Staples are the things you rely on, they are the essentials you keep stocked in your pantry and they can be a life-saver. Staples can be ingredients or meals.
For example, staple ingredients would be things like rice, noodles, cans of beans, cans of soup, milk, eggs, butter, stuff like that.
Staple meals would be a general category like casseroles. A casserole is your best friend in penny-pinching times. A casserole needs three things: noodles or rice, some type of "cream of whatever" soup, and (if you have it) a meat or protein. Your casserole does not have to have a fancy name. Or any name. I don't know what we made last night but it was yummy. We took a package of egg noodles ($1.50), a can of cream of mushroom ($1?), and some frozen meatballs (package was $4, but we only used half) and made a meal. We both had a serving last night and put away about two or three servings of leftover. That comes out to about $1/serving. Not bad.
We added onion and garlic, but you don't have to. That's kinda the point. When you understand the basics of things you can create your own variations that are more to your taste or more to what's in your kitchen. You understand what can be substituted and can make do with what you've got. Keep your pantry stocked with things like noodles, rice, cream soups, beans, and your spices. Keep some produce that doesn't go bad quickly, typically in-ground produce like onions, potatoes, garlic. Keep milk, butter, eggs in your refrigerator because you use those for all sorts of things.
If you understand the principles of adding things together you don't need a fancy recipe. Granted, fancy recipes do taste awesome, but sometimes we don't need things to taste amazing every single night. Sometimes, the budget calls for some okay-tasting meals. That's what salt and pepper and condiments are for.
Another thing about casseroles or casserole-type foods is leftovers. Go buy yourself a multi-pack of Glad or Reynolds disposable/reusable tubs and save your leftovers. If you can't bring yourself to eat leftovers, then I suggest getting a better job. It's way too expensive to eat something new every dinner and lunch just for preference. I understand if you have a big family that polishes off everything on the table, but just to trash it all because you don't like leftovers? Come on. I often eat leftovers for my lunch the next day or two because I can't afford to buy lunch at the cafe at school every day.
Okay well I'm gonna go reheat some leftovers and have my lunch. Remember: keep your kitchen stocked with staples, know the basic parts of meals so you can improvise or create, and save your leftovers!
Happy Eating!
For example, staple ingredients would be things like rice, noodles, cans of beans, cans of soup, milk, eggs, butter, stuff like that.
Staple meals would be a general category like casseroles. A casserole is your best friend in penny-pinching times. A casserole needs three things: noodles or rice, some type of "cream of whatever" soup, and (if you have it) a meat or protein. Your casserole does not have to have a fancy name. Or any name. I don't know what we made last night but it was yummy. We took a package of egg noodles ($1.50), a can of cream of mushroom ($1?), and some frozen meatballs (package was $4, but we only used half) and made a meal. We both had a serving last night and put away about two or three servings of leftover. That comes out to about $1/serving. Not bad.
We added onion and garlic, but you don't have to. That's kinda the point. When you understand the basics of things you can create your own variations that are more to your taste or more to what's in your kitchen. You understand what can be substituted and can make do with what you've got. Keep your pantry stocked with things like noodles, rice, cream soups, beans, and your spices. Keep some produce that doesn't go bad quickly, typically in-ground produce like onions, potatoes, garlic. Keep milk, butter, eggs in your refrigerator because you use those for all sorts of things.
If you understand the principles of adding things together you don't need a fancy recipe. Granted, fancy recipes do taste awesome, but sometimes we don't need things to taste amazing every single night. Sometimes, the budget calls for some okay-tasting meals. That's what salt and pepper and condiments are for.
Another thing about casseroles or casserole-type foods is leftovers. Go buy yourself a multi-pack of Glad or Reynolds disposable/reusable tubs and save your leftovers. If you can't bring yourself to eat leftovers, then I suggest getting a better job. It's way too expensive to eat something new every dinner and lunch just for preference. I understand if you have a big family that polishes off everything on the table, but just to trash it all because you don't like leftovers? Come on. I often eat leftovers for my lunch the next day or two because I can't afford to buy lunch at the cafe at school every day.
Okay well I'm gonna go reheat some leftovers and have my lunch. Remember: keep your kitchen stocked with staples, know the basic parts of meals so you can improvise or create, and save your leftovers!
Happy Eating!
thsi may be a silly question, but WHAT are egg noodles?
ReplyDeleteEgg noodles are wider noodles whose dough is made partially with egg yolks. They are usually with the other pasta. We just happened to have a bag in the pantry. You could use linguine or spaghetti or whatever you wanted.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's a misleading picture since, it's a package of spaghetti. Sorry about that. The egg noodles are the corkscrew ones in the bowl.
ReplyDeletehaha gotcha
ReplyDeletewell we don't do pasta anymore, so i was interested in what these egg noodles were and if they would be a viable alternative for our fam