Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!

Most people ruin meatloaf. They add too many bread crumbs. It needs an egg and a little pork sausage. Your meat loaf will come out so much better versus some insipid mess thrown together carelessly. It will be savory and you make homemade mashed potatoes just minutes before everyone sits down.

Reserve some unsalted mashed potatoes as that is secret ingredient along with cardomom in doughtnuts.

When you make your soups, be sure to dice up some fresh celery leaves as there is no substitute. Use fresh garlic too. Otherwise soups taste weak and flat.

Make your own ice cream instead of buying whipped air fake icecream with seaweed in it. YUCK.

How made ice cream is pure and delicious versus all theseweird additives. You control whatever flavors it based on availability. Frozen fruit is often a fraction of the cost of fresh.

An orange julius is simple to make with the secret ingredients being powedered sugar and vanilla. Some yogurt makes it healthier. Some whey protein is not very expensive and vital if yourkids are doing sports.

Farina is an old time Italian hot cereal and flavored with milk and cocoa is delicious. It's very inexpensive.

Grew up in a family with 7 kids, and my mom would make several pizzas at at time. Made her own dough, pizzas fully customizable for the kids, it's a cheap food if you do it yourself, and freezes and reheats well too.

[link to www.tastesoflizzyt.com (secure)]

Amish Friendship Bread is liked by practically everyone and is made from sweetened sourdough so you keep it going. You can add some freshly grated carrots or zuchini when you have way TOO MUCH coming in the garden.

Tosavemoney versus pizza which can be expensive with the authentic cheeses, you can either hand grate the romano which is not very expensive or make focacia. People love the latter.

[link to www.gimmesomeoven.com (secure)]

If making pizza at home, either make authentic hearty deep dish Sicilian which is really an Italian meat pie. Or if wanting a thin cracker crust, look up the dough sponge method. Both give you superior results.

A dough sponge method is a slow rise to allow "ripening" while refrigerated.

I have often when times are tight for my family used both oatmeal and grits which are both very filling to substitute say a standard dinner .

So these are some things that have worked with me for my nephews as well as my disabled mother and sister who also live with me . I hope these recipes help .

So first the favorite was grits but I cook mine very different than most people . I won't go into measurements just ingredients and a general amount as size of family determines what size of each item .

Grits ,Milk,Water,Butter that's the basic I also enough salt to very lightly season just like regular grits you have to cook them the full amount of time and you can either add sugar /honey/maple syrup (favorite ) brown sugar . Fruits if you have them add as what you have I've used everything from figs to strawberry I like using dried fruits . Get the grits to boiling stir one time real good put the top onto the pot tightly and turn down to a slow boil and I can't remember I think it's 15 or 20 minutes cook the grits . It's important don't open the top back up and definitely don't site the grits until the full cooking time is done . Once it's done add am little powdered milk and butter and sweeten to taste of needed .


I do the same with oatmeal except of course it's either cinnamon raisin or maple brown sugar just like the grits I add all the ingredients before cooking that way the fruit and sweeteners really blend in well with the oatmeal .


Waffles . No lie if you can make waffles or pancakes and have peanut butter and jelly make the waffle or pancake then cut in half and use the two halves to make a pb$j no lie this one will change your life I learned it working on the road . Pancake mix is easy to make homemade just look it up on the internet .

The main thing is I know times are hard . I've been there heck not far from it now . Don't give up ! Don't let these hard times emotionally drain you . Stay calm even when it seems like your fighting and not progressing . You got this under control . Your literally on the web forum who four years ago not only kept me from losing everything they helped me make sure the kids I'm talking care of didn't have to get put up for adoption and it was pretty close . GLP this whole community saved me and my family .

The main thing to overcome the lean times is to be inventive if there is no meat that's fine you don't have to babe meat every night peanut butter is a great source of protein .


I will say this if I wasn't in the same situation I would be sending you money through PayPal or some other method at this moment .

If you can try and see if local religious meeting house places have either a good bank or some vouchers fo

You could try raising tilapia but the water temperature needs to be controlled. It is simple enough that schoolsdoit as a science project.

A frozen turkey costs as little as 59 cents a pound. They have them as a draw to get customers. So buy several and cook them and divide up all the meat and place them in airtight freezer bags to be used in recipes. The mistake isoverloading a family with a week of eating turkey. That never works.

A whole pork loin costs aslittle as 99 cents a pound to as much as a 1.99 a pound. What I do is cut a whole one up and put chops in a freezer bag or a roast. That way I cook just enough for one meal plus someone gets a nice lunch the next day. That is very inexpensive.

I.might make a whole batch of navy bean soup or make pinto beans with some and garlic, onions, and a couple of bay leaves.

You can grill or make BBQ in the crock pot,or make a stir fry with cabbage, onions, brocoli, and carrots. You can roast pork and baked potatoes.

All are inexpensive satifying meals. Carnitas is a delicious Mexican pork meal.

[link to keviniscooking.com (secure)]
Carnitas are so delicious that your family will end up happily chowing down and you only hears sighs of pleasure when they are done. "That was magnificent!"

[link to www.feastingathome.com (secure)]
Thai Noodle Salad has been enjoyed by everyone I made it for. You do notneedfancy ingredients, But I like it with peapods. Plain old spaghetti noodles can be used.

If youre not eating red meat, youre not getting a lot of iron to start with.

Yes there are veggies that will supply you with minimal iron(potatoes with skins on, etc), but most comes from red meat, and red organ meat especially.

Otherwise, especially for women, suppliments will be needed to keep from getting anemic. Men rarely have issues with anemia, but women will, especially pregnant women.

I know this because my wife is a midwife.

This is basically what we ate growing up. Seven children on military pay ( thank goodness it was officer pay, but still...). Both parents were from the south, so this is what we ate. Throw in a pot roast on Sundays some fried okra too.

Linguine with red clam sauce using canned clams is pretty inexpensive. My wife made a pretty good clam chowderthat way or with canned oysters.

We routinely ate salmon patties.

People have forgotten how to make fried liver and onions. You soak either the calves or beef liver in milk and this totally alters the taste. It pulls out the blood as the liver is a sponge. You then bread that and the breading has cornstarch and baking powder in it so the crust is firm and doesn't fall off and it should be spicy in my opinion.

People who don't like liver are surprised when I make it.

[link to www.simplyrecipes.com (secure)]
Beer can chicken is perfectly succulent and delicious.

If eating meat rarely, when you cook it, it HAS to be delicious as your family is looking forward to it.

Good authentic fried chicken should ideally be free range and so the musculature is vastly superior. It'sbrined and drained, then soaks in butttermilk with a beaten egg in it. Then breaded and fried in lard.

Legumes have good iron: lentils, peas, beans, peanuts. Also, tree nuts: almond, cashews, pecan, walnut, brazil nuts, etc.

Yes they do, but unless you eat them in mass(non realistic)quantity, they will not supply you with needed daily iron. You will still require suppliments, especially if female.

Sorry OP, I was derailing your thread.

How many people are you feeding?

I ask this as a farmer in Ohio with 7 children.

no meat = potatoes, rice, pasta, bread. or beans.

you have to get the protein and filler or you'll be feeding every hour.

Yes, and with no meat you need extra vitamin C. Plant source iron is not very absorbable on its own. But with plenty of vitamin C then the iron WILL absorb. You can get B12 from eggs and dairy, especially swiss cheese. Add nutritional yeast for extra B vitamins. Mushrooms & sunshine for vit D.

I am strictly vegetarian male and have no symptoms of iron anemia: "dizziness, fatigue, lightheadedness, or malaise
Heart: fast heart rate or palpitations
Also common: brittle nails, headache, pallor, shortness of breath, or weakness" [link to www.mayoclinic.org (secure)]
You have a good point about women needing supplemental iron but, as a male, I am apparently absorbing enough iron. I am accustomed to eating a lot of iron fortified pastas, though.

Oxalates will make most of the iron unavailable. Read up on them.

Not if you sprout them.

That beyond meat is more expensive than real meat. And less nutritious.

Meat does not make children unhealthy. A diet too rich in carbs and junk food will do that. And too little exercise.

homemade veggie burgers beat processed storebought & cheaper

Small white beans in the crock pot for a savory, not sweet meal. Add onions and carrots, hot sausage if you like the heat or just regular for the fat content. Season with mint, chicken bullion or I use a vegetable powder bullion and black pepper. You don't have to add any meat to this but you can make a thickener with oil for some fat in there. Just heat up oil, flour and smoked paprika for a thick rue, get it super hot then pour over the beans in the crock pot just before they are finished to thicken up and add fat.

School lunchrooms mix soy into the meat, so very unhealthy.

Yup

Eggs are cheap and are the perfect protein. And you can make them in do many different ways.

Use the whites to make meringue cookies that are loaded with protein. You can make them all sorts of colors with just a few drops of good coloring you probably already have in your pantry.

Use the saved yolks to make a velvety pasta white sauce. Or make a dessert custard from them. (A bag of sugar is still very cheap.)

You can get a bag of frozen spinach for less than a buck and make eggs florentine over cheap-ingredient, homemade biscuits.

Most of those labels on the packages, like "free range" and "pasture-raised" are utter lies. (They just have to have one foor open in the chicken barn, by FDA standards, and can block it with screening.) Don't pay more for these lies.

If you have eggs, butter, cheap canola oil, flour, potatoes, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla (get the artificial if you are on a budget), you can make just about anything you can think of.

Also a diet that has to be done ‘correctly’ is not a good diet. A diet of meat vegetable fruit dairy and some grains will give us all our nutrients. It’s not complicated and no supplements needed.