My favorite nutritious inexpensive dish is lumpiang hubad – saute garlic, onions, ground pork, dried shrimp (hibe), with sliced baguio beans, julienned carrots, diced kamote, diced tofu and togue. Serve with fresh wansoy, garlic and ground peanuts with sweet brown sauce.

i read sometime ago that is because with the smaller tanks you leave behind some residual gas when the tank is supposed to be empty. the more frequently you change tanks, the more residual gas you waste your money on

we buy GROUND CHICKEN instead of Ground beef or pork (it yoyo’s from Php135-150 per kilo whereas the cheapest ground pork is @Php 170! ground beef, mas mahal pa). Magnolia has ground chicken all the time in the wet market section of your grocery.

it’s so versatile you can use it to replace any ground pork/beef dish you usually cook. like ampalaya guisado with egg, ground chicken with some pork cube (or broth, if you want to mimic the pork taste)is good and it’s leaner and healthier! we use it also for tortang talong, adobong kangkong etc.

For those interested,just google “squarefootgardening”. I fully recommend it!

Here is a really MATIPID pasta recipe:….don`t need a lot of ingredients…saute garlic in olive oil or vegetable oil. When garlic is nice and golden (LOTS OF IT), add anchovy paste or BAGOONG and chopped parsley (plant only once …it`s a perennial). Add your cooked pasta (spahettini). Season with a bit of salt and ground pepper. LASTLY’ add BREAD CRUMBS….it`s plain and simple but tasty and really good!…with fried or grilled fish.

MM,thanks for this post! Have a great weekend everyone!

With nilaga or sinigang, in our house the first thing to go are the veggies. After the meal, there’s lots of leftover sabaw with a few bits of meat. So to extend, the next time I reheat the leftover, I add more veggies.

Ground pork and Baguio beans go a long way in this household.
1) Saute garlic, tomato, ground pork, and beans. Yum!
2) Use ground pork, Baguio beans, and cabbage for lumpia. Delicious!
3) The same trio (ground pork, Baguio beans, and cabbage) can also be used for pansit bihon.

As for our (nonexistent) garden, I use those big tomato/peach cans for tomatoes, herbs, cucumber, marigold, and siling labuyo. For one can, I punched a hole (2inch diameter) on the bottom and did one of those upside down tomato planter things. In that same planter, I planted rosemary, basil, parsley, and chives on top. The other planter is the same thing with tomato on the bottom; marigold and cucumber on top. I put some wires to hang.

I plan and prepare my meals ahead. For dishes that need a lot of cutting and dicing, I just prepare them the night before so I could just toss them all in the pan or wok when I get home from work. If we fire up the grill, we just grill almost anything we could grill and freeze the rest for later consumption.

Buy in bulk. I find it cheaper in the long run to buy tissue paper, toiletries and household cleaning stuff in bulk. Sam’s club have good cut ribs and really cheap meats, but you must have a good size freezer or a full freezer. Sometimes I feel I’m buying half a cow when I go home and try to figure out how to fit the meat in. Even in the groceries, buy the big family packs, just make smaller portions and pack them in ziplocks so it’ll be easier to thaw them later.

Buy veggies and fruits that are in season. I want to buy organic but they are a bit pricey and I don’t find the sense in buying organic bananas from Chile when it cost more fuel to transport them than growing them. Now buying roadside from farmers, I don’t mind.

Compare prices between grocers, those flyers that I use to call junk mail are now a good source for checking out which groceries have sale on what. When in the groceries check out the manager’s special. I’ve got good quality king crabs, salmons and steaks for half the price.

Make your freezer your best friend, it’s there for a reason, so you could freeze left-overs and those sale items.

As for cheap meals, anything adobo, spaghetti with a pre-made or prepared sauce, husband likes it with plain butter and parmigiana. Any meal that got re-incarnated, like when we buy rotisserie chicken, any left overs I make a chicken noodle soup or chicken ceasar salad the next day. Left over grilled pork chop gets mixed in pinakbet, left over potatoes and burger becomes a casserole for another day. I stopped wasting food, before I used to throw away left overs that have remain untouched for days. Now, I just freeze and label them for later, that is if they don’t end in lunch boxes.

Now if I could have the patience and the green thumb to start my own vegetable garden, I might even save a bit more. *laughs*