Thursday, February 21, 2008

1950s budget menu: Thursday spaghetti

I should never have let him know that cooking like this is possible on a budget.

Click here to return to the complete 1950s budget cooking experiment!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious!! Have you ever tried the Barilla Plus pasta? It is made with whole grains and has a very good protein content which, I would think, would be great for a diabetic. My family likes it. Your posts are so interesting and informative, Meredith. A big thanks!
Vicky

Anonymous said...

Dear Meredith,

I'm duplicating your menu tonight. I just made the lemon pudding (wiht blackberry sauce) and now I'm starting on the meatballs.

Thanks for the inspiration

What recipes did you use today?

Heather

Anonymous said...

Hahaa! My hubby is the same way. Meredith, you've opened a delightful can of worms! ;)

I'm going to try and do something similar to this next week. :)

Anonymous said...

i do think this is by far one of the most interesting series you've done (also loved and just reviewed setting a house up for sale)

and yummm pasta and sauce...i make huge bulk batches of sauce and freeze...becomes fast food then...

celina in canada

April said...

It DOES look delicious, Meredith. I'm so enjoying this series, too.

Anonymous said...

Looks so very good. I am sure the kids really enjoyed this meal. Thank you. Roxie

Angie @ Many Little Blessings said...

Looks great!

I'm enjoying seeing what all you have been making!

TJ said...

There are a few pastas that really do cut carbs for diabetics! This does look yummy.

Anonymous said...

Are this week's menus a huge change from the way you normally cook? I would be interested to know what a "normal" breakfast, lunch and dinner would be in your household and what meals, if any, that you prepared this week that you will keep in your menus.

Anonymous said...

Ditto. I would love to see a comparison between these meals and what you normally cook.

Daiquiri said...

Wow, that looks good!

Leigha said...

I made this for dinner tonight too! :)

Tubo Family said...

LOL! Only thing is, will you have time for your other endeavors in frugality with the time commitment required for this cooking?

Meredith said...

Yes, this is the Barilla Pasta Plus. I used to use Dreamfield's low carb pasta, but switched when Mrs. Fussypants tipped me off to this brand. It helped that I found a big box full of it at Big Lots that week!

Meredith said...

I keep telling everyone I'm not a very good cook, but y'all just don't believe me! I'm serious!

In a typical week lately our meals have looked like this:

oatmeal for breakfast, eggs on weekend, toast

lunch is peanut butter sandwiches, leftovers, or deli meat sandwiches for my husband

dinner is spaghetti with meat sauce, hamburgers, chicken, etc. all served with a plate of cut up raw vegetables and/or cooked broccoli and/or baked potatoes for the kids

desserts? ice cream if we have it

VERY simple, very routine

So you can see that I needed to give myself the kick in the pants that this menu provided! I doubt I'll ever go back to cooking as lazy as I have been doing the last few weeks.

More than Survival said...

This is the "budget" cooking I grew up on! My Mom and Dad were raised in the 1950's on farms. They ate a lot of meat and potatoes. While I was growing up we didn't eat as much meat, but we always had big home cooked meals every day. We often assume that making these meals are costly... surprisingly they often are not! I did grow up doing exactly what you did with your roast... making three meals of it.... I do it and didn't realize this was unusual! LOL!!! Thanks for the great series!
Heather

Anonymous said...

how do your husband's diabetes numbers fare on this fare?

I'm betting similar as your usual cooking style you just mentioned.

dmeyers

Cyndi Lewis said...

My husband gauges my love of him by how I cook. He feels very unloved if I plop chicken nuggets or even spaghetti down for dinner on a regular basis. He prefers that I spend some time, thought and work on meals. He's very chefy and loves the food network. Now, I don't really care for cooking, but if it makes the DH feel loved, then I must do it. (And be creative with the budget.) I try to have full dinners every night... vegetable, fruit, starch, protein and dessert... I try to keep the balance somewhere between simple and fussy. This is a love language for my DH.

Anonymous said...

Great topic, Meredith! I check in every day to see how yesterday went:) We had spaghetti last night too (I make my sauce in the crockpot early in the day and serve it when dh gets home)

How much time are you spending cooking this way and are the children receptive to the somewhat different foods(cabbage for instance)?

Kelly

Amy said...

Yummy! We are eating this tomorrow night- thanks for the cooking inspiration!

Anonymous said...

Meredith,
You certainly don't appear to be untalented in the kitchen - everything you post is making me drool, especially when I'm not able to eat similar delicious fare due to some allergies. Oh, how I would love to eat the cheese rarebit! Everything really looks scrumptious!

I think what's great about this series is that any meal you serve with love to your family can be special. It doesn't have to be expensive or overly-fussy. I've enjoyed reading about your 1950 recipes - my mom was a teen in that era and she really loved growing up during that time. A lot of these recipes speak comfort.

Unknown said...

I'm loving this series! And, can I tell you how much I want to find that old text book.

Anonymous said...

Meredith,

What recipe did you use for the lemon pudding?

Heather

Anonymous said...

I just discovered your blog. Cooking on a 1950's budget is such a great thing.