Home Cooking with Jess – Eating on a Budget

This week, I had the great opportunity to copresented at “Lunch with Books” at the Ohio County Library. The topic was budgeting and financial security and I was invited by Don and Mallory from Unified Bank.  They talked about budgeting and I talked about how food fits into a good budget. 

Something I probably don’t mention enough in this column is how much money I spend on the meals that I make. I do not use pricey ingredients.  I do always mention that I shop for my veggies from Jebbias dollar baskets.  But for the presentation, we were talking about saving money by eating in your own kitchen. I showed the patrons a way to take simple ingredients and make them into different meals. 

It’s a way to not spend much time cooking, but still have something other than the same leftovers day after day. It made sense to me to talk about peppers because they are the veggie I use the most. Chicken actually is not a protein that I cook all that often, but chicken and vegetables can be transformed into many different dishes. 

My main budgeting tip for food – never walk into a grocery store to shop for a meal you want to make that day. If you do that, you end up paying full price for everything. Instead, start looking through grocery store ads weekly.  Buy the things that are on sale and stock up your pantries with staple items and stock your freezers with protein. When Reisbecks and Kroger have sales on chicken and pork, stock up and freeze it.  I have a constant supply of split chicken breast that I buy for $.99 or $1.49 a pound.  Buying it full price can be up to $4 per lb. 

Don’t pay $1.99 for a box of pasta because it will go on sale for $.49.  Find the sales.  Stock up.  And then cook from your supply.  It saves me thousands of dollars in groceries a year.  Yes… thousands.  The average monthly grocery budget for a family of 4 like mine is $500.  This way of shopping saves me 35-50% each month.

This is the prep I use for chicken & veggie.  There are 3 examples of ways to use the chicken and veggies in different simple recipes:

Ingredients:

• 3 Split Chicken Breast
• 3 colored bell peppers
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp butter

Directions:

1. Add chicken to crockpot on low for ) hours.
2. Slice peppers and sauté in butter until tender-crisp.

Chicken Ranch Wrap:

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked chicken breast
• 1/3 of the cooked peppers and onion
• 1 Tortilla wrap
• 1 tbsp of ranch

Instructions:

1. Remove bone and skin from chicken.
2. Place chicken, peppers and onion into a pan on the stove or heat (or warm in a microwave).
3. Place the chicken, peppers and onions on the wrap and add ranch.
4. Optional- Add toppings like lettuce, tomatoes and cheese.

Stir Fry:

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked chicken breast
• 1/3 of the cooked peppers and onion
• 1/2 cup stir fry sauce
• Optional – rice

Instructional:

1. Remove bone and skin from chicken.
2. Place all ingredients into a pan on the stove or heat (or warm in a microwave).
3. Optional – serve this over rice. 

Fajitas:

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked chicken breast
• 1/3 cooked peppers and onion
• 1/2 packet of taco seasoning
• Optional – Tortilla wrap

Instructions:

1. Remove bone and skin from chicken.
2. Place all ingredients into a pan on the stove or heat (or warm in a microwave).
3. Options- eat in a bowl with a fork, add salsa and sour cream, &/or throw in a wrap.