CHEAP Crock Pot Recipes- I'm broke. - Page 3

[Lisoula]

Originally Posted by kitikatuka 

Originally Posted by kittywitty

Also-just plain great northern beans (I add bay and s&p to mine) in the crockpot eaten with cornbread or just plain homemade bread. That's pretty much what I was raised eating-my grandma was very poor.

This is a great thread! I'd love to use my crock pot more -- especially this summer. Hey kittywitty -- or anyone else! -- can you share a recipe to make relatively plain pinto beans in the crock pot? We have a lot of dried beans here and we're trying to be more frugal with our out-of-control grocery bill. Thanks!

Here's mine:

1lb. dried pintos

9 cups water

1 Bay leaf

4 cloves garlic....lightly smashed

1 small onion quartered

Dried oregano, cilatro, and/or taggagon....whatever I have on hand

Some black pepper

Cook on low for 6 hours.  Remove bay leaf.  I usually take about a 1/4 of the beans out & smash them, then add them back into the beans/broth.  YUM!!!!!  Don't add salt until they're done cooking.  I serve this over brown rice with a splash of olive oil....DE-LISH!

[youngspiritmom]

Saute a little oil with 1/2 onion (diced) with one clove minced garlic, add some spices (salt and pepper, coriander, cumin, red pepper)

add 1 can diced tomato, reduce for 5 mins

add 3/4 cup lentils (red or brown), 5 cups water

cook just below boil for 40 mins (on stove, not crock pot)

puree in blender

serve with dallop of yogurt on top

with rice if preferred, and a simple salad

(my version of turkish red lentil soup and/or Arab "mujaddarah")

Also we have the same family size and manage on $50 a week pretty well....I meal plan, coupon (moderately - just Sunday paper & download the coupons that link to my Kroger card), buy in bulk (rice, beans), buy store brand ONLY, buy large tubs of plain yogurt and add our own flavor and use it as sour cream, drink fruit tea brewed then iced instead of juice, buy lots of veggies from the cheapest store. Our main way is that we only eat read meat (ground beef) twice a month, and mainly eat chicken or vegetarian. We cook from scratch. I only buy what's on sale.

Good luck mama

[onlyzombiecat]

Vegetarian Shepard's Pie
I have cooked something very similar to this in the slow cooker but also in my oven for 30 minutes.

Fassolatha (Greek Bean soup)
This always makes a lot and I have made it in the slow cooker as well as on the stove. Soup is a good dollar stretcher and you can freeze leftovers as well.

[poorlittlefish]

My favorite:

2 Cups black beans ( soak overnight, then throw them in or use canned)

Can of Corn

Some chicken (doesn't need this though, you could just add more beans)

I jar salsa

If the beans are not canned, then I throw in a little water too.

After it cooks for 6-8 hours I throw in a block of cream cheese, stir it up and serve it on tortillas or plain.

[kaismum]

I have a couple from a friend of mine who is vegetarian and super focused on eating high protein which can help stretch inexpensive meals as they are often pretty filling:

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
• 1 cup carrots
• 2 tablespoons chili powder (or more to taste, I like 3T)
• ½ cup Quinoa
• 2 cups dried lentils, picked over and rinsed
• One 14.5-ounce can (no salt added) crushed tomatoes
• 5 cups water
• 2 tablespoons tamari or other soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar or a natural sweetener
• 2 tablespoon cinnamon (adjust to taste)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

Crockpot Directions:

1.       Add the onion, carrots, and chili powder to crock pot, stirring to coat.

2.       Add the quinoa, lentils, tomatoes, tamari, mustard, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and pepper (to taste) and stir to combine.

3.       Cover ingredients with 5 cups water. Stir to combine

4.       Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours (or High for 4 hours, adjust as needed)

5.       Serve with Tortilla chips!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Onions, chopped
• 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 cups Carrots, sliced 
• 4 cups Spinach, chopped 
• 1 can diced Tomatoes (no salt added)
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 - 1 cup Natural Barbecue Sauce (to taste, my favorite is Stubb's Spicy Barbecue Sauce) 
• 1 - 2 tablespoons natural sweetener (to taste, agave, maple syrup, honey, etc)

Crock Pot Directions:

1. Add the onion and garlic to crock pot, stirring to coat.
2. Stir in carrots, spinach, tomatoes, water, Barbecue sauce, natural sweetener 
3. Cover and cook (depends on cooker, 4ish hours)

[mommasay]

I love my slow cooker. Ever hear of congee? You cook a little bit of rice in a lot of water overnight in the crockpot. It makes a nice breakfast porridge and is ready for you when you get up in the morning. It's Chinese in origin and they believe the longer it cooks the more strength it gives you. Actually, I think many cultures eat it and have other names for it. I serve it sweet and cook it with a sliver of ginger. Ginger is economical. I keep it in the freezer to shave off a little as I need it. Congee doesn't need to be served sweetened though. You can serve it with scallions and soy sauce or plain. I treat it like oatmeal (raisins, brown sugar or honey, cinnamon). (You can grow the root end of a scallion from the grocery store. Just plant it and it will grow again! Same with leeks.)

On those lines, I used to do a brown rice and wheat berry porridge which had more textural interest. If you don't have a Whole Foods nearby than wheat berries might be costly. Whole foods is great when you are on a budget (yes I said that. yes it is true!). Why? The bulk bins! I use them for beans, grains, raisins, spices anything! You can buy only as much as you need and it is much cheaper than buying it packaged.

I also use leftover rice in the morning fried up or heated in the microwave. Serve with a runny fried egg on top or really however you like your eggs. Then add condiments to fancy it up. Salsa or chili paste, chopped scallions, onions, shredded cheese, sour cream or plain yogurt.

I love lentils and rice. One way to fancy it up is to serve it with crispy fried onions. Just slowly fry small batches of sliced onions in a skillet with oil. Take out the browned ones and drain on a paper bag. Serve on top of the lentils with a squirt of vinegar, Bragg's or soy sauce and sriacha or chili oil if you like heat or just toasted sesame oil (a little drop or two goes a long way).

These cheap meals are healthy and hearty and won't make you feel deprived if you have the right condiments... take it from other cultures who take condiments very seriously and beyond ketchup and mustard.

I have been eating tortillas wrapped around fish sticks with chopped spicy pickles and a dab of plain yogurt for a quick lunch and wow is it good.

[mommasay]

Originally Posted by kitikatuka 

This is a great thread! I'd love to use my crock pot more -- especially this summer. Hey kittywitty -- or anyone else! -- can you share a recipe to make relatively plain pinto beans in the crock pot? We have a lot of dried beans here and we're trying to be more frugal with our out-of-control grocery bill. Thanks!

For pinto beans, I just cook them with water and a chopped onion. When they are done, I add salt and pepper to taste. As simple as it is, that is one of my favorite things to eat. I could live on it for days. I tend to go heavy on the water to stretch it out and the broth tastes so good to me.

[kitchensqueen]

There are some excellent suggestions here. You can really stretch soups and stews by serving noodles or rice with them, even if the recipe doesn't call for it. Starch is cheap; think of meat as the garnish. Which incidentally, is also a healthier way to eat. 

This is kind of a crockpot recipe; kind of not. We like to have white bean and broccoli pasta - it's delicious, cheap and a nice alternative to tomato-based pasta sauces. Since dried beans are the most economical, soak them overnight and then cook them on low for 8-9 hours in your crockpot. Do up a whole bag at once, and freeze the extra in portion sizes so they're ready to go for other recipes.

I usually just eyeball this recipe since I just throw it together, but I'll take a stab at the quantities - 

2 cups of cooked white beans

1 small onion, diced

1 small carrot, diced (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium head of broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried thyme (or parley, oregano, rosemary - whatever you like and have on hand)

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (you could also use chili powder or any other hot spice really)

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons buerre manie (this is 1 tablespoon of butter smooshed into 1 tablespoon of flour until it forms a paste; used to thicken)

Cook your pasta until it's just al dente. You're going to finish cooking it in the sauce so that it soaks up some of the delicious flavor, so you don't want it to be done all the way. In the last few minutes, add the broccoli to the pasta water and cook them together. 

In a saute pan, saute your onion and carrot (if using) in the olive oil until they're just translucent. If you don't have a carrot, it's fine to leave it out - it's not terribly detrimental to the flavor of the end product. Add the white beans, chicken stock, thyme, pepper flakes and drained broccoli. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring everything up to a boil, then add the drained partially cooked pasta. Put a lid on the pan and turn the heat down slightly. Give it a stir every so often - it should only take a few minutes to finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. Once the pasta is fully cooked, stir in the buerre manie to thicken the sauce slightly. It won't be a very thick, heavy sauce - it will just coat everything nicely. Serve hot - this isn't the kind of dish that really holds over well. 

About the broccoli, remember the stems are edible! Most people just don't like them because they're tough. Peel off the outer layer, and cut them into thin strips and dice them - the pieces will be so small that they'll be tender and taste delicious. Some people say that broccoli stems have a more intense flavor than the florets, which is excellent if you like broccoli. 

Also, if you have some Italian sausage on hand and you'd like something with meat, it's great in this dish. 

And a book that I've recently discovered at the library and have found absolutely amazing is Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever with More Than 400 Easy-to-Make Recipes by Diane Phillips. I like it so much I ordered it on Amazon!  

[Mylie]

Awesome recipes here!!! There is a few I am going to try...Very tight budget here also and with my work schedule I use my crock pot several days a week...Subbing...Thanks..

[rebirth]

Sloppy joes can be super economical. 1/2 lb each ground beef and lentils, crushed tomatoes, 2 shredded carrots, 1 shredded beet, catsup, a bit of honey or sugar and if you have add cumin... Plenty! This goes really far and you dont even notice the veggies....

With an 8 pack of buns, this could be 4 meals ( toddler can get filling only) or you could serve over baked potatoes or rice or pasta if you would rather


Doula mama to my nursing toddler Noah

[Ragana]

I noticed that some recipes here contain kidney beans - I believe those contain toxins in their raw form and have to be boiled before putting in the crockpot? Or maybe just boiled on the stove.

http://extension.psu.edu/food-safety/food-preservation/faq/raw-kidney-beans

I mostly make dried beans in the crockpot, then make a meal with some and freeze the rest. Mostly these end up as rice w/ black bean bowls (top w/ whatever you have) or chickpea curry (tomatoes, chickpeas, any veg like potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, onion, seasonings - use up your spices to make a curry blend). Serve over rice or potatoes (then don't put the potatoes in the mix).

Potato bar - wrap clean, dry potatoes in foil. Place in crockpot (NO water!) and cook until done. I usually do 4 hrs. or so on high. Turn out just like baked potatoes. Top with whatever you've got!

[Megan73]

Has anyone suggested steel-cut oats for breakfast yet? A $6 bag from the bulk store will feed my whole family (two adults, a three-year-old and a baby - we all eat it!) for two weeks.
I mix three-quarters of a cup of steel cut oats with three cups of water in a four-cup pyrex measuring jug then put it in the slow-cooker. Fill the slow cooker insert with water up to the level of water in the pyrex jug, cover, and cook on low overnight.
It's cheap and so, so nice to wake up to a hot breakfast.

[kitchensqueen]

Originally Posted by Megan73 

Has anyone suggested steel-cut oats for breakfast yet? A $6 bag from the bulk store will feed my whole family (two adults, a three-year-old and a baby - we all eat it!) for two weeks.
I mix three-quarters of a cup of steel cut oats with three cups of water in a four-cup pyrex measuring jug then put it in the slow-cooker. Fill the slow cooker insert with water up to the level of water in the pyrex jug, cover, and cook on low overnight.
It's cheap and so, so nice to wake up to a hot breakfast.

For some reason I never thought of doing oatmeal in the slow cooker. I hate doing oatmeal on the stove, so I usually cheat and just buy the instant to add hot water to. But this idea, and waking up to breakfast all ready to go... you might be onto something here. With an apple and maple sugar or brown sugar and cinnamon to add, with a cup of tea... okay breakfast for tomorrow is all figured out. :-) 

[MountainMamaGC]

Pancakes and eggs for dinner is always good. Pancakes made from scratch are pretty cheap. Honey baked lentils is another really cheap dinner. Soup/stew and biscuits is good, or cornbread.

[Megan73]

Originally Posted by kitchensqueen 

For some reason I never thought of doing oatmeal in the slow cooker. I hate doing oatmeal on the stove, so I usually cheat and just buy the instant to add hot water to. But this idea, and waking up to breakfast all ready to go... you might be onto something here. With an apple and maple sugar or brown sugar and cinnamon to add, with a cup of tea... okay breakfast for tomorrow is all figured out. :-) 

I hope you liked it!
I can't take credit for the idea but it is just wonderful to wake up to a hot breakfast. The "bain marie" method is genius - I think I'll try it with my favorite arborio rice pudding, too.

[craft_media_hero]

We made it on $55/wk for groceries for a fam of 3 with prego mama for a whole summer, but we were getting garden produce, too.

I relied heavily on rice, beans, eggs, and green vegetables. Obvoiusly, crock pot beans are a great idea, and Isecond doing a whole chicken for three meals--use the carcass to make bone broth after all the meat has been stripped off.

Egg fried rice is a great cheapie. Sprouting some of the beans will increase their mass and nutrition--can throw them in with the fried rice or a stir fry.

Buy the big log of ground beef and stretch it by always adding cooked beans with the ground meat. Check out the marked down produce bags or shelves, too. Skip buying fruit except for raisins/apples as pp said. Serve rice pudding for snacks.

Definitely look int making your own bread/tortillas, you will save a bundle! If you have an asian grocery store, they are often the best place to get bulk rice and udon noodles--udon can totallysub in for spaghetti, too, my fam doesnt notice the difference.

Instead of lettuce on sammiches, use the sprouts (asian grocer prob has mung beans which are great for sprouting), and fried egg instead of meat for lunches. Peanut butter! You can make jelly with reconstituted juice or we often just slice bananas on pb sammiches--theyve gotta be the cheapest fruit.

Do you get WIC? Coz that could fill in some gaps.

Oh, and plan meals around either brown rice or a big baked russet potato--both filling, nourishing cornerstones of a meal.

We do taco-tatoes, like chili baked potatoes,you know?

Good luck, I'd love to hear more about your progress with lw cost meal planning.

[Attila the Honey]

Did anyone recommend crockpot tuna noodle casserole?  Noodles, frozen peas, 2 cans of tuna, mushrooms, and a homemade roux - super cheap.  You can add cheese but I don't find it needs it.  It's very filling and comforting.

I second egg fried rice,  put some of the peas and mushrooms aside for this dish.

We liked curried eggs on toast.  I hard boil half a dozen eggs, make a roux and add plenty of curry powder and other spices.  Slice the eggs in half and gently let them heat in the barely simmering "gravy", and serve with a side of spinach over toast.  Again, very filling and nourishing.

Buying a whole chicken is a good idea, as others have mentioned - one day for chicken and rice, the next day chicken salad or chicken casserole and the last day use the carcass to make soup.

Good luck!

[MNKplus6]

For this recipe do you add water use caned black beans?? Want to make this

[DeLois Lunsford]

One of the cheapest and easiest way to cook pintos or great northern beans is to add a can of .Rotel, 1 pkg  chili seasoning touch of salt and pepper.Cook low and slow until beans are done..

[DeLois Lunsford]

I love to take canned white beans, (Great Northern or Navy Beans), and make a salad with them. All you do is drain your beans, Add1/4 c.chopped onions. 1/4 c. diced pickles, and 1/2 c. shredded cheese. Then add enough mayo to taste! This is wonderful with your meals or by itself.