Document Actions
Melissa Hilliard's Recipes
Melissa and Randy Hilliard both work, but they rely on food assistance to make ends meet. Over the years, Melissa has learned to be creative in how she prepares inexpensive or donated food to make it last longer and provide the maximum nutrition. She shares some of her most successful recipes here.
Mashed potato and Hot dog casserole
1 entire pack of hot dogs cut into bite size pieces
3 cups instant mashed potatoes cooked according to package
1 can peas
1/4 cup cheese
Mix potatoes, hot dogs and peas in casserole dish, top with cheese and bake 30 minutes at 350. Feeds a family of five two meals.
AU GRATIN POTATOES
Take 1 box instant au gratin style potatoes cook according to package. Add 1/2 pack of sliced lunch meat while cooking, mix in canned veggie of choice. This makes one supper or two lunches.
Bread
I use a sourdough starter recipe I got off the internet and make bread for the price of a bag of flour as opposed to buying store-bought bread. One bag of flour usually makes three large loafs (or more depending on the humidity).
Homemade Helper style meals
Use 1/4 pound ground beef with any box of macaroni or potato product to get a quick, inexpensive meal. One of our favorites is macaroni, ground beef, taco seasoning and 1/4 cup sour cream. I top it with some fresh veggies to make it last a few more bites and get some better nutrition into the kids.
OTHER TIPS
Another really good tip is to ask the grocer when they mark down meat prices. Most places will mark down meat that is going out of date. It is perfectly good to take home and cook up for meals and freeze, but you need to cook it that day or you lose it. Once cooked it will stay good in the freezer up to two months.
Also buy real butter. It is more expensive, but it has more flavor, so you can use up to half less than what recipes call for and get more use out of it, therefore saving money.
