Cooking with less meat ideas? (to save money)

[Cassandra]

I think I would LOVE portobella burgers. I love bellas and all kinds of mushrooms. But aren't they expensive? Well... maybe per pound. I will have to do a price comparison. But it seems like a patty sized mushroom cap would weigh almost nothing compared to a comparable sized meat patty.

Cassandra

 

[FarmerChick]

the big porta caps for burger types are expensive. yummy, but only a treat here..LOL

 

[Cassandra]

I've tried adding lentils or barley or brown rice or bulgur to sloppy joes and similar things. Alas, to my tastes, it doesn't take much of any of 'em to be quite noticeable. The bulgur is least obtrusive, to me.

Pat

My teenage son hates, hates HATES beans. (He will eat green beans and green peas, tho.) He tolerates beans in chili, and will eat refried beans, but as far as anything else, it grosses him out. He is even a good sport about tasting the different bean dishes that I produce, but he always hates them. LOL So, I see, I will have to be careful about defiling the sloppy joes!

What about pearl barley? I haven't found a local place to purchase it. But I LOVE it in store-bought vegetable or beef soup. I wonder how that would fill out stuff.

Cassandra

 

[DrakeMaiden]

You know I wasn't thinking about how expensive the mushrooms might be . . . duh. But I don't think it is as expensive as hamburger, like you say, I guess it depends though. The recipe we used is from the Food Network. Very good and not too hard to throw together. Probably cheaper if you have the herbs growing in your garden though.

 

[ScottyG]

There are a lot of good hearty meatless dishes that are stick-to-your-ribs enough that nobody will care, in my opinion. For instance:

West African Peanut Stew

big can of tomatoes, chopped up
1/4 cup unsweetened peanut butter (or more if you want it thicker)
1 big peeled chunk of ginger, diced
some winter squash, peeled and cut into chunks
some onions
some green peppers
some potatoes
(some black-eyed peas, if you want to sneak beans in)
(add garlic if you like)

Brown onions and peppers. Add in everything else, being careful to dissolve the peanut butter. Stew on low heat for an hour or two. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Mmmmm. Very rich and cheap to make. Sounds like a weird combination, but delicious. Serve over rice, or just in a bowl.


You can tell I'm a fan of the ethnic foods, but also there just tend to be a lot more hearty meatless things there. Another fine thing to do is, if you can find Thai curry pastes (they sell green curry and red curry in the grocery stores often... the Roland brand is very cheap and tasty, or sometimes all I can find is "Thai Kitchen" which is delicious but very spicy) make a quick curry stew with coconut milk. Very satisfying and filling, but stretches meat. I generally do something like (not always all of these things at once, but this general idea):

a couple spoons of green curry paste
a can of coconut milk
onions
ginger
garlic
potatoes
green peppers
chunks of eggplant
chick peas
(canned bamboo shoots... cheap if you can find them)
frozen peas
some chicken

Stew together until delicious. If you can't find the curry paste, it's not half bad with Indian curry powder either. Different, and not "authentic," but who cares? Tasty!


Also, I know you said you don't want to mess with fake meats. But I gotta tell you, I keep a bag of TVP around for cheap meals. It doesn't taste like anything, but it's chewy in a similar way to ground beef. Particularly in soups and stews and sauces that have ground beef in them, if you replace some of the beef with TVP, you really can barely tell it's there, and will have a hard time figuring out what's beef and what's TVP. They both soak up the sauce and taste like what they're in, and the TVP will taste like beef if it's cooked with beef. In any case, a thought.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

ooh ScottyG mentioned winter squash! yum!

I got Northern beans with chunked up ham in the slow cooker...wonder how winter squash on the side will taste

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Let's see . . . if you roast it and sprinkle it with gorgonzola cheese, it might be kinda good.

 

[Cassandra]

Scotty, you always seem to have it SO together.

I'm intrigued by your peanut butter soup. I have seen recipes that use peanut butter (like roasted chicken with peanut butter or something like that) But I have never cooked with it except for the obvious cookies. I am trying to imagine peanut butter mixed with tomatoes... I don't know if I dare!

As far as the TVP goes, I don't have anything against it. I mainly meant it is not something that I have in my cupboard available to use. I don't know where I can buy it or how to use it. I have just never looked for it. Though, if I could find some cheap enough to experiment with, I would give it a try.

Such great ideas. I'm glad I finally got to eat. I was about to starve to death!

Cassandra

 

[patandchickens]

Oh yes, peanutbutter - what about chinese style noodles (I actually use whole-wheat spaghettini ) with shredded (pulled) chicken and peanut sauce? I'd have to dig up my sauce recipe as we have not eaten peanut things in this house for four and a half years now what with pregnancy and little kids (just to be on the safe side) but it's just peanutbutter, soy sauce, and a little chili to perk it up. Very tasty!

Pat

 

[sufficientforme]

I too was going to mention TVP but you said no tofu/soy stuff. My experience with tvp is that my husband who is the ultimate picky meat eater could not distinguish the difference from the ground beef in spaghetti and sloppy joes. It is cheap and can even be ordered in flavors. I just placed an order for beef flavored (never tried the flavored before) to see if we will like that as well. Plus it has a long shelf life, so I am adding a little extra to my pantry storage. It can also be found at most health food stores, but probably cheaper online.
My meat saving around my house includes cutting my chicken breasts in half.
I boil two breast at a time and shred for soup etc.
I buy hamburger in bulk when on sale I try to by the 93% when it is less than 2.00 a pound. divide and fry up most and repackage in smaller portions.
Meatless Mondays are common at our house.
I guess I do not do anything different than anyone else conserving really.