Burgers You’ll Love

As a couple, we face a particular dilemma. I eat enough food for two people, three if we are having crepes. We face a dilemma of making an inexpensive meal for four, because when we make dinner we try to cook enough to have some left over for Jamie Lee to take to work for lunch. So we need enough food for three people at dinner time (I count as two, don’t forget) plus one portion for the next day.

With these issues in mind, it is rather difficult to make a meal for under ten dollars. I tried eating less, but found I was spending more on cereal to eat before I went to bed, which defeated the purpose of trying to save money. We’re still thinking of ways to solve the problem, but one solution that we have come across involves using what we have in combination with some fresh items that we buy. This is a nice idea, because it allows us to be inventive about our meals without breaking the bank, as I am tempted to do every time I go to the grocery store. It’s a fun challenge and a nice diversion when we’re bored at work to think of what we can make with the stuff in our fridge or freezer. Combining what we have with fresh ingredients makes us avoid feeling like we are eating leftovers, which I HATE. I know it’s thrifty to eat leftovers, but come on. I feel like I’m eating garbage and nothing I do can get me past that.

Example! We had a large dinner party with a pasta dish as the main entrée. This dish had meatballs, but we did not use all the meat. Instead, we had about a half pound each of ground turkey and ground beef in the freezer. It had been in there for a while, but thanks to Ziploc, the meat was still in really good shape.

We added some shredded cheese from a few nights back when we made tacos to make some really good burgers.

What’s nice about this recipe is how surprisingly good the burgers were – they were very different from pure turkey or beef burgers. Turkey burgers are generally bone dry, especially on the grill, and beef burgers taste good (of course) but red meat is not the best thing for you. So this little combination gave us less red meat with all the moisture of red meat. These paired with homemade oven bakes fries made for a delicious dinner!

Looking for more tips on cooking for less? Try here!