Return to the Once-a-Week Cooking Forum | Post a Follow-Up

 o
Help! I Have a large family and I can't fill them up!

Posted by
Loni
(frozntoz21@hotmail.com) on
Wed, Jul 18, 01 at 0:37

I hAVE A LARGE FAMILY, I can't keep up with the groceries!
I have resorted to making sure there is ample potatoes, noodles, or rice atr every meal. To no avail my skinny starving teens sneek up at night and polish off any leftovers. I save all my gravies and meat drippings so I can make soup when I run out of everything. I need some really hearty stick to your ribs kinds of meals any ideas?
I read one string that said a gal had 20 lbs of hamberger and was making freezer meals ahead? Pleas point me in the right direction for those recipies. Or any other recipies with chicken.
Thanks


Follow-Up Postings:

 o
RE: Help! I Have a large family and I can't fill them up!

Loni check out this earlier thread....

Here is a link that might be useful: Favorites


 o
RE: Help! I Have a large family and I can't fill them up!

I have a lot of empathy for your situation. I've been there and I don't miss the hole in my wallet. My boys used to raid the fridge in the middle of the night and clean me out. I finally started freezing pancakes, biscuits, bean burros, cooked burger patties, and fruit turnovers. They are now 24 thru 30 now and still skinny as brooms. They don't eat like horses any more.

What I finally figured our was that I couldn't keep them full because they really needed the calories during those growing years from about 13 to 17. You can't fill teenagers up at dinner no matter what you serve--they really are hungry an hour later. Okay a half-hour later.
When I froze pancakes, I made them from scratch and put all sorts of stuff in like oatmeal, cornmeal, wholewheat flour. The point was to make them heavy and filling. They would microwave them and eat with butter and jam or syrup.
They'd eat biscuits and gravy. I made gravy and froze it in margarine tubs. Good luck.


 o
RE: Help! I Have a large family and I can't fill them up!

Loni
Here are some cooking ideas. Recipes are easy to get on the internet.
Chicken and dumplings
Chicken and stuffing
Add oats to your meat loaf instead of bread or cracker it will be more filling
Chicken pot pie
Hope these help.
lolart


 o
RE: Help! I Have a large family and I can't fill them up!

We don't have a large family (yet), but we recently catered our own wedding, with 70 people, so I learned a few things! The smartest thing we did, was to shop at a wholesale, discount place. We went to Costco's (others: "BJ's" and "Sam's"). I noticed a lot of people with large families there. Not only is it cheaper, but the large sizes really inspire you to do batch-cooking.

Here was one recipe we loved, which freezes well, is easy to reheat, and was well tailored to the portions at Costco...Quesadillas (similar to fajitas):
1 large bag of grated cheese (about 5 lbs for $11!)
20-30 tortillas
any combo of pre-cooked veggies or meat

We went vegetarian, using onions, mushrooms and peppers--but try spinach, zucchini, chicken, anything that's on sale! Even just plain cheese works. Fill the tortillas with the stuff. Fold them in half (omelette-style). Then, stack them and put them in a bag and freeze (I put saran wrap between each one to keep them from sticking together, but it may not have been necessary). To cook, just grill, fry, or toaster-oven them (I like to thaw them, then toaster-oven for 10-15 minutes). Microwave probably works too. We bought a big-sized container of salsa to go with it, and some sour cream.

These are soooooo yummy, I promise your kids will love them.
Total servings: 20-30
Total cost (at Costco's): $20-$30, including veggies & salsa


 o Post a Follow-Up

Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum.

    If you are a member, please log in.

    If you aren't yet a member, join now!


Return to the Once-a-Week Cooking Forum

Instructions

  • You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
  • Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
  • After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
  • It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
  • HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
  • No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
  • If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
  • If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.



 
Click here to learn more about in-text links on this page.