How to Stretch Ground Beef for Meatloaf

x steps for stretching meat makes it easy to salve money! Acquire how to stretch ground beef, chicken, and more than with meals that stretch meat, like tacos and Instant pot whole chicken, and helpful tips.

Learn the tips and tricks to stretching meat for more meals! Save money by making meat last longer.

So… yous went grocery shopping and you bought some meat. Your spouse makes googly eyes at the basis beef and requests the all-time burgers for dinner. Worse even so, Mr. Crumbs sees a whole chicken and thinks nosotros're firing up the grill and having craven for dinner.

One pound of meat (ground beef)? One whole craven? Just for One dinner?

Oh man, if they simply knew the miracles y'all're about to pull off!

That single pound of footing beef can get two, if not three meals. That one chicken? I've got FOUR dinners planned!

Here are my tips and tricks for stretching meat, and your budget, while however eating well.

Stretching meat can be as simple as adding a filler to ground meat. It will make the meat feel like more, without using up as much of the meat. You can double or triple what you can make with meat by using a filler like beans or oats.

How Stretching Meat helps to relieve money

While I COULD splurge on a rotisserie craven for one night'south dinner, the side effect would be more meatless nights later in the calendar month. Our grocery upkeep is frugal, which ways nosotros eat our fair share of meatless meals, but we like to swallow too!

In order to have more than dinner WITH meat than without, we have to exist creative and intentional with what we buy and what we brand with it when we get home.

Stretching meat helps your grocery budget in many ways:

You'll spend less on meat.
Creativity starts to boot in.
The cuts of meat y'all buy volition be bigger. And cheaper.

Stretching meat in budget meals can be easy! One of the ways I like to stretch meat is by making it a side dish instead of the star of the meal.

ten Steps to Stretching Meat at Home

(i) Stretch your Meat upkeep by Making Meat a side dish.

The right mental frame of mind is simply every bit important as what you actually practise with the meat, so allow'south set the tape straight: meat is not the main star of the repast. It's a side dish, an accompaniment, that minor (withal important) part in the schoolhouse play.

Meat is merely one of several ingredients in a dish – not the only 1 – so keep that in mind as you lot're making dinner.

(two) How exercise y'all upkeep meat for stretching? Cut information technology yourself.

Whether it's cutting a whole chicken into parts or roasts into steaks, do it yourself and you'll save right off the bat. Pre-cut chicken thighs and drumsticks average 50¢ per pound More a whole chicken and whole roasts are upwards of $1 per pound more!

(three) Stretch the meat past making it thinner.

Using whole cuts of meat is a treat in our house, merely you can still stretch the whole cuts past making them thinner. Before cooking, pound out chicken breasts, pork chops or steaks so that they're slightly thicker than ane/4″.

Another option is to piece the cut of meat through the eye, at least once. If you're skilled with a knife, practice it three times! (Otherwise, play information technology safe and stick to the pounding out method.)

(4) Relieve on your Meat Budget by Grinding the meat yourself.

Footing beef used to be the most affordable selection for beef. Not and then much anymore. Fear not, because yous can make your ain footing beefiness!

Use cheap cuts of meat from local farmers or pick up the clearance packages at the grocery store and use a food processor to grind it up yourself. Just similar that, you've saved big bucks overpaying for the convenience of having the meat pre-ground for you!

The same goes with whatsoever type of meat. Turkey (bought after Thanksgiving or Christmas), marked downwardly chicken (on or off the bone) and even pork (steaks or roasts) can all be ground at habitation and used in whatsoever recipe y'all'd like.

Did you know you can stretch meat from one whole chicken into multiple meals? This can be done by simply measuring out the meat once it is cooked into portions.

(5) Mensurate two cups instead of whole pounds to stretch the meat.

How many meals can you lot leave of a whole chicken?

We purchase two whole chickens each month and would you believe that it'south possible to stretch that craven into at least SIX different meals? And that's just the meat – it doesn't include making stock from the bones (tip #10 beneath) or even adding filler items to the chicken!

Just roast the chicken in the oven or cook it in a slow cooker. Pick all the meat off the basic and measure it into 2-cup portions.

Practice the aforementioned with beef roasts or carnitas (shredded pork). Shredded, pre-portioned meat goes a long way.

(6) Replace meat with filler – a great way to stretch ground beefiness and more than!

No, nosotros're not talking about pink slime. We're talking about beans or lentils in tacos and skillet dishes. Barley in stews and oatmeal in burgers. Even shredded zucchini or carrots!

You don't take to add much, just it allows y'all to reduce the amount of meat you're serving without sacrificing taste and quality. (See how I stretched ground beef taco meat into more 1 repast!)

For every pound of raw meat, add one cup of cooked filler.
For each ii loving cup portion of shredded chicken, add ane/four cup of rice.
Substitute 2 cups of your finished dish for 1 pound of footing beef or turkey called for in a recipe.

These fillers are the most mutual, and most affordable. Choose which to utilise based on the meal and what y'all have on hand.

Rice
Barley
Oats
Homemade breadcrumbs
Beans (melt dry beans from scratch to save even more)
Cooked lentils
Potatoes
Grated vegetables (carrot, zucchini, and squash)

A simple way to stretch meat is to add it to a salad. You can make a healthy and balanced salad that works as a main meal.

(7) Choose meals and recipes that stretch meat.

Substituting two cups of shredded chicken into a whole-piece chicken recipe won't cut it, so you lot accept to choose a more advisable recipe from the get-go. Casseroles are the well-nigh common means to use shredded or basis meat, but here'southward a list of my favorite recipes that immediately become budget-friendly by using a single two-cup portion of meat:

Tiresome Cooker Chicken & Quinoa Cacciatore
Archetype Shepherd'southward Pie
Chicken & Spinach Enchiladas
Craven Creole
Buffalo Chicken and Bacon Ranch Salad
Southwestern Salad
Add to Fall Rice Pilaf for a one-bowl meal
Bootleg Hot Pockets
Any salad!
Fajitas
Tacos
Stir-fry
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Grilled Sandwiches (1-loving cup portion)
Pizza or Calzones
Chili
BBQ Sandwiches
Soup
Chicken Pot Pie
Italian Meatballs
Craven Fried Rice
Quesadillas

Tip: For slow cooker meals, fix the meal as directed except for the meat. Add together the shredded chicken at the very terminate, nigh one 60 minutes before the meal is set up to exist done.

(8) A simple way to stretch meat in recipes: Utilise less meat.

No 1 but your budget will notice you used but 3/4 lb instead of one lb in that casserole dish. And if y'all've stretched it with a hearty filler, that iii/4 lb volition go even further!

The same can be said for trimming down to 1 cup of shredded chicken instead of two cups. You lot can't exercise this for every dish, just you lot could hands use less in recipes similar these:

Soups
Fried rice
Grilled sandwiches
Salads
Quesadillas
Spaghetti Sauces
Sloppy Joe

When stretching meat, like chicken, you'll want to save the bones to make chicken stock! It is a great way to save and reduce food waste.

(9) Stretch your Meat budget by Freezing it Correctly.

Freezer burn doesn't alter the nutrition of food, but it tin affect the taste. Once you've cooked your meat, stretched it with a healthy filler, and adamant what to use it for, wrap it twice then information technology'south not freezer burned when yous're set to thaw.

Tip: Keep your freezer organized AND save on freezer bags past portioning your meat into sandwich-size bags. Label each of those numberless with the contents, then identify several of these into one larger gallon-size bag. You can toss the sandwich bags but re-use the gallon one over and over.

(10) Save bones for stock.

With the meat taken care of, let's do something with the basic. We make Instant Pot craven stock or deadening cooker homemade craven stock because it's hands-off and easy, but you tin can make it on the stove if you'd similar also. And did y'all know you can reuse bones over and over again?! Your stock volition get lighter, merely it's all the same nutritious!

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