Help me cut my grocery bill

[Cassie]

If you are making beef stew sear the meat in a frying pan first. I don’t usually wing things either but I did beef stew in a crockpot and it was delicious. I did cheat by buying a packet of spices made for it. Then I threw in potatoes and stew meat. The vegetables go in towards the end or they will be mushy.

[MonkeyJenga]

You're making great changes, way to go. Chili was an easy vegetable transition for me too. Started with mostly meat, beans, and cheese, and I kept decreasing the meat and sneaking in a bit more vegetables. Now I make essentially a vegetable stew with a ton of cumin and chili powder, so it still feels like chili. Progress can happen more easily than people expect!

[Allie]

Broth choice will just influence the flavor of the soup.  Beef broth will make it more beefy and chicken will make it not beefy.  I use chicken for everything that isn’t specifically meant to taste like beef (beef stew, French onion soup, etc).  But, if I had an open can of both, I’d just mix them together. 

The best part of cooking is that you can try things out and see what happens.  Maybe subbing half chicken for half beef would make a recipe taste even better! 

I regularly sub things I have for things I don’t or things that are cheaper for things that are more expensive.  I mean, would half a shallot make something better?  Sure.  But I have a giant bag of onions in the pantry and subbing onion for shallot doesn’t make something bad. 

[Roadrunner53]

Another thing that is good to hide veggies is a veggie lasagna. You can add baby spinach to it, carrots. I am thinking of making a lasagna with (jarred) alfredo sauce, Ricotta, mushrooms, spinach or broccoli (chopped up), carrots, mozzarella. Or make a meat lasagna with red sauce and you can still hide the spinach in it.

I was watching al lady on youtube and she has a very large family. She will make 4 casseroles at one time. Cook two for dinner and freeze the other two for another day. She does this often and fills her freezer this way.

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEKupqwCHtw

Even if you don't like her recipes, this will give you an idea on how to do some freezer meals.

[Frugal Lizard]

When searching for a recipe online, I look at how many reviews there are - if lots of people are making a recipe over and over again and rating it 3 or 4 out 5 stars, then it has to be pretty good.  A recipe that five people made and gave it 5 stars is less appealing to me.  My favourite sites are finecooking and allrecipes and epicurious.

The only advice I would give is watch for the freshness of the legumes.  If you are using dried beans, peas and lentils and they are really old, they will just never get soft.  I made the mistake of taking a lovely ham hock to make French Canadian Split Pea Soup and it was dreadful because the split peas were so old.  Now I buy really expensive dried legumes but at least I know how old they are and they are still much cheaper than canned. 

[mm1970]

My older kid went to a daycare where she made homemade soup for the kids for lunch every day.  That kid still loves soup.

But BOTH my kids much much prefer pureed soups.  It's kind of a pain, but I've learned that using an immersion blender is "good enough" and I don't necessarily have to use the blender.

Soup recipes!  Some of these I've used, some just look very similar to the ones I have in my cookbooks or in my old-fashioned recipe box.

Carrot ginger: (not my recipe, but similar): https://www.skinnytaste.com/skinny-yet-creamy-carrot-ginger-soup/
Butternut squash soup: http://frugalhealthysimple.blogspot.com/2007/12/butternut-squash-soup.html
Sweet potato red pepper soup: https://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/835075032/sweet-potato-and-roasted-red-pepper-bisque/
Curried zucchini soup: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/80878/curried-zucchini-soup/
Roasted tomato and white bean soup: http://www.onceuponacuttingboard.com/2012/11/roasted-tomato-and-white-bean-soup.html
CPK Split pea soup: https://www.food.com/recipe/california-pizza-kitchens-dakota-smashed-pea-barley-soup-74259
Budget bytes black bean soup: https://www.budgetbytes.com/slow-cooker-black-bean-soup/
Prudent Homemaker swiss chard soup: (add more potato): https://theprudenthomemaker.com/swiss-chard-soup/

[Frankies Girl]

There are some lovely recipes for pumpkin soup if you ever score a good deal on the canned stuff. I have made it using homemade chicken broth (2-4 cups) one of the big cans of pumpkin puree, a whole package of low fat cream cheese (instead of heavy cream) and a touch of garlic + salt and pepper to taste (but we adore the curry + a hit of cayenne pepper and while we don't eat much bread, garlic bread or croutons are divine with creamy soups like this. Or naan bread). We use big cans of pumpkin puree. Not the ones that are sweetened and have pie spices - the ones that have ONLY pumpkin as the ingredient. You can still make pie from it, but you don't want sweeteners and other junk for savory dishes besides not being able to control the crazy amount of sugar that they put into the pie filling versions.

I learned how to make curried pumpkin soup when I hit a dented can sale on them - 29¢ per giant can (regularly $2-3 a can). I bought em out and now have the basic ingredients to make a huge pot of pumpkin soup any time (always have chicken stock frozen or can make with veggie ends/bones also saved in freezer, cream cheese usually lasts for months unopened so we usually have a couple in the fridge, pumpkin + spices in the pantry)

Can also add in a handful or two of cut up carrots if you're blending it up and get it really rich in the beta c veggies. Adds sweetness. You likely could get away with adding a half to full cup of cauliflower as well since it just takes on the flavor of whatever it's with, and can blend it smooth easily once simmered soft for a few hours.

Many of the root veggie soups recipes up on allrecipes.com can be improved with a block of cream cheese (we get the neufchatel version at Aldi for the lower fat option). If it calls for any type of cheese/cream, wouldn't hurt to try it.  Just have to simmer and stir well, or use a blender (I have a stick blender) to get it to dissolve.

Pumpkin is a WONDERFUL veggie/fruit - one of the more difficult ones to get in a diet. Lots of fiber, vitamins, beta carotene... love soup. If anyone in your family has serious allergies, there is a tiny chance it could trigger them (hadn't realized this but just looked at nutritional benefits and saw a warning that it does rarely happen so thought I'd include)

[20957]

Just to add- that canned pumpkin is usually actually another kind of squash (not that it matters but I think it's interesting) and it is perfectly edible if a bit bland right out of the can. Makes an easy baby food because it usually just has the one ingredient. A good stepping stone to roasted squash cubes and sweet potato fries. Similarly good bean dip is a nice precursor to black beans. My older kids will demolish a pile of beans and squash/sweet potato with some yogurt and corn tostadas (the ones sold at Aldi).

[PMG]

Further! On the pumpkin/butternut squash topic, as it is one of my favorites.

Canned pumpkin (really is just pureed squash) can be mixed with Greek yogurt for a delicious full of fiber and vitamins snack. Drizzle with honey and it’s even better.

Pumpkin muffins are also a favorite. With nuts and flax meal they can be kind of healthy.

And another yogurt treat is just to mix cocoa (and sweetener if you please) into Greek yogurt. I think it’s best if it rests a few minutes before you eat it, but it’s good and can help hit the chocolate/desert craving in a healthy way.

Both the yogurt mix-ins I just do by pour and taste. I don’t have a muffin recipe handy but do second the Allrecipes recommendation. You can search Allrecipes by ingredient which I find so helpful.

[Roadrunner53]

How do you think a can of fat free refried beans added to the pumpkin soup would be? I think it would make it thicker and would add lots of fiber.

[PMG]

I wouldn’t like the flavor of refried or pintos in pumpkin soup. I think white beans would be a better addition, or garbanzo. I think I said upthread that I add yellow split peas.

[Morning Glory]

I make my own broth. If you have a crock pot just put bones in there with water overnight on low. (Or pressure cook 70 minutes if you have an instant pot).  I strain the bones out with a big tea strainer thing then freeze it in big yogurt containers. I usually just throw the bones in one bag in the freezer (the bags from the Costco frozen vegetables work great for this) until I have enough so it ends up being “mixed-animal “ broth. I am lazy so I wait until the pot is already dirty from cooking something else, then the broth also gets flavors from whatever was for dinner, and I don’t have to wash the pot an extra time.

I told a coworker about this during a discussion about how useful instant pots are and she looked at me like I had grown an extra head.

[Christof]

Random thought - how important is it to use beef broth versus chicken broth? 

If your recipe includes beef or chicken, I‘d use the corresponding broth, otherwise it doesn‘t really matter. Sure, they taste differently, but both of them would work in many cases. You could also substitute either with vegetable broth in most cases.

[mm1970]

I use veggie broth bouillion cubes for any kind of broth.

[MonkeyJenga]

I'm loving all of the advice!  I was never good at "winging" recipes so always had to purchase a lot of items to make recipes and all of these tips help (like Allie's basics of a soup - mind blowing!).  Random thought - how important is it to use beef broth versus chicken broth?  I currently have an open chicken broth and an open beef broth in the fridge because different recipes called for different things. 

I use veggie broth bouillion cubes for any kind of broth.

Second going with bouillon over bulky containers of broth that you need to use up quickly. I use Better Than Bouillon. It saves money and space, keeps for a long time, and is high-quality.

[Metalcat]

I'm loving all of the advice!  I was never good at "winging" recipes so always had to purchase a lot of items to make recipes and all of these tips help (like Allie's basics of a soup - mind blowing!).  Random thought - how important is it to use beef broth versus chicken broth?  I currently have an open chicken broth and an open beef broth in the fridge because different recipes called for different things. 

I use veggie broth bouillion cubes for any kind of broth.

Second going with bouillon over bulky containers of broth that you need to use up quickly. I use Better Than Bouillon. It saves money and space, keeps for a long time, and is high-quality.

Better than Bouillon makes life SOOOO much easier. I only use proper stock for brothy soups, where the stock flavour actually has to do some heavy lifting. Otherwise, I go with Better than Buoillon, and I mostly use the vegetarian one because I find the flavour more interesting than the chicken or beef for most recipes.

[MonkeyJenga]

I'm loving all of the advice!  I was never good at "winging" recipes so always had to purchase a lot of items to make recipes and all of these tips help (like Allie's basics of a soup - mind blowing!).  Random thought - how important is it to use beef broth versus chicken broth?  I currently have an open chicken broth and an open beef broth in the fridge because different recipes called for different things. 

I use veggie broth bouillion cubes for any kind of broth.

Second going with bouillon over bulky containers of broth that you need to use up quickly. I use Better Than Bouillon. It saves money and space, keeps for a long time, and is high-quality.

Better than Bouillon makes life SOOOO much easier. I only use proper stock for brothy soups, where the stock flavour actually has to do some heavy lifting. Otherwise, I go with Better than Buoillon, and I mostly use the vegetarian one because I find the flavour more interesting than the chicken or beef for most recipes.

I originally transitioned over to vegetarian because I was going more veganish, but I now prefer the flavor to chicken.

[Zikoris]

My bouillon of choice is a powdered Croatian brand called Vegeta. Technically they don't call it boullion, I don't remember what it actually is, but it's basically bouillion and you use it exactly the same way. It's damn good. In addition to soup/stew, I've cooked rice in it, and also throw a little in with the boiling water for pasta. It's very popular among Hungarians, which is how I ended up into it.