In this article I will show you a few different tips on how to stretch your Dollar Store (let’s be honest it’s the $1.25 store now) food to make better looking and better tasting meals. Using seasonings, trying different methods to cook meals, and even using your food to make another type of meal. Quite of few Dollar stores are starting to carry better ingredients, even if its small amounts, and are offering a wider selection of goods. So don’t fall back into the same old same old of boring ramen and mac and cheese. Use these helpful tips to step up your meals and enjoy Ballin’ on a Budget.
Let’s start with a shopping list. You can buy a week’s worth of groceries for under $30 that will offer a small variety of meals plus a simple dessert. So, starting with Breakfast here are some ideas of what to get and how to stretch them into different meals as well.
Any brand of Pancake mix
Multi pack of Oatmeal
Sun Best Fruit Filled Biscuits
Frozen berries of choice
These four items leave you with $23.50 for the rest of your week’s meals. The pancake mix can be used for breakfast obviously but also if mixed with less water can be used to make biscuits or dumplings for lunches and dinners. The Oatmeal can be sprinkled on top of crushed frozen berries for a cobbler style dessert. So, for 5 dollars you now have at least 3 breakfast options, a side for lunch or dinner as well as a desert option.
Now onto Lunch/Dinner, these items can be interchanged with each other throughout the entire week. Here I’ll offer up some ideas of items to purchase to make your meals as well as additions to make them different and tasty, so no one gets bored eating the same thing.
5 Pack of Ramen, Flavor of choice
Suddenly Pasta Salad (Ranch and Bacon flavor) x2 boxes
2lbs Bag of rice of choice
2 pkgs Beef Patties (freezer section)
Frozen veggies (California Mix, beans and corn, seasoning mix)
2 cans of Chicken or Tuna
All of these leave us with $9.75 to buy things like seasonings, other canned goods or even snacks/desserts. Let’s talk about what you can make with the above shopping list. The Beef patties can be chopped up to make ground beef to add to both ramen and rice. Mixing the beans/corn veggies with the rice and beef makes for a wonderful Mexican inspired lunch/dinner. One box of pasta salad and half the bag of seasoning mix can be used to instead make a soup if you leave the ranch seasoning out for another use. The other can be mixed with a can of Chicken or Tuna for a tasty lunch. Using the seasoning packet from the other box you can season the second can of Chicken and mix it with Rice or ramen and half of the California vegetables to make a delicious dinner.
!! A helpful tip, when dealing with frozen veggies – mix in a pan with oil and roast at 425 until browned. It brings out a nice toasty flavor of boring frozen veggies without letting them get mushy. !!
Now what to do with the remaining $9.75 you ask? This is where customizing with the spices comes in. As well as snacks to make it through the week. A strong spice cabinet can truly elevate any dish you make. Here are a few of my favorite seasonings you can get at almost any Dollar Store
Badia Complete Seasoning or Soul Food seasoning
Creole Foods Creole seasoning
Any Salt free seasoning (Many dollar store foods have a high salt content so this seasoning can be very helpful to add flavor without the added sodium)
Garlic Pepper seasoning or Steakhouse seasoning
Really any seasoning that offers more than just one flavor is going to help pull any boring dinner to a new level. Condiments can do the same as many of us know. A Good hot sauce or BBQ sauce can add another layer of flavor to any thing you make.
Now let’s say you buy 4 items from the above that leaves you with $4.75 to buy any snack or additional food source to get through your week. The next edition of Ballin’ on a Budget I’ll walk you through a couple step by step recipes to show how to make some awesome Dollar Store Dinners.
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