College student with low income seeks good recipes for low carb diets.............I AM GOING CRAZY HERE! I need some good food! Any help would be appreciated!
Kristen
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Kristen & Davey Married on August 16th 2003 Our Family grew on August 1st 2006
Expecting a second blessing in July 2009!
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Blessing #2 is Growing away!
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How low carb are you going? Are healthy carbs allowed? If that's the case the easiest thing to do is just to get whole wheat spaghetti and make spaghetti as you normally would. It's more expensive than normal spaghetti, but it fills you up more so you can eat less of it.
Salads are good--if there's a good grocery store near you you can take whatever you want at the salad bar there, or just buy a bag of the pre-made stuff. You can add meat if you like.
Geez, there sure is a lot of us out there....I'm 26 and STILL in college! Plus I'm married...which makes it more difficult. Our car just DIED and has been dead for a week now, and we don't have the money to fix it so we had to quit our good jobs and now we're stuck looking for jobs we can take the bus to!
ANYONE got any cheeeep recipes? Something that will go a LONG way! (low carb will be ok, but at this point i'll take what i can get)
LOL! You girls are funny. Glad to see I am not alone out there. Sharleenia, where at in ohio are you living now? My mom lives in Ohio near the eastern boarder of PA, and my one brother lives near Toledo, OH. And the other in Gerard,OH. They are spread out. I was just wondering if you were close to any of them.
Kristen
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Kristen & Davey Married on August 16th 2003 Our Family grew on August 1st 2006
Expecting a second blessing in July 2009!
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Blessing #2 is Growing away!
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Ooh, cheap recipes I can do! Beans, rice, tomatoes, on-sale chicken quarters, tortillas, bread, peanut butter, on sale cereal, pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions.
In the Mexican section of a grocery or at an ethnic grocery (or walmart) where spices are cheaper, get chili powder, oregano, and garlic salt. Spices are somewhat expensive, but a little goes a long way.
With the above base items you can make a number of really cheap ($1 per person or less) meals. Splurge on cheese, ground beef, and sour cream from time to time. Additional good spices are thyme, rosemary, sage, and basil.
You can boil or bake the chicken quarters and then remove the bones, keeping the cooked chicken in your freezer to add to meals.
Red beans and rice.
Add whatever veggies and meat you have to cooked rice and add some spices. Experiment. Same with spaghetti-- if you've got spaghetti you can throw stuff together and have a meal. Usually it will be edible.
Chili: There a number of recipes for this already on the board (I think in the can you freeze tomatoes thread).
Burritos: beans, chili powder, cooked meat, in a tortilla. Add tomatoes, sour cream, lettuce as desired.
Spaghetti: Either get a can of pre-made spaghetti sauce, or just use tomatos. Toss with cooked spaghetti. To make it more high class, fry onions and meat with oregano and garlic salt, then add sauce or tomatoes. Add additional oregano (and basil if you have it) to taste. Serve over spaghetti.
Chicken Cacciatore: Brown onions and chicken quarters and put in large soup pot. Add canned tomatoes to cover. Add oregano and garlic salt. Simmer until chicken is cooked all the way through. Remove bones. Alternatively, put all ingredients in a crockpot and simmer. Serve over rice or spaghetti if desired.
Split pea soup. Buy a package of dried split peas (usually costs under a $1), follow directions on package. You can omit ham and add thyme, rosemary, sage and garlic salt in its place (or any combination). You can also add any combination of veggies and use water instead of broth to make it vegan.
Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. (Use whole wheat if watching carbs). This is good plain or can be gussied up with veggies or by adding milk to the soup.
Salad dressing chicken: Remove chicken skins. Place in Baking pan. Coat with salad dressing or barbeque sauce. Bake at 350 for an hour or until cooked all the way through.
Cream of potato soup: Fry onions or leeks and garlic (optional). Cut potatoes and fry as well (optional). Move to stew pot. Cover with water, boil until potatoes are cooked through. Blend. Add milk to taste.
Potatoes with salsa: microwave potato. Add salsa.
Baked sweet potato: microwave potato. Add cinnamon (and sugar or butter if desired). Also good mashed or fried (yum!).
Veggie soup. Either use a tomato soup or chicken broth base and add whatever veggies you've got cut up into little pieces. Bring to a boil, then simmer.
Wraps: Put whatever is in the fridge into a tortilla, roll it up, and eat it like a sandwich.
Quiche: Find a recipe online-- it's basically just eggs, a little flour, a little milk, and whatever you've got in the fridge or freezer, all mixed together and baked into a pieshell.
Scrambled eggs. Omeletes (just like a quiche, but cooked over a low heat in a pan and flipped once, rather than baked). Other egg dishes. If you're really not watching carbs, see if you can find a recipe you like for "Strata" It's basically an eggs, cheese, and either bread or potato casserole. Very hearty, filling, and cheap.
Bruschetta: Take stale french bread, cut in half or in slices. Add oil or butter and garlic or garlic salt. Bake at 350 until garlic or bread is toasty. Cover with canned chopped tomatoes which have been mixed with oregano, garlic, and basil (if you have it).
At the store, look for what's in season and what's on sale. Don't be afraid of trying new stuff and experimenting.
Why not try eggs - you could add almost anything to them- and they are so cheap - they take care of your protein-and if you are low carb add ham and cheeseto complete them. Also with a slice of bread you could make egg - in - the - middle. Just cut a cirlce out of the center of the slice of bread with a round cookie cutter or a glass if you don't have one- put a little non-stick butter flavor spray on both sides of bread and the circle of bread that was cut out- put the bread in a pan - drop an egg in the middle - flip halfway through - put cirlcle in pan also to brown- add ham or cheese to top if you want. We grew up on these. We ate them plain-with a little jelly on our circle. Also try making a big pot of stew. You can make on very cheap. You can use a cheap cut of meat and it will be tender if you cook it a long time. Or if you don't want meat just use lots of fresh veggies. Get a large can of V8 juice to use as the broth- it adds spice and lots of nutrients. I do this all the time DH never knows! It will taste so much better than water. Have you ever tried the hot breakfast cereals- cream of wheat- grits- oatmeal or malt o meal. Add a little brown sugar and milk. These cereals are very cheap per bowl. I have found that buying the ingredients myself and making things fresh is cheaper in the long run than premade food- like the frozen dinners and such.
I do IR and make my husband do it to save money, we are always typically hard up on cash.
I can feed me and him for about 40-50 a week
List:
-Eggs
-Lunch Meat
-Whole wheat bread(pricey but worth it)$2.39
-low carb yogurt (.39 each at Kroger), Carb Master Brand
-Turkey bacon (better for you and cheaper than reg) can be cooked on paper towels in the microwave for you college students.
-Cheese
-Off brand (Kroger) All bran cereal
-low carb milk (another one of those semi-pricey things) but worth it$2.50
-Produce and veggies, reasonable especially in smaller quanities and fresher when you buy it on a weekly basis.
-Chicken quarters/legs are cheaper than breasts, baked in a dorm in a toaster oven is what I did in college.
-Turkey sausage, ground turkey, beef sometimes when its on sale, fish when its on sale, I'd rather eat fish out, that way it stinks up their kitchen, pork chops when their on sale, we eat a lot of chicken and turkey.
-Canned chili, canned chicken for salads, pre mixed salad mixes.
All this stuff at your local grocer are reasonable.
Fried red cabbage. It's really good and kind of sweet and nothing like normal stewed cabbage. It's also good with a shot of vinegar for a sweet and sour thing. Just chop it up and fry it.
Help... 
I need some good food! Any help would be appreciated!
Geez, there sure is a lot of us out there....I'm 26 and STILL in college! Plus I'm married...which makes it more difficult. Our car just DIED and has been dead for a week now, and we don't have the money to fix it so we had to quit our good jobs and now we're stuck looking for jobs we can take the bus to!
Boil some chicken in them and yum.
