kind of blog post I like (except now I want to eat Mexican food).
I think I subconsciously did the same thing to myself! I’ve got a crock pot of pinto beans simmering away (destined to be made into refried beans). Tonight is taco night at our house! : )
Great job! It is the consistent practice of small, thrifty behaviors over time that really make a difference in reaching financial goals. There are only so many “giant scores” you can make to save money, but if you could resist take out or dining out for even 6 months the savings would be immense. I know it is not easy, I fight it myself. But I do know the more I commit to cooking at home, the more I can save. I really enjoyed this post!
Kudos to you! I know it is hard to make the smarter decisions at times but you did it! If you keep on imagining what life will be like after debt freedom, I am sure it will help.
It’s very, very rare that I find a recipe that freezes and reheats as well as the original tasted when I first made it. But by accident I found a few weeks ago, so I thought I would share since it’s relevant to this post.
Cook’s Country Southwestern Layered Casserole was incredible and not at all expensive to make. I used mostly pantry stuff I had on hand – quick-cooking white rice, canned pinto beans, canned tomatoes, spices and frozen corn, which I always have just in case. All I had to buy was the beef and the green onions, because I like the addition of something fresh and green on top.
If you didn’t want to eat it as is in subsequent days, it would make a great ‘pie’ filling or taco filling!
The recipe is offered here: http://cullyskitchen.com/southwestern-beef-casserole-recipe/ … it makes an 8×8 casserole dish of it but it’s filled to the tippy-top. Should’ve obeyed my instincts and used a 9×11 rectangular pan instead. I ran out of room at the end and didn’t have enough space for all the corn and cheese the recipe called for.
I also have to say it was spicier than I expected. I don’t mind spicy, but this was my first time using canned tomatoes with chiles, and I’m not sure if that was the culprit or the chili powder.
After I originally made it, I refrigerated the leftovers in the pan for a few hours. Then I used a sharp-edge spatula to cut the rest into big “blocks,” then lifted out the blocks and put them into individual serving containers and froze them.
My expectations were very low when I defrosted a portion in the fridge and then reheated a week later. But it was every bit as good as, if not better than, when I first made it.
And I have to say that although it sounds annoying, I did go to the extra step of toasting the rice in the pan with the oil. HTHs someone.
Thanks for the recipe! It looks delicious!
about once a year, I give myself a grocery challenge.
it is usually when I start noticing that grocery shopping has become a very frequent habit [not a need] or that I’m buying large amounts of food that is going bad.
alas, the goal is to see how many days I can go only eating foods I have on hand in the fridge, freezer or pantry. my most successful challenge lasted 35 days! but most last at least two weeks before I’m down to the bare minimum.
the challenges have taught me that I save so much money by just not going to grocery stores – because if I pop into the grocery store, I’ll usually pop into the drug store and the pet store…. one trip usually equals four stops and four purchases.
I love this idea!!! Might have to steal it!!
Great job on stretching a meal, Ashley! Here is a recipe that I posted to Hope’s portion of the blog. It is fantastic for your budget since it uses things that most people have on hand. I often buy bone-in (with skin on) chicken breasts on sale and I roast them in the oven just to cut up into one cup freezer portions for recipes like this. I have also used chicken from leftover rotisserie chickens (often on sale at my Publix for around $5 and you can’t beat that price).
It is delicious. It tastes like chicken soup-chicken pie. You can adjust the spices to suit your family. For example, if you like the spicy Mexican tastes, use spicy cheese on top.
Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 stick butter
1/2 cup Wondra Flour
2 cups unsalted chicken broth
1 cup milk
2-3 teaspoons Poultry Seasoning
1 – 2 cups cooked vegetables (any kind – notes below)
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
1/3 cup mozarella cheese
1] Cook noodles in boiling water 2-3 minutes less than instructions require. Drain and set aside.
2] In heavy saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat.
3] Measure out milk and broth; have this ready on the counter
4] Whisk the Wondra Flour into the melted butter. This will quickly form a thick paste-like substance.
5] Immediately whisk in broth, pouring slowly. Then whisk in milk, pouring slowly. Whisk continuously.
6] Whisk in Poultry Seasoning. Continue to whisk.
7] Let cook over medium high heat (may have to reduce to medium depending on how “hot” your stove gets) till mixture is thick and bubbly. You do not want this sauce to burn. I usually start with medium high and reduce to medium on my electric stove. It will take about 5-10 minutes to get to thick and bubbly stage.
8] Remove from heat and stir in the 2 cups chicken and the 1 cup cooked vegetables. **Carrots and celery taste good if you want a chicken-soup taste. I use leftover vegetables from previous meals a lot. A quick shortcut is to buy good quality frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, green beans, corn) and just measure out 1 to 2 cups and stir in frozen. They are wonderful and they cook up beautifully.
9] Turn into greased 9 x 13? casserole dish (2 1/2 quart capacity — if you don’t have a rectangular dish, you can use any shape so long as capacity is big enough).
10] Sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Shake on a bit more poultry seasoning.
11] At this point you can bake the casserole right away or you can cover and refrigerate until you are ready to cook.
12] Bake @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so, until bubbly and hot. If you have refrigerated the casserole, you might need to bake for 40 minutes.
13] Salt to taste when eating. I always use unsalted broth because we try to stay away from food that is too salty. You can use regular broth and then you won’t have to have a salt shaker on the table.
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This is delicious and I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t like it. My 3 year old eats it until he nearly pops. Older people love it as well. It is real “comfort food” and it is so inexpensive to make.
Re the Wondra Flour. This comes in a cylinder shaped container. You can find it by regular flour in your grocery store. It is a quick mixing, lump-resistant flour to use for thickening things like sauces and gravies. It is very nearly fail-safe. Nothing looks or tastes worse than flour lumps in your sauces and gravies.
This can be made with regular flour in the same measured amount. You just have to be very careful to add the liquid very gradually and whisk, whisk, whisk continuously to prevent lumps. The nice thing about Wondra is that you don’t have to whisk as much and it is very forgiving of distracted cooks (I have a 3 year old who always wants to “help” so sometimes my attention is diverted!).
Time-saving tip: You can boil the noodles ahead and put them into the refrigerator, covered or in a plastic bag. You can make the sauce ahead and put it into a tightly covered container and store in the refrigerator for a few days or freeze. Obviously you can chop up chicken and store in refrigerator or freezer in 2 cup quantities.
Also, if your family likes mushrooms, you can saute 1 cup of sliced mushrooms in the melted butter before you add the flour, broth & milk. Proceeds as above.
This is a very forgiving recipe. You can play around with the vegetables and the cheese to suit your family’s taste.
This sounds incredible!! Thanks for the recipe and the time-saving tips!
Just want to reiterate that you need to use cooked vegetables. When I use carrots & celery, I boil the fresh sliced carrots for about 5-7 minutes (at least … we like our carrots sliced thin and still a little crunch when cooked). I slice the fresh celery and saute in the butter before adding the flour so the celery is already in the sauce.
Using frozen vegetables is the easiest of all, just measure out and stir into casserole — no pre-cooking needed.
And of course, using leftover cooked vegetables from previous meals is just as easy!
My go to “quick and easy” meals are pasta and baked potatoes. If I’m really lazy, I’ll make a pesto or other herb/oil type dish with a little Parmesan cheese. Depending on what’s in the cabinet I may make a tomato or cream or cheesy sauce to go on top. You can add ground beef or sliced Italian sausages, canned, fresh, or frozen veggies. Sometimes it’s more pasta, sometimes a sort of casserole. Great for using leftovers. Baked potatoes are also easy to dress up and make into a “loaded” baked potato. Get creative and use up leftovers here too – ham or turkey and cheese, classic with bacon and such, mushroom and mozzerella, etc. In your case, adding the enchilada meat and sauce and cheese would have made a pretty tasty potato too!
I love the idea of getting creative with “loaded” baked potatoes! Great idea!
Hey Ashley,
I just wanted to throw an idea out for you. We have been really good about NOT eating out, but my spouse misses that delicious chinese takeout.
You can actually make really authentic tasting asian recipes at home – or ones that taste like takeout.
Example – cut up chicken, pan sear in a thin layer of oil – coconut oil is best for smoking point – and it’ll get a nice texture to it. Saute some onions and peppers, add back in the chicken and mix in homemade teriyaki sauce.
Serve over rice and it’s better than takeout.
One of my favorite recipes ( minus the snow peas, we just use onions and peppers) is Pioneer Woman’s beef with snow peas. Google that and you’ll get the easy recipe. I use her sauce for other things, but have found it’s best for beef. Chicken it’s too salty.
But I suggest you poke around google for well-reviewed takeout copycats and then you can have tasty lunches for cheap, without having to stuff down another grilled cheese. 😀
Thanks for the tip on the Pioneer Woman’s recipe! I have to admit that Chinese take-out is a serious weakness of mine! I’ve tried it at home and it never tastes the same as the restaurants’ versions. I’ll have to poke around for some recipes with good reviews!