These are tough times. We don’t all have all the things we need. Pantries are getting thin, money is tight or just flat out isn’t there. Things we’ve always taken for granted, such as toilet paper is nearly impossible to find.

It’s not as easy or wise to just grab something for dinner on the way home. It is time to really be smart with what we have.

The first step in doing that is KNOWING what we have! I went through my chest freezer and pantry and wrote every single thing down. Because I am super OCD about that kind of stuff I put it all in an Excel spreadsheet so that I can just click on “Poultry” and see all the chicken and turkey items I have to work with and which freezer it is in. Maybe that is little over the top but I am pretty excited about it!

Now that I know exactly what I have to work with I won’t be needlessly buying things I already have and will spend less time and money in the grocery store.

When we were first married we were really broke. Then we had three kids and we were really, really broke! We somehow managed to get the bills paid, most of the time, but there was never anything left for groceries. I learned very quickly how to make meals out of what I had or with a very small grocery list. It became my super power!!

You can make a meal if you have some kind of protein, a starch, a vegetable and then make a sauce to put it all together!

I am going to share some recipes with you for a while that are NOT fancy but are simple, easy, and inexpensive to make, with not many ingredients, and hopefully with things that you already have!

It’s good to be frugal, not just in tough times but good times as well. Use this time to create better habits, teach your kids to cook, bond over dinner and pray.

Here is my recipe for Shepherd’s Pie. Enjoy!

Shepherd’s Pie

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds	ground beef
1	medium onion chopped
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can	cream of mushroom soup
2 cans	green beans drained
4	(approximately) potatoes mashed (leftover mashed potatoes are great!)
dash	black pepper
dash	salt
1-2 cups	shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Saute onion and beef. Drain. Stir in mushroom soup. Season with salt and pepper. Put in bottom of greased 9×13 baking dish. Put green beans on top of that….Spread mashed potatoes on top. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until hot. In last few minutes of baking, sprinkle with cheese and return to oven to let cheese melt.

DVO

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