How to Stretch Food because prices will go up six percent

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I have often used such things as potato chips, instant mashed potato flakes, cornflakes cereal and the like in meatloaf, meatballs and fish cakes, along with eggs... not so much as an extender, but to affect the consistency and texture of the finished product.

a reply to: butcherguy

I've done similar things with crackers and other modfiers, but this is for flavor enhancement. Stretching ground meat by adding oatmeal doesn't appeal to me at all.

originally posted by: incoserv
Sometimes a bit of common sense goes a long way.

I knew a guy who was on disability and had s very limited income. With kids. He was complaining one day about how many cans of beans it took to feed his family. My friend and I looked at each other incredulously and both of us said, "Use dry beans. It's much cheaper."

The moron said, "That's too much work."

Sometimes being broke can have positive side effects. Unless you're stupid.

Now that you mention it, I am surprised that there aren't cans of cooked rice on grocery shelves... since it is too much bother to cook.
I currently have dry beans, dry hominy, dry rice, lentils and barley in my pantry.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Understood. I don't mind oatmeal and will eat steel cut oats cooked for breakfast by themselves. Rarely, I will make a mess of oatmeal mush to refrigerate to slice and fry later.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I randomly turn people in to the Biden Dept. of Justice for thinking thoughts that are not approved.

That gets me extra cheese and occasionally a place in line at the meat store.

a reply to: DBCowboy

I ain' had no gubbermint cheese since the 1970's.
Whatcha gotta do to get hooked up with some a that?

a reply to: butcherguy

Now that you mention it, I am surprised that there aren't cans of cooked rice on grocery shelves... since it is too much bother to cook.
I currently have dry beans, dry hominy, dry rice, lentils and barley in my pantry.

There is precooked rice, it's not in a can it's in a plastic bowl, and it's awful but if I were starving I'd eat it.
I had it one time as it came with something else.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: JAGStorm

I randomly turn people in to the Biden Dept. of Justice for thinking thoughts that are not approved.

That gets me extra cheese and occasionally a place in line at the meat store.

I kid you not right after I watched the new (something I rarely do, normally I just read)
Right after they said prices were going up 6% there was a segment on how eating a lot more vegetable can extend your life.
Subtle programming...

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I have mixed oatmeal with meat for meatloaf forever, the recipe passed down for generations. You can't taste the difference at all and it makes the loaf go much farther. Once you mix in the chopped veggies you like in a meatloaf, it hardly makes a difference at all. I like to put in barbecue sauce and oatmeal for a meatloaf sometimes, and it tastes just like full hamburger with barbecue sauce, delicious, and I make my own sauce.

Pasta turns me into a roly poly and so I won't eat it very often. Whenever I rely on pasta I gain weight like mad, just my body, not true for others.
But rice as a base for nearly anything you put on pasta is an equally cheap substitute.

Potato buds is a great tummy filler and added to things like cream soups makes them fill the tummy faster and go farther, generic tastes exactly the same as the brand buds.

Baked potato topped with a little meat and cheese (use sauces to change flavor, chili/barbecue/most any sauce), is very filling and with some veggies/fruit makes a cheap meal.

Bean centered meals make cheap and nutritious meals, add a little meat for a high protein and very filling meal. OR find somewhere that sells big bones and cook them with beans for hours to make a super nutritious and high protein meal. A hambone from a sandwich deli (ask if they sell their leftover hambones, I have found 2 that do) with navy beans, yum! A large beef bone with darker beans, yum, especially if the bone has lots of visible marrow.

I actually buy large beef bones that have a large visible marrow and cook them for 24+ hours, then save the broth after scooping out the marrow and stirring it in the broth, and save (freeze) it to make highly nutritious broth based soups/casseroles: normally there is a good bit of meat on the bones that I scrape off and save (freeze), throwing away the overcooked fat and gristle.

Buy whole potatoes, make your own dishes like scallops and casseroles with a little meat in scalloped potato layers with a sauce. Make "fried potatoes" using sliced potatoes, put a little oil and salt in a bag, shake well, put on a baking sheet at 400-425 and flip after they are brown on the top until they are browned on the other side. Saves on the amount of oil you use.

SAVE bacon grease to flavor foods. It makes a great flavoring, for free. You can freeze used bacon grease, the grease rises to the top and the bits are at the bottom. Easy to break and use the way you want to.

SAVE the juices from a baked or roasted chicken or turkey or any meat really and use instead of store bought broth, much more flavorful and nutritious and free. I freeze it.

We bought a freezer with my mother, who lives next door, and we share it for saving stuff like frozen broth, etc. I also use a food saver (seal a meal) and seal stuff air tight so they don't get freezer burn and last a super long time so we aren't stuck eating the same things day after day. Cooking in bulk and freezing meal sized portions saves a lot of money. If you double seal the bags, you can just throw them in a pot and boil for 20 minutes minimum and the food tastes exactly like the day your made it, much better than micro/stove top in pan/oven reheating. I use those for days I don't feel like cooking.

Probably a bit off topic, but, could someone really tell me why all the price rises. Food rises, fuel rises, materials (timber etc.) rises, transport cost rises etc. etc.
The only reason that things should rise if getting the raw materials cost more.
Now take food, the chain back from the shop. Price passing. The shop charges more because the supplier (that's the middleman and the transport) charges more. If there's a middle man between the farmer/producer he charges more. So it ends with the farmer/producer are they the ones that start the process. I don't think so.
It hits you in the face with the power companies. Nuclear power, natural gas, petroleum should be the same cost as before the VID. There are the same amount of people buying the said power, there is no shortage of fuel or power. So why are the originators/ wholesalers being allowed to make people pay extra, which in turn their rises are passed on to the producers that pass that on to the consumer.
Now answer, because they can, more profits, but it's the end user that shoulders their greed.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: DBCowboy

I ain' had no gubbermint cheese since the 1970's.
Whatcha gotta do to get hooked up with some a that?

I know a Mason

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: JAGStorm

I randomly turn people in to the Biden Dept. of Justice for thinking thoughts that are not approved.

That gets me extra cheese and occasionally a place in line at the meat store.

I kid you not right after I watched the new (something I rarely do, normally I just read)
Right after they said prices were going up 6% there was a segment on how eating a lot more vegetable can extend your life.
Subtle programming...

This was all planned out in advance.

They knew/know what they are doing and how it effects us.

They just don't care.

Oh, I forgot the food stretching bit. The biggest bulk up food in the world RICE. If you have a big family don't go and buy packets/sachets of rice, go to the wholesaler and buy a half hundredweight or a hundredweight sack, vastly cheaper. Yes you have to keep it dry so you have to split it up into day sized portions. Best thing for this is buy a vacuum packer, a bit dear but it pays in the long run.

a reply to: crayzeed

or because they made our money much less valuable.

Print up a bunch of money and give it all away... Some people think that sounds like a good idea....

Someones gotsta pay for it.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: incoserv
Sometimes a bit of common sense goes a long way.

I knew a guy who was on disability and had s very limited income. With kids. He was complaining one day about how many cans of beans it took to feed his family. My friend and I looked at each other incredulously and both of us said, "Use dry beans. It's much cheaper."

The moron said, "That's too much work."

Sometimes being broke can have positive side effects. Unless you're stupid.

Now that you mention it, I am surprised that there aren't cans of cooked rice on grocery shelves... since it is too much bother to cook.
I currently have dry beans, dry hominy, dry rice, lentils and barley in my pantry.

Walmart, etc. are places you can get a small cheap rice cooker. I got one for under $20 well over 10 years ago and it is still going strong, and it only makes smaller servings, using 1 or 2 cups of uncooked rice which makes 4-8 servings. You put the water in to the line and add a cup rice for every 4 servings. Put the lid on and come back 20-25 minutes later and it is done. Nothing else to do.

originally posted by: crayzeed
Oh, I forgot the food stretching bit. The biggest bulk up food in the world RICE. If you have a big family don't go and buy packets/sachets of rice, go to the wholesaler and buy a half hundredweight or a hundredweight sack, vastly cheaper. Yes you have to keep it dry so you have to split it up into day sized portions. Best thing for this is buy a vacuum packer, a bit dear but it pays in the long run.

The smallest bag of rice we buy is a 20lb bag. Growing up we often would buy a 80lb bag of rice.

I have a manual pasta machine, I can stretch the spaghetti and noodles pretty well. Homemade noodles are better than most store bought noodles are. And simple whole wheat white has plenty of the gluten to make noodles, I don't use that special noodle flour they call semolina because it costs way more and it is only necessary in certain types of dishes. Why make it cost way more for the finished product if you don't have to. I use the Dakota maid organic flour for almost everything and it is whole wheat white flour, except we do use the cake flour for making cakes.

We also make our own bread, rolls, and buns, six rolls or buns plus a loaf of bread costs around a buck and a quarter to make vs three bucks in the store for a one pound loaf and two bucks for six mini kaisers. And you can make them much cheaper if you use regular ingredients instead of organic flours and grains and light olive oil...I figure it costs only ninety cents for the loaf and six rolls if they are not organic.....we buy our yeast in two pound bricks for seven bucks and it is red star yeast which saves megadollars over buying it in those little jars or packets. Seven cents a loaf for yeast vs around thirty three cents a loaf.

By the way, the bread I make has been taste tested by multiple people who say it is exceptionally good and better than the vast majority of the breads on the market...but you can't believe them because people tend to say things are great when they are mediocre...but kids...they love the rolls and they have not yet been conditioned to be polite. Also a contributing factor is I give free bread to the kids and some others, of course they are going to say it is great.

My opinion of the taste of the bread...It is pretty decent and easy to digest and does not screw up my stomach like store bought breads do...is it because it is organic with no roundup preharvest sprayed on it that makes it bitter? Don't know, don't care, there is not much sugar in the bread I make, store breads are full of it to combat the bitterness of the organophospates I suppose.

a reply to: crayzeed

Vacuum packers are worth what you spend. Buy vacuum bags with suction panels (little lines) on both sides of the INSIDE of the bags for best sealing - only on one side doesn't seal as well in my experience.

I did have rice go bad, I didn't know it could, but now I know. I vacuum pack everything I want to keep fresher 10 times longer.

I even vacuum pack touch up paint in quart paint cans. I have paint well over 11 years old that is still fresh as the day I bought it for touch ups.

I also SAVE used vacuum bags, if I used them for non-food items, I'll reuse them for non-food items, like paint, especially crafting paint, and other smaller items that I may use the vacuum bag for until it is too short to use anymore.

Vacuum bags that have had food touch the inside of the bag, I won't reuse, just my thing. But if I put food in a container for easier vacuum bagging, I'll reuse the bag for non food items as long as food didn't touch the inside of the bag.

a reply to: rickymouse

I am a fantastic cook, many people rave saying what I have made is literally the best thing they have ever tasted.

The area that I lack is bread making. I seriously suck at it.
Give me your best tips, especially for the rolls.

I like the two extremes in bread, extra sweet like brioche and not sweet at all.
I do not like typical American bread, it’s awful.
This is not to be disrespectful to the US, because I love my country, but the whole world knows our bread is absolutely terrible.

a reply to: incoserv

He's right. Especially if you can spend the time doing something productive or chill after work. It takes an hour to boil even soaked beans in a pressure cooker. So there's fuel and you have to make a sauce - that's onions, palm oil to fry it, tomato paste, spices like curry, garlic, chilli powder, salt, maybe sugar. Yeah, there's more of the product. If you are single it gets old after two days of tooting.