Roast dinners

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Polish Cook

Assistant Cook
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
10
I'm on a strict budget of late, and have found that bitty stand alone dinners seem to cost more... with their ingredients much more than a hearty oast dinner.

Ie... a pizza I find is more expensive to make - and I dont mean just a cheese and tom pizza... a few more ingredeints are included in the toppings... more expensive than a chickenlleg of lamb/pork shoulder/silverside stuffed and roasted with potatoes and a veg. I can have left over s for a day or so after, and use the bones for stock. Where as the pizzas are pretty much eat on the day.

so has anyone else found this to be true?
 
I understand what you are saying. I found that to be true until I started practicing what Dorothy Parker called foodsmanship. Now I try to think ahead about making things like pizza and save small amounts of leftovers in my freezer or refrigerator with that in mind. Things like a cup of tomato sauce, leftover sausage meat, a part of a pepper or an onion etc... Every week or so I put all of those odds and ends together and make a casserole or a pizza. Now I tend to think of things like soup, quiche, pizza, or a casserole as almost free meals. The more I have learned about food and cooking the easier and tastier it has become. :yum:
 
Definitely true. I look at the grocery-store sales in the Sunday or Wednesday paper and plan the week's menus based on that and what I already have; this also helps me develop my shopping list. I often buy a whole chicken and roast or grill it on Sunday, then make lunch sandwiches or other dinners with the leftovers, then make stock with the carcass. Same with pork shoulder (without the stock) and sometimes I dice and freeze the leftover meat for later. Same with vegetables like bell peppers - I get three colors most weeks and use half of each in two different meals.
 
so my suspicions about this have been proven true! thanks for the reply guys! Now I will plan to make more 'big' dinners' each week and use the leftovers too... chicken makes a great pancake stuffing!
 
Very true. In my small restaurant I have developed a no waste policy. I think about, and plan different meals around every last bit of product. Larger, less expensive cuts can go a long way once you figure out how to best utilize them. Chopping or grinding cooked meats for soups, sauces, stuffings. I had a bin that I kept celery and carrot ends and other veg trimmings that I used for stocks every week. Pot pies and stews freeze fine. I could go on. Necessity is the mother of invention.
 
Definitely true. I look at the grocery-store sales in the Sunday or Wednesday paper and plan the week's menus based on that and what I already have; this also helps me develop my shopping list. I often buy a whole chicken and roast or grill it on Sunday, then make lunch sandwiches or other dinners with the leftovers, then make stock with the carcass. Same with pork shoulder (without the stock) and sometimes I dice and freeze the leftover meat for later. Same with vegetables like bell peppers - I get three colors most weeks and use half of each in two different meals.

+1

I do the same and I usually plan one if not two of the week's dinners to be left-overs.

A left over roast beef might become steak salad, cottage pie, steak n pepper sandwiches, steak pizza / steak pocket, or steak, mushrooms and noodles.

Roast Chicken? Chicken & Rice, chicken fajita, chicken & bacon pizza, chicken salad, chicken pot pies, chicken & biscuits.
 
aunt bea... I LOVE the way you said - that the freezer if a parking lot! I will remebr that now!
 
Meats follow a cycle re: when they are a better buy, at least in this area. I picked up some eye of round (I think that was the cut--I'm a the farm and they are at home in the freezer) a couple of weeks ago. I cut some small roasts, steaks, and chunks for stew/grinding before freezing. The meat was $2/lb, which is what ground beef is around here (I picked up about 25 lb). I got better cuts of meat, leaner meat, and it only takes a bit of planning (put the meat grinder parts in the freezer, partially thaw the chunks) to make ground beef for meatloaf, etc. I often will make turkey instead of chicken because turkey is often a better buy than chicken. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we stock up on turkeys for the freezer. From October - April, we have turkey once a month. Tons of leftovers to make into all kinds of things, and bones for stock. Usually in late fall-early winter, pork is a good buy. We will pick up pork and do the same thing--make packages for sausage, ground pork, etc. And, we always pick up ham when it is on special. Meals are planned around what is on hand (in the freezer), or on special, not the other way around, i.e., pick something to make and then go get ingredients. Veggies are not a problem thanks to the gardens (and what we put in the freezers).

For pizza, we make our own sausage. We also buy cheese when it is on special. I grate cheese for pizza, add some dried red pepper flakes, and keep it in the freezer so I always have cheese for pizza. We generally make 2 since the oven is on anyway. We eat the leftovers and the 2nd on for lunch, etc.
 
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Make your freezer your best friend. Think of it as the safe for your food money. :angel:

Yep! Living alone means lots of leftovers. If it's a casserole, I try not to eat it all, because a serving or two in the freezer means a no mess kitchen for that day.

I try to plan my meals so that there are some leftovers to either eat later, or to make other dishes with, i.e., taco meat can be used for more tacos, burritos, turned into chili or baked in a mac and cheese casserole for taco mac or chili mac. Which also can become more leftover dinners to use for my no mess kitchen nights.
 
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