Frugal Cooking or Why I Hate Mac & Cheese

 I was raised poor. My parents were divorced and my mother blew the child support on I have no idea. I remember my clothes were from a flea market and the blouses were either old lady style button up or the biker shredded tees with pictures of wolves on them. When my shoes got to small my grandfather would cut off the toes and I'd only get a new pair when my foot got too wide for the shoe regardless of how far my toes stuck out the front.

Food was probably the worse things about my childhood (except for the abuse, another story). My mom could not cook, or at least cook well. A poor man's tuna casserole is mac & cheese (powdered kind) with a can of tuna added and a can of peas. My mother would make mac & cheese several nights a week, sausage and peas, hamburger and peas, plain, substituting ranch dressing because we had no milk, mayo when we had no butter. She'd make spaghetti, never with meat, but her "sauce" was tomato paste, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, sugar and oregano. To this day I cannot stand spaghetti. Then she would make salmon patties and green beans. Every meal was served with a slice of white bread and butter (when we had butter.) During the summer my dad would grill, pork steaks, brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, and put it in a big pot. My mother would take the gallon jug of Mall's and added chopped onion, chopped green pepper, a can of Busch beer and simmer the grilled meat in it. We would eat the BBQ, three meals a day until it was gone.

I remember that one time the only food in the house was a bag of oranges and a loaf of beer bread. My mther would get what she called "commodities." It was two loaves of bread, a block of butter, a no. 10 can of peanut butter, a box of saltine crackers, some canned veggies, a can of mackeral, at least six boxes of off-brand powered mac & cheese. We would eat mac & cheese at least 3 or 4 times a week (with some vegetable mixed in, usually peas or canned mixed veggies). We would eat peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly) until the bread ran out, and then eat it on the saltines until they ran out, and then just out of the can with a spoon. My parents never gave me lunch money, and apparently my father made too much money for free or reduced lunches, so I remember trying to pack a meal of something from home. One day, it was bread with ketchup, I joked about how I had forgotten to add the meat and cheese.

So now having mentioned all that, I do have some meals I consider to be good frugal eating. Chili, crockpot lasagna, decontrusted cabbage rolls. The idea is these are large dishes and can be frozen, reheated and make great leftovers.

I'm still poor, but one this is for sure, I do not make powdered mac & cheese.