Frugal Cooking and Quick Dinner Ideas

Frugal Cooking

A major part of becoming an expert at frugal cooking is planning ahead for meal times. Quick dinner ideas save money as well as precious time to spend with your family.

Making a menu plan and then arming yourself with a list makes grocery shopping easier.

Frugal dinners are not only affordable but simply made so you are not spending and therefore wasting much effort in the kitchen.

The #1 prerequisite to cheap dinner recipes is to serve tasty recipes your family enjoys.

Quick Dinner Ideas

There is an old Yiddish proverb that says, "Troubles go down better with soup"!

Mealtimes should be as stress free as possible. Soups are always appetizing, can be prepared ahead of time, frozen, quickly thawed, and reheated. The following quick dinner ideas are fast, cheap, and easy.

Pepper Pot Soup

This delicious soup sustained George Washington and the troops at Valley Forge. Tripe and vegetables was all the cook had left on hand to cook for the soldiers. He obviously knew a thing or two about frugal dinners and came up with the following recipe:

Sauté all the above listed ingredients lightly in a pan. Add all to a soup kettle along with 2 quarts of pre-made brown soup stock. (From a previous recipe.)

Add a pinch of marjoram and a half teaspoon of ground cloves. Cut up potatoes may be added if you want to keep with the authentic recipe. (For a real stickler to history, add 1 pound of blanched tripe.)

Add a bay leaf and bring soup to a boil. Simmer gently until done. In the olden days, so much pepper was added to the soup is how it got its name.

Frugal Cooking

Serving several courses during dinner was a tradition handed down from French cuisine. Appetizers are basics for frugal cooking because there is no cooking involved!

Quick dinner ideas include serving a plate of goodies such as cheese, grapes, crackers, and olives at suppertime to take a bite out of your family's appetite. 

Frugal Dinners

A secret of buffet style restaurants is they hope their patrons will load up on soup and salad before devouring the more expensive meats.

Although, with the wet and cold weather conditions of the past year, vegetables are going to be at a premium if you have to buy your veggies. Let's plant those Victory Gardens now!

Frugal Cooking Tips

* Save yourself from extra shopping trips to the supermarket by stocking up on essentials.

* Serve salads as a separate course between the appetizer and main course. Salad can served quickly and separating the courses prevents your family from rushing through dinner.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Making your own tomato sauce is a must considering the escalating prices for tomatoes these days!

Follow the frugal recipes below and precook to have on hand for quick dinner ideas like antipasto, ravioli, or spaghetti.

Sauté 2 grated carrots, 2 sliced celery stalks, ½ chopped yellow onion, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, and a handful of chopped parsley for about 15 minutes in a little oil.

Place ingredients in a saucepan. Add 3 cups homemade canned tomato sauce, ¾ cup cheap dry red wine, ¾ cup beef stock, along with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to taste.

Cook the tomato sauce for an hour before preserving by either freezing or canning.

Cheap dinner recipes don't have to taste cheap!