cooking on a budget

     I thought I might write about ways we used to save money and still eat very well. First and foremost , if you can grow a garden then by all means do it. My folks used to grow a large garden. My mom would can and freeze what they grew. /she inherited that from her mother who lived in the country and struggled to make ends meet. My early memories are of my grandma in the garden with her homemade bonnet, the brim had slats that she had inserted cardboard in, pellon being not available then.

     One way to live on a budget is to buy dried beans. Learn to measure out the amount that your family will eat. Mom would tell me you need to look the beans. so when you get a sack of beans the first thing to do is spread them out in a colander, usually there will be bits of sand or small stones or a bad bean to pitch, -then you wash, wash, wash them. There is a lot of different opinions about the next step- some people say you need to soak them over night and then rinse them, we always just put them in the pan with a lot of water, bring to a boil, and then turn the burner down to a very slow simmer, I usually keep the lid tilted, and you want to make sure you keep an eye on them as if the water gets low they could burn., If you are simply to busy to keep an eye on them the best think to do is cook them in the trusty crockpot. We usually added some crushed garlic and olive oil. The old timers used to add a bit of bacon or fatback.. The best- is ham- you can add left over ham, or you can use those little cans of ham that sell for cheap.

     We used to serve a fine green salad from the garden, and if the weather was not to hot we served cornbread, or biscuit. When you have left over beans, which most people do- you can make bean patties- smash the beans, add grated onion, some flour and egg, a little bread crumbs, make it thick enough to shape into patties- then fry- in as small amount of oil as possible. Serve with mustard or however you choose
      Mom used to make cream of bean soup, she would smash the beans add onion and milk and season with black pepper. I used to like this as a child.

One other item you need to stock up on is rice. Rice can be used so many ways. Again the best way to cook rice is to remember the low heat, and the correct amount of liquid.  You can season rice so many ways. One of my favorite rice recipes,-   I take about 2 cps of cooked rice, and I add it to about a 1/2 lb or even less of sausage that I have cooked,
to this meat mixture I add green peppers if they are available, onion, and garlic put in some sage according to taste, now toss in with the rice and add a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top of it. Sometimes if I have celery this is also good with it.


Usually if you have a garden you will have potatoes, and that is a big staple for country folk. We used to eat fried potatoes, yes, I know they are unhealthy that way. You can take your left over mashed potatoes and make potato cakes--grate a onion, add some flour, egg,  and brown in the least amount of oil you can. You can add left over ham to this recipe.
\    If you are really on a budget you can use canned tuna, it is not my favorite but I can eat it. Apart from the tuna salad, you can make tuna croquettes- drain the tuna, add minced onion, teaspoon of mustard, cracker crumbs or bread, 1 egg, sometimes abit of mayoi. fry in the skillet like the potato patties.

one salad that I make is grated carrots with raisins, and add a dressing, you can use a salad dressing with a bit of vinegar, a touch of sugar,- carrots are usually cheap and they keep well in the crisper. I am writing this because I help pass food out at a food pantry and often people say they run out of food. I can write about a few more ways to stretch your meals, I know this seems obvious, but it also seems that a lot of people don't know these simple things.