Quote:
Originally Posted by pattygirl63
This time of the year through winter is a great time for volumetrics for me because I love soups, stirfrys and salads.
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There's really not a bad time of year for volumentrics (though many people do experience more hunger in the fall and winter).
I do tend to use some tricks in the summer that I don't in winter, and vice versa.
For example, in the summer I tend to make salads bigger and lower calorie by adding more lettuce and other low-calorie veggies and by using a lower calorie or diluted salad dressing. I don't like most reduced-calorie salad dressings, so I either dilute a full-fat dressing with rice wine vinegar (or even water) or I make my own dressing with a rice wine vinegar base (I find that rice wine vinegar or rice vinegar tends to be milder than other vinegars and I can use far less oil, or even no oil at all and still make a very tasty dressing. Champagne vinegar and other mild vinegars also work as well, or you can even add a bit of water and sweetener to a stronger vinegar to dilute it. Rice wine vinegar though works the best in my opinion, because it's naturally mild and sweet and almost makes a great dressing on it's own (just a few spices and instant, yummy, almost no-cal dressing).
Another volumetrics strategy for summer is using steamed cauliflower (cut in bite size pieces) in place of some or all of the potato in potato salad, and using sour cream (fat-free, light or even regular will reduce the calories compared to whole mayo) for part of the mayonaise, and using Hellman's canola or olive oil mayo for some or all of the mayonaise. (Hellman's canola and olive oil mayonaisses are about half the calories of reguluar mayo, but don't taste as fake as most light mayos. I think the canola has 40 calories per tablespoon and the olive oil version has 45 or 50 calories, compared to 100 calories for regular Hellman's mayo. I'm extremely picky about mayo, and the Hellman's canola mayo is the only light mayo I consider worth buying. The olive oil mayo isn't bad either, but the canola is better in my opinion.
Another trick for summer is making frozen berry lemonades and margaritas. I throw a cup of frozen berries (usually strawberrries, but blackberries are awesome too) into a blender with diet lemonade (or other sugar free drink, made from powered drink mix. I especially like Walmart/Target's lime margarita drink mixes because they're about half the price of Crystal Light's margarita flavor and just as good), and sometimes a splash of Diet Sprite or Mountain Dew (or the generic equivalent) for a bit of fizz, and maybe an extra ice cube or two.
Adding ice to smoothies also adds no-cal volume.
The volumetrics strategies are similar to (and very compatible with) budgeting strategies. The strategies I use to stretch the food budget are often the same (or at least similar) to those I use to stretch the food volume.
For example I use dry tvp (textured vegetable protein - looks like grapenuts cereal, but is made of soy - you reconstitute with water). I brown it with cheap, fattier ground beef, along with onions, celery, and maybe bell pepper or mushroom and then add hot broth or water to make a ground beef mixture that has a calorie and fat content more similar to the more expensive 95% lean beef or turkey (because the tvp is virtually fat free). I save calories, bulk up the volume, and save money.
I freeze the ground beef mixture in ziploc bags (smooshing the bag every 30 minutes or so so it freezes in crumbles that I can then use in any recipe calling for browned ground beef - tacos, spaghetti, sloppy joes, casseroles...).
I'll stir cooked veggies into pasta (cold or hot, summer or winter) to make bigger portions. French style green beans, spinache, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced onion... all sorts of veggies can bulk up the pasta hot or cold.
I'll stir cooked beans or lentils into dishes you might not expect them (such as with the ground beef/tvp mixture in things like sloppy joes).
Another good "mix in" to sloppy joes or shredded/pulled chicken or pork barbecue is shredded cabbage (or bagged coleslaw mix). The cabbage cooks down into the bbq sauce.
When our budget was crazy tight, I'd make "pulled pork" sandwhiches that contained more cabbage and onion than pork.
Budget stretching can go hand-in-hand with volume-stretching, as long as you're careful to pick inexpensive low-cal stretchers such as cabbage, iceberg lettuce, onion, water, ice, broth, beans...
However some budget-stretchers (like potatoes) can actually increase the calories of a dish, so you have ot make sure you're replacing something of higher calorie.
I've been craving shepherd's pie, so I'm going to use several strategies to save money and calories (and increase bulk). I'll use my tvp/ground beef mixture and frozen mixed veggies and a can of diced tomatoes with chiles in the filling, and I'll make mashed cauliflower (with just a little bit of mashed potato flakes to improve the texture) for the topping.
My normal recipe calls for grated mild cheddar on the top. I'll use an extra sharp cheddar instead (or another strongly flavored cheese) and will use less (the stronger the cheese, the less I can use. I'd much rather use a 1/4 cup of strong, good cheese than a pound of fat-free cheese substitute).
It's fun to combine dollar-stretching with volume-stretching.
Volumetrics
