Thriftism

While rhubarb recipes are traditionally sweet or revolving around dessert, we decided to try taking rhubarb into the savory realm. Rhubarb adds a fun flavor to this healthy soup that can easily be made into a vegan meal (just switch vegetable stock for chicken stock). It is quick and easy to make and incredibly affordable, especially if you have any home grown garden produce. Scroll down for a printable recipe. Steps: Put all ingredients minus spices into stock pot. Simmer for 15 minutes.  Add spices. Simmer additional 5-10 minutes. Eat and Enjoy! Embed

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Colder weather has arrived as have an abundance of school and work activities. The extra to-dos that come with fall make cooking a healthy and still budget meal much more challenging. Enter the crock pot or slow cooker. Slow cook meals can be both a time and wallet saver, not to mention the benefit of having home cooked meals most nights. Slow cookers allow you to set and forget and can work around everyone in the family's schedules. Scroll to the bottom for a printable recipe. What you'll need 1.5 Cup Rice 6 Cup Broccoli (Chopped) 1 Medium Onion 1 Can Cream Soup (Mushroom, Chicken, Celery, Your choice) 1.5 Cup Milk 3 Tbsp Margarine 3 Cups + soup can Water 1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese (your choice of flavor - cheddar, colby jack, mozzarella) 6 Qt Slow Cooker Start by combining the ingredients except the shredded cheese in a 6 qt slow cooker. Cook on high for 3-4 hours.  Add cheese and continue cooking until melted.  Printable to lett...

Healthy, high protein meals seem to come at a premium. Protein is likely the most expensive portion of your meal and your grocery budget. Don't let this drive your grocery spending through the roof or let this prevent you from enjoying a high protein and healthy meal. Lentils are a wonderful alternative to meat as a source of protein and provide a plethora of additional benefits. Think high fiber, high in nutrients, and very affordable. We decided to capitalize on the cost savings of lentils by created a meal with lentils as the main focus. This lentil casserole is simple to make, is very fulfilling, and tastes great without costing a fortune. It is also a bit of a variation from the typical rice and beans meals people generally revert to when trying to save money. What You'll Need 1.5 Cup Water 2 Cup Lentils 1 Large Onion 1 Lb Carrots 2 Cloves Garlic 2 Cans (14.5oz) Diced Tomatoes 1 tsp Cumin 8 oz Shredded Cheese Prehea...

Falafel is a wonderful middle eastern recipe that offers bold flavors and class while providing a budget friendly alternative to meat. We combined our falafel in place of the chicken in our Halal Cart style Chicken and Rice. See Recipe here or watch the video below. We also switched out frying the falafel to cooking in the air fryer to cut out the greasiness and make the recipe even easier to make. Ingredients 2 Cup Chickpeas (Aldi) 2 Cup Onions (Aldi) 4 Cloves Garlic (Sams Club) 2 Tbsp Cilantro (Home Grown) 2 Tbsp Parsley (Aldi) 1 tsp Salt (Sams Club) 2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper 1 tsp Cumin 1 tsp Baking Powder 3 Tbsp Flour  CONNECT WITH US! FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thriftism/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Thriftism Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thriftism_lifestyle/ How to Make Begin by rinsing your dried chickpeas/garbanzo beans before combining with your onion in a food processor or blender. Process until finely chopped, but not puree...

Fall is here and with it comes an abundance of squash. Its all over the stores and if you've grown squash, you probably have quite the stockpile now. Today we are specifically looking at spaghetti squash. This one is a bit different than other winter squashes such as butternut or acorn in that, like the name suggests, it is stringy. There are almost endless recipes for spaghetti squash, but for all of them you will need a cooked spaghetti squash. You can either bake it or microwave it. This post will cover how to bake your spaghetti squash. What you'll need Spaghetti squash Olive oil Knife Baking sheet Tin foil (Optional) Spoon Begin by using a butchers knife to slice the stem off the squash. Continue by cutting your squash in half. Preheat oven to 350. Next you will want to scrape all the seeds and pulp out of the center. Be sure to save the seeds as roasted squash seeds make an excellent snack or if you plan on growing squash again next spring. See our pos...

 Bean Burgers that Taste Like the Real Thing   <$0.30/serving With all the nice, or at least not freezing, weather we have been having lately, I start to get my summer cravings. In the winter it tends to be soup, chili, anything hot… Spring and summer veer more towards fruit, steak, salads, and one of my favorites- burgers. I absolutely love homemade hamburgers. However, these are not very cost friendly right now. The cheapest hamburger I could find was $4/lb which can easily turn your meal budget upside-down. So I started exploring for some option to get my burger fix without blowing the budget and guess what, beans are super cheap. Beans and rice seem to fit into many of my solutions, but they really work. I was able to make these burgers for less than $0.30/burger, buns and lettuce included! Anyway, these bean burgers actually taste and have consistency similar to a real burger. I won't tell you they are exactly the same, because I don't think that is...

Spring has sprung and it's time to be thinking about beginning your garden. A garden is a great way to save money. Vegetables are not cheap at the store and fresh vegetables, the ones that taste way better, are even more expensive. This isn't even taking into account if you want organic produce, but creating your own organic vegetables isn't too hard. Besides saving money, have a garden also encourages healthier eating by providing loads of vegetables (and fruits if you plant them). Believe me, you're more likely to eat the vegetables if you already have them and you know that you'll just throw them away otherwise. Finally, gardening is a great hobby to have. It's the perfect excuse to get outside and enjoy the summer rather than getting caught up on inside work.  You'll get lots of fresh air and get out of the nightly habit of watching TV or other sedentary activities. If you're really not into vegetables, try having a flower garden. Having a ya...

Using up the last of the squash from this fall? Don't let anything go to waste. There are countless recipes requiring squash, whether it be butternut or spaghetti, but what do you do with all that goop you pull out? Well, I guess I throw away the actual "goop", but I make sure to pull the seeds out first. Baked squash seeds have become one of my favorite snacks. Not only do they use something that would normally get thrown out making them essentially free, they also are quite healthy.  Squash seeds are high in protein (up to 12g/cup) and have more fiber than other protein options. They also have loads of other beneficial vitamins without killing your calorie goals for the day. The last reason I love them is that they are rather easy to make and travel well. I have used seeds from just about every type of squash and the only thing I change is the baking time (less for smaller seeds). Now that you know they are great, how do we make them? I cut my squash in hal...

Canned Beans Vs. Bagged (Dry) Beans Canned beans are convenient. They are already cooked and waiting to be used. However, they also are quite a bit more expensive and having soaring levels of sodium. You can cut down on the sodium by rinsing the canned beans, but why go through this effort when you can buy cheaper beans that have no added sodium. Dry beans are between $1-$2/pound at a typical grocery store, and can be as low as $0.55 when buying in bulk at a store like Sam's Club. While the grocery store cost might seem more expensive than the $0.70/can you can spend for ready to eat beans, but the quantities are hugely different. 1 can of beans gives you less than two cups of beans. One pound of dried beans gives you about 6 cups cooked. That means by buying dried beans you could be saving a minimum of $0.50/bag compared to buying cans. Depending on the type of bean, lentil, etc. you are buying this amount can increase quite a bit. It may not seem like much...

Hello All, I received a hobby grain mill for my birthday recently and got to test it out this last weekend. This post will hopefully be one of many as I experiment with grinding my own grain flour. With any luck you will be able to pick up a few pointers and benefiting from this healthy option.         Grain Mill with Rice THE MILL:Obviously the most important piece of equipment in this operation, and subsequently will have the most influence on the quality of your grain flour. A grain mill can range in price from tens to hundreds of dollars, be hand/human powered or even equipped with an electric motor. My grain mill is one of the cheaper models made and can be found on Ebay for around $25 - $30. Unless you already have experience with grinding your own grain flour or wish to use the flour on a commercial level, I would strongly recommend you purchase the cheapest cast iron hand powered mill available. A fe...