4x50% Reciepe Challenge

[kgoodguitar]

Hello all,
I'm trying to create a more-frugal food budget. While this is relatively easy for myself (I'm perfectly happy eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch >95% if the time), my very-soon-to-be wife needs a bit more variety (and flavor) to keep her pallet satiated. I also just joined Costco (yay! saved me $30 on my honeymoon car rental*) and want to get some ideas for bulk-buying. So I'd like to create the 4x50% recipe challenge.  Here are the rules off the top of my head (although I welcome suggestions for altering them):

Basic Qualifying:
4 recipes that share 50% of their main ingredients
-a main ingredient is one that takes up greater than 15% of either the volume or cost of the finished dish.
Must be frugal by MMM standards.

Bonus Points:
-if at least one dish is slow cooker
-for each dish from a different ethnic origin (this is an attempt to foster a variety of flavours)
-if 2 or more of the recipes use 70% of the same main ingredients.
-for each dish that can be prepped and ready-to-eat in under 45 mins.

2x Bonus Points:
-for each dish with 70% main ingredient matching AND from a different ethnic origin

I might add to this list and welcome any suggestions for changes. Thanks for your help!

*Yes, a trip to Maui for our honeymoon is very luxurious (and a car rental to boot!). We told people cash gifts for the wedding to fund the honeymoon. Also, this will be the first time in our 4.5 years together that we're going on vacation and not staying with friends. We're also doing our wedding on-the-cheap: dress (non-white, so it can be reused) and suit, food, reception, hall, and rings comes to about $2500 (maybe less). While still a substantial amount of employees, I think we pass the test of doing better than 75% of Americans on this one.   

[KungfuRabbit]

Easy.

Chicken / rice / pasta sauce
Chicken / rice / curry sauce
Chicken / rice / cream of mushroom
Chicken / rice / butter sauce

Add steamed veggies and an apple.

You have italian, Indian, American, French. 70% same stuff. You can slow cook the cream of mushroom one.

Sorry. I'm a boring eater. That is a normal week for me. That would actually be an exciting week for me....

[Garlisk]

I build my meals using the following: Carb/Veggie/Meat/Oil

Pick some carbs you like, such as rice, pasta (my preference is whole wheat spaghetti), or potatoes. These are generally cheap and store well. Buy em on sale and store em.
Get whatever veggies you like from the local farmers market, or your own garden. My main standards are onions, peppers, and broccoli.
I get most of my meat at a local "expired foods" store. Sounds weird, but these are frozen meats that will be viable for a couple months more. I don't pay more than $2/lb for meat.
Oil seems expensive, but you don't need to use a lot so its really not that bad. Olive oil is great, and I love sesame oil (only use a few drops for flavor) for Asian style stuff.

Chicken/Rice/Veggies/Olive Oil + Sesame Oil = Asian Style Stir Fry
Sausage/Pasta/Veggies/Olive Oil = Italian Goodness
Chicken/Potatoes/Veggies/Olive Oil = American?
Sausage/Rice/Veggies/Olive Oil = I dunno, I'm not a culinary master. I just make food.

As you can see, you can make a lot of combos with about 10 ingredients. Also assuming you will do basic seasonings like salt and pepper.

You can buy your carbs, oils, and sometimes meats in bulk. Generally you won't get veggies in bulk because they expire quickly.

I don't know if this is a proper entry to the challenge, but hopefully it helps.

[swick]

I'm on a huge Potato kick right now so my suggestions would be:

Potato pancakes/Latkes - with or without a fried egg on top

Fish cakes - Mashed potato base, poached or canned fish, frozen peas and spices coated in bread crumbs (make your own) - can go any ethnicity- we really like to add some yellow curry powder and serve with whatever homemade we have in the fridge

Crockpot Potato soup or stew

Potato bake - Thinly sliced potatoes layered with white sauce - cheese sauce if you are feeling decadent. You can add any cooked meat if you desire. Bake and cover with bread crumbs and broil for the last few minutes.

I don't really use recipes for any of these, but hopefully the ideas will get you started and google can help if you need a specific recipe :)

[NotJen]

I'm to lazy to do the math on your actual challenge, but...

If you want variety, the freezer is your friend!  I like to cook large chunks of meat, freeze the leftovers, then pull them out for easy meals later.  Here are two of my favorites:

4-5lb pork shoulder (boston butt) in the crockpot.  Place leftovers in freezer in 2-serving size containers.
For dinner that night - pulled pork with BBQ sauce (on buns or not), with veggies on the side.
For dinner some other night - pulled pork over a large salad.
And again later - pulled pork tacos.  Serve with rice and/or beans.
And maybe sandwiches again if you have more pork left.

Whole chicken - roast in the crockpot.  Freeze chicken breast and shredded chicken in 2-serving size containers.
For dinner that night - eat your favorite parts of the chicken, with veggies on the side.
For dinner some other night - chicken breast over a large salad.
And another night - make chicken salad from the shredded chicken (I'm partial to curry chicken salad).
And if you have more leftovers - soup - chicken or taco soup, maybe.  Make sure you use your leftover chicken bones to make the stock yourself.

And of course, you can do something similar with beef brisket or roasts.

ETA: And turkey!  I'm going to make sure to buy extra turkey breasts when they go on sale this year around Thanksgiving.  Roast one for a Thanksgiving-ish meal, then use the leftovers for turkey sandwiches, to top salads, and to make turkey soup!

[cripzychiken]

I do a similar thing but on a 2 week scale.  Basically I have my fridge full of multiple sauces that I make from time to time (and fill old salad dressing bottles with) and my pantry full of spice mixes (I buy the main spices and premix them into old spice containers).  I use these sauces/spices to flavor meats that I cooked over the weekend.  I match these with whatever veggies are on sale and usually a pile of sweet potatoes or flavored rice. I 'count' a salad as a veggie, and tend to do that 2 days a week (use cabbage instead of lettuce, works the same, but is usually cheaper).

For my carb/starch, I usually do sweet potatoes 4+ days a week.  Usually will make about 4-5lbs of mashed sweet potatoes every other weekend (peel, boil, drain, mash with a stick of butter, some salt, and a bit of milk to help them stick together).  They reheat well (spread thin on a plate, microwave for 1-2min).  I shake a bit of cinnamon on top when I serve them.  Sometimes a bit of honey if I want a different taste. 

For rice, substitute a portion of the water with a juice (lime for tacos - 1/5 the total amount, tomato for Spanish or Italian - 1/4 the amount, orange works too).  Just watch out as these do not last as long in the fridge (still 2-3 days, but plan to use all the rice up on back to back nights).

Meat: as someone said above - cook a large amount of a single meat, then split into multiple meals.  Do one cooking a week and split it for 2 weeks (so cook enough for 6 meals, 3 each week). After the 2nd weekend, you will have 2 meats to pick from each night. Reheat and top with different sauces, and possibly the veggie (if it makes sense). 

My sauces:
Pork Shoulder - plain,  BBQ, Wing Sauce, Taco seasoning/Salsa, Mojo, Italian salad dressing, apple sauce and cinnamon, white pepper gravy
chicken - lemon pepper, bbq, wing sauce, 'soy sauce and honey', garlic pepper, 'smoked' seasoning, 'rotisserie' seasoning, Teriyaki, pasta sauce, curry, taco, brown gravy
Ground meat - I mix usually pork and turkey and a can of black beans.  Use the cooked mix for meat pasta sauce, 'beef' tacos, shepherds pie (with sweet potatoes on top)
Beef - (if on sale) - cooked as a pot roast (slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, broth) So that's the first 2 meals.  The rest of the meat - BBQ, brown gravy, plain, tacos, 'Spanish spices' with tomatoes.

Stretch your meat: Add a jar of salsa/can of diced tomatoes to anything taco or Italian based.  Easy way to make it seem like more meat but for a lot less.

Shop sales - I will always change my cooking plan if there is a good sale I can get, especially if it is a meat that isn't in my normal mix (like large beef roasts). Also, If I get bored with something (usually taco seasoning)

[Sailor Sam]

These are my two main favorites right now. They share significant overlap, but they each have a different number of ingredients, which makes the percentage calculation more harder

1. http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/10/chipotle-chicken-chili-or-c3/

2. https://gotnomilk.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/sweet-and-spicy-tomato-and-pepper-chicken-stew/

Ingredient list Shared:

- Olive Oil
- Onion
- Garlic cloves
- Chicken bits (both call for breast but use whatever)
- Diced tomatoes, canned
- Beans (each recipe calls for various types, but I use what I have handy. It's always tasty.)
-

Ingredient list Not Shared
-V8 Juice
-Corn, canned
-Chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
-Brown sugar
- Chicken stock
- Apple cider vinegar

Both these recipes call for a fair number of spices, and will be expensive if you have to stock up. But then they get really, really cheap. Especially if you substitute chicken with a few more beans. Having a well stocked spice cabinet is one of the keys to good home cooking.

[cerebus]

I'm not sure what you intend to do here. I can give you umpteen chicken dishes for instance that share 50% of the same ingredients - namely chicken. However I can only eat chicken a couple of times a week before I'm tired of it. Buying in bulk can still have a good amount of variety to the specific ingredients especially if they're going to sit in the freezer, and you can just think of a new way of preparing it when you take it out. It doesn't need to become an algorithm.

The key is to fill your cupboards with the essential ingredients of cooking such as:
- tinned and paste tomato
- worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, fish sauce
- herbs (grow your own where possible - coriander, origanum, basil, chives, sage, thyme, celery, rosemary, parsley) and spices (turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seed, mustard seed, garam masala, curry leaves, bay leaf, cumin, paprika, red pepper flakes, etc).
- butter, milk, olive oil, canola oil
- onions, garlic, root ginger, peppers, chilies, turmeric root, potatoes, sweet potato, vegetables of all kinds, good stock (or learn to make your own)
- flour, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, good quality brown sugar, glutinous rice (avoid long grain and instant), mixed nuts and nutty wheat for bread
- tinned or dry beans - black, butter, white, cannellini, lima, kidney, chickpeas
- red and white wine, coconut milk, white yogurt, cream, buttermilk

Out of that type of stock, which might cost upfront, you'll be able to create an infinite variety of food. And because you have the variety in your cupboard, you won't run out of individual ingredients very quickly, so you end up over the long run spending about the same as if you made the same thing every day - because after all the thing you make all the time still costs money for each ingredient, it's just more monotonous.