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~~copied from HBHW~~

 

Frugal Staples

Ever wonder how our ancestors always seemed to have food on the table even in lean times? When we are visiting the grocery store every week to the tune of hundreds of dollars, we long to know their secret. In fact it isn’t a secret at all. It is actually good planning and preparation on their part. Once we realize this and begin doing as they did, we too will see our dollar stretch further.

The items that we have on hand are what determine how far our food will go. Filling your cabinets or pantry with a few useful staples can be the difference between a trip to the grocery store each and every week versus once or twice a month. Stocking just a few choice items is all you need to create wonderful meals.

 

 

Flour

Flour is a starter item for many recipes. You can add it to some water and make gravy in the pan for many meat dishes. Flour is used to make bread (biscuits, rolls, loaves) and to coat chicken. It can also be used to coat a round or square cake pan to prevent the cake from sticking. Of course, one of the favorite uses for flour is in cookie recipes that make scrumptious desserts.

Rice

My husband loves rice so much that we once bought a fifty pound bag from a grocery store in his hometown. Fifty pounds! Rice is a side dish, but it doesn’t have to be plain. It can be jazzed up with veggies to accompany dinner. My mother uses leftover rice for a dessert called sweet rice. Just add evaporated milk and some sugar to a bowl of rice and warm it in the microwave. It is a tasty treat for after dinner. Another popular dessert is rice pudding. Rice can also be mixed with leftover meat and a cream soup to form a casserole. Rice has many uses and your sure to find a few that your family will love.

Pasta

There are many different pasta choices and all have great uses. Manicotti can be stuffed with tomato sauce and cheeses. Macaroni can be used to make a creamy salad and also is great combined with cheese or spaghetti sauce. Spiral pasta is used in many different pasta salads. Spaghetti can be used in a casserole topped with cheese or in the traditional way with tomato sauce and meat.

Spices

There are other ways to season food besides salt and pepper. In fact, many spices taste better than salt. Even diehard salt-a-holics won’t miss the salt in foods if other seasonings are used. Cayenne pepper, chili powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, oregano, and garlic powder are all useful tools in your flavor arsenal to give foods a fresh new taste.

Beans

There go those beans again. Beans can top your salad (edamame), make an awesome dip (black beans), and go well with grilled foods (baked beans). They provide a good source of protein with very little fat. Beans are good in soups, stews, and over rice for a simple yet filling meal.

Do you have these staples in your kitchen? You can probably think of several more that will enhance your pantry and save money. Start with these and grow your own list of basic kitchen staples that are versatile and economical.

 

 

Comments:

look at emergency essintals.com they have lots of dried goods. i know they have cheese.

 

I appreciate the list and would add, Cocoa for brownies (add some nuts and choc chips!), for home made hot chocolate – read the ingredience in the prepared cocoa mixes, scary stuff. Also I can make anything chocolaty with cocoa, like those cookies or dipping fruit in or dressing up other desserts. I also love real farm eggs – even if they are more – egg omelettes, fried rice, for the potato or pasta salads, eggs are fast and cheep! LOL. I buy as large a bag of potatoes as I can get too. creamy potato soup with veggies (carrots, celery, onions, bok choy) with shredded cheddar cheese on top is delicious and filling, plus baked potatoes stuffed with whatever is a nice side and crock pots love potatoes,. veggies (don’t forget the onions) with just a little bit of meat for a stew. In fact, just cutting back on meat is better – so if you do buy meat buy good quality like Sirloin roast (to make into steaks, stew meats, and then just roast the rest for sandwiches, etc.) or chicken breast (if it’s on sale) and frozen prawns can be very cheap sometimes, when it is I buy 5 bags for fetticine alfredo, prawns and dips or add it to a soup. Canned tomatoes (I don’t know about the odd white stuff coating the cans now) but I love to make tomato, garlic, italian seasoning with celery and onion – that’s it

 

Other staples besides what is listed above..

Powdered milk. I keep this on hand because I don’t always drink milk and need it for recipes and cooking.

Corn Meal. Another staple for making various things like cornbread, coating foods for frying and making cornmeal mush and polenta. It is cheap and can be made into many other things.

Cooking Oil and Crisco… Nuff said?

Sugar….. Nuff said?

Cous Cous…. It is a nice change from making rice or potato as a side dish. It is cheap and you can do so many things with this.

Powdered Egg Substitute.. For when I run out of eggs and need to have eggs to cook with in a recipe. This is a life saver!

I could probably go on, but you get the gist of it. As long as it is dry, and has a long shelf life we keep a good supply of it on hand. I cook from scratch and rotate stock in our pantry

 

 

One of the cheapest and quickest things to make is FIDEO. You can get a bag for about 65 cents, or if you go to the mexican food aisle, 35 cents. There are 2 ways of making it, like a soup, or like a spaghetti. You can adjust my recipe by adding less water to make it spaghetti like. First, I crush the bag while its closed to break up the noodles. Then, I brown the fideo lightly in a pan with about 2 tbsp cooking oil. After it browns, I add about 2 1/2 cups of water and a small can of tomato sauce. I also put salt, some garlic powder, and a small chicken buiollon cube. You can adjust the seasonings to your taste. While its boiling, get a spoon, and taste the soup. At that point, this is what your fideo will taste like. If you need to add a few more dashes of anything, this is your chance. I let it boil for a minute or two, and then I lower the flame and cover it. Within about 5 minutes, the noodles are soft and ready to be eaten. It cooks very quickly, so keep your eye on it. I love to add grated sharp cheddar cheese for protein. For my husband, I’ll also add a pound of ground beef that was flavored with garlic powder. He loves it. If I have a lot of company, and everyone is starting to look hungry, I make 2 bags and feed about 10 people for under a dollar. You can also use this recipe for macaroni, alphabet and shell pasta. It’s very hearty.

 

 

Oatmeal, grits, rice, sugar, powdered milk, powdered buttermilk, flour, cornmeal, molasses(make your own brown sugar)anything canned.
dried beans etc…and of course anything you have canned yourself!!!
Think country and waaaay tooo far from the store. My Grands kept everything in the storm celler.

 

 

 

Check out http://www.barryfarm.com/our_store.htm, They have a ton of dried veggies, spices, fruit, and cheese. Plus, they have tons of different types of grains, flours, sugars, etc.

 

 

 

I also keep a variety of nuts on hand in bulk, popcorn, and dried herbs that I’ve either grown and dried myself or bought in bulk. I use these dried herbs to make my own vegetable broth mix and other dry rubs.Coffee beans in bulk which I keep in the freezer and grind as needed.

 

 

 

Try Winco (stands for Washington-Idaho-Nevada-California-Oregon…kinda obvious where they are.) They have a large selection of bulk foods, and if you plan ahead a bit (call them 48 hours before you shop) you can get their bulk foods in BULK – in the original packaging, at up to 25% less then their already low bulk food prices (most of which equals or exceeds Costco prices.) You don’t have to call for Oatmeal, Rice and AP flour – they have those bags on hand, but if you want, say, powdered milk, beans, brown sugar, baking soda, or parmesan cheese, even, you need to call in advance. I gave up my Costco membership after discovering Winco. They’re that good. All I have to do is buy paper goods, meats and fruit at Cash n Carry, and I’m set.
Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

I am from the south so I vote for Grits, baking soda, baking powder, yeast and vinegar to keep on hand in the pantry. The flour and cornmeal would be hard to make into much without these things. I can think of hundreds of things to make with these ingredients and the rice, flour, beans, cornmeal, sugar, salt, pasta and spices. Think about what they made in the 1800’s! Pancakes, hoe cakes, breads, cakes, cookies, baked beans, rice and beans, bean patties, bean soup, dumplings, hoppin’ john, gumbo’s, and many other dishes. Add in some meat, eggs and fresh garden vegetables and they ate very well. They just didn’t have Hamburger helper or frozen dinners but convenience food for them was to go out to the garden and pick a few vegetables like squash or onions or to go to the root cellar to get their carrots, apples, and potatoes in the winter and spring. They were in hog heaven to be pulling a ham out of the meat shed in the winter. They could eat for a week or two on one small ham. Meat was rarely a large part of the meal. It was a treat. Today we are all backwards with our cooking and purchases. Me included. We need to all learn the old ways of purchasing the basics and being creative with them and having the family meal together as the important part of day. Our families would be much better off, I believe. Sorry for the history lesson. Shirley

 

 

 

http://www.barryfarm.com/our_store.htm

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