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

 
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 70065676
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10/17/2020 12:22 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
I sprouted lentils and then ground it in a blender and made bread with it. Freaking awesome!! A whole meal in itself!!
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 12:23 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Scalloped potatoes
Casseroles (although you might need to cut back the meat that goes in the casseroles and add more of the noodles, rice, or veggies)
pot pies
veggie lasagna
anything with beans
Also, you can get a huge bag of chicken hindquarters for $5-$10, depending on where you live in the country. Use those for your soups and stews, or they are very tasty smoked and still won't break your budget.
Do you know any hunters who like to shoot deer or pigs, but aren't thrilled with eating them?
Take up fishing as a hobby.

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Also, price check stores for non-food items. Our Dollar Generals here sell store brand paper products and trash bags a whole lot cheaper than the grocery or Walmart. That will all depend upon where you live, though. Keep a list so you know where to buy which items, and learn to live with store brands. Most stores have coupons you can load onto your card on-line so that if you do need to buy a name-brand item, you might be able to save a buck on it.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 12:26 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
peas
sardines
cauliflower
chick peas
beans
nettles
foraging!
Windsage

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10/17/2020 12:48 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
OP, I have never before in my life gone to a food bank other than to DONATE food. Lately, with the advent of COVID(fake) I have been to several mass Second Harvest distributions. I have received hundreds of dollars worth of food over the past four months consisting of canned goods, pasta, chocolate candy, fresh produce, coffee, milk, cheese, butter, meats, beans, breads. I have in my freezer 15 pounds of smoked hickory bacon, a 4 lb. beef roast, a frozen chicken, 3 lbs. of ground beef, a ham steak, and 12 Marie Callender turkey & stuffing pot pies. I also received a half dozen large cans of albacore tuna, and canned chicken. One time I received 6 dozen eggs, so I scrambled them all in a bowl and poured into small baggies and froze them stacked flat. They cook up quite well.

I have since discovered that due to the hardships caused by months of lock downs, most of the other local food banks are also giving out food by the box-full without even caring to investigate ones income level or even ask for ID.

When I receive items that I wouldn't generally eat like canned peas or canned fruit salad, I will add them to my food preps, or if it is perishable I'll just give to a friend.

So please know that this is widely available and could help you stretch your food budget to be able to buy more of the meat you want.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 12:52 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
You may want to cut back on other things before cutting back on meat. Especially for growing kids. Vegans and vegetarians have to take a lot of supplements to keep them going. Even then they can get sick from no animal protein. And too many carbs for adults or inactive children is not a good thing.

Put meat first in your budget. Everything else gets cut back. Get rid of tv. Anything extra. Without your health nothing matters.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 76984449


Absolutely untrue and very ignorant.

I haven't eaten any meat since 1992 and no animal products whatsoever since 1997. I'm in the top 98 percentile of health. If you eat whole foods, a plant based diet is the healthiest way to eat.

Animal agriculture is devastating to the environment, as well as horrific for the animals. When I did my masters years ago studying this topic, the profs said it's a matter of when, not if, a meat tax is coming.

It's good to transition away from eating animals now.
Check out nutritionfacts.org for the peer reviewed, medical research. There are also tons of recipes there.
KuvaszLove

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10/17/2020 12:54 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Use quinoa in your chili instead of crumble hamburger, they will never know the difference. Put a little beef or turkey or chicken in if you want
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 12:55 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Ok so our grocery budget has been cut in half, and prices keep going up.

I need ideas and recipes for making meat stretch for a family.

We already do soups, stews and chili. Great budget meals!

I've recently added fried rice to the meal rotation, fantastic way to make a lot of food with very little. Plus my kids love it.

You can also stretch a 1lb package of Italian sausage into several meals: take half and mix into pasta sauce for spaghetti, freeze the other half to use for homemade pizza.


Any other ideas from you good folks would be sincerely appreciated!
 Quoting: we're poor! 79330195


Make friends with the neighbors, then eat them.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 12:56 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Just remember that "streching" "watering down" "adding filler" is mostly mental. You might be eating a larger amount of food, but you're only tricking your brain into thinking you're getting more nutrition.

Your body still requires a certain amount of fats, protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals.

Do what you gotta do, but don't forget that this is only a temporary fix to the problem, you need to look for a more permanent solution.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 12:58 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
There are hundreds of youtube videos on the $10 week grocery challenge that give amazing ideas.
Tyrone Slothrop

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10/17/2020 12:59 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
like two cups of lentils, diced carrots, celery and onions, however much you want. Boil.
I've gotten a lot of red for telling the truth and being right. Just sayin'
nobodyspecial8

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10/17/2020 01:01 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Chicken leg quarters are probably the cheapest meat around, and there is so much you can do with them.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:06 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Quick morning breakfast
Get a muffin pan
No mixing involved

1 Egg in each spot
Add some cream on top of each egg
Sprinkle with cheese and chopped onion or whatever else .
Baked 425 for 10-12 minutes . Presto easy breakie.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:07 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Lentils and rice, salt and pepper. Some pepperocini peppers/banana peppers on the side.

Can of campbells veg beef soup over rice.

Pita pockets with hummus, cucumber, bean sprouts, tomato, lettuce, whatever you want.

Homemade veg soup.

Grilled cheese, tomato soup.

Steak salad with pepper ranch dressing....thin cut pieces of steak on top...so limited meat.

Tuna subs.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:10 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
And as always - venerable Mac & Cheese - even gubmint cheese!

So easy to brown off some inexpensive bacon and a can of green chiles and away you go.


Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:12 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
You may want to cut back on other things before cutting back on meat. Especially for growing kids. Vegans and vegetarians have to take a lot of supplements to keep them going. Even then they can get sick from no animal protein. And too many carbs for adults or inactive children is not a good thing.

Put meat first in your budget. Everything else gets cut back. Get rid of tv. Anything extra. Without your health nothing matters.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 76984449


While I'm not a vegan or vegetarian , there is a terrible misconception from both ends of that.

Firstly , there ARE plenty of non-meats that are high in protein and the thing about vegetarians / vegans is they do not consume eggs. Which are very high in protein. Fish is another one and though this is a meat , is (currently) much more abundant and better priced (for now) - plus fish also has much more omega 3's than poultry.

And what most vegans and vegetarians rely on is beans , which lentil bean soup is one of the most ancient staples of humanity - perhaps among the first dishes consumed after the gift of fire , when we were still only foragers , before any agriculture or hunting , but could actually cook our food.

Secondly , regarding vitamin supplements , these are NOT MEANT TO COMPLETELY REPLACE NUTRITIONAL INTAKE , as in taking supplements entirely as a source of a particular vitamin or compound , is actually detrimental because it's not metabolized as efficiently as when eating SUSTENANCE , nor is of any use unless also being certain to also be getting the appropriate bi-vitamin / nutrition which is required to PROCESS the other one.

Protein , for example , requires Vitamin C to even process, which is also required by Iron , Vitamin B , D and a few other things.

So taking massive amounts of protein supplements is ultimately pointless without also being sure to have massive amounts of Vitamin C. BUT - the body only stores so much and Vit C it stores the least of - which means taking massive amounts of Vit C at one time is also useless.

This is also dangerous because it is quite possible to overdose on vitamins , hence why 5 hour energy has a warning label to only drink 1 because the vit B content is a thousand percent , which is why it gives so much energy.

So supplements should only be used as a SUPPLEMENT - IE - if you miss a couple of days of getting vitamin C , then can take a supplement to SUPPLEMENT your bodies existing reserves a bit until your next orange or tomato. This is where the vegans and vegetarian soys who never lift , get it wrong and think supplement means permanent replacement.

Probably attributes to a lot of other associated problems too.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:14 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
If you can, really try to find a different way to lower your budget, food should be one of the last things to sacrifice.

If you must cut back on your food budget, buying in bulk, looking for sales and proper planning can go a long way.

Don't forget that quality must be considered, not just quantity.

If you've done everything else, and you still must sacrifice something, cut back on carbs and fats before cutting back on meat. Most people eat far too much cheap carbs and fats that are otherwise nutritionally empty.

Something like Hamburger Helper or Chef Boyarde ravioli might be really cheap at first glance, but if you compare actual useful nutrition vs. just a plain chicken breast, the chicken breast will be more bang for your buck, even if the amount of food is less by volume.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:15 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
$5 little caesars.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:15 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Also Broccoli , Spinach , Peas , Asparagus , Kale , pretty much most of the rough greens , are high in protein AND vitamin C.

Two in one.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:18 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
You may want to cut back on other things before cutting back on meat. Especially for growing kids. Vegans and vegetarians have to take a lot of supplements to keep them going. Even then they can get sick from no animal protein. And too many carbs for adults or inactive children is not a good thing.

Put meat first in your budget. Everything else gets cut back. Get rid of tv. Anything extra. Without your health nothing matters.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 76984449


Absolutely untrue and very ignorant.

I haven't eaten any meat since 1992 and no animal products whatsoever since 1997. I'm in the top 98 percentile of health. If you eat whole foods, a plant based diet is the healthiest way to eat.

Animal agriculture is devastating to the environment, as well as horrific for the animals. When I did my masters years ago studying this topic, the profs said it's a matter of when, not if, a meat tax is coming.

It's good to transition away from eating animals now.
Check out nutritionfacts.org for the peer reviewed, medical research. There are also tons of recipes there.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 79502658


That “meat tax” is coming from veganism pushers.
Instead of running them out of town you let them waltz in by jointing their forced religious conversion?
Sentio

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10/17/2020 01:21 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
like two cups of lentils, diced carrots, celery and onions, however much you want. Boil.
 Quoting: Tyrone Slothrop


.

I pour a lil bit of sesame oil on my lentils. Flippin delicious.

.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:23 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Meat goes the same distance whether you eat it as a side of roast with potatoes and veggies as it does in a casserole of meat, potatoes and veggies. Just choose the same portion size of meat.
Sentio

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10/17/2020 01:24 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
.

Homemade cheese pizza.


Breakfast for dinner. (I like cocoa wheats. ) So many breakfast options.

.
darth

User ID: 28178764
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10/17/2020 01:26 PM

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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Watch Craigs List for free animals such as chickens and goats. I see them every two weeks or so. You can find baby dairy bulls extremely cheap or free as well. The only problem with those is that they are good for burger and soup bones, but not steaks. Calf liver is excellent.

You can learn to humanely slaughter and process them on utube. Many farms will allow you to kill the animal on site and process at home.

You could also put an ad on Craigs List for meat from hunters who don't want it. For example, wild hog hunters often have thousands of pounds of pork going to waste when they discard carcasses. I used to be on a deer lease with a guy who only wanted the horns for trophies. He let me have the rest of the deer.

I have a few acres and am retired on Social Security plus a small pension. We NEVER buy meat. I simply cull animals such as hens that have stopped laying eggs as well as surplus bulls.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:28 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
$5 little caesars.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 79358704


True. Thats like a 3 day meal for me now. You get cheese and put other things on top like pineapple and mushrooms. Whatever you have.
Red John

User ID: 61437425
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10/17/2020 01:28 PM

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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
buying less expensive meat yields less meat... more fat and less meat, instead go for roasts and larger less fatty pieces.
 Quoting: Agent 99


thatstrue

roasts vs steaks

I choose roasts every time

skip putting the sausage in the sauces
save them for slicing onto your pizza

for home made pasta sauce
cook regular ground beef and your own spices
don't drain it
then you don't need to add oil to the sauce

choose lean or extra lean ground beef for burgers, meatballs, meatloaf, etc.

regular is fine for chili and pasta etc. sauces
because you use all of it

don't be afraid of the beef fat from the ground beef

a pound of regular ground is a max. of 5oz of fat
when it goes into a half gallon or more of chili or pasta sauce
it's not a lot

also keep watch for sell by \reduced for quick sale/ tags

10 20 %30 or more off of the tagged price

they usually have today's or tomorrow's date
that's why they're reduced

I only buy meat when it's tagged
because it's going straight into the freezer or prepared the same day
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Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:29 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Eat more salads.... and steamed vegs...

Kale and Cabbage have more substance and nutrition than lettuce.

Carrots...broccoli... also are great.

Grow your own.. especially Arugula .. Known as Rocket.. cause it grows so fast..

Mustard Greens, etc..
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:31 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
You may want to cut back on other things before cutting back on meat. Especially for growing kids. Vegans and vegetarians have to take a lot of supplements to keep them going. Even then they can get sick from no animal protein. And too many carbs for adults or inactive children is not a good thing.

Put meat first in your budget. Everything else gets cut back. Get rid of tv. Anything extra. Without your health nothing matters.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 76984449


No they don't. Just need vitamin c to aid iron absorption.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 70065676


They need b vitamins. Especially b12. And many do need the cholesterol from animal fat. And I wouldn’t raise a child like that. If adults want to experiment fine. But give meat to the children. Anyway I’ve seen too many sick vegans. It should be easy to get all our nutrients and not be told you didn’t do the diet right. That’s bs. Eating meat with all other foods will give the person everything they need without supplements.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:31 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
You may want to cut back on other things before cutting back on meat. Especially for growing kids. Vegans and vegetarians have to take a lot of supplements to keep them going. Even then they can get sick from no animal protein. And too many carbs for adults or inactive children is not a good thing.

Put meat first in your budget. Everything else gets cut back. Get rid of tv. Anything extra. Without your health nothing matters.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 76984449


I agree with this philosophy completely.

When I shop at the store I start at the meat counter and plan the rest of the meal accordingly (sales).
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 77331063


You are smart. And will have good health.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:32 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Make your own yogurt.. which is Probiotics.. cook for 30-40 hours....

Plus eat Prebiotics to feed the good probiotics..
Green banana, raw potatoes, etc...

Improves your digestion and reduces hunger.

Learn to can with salt and water.
Anonymous Coward
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10/17/2020 01:34 PM
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Re: Cooking meals with LITTLE TO NO MEAT for a family, need your ideas!
Go out to local farms that raise animals. They will usually sell meat for cheap because they have freezers full.





GLP