When the kids were little and money was tight here are some of the things I did. Some of these things I still do pretty often
***NOTE: this is NOT a health food blog. If you don't like what you see then move on to a blog that better suits your needs.
When making homemade teriyaki sauce I don't always have honey so I used whatever sweetener I had on hand. Brown sugarwas used more often than not. I don't keep fruit juice in the house and the recipe calls for peach or apple juice. I usually try to keep the juice from canned fruits on hand. I pour the juice off into an ice tray, freeze, and pop into a Ziploc baggie to have in the freezer. If I don't have any of that then I use a teaspoon of peach jello powder and mix it with enough water to make my measurement. I actually keep peach jello on hand now almost always so I have one box in the cabinet just for making teriyaki sauce. You can also use jelly, any flavor, and just melt a tablespoon or two and mix it with the rest of the ingredients.
Jello makes wonderful flavored syrup for pancakes. I mix sugar and water and bring it to a hard boil and bring it to just before soft candy stage and then I remove it from the heat and stir in a teaspoon or two of strawberry or cherry jello and let it cool and voila! flavored syrup.
Jello is cheap and great to keep on hand and helps prevent food fatigue when money is really tight. Bland meals are hard enough and having a sweet dessert will make it seem like you have more than you do. I also will occasionally make a cake or cupcakes to help with this as well.
When I'm "frying" something I almost always oven fry it. Generally, breading is made from panko or other bread crumbs. Save stale bread or end pieces to make bread crumbs. I put them in the oven on low for a bit to dry them out then I run them thru the food processor with some garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper, and a bit of Italian seasoning. Store this in a Ziploc baggie or other airtight container. I take this and mix it with some melted butter. Usually its about a cup to a cup and a half of bread crumbs to about a teaspoon (yes, just a teaspoon) of melted butter or other oil. Pour the butter over the crumbs and work it with a fork until the bread crumbs are all moistened. Dip your meat into cornstarch, then beaten egg (you can add a bit of water or milk to stretch this) and then roll it in the crumbs. Bake on a greased cookie sheet, turning the food over halfway thru. Don't have bread? No biggie. Use crackers or potato chips (omit the added salt). If using potato chips mix in a few tablespoons of flour and you can leave out the butter because the chips are oily enough. I use the food processor. If you don't have one then use your blender or even just a Ziploc baggie and crush them by hand. Whatever you need to do. Also, any kind of oil works. You can use cooking oil, melted shortening, margarine, or even bacon grease. Whatever you have.
Crushed doritos make awesome chicken strips!!
For the filler in meatloaf or meatballs you can use dry oatmeal, cooked rice, crushed crackers, crushed potato chips in it in place of the bread crumbs. I used to save all the crumbs from all the chip bags just to use for this. Now-a-days I use oatmeal more often than not but any of these will work.
Whencooking mashed potatoes, for extra flavor if you are running short on milk or butter, add bouillon cubes to the water and boil your potatoes in that. Reserve some of the broth water when draining the potatoes and use it as you mash your potatoes to make them creamy.
Does your little love chicken nuggets? Make them at home. Cut a chicken breast into cubes and bread it per the instructions above and bake in the oven until done.
When I am making a recipe that calls for sour cream I have been known to sub in mayo or plain yogurt in its place. No one ever seems to notice.
Filler foods are cheap. They aren't always the best but when you have little bellies (and even big bellies) to fill you do what you have to. There are numerous inexpensive bread recipes online, as well as rice or potato recipes that are filling and compliment meals.
One thing that was a favorite with the kids when they were little was this: I would take a can of mixed veggies and mash them and stir them into some bisquick (homemade, of course), with an egg and enough milk to make a thick batter. I would fry spoonfuls of this in a little oil. The kids loved them and didn't know they were eating veggies. This was a healthy and filling lunch some days.
Bean burritos are cheap and easy to make. We always made homemade tortillas that were thick like gordita shells. Then I would mix a can of refried beans with taco seasoning and a teeny bit of water and heat it so it mixed well. Spread this on the thick tortillas and top with some diced onion and maybe a little cheese if we had it. Roll those up and wrap with saran wrap and put in a freezer baggie or container and freeze. Pull them out, one at a time, and heat in the microwave. Now a days money isn't as tight and I make this with taco meat and cheese and other things.
How I stretch taco meat: cook 1 pound of hamburger, drain off grease, stir in a can of refried beans, a can of rotel, and 2 packs of taco seasoning, and mix well. Simmer until they are hot and bubbly. You can also add in a cup or two of rice with some extra taco seasoning or a prepared box of Spanish rice. Serve in tortillas or on tortilla chips.
Food fatigue is real and when you are poor its easy to experience it. Knowing how to sub things in and out helps keep things from getting too old. You can, for example, eat rice a million different ways. Just make sure if you are having to eat a lot of something that you change it up.
