Recession Cooking - Dinners for Family of Three, One Month, $99.89

The recession has hit so many people. Thousands of lost jobs spreading across a number of sectors.  Once big time bankers are scrambling for jobs at places like Starbucks.  Houses that were once worth $750,000 are now half of that and "being underwater on my real estate purchase" is something many of us in the Bay Area hear all of the time.  For a good friend of mine, her situation is a little different.  She is a single mom, has two beautiful children and lives in Belmont where she works as a teacher and struggles to feed her family of three.

My friend and I care for her deeply and do everything we can for support.  For her, an ear to listen and a shoulder to lean on is just enough, but we wanted to do a little more and use our skills in the kitchen to teach her how to recession shop and recession cook.  The first time we ever took her grocery shopping she lived in the frozen food section.  Frozen carrots, broccoli and prepared meals filled the cart.  When I asked her why she told me that it is the best way to feed hungry kids that love veggies.  They are frozen so they do not go bad and she does not have the time or the money to be buying fresh.

During a recent trip to Costco I walked into the veggie cave (that big refrigerator filled with fresh vegetables) and saw a big bag of broccoli for $3.99.  It dawned on me then and there -- Let's take her recession shopping and work with her to prepare the same meals she buys at the grocery store for much less.  It became a project and I signed on Jeffrey for some help.  We came up with a menu, did the shopping and cooked until she had enough dinners to feed the family for almost a month.  Not only was it easy, it was fun and we think she learned quite a bit that day.

Before I go into what we bought and made let me tell you a little bit about the money that she usually spends on dinners for her and the kids.  Usually, depending on sale items and other goods, she'll spend about $75/week or $300 a month for dinners.  Not that bad for a single mom with two kids, but imagine if you could about spend a third of that amount and still get about the same amount of food?  That is what we did.

We shopped at Costco and bought a limited number of items at Safeway and spent $99.89.  From what we purchased we prepared about 23 days of meals for her and her two children (both are under the age of 5).

This is what we purchased and prepared:

- 10 lbs of organic carrots - $4.59
- 3 lbs of broccoli florets - $.3.99
- 2 lbs of French green beans - $5.49
- 2 1/4 lbs of asparagus - $3.99
- 5 lbs of onions - $4.99
- 6 pounds of ground beef - $17.76 ($2.96/pound)
- 10 tilapia fillets - $16.83
- 1 package of 20 boneless chicken thighs - $11.17
- 6 cans of assorted beans (kidney, black and cannelini) - $7.50
- 36 eggs - $4.99
- 4 packages of Progresso Panko style bread crumbs ($2.49 each) - $9.96
- 1 bag of ciabbatta rolls (10 rolls in one bag) - $4.49
- 1 extra large can (102 oz or 6lb and 6 oz.) of diced tomatoes - $2.75
- 1 small can of tomato paste - 1.39

Note -- The recipe below includes fresh basil, which someone pointed out can be expensive.  It was left off my list because I harvested it from my garden for free.  You can buy it from the grocery store, but it will be a little costly.  The farmers market is a better place to get basil and will cost you $1-$2.  You can also use dried basil.

After shopping we headed back to Jeffrey's house to begin preparing the following:

- Assorted vegetables cleaned, chopped and packaged into the sandwich size Ziplock bags for freezing. Collectively the veggies yielded 69 servings of veggies (or 23 servings for a family of three)

- 1 big pot of chili that yielded us 26 cups of chili, which yielded us about 10.5 servings for 3

- 9 hamburgers (about a 1/4 pound each), which yielded us 3 servings for 3

- 15 pieces of breaded chicken thighs, which yielded 5 servings for 3 (the other 5 were frozen and will be used to grill)

- 10 pieces of breaded tilapia fillets, which yielded us 5 servings for 3

Now lets do some math.  The average month has about 30 days.  My friend spends $75/week or 300/month or $10/day on dinners for her family. At a cost of $99.89 for 24 dinners (this includes an entree and a vegetable) she'll only spend about $4.16 a day for a savings of $5.83.  Multiply that 5.83 by 23 and it gives you $134.09 in savings for that period of time.  These are dollars that can go towards other things, like rent, in her case medication, clothing and better yet -- even savings.

If you and your family have been hit hard by the recession, consider a little bit of recession shopping and cooking and start to change your ways in the kitchen.  No doubt you can still buy great food and prepare flavorful meals for your family and save some money while you are at it.

Here is the recipe for the recession style breaded chicken thighs.  This is the bulk version...

- 15 boneless chicken thighs
- 2 boxes of Progresso Panko bread crumbs
- 1 cup of chopped fresh basil
- 1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley
- 1.5 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsps freshly ground black pepper
- 12 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Clean the chicken thighs and set aside. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and set aside.  Combine the bread crumbs and remaining ingredients into a large bowl, mix well and set aside.

To bread the chicken dip one of the pieces into the egg.  Place it into the bread crumbs and coat the chicken with the breading. You will be breading each piece twice so repeat this process and then place the breaded piece of chicken onto a cookie sheet.  Repeat until all of the chicken is breaded.

Place the cookie sheet into the oven and cook for 15 minutes.  Open the oven, flip the pieces of chicken and cook for another 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool.  Once cool separate into Ziploc bags, 3 per bag and place into the freezer.

When you are ready to cook em' up remove from the freezer and place into a preheated 350 oven for 20-25 minutes. You can take a piece out and cut in half to ensure that it is cooked all of the way through.

PS - I have to thank my friends Jeffrey and John. They not only let us use their place to cook, but they both helped and John saved the chili from being a soupy mess.

Comments

[Amy Ross Hendrix]

The kids and I are still eating the food!!! The fish and the chili are a big hit with my toddlers!!! My oldest son calls the tilapia..."Michael's Fish".

What an education I received!!

Thanks to Michael, Jeffrey, and John for all their help. We are so lucky to have Michael as our friend.