Home And Garden Tips and Info

People are looking for any means possible to save money. Not only is the cost of driving an issue, everything else seems to have gone up in price as well. Small businesses are going under because they cannot afford to “pass the price on to the customer” when the customer cannot afford to pay the prices. Across the U.S., the minimum wage is ridiculously low and cost of living raises are a joke — if you are lucky enough to GET a cost of living raise. Groceries are one of the areas in which many are looking to cut back the prices. When costs go up without a raise in pay, the pain is felt in the pocketbook.

 

Meat is particularly expensive and if you are not planning to become a vegetarian, then you need to find ways of making those meat dollars stretch. So what does this have to do with beef and crock-pots? There are many easy crock-pot recipes that will ultimately save money and some cuts of beef are still the cheapest meats on the market.

 

Saving Money on Beef

 

When it comes to buying beef, the best deals are usually found when buying in bulk or “family packs”. If you do not plan to cook the entire package at once, make sure you have storage bags so you can divide it up.

 

Keep in mind the amount of meat that constitutes one serving size. Fill up on fibrous foods such as whole grains and vegetables rather than eating more meat than your body needs for energy.

 

If you steer away from the cheaper cuts of meat because of toughness or taste, you should know that cooking these meats in a crock-pot helps to retain flavor and make the meat as tender as any of the premium cuts. You can buy up the “cheap cuts” and eat like royalty when you use crock-pot beef recipes.

 

Stretching your Dollars & your Minutes with Crock Pot Meatloaf

 

Meatloaf has long been known as a meal stretcher recipe. When you add breadcrumbs or cornflakes and eggs, you will end up with more “meat” than you had when you started. The problem with making meatloaf is that it takes a couple hours to make (including prep time). When you make crock-pot meatloaf, you can spend 10 to 15 minutes preparing it, put it in the crock-pot, and come home to a delicious main course. So there is no coming home from a long day at work, preparing the meal, and then waiting around with your stomach growling for an hour or two before everyone can sit down to dinner.

 

The foods many of us remember our mothers, grandmothers and neighbors making on Sundays are actually foods that are cheaper to buy than you might think. If each person’s meal costs less than $3, you have spent less than the average family spends on food A juicy pot roast is one great way to feed a family of four or five without spending a fortune — even after adding potatoes and vegetables. It is rare for a family of four to eat an entire pot roast in one sitting. Usually, there is meat left over and this will be perfect for making beef noodles or beef sandwiches the next day. Now, we are really saving money!

 

Did someone say, “Roast”? What meat eater doesn’t love the smell of a pot roast? Noses twitch; sighs are let out and sometimes there is drooling. Crock-pot roast beef makes it possible to leave for the day and come back to a savory, delicious meal at a decent price. When made according to directions, your roast will be as tender or even more so than any you get from oven cooking.

 

While buying cut up stew meat is tempting, purchasing the cut of beef is usually cheaper. Buy the whole cut of beef, take the time to cut it up and divide it into portions for individual meals. If you are giving thought to serving sizes, you are much more apt to stretch what may have been one meal into two or three dinners for your family. A warm and satisfying crock-pot beef stew is just the thing for blistery fall and winter evenings. Stew meat can be used for more than just beef stew. Try cooking up your stew meat in the crock-pot and then making it into a potpie! Using your cuts of meat for different types of meals is one way of keeping your meals from getting boring without having to buy up several separate cuts or kinds of meat.

 

Whether you are struggling to feed your family or are simply looking for ways of cutting back on expenses for your household, easy crock-pot recipes offer a solution to your needs. You will not go wrong with simple, cheap and tasty meals cooked in your crock-pot.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Yardcare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Everyone loves a good pot roast, but unless you’ve got money to burn, having it every other day isn’t the most practical choice. The average family easily spends thousands of dollars every year on food alonemuch of it, not surprisingly, on meat and meat products. That doesn’t even include cooking and preparation costs.

 

Fortunately, there are ways to cut down on your food spending without giving up your favorite meats. One such technique is crock pot recipes. Crock pots may seem like your everyday fancy gadget, but they’re actually a great investment for budget homemakers. If you’re overspending on food and don’t know how to cut it, crock pot beef recipes may just save the day.

 

Why crock pots?

Slow cookers, or crock pots as they are commonly called, work by cooking food in relatively low heat for several hours. Unlike regular pots, they don’t require your full attention as the food cooks at the highest possible setting. Crock pots allow you to leave your cooking unattended throughout the day, so you can go to work, run errands, or simply hang out while your dish cooks itself. Aside from being convenient, slow cookers also offer great savings potential. Here’s how crock pot cooking can help you stretch your food dollar.

 

Buy cheaper cuts - Some cuts of beef are cheap only because they are tough and take a while to tenderize. Normally, you’d need to pressure cook on high heat for tough cuts such as chuck roast or flank steak. With a slow cooker, you simply pop them in before leaving for work and come back to a well-tenderized, ready-to-cook serving. You can also do the same with lamb and pork, which tend to have tough cuts or get tougher with age. There are lots of easy crockpot recipes for all kinds of meat, so don’t limit yourself to beef.

 

Long hours of cooking can drain the flavor out of the meat, so keep it in my searing or braising the meat beforehand. This will keep the flavor from seeping into the broth. Just cook over an open flame or non-stick grill until the sides are browned, but not charred.

 

Avoid the impulse buys - People who don’t plan their dinners often end up crash-shopping after work to put a meal together. Others just stop by a diner and serve their kids fast foodkids love it all right, but it’s not exactly healthy. But if you set your crock pot in the morning, you don’t have to worry about dinner all day. More importantly, you won’t need to stop at the grocery on the way home and be tempted to overbuy.

 

If you have time, try preparing a heavy breakfast in the morning and using the leftovers for dinner. Many crock pot breakfasts are healthier than the usual toast or pancake fare, and yield a fair amount of leftovers. It can be a crock pot meatloaf or a simple stir-fry recipe. Even if you just scrape together a side dish, its still money saved.

 

Work with larger pieces - You can cook a whole chicken or a side of beef in a crock pot without sacrificing flavor or quality. This allows you to pre-cook a whole week’s worth of dinners in a day, saving you cooking time and minimizing those last-minute trips to pick up ingredients. Just set it on a weekend morning and add the basic flavors (salt and pepper), then chop it up to serving pieces at the end of the day.

 

Not sure which pieces to get? This is where weekly planning comes in. Before grocery shopping, make a list of the dishes you want to cook for the week, list down the ingredients, and make a shopping list. If you want, you can even plan for two weeks to a month so you can buy some of the ingredients in bulk.

 

Use less energy - Pressure-cooking for an hour can eat up your gas supply, so that roast beef is really more expensive than you think. Next time you’re craving a roast, bring out the slow cooker and make a crock pot roast beef instead. It takes considerably longer, but because you’re using low heat and no gas, the energy costs are actually much lower. Try adding beer or wine to your broththe alcohol has a natural tenderizing effect and enhances the flavor of the meat.

 

Of course, there’s more to crock pot cooking than pot roast. It’s not just the tough cuts that benefit from energy bill savings. If you’ve got leftover meats of any cut, you can throw them together and make a nice evening stewwithout having to cook them separately to tenderize. Crock pot beef stew has just as much (or even more) flavor as its traditional counterpart, but costs a lot less to make.

Tags: crock pot beef recipes | crock pot beef recipes | easy crock pot recipes | easy crock pot recipes | crock pot roast beef | crock pot roast beef | crock pot beef stew | crock pot beef stew | crock pot meatloaf | crock pot meatloaf

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Yardcare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.