Best & Cheapest Cooking Tips

[ShesCheep]

My most favorite cooking tip/secret is for getting the fat calories out of hamburger meat. This only works if you are going to crumble and brown it off for things like spaghetti, tacos, sloppy joes, Hamburger Helper, etc.

After browning your meat, drain it by pouring it into a colander. While the hamburger meat is in the colander, rinse it well with hot water. This does not change the taste of the meat (you add water and sauce to it most of the time anyway) and takes almost all the fat grams out. You can then use it as you normally would.

I no longer have the actual figures, but a couple of years ago I wrote a few nutrionalists asking about this. The general opinion was that you cut X amount of fat and fat calories when you drain your hamburger meat. And when you rinse it, you further cut it an average of 5 fat calories PER SERVING, losing nothing you need. (Opinions ranged from 4-6 fat calories per serving, serving size 1/4 or 1/5 pound.) It also allows you to buy the cheaper packs of hamburgers instead of the more expensive lean ones - which helps save money.

My other favorite cooking tip is a cheap side dish. My family is picky - not bad picky, but picky in different areas. This makes it hard to come up with side dishes at times. But one Sunday morning I wanted hash brown potatoes with breakfast and nobody wanted to run to the store. I had a bag of those skinny "shoe-string" frozen french fries in my freezer and decided to use those to make hash browns. I melted a little margarine in my pan and emptied the bag. I seasoned with a variety of things (dried chopped onions, dried parsley, seasoned salt, etc. - I get my seasonings at the Dollar Store - they cost just $.50 a bottle and they are good.) I cooked them on the low side of medium heat while using my spatula to "chop" the fries into smaller pieces. Once done, you can turn up the heat to get a crispy browned surface. My family LOVED them and asks me to cook them all the time. My husband loves them so much that he often oversees the "seasoning" of them, and we eat them with supper a LOT more than with breakfast. The cost of store brand shoe string fries is usually about $.33-$.34 per bag and makes 4 large servings when served like this.

I'd love to hear of other tips and secrets like this. What's your favorite?

[ShesCheep]

On my above post..... by rinsing the hamburger meat - you get rid of an additional 5 fat GRAMS - NOT fat calories. A fat gram equals something like 20-30 calories. So by saving 5 fat grams, you save 100 or so calories per serving - instead of 5 calories per serving which is what I actually typed. Just wanted to clarify that! <G>

[kmarr]

Another cheap cooking trick is to replace 1/4 to 1/2 the hamburg in a recipe with grated zucchini. Most of the time you cannot even tell. This works best in casseroles. I freeze zucchini in the summer when you have so much of it. i just grate it and freeze. I can make bread with it, use it in soup or add to casseroles. Really makes food go a long way and is good for you to boot.

[TeresaD90]

I love the zucchini/hamburger trick. With hamburger here going for $1.69 a pound for the cheap, greasy stuff, this could come in really handy. I've started buying ground turkey at Aldi's for $.50 a pound. My son now loves turkey burgers, "turkey helper", and turkey spaghetti. We use it in almost everything, and mix it with the real stuff for meat loaf.

[sweetcindy]

I thought I was the only person who did this!! LOL My Mom looks at me strange....oh you are rinsing the vitamins off...LOL
I think a fat gram has 9 calories? So, it would be 45 calories per serving which is still a great deal! Thank you for sharing this!

Cindy

[bethie_alane]

Originally posted by sweetcindy
I thought I was the only person who did this!! LOL My Mom looks at me strange....oh you are rinsing the vitamins off...LOL
I think a fat gram has 9 calories? So, it would be 45 calories per serving which is still a great deal! Thank you for sharing this!

Cindy

yesh, fat gram = 9 calories

[tkkmasky]

I have been cooking for a long time, and never thought of or heard of rinsing the meat, what a great idea. Thanks!

[cata5]

My grocery store used to have some deals on excess inventory of fresh produce. Don't see it much anymore tho. I used to buy ripe bananas in a bag for a fraction of the price $1/bag Also could get green peppers packed into a bag for $1. I would make banana bread or freeze the peeled bananas and add them to milk and sugar in the blender for a healthy drink my kids loved. Green peppers are great stuffed with rice or freeze them whole or chopped and use in casseroles or other cooked dishes.

[hootieman]

I use ground turkey instead of ground beef. You can buy the one pound rolls of Louis Rich for 99 cents at HEB. If you season it right, nobody really cares. I make meatloaf with it all the time. To 1.5 pounds of the turkey add chopped onion, bell pepper, salt, black pepper, cummin, a can of tomato sauce, and enough water to make it juicy but not runny. Shape into a loaf and bake at 325 F for 90 minutes. It makes its own gravy and you can serve it over rice or potatos. If they are on sale, I had mushrooms to the loaf. serves 4 to 6
If you dont want to heat the house, brown the meat with onion and bell pepper. Add salt and spices. Serve over rice or potatos.
Love that ground turkey. You'd be surprised how good it tastes and smells if you cook it right. I warm my lunch in break room and they run in to see what I have. One guy thought I had made dirty rice and he started to drool.