Stretching Food for Growing Boys

I have 3 boys who already eat a lot. I've found a few ways to "stretch" foods to help with our grocery bill.

• Make spaghetti and pasta sauce chunky. Add onions, chopped garlic, tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplant or summer squash to make a heartier sauce.
Advertisement


• Add oats or breadcrumbs to ground beef.
• Leftover mashed potatoes are good for soups, homemade bread, pizza crust, burritos/enchiladas, or casseroles.
• Add a little milk and small cubes of bread to scrambled eggs.
• Make vegetable casseroles instead of plain vegetables.
• Experiment with flavored rice. Rice is a tummy filler. Add chicken/beef flavor, cheese sauce, vegetable mix, or just butter. Fried rice with stir-fried vegetables is pretty easy and filling.
• Slice meats a little thinner or pound them before cooking.
• Add more eggs. They are protein and easy to make. Deviled or stuffed eggs, egg slices as a side, scrambled eggs, egg sandwiches--the possibilities are almost endless.
• Use powdered milk in cooking. One box can last a couple months or more.
• Use whole chickens. You will get more meat and better chicken stock for broth. The bones can be pressured for dogs.
Advertisement


• Stock up on tortillas when on sale. Tortillas make easy meals and snacks. Fill with eggs and cheese, cinnamon and sugar, cheese and tomatoes, fruit, luncheon meat and cheese, etc. and toss on the griddle.
• Use your weekly store ad to see what is on sale and research new recipes for those items or ways to substitute them in.