TODAY Food Club

Tip For Cooking on a Budget

Ahh, the B word... Budget. While its not always the favorite topic within a family, it is something that most of us have to think about on a daily or weekly basis. Keeping our family on a budget when shopping and cooking for the week. Its not always easy and some times the budget is a tighter than others, but its part of everyday life and so looking for creative solutions for your food to go the extra mile is always a good thing.

I am by no means and expert, an there are definitely experts out there on coupons and other discount driven ways to safe money, but my tip is a great one and is not that complicated. In fact, this is something I remember my Mom doing for my family when I was little. My #1 top tip to making my family's food go the extra mile is VEGETABLES! Yep, vegetables!

For my family, because we are not vegetarians, the meat is what cost us the most each week at the grocery store. In order to stretch my family's money a little more, I started getting creative with those lovely vegetables that for the most part cost much less then the meats and fish.

What we know about vegetables

• They are healthy - no brainer right?
• They cost less - in most cases
• They create volume

Volume is key when feeding a family. As a Mom we want to make sure we're not only making delicious healthy meals for our family, but that we're making enough food to fill them up.

To show you what I mean, I thought I'd share with you one of my family dinner staples our Made with HAPPY Family Tacos. Here's how we make them.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 medium zucchini
• 3 button mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons taco seasoning
• 1-2 tablespoons water
• corn tortillas
• 1 tomato diced
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1 cup salsa
• lime wedges for garnish

Directions:

On medium heat, in a skillet, brown the ground beef and remove excess grease. Keeping the brown beef in the skillet, add the chopped zucchini and mushrooms along with taco seasoning and tablespoons water. Once zucchini becomes tender, remove from heat and serve.This delicious recipe yields 12 fulfilling tacos. A few of our favorite vegetables that taste just as great in our tacos depending on the season or what we have in our refrigerator include:

• Squash (zucchini, butternut, spaghetti, acorn, etc.)
• Mushrooms
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Sweet Potatos
• Corn
• Peppers
• Brocolli

This is of course just one of many meals that taste just as great with added vegetables volume and decreased meat. Some of our other favorites are chilis, soups, omelets, and pasta dishes.

Try it out this next week and if your family is anything like mine, many of these changes will become the norm and they will not even know they are missing anything.