If you’re on a tight budget, trying to live simply, or if you’re just frugal by nature, I’m sure you have bemoaned the cost of feeding a family these days. In past blog posts I have talked about food you can regrow from scraps, and saving money with coupons. Today I want to add to that food budget saving toolkit by sharing with you all some of my favorite cheap meals that you and your family will love.

*Make your own chicken stock for FREE: This isn’t a meal, I know, but chicken stock is the foundation for a ton of recipes, and it’s kind of expensive. A few years ago I learned how easy it is to make it yourself and I have been doing it ever since; I call it “liquid gold.” When your family eats chicken, hold on to those bones! Same goes for veggies that are not so fresh, but not actually rotten (I keep 2 large zipper bags in my freezer). As an added bonus, you can control the sodium in your stock and it’s free of preservatives and artificial ingredients!

Chicken Stock:
– Roughly three chickens worth of bones
– Assortment of vegetables (fair warning: broccoli doesn’t smell good when it’s cooking away for hours, and your house will stink for days, so think twice about including broccoli)
– Salt
– Water

In a large stock pot, combine the bones, vegetables, and a generous sprinkling of salt. Add enough water to cover everything, and simmer, covered, for about 4 hours. After four hours, allow the stock to cool and then remove the solids. Pour through a fine strainer into 3 cup containers, and freeze until ready to use.

*Rice and Beans: Last fall my church accepted a challenge from Venture Expeditions to spend an entire week eating rice and beans for our evening meal. I was amazed by how much money I saved. We still had our normal breakfasts and lunches, but dinners of rice and beans lowered my grocery bill by $60 that week. Since then, we have continued to include Rice and Beans in our regular dinner rotation. Here are two favorite recipes I found during Hope For Dinner:

Cheesy Rice and Beans from The Cheese Pusher

Best-Ever Black Bean Soup with Cilantro Lime Rice from Iowa Girl Eats:
-1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
-1/2 small onion, minced
-2 garlic cloves
-2 teaspoons chili powder
-1/4 teaspoon cumin
-2 cans seasoned black beans, drained but not rinsed
-1-1/2 cups water
-1 cup chicken broth
-4-5 dashes green Tabasco sauce

Toppings: sliced avocado, salsa, sour cream, cilantro

For the Cilantro-Lime Rice:
-1 cup long grain white rice
-2 cups water
-1 Tablespoon canola or vegetable oil (I used olive oil, it’s the only one I keep around)
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-juice of 1/2 lime
-3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro (my fam isn’t into cilantro, so I kept this on the side)

Directions: Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, then sauté until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 30 more seconds, stirring constantly. Add chili powder and cumin then sauté for 30 more seconds.

Add drained beans, water, and chicken broth, bring soup to a boil, then lower heat slightly and simmer for 15 minutes. Scoop 2 ladle-fulls of soup into a blender or food processor then blend until almost smooth. Alternatively use a hand-held immersion blender to process 1/3 of the beans in the soup pot. Add blended soup back into the pot then add hot sauce and stir to combine.

For the Chipotle-Lime Rice: While soup is simmering, bring water, oil, and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Add rice, place a lid on top, then turn heat down to medium-low and simmer until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Stir to fluff then add lime juice and chopped cilantro.

To serve, scoop cooked rice into bottom of bowls then top with hot soup. Top with sliced avocado, salsa, sour cream, etc.

*Cauliflower “alfredo”: Pasta is an inexpensive meal, but pasta sauces aren’t healthy, and they can be kind of expensive. This “alfredo” sauce made from cauliflower is healthy and so, so delicious:

Creamy Cauliflower Sauce from Pinch of Yum (bonus other dishes with this sauce on the blog post) – size adjusted my me:
-4 large cloves garlic, minced
-2 tablespoons butter
-1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
-3 cups chicken stock
-1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
-½ teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
-½ cup milk (more to taste)

Directions:
Sauté the minced garlic with the butter in a large nonstick skillet over low heat. Cook for several minutes until the garlic is soft and fragrant but not browned (browned or burnt garlic will taste bitter). Remove from heat and set aside.

Cauliflower: Bring the water or vegetable broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the cauliflower and cook, covered, for 7-10 minutes or until cauliflower is fork tender. Do not drain.

Puree: Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cauliflower pieces to the blender. Add 1 cup vegetable broth or cooking liquid, sautéed garlic/butter, salt, pepper, and milk. Blend or puree for several minutes until the sauce is very smooth, adding more broth or milk depending on how thick you want the sauce. You may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Serve hot! If the sauce starts to look dry, add a few drops of water, milk, or olive oil.

*Goulash and Briar Patch Bake: These aren’t particularly healthy, but sometimes you just need a quick, easy dinner that’s cheap!

Goulash (don’t shoot me! I know this isn’t REALLY goulash, that’s just what we called it growing up)
-2 cups elbow macaroni
– ½ pound ground beef, browned (if you have a larger family, use a whole pound. As is this will serve 3-4 adults)
-1 can of concentrated tomato soup

Boil the macaroni until tender. Combine the pasta, beef, and soup concentrate (do not add water or milk). Stir together over low heat until heated through. Top with cheddar cheese.

Briar Patch Bake:
-2 boxes of macaroni and cheese, made according to package directions
– ½ pound ground beef (again, you can make this with a whole pound if you want it meatier or have a bigger family to feed)
-1 cup barbecue sauce
-1/2 of a medium onion, chopped

Cook mac and cheese according to package directions. While it’s cooking, brown the meat with the onion until the onion is tender and no pink remains in the meat. Add the barbecue sauce to the meat. In a greased casserole dish, layer ½ of the mac and cheese, ½ of the meat mixture, the other half of the pasta, and the other half of the meat (the meat mixture should be on top because the pasta will dry out in the oven without it). Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Bon Appetit! And be sure to share your favs in the comments!

During the month of June, I’ve been exploring the issues of foster care and adoption in a series I call Open Homes: Foster Care and Adoption. If you haven’t read the other posts, here are the links:
– Week one: What is the Need? – This post talks about the statistics relating to foster care in America and orphans around the world.
– Week two: Meet the Panel – In this post I introduce you to the panel of foster and adoptive parents who are lending me their expertise, and I share a few of the recurring themes of their experiences.
– Week three: The Hunger Connection

My friend Sarah has five kids. Does that sound crazy to you? If so, then it is. If not, then it’s not. Crazy is relative. I just have one kid, so five sounds like a nuthouse. But others thrive with large families. To each his own. But I digress…

Sarah and her husband built their family in the unconventional way of combining foster care that turned into adoption with the old fashioned bio kid method. The result is a big, beautiful, fun family. Recently I was talking to Sarah about this series of blog posts, and she said something really deep. Sarah told me that if a child has spent any time in the foster system, he or she has food issues. Not maybe. Certainly. It’s just a matter of which issues and how bad.

This lines up with the answers I got from the panel of foster and adoptive parents. Brenda and Kory adopted an infant and report only that he is a typical, occasionally picky kid. But parents who foster or who have adopted kids over two unanimously report issues like hiding food, sneaking food, obsessing about portion equality, and overeating.

Last week I told you that the foster and adoptive parents wish we all understood that these kids aren’t “lucky.” They suffered tremendously, and although they may have ended in a good place, they had to struggle and suffer to get there. Their struggles and suffering have long-term impacts on their physical and psychological health, and their relationship with food.

Alicia and Brian’s foster daughter, at age 6 and younger, was responsible for caring for her infant brother. She didn’t play, and she wasn’t lighthearted like a little one should be. She was responsible and worried. And because he was being raised by a kindergartener, little brother was malnourished from weak bottles and hadn’t been introduced to solids. Rachel and Jim’s adopted son had a similar experience. His birth mom didn’t or couldn’t provide him with adequate nutrition as an infant. Many kids who start out undernourished never recover. These boys’ needs are being met now, and they are recovering some of the stunted development that they faced as a result of malnutrition. And Alicia and Brian’s daughter has learned over time to let them care for her little brother; now she laughs and plays with other kids.

Older kids in the foster system or those adopted from foster care or foreign orphanages commonly have a deep fear that there will not be enough food. This causes kids to overeat, sneak food, or hide stashes of food.  Likewise, introducing healthy food to kids who are used to scrounging for junk is a challenge. Nutrition is vital in overcoming stunted physical and mental development, but the psychological scars of scarcity cause the kids to fight the very thing they should be embracing.  It takes patience and time for foster and adoptive parents to convince their kids to try unfamiliar nutritious foods, eat healthy portions, and trust that the next meal will be there for them.

International adoptions present a different challenge – culture shock. Imagine a child growing up in an Asian orphanage. His diet probably includes a lot of rice and fish. American pizza, burgers, pasta, etc. are all new and strange. America kids only love mac & cheese and chicken nuggets because it’s their normal (remember, normal and crazy are relative. I knew I could tie that in somewhere…). Kids coming from other countries have a different normal, and the adjustment to a new diet often comes with resistance and even stomach upset.

So what can we take from this? First, I hope that what I’ve shared will help us all have more patience and grace with foster and adoptive kids. They’re often picky, sneaky, and unhealthy because they don’t have the skills to overcome it. Recovering from years of malnutrition and scarcity is a long slow process. Be patient with foster and adoptive parents. We know how hard it is to get a typical American biological kid to accept healthy food, and the challenge is that much greater when the kid’s past taught him to stuff himself with junk when he can because tomorrow there might not be food. So withhold judgment and be a patient, encouraging friend. Things will get better over time and with patient, loving support and consistent provision.

As I have every week this month, I urge you to pray for the foster and orphan children around the world, and for the adults who foster and adopt them. Kids don’t deserve to be hungry or neglected, they deserve to be loved and fed and have every opportunity to grow up healthy and strong. And if you have thoughts on this topic or questions for the foster and adoption panel, leave a comment!

Welcome to the second part in our month-long look at Foster Care and Adoption.

In part one I talked about the need for foster parents and adoption using statistics about the American foster system and the global orphan issues. – Click here to get caught up – Part One

This is part two – Meet the Panel – I will introduce you to the experienced foster and adoptive parents who are helping with these posts, and share with you some of the common threads that ran through their responses when I asked them about foster care and/or adoption.

Meet the Panel:

Adam and Gena, California. Three biological kids ranging from 6-14, and one three-year-old adopted from China.

Josh and Natalie, South Carolina.Three biological kids ranging from 8-4. Foster parents for nine months with two placements during that time.

Kory and Brenda, Florida. Kory has three biological adult children and together they have one teenager through domestic open adoption.

Brian and Alicia, Minnesota. Five biological kids ranging from 26-16, helping to raise their granddaughter, and foster parents to two kids, ages 8 and 2 whom they have had for 18 months. This is their first foster placement and they are planning to adopt the kids.

Jim and Rachel, Florida. Three teenage biological kids and an adopted four year old. The adoption is open and they also get to spend some time with their son’s biological brother.

Kelly and Channin, Minnesota. Two biological kids, ages 9 and 10. They have been fostering children for about two years and have had four kids placed with them during that time.

For the sake of their privacy and security, that’s all the information I’m going to give you about the families. I know that their biological, foster, and adopted kids’ safety is their top priority, and I want to honor that. If you have questions about foster care or adoption for these six couples, please post them in the comments, or on the Food Shelf Friday Facebook page. I’ll contact the panel and post answers in the coming weeks.

I noticed that a couple of thoughts came up over and over when I asked them about their experiences:

– The children in their homes are not “lucky” to be with them. Foster care and adoption are birthed from tragedy. These kids had to go through terrible struggles, scarcity, and even abandonment to get to this place. They may be in a good place now and thankful for it, but they generally don’t feel fortunate to have gone through so much just to get the same wonderful family other kids are born with.

– The parents see themselves as the lucky ones. This is no different from how biological parents feel. As a mom I have looked at my son and just marveled at him and the fact that he belongs to me. Foster and adoptive parents love their kids just as fiercely as bio parents. From Alicia, “The kids are the blessing! The kids are so much a joy to watch grow and bloom. Our daughter has gone from a little adult – so quiet, reserved, and polite – and burdened with the care of her siblings – to an 8 year old who runs, plays, whines and plays with her siblings! She even slammed a door not too long ago! She is acting like an 8 year old and her baby brother is a pest, not her responsibility to feed, comfort and care for.”

– Sometimes people say dumb things. That’s just how it is. Sometimes that person is me. Foster and adoptive families hear some pretty insensitive things. So when you’re trying to be supportive and caring, just run your words through your head first. These men and women and their other children make tremendous sacrifices. They’re not in it for the money, in fact they generally lose rather than gain financially. They don’t foster as a means of shopping for a child to adopt. They don’t think of themselves as perfect people who take on another child because they have some kind of expertise. In fact, the best description I can think of for parents who foster and adopt is simply, WILLING. As Natalie said, “We aren’t “great people” for doing this, we are just meeting a need because we have an extra bed. There is not this ideal family situation that makes the “perfect” foster home.”

As previously mentioned, if you have questions on foster care or adoption, leave a comment here or on the Food Shelf Friday Facebook page, and I’ll ask the panel to address it. Remember to keep praying for the orphans and foster kids in this world who need loving homes, and the foster and adoptive parents trying to provide that.