The Daily Dish Recipes

Food prices are rising dramatically, even as gas prices slowly lower in some areas. While many can live without gas, nobody can actually survive without food, which means now its time to look at ways to lower your costs, and still continue to feed your family.

A gallon of milk a year ago in our area was about $2.56 on average. Now it is about $3.13 on average.

A pound of strawberries last year was about $2.89/lb. Yesterday, our local grocery store had them for $3.99/lb.

As the prices continue to increase, it will become more and more difficult for families to provide good meals and nutritious foods to their families.

So what do you do about something like this? Actually, you need to evaluate how you shop and start trying a few new things to make the food last longer and to make your costs go down.

Even if you think you don’t have time to cook from scratch - you need to. This saves you so much money each month, and can stretch your food dollars. It also allows you to wind up with leftovers which can then be transformed into another dinner either by adding a variety of ingredients, or simply as serving yesterday’s leftovers as today’s side dish.

If you have never looked at a sale flier before because you figured the deals are in the store - now’s the time to start doing that. Pay attention to what is on sale. Consider stocking up on non-perishable items or items that will last a bit of time so that you can always have these things on hand.

My last piece of advice, seriously look into purchasing a freezer. It doesn’t have to be huge, but having an extra freezer placed in the basement can allow you to stock up when sales on meats are prevalent. You’ll be able to take advantage of good deals and always have something in the freezer.

How is your family helping to combat the high cost of food?

After my grocery store rant, is seems only fair to share my shopping experience with others.

I was getting sick of the high price of food and groceries and the fact that it isn’t exactly cost effective to be hopping around from grocery store to grocery store.

A few days ago we decided to no longer shop at a store that is nearby our home. The reason? The cost of food there. While they have just about everything under the sun that you could ever want from healthy to organic, to junk food and everything in between, it just isn’t smart to be shopping somewhere when the same thing will cost .10 less at another store. Now before you go saying that it’s only .10 the point is, that all their products are like that. We started paying attention and noticed that many things that were one price at another store, were upwards of .50 to 1.00 more at this one.

What we normally would have spent $185 on, cost us only $108.00 tonight. We wound up with more food, and more expendable items (things that can be prepared for more than one meal)

So overall, I’m quite satisfied. No more rants….at least for now.

After a lot of trial and error in my own meal making co-op endeavors, these are some of the tips and examples that have worked for us.

The first thing you will need to do is make a list of your families favorite meals and what ingredients they require. You will need to get together with the other members of your co-op and take a vote. Each family should wind up with at least five meals on their list at the end. Keep in mind that food allergies or picky eaters could prohibit other families from enjoying that meal. If something can be eliminated or substituted you might wish to share that and then make note of what requests anyone has.

You will take your list home and for the following week, each family will prepare dinner each night for their own family as well as making an additional meal for each family participating. You might even wish to make an extra one for your own family. All extras (including for other families) need to be stored in the freezer and labeled with the name of the meal.

A smaller co-op works best. We found that three families works really well.

At the end of the week the families will get together and hand out their extras to the other families. Each family should receive five meals from each participating family.

Here is a quick rundown on how that would work:

For instance, Pamela, Sarah and Jacque all start a co-op.

Pamela chooses five meals to create.

Starting on Monday night, she creates a Enchilada Casserole for her own family, and in addition one for both Sarah and Jacque’s family. She then freezes Jacque and Sarah’s, after first carefully marking what the meal is on the container it is placed in, and quick, and easy, directions for the meal.

Meanwhile on Monday night at Jacque’s house and also at Sarah’s house, the same thing should be occuring. Each girl is preparing a meal for their own family, and then preparing one for each other family in the co-op. This continues throughout the entire week with each meal.

A week after they have begun, Jacque, Sarah and Pamela get together to exchange their meals. Pamela will give five meals to Jacque and five meals to Sarah. Each lady should leave the swap with ten different meals (five from each of their friends).

And if Pamela, Sarah and Jacque were smart ladies, they should have also prepared an extra dinner each night for their own family and frozen it.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

Starting a meal making co-op is an excellent way to save money each month as well as saving time preparing meals. What is better than saved money and time in a busy  household? Happy, healthy kids - and because you are choosing the meals together - you can ensure your family is eating well.

To start a meal making co-op, you will need to find at least two or three other interested families. You will be very surprised that once people see what you are doing, how quickly they wish to join you. Don’t be surprised if eventually you have to turn people away.

You will also need to start thinking big. You will be preparing several meals at the same time. You will want to find things that are easily frozen and can be heated up in less than an hour with no preparation at the other end.

You will need to get organized, have a spare freezer at your disposal for extra storage space,  and be prepared to enjoy delicious foods you didn’t have to make yourself.

Tomorrow I will discuss the exact logistics of how this whole co-op thing works so you can see exactly how something like this can save you time and money in the kitchen.

The prices of everything have dramatically risen lately. The price of milk is nearly double what it was only a year and a half ago. Bread has gone up, so have fruits and vegetables - all the things we need on a daily basis.

While saving money is important, some of the older tricks do not apply anymore. Here are a few new ideas and techniques to keep you from spending so much.

Take Less Trips

Take less trips to the store. Practice the art of meal-planning so that you know what you are going for and what will be consumed that day. This will help eliminate waste as well as save you money on gas from more frequent trips.

Ignore the Paper

Unless you get the paper delivered to your home already, or have a neighbor or other source where you can scour the coupons for free - just avoid it. Coupons are still number one on my ways to save money, but if you have to buy something to get the coupons - it probably won’t work out too much in your favor.

Name Brand is for the Birds

Never one to follow the crowd, I avoid purchasing name brands whenever I can. Even a .10 price different adds up when you total your grocery costs at the end. If you can cook or prepare a meal with a non namebrand item, this is a better practice to get into. Now I will be the first to admit, there are certainly items that just taste better by certain companies - those are the ones you want to try to get on sale or with coupons.

Hope some of these tips help. Do you have any good ways to save money on food?

Today is my son’s birthday and we have planned a get together with some friends and family that he wanted to celebrate with. He is turning fourteen, so a party isn’t a big thing anymore, yet he definitely wants it to be honored.

To save a little money we planned a picnic at the park.

We are serving sandwiches, a fruit platter (we cut up ourselves), a veggie platter (again we cut up by ourselves), crackers and cheese, chips and dip (the dips are homemade), beans and a variety of other inexpensive, yet perfect for picnic foods.

We also opted for cupcakes instead of a birthday cake to cut down on wasted cake (or having not purchased enough) and the cost difference was really noticeable. People don’t think twice about eating one cupcake, but try cutting them a piece of cake that small and you are sure to hear a little whining.

What do you guys do to save money on birthday parties?

(Oh, we made all the decorations with the exception of a few that we bought from various dollar stores - they are reusable too!)

Happy 14th Ryan! I love you! ~Mom

Pasta and Noodles are fairly inexpensive items. In fact, they can make a small meal quite a bit larger by their addition and don’t cost a lot to purchase.

Looking for a quick meal that doesn’t cost a lot? Think pasta.

Simply boil some noodles, and then raid your pantry or refrigerator. Look for items such as:

• Canned diced tomatoes and/or black olives
• fresh garlic, garlic powder or garlic salt
• Oregano, Cilantro and other spices can flavor up a dish quite nicely
• olive oil
• butter/maragarine
• Parmesan or Romano cheese
• veggies - celery, carrots, mushrooms, etc.
• chopped up meat either from the deli, or leftovers from another meal
• shrimp or other seafood
• salt, pepper, creole or other seasoning
• can of chili or beans (like Chili Mac)
• soup (this added to some noodles can be delicious - even the cream of “whatever” soups)

Do you have any ideas for additional pasta stir-ins you might find lurking in your cupboards, pantry or refrigerator?

Simply a quick meme I thought would be fun to do. Why do I insist on doing these? LOL

What cooking shows do you watch?
I really don’t, though sometimes I like to watch Top Chef for the simple entertainment value.

Your top three favorite cookbooks are:
Baking from my home to yours - Dorie Greenspan; Taste of Home Cookbooks; The Joy of Cooking

Your must-have kitchen accessory is:
Cast-Iron Skillet. Crock pot.

What is your go-to ingredient?
Olive Oil, Garlic and Herbs

How many courses should a meal have?
I don’t really do this. I think a main course is perfectly acceptable as the only part of a meal. Of course dessert is kinda nice too.

What’s your favorite course?
Appetizers. Desserts.

What nationality of food do you like the best?
Italian and French. I cannot pick one.

What’s your favorite meal of the day to prepare?
Probably breakfast, though I am much more apt to prepare breakfast for dinner

Where do you find inspiration when creating a new dish?
Ingredients on hand. Taste of home.

What is your favorite comfort food?
Chocolate Cake.

Do you ever eat fast food? If so, what?
Yes. Wendy’s. Mr. Goodcents.

What restaurant do you want to eat at that you haven’t yet?
Probably anything in New York.

What’s your favorite dessert?
Texas Sheet Cake

Are there wines or liquors that you cook with?
Sometimes. Red wine. I’ve used white a few times.

How much time do you spend cooking a meal just for yourself?
I never prepare a meal just for myself. There are seven people in my family. LOL

What scent in the kitchen do you love?
Baked goods in the oven. Banana bread. Chocolate cake.

What ingredient(s) do you avoid/dislike?
Lima Beans, soy, tofu (sorry vegans - I keep trying to like it - its just not happening)

What’s your secret splurge at the grocery store?
Pringles specialty flavors and Chocolate. Sometimes Ben & Jerrys.

What’s your favorite midnight snack?
Leftovers reheated. A sandwich roll-up.

With the price of food on the rise, consumers are looking for any way to save money they can. Here are a few simple suggestions on ways to share the cost of food with your friends, neighbors and family members.

Bulk Warehouse

This is one of our primary methods of saving money. With as many people as we have in our family, we don’t usually have anything spoil before we use it. However others don’t have large families like I do, so why not share the cost with a friend or neighbor? Go shopping together and split the cost of food and then bring it home and divide everything up.

Meal Making Co-op

This is another of my favorite methods, except that is because it is an excuse for me to hang out with a friend or two. I will be writing more on this method in the upcoming days, so please be sure and check out those articles for starting your own and tips and ideas once you have.

Special Sales

Many grocery stores have these special types of sales where you can purchase 10 for $10.00. The catch is that you have to actually buy all 10 of those items. What in the world are you going to do with ten boxes of cheerios. Are you really going to be able to eat all those before the spoil? If not, consider including a friend or neighbor in the deal and split the cost of purchasing them all together. Keep a careful watch because sometimes they will allow you to mix and match at that price so you don’t have to have ten of the exact same item.

These are just a few ways I can think of to split the cost of food. Another is the Angel Food Ministries, and if you haven’t checked them out - you really should! More on that coming up soon!

Have you been to the grocery store lately and really taken a good look at prices? Just perusing the aisles at my local store makes me cringe. The prices on just about everything have gone up and with the price of gas on the rise - it just means more cutting corners to save where I can.

It irritates me to have to watch my spending SO much. I’m already frugal in nature and always have been. I’m much more apt to zone in on the bargain, but now I am really having to do a lot of extra work to make it matter.

I’m blessed I know, as I have a friend and even my own mother is more than 5 miles from her local grocery store.  Mine? Literally behind my neighborhood completely within walking distance without breaking much of a sweat at all. And with five kids in tow, in means we can actually carry the groceries home without needing the van to haul the kids and the food back. This has helped a little bit, but the food costs I am praying will go down soon.

What are your prices like in your neck of the woods?