What is for dinner tonight? any ideas plz

no clue what were having yet. Mabey leftover spaghetti from last night.

We're having Tacos. Friday is always good for something easy and fun.

mmm tacos sound good... mm

I made Polish Cabbage soup for today............crock pot style.
I thank my lucky stars that I had stocked the chest freezer before I lost my part time job in May. I haven't had to buy any meat since then and am just now seeing the bottom row. Seems it costs as much now days to just by the staple food let alone try to afford fresh veggies, fruit or meat!
The terrible gas prices all summer pretty much wiped out any cushion there was in the bank for many people.

I'm making pork chops that I got on sale, but usually Friday is Taco night here too. Nobody had chop meat on sale today, and I forgot to take some out of the freezer.
Trish: what I do is buy the chop meat when it is real cheap. Some I form into patties and freeze for obviously, hamburgers. The rest of it I cook up. Some I make into taco meat and freeze in portions good enough for one meal for my clan, the rest I freeze in portions big enough, or small enough, to make a meat sauce, light on the meat. I bought chop meat a few weeks ago for 1.99 a lb and bought a bunch of it. I just got a loin of pork for 1.99 today, and I cut it into 2 and cook it in the slow cooker, make some gravy, boil some noodles and a vege, good to go. So I'll get 2 meals out of the $10 loin. I also buy penne and sauce when it's on sale and thats a quick and cheap meal. Can't beat a $3 meal for 5, especially when it includes the italian bread.

Chris.. I would have loved to get in on the sales.. but when you dont have even 5 bucks to get any sale stuff it really is bad... and we have not had hamburger in over a month... we are using canned meat stuff my freind gets on her comods or we would have no meat... i am hoping that next month will be a little brighter for us... it has been hard telling the kids you can eat.. but only this much.. and i know ur hungry but food has to be aved for tmorrow so we dont really run out and having nothing to eat for days...

but ur right.. i woudl love to hit the sales.. thing is i have not been grocery shopping for even basics in over a month... the money just has not been there and i do not have anyone else that i can really rely upon to call and say hey i need help here.. plz send some food... so we are doing what we can with what we do have... it may come down to buiscuts and peanut butter when the wic refreshes tomorrow by the end of next week...

we dont have a vehicle so running around to all the different places to get the stuff you need to even get the food handouts..

but i am making do with what we do have.

My main staple is brown rice. I add canned chick peas, various herbs and maybe some feta cheese - after it is cooked. I always cook it with onion and garlic. Lately, I've been adding some spinach and feta after the rice cooks. Other times I can add a can of stewed tomatoes and some chicken. I even use the rice as a base for bean soup or lentil soup.
Yep, we have to figure out how to do more with less.
I used to have ketchup soup when I was in college.
Is there any neighbor you can pot luck with? Maybe make a neighborhood stew - one brings carrots, others bring meat, onions, etc... Remember the book "Stone Soup"?

I think hubby thawed hamburger, so we'll likely be doing either hamburger helper, or spaghetti.

Lee, I notice you like hamburger! Here's a tip- cut back to 3/4's of a pound, and add in a half cup to a full cup of uncooked oatmeal as you brown the burger. It takes on the flavor of the meat from the fat, and you can't even tell it's in there as you eat. It adds some extra nutrients, as well as stretching your meat further.

Home made mac and cheese is always a crowd pleaser.

i am gonna have to try the oatmeal trick next time we do hamburger.. i never knew that...

yes they are le.. and that is what i have been eating for lunch daily.. i am diabetic so even i have not been eating like i am suppose to in order to save on food... but at least that gives me something...

all right do you belong to a church if so call and tell them they need to deliever a food package and if you dont they will still bring one to you

Hello Tish B;
I will reply to your question with and answer that I was just before posting in and article by me. It is about the part of my life that began in 1928 and spans a time in history from then, into the post war days of World War Two. It is about one family’s trials and tribulations, through those troubling times, with out much more than our faith in God and the bounty of the backwoods and bayou bottoms of Arkansas County, Arkansas, to keep us going. About the sacrifice that was necessary to build an army that was able to bring about the defeat of the axis powers. About having a faith strong enough to believe in the supernatural, folklore of the bottoms and handed down superstitions.
It is about two bucks and four bits (two dollars and fifty cents), was the average monthly income that a family of six, my family, lived on during the 1930s who suddenly had everything taken away from then by the stock market crash of 1929. After the crash Jack Doyle didn’t complain and moved his family to the bayou country and backwoods of Arkansas where he had grown up back at the turn of the century. From past experience he knew that very little money was needed because there was always food for the taking in the bayous and forest, and an empty house with a good garden spot could be had for the asking.
Without remembering anything about living in town, I spent my formative years in the swamps, marshes, bayous and backwoods. It was the southern folklore and superstitions that were often interwoven with the supernatural, but were always connected to a strong belief in God, that molded me into who I became. A strong healthy young man with an unforgiving code of ethics and strong family love that gave me the strength to live life as it was given without complaint. However that didn’t stop me from living life, and the sometimes wild and often dangerous adventure that me and my younger brother Lynn managed to get into generally ended with us having to explain to Mama what we had done. With strong and loving hands Mama was the law when we were cowboys, the chief when we were in the jungle and the overall enforcer that kept us in line, and we thought that life was the best that it could ever be.
The strangest part of it all was that I didn’t know the Doyles were dirt poor until at the age of twelve my family moved into town, then I was confronted with this eye-opening dilemma, however I never forgot my roots and struggled to fit in. Actually it became a dreaded chore to go to school. But after moving back to Arkansas County, and the starting of World War Two, I accessed my situation and decided to pull myself up by my bootstraps, then began to doing a lot better, and school wasn’t so bad after all. Then I experienced young life, fell in love and lost her to a friend who had a car, graduated from high school, then left home to face the world a mature and much wiser young man.
In the end it was Mama’s wisdom, Daddy’s perseverance and the sage advice from the Woman In Black, and I still don’t know if she was a God sent vision or a mental apparition conjured up by myself, that guided me through all of the trials and tribulations of growing up.
Could it be done today? I doubt it! But we did it, and it was actually the happiest time of my life, having nothing, wanting nothing, and completely satisfied with what we had.

most churches will help you with food even if your not a member.... i know i dont know your circumstances and i dont mean to sound mean but when i was having that hard of a time i didnt have internet or even a phone because the food was more important....

I loved your story T.. thanks for sharing it with us... and that yes.. with circumstances the way they are.. it can make us a lot closer in the long run... i totally agree...

With the churches thing.. well there are only one or two that actuall do the food bank thing here in the town.. and well, the one only does food every first and third sunday of every month.. learned that this week.. too late to get any food this month... and then i dont have a vehicle.. so it will make getting the food to the house very difficult.. if we end up where i cannot make a meal at all... i will resort to calling and letting them know that we are totally out of food and do not get emergency help...

what happened this month is the fact that we moved.. and all my income for this month has gone to moving us into the new place.. and the couple of previous months went to gasoline to travel back and forth to the town we are now living in.. it is a short term we dont have much.. but it wont last too long... i am also going through a divorce and my soon to be ex has not started paying to help with the kids at all.. he is more worried about playing his video games and his gaming sessions all night on xbox live...

and ur right... i do make a little extra money online.. like here on gather and doing surveys and stuff.. thanks to gather, we had 25 extra dollars for gas the week i did move in here...

in michigan though you can get dial u for free.. so if you get really cheap phone service.. which when moving intoa new place there is no down payment so when i will need to pay the bill i will have money...

its one of those catch 22 situations.. we are just down for a little bit.. but next month will be bettter and december will be even better.. just gotta make it till then.. and i know there are others out there worse off than we are...

but your right for wondering... so dont feel like your stepping on toes... and btw... since we dont have a vehicle.. now that my son is in juinor high.. he will have computer homework and research that will need to be done on the internet.. and well it is getting internet or making us all walk to the library which is about 8 miles away... so... not that we could not do it.. but that would also mean the kids dont get to eat either... so that again is a catch 22... and yes they do make the kids have to do home work on the computer where a computer is needed...

i truely do understand what u mean... divorce is tough...i hope things get better for you.. and good luck

necessity is the mother of invention. Have you tried for food assistance? They've raised the amount of money a family can make to qualify, and you have children. Although the meal sounds really tasty, there's tons of sodium and preservatives in such a meal, and you would be much better off to swallow any pride and apply. You shouldn't go hungry like that!