Frugal Meal Series: Black Bean Quesadillas and Refried Beans (Vegetarian)

Welcome to my new series aimed at helping families on a budget with some new and cost effective ideas for meals! I aim for around $5 per meal while trying to highlight dishes from scratch, meatless options, common ingredients, and whole grains. My typical weekly grocery bill for 4 was $50-60 just a couple years ago, but with the current economy it has increased to about $80/week. This series shows you my average family dinners including cost breakdown, links to recipes, and other details to help inspire you!

Step 1 of saving money on your grocery bill is to MAKE A MENU! Once a week I sit down and write out a dinner menu for the next 7 days. I take into account what I have in the freezer, what our schedule is like for that week, what the weather is (hot/cold), and any leftovers. It also stops everyone from asking "What's for dinner??" From this you can easily make your shopping list to only get the items you need while keeping an eye out for any markdowns/clearance items you can stick in the freezer for a different meal. I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi as I find that they have the best prices on most items. For a few other remaining items I go to Walmart.

Some meals I make are easy, some are more complicated. I mostly stick to tried and true dishes that I know everyone likes, but occasionally I like to try out a new one and experiment! I cook many style from American to Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and lots of Tex Mex. Variety is the spice of life!

For my cost breakdowns I will show real or estimated prices of items (based on current prices in western NY), but I don't include typical pantry ingredients i.e. spices/oil/butter/milk etc. unless it's a significant amount.

For this meal I made black bean quesadillas with chips and homemade refried beans.

Total cost of meal for 4: $5.10

Cost per serving: $1.28

Click here for the recipe for homemade refried beans made in the crockpot

Price breakdown:

1 can of black beans: 0.75 (I make mine homemade, so my actual price is lower)

1 bag of shredded cheddar: $2.25

1/2 bag tortilla chips: $1

1 can fat free refried beans: 0.60 (I make mine homemade using the recipe linked above, so my actual price is lower)

4 large tortillas: 0.50

These simple black bean and cheese quesadillas are a big hit for a quick dinner here. I usually just add chili powder, but this time I had some leftover diced bell pepper so I threw those in as well. Chips and dip are a quick and easy side. If you have sour cream and avocados you can add those as well! The sky is the limit. I usually make extra to send for school lunches as well.

Coming Up...

As we near the end of March, the Pierce family is super excited to be gearing up for our BIG family vacation on a cruise to the Bahamas! It's been a couple years since we've done a fun family getaway (sorry Oklahoma, you don't count!) and we are more than ready. It's also our celebration of 20 years of marriage so that's kind of a big deal!

While running errands Nick and I tried out a new Mexican restaurant in Brockport. The food was good....sort of. The chicken in his burrito was spoiled, then he found a metal piece in his replacement dish! Mine was so good though haha. We may or may not go back.

We've revived the Nintendo for some fun evenings playing together. The boys love it too. I discovered Jeopardy and have been testing my trivia knowledge.

Our sleepy kitty

Spring season means craft shows, so I've been busy cranking out inventory as well as coming up with new products for my online store (check it out here!)

We are having occasional days that are in the 50s so I've been trying to take advantage of that and get us all outside for some fresh air and sunshine! This evening we took a walk along the Erie canal for a ways after dinner.

I've also started a series about frugal dinner ideas that you can follow along here if you are curious how I can feed my family meals that only cost about $5. I share meal ideas, recipes, and price breakdowns in each post.

Last Thursday Bradley went with his Multimedia club to Genesee Community College for a tech competition where schools in surrounding counties competed in different areas. Brad's category was "Technical Drawing" and he won first place!

Today I had a craft show in Spencerport where Nick came along to help me. I was kind of slow but I got some products out there, and happy customers!

That's all for now! Next week we are packing our luggage.... Check back soon.

Frugal Meal Series: Black Bean Burgers and Sides

Welcome to my new series aimed at helping families on a budget with some new and cost effective ideas for meals! I aim for around $5 per meal while trying to highlight dishes from scratch, meatless options, common ingredients, and whole grains. My typical weekly grocery bill for 4 was $50-60 just a couple years ago, but with the current economy it has increased to about $80/week. This series shows you my average family dinners including cost breakdown, links to recipes, and other details to help inspire you!

Step 1 of saving money on your grocery bill is to MAKE A MENU! Once a week I sit down and write out a dinner menu for the next 7 days. I take into account what I have in the freezer, what our schedule is like for that week, what the weather is (hot/cold), and any leftovers. It also stops everyone from asking "What's for dinner??" From this you can easily make your shopping list to only get the items you need while keeping an eye out for any markdowns/clearance items you can stick in the freezer for a different meal. I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi as I find that they have the best prices on most items. For a few other remaining items I go to Walmart.

Some meals I make are easy, some are more complicated. I mostly stick to tried and true dishes that I know everyone likes, but occasionally I like to try out a new one and experiment! I cook many style from American to Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and lots of Tex Mex. Variety is the spice of life!

For my cost breakdowns I will show real or estimated prices of items, but I don't include typical pantry ingredients i.e. spices/oil/butter/milk etc. unless it's a significant amount.

For this meal I made homemade black bean burgers with homemade pasta salad and some chips.

Total cost of meal for 4: $4

Cost per serving: $1

Click here for recipe for homemade EASY black bean burgers!

Click here for recipe for homemade deli pasta salad

Price Breakdown:

Can of black beans 0.75 + ingredients to make burgers 0.25: $1

1/2 pack of hamburger buns: 0.50

1/2 bag of chips: $1

1/2 recipe of pasta salad: $1.50

You can alter these recipes as you like. For the burgers I like to add cheese and I eat mine without a bun. The pasta salad is very versatile as well--I did not have celery so I add some leftover roasted red peppers and fresh bell peppers. The burger recipe makes 4 average size patties so you will have leftover buns from the pack of 8 to use elsewhere, or you can double the recipe to make 8 patties and save for leftovers. The full pasta salad recipe makes a ton, so for this dinner we barely ate half with a lot of leftovers. These burgers are on repeat at my house as they are quick, easy, cheap, and healthy! Definitely a rare combination.

Healthy Baked Chocolate Oatmeal Breakfast Bars (Gluten Free)

This is a great breakfast (or even healthy dessert!) option to break up the monotony of cereal, toast, or plain oatmeal in the morning. Enjoy cold or warmed up! No added sugar and gluten free, this dish is lightly sweetened with maple syrup and peanut butter.

Ingredients:

2c milk (or soy milk to make this vegan)

1/2c maple syrup

1/3c peanut butter

2c oats

1/4c cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1tbs flax meal

1tsp vanilla

Pinch salt

1/3c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips in large bowl with spatula, smashing the peanut butter to incorporate into mixture. When mixed well, stir in half of chocolate chips. Grease an 8x8 pan and pour batter into pan. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top. Bake for approx 50min until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely then cut into serving size bars and store in the fridge.

Frugal Meal Series: Steamed Cabbage and Smoked Beef Sausage

Welcome to my new series aimed at helping families on a budget with some new and cost effective ideas for meals! I aim for around $5 per meal while trying to highlight dishes from scratch, meatless options, common ingredients, and whole grains. My typical weekly grocery bill for 4 was $50-60 just a couple years ago, but with the current economy it has increased to about $80/week. This series shows you my average family dinners including cost breakdown, links to recipes, and other details to help inspire you!

Step 1 of saving money on your grocery bill is to MAKE A MENU! Once a week I sit down and write out a dinner menu for the next 7 days. I take into account what I have in the freezer, what our schedule is like for that week, what the weather is (hot/cold), and any leftovers. It also stops everyone from asking "What's for dinner??" From this you can easily make your shopping list to only get the items you need while keeping an eye out for any markdowns/clearance items you can stick in the freezer for a different meal. I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi as I find that they have the best prices on most items. For a few other remaining items I go to Walmart.

Some meals I make are easy, some are more complicated. I mostly stick to tried and true dishes that I know everyone likes, but occasionally I like to try out a new one and experiment! I cook many style from American to Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and lots of Tex Mex. Variety is the spice of life!

For my cost breakdowns I will show real or estimated prices of items, but I don't include typical pantry ingredients i.e. spices/oil/butter/milk etc. unless it's a significant amount.

For today's meal we had steamed cabbage with roasted beef sausage.

Total cost of meal for 4: $6

Cost per serving: $1.50

Price breakdown:

1 pack smoked beef sausage (Aldi): $3.50

1 small head cabbage: $2

1 large onion: 0.50

seasonings + oil

This was our healthy and Irish-inspired meal for St Patrick's Day. I diced the entire head of cabbage and 1 onion to saute in a pan until tender with a bit of oil and seasonings. The sausage I sliced into thirds, then those into halves for a total of 6 slices that I roasted in my toaster oven. Each child got 1 slice and the adults each got 2 slices. There was lots of cabbage leftover for another meal, so that cost could easily be cut in half to lower the actual cost per serving.

Goodbye February, March is Speeding By

Before I even realize it, March is halfway over! Here's a recap of what we've been up to the past few weeks....

First of all, our sweet furball Mr Cuddles turned 18 on February 13!!! We got him as a kitten in 2005 and he's been with us ever since! His sister Snuggles was a year older than him, we got her as a kitten in 2004. They were best friends until her unexpected death in 2015. Sadly Jacob never got to know her. 

Here are some pics from 2005 of Cuddles as a kitten!

And now the old man....

In my last post we were prepping for our trip to Oklahoma...until I tested + for the Rona the day before we were to get the rental car!!!! My symptoms were thankfully mild (first time every having it!) but we decided to be safe and call off the trip to prevent spreading it to any family. I quarantined in my room x5 days while the 3 boys all shared a stomach bug.... Fun times!

After everyone was better and the boys went back to school after their break, Nick and I got away for a lunch date in Rochester and tried a great little Vietnamese place. The pho was amazing!

I met up with a friend at Letchworth for some winter hiking along the gorge. Time to start getting back into shape!

My big guy got some new glasses, and High Honor Roll! He is acing his 2 college classes as well with a GPA of 4.0

I went to the library and got some interesting reads...

After another big snow storm I finally got to take the boys sledding! Brad also had a friend over for a sleepover so he went with us as well.

Now is almost "spring" and I have lots of craft shows coming up, as well as our big family cruise to celebrate our anniversary! Check back soon for updates....

Frugal Meal Series: Porkchops

Welcome to my new series aimed at helping families on a budget with some new and cost effective ideas for meals! I aim for around $5 per meal while trying to highlight dishes from scratch, meatless options, common ingredients, and whole grains. My typical weekly grocery bill for 4 was $50-60 just a couple years ago, but with the current economy it has increased to about $80/week. This series shows you my average family dinners including cost breakdown, links to recipes, and other details to help inspire you!

Step 1 of saving money on your grocery bill is to MAKE A MENU! Once a week I sit down and write out a dinner menu for the next 7 days. I take into account what I have in the freezer, what our schedule is like for that week, what the weather is (hot/cold), and any leftovers. It also stops everyone from asking "What's for dinner??" From this you can easily make your shopping list to only get the items you need while keeping an eye out for any markdowns/clearance items you can stick in the freezer for a different meal. I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi as I find that they have the best prices on most items. For a few other remaining items I go to Walmart.

Some meals I make are easy, some are more complicated. I mostly stick to tried and true dishes that I know everyone likes, but occasionally I like to try out a new one and experiment! I cook many style from American to Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and lots of Tex Mex. Variety is the spice of life!

For my cost breakdowns I will show real or estimated prices of items, but I don't include typical pantry ingredients i.e. spices/oil/butter/milk etc. unless it's a significant amount.

For today's meal we had porkchops, dressing, and corn.

Total meal cost for 4: $6.79

Cost per serving: $1.70

Price breakdown:

Pack of 4 thick boneless porkchop (Aldi): $4.79

Box of herb dressing mix: $1

1lb bag of frozen corn: $1

This was a simple but filling meal that fed all 4 people with no leftovers. Preparation time was approx 30 min. The dressing mix was a box preparation that needed water and butter. The corn was steamed and I added butter and salt. The porkchops were seasoned with steak seasoning.