We are a one income family that lives on a fixed and very tight budget. We don't have cable. We survive with just one cell phone... for the entire family. We don't eat out often because 1) we can't afford it, and 2) one or more of us usually gets sick. We've made it a habit in our family to eat home-cooked meals as often as possible. I would love to say we cook everything from scratch but we are not to that point yet. It should come as no surprise then (or maybe it will) when I tell you that our major expenditure every month is food.
We save money by shopping at our base commissary, our local farmers market, and seasonal U-pick farms. We have also been known to collect wild foods (Can you say FREE!?!) and preserve them. My grape jam made from wild muscadine vines found growing in the woods on our base was the best grape jam my family says they've ever tasted. I'm positive that had everything to do with the grapes and only slightly to do with the labor of love involved on my part. Our family goal is to eventually grow and raise at least 90% of our food. Until we retire from the military and purchase our own land, we are stuck with trying to make the best meals we can with what we have.
We love food. We love good food. I (Sallie) will often tell people that Julia Child, Paula Deen and I are all related; our common relation is butter! We love trying old favorites as well as experimenting and creating new favorites. Several of the recipes listed in the sidebar are goodies that have been created by us, or our friends and family. Each recipe should open in its own window and are on graphics-free pages so that they will print quickly and easily should you so desire to save them for future reference.
We try to update this page with new or improved recipes pretty regularly so please bookmark the page and check back often. I will also be adding a second page of recipes for large scale cooking in the near future. Our family prepared meals for our church for Wednesday suppers for a year and a half and love feeding large groups of people while staying on a small budget! Our personal mantra is if you can't feed at least 50 people for less than $2 a plate then you aren't being as wise as you could be with your money ;-) We look forward to getting those recipes online as soon as possible.