your go-to meal when groceries are running low
 

I find i'm most creative when we are running out of food. So what are some of your family's favorites?

Yesterday I made turkey burger with taco seasoning, onions and peppers and put it over a baked red potato. SOO GOOD! I was proud, lol. Only 350 calories too!

If I have some leftover chicken in the fridge, I make one cup of rice (cooked in chicken broth or boullion or taco seasoning) and stir in the cut-up chicken and a cup of frozen peas during the last 5 min. of cooking time. Serve with fruit or a salad. Just used this one night before last!

Homemade fried rice comes to mind. I like to throw in whatever is in the fridge. This works well for stir fries also.

I can make almost anything as long as I have meat. It's when we've run out of meat that I have trouble! :D

Breakfast for dinner comes to mind. Pancakes, eggs, sometimes cereal.

Sandwiches

It depends on what you have. :rofl:

I keep a good supply of a dried bean soup mix, when I'm running low on groceries I cook that up with whatever I have in the fridge. like tomato sauce and corn or pumpkin and sausage, I can always make a filling soup with that.

I'm on a low-carb plan, so I like to make what I call breakfast burrito filling. It's pretty much how I make breakfast burritos but I can't eat the tortilla. Brown some ground sausage, mix in eggs, then cheese, top with more cheese and sour cream and jalapenos. Salsa is pretty good too. I've made this a couple of times when I didn't have anything else to eat.

I'm on a low carb plan too and this is pretty much my go-to. I always have at least 2 dozen eggs in the fridge at any given time. My husband calls it "garbage bowl" haha... I pretty much dump whatever leftovers and veggies I have into my eggs and scramble it all up. Pretty yum most of the time :).

Tuna salad (with onions, celery, peppers) on open face whole wheat toasted English Muffins (or WW Round, or slice of WW toast), or mixed with cold WW pasta as a salad, or on other veggies, tomatoes, cucumber, salad, whatever I have.

polenta, fried rice, bean salad, quesadillas.

I like burritos and quesadillas because they center around super cheap ingredients that are easily on hand - tortillas, beans, and chicken! I buy beans in 1lb bags from the grocery store or dollar store - it's usually $1.00 for a 1lb bag, and that bag about doubles once you soak/cook the beans so you have TONS of beans to use for lots of different recipes! I always have frozen chicken on hand, and tortillas are super cheap to buy and even more cheap to make from scratch. Whole wheat tortillas + beans (plus spices) + grilled/sauteed chicken = healthy burritos! Of course you can add in shredded cheese if you have it, or egg if that's your thing, or even tomatoes and onions. The healthiest sour cream substitute is unflavored greek yogurt, and salsa is super healthy as well.

When groceries are low I love doing breakfast for supper, I always have the stuff on hand to make homemade pancakes. Omelettes are good too, you can throw in a hodgepodge of pretty much anything. Grits are cheap and filling.

And there is nothing like a good ole PB&J. I like Nature's Own Light Honey Wheat, regular PB & sugarfree jam...I can fill my belly, get some a little healthy grain and oil and satisfy a sweettooth for about 200 calories.

Some great soups have resulted from the "grab whatever veg are in the fridge and shove them in a pan" method.

Pasta and lentils is one of our favourites. It's an Egyptian recipe, originally called rishta bi ads. Slice/chop an onion, sauté it in olive oil with ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon, add a tin of green or brown lentils, season with salt and pepper, and serve on pasta with a dab of butter/marg. This makes 2-3 servings depending on how hungry you are, it's very easy, and it's great comfort food.

I might try that, Esofia. It sounds interesting.

I mostly go with quesadillas, burritos with chopped steak, bell peppers, spinach leaves, and onions, or vegetable soups with chicken and leftover noodles when food is low. If food is really low a big bowl of beans with some salsa and cheese mixed into it is very satisfying and filling.

I also love Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches. Mmmm.

We're able to spend about half what we used to on groceries, just by having the luxury of stocking up when we find super good sales. We almost never pay more than $2 per pound for meat, and we freeze it. We buy beans and rice and such in bulk (eating fewer carbs, we're lucky that rice and beans have an almost infinite shelf-life if you store properly).

Soup is my random pantry-raiding standby. It's not only great when supplies are low, it's also perfect for overabundance - when you have leftovers or produce you want to use before it goes bad (in which case I make soup and freeze some).

Most of my soups are "dump" soups. I start with water in a dutch oven or soup pot, add some powdered soup base we buy in bulk (before I found the bulk food store, I used boillon cubes, saltier but still works well). Then I just start randomly throwing in stuff. Leftovers, almost wilted veggies, cans of veggies and/or meat.

My husband (who doesn't cut carbs as much as I do), ha a standby recipe he calls "stuff" (essentially homemade hamburger helper) which is ground beef or leftover meat (diced chicken,ham or roast) browned with diced onion and other seasonings mixed with either rice or pasta and vegetables. The vegetables can fresh, frozen, canned or leftover - whatever we've got.

I make a lower-cab version by eliminating the rice or pasta, to make a sloppy joe style "stuff" that I'll pour over faux mashed potatoes (mostly cauliflower with just a few tablespoons of mashed potato flakes to give it a more potato flavor and texture for very few extra carbs/calories). Or if I want to spend my daily carb budget on a baked potato, I'll pour the stuff over that. Or I'll add beans to the stuff for a chili-like concoction.

Scrambled eggs are another stand-by when choices and time are limited. Like my soups and stuff, almost anything (except fruit) can find it's way into my scrambled eggs. I call them "scrambled omelettes" because I don't have the patience or dexterity to make a traditional omelette. I just saute filling ingredients and pour beaten eggs over it and stir as it cooks. Some ingredients do color the eggs, so if you're really sensitive to color, you have to think about your choices. For example, I once used refried beans and other leftover taco ingredients in a scrambled omelette and the flavor was awesome, but the grayish-appearance was less than appetizing. I wouldn't make it for guests, but it was so yummy I didn't mind.

I never throw leftovers away...I freeze them. Even if it is a single serving (or even less) of something. Then when things are low, I pull stuff out and either have a "leftover buffet", or make "freezer soup", lol. I have dozens of tiny bags of random food items in my freezer at any time :D

Chili.

I almost always have a couple cans of beans hanging around along with either a can of diced tomatoes or tomato paste.

Mix together in a big pot with chili powder and cumin. Tada~

If I'm feeling fancy and have it on hand... chop up some onions or peppers, brown some ground beef or turkey.

The chili is filling and leftovers last for days.

chana masala (or my white girl version)... i almost always have chickpeas on hand and some curry paste, an onion, some tomatoes (but sometimes just chickpeas and curry paste!). it's what my mom would always make when we were in a rush or between grocery runs. even my Indian boyfriend approves!

It depends on what is in the pantry and freezer. Right now we've been eating down the pasta. We just combined households so we have a TON of whole wheat pasta. I'm slowly making our way through it. Sometimes I'll make it with regular sauce. Tonight I made some and made a sauce out of my fresh pesto I made today and some tomatoes (since they were on their way out).

When we're running out of money for food for the month, we just pick up our staples: milk, bread, some fresh veggies that are on sale. Then I just use up what we have left.

eggs and oatmeal because I am very likely to have those on hand

Soup (with whatever is around), or rice and beans, which I ALWAYS have on hand.

I'm going to try this... been wanting to try chana masala but all the recipes online call for a long list of spices, can it be done with just curry powder?

I've use American-style, all-purpose curry powder before in very similar dishes and while it turns out ok, I've never been really happy with the flavor (I think it's the tumeric - I think American-style curry powders usually contain way too much for my preferences).

The important thing (or so I've read) is that you like the curry seasoning you choose to use - whether it's a curry powder or a paste.

I've tried higher quality curry powders, with better results, but mostly I've just learned that the curry pastes in a jar, usually taste a thousand times better to me than curry powders (and yet are still very convenient to use).

Shorbat Adas! Man, that is my favorite comfort food! You have to add the black lime too (since I'm the youngest I always get the lumi in the end :cool: Love squeezing that into my soup.) Its also the best food to have when you're sick. We add only a little noodles in ours though, so its more red lentil soup and less pasta.

My go to meal isn't all THAT healthy (could be healthier):

You brown some hamburger and throw it in a roaster with cream of mushroom soup, and whatever vegetables you can find (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, peppers, brussel sprouts are my fav in this, onions, potatoes; no tomatoes or cabbage or cucumbers of course), bake until vegetables are cooked. You can also add egg noodles and grated cheese.

I almost always have the ingredients for this in the house.

I'm not a huge meat eater, though I usually have meat in the freezer. My mom gave it to me; organic beef and pork. I don't use it much so when things get desperate (like this week with next to no money in the bank), I start pulling out the meat and have it with rice. Since I mostly only ever eat at work, I can get away with just taking some meat to work with some fruit cups, a fruit, and a pudding.. I don't have to make an entire meal if I don't want to or if I can't.

I've been making this vegetarian sweet potato chili... higher in carbs, but a small portion is filling. My mom who is very picky and isn't a vegetable eater at all even like this; http://www.realsimple.com/food-recip...528/index.html

Fling!
 

"Fling" is my go-to meal when groceries are running low. :)
Fling is my word for stir-fry ... Fling it in a pan ~ fling it on a plate! :D

Any fresh or frozen veggies get stir-fried and if I have any meat already cooked I throw that in as well. I make a sauce out of broth (or water), ground ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and corn starch, and add it to the veggies as they become semi-tender.

Prepare some brown rice and Fling is ready to be eaten! :)

Is there a brand that you would recommend?